Monday

Landen has been wanting to spend the night with us one last time before school starts back, so I went and picked him up this afternoon. He is starting 1st grade this week and is feeling very grown up! I also got to visit with Mack, so that was fun. He's just too energetic for me to bring home over night, and they live too far away to just pick him up for a few hours and bring him home. Here are a couple of pictures I took of Mack (15 months old) & Elizabeth.

I am back on my low-carb diet today and picked up some good lunch ideas for when I start back to work this week. I am not doing the first phase of the Atkins diet, but am just trying to keep the carbs low. I found some South Beach wraps that will be great for lunch and don't have to be heated up, so that is very convenient for me. I like to eat in my office and don't want to fight the microwave lines, so this is a good option. I ate one today for lunch and it was pretty good.

Bryce spent the night with Cameron last night and they were glad to get to spend some time together. Bryce had lived with us some during the year last year while his mother was having trouble stablizing herself after a bad break-up, and even after she got things together, he still came here every day after school, even on the weeks that Cameron is with his dad, so I am really used to having him around. I made sure with Cameron's punishments not to make it where Bryce couldn't spend the night here. Cameron isn't going to spend the night anywhere for awhile, but I would never tell Bryce he can't come here. He just needs us sometimes, so anyway, it was nice to have him here. He has worked all summer at a local water park and i'm really hoping Cameron will want to work there next summer.

I always get a kick out of Landen. He told me today that he knows how many planets there are, so I asked him how many? He said 9. I said that was great and asked if he could name any of them. He said no, so I named them for him. He said, does Mr. Wizard (our name for Walter) work on one of them? I said, "no, people don't live on any planets that we know of other than Earth." He said, "oh, is that why they are building so many?" He's a funny boy. He's a true southern boy and he proved that when his Kindergarten teacher asked who could name all of the seasons. He raised his hand and said, "dove, turkey, rabbit, and deer." The teacher thought it was the funniest thing she'd heard! He had no idea about fall, summer, spring, or winter! Here is a picture of him in the pool this afternoon. He was determined that those huge goggles would fit him, but they weren't too good at keeping the water out of his eyes!
So, that's all we're up to tonight - entertaining Landen. Walter is supposed to be picking up some bait so they can fish. We really enjoy having Landen around, so it will be a fun night. I am planning to grill some steaks with some sauteed mushrooms! Yum!!

Adoption story

A bonus post today for anyone who is interested in knowing the story of Elizabeth & I. I waited until Elizabeth turned 18 to join the different adoption websites (because you can't search until the child is 18), but never found any information or got any responses from my information that I put on the websites. I had told Walter about her and we were looking for ways to try to get information, when one day I noticed an ad on an adoption site that caught my eye for some reason (divine intervention, i'm sure). We had been searching on our own for a year and I had never contacted anyone for help and wasn't interested in sending money to someone who I knew would not having any information and rip me off, but this ad said "If you are looking for someone in these states (and Louisiana was one of them), I can probably help you." I emailed the lady and we exchanged some emails and then talked on the phone several times, then she told me that she had the information I needed. She said if I sent her $300 by Western Union, she would give me my daughter's name, address, etc. Now, I will admit to being impulsive, but I am SO not naive or gullible. I talked to Walter about it and we agreed that it would be a cheap lesson (some people spend thousands)if we got ripped off, but I had spoken with the woman enough times that I just felt it was ok. So, we sent the money. The next day, just as promised, the lady called me with my daughter's name, address, and had spent some time looking up her phone number while waiting for me to send the payment. She found my daughter, who's name I learned for the first time in 19 years - Elizabeth Gail! The lady wanted to call her for me, but I wasn't sure what to do. I talked to my step-dad who adopted 2 of my step-brothers years ago and he felt that I should contact Elizabeth's mother and not Elizabeth. The lady was telling me that she does this ALL the time and if I contact Elizabeth's mother, she will most likely threaten me with attorneys if I call there again. So, we made the decision to have the lady contact Elizabeth directly. In the meantime, knowing where Elizabeth lived and freaking out that it was SO close, I called my friend, Carol, who's daughter goes to school in Elizabeth's area and asked if her daughter knew her and she said YES! I couldn't tell her why because I didn't want Elizabeth to hear about me from someone else, so I just told her Walter's son was dating her and could she PLEASE scan and email Elizabeth's yearbook picture for me!! And she did!!

I was so surprised that she had hair the color of mine! Her biological father was Italian and had black hair & brown eyes, so I just assumed Elizabeth would have his dominant features. I found out later that she DOES have black hair and just randomly colors it the same color as mine!

So anyway, the lady contacts Elizabeth, who is just OVERJOYED to hear that I'm looking for her, gets my number to call me right away, but first calls her mom to let her know! Her mom is a teacher and was in the middle of a class (why she answered her phone, who knows) and when she heard the news, she went ballistic! But, it was too late because Elizabeth already had the number and called me anyway. I have to say, it was one of the best days of my life!! We talked and planned to meet for dinner that weekend, with her parents & brother who wanted to be there, and Walter, Sean, Cameron, & I.

Then I had A LOT of explaining to do! My family, including my older son, JP, knew about Elizabeth, but Cameron did not. Neither did any of Walter's family or any of our friends that didn't know me back when I was a pregnant teenager. It's one of those family secrets that just don't get talked about. And how do you bring that up in conversation??? So I sat down with Cameron and talked to him about it. JP was living with us at the time, so I asked him if he remembered me telling him about his sister when he was younger (probably 8 or 9) and he said yes. I said, "well, she's calling here today!" I knew he would be home to answer the phone and didn't want her to feel rejected by someone not knowing about her. I emailed everyone else and received nothing but support then and to this day!

The dinner was one of the most awkward moments of my life, but I got to meet her and her family. This picture is from that night:

I found out shortly afterwards that Elizabeth had just found out she was pregnant the week that found each other! And God gave her a little boy who was not black haired & brown eyed like Elizabeth & her boyfriend, but blonde haired and blue eyed like me! I think if we hadn't been reunited when Landen was born, seeing him would have prompted Elizabeth to look for me for some answers! She had already tried going on the internet to look at adoption websites but said she didn't know how to use them. Our second meeting was lunch with my sister and Elizabeth's childhood friend who they had always said if Elizabeth ever met me, the friend would get to come with her! I was really touched by that.

Here are pictures from Elizabeth's birth until now.

This is the day Elizabeth went home from the hospital. I had held her earlier that day and had always had that head full of black hair & sweet little face in my memory, so to see her again was incredible!!




This was taken at Elizabeth's baby shower shortly after we met when things were still really awkward. I begged my friend, Lesley, to go to the shower with me and she suffered through one of the most bizarre days of my life along side me! Elizabeth's boyfriend's family threw the shower, so they didn't know much about the whole story, other than his immediate family, and the shower host played a game where we went around the room and said who we are and how we know Elizabeth!!!! I am pretty sure I made it through the game, but it was the longest 5 minutes of my life waiting for my turn and whispering back & forth with Lesley trying to figure out what to say!



This is Elizabeth, Landen, & Cameron - one of my favorite pictures!




All 3 of my kids in one place!!! Never before done!


Mack's baby shower
It is incredible how many times our lives have crossed paths and we didn't know it and how we know so many of the same people! I thank God often for bringing Elizabeth and these boys into my life!!! Hope you enjoyed the story!

Wednesday

Once again, I had absolutely nothing planned today and I am very happy about that!! There is nothing better to me than sleeping late and doing whatever I want!! My cats actually let me sleep until 9, which is late for them! I got a little housework done, but nothing major. I wanted to try and get some painting done (remember my goal of painting one day each week all summer??), and I painted 2 door frames and 1 door in our bathroom! That may not sound like much, but everything needs THREE coats of paint, so it takes a while to paint anything. I have only painted one other time this summer and got 1 door and 1 frame painted, then Walter came home with all that sand for the pool, so I stopped to help with that. Maybe one day our house will really be finished, but i'm not sure when that will be!

My mission this month is to create a budget and then figure out a way for us to stick to it. I have been analyzing our spending and have come to realize that we just spend money randomly with no idea of how much "extra" money we really have to spend. I have my budget all figured out to the penny by using my Microsoft Money data from the last year to get an accurate idea of what we really spend. I have cut a couple of things WAY back, like eating out and random shopping trips to Walmart, Lowes, Old Navy, etc. We have already cut back from eating out 4 or 5 times a week to 2, but i'm setting a goal to aim for just once, and yes, of course that would be steak night!!! It's ridiculous to spend as much as we do on groceries and then still spend a small fortune eating out at night. Our friends, Cathy & Brent eat out nearly every night, so it is hard to turn down all their offers! This week worked out well though because they invited us to dinner at their house Monday night instead of going out to eat, so we need to make a point to invite them over too.

I finally finished reading "The Appeal" by John Grisham last night. It was a good book and I enjoyed reading it, but the ending was not great and kind of disappointing to me. I am reading "A Good Yarn" by Debbie Macomber now and so far it is pretty good. It is paperback, so I can read it while i'm floating in the pool without too much trouble.

Here is a picture of Cameron with his braces off. He finally let me get a shot of his pearly whites, but it wasn't easy!! He & Bryce went to spend the night at Bradley's last night, so I caught him with the camera on his way out! Maybe i'm prejudiced, but I think he's such a cute kid. Girls have been after him since he was in 2nd grade. Some girls once hid his shoes at a birthday party so he couldn't leave! He wasn't real amused by that! A lot of people say he looks like Ringo Starr. Anyway, here's my boy giving me my 1 promised picture post-braces:

Once again, i'm loving Louisiana's governor, Bobby Jindal! As a social worker, mental health care is really important to me and the lack of available care is disturbing in our area. Our great governor not only noticed the problem, but here is what he is doing about it:

Our package of bills in the recently completed regular session consisted of five pieces of legislation, and more than $89 million in funds committed to support mental health care services. One example of legislation that was passed was Nicola's law, named after slain New Orleans Police Officer Nicola Cotton, which gives judges the ability to order mandatory outpatient treatment for mentally ill patients who may be a danger to society when not provided with supervision. We have also signed into law legislation that will create mental health crisis centers, which will swiftly and accurately detail a patient's specific mental health needs. We also passed a law that will allow us to use technology to provide better services for mental health patients. Our new legislation will allow doctors to carry out exams on patients who may be deemed dangerous to themselves or society via telemedicine, drastically decreasing wait times and getting health services to those in need much quicker. We will continue working to improve our entire mental health system and infrastructure in order to best provide for the needs of all Louisianians. Our mental health system has been ignored and allowed to decay for too long, and it is past time that we ensure that mental health patients have access to the help they need.

No weight loss today. I guess losing something every day is asking too much. I had scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast, sauteed squash & zucchini (leftover from yesterday) for lunch along with some string cheese, and 2 delicious BUBBA burgers with mayo & cheese for dinner. My newest addiction is Coke Zero and i'm trying to cut back on drinking them and drink more water. Yay to Kim & Kelley for their hard work on their diets!!! Keep up the good work girls!!!

My sister found out this week that her oldest son is having a baby girl in November. He is currently serving a 45 day sentence in jail for a drug charge and has a 1 year old son (with a different girl) who my sister keeps EVERY weekend while my nephew does nothing (and pays nothing). I want to be excited about the new baby, and it's certainly not the baby's fault, but I'm so worried that my sister will have to take on this baby too. She works full-time and is trying to get accepted into graduate school and as much as she loves keeping Elijah, it is taking a toll on her. I hope that my nephew and his girlfriend will be responsible for this baby and allow my sister to enjoy her rather than be responsible. And really...should the baby be raised in a home where the parents use and sell drugs? I only cause fights when I open my mouth, so I don't anymore, but it's disgusting to me and it's scary how these children can and probably will be taken from their parents when something happens. I've made my concerns clear, but as i've said before, my sister turns a blind eye to the drugs and makes excuses for everyone because she doesn't know what to do about it.

I heard tonight that JonBenet Ramsey's family has been cleared in her murder, but I still have a question. They are saying that the tiny DNA molecules found on JonBenet's pajamas that science now has the capability to test does not belong to anyone in the Ramsey household. Whoever touched the pajamas left DNA on them. JonBenet's father picked her up after finding her, so why isn't his DNA on the pajamas too? Sorry, but i'm still skeptical.

I am hoping to get my grandson, Landen, to spend the night this weekend. His social life is quite busy, so I haven't been able to see him. Elizabeth told me the other day that she accidentally ran over Hunter (the kitten I gave him). Landen was very attached to his kitty and I plan to offer to get him another one IF Elizabeth will keep the kitty inside. Here is a picture of Elizabeth, Landen, & Mack.