Just Thinking

I've been thinking more and more about either adopting another child or becoming a foster parent. I have no idea whether I could handle another child financially or otherwise, but of course I could. Foster parenting becomes more of a challenge when I start to think about the details, like what to do when we want to travel, and the fact that I may have to give the child back to a not-so-good home. That would just rip me apart. Of course, adoption has its challenges, too. It's probably more money than I want to spend right now, and would take a long time. I'm not getting any younger. So, I'm leaning towards the foster parenting. Has anyone done it? Any feedback on the process, challenges, etc? I am fully prepared to try to adopt a foster child if it works out. Isn't that cheaper than going through an agency? Not that it's all about the money. I just see so many kids out there that need a better home, and I think ours is pretty great.

Diary...or Something Like That

Yesterday, e found a little book that I had given each of the kids to make pictures in, scribble, draw, write, whatever. We called them diaries. She found hers on the counter and says "hey, Mom! I found my diarrhea!" I just couldn't stop laughing.

Purging

I've been doing a major purge of the house...it feels good. When the guys were working on finishing my basement, I took the opportunity to spend a morning with them and go through all the stuff down there. It has been a storage hell and it was nice to have help getting all the junk out. I ended up having him take a truckload of stuff to Good will and probably another truckload of trash away. There's still a bunch of stuff down there, but at least it's more manageable now. I'm ordering the carpet for down there today, so I should be able to get it organized once the carpet has been laid. I'm looking forward to having that space more usable.

I've also been going through my clothes. Already, I've given away about 9 trash bags full of clothes to Good will. All the winter stuff in larger sizes that I know I will never need again. Boy, it's really great to be able to say that. I put together three more bags just last week, and I'm sure I'll be able to come up with a few more by the time I finish cleaning everything out. I guess this says something about what a clothes horse I've been...But there was a lot of stuff, too, that I looked at and just decided that I had been keeping too long - regardless of the size. I suppose I could sell the clothes on eBay or something, but I just don't want to deal with it. I just want it all out of the house.

I went out with Rodney again this past weekend. This was the guy I went out with about five months ago. Between then and now a lot has happened with both of us, but we've stayed in touch via email. His son had a very aggressive form of cancer (doing better now but not completely out of the woods), and he's got some business stuff going on. Anyway, I really do like him as a person. There was no lack in the conversation and I think he's probably a fun guy. I'm just not feeling anything...no physical attraction.

I really need to get back on eH now that I've lost some weight. I'm feeling much better about myself, but I still think I have quite a bit of weight to lose. I had plateaued at a 35 pound loss forever, but this past week, I think I have finally moved off the plateau. I was down almost three more lbs on the scale this morning. I guess it's time to repost some pictures on eH and try again...I think I look a lot different (thinner and got a new do!), and we all know that with men, it's all about the visual.

The kids had a great weekend. I took them to the trampoline place up the street on Saturday because it was just kind of a cold day. After Sunday school, e had her soccer practice and then I took them to the rock wall gym. They slept well last night! The soccer practice is with ALL four year-olds. It's so funny to watch them play. They do a few training type activities and then they play three-on-three (not a lot of rules at this point, though). All goes well until a butterfly happens to fly across the field. Then the attention is no longer on the ball but on chasing the butterfly.

Lost Teeth

Well, E finally lost his first top tooth. He was SO excited about it! I picked him up from his after-school program last Friday and he ran up to me with a plastic bag with his tooth in it. Of course, I noticed the space even before he showed me the bag. The Tooth Fairy (whose name is Toothie - we know this because she left a note when he lost his first tooth) left a dollar and a coin from the Isle of Mann. The Tooth Fairy always leaves a coin from the last country she visited along with money (it's a good thing I've saved coins from many of my travels!). The second tooth on top will probably be the next to go....maybe in a couple months or so.

Poor e got strep again last week (she had it about three weeks ago, too). She was complaining of a sore throat Wednesday night and I noticed that her tonsils were also about as big as golf balls. So I took her to see the doctor on Thursday and kept her home with me on Friday. She really didn't feel too bad, but I didn't want it to get any worse. They put her on a different antibiotic this time that is sending her to the bathroom regularly. The doctor told me to just give her some probiotic yogurt. Let's hope that does the trick. She was so tired on Friday, she fell asleep on the arm of the couch. So cute. She just couldn't make it any further.

e also started with soccer practice this weekend. She looks adorable in her little uniform and is having a lot of fun.

Hand Slapping

Well, I've talked a little bit about how things have been challenging at work lately. Stupid bureaucratic stuff that would never happen in a corporation. First, I tried to get a study-abroad program approved. It took WAY longer than it should have and I lost my opportunity to offer the program this summer...and probably my opportunity to spend a good portion of the summer in Italy. The back and forth, back and forth process should have never happened, or at the very least, they should have told me to go ahead and advertise the program since we were so close. But no. Okay, fine. At least it was approved and I'll advertise it beginning next year.

BUT, I work for two different universities. My full time university and my part-time university. It's my part-time university that runs the program in Italy and I still want to try to fill the seats. I really only need to get ten people to go to justify my expenses. So, I tried to advertise it with my full time university...offer it as something that was offered by my other university but not yet endorsed by my full-time university. They said no. So, I went to the local Chamber of Commerce and asked if they would advertise the trip to the local population. They agreed to put an ad in the paper this week...seen by about 70K people. GREAT! Hopefully, we can get ten people to respond! The bad news is that when it came out over the weekend, it had the logo for my full-time university on it. So, D, one of the faculty members here who I'm having other battles with (which I will discuss in a minute), brings it to my Dean's attention...who, of course, sends the ad to me with a note attached. Obviously they are not happy. My only saving grace is that I really didn't tell the CofC to put my university's logo on the top and had no idea they were going to do so. Aaarrgh. Hand slapped again.

So, D is a faculty member who is very vocal about everything. You know the type. He's like a pitbull when he latches onto something. Sometimes he's right and sometimes he's not. He has decided that he is very against me teaching the online course that I teach in the summer. He's convinced that it is not in our students' best interest and he's doing everything he can to get it canceled. Suffice it to say that he's being a pain in the butt and his reasoning is not good. But, he squeaks a lot...and we all know what happens to the squeaky wheel. Hopefully, he will give up soon, but he remains a thorn in my side. It would be nice if he just decided to retire soon! But I suspect he will be here for a very long time.

On a positive note, the weather has been great and here are some new pictures of the kids! E is going to lose one of his top teeth very soon, so it looks like he's got a big space there. It's just the other teeth moving out of the way a little bit to make room!

e looking as beautiful as ever!e at the playground on the seesawThe neighborhood Easter egg toss...E and his partner won both competitions!The neighborhood egg raceE and e on the patio

BAD Jew

Okay, I'm a BAD Jew. I did not celebrate Passover this year with the kids. Yes, I DO believe it is extremely important for them to have these traditions, but I just didn't have the energy. There are very few Jews who live in this area, so I couldn't even join someone else. My University did have a seder, which I was REALLY happy to see, but it didn't start until 7:30 and I knew the kids just wouldn't have the attention span to stay up until 10:00 or so. The seder is already a long process. Growing up, we used to make it really fun...go right to the drinking, eating and singing parts. I'll have fun with it with my kids...hopefully next year I'll put a seder together and invite some of my gentile friends, or at least join the one at the University so we have more tradition in that area. They really are a wonderful part of growing up.

This morning, the first thing E said when he woke up was "Jesus loves me!" What? Where the heck did that come from? Apparently, all that time we're spending at the synagogue isn't quite doing the trick! He must have some religious friends at school who talk about Jesus a lot because he sometimes comes home asking about Jesus songs, etc. I don't say anything to him now, because he wouldn't really understand the difference in beliefs. I just tell him that I never learned the songs he's asking about.

I finally got my new camera so I'll be able to post some pictures soon. How much you wanna bet that I'll find my old one now!

Back in The Saddle

Thanks, everyone, for all the support these last several weeks! I haven't told a lot of people about my surgery, so it's always nice to hear from you! Since I had the hernia fixed at the same time, I'm just telling most people that I just had hernia surgery.

I had an iron infusion (takes about an hour or so to get it through an IV) a couple weeks ago and have started to take a slow release iron pill (decided that part on my own since I was already taking two vitamins each day that should have given me over 200% of my iron, and they weren't doing the trick). All this seems to be helping. I have another iron infusion next week and I'll probably cancel the third. It's an hour each way to the hospital and I'm just tired of making the trip! I'd go if I felt like I needed it, but I'm pretty sure I'm over the hump.

I have to admit that I'm not 100% yet, but I'm pretty close. I've lost about 33 lbs from my high, so I should be bouncing off the walls. Still not quite there, but feeling SOOOO much better! Lordy, that was tough not being able to get off the couch. I don't know what people with chronic illnesses do to get through it.

The kids are doing great. I lost my camera several weeks ago, so I don't have a lot of pictures to upload. I just ordered a new one (finally gave up on finding my other one any time soon -- it's probably in one of the black holes I sometimes refer to as my house or office) and it should be here next week. So, more pictures coming!

I'm not sure if I gave updates from Valentine's Day and e's birthday party. For Valentine's Day, E was so excited that he bought me a gift. He excitedly gave me a small heart shaped box of chocolates, the ones that have four or five pieces of chocolate in it. When I opened it, there were two half eaten pieces left. So cute. I could tell he was just so happy to have a present for me that I told him how happy I was and gave him a hug and a kiss. So thoughtful of him to save the two half-eaten pieces for me!

e had her birthday party at the local roller skating rink. She had a Tinkerbelle theme this year. I will miss these years that her themes can be Disney characters!

They are both growing in leaps and bounds. I keep telling them that they need to stop growing, but they continue to ignore me. Oh well.

I'm in the process of having my basement finished. They are almost done! I'm so excited with the progress. Today, I spent the morning with them going through all the stuff that should go into storage, go to Goodwill, or go in the trash. It's SO nice to have help with these things. With their help, I accomplished in one morning what probably would have taken me several weeks. Okay, let's face it. It might have taken me several years! It's nice to purge. They took a whole truckload of stuff to Goodwill.