Just Make Stuff

What time is it???

The combination of...

1) a child off of school today

2) who just got a new watch at Target this weekend and is learning to tell time

3) and knows that a bunch of our neighbors are coming over to our house for a Halloweeen party at 5:30pm before we all go trick-or-treating

is driving me nuts! :)

I probably only have a little while longer before he starts in on needing to get his costume on...but thank the Lord the garage door just opened and Sean is home from work...all time questions can now be directed to him. :)

Happy Halloween!

One of my favorite days of the year...

LOVE today...why, you ask?  Well, that's because today is a 25 hour day...and how can you not love that?  You feel a little more rested and ahead of the game since all day, as you discover another clock around the house or see the sun shining in the sky, you realize you have one more hour.  Don't know why it makes me so happy, but it does every single year.

Nothing much exciting going around around here, but I got to admit I love that too.  Sean grabbed the camera last night as we were spending some quality time clearing out three episodes of Desperate Housewives that we hadn't watched yet from our DVR box...he though Shamrock was little too cute curled up on my chest. 

I also caught up on an Oprah episode from this last week.  The one with Leonardo DiCaprio speaking about global warming.  It really struck me, how wasteful we Americans can be without even thinking about it. 

We already recycle in our house, but I will be honest and admit when we first moved in and had to separate things into two different trashcans for waste management to pick up I was kind of annoyed.  Now it's just a habit...the trash can for trash is out in the kitchen the one for recycling is stored under the kitchen sink and goes into the green trash bin every week.

Then there's electricity...I had NO idea that electricity use in the home contributes so much to the global warming problem.  I am so guilty about leaving way too many light on...especially since we have several around the house on timers that are on whether we're home or not.  I have always hated the light that fluorescent bulbs put out so I adamantly refuse when Sean suggests we get them.  After hearing the difference it would make is every home in this country would replace just 5 of their most used light bulbs with a fluorescent bulb, I'll do it. 

The other thing was leaving appliances around the house plugged in when they're not in use...my hairdryer, the camera battery charger, a couple of stereos we rarely turn on, the blender, the pencil sharpener...all could be unplugged.  It's not much, but it's what I can do today. 

The last thing was signing up on Virtual March...a website developed to let politicians & the powers that be know that we want to see a change in this country...I did that last night right after I watched the show.  You can sign up too.

On the show Leonardo DiCaprio commented on the stigma associated with being an environmentalist...kidding around that they're not all Birkenstock wearing hippies...it's just someone who cares about the environment and is doing what they can to help. 

I want to do what I can and am hoping that everyone reading this will just find a couple of things you can unplug around the house and will put fluorescent bulbs on the next shopping list for Target.

After all, we do have an extra hour today. :)

Note to self...

Do NOT go to the pumpkin patch a few days before Halloween next year.  Granted when you go in September it might still be 90 degrees out, but if you wait till this late all the cute little pumpkins will be long gone...the corn in the corn maze will be so dead that there's no point--you can see your way through the darn thing...and, most importantly, there will be WAY too many people there...mostly little girls in various brownie troops running amok...like serious crazy, psycho-ness all through the patch.

We managed to get a few photos...granted we took 107, but a handful made me happy.  This particular one was by McIntosh Photography...if it came with sound effects you'd hear his wicked little giggle and my digital rebel shutter clicking in rapid succession.  I so have to scrapbook this because he does it every time we hand him the camera to get a picture of us...he is WAY too entertained by how fast the camera can click, click, click away. :)

Here's a few photos...sorry if some are sideways...I'm too lazy to go back and fix them now...

Oh, and apparently the large pumpkin we way overpaid for will have a haunted house motif carved into it this weekend...Sean has always said his best artistic medium is pumpkin.

Tidbits from today...

...I used to have this architectural sconce kind of a thing from Target hanging over the stove but it fell off the shelf and broke the other day so I made a collage to hang there...and put museum putty on the back so it wouldn't fall

...do you see my shiny new hood?...we've had it for a couple weeks now...best thing ever!  Still a little too excited about it :)

...earned my 10% goal key-chain at Weight Watchers yesterday...that means 18 pounds lost with WW and 25 pounds lost total...and I'm so close to fitting into size 12 jeans I can taste it

...speaking of taste we'll be having the pot roast that sitting in the crock pot making the house smell tortuously good along with mashed potatoes I made earlier and just need to re-heat when we get back from the...

...pumpkin patch, we have a great one by our house that we haven't gone to yet this year so today's the day.  I LOVE taking pictures there so I cannot wait!

...other than that I have a TON of reading to do for my class that I'm totally procrastinating on, we have a lot of cooking to do since I'm hosting the sorority sleepover again tomorrow night, and we're buying plane tickets to go up to Oregon in December

Just a lot of randomness today...

Off to the pumpkin patch! :)

Saying little prayers...

This little green envelope holds fourteen little photos of Mac and my mom.  I quickly made it last night and brought it over to my mom's house with a couple suitcases she asked to borrow.

Mom's on a plane to Chicago right now.  She going with a couple good family friends to see various family members.  We're all from Chicago and even though she's lived here in California for 28 years she still is a Midwesterner at heart.  I'm really excited for her getting to take a trip and I'm saying lots of little prayers since her anxiety disorder makes flying really hard on her.  The take-offs and landings she's fine...actually she used to fly planes herself when I was a little girl...soloed and everything.  It's the in between time that she can't handle.  Anxiety has kept her from flying for years...well that and the fact that she was raising three kids as a single mom and didn't get a chance to go many places. 

So I made her a little happy envelope to flip though, Mac & I wrote little notes to her on the back...I told her not to open it until she really needed it and then it should keep her busy for awhile because she can share the photos with her friends and talk about Mac...her VERY favorite subject. :)

I'm really proud of her for not letting her fears keep her from taking this trip...I know she'll have a great time...and, as of right now, that she only has about two & a half hours left up in the air...as I told her a hundred times last night, she'll be fine.

Boo!

Finally decorated the front porch for Halloween yesterday afternoon. 

Pumpkin lights hanging on the picket fence.  Green/purple/orange stands criss-crossed over the front windows and draped in the little ficus trees and planters.  Orange icicles hanging over the doorway.  Purple and orange light-bulbs in the porch light.  Light-up pumpkins, and a bunch of little Halloween garden stakes scattered in our ivy boxes. 

That should about do it, right? :) 

One of my very favorite things to do each year is to sit on this porch, drink lots of hot apple cider, and hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. 

Can't wait...

This little boy...

Mac has been having a rough time in third grade.  He's working hard, but really struggling to understand all the concepts being introduced to him this year. 

His RSP teacher, Mrs. Leigh, is an angel...always coming up with the next idea to help him learn better.  She loves him so much that her eyes filled with tears as she saw me try to control a sob when we met this past Friday afternoon.

I'm an open book kind of girl...I say it like it is...I'll come on here and say I weigh 190 pounds or that Sean has no sperm...vague statements are not who I am.  So, with that in mind, Mac was tested last year and again this year and his IQ falls between 65-73...otherwise known as "extremely low" and the 1st percentile in regards to other children his age. 

We had a meeting to discuss this year's results and, along with Mrs. Leigh, the principal, and school psychologist, gently discussed the fact that Mac needs more support than he can get at Chapman Hills.

I held back the tears in my eyes for as long as I could, but when I finally spoke and said that this was the only school he'd ever known....that he had started there in a preschool program when he was just three years old...I couldn't even get out the words without a hugely emotional sob.  I apologized & explained that I'm usually a capable person then preceded to walk directly out of the meeting to cry my eyes out in the faculty restroom for a few minutes in hopes that I could finish the rest of the meeting with some composure.

Bluntly said I have an enigma of a child...he's almost cursed by being just smart enough to know that he's not smart enough...I know that's horrible to say.  At age nine there's still some innocence from not discovering who he is in relation to the world.  All I want is to raise him to be happy and successful...the goal of most any mom.  It's just that I don't know how to reach that goal in relation to him.  I'm so scared of the balance...just trying to figure out where he falls.  Not pushing too hard on things he's not capable of yet not assuming that's he's not capable...if that makes any sense.

I just want to do right by this precious soul that I love more than life itself and I'm silently heartbroken by his struggles.

He's going to stay at Chapman Hills for the remainder of the year with specialized curriculum to really help him gain the educational foundation he's still struggling to build.  It'll be towards the end of the year when we'll have to start talking up the fact that he'll be going to a new school next year and hope to God that he takes the news well.  In the meantime Sean, Bryce and I will be secretly going to visit various Special Day Classrooms around the district trying to find the very best one for him. 

Thinking about it, if I were to wave a magic wand over him I wouldn't give him one more IQ point...what I want him to have is a life that is full of opportunities...I want to him to make good decisions...to be true to who he is and have goals of who he wants to be. 

This little boy has already overcome a lot of odds with a smile on his face...I guess that rough road hasn't come to an end quite yet...I just hope I can always be the love and support he needs to keep that smile.

Four Eyes...

          

When I had my eyes checked a couple weeks ago I found out that this was the year that our insurance would cover a new pair of glasses.  So I got the good, yet kind of crazy, idea to get two new pairs of glasses.  After all, I love accessories...I have countless pairs of earrings and too many dozen purses...why then do I limit myself to one pair of glasses day after day? :) 

After checking out countless new frames I decided on black, slightly rectangular ones that are pretty similar to my old glasses...just a new color and shape.  Then, I picked some funkier frames that are a little cat's eye shaped, thicker on top and the same color as my eyes and hair...which I never really realized are actually pretty much the same color.

I snapped a couple photos in the bathroom mirror and had to crop out the just-out-of-bed hair I'm sporting this morning, so they're not the best ever, but they give you an idea. 

Problem is, my prescription has really changed this past year so both pairs of glasses have been giving me monster headaches that I've been dealing with the last few days until I get used to them...I've been trying to suffer through over a weekend that we haven't had too much planned that way, hopefully, my eyes and head will start feeling better as I get busy this week... 

Vegas was Suite...

First of all, sorry it has taken me a few days to update our trip...a couple things came up when we got home and I've been dealing with them & will share them soon...

With that said, Vegas was GREAT.  We got into town around midnight on Tuesday/Wednesday and were upgraded to a huge suite since they had nothing else...that was after a slight altercation with the man behind the counter over if the suite was smoking or non-smoking...it went something like this..."Look, honey, this is Vegas and non-smoking is just a request here"...then I preceded to let him know, "I don't appreciate being called honey...I'm a big girl I can take the news"...you could just hear the guy think to himself, "Oh, she's one of THOSE women"...and damn-straight I am! :)

Anyways the suite was smoke-free and huge...it had a jacuzzi tub we managed to get in three times in the one day we were there. :)

We stayed up till about 3am both nights, gambled about $30 on nickle slots, and spent three times that much at local scrapbook stores. 

We took Sean's parents to dinner at Lawry's and Sean's dad got us tickets to see Anthony Cools at the Paris Hotel.  He has an adult-themed hypnotist comedy show and let me just say Sean now knows the true meaning behind, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas".  That is unless you have a big blabbermouth wife that's way too excited to share the fact that her husband was up on stage hypnotized and was beyond hysterical!  Sean's mom did it too and between the two of them I just about died laughing...mind you this was and ADULT-THEMED show so it was pretty good and raunchy and might I say again hysterical...totally made the trip. 

Oh, and what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas...until you buy the DVD of the show to bring home with you :)

I hate packing...

Just HATE it...I'm the everything but the kitchen sink girl...you know 12 outfits for two days just in case? :)  I long to be the effortless traveler that has it down to a science and never worries if she might need six different pairs of shoes, but I'm not.

Since packing is all the evil in the world I decided to procrastinate for a few minutes on-line but I have to go do it now.  We leave for Vegas in less than two hours and I have an empty suitcase sitting on my bed.

Sean's mom has a conference there this week and his Dad is flying in tonight.  Sean and I are gallivanting to sin city for all of about forty hours.  We leave tonight after Bryce picks Mac up and we'll drive home on Thursday in time to pick Mac up from school.  In fact Mac kind of doesn't even know we're going...trying to avoid the inevitable whining we'd hear...I'm a bad mom, huh? :)

Off to pack...

Och Tamale...

I snapped this photo of the chapel while I stood on the quad during the fair and parade before the football game started.

We spent Saturday out in Redlands to take part in several homecoming traditions at the University of Redlands.  Sean had his annual alumni basketball game and 3-point contest...which I am ever so proud to brag that he won. :)  I had an alumni luncheon for the sorority and we briefly stopped by the parties at our sorority and fraternity houses catching up with old friends.

We hit the school bookstore and stocked up.  Sean's school encourages teachers to wear something from the college they went to each Thursday so he picked up a couple new t-shirts...one says, "What happens at the UofR stays at the UofR"...couldn't resist that one.  I got the "University of Redlands Girls Rock" t-shirt...couldn't resist that one either.  Mac got a UofR Bulldogs sweatshirt and even one day Baby Griffin got some UofR duds. :) 

In the late afternoon the school decided to hold a "fair" out on the quad.  Mac got his face painted, played various games and watched the parade.  He got to practice saying the Och Tamale which is a tradition at the UofR...one of the students in the class of 1920 wrote it and it's recited everytime there's a touchdown at a football game.  It's like the secret every student that's gone to Redlands knows...if you meet a fellow alum and say, "Och Tamale" they know exactly what you're talking about it...

Och Tamale
Gazolly Gazump
Deyump Deyatty Yahoo
Ink Damink
Deyatty Gazink
Deyump Deray Yahoo
Wing Wang
Tricky Trackey
Poo Foo
Joozy Woozy
Skizzle Wazzle
Wang Tang,
Orky Porky Dominorky
Redlands!
Rah, Rah, Redlands!

We got to chant it several times that night after the various touchdowns Redlands scored to win the homecoming game.  All in all it was a perfect day back at the good old UofR. :)

Here it is...

I finally sat down this morning and scanned the entire scrapbook I did for the adoption agency.  I also included our birth mom letter...

------------------------------->

The album is listed on the sidebar.

My Disclaimer: It's not my best work ever, I struggled here and there to come up with ideas for fitting so many photos and having to write so much.  Some pages I love...a bunch of the others are pretty mediocre.

I kept reminding myself of my audience and the fact that most of the women sitting down with this book aren't going to be the expert scrapbookers that so many of my friends are...which is why it's kind of intimating to share this with you guys.  Thanks for looking...

I'm getting old...

I posted an entry titled "4007" yesterday afternoon, only my computer froze up so I lost it...hate when that happens.

4007 was my group number yesterday morning as I served jury duty and thankfully it was one of the three numbers called when they were releasing groups they didn't need at 11:30am. 

That was right about the time I had finished writing a rough draft for a paper due on Monday and had settled in with a short story I have to have read for next week...oh and I was completely nodding off.  Remember that feeling back in high school?  When you put slowly sunk your head down on the desk but kept saying to yourself, "I'm not going to fall asleep...I just need to rest my head"...that could have been considered a summary of my high school career which I'm sure you could imagine was stellar.

The reason I was nodding off was I had gotten home just before 2am the night before.  I was lucky enough to meet up with Lisa Damrosch and Moriah Bettencourt on their Disneyland vacation.

I met Lisa and Moriah briefly last spring on the last night of CKU Anaheim.  I felt an immediate kindred connection to them since they would freely incorporate expletives into the conversation. :)  We've kept in touch through our blogs and made plans for a trip to Scrapbook Oasis when they were here this week.

After raiding the store we came back to the hotel & we closed out the bar at the The Grand Californian where they were staying.  Granted the three of us just had hot cocoa, but we were loud and laughing until 1:30am.  It was too much fun.

So, when I had to be up at 5:45am to get ready for Jury Duty I was kind of hating life.  That's why when they announced group 4007 to be released I was thrilled.  I came home, ate a little lunch, tried to type an entry on here, had it freeze up, just walked away from the computer and took a nap...but then when I woke up from the nap I felt even worse...and that is because I am obviously too old now and one night lacking sleep makes me feel like crap for the rest of the day. 

Makes me worry for when there is a little hungry bundle of joy making me lack sleep every night. :)

Getting Stuff Done...

Up late getting some things organized and trying not to think about the endless amount of things to do.

Have had a productive few days.  Lots of cooking which seems to be my new favorite thing...actually it isn't a new favorite it's an old favorite, but something I hadn't been doing often.  It feels good to have homemade dinners and even better to be trying out new recipes instead of counting on the old standbys.  Tonight Mac devoured Butternut Squash, Apple and Bacon Soup...he and Sean loved it...I wasn't crazy about it.  I'd never had butternut squash before and I wasn't crazy about the taste & texture of it...but at least I tried something new.

Speaking of new...tonight's dinner was the first one I cooked under our spiffy new hood that was finally installed this afternoon.  It was worth the wait...bright halogen lights over the cook-top and fans sucking away most of the heat...it's the best thing ever.

The other project we got done around the house is Sean painted the back wall of the bookcases in our family room and we rearranged all the shelves.  Lots of work, but happy to have some change.  When I was growing up I always got an itch to rearrange my room every few months and now I get a whole house to play with. :)  It's never fun in the middle of the project when you run out of ideas, but it's always worth it when you pull through to the end.  I need to grab the camera tomorrow and snap a photo of them since I can actually compare a before and after on this project.  The frame is actually something I made to hang up in the bookcases.  It was a little mirror that wasn't going to work well in it's new home so I covered it with some scrapping supplies & a quote from Van Gogh..."The way to know life is to love many things".

Well, that's probably enough rambling for tonight.  Not my most exciting entry ever, huh? :)  I have class in the morning which will include a quiz on several essays we had to read so I better get some rest that way I won't forget everything when I get the pencil in my hand tomorrow.

Night...

I wish I had a little camera...

...that way I could just throw it in my purse and have been able to take a few photos of this weekend without having to bring a whole big camera along. 

On Friday Mac went off to Bryce's for the weekend and Sean and I decided to take the free afternoon we had to drive up to Oak Glen just to get a little feel of Fall.  We just wandered around for a few hours and then headed back down the hill with some fresh apples and apple cider. 

While we were up there we figured out what restaurant we'd had our first date at.  I asked Sean to my sorority's Fall informal and it was a hoe-down in Oak Glen.  It was in the parking lot that I first kissed him...yes, I'd had been waiting long enough for him to kiss me so I figured I'd get the job done. :)  If I had the camera I would have taken a photo of the restaurant.

On our way back towards home Sean's friend Dustin called and told he us, even though it was last minute, he ended up with tickets to the UCLA vs. Cal game at the Rose Bowl the next day.  We told him we'd meet up with him and his wife at the game.

If I had the little camera I could have taken photos of the mile long trek to get to the stadium from where we parked...all the while walking through what I coined, "Drunk Land".  See you can't drink in the stadium so the name of the game is get plastered before you get in.  It was something else.  Add a hefty dose of testosterone, a sold out game, and a big school rivalry and it was altogether horrifically loud, fairly obnoxious and the best people watching I've seen in awhile.  I'd never been to a big game like that before and if I ever go back I'll have to be drunk too just to deal with it. :)  It was something else to see the type of game I've watched so many times on TV right there in front of me, though, and it was a beautiful, cool night so no complaining there.

Today isn't really camera worthy...just hanging around in my pajamas working on some school stuff and needing to straighten up the house.  In a few hours I'm heading to the Container Store with a friend and then to an early dinner. 

Oh, and I should start looking for a little Canon Elph camera so I can be photo-ready for whatever fun and excitement comes our way...

All is well...

-his pillow

-new Hot Wheels slippers

-a towel & bucket in case he still has an upset stomach

-sipping a chocolate milkshake

-the Oriental Trading catalog that just came in the mail

-the new monkey visor Sean brought home from the Target dollar section when he went to pick up some pain meds

-watching Full House re-runs

All is well…sore, but well. :)

Thanks so much for all the thoughts and prayers.

...

Don't really have a title...don't really have anything to share but a few random thoughts...

...happy to say our birth mom letters and photo albums are officially in the hands of the agency and the waiting game has begun

...lost 2.2 pounds at Weight Watchers today

...bought some new stuff at Scrapbook Oasis

...behaved when I came home from the store and walked instead of scrapbooking with my new stuff tonight

...sat with Sean & watched the Angles beat the Yankees

...have three different projects to work on simultaneously for my class...of course I'm procrastinating on all of them right now

and most importantly

...thinking about Mac, he's at Bryce's house for the night...have to be up at the crack of dawn to meet them for his surgery tomorrow morning (his undecended testicle repair)...it's supposedly a simple procedure and an out patient surgery, but it's always worrisome to send your child into an operating room...any and all good thought and prayers are more than welcome...thanks

Well over 1,000,000 reasons...

Although Sean's not perfect...he comes pretty amazingly darn close. 

Take tonight for example...

-Does homework with Mac, as always

-Takes Mac to his musical theater class

-Cleaned the whole kitchen after dinner...would have cooked it too, but I decided I wanted to try a new recipe Mac and I saw Rachel Ray cook on a show over the weekend

-Called and left a message on my cell phone after I left the house (I had a another cooking class at Williams Sonoma...this time it was fondue) for him and Mac just to tell me that dinner was really good

-Ran to Kinko's again so he could make the last copies we needed for the adoption books to be complete

-Cut all the photocopies down to size to be placed in the albums

-Didn't blink too much when he saw the receipt from what I bought at Williams Sonoma (in my defense :)...they we're on sale & I got an additional 10% off from being in the class)

And most especially tonight...

-Grabbed his I-pod and a can of paint, even though it was after 9pm and he hasn't been getting much sleep lately, because he knows I really want the bathroom ceiling finished since it had to be re-textured after we had the new lights put in a couple weeks ago

He's just too good to be true sometimes...and thank goodness for that! :)

My "pregnancy"...

We went out to dinner last night with our neighbors...all the way to Hollywood to eat at a Moroccan restaurant for one of their birthday's.  Now, I'm a very picky eater...although I keep trying to get better about it...so Moroccan food had me pretty intimidated.  I tried all the different foods, didn't like too much of it, but the champagne they mixed with cassis...now that I liked...that I could have gotten all good and sloppy drunk on...but instead I had four glasses over the four hour, seven course dinner...and was pleasantly buzzed/ever so slightly kinda drunk. :)

What's my point?  Well, I'm getting there...

Macie, who's birthday we were celebrating wasn't drinking...I didn't ask but I knew she was, along with two other women on my block trying to get pregnant...all four of us have one child and are working on number two.  This morning she stopped to see if she could get a couple lemons off our tree and told me she is actually is two weeks pregnant...and that our neighbor down the block is eight weeks pregnant and nauseous all the time so that's why she didn't join us last night.

News like this would have sent me into a tailspin a few months ago.  Not a dramatic one, but it certainly would have made my heart pretty darn heavy for the rest of the day.  This morning I was fine...A-okay in fact.  My heart didn't skip a beat except out of excitement for my friends. 

After all I'm kinda "pregnant" too...granted I don't have a due date, but I also can drink champagne, sleep on my stomach forever, and lose weight over the impending months.  You gotta count your blessings, right?

Seriously, it felt good to not be the girl they worried about sharing their exciting news while Sean & I dealt with dismal infertility.  It just felt good to be happy.

...and I don't have to worry about any hormonal pregnancy-related mood swings to bring me down...oh, who am I kidding...I still manage to have more mood swings than any three pregnant women combined! :)