Stand In

Someone asked me if Corey will be home for Christmas. He will not. I miss him, but I am happy for him.

He's gone to the dark side. I mean, he got a job at WalMart. It's his first job ever. Orientation is Tuesday. Feeling more cautious than optimistic, but I don't tell him that. I hope it works out.

Last year at Thanksgiving and Christmas, we not only spent time with my mom and Corey, but also had my niece Sarah join us. Her parents had moved from the L.A. area up to Oregon. She stayed to finish her first year of college and be outstanding in another play. Sarah is a rapid-fire talker, but she brought a sense of calm, peace and love to the holidays last year that we'd missed out on the two years prior.

Last Thursday evening she boarded a plane and headed up to Oregon to join her parents. I miss her, but I am also happy for her. And my brother and his wife.

Christmas this year is going to be different. Madelyn really gets it this year, and she has pulled Fynnie along with her into the excitement.

Letters to Santa were written last weekend and mailed... sent to Santa... posted in my office space. I love that they have each asked for one gift (a frog and a baby) no matter how many times they have been asked. After watching a video of a mommy friend's Santa visit with her kids, and seeing how many times Santa asked, "And what else?" I realized we won't be attempting Santa photos this year.

We are excited about the gift shopping and the cookie baking and spending time with family. Cutting down our Christmas tree and all the steps that lead to decorating it have filled this weekend.

But at the near back of my mind is the longing for what won't be.

Corey cannot yet come home for the holidays.

Sarah is home, even though she's so far away.

This past Wednesday evening I missed a call. The message was from Rosemary, the coordinator of the exchange student program we participated in last year. Does it seem longer ago to you, too? In her message she said that she needed a replacement host family for a young girl from Japan. For a week in January. Unlike the program with Chinese students, this girl would only need to be in school one morning; she would spend the rest of her time with us.

I looked at my work calendar for that week in January. Booked solid, but with fun activities and field trips with my middle school program, I thought this would actually work out nicely. I'd have the coolest experience for any of the students.

Tom agreed that we could do it and I called back.

"Oh, not January 21, December 21. I'm sorry, did I say January?" Rosemary was a little frazzled.

And so the universe has sent me a stand in for Christmas this year. Someone who may very well have the same wide-eyed wonder as both of our girls at all the lights, decorations and presents.

All we know about her at the moment is her name and that she is somewhere between 13 and 17 years old.

And all she knows about her host family is our names, ages and that we all have curly hair.

Oh, and Rosemary was kind enough not to mention before showing up for the home inspection that she now takes a photo of the family. So that tank with a shelf bra that is a great alternative to flopping all over the place, but doesn't really keep the girls up where they belong? Probably scaring Yui out of getting on a plane in a few days.

Poor thing.

But, as Grandma Margaret suggested kindly, "She'll think you're so much prettier when she meets you in person."

Thank you, Grandma Margaret.

Home. Friends.

This is the post I almost believed I'd never write.

Sorry I've been getting so far behind on reading blogs.  I have been busy.  Making friends.  Smiling.  Laughing.  Planning.  Happy.

That mommy group I could never meet up with for activities?

I've been meeting.  I've been active.

In the past three weeks I have:

Learned to make and can jalapeno jelly and strawberry jam.  Turns out it's so much easier than I would have guessed.  And fun.

Ordered tutus from one of mommies for the girls for Fynnie's birthday party.  Mad's will be pink, yellow and purple.  Here's a (blurry) picture of Fynnie's that I snagged.

The blue piece in the center above the bow is a flower for her hair.

Taken a belly dancing class.  There was another one this morning, but I couldn't make it.  I'll catch the next one.  It was fun and a good workout.  Made even better by the fact that I had Fynnie strapped to my body during the whole thing.  Madelyn?  She was busy playing with the other kids or running over to try out our moves.  Oh!  And remember that one miserable trip to the breastfeeding support group when Fynnie was a couple weeks old?  Remember the mama who gave me the blow-by-blow of the last 11 weeks of her pregnancy, labor, delivery, recovery and the status of her relationships with the medical staff at the hospital where all this happened? She was there.  She's been my Facebook friend for a few weeks, but I didn't know until she walked in and started talking.  And talking.  She struck me as nervous (I don't think any of us had met before, except for me and the host... who'd been at the canning party).  I think that 11 months ago she must have really been (understandably) traumatized by the circumstances of her daughter's entree.  And I have to say that I kind of like her.

Supported a mom's endeavors to avoid having her son selling discount cards at the grocery store.  I bought four of them and, along with all the discounts, was thrilled to get a 20 minute photo shoot for my girls.

The girls and I met again with the photographer mama and her girls.  At the mall.  For pretzels and lemonade and to get my CD of photos, but we hung out for almost an hour.  We may start getting together to walk in the mornings.

Applied to host a couple of young women from China for about two and a half weeks.  I think we're in.  They arrive on the second.

Tomorrow I'm hosting a canning "party" of my own.  All I did last time was cut up some strawberries and jalapenos and then fill up and label a few jars.  Neither of the women who are coming tomorrow were at the last event, so I'll be the "knowledgeable" person.  Bahaha!  One of the ladies who is coming is the same one we were able to help out a month or so ago.  The other one is just coming because she's interested.

I've still been going to the gym regularly with my pal, Jennifer.  I did miss two weeks because we were fighting off sinusitis.  Yuck.

And aside from all of the fun and frivolity, there have also been trips with the girls to the local farmer's market and the farmer's market from a neighboring town.  Tom and I took Mad to a cooking class the other night (more on that later).  We're getting out more.  And "out" no longer means just the grocery store or the park.
Tom, Madelyn and I painted that orange wall.  It looks great.  Tom's very happy.  Making such a bold statement started off as just following through on one of our "some day" conversations.  But as the girls and I went to choose the paint, it occurred to me:  Making this dramatic change is akin to transforming our house into a home, something that stalled out a couple of months after we moved in.  (It has also led to a discovery:  If one paints a wall, the first thing one does is stand back and appreciate the new color.  The second is to notice that the other side of the wall really needs to be painted, too.   Still no decisions regarding the niche, but we'll get there.  Maybe I'll ask the ladies tomorrow what they think.)

Oh, what's that?  You want to see pictures from the photo shoot?  Did you think I'd pass up a chance to share my sweet girls?  Feel free to check out the rest of the pictures here.

Mad and Other New Frog

Fynnie Fynn getting ready to crawl away

Could she be any cuter?  No, but does anyone else see that look in her eyes?  The one that says, "Hey, I wonder what your shoulder tastes like!  Mama's tastes great and she makes this awesome sound every time I bite her.  Will you make a sound?

Doesn't she look sweet?  Our photographer friend is amazing.  This shot was taken while Mad was doing the most hilarious slo-mo roll around the floor, arms and legs up in the air.  It reminded me of some old SNL episodes with Molly Shannon.

(More) Stupid Things I Say

To the head of a large motor company in the midst of a big business event:  "Thank you (for fixing my collar).  I changed my shirt twice on the way over here tonight."  Like that wasn't enough, I had to expand on it.  "I wore this shirt to work today, but changed as I was heading over here.  Then I realized I'd popped a button off and had to go through it all again."

To a very serious request for suggestions for volunteer activities for foreign exchange students on the local mommy group board:  "I suppose it would be inappropriate to suggest that the students volunteer to put sprinklers in my backyard, right? How 'bout a patio cover? Playing with my kids so I can get something done around here?  Seriously though, I hope you find what you need. I would love to host, but the spare bed we have is a sleeper sofa in the loft. I've already seen my father-in-law in his underwear this year and can't risk any more trauma."