Snowflakes and Snowmen

For the past couple of weeks, I've been leading two of my reading groups in a couple of crafts. Shhhhhh...don't tell anyone. I was supposed to be doing reading with them.

Okay, so they had to listen and follow directions. We used the math terms triangle and parallel. We talked about the difference between parallel and perpendicular lines, in addition to the differences between triangles and quadrilaterals. We discussed spheres too

As long as we hit things on the standards, I think I may be "covered" but who knows for sure in this day and age?

Anyway, I am NOT a crafty person in the least. When I told my mom that I was doing this with the children, she laughed. She knows that I'm not crafty. However, these were more time consuming than anything else, so they really didn't turn out too bad.

I wish I had taken pictures of each step of the way, but I forgot to take my camera to school. HOWEVER, I remembered to take it on the day that they were able to take their snowflakes home, and then their snowman ornaments.

I felt it was safe to put this picture up and told the little girl that she needed to put the snowflake in front of her face.

Once they were all put together, I spray painted glitter on them. I believe that this child chose the pearl colored glitter. I also had silver and gold for them to choose from.

To get these home in one piece, I put them in a gallon size ziploc bag, then blew air into them so that they were like a pillow. Then I told them all how to carry their backpacks on the bus so that they wouldn't get smashed. The next day they ALL said that their snowflakes got home safely!

Now...not only did we make snowflakes, but we also made snowman ornaments.

They chose a blue round ornament (different shades of blue and different finishes). I painted their hand and then placed the ornament in their palm. They put their fingers up around the ornament and when they let go, it looked like there were snowmen on a bed of snow. The next day, after they dried, the children used Sharpie markers to decorate the snowmen. One little girl had been absent the day before, so I just painted some snowmen on one and gave it to her to use.

They turned out pretty well. The only thing we didn't have time to do was put little dots of white paint on to represent the falling snow. I wrapped these up in tissues and newspaper, then put them in a smaller plastic bag, hoping they would get home safely. Again, the boys and girls all said that they got them home without the ornament breaking. Whew!

So, all in all, I'm rather proud of myself for leading them through these two things, if I do say so myself!

Parenthood, Part Fourteen

Of course nothing with me is ever simple.

Shannon still had no idea what was going on with us, however, I had finally caved in and told another very good friend. Ironically Jo and her husband had gotten married exactly one month after Ted and I, and she got pregnant within a few months. In fact, she had had a second child and was due to deliver her third child in early July of 1986.

When they called from the hospital on the evening of July 3 to tell us that their son had been born healthy, we were ecstatic for them. I told her that I would be over to see her the next day. She told me that she would completely understand if I didn't feel like I could handle it, and would rather wait until they were home before seeing the baby. I thanked her for that, but I knew I could do it.

They had three gorgeous children and we were very happy for them. We knew that our turn would come. Everything was going to work out just fine.

During the first week in August we found out that I was pregnant. Again. But this time was different. Although excited, I felt a calmness about all of it.

Dr. D had me use progesterone suppositories both morning and night to counteract my luteal phase defect. He did an ultrasound immediately and saw everything he expected to see. He told me that I was indeed pregnant and he was going to do everything in his power to keep me that way.

And oh yes...my due date? April Fools Day 1987.

I knew that it was going to work out. Not only were my prayers answered, but I was feeling differently than I had with the previous pregnancies. I was nauseous. Miserably so.

During August I would eat tomatoes and cucumbers and corn on the cob a LOT. There's nothing like fresh home grown vegetables and I took advantage of them. Well...not that August. The idea of putting those things anywhere near my stomach was gut-wrenching. It wasn't going to happen.

I had to quit cleaning the bathroom. It made me sick to my stomach. Ted took that job over. Going to the grocery store and seeing raw meat was another thing that pretty much did me in.

Dr. D saw me every two weeks and assured me that things were going well. When we hit the 12 week mark, he told me that he wanted me to continue with the progesterone for another two weeks. By this time I was starting to feel a little better, but I did NOT want to give up the progesterone. I felt as though it was the baby's lifeline and I just couldn't take it away. Dr. D assured me that it would be fine. He even showed me research to prove it. Reluctantly I stopped using it.

And things were good.

At 15 weeks another ultrasound showed that things were just great with the baby. We finally decided that it was time to go public. Although my parents knew, no one else did.

We had just gotten the news that my uncle (my mom's brother) had suffered a heart attack. Although it wasn't extremely serious, he was in a hospital near his home almost an hour away. My mom and I went to see him. While we were there, my aunt (his wife) and my grandma (his and my mom's mother) were there too. After visiting for a while we went back to my aunt and uncle's house. Although the timing was not great, I decided to tell my aunt and grandma that I was pregnant. I told them that at the time, it was all about my uncle, but I didn't think I would be able to hide being pregnant much longer.

This baby was going to be my grandma's first great grandchild. I was anxious to see her reaction. She looked at me, pointed her finger at me and said, "You make sure you talk to that baby. Understand?" And then she smiled. I knew she was happy. I gave her and my aunt a very brief history of what we'd gone through. I wanted them to know that this was not something that we were taking for granted and that we welcomed it with open arms.

That night it was time to tell Shannon.

I was a nervous wreck.

I sat on the bed and wrote out all I was going to say before I called her.

Then I dialed the phone.

She took it extremely well. I told her that I hope she understood why I didn't tell her about anything that had gone on before, that I didn't want to burden her with all the issues we were dealing with while they were dealing with their own issues. She said she completely understood.

Whew. What a relief to be out in the open.

To be continued...

Another Christmas Past

Back in 1965 a movie had come out. One of the stars was Julie Andrews and I wanted to see it SO badly! She had been in Mary Poppins the year before and my parents took me to see it. My best friend, Mary, lived across the road from us at the time (yes, you call it a road, not a street, when you live out in the country like we did!) and we talked about Mary Poppins and this new movie, The Sound of Music.

Seeing a movie back at that time, was a HUGE deal for young children, and even though it came out in March of 1965, by the time Christmas rolled around, neither of us had seen it yet.

The day after Christmas Mary and I would always go to each other's houses and look at the gifts Santa brought us. Then we'd play with the games and toys and have so much fun.

Each family has different traditions that they follow, and one in our family was that we didn't get things in our Christmas stockings. The stockings were for decoration only. Other people got gifts in their stockings, but I really didn't think a lot of it.

Until that year.

Mary got tickets to see The Sound of Music in her stocking.

I got nothing.

We were seven years old, and still had a lot of faith in the guy in the big red suit. I spent days trying to figure out why Mary got tickets and I didn't. All I could come up with was that she was a better behaved little girl than I was. I was so jealous. I think that's when I first realized what jealousy was.

I recall crying over this for quite a while, but like most young children, I got eventually got over it.

But I never saw The Sound of Music until 1987, after Ted and I were married and Joe was born. It was on TV one Friday night after we'd gotten home from Christmas shopping. Ted put Joe to bed, went to bed himself, and I stayed up and watched the movie while wrapping Christmas gifts.

The movie was everything I'd hoped it would be and more! I absolutely loved it! I think I've seen it every time it's been on television since and I have the DVD.

I have a feeling that Mary doesn't even remember this...but I do. She was sooooooooo lucky to see it as a child!

College Application

I guess this is real. My 18 year old is going to go to college next year.

He's taking the ACT again tomorrow. He wants a higher score so he will be eligible for more money from the college. This will be his third attempt. The results will be sent to the college in a couple of weeks.

He has three letters of recommendation from a teacher, his summer boss, and the president of the Italian American Festival Foundation, for which he's been an active volunteer for the last four years.

He's given his high school guidance counselor the paperwork she needs to fill out and send to the college. She said it will be taken care of in the next week.

He's written his personal statement that they want included with the application.

All that's really left is for him to fill out the actual application and mail it in, along with a current photograph (thank goodness for senior portraits), the letters of recommendation, and the personal statement.

And then....we will wait.

They told us that it will take about three weeks for the application to be processed and a decision to be made.

I wish that there was a place on the application to let them know that the applicant's mother is NOT a patient person.

Parenthood, Part Thirteen

We decided to have the karyotyping done. Fortunately it showed that everything was fine. There were no genetic incompatibility issues with us. Then Ted had to be checked. We found out that things with him were just fine too. The only problem was my luteal phase defect and Dr. D felt that he could treat it successfully once I was pregnant.

Around that same time we also decided that we owed it to ourselves to check out adoption options in our area. We met with a nun from Catholic Social Services and were put on a pre-waiting list. Once we moved to the bottom of the actual waiting list, all the paperwork, home visits, interviews, and home study would begin. Oh yeah, and it would be a 5-7 year wait for a newborn. And a newborn was a baby under a year of age. Not exactly what we were hoping to hear, but at least we felt as though we had a "Plan B" in the works if "Plan A" didn't work out.

I was still going to church extra early every weekend. I would pray about all kinds of things before mass, but always ended with praying for some kind of a sign that I would get pregnant and have a healthy baby.

Then I noticed something.

Each week while I was praying before mass, a different family would come into church and sit near me. Sometimes it was in the same pew. Sometimes they would sit in the pew in front of me, and sometimes in the pew behind me. But a family with a baby would always sit near me. It's not as though the church was crowded on Saturday evenings. There was plenty of room all around, but a family with a baby would always sit close by.

Finally one week it dawned on me. THIS WAS THE SIGN I'D BEEN LOOKING AND PRAYING FOR! I actually said to God, "Duh...this is the sign, isn't it?" And then a family walked in, genuflected and sat down in front of me. A family...with a baby.

I practically smacked my head with my hand right then and there and thought to myself, "You DUNCE! The sign's been right here all the time and you just now picked up on it!"

I could barely sit through mass before getting home to tell Ted. He was as excited as I was about all of this, but we still knew we had to be ready emotionally if things didn't work out.

After more talking and praying, we decided that we would give it one more try.

To be continued...

In the Spirit of Achieving My Goal of Enjoying Christmas This Year....

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Hair

Alex is 18 years old. He somehow has gotten the impression that this magic age makes him an adult who can make his own decisions. This evening I reminded him that as long as he lives in our home he does NOT have free reign over everything in his life.

Take, for instance, his HAIR.

It is important to him to have long hair right now. Although I totally disagree, I'm giving him as much leeway as I possibly can without driving myself crazy. He got his hair cut in early July, a week and a half before his senior pictures were taken. Since then he's gotten it cut ONE TIME. Before he sat down to dinner tonight, I told him that he had to call the barber and make an appointment immediately. Ted backed me up on this. (He knows that if he chose NOT to back me on this one that there would be trouble, and I do indeed mean TROUBLE.)

Alex fussed a little bit, then called and made the appointment. After hanging up the phone, I told him to go get one of my headbands and put it on before he sat down at the table for dinner, because I was sick and tired of seeing his hair fall into his face each evening.

He went to our bedroom, then came back laughing. By this time Ted is laughing too, and they both think that Alex looks goofier than anything. I agree. He DID look goofy, but at least his hair wasn't going to be falling into his food, or any other food on the table and we'd be able to see his eyes!

During the course of dinner I mentioned that he will need to tell the barber that he will have to cut his hair so that he has about half of his ears showing afterwards. Alex practically threw a fit. That's when he mentioned that he is 18, and therefore an adult.

"So," I said to him, "if you're an adult and choose not to get your hair cut in a decent manner, then you can choose to pack up your things and move someplace where they will appreciate your hair. Oh yes, and by the way, you can WALK because your car is in your dad's name and legally his."

"But mom..."

"No 'but mom' on this one son."

Ted joined in now. "Alex, if you were smart you would just keep your mouth closed."

"But dad..."

"Alex. I'm telling you. Don't say anything else. You know how your mother is."

That in itself was enough to get me riled up, but I didn't say anything. It was obvious that Alex wanted to say something...anything, for that matter, but he finally realized that it would be in his best interest to say nothing at all.

I've been threatening to go in his room during the night and cut off a big hunk so he would have to get it cut. (No, I won't really do that, but you know how a mother can get sometimes.)

Of course he's mentioned quite a few times that his dad had long hair when he was a teenager. And we, being the responsible parents we are, merely told him that that was different. (It's not always a good idea to let your teenagers see picture of you during YOUR teenage years.)

I know that we could be having serious discussions about issues far worse than hair, and I am extremely thankful that this is the worst thing we're facing right now.

This picture was taken THREE weeks ago, and the young man NEEDS a haircut!

A Favorite Christmas Gift

When I was a little girl, I was an only child...until my brother was born when I was four and a half. THAT was an eye opening experience.

I was no longer an only child.

I was no longer the only grandchild on my mom's side.

My parents were going to have to actually spend TIME with....with...with....that thing they brought home from the hospital. And that would take time away from ME. And as we all know, when you're a pre-schooler, the world revolves around YOU...or at least it did it my case.

Thank goodness I have intelligent parents. They realized that I needed attention from them, and I just didn't seem to be getting my fair share.

One fall Saturday my mom informed me that she, my dad, and I would be going out. Just the three of us...NO LITTLE BROTHER. Hip hip hooray!!!!!!!!!

We dropped my brother off at my grandparents' place and started our evening. We went to a local restaurant that was owned by good friends of the family. I don't believe the restaurant is still in existence, but I could be wrong. We moved from the area a few years later due to my dad's promotion and transfer.

Anyway, I still recall what I ordered...I had fried chicken. Not only did we know the owners of the place, but we also knew people on the staff. One of the employees brought me over a small bag of Salem potato chips while our food was being prepared. (I can't believe some of the details I remember so clearly!) The bag had two simply drawn faces and was turquoise blue, black, and white. As usual, I'm getting totally off topic here, but that's me.

After dinner we went to a place in Akron to see a movie. This was the first time I'd ever been to a movie theater and I was totally mesmerized. What did we see, you may be wondering?

Mary Poppins!

I was in absolute awe of seeing something like this on such a huge screen and of course, just fell in love with the character of Mary Poppins. I loved the songs! I loved the accents! I loved the characters! I loved the dancing! I just fell in love with everything about the movie.

What a wonderful night!

Several months later the Christmas season was in full swing. I can't recall what I asked Santa for that year, but I definitely remember one gift I received. I didn't even know anything like this existed, so it hadn't been on my list.

I got a Mary Poppins doll and I was absolutely THRILLED! She had a carpet bag, the blue coat, the hat with the flowers, the pinafore dress that she wore while she was working, and she also came with the white dress and the hat that she wore during the time she and the children were in the chalk drawing with Bert. Mary's dark hair was pulled back into a bun.

Oh, how I loved that Mary Poppins doll! That was my favorite gift that Christmas. I took her with me everywhere! I always wanted to play with her. She was so special.

Of course, I grew up...and dolls went by the wayside, to be replaced with games, books, records (the predecessor to CDs), clothes, purses, etc. When I thought about my Mary Poppins doll again, as a college student, I went on a trek through my parents' basement to locate her. I spent several days down there, searching high and low, but all to no avail.

Mary....is MIA.

I looked on ebay, trying to find one just like her. That's when I discovered that there were several types of Mary Poppins dolls manufactured way back then, but I had the deluxe model! I was such a fortunate child! I decided that I do NOT one from ebay....if I can't have my original, I don't want any other.

Yes, that Mary Poppins doll was one of my most favorite Christmas gifts ever!