Secret lovahs

Thank you for all your sweet emails & crds! My hand is getting better everydayt but ut is still bandaged so I can't type with iut. So I thought I''d do some cutting and pasting so y'all can see the fun I'm having with my sister'sa boyfriend, He's adorab;e and I'm so excited she finally has a sweet boy whp adores her, the last guy was psycho. Anyway one day I received this message from him and it styarted a fun back anfd forth. I've only edited out last names.


Shannon,
From the first time i met you out @ peppys i knew that we belonged together.
The only things in our way are John and Morgan, and i can have them taken care of if you know wut i mean.
I just wanted you to know that wut ever happens between morgan and i will not effect us
I Love You Shannon R********.

With all my hearts love,
MoE

Oh Moe-
How long I have waited for this day, these words, this note! I am thrilled beyond words that you are ready to take our love to the next level. You will be an excellent husband and father. Ooh can't wait to get a car seat in your truck! Once Morgan gets over her heart ache after losing you maybe she can babysit for us. I will keep our secret when you "take care" of Jon and Morgan. It's time for you to leave the girl & experience a woman. It will be better for all of us this way. I can no longer live the lie.
I love you Moe Insert Last Name!
Your's forever,
Shannon

Shannon,
I know that i seem a little shy, but really im as sensative as a cavity and sweet as a jolly rancher.

the poem that i just made up in this unknown mind of mine will fill you heart with joy and banish John from your mind.

SWEET
HEVENLY
ASTONISHING
NICE
NAUGHTY
ON GOING CREATIVITY
NOW MINE!!!!!!!!

With all my love taken from from Morgan and given to You
and plenty more where that came from,
MoE

P.S.

I stayed up all night reading the dictionary for those words sence you "caint" read redneck!

P.S.S

Meet me in the middle of Fort Mill walking park Sunday morning @ 3:00AM
and we can confess out love to one another

Moe-
So I dug down deep in my heart and wrote this rap song just for you. Your poem really inspired me. Oh, and where were you at 3am???

Oh Moe,
I love you so.
You make my heart go whoa.
You're the only one, dontcha know?
This chance wid you I will not blow.
Cause you're my buck and I'm your doe.
I'll love you like no one's loved you befo.
Our love won't die it will only grow.
Just remember I'm a woman, I ain't no one's ho.
We ain't rich, we may be po
But we be happy, don't you think so?
Go ahead and dump Momo
She'll be fine, she'll find another bro.
Maybe she could date a dude named Joe.
Oh Moe, I love you from your head down to your toe.
If you liked pudding I'd make you pistachio.
You got my heart going turbo.
I'd love you even if you were an albino.
My heart is ready to overflow.
I just wish you didn't smoke tobacco.
For you I fell like a domino.
Your love's a storm like a tornado.
You make me dizzy like I've got vertigo.
If we were Mexican you'd be my amigo.
If you ever leave me I'll be blue, like indigo.
When you're hungry I'll bake you a potato.
When you're thirsty I'll make you hot cocoa.
I'll do anything for you, today or tomorrow.
You've got me as high as a rainbow.
It's true, other men I'll forego.
I've been shot in the heart by Cupid's bow.
Our love we'll never outgrow.
You're so cute from your head to your elbow,
your eyes, your face, your skin, your torso.
We could run away, live in a borough.
We could go to Alaska and you could be my Eskimo.
We could live on a farm and for you I'd grow
onions, carrots, even a tomato.
Cause when I saw you my heart said "HELLO!"
And now I love you with such gusto.
At Christmas I'll kiss you under the mistletoe.
And cook you pasta with pesto.
Until we meet again, no I must go.
But believe me without you I'm hollow.
With you I'm all aglow!
Oh Moe, I love you so.
Yo.
True dat.
xoxo

Eating in

We were super spoiled by my in laws last night for our anniversary. First they brought us these gorgeous place mats. Then they cooked a fabulous dinner for us. French onion soup, delicious bread, a yummy shrimp and cheese tortellini dish, steamed broccoli, and for dessert- tiramisu. It was all served to Jon and I in our dining room by his father, who was a fantastic waiter. He wouldn't let us lift a finger. All the while his mom was in the kitchen cleaning up. We had candles and drank from our good crystal. On the table were gorgeous tulips that my in laws brought for us. They remembered that we had tulips at our wedding. It was lovely. And when it was all over, we saw his parents off and retired upstairs for the night. What a wonderful gift!

2190...

...days (6 years) ago I married the most handsome man I've ever seen. He was my best friend, hilarious, sweet, caring, patient, smart, loving, loyal and amazing. And the cool thing is, all those things are still absolutely true.

What a big prick

This cactus lives at my mom's house. I don't know exactly how old he is but I do remember having him when I was 11. I'm 33 now. Anyway, he's gotten so big and unruly Mom doesn't know what to do with him. If you look closely you can see that he's literally taped to the wall to keep him from falling over!

Visit recap

Well, Lisa is safely back in Baltimore. I'm so glad she came. We had a great time!
Thursday night I picked her up from the airport and we came home with dinner and sobbed through Grey's while Jon snickered.
Friday we got some breakfast, went grocery shopping for Saturday night's dinner ingredients, then took my little sister Morgan to the cardiologist (she's having heart palpitations and had to wear a heart monitor for 24 hours. We should have the results in a few days). Lisa was amazed at the grocery store where I shop. They have little hand held scanners that you scan your groceries with while you shop. Then all you have to do at the front of the store is pay. It saves so much time. She couldn't believe you could shop on the honor system. Anyway, after the doctor we went to a late lunch, dropped Morgan off at home, then raced home to freshen up. We had a Circle that night. It was a lot of fun and we collected a huge amount of donations for Summit House.
Saturday Lisa & I hung out at the house preparing for a dinner party that night. We made 2 ginormous lasagnes and I put together a little salad bar. My next door neighbors C & D & their kids came over, as well as Sara, my nephews, Papa, Gigi, Morgan & her bfriend Moe. Including the baby there were 15 of us. C made brownies and cake for dessert and we all had a good time over dinner.
Sunday Lisa & I went to lunch at a diner where they had a new twist on the "suicide" (where you mix a whole bunch of sodas in one glass)- they add dill pickles to it! I've heard of peanuts in Coke, but dill pickles?? Then we made a Target stop where we discovered a Jamba Juice!!! I was so excited! I've heard of Jamba on LJC's blog for years, but had no idea we had one in the next town over! Lisa & I each enjoyed a smoothie on the way home then settled in to watch the Oscars. It was so much more enjoyable to watch the Oscars with a dvr. We could fast forward right through acceptance speeches and awards of categories &/or people we weren't interested in. Cut that 3+ hour show down to just about 2.
Monday we chilled out and put off packing her up for as long as we could. Then we hit Bojangles again so she could take some biscuits home to Pete and I dropped her off at the airport. I missed her as soon as I got home.

Cheffin'

This morning I attended a Pampered Chef party at my next door neighbor's house. That's her daughter E above modeling the PC kid's apron and hat. She took her job seriously. I really like my neighbor C so I knew it would be a fun time, but it was even more fun because my sister and nephews came and so did Susan and Olivia. All the kids played in C's ginormous playroom upstairs while the party went on. The kids got along famously. Joey has started calling me Gigi instead of Shanny lately. Gigi is my mom. Jacob did the same thing when he was Joey's age. I think it's because both my mom and I have blonde hair. Anyway, halfway through the party Joey comes and stands on the stairs and yells GIGI! and got no response. Well, would you turn if someone yelled Barbara and your name is Jennifer? So he let out a super loud GIGIIIIIIII! and that's when I remembered oh! that's me! We got some weird looks from the party goers since I'd just introduced myself as Shannon, but what can you do?! I took plenty of pictures of the kids and you can see them here.

Red dirt and dead cars

I went to a James Taylor concert many, many moons ago and he said "Welcome to North Carolina- the land of red dirt and dead cars." Well, you can add Iron Monkey to the list. Iron Monkey is Jon's Camry. Jon's driven nothing but Toyota Camry's for a million years and has never had a problem. Back in 2001 when a Cadillac hit me and totaled my car I was forced to buy a new one and that's when Jorge, my Rav4 entered our lives. We were just about to leave the dealership when Jon asked what they'd charge him for that there Camry. It's a 2002- not that old- just a lemon. And for the last few months it's been stalling when slowing down from speeds over 50. But not all the time. Not when we took it to Toyota and showed them and paid $300 twice for them to fix something that they couldn't find. So CSP's been driving Jorge to work since we moved and I've been stuck with IM. I've been pretty lucky up til a couple weeks ago when IM died on the off ramp going to my mom's. He wouldn't start for a good 15 minutes. Then today on the way home from the dentist he died at a stop light and a kind man pushed me off the road where I sat for a half hour til IM would start up again. I drove him straight to the car wash/ inspection place (used a coupon from that book I worked so hard to get) and got him super clean and inspected. Then I went home and hopped on Carmax.com to find CSP a new ride. He's been needing a truck so I searched until I found a good deal on a basic Chevy truck. I called Carmax and told them I was coming in for an appraisal and could they put in a transfer for a truck from their Winston store. She told me to come in first then they'd do the transfer. No problem. Sara & the boys wanted to go so we piled in and headed down to the dealership. Of course by the time we got there the truck I wanted had been sold. But while they were appraising Iron Monkey we found another truck and put in for the transfer on that one. It's coming from Memphis and should be here in a couple weeks.
The boys played in the play room (kudos to Carmax for including this awesome playroom for parents!) while we waited. I got a good trade in value for IM and CSP can't wait to be a truck driver. I just can't wait to get my Jorge back!

Play date

Today we had a play date at my sister's house. We met up with a mom who adopted her son from Guatemala. He's 2 years old and just as cute as can be. He got along great with my nephews and his mom showed us all her pictures from their trip to Guatemala. You can see pictures I took today here.

One size fits most

I had dinner at my Mom's last night along with a handful of neighbors & family. Morgan (my 16 yr old sister) and her new boyfriend were there and tried on the hat I just finished knitting for Olivia. I hope O's head grew cause I think I made the hat a wee bit too big!

A collection of items completely unrelated to each other

More work was done on my house yesterday. All sorts of men tramped through with their nail guns. Then my carpet was cleaned. I'm so tired of my house being a construction zone.

In other news...on our way to IKEA Monday we saw an interesting site. A dump truck had run off the road and was stuck in the ditch. Took 2 tow trucks to pull it out.

In family news...my littlest sister is contemplating dating a guy who's shorter than her. Since she's 5'11" it isn't hard to find boys that don't measure up height wise. He's cute as can be, funny, and gets along great with the fam. She says she doesn't mind the difference. I hope they work out. I dated a shorter guy once (he said he was 5'9". I'm 5'7". 5'9" my ass) and lemme tell you it was hard to get over the shortness. I often felt like a giant dinosaur. Could you get over it? Have you?

Tongue tricks

My sister Morgan can lick her elbow. Can you?

Hola Kitty

Saturday my Mama, Papa, & Gmommy came and got me and we went to see Night at the Museum (very cute). We had some Mexican for dinner then met up with Morgan, Sara, Marc, my nephews & a million other children for Joey's 2nd birthday party at Build a Bear. The next 2 hours were a blur of stuffed animals, cupcakes & squealing. Jake & Joey had a big time. I didn't want Ling Ling to be left out so I built her a Hello Kitty. So cute!

More photos here of HK in all her finery. Yes she is carrying a purse. Yes she's wearing matching panties. Yes I tend to go overboard.

Birthdays!

Today is my nephew Joey's 2nd birthday & Molly's 1st birthday. Unca Jon & I got Joey the tiniest pair of Crocs with Mater & Lightning McQueen Jibbitz. He loves them! I also brought Jacob Mater & Lightning Jibbitz for his Crocs. We had dinner over at Mama M's house (BIL's mom). Cousin E & Aunt J were there too. Cousin E was adopted from Russia and is now 6. We're certainly going to have a United Nations family!
Molly has resigned herself to the life of an old lady- spending the evening watching tv, wrapped up in her blanket, knitting.

Why we should all read directions

Ok so you all know Airborne right? The health product that you take before you fly or whenever to keep you from getting sick? Well I'm using it for the first time and I really like it. I was on the phone with my sister today and asked her if she'd ever used it. She tells me they just bought some and she could only stand it for a few bites. Um....bites? She said she thought the tablets were awfully big and could not see the appeal of the product as she's standing in her kitchen foaming and popping at the mouth. Then she thought maybe she should read the directions and sure enough...you don't eat them! You pop them in water and drink it! The ironic thing was, when I asked her about Airborne I was about to tell her the story I heard while watching Ellen. Apparently one of her viewers also ate the tablet, but while waiting to board a plane. She chewed the whole thing and was foaming all over the place. Then she drank some orange juice since it tasted so bad, but that made the foaming worse. And the kicker was they let her on the plane no questions asked! Here I thought I was about to relate a story about a one in a million occurance...ha! I was laughing about that all day!

Memorial

I know I say this a lot, but y'all are the best. I can't tell you how comforting it was when I posted about my Pappy's death and then instantly saw emails and comments galore. A big internet hug from y'all made it much easier to deal with. There's a memorial in Florida on Saturday. I don't know if I'm going to go. Our social worker is coming Tuesday. I'd have to leave first thing in the morning then turn around and come home Sunday. This wouldn't give me any time down there with my Nanny. And she needs me now more than Pappy needs me at a memorial. I talked to Nanny this morning and she would rather me come down for a week a little later. We just can't afford 2 Florida trips- not with an adoption trip looming on this year's horizon. I feel bad for missing the memorial though. Ugh. I hate this. But I adore you guys. Thank you.

Pappy

My Pappy died today at 1:15pm. He's my father's father. A retired minister and WW2 veteran with a sharp wit and a big heart under a gruff exterior. He's the one who went blind from diabetes and would watch his giant plasma tv with his binoculars. He met my Nanny during the war over in Ireland and brought her home to the US. They've been in love ever since.
I was the first grandchild and he carried me around everywhere. I was born in Florida just outside of Orlando. We went to eat at Disney every Sunday after church. He'd carry me on his shoulders so I could see Cinderella's castle better. I sure did love him. Still do. I'm so glad Sara and I went down to see him last summer. I only wish he could have met my children- he was so supportive of the adoption.
He was 87 and will be missed.

Thank you, Merci, Xie xie

First, thank you for all of your support and kind words. It really means a lot to me and CSP. I pass on to CSP the things I learn from y'all and we've both come to rely on my bloggy friends as a support system, esp with the adoption. We're still mulling things over.

On a lighter note.... I thought I'd share some of the fabulous gifts I received for Christmas. M&L (honorary aunt and uncle) really spoil us. And they really know us well and are incredible gift givers. They gave me this cute retro cell phone receiver in pink. It really works! And it's awesome cause now I can cradle the phone between my head and shoulder.
They also gave me this gorgeous tea set. I'm a tea drinker and have been wanting to start a tea pot collection and now I can!

One of the wonderful gifts from my in-laws was a book I've been dying for:I Like You by Amy Sedaris. I just love her and this book is a riot while still being informative.

On my side of the family we don't exchange gifts amongst the adults, only the kids get presents, but CSP is an only child and we're still non parents (for now) so we still exchange with his parents and M&L. We keep it modest though since we're on the adoption budget. Our gifts went over really well. They included flameless candles which were a big hit since both couples have pets and are wary about lighting candles with the pets in the house. I absolutely LOVE it when I seem to pick out the perfect gift for someone, especially hard to buy fors like my in-laws & M&L. I can't wait til we can include our children in the Christmas mix!

Christmas Re-cap

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Mine was busy and good. Christmas Eve Eve I baked like a wild woman and made 3 mini loaves of beer bread:, about 723 pumpkin muffins (some mini, some regular, some with chocolate chips, some with peanut butter chips):, and a batch of almond cookies (some with chocolate chips):. All of the above were made with mixes from Tastefully Simple What? you thought I was a scratch baker? I've got one arm!
Christmas Eve I finished gift bagging some gifts (again with the one arm- no wrapping of presents) then I went to my sister's for a little while. My Dad and stepmom came into town to stay with them. I visited for a little while then went home to meet up with CSP to head to his parents' house. We stopped at Jack in the Box on the way since every Christmas Eve his mom serves oyster stew and I hate oysters, plus eating soup with my left hand before a photo op was a dicey proposition. M&L were there (fabulous couple who are basically the cool aunt and uncle the universe forgot to give us). We had a big time and stayed way too late.
Christmas morning we went to my sister's to see what Santa brought my nephews. Man are they so cute and they were so, so excited about everything. After a couple of hours we went home and I finished up cooking green bean casserole, crock pot mac & cheese, and corn casserole. Then we piled all the food up in the car and headed to my mom's. There was way too much food at her house.We ate then settled in to watch a couple of movies. We got home late again then made sure to sleep in nice and late the next morning!

The Chronic-what-cles of Grandmommy

I think my title may be a little obscure. But any time I think of the word chronicles I think of that Adam Sandberg skit/song about the Chronicles of N@rnia from SNL.
Anyway...since my Gmommy moved in with my mama she's been keeping us up to date with Gmommy happenings via email. Here was the first big update:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ok, this is bad..........but, I think we're ok now.
Mom got up in the middle of the night, she said to go to the bathroom. She decided for some reason to go downstairs. She doesn't put her slippers on right as they are meant to be pulled up over the whole foot. Instead she just slips her toes in. This may be what caused her to stumble. She fell down the stairs! I heard her fall and went running down there. Everyone came running. She's OK. However, she cut or tore the skin on her elbow and she is banged up quite a bit. She was very, very shaken; as were we! This all happened around 1:30 am. We were up for most of the night. Going forward, we are securing a gate at the top of the stairs and a large poster size sign saying "STOP!" and then directing her to the bathroom that is RIGHT BESIDE HER BEDROOM! I'm emailing this to you because I just can't talk about it without crying like a baby and I'm at work. Last night was one of the most horrible moments of my life. I can't express the shear terror that went through me, us. We held her and rocked her and talked to her until she became stable again. She finally went back to bed and stayed there the remainder of the night. I checked her out again this morning at 7:00 and she looked fine (other than the bruises) and said she felt fine. I think I'll soak her in a warm bath when I get home.
She said she wanted to go jogging later so I think she's ok!

Then this came the other day:
Well, perhaps we need to start a new blog about the tales of your Gmother. This afternoon
when Gmommy was complaining of serious pain in her abdomen, Hale ran through a series
of questions trying to determine the problem. When reporting back to me the situation, he said, "Well, I know she's never had appendicitis" How's that? "Because she dropped
her pants and showed me!" That's it folks...Hot as Hale has seen the Gpatch! OMG!

And this:
And the beat goes on......the part I left out was: As you know we have had a time with Gmommy wanting to feed Sam (Mom's dog) everything in site and sneaking him food (people food)
Like a young child, she can't seem to understand that he has no interest in salad, bannanas, pickles etc. She also can't understand that some things are bad for
pets...anyway.............When Hale was away yesterday running errands she apparently
took this opportunity to give Sam a little snack. Hale returned to find about 25 Oreo
cookies scattered about the entire upstairs. She fed them to him one at a time. All
this went down before the trip to the emergency medical hospital.

and then today she says, "You know that friend of yours, well,....I don't know sometimes
he's kind of crazy. But I didn't pick him. He's yours. Not my problem". and then she
said, "I'm takin my dog with me when I go"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I love how Gmommy keeps referring to Hot as Hale (my stepdad) as Mom's friend. And the Gpatch! So funny!

Happy, Happy Birthday Baby!

pre-written before surgery

Today is my cutie pie husband's 35th birthday. We are so old. I thought I would take this opportunity to list a couple of reasons why I think he's so great.

-He helps around the house.
-He worries about me.
-He can't wait to be a dad.
-He's a really funny guy. Although you might not find that out til you've known him a few years- he's really shy.
-He loves IKEA as much as I do.
-When I bend over he comes up behind me and makes that "unh unh" sound while bumping into my bottom. A little high school of him, but it lets me know he still thinks I'm hot.
-His idea of pasta is noodles with cream of mushroom so just about anything I cook gets rave reviews.
-He likes to watch Family Feud with me and yell at the tv.

Many, many more reasons, but my arm's aching so I've gotta cut it short. Happy Birthday Hot Stuff Husband!

p.s. Yesterday was our sweet Kea's 3rd birthday!