Mother’s Day is here and gone. I was thinking about the whole day. Gamma invited me to come hang out and have lunch with her friends. At first I was like no way (I did not tell her that) because they don’t speak English and I don’t speak Spanish.

Then I thought about it and changed my mind… Gamma doesn’t invite me out much and I was honored she did. It turns out that Gamma did all the cooking. The food was awesome. Every one came to our house’ there were 25 people. We even had a Spanish radio station show up with a prize for one of the moms. Flowers, Spas day, chocolate, the works. It was really nice to see this exchange of love from a son to his mom.

Later we took the kids to dairy queen and had a sweet treat. Baby A was back and forth between hubby and I. K dropped her coco shell on the floor. Tyler played video games. It was a very nice mommies day. Hope you all had a great day.

10I am still sick and getting sick all over again. At least it feels that way and I all have to say is. Am I ever going to meet the little guy. He is a over a week old and still I have not seen his precious face with my own eyes and touched him with my own hands. Babies are the little pieces of heaven we get to have right here on earth with us. Another piece of joy to add to the on going list of things that make my day brighter. So when your felling blue make a list of 10 things that make you smile no matter how little they are. Here are my 10 for today.

1. K’s blue eyes when she looks at me with her head on a tilt trying to butter me up for the next ‘Can I have mommy’.

2. T’s smile as it lights up a room and makes you wonder what he did that you don’t know about yet.

3. Hubby’s way of knowing when to text me at the worst part of my day with a little love note.

4. Baby A’s laughter when I chase her around a room telling her I going to get you.

5. Gamma having dinner ready for the home family when we all get home from a our long day so we can all sit and eat together.

6. M2 setting me straight even when I do not want to hear it. I know she is usually right. LOL.

7. My place away from home. My job knowing that I have time with my family and work 8-5 hours and get to enjoy them together with my hubby.

8. My future place away from home TCD. Knowing that The Creative Dream will guide me to be with my family even more while I assist others in sharing the joys with their loved ones.

9. Having the friends I have to keep me close even when we are no always in touch.

10. My health even though that today I fell like yuck. LOL

Happy Mother’s Day to all Moms, Step Moms, Foster Moms and Dog Moms!
I can’t help but think of my Mom today, so I thought I’d post some pictures.

Mom and I:

You always hear the usual stories of pennies on the sidewalk being good luck, gifts from angels, etc. This is the first time I’ve ever heard this twist on the story. Gives you something to think about.

Last night I went to a Mary Kay career night with my friend Roberta, an independent consultant.

I can not even being to tell you how nervous I was. I arrived early because it just didn’t pay to go home and then back again. What a great opportunity; I wish I had done it sooner. I met some great people and even found some potential mew customers!
One woman wanted to put something together for her parent’s anniversary that included their 10 grand children. So I look forward to assisting her build a story book for them. Another was excited because her daughter was in Washington, DC on a school trip. She told me she would love to have one of these but she just was not creative and had even less time. “What I really need is someone who can do it for me”. My response was that could be arranged too. We laughed she walked back to me and we talked about how to get it started. There were a few others who had similar needs and I’m really looking forward to assisting each and every one in their quest to create lasting memories.

Roberta and I went to grab something to eat, but it was after 10:00 pm and everything was closed, even McDonald’s, IHop, & BK. We wound up waiting for 30 minutes to have a sit down meal, but I’m not complaining, because it gave us time to catch up. With one thing and another, we’d not seen each other for many years. We always talked on the phone and kept in touch… but just never were able to get together.

On the way home I took a wrong turn. What should have been a twenty minute drive turned into a 65 minutes drive. Arriving home at 1:36 am, all I could do was drop into bed.

Needless to say I’m tired today, but still luxuriating in the memories that we made last night.

Sunday my hubby invited the real aunt (EM) of Baby D over as well as our good friend Tom. He also issued invitations to the kids who have in the past invited T & K to play with them. Reciprocation starts at an early age! He then made lunch to find out one the girls is allergic to hot dogs! (OOOPS)

The kids had a great time at the pool, though Baby A didn’t like the water because it was too cold. I solved that by taking her over to the small kiddie pool which felt like a hot bath and she absolutely loved it. She ran around and then fell down. Not knowing how shallow it was, and that she could just stand up, I came to the rescue even though I was less than a hand’s reach away. My legs were wrapped around her in a large circle as I provided a pool within a pool.

We all got some sun but healthy sun block sun. Not over the top like Em did last week.

The young guests were, oh I don’t know. I’ll let you be the judge:
Em pulled out sun flower seeds and the cherubs immediately clamored: ‘give me some’. What ever happened to manners, like ‘may I have some PLEASE’ or even just a ‘thank you’ after it was handed out?

Then we asked them to throw the seeds in the trash and not on the ground where people walk – including themselves. Of course Baby A tried to eat the left over seeds from the ground. Oh, joy.

When it came time to leave we asked the kids to towel off, because we like to be as dry as possible before getting in the car. My kids listened (I was in shock too) but the guests looked at us like we had the plague. I don’t know how soon it will be before we invite them with us again… Uh… never?

Today marks one of the biggest days in my family’s life. We were blessed with the legal adoption of my two older kids on this day in 2002. Tomorrow marks their baptism in 2003.

What started out as a way to assist someone in my life so they could be there for their kids turned into a life changing event in my life. With this change came giving up a job I had for 12 years and was making great money. I was never home. I worked and average of 72 hours a week. My hubby had all the late night duties and most weekends with the kids. I was missing so much. Today I thank GOD for all those changes and blessings.

Then the adventure of getting the kids baptized which really took me almost two years. Form the time I was told they would be my children I tried to plan but I hit one wall after another.

I want to write something profound here to match what I’m feeling… but the words just don’t want to come out. I feel so blessed to have the kids and I want the world to know. How do I say it without taking away from the wonderful feeling it leaves in my heart every time I write the date. And I’ve written the date at least 50 times already today and I will many more times before the day is out.

After a weekend at M2’s I came home with a virtual library; it was nice to see we had similar tastes in books! Actually, we exchanged… she loaded me down and I handed over my ‘already reads’.

Less than three years ago I discovered reading as an outlet, so I’m a ‘new’ reader. Of course I scoured prescribed material while in school, but never seemed to have the time or inclination to read for pleasure’s sake. Now that I have even less time, it’s become somehow more important to squeeze in some reading here and there, if for no other reason than losing oneself in a novel can be a sanity saver.

The first devoured was a bodice ripper called Shanna… and I have to tell you WOW. Though a little long it was totally worth the week it took me to read it. As a matter of fact, I can’t wait to read it again.

I love the way Woodiwiss takes the two main characters through so much and we get to ride along as they grow as people. I don’t want to tell you too much and take way from the story in case you haven’t read it, but it’s a love story to top all love stories.

Definite thumbs up!

My oldest son ‘T’ plays soccer and loves it. I missed his game Friday before last because I took some mommy time and trust me, it hurt not being there to see him play.
He told me how his team had played the all girl team. The girls had a large team and his only had 5 players… so he got to play the entire game!
The score was 1-0 and my son scored the only goal of the night and led his team to victory!

So this Friday night I was really ready to see his stuff. He did a great job along with the rest of his team. He plays U9 (under 9 years old) so they are still learning.

Since his team was playing so well, during the last half (yes half) the coach had the boys practice passing before scoring. It was hard since they all wanted to score the goal themselves but I think they learned that they can score as a team.
Way to go team!

Missing a day in their busy little lives can seem like missing a lifetime.

Used to be a marathon Saturday night involved dancing and I’m pretty sure there was a club and nice clothes involved. But I’m a Mom now.

Baby A had a nasty cold with green running out of what seemed like every orifice; eyes and all. The pediatrician said she will be fine just give her this medication. This is our third child. We know green stuff will inevitably spurt out of every opening conceivable; we know the doctor will prescribe medication and we know they will work. We are confident we could do this in our sleep.

But a week later -on Friday night- we noticed little spots that looked like ant or mosquito bites. Saturday morning she had more, so I started to wonder about them. At nap time her body was red all over and really red in the inner thigh and stomach. When she got up it was even worse, so I rubbed benadryl gel on her. Where ever I touched her with the cream was almost back to normal, so we decided to take her to urgent care.

We drove to the West Kendall office and the place was crawling with people. There were no empty seats and little available oxygen to breathe. My hubby said let’s go to the Doral office, so off we went. It was practically empty, thank God.

During check in she got her hand stuck in the door. She’d placed her little palm against the cool glass while watching people walk up to the door. The next thing we know the door is moving and A, being 16 months old, does not move her hand. Ouch! So I’m having a cow and glaring at daddy who was supposed to be watching her.

Of course she had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics and after they gave her something it went away for the most part. Sunday she had more spots appear, but after giving her more benadryl she was better. However this morning she had more again so daddy took her to the doctor. So I sit and worry and wait to see what Doc will have to say.

What will I worry about when the kids are grown?

EDIT:
Since she was at UC when the door tried to eat her hand they took x-rays. I was in a different part of the building while daddy went with her and I had to go find them because I could hear her screaming. It broke my heart but we found no damage was done to her precious little hand.
Don’t want social services showing up at the door because my blog post didn’t update correctly! LOL!

Baby A is going to be fine. She did have a reaction to the meds but the Urgent Care Center did not give her enough of another med to make it go away for good… so five more days at most of waiting to see her beautiful un-speckled skin.

We have so much to be thankful for, but the biggie today is modern medicine!