From the mouths of babes

One weekend morning recently, my children were making a mess of the throw blankets in the living room. I asked them to please fold the blankets and put them back on the couch. They complained, of course, and said it was too hard to fold big blankets.

A little bit later, my five-year-old son said, "I think we should have a day of quiet and no being loud and no t.v. and no blankets." Ha ha! Too funny!

Baby naming

I came across quite a funny website on naming infants. Thought I'd share it with you!

http://www.notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/index.html

Be sure to read through all the different sections. The author is quite sarcastic, so be prepared!

No homework? Fifth grade?!?

My son never has homework. Every once in a while, he'll have a paper due in which he has to do some sort of research, but it usually doesn't take him long to do. He does his rough draft during class time and has nothing to bring home. Sometimes I feel as if I have no idea what he is doing in school. He forgets to bring anything home, even after his dad and I ask. We'll say, "Did you bring home your completed math work?" He'll say he forgot (conveniently). We'll ask if he brought home his agenda and he'll say he forgot. How about if we 'forget' that he likes to play on the computer or that he'd like to play with his friends? Let's see how well that goes over.

The chocolates in the box are not the same as on the key

Yes, that's right. Although this has nothing to do with kids, I thought I'd share it anyway. You know when you buy a good-sized box of chocolates, the underside of the lid (or a separate piece of paper) has the outline of the chocolates and which flavors are where? Well, there was a box of chocolates (this reminds me of Forrest Gump) at work and I checked for dark chocolates (this was a box of truffles in assorted flavors) and found what should have been a mocha truffle. "Oh wow!" I thought. "I should be in heaven with that flavor!" I don't eat a lot of chocolate - very rarely. I figured it would be a good time for chocolate and picked up that truffle. I took it to my desk and sat down, ready to savor that morsel. Oh, to my dismay, it was not mocha but some other flavor that I couldn't distinguish. I almost spit it out! I, however, did chew it and finish it, but I was quite saddened by the fact that the key to the chocolate was incorrect. Boo hoo.

Sharing a funny

I thought I'd share something I found funny from my 2006 calendar. It was one of those page-a-day things. This was for Thursday, August 24:

"A Sure Hit"

Someone on the Internet has come up with a great idea for a new Survivor TV show. It features six dads with four kids each, and all are stuck on an island for six weeks and forced to share only one car and one TV (which has no remote). Each kid has to play two sports and take one art or music class. With no access to fast food, each dad has to cook three meals a day plus do housework, correct all homework, do laundry, and attend PTA meetings. Kids vote the men off the island based on such criteria as lunches packed and clothes ironed. The last man on the island is crowned "Mother"--and gets to repeat the experience for eighteen more years.

Learn about adoption through books

I am posting a website that sells a lot of books about adoption, raising hurt children, etc. It is wonderful! They have a print catalog that you can request as well. The company is called Tapestry Books. I have ordered from them several times and highly recommend them.

Here is the link:

http://www.tapestrybooks.com/

Mom for the first time - in my 40s!

Most women start their families (having babies) when they are in their 20s. Not me. Things didn't work out that way. I started when I was in my early 40s. And I got instant kids - through adoption. My husband and I adopted our kids through the foster care system and that's how it was an instant four-person family. Oh, and 8 paws (we have dogs).

After being married 14 years and me not getting pregnant, it was time for less-drastic measures than tossing $30K to the wind (for medical procedures) - hubby and I signed with an adoption agency and got started on the homestudy process. We also had to get certified in CPR and had extensive training (parenting classes, HIV awareness, Hepatitis classes, etc.). We needed to be licensed foster parents in order to bring in children from the system that we possibly wanted to adopt.

To make a long story short, we brought in two kids and knew right from the start that they were home. There would never be any other placement for them except in our house. And after over 1 1/2 years of them being with us, we were able to finalize our adoption.

So here I am, 44, with two kids in grade school. A friend of mine from high school recently became a grandma! She's got teenagers and I've got little kids. My sister has teens and 20-ish-aged kids and I've got little kids. I wouldn't trade my littles for the world. They were meant to be with my hubby and I.