Braces
Yesterday was a big day in our household. Lily got braces! Bless her heart, Lily has a few medical issues she's had to grapple with in her young life, and a mouth full of dental drama just adds to her plate. This girl is going to be tough, for sure, but David and I have to work extra hard to raise her self-esteem and get her to see the incredible value her life has despite the obstacles in her path.

A year ago I asked the dentist why her permanent incisors (the teeth on each side of your two front teeth) had not grown in yet, despite the fact that it had been months and months since she lost her baby teeth. Also, her front teeth had an enormous gap between them that was just growing wider--like Moses parting the Red Sea. The dentist did an x-ray and then pulled me aside, as if to comfort me while he broke the news that I will be shelling out thousands and thousands of dollars to an orthodontist. No permanent incisors exist in her mouth. He said it happens, though it's more unusual for both to be missing. We found an orthodontist we really liked and discussed our options. What David and I decided to do was get those braces started as soon as possible so that her front teeth could be moved together before kids teased her about it. Lily calls her front teeth her "special teeth", and adores the fact that she can fit a straw between them to drink. She was a superstar at her appointment, and picked blue for her color. Braces without colors is just sooooooo 1995. But I have to hand it to Carver for being a great big brother. Lily asked him to come to the appointment with her, and he sat by her chair and watched in fascination (remember, this is the kid who wishes he could blow stuff up) and kept saying things like, "Oh cool, Lily!" or "Lily, it's looking great!" and even "You're doing a good job, Lily." He held the mirror up at certain times so she could see what was happening in her mouth, and just made her feel good. To be honest, I felt very unnecessary, except to write a big fat check to Dr. Johnson.

Weird Things I've Said Today

What did the dog just eat? What was that?
Is it too early in the morning to watch Harry Potter?
I can't fly because I just can't, Zinabu!
No, you can't build a ramp with firewood.
Why are you wearing your bathing suit for breakfast?
I don't know why ticks exist.
Just try the stairs, Buddy. Just try.
I don't think you can make a living riding your scooter. Sorry.
Eating oatmeal all day long isn't very healthy.
What was that sound? Was that Zinabu?
We don't need napkins tonight. Just eat.

It's been very Four Weddings And A Funeral around here. Lots to celebrate and also some tragic news.

• My birthday was very uneventful and proved to me that I do mind getting older, even though Oprah keeps telling me I shouldn't care. David bought me presents from England. Went to Amazon UK and paid in pounds (recalculated to dollars). He is fantastically brilliant and had my birthday gifts shipped across the pond straight away. Oooooh, he's just so lovely.
• We had air conditioning installed, which doesn't matter much to me but David is quite over the moon about it. He's a happy man, and thus he does nice things like let me go see
• the new Harry Potter movie. Another cause for celebration! All of you who don't care, just go away. But for me it was spectacular. I need to see it about 16 more times in the next few weeks.
• And finally, we are winding down the baseball season. Zinabu had his last game and Carver's team has one left. Lots of good memories made and many fun evenings spent watching the great American pastime.

In sad news. a dear family friend that I have known since I was 7 passed away today. From Melanoma. He was my age and leaves behind a wife and 5 year old daughter. His mom, Bev, is my mom's best friend. It was a horrible death. Completely disgusting. As awful as you could possibly imagine.

I am tired of cancer.

Just so you know...

Buddy arrives on Sunday. Stay tuned.

A little more of this...


And a little less of this. please....

This renovation will never end. I don't know how my mom did it. She's lived like this for months. There are so many little loose ends to tie up, I'm pretty sure we'll be celebrating the holidays with our contractor. To add to my horror, we now have cable TV (yes, we're really moving into the 21st century) and I found out there is a show called "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant." So one of these days I could just wake up and have a baby fall out of me with no warning or preparation. Exactly what I need.

I think the kids are beginning to adjust to the new home and routine. It sure hasn't squelched their creativity. I found this note in Carver's room:

I don't know what the infraction was but Lily must have learned that paying off your big brother goes a long way in keeping the peace. She taped a dime to the note. Does she have ties to the mob I don't know about?

Africa
The school where David works went through a large renovation last year, and he was in charge of a lot of it. The day the staff helped clean out storage units, he discovered a few old, unused maps. David snagged the map of Africa and brought it home, and I tucked it away knowing I would do something with it someday.

The giant blank wall in Zinabu's room, just begging for an old school map!


The giant map... this was a conundrum. I didn't think I'd be able to afford a custom framing job, and I didn't want to just tack it to the wall.


The solution: two large frames that were pretty inexpensive but put together could hold the bulk of the map.

The result? Not bad! Zinabu wanted to know immediately where Ethiopia was located and the area he used to live. I used wall decals to spell out "Africa" and "Zinabu" above and below the map. Sorry the picture is blurry--someone would not sit still!

The Sandbox

We have had a sandbox for the last 8 years and we were so spoiled by it. True, I've had a fair share of sand clean-up in those years, but the hours my kids have spent playing together digging and creating are priceless. Our new house has a very woodsy landscape. There's no grass but there's plenty of great places to play--but we were sorely missing our sand. David and I walked around the property several times, looking for the perfect place to build our new sand utopia. We decided on a sloping area off the back porch. We made it a family project and all worked together to dig trenches for the lumber, clear the foundation, and spread sand. In reality, David and I worked a wee bit harder than the kids, but everyone helped in theory nonetheless.


Clearing pine needles and rocks. Zinabu is "misting" us when we got hot.


Three musketeers pretending to work.


Our new house is in a very quiet, private neighborhood where there are no children but tons of retired couples that have fallen in love with our family. Here are Charlie and Kathy talking to David. Charlie loaned us his 6 wheeler to haul the 1 ton of sand we bought from the street up to the sandbox. Our new neighbors are wonderful.


The hill from the street up to the sandbox that we were going to have to traverse with wheelbarrows. God bless the invention of the 6 wheeler!


One ton of sand only goes so far. We plan to add more in smaller portions as we are able.


A quick break with a surgical glove. Don't ask.


Breaking in the new sandbox! Anyone want to come play?

How It All Went Down

I am so behind in blogging I don't know where to start. Maybe I'll post our 4th of July pictures next year... not to mention more pictures of our new house and the big sandbox construction project. But alas, *Buddy made his way into our lives and I'll share what happened.

We told Lily a few days ago that we would begin our active search for a dog on August 1. We have some camping trips planned in July and Lily has day camp at the zoo all next week, so we figured August would be better timing. Lily immediately went into planning mode and begged and begged us to just "take a peek" at dogs at the humane society. We looked on the computer together, and although they had lots of black lab mixes, there were no yellow labs--which is her first choice.

On a whim I typed in "Yellow Labrador puppy for sale" in our city, and one popped up. Buddy. He is 8 months old and big but housebroken (bonus). His current owners adopted him from another family that bought him as a brand new puppy. They didn't realize what they were getting into (doesn't anyone research what it's like to have a dog?) and soon were in over their heads. So family number 2 took Buddy at 5 months old. Family number 2 is looking to sell their house in the near future and possibly moving, so they wanted to find Buddy a new home. Insert my search the other day and voila!

Because he's a purebred and because she was selling him so cheap, I figured I needed to at least call her and do some investigating. I went to meet him yesterday, and even though his size overwhelmed me a bit, I could tell this would be a great dog for our family. I paid her a deposit and worked out a deal where she'll hold him for us for about 10 more days. I'm thinking around July 20th we can bring him home and surprise Lily.

Lily has saved and saved and saved her money and purchased a dog cage, balls, leash, collar, toys, and food and water bowls. Now David and I just need to distract her for the next 13 days because all she wants to do is talk about dogs and research dogs and look at dogs.

Rest assured I will take photos and video of the grand event. And Aunt Diana, please come visit soon. Buddy the dog will be eager to meet you.

*Buddy comes with his current name. I don't know if we'll change it. Lily will have to decide.

Daddy
Mommy
Carver
Lily
Zinabu
*Buddy the lab

Yu-ummm!

Each of our kids has had at least one major meltdown in the last week--all the stress of the move, missing their neighborhood friends, and watching mom and dad unpack endless boxes has made for some miserable little children. Yesterday is was Lily's turn. In the midst of her trauma, I asked if she wanted to bake cookies and lo and behold, she snapped right out of her funk. We made the most delicious batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I'm beginning to think that our old oven at our old house wasn't super accurate in the temperature department. My mom's oven is almost new and acts like it! Also, my mom has this incredibly handy-dandy device that I bet you've never heard of: a kitchen timer. Yup. Isn't that fantastic? At our old kitchen, I would throw a batch of cookies in the oven, look at the clock, and think to myself, "Take 'em out in 12 minutes." Turns out a real live kitchen timer is super accurate. Hmmmm. Go figure.

My mom is good that way. She has stuff like that in her house that I've just never gotten around to buying. I mean, honestly, I do not write "buy kitchen timer" on my Target list. My Target list consists of items like new underwear and heartburn medicine. I just don't have time for all them high-falutin' things that make life easier.

Anyway, the cookies were yummy and Lily hasn't cried since.

Update (*With Edit*)
You'll be happy to learn I stood my ground on the trophy drama. Last night I took Zinabu to a T-ball game and found the woman who was collecting money for trophies. Very discreetly I explained that David and I felt trophies at this age was a little excessive (gross understatement) and she didn't need to order one for Z. I asked if anyone else had decided not to purchase a trophy.

No.

So after the last T-ball game, we'll make a mad dash for the car while all the other 4 and 5 year olds are bestowed with goody bags, team photos, and trophies (insert puking noises).

**I just told a friend that I hope I didn't make anyone who likes rewards and trophies feel badly about it. I think it comes with the perspective we have from Carver and Lily. They've been rewarded for everything you can imagine in their young lives, and recently when Carver made the honor roll he asked, "Do I get a prize?" It seems they've lost the ability to work hard for the sake of working hard. Because Zinabu is our youngest, we're coming at this issue with a different mindset.

Zinabu can hit the ball off the T like a cannon, and he had a fabulous time at the game last night. He takes outfiielding very seriously, too, and treats grounders with the utmost attention. He's got a good arm, too. I'm surprised at how coordinated he is, given his gigantoid growth spurt his first year in the United States. He grew so tall, so fast, it's a miracle he can find his own two feet.

Our plans for the rest of the day are to CLOSE ON OUR OLD HOUSE and then go to Carver's baseball game. Can you believe we survived this housing market and are actually closing? We feel incredibly blessed. That means I can sleep well tonight and take more pictures of the new house tomorrow. For now, I leave you with this quote from Zinabu:

Mom, I didn't wear underwear today because I wanted to get a head start when I was getting dressed. But you were right... it hurts to not wear underwear.

The Post Where You Realize How Opinionated I Am...

So this summer, both Zinabu and Carver are playing baseball with our city's parks and recreation program. They both love it and are having a blast at the games and practices. All we want is for our kids to learn how to play well with others, know that winning isn't everything, encourage their teammates, and have fun learning a sport. I got a call on Friday afternoon from one of the mothers of Zinabu's team. She wanted to let me know that we'll be purchasing trophies for all the kids because, "you know... they love them so much." She quickly added this is an out of pocket expense because parks and rec. doesn't provide any trophies.

Duh, lady. They're 5. Why the heck do they deserve trophies????

I resent living in a society where my kids are rewarded for doing what is expected of them. I think it's completely ridiculous to give a bunch of kindergartners trophies for hitting a ball off of a T stand and running the bases. Please. If someone wanted to give Zinabu a trophy for traveling to a new country with a bunch of white people and blending into a new family that didn't speak his language and surviving a week in hospital isolation with the mumps, by all means--give him one. But for T-ball?

The part that really burns is that there was no vote among parents about whether or not we wanted to purchase trophies. I was just called and "told" that this is what we're doing. I need to bring $8.oo to the next practice for the trophy fund. I want to stand my ground, but if I do then my child is the only one who doesn't get one. And that's not fair because this isn't his battle to fight, it's mine. So I'm trying to decide how cruel and heartless I'll sound if I go to practice and at least suggest we nix the trophies--and have all the other parents whisper about me behind my back, "That's the cheap and heartless woman who won't even buy a trophy for her child!"

I just think the whole thing is stupid.

Joy!
Melodie, after months and months and months and months, finally received her referral for a baby girl! Woo hoo! And my friends from JR. HIGH (that's hard to write) are in Ethiopia right now to pick up their 2 boys. Go Yonans!

Now, here's to J.C. and the Peep-Eye family passing court. Let's go, people!

Longest Post Ever?
I finally found my camera and (even better) cord to upload photos. Let's start at the very beginning, shall we? My mom's old storage room. You entered through the downstairs (at that time, only) bedroom--past the closet. We used all that storage area to create 2 new bedrooms for the boys.

Your basic cement floor and walls--no windows at all. Seeing the frames go up was wonderful and allowed us to start picturing what the bedrooms would look like.

Zinabu's room on the left, Carver's room on the right. In between we added a linen closet and small landing area.

Lily's room now. This was the existing bedroom in the basement, so the only work here was sealing off her closet that used to enter into the storage area. She loves blue. Loves it. I plan on painting some big circles on her walls in coordinating colors, and a big circle with chalkboard paint.

Lily's craft supplies. She is not into dolls or girly toys at all. She loves all things dog (um, you should know that by now) and crafts.

A reading chair! Every girl needs one.

Zinabu's room! Hard to believe this was once a cement room. When they put the windows in it was amazing how beautiful the room became. It doesn't feel like a basement room at all, because the windows are big. His reading chair--and you can see I went with an orange wall. The other walls are a light grey. I love the colors.

A beautiful view of the trees from Z's window.

Zinabu's bed and old desk. We have an old school map of Africa we'd like to frame and put on the wall.

Quite possibly my favorite features of the entire house. Double closets in both boys rooms. One holds clothes. One holds toys. Full of shelves and hanging rods, it makes me want to stand on a mountain top and sing Julie Andrews songs and spin around with joy. I am, uh, a bit of an organizing freak and get excited about closet space.

Carver's room. It's actually a big room that looks dwarfed in this photo. He has a ledge that runs around half his room, and he loves to put Star Wars action figures up there in various poses that reflect light saber duels gone bad. His room is also grey with one orange wall.

He got some built in bookcases that used to be the entry to the old storage area. On the other side of the bookcase is Lily's closet. Carver is a voracious reader, and when he's not reading with his eyes, he is listening to an audio book from the library. I love that he has a fantastic book collection already. It was with great sacrifice on my part that I allowed him the right to keep the Harry Potter books on his shelves.

In my room, the bathroom is being worked on. At least we have a toilet!!! David and I inherited the smallest bedroom and smallest closet, but we gain a bathroom. Remember at our old house ALL 5 OF US SHARED A BATHROOM!!!!! David and I feel like we won the lottery! (Cue more Julie Andrews.) Zinabu wanted to know what the plunger smelled like. What?

I am tired, but I am content. Tonight my mom cooked dinner for all of us. We love being together. And because we've renovated a lot of the house, it feels like my house too. It feels like we're living with my mom, but not that we're living in her house.

We're pretty happy.

i
am
still
alive.......

barely.

3 Things I've Learned This Week

1. Do not drink 3 glasses of wine the night before you move. No, no, no, no, no.

2. Do not promise your better half hanky panky in any form whatsoever when you are exhausted from moving.

3. You can put anything on the curb with a "FREE" sign and someone will take it. Anything. I almost put Zinabu out there just to test the theory but thought better of it in the end.

2 More Days

I haven't updated much about our renovation/move because it's all I think about and I would just keep repeating the same thing over and over... that it's pretty crazy around here. We had hoped to have moved over to the new house last Saturday but the house wasn't ready yet. Well, it still won't be ready when we move, but it will be clean. Last Saturday there were still framing part of the back porch and there was sawdust everywhere. Most of the inside is 80% done. It's enough to make me start biting my nails again (which I'm doing) and not be able to sleep at night (again, I'm doing). It's 2 steps forward, 1 step back. For example, the light fixtures arrived with broken sconces so we have to replace them. The kitchen cabinet pulls I picked out don't work with some of the drawers that are close together. The bathroom vanity is on order. Bathrooms are not done at all. But the kids have their rooms and the office/guest bedroom addition is done and the upstairs living room has a new wall and patio door, so we are getting close. Our contractor promised that his cleaning crew would be there Thursday night and Friday morning to clean up what I'm sure is pounds of sawdust that is on everything. Our moving van is coming on Friday afternoon to load up our heavy furniture and beds. David and I have slowly been moving clothes, books, and small belongings to the new house all week, but as of Friday (that's 2 more days people!!!) we can begin sleeping there.

The kids are tired of it all. They're bored and I'm swamped. I haven't spent quality time with any of them in days. I feel terrible. Carver is in day camp this week, and the boys have baseball in the evenings, but Lily and Zinabu have suffered the most. I'll be happy when July rolls around and we're all settled in and the renovation is finished and I can wake up, make pancakes for the kids, and say "What do you want to do today?"

Our local thrift store has benefited greatly from our move. We've unloaded so much and been able to donate all kinds of items that we either don't need anymore or would be a duplicate of what my mom already owns. It has also been fun to begin putting things away in the new kitchen cupboards in the new kitchen. If you know me at all, you know that I tolerate cooking. Not really my thing, but I do it because my family needs to eat. But baking.... well, that's another story. So having all my baking supplies ready to go is wonderful.

I've promised to post pictures, but I need to actually take photos first. Maybe on Saturday? We'll see. In the meantime, think of me fondly while I slowly go insane.

these two.
best friends since age 3.
call each other "twin sister" and literally mean it.
do not see their skin colors.
see only how they are alike.
are blessed to live in a time when they are allowed to swim together.
thank you Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, and Jackie Robinson.
from the bottom of their hearts, thank you.

No Pressure

Yesterday we started setting up Lily's new room. Here is the note I received from her:

You rock.
Thank you for putting the stuff in my room and you did a asome job!
But now,,,, Buy me a dog!!!!!!

At least I rock.