Bluestoneink's Blog

Miss Gem’s b-day

bluestoneink — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:08:53 +0000

14 years old! We were going to take her out to 98 pounds for dinner but she has a paper due Friday so she wanted to stay home. We brought home Jimmy John’s instead with the all-important glass of pop. If that was all we had brought her she’d have been happy. Mom and Grandma gave her money. We gave her Wii Cheer 2 and a wooden puzzle box. She was happy.

Rosie got a haircut and looks really cute. Carlos is going for a week’s stay at Moms to stay with Rachel because Mom will be gone for a few days. Rachel wants to have Carlos for company. She thinks he’ll become attached to her. I hope he does but what Carlos really cares about is food. Give him enough of that and he’ll be happy.

Valentine’s Day presents

bluestoneink — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:36:15 +0000

I bought 3 boxes of chocolates from Abdahlla’s. They sold heart boxes but wanted $10-15 each for them. So I bought two at the dollar store instead. I typed up several “I love you …..” for L and Miss Gem, cut out each individual sentence and wrapped them up with a chocolate. I’ll give it to them on Valentine’s Day. The whole thing cost $26. And I still have some candy left over!

Here are the reasons I love them:

For Miss Gem:
I love how you take responsibility for your homework.
I’m proud of you that you study hard enough to get straight As
I love how kind you are to Rosie and Carlos.
I love the little kisses you give when you really don’t want to.
I love listening to you laugh with your friends.
I love listening to you practice your guitar.
I love your beautiful blue eyes.
I love that you don’t protest too much when it’s time to learn how to cook.
I love the little heart you gave me for Christmas.
I love watching old movies of you when you were young.
I love seeing you engrossed in a book.
I love when we need you to do a chore, you don’t protest too much.
I love that you are 13 years old and already know how to wash,dry and fold clothes.
I love that you’re excited about going to China and meeting L.
I love that you’re going to be a big sister.
I love that sometimes you remember to clean up after yourself.
I love that you have learned to save your money, sometimes.
I love and am proud of you for taking guitar lessons.
I love the rare smile and “Good Morning” I sometimes get.
I love the hug and kiss I sometimes get at bedtime.
I love when you wake up and crawl into our bed in the morning.

And for L.

I love how you have dinner waiting when I get home from work.
I love how kind and loving you are with Rosie and Carlos.
I love that you are such a good father.
I love how you take care of the yard.
I love that you love me so much.
I love how thorough you are at your job.
I love how you chuckle in response to my crises.
I love how you hold me every night before we fall asleep.
I love that you are such a great husband to me.
I love how supportive you are of my needs and desires.
I love watching movies/series/TV with you every night.
I love how you take care of the clothes washing and drying and folding.
I love our life together
I love your butt
I love your beautiful brown eyes
I love your beautiful legs
I love how responsible you are
I love yourkind nature
I love your integrity and selflessness
I love your sense of humor
I love how you always can make me laugh or smile even at times when I don’t want to
I love how you are always concerned about me and my well-being
I love your intelligence
I love your gentleness with me
I love your true sense of honor
I love the fact that you are my true soul mate
I love how much I know you loved your mom and how well you handled her passing even though it was the hardest thing you’ve ever been through and how much I admire you for that
I love how much you know about me now and that you’ve seen both my good sides and bad and that you still love me anyway
I love your incredible big heart
How you sometimes give up things you’ve wanted just for my benefit

plane tickets

bluestoneink — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:41:12 +0000

We bought our tickets on Friday after being told on Thursday by an unhelpful travel agent-”You can do this yourselves!” $1600/ticket. and $250 for a lap seat for the little one. Working on getting the visas now. $130 each plus $35 x2 for the courier fee. We’re using Denise Hope at There’s always hope. Found out that Ron and Lin will be in China when we’re there. We’ll be in different cities at the time so we won’t see them.

Waiting

bluestoneink — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:49:41 +0000

The China adopt website I read had a post today about a woman with a beautiful baby who was in a mall one day and was approached by a stranger. Here is part of the post:
“She had him in one of those strollers that allow the carrier to snap into them, and she stopped for a rest and was talking to him when a lady came up and sat down with her, told her he was gorgeous, asked how old he was, and then offered to buy her son for $20,000. The dance teacher told the lady no and stood up and started walking away, pushing her son in front of her and going as fast as she could, which apparently wasn’t that fast yet. The lady kept after her, following her, telling her about this wonderful family who would adopt her child and give him all that the world could offer. The dance teacher kept saying no, and the lady kept going up in price. When the lady reached $180,000, the dance teacher finally saw a security guard and started working to get his attention, waving her arms and yelling for help. But, of course, as soon as she started that the lady offering money for her baby lost herself in a store, and by the time the dance teacher got the security guard apprised of what had happened, the lady was nowhere to be found.”
The sad part of it is, I can understand the desperation that drove the lady to do that. Obviously, she had money, and she must have been infertile. Desperate. Like me. I could never see myself doing what she did. What she did is beyond the pale. But one day, she’ll be successful. She’ll get her baby. She won’t have to go through tons of red tape and 4 years later, have little to show for it.

Whole lot of nothing going on

bluestoneink — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:22:05 +0000

It feels like March out here. I saw people walking into Target in hoodies. The wind was pretty cold however. We watched Terminator Salvation today. It was pretty good except dumb ending. There is no way he could have had a heart transplant-what about tissue typing? What about a transplant surgeon? What about anti-rejection meds for the rest of his life? Well, it’s not like the rest of the movie was based on reality.
I was supposed to have a 4 day weekend but they called me in to work yesterday because we had two patients there for an ERCP procedure. There are only 4 nurses that can do that procedure, 1 was sick, 1 was on vacation, It was my day off and the 4th one found out she was pregnant so she can’t do the exam because she could expose the fetus to x-rays. So, they called me. I had just got home from getting groceries and was about to head out the door and they caught me. At least I get overtime pay. Which will help pay for the glasses I ordered last week.
Met Mom for lunch today. There is a new Chinese restaurant at Valley West. It was pretty good. I ordered Ma Po Tofu.
Ls’ Dad is not feeling well. He has intermittent abdominal pain, he’s anemic and is losing weight. He had an endoscopy but they didn’t find anything. He’s going to get a colonoscopy next. He’s 84 years old and lives by himself in an apartment near Ls’ sisters.

Horrible Mother

bluestoneink — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:43:14 +0000

Sleepovers two nights in a row are not a good thing. Sleep deprivation is not good for Miss Gem. I was telling L this morning how happy I was with my life yesterday, standing in Holy Land Bakery, waiting for my gyros with my family around me, I felt so content and happy. Then Miss Gem came home at 1100 with her mad face (as usual), uncommunicative (as usual), prickly attitude (as usual). Things went down hill quickly especially when we showed her a list of chores she needed to do before she could watch TV. The chores weren’t much-and we told her they wouldn ‘t take her more than an hour. Well, she did get them done eventually without too much whining and it only took 30 minutes. We ate leftovers for lunch. We were getting dressed to take Rosie out when I told her she needed to floss and brush her teeth and I needed to watch her do so since she hadn’t been doing this necessary “chore” without being reminded of it. She took offense at me having to watch her so we exchanged a few heated words. It was like a Mexican stand-off with her saying she wouldn’t do it if I was watching her and me saying she better get started brushing. L went on the computer saying to let him know when we were done which pissed me off. I asked him why I always had to be the bad guy, it was so important that she brush and floss twice a day and just telling her to do it wasn’t enough. She walked in to the computer room at that point and pushed past me so hard I had to take a step back. It was a reflex on my part but a split second after she said “sorry”, I pushed her back and she started to cry. I told her that I was sorry too, twice, but she left saying that {my sorry} was too late. She went into the kitchen. I just stood there feeling terrible. L followed her and told her: Just floss and brush your teeth now, leave the door open while you’re doing it and no one will watch you. So she did. I didn’t watch her but I could hear her. We went on the walk right afterwards. Now, she is downstairs, I’m in the kitchen, L is on the computer. We aren’t giving each other the silent treatment but we’re not talking either. But that isn’t anything new.

Saturday

bluestoneink — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:27:25 +0000

I got up at five yesterday and this is what I did until 0945:

1) shower
2) groceries (I love shopping at 6 am. No one is around!)
3) breakfast (donut from the store)
4) changed sheets on our bed
5) straightened the kitchen
6) returned a book to the library
7) visited with Mom from 0730-0930

I mention all this because Miss Gem was on a sleepover which we let her go to because she promised she would be home at 0900-she has a 1030 guitar lesson. So, she wasn’t home so I stopped at her friends house at 0945 and WOKE UP THE WHOLE HOUSE! Really their dog woke everyone up because anytime someone is at the door, he does a full body slam against it 3 or 4 times. I’m not kidding. But look at all the things I got done while they were sleeping. I am not a night person; I love to get up early in the morning and get things done. I wish department stores opened earlier than 10 am. Anyway, we made it to the guitar lesson.

Hilton was having car problems so we went over there in the afternoon. Brought Jennifer with us too. L dropped us off at Barb’s and went to pick up Hilton. The kids played Wii while Laurie, Barb and I chatted over some wine. I had 3 glasses! After L replaced the battery, the car ran fine so we left stopping at Holy Land for some Gyros (Jennifer ordered a cheeseburger, Miss Gem chicken nuggets!). The hummus and gyros were delicious. The best hummus I’ve ever had. Miss Gem went back to Jennifer’s for another sleep over. She probably didn’t sleep very well which is why the title of my next post is

It’s too cold to get up

bluestoneink — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 11:09:21 +0000

-9. I don’t even know what the windchill is. I’ll have to put on 5 layers of clothes. I’ll look like a puffer fish. It’s 4:57 and I’m all alone in the house. Except for the dog. And the cat. And the mice. (just kidding). Mom is horrified that she caught 3 mice in the kitchen. She’s beside herself. I told her to call a pest control company to bring out the big guns. But, I digress. Miss Gem is on a sleepover. She was nice yesterday. She went on a field trip with her chorus class to the high school and then to the mall. She bought a key/heart necklace and lunch with the $30 I gave her. I got back 75 cents in change (I told her to keep $7 for her allowance due today). I allowed her to go on the sleepover with instructions to be back here at 9. She has a guitar lesson at 1030 so we’ll see how that goes. She said she usually wakes up at 0600 when she sleeps at Jennifer’s but goes back to sleep because no one else is awake. L. is at work. Plan for the day: Get up, shower, groceries, eat donut from grocery store, visit Mom, come home, call Miss Gem because she’s late, go to Jennifer’s house to wake up Miss Gem, go to guitar lesson. Chill.

Miss Gem Daily Mood Update

bluestoneink — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:23:21 +0000

Great. Slow drive home because of slippery roads. They were waiting for me when I arrived. They took Rosie for a walk while I changed because she suddenly informed us that she needed poster board to make a project due tomorrow and black pants-because the choir was going to travel to the mall to sing? We stopped at Michaels for the poster board, pipe cleaner to make electrons and Kohl’s for the black pants. Picked up chinese at Lee Ann Chin’s which wasn’t great. I like to get the noodle bowl with half an entree but they changed their noodles now from thin ones to thick, goopy ones. Yuck. I don’t plan to return anytime soon. Sesame chicken sounded good but wasn’t really.

One more day and then the weekend! I have to work on an ERCP instruction notebook for the new nurses. Kind of excited about it.

Miss Gem DMU

bluestoneink — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:33:30 +0000

Good today. She had her cavities filled to a tune of $427! She was playing Wii when I got home. I watched some of it with her-it looks like fun. We ate Chicken Cordon Bleu that L made. It was very good!