I know where I was exactly seven years ago today. I was on my way to Kazakhstan on my first adoption trip for Michael. I had been in the process of adopting him for over a year, and I had known about his existence since late 2005 when I had seen a photo of him on the Adoption Ark website and had a lightbulb moment, knowing I was seeing the face of my son.
The photo below is not the one on the listing, but it's pretty similar.
He was 9 years old. Wasn't he a cutie pie!?
There have been so many ups and downs in the past 7 years but very few involved Michael. He has been a great kid 95% of the time, which is pretty remarkable.
He has grown up so much in just the last year. And in 4 months he will be 18! Yikes.
Mother's little TV she watches in her room died about 2 weeks ago, and we went to Goodwill and bought her a new/old one for about $7. Couldn't get the Direct TV remote to work, however. I called them yesterday after lunch, and still couldn't get it done. So when Mike got home, Mom gave him $20 and sent him to Goodwill again, to buy a newer one.
For $5.95 he got a little Samsung with a great picture, and was able to program the remote in 5 minutes. She doesn't watch much TV but she likes to have it on.
I was so proud of him for going and buying the TV by himself. He used to get freaked out a lot in stores, even in Goodwill. Now he is a confident shopper. He also hooked it up quickly and easily, and was insulted when I told him I'd had the Direct TV people email me the directions about programming the remote.
And.... I have no idea why someone would go and pay hundreds of dollars for a brand new TV. Our Goodwill has tons of older TVs that work fine. No, not high def, but so what?! I am constantly amazed by people who think they have to have the latest and greatest gadget, and are willing to go to the edge of bankruptcy to get it. Yikes.
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On a completely unrelated topic... I am reading Inferno, by Dan Brown. Good book. I have to keep putting it down to go on Google and look up the places where the main character is running around. He's in Italy, a place I've always wanted to go, so I love the descriptions.
Did you know that a lot of famous people have death masks? After someone like Dante died they would pour plaster on the face and make a mold, then make death masks. The book talks about death masks. Fascinating.
Hollywood figured out long ago that this mask making was an effective makeup and prosthetics tool. I remember studying makeup at UGA [I was a Drama major] and you can do it on a living person. You put straws in the nose so they can breathe during the process of making the mold. When the face is done, the makeup artist can then use it to fashion rubber prosthetics.
Anyway, it's a good book and I always learn stuff from Brown's books, in a fun way.
