Just Random Stuff

Not much has been going on lately that I really want to blog too much about, the typical family drama rearing its ugly head now and again, but I’m getting through it and I’m frankly tired of dealing with it, so am working on strategies to make it through without destroying myself in the process.

Other than that, life has taken on a pretty even keel.  I cannot believe my little baby is 8 months old already.  I saw a picture of her as a 1 month old and I couldn’t get over it, how she couldn’t sit up on her own, she was just a little mushy lump.  I miss that little mushy lump, but the Leah that is emerging is an absolute joy.  She is my favorite person in the world.  She makes me laugh and she makes me cry tears of joy.

My book club met Monday to discuss The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman.  Most of us didn’t really like it, and I heard “This is not Alice’s best”, which cracks me up because when we read Blackbird House in another book club, we heard, “This is not Alice’s best!”  So, what is Alice’s best?  I have Illumination Night here, but I’m hesitant to read it.  I can get through her books pretty quick, though, so even if it sucks, maybe I’d be OK just to add it to the pile.  I am presently reading In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd, which is this month’s book club selection; we will discuss it on January 4th.  When I get through it, and it’s a Christmas book so it’s a great time to be reading it, I’ll have read 65 books this year.  I am also going to try to plow through Elizabeth Berg’s The Handmaid and the Carpenter, which I wanted to read last Christmas, but didn’t get to.  Otherwise, that will be next year’s Christmas selection.

I got out our Christmas decorations this week and put them up—I don’t know if I have lost things or I have more house or I’m missing a box, or what, but honestly, the house looks pretty bare.  I have a nativity set in the basement and one up in the living room, plus a couple little odds and ends, but I can’t seem to locate a few things I know are ‘somewhere’.  Ahh, the mystical somewhere.  Our tree goes up next week on the 19th, and then the fun begins.  This weekend, Melissa will take Leah for us on Sunday so I can actually really clean and scrub the house from top to bottom and get the Christmas shopping done.  I am so excited to have this time to get things done, and not to have to worry about screaming baby.  She provides good weight training, but it’s hard doing a lot with 18 pounds of extra weight strapped to me!!!

I am also weeding through things and getting rid of a bunch of junk and setting other things aside to have a yard sale this spring.  I would like to get rid of a lot of the junk that has accumulated in the past 4+ years.  With the extra money, I’d like to buy a wardrobe for the basement guest room so people can hang up their clothes when they come visit and buy my sister a couch so I have someplace to sit and sleep when I go visit her.  I suspect I’m going to have to find a lot more things to sell in order to accomplish that.  I’ve found a lot of interesting stuff.  I found a Geocoin I didn’t know I had—this one from something called GeocacheTreasures.com which no longer exists.  It’s a beauty of a coin, I must say.  I also found wedding invitations for 2 of my roommates from Utah.  Armed with the information on one of them, I found the last of the girls I’d lived with for 4 months in 1997.  Facebook is an amazing place!  With that, I’ve now been reunited with all 5 of them, and we are now swapping Christmas cards and emails.  It was a short time, and for me an intensely unhappy time, but they were all an absolute blast to hang out with, and I’m glad to see them and their families.  Funnily enough, Amy (who I actually shared a room with) and I both have daughters with birthdays in April and our roommate Christina is expecting her first baby *drum roll please* next April!    The long lost Jennifer has surfaced in New York, my old home state.  It would be fun to have a reunion sometime.

It hasn’t really sunk in yet that Leah’s officially ours.  In a way, I’ve just lived the past 8 months as if she is—I have loved her fiercely and determinedly.  The visits were not particularly invasive; if anything they were a chance to ask questions and get advice about parenting.  Of course, we are now being asked if we want to/will do it again, and our answer is a firm “Probably” although we both agreed we might like to try foster care next time.  We’ve been incredibly blessed with Leah and her adoption and the process and people we worked with, and it would be nice to work with a child in need of a home who just needs a chance, be it permanently or temporarily.  We have decided to let Leah be in charge of when or if she wants a brother or sister, but neither one of us is in any rush right now to get into another situation immediately.   We just want to enjoy our little girl.

That’s really about it.  I’ve been invited to attend DBVI’s Christmas party on Monday and told not to show up without Leah, so that is our Monday plan.  Monday night, we’ll be going out with Landry and Meredith to trivia night at the Fredericksburg Pub.  We are lucky to have a wonderful babysitter here in town who is great with Leah and very patient.  She even has the foresight to pack earplugs for those times Leah wants her mommy and screams if Mommy doesn’t oblige.

I’m going to be cleaning up my blog sidebar in the new year.  If your blog hasn’t been updated in the past month, I plan to remove it unless it would seriously upset you/hurt your feelings.  Let me know.  I have also decided NOT to post 80 Plates on this blog anymore—it’s really an excuse not to blog about things on this blog and just let the cooking do the talking.  So from here out, you will have to go to the 80 Plates blog if you want to see what’s cooking. 

For now, it’s over and out!  Hope everyone is enjoying the December holidays!