it was seven whole years ago that my first-born, the romaniac, and i reached the end of our trip from bucharest, romania. there was more concentrated happiness and excitement in one spot than any of us have ever experienced before. it was the beginning of an entirely new journey that we're all still working on as we go. since the words can't do it justice, here are few photos of what things were like in the beginning. i still look for his birth certificate when i have to find the others. rock on, dear romaniac, rock on, love from your mom and the rest of us!
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confession
hello, my name is chris and i'm an olympic junkie. i love the pageantry (did you see that flag-throwing thing in the opening ceremonies?) i love listening to bob costas, (even if he's not talking about baseball and should really cut back on the dye job!) the pure (not scripted) unpredictability of live (or tape delayed) television is always alluring. looking at all those nbc stringers in far-flung venues who are clutching their microphones and shaking with cold (or fear of not sounding articulate)- no, it doesn't bother me a bit that i'm in my nice warm house. those freestyle skiers almost lift me out of my seat when they get "big air" ... 
but what i love most of all are the figure skaters, who, when they hit the move they weren't absolutely sure they would, let that AHAA! look out all over their faces. this chinese pair had a moment like that last night and it was impossible not to smile along with them. that moment is so pure! it holds the delight of toddler taking his first steps, the wobbly pride of a five year old when the training wheels are gone, the sweet success of a first kiss, and all of the good things yet to come.
so, though i know there are plenty of things to kvetch about (the ice conditions, the rankings that rankle, the twelfth turn on the luge run, etc.) the AHAA! keeps me coming back!
lost and found
my MIL is (among other things) a sun-worshipping freak. she and husband 2 can go where they want when they want, so we assume care of their aging dog. (this winter for almost 2 complete months ...) brigitte the shih tzu arrived on tuesday. she and louie the wonder dog (now) get along well, so she's into the routine without hassles ... enter the romaniac, who has NOT mastered the art of closing what he opens, picking up what he drops, etc. the dogs and i picked him up from school. he brought them into our house and left for other grandma's, leaving not one but two doors open behind him.
i returned from 20 minutes of errands to see not one but two doors doors blowing in the wind. louie was barking in a very excited i've-got-something-to-tell-you voice and a quick scan of the house proved that brigitte was absolutely nowhere to be found. i took a deep breath but felt my blood pressure spike anyway as i called other grandma's and sent the romaniac out to look on his bike. i called the dad and tried mightily (but failed) to keep from screaming insensibly "WTF are we supposed to do?!" shih tzus are kind of the "blonds" of the canine kingdom, this was an unfamiliar neighborhood, and it was rapidly getting darker and colder as i rolled along, my eyes bulging out of my head.
the steering wheel was showing grooves from where i was squeezing it. there was a massive knot in my neck where i was trying to keep the cell phone next to my ear. (after 3! tries, i finally got through to animal control.) i won't even try to explain how much every patch of melting snow in the world starts to look like a small black & white dog! my titanium knees were zinging with cold and my right calf was locked in a position to keep the van at 10 miles an hour. our favorite neighbors helped scour the streets, five dog-walking owners were accosted along the way, two paperboys were filled in on the goings-on, and quick calls went out to the nosiest of neighbors.
the dad had come home to help search and when he called, i could tell from the tone of his voice that things were better. he had driven over to his mother's house, checked their messages, and found a call that had come in from the redhead's high school, saying that a dog had been found!
we still haven't pieced the entire story together, but it seems that brigitte hauled doggy ass across an incredibly busy 4 lane road without making herself roadkill. some girls at school picked her up, asked around to see if anyone recognized her, and eventually handed her off to the janitor's son. (this was at 5, i was there to pick up the redhead at 5:05.) son finally read the tags, and put it together, guessing that it was the redhead's grandma's dog. good job!
the dogs and i spent the next hour comatose on the bed, (sort of) watching in her shoes and regrouping our mental and physical resources. i'm guessing we'll all sleep well tonight.
there was just the lightest covering of snow this morning when i dropped the troops off at their assigned posts. nobody had driven through the side lot at the elementary school, soguess who?
believe it or not, that's the romaniac underneath all that hair and and beard! he's portraying moses in the sixth grade wax museum. he did an astounding job of holding his pose! (they got to switch poses every 20 minutes.) this is one of my least favorite school projects when you average academic gain against the colossal amount of hassle it is to pull the whole thing together. the knowledge that i was going to have to do this for a fifth time gnawed at me even before we adopted him. (i looked around for famous people with ADHD, but it wasn't widely documented.) at any rate, the wax museum is history; at least until i've got to go stare at my grandkids someday. in the mean time, i organized a little happy dance at the end of the hallway for all of the mothers who were celebrating their last wax museum. good times!
feast your eyes
on something far more pleasant to look at while i struggle with this template. more photos to come, but for a redhead in a red dress, isn't she loverly?
