NAME! THAT! ROLL! {Round 3}

Let's go round 3!

Here's how to play: I will be posting a series of cropped pictures, each featuring a specific set of rolls. The first 5 people to guess the location of said roll correctly will be given points. The first person to guess correctly will get 5 points, the second will get 4, and so on. At the end of the series the player with the most points will receive a fabulous surprise package from me and Pie.

Here are the current standings:
9 Points - Jackie at The Mathey Family
5 Points – Cris at Jus Keep Smiling
4 Points - Yours Truly Dear at The Mundane Adventures of Miss Jess
3 Points - Her Momma at Finally Mom
3 Points – Elise at Little Sprout Growing
2 Points - Angela at Life with Lane
2 Points - Emily at Wife, Check. Mom, Check. Now What?
1 Point - Aims at The Mom Who Stayed Sober
1 Point - Christina at And for good measure…

And here's the new photo...

Wordless Wednesday {Flying}

PS - Be sure to come by tomorrow for Round 3 of NAME! THAT! ROLL!

Joyful Heart

Rebecca (aka Country-Fried Mama) is hosting an awesome and beyond important carnival today. Please take a second to read about it and then link up!

About this blog carnival: “The world I want for my children” is an effort to support The Joyful Heart Foundation, which was founded by Law & Order: SVU actress Mariska Hargitay to help victims of sexual assault mend their minds, bodies and spirits and reclaim their lives. Today, the foundation is at the forefront of an effort to end a disheartening backlog of tens of thousands of rape kits in labs across the country, a backlog that contributes to a rapist’s 80 percent chance of getting away with his crime. The backlog and its detrimental effects will be the topic of an SVU episode on September 29th.

Please help us raise awareness for this important work. What kind of world do you want for your children? Write your post and link up here.

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I sincerely thought I would sit down and knock this out. There is so much I want for Pie that I thought I'd have too much for a single post. Turns out I want so much that I can't even smash it into rational thoughts. But I'm going to try...


The world I want for my daughter is:

• one where the fact that she is in a family created by open adoption is looked at as awesome because she has so many people to love her instead of something weird and different
• one where the fact that she is multi-racial (though she doesn't necessarily look it) is a reason for celebration instead of ridicule
• one where she can date/live with/marry anyone she chooses. ANYONE. Any person of either gender and of any ethnicity and won't face discrimination because of her choice
• one where she could work at a fast food joint or be a doctor and either way her contributions will be valued
• one where the size of her house, the emblem on her car or the designer of her clothes is not the determining factor of her worth
• one in which she feels as safe and secure as she does within my arms

This list is really just the tiny, tip of the iceberg of what I want for her. But ultimately I want this little girl to be happy.

And I hope against hope she never has to deal with sexual assault...like I did.

New Monday Minute

And here's the fist Monday Minute with the new host Christy.

(1) What’s the last restaurant you went to and what did you order?
One in the historic area of the next town over named Ceviche. It's a little, cute, family-owned taqueria/margarita bar. I had veggie tacos and many margaritas. Yum.

(2) What's your greatest phobia?
This is a toss up between big open water (no cruises for me) and small spaces. Pretty boring and normal.

(3) On a scale of 1 to 10, how hot are you?
Depends who you ask, also depends on whether or not I've had a shower, have bananas in my hair, etc. There are just too many factors to determine this with any accuracy...

(4) You just found out you (or your partner) are having a baby. What's your reaction?
HOORAY! Also suck it doctors who said I couldn't without major intervention!!

(5) You just won a free vacation to anywhere in the world. Where would you go?
Hmmm. Overseas it would probably Ireland or Italy. Domestic I'd say Gulf Shores, AL. We go every year and it's so relaxing. Great town. Great beach. Great water...well until the oil and what not.

So much to cover...

Okay, so there's quite a bit to get through today...

1) The Red Dress Club the assignment:

This idea I stole after reading this post from The Never-True Tales. She linked to the writing prompt, and I've decided to do it for the Red Writing Hood this week. Be as creative with your answers as you want.I hate to do this to you, I do, but please go to this link for the prompt. It's filling in words on a template to describe "Where I'm From." You basically will have to copy the template onto your blog (it's not hard!) and I also wanted you to read the explainer about it.

The result:
I am from snowy quiet, from Fraggle Rock and Caboodles.
I am from the Cape Cod cottage filled with bunk beds and sand.
I am from the dandelion, the honeysuckle.
I am from new pjs on Christmas Eve and the brilliant chaos, from Chris and Marie and Grammy Williams.
I am from the "no library voice" and the oversharing.
From you may not have succeeded but you tried really hard and books are amazing.
I am from the Latin, the Roman, the Sundays in scratchy dresses learning about first communion.
I'm from Michigan and Ireland, meatloaf and mashed potatoes.
From the time as a baby that I punched my brother in the mouth and made him swallow a tooth, the next time when I only inflicted a bloody nose, and the years he got me back by holding me down and farting on my head.
I am from the living room wall in my parent's house. I can follow the family growing there. First two, then 4, then 8, now 15 strong. I can see where we have come from, the moments captured, the huge and tiny joys, the life that has led me to this point.

2) Name! That! Roll! Round 2 went really well. I think it was too easy! :) Here are the current standings:

9 Points - Jackie at The Mathey Family
5 Points – Cris at Jus Keep Smiling
4 Points - Yours Truly Dear at The Mundane Adventures of Miss Jess
3 Points - Her Momma at Finally Mom
3 Points – Elise at Little Sprout Growing
2 Points - Angela at Life with Lane
2 Points - Emily at Wife, Check. Mom, Check. Now What?
1 Point - Aims at The Mom Who Stayed Sober
1 Point - Christina at And for good measure…

And the uncropped picture. It was her chunky back of leg/above the knee! She was climbing up her dada...
3) Two lovely ladies have passed awards onto me. I want to acknowledge them today and I promise over the weekend I'll follow the rules. Promise!

The Drama Mama at The Scoop on Poop was sweet enough to think of me when passing on this award. Thank you Mama!!

And the lovely Traci at Traci66 passed this beauty on to me. Thank you sweet Traci! Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Name! That! Roll! {Round 2}

Alright peeps...it's time for Round 2! Let's do a recap...

Here's how to play:
I will be posting a series of cropped pictures, each featuring a specific set of rolls. The first 5 people to guess the location of said roll correctly will be given points. The first person to guess correctly will get 5 points, the second will get 4, and so on. At the end of the series the player with the most points will receive a fabulous surprise package from me and Pie.

Here's the current standing:
5 Points - Jackie at The Mathey Family
4 Points - Yours Truly Dear at The Mundane Adventures of Miss Jess
3 Points - Her Momma at Finally Mom
2 Points - Angela at Life with Lane
1 Points - Aims at The Mom Who Stayed Sober

And here's the new picture (I promised it wouldn't be as hard as Round 1):

Guess away and good luck!!

The Paper Mama Photo Challenge: Fingerprint.

This weeks guest judge: Jess from: irocksowhat
This weeks challenge: Fingerprint.

The challenge: The challenge will be based around your children. We've done this challenge before... And, I really loved it. Lets do it again! Take or find a photo of your baby (or kid... or puppy... or kitty) fingers or toes. Or both!

Ok so this picture was taken about a week and a half after Pie was born. She started holding hands with herself {hehehe} the day she was born and she still does. It just kills me...

Stuff and other things

Name That Roll...Round 1: This one was really tough. I promise Round 2 won't be so hard! And here they are the 5 closest guesses and their points:

5 Points - Jackie at The Mathey Family
4 Points - Yours Truly Dear at The Mundane Adventures of Miss Jess
3 Points - Her Momma at Finally Mom
2 Points - Angela at Life with Lane
1 Points - Aims at The Mom Who Stayed Sober

And here's the uncropped picture...it's her chunky little shoulder/underarm rolls! Round 2 is coming later this week...make sure you're ready for more roll guessing!


Also I'm going to do some hopping today. I love finding new blogs!

Follow Me Back Tuesday by Little Yaya's
Tuesday Tag-Along by Twee Poppets
Tuesday Train by I'm Just Sayin'
Tuesday Blog Hop by Fabulous Finds by Nimbler Grove

Monday Minute has a winner...

...and it's not me. Despite Michelle giving her 10 votes to me and all of your support. I was crushed...seriously destroyed by the winner. She got like 10 times as many votes as I did. So a big congrats to Christy from http://happilyalawmama.blogspot.com! I can't wait to see what she does with Monday Minute. And I only want to find her and kick her ass for it a little bit...

1 - Have you ever lied on one of your Monday Minute answers?
Nope, though there have been a few times I've scooted around an answer since family reads this blog.

2 - What is on your bedside table?
Alarm clock (boo), baby monitor (yea), fan, chapstick, phone and usually a glass of water

3 -Would you rather lose your sight or hearing?
I think hearing. I would be heart-broken not to hear all of Pie's fantastic noises, Husband's voice or my family, But somehow I think it would be worse not to see them.

4 -Would you rather give up all forms of sexual contact for a year or give up your DVR for three months?
I gotta go DVR on this one. We have tons of movies and we could still watch non-recorded TV right? RIGHT?!

5 - Name one thing that you are proud that you've accomplished in life.
I finally finished my BS. I started college right out of high school and got to within a semester of graduating and left for a variety of reasons. A couple of years ago (after an 8 year break) I finally manned up and went back. It took two years of working full-time and school full-time, but I graduated. And even more proud-making (that's the technical term) I was the valedictorian of my class.

Congrats again to Christy!

It's a game! It's a show! It's a game show!

That's right people...it's the Unofficial Mom game show. Are you ready to play? Then come on down for...NAME! THAT! ROLL!

Here's how to play...Pie, as we all know, is a rolly-polly fool. Over the next week or so I will post a series of cropped pictures, each featuring a specific set of rolls. The first 5 people to guess the location of each roll correctly will be given points. The first person to guess correctly will get 5 points, the second will get 4, and so on. At the end of the series the player with the most points will receive a fabulous surprise package from me and Pie.

And now for roll number 1:

Let the guessing begin!! Good luck everybody! To enter simply leave your guess (and email) in the comments.

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And don't forget to vote for the new Monday Minute host if you get a chance. {me me me} Please and thank you! {me me me} My offers of best friend-iness, internet hugs and possible other bribes...I mean...general bloggy love still stand. {me me me}

The Paper Mama Photo Challenge: Brown.

I'm jumping in on this challenge at the last minute. This picture may not count exactly...it's sepia, so that's brown and Pie has a sweet, brown monkey on her shirt. Chelsey feel free to call BS on this one :)

And just ignore the ever present drool...

Big Pimpin'

Before I pimp myself out...I wanted to say thank you guys so much for your lovely comments on this post. I had a much tougher time with the whole viewing/service situation than I was expecting. My grandparents have all been long gone, so Husband's grandparents became like mine. I cried and cried and cried. Crap, I'm tearing up right now...can't say any more about this now...



On to the pimpin! Ian at The Daily Dose of Reality has started the voting for Monday Minute. If you have a second go here and vote...for me...just kidding vote for anyone you think will do Monday Minute the best...but seriously me.



I'm offering best friend status, internet hugs or best offer in return for votes :)

Wordless Wednesday {happy happy joy joy}

*ignore the carrots in the corner of her mouth :)

My sick sense of humor

We recently got a phone call that included the phrase, "I hate to be the bear of bad news." Of course this is immediately where my mind went...

{original source}

People will never forget how you made them feel

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~ Maya Angelou

Sadly we lost one of Husband's grandfathers over the weekend. He was an amazing man and I was lucky to have known him.

I've got some posts set up, but I won't be around for commenting. We'll be away for the funeral for a few days. But I'll try to catch up when we get back. Send good thoughts to Husband, he is feeling the loss greatly.

The Final Daily Dose of Reality Monday Minute

This week's questions are all written by my co-host for the week, Michelle from My Pixie Dreams. If you all remember, Michelle is Monkey's mother from Mission Monkey.

1 - Who is your favorite childhood superhero?


2 - List something you have done for pure shock value.
Hmm...that would probably be any of the colors in my hair during college. Or maybe the eyebrow piercing.

3 - What is the most recent thing someone has said/done to you that left you picking your jaw up off of the floor.
I would say a few anti-adoption blogs I've come across recently. I was floored that there are people who honestly think that abortion or parenting when you don't want to parent are the only viable solutions to an unwanted pregnancy.

4 - Do you have a moment where you gained clarity about your life?
The moment Pie was born, or probably more accurately the moment she was placed in my arms. In that exact instant I wanted so much, but more than anything I wanted to be the parent Pie deserves.

5 - What are you doing to achieve your biggest dream?
Everything I can! I'm working on some things (which you guys will find out about soon) that will hopefully allow me to work from home and be with my beloved Pie all day.

Friday Friday...way better than Monday Monday no matter what The Mamas and The Papas say

This week's prompt for Red Writing Hood:
Epistolary novels work as a concept because they are a series of documents (often letters) written to reveal a story. Let's try and give this a go, shall we? For this week write a serious letter to your younger self.

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Tough Love

My Dearest Girl,

You are a dumbass. You make stupid and self destructive choices as frequently as you breathe. But you are also a sweet, smart and thoughtful girl. Sadly you don’t recognize that in yourself. All you see is the hurt. The depression. The bad decisions.

You are in trouble. And I hate to tell you this, but it will get worse before it gets better. The trouble will mount and you will be buried by it. You will not be able to see the light of day for what feels like a very long time.

I wish I could really have told you this…wish you would have been able to hear me. Ask for help. Accept the help that is offered. There are people who love you. They are worried and you are shutting them out. Take a deep breath, man up and tell people how bad it is. Listen when your family says they love you. Listen when your friends say they will be there for you.

You will eventually fight your way back. You will get your life back to some semblance of normal. In the meantime let me give you one good thing to focus on. You will make a decision during this time that is possibly the smartest thing you’ve ever done. You will let that sweet new boy stick around. He is working really hard to spend time with you. And he still is. All these years later he is your favorite. He is the best husband and father you could ever have asked for. Well done you on that one.

It has been hard and bumpy and heartbreaking. You still have good days and really not good days. But despite everything I’m still working really hard on loving you, and we’re a lot closer than we were before….

See ya later alligator,
-S-

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Just so I don't leave you to start the weekend on a sadder note, Pie wanted to bust a quick move for you...

For Monday Minute...

Ok, so I'm on a posting frenzy of some kind today...

This is a really good one...Ian at The Daily Dose of Reality is passing on the reins of the Monday Minute. If you are interested in being considered check out this post. Except don't because I totally want to do it! :) To participate you have to '[write] a story that has happened to yourself at one point in your life. A story that will inspire others to do good. A story where you performed either a random act of kindness or went out of your way to help someone in need.'

So here's my story:

This was actually pretty hard. I was thinking that as an adoptive parent, I helped my daughters' birthparents quite a bit. But I'm really the one who walked away from that interaction the luckiest of the group. Then I was thinking about telling some stories from the homeless shelter I volunteer at, but that wasn't exactly what I was looking for either.

So I think I'll share a double sided story. One where I have received kindness and where I have been lucky enough to return it.

The journey of infertility and adoption has not been an easy one. Shocking, right? It has kicked my ass 8 ways to Sunday (an expression I have never understood but use anyway). There have been times since I started this blog that I have shared some very personal parts of that process. Some that have really weighed heavily on me, or have worried or stressed me out. And through that I have been amazed at this community's outpouring of support.

I have vented and dumped all kinds of things out here, and so many wonderful people have not only read my ramblings, but have taken the time out of their own lives to offer support, ideas, and encouragement. I am humbled by it.

On the flip side, I have tried to be equally as gracious. I have sent good thoughts, and happy wishes around the country. I have supported causes and auctions. I don't think twice about sending an email or comment to a blogger that I know needs a little extra something.

I love that I can do that. I love that there are so many others who do as well. Being a part of this crazy, funny, joyous, sad, over-tired, wildly loved and loving, mommy, daddy group has been a blessing. It has restored my feeling that while there are certainly people out there who are awful, there are so many more who are happy to take the extra minute during their day to make you smile.

Blog Guidebook

Do you know about the Blog Guidebook? No you said? Well then you should go sit in the corner and think about what you've done. It's an amazing bloggy resource with an awesome mission. If you have a free minute, go check it out!

The Paper Mama Photo Challenge: Excitement!

This weeks guest judge:
Joni of Six Cherries on Top.

This weeks challenge: Excitement!
The challenge: Take or find a photo of your baby (or kid... or puppy... or kitty) excited! That's it! Let's see those excited faces!