All those that feel strange, raise your hand

Someone had a meme on their blog that named 6 weird things about them.

That same day someone else emailed me to say how very weird(maybe it was strange) I was.

So decided that I would just go ahead and share a few "weird" or "strange" facts about myself.

I have so many that I am going to do 10 for you just to add to the strangness.

1. I absolutely loathe going to the grocery store. I really dislike everything about it. I don't like to touch the cart(love that they have the wipes for you now) I don't like trying to think about what I might like to cook or worse yet what I might not want to cook. My grocery was just remodeled, and now I have no idea where anything is, so I wonder around like a lost child, and then they ask you when you check out if you found everything okay....NO!!! I like to put all of my groceries in order in the cart, so that hopefully when they check them and then bag them they will be like items in the bag....that never works out. I really don't like carrying them into the house, and putting them away.....it clutters my pantry and refrigerator. But the main reason I don't like to do it, regardless of what I buy or how much I spend, it still never seems like we have anything to eat!! Maybe not strange, but stupid and I unfortunately I can't take the grocery off my check list.

2. Regardless of the time of year I have to sleep with the down comforter on the bed, and pulled up around me. Plus I must have socks on my feet when I get into bed. By morning the socks are gone and the comforter is at the bottom, but must have them in order for me to fall asleep.

3. I also must have complete silence and darkness to go to sleep. If I get up in the night to go to the bathroom, I can't turn on a light or have anyone talk to me, as that is FAR TO MUCH stimulation and I will never go back to sleep.

4. I can't mix my food. I don't really like it to touch. I have to eat one thing at a time. The only thing I would ever mix is mashed potatoes and corn. Well unless it is suppose to touch.

5. I am obsessed by my gas tank in my car. I don't like it to not be full. So if I have just filled up my car, and then the next day need to go out and do something.....I really think about whether I really need to go out, as it will use up my gas......I think I have mentioned a time or two that I suffer from severe OCD!!! The guy at our Costco gas station knows me by name!! This is a problem since gas is $3 a gallon.

6. I am very strange about smells. I think my house always smells good, as I have those mounted air fresheners that spray every 38 min. But I only like citrus or fresh linen as the scents. I have a particular candle that I have a love affair with....Seda France Japanese Quince. It makes me happy just writing its name down. I am very quick to smell, and very quick to judge a smell, and can't be exposed very long if I don't(read, makes me gag) like the smell. That is one reason why broccoli rarely if ever gets steamed in my house. This was always a problem when I was flying to really smelly places, and boy are there some smelly places in the world.

7. This is weird and seems to be a huge problem for me. I really have trouble deleting emails. I need to put them in files for keeping(don't know how to do that yet) but this problem has been exacerbated by the adoption, as any tidbit of info, or advice I get, I am certain I will need it, and so it just stays in my inbox. I too embarrassed to tell you how many emails I have in my box at the moment. This is a strange obsession and very weird behavior for me as I am not a pack rat and am extremely organized. But I just can't bring myself to delete much!!

8. I change the linens on my bed at least twice a week. The notion of dirty linens just makes my skin crawl. Heeby jeebies!! So then I must admit that I also have a linen fetish. My linen closet is filled with sheet sets and fresh towels. I love to buy both!! I prefer white linens!!

9. I forget I like certain foods. For example I never remember I like bananas until I make myself eat one. I go through phases where I will eat the same thing over and over again, and then one day I just decide that I don't like it anymore. Plus, I can't eat anything that is just wrong. Like buttered popcorn jelly bellies, and I won't even taste the V8 splash fruit juice, as it is suppose to be tomato juice not "fruity tasting juice" If there is any question that the milk might be too close to its expiration date I throw it away...this one drives Mr D crazy!!

10. I am dyslexic, I have worked on this since 2nd grade, and overall I don't find it a HUGE problem, but it definitely creeps back in at the least opportune times.

Hopefully this list has helped you feel better about any of your strange or weird qualities. If you are thinking this poor girl needs to see a therapist....you would be correct(but then I would disqualify as a parent in the eyes of the CCAA) I have actually cut the list down as I have gotten older. I already admitted that I have OCD issues, but at least they are not quite as serious as they were when I was in my 20's.

***by the way I also am not a morning person....AT ALL, but had a job for 16 years that required me to get up at 0'dark hundred! and I HATE to talk on the phone, but really struggle to end a phone call, even though I can't wait for it to end***

Let me know your weird or strange habits, qualities or eccentric behaviors. It might help me feel better about how strange I really seem on paper....I don't feel that strange:)

Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore

***edited**
first Happy Mother's day next week. I totally thought it was this weekend. So much that I sent all of my mother's day cards out yesterday....what a OCD freak.

Then I have no idea why I thought that the booting off part of Dancing with the Stars was on Wed. I know it is on Tues, but somehow I was confused this week, and thought it was being interupted by the weather. But then when I looked at TIVO it showed that it had taped it. So I was convinced that TIVO is so smart( and it is) and that since the weather wasn't on everywhere else in the country that it still just taped the network and not the local version of what was on....okay just work with me here. Yes it was a very blonde moment, and my husband said he didn't say anything to me so that it wouldn't hurt my feelings and he knew I would figure it out. DUH!!!!

I am so over due in updating. Time just seems to fly by. I would say that is a great thing while we are waiting, but it isn't flying by that fast. But here is what has been keeping me busy.



I have lived in TX for 17 years, and grew up in the Midwest, so this tornado thing isn't something new to me. But I must tell you, for the last two weeks(actually for the last 2 Wednesday-I know this to be the case, because I keep missing who gets booted off of Dancing with the Stars for god sakes) But last Wednesday we were fairly certain that there was a strong possibility that we were going to actually experience a tornado first hand. So we grabbed our stuff(for me that included my purse, cell phone, our dossier, our scrapbooks that I loaded into trash bags, and some sneakers-Not sure exactly what "D" grabbed-I am sure more practical stuff) The sirens started going off, the sky got a strange green hue to it, and the wind picked up. But it still didn't feel that scary as "D" was here, and he was calm as usual. We didn't actually get into the closet except to make sure we would fit with all the cushions we had put in there. It all passed by pretty quickly, and I think there ended up being only one tornado that actually did only a little bit of damage, and it wasn't even that close to us.
But then yesterday rolled around, and while I knew that storms were forecasted, I was not the least bit worried. Well that was until I saw the GIANT band of RED headed towards us, and the reports that there were rotations reported, and that there was torrential rain, and up to 100 mph straight line winds. OKAY friends I am now home by myself, and I am FREAKING out. Freaking out so much that all I grabbed was my purse(with my phone) flashlight, and this wind up radio thing. So I call "D" to tell him to not leave the office(which he had and was sitting in traffic) He tells me to be calm, and just a make sure I have a flashlight, plenty of cushions, and to crack a window. Well about that time I see our patio table and umbrella go flying pass the window and into the yard, and the trees are sideways, and it is raining so hard that I can't see the houses across the street. The lightening was terrible so we decide that we should hang up, and I told him I would call him back to give him an update to when he would be getting the brunt of the storm. Well about 3 minutes later the siren that is right in our neighborhood went off, and needless to say, that was all she wrote. Thankfully we don't have our daughter yet, as I would have scared her to death. I just started crying like a little girl. I thought this was really going to happen, and I was going to have to do it all by myself. I have never seen it storm like this before. I mean we have 30 foot trees in our front yard, and they were leaning so far over I thought there is no way for them to not just snap like a toothpick. The icing on the cake was when the electricity went off, and now I could no longer hear or see the TV to know what was happening. That part really sucked. I just sat in our downstairs closet on my cell phone while crying on the phone and chastising my husband for always working too late(like that was useful-I apologized later) and he just stayed calm as a cucumber, and kept telling me that I would be safe, and it would be okay. He was right, it was okay. When it was finally over I needed to go to bed as I felt like I had been through a tornado, I was mentally exhausted.
So this was the first time in nearly 40 years of living, I really thought this was going to be a scene out of The Wizard of OZ. But here I am no worse for the wear. This tornado thing really sucks. I think that once again we were very lucky, and our area escaped with minimal damage.
However we did get much needed rain. I think they said that there are still 200,000 without electricity.

Okay, the next thing I want to share with you is the attachment/bonding seminar I went to last week. It was presented by Lutheran Social Services. The facilitator was Dr. Karyn Purvis, and it was the best 8 hours I have ever spent. She was a great speaker, and just a wealth of information. If you ever have a chance to hear her speak I highly recommend it. If you can't see her, I recommend her book The Connected Child, and you can go here to get it. She is the director of Child Development at Texas Christian University. I learned more in that 8 hours than I think I ever learned in a semester class in college. I think her book would be helpful to any parent who might be having behavior/sensory issues regardless if they were adopted.

On the referral front. I am happy that we are finally into November, I really just want to get into 06' This may be the first month that I felt that referrals wouldn't go as far as they did. The referral thing is just so relative. This is the like the gas situation we have going on right now. Remember when gas started inching towards $2.00, and everyone was freaking about it?? Then it passed $2.00 and went to $3.00, so when gas went back down to about $2.30 we thought it was so cheap(ridiculous thinking on our part) Well when we had only 2 days of referrals last month, the 6 days this month was such a relief...even though 2 of those days were weekend days. Same sort of thinking, they have us thankful that they produced another measly batch. I am not complaining, as 6 is better than 2, but I think it is time for them to stop taking vacations, and get to work. I must say that I am pleased to see how young the babies were this round. I have really seen some beautiful pictures in this batch.

We are off to the East meets West conference this weekend. I would like to not go as it is being hosted by Great Wall, and I really have mean, negative feelings about this agency because of their involvment in this adoption. While I appreciate everyones personal opinion on this particular situation, I must tell you that I feel great pain for this family, and I feel like they their treatment was reprehensible. Everyone seems to be pointing fingers at this mother, and I ask that you to try as hard as you can to stand in her shoes, consider all of the circumstances, and then point the finger at the agency first. This is what they are suppose to specialize in, they have been doing China adoptions for a long time, and to claim that they have never had this happen or they don't know what to do is irresponsible. This could just as easily been you or me, and then I think everyone would change their mind on whether their treatment was fair. So having said that, we are still going to this seminar as I think it will be full of good information. There will be an orphange director there to speak to us...the part I am most interested in. But we have spent a lot of $$$$ to register(it was not cheap at all) so we will still go. But I will never tell someone that I think that they should use this agency. For all of us in line, I tell you to read this to arm yourself with the proper information so this doesn't happen to you.


Happy Mothers Day to all of you.

Run down before I blow this popsicle stand

Have deleted my excitement over the the secret pal that I was assigned. I decided that I had said too much, and didn't want her to have a clue of who I am. So I wonder, wonder, wonder who she might be???

I am out of here again for 2 weeks. I am off to help the "the keeper of the nest" If you don't already know my best friend(for 20 years) is pregnant with her 3rd child and on full bed rest with a 3 & 5 year old. So I am going back to help keep them afloat. So won't be posting much if at all. I will be watching though. I will try and check in with you all in about a week or so if I have some down time.

I have been able to at least get my ETSY site up and running. So you can go here to see what I have. I have posted it all on here, but now you can officially buy it without emailing me. I have not gotten everything up yet, but will once I return. Taking good pictures of your products is the hard part. Thank you to my helper for getting my banner up and looking so pinkalicious. My web site is still under construction. But hopefully will be up and working soon. I really appreciate everyone thus far who has bought something from me!! I hope you are enjoying what you bought, because I really enjoyed making it for you.

Here is some really interesting news. I think we are going to host a Chinese Exchange Student starting in August for the school year. She is from the Chongqing Province, she will turn 17 right after she arrives. She will be a sophomore in HS, she came to the US last summer for just a month long exchange. She is in the top 5% of her class of 1000, and she looks darling. Not really sure what prompted this decision, but we are both are very excited, and as we were making the final decision today, we ran into a family at the grocery that is hosting a girl from Thailand who is approx the same age and has been here for most of the school year. Her English was beautiful, and she said it was the opportunity of a lifetime, and that she is having a great time. She said she was homesick the first month, and now she says.....not so much with a BIG grin on her face. She said she even got to go to the Caribbean. The mom said it had been a great experience, and that they would probably host again next year. So that is BIG news around our house. We think it will be a great opportunity for us to learn a lot about Chinese first hand. Hopefully she will be helpful in tutoring us in Chinese; especially helping us with our tones. She says she loves to cook, and hopes to be able to teach us to cook Chinese food. So I think she is going to be a great fit for our family.

So that is about it from Texas. When I return from this trip we are headed to meet a few other adopting families for a weekend in Austin. We are really excited to meet everyone, and I think it will be a lot of fun! So to all that will be there that weekend, we are looking forward to meeting you all. Have a safe trip to the Lone Star State, and don't drink too many margaritas before we get there!!!

So I will look forward to checking on you all. I am hoping to hear that The Singing Bird is on her way to pick the beautiful Emme Lu. So I will be watching your site, and please share the pictures if you do happen to eat any bugs.

Here's to referrals being just around the corner(we hope) and here is to getting into November folks....it is about time. 06' we are coming atcha!

BIG white machine

Okay, so you see that really BIG white machine sitting there all by its lonesome? Well that is officially my new profession. Yes, as of January 4th, I now run an embroidery business. You ask how do I know how to run that BIG white machine......I don't. Well I have done a few things in which you can see in the other picture. Those are actually monogrammed ponytail holders, and while I think they turned out great, there is still this question as to how am I going to learn all things embroidered, and how am I going to learn to run this BIG, white machine??????

It has been a daunting weekend full of first, curse words, anxiety, stress, giddiness, and finally just plain fear that I will fail, or worse......break the BIG white machine. The BIG white machine is a HAPPY Voyager made in Japan. It holds 12 spools of thread, it hooks to my computer for its designs, it weighs 88 lbs, and it has my little brain just a spinning.

D has been my biggest cheerleader in this process, he believes in me, he trust that I will learn to work the BIG white machine, and not break it, and he thinks without any hesitation that this is going to be a great stay at home career for me-because frankly no one loves monograms more than Moi.

I wish at this very moment that I had that same trust, and faith that I will succeed in this expensive endeavor, but right now all I feel, is fear of the BIG white machine now taking up residence in my office. I have already spent countless hours troubleshooting issues, it won't cut the thread automatically, I can't figure out how to size things to a proportion that is necessary for the project at hand, I have absolutely no idea how I am going to learn to digitize anything(embroidery lingo...really have no idea what it means) Now you ask, surely there is training involved with such a high tech BIG white machine-right? Right, but it is in Tampa, FL and we live in Dallas. It is only offered on Mondays, and we don't have a free Monday until February. They suggest you "play" with your BIG white machine for a bit before coming to training so you will have plenty of questions, you will have a feel for what you are learning, and you will have had issues come up that they will be able to advise you on. Well, they do know something....we have had plenty of issues come up in the last 4 days, and we will have plenty of questions that is for sure, but I am not convinced that we will have a "feel" for the BIG white machine for awhile.

So, if you are wanting ladybugs embroidered all over your undershorts, or an Ode to the RQ on your nightshirt.....find someone who knows how to run their BIG white machine. But if you are wanting a monogrammed ponytail holder, then I am your girl.

I ask you wish me luck in this new profession. D swears after we go to 8 hours of training I am going to feel proficient....yeah right. But any good karma you have to send would be appreciated. Well back to watching the online videos of how to run the BIG white machine. If you have a BIG white machine and have more than Karma....you have advice for me that would be appreciated too!! Maybe a glass of wine and a xanax would make me feel more proficient in the field of embroidery-just kidding it has warnings posted all over it claiming you should not operate heavy machinary under the influence of wine or anxiety.