life in the fast lane

the days were merry and bright

  if there's anything better than this at Christmas, or any other time, i don't know what it is! the faces, the smiling, the laughing, the being together was wonderful beyond any words i know. we don't ever get crazy about perfection here, our traditions are meaningful mostly just to us, but this was just the best.

and now, a week into the new year, snow has finally relaid its claim on the midwest- and it all gets good again- we're going to visit disney mouse! (this will be the romaniac's first trip, so it will be great!)

on the hardwood

here he is, my mr. bad-ass on the basketball court. he wants to know if he can play for romania in the olympics someday. who am i to tell him it can't happen?!

actually he's just as much into looking like a real jock. i've seen him wearing his uni at home in front of the mirror. he mastered the NBA strut about two days after he left the orphanage. (he strode through the lobby of a big hotel in bucharest with his new clothes, including light-up tennies, and had the eye of everyone in the place!)

he plays pretty much as well as most of the rest of the middle schoolers on the team. he scores at least 6 points in these weird little mini-games that they play, and that seems to make him happy. of course i think it's incredible, since none of his adopted sibs were ever even remotely inclined to play any sport that lots of people might match. (we're not going to talk about coordination here at all.) it's just a trip to see him growing up.

and as a matter of record, i'm planning to pull the blog on my trip into the blogosphere at the end of this month or next. there's just too much i need to get straight in this world, ya know?

birthday love

there's nothing like one of my kids' birthdays to make me step back (sometimes in Shock and Awe) and really think about who they were, who they are, and who they will be. the redhead recently celebrated her seventeenth and i am awed most of all at who she is. before we adopted and she was still the baby of the family, i often said that she was God's reward for having four. the older three quickly incorporated her into their games as a sort of charming, animated toy; and she always went along with it with a grin on her face. (if i weren't buried in Christmas and work, and lazy) we have photos of her in her crib where you can hardly see her face among all the stuffed buddies they've thrown in with her. although she has days where she makes me long for a remedial course in following through, there isn't anything or anyone that i would trade this one for.

good news!

our first-born son is a man of many moods. he got some terrifc news on his LSATs last weekend and i just happened to be in the right place at the right time. i wonder where this new road will take him, i know there's a myriad of ways he could go. i wonder when or if he will have to cut his hair ... that hasn't seen a scissors since the carter administration. all these mother questions ... having a place to put them is just one more valuable service offered by the blog.

wonderful scary

once again, it's made my hair stand on end! we marked the day that the little cutie in the ruffled collar first set foot into our hearts and lives. she is the happiest 17 year old i know, and undeniably holds the position of my favorite redhead for all the rest of my life. when i flip through her photos i think i can almost hear the sound of time flying by with a truly terrifying speed. i know that her years have held much laughter, some tears, one broken arm and one broken heart (both, thankfully, now healed), swimming lessons, spanish lessons, learning how to cross the street and learning how to visit foreign countries. ice cream to ipods- her birthdays are diamonds in my days. 

a face from the past

the young woman on the left is my great aunt ella, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday. they tell me she was probably about 25 years old when this photo was taken. she quit golfing 8 years ago, and finally turned over the keys to her enormous lincoln a year later. ella has always been one of my favorite relatives, i can remember her organizing my brothers and i into a pseudo-squad of the sss to illustrate a point in the rise and fall of the third reich- her current read.

the young woman on the right is my first-born, who has been one of my favorite people in the entire world from the day she made her entrance into our lives. she also is 25 in her photo, taken at the awarding of her masters degree from nyu. her reading list is one that very few people will tackle in their lives, she is working on a doctorate in medieval literature. to say that i'm proud of her doesn't begin to encompass it all.

my mother thinks that the two of them look incredibly alike. i guess i can see it. mostly i like to think that the wonderful drive i've known in aunt ella will flourish in my daughter.

perspective is everything

the romaniac ran in our local race for the cure a little while back. he received a gorgeous long-sleeve  4 color tee, which he instantly dumped on the couch. it was the bonus pink tee that he's  insisted on wearing for days on end. while in negotiations to get it off his back long enough to wash, i asked him if he was sure he was a man's man, since that's what it takes to wear pink. "why don't you wear the other one you got?" he drew back, eyebrows raised and sputtered, "are you kidding me? that one has the word breast on it!"

i learn something new every day ...

eye candy

nothing feeds my inner eye as much as everyday color. when i see a pleasing or unusual  set of colors employed by those who manufacture the day-to-day goods we use, i stop and say a little thank-you. i doubt that the folks on the line who are doing the actual manufacturing have very much to say about what kinds of colors are being used in production. it would seem that the places that make thread and things like that would at least get a variety of colors to work on, even if they weren't fond of all of them. i rode along with my neighbor to the fabric store last week. i'm a sewing illiterate, but i did find some nice eye candy!

let's play two

nothing succeeds like success- it's been said often, sometimes appropriately and other times not so much. it was certainly true for our first-born son, and i'm (usually) kind of tickled to see that it's true for our youngest as well. both of them, even though they're about nine years apart), would much rather learn through the school of hard-knocks than listen to ANYTHING their mom has to say. they both tell me that when they learn things the hard way that they (barely) ever, ever forget.

seventh grade has been a sometimes intimidating experience for the youngest. since he lived in romania for more than six years, the academic portion of his life is pretty much a constant grind for him as student, and us as parents. he gets the best help during the day, but it seems like there's lots of homework left for us at home. that's the reason it's so good for the boy wonder to have something that he can excel at without having to labor so intensely at.

wouldn't it be great if we could all have one thing that we were totally awesome at? that we could just do because we loved it and it was fun? ( i think i would like to paint.) may not bring about world peace, but i don't think it would hurt.

it must be love

i witnessed a display of a very specific kind of love at our house recently. love is the dad that explains to his extremely determined son, over and over and over again that an e-bay search for the word sprocket will not yield the very one he needs for his gas scooter. the similarity of their expressions cracks me up, since the romaniac came home to us via adoption. i would do well to practice more of this kind of love ...  click for more love