Another Book in the Making

Years ago I was wide awake one fine morning at 2:00 a.m.  There was a book idea running amuck in my mind.  It was causing me to lose precious sleeping hours, so I succumbed.  Climbing out of bed, finding my journal and making my way to the bathroom I was determined to write down every blinkin’ thought, so I could get some much-needed rest.  Quietly I closed the door and flicked on the light.  After eye-adjustment-to-the-brightness time elapsed, I indeed jotted down every blinkin’ thought…. and there were 60 of them, much to my blurry-eyed surprise.  Each one a story pertaining to my life of weight loss, gain, loss, gain, loss, gain… and God.  That night I named the book Squeezing Laughter into a Leotard: Devotions for Above Average Women, and then I crept back to bed in the dark of the night and slept like a baby.

Three years ago I wrote a blog mentioning this book-to-be:  http://mysistersjar.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/wrapped-up-in-elvis/  During those three years, I had a part-time job filling out adoption paperwork and getting fingerprinted.  So no progress has been made as of yet.  I think only one of the stories is actually written down in black and white.  And once again, I’m in the great battle of food/appetite control.  The PERFECT time to write about the frustrations that chubby people face day in and day out.  REAL stories that women can relate to….. like falling off the wagon with rice krispy treats and not wanting to step on the scale tomorrow morning.

Currently, I’m down 54 pounds since April.   That sounds all great, yet I have 46 to go…. and I got slapped around by Snap, Crackle and Pop tonight, so I’m not feeling real successful at the moment.  Through the past six months, I’ve been able to identify my trigger points that cause me to eat foods that are permissible for me, but not beneficial.  Here’s the short list:

1. When I’m sick
2. When I’m alone
3. When I’m mad
4. When I’m on the phone
5. THAT time of the month
6. When I smell peanut butter 
7. Before an adoption home visit
8. When I see clutter
9. Seeing Green Corn Tamales on a menu
10. When I’m on a long vacation
11. After a friend has died
12. After a homeschool graduation
13. After cooking a meal
14. When I should be in bed
15. At birthday parties
16. When visions of sugar plums dance in my head

Like I said, that is the SHORT list.  Thanks for humoring me and reading to the end.  Hahahaha. 

Tomorrow is another day to live victoriously with my choices and my new and improved health!

The Dangers of Popcorn

Most families have stories that have been told over and over and over… until extinction is unthinkable.  One such story in our house is retold almost every single time someone makes popcorn with the hot air popper.  Yes, we still have a hot air popper, remember those?  I bought it in 1985 when I was heading off to college…. an obvious necessity.

Fast forward to 1987, the year we were wed, in our first apartment in Langley, BC.  The hot air popcorn device had indeed arrived back in Canada with us as a married couple.  Unbeknownst to me the horror that would follow, I pulled the shiny yellow dream appliance from the cupboard and proceeded to pop some corn kernels for my Indian husband…. in memory of his people who introduced us white folks to this delicacy. (That’s not really why… we just love buttery popcorn.)

As per usual, I placed the huge metal bowl under the popper’s spout, poured in the kernels and slid the button to ON.  All was going well until one stray unpopped kernel flew out of the popper, shot down one side of the slippery bowl and out the other.  The kernel reminds me of the song “On top of Spaghetti” with the meatball that goes on a journey.  The tiny golden corn kernel bounced off the kitchen counter and down toward the floor.  Little did I know the pain and agony that was coming.  You see, I was barefoot.  Somehow beyond reason, the little fiery hot kernel landed between my baby toe and the next toe over and lodged itself there for all eternity, sizzling into my skin.  If you have ever burnt the tender skin between your last two toes, you probably have memory tears in your eyes at this moment.  I screamed.  I dropped to the floor.  I cried.  I pried my little toes apart.  I dislodged the burning morsel.  This all happened in a nanosecond, but the results were excrutiating.  The screaming, dropping, crying rapidly brought my husband to the kitchen…. he probably assumed I had chopped off a limb.  But no.  Burned my toes making popcorn.  Ice was applied and tenderly the toes were put up to rest.

Every time the exact same popper is brought down from the pantry shelf, as it was last night, one of my children will mimic me in mocking tones, “Do you want to hear about when I burned my toes making popcorn?”

The moral of the story is:  If the shoe fits, wear it (especially while making popcorn!)

Gotcha Day is Fast Approaching!

Hard to believe!  November 25th we will have had our sweet Nora for a YEAR!  Twelve whole months!  I can’t believe how fast it has flown by…. on the other hand, it seems like she’s been here much longer than that.  She has fit into her forever family better than I could have ever hoped for.  All those scary “preparation” stories from our training never materialized at all.  God picked us to be her family from the beginning!  I have no doubts now.  She is doing so well… with everything!  I have to remind myself that she has only been speaking English for six months!  Amazing how God made youngsters’ brains to absorb languages so quickly.

Here we were sitting in ICBF only a half hour before Nora had a forever family.  So many emotions that day!

So, we know we are ordering Domino’s Pizza, because that’s where we ate in Cali, Colombia the very first night we had the Colombian princess.  Other than that….. I’m looking for ideas and suggestions.  What did you, fellow adoptive parents, do on your first Gotcha Day?  What do you keep doing every year?  Is it a BIG Colombian fiesta with salsa dancing until the wee hours? Or something a little more calm?  Please let me know…. I have a month to plan!

Current Reads

Frequently I am asked what book I’m currently reading.  The question always makes me chuckle because I am NEVER reading only one book.  There’s simply too many good books out there to get hung up on one!  So, for those with inquiring minds, here’s the current book stack on my bedside nightstand:

Top to bottom, here are my current reviews by of the following books that I have partially read.

1.  The Busy Homeschool Mom’s Guide to Romance by Heidi St. John.  I’m on page 82 of 172.  This greatly captured my interest as I met Heidi at the Arizona homeschool convention and was impressed by her down-to-earthedness, if that’s a word.  Heidi talks about the importance of keeping your marriage strong in the midst of homeschooling.  So far my favorite line is, “There is no time for romance inside the vortex because in the vortex, Latin is more important than lingerie.” Which should not be true if you are keeping your marriage in the right spot of priorities, but homeschool moms blur the lines of priorities sometimes.  An informative and necessary topic for homeschool moms.

2.  The Sweetest Thing by Elizabeth Musser.  Yes, it’s a historical romance.  I simply can’t keep my hands off them.  My sister read it first then told my mother to read it and so on and so on.  I’m on page 105 of 397.  I love love love the quirky girl from Chicago who is transplanted to Atlanta.  It’s set in the heart of the depression and is beautifully written.

3.  Under God by Toby Mac and Michael Tait.  Yes, it’s true, Toby Mac wrote a book.  I suspect this is more of a token idea of Toby and Michael’s, with a handful of researchers who gathered the historical stories.  Anyway, this is the “story of men and women of faith who forged our nation.”  I’m not really on a certain page because I have skipped all over to read the stories of the signers of the Declaration of Independence since that is where we are in American History class right now.  Remember the story of bulletproof George?  It’s in there, plus many more.  I believe this is a must read for those who are under the illusion that our great country was founded on anything other than God.

4.  Mixed Signals by Liz Curtis Higgs.  Page 73 of 370.  This one should probably be moved to the pile of books on my bookshelf that didn’t hold my interest long enough to finish.  But I did start it and it’s a cute story about some people mixed up in radio life… but, not my fav by far.

5.  The Right Choice – Homeschooling by Chris Klicka.  Page 128 of 453.  I’m in a homeschool mentoring class right now, yes, after 10 years of homeschooling, I thought I would see how this is supposed to be done.  The first chapter of our manual listed MUST READS for homeschoolers.  Shamefully, I had only read one or two… and I’m a self-professed homeschool die-hard.  So, on our trip to Missouri, I wandered through a used book store (which I might add was COMPLETELY different in selection from our Arizona used book stores) and picked up this gem.  It’s hardcore, baby.  And I agree with almost all of it.  Funny thing was, I showed it to my flying companions, who are also on the AZ homeschool board, and none of them had read it either.  I’m in good (unschooled) company.  Anyway, it lays out the Biblical basis, and frankly the logical basis for homeschooling.  Don’t read it if you plan to keep your kids in public school.

6.  The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.  Page 31 of 302.  This was a freebie at the Treasures for Teachers store in Tempe, so I took it.  I never saw the movie and didn’t know what it was about.  But I’m always up for a good read.  Sadly, I started reading it right before school started and now it is way down low on the pile. 

Ta-da.

Headline Post

That’s all I have time for at the moment… the headlines of our daily life.  Here you go:

• Larisa, my first baby girl, turned 18 yesterday and my last two days have been consumed with trying to act normal whilst planning a surprise party for her.  She was COMPLETELY surprised!  Happy Bday, Lala.  XOXO
• Nora and I got most of the winter flowers planted…. petunias, snap dragons, geraniums, lobelia and some other yellow daisy-looking flower.  :o)
• Austin was asked to join a bike team called Team Winded, a foundation that supports people who suffer with asthma.  This means he is SPONSORED!  A total blessing for us!
• We bought a diamond-in-the-rough patio set with a glass-top table and six chairs.  They are that green/gray/tan aged looking wrought iron that is so shabby chic.  I love it.  BUT… I need to recover the seat cushions.  It’s all good.  I only have one project in line in front of them.
• My creative sons made awesome skeletal glow stick outfits last night after GLOW, a fun night for the jr. high at church where they drop thousands of glow sticks from a helicopter.  It was awesome!

The Pumpkin Pit

The bright orange pumpkins at Walmart have been calling my name for over three weeks.  Today, as I entered said establishment (for the fourth time in 24 hours) I was escorting my two daughters…. who both eyed the orange globes and then eyed their mother with pleading puppy-dog faces.  Larisa found a picture of a carved pumpkin with a picture of a wiener dog that said “Happy Halloweenie!” So with that geniously creative idea, I said OK!  It actually wasn’t that hard of a decision… $3.78.  How can you beat that?  It probably costs more than that to water the vine for the four months growing season!

There were two large bins with a sign that declared them ALL as medium in size.  We pulled a few off the top of the pile and glared hopefully into the pumpkin pit.  Indeed, they were not all created equal.  The queen mother was at the bottom… and I spotted her!  We began to pull the pumpkins off the top of the bin and fill bin #2.  Then when bin #2 was precariously full-almost-to-toppling, we piled the rest on the ground.  The path was clear to the queen mum.  Larisa and I both stepped up on the palate, tiptoed up until the top of the bin was at our waists, and dove in.  Seriously, with our feet off the ground.  It took us two tries, but we succeeded!

We must have looked like we recently came in from the pumpkin patch.  I was wearing what used to be a clean black t-shirt…. now totally covered in dirt and muck from all the pumpkins we moved… and probably from the bin too.  We found the queen mother’s twin sister in the bottom as well.  Another successful day of shopping at Walmart.

The moral of the story is: A pumpkin in hand is worth two in the bin.  :o)

Booby Trap

Three years ago I read an article about how women are being freaked out by a false scare from mammograms.  I was freaked out just reading the article.  It spoke of the non-necessity of yearly exams by radiation.  I bought into it, frankly because I loathe getting the exam just like every other woman on God’s green earth.  I started my silent protest against the booby trap.  Last month I was visiting my womanly doctor and she stared at my chart with confusion wrinkling her brow. “There must be a mistake…. this says your last mammogram was in 2007.”  “Nope, not a mistake.”  What else was I supposed to say????  I pinky-swore that I would have the exam this time and not just throw away her referral.

I’m not at super high risk of breast cancer… my closest maternal relative who had it was my grandmother’s sister.  Not close enough for great worry or concern.  But I pinky-swore… so I had to go.  It’s kind of like triple-dog-dare-you.  You have to….or…. stick a needle in your eye…. or something else equally horrible.

Last Friday the mammogram went down.  There is a new Phoenix Breast Health clinic near my home… that looks like a day at the spa… or at least what I imagine a day at a spa would look like.  The whole office was gorgeously decorated in dark browns and hot pink with chandeliers.   CHANDELIERS.  They offered fluffy white robes to dress in…. cookies, tea and coffee served on trays while you wait.  Other than the glaring fact of why you are there… it’s quite casual and tranquil.  And simply being there…… I ALWAYS think of Anita Renfroe talking about how a mammogram is like putting too much batter in the waffle iron.  Makes me grin.

Much to my surprise, since my five-year hiatus, the machine that they use has been improved.  There is now a large clear plastic shield that you rub your face make-up on… which also keeps your head out of the radiation.  And the machine tilts at a 45 degree angle for better smashing-photographic results.  The only problem was the way she had me turn, raise my arm up to grab a handle, hold my breath and try to keep my make-up off the plastic… it caused one of my ribs to move slightly out of place.  It only hurt when I took a breath.  I was on the phone to the chiropractor before I left the parking garage.

Good grief.  Three days later my rib is still tender… but I’m good on my pinky-swear.  If it ain’t one thing… it’s another.  And now I can say to my friends…. “Go get it done!”

Another Funny Crosby

Nora says the funniest things sometimes!  Here’s just a few of her latest crazy comments for you to enjoy.

We were going to a dinner put on by Austin’s youth leaders.  We walked in the door and one of the leaders puts his hand up for Nora to give him a high-five.  Before raising her hand she asked, “Are your hands clean?”

Today after church, Nora came out singing a song, “Where You go, I’ll go. Where You stay, I’ll stay. When You moon, I’ll moon. I will follow you.”  Moon should have been MOVE.  Made a whole new meaning for that song!

We were having tacos one night and Austin had made himself two tacos and set them on the table.  Then my husband asked him to go do something quickly before he started eating.  Before Austin left the kitchen he announced, “Make sure Keeve doesn’t eat my tacos!”  We all chuckled and said “ok”.  A few minutes later Keeve walked into the kitchen.  Nora pointed to Austin’s tacos and said, “Keeve, you want those tacos?”

We were having a lazy school day and Larisa, Nora and I were sitting around the kitchen table at 2:00.  Larisa looked at my haphazard appearance and asked if I brushed my hair.  I replied, “No, but I brushed my teeth, put on deodorant, shaved my legs and put on clean underwear.”  Looking all put together, brushed and shiny, Nora added, “I didn’t.”  We laughed and questioned, “Didn’t what?”  “Put on clean underwear.” 

And a few of her Spanglish sayings to wrap up this ditty:

“Bike Rike” – it’s when you ride your bike and rake the yard simultaneously.

“Peeksa” – checking in the oven if the pizza is ready.

Waddoh - the wet stuff that comes out of the waddoh tap.

What dat means? – this is not about a mean dad.

Candaler -  I think a person with dyslexia taught her to say calendar.

 

A Word Misspoken

In the kitchen amidst the pleasurable aroma of banana bread wafting from the hot oven, the Colombian princess and I were in the heat of a discussion regarding Colombian food.  Often, as the days go by, I ask questions about her foster home to find out more details about her life when we were praying earnestly for her, but had not met her yet.  She gleefully reported to me once again that her favorite foods were rice, beans and meat.  I needed details.  That couldn’t have been all that she ate…. or could it???  I asked about many other South American dishes that I am vaguely aware of…. nada.  Jokingly, I added that we need to take her back to Colombia so she could remember the foods of her homeland.  I thought it was sort of funny.  Flabbergastedly she yelled, “YOU’RE TAKING ME BACK????”   Oops.  No.  Never.

Another heated discussion followed about the words FOREVER… ALWAYS… OURS…. and I gingerly explained that we hope to go visit Colombia with her again, but we cannot and will not leave her there.  I reminded her of the picture of Papi signing the Sentencia papers that translated to: You will ALWAYS be a Crosby from now on.   With the horrible vision of the little Russian adoptee who was recently sent back to his birthland with a note pinned to his jacket, I vehemently stated, “We cannot give you back… and we don’t want to.”

Then I reminded her of the meeting we had at ICBF (Colombian Family Services.. kind of) with a man named Dennis.  After having Nora in our care for five days, he asked if we wanted to go forward with the adoption…. WE SAID YES!  I also reminded her that Dennis asked HER if she wanted to stay with us.  She said YES!  (Hopefully she hasn’t regretted that answer too many times in the last 10 1/2 months!)

Last night I was scrapbooking Nora’s “baby book” (Term used loosely… as it contains her earliest photos… but no baby is seen, sadly.) I tenderly glued in the pictures of that day at ICBF.  I realized that after being with us for five days, and LOVING trying on and wearing all the pretty clothes we brought for her, she carefully picked out her outfit for the ICBF meeting….. every single piece of clothing she put on, right down to her underwear was the clothing she came to us with.  She didn’t use a single article of clothing from her new collection.  Same sleeve-too-short sweater… same plastic white sandals… I wondered what was going through her mind as we drove to the meeting? Did someone tell her to do that in case we said no??? SOOOOOOOOO much for a little girl to ponder in her heart.

So glad she’s HOME!

4 out of 4… I’m Golden

As it happened, I have completed the task every homeschool mother wonders if she will be capable, able and successful at finishing: teaching your children to read.  My first daughter was subjected to a charter school for kindergarten and grade one (that’s how we say it in Canada… not first grade) and I did not have the joy of teaching her to decipher the alphabet code.  But I figured, HEY!  How hard could it be???  Well, son number one, who followed daughter number one, had a brain that was wired quite the opposite of my first child reader.  She read with ease at five years old.  When my son turned five he was quite proficient at spitting, throwing rocks, yelling and doing everything at the same rate as Speedy Gonzales.  Reading was not on his list of interests….. until he was almost NINE!  Made me wonder if the kid would ever read.  Sheesh!  What good is a teaching certificate if you can’t even teach a kid to sound out three letter words?  Or simply remember the letter F?  Eventually some synapses connected in his overactive brain and he could read.  It happened while we were on a three month sick-leave trip touring national parks on the west side of the United States.  It had nothing to do with me.

Son number two actually read before son number one.  Assuming that this would provoke determination in son number one was completely incorrect on my part.  Son number one read after he had successfully toured Zion, Yosemite, Walnut Canyon, Fort Bowie and 14 other parks, caves and forts.  Had I known the national park tour was a prerequisite to his reading ability, we would have taken the trip three years earlier.  See?  Nothing to do with me.

Last week, I had the joy and privilege of teaching the Colombian princess to read.  She has been diligently learning her English phonograms and we have completed the first 26 of 72.  She asked me in frustration, “When am I ever going to be able to read WORDS?!?”  It was then that I realized she probably could with her vast knowledge of phonograms.  I put three phonogram cards together… c…….a……..t.  She sounded them out three or four times before her eyes popped open and she pronounced in her amazing reading ability, “CAT!”  Then we went through run, ran, hat, dot, hop, up, pop, cup, mop, tip, sip, and, hit, and even jump!  She was so excited she could not stop giggling!  I called for her sister and brothers to come and listen to her READ!  Her dimples were showing the rest of the day! It truly is a joy to see her succeeding by leaps and bounds and she hasn’t even been speaking English for 6 months yet.  It is also a true joy to be able to teach her. 

Back in the day when I taught kindergarten to several classes of German speaking kids, they did learn to read and I was proud of them for learning English and reading…. but nothing compares to it being your own kid who has broken the scribble code and can make sense of the English written language.

Four out of four.  I’m golden!