The Leisure Seeker

On Mother’s Day, my one true wish was to go to our new bookstore in town and spend the afternoon by myself, perusing, reading, and purchasing a few items.  I had probably close to 30 books stacked around me at one point, but I made notes of a few titles and put most of them back.  One book I could not leave behind, however, was Michael Zadoorian’s The Leisure Seeker.  It tells the tale of John and Ella, a couple of octogenarians facing the end of life’s road.  John is afflicted with Alzheimer’s and Ella has terminal cancer.  They are being pressured by doctors and their children to accept certain treatments and living situations which are unacceptable to them.

Thus, John and Ella pack up and sneak off in their old camper, The Leisure Seeker.  John still holds a valid driver’s license and has not lost the ability to get into the driving groove.  They head to Chicago and decide to follow the old Route 66 as much as possible and to head to Disneyland in Anaheim, CA.  Along the way, they encounter lots of different and interesting people, reminisce about the old days, and see the sites the road had to offer. 

Driving the old Route 66 is something I have long thought of doing.  I think it would be a lot of fun to drive “the Mother Road” across country someday and have some of those memories to share with my daughter when she is old enough.  So this was a great book to read just because I enjoyed hearing about John and Ella’s experiences during the actual travel portion of their stay.

But it was also a great story in general, a story of love, the failings on the human body, family, friendship, memories, and time.  I deeply loved both John and Ella.  Ella was a no-nonsense kind of broad who kept her husband well in hand when his condition made him seemingly unmanageable.  While you never know the pre-Alzheimer’s John, the glimpses you get of him make you love him anyway, and his “addledness” was deftly described to give you a real picture of life with Alzheimer’s.

I’m thrilled I bought this book.  I gave it 4 stars on GoodReads and I know it’ll be on my shelf for some time to come.  It also counts towards the Twenty-Ten Book Challenge under the “Who Are You Again?” category, which I believe fulfills my requirements for that category.  Here’s what I’ve accomplished on that challenge so far:

Young Adult:
13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnston

TBR:
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

Shiny and New:
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Someday My Prince Will Come by Jerramy Fine

Bad Bloggers
(None yet)

Charity
(None yet)

Older Than You:
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susanne

Win! Win!
(None Yet)

“Who Are You Again?”
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Riegler
The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian

Up to You!
Crackhouse by Terry Williams

Almost half-way done with this challenge.  I need to get moving on some others!

I Thought Someone Was Playing a Trick On Me!

So yesterday, I loaded Leah into the car and we were backing out of the driveway on our way to the berry patch when I spied a package on the front porch.  I was so excited—I figured my DVD’s had arrived extremely promptly from Amazon and I’d have something to do with my afternoon.  I hopped out of the car and went bounding up to the box, and stopped dead in my tracks.

A bright green sticker on the box declared, “Live hermit crabs!  Do not delay!”

Now, I knew damned good and well I hadn’t ordered any hermit crabs.  I went through a phase where every time I went to Myrtle Beach, I wanted a hermit crab, but I was always talked out of it, so I am still hermit crab-less.  However, this last trip, though I enjoyed watching them, I had no desire to actually have one.  It was the first time I had thought, “Gee, I might just buy on this time!” and then thought, “No, I really don’t want one.”

So I thought for sure this was someone’s idea of a sick joke.  Someone who knew me well enough to know that I had wanted one at some point had then decided to ship me one.  I nearly opened the box, but decided to check the label to see who it was I was going to have to kill.

Well, surprise, surprise!  The package was shipped to the wrong address!  It was supposed to go to the same street address, but in Colonial Beach, not in Fredericksburg.  I called FedEx immediately and said, “Someone dropped live animals on my door step and they are not for me!”  The guy on the phone was cracking up.  I explained how we had just gotten back from the beach and I was sure someone had been playing a practical joke, but the only joke was on the part of the FedEx delivery man, who had to come retrieve the crabs and bring them to their rightful owner.

I suppose it’s nice to know that if I ever change my mind about getting a hermit crab, I need only drive about 30 minutes down the road and I can get one!

A Week At the Beach

So last week was our amazing trip to Myrtle Beach.  We had talked and talked about where to go on vacation this year, but really, nowhere else would do.  I have heard California calling my name for some time now—I am dying to go out there—but ultimately we decided on a relaxing week at the beach.

I could go into great detail about everything that we did and the places we went and the grand debacle of the people we went with, but there’s no point.  Because what you need to know about my experience in South Carolina is this:

It makes me feel alive.

The minute we hit Myrtle Beach’s city limits, I felt a bubbling, childlike excitement stirring within me.  I couldn’t wait to take my child on the beach and take her pictures.  I couldn’t wait to go beachcombing for shells.  I couldn’t wait to check into the condo and get settled and hear the ocean while I slept.  There were a million things I wanted to do and we did them and more.

Life at the beach agrees with me.  I eat less, I exercise more, I sleep better.  There was only one night when the rains really descended that I didn’t walk for more than an hour on the beach.  Leah really blossomed in the sun and sand and fresh air.  Michael was able to lounge by the pool and relax.  We started seriously talking about him finding a job in Charleston, about retiring to the beach, about how much both of us miss the water.  Even the amount of stress we were under from things not going well with “friends” and Michael’s carpool situation being unresolved, that stress was far more manageable than I would have found it otherwise.

We had a wonderful time reliving old memories too.  We went up to Calabash, where we had stayed several years ago with Brian and Lara, and I did a little souvenir shopping and reminiscing.  We went to the Sea Captain’s House for lunch—we never go to MB without stopping there.  We drove past the places we’d stayed before, and talked a lot about the things we had done before.  I’ve now been to MB 7 times, Michael’s been there 6, and it’s funny how all the visits and all the stuff we did blends together after a while and we couldn’t remember what we did with whom.  We also met some other wonderful families staying at the same complex as we were—notably people from Saratoga Springs, NY and another family from North Carolina.  There was also a group from Canada of 20 or more, all from the Toronto area, and did those folks ever know how to party!  Leah totally fell in love with them and one of the little ones they had with them, Jacob.  All she had to do was flash him a sweet smile, and he’d feed her goldfish.  It was a good deal.

We also made new memories, most notably the dolphin cruise, which I would do again in a heartbeat.  Apart from taking a cruise with my family in the 90’s, I had never been out on the high seas and certainly never in a “small” boat like that (it sat 150 comfortably).  The crew was amazing—they let us pre-board and helped us on and off the boat no problem.  It was a fun day full of laughter and dolphins and the ocean!

I’m also pleased to say that the new outlets are pretty nice.  I went into the Crocs outlet store and got two pairs for $23!!!!  How amazing is that?!   My last pair alone cost $30.  I practically haven’t taken off the one pair since I bought them.  I love the Croc-y goodness.

The only surprising thing that I was not able to do was that I did not read one single page of one single book.  I was too busy!  I didn’t really get much down time—travel with Michael has always meant a little bit of extra work on my part, but traveling with Leah was a whole new ballgame.  Suddenly I had to haul toys and snacks and sunscreen and hats and drinks and, and, and!  The stroller didn’t make it in the soft sand, so I’m thinking we need to get a wagon or something for our next trip, but how we’d haul it, I do not know!

The night before we left, I literally sat down and cried.  Neither one of us wanted to go.  Maybe we’ll be able to squeeze in another weekend somewhere, but I doubt it.  Fortunately it’s close, and as my mom reminded me, “Myrtle Beach ain’t going anywhere!”  So we are marking time until we can go back—hopefully next spring sometime.  Until then, I am attempting to keep that peaceful feeling in my heart despite whatever curveballs life throws my way.  And I’ve got an “I *heart* Myrtle Beach” keychain and an MB magnet on the car as little reminders of oneof my favorite places on Eart. :-)

Valley of the Dolls

I am somewhat breaking my cardinal rule of not discussing book club books before book club on account of I just finished this month’s selection, Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls, and I simply must write a (brief) review now!  Valley of the Dolls is the perfect summer beach read.  In fact, I’m kind of disappointed I didn’t save it for my upcoming trip to Myrtle Beach.  While I probably won’t have a whole lot of time to read while I’m chasing Leah around the beach, it’s just the kind of book that makes you think “beach read!”.  I suppose now I’ll have to go buy some cheap but trashy romance novels somewhere!!!

Valley of the Dolls is the story of Anne, Neely, and Jennifer, three unknowns who arrive in New York City and climb the show biz ladder to fame and fortune.  Neely arrives with a traveling vaudeville act and becomes a Broadway star which leads to movie stardom, Jennifer starts on Broadway and moves to European art films before returning to the US to become a major star, and Jennifer works as a secretary for a talent agency and eventually is discovered and becomes a TV star in her own right.  All three women find out it’s not so much fun at the top, their paths littered with broken hearts and bottles of pills, which they call “dolls”.

I must say, I enjoyed the hell out of this book, probably to an embarrassing degree.  I was sure I would hate it, it seemed from the description rather superficial and uninspired, but it was compelling and interesting.  It was a bit voyeuristic, and I could only imagine the headlines today if these women and their men had been real people.  No doubt we’d see them splashed across the cover of People and Us and OK with alarming regularity.

I rated it 4 stars on GoodReads, although I based that on my enjoyment of the book rather than on its merits.  It also counts for the TwentyTen Book Challenge, in the “Older Than You” category, since it came out in the lat 60’s, and I am of mid-70’s vintage.

The Word from Thailand

Hope this message finds you well. Penny and her family would like to say "they feel very happy with this good news and there is no other answer except " YES". They are ok with the placement. And please share the family's letter to Susan. Penny's mother just sent it to me.

***********************************

Dear Michael, Susan and little Leah

Thank you very much for your interest in hosting Penny. We have read Michael’s wonderful and great profile. Penny has spent a lot of time reading and is busy searching the meaning of words in her English-Thai dictionary. She is happy to receive this good news and look forward to seeing both of you.

I hope Penny would be able to learn from Michael how to overcome hard time and when frustrated and that she would be a helpful student to your family.

I admired Michael is a young successor. There are many things I would like to write. But it is not convenience because I am at work. I have to send out this short Message now to get things moving. We have just receive this news yesterday late evening.

Susan, I would like to thank you again for your great support. Please don’t hesitate to advise Penny if she is out of order. We have to make it a “Cheerful Family”.

***************************************

This sounds like a fun match!!

We do not yet know where in Thailand she is from. We have to complete our official interview and get final approval from the school here before we can officially exchange identifying information and communicate freely. Still, it is nice to hear from these people, whose daughter will change our lives and we will change hers! The world just got a wee bit smaller. :-)

Friday night update: We got approval from the school TODAY!!! Woo hoo! All that's left is the interview on 5/23. Unfortunately that is the soonest the rep is able to interview us.

Quickie Update on the Exchange Student

Thailand approved us to be our prospective AFS'ers new family. Our package was delivered to her and her family today and they were going to discuss it tonight and send back an answer tomorrow. This is nearly as good as adopting again! I'm really excited and hope to have a yes answer!

Good night everyone!

Ready for the Beach!

Well, in just a little over a week, we will hit the sandy shores of North Myrtle Beach.  I am unspeakably excited.  We have plans for some days and no plans for other days.  I bought Leah a floaty thing for the pool and some sand toys.  I hope she winds up loving the beach as much as her father and I do.  I am really looking forward to building a sandcastle with her and putting her in her new bathing suit, and I’m praying she doesn’t eat sand. :-D

We have still been busy around here. Choir practiced started right back up the week after our big Hollywood concert.  I wasn’t able to sing a whole lot on account of the fact that I was still not feeling well.  We are singing a bunch of patriotic songs, and I am really excited about it.  Although I’m not so sure “Give My Regards to Broadway” is all that patriotic, but what the hell!  I think it’ll be a great show.  If you have nothing else to do on July 3rd, come on out to Colonial Forge HS in Stafford and hear us sing!

I have been SO sick, even Michael agreed that this was a bad one.  I usually do get sick every summer, but my gosh, this one will not let go!  My present opinion on the matter was that I had a cold AND allergies.  The cold part seems to be gone—no more sore throat or headache, but my nose is still running like crazy.  I think I’m up to a ridiculous 6 or 7 boxes of tissues used.  Fortunately my nose is healing.  I invented my own “fix my nose” remedy a few years ago that helps when your nose gets all chapped and yucky from all that blowing.  It is to use a combination of Neosporin and Blistex and rub it on there.  It works wonders.  My nose is still crusty, but not half as bad as it was.  I am also now devoted to Zicam tablets.  I was sick for over a week and finally in desperation, since I did not want to drive up and see the doctor, I started taking Zicam, and within 24 hours, I was feeling tons better.  I think today I’m going to get some Claritin at the grocery store and see how that does me.  If it works, I’ll know I’ve developed allergies.  I knew I was sick when I only went out like 2 days last week! haha

Sunday I went and got gas for our grill.  I had not been able to grill since Leah’s birthday party.  I made the best barbeque chicken on Sunday for dinner and then last night I grilled up some kebabs that I had gotten at Wegman’s.  YUM!  Everything is so good grilled, and I tend to make healthier meals when I grill, which is an added bonus.  I seem to focus more on all the food groups and making a balanced choice.  In fact, since dropping my WW subscription yet again, I feel like I’ve been obsessing about food a whole lot less and hopefully this will help for when I do get back on the horse.  My neighbor and I started walking again this week, but with the heat, I know I won’t be walking outside a whole lot more.  I am such a wimp about being hot, but I can’t stand sweating and all that crap.  I’d much rather be comfortable, so I may take up mall walking for the summer.  We’ll see.

We were matched with an AFS student from Thailand earlier this week.  Our paperwork was submitted to the AFS’ers in Thailand to approve us and for her and her parents to decide if she wants to live with us for the coming school year.  We had considered a short term summer exchange, but having talked to the AFS volunteer and thinking about where our match might come from, we decided to accept any student they threw our way.  This girl sounds like a perfect match—she volunteers in an orphanage and LOVES babies, is self-motivated, her family sounds very similar to ours, and she is extremely determined to get things done.  We were told we might hear something yesterday, but we didn’t so maybe today we will get some good news, and I’ll be able to post more.  I’ve been very impressed with AFS so far.  I never had dealings with them as an adult; obviously my parents took charge when we hosted when I was in high school.  They have already contacted the school here, done our background checks, scheduled our family interview, matched us, and call to check on us regularly.  It’s pretty awesome.  I’m already thinking about what wonderful parts of the United States we can show this girl while she is here and I’ll be interested to see what she would like to do while she is here.  Her letter and paperwork were full of sweet little grammar things that I would no doubt make when writing or speaking in a foreign language.  In one picture, she wrote “I like being outdoors but there should not be wild animals.”  That really tickled me!

For anyone who didn’t read the 80 Plates blog, I have been in touch with my dad’s cousin lately.  She emailed me via Ancestry.com and has been working diligently to learn more about the Cherepon side of the family.  Through her, I was able to find out my great-grandparents’ names (Michael and Helen), the ships they sailed on to come to the US (he came first and sent for her later), and that they listed themselves as Hungarian, not Russian!!!  They also listed themselves in some way shape or form as Austrian and in one case Slovakian.  So I guess we are a mélange of Eastern European happiness.  Lucas was pleased, since he is Hungarian, that his wife is too.  Sunday afternoon, we called our great-aunt and did a little interview with her over the phone.  She would tell us things in one or two sentences, not a lot of details, but I had a blast hearing from her and hope to go visit her in June.  I mainly wanted to know what she remembered of my grandfather, and she said he was ‘all boy, very rough and tumble”.  It was pretty cool to hear the couple memories of him she did share.  I also hooked up with the cousin’s two daughters on Facebook and am now in contact with family I didn’t even know I had!!!  Man is that ever cool!  I am totally loving this.

I have been able to chat with Lesley a little bit this week via Facebook, which has made me SO happy!  It’s been a while since we’ve been able to connect there, so it’s been nice to sit and chit chat.  I’m determined to get her to watch Billy the Exterminator. :-D  She watched it a bit while we chatted last week, but didn’t turn it on this week.  She’ll be won over.  I know. haha

Melissa and Emily both started book club this month, which was pretty cool.  Melissa’s been wanting to join for a long time and Emily only recently expressed an interest, and I happened to be at the end of the waiting list and two people dropped out, so in they came.  We had a great discussion and meal on Monday—we discussed Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum (see previous post for my review) and our dinner theme was Axis versus Allies.  I know who won the war, but I’m not sure who won the culinary battle—I think we had a lot more Axis foods though, so it might have won by default :-)  My potato salad and Linzertorte went over like a house on fire.

Well, even though I am back on Facebook, I am determined not to let the blog die.  So check back occasionally and leave me a comment that doesn’t end in a string of periods.  I love getting ‘em!

A Couple Quick Reviews

I have not been reading terribly prolifically since Lent ended and I’ve been able to go back to gaming and Facebooking, plus my wee one is ever more on the move and more and more to keep up with.  Add that to new activities, and I’m probably pretty lucky I’ve done any reading at all!

I did finish one challenge book and wanted to comment on this month’s book club book as well!

For my Twenty-Ten challenge “pick your own category”, I chose books on addiction.  I decided to start out reading Terry Williams’s Crackhouse: Notes from the End of the Line, since it was pretty short.  Well, short it may have been, but man did it take me FOREVER to read.  Terry Williams apparently had already written a book about the dealers in NYC and what their lives were like, so he decided to go to the demand side and see what it was like in a crack house, looking at the lives of the users.  The house he selected was run by a guy named Headache, who at some point was quite successful as a businessman, and whose friends in the business world were still attempting to pull him out of the crackhouse, get him clean and sober, and help him get back to work and being a respectable business and family man.  In addition, Williams profiles several other members of the crackhouse “family” and what they do to get high, including unsafe sex.

I really did not care for this book at all.  I thought it was just totally boring.  It was dry and dull and hard to read from my perspective.  I didn’t care a thing about any of the “characters” in the book, and I just wanted to get to the end as quickly as possible.  I gave it 1 star on Goodreads.

On the other hand, this month my book club read Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum.  This is a book that has been languishing on my “to be read” shelf for at least a year and a half, if not longer.  I was really excited to be able to get to it, especially when I started it.  Now, I was sick all last week, I’ve been sick now for 10 days.  But the first day I wasn’t feeling well happened to be the day I started reading this book.  My excuse the next day for staying up till 2AM was that I wasn’t able to breathe when I laid down, but in actuality, this book was so compelling, I read until I literally could not keep my eyes open any longer.

The story details Anna and Trudy. Anna is a young woman living outside a concentration camp in Germany, who does what she needs to do to survive and provide for her daughter during WWII, namely taking up with a high ranking SS officer whose eye she has caught when he comes to the bakery where she works one day.  After the war, she marries an American GI and leaves Germany for good, refusing to answer any of Trudy’s questions, despite the fact that Trudy has a good many questions about her past.  Trudy, who is now a college professor, begins interviewing German citizens to find out what their experience of the war was, and eventually is able to get some answers about who she is, who her mother is and what she did, and help her mother come to grips with her own fears and guilt about the past.

In book club, I think everyone liked the book, although with varying degrees of liking it.  I found it compelling and exciting and interesting and horrifying by turns, and while I have no desire to read it or any other Holocaust-related books for quite some time now, I have to say that this is one of very few five star reads from the past year.  I’m going to count it as one of my TBR selections so that I can get another one off the list.  That has me having read 6 out of 20 books on that challenge for the year.  Hooray!  I’m getting there for sure.

Stuff and Failure!

It has been a long couple of months... A lot of things have changed, both good and bad, and I am getting used to a lot of things being different and interesting and challenging and sometimes hard.

For instance, every single day with Leah is something new. There are days she wakes up and I think, "Who the heck are you!?" We are right on the verge of walking, I feel it in my bones. We've been going to the play park at the mall and I see her studying the other kids and really working for it. She's climbing steps now--she only goes up one or two, but man, that scares me! I can't turn my back on her for a second and she's up the basement steps. We put up the gate about a month ago, but if I forget to close it when I run up to get a drink or find the phone, bam! I come back and she is sitting there a step or two up, grinning ear to ear, considering making the rest of the journey.

Her little health scare with the heart murmur affected me more deeply than I care to admit. From the moment the nurse said something about it until we met with the cardiologist today, I have lived in a new kind of worry that I didn't know existed. Oh sure, since becoming a mom, there is the kind of generalized worry that I think most of us feel about our kids, but this was concrete "is my baby going to be OK?" worry. I pressed my ear to her chest about a thousand times this week, listening to her heart beat and praying. When Dr. Allen said, "This is the most minor heart murmur, I really had to concentrate to even hear it, don't worry and you don't need to come back", I could feel my shoulders dropping and the tears filling my eyes. I held it together until I got in the car and called my mom. Then I barely got out the words, "She's fine" before completely losing it (while hurtling down I-95 at 70 with a big truck behind me. Oh and it was raining.)

Today has not been a great day. She did not sleep well at all last night--she was up at 1:30, 3:30, and 6:30, which meant so was I. I've been going on the assumption that she is trying to pop out some molars, but then I remembered it's been 9 days since she had some vaccinations, and they said we could see the effects of those vaccinations 7-10 days out, so now I'm wondering if perhaps the crankiness is due to that more than teeth. It took us almost 2 hours to get her to sleep tonight. I have to say, when she grinned up at me when I held her and rocked her, I didn't mind so much. I just hope she sleeps tonight. I remember thinking last night, "How the heck did I do this a year ago!?" but she would sleep during the day, and so could I. Now she's a ball of fire. I swear, I was hanging out at the play park this afternoon like a zombie. I came home and slept for the better part of 2 hours. So of course, now it's midnight, and I can't sleep again! AUGH! I'm trying to decide if I should take Leah to the doctor or even call them tomorrow, but then with the teething, there's nothing they can do about it and if it's a reaction to the shots, we just have to wait it out...

The house is a bit of a shambles, but I am attempting to get back to it. When I think how utterly clean it was just a couple months ago, I'm a bit embarrassed I fell off the wagon. The Easter dinner followed by Leah's birthday party were two big events that just kind of swung things square into disasterland--tons of people helping out, putting things where I still haven't found them, everything getting moved, dirt and grass tromped in and out, food tucked into the back of the fridge. Leah is such a clotheshorse, I haven't done her laundry in over a month and she still has tons of outfits. I haven't done towels. The pile for the yard sale grows every larger.

Speaking of which, I'm thinking of having my yard sale on Saturday, May 1, weather permitting. If anyone would like to join me to make it a "multi family yard sale", please feel free. I would be happy to go elsewhere, except that I am thinking of selling some furniture, and I have no means of transporting it to anywhere other than my own yard. I have 3 folding tables, plus my dining room table, plus our spare dining table. You may need to bring your own tables and definitely some chairs... I'll provide coffee and donuts. :-) Let me know if you want to sell some stuff! Our neighborhood is usually pretty good for yard sales.

Anyway, my control journal is back out for FLYLady again, and I did two huge loads of laundry, lots of dishes, and have gathered up tons of trash today. I have a bunch of bags of "stuff" in the back of our car to drop off to my sister this weekend when I see her and then I'll be able to fill the car with garbage and haul it to the dump (yeah, like I'll have time for that this weekend too!). Still, I'm happy with how things are shaping up already, and just have a few areas of touch up before really getting into my routine again. I think it got so clean that I started thinking, "Oh, I can skip that this week, it's already plenty clean!" and that is the first pitfall on your way to disaster. Michael and I are presently debating the laundry issue. We've been using those new Purex sheets you may have seen advertised on TV. I thought they'd be a blind guy's best friend when doing the laundry, but a) they are kind of pricey and b) he doesn't like them (says the clothes don't smell fresh enough and he's not sure they're getting clean). Consequently today I went grocery shopping and picked up laundry soap, but I got the liquid, not the powder. He prefers the powder since it's easier to measure, but it's also $4 more expensive for 20 fewer loads. So now we are trying to come up with a system for him to use the liquid without making a huge mess all over the place. I don't know what we're going to do. We are thinking of trying a turkey baster that he could use to suck up the detergent and shoot it into the compartment for the washer. There's already hemming and hawing about whether that'll work or not, but it's the best idea we've had thus far.

We officially closed the door on the exchange student idea, unfortunately. My friend who is a coordinator is totally stressed out this year by the job and didn't seem able to follow through on the steps required to finish our application and get Caroline here, so we decided to ease her stress load and forgo the whole thing. We emailed the school and let them know of our decision, and hopefully now Caroline will be able to find a family quickly and enjoy her year.

This weekend is a biggie--I have choir rehearsal on Saturday morning and then my friend Kris is coming down from Springfield to have lunch. Saturday evening we have a 50th birthday party to attend in Burke. Sunday is the big concert, and I have to be at the concert site at 3:30 in the afternoon. This is going to make for a long day for Leah and Michael, so I decided to take Leah to rehearsal with me on Saturday to give him a little bit of a break. I don't know how that's going to work, but I do know I need the rehearsal time. If it doesn't pan out, I will simply have to leave rehearsal, but hopefully it'll be fine.

The exterior of the house is complete in terms of paint and shutters. I need to get a picture of the new shutters, but I am really happy with the end result. Hopefully our doors will get here soon and we'll be in business with this year's renovations. I have decided to take up mowing the lawn myself, since the kids out back are not interested in doing it. I need to take our mower in to get a new blade and then it should be operational. It'll be interesting trying to start it, I haven't started it up in a couple of years, so we'll see if it still runs. Otherwise, I'll go get a cheap mower, but there's a repair shop right around the corner that I'm going to take it to for the blade, since we've been through several without finding the right one. Then I will take a stab at mowing. I've never mowed before, but I have to say, I'm kind of looking forward to it.

The big thing from this week was the tire debacle. I don't know. As I blogged before, dealing with car issues is my biggest stressor, and this whole situation is exactly the reason why. When the tires first crapped out in December 2008, I did a ton of research on the web and calling around to various stores to try and find the blasted size this car required. Finally, the only place we could get them was at Firestone, and the guy at the Firestone dealer informed me that there were no high mileage tires in this size, the best I could get was a 30,000 mile tire. They cost me over $700. Ok, fine, I didn't figure I'd be doing 30,000 miles worth of driving in a year and half, but whoo boy, was I wrong! The majority of it was while my dad was sick last summer and we were going back and forth to Vermont every day and to Star Lake, and just getting to and from Plattsburgh. Then there were the weekly trips to Baltimore before Leah was born, all the driving to and from Maryland during the court proceedings, doctors appointments, etc and our appointments in Richmond. To say nothing of trips up north while I was still working, book club meetings, travels around town, leisure travel, etc. It's just been nutty. So of course, three of the four tires failed inspection, and one was on the verge of it. And the guy at the garage says to me that he can stick a high mileage tire on the car, made by a company other than Firestone, for the same price as the Firestone tires, and depending on how long we have the car, we may never need to buy another set of tires. So I ask you: Did I get screwed by Firestone? Or am I getting screwed by the inspection guy? I lean towards getting screwed by Firestone only because I have been going to this particular garage for inspections, etc for a long time and I do trust them there. But it REALLY pisses me off that one way or another, someone is not telling me the truth about tires and my car. We are also pissed about the sheer price of the things--$800 is more than we paid for the Myrtle Beach condo, and it more or less was a good hunk of our nest egg for the coming year that we had set aside out of our tax return. I do believe that we will be fine and dandy, honestly what's left to possibly break?, but it'd still be nice to have that money in the bank, just in case. Anyway, all that being said, it only adds to my stress level to get two radically different opinions about the tires, pay the same price for two radically different tires, and know that somewhere, someway, somehow, I was screwed by a mechanic. This only makes it that much worse the next time I have to have something done--the stress ratchets up again.

As for other aspects of life... Everyone keeps inquiring about the Weight Watchers stuff. I have more or less fallen off the wagon. I keep thinking about it, but by mid-day I'm done. I just don't care. I want the results without the work (haha, don't we all!?). There are so many pitfalls and temptations out there and there is a big part of me that is tired of resisting. As more and more people are more and more successful, I feel like more and more of a failure, which is making it harder and harder to even feel like trying. I am thrilled for other people's success, but it makes my own inability to commit that much harder to come to terms with. I know I can "just" get right back up on the horse and get going, but I am getting more and more depressed about the whole thing. I keep seeing May in the mirror--I joined in May of 2008, and I think that maybe I should recommit myself this May. I don't know. I keep making these arbitrary deadlines and they keep passing and I keep not doing anything. I just need to get my butt down to a meeting and get going. I just don't feel like it. I guess I need to have myself a good cry about the whole thing and then forgive myself, let the past go, and get started. It just sucks is all. I feel like a big fat failure and that is not the place from whence you can really start over. You need to feel some sense of "YES I CAN!" before you do. And I know I can, I just don't feel it.

There are a lot of things fallen by the wayside at the moment. 80 Plates, I don't know if I'll ever finish it. I get depressed just looking at the blog. I can't think of any other countries I'm dying to do and all the research I have done into it has been good, but it's a lot of work, and I am short on time. There are only so many pieces of the Susan pie to go around. And I suppose that is something I am struggling with a bit. What do I want to devote myself to? I sat down and made a list the other day of all the things I feel passionately about that I would like to do something about. For instance, every time I drive to the mall, I feel very badly about the homeless people out on Rte 3 begging for money, and I would love to do something about it. But what exactly? Michael did some research into volunteer opportunities for me to work with the homeless population here, but then I have to consider that this would require additional time away from my family, which puts the burden of childcare on him. And while Leah is finally starting to warm up to him, it is far from a smooth road at the moment, so it requires being willing to go out and just hope for the best while I'm gone, which robs me of some of the enjoyment I get from doing things. I would also love to be an AFS volunteer, a literacy volunteer, volunteer at the library, considering a part time job when Barnes and Noble opens here in town, considering launching some sort of business on my own about which I have several ideas. I want to go ten thousand different directions, and I can't. For my own sanity, I just can't.

Anyway, Leah's already been up once during the writing of this post, so I'd better roll on into bed before she gets up again. A little sleep is better than none. Thanks for listening to my whining if you've made it this far!!!!

Eight Years

Olive Kitteridge

One of the books I selected for the Twenty Ten Book Challenge was Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.  I wanted to get through our club discussion of the book before posting here.  It counts as my second “Shiny and New” book and finishes off that category of the challenge.

Olive Kitteridge won the Pulitzer Prize and tells the story of a small town in Maine and its inimitable retired math teacher, Olive Kitteridge.  According to the jacket notes, the story centers around Olive, but in fact, to me, that doesn’t seem the case.  In several of the stories, Olive is a mere mention in passing.

I’m really split just about 50/50 on whether I like collections of short stories where a narrative is attempting to be woven through the stories to create a novel.  In some instances, it works well and I love it, such as Philip Gulley’s Harmony series and Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Cafe series, both of which I adore.  Books like Olive Kitteridge, however, fail to meet the mark for me.  In most cases, I feel as though I want to know more about a particular set of characters and nothing at all about other sets.  In this case, the book was supposed to revolve around Olive herself, but in fact it was her husband Henry I found to be a more compelling character.  I would have loved to know more about Heather, the young woman in the first story who goes to work for Henry and ultimately endures a series of tragedies.  I did not care much at all for the tween, for the guy with the mother who killed herself, or for many of the other characters. 

The book was OK, when I was interested in it, I was really interested in it, but for the most part, it was a bit of a chore to work my way through and left me dissatisfied.  I generously gave it 3 stars on GoodReads—didn’t love it, didn’t hate it, it just was.

Reflections on the Past Year

A year ago, a nurse placed a warm little bundle in my arms and offered to take some pictures while I let the tears flow freely and whispered, “I want to be your mommy” into the ear of a child who was not yet mine.  I had no idea what kind of a mother I would be, I had no idea in that moment how my life would change.  My mind was whirling with a million different thoughts and emotions, telling my heart to play it safe and not fall in love while my heart was transmitting a signal loud and clear that said, “Too late.”

So many of the things that were important to me a year and a day ago are not important to me now.  So many new things are important that I never dreamed of.  I have made serious life changes, I have learned about myself and about other people.  I have met people I didn’t know, fallen away from people who I thought I would never stop hearing from, experienced mind-boggling highs and heartbreaking lows, laughed from sheer exhaustion, cried with joy and beauty.  I have experienced 150% unconditional love, a love that doesn’t care if I’m fat or messed up or crabby or tired or a thousand other “ors”.  A love that only cares that I’m me.  It has inspired me to believe in myself in a way that I don’t think I have since I myself was a young child.

I genuinely didn’t know it was possible to experience a depth of emotion like I feel when I look at my daughter.  I can’t imagine the hours I’ve spent looking at pictures of her while she takes her naps, just because I miss her while she’s sleeping.  The mere thought of her robs me of my ability to speak, a lump forms in my throat and I try not to cry.  I thought it was a cliché before when I heard women say, “Someone took my heart out of my chest and gave it arms and legs”.  It’s not, it is true.  Wherever she is, my heart is with her.  When she climbs up on me and wraps her arms around my neck, snuggling into my hair, I have no idea how my body can contain the absolute joy I feel at that moment. 

I am living the life I always dreamed about.  I have an amazing collection of friends, both here locally and far afield.  A year ago, I didn’t know Wendy, and I only knew Cindy and Amanda a little.  Today, I can’t imagine how I would have survived my first year of mommyhood without them.  They have become confidantes, advice-givers, and story-sharers.  They let me talk about puke and poop and temper tantrums and sleep depravation like it’s all new and I’m telling them something they don’t know.  The girls in my book club have been an ever-present source of support, from throwing me a shower last March to this past Monday when they listened patiently to me discuss the circumstances in which I now find myself, without a whole lot of family support.  Elizabeth, Lauren, and Dustina have given me a shoulder to cry on and checked in with me regularly.  Elizabeth helped me start to believe “We love you because of who you are, not what you do.”  Melissa has never turned down an SOS when I needed a break and to get some sleep.  The love I feel from Mike and Lesley and Russell and Amy, Leah’s surrogate aunts and uncles, the acceptance my daughter has received from people who don’t have to love her or her parents, it is inspiring and it touches me every day.  Landry and Meredith keep me laughing.  Colleen is as reliable as clockwork, and patient as the day is long.  How blessed Michael and I were to find her. 

And I cannot forget the young woman who left that baby in my arms and told me to be a mommy.  This weekend when we see her, I will hug Tasha and remember again all she sacrificed that we could be together, that “we” could be “three”.

I have been able to travel.  I have been able to attend my father-in-law’s 70th and sit by my ailing father’s bedside and go see my favorite authors and travel to see my best friends and go to Florida for the first time in years and entertain company and take care of my niece and witness the birth of my nephew and take care of my physical and mental health and hang out with friends any time of the day without a care in the world about how much vacation time I had. 

I have seen a new side of my husband, witnessed the unerring patience he has with a little being who has gone from being furious if he walked in the room to starting to finally mellow out and enjoy his company.  He has been patient with my growing pains as a new mom, has given me time to go back to being “just Susan” when I needed it, spoiled me when I didn’t deserve it, and encouraged me to change things I wasn’t happy about within myself.  He has asked so little in return, and I have never felt closer to him than I do now.  We are truly a team in so many ways.  Our marriage isn’t just a couple of people who kind of like each other.  We are “the parents” and we have “a family”.

I have let things fall by the wayside.  I am not going to give up on the goals I had for myself before I was a mom.  But I’ve learned to be gentler on myself and focus on the things that are most pressing and remember what’s important in the grand scheme of things.  I have learned that I have value and that I am worth more than how I have been treated in the past and how I saw myself in only that light.  And all because one year ago today, a little girl was handed to me and both she and her first mother put all their faith in me that I could be the person I wanted to be, for myself, but mostly for her.  I love you, Leah.  You have changed my life with yours.

Happy Cherry Blossom Festival!

Thus Begins The Insanity!

Tomorrow is April 1, and in a week, my baby will turn 1.  It is something I simply cannot fathom.  She is a beautiful, smart, funny little darling, and while we’ve had moments of stress and anxiety in the past year, I would not have changed a thing about it at all.  I have a dream job—staying home and raising a little person.  What a joy!  Even though I just had some Easter portraits done at Sears, I scheduled an appointment to have some more portraits done on her actual birthday over at Picture People, since they sent me a coupon. 

Today, Leah and I went to the mall with my friend Lisa and her little guy, Daniel, who is about 5 months older than Leah.  We walked them around the mall, they both met the Easter bunny, we had a nice lunch, and let them play at the playpark in the mall.  Lisa and I met last summer when I decided to have a Pampered Chef show and put a notice in every mailbox on the street to try and meet my neighbors.  Unfortunately, Lisa couldn’t make it, but we started walking together around the neighborhood.  Leah was still too little to play much, so we didn’t really hang around, but now that Leah is a little bit bigger, we’ve been spending more time together.  Tomorrow, we are going to go up to DC to see the cherry blossoms, have a picnic, and let the kids play out on W. Potomac Park.  It should be a great day.  We are both going back to WW the Saturday after Easter (Leah’s birthday party), and we’ve been motivating each other to walk a couple miles each day when the weather is nice.  I have been enjoying having a friend right down the street and we have common interests and a similar parenting philosophy.  The other night, she, Daniel, and her husband were walking around our block and stopped over.  John and Michael hit it off like a house on fire, so I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of them!

Work started on the house today.  The main level and all the brick and the front porch were powerwashed and the old shutters were removed.  It looks kind of odd in that whoever lived here before didn’t bother to paint underneath the shutters when they painted the house, so we can actually see the color of the original brick.  It makes me wish even more that whoever did it had not painted the brick, but what’s done is done, so now we will finish the job.  We picked what I hope is a nice yellow color, although I suspect that it’s going to be more beige-ish.  I’m reserving judgment till I see it, but I hope I’m going to like it!

Then it’ll be time to get ready for the weekend!!!!  I plan to spend Friday shopping and defrosting a giant turkey, as well as starting to prepare the coconut cake I’m going to make for dessert (unless I wimp out at get the Wegman’s Ultimate White Cake, which, frankly, is AMAZING).  Saturday will be spent doing preparations for Easter, and then in the evening I’ll be going off to dinner and bingo with Wendy.  (Anyone else want to play?  We’ll be in the usual spot!)

I’m really excited for Easter.  I think we’ll have a nice crew and it’ll be fun having some kids around.  Most importantly, Mr. Gobble will be out of my freezer, freeing up valuable real estate for provisions for the party.  I hope the painters get the house painted by Easter is the only thing!  I plan to take Leah to church first thing and then we’ll get cookin’!  So far, Manda is bringing potato salad, Melissa is bringing devilled eggs, and Wendy is bringing a ham and mac n’ cheese to make her fussy eaters happy.  I think we’ll have a nice variety of food for sure.

Monday is book club.  We’ll be discussing Olive Kitteridge and then I will post a review here afterwards.  Friday, Michael is having some training on Leah stuff, and then we have to go to DMV, since we just discovered his ID expired a year ago!  Then we’ll start preparing for the big blow out.  My buddy Joe is coming down Friday to help out, and we’ll go and get the food.  I hope the weather is nice—we’re going to try having a cook out and I would love to be outside as much as possible.  If you’re coming and it’s nice, please bring a camp chair, lawn chair, etc. if you have them.  Saturday is the party and then Sunday I have choir practice.  Then Jennifer arrives that Thursday, and we’ll spend Friday apartment hunting.  Saturday we will take her back to Richmond to the airport, go to a birthday party in Richmond, and hopefully meet up with some new friends we’ve been corresponding with through our adoption attorney—they are hoping to adopt soon, and have turned to us for advice.  The following week is our wedding anniversary, and a pile of dress rehearsals for the chorus concert, which is the following weekend.  The 24th, I am getting together with my friend Kris, whose kids and husband will all be out of town.  The 25th is the big concert (tickets are still available at the low, low price of $85!), and by then, it’ll be the end of the month!  Sheesh, I’m tired just thinking about it.

I’ve been in contact with a friend from home since I sent out the email asking people to vote for Leah.  I said to her that if we won, we would come visit her while we are in NYC, since she lives in NYC, and she told us not to wait, to come anyway!  Turns out she lives right near where I went to college, so I’m thrilled that I can go visit my old stomping grounds, show Michael Manhattan College, and we can go around NYC.  We are hoping to get up there in June.  And of course, in May, we’ve got our trip to Myrtle Beach lined up.  I got Leah some clothes today and a bathing suit—this one a one piece to compliment the two piece her auntie sent her.  We are so excited to be going, although sad to hear the Wellses can’t join us after all!!!  I plan to do a lot of R&R that week.  And it’s nice the fee for the condo includes the maid service, so we can just walk on out of there Saturday morning with nary a thought.

We have become the smoothie king and queen.  We had a box of oranges to use up, so I juiced them all and then put the juice in the blender with the strawberries I had picked and frozen last summer.  YUM!  Since then, we’ve been trying different kinds.  We had strawberry lemonade slush tonight, and last night we had peach-berry.  Michael has loved them too, and we have similar taste in fruit, so it’s working out very well.

So that’s about it.  Less than a week till I get to go back on Facebook, but it doesn’t seem as important as it did nearly 40 days ago.  I have enjoyed blogging again, so I can see myself reading other people’s updates, and I’m sure I’ll post updates, but I just hope I keep up with my blog. 

Till next time!

Vote For Leah!

I entered Leah in the American Baby cover model contest.  Her photo was selected for voting.  If you’d like to vote for her, please visit http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/179940  You can vote for her as many times as you have computers, once per computer per day.  We are currently in 9th place.  Please post to your blogs, email, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.  We could win a trip to NYC :-)

Thanks!

VICTORY!!!!!

Winning never felt so good.  Tonight, we went out to trivia night at the Fredericksburg Pub.  We had a plan to bring in more brain power, but no one responded when I posted anything here, so I had a feeling we’d be on our own.  Still, I told Michael as we pulled out, “I think this is our night, I’m feeling lucky!”

We got to the Pub and Landry and Meredith were there with a recruit!  Landry’s friend Rob, who has won on Jeopardy before.  We changed our team name to “Revenge of the Nerds” and we were all set!  Between having an extra person, the general trivia questions (all of us knew answers, which really helped!), well, long story short, WE WON THE ENTIRE ENCHILADA.  We got 17 out of 20 on general trivia and 9 out of 10 on the music round for a total of 26.  It was AWESOME!

We won a T-shirt, hat, and towel for the general trivia round.  Rob took the towel, we decided to give the little T-shirt to Leah, and Landry got the hat.  For winning both rounds, we won a $25 gift certificate to the pub for our next visit. 

Man does it feel good to have won after all this time :-)  I think we fairly floated home.  What felt even better is that I handed the host our sheet and told him it was a winner, and he was like, “Yeah right.”  Eat crow, my man, WE DID IT!

Tea Time!

This weekend was the kick off to the tea club I had decided to join after reading about it on Craig’s List.  I was nervous as I got closer and closer to the date and hadn’t heard anything, but this morning I got an email with the directions and information.  And then I still waffled.

I think Leah is teething.  The teeth on either side of her two front teeth are ready to break through, and they are making her extremely crabby.  She is back to waking up at 5AM, and I am back to not being able to go back to sleep.  This REALLY sucks.  I am so not a morning person.  So, I got home from running to the dump and the grocery store and we got home from our Sunday lunch outing, all I really wanted to do was put Leah to bed, take a hot shower, and crawl into bed.  But in talking with Michael, we agreed that I really did need to get out of the house and have some fun doing something I really wanted to do, so I decided to go have tea.

I arrived just after 2:00 and was a little nervous not to see any other cars around.  Typically I am not a sparkling conversationalist at first and it takes me a while to kind of warm up.  But I bravely rang the bell and immediately met Kim, whose brainchild the club was.  She was very welcoming and warm and brought me upstairs to meet her friend Donna.  We talked a little bit about what I know about tea (next to nothing) and Kim brewed tea and we sat down to a lovely spread—sandwiches, salad, scones, her homemade Devonshire cream, and of course, tea!  For the first time ever, I tried a green tea, this one toasted almond flavored, and I really, really liked it.  We spent tea time getting to know each other, and in the “It’s a Small World After All” category, I actually knew Donna’s husband from when I worked for the state and he worked for the state!  He used to work at the garage where I got my state car serviced!  Go figure, right?

Both ladies were very easy to talk to and I learned a lot about a variety of topics, not just tea.  I walked away with some of the tea, as well as a tea pot and filters and instructions on how to make tea.  I am really looking forward to our next get together!

I got home around 4:45, just in time to feed Leah and head to choir practice.  We started rehearsing choreography tonight—GOD HELP ME.  I am pathetic, absolutely pathetic, and of course, I will be dead center when we start, so I’ll look like even more of an idiot.  But who cares, I am really loving being in the choir.  I’m so glad I’ve joined!

I’ve also gotten re-motivated with doing some exercising.  My neighbor and fellow SAHM Lisa comes up every morning when the weather is nice and she and I take our respective kids and walk just about 2 miles each morning.  I have also started the couch to 5K running program Mike was doing, since Lesley completing that half marathon really inspired me to at least try running.  What I’ve discovered is that the leg I broke, my left leg, is not in great shape for this type of thing, so I actually run kind of lopsidedly.    It also sucks to jog in this neighborhood because it’s so hilly.  And I need some song recommendations for a play list—I guess I’m too mellow because I find myself fast forwarding through most of the stuff on my iPod while I run.  It’s too slow!  So let me know what you think I should run to!

The painters are due to start this week after the rain finishes—hopefully by Wednesday.  I had my color consultation last week and I am just so excited about the paint and shutters.  I’ve got to take a before picture before they get to work.  Our friend Doug is coming over this week to look at the basement room to make sure we can wire it up for Michael’s computer, and then I’ll be able to start painting and we can move furniture.  Then the ham guys will just have to come move the antenna to the back yard and our house will look great inside and out!

All in all, another busy weekend.  Michael and I just mapped out April, and I can’t even believe how busy it’s looking.  It should be a ton of fun, though, and will make the time fly till we hit the beach!  Till then, I’m taking my overdue shower, crawling into bed with Olive Kitteridge, and falling asleep!

Turkey Info

Ok, Turkey People!!  If you are coming to Casa Kosior for Easter to eat turkey, here’s the scoop!

Mike and I will provide a turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and rolls.  We are relying on everyone else to bring a side dish to share.  You can leave a comment here with what you plan to bring if you want to.

I need to know what time everyone would like to eat.  We will go to church on Sunday and probably be home by 10:30.  I have no idea how long a 23 pound turkey takes to cook, but my plan is to have it ready to go in the oven on Saturday night, shove it in the oven before we leave for church at 8:00, and it should be done by early-mid afternoon, right? 

Also, parents!!  Manda suggested an Easter Egg hunt, which I’m game for.  I can pick up some plastic eggs or you can bring some eggs, or whatever you want to do.  Let me know.  I don’t know what to put in the eggs—whose kids are eating what in terms of treats, chocolate, or are there other small things we could put in the eggs?  Leah is going to be egg hunt free, so I’ll need help with this—you can bring eggs over early so I can hide them in advance, we can meet and I can pick them up from you, whatever works!  Next year Leah will be a mighty huntress no doubt.  This year, she’s getting a basket with a book, bubbles, and a duck in it. :)

Looking forward to it!

Kick Off to Easter

Today was our annual trek to Springfield to visit our friends Paul and Kris and attend their church’s annual Easter pageant.  It is always one of my favorite parts of the year.  Their church does an amazing show at Christmas and Easter both.  I think we managed to miss both shows last year, so it was extra special to go to Easter this year.

Fortunately, the church has a wonderful nursery program, and so we checked Leah into the nursery for the duration of the show.  They give you a numbered wristband for your child and a matching one for you.  If at any time during the performance, your child needs you or is absolutely inconsolable, they flash your number up on a digital display right in the sanctuary.  No one without a bracelet can remove a child from the nursery.   It’s a wonderful feeling of security to know that your child is taken care of so you can relax and enjoy the show, but that you can go to him/her if you are needed.

Unfortunately, today was a 5am day.  I put Leah back to sleep at around 8AM to try and get some sleep, but was jolted back to reality around 9;30, only to discover she had ripped off her diaper in protest, and smeared “solid waste” all over her crib.  Yeah, that was fun to get up to. 

We left here around 10:45 and stopped to get our hosts some flowers and grab an early lunch at McD’s because we knew we wouldn’t eat till after the show.  By the time we got on the road for good, it was nearly 11:30 and of course there was traffic.  Still, we got to their house by 12:10, which is pretty stinkin’ good!  We piled into 2 cars and headed to church for the show, which was very moving, but I about fell asleep twice.  Not for lack of interest, just pure fatigue.  I always feel kind of conflicted at Easter time, trying to sort out what I believe and don’t believe.  This last week before Easter, I am going to devote some serious reading time to my Philip Gulley books and try to get a grip on how I feel about church, faith, Jesus, and the whole lot of it.  I have friends on all ends of the religious spectrum, and I think I fall in the wishy-washy category.  I believe but I don’t believe in all of it kind of a thing.  So I’m looking forward to digging into the first thing that seems it’s really been written for me.

Afterwards, we went back to Paul and Kris’s house for a nice lasagna supper.  We get along very well with them, and they had invited over the lady who took my place when I quit my job last year, her husband, and another family we only get to see during these get togethers but who we get along with very well.  As we arrived, Paul and Kris gathered all of us into the living room to announce that in the mail that day, they had gotten a letter that their son Andrew was accepted into the Shenandoah Conservatory!  Andrew is adopted from Korea and is blind, and it has been Kris’s most fervent desire that he be accepted there.  They agreed to accept him under two conditions, the first of which was that he get his SAT scores up, so he worked really hard and got them up, and they took him!!!  I honestly burst right into tears.  I was so happy for them and so proud of Andrew.  And then I made Leah promise not to grow up and go to college—she can only go to Mary Washington and she has to live at home.

By now, Leah was absolutely beside herself with exhaustion.  We stayed until 6:30, by which point, she didn’t know whether to put her head down on me and sleep or sit, smile at everyone, and scream.  I bundled her into the car and before we hit Franconia Road, she was snoring, so we took time to run over to Giant and pick up an apartment guide for Mike and Lesley’s niece, Jennifer.  Then we got stuck in a 6 mile back up to get home.  It’s been forever since I’ve been on the highway, it seems, so it really felt weird to be driving fast or not be driving at all! 

What a great day full of happy news, friendship, and happy times.  A great way to kick off Easter!

Life’s A Beach!

After much deliberation and negotiation, thought, consideration, and weighing our options, we decided to go to Myrtle Beach after all.  I’ve just put in for our reservation, we’ll be in the same building we were in for our honeymoon, just a different unit.  Hopefully the key won’t break off in the door on this one.  :-)

Landry and Meredith are going with us.  It should be a blast.  We’ll be there from May 15-22 if anyone wants to try and meet up (we’ll have a sleeper sofa if someone wants to crash for the night!  You can help us pay less :-D).  I cannot wait to take Leah to beach.  She’s going to look awesome in her little two piece.

I’m already trying to decide what to do while we’re there.  It’s been a couple years, last time we were there, we were with Mike and Lesley.  This I know for sure:  mini golf, a Pelicans game (the Sunday game when we get there is against the Red Sox farm team—awesome timing!), Barefoot Landing, and the Boardwalk and Gay Dolphin to get Leah’s license plate.  Tons of beach time, tons of reading time.  I am so excited.  Who knows, maybe we’ll even find bingo there!