"Pregnant Pause" or "Meet Eucalypptus Part 2"

Well, that was some pregnant pause. That's what happens when one is relying on two pregnant women to provide the details of Eucalypptus' creation.

Now, I believe we are aproaching the "fwuffing" station (Abbey's pronunciation). Abbey was all ready to take care of the fwuffing - she had done it before and knew how to do it just right. Well, Elisa thought maybe she should be the "fluffer." After all, she had never done this before. That's when Shannon chimed in that she had never been a fluffer before, either. Well, sensing she would not be the "fwuffer," Abbey scrambled to find a way to remain in charge. Ever quick on her feet she determined that she would be the one to "choose" the sister to be the honored fwuffer. Hmmm...I don't know what happened in the translation but it seems Abbey WAS the first one to fwuff and then Christopher wanted to fluff, too. So you can bet your stuffin' that Eucalypptus is one very fwuffed koala! (Whatever happened to our "newbies," Elisa and Shannon?)

Phew...the hard part is finished. Now we just have to choose clothing and accessories. AAACCCKKK!!!! Are you kidding? The other was nothing compared to this!

Each person had a (different) idea of what the bear should wear. To make matters even more difficult, these things were expensive! Let's see...shirt, shoes, pants, socks, glasses, hats, cell phones, etc. Oh no...I'll bet this involves pain.

Shannon found a cute dress. Abbey wanted it to have a High School Musical shirt. I'm guessing here but I'll bet Elisa was looking at the football uniforms. Darrell was searching aimlessly for video game theme outfits. Christopher was asking if mom would like to have a "camo bear." Matthew would have insisted it have a ball of some sort. Oh wait! Here, look at this. Scrubs! "Hey, are you thinking what I'm thinking? Mom's a 'GREY'S ANATOMY' Fanatic!" "Even better - this set comes with shoes and everything! Perfect!!!" They wanted to give her glasses but her ears were so high that the glasses wouldn't work. Then Shannon found the perfect accessory. So cute...and FREE! Little bows. Bows that fit on the bear's ears. After these final touches were added it was time to go to the computers to list the "particulars." The Birth Certificate!

Ok, here we go. First, bear's name. That was easy. Eucalyptus. Now, how is that spelled? Hey, ask Christopher - he's the spelling champ in the family. He didn't know. They tried sounding it out. That wasn't much help. Elisa called one of her hotel staffers to have them look it up. When they called her back and spelled it out she wrote it out on her hand. By the time this got to the computer they had an additional "p." Now, finished at the computers (thank goodness -that was stressful!). It's time to check out - "oh, you mean the end of the line is all the way over there?" Well, at least the kids all had "bonding" time . After (finally) paying for the bear and leaving, it occurred to Shannon that she didn't know where the birth certificate was. She thought it was still at the store. Elisa reassured her that it was in the box. Ok, we're good to go. "Merry Christmas, Mommy!"

And that's how I came about having the most beautiful, thoughtful koala bear in the whole world. "I love you Eucalypptus!"

Meet Eucalypptus...Part 1

Hi Everyone!
This adorable little girl is "Eucalypptus." She is a very special member of our family. It's really amazing she was ever created at all. You see, Eucalypptus was a Christmas gift to me from my 5 children. She is one special bear!

Actually, the real gift would have been a video of the whole shopping process. I can just see my crew (24 yod, 21 yod, 18 yos, 9 yos, 6 yod, 20 yobf, and 2 yogs) bearing down on Build-A-Bear store at the mall. Or, rather, the VERY LONG line at Build-A-Bear (this was Christmas time, after all).

Once inside the store, the first decision was choosing which animal. I understand that Elisa and Darrell chose the koala. They didn't have too much trouble with this as they know I really like koala bears (which the store sells) and giraffes (which the store doesn't sell).

Abbey feels she is a "veteran" of Build-A-Bear creations and she's going to make sure they get it right. She's a take control kind of kid so I have no doubt she was keeping everyone in line.

The next stop was the "sound station" where for a $5 fee you choose a sound for your bear to make. Christopher wanted the bear to "roar." Abbey would ask Christopher to play the different sounds so she could hear what they were - the only problem was that every time she asked for one, he would hit the "Happy Birthday" sound instead - over and over again. Somehow she decided on the "I Love You" sound but nobody else in the group wanted it. My oldest girls asked to hear the heartbeat sound. They liked it but didn't think it would be heard once inside the bear. They briefly dicussed recording a custom sound - but didn't think they could get all their names, much less a personalized message, recorded in the alotted time. That plus is would add yet another $5 to the cost. In frustration they gave up on adding a sound chip to the bear.

Next is the "pick a heart" and "stuffing" area - I'm proud to say Shannon and Abbey chose a red and white gingham heart for my Eucalypptus. At the time of stuffing Abbey was the one chosen to do "the dance." She danced, kissed the heart, the heart was put in the bear and then the stuffing. It was about this time that Elisa said the bear's name should be Eucalypptus. Abbey didn't like that- she wanted it named "Mommy." I've seen Elisa act threatening and I know she had to be running out of patience, so it makes perfect sense to me that I now have my "Eucalypptus."

Stay tuned tomorrow for the next episode of "Meet Eucalypptus" - We'll start out at the Fluffing station!

Until then...

Busy Summer

August 20th.

What's August 20th?

We're going to be Grandparents AGAIN!!! Yeah!!! Our middle daughter, Elisa, is expecting AND, if you've been reading my blog much you'll know that our oldest daughter is expecting at the end of July. Ohmygosh!!!!!

This is just two good to be true. But know what? We'll take it!

Please keep our girls in your prayers as well as their little ones.

Yes, life is good - and ours is being enriched with two more!

Have a great TWOsday!

Sunday Night Bullets

Well, here we are again...another Sunday night. I don't know what it is about Sunday nights that usually finds me in "random thought" mode. It does seem to be pretty consistent, though.

• There are a number of folks I have admiration for. Some I respect. A few that I love. I'm thankful to say, though, that I'm married to a man that falls into all 3 of those categories.
• We're kept on our toes with 5 children in 5 very different stages of life. It's probably safe to say we're irritated with at least one or another at any given time. Even so, we know we have 5 pretty terrific kids that we love and are extremely proud of. And, hey, they're probably irritated with us, too!
• Oldest son was home for the weekend. He actually spent time on school work. He has a paper due tomorrow and (ack!) asked my advice with some of the wording (doesn't he read this blog?!?) I sure hope he gets a good grade! I only had a bit of college and -zero- Shakespeare.
• Annie, come home... Last May we added two adorable kittens to our family; Annie and Mischief. They are sweet little girls and dearly loved by our family. We don't know why but we haven't seen Annie since about Wednesday or Thursday of last week. She's never been gone before. We've looked around the neighborhood some but no luck. Tomorrow I'll head over to the Humane Society to see if maybe she's there.
• Our 2-year old grandson, Matthew, came for a visit Friday evening. It's always so nice to see our little guy.
• I'm excited to start sewing class tomorrow evening. I got a new macine for taking back-and-forth to classes. It's lightweight and now I don't have to worry about damaging my main, heavy, more expensive sewing machine.
• We had a quiet weekend. We didn't get snow like we anticipated, though. Flurries for a couple of hours but it was preceded by rain and we had no accumulation. I see we may get more around mid-week.
• Excitement's building... Well, it's only 5 days until my baby turns 7. She's so excited about her birthday. When you ask her what she wants for her birthday she says "Anything Girly!"
• SC GOP Primary...Well, we were hoping Mike Huckabee would win our Primary yesterday but it wasn't to be. It was a close race and I was impressed by his post-primary speech. The man displays class! That's something that seems to be in short-supply these days.
• New England Patriots football team is heading to the Super Bowl undefeated. I sure hope they don't win. I was a die-hard Dolphins fan in the early 70's when they went undefeated. I sure would love for them to keep their record of a perfect season/post-season
• Getting better - It's still early in the process but I've got to tell you that I'm feeling so much better the last couple of days. It was a rough week. I'm really hoping this mess is behind me now.

Have a blessed week...

A New View

I was born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where I lived until my 33rd birthday. As you might imagine, snow is a big deal to me. In all honesty, *seasons* are a big deal to me.

Well, last night, the silent snowflakes, floating to the ground, was an incredibly beautiful sight. I stood outside in my back yard at 8:00 for a bit, and again between 11:00 and midnight. I needed the peaceful beauty; the calming effect on this battered psyche.

Yet another incredible view a few hours later in the still of the night. A sepia-toned landscape, familiar, but clothed in a radiance direct from God's pallette.

Then sleep; restful. Demons at bay - at least for tonight.

Cheese to go with that Whine?

Warning... Still messed up from Rx's. Only partially responsible for my rants and raves posted here Overall these days, I'm not happy. I'm not nice.

So, it's no surprise to find that I'm hurt and irritated over some recent events. When I think of "the big picture" I feel petty. When I think of my son's tears - I don't care so much about petty.

I think I wrote about my youngest son winning his spelling bee. I don't remember if I mentioned that he's not moving on to the regional bee. We read the details of the bee, he made his goal (to win) and knew that if he did win he'd go to regional competition (where he made it his goal to win), and ultimately to Washington DC for national competition (he was set on the $42,500 prize package). But, there was a glitch. Glitches are understandable. As adults we run into glitches all the time. Ambitious 9-year old boys, however, don't. How do you explain to the child who did everything he was supposed to do - that the ride was over. There would be no regional bee for him. He couldn't understand how he could have won - yet someone else was moving on and he wasn't. I held my son as he cried his heart out. Three separate times.

Our local bee (for homeschoolers) didn't have enough children participating to send two to regionals. What they determined (and we learned of that morning,) and we as participants agreed to in order for our kids to compete, was that the winner of the 3rd-5th grade division would compete against the winner of the 6th-8th grade division. That winner would go on to regionals.

Well, it sounded good in theory. That is, before my son won his division but lost to the middle-schooler.

(Hind-sight here) Why couldn't they draw straws? Flip a coin? Do something that at least put the kids on an even playing field.

I don't think I'm this upset *just because* this directly affected my child. I don't believe I would have been comfortable with the situation had my child won (in what I felt was an unfair competition).

Not to get the wrong idea, I'm not upset with the folks that put this together. I'm actually grateful to them. The creation of this bee gave the kids an opportunity not previously available to them. I believe they did the best they could at the time, but I do hope changes will be made for future years. And, while I do teach my children that "life isn't fair," I really hate it when they have to learn it in such a first-hand, personal manner.

And finally - while I'm whining anyway...Christopher and Victoria, the other winner, did not receive a single "congratulations" note on the e-loops from our local homeschool groups. Not a single mention for these kids who worked so hard and represented upstate homeschoolers so admirably.

Yes, probably petty - but right now I just don't care.

Back Soon

Here we are, another Monday. Need I say more?

My daughter reminded me that I haven't written recently. I feel like I've been "away." As a nation in this 21st century we are incredibly blessed with medications to help so many ailments. These medications are so wonderful in fact that sometimes one's body doesn't want them stopped. That's where I'm at. My Dr. is making a change in meds that requires one to be lowered to elimination and then starting the new one. This is great in theory, however, my body apparently didn't get the memo. Mostly I've been sleeping; about 20 hours a day. When "awake," I'm slow to process even the most basic of conversations. Writing this entry is stop-and-go. I start a sentence then can't think of what the end of it should be.

So, bear with me during this transition in medications. I'm hoping to be up-to-speed very soon.

Oh, before I forget... a HUGE Congratulations to my youngest son, Christopher. He was the winner of his spelling bee Saturday. He currently holds the Homeschool Spelling Bee title in Greenville, Spartanburg, Cherokee and Union Counties of SC. He's certainly learning that hard work reaps rewards.

Have a terrific week!

The following arrived in my e-mail this week, you know, one of those forwarded items. I felt this was quite good and wanted to share it. Have a wonderful weekend!

I believe- A Birth Certificate shows that we were born.

I believe - A Death Certificate shows that we died.

I believe - Pictures show that we lived!

I believe - Have a seat . . . Relax . . . And read this slowly.

I believe - That just because two people argue, it doesn't mean they
don't love each other. And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean
they do.

I believe - That we don't have to change friends if we understand that
friends change.


I believe - That no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt
you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

I believe - That true friendship continues to grow, even over the
longest distance. Same goes for true love.

I believe - That you can do something in an instant that will give you
heartache for life.

I believe - That it's taking me a long time to become the person I want
to be.

I believe - That you should always leave loved ones with loving words.
It may be the last time you see them.

I believe - That you can keep going long after you think you ca n't.

I believe - That we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we
feel.

I believe - That either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I believe - That heroes are the people who do what has to be done when
it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

I believe - That money is a lousy way of keeping score.

I believe - That my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and
have the best time.

I believe - That sometimes the people you expect to kick you when
you're down, will be the ones to help you get back up.

I believe - That sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry,
but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

I believe - That maturity has more to do with what types of experiences
you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how
many birthdays you've celebrated.

I believe - That it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others.
Sometime s you have to learn to forgive yourself.

I believe - That no matter how bad your heart is broken the world
doesn't stop for your grief.

I believe - That our background and circumstances may have influenced
who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.

I believe - That you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It
could change your life. Forever.

I believe - Two people can look at the exact same thing and see
something totally different.

I believe - That your life can be changed in a matter of hours by
people who don't even know you.

I believe - That even when you think you have no more to give, when a
friend cries out to you - you will find the strength to help.

I believe - That credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human
being.

I believe - That the people you care about most in life are taken from
you too soon.

-Author Unknown-

Rainy Day

Good Morning! Yes, this is a switch. I usually blog late in the evening (don't pay too much attention to the time-stamp - it's never right on here. I've been able to get it within one hour of being correct).

It looks like we're going to have one of those gray, dreary, rainy days. Actually, that's ok. I like rainy days occasionally. Especially if I'm staying home.

I'm reminded of one of my favorite Rod McKuen pieces; "Do you Like the Rain?" and Neil Diamond's "I Think It's Going to Rain Today."

I'll bet my oldest son is happy today, too.

Stay Dry. Stay Warm.

This Just In...

I know I posted a little while ago but I just got some news that I had to share. As a homeschool mom I'm involved in a local homeschool group. This group is like extended family and the best group of prayer warriors you'll ever find. The following are two messages that came through our group last night, and this evening, respectively.

Please pray for my friend Linda and her family. We got to know them
while living in TN. Their 6 yo son, Josh, is having brain surgery
tomorrow. A tumor that was found a month ago deep in his brain. They
are very sweet people and I know they would love to know many more
people are praying for Josh and their family!

Thanks
Lisa
My heart broke when I read what this little boy was going to face today. The following is an update Lisa posted to the loop a few minutes ago.

GOD IS SO AWESOME!Josh was prepped and ready for surgery and 5 minutes
before going back the doctor came in and told his parents that
the "mass" had shrunk by 90% and was the size of a "bb". He said he
would not be able to find it if they tried. Mike and Linda told the
doctor that many people had been praying for him. The doctor did not
respond very much...so they feel that this could have been a way for
them to able to witness to the dr about how GREAT GOD IS!!. The doctor
said he had never seen a mass like Josh's be so large and shaped the
way it was, "lifesaver shape" and disappear so quickly. Josh goes back
in 1 month for another MRI and then they will see what, if anything, is
there. Thank you so much for all your prayers!

Lisa
There's really nothing more I can add to this. I just knew I had to share it with you. Wow!

Post New Year Come Down

Whew, what a season it's been. Let's see, it's January 8th and I'm just about over the holidays and back to "normal" life. I think this would be a good time for a "random thoughts" post.

• It was sad taking down "Christmas;" I love our tree and really enjoyed seeing the outside lights through my bedroom window at night.
• I read a rule of writing yesterday that states you should only use one exclamation point per year. Our writing should be such that exclamation points aren't needed in order for the reader to understand our meaning. Well...does that mean the reader should know where a sentence should end and we omit periods and question marks Too extreme I know but hey I like exclamation points I also like using "..." a lot
• We just got word of a 50th Wedding Anniversary party being held for an aunt and uncle of Kenneth's in Daytona, FL in April. It will be great having a weekend getaway AND seeing family memebers we haven't seen in so long. (Hey, Little Bit, Beware of Abbey!)
• The kids are keeping busy; Darrell's back at Erskine for winter term. Elisa is going back to University of SC Upstate for the next semester while still working full time in hotel management. Christopher is working hard for two upcoming spelling bees - the first of which is this Saturday. Shannon's about to be in her 2nd trimester with the new baby (think girl!). Abbey is our newest reader and she's doing better and better each day.
• I believe 2008 has some wonderful things in store.

Have a terrific week!

New Year Update / Internet Connection Problems

Happy New Year!!!
Let me tell you, it's great to be able to post this. We've had trouble with our cable connection since last Friday. We have Internet access approximately 2-hours a day. One of those hours is spread out in 10-30 second increments. Spotty service? That would be a blessing at this point.

Would you believe we are not slotted for service to correct this until Friday? A week with practically no Internet. That's been difficult.

In trying to hurry and get this posted before I lose connectivity I really have no topic to focus on. I will tell you that I'm taking steps to begin my baby-steps. Does that make sense? Probably not but it's a starting place.

• I have re-joined FlyLady (www.flylady.com) to help with my home organization.


• I signed up for the Duke Diet online program as well as access to their personal coaches/trainers for nutrition, fitness and emotional issues related to weight loss.


• As far as my homeschooling difficulties with my 4th grader's curriculum goes, I'm working with my husband on computer issues (new curriculum is fully computerized and currently maintained on my son's laptop - I'd like to be able to access everything from my laptop), a friend from church who's familiar with the curriculum and the online community of other homeschoolers using this curriculum.

My next hurdle will be fighting the desire to get too many things done at one time. Once I get started I want to do EVERYTHING all at once. That doesn't work, I get overwhelmed, can't decide what to work on and therefore, do nothing. I've been on this road before and I know where the sinkholes are. Now I just need to steer past them while staying on the road.

I better get this posted while I can. I should have a new posting sometime over the weekend.

Are you working on baby-steps? Big projects? Anything in-between? Please drop me a comment and let me know.

Back in a few days!