MillerMessenger's Xanga

It's been fun, but. . .

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:56:27 GMT

Xanga seems to be getting deserted, so I am moving on. . .

My new location is http://workingwaitingwatching.blogspot.com/.

Hope to see you there!

Pictures

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:11:24 GMT

Christa's 13th birthday

Silly String battle!

Crossroads Gators!

Friday, June 27, 2008

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:39:12 GMT

When we put Peace on the prescription cat food, the vet said she wanted a urine specimen after 4 weeks. We could bring her in and they could take care of it, or I could get one at home and bring it in.

I opted to do it at home, to avoid the trauma of a vet trip.

Have you ever tried to get a urine specimen from a cat?

The vet told me to clean out the litter box, and fill it with either shredded wax paper or unpopped popcorn.

I decided a roll of generic wax paper would be a more economical choice than Orville Redenbacher.

Peace is not a cat to break rules. She may have a nasty attitude, but she knows what’s right. She doesn’t climb on the kitchen table or kitchen counters. She doesn’t go on the couch. She doesn’t scratch the couch. She doesn’t swing on the curtains.

And she NEVER misses the litter box.

She did NOT like the wax paper. After about 40 hours of her refusing to use the litter box, I started to wonder what to do. Certainly it wasn’t healthy for her to hold it that long.

Then it happened. Ian sat on a chair in the basement and got totally grossed out.

Yep, she’d gone on the furniture.

Fortunately it was a chair I’ve been wanting to get rid of anyway. But I wasn’t willing to sacrifice any more furniture.

I had to go to the vet to get more food, and I told my tale. The young lady who I told the tale to said, “I’ve never met Peace, but I’ve heard about her. I’ll talk to Ciji, she has worked with Peace.”

They gossip about my cat. . .

The young lady went to talk to Ciji. I heard Ciji say, “She’s not nice.”

“I heard that!” I called out. Peace is infamous.

I made an appointment for Peace for the following Monday. She was due for her shots as well. Great, let’s kill two birds with one stone. Three, in fact. When I took her in, I said, “You are probably going to have to sedate her to do anything. If you do sedate her, please clip her claws.” (That is the only time she gets her claws clipped, when she is sedated.)

I also said, “Tell Ciji I’ll be praying for her. And I’m not kidding, I will really be praying for her.” And I did.

I picked Peace up while she was a little groggy. The receptionist assured me she had not bit anyone. (Peace, not the receptionist). One of the ladies said, “She’s so cute!”

“That’s the only reason she’s still alive.” I said.

I brought her home, and. . . she had wet in the cat carrier.

Bath time!

It’s been years since I’ve given Peace a bath. It is not a task for the faint of heart. The sedation had not completely worn off yet, so that was a point in my favor.

She was NOT a happy kitty.

I told Sarah to clean the cat carrier while I cleaned the cat. If she complained, I intended to offer to switch jobs with her. . . .

The next day the vet called with the test results.

“Peace was just a treat!” she gushed.

Actually, Peace fought them with everything they did. No surprise there.

However, her urinary problem has gotten worse, not better, so now it is time to try something else, and then. . . in four weeks we get to try this again. I think I am going to stock up on generic popcorn because it cost around $75 to sedate her. I expect you can buy a lot of popcorn for $75.

She weighs 9.8 lbs. The vet said her target weight is 8 lbs. So little Peace is on a diet.

The next day I took Sherafina in for her shots. I told them all when I walked in, “She only LOOKS like Peace, she’s really very sweet.”

And she was. She did hiss at me when they were taking a blood sample, but it was a very cute little hiss. She whimpered a little, and struggled a little, but overall was very co-operative.

Sherafina weighs 13.5 lbs. HER target weight is 11 lbs. So SHE is on a diet as well.

Instead of us filling the dishes when ever they are empty, we are to feed them a certain amount of food twice a day (for Peace) and three times a day (for Sherafina.)

Peace is doing okay with this, but Sherafina is NOT happy. She keeps looking at Ian with these big sad eyes, as if to say, “Daddy, don’t you love me anymore?” I swear that today she looked smaller than usual. “Look, I’m wasting away to normal!”

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:59:03 GMT

June has been an eventful month! First we celebrated Anastasia's 14th birthday with games (including a Silly String battle), presents, and of course cake and ice cream!

The above picture is of Anastasia and her friend Masha, who was adopted from the same orphanage the day before Anastasia was adopted.

Then Anastasia, Christa and I went to Teen camp for 5 days.

The girls on the ride to camp:

And the girls on the way home from camp:

In between they swam, played games (like water kickball, where wading pools were the bases and there were 4 games going on at once on adjacent fields. . .it was very confusing!), watched a talent show, went swimming, went bowling, listened to a great band, etc. . . Tues-Thurs we had two "sessions" in the afternoon and the main speaker in the evening. Then snack and game time. Curfew was at 1:00 AM and lights out was at 1:30. Breakfast was at 8:30 which meant there were girls in my cabin getting up at 7:00 or earlier to make themselves beautiful (although I thought they were all beautiful already!)

We (counselors) were not supposed to let the kids take naps. . . they wanted to make sure everyone went to sleep at 1:30. I told the girls in my cabin that as long as they were quiet when it was time to sleep, they could take naps during their free time. I know *I* needed a nap each day! Most nights the girls were asking for lights out early. Then everyone was quiet. Christa tells me some of them were sending text messages to each other after lights out, but hey, if they were not disturbing anyone, I didn't care!

Water kickball: Christa is standing by 2nd base (in gray hoodie. . . she loves her high School Musical hoodie!)

Here is Anastasia with most of the band "Refuge" from Trevecca Nazarene University. The girls in my cabin were all drooling over the drummer, Michael. I'll let you guess which one is Michael!

How to cause mass pandemonium:
Have about 200 teens take their shoes off. Send teens to the foyer and mix their shoes up.

Tell teens it's time to come in and find their shoes. The first team (there were 4 teams) to find all their shoes wins.

I was very glad I was standing on the stage taking pictures and not trying to find shoes!

We got home on June 13, which was Christa's 13th birthday. Yes, I now have FOUR teenagers! She opened her presents from the family. We had her party on June 17. I've got pictures but I haven't uploaded them from my camera yet, so I'll save those for another time.

What is the appropriate age to let a child have a cell phone?

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:21:55 GMT

In our house, it's whenever he or she can afford it.

We do have a "family" cell phone that my kids (I have 4 teens) use just to keep in touch with us when we are out and about. . . if they want one for keeping in touch with friends, they need to pay for it themselves.

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

If you could choose your family members, who would you choose as your parents?

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:43:33 GMT

No contest, my friends Ron & Linda Tenny (although Linda would argue that she is not old enough to be my mother. . . but I could pretend to be a few years younger. . . )

Or Charles & Caroline Ingles. . .

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

Friday, May 30, 2008

Fri, 30 May 2008 00:07:30 GMT

Do you know what you were doing one year ago today?

I know EXACTLY what I was doing. Gordon & I were in a court room in St. Petersburg, Russia, adopting Anastasia!!!

Some people celebrate this anniversary as “Gotcha Day”. We have decided instead to celebrate June 22 (the day we came home from Russia, Christa came home from church camp, and the 6 of us were all together for the first time in 1 ½ years). We will call it “Family Day.” I still don’t know what we are going to do, but it will be fun!

Anniversaries make me feel nostalgic, so I read back through the emails I sent out while we were on our adoption journey. Here is an excerpt from May 29, 2007:

Last night I didn't sleep well. . . was it my inner clock being all messed up, or was I worried about the court date? When I did sleep, I dreamt of wild rollercoaster rides. . .

Yesterday evening [our] translator talked to us at length about what to expect at court today. It was unanimously decided that of the two of us (Gordon & I), I would do most of the talking and answering questions so as to keep the proceedings from taking all day (Gordon likes to talk!)

We got all dressed up this morning, as we were told to. I had even gone out and bought dress shoes (as from what we had been told none of my current shoes were "dressy" enough) and lipstick (which I haven't worn in about 20 years). Well, I don't know how the lipstick went over, but we were at a table the entire time and the judge never even looked at my feet.

The proceedings were about 2 hours long. We listened to the judge state what she knew about Anastasia's life (about the time line and circumstances of how she ended up in the orphanage). Then I told what I knew about Anastasia's life. Then the representative from the youth council told what she knew about Anastasia's life. Then a representative from the orphanage told what she knew about Anastasia's life. Guess what, it was all the same stuff.

I got asked questions, I answered them. I wasn't nervous at all (thank you Lord!) I won't go through all of the proceedings, but the short version is, we have finally ADOPTED ANASTASIA!!!!!

<<<snip>>>

Anastasia's behavior around us has been a bit cold. It has been emotionally hard for me. But then we were read the psychologist's report from their interview. Anastasia said some wonderful things about us, that she loved us. She talked in detail about her visits. She said we were the kindest people she had ever met. However she is feeling guilty about leaving her caretaker at the orphanage and feels as if she is being disloyal.

The lipstick has not been used since then, and I gave the shoes to Anastasia (not that she needed another pair of shoes, she may be the next Imelda Marcos). Anastasia’s behavior around us improved once we got her permanently away from the orphanage, and we have definitely bonded as a family. She just finished her first school year in America, and she was able to accomplish much more than I would have imagined in such a short time. She knows enough English to argue with her brother, she has stopped heating up yogurt in the microwave, and yesterday I caught her putting ice cubes in her drink, and pronounced her a true American. (Europeans think it is strange to put ice in a drink, and she wouldn’t even consider it last year.) She’s having her first American birthday party on Saturday, and she’s all excited. So am I.

Stream of Consciousness Update

Tue, 20 May 2008 01:09:58 GMT

Today I took Anastasia and Christa shopping for bathing suits. You may remember that they wanted matching bathing suits, well, they were able to agree on something cute and relatively modest, that was on sale for 40% off, plus I got another 15% off by opening a store charge account, so everyone is happy. I am still wondering which of the two of them is going to be the first to say, "Why does SHE have to have the same bathing suit as ME?"

We Millers are book addicts and have made at least weekly trips to one of two libraries for years. Last week a new library opened 1.4 miles from our house. The kids and I attended the grand opening and guess who the first person in the library was. . . it was Sarah! We left with 43 books. The library is close enough to walk to, but I am grateful we drove that day, otherwise I don't know how we'd get all those books home. Since then Ian has walked there twice, the second time with Sarah & Christa. I foresee that this will be a great way to get them to exercise!

I took Anastasia & Christa to Homeschool Day at Six Flags. They had a great time. I did okay considering it was hot and I was tired and my feet hurt. . . It was a pretty good deal, plus we got free return tickets. Gordon has expressed an interest in taking them next time. I have absolutely no problem with missing out on the fun. I brought water for all of us. Christa wanted to buy herself a Coke or some other drink, but changed her mind when she saw the cheapest drink was $3.50.

Tomorrow is the last day of our homeschool co-op. I am grateful for the break, but I am going to miss everyone.

Are we having fun yet?

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:21:23 GMT

Are we having fun yet?

Okay, so I’ve had this insanely busy week – or month – what else is new? (If I am homeschooling, why am I always in my car?)

So this morning I took Anastasia and Christa to the Thursday co-op. I forgot that because it was the last day, Drama Club and Art Class were both having parties and they needed to bring a snack or drink. So I grabbed some things we’d purchased for their baseball party, since I didn’t have time to get to the store.

After dropping them off, I took the other two to the library for an emergency reference run. Ian had a report due in his Spanish class. His Spanish teacher also teaches writing at the college level, and she wanted the report formatted in a certain way, according to a certain book (MLA something. . . ) In the past, Ian has been able to reference some of this online, but this particular sort of report was not online. He had already written the report, he just needed to know how to format it. So we went to the library, and I came out with more books than I will be able to read in two weeks (fortunately I can renew them online!), some books for Anastasia, and an educational DVD my kids will probably groan about.

(ooh ooh ooh. . . next year Sarah & Ian will be able to take a college level writing course at our home school co-op, tuition free! Thank you to all those people who buy lottery tickets!)

I picked the girls up, did some schoolwork with Anastasia, and took Ian to Spanish.

Then at 5:00, Anastasia, Christa & I hopped in the van to go to baseball practice, which is about a 20 minute drive from our house (the actual games are about 5 minutes from our house, fortunately).

We got there a few minutes early, and no one else was there. Anastasia wanted some of the wildflowers that grow beyond the baseball field. Miss Drama Queen said, “If my sister wants wildflowers, I will get her some wildflowers!” So she climbed the fence, picked some weeds, and they brought them to me to keep in the van. Sure, why not, I can’t breathe through my nose right now anyway, what’s a little more pollen?

Another van pulled up, a few boys jumped out, and we waited some more.

Christa asked, “Mom, are you sure we didn’t have a game tonight?” I looked at my calendar, and it definitely said practice. I tried calling home, it took 3 tries to get through because my phone was acting up. Ian answered and I had him look at the schedule, and there was no game scheduled. Ian gave me the coach’s phone number and I tried to call him, but the phone wasn’t working.

Meanwhile the man in the van next to us was on his cellphone. He came and told me, “The coach cancelled practice. He told the kids who were here Tuesday, and forgot to email the rest of us.”

My kids were there Tuesday! They are sure they never heard him say no practice on Thursday.

So, traffic between Palmetto and Newnan is HORRENDOUS at 6 PM. Finally I got home. That’s 90 minutes of my life I won’t get back.

Christa was complaining about her eye hurting. Gordon pulled in the driveway just before we did. He took one look at her, and said, “You’ve got pink eye.”

She burst into tears. “I do NOT have pink eye!”

Okay, here’s a confession. . . I have never been to Six Flags. Neither have my kids. (I know that sounds random, but it’s really not).

Tomorrow is Home School Day at Six Flags. The park is open ONLY to home schoolers, and we got a special price. Christa has REALLY been looking forward to this. She was afraid if she had pink eye, she wouldn’t be able to go.

Well, to make a long story short (too late, I know) Christa does NOT have pink eye. She is apparently highly allergic to those pretty blue weeds she got for her sister.

BTW, dinner was on the table when we got home! I thanked Ian, and he said, “I didn’t do it, it was Sarah.” WOW. That’s a nice switch. She did a good job, too!

Okay, I have to get up in 8 hours and take two of my kids to Six Flags, better go to bed.

Hopefully sometime in the next few days I will post about “The Doorknob of Doom”, another chapter of “Fun with OCD."

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Tue, 06 May 2008 02:06:45 GMT

A couple of weeks ago I withdrew my daughters from the teen Sunday School Class. (Ian has been going to one of the adult classes for about 2 ½ years.)

Gordon & I just don’t think it’s a good environment for them.

I gave them all a choice. They can go to one of the adult classes (which Sarah is now doing), or they could stay home and have Sunday School with me (and then go to church for the service).

I’ve decided to go through the book of Luke for two reasons. One is, we will be studying Luke next year for Bible Quizzing, and it will give Christa a head start. Two, it will be good for Anastasia to go through one of the gospels.

Today the girls and I studied Luke 2. It’s cool that I can read a Bible passage I’ve read many times before, and get something new out of it.

The prophets said the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Mary was in Nazareth. Bethlehem was a long distance away.

Did Mary know the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem? Did she worry about it?

Caesar Augustus, the emperor of the Roman Empire at the time, cared nothing of the Jewish God or His prophesies.

And yet Caesar Augustus is the man who made it happen. He passed the law that made Joseph go back to the city of his father, Bethlehem. And Mary went with him. We all know the story.

“The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.” (Proverbs 21:1). Even if the king doesn’t know or acknowledge the Lord, God is still in control.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Odds & Ends

Peace has been on the "medicinal" cat food since February. She HATES it. She has lost a couple of pounds. She keeps sneaking into Ian's room to eat Sherafina's food.

Her bag was getting low, so I went to the vet's today to see if there was a different brand I could give her. Brought it home, put it in her bowl, and WOW did she chow down! I think she's going to be a happier cat now. I know I get cranky when I don't get enough to eat!

Anastasia is allergic to. . . two kinds of mold/mildew, cats, and dogs. This explains why she got so much worse when she and Christa were sleeping in the basement while their room was being painted. They are now back in their bedroom, the cats are not allowed in there any more, and we have an air filter. Anastasia has medicine that is helping, and the doctor did not think it was necessary to get rid of the cats, but Anastasia is not supposed to pick them up.

This week I have two doctor's appointments (different kids), co-op, two baseball practices, a baseball game, church, BBQ at church (fund raiser for the kids to go to camp, Anastasia & Christa have to work at it), visit from social worker for 1 year post placement report. . . did I forget anything? Shopping, meals, school. OH -- Homeschool Day at Six Flags, and the Joyful Praise Choir performance (Christa's best friend is in it). Oh, and Gordon is going to be out of town for about 48 hours.

I think I need to go to bed now. . . . YAWN. . .