So, I'm 48 now.

A couple of days ago it was my 48th birthday. We rented a car, did a few things around town, got The Boy registered for Head Start, and then drove out to the Casino where Howard works for dinner. We ate in the restaurant that Howard works in, they comped our meals, which added up to be something like $70, and they got us a room! It was a nice room with a king size bed, which was good because we had The Boy with us and he takes up A LOT of room in bed. LOL We took The Boy out to Play World for an hour so we could do a little gambling. I lost $20 at the slot machines. I'm not all that excited about gambling so I was happy to leave to go get our son. We then went to the room and watched some TV and went to sleep. All in all a good day.

The night before my birthday Mark and Eileen paid for my dinner when we went out with Mom and Snowanna (and her two kids and fiance). It was nice to be with family.We went to Rocking Rogers a 50's style dinner.

Happy Birthday Cody.

Today my brother Cody turns 45. Wow, that seems old when applied to my little brother! I don't remember much about him as a baby, I was almost 3 when he was born after all. In later years we got along pretty well. These days we don't have a lot in common, except for having kids about the same age.

Cody is a good Dad to his 5 kids. He is a hard worker, and I believe that he is a pretty good husband to his wife of ... could it be 21 years, 22 in December?!

I remember When Cody started first grade. Several of my class mates had siblings in his class, so I got to hear all the gossip about him. I heard how he was always chewing on his colors and pencils. I heard that he and eaten all the erasers on his pencils, and I heard when he got in trouble for eating paste. It seems he couldn't keep things out of his mouth. LOL

I can remember one time, while riding our bikes with the neighborhood kids (if the kids from the house across the field could be called neighborhood kids), when Cody had a spectacular crash. He and one of the other boys were riding in a figure eight, going the opposite directions, and had a head on crash. Yes their front wheels crashed into each other almost perfectly! Up they went, in a reverse version of a wheelie. And I swear they smacked their backs together before they crashed to the ground in a big tangle of bikes, arms, and legs. Except for a couple of scrapes and bruises they escaped injury.

Cody seemed to be a fairly social person, he always had friends. We didn't travel in the same circles, but then we were 3 years apart in age so that makes sense. In later years I didn't pay that much attention to Cody, he seemed perfectly happy and able to take care of things for himself. He married a wonderful woman that I'm happy to call "sister".

So, I'd like to wish my little brother Cody a very Happy Birthday, even though he doesn't read this blog.

Socks.

I've been knitting again. I got some blue self striping yarn while waiting for CLGN's birthday party, The Boy picked it out himself, to make socks out of. I got a set of double pointed needles and a steel crochet hook as well. I had this pattern for kids socks from Lion Brand Yarn, it's free to download. It was easy to follow the pattern, and I liked the way the stripes turned out.

Here is the bottom/sole of the socks.

A view of his feet from the top.

I had quite a bit of yarn left over from the little Jumpers/dresses I made for SLGN and MSLG, so I started some socks for myself. The Boy decided he wanted some made out of the "Orange striped yarn" as well, so I put mine aside (they are more complicated to make than his are) and made him a pair. This yarn is just a little bit smaller/thinner than the blue was so the socks are just a little bit smaller. Enough that they slip off his heel when he wears them around the house. He loves them though so I guess they are good enough.

Just the socks.

The boy and his new socks, well the sole of one sock anyway. the grey stripe should be on the heel not below it. (sigh)

I'll take a picture of my socks when I get them done and show them to you as well. I don't have any pictures of them right now, not progress pictures or anything. Hmmm I guess I'd better get the camera out and take a few pictures. :)

A picture post.

My Sweet little Grand-Niece, now known as SLGN. Such a sweet little baby face!

Here is My Mom and SLGN.

SLGN looks kind of shocked in this one. I love it!

My Cute Little Grand-Nephew, now known as CLGN, on his third birthday. He finally agreed to allow me to take his picture. Until then he just ran away or hid his face.

The Boy and CLGN eating Pizza at the Birthday Party.



Mark's Guide Dog, Cooper, getting in the spirit of the Birthday Bash.

Mark and his Granddaughter, SLGN, looking so sweet together.

My Sister-in-law, known as Ellie to Mark's grandchildren and Aunt Ellie to The Boy and Cody's kids, holding a sleeping SLGN. This was such a beautiful scene I had to get a picture of it. My photo doesn't show them even half as beautiful as they were in real life.

SLGN sitting with the help of her Daddy. Things were so busy around us I'm lucky I got one of her looking at me!

An other of a very beautiful little girl. Yes her hair is red right now, I hope it stays red but will probably go blond for a while during her childhood.

I've been away for awhile.

I've been up at my Mom's house since ... evening of the 18th. I helped her do some more canning, we did tomatoes, beets, carrots and green beans. It was nice being up there again. Aidan love being with his Grammy and Grandaddy. He just figured out he has to share them with some other kids, and adults too. But I don't know if he knows just how many people share them. LOL

It was time to come home though. Aidan needed to have his things and his space. He was starting to push things and act out to see how far he could go. So it was time to get him back into familiar territory and get him back into his normal routines and stuff.

Besides my Mom got the flu or something and wasn't feeling well the last couple of days. My Dad's vision is getting pretty bad these days, but he was still able to bring us home. He is getting glasses that should help some, but won't make his vision "normal".

It's so nice to be back home. I love visiting my parents, don't get me wrong. I just like being home too. I don't sleep as well when I'm not home, plus I had Aidan in the bed with me. Sleeping with a 4 year old is interesting to say the least. He moves around a lot, and kicks throws his arms around and even talks in his sleep. He also had his first ever accident and wet the bed. We were upstairs rather than in the RV this time, because there were people who were going to come look at it with the possibility that they would buy it. So anyway he couldn't get to the bathroom and didn't wake me up. Not a big deal, I guess, the mattress has a water resistant cover, and it wasn't a big accident. I cleaned it as well as I could and Mom will spray it with Fabreese or something to help if it smells. I might have to put him in a over night pull up next time we are up there. Anyway, It will be nice to sleep in my own bed, and eat the food we want to eat, and do the chores I need or want to do.

I have some new pictures, I'll get around to posting some of them soon. I have some of the new little girl in our family, but I want to ask her Mom before I post them. I have good ones of Mom's cats, and even Pepper, her dog. I'll post more soon I promise.

Happy Birthday Mark!

Today is my baby brothers birthday. He turned 39 today. It's interesting to think of what I remember of his life, I'm almost 9 years older than he is. He was a cute little blonde boy, sweet and very smart. I taught him how to play chess when he was about 4 or 5 and I quit playing about a year later when he started to beat me on a regular basis. (I stopped letting him win sometimes a couple of months after he started to play.) We used to sing at Christmas, Mark and I. I remember singing "Do you hear what I hear" several times. I'm not sure if my voice was any good or not, but Mark was pretty good.

Mark has a fantastic memory for details. I don't think it's a photographic memory, but it's pretty close. If I ever get on one of those shows where you can call someone to help you answer a question Mark will be my first choice.

We seem to be interested in many of the same things, and we both like to discuss things (sometimes with a bit of heat). If I weren't Mark's sister, and we had the opportunity to meet, I think we would have been great friends. I have always enjoyed his company.

Mark, if you are reading this, I want you to know that I'm very happy that you are my brother, and I hope you think of me as a friend as well because I think of you that way. I'm very pleased that you found a woman that helps you be happy, someone who you can talk to and you don't have to worry about her understanding "Flower Beds". (Inside joke, sorry.) I hope your day is a good one, although you are probably working today. You deserve to have a Happy Birthday.

I love you little brother!

Happy Birthday Allen!

Today my sweet little curly haired, blue eyed boy turned 25! I can't believe he's already 25. I remember his blonde curls and beautiful blue eyes looking up at me full of love. I remember hugs and kisses with grubby little hands because he had been playing and just needed some Mommy love. I used to tell him my Allen love tank was getting empty and needed a refill. That would always get me some more hugs and kisses, specially strong ones to last a while.

Now he is 25. His hair is in dreads not curls, but his eyes still look at me with love. (When I get a chance to see them that is.) He is living on the other side of the country from me right now, all grown up with a life of his own. He is getting ready to got to Angola soon to work with street kids there. I'm proud of my boy, I just wish he would have found something that inspired him closer to home.

I know that he doesn't read this blog, but I still wanted to tell him that I love him.

My dear sweet Allen,

Today you are 25 years old. The years have flowed past so quickly, you've grown up. I miss you every day. I love you always. I'm so proud of you for following your conscious and doing what you think is right. I wish I could hold you, give you some hugs and kisses, and tell you that I love you more today than I did yesterday, but not as much as I'll love you tomorrow.

Have a wonderful day.

Love Mom

I'm lucky to have the family and friends I do.

I've noticed a lot of discussion lately about two subjects that are rather important to me, Breastfeeding and Adoption. Maybe I was just lucky when I was born into my family, but neither of these subjects has ever been an issue. My friends have never been anything but supportive. Even 28 years ago, when I was breastfeeding Christopher, I never ran into anyone who told me to cover up, or that I shouldn't do that in public. Of course I wasn't out in public all that often, but if my baby needed to eat and we were out, I nursed him. Maybe I was more comfortable, or my clothing fit looser, or something because I don't think anyone noticed when I'd sit somewhere quiet and nurse. When it was cold out I might cover up with a blanket, but not in the heat. Christopher was born in May, I nursed him for just over a year, so we had our fair share of warm weather. I don't remember being worried about offending other people, or looking for someplace to nurse where others wouldn't see me, but maybe I did at least subconsciously. I know that I nursed in front of family members because I can remember talking to my little cousin and telling her what I was doing. Well actually she asked me "What is he doing?" LOL

I never ran into the over zealous breastfeeding women after The Boy came along. Since I didn't give birth to him and didn't know that I could do something to start lactation, I had to feed him formula. I've heard of women who have been actually yelled at for giving their babies bottles. Again I was lucky because I never ran into any of them. I can see both sides of this issue, because I've been there. It is better for a baby to be breastfed if at all possible, however it isn't condemning a child to ill health if for some reason the Mother can't breastfeed. Some people will say that using formula is the lazy way, but for me it would have been easier to breastfeed, I hated getting up in the middle of the night to make a bottle. Picking him up, he slept right next to me in a bassinet, and latching him on would have been so much more relaxing. Some Mom's don't have it that easy, I realise that, and I really respect their decision to continue nursing even through the pain and other problems.

I've also read discussions recently about adoption. That people still feel that it should be kept secret, that there is some shame in it somehow. Again, I've been lucky. My family and friends are all very supportive of adoption. No one seems to feel that adopted children are second best, or that they aren't "really" part of the family. I know that I love The Boy as much as I love Christopher and Allen. I love them each differently, of course, because they are all very different people. But I do love them all just as much as I love the others. I love all 5 of my brother Cody's kids, and think of them as family. Some of them are adopted, but that doesn't matter to me, or to the rest of our family.

So, I've been lucky. I haven't had to face the people who would try to shame me for my decisions. I haven't had to defend my choices or describe the circumstances that led to our situation. I am very grateful for that. I am also very grateful for my family and friends who have always been supportive of me. (Even though I didn't know some of my friends today back when Christopher and Allen were babies, the friends I had then were supportive and the friends I have now are supportive. Thanks you guys!)

What I've been up to lately.

Things have been busy for me for about a week now. On Friday, the 24th, we got up at 5 AM to get ready to take a taxi to the train station. The train was supposed to be there at 6:42 but didn't arrive until 7. Not a big delay, but The Boy really wanted to get on the train, and waiting was really boring. We took the train up to Portland, and then had to take a Grey Hound bus up to my Parents. We had a fairly long wait for the bus, but then everything was good.

My Mom picked us up and took us home, but then had to go back to work. So we got to know the kittens and relaxed until Mom and Dad came home. Howard went out to the storage trailer and threw some of the stuff out. When he came in he told me to be prepared, things were bad in there. We visited with Mom and Dad for awhile and then went out to the RV to go to bed.

Saturday was full of canning tomatoes and getting mixed news from Howard about the damage in the trailer. There were some interesting things that made it through relatively unharmed. Like a Harry Potter book in a plastic box that was sealed and hadn't leaked even a little, which was found in the middle of a box of other things that were ruined. We picked up the U-Haul Saturday afternoon, and The Boy helped his Daddy load up some things.

Sunday Mom and I canned some Bread and Butter pickles and Jalapeno peppers. More mixed news about my things. Nearly all of my books and SCA stuff gone. 3 plastic storage boxes had leaked and were full of water and rotting clothing. The smell was horrible. Pictures of the Older Boys, my treasure chest with keepsakes that were mine baby cloths, baby books, things that were my Grandmothers, and pictures of my parents when they were younger, all gone. But all my Harry Potter books were okay, the videos and DVD's, Beany Babys were all fine. Some important genealogy papers were damaged, but Howard spent hours carefully separating wet papers and laying them out to dry so most of them were saved.

Monday, we finished loading the U-Haul, and tossed the rest back into the trailer. After a shower, we left to drive home. We were too tired to unload Monday evening so we rested and went to bed early.

Tuesday, Carol and her husband Thomas came over and helped us unload the U-Haul. It was hot and exhausting but we got it all done. Well actually they unloaded while I watched the kids, SLG was here, and cleaned and sorted some of the stuff.

Wednesday, taking care of kids in the middle of the mess was interesting to say the least. But we managed and I even made some progress in the sorting and cleaning. My Microwave, Crock Pot, and TV aren't working, but maybe they just need to day out a little bit more. I hope. I got rid of some things that are still good but I don't need, and finding things that should never have made it home at all.

Today, the next to the last day SLG will be coming here, was fairly calm. I washed some of the kitchen stuff, and played with the kids. I posted new pictures on Flickr of The Boy, the Kittens, the Train trip, the ride on the bus, and the produce I brought home from Dad's garden. I need to send SLG's Mom some pictures I took last week. And I'll do some more cleaning. I'm not going to push myself to get things finished, things are safe for the kids and adults in the house, if a bit smelly, so I don't have to worry right now. I'll post the pictures later, or you can go to Flickr and see them.

Photos from The Boy's first year.

While getting my photos off of Yahoo! Photos, and hopefully transferred to Flickr I came across several pictures of The Boy's first year. I thought I'd share a few of my favorites.

Just a week old.

Sleeping on Daddy's chest.

5 Months old.

Sitting in a tire.

Standing up in Mom's chair. (About 7 months old)

Things that make me happy.

I haven't had time, or energy, or what have you to think of things that make me happy for the August Happiness challenge. I admit I dropped the ball there for awhile. So here goes with a short list of things that make me happy today.

Hennifer, who took time off work to take us to the dentist and to pick up medications.
The Boy is back to normal.
Our budget was able to absorb the cost of all the dental work. ($297.50 so far)
The weather hasn't been too hot, or too rainy.
I have a couple of friends I know I can call and talk to when/if I need to.
My Dad celebrated his 69th Birthday on the 10th of this month.

The Boy is doing well, now that we figured out that he will take his medication if we mix it with milk. However, we go through milk twice as fast now. I need to get to the store soon to get milk and a few other things.

Bad Teeth update.

You can see the swelling here. The two lower left back teeth had abscesses on them and they both had to be pulled. Maybe now he will not fight so hard against having his teeth brushed.

So anyway, we took him to the dentist SLG's Mom recommended, they looked at him and determined that there were several teeth that need to be taken care of. But of course those two were an immediate need. They referred us to an Oral Surgeon.

That office recommended that we bring him in right away. So, long story short, we took him in (Thanks Hennifer!) and they rearranged their schedule and got those awful teeth pulled out. He's feeling better now, but won't take his medication very well, so he's in pain quite a bit. We are mixing it with Milk which helps. There is still swelling, but it's getting better. On Tuesday we will take him in for a follow up exam, and hopefully we will have some time to recover financially before we schedule the other teeth. (More on that later.)

Bad tooth days.

The Boy has had a tooth ache for a couple of days. I've been looking for a dentist who would take him as soon as possible and was in our Provider Network for our insurance. I also wanted a Pediatric Dentist because The Boy is going to be really freaked out over this, and I want someone who understands and can handle it. Yesterday I found out that the only one in Salem that matches our criteria isn't taking new patients. This Morning The Boy has a swollen face, and HAS to get to a dentist NOW. Luckily SLG's Mom had a recommendation for me, and they will take him this after noon. They aren't in the PPO, but we can go to them anyway. Insurance will pay 80% after the $50 deductible, but there won't be a reduced price like a Network Dentist would have so we will end up paying more. But they will bill the insurance company first, and then we will pay whatever the insurance doesn't, so I have a few days to make sure we have money in the bank for it.

August Happiness Challenge.

I noticed on one of the blogs I read every day a tag for the August Happiness Challenge. I think I'll join in this. I used to do a Monday post (or whenever I got around to posting that week) about things that made me happy, or made me smile. This is a month long thing, but I probably won't be doing it everyday.

So here goes:

Right now, a nice cup of coffee and cooler weather make me happy.

Feel free to join in, you can add your happy things to comments if you don't have a blog or don't want to do it on your own blog.

New addition to the page.

I've added a Flickr Badge to my blog. I think you can click on it and it will take you to my Flickr site. You may have to sign in, but if you have a Yahoo! account you can use that, it's free and you don't have to put pictures there if you don't want to. Let me know how that works, I've had Flickr for a long time I don't know how these things work.

I take pictures of the kids almost every day. Here are a couple from August 1.

They were pretending to dance together. The Boy is getting more ... happy? ... about having SLG around. He still doesn't want a little sister of his own, but he isn't quite as in a hurry for her to go home any more.

SLG was walking toward me and I snapped this seconds before she abruptly sat down.

August 2.

Here's our little super model again. She saw I had the camera out and gave me this "smile for the camera" smile. Cute isn't she?

The Boy was feeling kind of Blah yesterday. I think he wanted a nap, but if I let him sleep during the day he will be awake late into the night.

The last 4 days or so in Pictures.

The Boy and I went for a walk late yesterday afternoon, looking for plants to take pictures of. Here are some of the flowers we found. This first one is on a stem that is almost 6 ft. tall. It's actually a bit more purple in real life.


These two are different stages of the same plant, I think. I have no idea what they are, but they are interesting.

I don't know if the seed pod behind the flower is from the same plant or not, but I liked the contrast for the full bloom, prime of life, flower and the almost finished, old age, seed pod.

There were several of these, some were very orange others were yellow. I loved the purple centers.

You can't see it very well here, but there are two little spider webs attached to this rose bud.

There was a block party sponsored by a local church just a few blocks away from our apartment. They had BBQ hamburgers and hot dogs with chips and sodas or water. There were several things for the kids to do. Face painting/Fake tattoos were very popular. This little girl is 5 and gave The Boy a "sun" on his arm, he later gave himself some colorful abstract designs on the other arm. They used Crayola Watercolor Pencils which worked wonderfully and washed off very easily in the bath later.

They also had some tubs full of bubble stuff for the kids to play with. The Boy didn't really get how to make the bubbles work right, but he did get bubbles some times. I missed the shot of him falling, bottom first, into the soapy water tub. (Darn it!) The sun light wasn't right to get the really pretty iridescent bubbles I would have liked to capture, but all in all it was a fun day.

SLG likes to wear her Mom's sun glasses, well she does for a minute or two anyway. This was a lucky shot, she looked up at me at just the right moment and hadn't pulled them off yet. I think she's going to be a Movie Star!

The Boy likes playing with SLG, but he is sure he doesn't want a baby sister of his own! He often gets tired of her before she goes home. Here they are sitting together playing with the shape sorter. They look so sweet and cooperative, until you find out that less than a minute later they were mad at each other because they didn't want to play the same way!

Pictures and invite to discuss The new Harry Potter book.

Here are a few pictures of The Boy. This first one is the letter "A" in ASL (American Sign Language). He didn't like waiting for the camera to be ready.



Here is his version of the letter "B". He can't seem to get his fingers together. :)


The same holds true for the letter "C".



He was tired and didn't want to do it any more by the time we go to the letter "D".

We went to the park yesterday. I caught him off guard with this shot.

For those who read the Harry Potter books, I finished mine 11hours after I bought it. I'm going to read the whole series from start to finish now. If you would like to discuss the new book let me know, I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't read it yet, or those who tend to read slower than I do so that they can savor a book rather than devour it.

I wish I had some an extra $150! Kitchen Aid mixer deal.

I heard, yesterday, about this fantastic deal at Lowe's. In their advertisement that appeared in papers recently, the deals lasting until July 26th, they had/have a special order Kitchen Aid 5 Quart Mixer for $150! This is a really GREAT deal, because it usually costs $349.99 from the Kitchen Aid web site. The model is this one, and all colors are available. I like the Onyx Black and the Gloss Cinnimon, I cann't seem to get the two greems to come up, but I'm sure that they are nice, oh and Plum won't show itself to me either. You will need to call your local Lowe's, unless you have a copy of the add to take in with you, ask for appliance customer service. Tell them that you want the special order Kitchen Aid mixer and give them the model number. (It's KSM150PS plus two letters for the color code) There shouldn't be any problems with it, people all over the country were talking about it on a message board I belong to. Some think it's a mistake in the ad, others say it's a real special order thing. I hope that some of you can take advantage of this, I can't right now. (I hate credit cards because I can get into big trouble with them, but I wish I had one right now, I could make Payments and I could get one. sigh)

If you do get one let me know, or if you have a problem with it let me know. Don't blame me however, LOL, I'm just passing on something I've heard.

I know I promised postings on the days we spent down by the river, so here it is.

THE THIRD OF JULY

Howard is holding SLG while The Boy plays in the water.

The Boy playing in the water.

SLG playing with The Boy's Gatorade bottle. She was very good sitting on the blanket and playing with the toys we brought for her, she liked the bottles better though.

A nice close up. A little blurry but you can see how pretty she is.

I think she is going to be a Super Model! She does product endorsement fairly well, don't you think?

A couple of scenery pictures.

So that gives you an idea of our day, July 3, 2007. We were there for a few hours, but the sun was giving me a head ache so we left earlier than we had planned. We did decide that we would be spending The Fourth of July down there.

THE FOURTH OF JULY

The boy didn't want to play in the water this time. He spent a lot of his time looking at rocks and walking along the shore line.

Carol found this little crawdad in the water by a log.

A family of ducks came by for a visit a couple of times. The kids fed them one time with a left over hot dog bun.

A group shot, Thomas (Carol's husband), Carol, Thomas's sister, The Boy and me. Howard was taking the picture. We had picnic with grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, and some potato salad I made the night before. I forgot the can opener so we didn't get to have the baked beans I brought.

The pictures of the fireworks worked better this year than they did last year.

I hope everyone who celebrates the Fourth of July had a great time. All the rest of you, I hope you had a good day anyway.