Some stuff I'm loving

I'm not exactly hip. Generally, by the time I start loving something, most of you have already enjoyed and moved on. But this blog is here for me to share, so I guess it doesn't matter.

1. Dr. House. Yeah, my brother has me hooked on yet another show. The show is not lacking in adorable eye candy, but Hugh Laurie...with his acerbic wit, his deep voice (how great is his American accent!), his way with children...le sigh.

2. The pool. My dad got us a membership to our local pool. Not a waterpark, with slides and graduated depth, but a pool, like what we had when we were kids, with a deep end and a diving board. The girl-child started the summer not being able to swim at all, and has, in the past two weeks, learned the crawl stroke, how to jump off the diving board...she's passed all the swimming tests needed to swim anywhere in the pool. And my Monkeybutt has learned to dive. My brother takes them almost everyday. Most times I go, too. Today was a little too cold for me, though.

3. A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenburg. Such a lovely book. I almost don't want it to end.

4. Transformers. Ok, so the plot was a little lacking. But it's so cool watching them transform. So cool.

5. Watermelon. I just love watermelon. But only the kind with seeds. The seedless is not nearly as sweet.

Family business

Lots going on around here, friends. Normal, everyday life stuff, stressful stuff, exciting stuff. I'm just going to address one "stuff" today, as this one is big enough to get its very own blog entry.

I believe I've mentioned my vast array of siblings before. I'm the oldest of 8 - with various configurations of parentage contributing. Last week, however, someone old but new added herself to our motley brood, and an interesting story it is, indeed.

When my mother was 17, she became pregnant. Without addressing the specifics, I will say this was a very difficult situation, and she spent a large portion of the pregnancy living with her sister and her husband in Florida. She arranged to have the baby and give her up for adoption, and then return to her parents and finish high school. Procedure for adoption was different at the time - this was a closed adoption; she was put under for the birth, and when she woke up, the baby was gone. She knew it was a girl, she hoped she went to a good family...and she was traumatized by the whole experience. She's spent the past 37 years dreaming of finding the baby she had to give up.

Three years ago, my sister became pregnant and decided to have her baby adopted. This was a completely different situation - it was an open adoption, my sister chose the parents, we all remain very close, and my scrumptious nephew is very much a part of our lives, as are his wonderful parents and brother. But my mother suffered through the experience; it dug up fresh and painful emotions she was never able to process. Eventually, through a lot of talking, crying, and hugs from the grandchild she didn't actually have to lose, she saw how different this situation was. And she was newly motivated to look for her own lost daughter. My delectable nephew's mom pointed us in the right direction, and we put mom's name on some lists, hoping that some girl out there would be looking for her birth mom, and find their information matched.

Last Monday Mom got an e-mail.

Mom told me about giving her daughter up for adoption a long time ago - I believe I was 10. My sister has been a part of our lives for years - we always knew how much Mom wanted to find her, how she hated giving her up, how she dreamed of talking to her and making sure she was ok. She was always there, in the periphery, someone we had never met, but a part of us anyway. It was very cool indeed to actually be able to talk to her on the phone last Monday night.

We have a lot of "getting to know you" to be done. She wants to stay in touch, which is great - you all know how much I love to talk, and here's someone new to tell all my stories. I'm just hoping she's not into country music - that may be a touchy subject.

Coming at you with yet another list of random tidbits because, A. this is, after all, Heedless Ramblings, and B. I'm feeling too lazy to go up, get my camera, actually upload pictures, and compose posts with a plot and whatnot. I do, however, feel like writing, and whining a bit, 'cuz I don't feel well and the kids are home from school, and I have been running a taxi service all week...you get me.

Topic 1 - The banquet
Yesterday my MOMS Club held their annual banquet. As you know, I have been on the board for three years - first as Membership VP and then two years as president. I have enjoyed myself immensely, and really hated to step down, because, you know, I love being the center of attention. But the Girl Child will be in full time school this year, and I probably should get a job someday, so...I put a lot of time and effort into yesterday's banquet, since it was my last as president. We always held it at a restaurant before, but, what with the economy and all, we thought it would behoove us to go potluck. Plus we are a large group of very chatty women who hate to be kicked out of establishments because of silly things like, closing. So we rented a clubhouse, went potluck, and had a most excellent time. We ate a lot of yummy food, talked endlessly, I made up a wicked hard Hawaiian trivia game (we did the luau thing, minus the poi and roasted pig bit) and gave pineapples as prizes, installed new officers, and learned a lot of new, interesting facts about each other as women, not just as mothers. What an amazing group of people I have come to know.

Topic 2 - did I mention I feel kind of awful? I've had this cold that doesn't seem to know whether it wants to be bronchitis or a sinus thing, but it won't go away, and I feel yack.

Topic 3 - New crafty things. I made the gifts for my board members, well, one of the gifts. I also gave them gift cards to Noodles and Company, the new favorite restaurant among my mommy friends. I bought little jars from IKEA and adorned them with crafty tidbits and filled them with M's. They turned out way cute, but of course I didn't take pics. I also personalized little notebooks for the incoming board, and attached these little fluffy-headed pens I get from the register area at Staples (I love Staples!). Big hits! Yay!
Also - I've mentioned I have this great friend, we'll call her Al, who is this amazingly industrious person. She is the type of person who doesn't look at problems as trouble, but as challenges, obstacles to overcome. For instance, when she had a little girl, she took the hand-me-downs from her son and added little frilly whatnots, altering them to be little girl clothes, instead of going out and buying a whole new wardrobe (like I would have done.) 50 times cuter, and saving money. She found a stroller of the size and weight she desired, but it didn't have the storage or comfort she wanted. So she made pockets and pouches, added padding, of course all covered in cute fabric - the woman is the coolest. So, on Tuesday I went to her house so she could show me lesson two in my endeavor to sew - I made a purse out of a pair of Studmuffin's old khakis. I'll post pics later, but it turned out so very cute. I have a ton of pants to be made into these purses, as soon as I perfect it I intend to start making them to sell. I mean, they are seriously cute. And I am totally getting hooked on this sewing thing.

See? See how this blogging thing works? I thought I was going to whine the whole time, but I am actually feeling better.

Thankful Thursday

Today was a pretty good day. We tie dyed t-shirts with our MOMS friends and signed up for the reading program at the library. I'm wiped, but in a rather peppy, grateful mood. So here are some of the things I'm thankful for today:

1. Great friends who teach me new things, help clean my kitchen, laugh and play with me...I have some really wonderful friends, and I will never take them for granted.

2. Random creative moments. They may be rare, but they do happen.

3. Meijer brand Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. M. Very tasty, and affordable. Yum. I think I'll go get one now.

4. I got this sweet little Amy Butler tote from Archivers the other day. I've picked it up and coveted it for 3 months now - I decided it was time to get it. My birthday present to myself. Have I ever mentioned my weakness for bags? My favorite part about having babies? New diaper bags.

5. On that note - I am thankful for my husband and brother, who are being sweet enough to deal with the kids and all their accompanying activities and events for one weekend so I can go to Chicago with my mom for one of my sisters' baby showers. Yay for road trips!

Last day of school, and other stuff

It is finally here...the last day of school. Time to look ahead to easy-peasy days of chillin', swimming, playing...

Hah.

Our summer schedule is crazier than any school schedule. I filled out the calendar for June the other day - we have 4 days with nothing scheduled. Yet. FOUR. We do, however, have our afternoons pretty free, so we will be making good, wet use of the pool pass my dad gave us for Christmas. It should be interesting - the girl child was in afternoon kindergarten, and she really didn't feel a need to get out of bed before 8:30 most days. She has soccer camp next week, and she has to be on the field at 8AM. That should be a treat.

In other news:
-I opened my mailbox today and found a big, fluffy envelope addressed to me. My friend Bart sent me a rubber chicken for my birthday. All other gifts pale in comparison.

-The weather is chilly and humid. Which makes me think of Ferris Beuller and his fool-proof way of faking sick - licking his palms. The weather gods are licking their palms to get out of work today.

-The girl child was one of 4 in the entire kindergarten who earned more than 25 Accelerated Reader points. She got to go in front of the auditorium to get her award. Go Girlie!

-My favorite radio station has been taken off the air and is now only an internet station. I am un-thrilled. The call numbers are now for a country station. This happened last year when the station moved. Like we don't have enough country stations in Cincinnati.

-My two year-old radish and bean seeds are growing. The carrot seeds are not. I guess I need to get more carrot seeds - I really want to pick carrots this year.

I have to go clean the house now.