Understudy in the Audience

The high school where I work is performing their Spring (?) musical this weekend.  It's Beauty and the Beast. I waited until Thursday night to let Sera know that we were going to see it on Friday.  She was very excited and asked to wear her Belle dress.

Needless to say, Sera loved it.  She especially enjoyed meeting the actors afterward.  She was shy at first, but soon got into it.  If I had been seconds faster taking this picture, you would have seen the biggest smile.  She was practically speechless when she met Belle.

Sera's best buddy, Lily, and her mom met us there.  Lily wore her best Snow White dress.  You can imagine the reactions they got from the crowd.  I think they stole the show.

And, no, this was not the Lone Ranger version of Belle.  Since she's a student at my school, I thought it prudent to mask her. Between that and the Belle wig, she's pretty much disguised.

3 Word Sunday

Some of you might remember when I wrote about the demise of my stoneware baking pan. One person who did was a friend from 30 years ago - from high school. Since I've linked my blog to my Facebook account, I've found that I get fewer comments here, but that people I hadn't seen in years have now reconnected.

Pat was a friend in high school. I remember her as being outgoing and crazy and just really envying her confidence and ease in dealing with people. I always felt shy and awkward and like I didn't really fit into the high school scene. I had my group of friends that I was comfortable with, but there were so many circumstances back then that made me just want to crawl under the nearest furniture and hide.

Because of Facebook, I've learned that Pat was enrolled in culinary school (she recently graduated!) and is following her dream of working in the food world. I've shared with her my experiences in that world, too. When she read about my pan, she immediately contacted me as she had one that she'd never used and wanted to send it to me. It arrived this weekend. I love it and can't wait to use it.

Thank you, Pat, for the pan and the friendship!

Open Letter to our Friends

I don’t know how else to reach out to you. I know you read here, so I’m hoping this will be okay. Let me begin by saying we love you both, we love your children, we’ve missed you. It had been a very long time since we’d seen you. The last time we did, it wasn’t the same. He was so angry. We gave you time and space hoping that it was an isolated time as neither of you acted that day like the people we’ve known for so long. We thought there must be something going on. We hoped and were sure you knew we were right here if you needed us.

Recent events had you reach out to us again, and I was very happy. We’ve missed you. Sera has missed you. It was horrifying to see that the anger is still there, and it’s worse. He is so angry. The rest of you seemed afraid. You should be. He frightened me. I don’t know why he’s become such an angry person, but he needs help. His anger is escalating. I don’t know how far it’s gone. I hope no further than what we saw, but I know that if he was willing to be that angry in front of us that it must be worse. We cannot witness that. We cannot let Sera be exposed to that. Jim’s history would not allow him to stand by. The law would not allow us to stand by. We are mandated reporters. What we witnessed yesterday was so close to crossing that line that I fear for you.

We know he is not a bad person. This is not the man we’ve all known. I’ve known him the least of all and that has been for over 10 years. Someone doesn’t change this much without a reason. It could be medical. It could be something that happened. It’s not our business what caused this. I am just so afraid that if he doesn’t get help, then something horrible is going to happen. Something that can’t be undone. A person can’t live with that much anger without it hurting themselves or others. We don’t want to see anyone hurt.

We know that you two have always argued. You’ve always had a loud, vocal relationship. This isn’t the same. In fact, you never argued once in front of us our last two visits. I missed that. Those arguments were never mean-spirited. They were the way you two communicated, and the love was always obvious. Now I see fear and supplication.

There is support all around you. Your family, his family, your church, your doctors, us. How can we help you? Please get help before it’s too late.

We miss you.

100 Good Wishes Quilt

Like many waiting families, I joined a Yahoo group for people who logged their dossier during the same month we did. We had many activities and swaps going on to help us pass the time and get to know each other during our wait. One swap was for quilt squares.

It's my understanding that there is a tradition in China involving a bai jia bei or 100 Good Wishes Quilt. A quilt is made from squares given to the child, each with a wish attached. It's become somewhat standard in waiting groups to do this for our children. Each square of fabric came with a card that had a written wish and was signed by the giver. A small swatch of the fabric was attached so they can be matched at a later date. During our wait, I attended a monthly scrapbook group and made a scrapbook of those wishes.

I kept postponing making the quilt because it scared the bejesus out of me. My friends at work hosted a shower for us after we got home, and one of the ladies I work with gave us the gift of her talent. She is a master quilter. How gifted is she? She did Sera's quilt as her stress reliever as she planned her daughter's summer wedding!!! She finished the quilt top in June. We met up one morning and headed to a nearby town that has her favorite fabric stores. It's in the main area where our local Amish live and shop, so there are tons of quilting supplies to be found. We chose the fabric for the back and the binding and put my name on a waiting list to have the quilt quilted.

When school started in mid-August, Terry gave me the finished parts. About three weeks ago, I got the call that it was finally our turn at the quilting store. The night we headed out there to drop off the quilt was the night Sera ended up in the ER. This week I got the call that the quilt was finished, so we headed back on Friday after school to pick it up.

The final result is absolutely gorgeous. The pictures don't even do it justice. The quilt is large enough for a double bed, possibly even a queen. Jim is holding it up for the pictures. He's 6'4" and he was holding it straight up, and it still dragged on the ground. This has ended up a quilt that Sera can use throughout her life.

Terry didn't include the flannel squares because they don't work well when mixed with other fabrics. I'm going to make a mini-quilt with those for her to play with. There's much less pressure with that project.

I love the tag that Terry made for the quilt. She used a pinwheel pattern, so she had the panda holding a pinwheel.

A Gorgeous Autumn Day

I actually wrote the following post yesterday, but didn't get the photos downloaded until tonight.

What a gorgeous day we had today. The sky was blue, the air was crisp, and we were out enjoying the day.

We met up with our friends, the Fisher family, and headed out to a local farm. The farm was set up with corn mazes, hay rides, pony rides, pedal cars, a small train, and pumpkins. The front part of the barn had several photo areas set up, that we didn't use, stacks of hay set up like bleacher seating on one side, The other just had a wall of hay bales, pumpkins, and stuff, including an old sled. The back of the barn had a couple of ponies in stalls and cages of chickens, roosters, and bunnies. There were also some loose chickens and a kitten. There was a children's playground set up, and one lady who was walking two St. Bernard dogs around. They were therapy dogs so were wonderful around the children. As used to big dogs as Sera is, I was surprised that she was not happy when the St. Bernard came over to her. On the other hand, when the animal's head is bigger than your body, it's a little off-putting. She loved all the other animals though. She was running around having a good ole time. This year we mainly observed all the fun. I bet next year she participates more. She was fascinated when Kyra and Sean rode the pony ride and claimed that she wanted to go on the pony. She is too small to ride it, but the young girl walking the pony let us put Sera on the saddle for a minute. She practically sommersaulted trying to get back into my arms. She prefers the ponies from the safe haven of mommy or daddy's arms.

There were also some photo op areas set up outside the bard. They were wooden false-fronts with cut outs for faces and one with a measuring stick. Sera wasn't into the one with the faces, but loved the one with the measuring stick. It had been painted with an anthropomorhic ear of corn and pumpkin. Jim and I really liked the snack wagon set up with hot caramel cider. Yummy!

It was a beautiful day, and we'll definitely make this an annual event.

Thanks!

Look at this awesome collection of books. My friend, Lori, sent these to Sera this week. Lori runs the Media Center at a high school in Kansas. For those of you who have been out of school for a while, it's what we used to call the library. School libraries are far more than books now, so they're called media centers.

Lori and I met in our sophomore year at Bay High School in Panama City, Florida. We've never lived in the same town, rarely the same state, since we graduated from high school. We both took different paths, yet we've both ended up teaching in high schools. She's a wonderful friend. Months, years for that matter, have gone by between conversations, yet when we meet again, it's like we were never separated. You know a true friend when you don't suffer through those awkward silences. Lori and her husband, Eddie, have raised three wonderful children. I hope to do half the job she has with Sera.

Thanks again, Lori. I promise we do and will read to Sera every day.

Receiving this big batch of books and seeing this library on Erin's blog reminded me that I had saved the link and planned on adding it to my blog, too. If you scroll down the right side, you'll see Sera's library. I put this on here for Jim and me to use so we have a record of books Sera already has. If you're family and plan on buying books for Sera, take a look and see if she has it already. It's a pretty cool service.

On Thursday, Sera and I met with our friend, Terry. Terry is piecing together Sera's 100 Good Wishes Quilt as her gift to Sera. She is an amazing quilter. She is almost finished the top, so we met on Thursday to find fabric for the border and the back. She took the border with her, but here is a picture of the fabric that will be on the other side of the quilt. It's looking absolutely gorgeous, and I can't wait to show it to you all. What's even more amazing is that she's doing this as a summer project when her daughter is getting married on July 14th! She's having quite the busy summer. We also signed up on a waiting list to get it quilted. The wait is 6-8 weeks for that part.


There is no other word to describe Sera, but as a blessing in our life. We are so incredibly lucky in many ways. One major way is that she's decided she loves her crib. This morning when I went to get her up, this is what I found. She's awake in this picture, but was closing her eyes because of the flash. It took me three tries to get a good picture. Inbetween shots, she'd open her eyes and turn the corners of her mouth up in a smile.

This is what she looked like when I went to get her after her morning nap. She was just playing away. When I asked her if she was ready to get up, she shook her head no and kept playing. It's now Sunday afternoon. About 45 minutes ago, she walked over to me and climbed on my lap. She then looked at me and gave me the sign for go to sleep. She lets us know when she's ready for a nap. She said night-night to daddy, and I brought her upstairs. She's still awake. I've been watching her as I worked on this post. When I laid her in the crib, she stuck her thumb in her mouth, pulled her doll up to her shoulder and smiled at me with sleepy eyes as I started her music, said night-night, and left. Within seconds, I watched her jump up and start playing. Right now, she's sitting on that Tigger with her baby doll laying on the bed facing her. She's babbling away. I think she just wanted to play in her crib. She will play in her crib for a good 30-60 minutes before she finally falls asleep.

I know how incredibly lucky we are that she sleeps so well and that she's so happy in her room. I'm going to go listen to her sing now.

By the way, video monitors rock!

All Ages Welcome!

I found the link on Erin's blog. I obviously need to work a little harder to make my blog a little "saltier." No one (but me) watches G movies anymore.

Please keep my friend, Colleen and her husband in mind this week. They just lost their beloved dog to cancer.