We have received squares 8 & 9 for Alyzabeth’s 100 Good Wishes Quilt! Thank you to the Reed’s from Iowa & the Schreiber family from Texas.
The squares are beautiful and the Wishes make wonderful additions to our Good Wishes memory book.
As others have posted, this makes going to the mailbox a special joy!
Thank you all again…
We have received squares 8 & 9 for Alyzabeth’s 100 Good Wishes Quilt! Thank you to the Reed’s from Iowa & the Schreiber family from Texas.
The squares are beautiful and the Wishes make wonderful additions to our Good Wishes memory book.
As others have posted, this makes going to the mailbox a special joy!
Thank you all again…
We have received squares 8 & 9 for Alyzabeth’s 100 Good Wishes Quilt! Thank you to the Reed’s from Iowa & the Schreiber family from Texas.
The squares are beautiful and the Wishes make wonderful additions to our Good Wishes memory book.
As others have posted, this makes going to the mailbox a special joy!
Thank you all again…
Just recently a favorite “blogger” of mine and quite possibly for you as well made the decision to “step outside for a while.” Translated; he made a decision to end his blog. It is not hyperbole when I say that many of us, his faithful readers, were both shocked and saddened.
These personal blogs of ours are strange creatures. When Alyson and I began our blog it was for the most common and noble of reasons, we wanted to capture our adoption journey to Alyzabeth and the blogsite offered an efficient and effective way to capture that quest and share it with family and friends. Not unlike how it was and still is for many of you. However, as each of our adoption processes wound (for some still winding) their way through the grueling paperchase and on through Gotcha Day, did you not begin to notice subtle shifts on the blogs you were reading on a regular basis? In truth, was not a large part of that shift a direct result of you and I, faithful readers through and through, and our ever-expanding expectations for the next day’s post? Not demanding per se but very much in demand. We started to like each other’s company. We enjoyed being together, visiting each other as it were from miles and miles away.
We formed overnight FedEx attachments. We developed notarized, certified, authenticated kinships. We were becoming something of an extended family. I have often yearned for a shared blog family reunion to bring us all together where we would sort through our blog family lineages. We would detail how we found each other’s blogsite and compare the site links we had in common. We’d hand out new blogs to check out like they were old and revered family recipes. I know what our imaginary reunion would look like. At our reunion we’ll swap paperchase horror stories and detail the excruciating time spent waiting for the referral. We will proudly show our referral pictures and ooh and ahh over each other’s little ones. Others will be boastfully pointing to their daughters already happily playing together. We’ll talk about long flights, strange foods, jet lag, red couches and seeing our families for the first time on arriving home. Ours would be a grand reunion full of food, laughter, love and daughters. We would proudly stand together adoption battle scared and field-tested sharing a tie strengthened by the commonality of what we had endured… And accomplished.
The blogs we read on a regular basis form the families we envision at our reunion. We really do dream these dreams and think these thoughts. All because we take the risk to expose our thoughts, our fears, our hopes. All because we take the risk to care, to share, to offer support.
J would be at our reunion and at some point he would lead us in the singing of one of his favorite songs (chosen from a list he once blogged) while dressed in distinctive Purple Pimp Suits furnished by none other than J himself. We will embarrass our daughters to no end. I think that would be Ok. A good laugh is often needed and too often neglected.
Maybe your blog began as a way to keep family and friends updated on the adoption process and all of a sudden it too now includes “family & friends” you never knew existed just months before. And did you notice how our blogs slowly began to reflect that change, often with little conscious awareness of its happening on our part? We shared birthdays and anniversaries. We came to know the names of each other’s children, siblings, parents and grandparents. We reminisced on those who had passed on. We “attended” parties with you that we never went to and enjoyed dinners we never tasted. I knew when your spouse was working too hard or how you were counting the days when they would be “home” from business or war. We were sharing baptisms and wedding, vacations and births. We shared like family without ever having met not unlike cousins and aunts & uncles we have today.
So when our friend J decided to “go outside for a while” it was more than an acquaintance bidding adieu. It was losing family. He was the favorite uncle who would be missing at the next reunion. I was always envious of J’s blog because he was able to speak so openly, so unreserved, in a way that many of us felt incapable or some how restrained from doing. Because J never shared his blog with his “first” family we were treated to some of the most insightful, funny and sobering looks of his family. I kick myself for not saving some of his classic posts.
We had clues J might leave us. On a couple of occasions he had intimated that such a day had crossed his mind. I remember thinking maybe sooner than later. He may return to us yet. I hold out hope for just such a thing. I sent J my best along with the wish to stay in touch, especially asking that he inform us of major happenings with regard to the adoption. The sudden realization for many of us was the awareness that we are all in this together. More closely aligned and tightly bound than we ever envisioned, imagined or remotely thought possible when we each made our private decision to begin the process that would bring our daughters home from half a world away.
I have no idea which of you will be the next to “go outside for awhile” but this I know, it will happen. I often thought Alyson’s goodbye and mine would come once we arrived home with Alyzabeth and gradually made the transition to being totally overwhelmed parents. While we can barely wait to have Alyzabeth with us, I don’t much like the thought of losing you. I’ll yearn once more for a morning visit with you over a cup of coffee. I’ll think back to the imaginary reunions that never happened except online. I’ll think of our friend J and all the others who came to be family and then silently slipped away to do the more important task of caring for a daughter.
I’ll miss you all when that day comes. I’ll think of you often and like the parents we are to be to our daughters – our thoughts of you, with our prayers, will last forever.
So selfish of me.
I’m just not yet ready to let you go…
Recipe For Hot Fudge Pudding Cake
From My Mom’s Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook.
This is a rich tasting chocolate dessert, very inexpensive and makes a fudge sauce on the bottom as it bakes. It is like an upside down cake, the chocolate cake is on top with the sauce on the bottom. This was a favorite growing up.
Did I tell you that my Mom baked a dessert many times each week as my Dad didn’t feel the meal was complete without dessert?
Even Martha Stewart had this recipe in her magazine – It’s a good thing!
1 Cup all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
¾ Cup sugar
2 Tbsp. cocoa plus ¼ Cup cocoa
½ Cup milk
2 Tbsp. melted shortening
1 Cup chopped nuts
1 Cup brown sugar
1 ¾ Cup hot water
Sift together into a bowl the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and 2 Tbsp. cocoa.
Stir in the milk and melted shortening.
Blend in the nuts. Spread in 9-inch square pan.
Sprinkle with mixture of brown sugar and ¼ cup of cocoa.
Pour over entire batter the hot water.
During baking the cake mixture rises to the top and the chocolate sauce settles to the bottom. Invert squares on dessert plate, spoon sauce over each square. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Bake at 350 degrees, 45 minutes. Make about 8 servings.
Serve with lots of love!
The Godfather
Bonasera (Salvatore Corsitto): I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American fashion. I gave her freedom, but — I taught her never to dishonor her family. She found a boyfriend; not an Italian. She went to the movies with him; she stayed out late. I didn’t protest. Two months ago, he took her for a drive, with another boyfriend. They made her drink whiskey. And then they tried to take advantage of her. She resisted. She kept her honor. So they beat her, like an animal. When I went to the hospital, her nose was a’broken. Her jaw was a’shattered, held together by wire. She couldn’t even weep because of the pain. But I wept. Why did I weep? She was the light of my life — beautiful girl. Now she will never be beautiful again.
(Bonasera breaks down) Sorry…I — I went to the police, like a good American. These two boys were brought to trial. The judge sentenced them to three years in prison– suspended sentence. Suspended sentence! They went free that very day! I stood in the courtroom like a fool. And those two bastard, they smiled at me. Then I said to my wife, “for justice, we must go to Don Corleone.”
Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando): We’ve known each other many years, but this is the first time you came to me for counsel, for help. I can’t remember the last time that you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, even though my wife is godmother to your only child. But let’s be frank here: you never wanted my friendship. And uh, you were afraid to be in my debt.
Bonasera: I didn’t want to get into trouble.
Vito Corleone: I understand. You found paradise in America, had a good trade, made a good living. The police protected you; and there were courts of law. And you didn’t need a friend of me. But uh, now you come to me and you say — “Don Corleone give me justice.” — But you don’t ask with respect. You don’t offer friendship. You don’t even think to call me Godfather. Instead, you come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married, and you uh…ask me to do murder, for money.
Bonasera: I ask you for justice.
Vito Corleone: That is not justice; your daughter is still alive.
Bonasera: Then they can suffer then, as she suffers. How much shall I pay you?
Vito Corleone: (stands, turning his back toward Bonasera) Bonasera… Bonasera… What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? Had you come to me in friendship, then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And that by chance if an honest man such as yourself should make enemies, then they would become my enemies. And then they would fear you.
Bonasera: Be my friend –(then, after bowing and the Don shrugs)– Godfather?
Vito Corleone: (after Bonasera kisses his hand) Good. Some day, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to do a service for me. But uh, until that day — accept this justice as a gift on my daughter’s wedding day.
Memorable Movie Lines
“Some day, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day — accept this justice as a gift on my daughter’s wedding day.”
Name that movie…
ALBANY, N.Y. – John Hopson scored a pair of goals to help Maine advance to the 2006 Frozen Four with a 5-4 win over Michigan State on Sunday afternoon in the finals of the NCAA East Regional at the Pepsi Arena. Ben Bishop made 33 saves and was named to the All-Regional Team.
YESTERDAY!!! MAINE DEFEATS HARVARD, 6-1
Six different Black Bears scored goals and Ben Bishop had 25 saves in the win. Michel Léveillé led the team with a goal and two assists. Maine is now 27-11-2 on the season, while Harvard is 21-12-2 to end the season. Maine has advanced to face top seed Michigan State on Sunday at 2:00 pm in Albany.
Maine and Michigan State have met twelve times, with the Spartans holding an 8-3-1 lead in the series.
Greg Moore is a Hobey Baker Finalist: University of Maine men’s ice hockey forward Greg Moore has been named a Hobey Baker Award Finalist by the Hobey Baker Foundation. Moore, a native of Lisbon, Maine, leads the team with 26 goals and 42 points on the season. Moore becomes the ninth Black Bear to be named a Hobey Baker Finalist.
Next on the Schedule:
Thurs 04/06/06 BC vs. ND. NCAA Frozen Four Semifinal (Milwaukee, WI)
Thurs 04/06/06 UMO vs. Midwest winner. NCAA Frozen Four Semifinal (Milwaukee, WI)
Saturday 04/08/06 NCAA Frozen Four Championship (Milwaukee, WI)
http://www.hockeyeastonline.com/men/
http://goblackbears.collegesports.com/
Why did I post this great news? Proud graduate of UMO – 1980!!!!
Here’s some of the great UMO Ice Hockey history:
2005: Lost in Semifinals
2004: Won Championship #1!!!!
2003: Lost in Quarterfinals
2002: Lost Championship game to UNH ; Overall #2!
2001: Lost in Semifinals
2000: Won the Championship #1!!!!
1999: Lost in Semifinals
1998: Lost Championship game to BC; Overall #2!
1997: Did not make it to Tournament….
1996: Lost championship game to Providence; Overall #2!
1995: #3rd Place!
1994: Lost in quarterfinals
1993: Won the Championship #1!!!!
1992: Won the Championship #1!!!!
1991: Lost championship game to BU; Overall #2!
1990: Lost championship to BC; Overall #2!
1989: Won the Championship #1!!!!
1988: Lost the championship game to Northeastern, Overall #2!
Thank you Laurie for Quilt Square #7. This means we now only need 93 MORE!
We love skiing in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. It is so kid friendly. Love the local hot springs, especially at midnight! The slopes offer excitement for every level of skiing ability and the downtown area is great for strolling and shopping. We never rent a car because the local transportation is so good. Most of all we like Steamboat Springs because we feel safe with the kids, whatever their age.
Gee, we’re starting to sound like an ad for the local better business bureau & tourism agency but as you can tell, we love Steamboat & Colorado!
I have never been known to be like most ladies. Yes, I love to cook, I love my DH, love children and most of all, my Mom’s apple pie. So why am I so different? I do not buy shoes unless absolutely necessary (I hate wearing them!!), I do not rearrange furniture unless it is to temporarily move it to clean and I don’t call up girlfriends to chat about whatever friends are supposed to chat about. I always knew I was not the “norm”.
So to have to admit that in the past year I have really liked buying earrings AND wearing them is big news – to myself. My best effort at wearing earrings was to make sure my DH bought me the very smallest kind – you know the ones you can wear to bed and never have to worry about the post jabbing your skull?
And to admit that I never swapped them out unless I lost one or I felt really guilty after wearing them several months and knew I better clean them or I may lose an ear to gangrene!
So here’s the new addiction. Last year for my birthday, I spotted some “dangly” earrings while we were antiquing with my M&D around Mt. Dora. I talked my DH into buying me three pairs for my birthday. All silver with gems, all reasonably priced – I didn’t really care if they were true antiques, I just liked them.
I am a new person! I actually change out my earrings daily and look in every store we go to for inexpensive, cute, earrings.
Lately I have been on a kick to buy items from individuals rather than large stores, plus homemade by craftspeople – even better. I even stumbled onto a fellow “soon to be Mom by way of adoption” Shannon and found her store on Esty. She makes them at home, trying to raise money to go towards the adoption.
I hope you will check her out. Just like I enjoy buying from my SIL’s (Discovery Toys) various ventures and BIL(mainegoodies.com), plus supporting our SIL (son-in-law) at Aerial Tribe. My reasoning is quite simple, I rather put my money in their hands, knowing I am helping them with their goals.
A very long story just to see the pictures of the new earrings….. I bought three pairs of glass beaded earrings plus received one free pair (blue) came in the deal too!! Go to Bellatini. Also, check out her blog at: Bless Your Heart.
How cute & how inexpensive! Wait until you see the homemade purse I bought from another crafty adopting mom……
