Soccer Mom

I wasn't going to be a Soccer Mom. You know, the one driving the bumper stickered mini-van filled with a bunch of kids, talking on her cell phone, driving all over creation just so her kids can play sports, instruments or swing some pom poms around. Don't get me wrong, I would like Leah to experience new things and try different activities, but I don't feel like she needs to do EVERYTHING. But I was wrong. That typical Mom hasn't necessarily over scheduled her children. In fact, as I have just recently found out, even doing one thing for your kids is overkill.

First, let me point out that Joe and I have welcomed a foreign exchange student into our home. It has been a week since S. moved in and all is going very well. She is friendly, sweet and has fit into our family perfectly. She will be attending high school (HS) here and will spend the next ten months in our home.

Just yesterday I took S over to the private HS she will be attending to try out for the soccer team. She did well and was excepted onto the team. She worked out with the other girls from 2 - 4 p.m. Before we left I asked the coach when would the next practice be. You know what the answer was? 6 - 8 p.m. THAT SAME NIGHT. WHAT?

So this is what our schedule is like until S starts school next Wednesday:

1:40 p.m. Drive 8.5 miles to the HS for start of practice at 2 p.m.
2:00 p.m. Drive 8.5 miles back home with Leah (or find something in the local area to do for two hours).
3:40 p.m. Drive 8.5 miles back to HS to pick S up.
4:00 p.m. Drive 8.5 miles back home
4:20 p.m. Prepare dinner
5:00 p.m. Eat dinner
5:40 p.m. Drive 8.5 miles to the HS for start of practice at 6 p.m.
6:00 p.m. Drive 8.5 miles back home
7:40 p.m. Drive 8.5 miles back to HS to pick S up.
8:00 p.m. Drive 8.5 miles back home
8:20 p.m. Finally get home

So, if your teenager is involved with just ONE sport or activity, this is your potential schedule. No wonder the typical American family doesn't eat dinner together anymore!

Fun with potatoes

The weather this weekend has been just awful. We postponed our annual block party because it is so chilly out. It is currently pouring outside and I even had to turn on the heat this morning!

Anyway, I figured it would be fun to post a few photos of Leah working on a recent craft project (you know, when the weather was still summer-like)! It's called potato stamping and all you do is cut a potato lengthwise, cut or use a cooking cutter to make it into a desired shape, paint it with some fabric paint and stamp it on a t-shirt. Instant art.

bedhead

Odds and Ends...

It's been a crazy week! Over the weekend we went to Philadelphia and met up with some friends (Chau and Chris) and family (our niece Candice). We had a blast.

Also, today we opened our home to a Japanese foreign exchange student. It is something that Joe and I have always wanted to do and we are very excited to have her. So now, not only do I have a pre-schooler at home but a teenager as well! I will post more about this later.

I leave you now with pictures from Philly:

Leah painted my face at the children's museum


Leah looks at her favorite painting at the Philadelphia Museum of Art


Leah and her cousin Candice


Newlyweds Chris and Chau

Movies

I saw this meme on another blog and even though I wasn't tagged I thought it would be fun to fill out anyway.

1. The first movie you remember seeing on the big screen: I think it might have been E.T. I do remember that my Mom and I loved it so much that we brought my father with us to see it again.
   
2. Movie from which you can quote multiple lines in your sleep: Probably these three: The Hunt for Red October, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Shawshank Redeption. All three are the kind of movies that if my husband and I are channel surfing on a Saturday night and one of them happens to be on we still watch the entire thing.
   
3. Director (dead or alive) with whom you would most like to have dinner: Ang Lee. He is just so versatile.
   
4. Movie that should have won an Oscar but didn't: I can't think of any off the top of my head. Trust me though, two days after I post this list I will think of plenty!
   
5. Movie that didn’t disappoint despite being an adaptation from a book: The Cider House Rules, Emma, The Joy Luck Club
   
6. Movie you were dragged to by someone else, expecting to hate but loved: My best friend from high school insisted that we see Glory. It is the story of the first black regiman in the Civil War. It stared Matthew Broderick and Denzel Washington and I was just blown away.
   
7. Movie that still scares the crap out of you no matter how many times you see it: The Exorcist.
   
8. Movie that still makes you bawl no matter how many times you see it: Glory (the entire last 45 minutes) and Sense and Sensibility (the end when Hugh Grant tells Emma Thompson that he isn't married to someone else and he wants to marry her) - it gets me every time!
   
9. Movie that still has you rolling around on the floor with laughter no matter how many times you see it: The Christmas Story. Just seeing Ralphie in the pink bunny suit his Aunt Clara sent him still gives me the giggles.

If you read this and want to participate, then consider yourself tagged!

Just for kids in Beijing!

I just posted about this Beijing bookstore on my other blog, The Written Word. I thought I would put it here too since many of you are planning to be in China in the near future (I know I am)! Take a look at Kids Republic , an awesome children's bookstore. It is just unbelievable. Click on the link to see more photos. I have to take Leah there when we go to China next year!

Thanks to Bookmark My Heart for posting about this.

I'm a lucky one

Last week I won a $50 gift certificate to a local restaurant from my library. Today I won that really cool NYC book from A Readable Feast (see post from August 7th)! Hmmm, maybe I should buy a lottery ticket...

Crafts

When I was a kid, I used to love working on any type of craft I could get my hands on. I still do. Take a peek at Leah, who is peeking back at me through the cute little finger puppets we made yesterday.

Anyway, the real reason for this post is to tell you about Kids Craft Weekly, a free e-mail newsletter that features craft projects for children. Amber, who is a mother of two living half way around the world, also has a craft blog called The Pointy Sister. As usual, I am just blown away by such talent all these crafty blogging moms have!

I like to win

Doesn't everyone? Anyway, please check out this cool blog. She is running a contest (you can see the rules here) and giving away this cool book to a lucky winner.



PICK ME, PLEASE PICK ME!!

Do I sound desperate enough?

Howard the cat and some red paint

This is the door that Joe painted:



This is the cat that RAN THROUGH the paint tray:



You don't want to see what the family room rug looks like.

I do wish I had a picture of Joe washing off the cat. Now THAT would have been funny.

Stupid cat.

Lifebook

When I posted about my scrapbooking pages last month, the lovely Georgia asked me if I knew of any websites about preparing an adoption lifebook. I haven't done any web research on Lifebooks, but have the feeling that they are very similar to scrapbooking. My agency has sent us some information on starting a lifebook. I thought I would share it with all of you just in case you are planning on starting one.

LIFEBOOKS were developed to create a permanent record of a child's birth and placement history. The scraps of information held by adoptive parents may be the only clues an adopted child has to his/her roots. Preserving what is available, however limited, is important. Creating a lifebook helps your child learn about his/her heritage and it weaves the child's past into his/her present and future development.

Families that create lifebook often include items such as:

• Documents adoptive parents collected for the adoption
• Notes they took when they received their child referral over the telephone
• Airline boarding passes
• Items they picked up from their trip to China
• News clippings or magazines from the time the child was adopted
• A detailed journal or letter about the trip the adoptive parents took in order to complete the adoption
• Photographs from the trip to China, or a note to the child before or after the adoption was finalized.
• M3's elaborate referral spreadsheets (OK, I added that one)!

Hopefully this little bit of information can get you started. Since I still have a long wait ahead of me, I am starting a scrapbook for my husband Joe to include all the home improvement projects he has worked on.

On another note, in case you are still interested voting has started over at The Written Word. Stop on by and vote for which book you would like to read with our on-line book club!

Join me with a good book

Based upon a few suggestions from some of my blogging buddies (yep, I'm talking about you Tammy and Stacy), I have started a virtual book club blog called The Written Word. In order to get this up and running I am asking anyone that is interested to visit The Written Word, read the Welcome post for instructions and then send me an e-mail with your suggestions! Keep in mind that you do not have to be a blogger to participate.

I plan on adding blog links to all those who participate and also links to some of the really cool reading blogs that I have found.

Suggestions are welcome, so please don't be shy and come on over. I hope to find a few of you (my mom, Chau, Ariel, my sister, Maureen, Pink Lucy, Katie J and Nicole) who I know are big time readers to participate.

Please Bury Me in the Library

I love to sit down with a good book, so I figured that there must be other bloggers with my passion for reading. A quick search on the internet sent me to some really interesting blogs all about books.

The most elaborate of them all is BookGirl's Nightstand. Just click on the reference section to check out her archives and a huge list of links to other book blogs. I was also happy to find Bookmark My Heart, A Life In Books, A High and Hidden Place and Out in the Woods. Also be sure to check out A Readable Feast at ClubMom. It is a really cool site that mixes recipes with info on lots of different childrens books.

Speaking of reading a good book, how about reading a book about reading books (are you confused yet)? Check out the memoir So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson. The author challenges herself to read a book a week for a year and then keep a journal on how the reading material intersects with her life.



Or how about The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble? It's a work of fiction about five women, living very different lives, who meet monthly for a bookclub.



Check out this really beautiful children's book that I found in my local library last night. Please Bury Me in the Library (or Libary, as Leah calls it) is a book of poems celebrating a love of books and reading. One of my favorites from the book is below

"Great, Good, Bad"

A great book is a homing device
For navigating paradise.

A good book somehow makes you care
About the comfort of a chair.

A bad book owes to many trees
A forest of apologies.



I must stop typing now, since I need some time to read Prep tonight. Happy reading!