eenie meenie miney moe

I can't decide what to blog about today.

Do I tell you about the Canadian Goose that I saw get hit by a truck today on the way home from the Y? Maybe I'm getting old (that was rhetorical, thankyouverymuch) but when I was little it was a treat to spot a Canadian Goose. I'm from Ohio- which isn't all that far from Canada, so it wasn't exactly like spotting an elephant or anything. But it seemed like when I saw one it was *special.* I don't know about where you live, but around these parts you can't go more than a few blocks without nearly running into one. Well, that's exactly what happened today. There were two in the middle of a rather busy 4 lane road. I'm not sure if this truck driver was impatient, didn't see the goose or is a heartless jerk, but let's just say it was all kinds of feathers and down flying across the road. The goose was clearly still alive and I'm not sure if the injuries were fatal or not but the goose plopped down in the middle of the road after making contact with the truck. I was headed in the other direction and contemplated for about 10 seconds what to do.

I had my boys with me and tried to figure out how badly an injured goose could attack me. I decided on pretty bad. So I said a quick prayer and then kept driving on toward Target.

Which leads me to the second story to tell or not tell. I guess I'll tell. I've been *training* the boys on how to walk with me in the store. Obey. Not touch a million things on the lowest shelves. Not run ahead- too far. And not to plow into other shoppers. We had a go at it last week that ended in 100% pure disaster. I decided to get back on the proverbial horse again today. It was successful.

But while we were shopping a dad with a young boy in the cart *pulled up* next to us in the middle of the wide aisle and said, "Hey, where's that kid's mother?" I looked around. I didn't know what he meant. So he said it again, but a bit sassier and more judgemental tone, like some irresponsible mom was letting her kid run wild through Target. "That kid? Where's his mom?" Then it dawned on me. He was talking about Quinn who was about 6 steps ahead of us. I looked at the guy and simply said, "Oh, that's me!" I was put off for a moment thinking he was judging some mom and then I realized in reality he was judging me! Ha. But of course he wouldn't know I was his mom. The kid is Chinese after all. And, um, I'm not. But for the first time I got sad. A lifetime of questions for my sweet love. Lord, protect him from ignorant people who will shuffle in and out of his life. The guy kept walking without any kind of apology or acknowledgement of his blunder. Duh, guy, he's adopted!

Then there was that other thing that happened at Target. The thing that happens when you run into another acquaintance while shopping - and you realize the total crap you are about to purchase and you are now exposed! I had 2 bottles of apple juice, 3 bags of Goldfish, Dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets, a box of Luna Bars for breakfast, 4 clearance boxes of Chewy Sweet Tarts and 3 boxes of fruit snacks. (Food Pyramid at its finest!)

Hey, I've never claimed to be a health food freak. But I totally felt like I got caught with my pants down in the middle of Target. Especially since this lady is *especially* healthy and an all-natural kind of person. I had exactly NOTHING in my cart that she would have approved of. *blush*. Oh well, at least at that point my boys were not flinging things off the end caps or pinching each other or yelling "STOP IT" at the top of their lungs.

So those are the stories I couldn't decide on. And because of my indecisiveness... you get them all. Have a great weekend- and watch out for the goose poop, dumb dads and healthy friends.

A simple stress test

Let me start by saying I am in DESPERATE need of a new camera! Steve is so tired of hearing me talk about what bad pics our camera takes. Its mostly due to the fact that it has such an incredible delay that with a house full of fast moving kids, we mostly get pictures of the backs of heads and missed moments. Today... we have halos. And I'm *pretty* sure this ain't no house of angels.

But I digress. Life has a funny way of providing a laboratory for the lessons you're learning in your head, doesn't it? There is a small group of ladies from my job (oh, that makes it sound so mandatory, when really these are ladies that I hold near and dear to my heart and are more than friends, they are truly sisters) that I meet with every other Wednesday. We call ourselves a *growth group* and we hope to be just that.
We talk about where we are trying to grow, personally. We talk about things God is teaching us and where we need to grow as moms. I've learned a ton from these girls and I feel 100% safe to share anything going on in my life. I also trust that they will give me honest and loving feedback. Today I shared some struggles I'm having in my stress levels as a mom. We got down to some core issues and I found that I need to let go of some expectations of my life. Mainly the "me times" of my day. You know... nap time is *me time* etc. It was good stuff and although I won't go into all the details here, I feel like I have some steps to move forward in personal growth in this area.

Then I got home and life hit. The rubber met the road and I got to see if I was going to make some strides in letting go of my expectations for my day. Because poor Quinn woke up with a fever and looked pretty miserable (see the first picture and tell me if you agree!) He then proceeded to lay on me for 2 1/2 hours. An hour and a half later Olivia came down with a headache, a tummy ache (which I would have sworn she was making up in order to compete for attention with her brother) except for the fact that she had a fever as well. She also fell asleep on me as we were praying at bed time. Sweet girl.
My day didn't go quite as I expected. Me time was few and far between. And on this rare occasion, I was fine with it. I'm not attributing this to miraculous growth, but it is good to talk about and expose expectations that as a parent of three kids 4 and under might be unrealistic at this season.

Plus, how can you get stressed out when your kid is THIS cute??

I live it... yet I paid to see it.

The circus that is. The Shriner's Circus came to town and a bunch of our co-workers and the 5 of us went to see it. It's been years (like nearly 30) since I've been to the circus. When I was 7 or 8 I was actually IN the Ringling Bros. & Barnum Bailey Circus. They picked a handful of kids to ride on a *float* and although I spent most of my childhood hiding behind my mother's skirt, somehow I managed to dig deep and get the guts to do it. It's one of those lingering childhood memories that *sometimes* comes up in those ice breaker kind of games where people have to guess which one you did. "I was in the circus when I was 7." That and "I've never broken a bone." Fascinating, I know.

Well, let's just say that the Shriner's Circus is Ringling's ugly little stepsister. (Bless it's heart.)
Now I'm no Animal Rights activist, but let's just say I felt a little *dirty* after watching the Siberian Tiger act.

Olivia's friend, Ava, seems in utter amazement. Olivia, notsomuch. Those hands on the hips tells it all. And SURELY she didn't get that pose from me!
As for the boys, they mostly spent the show riveted. Quinn clapped and danced at all of the appropriate places. There was even a short dog act that was performed to several Madonna songs and he did an interesting interpretive dance to Vogue (which seemed all too appropriate after this week's episode of Glee. Pleeease tell me you saw it!)

Turner? He spent a large part of our time at the circus asking for glow in the dark toys that they try and convince today's youth they need.

Funny, I'm pretty sure they were selling those toys 30 years ago.

And when they weren't pushing glow in the dark weapons of death, they were pushing Spidermen on a stick. My poor, deprived children went home with out riding an elephant, or anything that glows in the dark or dangles from a stick.

But they did get to see some high jumping dogs, some pathetically caged animals and some oooollllldddd clowns.

Now, that's privilege at its finest, if you ask me!

PS. YES, that is a Mommytime Design dress that O has on in the previous post. Our dear friend, and my hair stylist, Aimee, bought that for her. Isn't that the cutest dress ever?! Too bad she didn't get to wear THAT in the fashion show!

Girls just wanna have fun

It was a busy day for us girls yesterday. It started out with a quick trip to the Y. From there, Olivia and I hurried over to a local banquet hall where we were going to be models in a fundraiser fashion show for the Dayton Panhellenic Association. Because you see, once upon a time, I used to be a sorority girl. Yep, I was an Alpha Phi... the ivy vine of friendship and all that jazz.

A couple of years ago I found out that our neighbor two doors down was also an Alpha Phi (at a different university and *several* years before me.) She has been pestering (I mean inviting) me to alumni events for years and I finally ran out of excuses. So when she asked O and I to model, I said yes. Mostly because I knew Olivia would L.O.V.E. it.
Well, unfortunately, we had to select our outfits from a department store that I would not normally shop from. On top of it, we were not allowed to choose any outfit that was marked down. And don't you know that the weekend we went to pick out outfits they were having a great sale. Good for you, not for us.

So let's just say that I would not normally wear that dress nor those shoes. But what could I do? Yeah, it was pretty much an old lady fashion show. Oh well.
After the fashion show, we were off to the mall for a Build-A-Bear birthday party. So far we have managed to keep Build-A-Bear a secret from our kids. Now the (expensive) cat is out of the bag. The bears themselves aren't so expensive, its more all of the ten thousand accessories you can pick up along the way that add up.

But for a birthday part, it is a fabulous idea! the girls had a blast and ended up all making the same bunny, dressing it in the same outfit and even naming it the same thing, Flower Bunny. Now that is some Montessori creativity at its finest!

Then it was off to the food court for cake and ice cream. Raine's mom had brought a cooler with ice cream and Capri Sun's along with a cake from my favorite bakery in town.

YES!

I mean, Olivia really enjoyed it.

I didn't know I would enjoy all the things that come along with having an older kid. But big kid birthday parties are super fun (especially when they are at the mall and you don't have to be there and you get to go grab a Starbucks and sit on a sofa and go to the Gap.... I'm just sayin'.)

It was such a fun and busy day, all that was left for a little girl to do was snuggle up and with Flower Bunny and crash!

Now, I've got to run because we're off to the circus. For real. More on that later...

Time for the rest of the story

Every Friday over at Kelly's Korner she has something called "Show us your life" and this week the topic is how you met your husband. I've never participated, but this week I thought I would since I've never posted about meeting Steve. And it's a fun story (if I do say so myself.)

Fall of 1999 I found myself moving half way across the world to Shanghai, China. That's a whole other long and fun story that I really should post sometime. But I digress... I was moving from New York City where I had spent three fabulous years living the good life, in Manhattan and generally loving life. My first year in China was rocky. It was hard to adjust to the culture, the language and being back in school (I found myself as a foreign student there studying the language.) Because of my rocky first year, I thought I'd stay for a second now that I was relatively adjusted and might have a shot at enjoying it. Lucky for me I stayed, because word on the street was that there was a cute single new guy joining us. And after a year in a foreign country, fresh meat was good news! (This picture was my best group of friends over there that year. Steve is the guy on the far left in the red -tucked in shirt- and I am in the middle with the black hoodie doing the sorority pose.)

Steve entered the picture my second year and quickly became a fast friend. As it turned out we had TONS in common. We had even grown up in the same town. His family moved away in 7th grade, but we had several friends in common. I had even taken one of his best buddies growing up to a dance my junior year of high school. My college roommate's mom and his aunt were sorority sisters and stay in touch to this day. Our dads had grown up in the same polish neighborhood in Toledo. After a bit of research, we found that we are NOT related. (whew.)
But I had made it a policy to not get all crazy about a guy unless he asked me out. I was 28 years old and had learned the hard way not to get all crushed out, only to have them like your roommate- youknowwhatimean!

Good thing too, 'cuz he never asked me out. I ended my second year and was asked to stay a third year. It was a hard decision, I was ready to go back to NYC, but in the end I decided to stay in China for a third year. Over that summer while I was home, I started to date a guy. Little did I know that as we took that photo above, Steve was getting ready to ask me out. But right after that picture, my friend Lisa said to him, "Hey Steve did you hear? E's DATING!" From what Steve's told me, his heart sank and he asked me how the dating thing was going. According to him I was beaming and excited (hey, what can I say, I hadn't dated anyone in about 8 years at that point.) So, after 2 months in the States we all got on a plane and headed back to China. My long distance relationship with that other guy only lasted another month or so when we got back. It was October 1st, 2001 (Liberation Day in China) that I told my friends I had broken up with the guy back in the States. Steve later told me it was HIS liberation day too. Although it took him another month and a half to finally get the guts to ask me out.
My parents had come to visit me over the Thanksgiving day week so I was already having a great week. And right before they were getting ready to go back home, my phone rang. It was Steve "checking in" on how my time with my folks was going. Of course I thought it was so sweet of him to call and check in. After about 5 minutes of me going on and on about something stupid I'm sure, he finally just said, "OK. Why I really called is... do you want to have dinner with me?"

Speechless. Ummm... hello?! YES I'll have dinner with you! I had only been hoping for this for a year and a half. I had gotten rid of that other guy because I kept secretly comparing him to Steve the whole time. Even if he had never asked me out or asked me to marry him, Steve is the kind of guy that sets the bar high for all guys out there. He is a man of God, full of integrity, handsome, funny, smart, a good question asker, a good listener and has finally learned to NOT tuck his t shirts into his shorts!

We went out at the end of November and he left China at the end of January. We had a long (and I mean L.O.N.G. distance relationship) until I came home in July. Then we were only 2 hours apart. We saw each other every weekend. We got engaged on December 23rd, 2002 and we got married May 3, 2003 (a month away from my 31st birthday). Nearly 7 years ago.

God took me half way around the world to meet the love of my life who had grown up 10 minutes away from me as a child. Ridiculous I tell you.
And that is my real life fairytale!

it still suprises us

Last night, Steve and I were plopped down in front of American Idol (for an excessive 2 1/2 hours I might add) for the night they call Idol Gives Back.

Three years ago (I think) was the first time they did it. They pulled out all the stops back then and boy was I moved. All of the scenes of starving/dying/impoverished/adorable kids and orphans in this country and around the world. I cried and I donated. It was a wee bit less intriguing to me last night. But I was still moved by the photos and the help that just a few dollars can be to someone who has nothing. I cried again.

Then at one point, Steve looked at me and said, "Can you believe we adopted a kid?"

It's funny. Most days we just roll through life around here and I don't even stop to consider what has happened. What God's done. What we've done. What we've accomplished. Not in some noble way. Because trust me, we are NOT noble. But this little kid, born with a cleft lip and apparently a propensity toward bad hair, became ours and turned into this...
a happy go lucky kid (with the continued propensity toward bad hair.)

And we are the ones who are blessed.

It's just funny that 3 years ago when we were watching faces of needy children and I felt compelled to open my wallet, I didn't know that a few mere years later we'd be opening our home, not just our wallets.

Quinn has now been home nearly 9 months, but according to him, he's always been here! We are the ones still making the adjustment. What a turn of events.

If you are at all contemplating adoption, I'll tell you what... you will not regret it. I hope we never get tired of turning to each other and stating in amazement, "Can you believe we did it?!" Yeah, that's cool.

Goin' with the flow

Yesterday Steve called to let me know that we would be having a showing of the house this afternoon. NOT good news for several reasons. One being that the house was a pit and because of several things going on yesterday it was going to be a real effort/time crunch to get it in order for people to walk through. But whatever. The bigger reason it was not good news was that there was a big 'ole play date scheduled during that time at our house. I did not dare disappoint 3 super excited pre-schoolers.

We were able (and by we I mean Steve) to arrange with the realtor to have the people out by the time we got home. AND we were able (and by we I mean me) to pull the house together to be in mostly *show ready* state.
HOWEVER, this morning as I got in my car after working out, I found out the people had cancelled the showing and now want it tomorrow. Then a call back from Steve 20 minutes later saying they now want it Thursday.

Dear people who apparently hate me and want to see me in an early grave,
Please keep your commitments. I broke my neck cleaning this house for you, the least you could do is show up. The most you could do is buy it. Please buy it so that I can then move on and work through the evil thoughts I've had about you.
M'kay thanks,
Elizabeth

As for the play date? Huge success. No cat fights. No whining. No crying. And the girls did pretty well too. The brothers even got in on the action and the girls didn't mind (too much.) I even had a moment to sit by myself and eat lunch as all 5 kids ran laps around our upstairs. There was yelling, laughing and slamming of doors. And I didn't get up once to correct them.

Until this happened. I'm not sure if you can tell but that would be a pastel shade of pink Tinkerbell lip gloss applied to my *show ready* stair case. Thankyouverymuch, Turner.

Well, here's to keeping the dust bunnies to a minimum and the lip gloss in it's tube until Thursday.
Friday? We're back to slobs r us.