good news!

shawn weighed a whopping NINETEEN POUNDS today!!!!! that, by itself, made my entire day! he's now in the 5th%ile! woohoo! he's ON THE CHARTS!!!! his head is in the 97th LOL and his height in the 70th. yay for my big headed skinny white-ish guy.
doc is 80% sure shawn is, in fact, an albino. we don't know for sure yet though. leave it to me to adopt the only albino in all of arkansas LOLOLOL, for some reason the whole thing is kinda funny to me, i know, it sounds mean. i find humor in the irony of it all. i almost look forward to the diagnosis, only because i am tired of people accusing L. of lying to us and people thinking she was sleeping around. i love her.
anyway, he got his MMR shot and we went on our merry way. he barely noticed.

just watched vantage Point. liked it. made my heart race too much though lol

3 words: BANANA CREAM OREOS. GET SOME!

my RAD son leaves for HIV camp on Sunday. i miss him when he's gone, but it sure is a nice break from his EXTREME noise(if the cabinet shuts too quietly the first time, open it and slam it again, there. that's better.), his daily pile of soaking wet bedding, stuffed animals and clothes(he is still not potty trained)and his obsessive "singing". he gets fixated and repeats the same words over & over & over & over...... it's very tiring. i look forward to the light laundry while he's away, but i curse the pile he brings home! especially the sleeping bag UGH

good riddance manny Ramirez. enjoy playing for such a crappy team. you & Nomar deserve each other! i hope they make you cut your hair and wear your uniform correctly fitted. neener neener neener!

anybody make chili mac yet? when ya do, let me know if you loved it. by the way, the KRAFT blue cheese crumble tastes the best!

I've been asked to speak at the middle school about living with HIV. i am a lousy public speaker, so i may chicken out LOL

can someone(or a bunch of you) share with me WHY so many blogs use fake names for their kids now? i guess i just don't get it. why the secrecy? i can understand if they are foster kids, but the rest confuses me. not judging, just curious. what is the worry? i just can't make myself blog about "trinket", "tiddly wink" & "betty boop"...... ya know what i mean? enlighten me. i am from NH, maybe i am naive & spoiled by the safe state i live in(no. 1 by the way LOL)

i am missing Doug lyle sooooooooo much now, i want him home. oh.. i meant to say i miss 'Diddly Doo' lolol

my dog doesn't seem much better. damn.

i want to adopt again LOL Yogi will freak out when i admit it to him. the agency we adopted shawny from is desperate for new couples. there are only TWO couples on the "babies of color" list and many babies due pretty soon! if you are home studied and don't care about color, and ready to adopt soon...let me know! they like couples(and singles) who attend church, but it's not imperative. ( i do not enjoy church). based out of little rock arkansas. we were very happy with them.

guess i better crash, shawn has been waking me up for the day between 450-505 am all week. LORD HELP ME!!!!!! i am a zombie til like.. noon every day! wish i could stand coffee. ho hum. good thing he's cute & fun.

how is everyone? fill me in!

especially for SHEA

many requests for my buffalo chicken chili mac recipe. a HUGE fave around here(except with the littlest ones, but a BIG teen pleaser!)
anyway, its a rachel ray meal that feeds atleast 7 people here, without doubling.
http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/buffalo-chicken-chili-mac/
i use medium sized shells for this recipe. i add extra hot sauce, and i like WAY more carrots(and a bit more celery) than the recipe calls for. also, i pre-boil the veggies, or else they are too, "al dente" for us. i boil them(whether i use frozen or fresh carrots) then put them in the skillet with the chicken. i also admit to putting more blue cheese crumble on top than she does, but that's all Yogi's fault.
for the birthday party, i pre made the whole meal a day or 2 ahead, (skipped the end broiling part of course)froze it, thawed it on the counter for ...um....8 hours or so, and baked it at 375* for 35 minutes on party day. it was PERFECT!(and i was concerned LOL).
one recipe fits perfectly(even with the extra carrots) in a 9x13 pan.
ENJOY!!!!!

albinism?

there is often talk about shawn being.. um.... melanin challenged.
"what color is he?"
"is he bi racial?"
"is he white or black?" and my forever favorite?
"what is he?"
well, for starters, he's a human being! and a damn cute one too! he is very fair, as fair as i am( i am a fair skinned caucasian with blue eyes LOL)with very light brown eyes(as light brown as kristin's) with reddish, light brown hair. some blonde in there. he is a full african american with 2 full african american birth parents. i met them both and have pictures of them. they both listed themselves as full AA. so... why is he white? we don't claim to know, but a few opinions have been thrown at us(whether we want to hear the opinion or not LOL) in fact, it was the leading topic of discussion at the birthday party on saturday. of course, the true father being a tall skinny white guy is the top opinion in the unofficial, unsolicited family & friend(and stranger!) opinion poll. L. had no reason in the world to lie to me. we didn't care about color and she knows that! J. is the Father, i am convinced of that. at the party, a few poeple joked that Shawn is an albino. not possible right? albinos have pink eyes in the white community, blue eyes in the black community. or so we thought.......
fast forward to today. as i exited the target store with Shawn in the shopping cart a black woman and her kids were looking at him curiously, smiling at him, then looking at me, then at him.....i said,
"yah.. i know" LOL and we started talking. she suddenly said,
"you know he's an albino right???"
"HUH?????????"
"my cousin tim is an albino and he looks just like him." she claimed. she went on to explain that black albinos have blue or light brown eyes.
"SAY WHAT???"
i was just in shock. until recently we never even entertained the idea, but now it is becoming a true possibility. i thanked her, we parted ways, and i came home to look on the internet.
well, guess what the very first "sign" is?(aside from all the obvious stuff)
slow, slow, weight gain, "failure to thrive" type stuff, in infants. shawn still weighs under 18 lbs and is not even on the prcentile charts, with no explanation behind it. he wears newborn diapers. size 6-9 mos. clothes(although they are too short finally) we always just thought he was tiny like his mother.
the extreme light sensitivity(the reason he RUNS away squinting when you grab the camera!) wasn't something we connected either. ya never know....
if he does have it, we are looking at type 3, the WAY less serious type for sure, but i just think it's strange that no one, especially the doctor, EVER picked up on the remote possibility, until now. BUT.....
wouldn't his hair have been reddish blonde from day one? hes only been this way for a few months. (every month it got lighter)
wouldn't he have burned severely at the beach? i did use 45 and re applied twice and kept him covered alot of the time because he was squinty and uncomfortable.....
i don't know, it's so hard to believe. his big 12 month appointment and immunizations is on thursday, and when keith sees his lousy weight gain since may 20th(none)he will order blood work anyway, so i guess he will be tested for albinism too. YAY. NOT. he aughtta be a happy camper huh??? think good thoughts.
ps. my red sox are making me cry. thursday is the trade deadline at 3pm. we BETTER make some deals!

more pics from party

this is Sayle. she will be 3 in sept. i babysat her Daddy when he was a little boy. in fact, he was the first little boy i ever loved. he was the reason i wanted to be a mother to boys. when sayle's daddy was 30, he finally came home safely from the war in iraq & got married to the love of his life. Sayle was conceived on the honeymoon. sadly, just 8 weeks or so later, he was killed in a terrible car accident during a snowstorm. sayle's mommy was hurt badly but thankfully, she & sayle survived. sayle is the biggest miracle i have ever witnessed in my life. i'm thrilled to be her honorary auntie! she looks just like her daddy did.

the trampoline, given to us by a neighbor back in May, was a HUGE hit.

big success!!!

the party was a HUGE success. i had no idea we could pull off a party for 40 people. so many offers to help too, it was awesome. set up, break down, making food, inflating water toy gifts lol, we have an amazing group of family and friends. we sure are tired today, but it was worth it and we are gonna try to make it a yearly thing. the babies got some fun gifts and both had a " wonderful beautiful day" as kendyl always says lol. we got some great pictures. how do pick out the best of 360??? LOL

p.s.

its 330. it has now been exactly a year since i walked into the agency, heart racing, palms sweating... and L. smiled & handed shawn, her newborn baby, to me with tears in her eyes. she was so beautiful in person and so was the baby. i will never forget that moment as long as i live. when i think about the loving, selfless choice she made, i am humbled beyond words. when i saw L. & Shawn's father at the hotel a few days later, he met his son for the first-and last- time and took cell phone pics of him with this big smile on his face. they have the same hands. i asked him "what do you want for your son?" he answered, "i want him to always have fun." i told him, "he's going to have lots of fun, i promise." 10 minutes later, they left. & that was it. i have never heard from either of them again, even though L. claimed she wanted something "open." when i e mailed L. to tell her i was leaving the next morning, and threw out some options as to how we could meet up one more time(which she had said she really wanted), she did send back a quick e mail telling me she had to go to dental school, and i should just head on home. i send pics and letters every 8 weeks, & i have sent 4 e mails since coming home, but i have never heard from her again. maybe she meant "semi-open". shawn was her 2nd child with an adoptive placement(the couple who adopted her 1st child did not want a 2nd-DUMMIES!), so i figured she knew how much contact she truly wanted, but maybe it was too much. i don't know..... but i hope she's happy to be receiving the pictures. she is a wonderful young lady, who i sincerely love. enough of memory lane lol
fussy boy is awake now......he actually took a good nap. maybe he will be happier now! i got lots of scrubbing done-even the microwave! woot woot! go me!

no organized thoughts to share...

honestly, im just at a loss lol
all i can do is give boring news updates
the virus continues to sweep through, yogi is still under the weather, but functioning. he spent lots of time on the couch yesterday with cramps, headache, the whole thing. today hes back to work. shawn has a raging, snarfy cold and was up at 1130, 1230, 230, 430 & 6 thismorning. i am tired. he sleeps in our bedroom, so hes hard to ignore, and he knows it. i know what i need to do, but its hard to do it when you share a bedroom. and hes sick so.. UGH. all my other kids slept, so this is all new to me, even though ive done things the right way. he has never shared a bed with me, he sleeps on his own... but too close. sometimes i sleep in kristins room(shes never here!) when i cant take it anymore, yogi doesnt even hear him. but after we get him back on track, a few weeks later hes back to his tricks again, especially when he has a cold. next week, we are gonna send kris away for a week and get him sleeping through the night again.(shes gone as of aug. 20th anyway)hes grouchy and right up my butt today. he also barely slept an hour thismorning, so hopefully this afternnon nap will be better. doesn't he care that i'm trying to dust and clean for the party? hhmmphh!

the roof is leaking in Jackson's room. my husband is a roofer. thats just plain funny shit. i just painted in there, and theres spots where the paint is bubbling. that is NOT funny shit. oh, well. can't deal with it now!

oh- shawner's new thing is BITING. yup. so far, i am completely ignoring him when he chomps down on my thigh, hoping the behavior will cease, since he gets no reaction. i have NEVER had a biter before, so this is all new to me too! (this kid is gonna make my hair finally go grey!)if ignoring it doesn't work, i will resort to hard and frequent beatings. just kidding.

is it bad that i am begging my neighbors to borrow tables and chairs? i hope not. i am not above groveling, at this point. i've spent enough money and i have nowhere to store the stuff if i buy my own anyway.

party plans are.. well.. stalled? i need to shop tonight for drinks and snacks and some other stuff, but libby is coming over to cut my hair. i may not get out. i have lists everywhere, but not much has been accomplished since shawn is fussy and.. i don't know. tomorrow we get balloons and a tent. mowing the lawn is tough when it pours for 5 days straight.

it has been pouring for days LOL the kids are bored. i can't get outdoor work done until right before the party, so it may not look great. will anyone be looking?

dog is on lots of meds for his kennel cough. how he got it, we don't know, but he has it. the vet bill was 80$ @@ he keeps gagging up gunk on my carpets, so they'll need to be cleaned again when he's better. chi ching!

missing doug alot, can't wait to go see him and get him home. 5 more weeks!

took some cute pictures yesterday, i'll try to post them later today, but i better get things done. this place is cluttered and dusty right now!

i know.. i know..... scattered but that's all i have for now.

just too tired...

to say much tonight! the incredible body/joint aches i had on sat. & sun.? well.. i was right, it was a virus cuz now Yogi has it, along with some nausea & headache, and feels like poo. shawn had the poops yesterday, and is CRANKY so something must be going through the house. yippee.

jackson hasnt spoken one word to me all day because i wouldnt drive him to austyn's house to pick up his bike. SORRY! you are not the only child here, nor are you the only one with a dilemma. shawn is sick, yogi's truck needs to be picked up in the city, the dog is sick and barfing from the kennell cough, and needs to go to the vet...... jackson just cannot always be my main concern! ya wanna go play with someone? WALK THERE! ride your 80$ scooter! run! roller blade! i made suggestions, he chose to sit here bored and pout all day instead so as to "get a win". hope it was worth it.

so far, 40 people, 11 of them kids, will be coming on saturday. i am nervous! more on that later....
night all!(all 7 of you LOLOLOLOLOL)

WHAT A DAY!!!

For Starters, The Birthday boy was grouchy with his new eye teeth coming in. kendyl woke up with a runny nose. Then we went to meet my friend at the burger king play land and shawn had diarrhea. Then, through some online investigating, i came to the conclusion that the dog does infact have kennell cough and made an appointment with the vet for 740 tonight. (how this is possible i have no idea, but i am not the vet or you tube) then shawn had more diarhhea. then, my friend jessie, who is adopting a baby from the same agency that we adopted shawn from, called to ask if she could come pick up my breast pump(she will be nursing her adopted baby too!) then, while shawners napped,(and ken fell asleep on the couch!) i made my FAMOUS buffalo chicken chilli mac so dinner would be ready at 415, so that Yogi could come home, eat, shower and make it to the 2 appointments he had set up for tonight. then i booked a babysitter so i could go to the vet. then Yogi showed up. then yogi left again. then jessie showed up. then the sitter showed up. then yogi called me to tell me his truck broke down in the city and he had no power steering UGH.(so much for the tune up that my 21 year old nephew just did on the thing@@) then i called the vet to cancel my appointment! then shawn had diarhhea. Yogi's friend drove him home and we all visited with jessie, her husband and their little Haitian born 5 year old son who they adopted when we adopted jackson(that's how we all met)the kids had a ball, jessie sorted through my baby clothes, we chatted about her (hopefully!)new baby girl due sept.4th, then shawn had diarhhea. i put Shawn to bed. then they left, i drove the sitter home and Yogi bathed kendyl & when i returned we read to her and put her to bed at 9.

i should be cleaning my kitchen! but im posting pics of The Haitian Sensations!

more pics lol

we had a family movie night tonight, since it was storming outside again, and the satellite would have been all goofy anyway. shawn ate more kettle corn than anyone else did!

LA swept the Red Sox in 3 games. i am not happy. I need time to recover.

Our Birthday Boy

first day home with daddy, august 4th

12 days old

our first moment together 7/24/07

he was down to about 5lbs9oz. that day

i can't believe he's a year old tomorrow.

how blessed we are to be his mom & Dad

just random pics

mmmmmm summer! and oooohhh quirky bahaviors

mmmmmmmmmmm. yesterday jack & his friend austyn were outside devouring the berries. i brought out 2 cups and told them that when the cups were filled, i would bake something and they could go back to eating them off the bushes! so they did! i just made the best muffins with some of them, saved the rest.
jack and Austyn made plans to get together again today. at 915 am, jackson just said to me "it's after 9! why havent you called Austyn's mom yet? ummmmm huh?
why is that my job?
i didn't make plans with him. you did.
why do you think I have the phone number?
why don't you have the number? you made the plans, afterall.
I don't even know the mom's last name.(she is single, kid has different last name)
the truth is, i think her number is in my cell phone out in my truck(shes a nurse who takes care of my grandma at the clink. i mean crazy house. i mean nursing home lol) but.. come on! you're 12! it's just task avoidance, sheer laziness and a control issue. 30 minutes later, when Austyn hadn't called here yet, he looked through our phone's call menu and found the number (which PROVES CAPABILITY, which his shrink says he doesn't have) is attempting to call the kid right now, but has no clue how to use the phone after 5 years of teaching. now i will have to go through it all again. he still thinks phone numbers have like.. 3 or 4 digits, forgets to turn the phone on, when he gets a busy signal or a machine, he starts dialing the number again without hanging up......we go through it over & over & over & over. siiigghhhhhhhhhhhh
one step forward, 3 steps back!

lessons i've learned lately... By Ali

* grated cheese, indiscriminately left on the kitchen floor and counters, is strangely not the mouse deterent we were really looking for (Chewey took up residence about 2 months ago, and he has ruined all my rubbery baby spoons and pooped in my silverware drawers!)
* when teenage boys join the Army, they call their girlfriends-not their moms.
* when a small animal dies in the street in front of your house, don't let your dog go "check it out"(i will spare you the illicit details)
* don't ever take a shopping cart into a public bathroom. again, no details.
* corn on the cob, carelessly discarded in a backyard fire pit, is not the woodchuck(chucky) or skunk(stinky) deterent we had in mind.
* don't ever allow your dog to wrestle a skunk for an ear of corn. mmhhmmm.
* when 3 kids are jumping on a trampoline, somebody is going to come off crying.
* dog shampoo and dish detergent are NOT the same thing, afterall. think BUBBLES.
* black guy's lips turn grey right before they throw up.
* don't let kids go on a tilt-a-whirl after eating 3 bags (or more) of cotton candy(see above)
* don't challenge kids to a cotton candy eating contest-it just doesn't pay in the end.(see above)
* bikers aren't always nice. but don't tell them so. they say bad words!
* when climbing out of an SUV, be sure the driver has put the vehicle in 'park' first. i learned this second hand.
* when driving someone to the ER, don't tease them for stepping out of a moving vehicle. they stop talking to you for some reason.
* wrapping a wet toddler in a towel and telling them "now, go tear it up!" isn't wise. don't let them comb their own hair either.
* bicycles are more of an outdoor thing. trust me on this.
* when your kid asks you to "tye dye" something, JUST SAY NO.
* telephones and kiddie pools don't mix.
* ipods and kiddie pools don't mix either.
* neither do boxes of kleenex and kiddie pools.
* when one kid tells you another kid "did something" in the pool, she's not talking about drool. it's urgent. move quickly. don't dawdle.
* "mom, i fixed it!" has multiple meanings. investigate thoroughly.
* cops pull you over when items are being flung out of your vehicle through the sun roof.
what have YOU learned lately?????? i tag erin & julie!

glimmers of hope(LONG BORING POST)

is that how you spell glimmer? anyway...
jackson has had a very good couple of weeks. some "weird" behavior, but decent nonetheless. first i will tell you the weird:
remember the neighbor i posted about below? well.. jackson was playing at their house last week. jackson told the dad he had to be home before 1pm(because i needed to go get kendyl at school). when the guy asked jackson why he had to go home(why do you need to know???) jackson responded, ...omg.... get this:
"because you give me bad food and when brandon has other friends here you dont pay any attention to me"
LOLOLOL BBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
ok.. back the truck up, little camper. first of all, the only thing i have EVER said is "you are not going to spend 15 hours a day at their house eating all their food" it isnt bad food, its just.. their food. ok? alright.
needless to say, the guy was at my door that night, while my husband and i were at the movies, telling my babysitter everything that went down. the babysitter is.. well, a wonderful girl. but strange and thrives on drama(strangely, another adoptee, abused in her infancy. shocking)so when i came home, the sitter made it out like the guy was LIVID and wanted me to call him so i did. at that point he was relaxed and just wanted me to know what was said. it turns out that brandon had had another friend over one afternoon and they were all in the pool. suddenly, jackson claimed he didnt want to be in the pool. "i dont feel like swimming!" (yah, sure LOL) so the dad offered a basketball video game indoors. the dad and the other 2 boys continued to frolick in the pool. jackson went in and played the game for a few minutes, got bored, came outside and jumped in the pool and all was well. well.... it sounds like jackson was jealous that the other friend was there, so tried to control the situation by refusing to swim, in hopes that brandon or his dad would send the other friend away. when that did not happen, and the fun continued without him outside, jackson came to his senses and jumped into the pool to share in the fun, instead of being rude or going home. SUCCESS!!!!! PROGRESS!!!! the bad part??? in his effort to somewhat open up to brandons dad days later, (a good thing!)instead of saying "i was jealous when Danny was here, i wanted him to go home because you were playing with him and not me." he said what he said and got a rise outta the guy(which he likely wanted anyway). so we talked to jackson about appropriate language and all that and reminded him that brandon has other friends, just like he does, and that has to be ok. also, jackson had told me a couple of times that he drinks soda and eats junkfood over there, but i refused to react, (im not stupid!)which irritated Jackson to no end and i could tell LOL, so he may have decided to try to get a reaction from Brandons Dad instead LOL OOPS! the whole thing cracked me up and even though it was a total train wreck, i feel good about it in some strange way. yah, i'm a crazy RAD mom. the little victories.
other glimmers? well, one thing that jackson has always had trouble with is SARCASM and kidding around. hes CLUELESS. hes a very black & white kinda guy. very literal. fickle. some of that is language barrier stuff, some isnt, but he just cant handle sarcasm and doesnt catch on, even if someones body languge tells it all.
last night, the Tv was acting goofy(satellite i think) and yogi says,
"aww jackson broke the Tv again, mom"
being goofy and sarcastic.
jackson didnt miss a beat. he says ,
"well, i guess we'll have to go buy a new TV!"
THAT IS MORE HUGE THAN YOU COULD EVER IMAGINE!
jack made a funny! jack was WITTY. he drew an inference. made a connection. it was HUGE and i laughed my ass off.
i think the kid might just make it.

A day At The Beach! (and weird coincidences)

It was the plan we had all week. Get up on Sunday morning and surprise the 3 youngest(and kristin, if she wanted to go) with a trip to Hampton Beach. kendyl almost burst into tears of joy when i broke the news to her at 8am. She LOVES the beach. we were ready by 9 and off we went. Shawn slept most of the way there, which made the ride very quiet. other than Yogi's pathetically slow driving and kristin's unorthodox musical choices, the ride was fine. we arrived at 10 and the parking spaces close to the beach were taken. we parked down the road and walked to the beach with way more stuff than any family should need. we had so much fun! i looked so huge in my fat suit, i was afraid some guy would harpoon me, so i watched my back. I love the ocean, so i was in heaven. kendyl & i collected rocks, played in the waves.. it was great. we ate peanut butter and jelly for lunch and kristin tanned the whole time, never left the blanket. how sad is that? shawn loved it too, after initial fears of the noise and icey cold water. he played until he dropped, literally. he drifted off on daddy's shoulder at about 2 and slept for an hour or so. jackson and i went swimming while daddy built sand castles with he babies, he & i both love the cold water, but jackson has core temperature issues and needs help warming up when he gets out. ive never seen anyone shiver like jackson! while he warmed up the coincidence thing occured. all of a sudden, i looked up and jacksons BEST friend jack, and his family, were walking right towards us! a beach with what??? 10 thousand people on it and they walk right by us? what are the odds of that? that just blew my mind. the 2 boys had a ball playing football, baseball, went swimming again...i think jackson had a really good day. even though we never made it up to the boardwalk to look at stuff and eat bad food, it was still a blast. a good time was had by all, and we headed back to the car at 330. the baby was awake but content all the way home too! we were thrilled! ken crashed out as soon as we hit the highway LOL the best part? nobody burned! my shoulders are a bit pink and yogi burned the tops of his feet, but nothing awful. we all wore 45! and we re-applied! that sun was STRONG. we can't wait to go back!