finally.

Need to Kick-Start the blogging again.

I was on a role for a while. Not quite sure what happened. Well, I do know what happened. I’ve been trying to spend less time on the computer. And that’s been a good thing.

Random things I’ve been up to….

….Milo learned to walk. He went from tottering between furniture to chasing Lexi and the dogs around the house in about 5 days. We now have a human tornado living in our house. He also likes to spin himself in circles until he’s too dizzy to stand.

….I got called for Jury Duty. It’s not a bad deal. I call in at night and they tell me if I need to show up or call in. I’ve lucked out and have only had to call in at nine and/or noon the next day, only to be told I’m not needed and to call in again tomorrow. Only downside is the two weeks worth of lesson plans I’ve had to write. But, really, not complaining about it. It’s been fun to do stuff like take the kids to the zoo.

….went to the Minnesota Zoo with Lexi and Milo. Milo learned a new phrase “See it!” or “See it?” depending on whether or not he spotted the animals. Both kids love the dolphins. We watched a short training session and then spent another 20 minutes just sitting in the bleachers watching the dolphins swim and splash around. Incidentally, the MN Zoo is a great winter activity. Discovery Bay, the Tropics Trail and the Minnesota Trail are all connected and it takes about 30 minutes to get through each one. And you never have to go outside.

….I taught myself how to crochet over Christmas break. And I really like it. It’s super fast and looks really cute when finished. So far I’ve made about 6 hats, a sweater, a blanket, a poncho, and about 30 headbands.. Only downside is it takes much more yarn than knitting so depending on the project, it can be a little pricey. I’ll try and get a few pictures up in the next couple days.

….I’ve made a few sales from my etsy shop. Oh, and I started making jewelry as well. I needed a lanyard for work and decided to make one and I had left over supplies so I made a few other things. Then when I raided all my craft stuff I realized I had a pretty big pile of beads and other jewelry making supplies so I gave it a shot. It’s not my favorite thing to do but it’s different than sewing or knitting or crochet, so I like it. Oh, and my etsy shop is also supporting charity:water.

A Long-term Dream

When I was in college I wanted to travel. And I did, a little.

I spent a few weeks one summer in El Salvador and I spent a month in London, doing part of my student teaching.

I seriously considered joining the Peace Corps. I called them, requested the information, even sort of settled on going to Papua New Guinea or El Salvador (I really enjoyed my time in El Salvador and at the time I knew enough spanish to survive.)

I would go to Perkins and sit for hours with a friend who would listen to me talk about wanting to travel, to see the world, to join the Peace Corps, to just do something with my life. And he would tell me to make sure I sent him a postcard from wherever I was. At the time, I was 99% sure it was what I wanted to do when I graduated. I wasn’t in a relationship, I had no desire to go to grad school and I knew that come graduation day, all my friends would be scattering all over the  country so, why not?

But plans changed in an unexpectedly good way. That same friend is now my husband. We’ve got 2 kids, a house, a couple dogs. I’m a teacher and I love my job.

And 11 years later I still  can’t shake that need to travel, to experience living somewhere that is nothing like here. So I’ve come up with a plan. An exciting plan with a very real possibility of working out.

A couple weeks ago I noticed that AHOPE, an organization in Ethiopia that cares for children with HIV, is always looking for voluteers. They specifically request people who are social workers, nurses, doctors, occupational therapists, and teachers. A volutneer needs to there for a minimum of 6 weeks but can stay longer if they wish.

Guess which teacher wants to move her family to Ethiopia for a summer?

I don’t want to go this summer or even next summer. I want to wait until Milo and Lexi are older. If we are going to move them half way around the world for a summer, I want them to experience it, to remember it, to fully participate in the experience.

I’ve already contacted AHOPE to see if this is even a possibility and got a resounding “yes” so now, we just need to make things happen on our end. It will be a lot of work to make this happen, another reason why I’m not trying to plan the trip for anytime soon, but I really think this will happen.

I’ve also got a second plan that involves staying in Ethiopia for a year but we’ll just stick to the plan of going for a summer to see how that works out for us. Then I’ll start plotting a longer stay.

It’s exciting to think about. It’s scary to think about. It makes me happy that we will be able to take Milo back his birth country and Lexi will see probably the most important piece of her brother’s life. I want this to happen.

50 by 50…still chipping away at the list.

I stopped making New Year’s Resolutions a long time ago. But several years ago I did make a list of 50 things I wanted to do before I was 50. Since it’s the first of the year, I thought I’d see how far I’ve gotten on the list. Anything in bold is something that I’ve completed.
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50 things I want to do before I’m 50
In no particular order
1. Travel to at least 2 foreign countries I’ve been to Mexico, England, El Salvador and Ethiopia.
2. Become fluent in ASL
3. Finish grad school I didn’t actually finish but I finished all the parts I wanted to get done, so we’ll call it good.
4. Get a second dog
5. Read all the books I own (if this is going to be accomplished I need to a) stop going to the library and b) stop buying books)
6. Hang curtains in my house I’ve got curtains in both the kids’ rooms. Our room is next on the list.
7. Get my dog his CD or CDX title (HAHAHAHA. Speak has joined the Dog Union and has decided that all union breaks will be taken during either training sessions or competitions.)
8. Earn my play therapy certificate
9. Take a pottery class
10. Participate in the 3 day walk for breast cancer (seriously considering signing up this year – need to find someone to walk with me to keep me accountable)
11. Take a photography class
12. Learn to knit (and as an added bonus, I taught myself how to crochet this Christmas)
13. Eat fruit 4 times a week
14. Go to Hawaii – I don’t know if I really want to do this anymore…maybe I should change to “dream vacation”
15. Build a bookshelf (does assembling one from IKEA count?)
16. Learn to play guitar or piano (one step closer to this one…got a piano for Christmas!)
17. Work towards clean water
18. Go camping in Colorado (again)
19. Go horseback riding on the beach (see notes on #14)
20.Take a cooking class
21. Learn self-defense
22. Make a new quilt for our bedroom – I haven’t done our room yet but I’m counting Lexi’s quilt and the quilt for the baby.
23. Help build a Habitat for Humanity house
24. Visit the 5 continents I don’t live on. (I’ve got 2 of the 5 covered. Africa? Check. Europe? Check.)
25. Train a dog to be used for pet therapy (See Dog Union) Although, later on, I may get a dog that would be better at this. There’s also the possibility of puppy raising.
26. Teach my children sign language
27. Stop worrying about money
28. Write letters to friends (instead of e-mailing) on a regular basis – I was so much better at this a couple years ago.
29. Join a book club
30. Go to Disney World
31. Plant and maintain a garden (Maybe I should start small. Something like keeping 1 houseplant alive)
32. Be able to say I never owned a cell phone (I’ve owned 2 since I wrote this list. The responsible parent in me won out.)
33. Finish building my Macquarium (I sold this at a rummage sale)
34. Work as a dog trainer I’ve taught Level 1 & 2, Canine Good Citizen, & Junior Trainers
35. See Kevin’s book for sale at Barnes N Noble
36. Go to Alaska
37. Stop procrastinating I’m getting much better at this.
38. Keep up with my blog (did you see the month of November?)
39. Get 8 hours of sleep a night (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)
40.See U2 in concert (again) – we were so close. They are coming to the Twin Cities this summer. Kevin was sick when the tickets went on sale and so we missed our chance. D’oh. Next time around)
41. Go to the Olympics
42. See a show on Broadway (Saw Stomp)
43. Volunteer at the Humane Society
44.Start a Kindergarten program at my daycare I don’t work there anymore. I’m counting this as done because I teach kindergarten.
45.Figure out a way to get that damn Arby’s ovenmit off television I didn’t do it but he’s been gone for a while now.
46. Adopt (Have you met Milo?)
47.Watch less T.V.
48. Continue to own only 1 car We had 2 for about a year, maybe less, but we are back to just 1.
49. See a Red Wings game in Detroit
50.Own a house with a fireplace. Our house has 2.

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Okay, so 21/50 items are completed. And 31/50 years are done. However, I made the list when I was about 26(?) so it’s not a bad ratio.

Practicing on Milo’s Hair

Christmas Eve I put in coils. They were cuter before I mashed a hat on his head. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture before we left.

Today, I tried flat twists. They didn’t last because I didn’t put bands in at the end or any styling stuff in his hair. He was in a good mood and I was just playing to see what they would look like. I also discovered that if you sit him directly in the bathroom sink and let him chew on all the toothbrushes within reach he will cooperate for at least 15 minutes.

NaBloPoMo Post #30: Twists

Look what I did today:

Yep, I put twists in Milo’s hair.
I only did the front third of his head for a couple of reasons.
1) That’s how many I could do while he ate lunch
2) The back of his high chair is really tall and I couldn’t get to the back of his head
3) I want to see how well these stay in before I attempt to make him sit still for his whole head. (If they last through nap time pretty well then I’ll finish the rest tonight.)

I’m hoping these will stay put and I can get enough practice to give him a new “do” for Christmas. I also need to pick up a better comb for parting his hair. I think it would look cuter if the parts were a little more defined.

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On an unrelated note: GO ME! National Blog Posting Month, 30 Posts in 30 days. Check.

I want to get a piano.

And now Kevin is going, “You want to get a what?”

A piano. I want to get a piano.

I have always wanted to learn how to play the piano. When I was younger I was incredibly jealous of the kids who had to go home at 4:00 on Thursdays because they had a piano lesson. I babysat for a woman who gave piano lessons and really wanted to trade baby-sitting for lessons. But we didn’t have a piano at our house. I was pretty sure that not having a piano to practice on would really make learning that much more difficult so I never even bothered to ask for lessons.

I settled for playing the viola – which I actually loved even though when I took violin lessons I couldn’t stand playing the violin. I loved to play. I was not a that great. Practicing was nowhere near the top of my priorities but I loved to play in the orchestra. I played for over 12 years. I wasn’t concerned about being first chair (actually when you play viola in middle and high school you almost always end up as first or second chair because it’s rare that there are more then 2 kids who play viola. Most of the time people tried to correct me and tell me it was pronounced “violin“.) I just liked to play.

I liked what I took away from it. I learned to love classical music. I recognize certain pieces and remember how much we did or didn’t like playing them in high school. I can no longer listen to Pachalbel Canon in D without humming along to the viola part because we played it so many times. I played in a pit orchestra for musicals. We played the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah when I was in high school and alumni returned every year to make the orchestra and choir bigger and bigger to perform it.

Really, I think the reason I want a piano is because I love music so much. I don’t feel this need to force any of my kids to play the piano but I want them to feel that it’s an option. If they want to play drums or trumpet instead, I’m good with that (sorry neighbors). But I’d like a piano to be in the house. They can take lessons, they can play Heart & Soul over and over, or they can just plunk out the notes to a song they are trying to learn on another instrument.

I just think it’d be good to have a piano.

Odds and Ends

I need to blog and I’ve got a lot of things I want to blog about but not much to say about each topic so let’s just cram them all into one post, shall we? Great.

1. Milo goes to the audiologist tomorrow. Or maybe it’s the opthomologist. I don’t remember which. But he’s got appointments at both. Nothing serious just the routine stuff they do for infants who are born in the States. Mostly to get a baseline incase things come up later.
2. Milo had giardia. It’s a gross little parasite that comes from drinking contaminated water or poor sanitation. Luckily in the States we have meds that can treat it but unfortunately the meds taste horrid and give the patient stomach cramps so he gets really pissed when we give him the meds three times a day.
3. I go back to work on Monday. I’m looking forward to being back at work because I miss the routine and just being at work but I’ve heard (and seen) that my class has been less than stellar so Monday probably won’t be a super-happy-yeah-ms. abby’s-back kind of day. It’s going to be more of a oh-crap-we’re-in-so-much-trouble-we’re-lucky-if-we-even-hear-the-word-recess-again kind of day.
4. School is out May 29. Which means there are only 29 days left of school. And one of those days is the end of the year field trip. One is the student coucil field trip. One is the class picnic. One is 8th grade graduation and one is kindergarten graduation. So it’s only 24 days left of teaching. But who’s counting?
5. I’m working on a sweater for a friend’s baby. It’s almost done and I am really liking the yarn. I think I may have to make Lexi a sweater out of the same stuff.
6. We met with our social worker today for our first post-placement report. And surprise, surprise there’s more paperwork.
7. Yesterday I took both kids, by myself, to a friend’s house. It felt very grown-up to be dealing with a toddler and an infant and not losing my cool – even when the toddler pooped in her pants twice and the infant started scream while I was cleaning up the toddler.
8. I’m really tired. My bedtime has officially moved from sometime around 11 to 9:15. Which means I’m up way past my bedtime.
9. It’s spring. Windows can be open. Sun is shining and I can wear sandals again.

We’re Home

We made it home. It was actually a pretty uneventful flight. We completely lucked out and got the bulkhead seats from Addis to DC, which means Milo had a bassinet to sleep in and then when we re-checked in for our flight from DC to St. Paul the ticket agent asked us if we wanted either 2 seats in bulkhead or the last row that had an empty seat. We picked the bulkhead again. The ticket agent is now our new best friend.

Milo’s been doing pretty good. His days and nights are a little off because when it’s noon here his body thinks it’s 8 pm and therefore bed time. But when it’s midnighthere, it’s 8 am to him and time to be awake and play. I think he’s young enough that it won’t take too long to reset his schedule.

Unfortunately, I got sick on Saturday. I thought it was just jet lag but then spent all Saturday afternoon and night and part of Sunday morning emptying the contents of my stomach. So that meant that Kevin had to take care of Milo. The guy wins the dad of the year award. Dealing with a sick wife, a 3 year old who wants 100% of our attention, a fussy baby and recooperating from jet lag. I’m starting to feel a little better. Hopefully with a good night’s sleep (as good as it gets with a baby) I’ll be back to normal tomorrow.

A Few Fun Updates

• Lexi got bunkbeds this weekend. Which means bedtime and naptime is a big decision: Sleep on the top bunk or the bottom bunk? Decisions, Decisions.
• For her birthday, Lexi got a year pass to the Minnesota Children’s Museum (thanks Mimi and Papa). A pass lets our whole family in for free. Score.
• Our court date is 18 days away. Honestly, I’m trying not to count the days – someone else pointed it out to me today. I’m also not trying to get my hopes up because, as with everything in international adoption, it’s totally unpredictable and we may not pass court the first time.
• I was elected to the vestry at church.
• Lexi’s decided that potty training is now worth her time.

Sick of being Sick

I have officially met my quota of sick for 2009. Seriously. This week was ridiculous.
Last Sunday I went to bed feeling very tired but didn’t really think about it because it had been a long week and a busy weekend.
Woke up around 4:30 in the morning with the stomach flu.
Stayed home sick from work Monday and Tuesday.
Went to work Wednesday. Not because I was feeling great but because I was sick of writing lesson plans for the substitute. (For those of you who are not teachers writing sub plans is the reason most teachers come to school sick and/or never take vacation. Sub plans are the biggest pain and many times it’s just easier to go to work sick than to try and write sub plans while sick.)
Went to work Thursday.
Thursday night went to bed with a slightly sore throat. I thought it was because we had the fireplace on and it was really dry in the house.
5:15 Friday morning. Guess who’s awake with 102 fever and writing sub plans? Yeah. Me.
Slept all day Friday.
Saturday woke up. Fever’s up to 104. Much more sleeping.
Sunday woke up with slight fever and headache (probably from laying in bed since Thursday night).
It’s now 1:40 in the morning and I’m not tired – sleeping for two and a half days can do that to you.
I’m just glad that Monday and Tuesday there is no school.