The Crab Chronicles

Proud of My Daughter

I am VERY proud of my daughter today.

Alesia was interviewed for the Gateway 2 Success magazine which pertains to students in the Gateway to College program. They interviewed and photographed six students for a feature called Student Spotlight. She emailed me the magazine, which is in Adobe, so I can't link to it here, I don't think. It showed a photo of her and this quote from her:

ALESIA THOMPSON
Career Aspirations: Automotive Engineering
Describe your Gateway Experience: “I like the fact that I can finish high school here and hopefully go to college here also. The schedule makes my time management easier. Sometime the homework just overwhelms you, but it is good because you learn so much.”

She works hard on her homework, for hours each day.

When I think of what a long way Alesia has come in maturity over the past six months, it's amazing. She was so uninterested in anything but "partying" last summer. Now she is studying hard in college and working hard. It's kind of tough for me and Mother to back off and let her make her decisions on clothes and friends and socializing, but what we're seeing is that she's handling it all pretty well, and learning some lessons that only experience can teach her. [We still pray a lot, of course!]

One good thing about Gateway is that they have special classes that help the kids develop as people, not just students. Alesia screened the terrific movie Freedom Writers in one of her classes, and we watched it here last night. It shows impoversihed high school kids in rough family situations with little hope except for gangs and violence, learning to see themselves as valuable and to be good students because of a caring and dedicated teacher.The kids learn that talking and writing about their lives helps them to understand and put their experiences in perspective.

For a class assignment, Alesia recently wrote honestly about her experiences last year and how she has changed. She wants to be open about it, not try to hide it under the rug. A lot of teens go through similar rebellions. Few of them are willing to talk about it later.

Her honesty is very gratifying to me. She learned it from me. I don't write about everything here, but I write honestly about a lot of our challenges as a family, and about my kids. I sometimes get criticized for being so open. How can I comfort and inspire other parents if I am not open? How can I prove that adopting older kids is a good idea, if I don't present an honest portrait of our family? My kids know I blog and they know why I blog and they can look at this blog any time they want. If they ask me not to blog about something I respect that. But the only way to prove my point about older kids being worthy of adoption, is to write about our lives realistically and honestly.

I am trying hard to find a job, and show my kids that when life knocks you down, you get back up. I remember being impressed by a quote I read not long ago that said something to the effect that it doesn't matter if you fail at something, it matters that you tried and that you didn't let that failure stop you from trying again.

If you'd like to see a copy of the magazine, just email me.

Inspiring Dancer

Every once in a while I run across something that moves me so much I have to put it on here and share it.I love stories of all kinds, but stories about people who refuse to give up no matter what happens to them always inspire me.

As most of you know, my son Michael has only one hand. I belong to a Yahoo group specifically for adoptive parents of limb difference children, and it's a wonderful group. It has 719 members, and the children are adopted from all over the world.These are loving, smart, funny kids, just like any other kids. The missing hand or leg doesn't stop them. They inspire all us parents.

Anyway, Lorraine Fuller is another parent in the Yahoo group. Lorraine posted this about her daughter and it made me cry. With her permission I am reprinting it here. I will try to post a photo.

I wanted to take a moment to brag about my daughter. Paulina was adopted from Russia at the age of ten months. She is missing both fibulas and one tibial and most of her foot and ankle bones. She had a symes amputation on her right leg and a little bitty foot on her left leg where her knee should be. (also some hand differences, but they don't affect her much at all). Anyway, she is a dancer. She dances ballet and tap with her regular prosthetics, and she invented her own special prosthetics that Scottish Rite made for her to dance on Pointe and she does hip hop and some other types without any prosthetics. 

 

At the end of January, she attended a hip hop convention. She took a two hour class Friday night and danced all day Saturday and Sunday and walked away with a top award. Since she won that award the year before, they just gave her a lifetime scholarship.  She got a standing ovation and it was pretty amazing.

 

This past weekend she went to a more general dance convention called the Pulse. She was in the opening number so this meant lots of dancing, again starting Friday night.  One of the instructors was Mia Micheals, world famous choreographer.  Mia stopped class (500 in that class, over a thousand in other classes) and told the dancers that this (Paulina) was what it meant to dance with heart and to put your all into it.  Afterwards she hugged her and told her that she wants to work with her. 

By lunch break on Sunday Paulina had terrible rug burn on her legs and the end of her "stumpy" was cracked and bleeding. (she doesn't wear prosthetics to dance in conventions because after the first hour of classes her legs swell too much from the constant dance, it's pretty high level intensity) She danced two more classes giving it her all and would not quit.  (Even when the last teacher, very grumpy because he had just flown in two hours before from shooting a Brittany Spears video told her to stand up three times before he figured out she didn't have legs)  Anyway, Mia Micheals wanted to recognize her in the award ceremony so they offered her a lifetime scholarship and she got another standing ovation.  Capezio, one of the biggest names in dance supplies, gave her some free shoes and some other opportunities may be opening up.  She went to school in her wheelchair yesterday, and came home sick at 2.  She is home sick again today. (Her dance teacher is also sick, so I think something was going around and all the dance weakened her immune system) but she still says it was worth it. She told the Capezio lady that dancing was like breathing for her. 

Oh and the capezio people thought her pointe legs were a work of art, so great job Scottish Rite!!! Anyway, thanks for listening to my brag, I am so proud of my daughter. She doens't give up or slow down or ask for special treatment, she just gets out there and does her best. She practices all the time and works hard.

Lorraine Fuller

Poking Fun at the Rich and Silly

There are many things I don't like, but I absolutely LOATHE pretentiousness. [I am proud of myself for typing that pretentious word so fast - Ha!]

I was scanning the job ads online today, as I do every day, and I ran across an ad for a guest blogger for an online magazine called Haute Living. Now, is it pronounced like "hot" or like "oat" with an H? I don't know. Doesn't matter. It's still pretentious rubbish. 

Just for fun I decided to check out the website.

Here is how they describe themselves: With a strong editorial focus on inspiring power players and unstoppable business moguls alongside intriguing editorial on “toys for boys” (private jets, megayachts, supercars, timepieces, and more), Haute Living is targeted towards those who desire—and have the means to experience—the finest things in life.

Really? And how does one define "the finest things in life"? Here are three of the finest things in life, in my book: hugs from my children, eating vegetables I've grown, and hearing my family laugh.

Take that up the pooper, Haute Shots.

Only people who fly in private jets can get the print edition. I assume those are people so filthy rich that reading about the latest "toys" is about as exciting as it gets.

Atlanta is not one of the homes of the regional editions - those are limited to New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

I guess we don't have enough pretentious mega-rich southerners here.

Pity.

[Not!]

We got us some celebrities though - they don't even have outhouses behind their homeplaces!

This story about Queen Latifah renting Jane Fonda's condo was pretty interesting. Why they think the Queen would keep all of Jane's furniture and stuff, I don't know. It's a nice condo, but it doesn't look like real people live there. Where are the plants? The photos? The dust bunnies? Where are the catalogs? Where are the sweaters and throw pillows and piddle pads that make a house a home?!?

Here's what really made me chuckle about that story: it has a "restaurant grade kitchen." Can you picture Jane cooking? I can't. The only time I have ever seen "restaurant grade kitchens" they have always been in the homes of people who DO NOT COOK. Years ago an attorney I worked for invited me to her home [along with everyone else on the team] and the kitchen was spotless and gleaming. I couldn't figure out where the fridge was. It was high tech invisible. The stove looked like it had just been delivered from the store. Top of the line everything, for a couple with no kids who DO NOT COOK. Huh?!?

Rich people have more money than sense.

I happen to know for a fact Jane Fonda smokes cigarettes like they're going out of style. My second cousins's wife's mother has seen her outside a ritzy store puffing away, on several occasions.

By Southern family standards, that's practically the same thing as me seeing it. ICK. I can smell the smoke now.

[That's probably why Jane looks so young - like a ham dried in a smokehouse - keeps it from going bad...]

Take this story about a designer named Megan Huntz, who apparently lives in Italy. Why does the image appear to be a curtain lying on the beach? Does anyone want to wear a curtain covered in sand? How is that fashionable?! Check out the fashion video on her website. I haven't seen a stuffed crow on a pancake hat in, well..... forever?!

What mega rich folks don't understand, and will never understand, is that normal people, like moi, think they are silly idiots. I am pretty sure nobody reading this is mega rich, but hey, in case you are reading this and you ARE, well, I don't envy you.

My father was a banker in charge of a trust department for over 35 years, and I was around rich folks and hearing Dad talk about rich folks all my young life. Here's what I learned. They have MORE problems than we do. Not only do they have to worry about keeping their millions away from Uncle Sam, they have to worry about lowlifes trying to take their money from them by marrying them, or selling them useless junk like ermine coats for the dog. Three of Dad's clients were sisters who had a ton of money and they all married lowlife hustlers who took their money. ALL of them fell for charming rogues - multiple times. Not one of them was happy.

So Haute Living can go find expensive toys for their pretentious readers and find idiots to write about that crap. I have better things to do.

The Switch Sunday

I think Sunday should be a day of rest, but it often doesn't work out that way. Yesterday, it did, for almost everyone in the family. I didn't really get to rest, but that was OK.

Sometimes I feel like the director of activities on a cruise ship, minus the blazer.

I took Michael to Sunday school, got my hair cut, did the grocery shopping, took Mother to lunch, and went by our favorite produce stand.

Michael said before we went to Edoardo's for lunch that he was really hungry. Well no wonder. All he had for breakfast was jelly toast. I don't push him to eat protein at breakfast if it's not a school day. Maybe I should re-think that. At Edoardo's he ate two tacos, an enchilada, and about 500 chips with salsa. We had to order extra salsa. At one point I thought he might drink it. Theirs is homemade.

We got home and mom [who had eaten well, too] wanted a nap. Alesia was feeling puny. So grocery shopping was me and Michael. He said he was so full he could hardly move. He fell asleep in the car - and the produce stand is 5 minutes from the house, on the way to the grocery store.

For dinner we had shepherd's pie, the only English dish I know how to cook. It's just a layered casserole, with ground beef on the bottom, a veggie atop that, and mashed potatoes and cheese on top. I usually use green beans as the veggie but we only had one huge can. Second choice is green peas. Mom said she didn't want the peas. So, after a frantic search through the pantry, I used canned spinach. Michael gobbled it down. Alesia looked at it in horror, but ate a reasonable amount. I am not fond of canned spinach, but I mixed it with cream cheese and onion powder and it was fairly tasty. Michael ate two helpings, then a bunch of fresh strawberries.

I think he is growing.

I must admit here, publicly, I think Jason Bateman is a hottie. I just adore him.

We watched the cutest movie last night, The Switch, with Jennifer Anniston and Jason Bateman. All the reviews of it said it's a rotten movie but that's not true. It's really an intelligent, endearing movie. The plot is rather contrived, I'll admit. The jokes were hysterical. My favorite one was when Bateman's best guy friend tells him he reveals too much of himself on first dates and that's why the relationships don't make it. "You can't show her the crazy until you get through the hors d'ouvres!" he says. I laughed and laughed. The kids looked at me like I was nutso.

After 20+ years dating, of course I would find that humorous.

I used to spend first dates mentally picturing what our kids would look like. That's why I never got serious with any guy who had a big butt. No kid needs a double dose of that gene. Or the short legs gene. I digressed.

Anyway, Alesia is not sick - yay. I have a much better looking head now, thanks to the new haircut. It's the start of a new week, and I am trying to stay positive and tell myself "I WILL get a new job this week!"

Keep praying for that for me, OK?!

I gotta stop thinking about Jason Bateman and think about something useful...

News of My World Today

This will be a quick update because there's really not a whole lot going on in my world. There are a few somewhat interesting tidbits to pass along, though.

• The weather is VERY spring-like here. It was near 80 yesterday afternoon and Mother actually wanted the air conditioner on for a few minutes.
• I got another call about a job, a legal job, which is great. I go in next week for testing. They want to know if I can type 50 wpm [piece of cake] and think logically. Guess I need to look up that word "logic" huh?!
• I signed up for a website in which legal professionaly "network" and it's mostly kvetching about the horrible state of the job market. The update emails are rather depressing...
• I had planned to have shepherd's pie for dinner last night but Michael's friend Jack came home with him, and in chatting I realized that child is Roman Catholic, so no meat on Friday. I quickly switched gears and made a shrimp quiche and spinach souffle. / When I was a kid we didn't eat meat on Fridays for a while, but once Mother realized that having fish sticks or mac & cheese was a big treat for me and Bruce she just quit fooling with it. The point was sacrifice, not celebration.
• Some of my seedlings are so tall they can't stand upright, like the zucchini. I am wondering if I need to put them in bigger containers or just go ahead and stick them in the ground. Anyone care to weigh in on that? Bueller? Bueller?!
• I finished the Sara Miles book, Take This Bread. Now I need to get the next one. It was such a good book I was reading it slowly.
• Michael has baseball practice for two hours today, THEN a tennis match at 3:30. He is going to be one tired dude tonight.
• Just heard my friend Stephanie is finally getting to go to Bulgaria to get her 3 children! So excited for her.

Free Stuff

I love getting things for free. I suspect that most of us love that. So I am working on obtaining some cool products for giveaways. I want to make April the "giveaway" month here at the Crab Chronicles. 

I have a verbal promise of one item which I think will be really fun to give away, and it ties in with the whole "beach" theme of the blog, so that's terrific.

If you are a small business owner or if you have an Etsy shop, please think about sending me something for a giveaway. It will need to be something easily mailed, obviously, since I don't have a fortune with which to ship large items across the country.It may or may not have anything to do with crabs or the beach - that's not a big deal.

Of course, if you or someone you know owns a restaurant, you can send me a gift certificate.

AND think about this - maybe you don't make anything or you're not a business owner but someone in your family IS, or one of your neighbors or friends. Give it some thought.

I really like helping people market their businesses.

I also like learning about wonderful new products, like those on the website Goat Milk Stuff. I LOVE their soaps!

My blog readership has increased steadily over the years, and even though I don't have a huge following, I have respectable numbers [250-500 views most days], so I'd like to reward my loyal readers and hopefully attract some new ones.

Of course, if I wanted to just blatantly troll for readers I'd mention names like Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga or Charlie Sheen. But that's not how I roll. [cough cough]

St. Paddy's Day Remix

The day started off lousy and I was in an incredibly foul humor, then things gradually got better. I don't know if it was the fact that I have a job interview on Monday, or the fact that I was able to take a short nap right before Michael came home.

Or perhaps it was the fact that I got out by myself a bit around lunchtime. I got my bangs cut [I was starting to look like a sheepdog] and then drove over to my favorite produce stand and got some fresh tomatoes. It was a gorgeous day, in the 70's.

I still didn't get the full story on Mike and the zoo, but I got him to give me the permission slip. I signed it and wrote a check. I am going to make him give it to his teacher. I assured him that staying behind would not mean he could goof off all day with his buddies - his teacher had reassured me on that, so I could use it in my argument.

As I'm typing this, I am hearing everything in an Irish brogue. It's because Mother and I enjoyed watching a special Bobby Flay in Ireland show on Food network. I also found this funny clip of the show which proves definitively that Bobby needs to use more adjectives than "amazing" and "fantastic" and "wow." I disagreed with the commenters who said the show was boring. I loved it. Of course, I've always counted Ireland as one of my top 5 Places in the World to Visit Before I Die...

At one point in the show, when Bobby was showing his daughter around, Michael was sitting at the computer and as soon as the words "his 14 year old daughter" were heard, Michael whipped his head around and checked her OUT. Too funny.

For dinner I wasn't much for cooking since I'd had to haul Mike to baseball pratcice but we sliced up some tomatoes, I fixed some Bush's baked beans, and I grilled some Aidell's chicken sausage. Their sausage ROCKS. The Italian with mozzarella was really tasty. Pop one of those babies on a George Foreman grill and it's done in two shakes. Both kids ate those, which really surprised me.

That's all the news I know this St. Paddy's Day.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It just occurred to me that it's St. Patrick's Day, so have a happy one! I asked my son if he wanted green eggs and ham for breakfast and he looked at me like I was crazy. "Um, NO?!" he said.

"You come from a family that's part-Irish!" I reminded him.

I think the Dr. Seuss reference confused him.

He was a lot more interested in taking out his retainer.

This day is particularly special to our family, as Mother reminded me this morning. It was fifty-five years ago today, March 17, 1956, that my parents met. Dad told me later he took one look at Mom and knew he was going to marry her. Mom said the same thing, love at first sight.

They had a LOT of green beer to drink that night.

Just kidding.

One of my favorite Irish movies is The Quiet Man, starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. I found a video on YouTube that's Irish music and scenes from the film and it's kind of nice. here it is -

If you want to hear real Irish music [sung by an American, ironically] check out Allison Krauss' version of the traditional Irish lament Molly Ban. She's backed up by The Chieftains, the best players of traditional Irish music I know of.

If you want to feel like you've visited Ireland, check out this video by Discover Ireland.com.

Pedicures and Krispy Kremes

Ever feel like life is just dragging you down and all of life is just one long, exhausting struggle to survive?

Yep, me too.

It was one of those days.

Bills, insurance companies, bank statements, rescheduling tennis matches - all those fun calls and tasks occupied most of the day. Need I say more?!

The highlight of the morning was taking Mother to get a pedicure.

The highlight of the afternoon was Alesia walking in the door with boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

The worst part of the day was Michael telling me his class is going on a field trip to the zoo but he doesn't want to go. I couldn't get him to talk to me about it. He just said he'd rather stay behind with one of his friends. I am still not sure what is the real issue, but I will find out. We had an argument about it because I felt he should go to Zoo Atlanta. 

I will spare you the details.

Mike is 14 now, and his stubborn nature is partnering with teenager-ness to bring out some lovely personality traits.

We got past it, painfully.

This was one of the few bright spots in the day, my seed trays:

The only non-sprouter is the tray of pepper seeds..

The Day from Hell and the Tooth Fairy

OK, now that it's over, thanks be to God, I can be open about yesterday. It was the day from HELL. I wish I were kidding.

Mother felt rotten all day. Rotten. She was nauseated, couldn't sleep all night Sunday night, and was having stomach issues. We had barf bags strategically placed around her bedroom all day. I walked her every time she got out of bed. I was so worried all day.

I did a lot of praying.

I also knitted. It calms me down.

Even in her weakened state, mother's brain was working just fine. She figured out, late morning, that how she felt was a reaction to a new medication the cardiologist had given her. I got Alesia to go pick up a different medication after we talked to the doctor's office about it. WHY couldn't the doctor have just told us some people have these bad reactions?!? It's ridiculous.

Last night I spoke to Lesleigh and she is taking the same medication and she said it made her dreadfully sick when she started it. Now she takes 1/4 of the pill and she can tolerate that.

Michael and I laugh at a commercial for some drug where the side effects take longer to explain than why you should take the drug. Hello?! Why take something for depression that's going to make you nauseated and sleepless? Won't that make you more depressed??

Anyway, Alesia was charged with taking Michael to baseball practice last night and picking him up. I didn't want to leave mom. Alesia got lost going there and again coming home. The church is 10 minutes from our house, depending on if the lights are red or green. I talked to Michael on the phone last night at 8 and he said they were on the way home. By 8:15 they weren't home and I just had a gut feeling they were lost. It was pitch dark. Alesia is an inexperienced driver.

I thought I was handling all the stress OK, but, um, nope...

I broke down sobbing. Couldn't stop. Dialed the phone and handed it to Mom. She talked to Michael and he said yes, they had been lost, but now they were in the neighborhood. Yikes.

The kids walked in and I was still crying as I pulled meatloaf, spinach and rice out of the oven where I'd been trying to keep them warm. It took me some time to calm down.

When Mother ate a little meatloaf and some rice, I started to feel better.

Before I went to sleep last night I was praying over and over, please let Mother be able to sleep, please God let her be able to sleep and let her feel better... Then of course I had to go down my mental prayer list because there are a lot of folks I care about who are having issues right now, and of course we are praying for the people of Japan.

Today Mother is feeling much better.

Hopefully a lot less knitting will be done today.

I have a bunch of phonecalls to make, and Mike has an orthodontist appointment, and even that will be better than yesterday.

 

TOOTH STORIES

Last night, just before I went to sleep, I had to stifle laughing out loud, guffawing actually, when I read dooce. I never had the experience of playing tooth fairy with my kids because they had lost their baby teeth before I adopted them, but it's a hilarious tale she tells.

Michael had several gaps in his teeth where the dentist in Kazakhstan had pulled out some of his baby teeth because they had rotted. His birthmom never made him brush his teeth, and the orphanage didn't tell the kids to brush, so oral hygiene was a new thing to Michael when he got here. Then there were the 6 cavities to be filled, the crying, me crying, etc. I do not want to relive the early dental nightmares with him.

When my brother was about 5 or 6 he heard about this tooth fairy deal, decided he needed some extra cash, and knocked out four of his teeth with a hammer or something. I was about 3 or 4 and I STILL, to this day, remember his big bloody grin as he contemplated his tooth fairy cash.

Years ago, when I was in my 20's, I remember seeing a small box on Mother's dresser and opening it up [nothing was ever safe from me] and finding all my baby teeth, in the box. It was sort of gruesome, actually. I stared at them and thought OK, why did she keep these?! I am sentimental, but that's ridiculous... LOL

Lastly, I want to include an image here. When I was a kid I thought Tinkerbell was somehow the part-time tooth fairy. That's what a pictured when I thought "tooth fairy." The image below is what MY kids think when they hear the words "tooth fairy" -

Silly movie. I don't mind looking at the poster, though... [cough cough]