Hang-ga-bur-ga and Mow-Lawners

The things that come out of Isabel's mouth never cease to amaze me. Some of them are quite funny. I have posted here some of the previous Isabelisms Most of them are said while we are driving.... which can be potentially dangerous depending on just how funny they are. We were driving home a short while ago and this conversation took place:

Isabel: I'm tired.
Me: Me too. I am pooped.
Isabel: Eeeww! You said a BAD word!!
Me: Nope. Pooped can mean you're really tired.
[About a 5 second pause and then...]
Isabel: Well then, I'm PEEPED!

For lunch she wanted a hang-ga-bur-ga (but got a hotdog instead) and pointed out that our neighbor had his mow-lawner.


On a separate note... STILL no camera. It's been 8 days. I am started to think it must be gone. : ( I've been looking at the Lumix FZ50. I really like it and the pictures it takes. I know that there is a new G series coming out in June but it's a bit more than I am willing to pay for a camera at this point. Anyone ever bought a used camera off of Ebay or Amazon? I'd love some feedback.

This Past Weekend

What a weekend! It started off with an incredible retreat for our local FCC bookclub. Twelve of us got together at a Bed and Breakfast in Saint Augustine for a fun escape. We were welcomed with a delicious wine reception by innkeeper Linda and then headed out to dinner at a local Italian restaurant. Though we were unsuccessful in finding a local karaoke spot, some of us ended up at a one of my old college stomping grounds from college, listening to a live band playing a pretty decent rendition of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. (Of course, I DID feel like the Moma of the group when one of the gals with me asked who Pink Floyd was.) [Groan.]
A sweet friend of mine from church watched Isabel overnight. When I picked her up, she was splashing away in the pool...loving every minute of it. So glad I signed her up for swim lessons next month. We ended up back in Saint Augustine on Sunday for Mother's Day visiting dear friends.

A wonderful weekend indeed.

A Pretty Picture....NOT!

I have lost my camera. (Not the first time.) I have a rechargeable battery and usually put my camera in a little box on my desk while it is charging. Well, the battery charged and I went to pop it in the camera but... it is nowhere to be found. I just KNOW it's somewhere in the house. I just can't find it. If it doesn't show up soon, I know what my tax refund check will be going toward.
Bummer.

White, Milk, or Dark...it's ALL good!

It's Teacher Appreciation Week at Isabel's school. We spent the evening making yummie chocolate dipped pretzels. Isabel helped with the non pareils. I think she did a pretty good job for her first time.
[To really torture yourself, click on each picture to enlarge it. ]

Movies in the Park

We were able to get together with some friends for a fun night outside watching Finding Nemo. Our city has Movies in the Park during April and May. The kids had fun. The weather was perfect. The movie was a classic.
A great way to spend a Friday night

Fashion Challenge Friday

It's that time of the week again... Fashion Challenge Friday. This week's presentation brought to you by the colors pink and purple, and all things princess.

Simple Pleasures

... a warm sweet pear


...a cold popsicle on a hot day (shared with your bear)


... discovering the joy of your first garden


Life doesn't get much better.

April Book Club

Vini, Vendi, Urini
(We came, we conquered, we peed our pants...from laughing!)



I was lucky enough to host this month's book club. As always, a fun night filled with intelligent conversation that descends into copious amount of laughter, preceeded by copious amounts of wine. (Anyone else seeing a connection there?)
It was such beautiful weather, I decided to have us start out the evening in the back yard at the pergola and then move in later on for the book discussion. As dusk approached, I asked if folks wanted to move in or stay where they were. Everyone wanted to stay put. The breeze was just glorious. I brought out candles and we laughed until very late. The running joke of the evening had to do with seating. I was expecting about 10 gals. Fifteen showed up. When we ended up spending the evening outside, we brought out my dining room chairs. Those, in addition to the other chairs and swing outside provided a seat for everyone... but one. I sat on the edge of the deck until my bottom was numb, at which point I brought out one of Isabel's little white chairs... as in... toddler-sized. As soon as the first person left to go to the bathroom, I jumped up and took their chair. This "Musical Chairs" ensued for the rest of the night, leaving many a gal making serious decisions about whether to remain in her current spot (and face a U.T.I.) or go for relief and be stuck with the WHITE chair. That chair never saw so much action in its two years at my house.

Fashion Challenge Friday

It's Fashion Challenge Friday.
So... I have been letting Isabel dress herself for a while now. Of course, she can wear the outfits only at home. Some of her latest creations have been...shall we say...INTERESTING?? This morning she wanted to wear tights...thick tights... thick, rainbow-striped tight. (Have I mentioned lately that we live in hot, humid Florida?) The "excitement" continued with the addition of a jean skort over the tights and some hot pink sandels. Rounding up the outfit was a (thankfully at least in the same color family) pink and brown shirt with daisies on it. I felt compelled to put the obligatory bow in her air... just for the heck of it. Of course, when I decided to loosen up and just go with the flow, I hadn't anticipated having to stop at two stores on the way home. Oh well, it's just clothes, right?

In the craziness that is our normal morning routine, I didn't think to get a photo of the outfit today. I do, however, have one of another creation from earlier in the week. [Note the tights... am I seeing a theme here?]

A Wake Up Call

Up until now, life for Isabel and me has been relatively smooth, but I know that very soon she will begin to recognize the differences between us. She will realize that we have different skin color, eye color and eye-shape. She will struggle and wrestle with issues that I can’t begin to understand. She has been asking me to tell her about her foster mom and dad for several months now. She (the animal lover) tells me she’s going “to visit my foster daddy because he has a farm.”

The awareness is beginning to surface and with it, the first steps in the lifetime journey of coming to peace with being a transracial adoptee to a single mother. I know that she will have to work through many difficulties. I know that she will encounter prejudice and racism that I, as a white person, have never had to deal with. I know that I can’t protect her from the world forever. I know that. I just wasn’t prepared to deal with it so soon.

I was at the hair salon on Wednesday. (Isabel was not with me.) I was sitting in the chair and tuned in to the rambling of the young (I later found out) 12-year-old behind me. She was yakking away about her mother getting the color wrong on her hair and that she “looked like a flippin’ China baby.” She repeated twice, each time with even more disdain in her voice.

I felt like someone had kicked me in my gut.

…and then she continued. “You know how THEY get their names??? The mother throws something at the wall and the sound it makes is what they call their kid. Ping. Dong. Wang. Ha ha ha!”

I wish I could describe what I felt but I am still processing it all. I felt like I had the wind knocked out of me. I know there was anger…and disgust… and sadness. This was a TWELVE year old!!! Sixth grade!!!! How in the world could she come up with such things? Clearly, it was learned in an atmosphere of ignorance and fear and small-mindedness. It is a world that I have been protected from. It is a world that Isabel will be a part of.

I teach in an inner-city college prep school with a multicultural student body. My students are from Korea, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, China, the Philippines, Mexico and Russia. They are Hispanics, African Americans, White, bi-racial, multi-racial, rich, poor, big, small. Some live in the local neighborhood; others endure a 90-minute bus ride each way. It is a microcosm of the world. Though not perfect, there is a deep sense of respect for people and their culture. I love teaching there. I love that my daughter will have the opportunity to have classmates that look like her. I love that diversity is embraced. It is the world in which I have been living for the last 15 years.

However, it is not the world that a lot of people either live in…or want to live in. I needed to be reminded of that… not so much for my sake, but for my daughter’s.