Friends...

Digital scrap papers and elements from Celia Costa's Old Memories kit.

The Sweet Surprises Continue

All I can say is, “Wow! My friends totally rock!” I am blown away by an incredibly generous gift that was delivered yesterday from our friends Cathy, Guy and Lizzie!

I grew up outside of Philadelphia and Chuck grew up on the other side of the Delaware River in New Jersey. We grew up eating (made in Philadelphia) Tastykakes and even though you can buy them at a few places here in Texas, they don’t taste the same. We think that they send a different version to the south. When I worked at SAP and traveled frequently to Philadelphia I would bring back as many Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes (Chuck's favorite) as I could stuff into my suitcase!

So, my dear friend Cathy, who lives in NJ and works in Philadelphia, totally hooked us up with these goodies from Tastykake!















WOW! Oh happy tastebuds! There are a lot more treats than you can even see in this photo... there is a second layer!

I have only met Cathy once in person and that was at Lucy’s in Guangzhou last November. But in the months leading up to our referrals and finally travel to China for Lizzie and Mia we became great friends. And, if Cathy lived in Texas, she would definitely be part of the M3 crew!

I love you, my friend! Thank you so very much!

The Gift of True Friendship

Those who know me well know that I love quotes. I clip them and save them and use them to lift up myself and others. I recently came across this little gem…


There’s a miracle of friendship that
dwells within the heart
And you don’t know how it happens
or where it gets its start
But the happiness it brings you
always gives a special lift
And you realize that friendship
Is God’s most perfect gift.
~Anonymous



I am joyful because I have discovered the meaning of true friendship and received a perfect gift in five remarkable women. To look at the six of us together some may wonder how women with entirely different backgrounds could be so in tune with each other. We come from both coasts, the country and the city, two are true Texans, and four are transplanted Texans.

We have come together through a shared experience and have formed a bond that I have never known with another group of women. We are open and honest with each other. We never feel that we need to censor our thoughts when the six of us are together. We are free to say what’s on our mind without fear of being judged. We do not try to impress each other with material things, but each is generous. We laugh and cry together. We email each other minutes after getting home after just being together. We love each other deeply. We are sisters of the soul. I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams to have friends like this. When someone struggles, the group instinctively knows and rallies around the sister in need. We cheer triumphs, mourn sorrows, and protect each other like fierce mama bears.

Merry Christmas, my soul sisters!

My Sides Still Hurt!

What a better way to spend a Saturday evening…with good friends, eating less than healthy food (although Christie did try to steer us toward fruit and vegetables) and laughing until our frozen drinks almost came out our noses!

This little group of Mommies Who Lunch was the brainchild of my friend Erin who wanted to share special times with other mothers who are using the same adoption agency and waiting for their daughters. Well, I am not waiting for another daughter from China, so I was invited as “the veteran” and according to Valerie I am “the calm in the storm.” And, oh what a storm we kick up when we get together. We are all so different yet we enjoy each others company immensely. None of us feel the need to filter our comments and we respect each others differing thoughts and opinions. Most of all, we love to laugh together!

We usually get together for lunch and the girls did on the Friday that I had my surgery. But, we decided that we needed to get together for a girls night out. Valerie invited us to enjoy movie night at her beautiful home with an unbelievable media room. Our husbands would be green with envy! I was thrilled to get out of the house for a bit since I’ve been laying on my sofa since having surgery. I hung with the “big kids” until 9:30 when I had to call Chuck to come pick me up. It’s amazing how quickly I tire lugging this boot around and "walking" with crutches. I had a great time and was reminded again about how thankful I am for this gloriously hysterical and loving group of women!

Since I’m the slacker blogger, you can check out Erin's, Robyn's, Valerie's and Jamie's blogs for photos and more details of our Mommies, Movies and Munchies night! Apparantly, Christie is more of a slacker blogger than I am and hasn't updated her blog yet with tales of our Mommies gone wild night!

Sea World Highlights & Photos...Finally!

I finally have the laundry done and everything put away from our trip to San Antonio. Here are the highlights and lowlights from our trip...

The Highlights...

For the first time Emily asked, "Are we there yet?" about 30 minutes after we left home. We just had to laugh and then quickly pop in a DVD.















Mia's first Whataburger!















I finally got to see the Alamo. We only took a quick stroll around outside, but some day I will torture my children with the tour and a stroll through the museum. I did a lot of research on the Alamo for the History of Texas class that I had to take to get my teaching certificate, so I am intrigued with the place! I know...I'm such a dork!













And, I finally got to stroll along the River Walk in San Antonio!













And, have a margarita...okay two margaritas!

Taking a boat ride. Emily was mostly interested in swimming with the ducks (Eeew!) and Mia wanted to get off of me to sit on the floor of the boat (Yuck!). But, it was a fun tour of the River Walk!













Spending two days playing at Sea World with Erin, Bob and Mollianne...as well as Shamu and all his friends!


























Mia shreaking "Oooooh!" and clapping her hands the first time she saw Shamu jump out of the water...and doing it again and again all day including when the waiter at Papasido's brought a basket of chips. Erin and I squealed with delight when he delivered our margaritas!

Watching Emily and Chuck along with Bob and Mollianne play at Shamu's Happy Harbor













The Anheuser-Busch Hospitality House. Chuck and Bob going to Beer School, which sounded more like an hour of drinking a flight of six beers and having snacks! I guess the deserved it after chasing the girls in the happy harbor.













Napping on the go...Mia is not looking at something on the ground, she is sound asleep!














Emily's first rollercoaster ride...she loved it!















Emily petting one of the anheuser-Bush Clydesdales - his head was bigger than Emily! We thought that he was going to give her a big sloppy kiss in this photo.














Seeing Natalie, the donkey who dreamed of being a Clydesdale and who now lives and trains with the famous Clydesdales. We were reminded that dreams do come true!

Feeding the dolphins, which was so cool! Thanks for spending $4 on 4 smelly sardines, Daddy!

Best friends taking a break!
Shamu cups...

Lots of water...

Seeking out shade...

Great friends...

Big laughs...

Good night's sleep...

Cooling off at the Lost Lagoon with at least two thousand of our closest friends, but the girls loved it! No need for photos from Lost Lagoon...

The Lowlights...

The rock that hit my windshield taking out a big chunk and starting a crack that is now conveniently moving right across my line of vision. Bummer!

Hearing Emily say, "I don't want to go home yet."

Mollianne being too small to ride the rollercoaster...next year little peanut!

You'll notice that the highlights far outnumber the lowlights...it was an awesome trip! We were dragging ass tired when we got home on Sunday night, but it was well worth it. While there were a few meltdowns, they were minor. All the girlies (including me and Erin) were generally quite well behaved and most importantly...they had a blast!

Forty-What?

So, I’ve been chastised by a few for being lackadaisical in my blog posts. I have no reason, I have no excuse…I just haven’t had anything that I wanted to post about recently. To make up for my lack of updates, I'll start with an adorable (if I say so myself) photo of my girlies!

I have had quite a nice weekend that actually started on Thursday afternoon.

My dear friend Beth had this wonderful idea about a month ago that we should be secret pals for our friend Betsy. A little history…we met Betsy a year ago when she joined us for playgroup soon after or right before (I can’t remember exactly) her dossier was sent to China. I liked Betsy immediately upon meeting her! I remember sitting with her looking through the photo album of our trip to China in December of 2003. We have seen Betsy often over the past year and she has even hosted playgroup at her home and community pool while she has ever so patiently waited for her little girl. In fact, we had playgroup at her pool, the day I learned that the stork was flying with our referral for Mia. Anyhow…Betsy has had a very long wait with little support from her agency, which is very small and a less than positive experience with the all agency June DTC Yahoo group. And to top it all off, she has been coordinating a move to Seattle. When Beth suggested it, Erin and I jumped right on board. We had a wonderful time shopping for and planning our secret gifts for Betsy. It all culminated in the reveal of her secret pals on Thursday. Beth even created a new email account to communicate with Betsy about our plans for lunch. We decided that we would bring lunch to her and present her with our last gift. As it turns out, she got the best gift of all that day. When Beth and I arrived at her door we saw a sign on the door that said, “The Stork has Landed!” Beth and I looked at each other and started to laugh and cry at once! Little did we know that she had already received the call! Erin arrived a little later and we got to jump up and down with joy again! It was so special for us to share this wonderful day with our friend!! We didn’t get to see photos of her daughter until she emailed them to us on Friday, but as we already knew, she is absolutely adorable! Here are a few photos from our afternoon with Betsy…

Secret Pals Revealed...

Mia checks out Ella's stroller... "I love the pink trim...very chic!" "C'mon Betsy! Let's get this stroller rolling!" Oh yes, this will be perfect for Ella! Betsy was checking out my camera and took this photo of me and my girls. I love it!On Friday, the girls and I ran errands in the morning and napped in the afternoon. On Friday night, we cleaned and made preparations for Saturday. I totally overdid it on Friday and paid for it on Friday night. My foot was throbbing and it felt like the skin on the top of my right foot was going to burst open. I haven’t posted here about my foot situation yet. I’ve had a lump on the top of my right foot and a numb big toe for about two weeks prior to going to a Podiatrist last Tuesday. He was mystified by the lump, so he ordered an MRI. I had the MRI on Thursday morning, which was not really fun and did not qualify as part of my fun weekend! I’m certain that if I ever need to go in head first for an MRI, that I will need some happy drugs. I was in the MRI machine for 45 minutes up to my waist and started to feel a little panicked about half way through. I “talked” myself through it because I did not want to have to come back again after vacation. I brought the films home with me and in one image there is definitely a big blob on top of my foot that does not belong there. I’m going back to the Podiatrist tomorrow morning to see what it is…at least, I hope he’s going to tell me what it is. My original purpose for finding a Podiatrist was to get my bunions taken care of, but then this lump popped up, so I have to deal with that first. I plan to have surgery on the bunions in the fall. UPDATE: Since I didn't post this last night as planned, I've already seen the doctor this morning. I have a ganglion cyst, which is basically a jelly-filled cyst that is typically caused by some sort of trauma to the joint where it is located. Some sort of trauma? Like kids, dogs or husbands stepping on my feet? It's no big deal and I can have it drained if it starts to bother me or the doctor will take care of it when I have the bunion surgery. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Okay, back to my fun weekend! Saturday was my Forty-what? birthday! We don’t usually do anything big for our birthdays, but I decided that I wanted to invite my dearest friends over to celebrate. So, on Saturday evening Erin, Bob, Mollianne, Beth, Dave and G came over to play! We basically hung out, ate too much, had a few cocktails and laughed A LOT! Even though when Erin and Beth asked what they could bring and I said NOTHING, they both brought something including birthday gifts. I SAID, “NOTHING!” They don’t listen very well. Beth gave me a gift certificate for a bikini wax (there is a story behind this, but it is best left untold to the general public!) She really does like me! And, Erin gave me a gift certificate for a massage. Wow! I am blown away by my friends’ generosity! What a wonderful way to spend my forty-what birthday.
Emily sang, "Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, my Mommy. Happy birthday to you!" Now that's enough to make a mommy get all teary-eyed. Baby Mia had already gone to bed so she missed out on the cake festivities.

Celebrating with my crazy, funny, beautiful (handsome for the guys), generous, loving, and did I mention crazy friends! I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate forty-what?!

The rest of the weekend has been spent hanging out with the girls and packing for our vacation!

Sorry Melody…no foil bunny ears! However, with enough margaritas, I may tell you the bikini wax story! ;-)

Partying with the Princess

Yesterday we spent the day celebrating Princess Mollianne's 3rd birthday. I am certain that I can speak for the rest of my family (as well as the other partygoers) that a blast was had by all! Emily spent most of the day in the bounce house and Mia spent most of her time making tea in the playhouse. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the day...

Ah yes...a good party indeed!