I'll have another...

shot that is! Oh yes, indeed. Today while at the doctor (yet again - nother story - nother post) I was offered a Flu Shot, followed by a very emphatic "everyone should have a Flu Shot!" by my doctor. Well guessy whaty? I'll be crapped if I didn't freaking get the Flu starting now. I'm dizzy, I'm freaking dragging rear. I'm so dang tired I can't stand it. I feel achy. Crap!

Not only did I brave yet another needle, and take it all grown-up like, but now I get a mini version of the Flu to go with it. Did I mention how busy and stressful this week has been? And it's not over none neither! (insert Ma Kettle voice there) I'm in the middle of a business conference for my work - of which we're all staying at a hotel, and meetings all day, dinners at night, etc. This goes through Saturday. So add on top of that that I'm leading worship at church this Sunday, and had to rush to a three hour practice tonight from the meeting. I'm performing in a reprise of the kids play "Acorns to Oaks" tomorrow night (as I rush from another meeting to that tomorrow) and then back to the hotel and start all over Saturday. Meanwhile, I still have work deadlines, etc. to meet. Add on to that the health - not feeling so great, etc. It's like a jumbo cocktail for LAME.

So tonight I played hookie - since the hotel is local. In my purse sit the keys to my hotel room and in my bedroom at home sits my rear-end typing this up at 10pm. I just couldn't go all the way back to the hotel after rehearsal tonight when I was ten minutes from home. I was so darn tired and dragging - so I called AB and said "heck with the hotel...I'm coming home to my own bed!"

So here I sit all cuddled up with my comforter and my pillows, listening to my dogs snore. Which is where I love to be the most, especially when I'm feeling sickly. I don't know how I'm gonna get through the rest of this weekend. Gulp. Stick a fork in me cuz I'm done!

Stupid shots...

I hate shots...

No more freaking shots...

At least not this week...

Harvest Moon and More...

First of all, I'm gonna need this house. Yes, indeedy. I'll just take it and put a few plump pumpkins in front of that door, and perhaps a few layers of Autumn garland around that door frame...yes, I'm thinking that will certainly warm up my new entry way.

If you're thinking for a moment that this is my house, I've mislead you. Alas...it's just a picture of a beautiful inviting home surrounded by the colors and symbols of Fall. And as we've already covered, I love Fall best of all!

No matter, I can at least impart some of my borrowed juicy advice of ways you too can create a sensationally warm and inviting abode during this most pleasant time of year.

For starters, let's warm you up with this simple but exquisite recipe for Autumn Spiced Cider!

1/2 gallon apple cider

2 cups orange juice

3-3" cinnamon sticks

10 whole cloves

zest of 1 orange

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1.4 tsp. ground allspice

Bring all the ingredients to a boil, boil for 15 minutes. Strain through fine mesh into a thermos or back into the pan. Serve hot!

Meanwhile, back to some good old fashioned "Sweater Weather" ideas...(on loan from my Fall Goddess, Susan Branch)

• Keep an old sweater on a hook near the door ~ run outside to see the birds, the moon, lie under a tree as leaves fall with your kids or special someone.


• Visit a corn-maze or plan a hayride & end the day with a bonfire & roasted marshmallows. No place for a bonfire? Get a fire going in that fireplace and have a ball!


• Choose the PERFECT PUMPKIN at a farm stand or pumpkin farm ~ then have a taffy pull outdoors.

• Leaf peep in your own neighborhood or plan a special trip to the famously gorgeous New England & watch the leaves change color around old churches and graveyards. On the back roads of this amazing state, you will find roadside stands, American flags, covered bridges, and restaurants in old houses.

How about a picnic this Sunday? Or next? Take an old basket and fill it with these yummy delights...

Autumn Picnic Menu

Roast Beef and Cucumber Cream Cheese Sandwiches

Potato Salad

Warm Bean Salad

Pork Ribs (yum!)

Deviled Eggs

Corn Bread

Ice Cream

Apple or Peach Pie

Arnold Palmers

(To Make "Arnold Palmers" mix together 2 parts iced tea with 1 part lemonade)

By the way - Wednesday is Harvest Moon! Don't forget to celebrate by hauling a cozy blanket out to the backyard or local park to celebrate our glorious moon and stars. (Not to mention celebrating the ones you love to cuddle with!)

Happy Fall ~

Fall Into Reading 2007

It's been quite 'round here, and that's mostly because I've been forcing myself to catch up on some chores, and some work. You know what I'm talking about? The kind of chores and projects that we stare at and walk past every single day, but always end up saying "I've gotta get to that!". So since AB had a trip out of town this weekend, I've been using the time wisely to catch up on those "gotta get to its" and it's been a such a good feeling.

Meanwhile, since it's my favorite time of year, I also LOVE the Fall Into Reading Challenge over at Callapidder Days! This seems to really motivate me to get through my piles and piles of books. I've shown you the pictures recently of all the books we have, and I just love the motivation this gives me to set a goal for myself and see it through. It helps that there are weekly prizes! Go and visit Katrina and "Fall" into the fun! If you love to read, then not only can you post your own list for others to get ideas from, but you go looking at other lists and find some really good books! So here goes the big un' for my Fall Into Reading Challenge '07: Drum Roll Please....................................................(dots represent said drums)

Non Fiction

Marley & Me: life and love with the world's worst dog. By Josh Grogan. Such an excellent book for those who love animals, specifcally dogs. It has warmed my heart and made me laugh out loud. Now I just need to finish it!

The Power of a Praying Wife: By Stormie Omartian. Just an encouraging book that gives us a refreshing look at the power of prayer in our marriage.

A Gentle Thunder: By Max Lucado. The Amazing lengths God will go to get our attention. Something I think I really need to grasp in my heart.

Each for the Other: By Bryan Chapell. One of the wisest things I've been taught in my marriage is that you must live for the other person and not yourself. If you're both doing this, your marriage is so much happier and healthier. Since following Christ is about letting go of ourselves and serving others, it makes perfect sense that in our marriages we would mirror that. Really looking forward to this one.

Fiction

The Next Big Thing: By Johanna Edwards. The story of a "big girl" who goes on a reality show to lose weight so she can meet the man of her dreams and have the perfect life. Or so she thinks...

Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife: By Linda Berdoll. Since Pride and Prejudice is one of my hands down favorite movies (and no, not the one with Collin Firth, but the new one) when I saw this book, I knew I had to have it. Now finding the time to read it is another issue. It's the love story of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy after the wedding. Mmm, mmm, good!

The Birth of Venus: By Sarah Dunant. This just looks interesting. It's the story of a 15 year old girl in Europe 1528 and her love of learning, and dazzling art and painting. But her parents wed her off to a much older man who is wealthy, and she struggles to find out who she is and how she can return to her much loved passions without being punished.

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hollows: By J.K. Rowling. I've read them all - I'm actually re-reading #6 right now so that I can remember what happened before I plunge into this one head first. The beauty with the Harry Potter series is that once you read them, you not only find out that they are wonderful, but that they are well written, imaginative, amazing literary genius that take you into a world of literary candy and creativity. They are pure imagination from beginning to end.

Homeland: By John Jakes. This one caught my eye from the half price books shelf. I loved the "North and South" series - well, the television version. Anything with Patrick Swayze, right? This is the first in a series that brings to life the saga of the American immigrant experience of a family at the turn of the century. Total early 1900's and all the drama of the war, love, etc. I love a book with a sequel...it tells me the author just couldn't bear to part with the story any more than we probably will.

The Historian: By Elizabeth Kostova. Story of a young woman plunged into a labyrinth where the secrets of her family's past connect to an inconceivable fifteenth century reign of Vlad the Impaler. Her journey to uncover the truth takes her all over Eastern Europe. Sounds good to me...

Snow Flower & the Secret Fan: By Lisa See. I keep meaning to read this, and keep not getting to it. Nineteenth century China - in a remote Hunan county, two girls are paired in an emotional match that lasts a lifelong. This is the story of Lily and Snow Flower - and how they reach out to each other in their isolation as they age, marry, endure foot binding, share loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood.


Ok, there's the list and there's the challenge - if you're a reader, stop over here and join in the fun. There's no "time-limit" per-say. It's just a way to coerce yourself into finally getting to all those juicy literary finds you have piling up around the house. And if you don't have any...well, I can recommend a great half price store where you can stock up. Time to light a fire, curl up on the couch with a light blanket and a cup of coffee and grab one of those books - it's time to Fall Into Reading!

Tidbits of Titillating Topics

Right. So, today the phone rang and I saw it was the adoption agency for our Ethiopian adventure. I panicked first and answered second. Thoughts running through my head were:
1. Something is wrong with the paperwork
2. They're shutting/slowing down the process
3. We're all of a sudden disqualified.
4. Something is wrong with the paperwork.
5. We're all of a sudden disqualified.

Are you sensing a theme here? Our China process has been seamless. Seamlessly bad! There haven't been any road bumps, as one might think, or any major upheavals - but that's just it. There hasn't been anything! No word, just an ever-increasing wait time. So when you hear from your new (2nd) agency, mid-process - and you've come to associate actually adopting with, say, retirement, you start to imagine what our life has been like for the last two years. I said hello, and she said "just checking in and making sure you're ok, and that you don't need anything". Eh? Are you sure you have the right number? I mean, thank you. I mean...that is to say...errr...we're good. Still paperchasing. Just waiting on Government docs, as per usual (snort giggle). At this point, I'm so giddy to have non-negative communication I pretty much blacked out. So that was that...just checking on us. Uh-huh...wow...and then she even said "well, I'll call you next month and see how your doing!" I know! I feel like I slipped into the Adoption Zone - someone actually cares how we are?!?!

So the BURNING HOT QUESTIONS from the last post are:

1. Do you like AB bald? Yes and no. On the one hand, it's nice to go out and have people think I've brought along my bodyguard. On the other hand, I spent the first two days following "the shave" just walking up to him and saying "you're very bald". It's been an adjustment, but he definitely has his moments of being dead sexy with that bald head o' his. It's just hair - it will grow back.

2. Will he grow it back? How soon? Yes, he will. And as far as how soon - he estimated it would be a couple weeks totally bald and then he'd leave it alone. Let's keep in mind that shaving the head every day for AB is right up there with shaving the legs everyday for us ladies. He's not into the chore of it. And quite frankly, he's cut himself so badly that he's got band aids on his head. It's kind of, (dare I say it?) hilarious to see all these band aids all over and you just feel bad for him, but you're hiding the giggles.

I have to go on Friday for my Hep B series shot. I just physically gulped when I typed that. That in turn made me laugh, because I'm such a wimpy wimp.

I can't wait until these shots are over with! I still have FIVE to go...

nother' gulp...

Speaking of haircuts - it was time for me to do my annual "hack it off" and so I took my little self right up to the SAY-LON (that's southern style!) today and did away with 2 1/2 inches off the bottom. It's layered and lighter, and fun. I always love my hair the day I whack it off! Ahhhhhh....much better!

I've been thinking a lot about mothering. A lot about my style of parenting and wondering what that will look like and how that will change my life. What kind of Mom I will be and what kind of kids I will have. I also have to confess that even in the middle of a second adoption, I feel like neither will ever take place. I don't feel this way all the time, but certainly a lot of the time if I stop and think about it. It just feels like it's surreal. But there is no other option than to keep plugging along. Other than have no children - and that's just not an option, unless the good Lord closes all possible doors. Up to the present, He's only opened them, so we're walking on...but every year we say "next year" or "a year from now" and it's been that way for four years. I'm weary. I feel like some days it's all a sham. All this baby stuff we've collected, and all this preparing - what if it's for nothing. What if, what if, what if!??!? So I try not to go there, and I just try and imagine that all of this will be a distant memory once I have my kids in my arms, where they belong. So, yeah...I'm wondering what that will look like - what kind of mom I will be...and will I ever actually get on a plane bound for Africa or China, out to find and bring home my little darlings?

This is funny. Really it is. The other day, I got totally lost in thought about exercising, and dieting. I thought about attempting for the 1000th time to be a health nut. And then I got exhausted just thinking about it. And I started to crave Pringles. And it just so happened that we had some - Sour Cream and Onion. So, as I made my way through that can, I was thinking of ways to work out more. Errr...work out at all, rather. And then AB called and wanted to know where I wanted to meet for dinner. Sushi, please! And so when I sat down at the table, AB said some magic (unprovoked) stuff that maybe I needed to hear..."you're so beautiful...I love you just the way you are...you make me happy!" So on that note...(ahem)...I'm content again to be "Big Mama". For now anyway...

...and anyway, with the holidays coming - I can't bear the thought of health shakes and protein bars in exchange for my dearly beloved turkey dinner and chocolate dream pie! (*insert drooling here). But I did get EXCELLENT news this month and it came from my lovely Mom an Dad - they will be coming to visit us for the Thanksgiving holiday and I could not be happier about it. I get them all to myself (sans my younger siblings) for a whole week, and it's my Dad's first time to TX. Wha-hoo! I'm so glad their coming, I can hardly stand it!

So that's the latest and greatest - although there is always more to tell! I have post coming soon with a Hospitality Flare! Stay tuned!