EXCITING NEWS!!! My book, Adopting Alesia, is now available on Amazon! You can order it HERE! Order your copy today, and tell all your friends! They will get it in stock this week, even though it says Out of Stock.
[back to regular post]
I had to get Michael up this morning earlier than usual, because he had am 8:30 orthodontist appointment. Getting him out of the bed took 5 minutes, some of it pulling and tugging, tickling him, singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider song, etc. - then he walked in my room and threw himself down on my bed face first and I had to repeat the whole process of getting him up. It finally occurred to me that I hadn’t said the magic words.
“If you will come on down right now, I will fix you a cup of coffee,” I wheedled. He hopped up immediately.
His “coffee” consists of about ¼ of a cup of coffee and the rest of the mug is filled with milk and sugar. He loves that. He is almost 13, and I only let him have the coffee on the weekends, so I do not worry about him turning into a caffeine addict.
I knew the day was doomed this morning when I tried to get out the front door and was blocked by several poops from Coco. She’s diabolical. She avoids the puppy pads and heads straight for a place like beside the door or in front of the TV where she knows we will eventually step, sometimes in our bare feet [ick! Poop foot!] and I swear I think she hides and laughs at us. I think the term “medically fragile dog” also implies “neurotic dog.”
Anyway, I got those poop booby traps cleaned up, and then realized we had to put out the garbage. So Mike grabbed a bag and I grabbed a bag and we raced the cans out there. Finally, we got to the orthodontist office, 5 minutes late.
The visit was finished quickly, and Michael’s bracket was re-attached to his tooth. That’s done in a long room filled with dental chairs. I sat down to watch and it was sort of comical, because each chair was filled with a gangly boy, all about Mike’s age. He looked small and compact, like a sumo wrestler among the bean poles.
I went home and got another mug of tea. My caffeine addiction requires two mugs of double-strength tea every morning. So I get in the car with it, and forget the mug is in my hands, drive a short distance, and try to make a left turn. I dump half the mug on myself. Hot tea baths while driving in traffic are not something I recommend. There was a lot of cursing. I was already late to work so I didn’t go home and change.
Now, I gave up caring about fashion years ago. I used to care. I used to dress nicely, in coordinated outfits, and makeup and jewelry, the whole nine yards. I even wore pantyhose, for years. No more. Now my fashion goals can be summed up in one word: Clean. Today, I failed to even meet that standard.
When I got home tonight I spent some time talking to the kids while I looked at emails. Mother sent me a funny email and one of the characters in the funny story was Italian, so I read it in a Godfather type voice. [Knew that acting training would come in handy one day.] When I finished Michael smiled and said “You sounded like that guy in that movie!” – but Alesia looked puzzled. “You mean I sounded like the Godfather” I asked. Mike nodded.
Alesia thought for a moment and said “What does the godmother sound like then?”
FUNNY ENCOUNTER
I went downstairs at lunch to get my chicken sandwich and orange soda, and I get in the elevator with a mousy looking young man. He’s holding a cell phone up and dialing furiously as he gets on the elevator. Then he holds it to his ear for a moment, listens, and says very softly, “I’m on the elevator NOW,” and hangs up. I’m thinking ooh, sounds like a mini-drama.
SHRINERS - PRAYER NEED
I was so upset to see here about the closure of 6 Shriner’s hospitals. Those hospitals are so vital because they help families who cannot afford it to get care for their kids with limb differences or orthopedic problems. We have benefited from Shriners’ generosity. I know so many families on the Yahoo group for adoptive parents of kids with limb differences who are just distraught over this closure threat. In countries like China and Kazakhstan and third world countries, kids with limb differences have no hope. Adoptions are often the answer, because in the US the kids can get great care through Shriners. In their home countries these kids face growing up shunned by society and reduced to begging. If these hospitals have to close it will be a terrible thing. Please pray that somehow the money will be found to help the Shriners keep their hospitals operational. [Bill Gates, where are you when we need you?!]
