Shelba

Self-Portrait Tuesday - Time - Week 4

March 22:  At the cemetery.

March 23:  My cousin B and her baby, L.

March 24:  Me in my Aunt J's bathroom mirror.  We helped her renovate her bathroom while there. 

March 25:  The sink in my Aunt J's bathroom.  She wrote this note to warn everyone not to use the sink.

March 26:  Z hopping around my Aunt J's yard. 

March 27:  Z in the hotel room.  You can see my parents in the background.  Z loves hotel rooms. 

March 28:  Camera phone pic of Z while driving through Virginia. 

See more Self Portrait Tuesday here.

Self Portrait Tuesday - Time - week 3

Dude, I can't not post to Self Portrait Tuesday, what can I say.  If it had been any other theme, I probably wouldn't have bothered, but since all I had to do was take a picture of myself to document the day it was pretty easy. 

3/15/06 - It is all a blur now, but I don't think that things were as bad as they were with my Mim.  I knew I was going to Maine (it would have been today that I arrived), but that was it. 

3/16/06 - This was the day that I had learned that my Mim was not doing well and would probably not make the night.  Not much sleep was had that night. 

3/17/06 - In Chicago on the plane, right before taking off for Maine.  This was taken rougly 2.5 hours before my Mim passed away. 

3/18/06 - Day one of sorting through my Mim's house.  Long day.

3/19/06 - Day two of the sorting.  Another long day. 

3/20/06 - Day three of hte sorting.  Yes, another long one.  I'm sitting on the tub, in case you're wondering. 

3/21/07 - Today Z and I had the honor of going to the beach with my Mom and my Aunts to spread my Mim's ashes.  It was beautiful.  Then later that tonight was my Mim's memorial.  My Mim would have loved today. 

Z at the beach today. 

Thank you for all of your kind words, I really do appreciate it. 

March 17,2006

I'm in Maine.  My grandmother died yesterday.  My plane landed at 9:32pm, she passed away at 9:38pm.  When the plane was pulling up to the gate, I was saying in my head, "hold on, hold on, I'm coming."  She fought for every breath, every minute she had left, and she was surrounded by all six of her daughters and she knew was loved.  I am so grateful that I always made sure she knew that I loved her. 

I love you and I'm going to miss you forever, Mimi. 

Receipt of I-600A Hell Yeah!

We received a receipt for our I-600A from the BCIS today!  Woohoo!  All it means is that they received our paperwork and money and that now need the homestudy.  Which funnily enough they received today.  I don't know why this stupid meaningless receipt makes me so happy, but it does. I'm hopeful that this means that we'll get our fingerprinting appointment soon.  It would be nice if it came near the end of our trip in Maine, but that is probably crazy talk on my part. 

Self Portrait Tuesday - Time, Week 2

3/8/06- Talking online to American Family and Chicago Mama.  I had nearly forgotten that I needed to take a picture that day and hurried up and got the tripod and camera out.  I was twirling my hair.  I am a chronic twirler of my hair. 

3/9/06 - Working on a quilt at the dining room table.  Still not done. 

3/10/06 -   Talking to my mom on my cell phone (because the house phone's battery had died).  Snapped a quick picture of myself in the bathroom mirror with my lil' camera that I keep in my purse. 

3/11/06 -  This was done while watching "The Longest Yard" with Ray.  See the wine glass? That is Coke in that there wine glass, not wine.  I like to drink Coke in a wine glass, I think it tastes better.  This is probably a sign that I am ill in the head.  Sometimes I carry my wine glass out back while I'm playing with Z and I think that the neighbors must think I'm a drunk. 

3/12/05 -  Sunday afternoon playing with Z. 

3/13/06 -  Monday afternoon.  Z was down for a nap and I had a moment to myself.  Ahhh, I love moments to myself.  I'm sure a wine glass with Coke was somewhere nearby.  My nose is crooked, do you see it?  I was born that way.  I wish I had some great story about how it got that way, but nope. 

3/14/05 - In the car, getting ready to pull out of our driveway to go to lunch with my friend C and her dauhter, R.  Z refused to nap today.  I'm cutting myself off of Coke today as I'm in a battle with Chicago Mama to get fit for a race on the Great Wall.  She is so going down.  Do you hear me, Chicago Mama, down, down you are going. 

Going to Maine

My kid won't take a nap today and because of that I feel mental.  I feel like I'm losing my mind.  If only she could hang out in her crib and babble to herself, but no, she has spent her entire nap time yelling for me to come down there and get her out of the damn crib now.  Well, obviously she doesn't say "damn", but dudes, she is telling me.  And she is also sticking her fingers down her throat and gagging herself.  Oh, how I love it when she activates her gag reflex.  Anyway, we have seven minutes of "nap" time left until my child is freed from the hell that is her crib. 

Z and I are going to Maine next week.  My grandmother has lung cancer and we're unsure of how long she has left.  I have a lot of guilt right now because I should have gone up last year when she was doing better, but of course, I waited until she is unable to get around too much.  I shouldn't have waited.  You would have thought that I learned my lesson when my grandfather died, but nope.  And I've been telling myself for over a year that I need to get up there, but did I listen to myself?  Nope.  Maybe I kept putting it off because I didn't want to believe that we'd ever get to the point where we would have to say goodbye to her. 

SPT post to come in the next hour or two. 

Gardening

Since Z loves being outside so much I thought that I would take advantage of this and start in on our herb/vegetable garden.  It is wild and overgrown with weeds and is in pitiful need of attention.  Plus, I thought Z might enjoy this. 

First, we donned our gloves. 

Then we admired ourselves in our gloves.

We took a look at what we need to do.

Then we became overwhelmed.

And then we decided to forget about it for another day and go back to admiring ourselves in our gloves. 

Note:  If you read Z's blog, you'll probably see this post over there as well.

Things

I have all these Things I want to do, but my house is so messy and unorganized that I can't concentrate long enough to do any of these Things.  So I'm trying to change that this week. 

The Homestudy has been mailed to the BCIS and it will arrive first thing tomorrow morning.  Now to keep my fingers crossed that we get a fingerprinting appointment soon.  Time is ticking away very quickly, especially considering that March is nearly half way gone.  June 7 will be here before we know it.  June 7!  Z will have been with us for one year on June 7!  Wow! 

Okay, I'm off to organize and clean. 

What?

Said to me by a very young looking 16 year old Abercrombie and Fitch employee today: 

"Make sure you check out our jeans, we have the most stylish and sexiest fits!" 

Photo Friday - Red

My drug of choice, Coke.  Empty Coke cans in the trash can.  See more of Photo Friday here!