Blog swap...all the cool kids are doing it...

Today...a little late which I'll tell you about tomorrow...

I'm blog swapping with Ericka at Alabaster Cow. Her site is hilarious and honest and if you aren't following her I don't think we can be friends anymore...I'm just kidding...but seriously I'm not. Go follow her now!

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PENANCE

when i was ten my dad left me at church.

you'd think that was a real punch in the gut especially after having to listen to a sermon that involved cartoons in no way, shape or form but in all honesty, it didn't bother me. my dad is lucky if he remembers to wear pants. thank god my mom does a quick double check before he leaves the house.

when my friends' parents yelled out "hey mel, think you forgot something!", he patted at his shirt and pants and when he retrieved his keys, he scrunched his face in a "you guys! my keys are right here you silly bunch!" kind of way. and then he saw me, standing by the pillar with the penny. the penny was encased in mortar between the bricks in the pillar. i used to scratch at lincoln's face wondering how long it would take me to pocket the coin and then...well, i never really got that far in my penny fantasy. i was too concerned with the worry knotting my intestines at the fact that my dad was doing his own version of ditching a flaming bag of poo on a doorstep except the doorstep was church and the poo was me.

my dad and i are cool now. i mean he's like one of my best buds and all.but i've made sure to mention his abandonment plenty of times since then.

"do you want another pork chop?" "i dunno, you going to leave me at church again?"

"a d?? on your math test??" "i'm sorry but i started reliving that time you left me at church and i panicked."

"hey jeopardy's on." "what is you left me at church?"

it's been a pretty decent go-to joke in my repertoire and i've had no complaints. i think i've done a great job sending my dad on a major guilt trip and for that i've been pretty proud of myself. that is, until i gave birth to this:

now the joke's on me.

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Ericka kills me every time she writes. Her posts are always funny or insightful or filled with the raw honesty most of us don't have the stones to put out there. Plus look at the gorgeous little lovie! I am beyond proud to be swapping with her and even more so that she thought I was worthy of it.

Holiday Ro-o-o-o-o-o-o-ad

1. Friday Follow and Blog Hop...

This week Friday Follow is hosted by Dania & Frances from The Kiddie Fashionista,
Michelle from Momma’s Pixie Dreams, and Tiffany from My Crazy Kind of Wonderful.

Blog Hop Friday is hosted by My New Life As Mom, Chubby Cheeks Thinks, Take A Mom's Word For It, Bree Bee's, This Adventure Our Life and Belly Charms!

2. I got two awards this week. Hooray!! I love these, simple acts of blog support. They make me all warm and fuzzy inside. From Jessica at Mommy’s Sippy Cup I was awarded:

And from The Mommy at Twenty Little Toes I was awarded:
I will follow the rules and pass these along shortly, but I wanted to thank these amazing women immediately! So thank you!

3. I promise to do my very best to keep up with the follows, but I'm leaving for vacation this afternoon. Woo hoo!!! I'm not sure how much I'll be posting today and over the next week...we'll see. Either way you'll miss me like crazy right? Right!? But it's just as likely that I'll soak into my margarita and forget the world beyond this house...

4. And of course, some Pie.
Huh?

I don't know what that means, but I think it's funny...

Hope you all have a great weekend and a safe 4th of July!!!

Open Adoption Roundtable #17

***UPDATED*** Feel free to comment one and all. I probably should have mentioned that you don't need to participate in the OAR to give me your two cents. I'm always happy to hear what you think...

So this is my first OAR...and of course I had to start with a tough one. The question is from Susiebook at Endure for a Night.

From Susiebook: Are there any things that you don’t want the other members of your triad to know—or that you don’t want to know about them? I’ve heard first mothers talk about not sharing their birth stories with adoptive parents because those are for the adoptees and for themselves only. I've also heard of adoptees concealing their reunions from adoptive parents so as not to cause them pain. What don’t you want shared in your adoptive relationships?

My Answer: There aren't things I purposely hide from my daughter's birthparents. There are things, however, that I don't feel compelled to share. We are about to go on vacation I don't think I need to mention that. I'm sure we'll share pictures of Pie's first sand/ocean experience when we get back, but I don't feel like it's necessary to keep them informed of our movements. We always share the milestone things, doctor's appointments, firsts, funny things she does, and we're happy and proud to do that. They also know about our life outside of my daughter directly. They know we'd like more kids. And by like more kids I mean we'd kick old ladies and knock down puppies for more kids. We're very upfront with them.

We already talk to my daughter about her being adopted. We'll fill in the story as she gets older and can understand more. We will always be completely open about that with her. Plus she will have her birthparents in her life, so she can get their side of the experience directly from them. She will not have to rely on us to make assumptions on their behalf, or try to decode the how and why of their part in the triad.

As far as the birthparents go, I know they hide things from us. We hear things through mutual friends that they don't tell us. Things I think are important. I assume, though, that they are not hiding things to be malicious or the be dishonest. I don't know if that's an extension of their youth, or if they simply don't feel it would be important for us to know. I think things related to their stability are of interest to us. If they are going to be involved with my daughter, I want to know that they are stable. I want to know that they are in a good mental state. I want to know that their behavior won't be damaging to my daughter. I don't know if that's fair or not, but it seems like a reasonable enough request.

Wordless Wednesday *Now with more words*

My brother kicks your brother's ass!*

Look what he made for me! It's a sampler platter of Pie!! Look at all her tiny parts...I can't believe she was ever that little. She looks so different to me now.Here are some close-ups...

Little foot Little hands Sweet face

And the absolute best...a little wrinkly bumper

* If you do not have a brother, feel free to substitute any other family member for ass kicking purposes. Statements made do not guarantee actual ass kicking superiority of my brother.

I got tagged

I was tagged by Leah at Lovely Life of Leah with "3 things about me." You've got to check out her site. There are lots of gorg pics of her and her little Gavin from a recent photo shoot...so cute!

3 names I go by:
* Sarie (family in general)
* Pea (Husband)
* Bup (my dad)

3 places i have been:
* London (loved it)
* Paris (not so much)
* Lucerne (felt like I was in a fairy tale, so beautiful)

3 favorite drinks:
* Middle Sister's homemade lemonade
* margarita
* ice cold beer on a hot day...mmmm
(I felt like listing alcohol for all three was a little too boozy so I classed up the list with some wholesome lemonade)

3 jobs i have had:
* daycare/dayschool teacher
* party host at Discovery Zone
* currently - Senior Project Manager/Client Relations Manager for a software company (gag)

3 tv shows i watch:
* Top Chef (and any number of other reality shows)
* Family Guy
* The Simpsons

3 places i would like to visit:
* Fiji (I'm stealing this one from Leah...who wouldn't want to go there?!)
* Ireland
* Greece
(Sadly I've become a freak about flying. We were all set to go to Cape Cod to visit family a few years ago, got so far as boarding the plane and they said, "We're closing the door." I said, "Oh hell no you're not." And ran for the gate. Not sure what caused that, some combo of being trapped and who knows what else. I haven't tried again since)

3 favorite retro tv shows:
* Facts of Life
* Family Ties
* Golden Girls

3 places i have lived:
* Royal Oak, MI (outside of Detroit...was born here)
* Boston, MA (the folks are from here)
* Atlanta, GA (currently)

3 favorite dishes:
* veggie burger on the grill
* pizza...yum
* cheese and crackers (not technically a dish, but one of my fav things to eat)

3 things I am looking forward to:
* VACATION! I leave on Friday!!!
* Pie's first word
* Having a life that does not include my current job (having one I actually like instead would be beyond fantastic)

3 people I'm tagging
* Cindy - This Adventure, Our Life
* Kayla – and Potato Makes Three
* Jenni – jenni from the blog

Pie has become fascinated with the laptop and wanted to add her two cents...take it away lovie

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Perhaps she'll be a mathematician. She showed no interest at all in the letters, only the numbers....

Hooray...Award!

I received an award from the fantastic BH at The Very Best Housewife a few days ago. Things have been a little crazy, so I'm just getting around to thanking her properly. Thank you, thank you! Check it...

As with all good things, it comes with rules:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Pass this award along to fifteen bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason!
4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.

OK, so I just recently did a list of things about me...it was hard to come up with. So I decided I'd go with an all embarrassment version for your entertainment. Oh the dignity I'm willing to sacrifice for you guys...

1. When I go to sleep I have to have all body parts on the bed. I have a lingering childhood fear that if I don't whatever lives under my bed with its dustbunny minions will be able to get me.
2. My middle name, until I got married and took my maiden name instead, was Maureen. I was about 10 before I could spell it. My own name. I could not spell it. Morene just made so much more sense to me.
3. Not that long ago, Husband and I were checking out at the grocery store. He said, "Oh, you have an eyebrow hair or something on your neck. Let me get it." It was not an eyebrow hair. It was attached. The cashier had the good sense not to make eye contact after that.
4. A million years ago in college I was walking across campus where lots of construction was going on. I got to the top of a ditch/hill thing. I tripped. And I don't mean a dainty little stumble. I mean I went down flat on my face. And as I started to get back up the momentum caught up to my backpack which proceeded to smack me in the back of the head and knock me back down. Lots of people saw. LOTS of people.
5. A million and a half years ago at a different college, Middle Sister and her now husband came to celebrate my birthday. We went out and things got rowdy. I ended up on hands and knees behind the big front of the campus college sign puking for all I was worth. Middle Sister decided that was a good time to show me how she could still do the running man. And that's when the vom came out my nose. Good times.
6. When Husband and I were newly dating he came home with me for the weekend. We were staying in separate rooms at my parents' house. At some point during the weekend, Husband, my mom, my dad and I were in my room rearranging the furniture. As the bed was being dragged across the room a pair of pants popped out from underneath. We all paused to look and someone said, "Those must belong to Big Sister's boyfriend." That's when my mom picked them up. They did not belong to Big Sister's boyfriend, they belonged to Husband which we all discovered quickly because husband was a mechanic at the time and his name was inside the waistband of said pants.
7. I'm going old school with this one. Growing up we had a trampoline. When I was about 12-13 a boy I liked was over. I dressed up, inexplicably I decide a tube top would be a good choice. I think you all know where this one ended up. Trampoline + tube top = first boobs that kid saw.

And the 15 lovlies I'm passing it onto...

Pamela at 2 much testosterone
Sharon at A Flock of Fitzgeralds
Lindsey at A little Kloep
C’s Mommy at A Mommy’s Dream About Diapers and More
Amber at Amber’s Life
Untypically Jia at Color Me UnTypical
Alexis at Depressions and Confessions
Lady Hill at From Lazy to Lady
Hrtsmakefamily at Hearts Make Families
Danielle at Humes, Party of Three
Brittany Ciara at Life According to Amanda
Tiffany at Mom-Nom.Com
Mommy’s Sippy Cup at Mommy’s Sippy Cup
Nikki at My Fantabulous Wonderful Life
Brandi at My Three Bubs

Congrats one and all...it's well deserved!!

24 hours until it's Saturday

1. Friday Follow and Blog Hop...

This week Friday Follow is hosted by Kmama from The Daily Dribble, Elizabeth from The Crafty Charlestonian, and Brittany Ciara from Not Your Average Teen.

Blog Hop Friday is hosted by My New Life As Mom, Chubby Cheeks Thinks, Take A Mom's Word For It, Bree Bee's, This Adventure Our Life and Belly Charms!

2. My In-laws are visiting...send your good thoughts my way. Deep breath. Deep breath. And hypothetically if I hear that anyone doesn't like Pie's outfit, or it's too small, or we need to buy her clothes that fit, or that what ever I'm doing be it feeding, playing with, or trying to put to bed is not what she wants, and/or doesn't she love daddy, follow daddy, want to be with daddy, daddydaddydaddydaddydaddydaddydaddy...oh and you too Sara one more time I'm going to shank someone. And I don't mean the homemade kind, I mean the smuggled in through the prison laundry and traded for a carton of cigs and naked pictures of Tooty from Facts of Life kind.

Man, it's possible I watch too many prison shows. I need some sort of shanking 12 step program...

3. And to end any Friday on a good note...some Pie. She's being a cheeky little monkey...but always a lady with her rolly ankles crossed.

Hope you all have a great weekend. If I can not feel like such a pile of poo with this strep, I'm going to try and get some crafty-ness accomplished!