Ooops!

It just slipped out. We were talking to Kyle’s guitar instructor about Kyle being left-handed and the fact that neither David nor I are left-handed so the instructor asked where Kyle got “it” from and I said, “Well, I’m adopted so I don’t really know about my family history.” Kyle’s head turned like it was on a swivel. “You’re adopted?” he stammered. Uh, yeah. He stood there for a moment or two letting it sink in and then he was whisked away for his guitar lesson. And we haven’t talked about it since. Not exactly the “learning experience” I envisioned our adoption discussion to be.

Just last summer I had lunch with my brother (who is also adopted) and asked him how he had discussed being adopted with his own children (14 and 16) and he said that it wasn’t an actual discussion, more like a fact statement during some regular family discussion that led to a few questions and that was it. I mean it’s not like some big family secret or something – we’ve always known we were adopted, I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know. I had just hoped to have a more structured discussion about it – not a slip of the tongue in a music store!

Anyway, all that to say I plan to bring it up again with Kyle – let him ask questions if he wants and try to answer them honestly. What makes this all the more interesting is it came about at a time when I’ve been dealing with developments in my own adoption history. Things I’m not quite ready to talk about, but I’m getting there.

***

On another note – wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve updated my blog! Damn Facebook!

Can I just say...

If you substitute "Lori" for "Lois"...this is my L*I*F*E!!!!!

A spark into a flame

Hmmm...it came to me a couple hours ago and now the idea has blossomed into a plan of sorts. When my mom died she wanted to be cremated so I asked for some of the ashes - she loved to golf, I live in Augusta, Georgia...a golfing mecca. The "holy grail" of golf, if you will. So, I wanted some of the ashes to quietly spread the next time I'm at Augusta National (shhhh...don't tell, I don't think they would like that.) But then I had the spark of an idea. Why stop at just the National? Take some with me to Key West in November, some on our Disney Cruise in April, some when we go to Asheville, North Carolina next July (we plan trips a long time in advance...it gives me something to look forward to!) - are you getting the idea? Now I just need to go to the hobby store and get those little ziploc bags they have there so I'm ready to roll!

Are you ready for a little adventure mom?

25 things I love...

In no particular order:

1. A fresh pedicure
2. Coffee
3. The sausage breakfast burrito at Sonic
4. Good stationary
5. Merlot
6. BMW 325i
7. Chewy candy
8. Frank Lloyd Wright architecture
9. The beach
10. My job
11. Michael Buble
12. My son's artwork
13. Text messaging
14. Facebook
15. Kate Spade handbags
16. Pigs in a blanket
17. Italy
18. John Steinbeck novels
19. Food TV
20. Keeping my car clean
21. My annual vacation with just the girls
22. Aquariums
23. Toasty bagels with cream cheese
24. Roller skating
25. Spicy perfumes

Are any of your favorites on my list? What are some of yours?

Arlene

My mom died. July 9, 2009. My mom was a lot of things to a lot of people...daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother and friend, definitely a friend. She was Switzerland when it came to friendship! She loved everyone equally whether they loved each other or not! She had a lot of practice being a mediator - my dad and I have very strong personalities so she spent a lot of time running interference between the two of us - but never made either of us feel like we had lost the negotiations!

My mom was one of 10 kids who married an only child. She sometimes regretted marrying at 20, but stayed married for almost 59 years. She wanted me to see more and do more than she had done...and yet she had managed to do a lot in her life. She once went to Las Vegas at midnight in a convertible with my dad and some friends, just because. She took helicopter rides, rode skateboards, hung out on Padre Island at spring break and started drinking at 10:00 am in Mexico because I needed company!

She kept these journals...not a "Dear Diary" kind of thing but these general info journals that started in the 1960s. Interested in when I bought my first car or when they repainted the living room or I came home for a long visit when I lived in New York? It's in there. Wanna know what she paid for a new microwave in the 1980s? Check. My brother's minor in possession bust and college graduation are in there as well. A wealth of odd family information. These are the only things of hers that I truly wanted, there are probably a dozen of them. Seeing her handwriting, knowing she was thinking of her family as she wrote each entry...that's what's important to me. I've started reading them and laugh over some of the stuff that's in there that I had totally forgotten! Melissa...did you know I paid you $500 for the Datsun? I can even tell you what day it was!

I will miss her every day, but WOW she was an incredible woman and I was blessed to be her daughter! Love you Mom!

Unsure

I'm getting older. No particular news flash there since we are all getting older every day BUT I'm feeling my age more and more these days. It doesn't particularly help that all the other moms of Kyle's 8-year-old friends are just turning 30ish. And me? I'm 42. Things seem to take more effort and I find myself weighing the effort involved vs the outcome. Six Flags in July...not so much. Street festival? Maybe. See what I mean? I catch myself throwing a bit of a pity party now and again about my flagging energy in comparison to the other moms. How I don't particularly want to be out past 11:00 or deal with drama. I had older parents...they were in their mid-to-late 30s when I was born and there were good things and bad about that - we didn't really have money woes since my parents were well-established financially which allowed us the opportunity to travel and have some things other kids didn't have. But, my parents were tired. LOL...I just self - analyzed myself with that one...I'm becoming the parent I didn't really want to become!

So, as I sit here on 4th of July I'm really working up the energy to gather our stuff, head downtown, deal with traffic, find a parking spot, find a decent place to watch the fireworks (read "avoid rednecks") and then deal with the slow moving traffic jam after the finale. But hey, you're only young once!

Failed Experiment

We recently returned from a trip to Arkansas to visit David's parents. For reasons I really don't understand I decided at the last minute not to pack my usual arsenal of make-up and hair accessories. I just tossed a lipstick, an eyeliner and some mascara into my bag. I left the make-up, curling iron and blow dryer in their usual spaces and walked out of the bathroom. What was I thinking? I don't wear a lot of make-up, but what I do wear, I need. A quick swipe of mineral powder, bronzer and blusher, some eyeshadow, liner and mascara...all essential (it turns out) to my well-being. My hair is this semi-curly mass badly in need of a trim and THIS is the time I decide to leave it all behind? Again, what was I thinking. I did not feel like myself the whole time we were away. At first it was liberating...a couple quick scrunches of the hair and I was done BUT then I caught a glimpse of myself later in the mirror. Eeeeeek! As it turns out, I am a slave the the girly entrapments I thought I could do without! Never again, my friends. I am back to my former never-go-out-the-door-without-full-make-up-and-hair self!

Oh and as to the long hiatus from blogging? I think it can best be attributed to writer's block. I've never had that before and it was very frustrating. Nothing really seemed like the right thing to blog about - it all seemed too trivial for words. But it appears the block has lifted itself and "trivial" doesn't bother me anymore!

Impromptu

A long time ago I read an article in some family or woman's magazine about taking time to say "yes" to your kids. The article went a little further that I would want to (candy for breakfast?) but the idea has stuck with me. Obviously with two working parents we have to say "no" a lot - either out of exhaustion or frustration or, you know, just because. But this week it's just Kyle and I and today I decided we would (shhhhh!) skip church and have some fun! I didn't give Kyle the green light by saying I would say yes to everything he asked, but I decided I would be more open to possibilities of saying YES. It helps that it's 70+ degrees today. We started out with a great breakfast where Kyle helped me crack and cook some eggs. Then after getting ready for the day we headed to Barnes and Noble, which FYI is very quiet at 10:00 am on a Sunday! We spent a long, long, time reading books and magazines, playing with the train set and loafing in a multitude of chairs. Kyle finally decided on the first book in The Chronicles of Narnia, "The Magician's Nephew" a book I didn't even push him toward, but was thrilled with because I read the same book to Tony when he was 7! (Tony is now 19.) When we left the book store Kyle glanced across the street and said, "Can we go to PF Chang's for lunch?" YES we can. We shared kung pao chicken and pot stickers and a lot of good conversation. Our waiter was funny and engaging and couldn't get enough of Kyle's funny ways. Then it was into the mall for a shirt for school pictures on Tuesday then Kyle wanted to go to Putt Putt - okay, we're off!

This afternoon I'm going to be saying yes a lot more to things that are in and around our neighborhood and maybe close the day with a carpet picnic and a good movie. It's been nice saying yes and forgetting about towels that needed to be washed and floors that need a good vacuuming.

Oh and my newly found yes-ness led me to invite three of the boys back to our house for an hour after cub scouts. I found myself surrounded by four 7-8 year olds who kept saying dude this and dude that. Apparently this is their way of communicating.

YES - it's a good thing!

I'm ready to go back!

We had a marvelous time at Disney World - the trip was a complete surprise to Kyle and we were driving under the "Welcome to Disney World" sign before we told him what was going on! He was so excited and shouted, "Today I start living!" He's a little off the beam sometimes! My best friend Angela and her two lovely girls (Larissa, 12 and Zoe, 9) met us at Disney which was an added bonus for all of us!

We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge and had our coffee each morning with zebras, giraffes and the like right off our balcony. We did Animal Kingdom Park, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot - with extra time at Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. We also did a day at Sea World - which if I had to do it over again I would have put that at the beginning of the trip instead of at the end...it was a bit of a letdown after Disney!

Enjoy the photos!

When you wish upon a star...

We're off to Disney World tomorrow - be ready for lots and lots and lots of photos when we get back next week! Say a prayer for us! HUG!

The Good Word

My bible has been with me since early 2000. It was given to me by my friend Heather when I was slowly finding my way toward a life with Christ. I was afraid of it at first - treated it with almost too much reverence. I was so very careful with it that I...uh...kind of forgot to read it. Forgot to consult and rely on it. No longer! For the past six or seven years it has been used and abused - written in, written on, and tears have stained the pages. I have post-it flags on key passages (a lot of them in Psalms) I write dates on verses that particularly impact me and even write down what was going on in my life at a certain time. I slip notes with prayer requests for my friends between the pages and find myself reading it too long on some mornings that I put us all behind in the "getting ready" routine. Thank you Heather for giving me the best gift - as I often say, you followed me to Topeka to lead me to Christ!

Goodness!

I am way behind in my blogging. I've composed several posts in my head but something always seems to distract me...you know, things like Facebook, playing Nintendo, laundry, life! We leave on Jan. 21 for Disney and I hope to have a decent blog post up before then! Stay tuned!

Deja Vu

It was like a step back in time, "Funky Town" on the PA system, carpeted seating areas and a young girl in white skates with POM POMs tied to the laces! Yesterday I took Kyle roller skating and it was awesome! It really hasn't changed much since I was a kid, except now there are speed skates and roller blades mixed in with the quads. They still do the hokey pokey, the limbo, the chicken dance and speed races. The concession stand is filled with all the usuals - including the giant pickles I just love!

Kyle had been skating once over the summer on a camp field trip, but I had never taken him before so I was a bit doubtful about his promises of being a speed skater...well, as it turns out he is a speed skater - on the carpeted areas! I noticed right away that he was really skating, not just clomping around like a lot of the other kids so I was anxious to get him into the rink. I learned to walk, then I learned to skate. My dad was a competitive roller skater in his youth (though you wouldn't know it to see him now!) so my brother and I were on skates as toddlers - it was one of the few things that came easy to me. I took Kyle around the rink a few times and although he lost his footing a lot I could see it wasn't going to take much for him to "get it" - all it really took was a friend showing up who was a tiny bit better than Kyle and loved being on the rink - that was it...Mr. Competitive was on his way! I was thrilled!

Of course today we're both sore and Kyle took quite a tumble toward the end - even hitting his head, but he's ready to go again and for $6 for the two of us (including skates!) it's bargain exercise on a rainy post-Christmas weekend!

On another note - today Kyle made the long walk down the aisle at church to profess his faith and accept Jesus as his savior! During the service he had drawn a picture that said, "Thank you Jesus...for all you've done for us" Amen to that little man, Amen to that!

What Christmas is all about!

May you have a blessed Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Today, despite being...uh...in a mood, Kyle and I had a great time decorating a gingerbread house.  It was a bit of a sugar rush for all of us!

eBay

Man - you can't help but love eBay!  I got this great Land's End wool suit with Talbot Kids shirt and silk tie for...get this...$25!  That's right, wool suit, shirt and silk tie for $25!  Hurray!  Oh, and doesn't he look just awesome?  I'm so glad he still likes to dress up!

Gratitude

At the moment I'm just thankful to be feeling better. Honestly, I rarely get sick so it's always such a shock to me when I do. And of course like most moms, I run and run and run even when sick, which can make it worse since I'm not resting and getting annoyed with everyone! Anyway, the general ick of this cold is winding down...just in time to go back to work. Oh lucky me!

I was reading my post from last November, about our lack of tradition and I would like to say we did something different this year, but we didn't.  A lot of it had to do with me being sick and some it had to do with money since we're planning a trip to visit a certain mouse in Florida in January, but...well...I honestly couldn't think of anywhere to go or anything special to do.

But, reading that post made me realize that a lot has really happened over the last year, lots of good stuff that makes me happy and grateful.  I'm counting the days until the inauguration (which is a difficult word to spell) and I got to spend time with friends and family in some fun locations in the last year.  We are both employed, have all our bills paid, food in the house and gas in the cars.  We're still carpooling and nobody has been left along the side of the road (yet!) Much to be thankful for!

Oh, and my Twilight book arrives from Amazon tomorrow...now I'll see first-hand what all the fuss is about!

Interesting

Thanks to my friend Melissa, I got started on Facebook. What I should say is Melissa got me HOOKED on Facebook. I had avoided all the social networking sites because I just didn't think there would be anything on them for me...how wrong I was! I have reconnected with people I haven't spoken with since high school (and that's been 23 years ago!) and got back in touch with others who kind of slipped away over time. You can kind of keep up with their lives on a day to day basis and send little tid bits back and forth. Anyway, all that to say that I've been neglecting my blogging duties and my loyal readers sure let me know about it! Sorry about that...I'll get back to writing more this weekend.

In the meantime, feel free to add me as a friend in Facebook! LOL

Good times...

I spent the last week in Knoxville, Tennessee for work and although it was rough at times, it was a beautiful time of year to be in that area of the country!

Abundance

As I've said before, we tend to move a lot, whether it's job related or because I've grown bored and need to shake things up. This kind of moving tends to keep you from being a card-carrying, crazy-type pack rat (yes, Judy, I'm referring to you!) but that doesn't mean I'm without sentiment - I have scraps of paper, things from my youth, things from my parents' youth and other assorted memorabilia. Yesterday David motivated all of us to clean out the shed...the shed...the place where all that "memorabilia" is stored. Eeeek! Bugs and junk! Well, as it turns out it wasn't bad at all. We blessed Goodwill with a lot of stuff and threw out even more. But get this - in one box I found goody bags and assorted goody bag fillings from 12 YEARS AGO! That's right, from Tony's 7th birthday party. Tony is 19! In those goody bags? Hot Wheels fruit snacks! 12 year old fruit snacks! Really? I kept those? What? Now I'm mad I didn't take a picture of them! So, now you know, I am a bit of a pack rat!