North Pole Daredevil

I'm officially terrified. My daughter is a daredevil. At 2 years old, she's more gutsy than even I am. She's totally into thrills, living on the edge, pushing the limits, etc.

I knew this a while ago of course, but since she's only 36 inches tall, it's hard to actually test out my daredevil theory. However, in light of recent events, I have no choice but to admit the truth:

Maelin is going to grow up to be an acrobat, a rock-climber, a snowboarder, a gymnast, a scuba-diver...anything that will give me a heart attack and will give her a bit of a thrill.

I first noticed this tendency when she was about 9 months old. We lived near a park that had a merry-go-round (not many parks have them anymore) and I would put my baby in the middle of it and slowly spin it around. She'd laugh and laugh so I'd make it go a bit faster. Even more laughing. Then I'd really just spin the heck out of it and she would be in hysterics. Okay, I thought. So the child enjoys spinning. Not much wrong with that.

Last spring when I took her to Disneyland, we went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Now that ride is in total darkness at times and has two pretty good drops. She was 22 months old and I took her on it expecting her to like it but also be a bit freaked out. Nope. The girl LOVED it. She loved the dark, she loved the drops, she loved all of it. Giggled and giggled and kept yelling "More!"

Over the summer, I would take her swimming and would hang out with her in the shallow end of the pool. Oh, she did alright down there for a while but when she saw the big kids jumping in the deep end, she made a beeline right for where they were and what they were doing. It was crazy: I'd stand in the water and she would just run right into the pool: it wouldn't have mattered if I was standing there ready to catch her or not. She LOVED the feeling of falling and had no fear whatsoever.

So this past weekend, we decided to take her to the North Pole. It's over an hour away so we loaded up the car very early on a Saturday and headed down. It was a beautiful fall day and as the park is in the mountains, we knew it was going to be a bit colder up there. Papa Dan, Auntie Heather, Ryan, Cole and Auntie Kat came along too. I was very excited to see how Maelin liked the rides. I had a feeling she might just love the fast ones, but you never know the mood a 2 year old is going to be in...

The child is insane. She LOVED the fast rides: the faster the better. Even when older kids were crying and begging for the ride to stop (which was actually pretty sad), Maelin was laughing and squealing and yelling and couldn't have been happier. At one point, I had ridden the Sea Dragon ride 2 times with her (while she was laughing the entire time), and I was about ready to lose my lunch. There was no way I could ride it again. As it was coming to a stop, she totally started crying and sobbing: she didn't want to get off! Bless Auntie Kat's iron stomach because she rode it two more times with Maelin: even putting their hands up in while they were way up high.

It was finally time to get her off the darn ride and I had to pull her off of it sobbing and yelling, "No no no no!" Then as soon as I got her calmed down, she ran right back to the gate of the ride and stared up at it wistfully. It was the funniest thing.

So every time I toss her high in the air, or give her a huge push on the swing set, I know what I'm setting up my little girl for. She's going to be a thrill-seeker.

Big sigh.

More Family!!

My mom lives in MN now and although we miss having her here, she's been really good at coming out to CO to visit whenever she can. She usually comes for 3 day weekends and we love having her.

However, we had to give up our usual visit from her this fall. She is about 60ish now and not in the best health although she is a real trooper. She has never had any family to speak of. In fact, the entire time we were growing up, we never met a brother or aunt or anyone. Her mom and younger brother had died when she was young (her brother died of polio and her mom died when she was 16) and she was estranged from her father. She had another older brother out there somewhere that she had lost track of over the years and had no idea how to go about finding him...so she never did.

We just accepted the fact that mom was alone in the world. My dad's family "adopted" her, so-to-speak, and they still consider her part of their family even though my mom and dad have been divorced for years.

Fast forward to last April. My mom was out visiting for Maelin's 2nd birthday and we had some friends over. Mom wanted me to show her Facebook and what it can do. So I pulled up my page and showed her pictures of all my friends and family on there and showed her how neat it was to be able to find all these people from the past that I had no idea how to find previously. She thought it was pretty cool. Then we asked her, "Mom, isn't there someone you'd like to find? Maybe someone from high school or from when you lived in Chicago?"

She was quiet for a few minutes and then said with a very hopeful smile, "I'd love to find my brother Mike. He's older than I am so I don't think he'd be on Spacebook or FaceSpace, or whatever, but let's try him." So she gave me his first and last name and viola! He popped right up!

I showed his profile picture to my mom. She was completely silent. I asked her if she thought that was him. She said she didn't know...it had been almost 40 years since she'd seen him so she wasn't sure. I told her I'd send him a "are you who we think you are?" note and just see. The worst that would happen would be he would ignore us, right? Oh, but my family is quite drama-filled. It wasn't that easy. Mom was worried that we had found him and he'd ignore us and then she'd lose her family all over again. She was very nervous when I wrote the note and hit the "send" button...

Turns out, we shouldn't have worried. It WAS my uncle Mike that we had found on Facebook that night and he answered my note quickly and seemed excited that we had found him. We had family we knew nothing about! We were all very excited and my brother, sister and I quickly "friended" him and started catching up with each other.

My mom and my uncle have been slowly getting to know each other again. 40 years is a lot of ground to cover especially when everyone is so busy. They email and talk on Skype and call but they really wanted to see each other. I wanted to meet him and his wife Linda too. I think family is one of the most important things in the world and I am so excited to find out we have more!

So last weekend, we made the jaunt out to meet our family. It was a bit surreal because here are in essence, total strangers but it wasn't like that at all. I felt immediately comfortable and at home with them. The "blood is thicker than water" adage is very true. My mom was so happy and excited to finally have some of her family back after being alone for so long and we all had a great time. We ate too much, drank a bit, watched some football and just got to know each other. It was a lovely weekend.

This is the reason my mom won't be coming out to visit us this fall. We'll see her for Christmas. However, instead of feeling a loss that she won't be able to play with Maelin in the leaves, I'm feeling more contented about my mom than I have in years. She finally has some family. That's worth so much more than any words could say.

Here are a few pics of my mom, my Aunt Linda, my Uncle Mike and I. We had such a nice time with them (and with their doggies!) and I can't wait to see them again soon.

A New Family Member????

I should be writing report cards now as they are due on Friday and I haven't even started them yet...

but this story couldn't wait. I went to pick up Maelin today from Sandra's house and as usual, they were in the backyard playing. They live in a pretty impoverished neighborhood so you tend to see all sorts of interesting things when you go over there. I've gotten pretty used to the stray animals running around, the weird cars, the loud music, etc. Anyway, Sandra's son (who's 8) was playing with an adorable gray kitten in the backyard and Maelin was squealing with laughter watching him.

I asked Sandra who's kitten that was and between my poor Spanish, her English (which she's getting pretty good at!) and her son helping us, I found out that this kitten has been coming around for about a week and they have no idea who it belongs to. I mentioned that I was worried about leaving it because it's supposed to get pretty cold tonight and snow and they said that worried them too so they were going to set up a crate under their trampoline for it to help keep it warm.

If you've read any of my previous posts, you KNOW I just can't leave an animal when I think it may not be safe and I have an opportunity to do something to help. So I swooped that little kitty up and told Sandra I would take it home and to keep an eye out for posters or whatever till we decide what to do with it. Maelin couldn't believe her luck that the kitty was coming in the car with us!

That kitty is the sweetest darn thing you've ever seen. On our way home on the noisy highway, you'd imagine the cat would be freaking out and meowing and scratching and losing it. Nope. That kitten got in the backseat right onto Maelin's lap (much to her delight!) and promptly fell asleep for the entire 30 minute car drive home. Here's a couple pictures of Kitty with MaeMae. She was thrilled!




We've set Kitty up in our spare bedroom for now. He gobbled down some food and water and has been sleeping most of the night. Uncle Jeff has decided after a 30 minute visit that he just might like another kitty himself. Aunt Kat isn't so sure but admits this cat is pretty darn sweet. Kevin was very apprehensive when I called him from the road and told him the "Guess what?" story but he even admits that the kitty is pretty adorable and may just consent to keep him. He even told Jeff, "You may have to fight me for him." hee hee.

I'm not sure where Kitty is going. We're going to put up a sign and post him on craigslist and see what happens. For now, Maelin is excited that she has a new friend that loves her and makes her laugh. I'm happy because I was able to do something small to make the world a bit better. The Kitty is happy because he's sleeping on a nice bed and has food and isn't shivering in the snow tonight...

and oh, Maelin wants to name him "Gato." Her other suggestion was "Food." (Kat and I think if we keep him, we'll name him "Cullen" after...of course!)

Wordless Monday Picture

LOVE this pic...thanks to my friend Maura for taking it!

School Answering Machine Message

This is the funniest thing I've come across in a long time so I had to post it here for all of you. Make sure your sound is on!

Australian School answering machine message
This is the message that the Maroochydore High School, Queensland, Australia, staff voted unanimously to record on their school telephone answering machine. This is the actual answering machine message for the school. This came about because they implemented a policy requiring students and parents to be responsible for their children's absence.


Click Here