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The Rest of that Vacation: ML pt 2

So this is the second installment of my life last year.

Afte the crying and hugging and so forth, Aunt Janet asked the important question,”do you need to fly home now??”

“No, she’s due August 8th, and we’ll set up a meeting once I get home next week.”

So with that, we went to get some lunch. I called my dad, who got a bit choked up, and throughout the week, I called good friends to tell them what I knew. At that point, it wasn’t much. Just that “she” (J) was due 8/8/05, she had 1 other child, and she liked us because we had a big family and looked nice. We knew the “he” (G) was still in the picture. I think that’s it.

So for the next week, I enjoyed my vacation to the fullest. I didn’t buy a single baby item, or magazine, or anything like that. I slept in. I exercised. I hung out at the poolside bar with my cousin. As much as I wanted to be with L, I was really glad that I had some time to process this development on my own for awhile–to let it sink in without the rest of my life distracting me. And, it was nice that the first week of our “wait” was taken care of-once I got home, I only had 2 weeks of work to get through, 2 weeks of nesting, etc. That was a bonus.

Of course, L and I talked at least once a day, and most of the conversations revolved around the potential adoption. We remained guarded–always reminding each other that nothing was final, that things could change, etc. At the same time, we were looking at our calendars and rescheduling things, looking at vacation time and so forth, trying to put together a plan.

While I was gone, my friends and family were busy gathering things for us. My two best friends filled my garage with things like bottles, bouncy seats and the like. When we got back from FL, my mom and I went to Babies R Us for the carseat and stroller. That trip is seperate installment for when I’m feeling really nostalgic.

Suffice it to say, I’m glad our match happened when it did and the way it did. Who else but an adoptive mom can celebrate at an ocean-front bar with cosmos 3 weeks before her baby arrives?!?!?

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A Year Ago Today…ML pt 1

(I’m a huge fan of Memory Lane (ML)…this will be the first of many such installments–check out the monkey’s ticker!)

A year ago today my mom and I left for a girls vacation to Florida. L went to work as usual, after dropping us off at the airport. Our flight was smooth, we met up with my aunts and cousin in Orlando with no problems. As we loaded our rental SUV and started through the swampland-highways to Disney, I noticed that there was crappy cellphone reception. When we pulled into the POP! resort, I realized I had several TM’s from L, along with a few missed calls. WTF? “He’s knows we’re in transit now….” There was also an “unknown” number that looked familiar, but I couldn’t figure out why.

As I was stepping out of the car, the phone rang–it was L.

“Where are you right now?”

“Getting ready to check in–we’re walking into the resort”

“Walk away from your family”

“OK, what’s going on?

“Renee just called, we’ve been picked”

“Picked for what??”

“There’s someone who’s due August 8th and she picked us”

“OMG! Tell me what happened!!!!!”

Meanwhile, my family has gotten in line to check in, and I am on a bench outside the resort trying to keep my composure, asking questions, and trying to get as much info as possible. Since it would have been IMPOSSIBLE to keep such a secret from my traveling companions, L said he’d hang on the line until they were done checking in.

My cousin came out to say that they needed my signature inside, so I had to do what I hate to do–stay on the phone while doing something else. So I signed everything that Big Brother needed, and once we got room keys, I told my posse that we needed to step outside.

“What’s going on?”

“Who’s on the phone?”

“Just get outside–L and I have some news.”

Once we were outside, I looked at my mom and she said, “it’s not about the house is it?” (it was on the market at the time)

“No, it’s not about the house! The agency called L today–we’ve been picked!”

Then the hugging, crying and screaming began. And they understood why I wanted to take them oustide!!!

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Packing the Gym Bag again…finally!!

About a year ago, I was WAY into going to the gym. I loved it. I’d been going regularly since just before getting married (7/2001) and really thought that I had made exercise a habit.

Enter: THE MONKEY. Shortly after the Monkey came home, we had to quit the gym–our monthly membership was basically what we spent on formula. I was very sad, but knew that a) atleast for the first 3 months I wouldn’t be there at all and b)even after that, I really wouldn’t want to leave her long enough to work out/use their child care (fine for toddlers, but babies??) and c) we needed to buy formula!!

So I became rather slovenly–and totally started to feel the effects of not exercising regularly–you know, the fatigue, the aching back, not sleeping as well, the too-tight clothes, so on and so forth. L was feeling the same. So last week he joined the student fitness center on campus where he is 4 nights a week anyway. Yeah for him–$20 for the summer, $30 per school semester or something crazy like that.

So yesterday I decided to figure out what I could do. Our old gym is just too pricey, bottom line. So I looked at an old, scuzzy gym (yuck!), a fancy circuit gym/weight loss center (very ritzy) they wanted $1100!!! No, that’s not a typo. $1100 for a total of 62 weeks. Not REALLY highway robbery, until you start realizing that’s not a membership for my family, there is no pool or even a shower there, their “gym” consists of 2 treadmills, 2 elliptical machines, 2 bikes and 2 sets of crazy “electric” machines that exercise for you. That’s it. It took me about 2 minutes (after the 3o minute sales pitch) to realize that WASN’T what I was looking for!

I called Curves, but apparently the entire company takes a siesta daily from 1-3 or 4pm, and I, of course, want to work out after work before I pick up the Monkey. I checked in the just single classes offered by parks and schools, I checked into Jazzercise….NOTHING during the 1-3pm timeslot, anywhere. The YMCA single membership was just as much as my old gym, and I’ve heard that it’s a suburban madhouse. I was so bummed!

So today I drove over to Cardinal Fitness and found what I was looking for. There are no classes, but since nobody else offerred them at my preferred time, I thought that wasn’t really a loss. There are plenty of machines, floor equipment, etc. There’s a small locker room (no hot tub, but nice showers!), and there’s child care that looked like the Monkey could have fun there should she ever need to go. Of course, the child care room is closed from 1pm -4pm, but she’s covered during that time–I would only need to use it if I went on Saturdays and L was busy or something.

So tonight I shall pack my gym bag for the first time in close to a year—I can’t wait!!!