The words on my heart

Chrissy and I talk a lot.

We've never met in person.

We hope to someday soon

like when traveling to Ethiopia together!!

I know the names of her kids

the ones she hugs everyday and the ones she hasn't been able to hug yet.

She knows the name of mine.

I know her work schedule

and she knows when my kids are (supposed to be) napping and I'm going to be online to talk.

We cheer each other on when one of us makes progress

even if the other hasn't. We share frustrations and joys.

Our husbands think we're a little strange

because we've never "met"

but without sounding too cheesy

we know what's seen what's in the other's heart and that's way better than being able to see what outfit someone is wearing that day.

Plus, she's on a (fruitless) campaign for us to move to her city.

We keep each sane as much as possible.

She has preteens and I have preschoolers so we can only be so sane...

We know what news is going to make the other person cry,

when we're laughing about something in the blog world and the things that we each think

but don't say online because we actually do have some thoughts that we don't publish!

We talk about adoption a lot.

A lot. A lot. But other stuff too.

Fundraising, blogs, parenting, vaccinations, travel, church, children, spouses,

lots and lots of stuff even if we don't agree with each other

though mostly we do because we are both just *that* smart.

:)

I don't even hold it against her that she works in a dental office.

Today Chrissy has written what are truly the words of my heart.

We've talked about this via facebook, google chat, and the phone.

She put it into words in the blogsphere

before me and better than me.

So, today, if you want to know what's on my heart

you should read Chrissy's blog.

Resolution Round 4

I'm interrupting your normally scheduled Thuper Thursday (which is anticipated every week by me and one other person, lol) to bring you your timely edition of my Reading Resolutions!

This month started well. Any month that I let myself read a JD Robb book is going to go well. "Kindred in Death" was good, but I wasn't quite on the edge of my seat like with some of her books. This is a long running series and I've never read another series of this length where every book is consistently good. She has another book out that I'll be hopefully reading in August (right after my birthday...). I had this book read in about two days and it joins my "will read again" collection.

And then I made a switch because I bought an adoption book and so I decided not to read "Parenting the Hurt Child" (this month) and returned it to the library. Instead I read, "Parenting Your Internationally Adopted Child". This book was so phenomenal that I can't even believe it. Great. Great. Great. I already wrote a little bit about it on this post. I'm going to write another pretty thorough review of it later so I won't do that here. I will just exhort you to BUY THIS BOOK! Do you have a question about how your child will act at 3, 10, 13, and 17? This book covers each age separately. Do you wonder how to bring up sensitive topics with your child? This book tells you how. Do you think about sleep problems, discipline issues, hurt feelings, and comments from strangers? This book tells you how to deal with them. Do you just wonder if you can really do this? This book tells you that you CAN and how you're going to go about it. BUY THIS BOOK.

At this point, I decided to start "It's Not About Me" by Max Lucado. I was excited about this book because I've been having some issues with myself, my attitude, and a lot of things along those lines. I was hoping this book was going to speak to my heart. Unfortunately, not so much. I got about two or three chapters in and I put it away. I was not impressed. To me, it read like a clumsy attempt at a conversational style. You know that woman that you're barely acquaintances with, but she acts like you've been BFFs for thirty years and is just way too up in your grill? That was this book. Blech. Discontinued reading.

I also read "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift. Okay, if there are any descendants of Mr. Swift reading this blog, I'm going to take this opportunity to distract DIRECT you to stop reading here and instead check out this link to a totally unrelated post....and now that I don't have to worry about hurting anyone's feelings, let me just say: ugh. This was a hard read. It wasn't hard as in challenging to read it was hard to motivate myself to keep going. In the beginning I thought it was going to be good. I liked the first travel and the last travel, but the rest of them were generally lacking. Maybe it was because he kept telling the same things over and over again just with a different group of people, maybe it's just because I'm lame and have no taste in literature. I don't know. I don't care. I'll never read it again. Apparently the parts that I read in college and liked were because I only had to read parts of it (and maybe because I didn't really read all of the assignments at that time...). There were a few things in most of them a sentence, a description, a bit of a story that would be amusing, but mostly, I was not amused. In fact, I disliked it so much that I've decided I don't even like Jonathan Swift and I'm pretty sure that he didn't like women so we're probably both fine with that. Here's a link to SparkNotes and I wish I would have read that instead of staying up late two nights in a row to finish the stupid book.

Also read this month:

Positive Discipline for Preschoolers by Jane Nelson (two thumbs up, barely)
The Working Mother Book of Time (one thumb up, one thumb down...more on this one later)
Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children by Ann Cooper (one thumb down, one thumb neutral)


Reading Round 4 Books (you'll note I'm taking it a little easy this month)


Easy Reading:         Daughter of Joy: Kathleen Morgan


Resource Reading:   Your Three Year Old: Louise Bates Ames


Actual Reading:       The Color of Water: James McBride

Proof that no news is not good news

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

(this news report just in from the Zehlahlum house)

"In a recent, though some would say, not surprising, turn of events, Jamey from Zehlahlum Family, has totally lost her marbles. 

Unnamed sources have reported that it was waiting for a court date that sent her over the edge. Close friends of the crazed say that she had initially steadied herself for a long wait for court, then heard that it would probably be a short wait and then upon hearing that it would probably be a long wait after all "she just went bonkers".

Reports of her strange behavior include crying one minute and then singing hymns the next minute. Some of her less-than-smart activities for the mentally fragile include watching someone else's homecoming video and reading steady streams of referral news. At times she seems like she will be able to cope and throws herself into healthy coping skills like cleaning, doing laundry, and exercising. She seems to be unable to maintain those behaviors for any length of time however. 

It's being reported that she did not get enough sleep the last few nights and is desperately trying to finish reading "Gulliver's Travels". Her daughter's one-year-in-care-anniversary is coming up as well adding to her stresses and displeasure in not yet having a court date. 

Please take extreme caution in approaching her as you never know if you will get the agitated and crying Jamey or the peaceful praying and singing Jamey. Please speak slowly, quietly and bring a peace offering of ice cream if she seems to be riled up...

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

Award

Hot dot, hot dog, hot diggity dog. 

(sorry I was having a Playhouse Disney moment there...)

I was nominated for a blog award!

 Brooke nominated me. Thank you, Brooke for thinking that I am a

"Beautiful Blogger"!

The rules are thus:

For the "Beautiful Blogger" award you need to:
~Thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog.
~Copy the award and paste it to your blog.
~Tell us seven interesting facts about yourself.
~Pass this award on to 15 fantastic bloggers you have discovered.
~Contact your nominations and let them know they've won.

So, the seven interesting facts about me are...

give me a minute here...

I know I can think of something....

1. I've had two natural drug-free childbirths
2. I graduated from high school in three years. Hated highschool.
3. Andrew and I have lived in seven states in seven (almost eight) years.
4. I have a tattoo.
5. I really like eating out (minus my children), but it hardly ever happens.
6. I've written three novels. They're all varying degrees of bad.
7. I like my mother-in-law and she likes me.

Thanks for playing along and now read on to see who I nominated!

I hereby nominate the authors at the following blogs:

1. Injera and Chocolate Gravy
2. This Abode: Creative Frugal Homemaking
3. Our Life Upstate
4. Happy Girl Hair: Natural Haircare for Kids
5. A Family Without Borders
6. The Terry Family
7. An Adoption Story
8. Banku, Pho, and Fried Spiders

My most humble apologies for breaking the rules, but I think I'm going to have to cap my list at 8 blogs because I'm functioning at pretty low brainpower right now. If you'd like to be one of my remaining 7 spots, let me know and I'll add you to my list! 15 is a big number! 

Ridiculous

I cannot describe Saturday to you. I woke up crabby and not wanting to exercise. I wrote my post about motivation. I expected to go running shortly after that. Instead my day "went to hell in a handbasket". Seriously. Completely. Awful. Everything went wrong. Everything. (Now, it was nothing that threatened the life of of health of my family, which is what is important, but still.) I cannot remember when the last time that I had a day that was just so thoroughly awful from start to finish was. Detail after detail, event after event just smashingly wrong.

Issues with guards at the gate for not having the right sticker? Check. Fight with my husband? Check. Money flub? Check. My three year old throwing a screaming tantrum in public? Check. One year old whining for forty minutes in the car? Check. Errands? Groceries? Errands? Check. Check. Check. Leaving your purchases at the store and not realizing it until you're already home? Check. iPod refuse to work? Check.

And trust me, those were just the highlights. I did not get to run yesterday. I dressed for it three separate times and three separate times I was foiled beyond what this woman can bear. The last time I threw the iPod. (I don't know where my kids learned to tantrum...)

Some of the misery bled over to Sunday. In fact it was easily dinner time before all four of us (we miss you, Little Miss!) were in a presentable mood. I HAD to run today. I was up to 3/4 of a mile this time and next time I have to do a full mile! I ran this afternoon while I was still pissy in a snit. I left my house mad. (Yes, all this backstory is necessary)

I'm wearing these ugly green sweatpants/yoga pants things that I apparently bought before I stopped growing because you could see my socks when I lifted my feet. They were my warmest ones and it's not like I'm burdened with an excess of workout clothes (or otherwise). So dorky pants it was. Then I was wearing a yellow short sleeved shirt that did not match my pants that was a hand me down from a sister. It's too short for me and so the fat rolls that I'm hoping to run off plop out of the sides. Now, luckily, I was wearing a hoodie over this. I'm not THAT tacky. Black hoodie with a ginormous gorilla face on the front. No makeup. Hair back in a snarly pony-tail. I don't remember the last time I showered. I hadn't even brushed my teeth that morning.  And it's not like I was wearing a smile to cover up my multitude of fashion sins.

I push play on my lousy sometimes functional ipod Shuffle and what's the first sound I hear as I start my slog run to skinny.

"Dont cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me? Dont cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me? Dont cha? Dont cha? Dont cha wish your girlfriend was raw like me? Dont cha wish your girlfriend was fun like me?"

And by this point I am laughing out loud. Laughing and trying to run.

"I know I'm on your mind. I know we'll have a good time. I'm your friend. I'm fun. And I'm fine. I ain't lyin. Look at me, you ain't blind."

And now I'm laughing so hard and trying to run and trying to breathe and trying to run that I AM DROOLING.

The incongruity was just too much. I am nearly 100% sure that when the Pussycat Dolls wrote that song they were not thinking of it in terms of a frustrated, frumpy, lumpy housewife and mother of two and her pent up rage. And I'm 100% sure that not one man drove by and "wished his girlfriend was" ANYTHING like me. In fact, I would be willing that upon seeing me chugging along girlfriends turned to their boyfriends and swore that they would never dress like that in public. Newlywed women turned to their men and vowed that they would not let themselves go after childbirth. Teenage boys and girls rolled their eyes deep into their heads and wondered why I didn't just have myself committed to a nursing home already.

I'm sure they were laughing, but I don't mind because I know what they don't know...it probably WILL happen to them someday too, and because I was too busy wiping the drool away to actually see them laughing at me. :)

And just in case anyone out there is wondering:

3/23: 6/10 mile: 7m, 4s
3/25: 6/10 mile: 7m, 1s
3/28: 8/10 mile: 9m, 41s

dont cha, dont cha, dont cha, dont cha.....