Saturday, November 21, 2009

National Adoption Day, 2009

To our goofy little girl who has changed our lives forever,

God had a plan for us. He knew that you were our child before you even drew your first breath. He kept you safe with the doctors and nurses for the weekend until we heard that you were here. He helped us to jump through all the hoops to make you legally our child. What a great gift God gave to us. Thank you for being our wonderful little girl!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

National Adoption Day is a day to celebrate all adopted children finding their forever families! K-'s actual adoption day fell on her very first birthday, December 20, 2004. It was so neat that it fell on her birthday! What a great first birthday gift! :)

For information regarding domestic county adoption or foster parenting, please contact your local Children's Board of Services.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Amazon- You are irritating me!

Amazon.com,

On November 8, 2009, I ordered the Barbie Glam Vacation Home for my dear beloved daughter. This item wasn't in yet, as it was so new. You said to order it, get the free shipping and it was to be in your hot little handies on November 15, 2009. I received an e-mail stating that the shipping was delayed. The anticipated arrival time was slated to be December 24. THIS IS A CHRISTMAS GIFT! What's funny is that you still have it advertised for the $34.99 and free super saver shipping. Um, I'm thinking that isn't working for you. Oh, and the ship time you have listed is 4-7 days. LIE!

I decided to get into my account and nose around a bit. Lucky for me that I realize that the ship date on the PERFECT CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR MY DAUGHTER was moved, again. This time it has a red thing stating that it will NOT ARRIVE FOR CHRISTMAS! When is it slated to arrive? Try MID JANUARY! So. not. good.

Irritatedly so,

Amy at Bailey's Leaf

P.S. Feel free to contact me, as I couldn't figure out how to contact you.

Why am I irritated at Amazon.com? Because they had an advanced sale on the item. I suppose that it was my stupidity for purchasing something with the assumption that it would in fact arrive as scheduled. Why advance sale something when you don't actually have it?

Am I irritated at Mattel? Certainly! Why allow your retailers to advertise something coming when presumably you can't get the production right and it isn't capable of arriving for the biggest shopping holiday of the year?

So, I guess that I am in need of something for K- from my Black Friday shopping extravaganza with my sister. And to think, I thought I was done shopping with the exception of the MIL's crock pot.

ARGH!!!!!

Edited to add:
I just spoke to a lovely lady at Mattel to find the real scoop. She said that the release date has been pushed back to 2010. Ugh. I've officially canceled my order and in the window to tell them why, I did. Thanks for the false hope, Amazon!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

It begins in Kindergarten.

Sadly, a few of K-'s friends have been making fun of her for her speech. These are kids that she went to preschool with.

The one friend has seemed a little bossy. She's the one that we were invited to the roller skating party for. She gives instruction to K- all the time that K- has chosen to ignore. (We talked about it.) Z- told K- that she wasn't to write her last name on her paper, even though I told her that she was to write it on there. She's given her wrong instruction on other things too, but K- has chosen to be her own person and to do her own thing as her teacher has instructed. Thank goodness!

This is Kindergarten, though.

I was talking to Hubs about it this morning and he decided that we had to sit her down and have the talk. We're not talking the bir*ds and be*es, but the one of worth. We talked to her about how kids made fun of us. We talked to her about how everyone gets made fun of from time to time. We talked about how it isn't fun to be made fun of, but it isn't up to us to make fun of anyone.

Hubs told her as I've said before. She can talk to us about anything.

It breaks our hearts, though. She is in speech. She is really trying and her speech is getting much better. When the kids make fun of her and ask her if she's speaking Polish, it makes her sad. She knows that she has some speech difficulty, but I've told her that if the children ask her if she speaks Polish, to tell them what you were trying to say in a little bit different way. I've told her to use different words. This was how we worked it with us prior to speech therapy.

K- is a very likeable kid. I don't say that because she is my kid, but because of the interaction I see with her and the other children. She sees classmates getting out of their car, and they walk to class together. She prays for the kids that are absent. When they return, like D- did the other day, she is so relieved.

She has such a caring heart. I just don't want the other kids to break it. I know it breaks mine just to hear it.

Smiles in my day:
- K- talking to us about what bothers her.
- I slept better last night.
- Going to bed early tonight.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Works for My Friend Wednesday: A slip-free shower

My very good friend Cj has Multiple Sclerosis. She is famous for falling. In fact, she fell coming out of the shower a few years ago and broke her hand. Since then, she has been trying to come up with an idea to make her walk-in shower safe. Here's what she had to say:

After my lovely crash out of the shower, I've been trying to come up with a better solution than a shower mat. Problem with a mat is you have to lift it after each shower, then step out by way of the slippery floor.

This solution uses 3M Indoor/Outdoor Tread tape that you use on a deck or boat. I tried the cutsie sticky feet, but even after following the directions precisely AND waiting the 24 hrs., I ended up with a bunch of feet trying to go down the drain after the FIRST shower! This tread tape is absolutely doing the trick.

Thought you'd all benefit from my solution!


So if you or someone you know has a slippery shower problem, here's a great solution for you. Cj reports that there has been no lifting and the tape is pleasant on your feet. She credits the man in her life with having come up with the solution. Thanks, Cj and Guy!

Smiles in my day:
- A good day at work. I met with my boss regarding the tree decorating demo I'm to do on Sunday and she is thrilled with all of my suggestions. She is giving me free reign (hooray!) and allowing me to do the prep work from home while being paid for it.
- Going over the sight words tonight with K-. Boy, that girl is busting it through words left and right. Hooray for reading!
- It was RIF/PTA Book Giveaway Day today at school and K- loved her new Arthur book so much, that she had her grandmother read it to her twice and wanted me to read it for a third time!
- My brother is looking for a job.
- Hubs got his H1N1 shot yesterday, thanks to Leland for coming over from time to time to hang out at our home. Because he is in the baby age zone (not 6 months), both Hubs and I qualified. Sadly, Hubs' dad did not qualify for the shot because of age, regardless to the fact that his cardiologist wants him to have it. My MIL was not pleased, and I don't blame her. We're going to try to cycle my FIL through another H1N1 clinic with an rx in hand.
- The little neighbor girl found a hobby horse unicorn at the dollar store that looks like a miniature version of K-'s now famous Sparkle. Now both girls gallop to school and Michelle and I feel like we are running the mile there! E- has decided to name her hobby horse unicorn "Baby Sparkle." It is hilarious! Have I mentioned that people know us because of Sparkle? I mean, how many kids gallop to school?
- I swear that K- has grown a bajillion inches since last week. Her leggings are now floods and she seems to be a full head taller than her friend, E-. I laughed when K- got together with her classmate Z- this AM. She's towering over him, too!
- Having remembered to put the Festival Choir CD in my CD player in the truck. Practicing the songs as I drive puts me into a lovely mood.

Have a great week!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Tales from the Trenches: Behind

I'm behind on stuff from being sick one week, then rolling into a week long marathon to get the Christmas stuff up. The upside? The open house at work this weekend was a huge success! Compliments were given regarding the displays and whatnot. I had a nice atagirl from my boss. The downside? I had another closed door meeting with the boss and the floor manager due to the coworker who as mad at me because I inquired on things left unfilled, the counter strewn with items with unknown reason of abandonment and broken ornaments were found in many places. Apparently, he was a hair chaffed and I was just irritated because I came in to a festival of undone things and holes everywhere. I said that was fine, that next time I just won't say anything at all. My boss laughed and told me that she understands how I get in trouble because she does the exact same thing to people, doesn't mean to get people mad, is just trying to get things done and makes people unhappy. The meeting ended well, but I did boldly speak my mind and I'm glad that I can do that and not lose my job for it. My boss knows that I'm a hard worker and realizes that I pour my heart and soul into my job. She appreciates that. Still, I don't mean to offend people and I think that we are all just suffering from display/sales fatigue.

So, I sit here staring at a mountain of laundry. I need to fold it. I'm going to tackle it and at least fold it all into piles this evening. I'll put it away tomorrow. I haven't been this behind on laundry since, hmmm, let me think-- last year this time! I've broken my line dry rule and used the dryer to get pulled back up to my normal routine.

Must tend to laundry. I'm also crabby and not feeling so smilesy today. Pardon the lack of.

Smell my nose breath

My beloved little person crawled into bed with us early Sunday morning and asked me exactly that. "Mommy. Mommy? Um, smell my nose breath." "No thank you, baby." "No really, Mommy [insert her nose moving up toward my nose]. Smell my nose breath." "K-, really, I'm good. No thank you." "But mom, [insert breathing nose now basically touching my nose] smell my nose breath!" "K-, really. I'm good with NOT smelling your nose breath. Your nose breath could be gross and I really don't want to be smelling that right now." My then defeated little person decided that snuggling up was good enough. She opted to keep her nose breath to herself. I was thankful for that.

It was a tough parental weekend. You know those days when you would like to sit at the table and repeatedly bang your head against it for knowing that at least that way you would actually be accomplishing something?

We had the battle of the wills this weekend. Since I can't be put in time out, I would say that I won.

K-'s crabbiness started when she left school on Friday. She was hungry and I had snacks for her to have. We picked my aunt up and took her to Super Wal. My aunt is sight impaired and has mobility issues, so going to the store is not something she gets to do that often. When we got to the Wal, no motorized carts were available at the door we went to. I had to go down to the other door and fetch a motorized cart.

Folks, I had never operated one of those things in my life. I now know why my grandmother runs into everything. Sheesh.

So, K- and I were able to make it back down to my aunt and we went off and on our way. Auntie D- kept remember what she needed when she was on the opposite side of the grocery section. We flip flopped a few times, but got her nearly all that she needed. K- needed to use the restroom in the midst of the flip flopping and the one at the front of the store was closed for cleaning. She did make it to the back and handled all of her business. She was still crabby, though. She was fixated on the fact that she was thirsty. Every 10 seconds she would tell me. As any good germaphobe mommy, the drinking fountains at the Wal are ABSOLUTELY OFF LIMITS PERIOD. I would rather shrivel up from dehydration than drink from a major public fountain. The one at church is pushing it, but I know that one gets cleaned all the time.

I'm sorry, where was I?

Oh yes, Aunt D- and her shopping trip. Y'all, she spent so much time looking and looking in ALL sections of the store that I started fading out and K- finally asked when we were going to go home.

Aunt D- wore us out. It is probably because I have a distinct dislike for the Wal anyhow (watching the movie didn't help that, but I have had a bit of a dislike for quite sometime now anyhow), but it didn't help that they didn't have what I was looking for anyhow.

We dropped Aunt D- off and scooted on home. We started working on the Jesse Tree ornaments that were due on Sunday night for the big ornament exchange party.

Saturday morning began with a true crankensteiner. K- ended up with a few time-out's before we even left for Amish Country. In fact, it put is about a half hour behind where we wanted to be for leaving. That's okay. I made it to Amish Country in record time. No, my truck doesn't have wings but let us just say that the traffic had a good flow in sections. K- was mad that we didn't take the "tiny TV" AKA the portable DVD player. She said that Daddy said that, "She could look out the window and that is just boring!" I went on-line and found some car bingo cards to print out for her. She continued to fit, so I took the privilege of the Leapster going with us and told her that she could take some coloring books and crayons and that was it.

K- was good in Amish Country. We stopped in at the bulk food store, where I fetched things not only for us, but canned items for Christmas gifts, spices for the demo at work, spices and sprinkles for my sister & mom and a variety of food items for our consumption.

We cruised by our favorite restaurant for lunch. We left stuffed. I decided that since they had just ended the breakfast, but still had the breakfast bar items available with the salad bar, that was what I would get. K- and Hubs both got turkey and potatoes. It was the most delicious meal we ever had there yet! I also ate the most wonderful cinnamon roll ever. I'll be dreaming about it for sometime.

After, we stopped by the chocolate factory to finish off Hubs' coworkers Christmas gift (he drew the name of the one real picky person), picked up something for a coworker and a snack (of course) and we pressed onward.

Completely by accident, we took the scenic tour on our way to the vegetable stand. We weren't holding out much hope that it would be open, but we thought we would give it a shot. When we finally reached the hill where they have their sign of availability, they were open and had a lot of great stuff left! They had all kinds of squash (not crook neck or patty pan), pumpkins and mums. We opted to buy orange cauliflower, 5 pounds of potatoes and the bunch of Indian corn that K- loved.

We cruised by the bakery and with the amount of folks there, you would have thought that they were giving things away.

Hubs stopped in at this favorite outdoor boot store with hopes of getting Aquaseal and a hat. Of course after he got home, he discovered that he had more than enough Aquaseal and was able to find his hats that were missing. That's okay. He needed a good hat and he has decided to gift the container of Aquaseal to his boss for Christmas. (What do you buy a single man who needs nothing?)

We made the haul back home and that is where the real fun with K- began. I told K- that she needed to go in to make her bed and straighten her room. When I was working late last week, she opted to use her desk as a dumping ground and things were literally sliding off the desk and onto the floor. That is not okay. She used to always make her bed. I let her slide when getting used to get ready to go to school (I know I shouldn't have and learned my lesson), so she has been bed making resistant. She fussed, yelled, was demanding and giving "if you don't do - -, then I won't do - - ." Um, I don't operate that way. In the end, she had several time-out's, a few triples, a couple of doubles and a single or two. I think that all the 5 1/2 minute blocks ended up adding up to 10 time-out's or so? She also lost TV, and other little belongings.

The need to straighten lopped on over to Sunday, so she wasn't all that pleased. We had our Jesse Tree ornament exchange Sunday evening, and she nearly missed it because of bad behavior. In the end, she pulled it around and was able to attend.

Smiles in my weekend:
- Going to Amish Country with my people.
- Finding great gifts for friends and family.
- The cinnamon roll.
- K- finally cleaning her bedroom BY HERSELF and knowing that it is absolutely her responsibility to keep it tidy.
- Instead of doing laundry on Saturday evening like I should have been, I thumbed through magazines and pulled out lovely recipes. I tried one on Sunday evening. I made a lovely Alfredo sauce (easy) and used my Garlic Parsley noodles that I purchased while in Amish Country. The orange cauliflower was tossed in. Delicious!
- Trying to get back on track with the laundry. Speaking of, I need to excuse myself so that I may deposit another load into the washer.

Have a great week!