Sunday Sunday Sunday

We had friends over for dinner last night. We love to have people over...so when our friends asked if they could invite K and C, of course we said yes. Then we decided to make it a real party and asked S, J and N over too. This was all decided friday afternoon and yesterday morning. After power cooking and cleaning, Mr and I decided that we should use our heartrate monitors while cleaning...it can be a real workout...LOL! We also decided that we must like to entertain because we have all of the equiptment to handle dinner for that many at a moments notice, cloth napkins and all.

Don't let the napkin thing fool you though. It wasn't a formal dinner. Our crowd is the "everyone in the kitchen, hanging out, laughing and drinking" kind of crowd. Yes we use cloth napkins and I made fig and blue cheese tenderloin, but there was tons of laughing and joking around.

In all, we had 11 for dinner and they hung out and played a great game (Apples to Apples- FUN!) Boo loves it when we have people over. He was really good when playing with N, who will be 2 next week. He even got him "my favorite cars: the red Lightning, the Mach 6 with the 6 on the bottom and the WRX" it was really sweet the way they played together.

All in all a great night.

Today is a lazy day. I do need to grocery shop and prep meals for the week. Do you do this? It's something I've been in the habit of doing since we moved here. On sundays, I plan meals for the week and make a list. It's cut down on eating out and now I'm working on cutting down our grocery bill too.
I spread out any new magazines I have to look at around me. I subscribe to Cooking Light and Rachel Ray (don't watch the show, but the mag has good recipes!) then decide what Boo might eat, what Mr can eat (he does low carb...I know, I know...) and what sounds good to me. Not always an easy task. Then I make my list. This week it includes:

Cream of Broccoli soup with biscuits
Pork Vindaloo with Jasmine rice
Turkey Tacos with yellow rice
Broiled Tilapia Parmesan with carrots and sweet potatoes
Homemade Chicken Fingers with broccoli
Fig and Blue Cheese tenderloin with carrots

Sorry for the boring post, but this is my day today...LOL!

Even Though I Don't Like Meme's, I am in the Mood...30 Things You (Probably) Already Know About Me...Or not.

1. I am the youngest girl of 8 children. I have 5 brothers and two sisters and 22 nieces and nephews.
2. My parents call me the "oldest of the second family" as they had 6 in 7 years and then a ten year gap (mc's) and then me.
3. My older brothers and sisters voted on my name...hence my name is Linda Michelle. If my mother had won, I'd be a "Shelley."
4. I am a knitter. I learned to knit when I came back from my maternity leave after Boo was born. I knit a lot while pumping.
5. I have freckles. My "name" littleangelkisses comes from my father. When I'd complain about my freckles, he'd tell me they were angel kisses.
6. Mr and I met via the internet.
7. I eat wierd things. I like fried chicken livers. I also adore tomato sandwiches on white bread with miracle whip. When I'm sick I eat SpagettiO's warm on white buttered bread.
8. I am a 6th and 7th grade reading teacher.
9. I teach in a very low SES school.
10. I have been at the same school for the entire time I've been teaching.
11. I've been at the same job for 12 years.
12. I am the only child in my family to graduate from college.
13. I have a Master's endorsement in ELL and am almost finished with my Masters in Reading.
14. I am applying for a grant to University of Iowa for Teacher Librarians.
15. Mr and I have been married 5 years.
16. I often invite people over to my house for dinner because I need to clean the house and can't get motiviated.
17. I am a good cook but hate to bake.
18. I used to be a restaurant manager at a 24 hour restaurant. ICK
19. We are going to be the March of Dimes Ambassador Family for 2009 in our area.
20. My favorite book is Gone with the Wind. It's the only book I've read many times. I found it in our basement after the nuns at school told us we couldn't order it from the Scholastic Book orders!
21. I didn't see the movie Gone with the Wind until I had graduated from High School.
22. I went to Catholic schools from Kindergarten through college.
23. My sister and I look so much alike that in my wedding pictures, my students asked me if we were twins. (not so fun as she's 12 years older than I am!)
24. I used to work in a jewelry store. I was good at that!
25. I don't have very many close close friends.
26. I have a propensity to pop any zit I see on myself or Mr. He hates this.
27. I was a virgin until I was 22.
28. I didn't even have a first kiss until I was 21!
29. I've lived in Iowa for 14 years.
30. My real first name is Linda.

BRRRR....Baby it's cold outside!

Windchill today is -15 or so. I finally got back this afternoon from my parent's house. There was a blizzard warning yesterday, so Boo and I stayed over. We were to have come home from Wisconsin yesterday but decided not to chance it.

It's nice to go to Mom's and be babied! My mom is a great cook, so there was no need to do that. I did make it out to their mall to get some shopping done, sas Boo. That was nice. We watched old Jodi Foster movies and played Five Crown. Sigh...it was good to be home.

Grandma and Grandpa adore Grant. You'd think with SO many grandchildren....but they love him and he loves them. They taught him how to play "Dot Dominos" (as opposed to Car's Dominos), they played Go Fish and taught him War. Grandma has more cookies than a bakery....he was in heaven!

Today it's back home and back to reality. Shopping, cleaning, wrapping...but that extra day was a nice break for me.

Ambassadors

Our family has been chosen to be the 2009 March of Dimes Ambassador Family for our area. We are honored to have been chosen. Boo represents the best possible outcome for preemies. I want to make sure that everyone knows that we realize that we are incredibly lucky.

I had to write "Grant's Story" in less than 350 words. GAH! How can I possibly describe learning that your child may die at birth, seeing bright red blood, hearing him cry for the first time, watching him lift off in a helicopter before I even got to touch him for the first time, watching him turn blue, hearing the monitors alarm, holding him for the first time, dreading the news from the nurses, giving him his first bath, watching him struggle to eat, looking at him smile, and all of the worry and fear of his first few year....in less than 350 words????

Here's what I came up with:

In August 2004, as first time parents, we were thinking about our nursery. Our baby was due November 13th, we had plenty of time. Little did we know we’d have 3 short weeks before meeting him. August 20th, we found out that I had a condition called Vasa Previa. If my water broke, our child would bleed to death before an emergency C-section could be performed. We were lucky enough to have a sonographer and doctor that caught this rare condition. I was air lifted to Iowa City immediately. After confirming the condition, I was sent home on bed rest. I ended up back at Genesis soon after for constant monitoring. We were walking the torturous line between wanting our child to have more time in utero and risking my water breaking. Our doctors supported us; we wouldn’t be where we are now without them.

Grant Spencer Smithson was born 9 weeks early on September 12, 2004. He was 4lbs, 2oz. At 24 hours old, Grant was airlifted to Iowa City because of suspected hydrocephalus. This was an incredibly hard moment. Although hydrocephalus was ruled out soon after he arrived, Grant had many issues to overcome. He received blood transfusions, surfactant for his lungs, and antibiotics. He was treated for Sepsis and, despite having received steroids in utero; he suffered from Respiratory Distress Syndrome.

We were not able to hold him until he was a week old. Holding Grant for the first time on my birthday was the best gift I’ve ever received. Our small family went through many trials that month. Grant, mom and dad rode the rollercoaster that is NICU for 42 days. He came home two days before our first anniversary.

Although he was behind in his milestones for the first two years, Grant is now a precocious preschooler who is caught up to his peers. He loves playing with cars of any kind and riding his BMX bike. He talks our ears off, amazes us with his insights and he is the joy of our lives.

Something to think about...

I read Manuela's blog today. I'm not sure how I found her, but I did. Her blog has been the source of my introspection on several topics lately.

Mr. found out about a year and a half ago that his mother had been pregnant when his father met her. She gave the little boy up for adoption. Her mother, his grandmother supposedly knew, the rest of her family did not.

His father told ME this after she died. He left me with this knowlege before he got on a plane and flew out of town. In his defense, he was asking me if Mr. was ready/strong enough to know this. My first instinct is to protect him. It has been for a long time. He'd been through so much.

***backstory***
Mr. and I almost lost Boo before he was born. It had been a very trying, tiring summer. His mother was sick, very sick and we had been dealing with that. Our lives were changing in other ways that I'll get into another time. I was diagnosed with VP. His mother was doing a bit better, but was in some ways worse. She was so far away. We are in the midwest, she was in New Mexico/Texas.

I was air lifted to Iowa City, then sent home, then ended up back in the hospital, all between 28 and 30 weeks pg. Boo was born at 31 weeks. We then found out THAT night that his father (on the other side of the continent in Georgia) had had a massive heart attack. Boo was airlifted to Iowa city and was there for 6 long weeks. His mother died, the day we first were able to hold our son (and my birthday) one week after Boo was born.

Did I think he was ready to know he had a brother out there? My immediate response...no way in hell. That's what I told his father before he left that morning. By the time Mr. came home from work, I knew that no way in hell was I keeping this from him. I told him that night.

He didn't ask his dad about it until this time last year (this exact time, wow, I just got tears in my eyes) His dad gave him all the details he had in a very long phone call. It was the last long phone call he had with his father before he died.

We've talked a little about it. Does he want to look for this brother. His answer was "I don't know" After reading Manuela's POV, we've talked more about it. It was the basis of this wonderful conversation last sunday. The first we've really talked about it since he first found out.

I sent him Manuela's post today. His response.....In a way that’s some of what I fear if I ever meet my brother. And I have the whole “tell him everything about mom b/c he can’t meet her” deal. Along with the “ what if he’s a total leech/loser who had a horrible life and now wants to take it out on me b/c mom isn’t here” possibility. Kind of daunting….

Someone out there is going to send me nasty things, I'm sure (I flatter myself that anyone reads this, huh) It's his gut response to the idea of finding his "brother." It makes me angry, sad, and hurt for him all at the same time....

In my life, I didn't really consider myself affected by adoption. I am. In another way as well. More on that later.