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!

Museum of Natural History NYC

Do you know this man?

I don't watch a lot a television. Like everybody else, I occasionally get sucked into some horrific show like this (which deserves it's own post, believe me) or House Hunters on HGTV, but rarely do I put aside time just to watch a specific show. Until now, that is.

Please don't ring me up on Tuesday night at 9 o'clock, because more than likely I have my eyes glued to the TV to watch this man, Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs on The Discovery Channel.

Mike, who has in the past sang professionally with the Baltimore Opera, is the host of the show. Dirty Jobs showcases the very messy jobs that many men and women have to work at every day. Not like your typical office job, Mike takes on tasks like roadkill collector, septic tank cleaner and geo duck harvester (let me say about the geo ducks - if you are a fan of sashimi, you should probably skip this episode).

There are three reasons that bring me back to the tube each Tuesday night. First, Mike is always funny, never condescending and seems like an all around nice guy. Secondly, you really do appreciate your work environment after seeing what average people do every day to keep our world turning. The last reason is the most obvious - could he be any cuter?

A blind date

You know what it is like when you meet someone and feel like you have known them for a long time? Well, I had the pleasure today to meet two of my favorite bloggers - Tammy of Spilling my Coffee Beans and Katie of Maylee Bezzer. Katie also had her friend Beth with her.

What could have been a potentially awkward meeting "Uh, hi, I'm the forks and chopsticks lady" turned out to be like meeting old friends. We met at the Philadelphia Zoo where the kids ran around, we talked and just had a great time. I am so glad that we were able to finally get-together. Our adoption agency hosts a Chinese New Year party each year and I think that my husband, daughter and I might attend it next year just so I can run into these gals again!

Below is a pic of our kids (Tammy's son had his face painted like a puppy dog):



And is this not the cutest - Leah and Tammy's son out for a little stroll. Too sweet!

Remember when

Remember the amusement park that your parents used to bring you to when you were a kid? If you were lucky they drove you down to Florida to experience the wonder that is Disney World. Otherwise, you were probably subjected to the small, dilapidated, family owned amusement parks of the past.

One such park was Fairy Tale Forest, located in my hometown in New Jersey. The place was built by a German immigrant and his two sons in 1957. The park was filled with storybook cottages each depicting fairytales like The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Ridding Hood. I am sure in its heyday it must have been a wondrous site. By the time I was a a teenager and had excepted a job there, the park had started to show its age.

When my girlfriend and I were hired, the owner Paul was 90 years old and insisted that everyone call him Opa (German for grandpa). Every once in a while Opa would wander across the street and attempt to fix up some of the displays. At this point the only thing that could clean it up was maybe a bulldozer. But still, the kids came. It wasn't all sugar coated sweet or so clean you could lick the bathroom floor. It was a down and dirty sort of place. Most of the displays had cobwebs growing on them. The taxidermied animals in "The Rabbit School" were downright creepy. But that was part of the charm, wasn't it? When you are five, you don't care if the Candyland train is up to code; as long as it was fast you were a happy camper. So what if one of Snow Whites drawfs looked a little like the devil himself? You got to run free through the park and loved every minute of it.

Fairy Tale Forest closed its doors in 2003. The front facade still stands, but behind it are a bunch of storage buildings. Yesterday, Joe and I took Leah to another local park. OK, it wasn't quite as dilapidated as Fairy Tale Forest, but they did have some poor guy dressed up like Santa, sitting in a hot, dimly lit attic handing out cookie cutters. Leah loved it, and so did I.

The grass is DEFINITELY greener

BEFORE:



AFTER:



This is what I would classify as a miracle. Joe and I do not have green thumbs, and yet with the guidance of our neighbor (also known as the grass God) we have actually grown something. Not too bad, if I do say so myself!

How much is too much?

Last week, my daughter and I attended a birthday party for Nicole's 2 year old son. It was a really fun cowboy party which included games, cowboy hats and to top it all off, pony rides. Everyone had a blast and I can truly say that it was probably the most well organized children's party I've ever been to. I don't know what she spent on the party, but I am sure she didn't have to take out a second mortgage to host it.

Tonight, I read this article about elaborate children's parties. Here's a quick excerpt:

Two years earlier, she forked out $10,000 on a princess party for Sabrina, then three, sending a Cinderella character out to the homes of dozens of children to hand-deliver an invitation along with a song. She hired 10 princesses that day, as well as a horse-drawn carriage, 12-foot-tall balloon sculptures of the Little Mermaid, 10 activity tents and characters out of "Alice in Wonderland." "The balloons themselves cost $4,500," she said.

Now, is it just me, or does that seem to be a tad over the top? Let's face it, these people are not spending thousands of dollars so their three year old is happy. They are doing it to impress their friends and neighbors.

I really don't understand this rational, because to be quite frank, I really don't give a damn what people think of me. I am a well-adjusted, financially stable, happy person. I dress in clothes bought on sale at Kohl's and hardly wear any makeup. Do I feel the need to prove my worth to anyone? Absolutely NOT! Furthermore, I am not really that impressed if you spend half of what my adoption is costing me on your kids birthday bash. In fact, I think it is a huge waste of money and said kid will probably grow up to be a spoiled brat.

I would much prefer going to a birthday party hosted by Nicole. She is unpretentious and nice. Anyway, I would probably have to wear makeup at a $10,000 birthday party...

tagged!

OK, the original tag says to fill out the below lists with seven items each (i.e. 7 things I can do). To be honest, I am tired and don't feel particularly creative at the moment, so I will list only the most important things. In other words don't bet on seven, ok!

Things I Want To Do Before Dying
See the Taj Mahal, live somewhere other than New Jersey, play with my grandchildren, become a successful Graphic Designer, write a children's book, play a musical instrument and speak Chinese

Things I Can Not Do
Definitely can't sing, play the piano or talk on the telephone for more than five minutes (I really hate the phone)! Speak Chinese - the only Chinese I know is how to say "give me the check" at a restaurant or "he just dropped dead" - believe it or not, these two statements sound VERY similar in Cantonese.

Things I Can Do
Cook, knit, whistle, swim and listen

Things That Attracted Me To My Husband
His sense of humor, work ethic, generosity and most of all the fact that I knew he would make a great dad.

Things I Say Most Often
Just give me one minute, DUH, whatever, I'll love you forever (to my daughter) and various obscenitiess while driving my car.

Books That I Love
The Red Tent, The Kite Runner, Memoirs of a Geisha, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (actually, the whole HP series), The Lovely Bones and The Time Traveler's Wife

Movies That I Love
Sense and Sensibility, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Glory, Pirates of theCaribbeann

So now it's my turn to tag - Buttercup, Collin Chronicles, Maryland Mommy, What about Mommy? and My Wooly Nest - you're IT

Fat Baby

I am posting this picture of my daughter Leah for the benefit of my girlfriend Chau. We were talking about chunky babies on the phone this morning and I was reminding her how BIG Leah was. A real porker. She was also quite flexible. The doctor always said "well, she is certainly well fed."

Leah at 5 months of age:



Chau and Leah (at a month old):



It is amazing how quickly four years flies by...

Something to think about

As most of you already may be aware of, and was mentioned on a blog I frequent, a few families in the China adoption community who received their referrals last month were surprised by referrals for boys, instead of the requested girls. I read this on the Rumor Queens site also, but have yet to see who actually received this referral.

I decided not to write about this until I thought it over for a few days. When we began this process in November, we didn't even consider requesting a boy. We already had a daughter and felt that another girl would be a perfect addition to our family. We even picked out a name for her, Maya, and we regularly use her name when speaking about Leah's little sister. A referral for a boy would come as a shock to us and leave us with a lot of explaining to do to Leah.

Having said that, I had to really consider why we started this adoption in the first place. It is not due to infertility (my daughter Leah is biological) but more about what we have always believed a family is.

Before we were married, Joe and I talked about infertility issues. What if we were faced with the same upsetting circumstances as thousands of other couples? Both of us decided right then and there that if we couldn't have children on our own, we would opt for adoption right away, in other words skip all medical intervention. It was just something that neither of us was willing to do because we didn't have a strong NEED for biological children. I know that it sounds strange (and maybe you are saying to yourself "easy for her to say" since I did have a successful pregnancy) but the fact is that I always knew I didn't have to give birth to a child to actually love him or her.

Which brings us to the present time. When Leah was 3 1/2 I started thinking about having another child. Could I have gotten pregnant again? I guess so. But I didn't want to. We really truly felt that adoption could and should be the way to grow our family.

Having said that all of that, we decided that we wouldn't turn down a referral based on gender. Sure I have my heart set on a girl, but am I adopting because I really want a girl or am I doing it because I want to be a mother again?

P.S. I am sure that everyone has a strong opinion on this subject. I am just writing about how I feel. Each family has different circumstances, so if your opinion differs from mine, that's cool too.

P.P.S. When I was pregnant with Leah we didn't find out her sex we really enjoyed the element of surprise. My neice, Kira, found out she was having a girl and then gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Julian. Sure it was a shocker to us all (especially her), but she feels so lucky to have been truly blessed with a wonderful child. I guess nothing in this world is certain.

Scrapbooking junkies (this means you)!

Even though I have barely mentioned it on my blog, I am a scrapbooker. Like any other crafty thing (a.k.a. knitting) I tend to work on it for a few months and then put it down again. Is that why I am like a year and a half behind on my scrapbooking?

Anyway, I have now picked up my knitting needles and scrapbooking supplies again. Yep, I have even resumed the baby hoodie project. Last night my neighbor and I went to our local library for their first ever scrapbook night. There I met two women who filled us in on the best scrapbooking secret in northern New Jersey. Apparently one of the really big scrapbooking supply companies has their warehouse about a half-hour from here. A few times a year they have a warehouse sale open to the public. Can you imagine - 10 pages of 12x12 paper for $1! 12 x 12 albums for $5! Filling up a shoebox with stickers and embellishments for $10 bucks! I came home right away to sign up for their mailing list and can't wait to hit the next sale.

I love seeing other people post pictures of their scrapbook pages so I figured I would too (I suppose a scanner would come in handy for something like this, but alas I don't have one).

Here is Leah in Hawaii when she was almost 2 years old. I took the picture and using Photoshop gave it a grainy finish, like sand. There is Diamond Head in the background. I printed out some journaling on velum:



This layout was in a magazine, so I did my best to recreate it. Leah was 2 1/2 and Dora the Explorer for Halloween:



Summertime fun (2004):



Last night I started an 8.5 x 8.5 album of our Hawaii vacation photos. Here is the first page:

How lucky I am

I did two things today. This morning I met my girlfriend at our town lake and spent a few hours in the sunshine just hanging out and playing in the water with Leah. In the late afternoon I took Leah to her first ever dance class. It was a huge success and she really enjoyed it.

I bring this up because I overheard a conversation while watching Leah at her dance class. Apparently most of the people (parents of the kids in class) worked full time. There was one guy who works as a sales rep from his home office and his wife works in New York City. They have two young daughters. He was saying that his wife leaves the house at 6:45 a.m. to catch a train and doesn't come home until around 7 p.m. He works until about 6:30 p.m. when his nanny leaves.

Right there it hit me how incredibly lucky I really am. Instead of sitting on an overcrowded train this morning, I snuggled with my daughter. I got to dig holes in the sand instead of sitting through another corporate meeting. My husband, daughter and I sat down to a meal together and talked about our day.

I understand that for many families it is not an option to have one parent stay at home. Single parents must work to provide for their children. And for some, a fulfilling career is not something they want to just give up.

Some days being a stay-at-home mom can be overwhelming. There have been times that I just can't wait for Joe to get home so I can high-tail it out of here. I guess that sometimes you just need a gentle reminder about how fortunate you really are. I'm a stay at home mom and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Leah Ballerina

Uniqua is her name

You may be familiar with a post I did a few weeks earlier about kids TV. You can find it here to refresh your memory.

Anyway, one of the programs I really enjoy watching with Leah is The Backyardigans. The one thing that bugged me is the fact that I couldn't ever figure out what type of animal Uniqua represented (second from the right in pink). She is pink and has swirly antenna on her head. The other characters are very obviously a moose, hippo, penguin and kangaroo.

This evening Joe was watching a Backyardigans DVD with Leah and I asked him what he thought she might be. He guessed a snail (HA HA HA).

In further researching an answer on the trusty old internet, I found this:

Uniqua is her name and her species. She’s graceful, agile, and as light on her feet as a ballerina. But when it comes to playing, she’s more “adventure” than “ballet.” Unafraid and daring, Uniqua loves to run, climb, and ride her bike faster than anyone. She also loves to tell silly jokes, make silly noises, and tickle her friends. Yes, Uniqua is mischievous, but she’s also sweet – she knows whether her friends are happy or sad, and she’ll always say something to show that she cares.BLAH, BLAH, BLAH...

So she isn't even an animal! What a total cop-out. What, the producers couldn't come up with just one more animal for the show? You know, all the millions of other mammals in the world just didn't cut it?

I'm not quite sure why this pisses me off, but maybe it has to do with all the precious brain cells I wasted on trying to figure it out.

On another note, a friend of mine just started a blog called The Collin Chronicles: Tales of a Tiny Tyrant. Please stop by and show her some love.

Woody the woodpecker

This morning, a juvenile red bellied woodpecker flew directly into our sliding glass window. After calling a friend of a friend (who is an Ornithologist), he suggested that we put the bird in a box, cover him up and leave him in a dark place for a few hours. Apparently, some birds are just temporally stunned by the impact and will recover after some time in a quiet environment.

Unfortunately, by noon time the woodpecker was still not able to fly away, so we took it to The Raptor Trust, which is a nonprofit avian rehabilitation here in New Jersey. Just the other day, the center released a bald eagle back into the wild after it has spent 6 weeks in their rehab center. You can read all about it here.

Anyway, here is our little woodpecker friend awaiting his trip to the hospital:



Below is a snowy white owl and a bald eagle which we were able to see after we dropped off the woodpecker:





There are about 70 exterior cages that house recuperating birds that will be released, as well as unreleasable individuals that reside at the facility. I will be contacting them in two days to find out how the woodpecker is doing. Hopefully, if it has recovered they will release it back into the wild.

A little obsessed

I am trying my darndest not to obsess over the adoption wait since it has only been 48 days since our log-in date. In an attempt to re-direct my thoughts, I have added something new to the sidebar on my blog. Just scroll down a bit to see it.

It is the "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" countdown clock that I got from this cool site. Only 372 days until the movie hits theater! There is also a rumor floating around that the seventh and final Harry Potter book will be released on 7/7/07.

Oh boy, what if I am in China when the book is released? Do you think I'll be able to find a bookstore throwing a Harry Potter midnight party? :)

Maybe I could get one of these in a onsie...

Corners of My Home #8

Joe worked hard this holiday weekend replacing this with a new front door and storm door. All we have to do now is put in new molding and paint it. I really like it white, but am also considering painting it a deep red color.

Our neighborhood friends

There is nothing better than spending a summer night with friends. We are fortunate to have really awesome neighbors, many with kids close to Leah's age. Below are some pictures of a recent BBQ we hosted.

Just hanging out



Some pretty cool kids!



Soccer anyone?

Buzz Buzz

There is a larger than normal fly buzzing around my head as I type this. Another one has attached itself to my hallway light. A few more of these winged creatures I have lost track of. Why, do you ask, is my house the new home for wayward bugs? It actually has to do with our wedding anniversary. We will be married for 8 years this 4th of July. So how are we treating ourselves this holiday weekend? We took our 10% off coupon to Home Depot and bought ourselves a snazzy new front door.

Here is our old front door (and yes, it is actually pink - painted by the previous owners)!



And here is my hubby making a huge mess on our front lawn.



Yep, we had a gaping hole in the front of our house most of the day. We lost track of our cats once or twice, but now have a proper front door again. Once the new storm door is installed (tomorrow or Monday) I will post a picture of our new door.

I also want to mention that home improvements are a hobby for my husband. He really enjoys working with his hands and on his home. I am really lucky to have a husband who does a top notch job.

My kitchen cupboards

Julie has come up with a cute spin on the "Corners of my home" posts and asked us to show our shamefully messy and unorganized pantry spaces.

First, here is my kitchen. My husband re-did the kitchen about five years ago (he is one handy guy). He worked hard making it just the way I wanted it - even putting up wallpaper that I promptly HATED! So, after all these years he is going to take it down and paint the kitchen my favorite color - green. I can't wait. We will also be replacing the window with a double hung (to match the rest of the house).



Anyway, here is not only my snack pantry, but also the drawer where I house forks, knives, chopsticks and other junk. The snacks used to be in our lazy susan, but we had to move them up out of "Leah" reach.



Oh, and try these - they are yummy!



And speaking of food, my neighbor Sharon, who is a dietician, introduced me to this awesome monthly newsletter called "Nutrition Action." It is only about 16 pages long, but it gives you great, easy to understand nutrition advice. I love the section called Right Stuff/Food Porn, where they rate name brand packaged food. Did you know that the Pillsbury Perfect Portions Buttermilk biscuits have 4 1/2 grams of trans fats (about the same amount you would get in a Krispy Kreme Original Glazed Doughnut)! You can find out how to subscribe here.

Hmm, I wonder what they would say about my Chex Mex Turtles?

33

Today I turn 33 years old. My husband, who is out of town, gave me an early birthday present. Now, I get to blog on this nice new 19" flat screen monitor. Thanks sweetie! I am also going to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch with my Mom. You know, turning one year older isn't so bad!

BEFORE


AFTER!