So! It's that time again!

I want to thank the Man Upstairs again...for letting me hang around for another year to watch my girls grow and change...nag the man I love...and be a pest to those who love me both near and far...year 46...check.

I'm extremely thankful and utterly grateful that I am still in touch with several of my former students...and they don't seem to feel I've ruined their lives! ; ) My Lil' Lis' came to visit me a few months ago...what a gorgeous, intelligent, confident young woman she is. I'm so very proud of her...can you tell? She has bestowed my latest nickname upon me...Mama Bear.

I feel the need to thank Terri yet again...although I've thanked her numerous times...both publicly and privately...but she needs to hear it again. This person...this friend...this Twinkie...who has been a part of my life literally since I was Hope's age was THE only person who believed me. Yes, she believed *in* me and still does. But she was the only human being, albeit a child herself, who believed a scared and bewildered Mel when a lot of other trusted adults should have. She's one strong broad...and she's got one tough Mama of her own...and I love them both.

Yet another blessing in my life is my friend Linda. This woman was the first person to sign my guestbook at Prayer, Praise & Peace many years ago. I wrote her back...and it just grew from there. She has helped me through more crud than I ever want to go through again. It was Linda who led me to my own personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I didn't know such a thing was possible...but she showed me it was...and I am so thankful!

And then there are my cubs. How can I ever begin to tell y'all just how special these two people are to me...and just how quickly they became that special? I don't trust people...I've said it before and I'll say it again...I just don't trust people. Well, ok...every ten years or so I attach to one new online friend. But it hasn't been ten years since the last attachment...and there are two cubs. I call them my cubs because I have come to feel extremely maternal towards both of them. I suppose that technically I *am* old enough to be Carrie's Mama...but not Andrew's...but I could've been his teacher!

I met Carrie playing Scrabulous...a very thinly disguised version of Scrabble...on Facebook. After a few months of playing daily she said she had been playing against someone who now wanted to play against me. Enter the boy cub, Andrew. I think the three of us have played in one combination or another, every single day since then.

For lack of a better explanation...there are so many parts that make up who "Mel" is...and even those closest to me don't "get" all of those parts. It's self preservation...if you share too much of yourself, if you give someone else too much power over you, you're going to get hurt. I once told Carrie that I intended to use blogging as a way to "put myself together again" or merge all of those parts into one. She said, "I already love every part of you that you've shared with me. Why wouldn't I love the rest?" I cried then...I'm crying now. She has shown me that it is absolutely ok to FEEL. I've spent years shoving my feelings down...or trying to ignore them. That works really well until they explode. She taught me to just go ahead and feel...even if it hurts...even if it's bad...because if you don't? Well, you're going to have a mess to clean up afterwards...or you're going to be so busy NOT feeling you're going to miss the GOOD feelings too.

And Andrew? What has he taught the old Mama Bear? Well, I mean besides the fact that he can make up totally ridiculous words that nobody has ever heard of and get hundreds of points for them? In his own words, "I'm a happy bunny." And he is. He goes through drama just like the rest of us but he deals with it and then lets it go. No matter WHAT kind of a day it has been he's always Andrew...he's always himself. I so admire him for that...among many other things.

So as Mama Bear continues to grow and change and become "Mel 46.0", she is so thankful for her cubs and their "Feel It...Deal With It...Forget It" strategy. They both accept me for who I am...whoever that might be at any given moment...they trust me...and I trust them. Yeah...I said that...I TRUST them. That's really scary...because darn near every single piece of Mel, loves these two people.

Thanks as always for reading! ")

Ok...remember this statement from a couple of posts ago?

"We are all just trying to smile and keep positive attitudes while we work through the junk!"

Well folks, the junk continues. I've kept smiling and kept my positive attitude...until today. (Linda, please note the day of the week!) In short, the last couple of weeks have been absolutely exhausting both mentally and physically. Why you ask? Read on...or not! :)

1. For reasons I don't care to get into on the worldwide web, Hope became frightened of darn near everything. It started with a couple of our Halloween decorations which I immediately put away. It then progressed to things like the television...so much so that she wouldn't even enter the family room to play with her toys. After that it could be anything...things hanging on the walls or sitting on an end table that have been there for years...Humphrey...you name it. The child who chased Humphrey through the house trying to pet him was now crying if he was even in the same room with her. After a lot of love, talking, and extra attention she's just about back to her normal happy self and all is right in her little 2 year old world...and she's chasing Humphrey through the house trying to pet him again!

REASON TO SMILE? It's over...we lived through it...and she now knows that TALKING about something that bothers her is a good thing.

2. The tendonitis in my foot is trying to creep back. After 10 days on Prednisone it was feeling better and I had about a week of pain-free normalcy. Don't get me wrong, it's still better than what it was, it's just so dang ANNOYING! Add this to the fact that during those 10 days on Prednisone I ate darn near anything that wasn't moving I now feel, in the words of Gaston from Disney's Beauty & The Beast, "...I'm roughly the size of a baaaaaarrrrge!"

REASON TO SMILE? The foot does feel better...it has its good days and bad days. I've been able to cross one med off of my daily who gets what and when calendar! Please notice I didn't say I *am* the size of a barge, only that I *feel* like I'm the size of a barge. There is a big difference! I've worked long and hard to change those evil thought processes!

3. I’ve been working in Claire’s room cleaning out the closet…tossing things…putting things in a pile for a yard sale…organizing. My wedding dress is in a big storage box on the top shelf. On top of that were some of my old toys and a bunch of my baby things that my mother insisted I take. As I was reaching for something on top of the box, a box containing my old electric baby food dish toppled off and fell to the ground. I ignored it and continued to go through things. A few minutes later I went to pick it up and there, underneath it, on my cream colored carpet, was a straight line of about ½ dozen dime sized spots of SOMETHING that was deep forest green. I touched it and it was wet and oily. I opened the box containing the dish and all three compartments were FULL of this green oily slime. I grabbed it, wrapped it in some old blanket that was nearby and raced it downstairs to the trash. I spent the next block of my time trying to get it out of my carpet. I think I’ve got most of it…can’t really see it but if you get too close you can smell the stuff! ICK!

REASON TO SMILE? When we got the carpet we got really GOOD carpet. The guy told us that if we ever needed to cut any out and patch it you’d never be able to see it. AND the wretched thing only leaked on my carpet. It must’ve dribbled out of the compartments when it fell…there was NOTHING on the outside of the box of my wedding dress. Although I told Garry that I’d almost rather that it was on the dress instead of the carpet. I can’t imagine either one of my girls ever wearing a 10 in anything!

4. So much for any of us rotating out of our 8 or more week periods of ringworm meds. Yes, The Hageman Family will now and forever be known as The Fungal Family. Horatio and I presented right around the same time in late August and started our meds in early September. He's officially done today but read on. I'm still applying the cream. All three of my spots are very faint and almost gone. Once they are gone I still need to use the cream for two more weeks. Hope got her little happy spot early in October. So far she only has one and the over the counter stuff her nurse recommended is working great. Humphrey started his bout in late October and his earliest cut-off date is December 2. However, to prevent Horatio becoming re-infected we will have to continue with his meds until Humphrey has had no new spots for two weeks and hair has begun to re-grow.

REASON TO SMILE? Garry has been spared. The meds are definitely working. No one is itching like crazy anymore. The vets will have to administer the meds while we are in Florida for 10 days! Let me tell you...giving a cat liquid medicine twice a day is not a fun proposition. Horatio does much better than Humphrey...whom during administration is known as "El Diablo".

5. Wednesday night I heard this weird hissing noise…but I could only hear it in the laundry room. I asked Garry if he heard anything. He said no…I told him to listen in the laundry room. He did and said it was coming from downstairs. He went downstairs and our hot water heater had sprung a leak. Honestly, the first thing out of my mouth was, "GREAT!" The first thought was, "Gads...what next?"

REASON TO SMILE? Hope had already had her bath for that night. Our builder was a genius and has the basement set up so that if something like that ever happened that it simply drains down a small slope and into the drain in the floor. I quickly took a shower with what was left while Garry filled the sink to wash the dishes. We had the new one installed by dinner time the next day by a really nice young guy…couldn’t have asked for anyone better. It could've happened while we were on vacation...but it didn't. It could've sprayed everything all over the basement...but it didn't. It could've blown up...but it didn't! Those three statements were my next thoughts right after the discovery and I held on to them for DEAR LIFE! ")

6. Last Thursday, while the new hot water heater was being installed, I sat down to work on Hope’s Halloween costume. I was, seriously, about an inch away from being done when my sewing machine literally ate her costume. I could not free it no matter what I did. Garry had to take the miserable thing apart and then I was finally able to gingerly work the costume out…however during it’s adventure there was now a cigarette burn sized hole in it…along with a couple of oil stains. Friends, I had just about reached my limit! LOL I simply went into my office while Garry worked on putting the machine back together and played on my computer and tried not to cry.

REASON TO SMILE? After he finished I went right back to it and finished that last inch. And now I know why I was able to find an exact match between red thread and red t-shirt...have you ever tried to match reds? It was so I could mend the hole and no one would see it. I also know why I decided to start on the back instead of the front! I worked on the front all afternoon on Friday and finished it Saturday. YAY!!!

I don't mean to offend anyone or their beliefs by what I'm about to say. I figure everybody reading this already knows what I believe and either shares those beliefs or loves me in spite of them! ; )

I truly believe that God has been allowing Satan to poke and prod at me so that I can be ready for our next great adventure. This may simply be our trip to Disney World this month or it could be our trip to China next year. In any case my patience and strength of will obviously needed some work. Heaven knows that a flight of *any* length can be pretty stressful when you have a two year old along. I just hope I passed the test because I've had enough for awhile!

I remember going through a stage of very intense anger and frustration during the waiting period for Hope's referral. Well, I guess today begins (and hopefully ends!) that stage for Claire. I simply had reached my limits and took it out on some poor woman who called to tell me that, "Since I was such a good customer I qualified for blah, blah, blah." When I asked her why she didn't tell all of this to Garry when she called two nights ago she said, "I can't. It's federal law. It's to protect your privacy." Ok...so if Garry would've said he was me, then you would've spoken to him? "Are you saying you'd like to be placed on our Do Not Call list ma'am?" I said, "Ma'am I've asked REPEATEDLY to be placed on your Do Not Call list." "Well ma'am I have to read you a disclaimer!" I really don't remember a whole lot after that other than I'm pretty sure I heard myself raising my voice...and I know I told her to leave me alone several times...and then I hung up on her. ::sigh::

Am I whining? Probably. But my BIG point here is that several years ago any ONE of these things would have immediately triggered a migraine headache, anorexia, or a 2 a.m. trip to the emergency room for some much needed drugs to stop the uncontrollable nausea and its side effects. I am amazed at how far God has brought me and how much strength He has given me. I don't have time to get sick! I have an incredible, God given family I need to take care of and enjoy! Thank you God for Garry, Hope, Humphrey, Horatio...and Claire too! You have blessed me beyond my wildest imagination!

Until next time y'all!

First of all many, MANY thanks to all of those who took the time to share their answers to the "less than sensitive" questions or comments from my last post. All of them are greatly appreciated! At one point there was a website that offered responses to those comments...I had a link to it at Prayer, Praise & Peace...way back when! I'm going to have to look it up and share it with you!

We have yet to be notified of our LID. We were told it would probably be up to two months before the Chinese notified us. It will be two months on October 9th. Stay tuned...

We have yet to receive Hope's passport and all of her important documents that had to be sent away in order to get her passport. The check was not in the last bunch of cancelled checks that came back yesterday. We were told it would take "a full six weeks". Looking at the calendar I guess they still have one more day left.

We received the list of the other families we will be traveling with and have heard from all of them. It is going to be another large group. There will be 14 parents/prospective parents and everyone with children is bringing all or most of them. At last count I believe there are 8 children with 6 of them under the age of 4. Our last group also had some grandparents along as well so we shall see.

I haven't been posting anything because, well, there's been nothing to post! ") We're dealing with several issues right now...those of you who know us well know that when "issues" come up we tend to close ourselves off from the outside world until things are resolved. NONE of these issues are deadly or of imminent importance to anyone other than our little family. I do want to thank everyone who understands that we are not angry, upset, or anything else. We just don't have anything left for anyone else right now. We also appreciate all prayers that are offered! I will share that one, two actually of the issues is health related...again, nothing deadly...just a giant nuisance. Three members of our little troupe of five are now affected and we're all being treated. I finally called and made an appointment for something else that has been bothering me for a month or two. Hopefully it will be just another nuisance as well. Again, all prayers and good thoughts are appreciated! ")

There is one "issue" that is simply making me crazy. Some days I don't think about it at all and other days it is a constant battle to think of anything BUT it. I have discussed it with my friend Linda ad nauseum and WON'T discuss it any further...with anyone! ") I am not giving it any more energy. Linda and I have actually gotten a few giggles out of it simply by the fact that I say I've given it to God but then I end up taking it back. I found this poem today that I had pulled out of a book called "A Woman's Journey Toward Holiness" several years ago. There is no author credited on the page so if anyone knows who wrote it I would love to know. Enjoy the poem...and enjoy your weekend!

Take Them Back

I give my problems to the Lord, and then I take them back.

It's not that I don't trust Him or faith that I lack.

It's just I give them to the Lord, and then I take them back.

I'm so sure that I've given all my problems unto Him;

Then all at once I realize I'm burdened down again.

I don't understand the reason I've taken them all back.

So, Lord, I bring them unto You again; please take them back.

You'd think that after 42...and 1/2 years I would've learned by now that anything I perceived as being easy and simple would turn out to be exactly the opposite. Yeah, well...hope springs eternal. Let's call this post, "The Comedy Of Errors" or "The Mattress Warehouse Hidden Valley Is Now Closed".

In July I told you about ordering Hope's new bedroom furniture and Claire's nursery furniture. Early in August we got a call from Baby Tyme saying everything was in. We decided to leave Claire's furniture there until we are ready for it. That way we don't have to worry about where to put it while we are getting her room ready. We piled in the Jeep on a Saturday and headed for Hartville to pick up Hope's new bed and nightstand. Newsflash...it wouldn't all fit in the Jeep. We took what we could and while Hope was napping, Garry drove back to Hartville and picked up the rest. After unloading it in the garage he drove to Medina to buy her a mattress and boxspring. He came home, unloaded those and we all took off for Kohl's to look for sheets, mattress pads, pillows, etc.

With the washing machine running at full capacity the next day laundering all of her new linens, Hope napped in her crib, blissfully unaware of the angst her parents were about to go through. After she woke up I moved the crib to the other side of her room so Garry could build her big girl bed where the crib used to be. We planned on leaving the crib in the room for awhile after she was in her new bed for security reasons. We had been preparing her for this for quite awhile so she was really ok with it!

Garry put the new bed together and right away we knew we were going to have problems. It was a platform bed, raised significantly higher off of the floor than a traditional bed, and doesn't require a boxspring. Garry put the new pillowtop mattress and boxspring in and my stress level just about shot out the top of my head. It seems soooo totally ridiculous in hindsight now but at the time all I could think about was how we had Hope so psyched up about this and it wasn't turning out perfectly. (Linda...stop laughing! I can hear you in *this* country!) The top of the mattress was only about two inches away from the top of the headboard. It reminded me of the story of The Princess & The Pea where the princess sleeps on a tower of mattresses. Garry removed the boxspring, leaving only the mattress which was just the perfect height. Great, right? NOT! The bedrails we had purchased will only work BETWEEN a mattress and boxspring. It was getting later and later, we hadn't had dinner yet, and Hope still didn't have a bed ready to sleep in. Feeling beaten and dejected (and I know Garry wasn't feeling the love either) I pulled the nasty old 1950's-60's mattress and boxspring off of the twin bed in "The Boys' Room". The room is set up as a guest room but since we never have guests, it's always been called The Boys' Room as the cats love the peace and quiet they can find there. They're going to have to find a new spot soon because it's going to turn into Claire's room!

Garry put those two horrid looking old things on our baby's new bed while I proceeded to spray Lysol all over them and set about putting her new linens on them. Gads...they looked AWFUL but they were the perfect height and the bedrails worked. She didn't seem to care that they were old and disgusting and that if Garry or I tried to sit on the bed with her she just about shot off the other side. She was so excited she couldn't go to sleep. She had a ball until around 11:00 when I couldn't take it anymore. I airlifted her out of the bed and put her in the crib...she was asleep within 15 minutes.

Her nap the next day was about the same...I gave up after an hour of happy chatter and put her in the crib. That night she slept in the bed! YAY! The next day's nap was just the same, but after that she has slept and slept well in her big girl bed.

Garry called the guy at Medina Mattress the next day and "explored his options". The guy is one of the nicest men you could ever hope to do business with. He genuinely cares and will do just about anything to work things out to your satisfaction. He told Garry to come in and take a look at what else he had, he could also order something else, and if all else failed he'd take everything back.

That next Saturday while Hope was napping Garry took another trip to Medina. He didn't find anything that would work and the only sets that were the right height were just newer cleaner versions of the yucky mattress/trampoline set that she was already using. The owner told Garry that Sealy makes a low-rise boxspring. They both looked all over the warehouse but he didn't have one in stock. He told Garry that he would order it for us, we could try it with the mattress we had purchased from him and see if that worked any better.

The next day Garry dismantled the crib while Hope and I watched from her big girl bed. It went very well until he actually started removing pieces of the crib from the room. She tried very hard not to cry, but in the end, there were tears. With tears streaming and bottom lip quivering she said, "Claire sleep in crib...Hopie sleep in big girl bed...when Claire done, Hopie sleep in crib again." It was HEARTBREAKING!

SO! Inside the guest/boys'/Claire's room we now have Hope's brand new pillowtop mattress and boxspring sitting on the nasty old metal bedframe, the crib and it's mattress, AND our old queensize mattress and boxspring that was waiting for disposal.

The next Saturday, another trip to Medina for Garry while Hope is napping. He came home with the smaller boxspring and ladies and gentlemen, we have a winning combination! The Sealy boxspring with the Serta pillowtop mattress works! YAY! Garry called Medina Mattress right away and let that wonderful man know how appreciative we were for all of his help. Then do you know what he offered to do? He said he would come over the next day after the store closed and get whatever we didn't want out of our way. He pulled in Sunday a little after 4 and took the unused Serta boxspring, the old nasty twin mattress and boxspring, AND our old queen set. As he was getting into the truck Garry was cleaning up a bunch of the plastic that the mattresses had been wrapped in and moving the old steel bed frame. The guy gets out of the truck and says, "You want me to take all of that too?" Medina Mattress in Medina Ohio people...the owner is a prince.

Enjoy your week!

Well...I got another piercing.

Oh I can just see AND hear quite a few of you the minute you read that!

Bonnie is softly shaking her head "no" and thinking, "I hope she went to someplace that was clean and they used single use non-latex gloves."

Rachael is laughing hysterically while wondering, "I wonder if she got a tongue stud or a belly ring?"

Mrs. Miller, my first grade teacher is saying, "Ohhh...and Melissa was such a nice girl in first grade!"

Carol is shuddering violently and hoping it doesn't get infected.

Hey, Hey, Hey It's Pastor J. is either raising his eyebrows and saying, "Cool!" or he may have just choked on his lifesaver.

My brother is trying not to think about if there was any blood involved.

Jennifer is thinking, "Gosh...I wish I could run off to Las Vegas and have an Elvis impersonator give me a piercing."

Alicia is giving a weak "thumbs up" while all the time thinking, "OOO!!! I'll bet that hurt!"

Jess and Ali are simply saying, "Oh...just like Mom!"

Amy, Jane, & Suz are all thinking, "That just doesn't sound like the Missy we all used to know..."

I think Theresa may be giggling...

Ruth blurted out, "My angel did WHAT?!"

Eileen? "Kids will be kids."

And Rick, Terri, & Linda? They didn't even bat an eyelash...they are just waiting for me to get on with the point of this post.

I got my ears pierced for the first time when I was in maybe 6th grade? It was a big deal then...I had to go to a doctor to have it done. I added a second hole to each ear in college. I believe my dad said something like, "Well, I can't understand why you'd want ANOTHER hole in your head but they're your ears." A third hole was added to my left ear I believe when Garry and I were dating or shortly after we were married. I say "I believe" because I think we had our piercings done at the same time...how romantic. LOL Yes folks, for those of you that can't even begin to imagine it, you read it here first...Garry had one of his ears pierced...twice. It has long grown closed!

I was happy with a total of 5 spare holes in my head until a couple of years ago. I really like the look of a tiny hoop about midway up the ear. I went back and forth about being too old and then just decided to go for it. I had it done to the left ear a few months after we turned in our paperwork for Hope. It was kind of my "countdown". I knew that by the time it was healed and I could actually replace the stud with a tiny hoop, I'd be holding my baby.

Well...you do it for one daughter you have to do it for the other! On Saturday we added a third hole to my RIGHT EAR (sorry Rachael!) for Claire. Our agency told us to expect a wait of six months for a referral. The gal who pierced my ear told me to keep an earring in it for...six months!

I truly think I'm done now...well...until the grandkids are on the way. However, I'm running out of room on my ears. What do y'all think about tattoos? ")

Love ya!