Puzzle Blogs.
It's a new idea I have..The way it works is that I will write a few words, and let you figure out what was going on in this house over the past few days..
Our sweet silly Perriwinkle MistleToe turns 3 months on Wednesday..And she is weighing in at a hefty 2 pounds and something..Actually she goes to the vet again Tuesday and they will give us her updated weight. Her legs have gotten really long, and I can tell she has gained weight, just not sure how much yet.
She's at that stage where she bites and bites and gnaws on everything. Her tiny little teeth are like razors..
She is almost puppy pad trained. She has poop accidents, but not tinkle accidents. She is so tiny, that we can't take her outside for very long. She shivers too much. She has a coat and a pair of PJ's, but it just isn't enough..
She has really brought Anni joy. She loved our other pound dog so much but he just wasn't safe. He was going to eventually bite one of the girlz and hurt them. It was so unfortunate. Because he was a great lil' dog. That is the risk of getting a pound pup. The best part of the video is that my mom is asleep on the sofa while we are playing with our little girl!!
Perriwinkle is suppossed to be about 10-12 pounds but isn't quite charting to be that big..We prefer her to be around 10 pounds so she is more sturdy. Right now she is charting about 6 pounds. At the vet, we hope to get a more accurate weight. Speaking of the vet, she had her first round of shots before we got her. Last month she had several more shots. Next week, she will get her final round of shots including her rabies shots. It has been a long time since I had a puppy, but I honestly thought there were lots more shots..I am having her microchipped at our appointment. And we are planning her "no babies operation" too. She doesn't weigh enough yet, but we want to get that done soon.
Perri seems to be taking after her dad in her coat,'s texture, and her mom's color..
This is Bo, Perriwinkle's Dad..He is a supercoated mini schnauzer.
This is her mom, she is a bichon frise, groomed in a short cut.
And even colder classroom...It was 19 when I was driving to work yesterday. When I arrived at school we had no heat..Halfway through the day everyone else's heaters began to work..Mine not so much. Today driving to work it was 17 on my car thermometer..And guess what awaited me when I arrived at school? YEP, no heat. I was furious.
So much so that I showed myself and said it was unacceptable and that I couldn't teach with gloves on and children can't write while wearing scarves, hats, and mittens..I was given the afterschool care room to work in. I had to pack up everything we needed, which required a 3 level cart..
At lunch, I was told it was working..
We went back and the room was 1000 degrees..Ahhh, back to being a peetry dish. This is what happened earlier in the year. It was so hot that the kids starting getting sick. It took all of December and part of January to get everyone back to class..
This is what tax payers are getting. Schools that can't even fix the ac/heaters..
What a joke.
I couldn't clean the house today because the weather was AMAZING. The girlz and I started out downstairs in the backyard with the pup. They played soccer and threw the tennis ball for a bit, then when the neighbors came out, we headed up front. It was so nice that we just hung around and played and then went to WallieMart to get school snacks and a hair shaver thing to use on the pup..I needed a small one to keep her hair short around her "sanitary" area. She is what you call a supercoated, and her hair is growing and growing! She went to the vet almost two weeks ago and they shaved/clippered it and it has already grown a lot. When she goes poo, sometimes she gets the tiniest little bit stuck and she runs and cries! It's kind of sad!!!!
The girlz stayed at Aunties last night and Anni came home feeling a little punky. My sister is on a gluten free diet, and Anni seems to get ill when she eats the pancakes..After playing in the early part of the day, she layed down. She actually took a nap for several hours. I know she doesn't feel well, because she is asleep on the bedroom sofa. It's Auggie's turn to sleep with me tonight!
Wednesday, Auggie caught some sort of bug and threw up for the first time. YES, she has not thrown up once since she was born to me.
And boy did she make up for lost time. Poor thing had no idea how to do it. It started and she just looked at me and said, "Mommmie" and then threw up all over the bedroom couch and herself. I jumped up and she kept going. She didn't know to get up and run to the bathroom. I told her to go to my bathroom and once she got there, she threw up on the floor. Poor thing.
At one point, she was sleeping on her face and threw up. It was awful. AND EVERYWHERE!! I stripped her and the sofa so many times I ran out of blankets. She was terrified. She kept asking if she was every going to feel good again? Like I said, she hasn't been sick like that before.
She stayed home from school the next day and didn't eat more than 4 or 5 crackers all day. But she did sleep and when she woke up on Friday, she felt fine. I guess it was some sort of bug. I guess I should have taught her how to be sick like that...
Tomorrow's weather is going to be beautiful, but I do have to work on cleaning out the kitchen cabinet. I am finally starting my kitchen renovation, and the first step is to remove my pantry. The space is so awkward and if I remove the pantry, I will have more counter space...After I get this done, I am going on to step 2 ...The cabinets..And oh do they need replacing!! I like my house, but HATE the kitchen. But soon, it will be better!~
So, this weekend the house won't get tidied up, but I did take down all the Chriistmas Decor! 4 Trees, a million lights, 2 banisters full of cards and pictures, a gingerbread display, and even the glass Christmas tree from my Grandmother!
YEAHhhhhh!!!!
Happy Weekend ~
How to keep my house clean?
I did so well during the Christmas break. Without having to go to school, I was able to do laundry, straighten up each day, and actually cook..
What are your best house-keeping ideas to encourage my girlz..
Well, actually it is just my big girl who says she likes the mess.
And help for me to keep it all going when it is clean. This weekend I will spend the whole weekend cleaning up again as if we never had it clean at Christmas.
I don't like the mess, and I am willing to toss things easily, so I know I am not a hoarder, just a big H O T M E S S !!!!
Thank you for giving me hope. Thank you for trying to undo the hurt the government has caused. Thank you for letting my girlz chapter continue to unfold, in a story of openness and acceptance and love and appreciation. Thank you for standing up on a cold day for the story of my all orphans and all of us. . For those yet to adopt. For those who have already adopted..
Thank you for making my heart return to you. To ease my anger and frustration. For putting it back on the GOVERNMENT and not on the gloriously wonderful people of Russia.
My children are Russian first. No matter what anyone thinks No matter what their accent is now, they are Russian. And I want them to be. Thank you Moscow for reminding me that there is a fiery spirit within you to support the story of orphans. To support the families that they are now with, and to support the dreams of those wanting to bring a Russian orphan home if nothing else but to give that child a family....
We were asleep by 10, so the new year must have gone on without us...
2012 was a good year. I was still feeling tugs to get our little family to Russia. I was still motivated enough to write to the new director, and still pulled just hard enough to search international companies that may somehow have a position for me.
The end of the year pretty much closed that door for us. Prior to last week, I never feared being in Russia. I never even thought about the safety of my family if we were to go there..But now, the thought that the climate is so anti-adoption makes me wonder if my girlz would be safe while in Russia. I mean honestly, could the officials come in and take them? Could they claim I am a bad mother and file charges to take my precious 2 into custody? Gladly we won't ever know. Because as for now, we won't be going to Russia any time soon. Not even for a visit.
The happiness of our own holidays washed away the horror of the Sandy Hook tragedy for a few days. Now that we are winding down the festivities, I have begun to think about those poor families who had to struggle through a holiday without their babies. And although I can hardly imagine, I can get close enough to their pain to cry a little bit..
I have been busier and on the road much more than I care to be this year. If there was a chance to work closer to home, I will look into it. I haven't been successful at transferring as of yet, but I will continue to try during trans fair this year.
As I have written before, I ended a friendship with an adoptive mom that I was very close to. It took months to get to that point, and although it was almost impossible to end such a close friendship, it was vital to my family. It doesn't really matter the "why" of it all..What matters is that it frees up my time to be a centered mom without anything but my own family to worry about. I still lend advice and a listening ear to the peripheral players of that story, but it is on a very occasional basis. Nothing has changed in that story. It is still a hot mess of selfish pride and endless messes that never seem to be cleaned up. More than anything, I wish that my former friend would make the necessary changes to stop the hurt she is inflicting on her children. Sometimes being a hot mess is so damaging to children that they have no sense of how to be relaxed children. I was stuck in a youtube hole looking for ways to be settled with my current job and how to stop "searching." I worry that this might impact my girlz and that they will think they should always want something "else." In my searching I found this episode of Dr. Phil. It really made me think of what divorce does to a family. But more, it made me think "is it more important to be right? or to fix a situation?"
I have always said that what happens in a divorce affects children through adulthood.
My parents divorce was painful, but my appreciation for how they handled it can't be measured. There were no judges, no court orders. My parents left our life as similar as it could be prior to the divorce. My dad made sure that we could financially make it through college. And both parents did everything in their power to give my sister and I a sense of security. They put me into counseling after a drinking binge, and then they did the one thing that ROCKED my world. THEY TEAMED up to parent me during the time of my drinking. They sat together, and spoke together, and I couldn't see through their wall of strength. I was pissed, because at that time I needed to see a sliver of a break in their bond. In order to act like a complete maniac I needed one of my parents to feel guilty enough to let me have my 16 year old way. BUT NOPE. And that saved my life.
My mom and dad both had difficult childhoods. But for very different reasons. Mom was raised in a very well off home with an abusive crazy father and a mother who loved the money enough to stick with him. My dad is one of 8 who were so poor, that they little Green Kids, were sent to live with other family members. My dad was lucky enough to be sent to live with his older sister and they did a great job of raising him. He was taught farm work, and he could see the rewards of that hard work. My dad learned about tobacco farming, watermelon/cantaloupe/honeydew farming, and livestock farming. These skills have served him well throughout his life. But more importantly, he learned a work ethic. A farmers work ethic is boundless. Somehow magically, all of the Green sons turned out to be great attentive fathers. I think it was due to their absent father, but that's another story.
My mom learned to be strong in the face of tyrants. She learned to be strong and tough and not take bullshit when she didn't have to. Sadly, it also taught her a decision making process that was quick and firm. (Secretly, I think that if my parents were struggling in this day and age, they would have had more options of help and a possible different outcome)
Anyhoo, my parents some how handled their divorce with one thing in mind. Getting my sister and I through high school and college. That was it.
And that is where I fear for my former dear friend. I honestly don't think there is a shared goal. The ex just wants them away from her, and her goal is to get them closer. So instead of being proactive on one singular goal, they both tend to work for their own greater good. The ex holds all the cards as the children are with him, and the children have too much information. That sense of security has been taken from them, and they work from a place of chaos in one home, and slight over control in the other.
I ended my friendship in the spring of last year and have worried about the children ever since. But there is no place for me to directly contribute ideas and concerns. So I have to do the one thing I don't usually do, I have to let others make their own decisions, and make their mistakes along the way. I just wish it was different.
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