Don't do it.

Do not, under any circumstances take a visit to your local DIY centre on a rainy Sunday morning. Jacob and I made a quick dash to H0me Dep0t on Sunday to pick up something or other to complete a project that we are doing in our master bath and I ended up meandering in to the paint department. Next thing I knew the blue tape was out and I was painting the kitchen.

I always disliked the yellow paint that we had on the walls.

We have company coming on Saturday. Not a great time to be down one bathroom and have the kitchen torn to shreds so I have been working like a maniac to get all these projects finished, hence no blog posts.

It's me doing this so of course that means all the stuff in the kitchen has to be changed out also.....NOW. If it was yellow it is about to be replaced. Running around to Tarjay and Bed B*th and Beyond, literally beyond cos I can't find the stuff I want/need.
Be back soon with photos. Wedgew00d blue is the new colour.

Bringing out the bunnies

I have never made any bones about the fact that I am not a chef. I cook because we have to eat. I do not enjoy cooking and I do not enjoy eating. I have always thought it rather odd when a person talks about food but that's because I don't get. If you don't eat you die so you must eat, end of story.

My Grandma was a great cook, I actually loved everything she made, nearly everything. I think I acquired my sweet tooth because of her and that is just fine. I should add, I do love to eat sweet things. Give me veggies and dessert and all is right in my world. Growing up I remember my Grandma having all these dishes with bunnies on them, I loved them and quite often I was served my food on them. Each plate, bowl, cup and saucer had a different scene on it. You couldn't see what it was until you had finished your food. Clever idea.

Grandma died when I was still young and the dishes went somewhere. It wasn't until a few years ago that I found out that my uncle had them. Each time I went home he would say to me, "here, take some of these home with you, no one else will want them and Lily (no Rosie then) might like them". I was thrilled and yet daunted at the same time. How does one take dishes home in a suitcase? I found the answer to that, you use disposable diapers and wrap every single one in it's own. He also told me not to say a word to ANYONE. I have no idea why he would say this but I kept my promise to him and snuck them through my fathers house and upstairs to my room. When Uncle John died the decision was made that i would have all of the remaining Bunnykins. Cousin Andie bought over a suitcase full and the subsequent trips to England bought back the rest.

I now have about 60 pieces sitting in a cabinet. They are gorgeous and very old. As far as I can tell the youngest pieces are well roughly 50 years old and I think some of them are the originals. It seems a shame to keep them on a shelf so I decided recently that perhaps even my cooking would be more palatable if the kiddies got to eat their way down to the bunnies. I think it is working. HAH! Lots of clean plates now and lots of shrieks of delight when the girls get to uncover a fabulous painting each time they eat.

These photos are really bad, I took them last night at about 11p.m and somehow failed to publish the blog until now.

That little dude in the middle is Jiggy...he has a long story behind him.







I even think my cooking tastes better on these plates, it just might be the memories.

How Do you do?

I have never expected people to comment on my blog. I read tonnes of them but comment on very few. I used to but 2 kids later I am impressed that I still even write this one.

I have my, Live Traffic Feed, on the side of my blog and it tracks my visitors. I have many people reading from all over the world, it's really interesting to look at you all.

When I had my old blog I had loads of traffic but I snuck back into blogging with this one and it's stayed pretty quiet. I never announced I was back.

Come out of the woodwork and leave me a comment. I'd love to know who you are and how you found me.

It's simple, just hit comment link at the end of a post, write your comment and then check the box for anonymous. You don't need a blog or a google account to comment. Just don't forget to leave your name. You know so much about my family so step up and introduce yourself.

Hi.

Spring cleaning my brain

• So many things are going around in my head that I have decided to have a little cleansing session.
• Rosie is going to attend Lily's school next school year. They have so many kidlets apply that they have to draw a lottery. Lucky for her and us, her number was picked.
• She is really excited about the idea of going to Lily's school.
• Lily's school is a uniform school. It's quite a liberal uniform and there appear to be no ramifications whatsoever if you don't wear it particularly if you are the child of a teacher.
• Lily has 5 teachers kidlets in her class and every single one of them is picked first to be student of the month. It's been this way since kindergarten. Lily and her friend S are on to it and now believe the student of the month award to be a total crock. That's my smart little Schnoog for ya.
• This is not meant to be a post to bash teachers but since I am here, why move on. I am not going to get a tattoo, not ever. That doesn't mean I don't think you should get one, your body your choice. I do however think that if you have a tattoo you should probably keep it covered up whilst at work. 2 of the female teachers in Lily's grade have them and they don't hide them. They would probably be hidden if the women dressed like professionals and not like hoochie mama's. If you are going to school why are you wearing cheap rubber flip flops and a spaghetti strap sundress. If male teachers wore the equivalent they would be sent home.
• Teacher bashing done! Sorry to all my friends who are teachers but you know these comments are NOT directed towards you. For the record, Lily's home teacher always looks great and is an awesome teacher.
• I forgot just how much I love re-finishing furniture. Forgot that is, until this past weekend when I dragged out my handy sander and got my groove on. Something about staining and sanding that I love. I think if I ever quit doing massage I will open up my own place. I have blisters on my fingers and am a hot sticky sawdusty mess and I even love that too. I will post before and afters when I am done. ( of the furniture not me)
• Cousin Andie is coming to stay. The girls are freaking nuts about this.
• I am freaky happy too.
• Here in Miami we have always had lots of homeless people. There is also an organisation of homeless people that stand at all the major intersections and hold out their begging bowls. I call them tolls. If you want to get through the intersection you have to pay a toll. For the first little while this was fine but now they are E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E. I would be homeless myself if I paid each and every one of them. What is very sad to see, or I think it is, are the men in shirts and ties carrying signs that say, "lost my job, "X" amount of kids, need rent money". I cannot imagine a Father going into the streets to beg for money for his family. One man sells candy bars. Jacob likes the guys that sell stuff instead of begging. Why don't people prepare for a rainy day anymore? .
• Hating people is not nice. How can you hate a group of people based on their beliefs, with the exceptions of psychopaths etc. Tolerance and broadening ones mind goes along way. Educate yourselves. (but not by a teacher who dresses like a hoochie Mama)
• Phew, glad I go that off of my chest. My brain was about to explode. maybe that is why I had a 6 day migraine last week that resulted in a fever blister the size of Saturn. Kind of makes me look like a hoochie mama....might just as well get a big old hickey to go along with it.
• Oops, I nearly forgot, Rosie will no longer wear matching socks. One set of Little Mis-Match socks and she was smitten. Every single day she unfolds 2 pairs of socks and wears one of each. In Rosie's crazy 4 yr old brain, sock monogamy is a thing of the past. Here is today's selection for school. I helped a little as the ones she chose were so wacky that it sent my OCD into overdrive, at least this un-pair sort of goes together.( my sister will be so proud, she doesn't believe in sock monogamy either)

Alrighty then, that about does it.

Yada, Yada, Yada.

This afternoon Lily was working hard on a school project, Rosie was sleeping and I decided to fiddle around with the blog. Things were not going well, I knew exactly what I wanted but somehow I ended up with nothing. The screen showed nothing but a blank slate. I suffered a massive heart attack, took a deep breathe and started back peddling really fast. This is not the look I was searching for, at all. Not even close. Lily hates it, Hubby hasn't seen it yet and as for Rosie, well let's face it, the kid's 4 so as long as her picture is on it she loves it. I wanted to make my pictures larger. What's the secret?

Rosie came down stairs yesterday whimpering. She finally managed to tell me she had hurt her knanckle. I think she meant ankle but it could have been knuckle as she never did produce any sort of boo boo.

Lily made Principals Honor Roll this grading period, again. Her and her bestie tried to pretend to have really bad report cards and both walked out of school trying really hard to look upset. Let's just say they won't get an Oscar for that lame performance. They were both to proud to act sad. We buy grades in this house. A perfect report card holds a reward. We have no shame.

I have never understood people who jog, ever. I can't imagine how boring it must be to just keep running. I'm eating my words. At the beginning of the year I decided I would get up earlier than I already do and go out for a power walk. I then realised that there was no possible way I was walking anywhere in the dark. I don't like the dark plus 5.30 is just not a time when a person should get up. I put that plan on hold and kept to my regular exercise schedule. Three weeks ago I revamped that plan and went out for a walk after Lily went to school. I walked for about 5 minutes and then started running. I couldn't run far as I couldn't breath. Fast forward to today and I run every single day. It is really boring so I make it fun by trying to beat my time every single day. I have trimmed 7 minutes off since day one. It is amazing how much further I can run. Sometimes I take Rosie along in the pushchair. I am not fast at all on those days. Today it was freezing here and raining and I went faster than ever and didn't even break a sweat.

When my sister was visiting us, along time ago, she noticed that the people here are just not friendly and she is right. You can see the same person every single day and they won't say hello or even offer a smile. I am making it my mission to make every person that I see when I run, often the same faces day after day, say hello. It helps with the monotony. It also makes it a more pleasant place to live. It's common courtesy and plain old fashioned good manners as far as I am concerned.

Rosie asked today if we could have a party. She requested hats, necklaces, grapes, fancy snacks and fireworks. She wanted another New Years Eve party. Kid is bonkers. I obliged her cos it was good fun however it took place at 7pm. What does she know with time?

Here are some photos of the girls from today. Don't laugh to hard.

This part isn't funny, it's just Lily with wavy hair. She requested wavy, not curly hair so she slept with some great big rollers in. Don't worry they were soft.

She loves it.
Here is the funny part. When Rosie saw Lily's hair she wanted it too
I called her Edna the whole time she had her rollers in.
I couldn't keep a straight face and when Jacob saw her he roared with laughter.

I failed to take a photo of her when her hair was all curly. Next time.

A Little Bit of This and That.

Rosie wasn't quite as impressed with school on Thursday. When I arrived to pick her up she was crying, sobbing those big gulpy sobs and sitting in her teachers lap. Ms Maria said she had only just started crying and was really tired. It rained all day so there was no outside play and no painting, all the thins she loved from her previous day. Poor little girl was just not a campy camper. She has now decided that she does not want to go back. Urghh, I dreaded hearing those words but think I may have found a way to make it more appealing. I still think dropping her off on Tuesday will be prove to be heart wrenching for both of us. She did manage to catch a cold and by Thursday afternoon was feeling grotty.

I have a thing about bathrooms, they have to be clean. I am not talking about public toilets, let's not even go there in the interest of public safety but actual bathrooms. If you are going to be using a room with the sole purpose of cleansing yourself then it has to be clean to begin with. I cannot even brush my teeth at a sink in a place where someone else, other than my very own family has spat their toothpaste because I will gag. Yes I know it is really weird. In this house we had new bathrooms when we moved in so i was always fine but in other places where we have lived I never used the bathroom sink.

The caulking in our shower was starting to look, "not so bright and fresh" and it was really bothering me. I come from a long line of do it your-selfers, with my cousin Andie being a fine example. So, I decided to re-do this myself. A few websites, a few U-tube videos and off i went to the DIY store for my supplies. It looked so easy. Fuey! Taking off the old stuff was impossible and I broke the tool especially made for the job within about 4 minutes! So much for a quick job. I resorted to a straight edge razor and at times brute force. Once the old stuff was gone applying the new caulk was a piece of cake and now my shower no longer makes me shudder. I think I will attack the kids bathroom today as theirs could do with some freshening up also.

It has been raining here, alot. I didn't think Lily would have her riding lesson the other day but she did and there were floods and huge puddles everywhere much to Rosie's delight. Lily is now riding some really tough horses but she remains unfazed.

The foals

Rosie touching the foal. It wouldn't come near me.
I love this horse and so does Lily. He isn't fully trained yet but she has no problem on it. She uses double reins for extra control.
Glee!

It's Sunday but!

3 word Sunday has been laid to rest. Pug Mama has closed up shop. I don't blame her one bit either. Faceb0ok is so much quicker and easier than blogging but I am doing this for the girls so I must trudge on with it. I realised that I haven't posted all week which just goes to show that my interest in my blog is waning.

Rosie told me today to take her bed back to the shop! She doesn't "yike" it. She actually climbed out of it for the first time and came downstairs to tell me. I had to fight to keep a straight face. We had changed everything around in her room and we think that bothered her so after her nap I dragged all the furniture back to it's original home and she once again likes her "to-to" bed. For one so small she truly is high maintenance. LOL She still manages to find a reason to call one of us back into her room every single time she is going to bed or for a nap.. She is very creative.

We have been busy but I have not been taking photos and I am not sure why. I think the brutally hot temperatures that we are having are slowly melting my brain. It is October and the temps are still in the 90's every day with feel like temps well into the 100's...yuck. Wednesday was ride your bike to school day so we are course participated in that because Lily really wanted to. It was so bloody hot I think I nearly died and just to add a little fun my chain got all messed up and stuck in the cogs so I had to fix that in a feels like temp of 112 degrees whilst in a panic that I was going to be late to pick her up whilst making sure Rosie stuck to me like glue and got nowhere near the road...fun I tell ya really great fun. But the bottom line was Lily loved doing it and so did we minus the little hiccups.

We have decorated the house for Halloween and Rosie loves it all this year. Her enthusiasm is perhaps exacerbated by the fact that everything is in her absolute favourite colour, orange. This kid would wear all orange all day every day if it were possible.

When we were changing her room around Lily was helping and I was going through some clothes looking for anything that was orange. I found a big pile and put them aside and Lily asked me what they were for so I told then they were orange clothes for Rosie and she looked at them and handed some back and said,'Mummy, these are all pink". I wanted to ask her if she was sure cos to me they looked light orange but then I remembered that darned ishihara* test and just put them all back in the drawer. Lily just giggled!

That's it, I got nothing else! I will start taking more photos and I will blog more frequently if and when it ever cools down a bit. If I am missing for to long just come and find me over on FB.

Lucky Leaf My Ar*e

We are back home and I should probably add, safe and sound! We were listed for an 11.am flight yesterday morning and for the first time ever the flight was full and we couldn't get on it. Jacob and I have travelled alot and have never been turned away from a flight. It didn't faze us in the least cos as you know we just roll with the punches and there was another one at 2pm but that one wasn't looking very good either and then there was another one at 7.pm and that was wide open so we knew we would get home at some point.

I was shocked that we didn't get on a flight and surprised at all the bad luck we had been having and then it hit me like a tonne of bricks. The first day we were in Massachusetts I found a 4 leaf clover. I placed it very carefully in the diaper bag and had been carrying it with us wherever we went. All these little accidents that we had had, had happened after I found this so called lucky leaf! Right there and then in the middle of the airport I ripped everything out of the bag until I found my treasure and without a second glance I instructed Lily to throw it in the nearest rubbish bin. She reluctantly did so and asked my why so I told her it was bad luck. Jacob laughed and said that only the Irish get luck from 4 leaf clovers and I am English so what did I expect!

We went and ate lunch bought the kids some souvenirs in the airport shops and then attempted to get on the very heavy 2pm flight. Well, what do you know? Our luck had changed and we boarded and not only did we board an over booked flight but we all sat together and no one got hurt, maimed or otherwise injured, Rosie went straight to sleep, Lily travelled with her usual grace and Jacob and I had fun.

This morning when we woke up my grossly infected knee is looking ten times better, Lily's face is doing great and life is wonderful. I am doing heaps of washing and we are heading out of here first thing in the morning for Tampa to meet up with a family we met in China who has a little girl Lily's age who is from Rosie's orphanage and then we are taking the girls to Busch Gardens cos we need just a bit more excitement. Lily is a bit down in the mouth cos she misses Andie, Fran and Shell. Rosie keeps saying, Wheres Annie? over and over again so a quick pick me up is needed and this time if I see a 4 leaf clover I am going to jump on it and smoosh it into the ground!

Stay tuned for what we hope will only be fun tales and will not include visits with the medics, falls in the pool  and bumps to the head!

BULLETS

• 4 more days of school. Yee Haw!
• This time next week we will be in New England.
• When I went in Rosie's room this morning after her nap she said, "it's so nice to see you".
• I cut my hair this morning. It's getting shorter by the hair cut. Soon it will be short again even though I said I wouldn't go short again. 
• Rosie is growing. I don't care what the scales say, well I do actually but she is growing. She is nearly in 18 month clothes exclusively. Just a few 12 month stragglers hanging on.
• Lily is huge. She turns 7 next week. There is such a difference between turning 6 and turning 7. 
• She wanted to go the American Girl Store for her birthday so we let her chose the location. I secretly hoped she would chose NYC but she chose Boston cos her Aunties live there and we can see them. That is great cos I can't wait to see Fran and Shell either and I know Andie will love them...they are nuts too.
• I am finding it increasingly more difficult to be pleasant to Lily's teacher. As the days to the end of school count down my smile gets more and more fake. I have to be the grown up but it is proving to be a challenge. Nasty old bag.
• Lily makes me laugh all the time. She really is a funny girl with a great sense of humour.
• I am so ready for a vacation we have not been away as a family since we went to China last year. Andie is meeting us in Boston and there is going to be so much silliness. 2 weeks with Andie and then another week on the west coast......bliss.
• I don't think it is ever going to stop raining. For those of you that don't live in Florida you don't know what rain is until you have been to Florida during rainy season,  especially this one.
• I haven't even got any closets left to clean out during all this rain since I went on a major cleaning bender a few weeks back.
• I think Rose is going to have a lisp. This probably should  not be making me laugh but right now it is comical. She says horsth, nicth, huth for horse nice and hush. Perhaps it is a speech learning curve but me not so sure. 
• With regard to the aforementioned lisp Lily's comment was, "oh no, does that mean I am going to get wet when she speaks?" I told you she has a sense of humour and it is wicked just like mine.
• When I started this post the roofer had not been, now he has. He will be back to mend the roof if it stops raining for more than 5 hours at one time...I will see him in October. Ha ha ha.
• Hurricane season starts again in a few days. 'Nuff said about that. 
• The girls really love it when we drive through big puddles. I loved it when I was little too and I called them wooshers so now the girls call them that too. My dad used to seek out the biggest wooshers he could find for me. Jacob thinks I should avoid wooshers at all costs since I drive a car not a boat. Dull, very dull. Little does he know we seek them out and we just don't tell him. Well I don't at least but I cannot speak for the girls since I never tell them not to tell their Daddy anything.
• Tomorrow we are off to meet up with a blogger whose blog I have followed for ages and she has finally and I mean finally received her referral. Her baby is so beautiful and is waiting for her in Thailand.
• If you have made it this far you deserve a stiff drink or at least a whole bag of sweets all to your self so off you go and indulge. 
• Have a fabulous weekend and if you are from these parts...stay dry!

It's My Own Fault!

I am a busy person. What I mean is that I like to be busy, I work well under stress and right now that is a good thing cos I am going nucking futs. I have been moving in 10,000 directions all at the same time, hence no blogging.

We have just set up Gmail accounts for ourselves cos we plan on losing our ISP shortly so having spent hours reloading all the info cos I couldn't figure out how to do the shortcut I went into Blogger to change it there and low and behold Blogger doesn't allow Gmail as the primary addy...what is that about? Any way around it?

The other project that is now killing me is one that I was really giddy about starting. We took a trip to IK*EA and bought storage units for the kids toys. We loved the colour of them so much that I decided to stain and refinish all the existing wood furniture downstairs. The first piece was a charm to do but the second piece, well lets just say I still have a mouth like a sailor! I hit a wall with it and even called my father who is really an amazing woodworker and furniture maker and I managed to stump him. I tried all of his suggestions, and Jeanne's and then a few trillion of my own and still the stain wouldn't take so I was about to throw it off the balcony, literally when I tried one last thing and victory, or so I thought. I rang my father and told him I had done it and within minutes walked out of the house to take the kids to the park. On the way home I said to Lily that I would be so cross if when we got home the table had done it's thing again. We walked in, she ran to the table and said, "you are going to be cross". Arghhh, I couldn't believe it. You need to understand that if I start something it has to be done immediately and finished yesterday. I named the table my red headed step-child and told Jacob I was going to beat it. I finally did, late last night. Now I only have 4 large pieces to go and this project will be signed off on. And I thought it would be enjoyable. Jeanne keeps telling me that when I get it all done and stand back and look at it I am going to love it...I wonder if I will ever get that far!

I decided I want a Dy*son. I have a hoover and it is great and works fine, well until last week! Apparently it is sensitive and me deciding that I want the Dy*son Ball was enough to make it pout! Then the dishwashers touch panel went on the fritz and then the final nail in the coffin was that my washing machine quit. No warning it just died. The repairman really cheered me up when he said my 3 yr old machine needed a new motor to the tune of $750! H-E-L-L-O...I don't think so. I made a swift phone call to Bosc*h and it turns out it is under warranty but I still have to pay $250 for labor because we didn't buy the extended warranty. Does anyone else find it absurd that companies now have such little faith in the products that you are forced to buy an extra warranty...I think it is truly pathetic! So adding to my busy busy-ness I am now schlepping my washing over to my friends house, cos that is just so darned helpful. (bitch session over)

My little Lily is entering her first horse riding competition. I cannot find the words to tell you how proud she is. She is beaming and not at all nervous. It is 2 weeks from Saturday. I have to go and pick up her costumes/uniforms tomorrow. I truly hope she gets a ribbon even if it is just for participating. It is going to be a long day, 10am-4pm. This is the good stuff that makes the other stuff find its rightful place. Daddy is going to have to work overtime to pay for this little hobby! He says she is worth it.

Rosie went to the Gastroenterologist today. We were there for 2 hours and Rosie actually liked the Dr and didn't whine, whinge or cry. Yay for that turn of events! She can no longer have milk. As of today she is on Pedia*sure. Guess what? She hates it. Won't drink it and is being a real pain about it. Tomorrow she will have no choice. It has 32 cal's per teaspoon. That should put some meat on her bony little frame. She has gained 9oz's since Feb 12th so she is gaining again but has dropped to the 3rd percentile for weight. The Dr. is running a few tests but nothing to invasive as of yet and she thinks she will have all the answers she needs. She was thorough and I feel very comfortable with her and also feel that nothing is wrong with the Rosie Posie. We return at the end of April.

Andie, I hope that you come and visit as soon as you return from Iraq. Stay as long as you want and bring tools and scruffy clothes. I have a feeling I will still be knee deep in stain at that point!

We live in the cruise capitol of the world and have never ever taken a cruise. That's about to change! We are booked to take a cruise at the end of the summer and the best part, we are going with friends. Can't wait! It's a long way off but it is going to be fun. We are heading to Boston this June to take Lily to the Americ*an Girl store for her birthday. So we have lots of fun things to look forward to but right now I have to go back and tend to my red headed step child and finish her off! She will be back in her rightful place tomorrow morning and she will look good....I hope!

Stuff and Happenings.

Is anyone else having problems viewing the blog? Someone emailed and said it won't download and another person cannot see the videos and yesterday I couldn't even get on it? I am thinking of removing the password for a couple of days to see if it helps. (Ok well I have just tried to remove the password and can't...how do I get rid of it?)

I have a new camera and it won't download any videos. Not the one I got for Christmas cos if you remember I dropped that one. I got this on Sunday and I cannot figure it out. Jacob has been really busy working so until he is home for more than five minutes I shall only post photos.

Enough of the techy stuff. Onwards with cuteness.

Rosie started school this week. It isn't really school but Lily had her so hyped up that when we drove to school to drop Lily off Rosie tried to get out of the car too. She really thought she was going as well. She has started Mummy and Me at the JCC. Lily did this programme years ago and we loved it so much and thought we would never be lucky enough to get another teacher like Frankie. The woman is outstanding and has won so many awards. Now Rosie gets to follow in her sisters footsteps. I think it is important for her to have her own "events". She shouldn't just shadow Lily and go to Lily's activities. She needs to learn she is her own person and have some time of her own.

We have had some freakishly cold weather, for here anyway. I have loved every single second of it. We even had a frost warning on Wednesday...good stuff. It appears that Lily and I are the only ones that feel this way about cold weather. Rosie liked it but she gets cold very quickly and her lips turn blue. She is our new thermostat. LOL

Here are some piccies of the week.

I love this photo it just personifies her impish behavior.

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Little Daredevil

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We have spent lots of time outdoors enjoying the cool weather. It is wreaking havoc with Rosies hair.

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Rosie's first school project. It is an igloo. No honestly it is, I swear!

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A little ice fishing. She is starting to smile and loosen up at this point.

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I had so much to say earlier but now I can't remember a darned thing. Oh well no doubt I shall return.

Walking Backwards.

• It appears I have been a little bit tardy in the blog department lately. So here is my catch up list but it starts from today and goes backwards.


• First and foremost: Happy Birthday to my hubby. The girls were so excited to give him his gifts and his cake that the poor guy ended up eating cake for brekky. Rosie decided she needed to sing a solo version of Happy Birthday to him. He had so many candles on his cake that by the time they were all lit and he got to blow them out some of them had been burning for a while so he blew candle wax clear across the room!
  
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  Yes, she ate a candle.
  
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• Happy New Year. 2008 was a good year and I am anticipating the same service from 2009.


• We spent New Years Eve at home. Jacob was working but we knew he would be home by midnight so Lily and I made a little midnight feast and then when hubby arrived home we ate, drank and were merry. We even had some fireworks. Ours paled in comparison to some of the others in the neighbourhood but we had fun. Just before 1.30 we all went to bed but the loud fireworks woke Rosie up so we entertained her for a while and then all went to bed in our bed. Isn't there a bed bigger than a king size? I spent the night holding on to the side of the mattress for dear life and hubby was doing the same thing on the other side whilst the kidlets were sprawled out nice and comfy and snoring to beat the band! Before the girls fell asleep they were snuggled up all close together and wishing each other happy new year.


• The girls and I went with some friends to the Junior Orange Bowl parade on the 30th. It was fun but nowhere near as good as last years. Lily fell asleep on the way home but Rosie kept me company as she is not one to sleep in the car.

Haven't figured out he night setting on my camera yet.

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• Lily has a new game. It is called baby sister in a bucket! Rose loves it to. I don't, I am scared that Lily will drop the bucket.


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• The desktop computer has been so slow of late and both Jacob and I have been going batty so I decided to take the time and clean out all the junk. I was very proud, very proud. He was impressed. I am not the most computer savvy person so when he saw what I had done he was gleeful. Gleeful that is until this morning when he went to check something in our bank account and it was gone. Ooooops. Not a digit to be seen, not a check register to be had. I fled the scene with the girls.
• Every single closet, shelf, cupboard, and catch-all in this house has been purged and cleaned. Nothing has been left untouched. I clean if I get bothered by something and I had a fight with my father, the first of my life, and I stayed up most of the night cleaning. The next day we resolved our conflict but the urge to purge continued. We had hoarded too much crap but now it is gone.
• This person is the reason I got into blogging and as if that wasn't enough now she thinks I need to join Facebook. Lawdy be! Jakey and I joined up the other night and spent hours finding friends we went to school with. We are hooked but I still have a lot to learn.
• Referrals arrived the other day and had we not found Rosie Posie all dressed up and ready to go on a special needs list we would have received our original referral. It would have taken 2 years, 10 months and 2 days. Jacob spent the whole day telling Lily that she was about to see a picture of her baby brother Benjamin. She didn't quite know whether to laugh or cry. He is still talking about Benjamin....should I be worried?
• That is life in a nutshell. We are looking forward to the next year and planning for some fun. I do not make resolutions but Jakey made one this year and I really like his. He wants to spend more of our money on us this year and not the gas tank or the mortgage company and the other boring stuff. So the way I see it, we will be thumbing our way down the street, having our house foreclosed on but living it up! Yee Haw.

Faith Restored In Humanity

Yesterday I was at the supermarket and all the registers had enormous lines at them. There is a school close by for troubled, and slightly mentally challenged kids and they were there also doing there shopping. I got into the shortest line and noticed that the man in front of me had 3 trolleys completely filled with turkeys. As he was an elderly gentleman I asked if he would like some help unloading them. He told me that they were very heavy so I told him I have to lug two kids about and I could manage. We chatted about people helping people and what a wonderful world it would be if we all did it.

He then paid for his gobblers and as he was tucking his receipt into his wallet the lady from the school approached him and hugged him and thanked him. It turns out that this gentleman had not only purchased 50 turkeys for needy families but he had also picked up the tab for the school. It was a very expensive grocery trip and he did it because he cares and because he can. I was so very touched by his kindness.
"My" bag boy Devon helped him out to his car and I told him to hurry back cos he is the only guy the kids will let push the cart. When he came back in he looked sheepish. I asked him what had happened and he very quietly told me the man had given him a very big tip. I told him he deserved and that I thought the old man was a wonderful human being. I felt so good yesterday to find out that there are still kind people in this world.

Now on to today. This might upset some of you as it involves gay rights so if it does just stop reading and come back tomorrow.

Our court system this morning overturned a law that banned gay couples from adopting children. They viewed it as unconstitutional. I am so happy. I was saddened with the outcome of amendment 2 on election day. Gay couples are just like you and I. You fall in love, you cannot help it and since when did love, caring and commitment make you a terrible person. I am teaching my children to respect all others regardless of creed, colour, race and sexual preference. We have a gay couple in our lives and one day I will tell the story of them, with their permission of course. My life would not be the same without them, neither would the lives of Lily and Rose.

It is a happy day and we have so much to give thanks for this year.

I have posted a lot lately but I will be taking a few days off as we are heading across the pond for the weekend. Me and the girlies, off to the Old Country we leave tomorrow evening and will be back on Sunday. We live in Dade County remember, so Lily cannot miss school.

Today It Was Autumn

Today was a cool day for us. The high temp didn't even hit the 65 degree mark and it is really windy making it seem colder. I loved it but since this is Miami I am sure that in 2 days time it will be right back to sweatyville. Lily wore her woolly tights to school and Rosie went outside first thing and announced "cold" and then she giggled. Then she repeated that performance numerous times.

When Lily got home from school we zoomed through her homework and dashed off to the park armed with a kite and a ball but sadly I forgot the camera. We had such fun. The wind picked up at one point and took the kite right out of Lily's hand but I was able to catch it. Rosie went nuts just chasing the ball that was getting blown along by the wind. Simple. Pure. Fun.

We came home to a chilly house cos all the windows were open and we snuggled under a blanket while dinner was cooking. Tonight I put Rose to bed in a pair of all in one fleece jimjams with feet and yet again she just cracked up laughing. We love cold weather....Ok so you don't think 58 is cold but we do! Lily's teacher wouldn't let her take off her cardigan today even though Lily was hot. When Lily came out of the classroom she ripped it off and told me what her teacher had said. Defensively the teacher explained she didn't want Lily to get cold because she would get sick. I was puzzled by this.....germs make you sick not weather! Mind you this lady was wearing a jacket and fur lined boots....Puh-leaze!

Oh and the best part......this cold weather has worn my kidlets out. Rosie napped for over 2 hours today which is unheard of and by 7pm she was falling asleep. I am moving to Alaska.

Lots of Yipping.

My goodness this week has flown by so of course I have lots of yipping to do.

The first thing on my mind is this whole contaminated milk, formula scandal that is coming out of China. We received word from Half The Sky that Rosie's orphanage used the tainted formula. My initial gut reaction was, she has been out of their for 7 months but then the story unfolded a little more and it turns out that this problem has been going on for 2 years. My initial reaction to this was, she is healthy. The adoption websites and boards have been a glow with this scandal, and rightfully so as it is a tragedy and the people behind this need to be punished however I felt that Rosie was OK and she had enough going on with the heart procedure that she just didn't need any other tests being done at the same time. As I spoke to various other adoptive parents I found that some felt the same why I did whilst others were panic stricken and were heading to their Dr.'s offices to get renal ultrasounds done. I called our pediatrician and we had a very, very long chat about it all. We are opting to do nothing yet. She wants to wait and see what the American College of Pediatrics has to say about it and what they feel, if anything, should be done to the children who may have been exposed. She assured me that all an ultrasound will do is show any kidney stones and even if they are there they won't do anything about them anyway. It doesn't show kidney function and that is what we need to find out. She feels that since Rosie is skyrocketing (yeah, pretty funny that she used those words, they made me laugh too) in her growth, her development is right on target, she ran a kazillion tests on her when she first came home, she has had 2 negative urinalysis done and she is totally A-symptomatic, that nothing is wrong with her at all. I trust this woman 100% and with Rosie she always airs on the side of caution and as a result of this we are confident that we have made the right decision. If something appears that she finds alarming we will jump into action. This is a personal decision that we are making I don't blame others for checking deeper into this and I don't expect to be judged for our decision either. Andie, if you are reading this your favourite sweeties have been put on the tainted list! White Rabbit sweets are tainted so considering you ate a bag while you were here you need to decide whether to hop on over to radiology and give yourself a little ole' ultra sound! Ann if you are reading this: oops sorry but she will be fine!

Yesterday hubby found out that his best friend was dead. It was very unexpected and a rather grim situation and due to the circumstances Lily overheard a phone conversation between Jacob and a detective so we told her that Daddy's best friend had gone to heaven and that Daddy was very sad. She said she was very sorry and took off into her toy room. Later on she appeared with a note for Jacob that read:
I am using her spelling as she did it all herself.

Dad.
I now all the good times you had. Now it is the end of them but look at the brit side or don't think about it. It's the onle way to forget.
Love Lily.

She is 6 people, 6! This child has the soul of a much older person. She is so incredibly sweet and kind. I know she is my daughter and I am meant to feel this way but honestly I do not know too many kids that would even think of something like this let alone write it down. She is just so special and profound.
Jacob, I am so sorry sweetheart. I truly hate to see you hurt, it breaks my heart.

Part 2 of my blog book is finally at the publishers. Considering this was a Mothers Day gift, it's about time. I really don't mind waiting because the finished product is so wonderful but now that I know it is so close I want it in my sticky little mitts. It has been promised my Halloween.

Last year Lily received in the mail 2 pre-approved applications for Amex and her AARP card. I just shredded them but last Saturday she received another AARP card and since she loves to get mail I let her open it. She is thrilled, absolutely thrilled to have a real card with her name on it. For my foreign followers AARP is the American Association for Retired Persons. Once you hit 50 you receive this little ditty in your mail about once a month unless you politely tell them to take a hike!
When you watch this video look in the bottom right hand corner and notice Rosie trying so hard to get in on the action. She can clearly be heard saying, Cheese!


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Aren't these the most gorgeous coloured Roses you have ever seen? This arrangement was waiting for me when I got home from work on Thursday. The card read, "To two very relieved parents". Yes they definitely came to the right house. Thank you so much Jeanne and Daddy. Even though I am quite sure that Daddy had no clue about them.

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On Sunday we went to the Dragon Boat Festival. We go each year and always have fun but this year the weather was our enemy and we only got to see one race before the sky fell down.
Here we are watching the race perched on the rocks. Lily was loving it and having a great time.

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Rosie, on the other hand, not so much!

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Tomorrow is National Walk Your Child To School Day. You can walk, bike, skateboard or scooter. We are going to ride our bikes there. Lily is really giddy about it. I am a little bit nervous as it will be during rush hour and we have to cross one really busy street (Sunset) but she has been doing really well so I have to give her a chance. I think we are going to make it a family affair so I am hoping that the old, safety in numbers, cliche will hold true!

Egads, this is a long post so if you are still reading you deserve a medal. Talking of medals, Andie recieved one for her work in Iraq. She was in the local paper with her photo and everything. I would post a copy of it here but I know she would hate it. She deserved it and she will deserve another one in a few more months. Lily thinks having Andie in the paper is amazing she thinks she is famous. She squealed when she saw it.

I promise to make the next post a lot shorter.