Life Imitating Art?

Well, by now you have heard the big news...

I am thrilled and think this is fantastic!!! Isn't he just the most gorgeous little thing?? I am equally as thrilled to hear that she is dumping her LOSER husband and going forward as a single mom. Way to go, Sandra.

Considering her recent Oscar-winning role in The Blind Side, it's sort of like life imitating art. Well, it's not like she adopted a teenager. But still, you can't help but think that her role in that movie might have had some kind of profound influence on her choosing transracial adoption. I *might* be biased but I think it's a beautiful thing.

In the PEOPLE article coming out soon, she says, "It's like he's always been a part of our lives." I totally know what you mean, Sandra...

Death of a Blackberry

My Blackberry caught a virus and died today. It was a short, painless death for my phone, I think. "JVM 102 Error" were its last words. At least it didn't have to suffer very long. My misery, however, is deep and prolonged. Well, at least until Friday when my new phone comes...

We spent some good times together, my pink Blackberry Curve 8330 and me.

RIP my beloved Crackberry.

Award Season

Even though I did not win the photo contest (unhappy face) I thank all those who voted for me! And I still have a reason to smile today because I have awards to accept!

I got this award from Kerri at Kerri's Klutter. Thank you, my dear! Go and check out her blog. She is having a fun Blogiversary party over there!!

Here are the rules of the award:

1. copy and paste the award on your blog.

2. list who gave the award to you and use a link to her/his blog (or hyperlink).

3. list 10 things that make you happy.

4. pass the award on to other bloggers and visit their blog to let them know about the award.

10 Things That Make Me Happy

1. The obvious: Hy hubby and my baby ;)

2. Rearranging furniture in my house.

3. Cheetos.

4. Merlot.

5. Ponies.

6. Raindrops.

7. I lied about the last two, sorry.

8. Reading a really good book.

9. Seeing a really good movie.

10. Sleep.


And now I bestow the award on to these fabulous peeps:

Jenn @ Yellow Tulips: Because she so sweetly posted on her blog (twice) asking for people to vote for my picture in the photo contest. That just made my week.

B @ Not a Sparrow Falls: Because she is going through a journey in her life right now that could use a little bit of happy.

Melissa @ My Life and How It's Going: Because she is one of my top commenters (see the widget on the side bar??) and her blog always makes me happy.

Marianne @ Diary of a Fickle White Woman: Because she is one cool chic. Our conversations via comments are always entertaining. And she can't get a date because gay men won't do it with her. :-) (love ya, girl!)

I also choose Marianne because she gave me an award that I have yet to accept...until now! (See? You don't have to harass me about it anymore! hee hee!)

Am I preppy? I don't know. Do I have style? I don't know. If I got a Sloppy Mafia Award that might be more fitting... *sigh*

I try.

1. Who is your style icon?
Michelle Obama.

2. What is your favorite socialite book?
Huh?

3. What is your favorite party theme?
Booze.

4. What is your go-to Halloween costume?
Mom.

5. What is the extravagance you just can't live without? 
Booze.

6. Who is the living person you admire? 
Mom.

7. What is my greatest fear?
 Lightning.

8. What's the trait you dislike about yourself? 
Impatient.

9. Which talent would you most like to have?
Guitar.

10. What is my greatest achievement?
Parenting.

11. Who are the 10 people I'd like to tag with the Preppy Mafia award?
All of you PREPPY people!

Monday Minute

I am a Monday Minute virgin no more! Here goes nothin'. Thanks, Ian! 


1 - What drugs have you done in your life?

Honestly? Zero. Oh, except for that one time... :-)


2 - A/S/L?

If I hadn't already read other people's Monday Minutes I would have no clue what that meant.

Age: 32

Sex: Yes please! (sorry, LAME Austin Powers joke)

Location: Minnesota


3 - Do you pick your nose?

Can anyone honestly answer this question no? I doubt it. I mean, I don't pick my nose like it's my job or anything ... but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, ya know?


4 - What's your favorite childhood cartoon

Scooby-Doo! Still a classic


5 - List the URL of what you believe to be the best blog post you've ever done

OMG, really? That is not for me to judge, I don't think. But if I had to choose I think I would go with my first two posts on All of the Above which, collectively, I call my "Blog Theology":

I'm a Mother, Not a Martyr

All of the Above...And Then Some

One More Favor?

ONE MORE FAVOR...and then I am done asking. I promise!!!

Some of you already "voted" for this last week (and thank you for doing so)....but those votes are now null and void. The short story is the voting was compromised and now has to start over.

You can vote TODAY and today only. And ONCE and once only.

Go to: http://oliveavenuephotography.com/blog/?p=310

Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Enter your name and email address (no spam, don't worry), and then "12" in the comment section.

That's it!

I would love to win this photo contest so thanks for helping me out today!

Any favors I can do for YOU???

His Best Jeans

Grant and I had a date night this weekend. It was our first date night in quite some time. And by quite some time I mean that I can't even remember the last time we went out to dinner, just the two of us.

Sad? Yes. But that is the reality of life these days.

We started a regular date night BEFORE we had kids (weekly, on Wednesdays) because we thought that surely if we got in the habit before we had kids it would be easier to continue the tradition later...when we actually had kids. Bwahahahahaha! That is so funny to me now.

Naive, party of two?

I do believe in date nights, though. I believe that it is essential to have dedicated alone time with your spouse. And no, 10 minutes at the end of the day before we both pass out is not something that I consider good quality alone time.

So, I decided to make date night happen. We did a date night swap with some friends. We took their son one night and they took Miles the next. PERFECT. It worked out better than I ever imagined it would. We had a fun playdate one night and a fun date night the next. That will happen again, you can bet on that!

Here's the funny part: Grant (in his quest to get lucky) put on a nice shirt, cologne and his "best jeans" (his words) for our dinner date.

Then, I look over at him while we are driving to our friends' house to drop off Miles before going out ... and bust out laughing.

Why?

His "best jeans" had huge, green grass stains...on both knees.

Nice.

It's so classic Grant. And it made me love our date night even more because it reminded me of the things that made me fall in love with him in the first place. He is one of a kind.

Do Me a Favor?

Dear Readers,

Can I ask a small favor, please? And in return can I just say that I think you are all the most beautiful, intelligent and wonderful people I have ever known? It's true.

Please click on this link: Olive Avenue Photography

Scroll down to the bottom of the page (admiring entry #12 on the way).

Vote for #12.

Repeat for the next 5 days.

THANK YOU!

I have entered my photo (isn't it adorable? that's Miles and one of his bff's, Sophia) into this contest and hope to win!

And my friend Jess is a very talented photographer, yes?

Again, thank you for voting. Leave me a comment telling me you voted so I can properly thank you. I am offering my FB friends either a big hug or a big kiss, and I will offer the same to all of my readers. Let me know which you would prefer ;)

Why I Hate Claritin

Ok. So. Where to being with this. Maybe at the beginning.

First of all a few disclaimers: 1) I realize that not every kid will have this reaction to this specific type of medication. 2) I realize not everyone would agree to giving their kids allergy meds in the first place, so you will have to just get over that if you want to read this post. 3) No matter what I say in this post I make no claims to have handled this whole situation with any shred of grace.

Having said all that...

We took Miles to his pediatrician last week because he was basically hacking up a friggin' lung and we were scared it might be pneumonia. Even though I had Googled it and he didn't really have any of the other pneumonia-like symptoms, I still went to the worst case scenario and thought that he surely had pneumonia. This theory also came from this fact that at least one other child at his daycare had been diagnosed with contagious pneumonia last week.

So off to the doctor we go. After a thorough exam and lots of talking about his symptoms the doctor tells us what his thinks is going on--allergies. I have suspected this for quite some time now but I was glad to get at least partical confirmation that I was not Crazy McCrazylady to think he might have allergies.

We talk about all of our options and land on trying Claritin. Awesome. After 2 nights of listening to my poor child cough his brains out I was so happy to see a remedy might be in sight.

The first night we gave him like half of what the recommended dosage was for a child his age, per his doc. We noticed that he was sort of restless, that it took him a long time to actually get to sleep and that he woke up at an ungodly hour (5 a.m.) which we thought was odd but we really didn't think much of it beyond that.

Let me just preface this next part by saying that Miles is a good sleeper. A really good sleeper. I am NOT being smug about it in any way shape or form, I am just stating the facts. He almost always sleeps like a rock for 10-11 hours and takes a 2-3 hour nap each day. Again, I only say this so you will know just how upsetting and weird what happened was.

So the next night we give him the full recommended dosage of the Claritin. I had specifically asked the doc about giving it to him at bedtime and he said he thought that would be a good idea since it will most likely help to calm his cough at night.

THEN ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE.

We could hear him rustling around in his crib from the moment we put him down. Finally, at 10:30 he starts to cry. And the crying DOES NOT STOP. He was psychotic, out of sorts, disoriented, upset, AWAKE...honestly. THE WHOLE NIGHT. Did I say the whole night? Because I'm not sure you heard me the first few times. Literally at 4:45 a.m. when we had not gotten any sleep I was still trying to get him to calm down. At one point we thought about throwing him in the car and heading to the ER because he was just out of his mind. He would sort of calm down a little at some points because clearly he was tired and knew that it was "night night" time. But the poor kid was so hyped up on meds he couldn't simmer down enough to actually get some solid sleep.

UGH.

But let me tell you--I thank my lucky stars for my husband's patience that seems comes from a place that I will never understand ... but am always grateful for.

In my totally worried and sleep-deprived state I thought about all the ways I would torture our doctor for giving us the devil's medicine.

I kid.

I know it's not his fault. Like I said, all kids react differently to meds and Miles just happened to react POORLY. (That is an understatement.)

I said in my FB status the next morning that I thought it was one of the worst nights of my life, because it was. I had The Mama Guilt in huge quantities for giving him the Claritin in the first place. And on top of that I was worried that I had somehow permanently damaged my child's brain. And on top of that I had just listened to my boy scream for hours on end, unable to do anything to help him. And on top of that I hadn't slept a wink all night. So Yeah, it kinda sucked.

And the next night, after throwing the Claritin in the garbage, he slept like a rock again. Thank you sweet Jesus.

The moral of the story is this, readers: There is no moral. I don't have any advice or wisdom to impart after all of this. Because, at the end of the day, we did what we thought was best for Miles at the time, and at the time we thought that was giving him Claritin. There's really no right or wrong here. Parenting, in my experience, is all about trial and error. This was an error. And now we learn from our mistakes and move on. We will have to go down a different road in order to help Miles deal with his allergies

We will figure it out.

And we will all sleep better knowing the evil Claritin is in the garbage where it belongs. :-)

Clarification

Hi all-- Just wanted to clarify about the Minnesota Mom Bloggers network (see last post). The network is up and running so please join! Ning will be closing their free networks but they have not set a date for it--might be next week, might be next year. In the meantime, hop on over and sign up! I will take you all with me if and when I move the network. Pass on the word to other Minnesota Mom Bloggers, too. The more the merrier!

Gracias :-)

Coming up on Monday: Why I Hate Claritin

Join the Minnesota Mom Bloggers Network!

Visit Minnesota Mom Bloggers

Hey Fellow Minnesota Mom Bloggers!

I have created a new network for those of us who happen to be moms, happen to blog, and happen to live in Minnesota! I am constantly amazed at the wonderful friendships that I have formed through this world of blogging. The Minnesota Mom Bloggers network will allow all of us to connect and meet each other via our blogs, and the best part is that because I have created this as a geographical area we *might * even be able to meet in person someday! :-)

Here's the deal: You won't get any SPAM by joining this network. You can set it up however you want, visit as little or as often as you would like. There really are NO strings attached.

I have also created a group within the network called MN Adoption Bloggers. So, if you fall into that category please join in! And feel free to create other groups, as well.

I am planning a blogger get-together for the summer! If you want to be a part of that then by all means please join the network so you won't miss out!!!

To my "out of state or out of country" friends: I love, love, love you. Sorry to leave you out of this one. Hey--if you feel like you might be a Minnesotan at heart or have a Minnesota connection by all means join!

CLICK HERE TO JOIN MINNESOTA MOM BLOGGERS!

***EDITED TO ADD: Of course this would happen. Literally the moment I create this network Ning decides to close all free networks. Still, join in. Then if and when I migrate to a different platform you can come along. Crap. Here's the article.

Guest Post by Grant!

A word from Anne:

Have you ever seen Office Space? If you have then you will totally appreciate this post. If not then go and watch it -- then come back to read this post. ;)

I promised way back during March Madness that my husband would be guest posting at some point, so here he is! Enjoy!

*And by the way, I did not make him write that last line. But I may or may not have slipped something into his drink to make him hallucinate such things.

------------

I live in the movie Office Space when I’m at work. I wouldn’t say any single character represents my professional life, but a collage of the characters can paint an accurate picture.

Here are a few interesting similarities…my Top 10 List:

10. Within the first year of my current job my cubicle has moved a total of three times. No kidding…if my manager utters the words “um yeah…I’m going to have to ask you to go ahead and…yeah…move your things down to storage area B” I’m going to burn down the building.

9. I am permitted to listen to my music at a reasonable level.

8. My co-worker actually produces a report that has the initials T.P.S. I hope he got the memo about the new cover letter.

7. I have a trusty Swingline stapler on my desk.

6. The digital display on my printer reads “PC Load Letter” from time to time. “PC Load Letter, what the f&%* does that mean?”

5. Our fax machine will one day wind up in millions of pieces in the middle of a pasture.

4. I honestly had a colleague use the phrase “a case of the Mondays” without making a reference to Office Space.

3. I have three bosses.

2. The ratio of people to cake is always too big.

Here is the funniest example and my inspiration for this post:

1. I had a meeting today with “The Bobs”. I can’t make this stuff up! Here’s the real story…you let me know if it reminds you of Peter Gibon’s initial interview with the consultants. Two folks from HR sat down in my tiny cubicle to learn more about what it is I do here (I had to move the Swingline stapler to make room for my guests). I can’t believe that I just spent two hours with two individuals to discuss what I do at work. I was torn about whether I should joke about showing up late and performing 15 to 20 minutes of work each week, or possibly going ballistic trying to convince the Bobs that I am a people person. After the work was complete I couldn’t help myself, I had to ask if they were fans of the movie Office Space. They laughed, and in fact, they joked about it when the meeting was scheduled. One of them has a spouse who recommended they introduce themselves as Bob and Bob.

At least my wife is as hot as Jennifer Aniston!

English Majors Don't Get Jobs

It's funny how you can be [insert my age here] years old and still not know what you want to be when you grow up.

And when I say "funny" I actually mean mind-blowingly annoying.

I have never known what I want to be when I grew up. When I was a kid I would mostly say "teacher" because that's what all of my little girl friends wanted to be and that's what girls were supposed to say. Boys were supposed to say "firemen" and girls were supposed to say "teacher". Which now when I look back on it is really weird that I thought that because my father was a teacher. Hmmm....

Anyway, when I went to college I still had NO CLUE what I wanted to do with my life.

What to major in, what to major in..........how about Psychology? My friends tell me I'm a good listener and I think Freud is on to something, so why not???

Then I learn of the Stats for Psych requirement and I know I am totally screwed. Math and I do not play well together.

So I fail the statistic class.

Okay, now what? I clearly couldn't retake it because that would have been a whole new level of HELL. I needed a new plan.

What major doesn't require any math????

English.

That's the ticket!!!

I'm a decent writer, my dad is a college English teacher, I like words, I'm fluent in the language. This has to be good.

And it was good. Except for the tiny little fact that was lost on me at the time: English Majors Don't Get Jobs.

I mean, it's not like I'm a "nursing" major or an "education" major. Those people will actually get jobs in their chosen fields, most likely.

For a while I thought about going into journalism and even took a path in that direction. But between a seriously bad relationship that I had with the one and only journalism prof at my college and a lack of any kind of REAL drive to do what it would take to actually land a job in journalism after college, I sort of gave up on that.

And I really never wanted to be a teacher, despite my canned answer from childhood.

This is a lovely picture that I paint of myself, isn't it? Unfocused much?

I am actually known for being responsible and organized to a fault. But when it comes to my career decisions, as I have said many times in the past on this blog, I just seem to lose my focus.

It's not entirely true that English majors don't get jobs. I have a job. And several of my good friends who were English majors have even better jobs. But THIS English major has her sights on much more than the path I am currently on.

Even more embarrassing and unhelpful? My minor: German. Ach nein!!!

You Aren't Going To Believe This...

...except for the fact that I have pictures for proof!

So, I look out our bedroom window and see that Grant had put our handy-dandy dog bark repelling birdhouse out. Remember this post about the incessant barking that was driving me insane?

I was happy that he had put it out, except for one thing: I was totally confused and dismayed that it looked like he had put the birdhouse on HER fence right next to HER house!! What was he thinking?? I mean, it would have been one thing if we put it on our side of the fence, but REALLY...putting it on her side was going a bit too far.

So I ran outside where Grant and Miles were playing to ask him about it. His response? "I didn't put the birdhouse out yet." WHAT??? "It's in the office," he says.

I run inside to see this sitting in our office. Just like this:

And then I nearly die laughing. For real.

Our neighbor, apparently scared by little ol' ME, must have ordered her own birdhouse. The exact same one. Was she listening to our conversations?? Does she read my blog??? Whatever the case this is TOO weird to be true. But it is. And so funny, to boot.

Look, more proof that I do not make this stuff up, here they are together (see hers back there on the fence?):

Now what to do with the birdhouse that we have?

I'm not quite ready to give it up yet. I think it's good to hold onto as backup, don't you?

After all, we haven't heard a bark all weekend!!! Maybe two birdhouses are better than one?

Should I send her a thank you note??? ;)

We Are Family

The tagline I usually use for my blogs, my FB page, etc… is that we are a happy family of three, formed through love and adoption. It’s the tagline for our lives. Because it’s true.

* Thanks for the sweet family pic, Shawna!

FGF: Hand-me-down Heaven

What makes me feel good today?

Hand-me-downs.

LOTS of them.

We are so spoiled. My sister just happens to have 2 boys (6 & 8) and also just happened to keep every single piece of their previously-worn clothing neatly stored in bins that she rolls out for us each season. It's insane.

They have also given us a crib, dresser, stroller, pack-n-play, toys ... and the list goes on and on.

Spoiled, I tell you.

I have the best sister in the world!

See all the clothes in the pic below? That's only about 1/3 of what she gave us for summer.

Not having to drop tons of cash on summer clothes for the boy makes me soooo happy!

Your Husband is Hiding Something From You

I was desperate. It was one of those rare 80-degrees-in-April kind of days here in Minnesota recently and that presented a crisis of ghastly proportions.

I wanted to wear capris. But wearing said short pants would show parts of my pasty white legs that have not seen the light of day since last September.

But that's not the worst part.

The worst part is the hot mess that is created when you don't have to/need to/want to shave your legs for days/weeks/months at a time.

I needed to shave. Seems simple enough, right?? But then I looked around for a razor. Generally I use something like this: Schick Quattro for Women High Performance Razor

But I could not find any extra blades ANYWHERE. Then I looked for a crappy disposable one. NOTHING. But I was desperate here, people.The word forest comes to mind and I'm not even kidding. I thought nothin' was getting through it...

[TMI? Yeah. I think so, too. Sorry about that.]

So, I did what anyone else in my situation would do. Steal. Borrow.

My hubby (who we joke has a 5 o'clock shadow by 9 a.m.) uses these beauties with FIVE blades: Gillette Fusion Manual Razor

I give it a try. And let me just say this: Shaving with this thing is like getting licked by friggin' kittens.

*sigh*

I feel almost betrayed. Like my husband has been keeping this huge secret from me all this time. Why didn't he tell me about the five blades from heaven???

I'm never, ever, ever, never, ever going back to using women's razors again.

So ladies, raid your husband's toiletries and start shaving. Those replacement cartidges are not cheap....but it's so very worth it.

Happy Spring, legs!

W... W... W... Wednesdays

This is a meme after my own heart...books. If you haven't already gotten the hint I LOVE books. I wish I could dedicate my life to reading books but sadly just squeeze it in when I can. So, I am going to participate in W... W... W... Wednesdays over at Should Be Reading.


What are you currently reading?

I am actually reading these two simultaneously right now. Because obviously.


Dead Until Dark is the book that the HBO series "True Blood" is based on. Now, I haven't seen the show but damn the book is intriguing. It's a mix of sex, mystery, sci fi and romance...all mixed up in one big vampire stew. I am half way through and loving it. Escapism at it's finest.

And I am just a couple of pages into the Lincoln one so stay tuned for a review.

*** PLEASE NOTE: I would just like to say that I am really not that into vampires and zombies. It just happens that MANY of the books I have read recently (including the Twilight series) falls into this category. It's all the rage right now and I'm hip like that. All the cool kids are doing it.


What did you recently finish reading?

See this post.


What do you think you'll read next?


I will be reading The Help. I cannot wait to start this one. It is our next bookclub book and it has been on my "to-read" list for many months. I have read so many glowing reviews of this book I hope it will live up to all the praise! I'm sure it will.

The Downsides of Skype

I decided that Skype definitely has it's negatives after a conversation that I had with my dad the other night that went something like this:

Dad: "How are you doing?"

Me: "Fine. Tired."

Dad: "Yeah, you definitely LOOK tired."

Thanks. Thanks a lot.

So, the downsides of Skype, as I see it:

1) You clearly can get unwanted comments about the state of your appearance.

2) Going to the bathroom while having a conversation is out of the question.

3) You have to wear clothes. Unless you're into that kind of thing.

4) You can't roll your eyes at something the other person says.

5) You can't multitask. (i.e. wash the dishes, watch American Idol and talk on the phone all at the same time...just isn't happening with Skype)

I know this person agrees with me.

Don't get me wrong, I actually really like Skype for the fact that Miles can now see and talk to my parents when they are down in Arizona for the winter. But, like I have already pointed out...there are some definite pitfalls I hadn't imagined.

So, yeah...regular old phones definitely look pretty good sometimes...especially when I don't.

Feel Good Friday: Dumpster Diving

Here I go again, back for more Feel Good Friday presented by The Girl Next Door Grows Up.

I chose prompt #2 this week:

Write about something that happened to you this week that really made you smile. Was it your child, husband, or maybe a complete stranger did to you?

Well, here's a little story about something that a stranger did that is just too good not to share ;)

Does anyone remember the "Stop glaring at my son and go back to pretending your kids are perfect" post from way back in November? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller??

Well, we decided to give storytime at the public library another shot a few nights ago. It was...I can't sugarcoat this one -- it sucked. He lasted for approx. 10 minutes being fully engaged in the songs and the stories and then it was all over. Suddenly my two year old decided it was way more important to throw a fit over the animal crackers in the diaper bag that I wouldn't let him have. So, needless to say, we left. Such is life with our spunkalicious boy. (I totally just made up that word and I kinda dig it.) He has been such a doll as of late I really can't complain.

As we were walking out of the library and back to our car we noticed an older, well-dressed gentleman walking toward the dumpsters behind the library. I didn't think much of it until he opened up the lid to those dumpsters and started digging through.

Now, normally I would be a mixture of horrified and sad that someone feels the need to dig through dumpsters to get what they need in life. But this time? This time I was thinking that this man is a genius.

Grant and I shot each other an "OMG" look as we watched this guy pull out BOOK after BOOK. He would check out the title, keep the ones that he wanted and throw the others back in. He was shopping for discarded books in the library dumpster. Sad? NO. Brilliant!

I'm sure the library has some pretty good reasons for throwing out books that can't be recycled or given to Goodwill. They are probably old, damaged, spilled on, ripped apart or just so out of date they have no relevance anymore to anyone. I am not questioning the library at all. I am the biggest fan of public libraries that you will ever meet. Clearly a woman invented public library because they are JUST. THAT. COOL.

What's the saying? One person's trash is another person's treasure? YEP.

It was all I could do not to run over and dig through there with him.

Okay, that's a lie. The germaphobe in me repels against dumpster diving of any sort. But I really did want to go over there and ask him what in the world ever possessed him to start looking for tossed out books in the library dumpster. Truly, if I was a documentarian this would be a fascinating subject, yes? What lengths people go to and how creative they get to save a buck!

And what did Frugal Grant think?

I think I saw a tear in his eye. This man is now his hero.

By Popular Demand: The Zombie Punch Recipe

This is not an April Fool's joke. There really is that much alcohol in this punch. ;) Deeeelish!


Zombie Punch

1/2 c Bacardi® 151 rum
1 frozen, thawed container 100% pineapple juice, undiluted
1 c orange juice
1/2 c apricot brandy
4 tsp sugar
2 c light rum
1 c dark rum
1/2 c lime juice
Mint leaves and cherries or dried cherries, more for garnish
TONS OF ICE IN THE PITCHER

Thanks, Nurse Leathers!

ENJOY!