And a year goes by...

It's amazing how fast a year can whizz by. That's apparently how long it's been since I posted an update to this blog. I've sat down intending to writing something many times but just never felt like I had anything interesting to say. I still don't...and I'm sure not a soul checks this page anymore anyway, but maybe I'll give you a quick update just in case someone stumbles upon this page again.

So let's see, in the past year:

- Cameron has grown by leaps and bounds...now sleeps in a big boy bed and is about 75% potty trained (finally....but still refuses to do #2 on the potty...any suggestions??). We've been working on the potty thing for a LONG time but something finally clicked with him. I was worried I would have to start buying Depends because he was going to outgrow his Luvs before he was trained!

- Cameron's daycare that we loved decided to close (supid friggin' crappy economy) and we had to find a new daycare. We all like the new place but it's not the same...it's hard to leave a place that felt like home away from home to start over again. He's been going there for about 6 weeks and still is having separation issues when I drop him off in the morning which is extremely hard on mom but I know he's fine about 1 minute after I leave the parking lot. Still it's not fun and hopefully this will continue to improve over time.

- We had to have our 13 year old dog Maggy put to sleep. She was the sweetest dog and I still miss her a lot...though the squirrels in the backyard don't!

- We had to have our siamese cat put to sleep who was only around 10 and should have had a much longer life. (I was not happy with the way the vet handled the situation and though I know my kitty was sick I think there was more they could have done for him and deep down I totally blame them for the loss.)

- We adopted a new cat (Cosmo) and a new dog (Harvey) from the humane society and they have become wonderful new members of our family. Also we found a new vet that we really like.

- I found out in April that my company is closing and moving operations to Atlanta to be housed with our parent company. I could have relocated but Atlanta is not my ideal location and we're happy here so I'm done in December.

- I'm planning to go back to school in January and get into the medical field where hopefully there will actually be some jobs when I'm done. In some ways I'm excited about it, but in other ways I'm sad that my Bachelor's degree is totally going to waste as I go into a completely different field. Oh well...change is good, right?

Anyway, I can't think of much else right now, those are the highlights anyway. I'll try to check in and post from time to time but I can't guarantee it won't be another year from now! In the mean time here's a couple pictures of the boy:

This was taken last fall at a petting zoo type place.

This spring he got to go to his first bowling birthday party and he LOVED it. The boy loves to bowl and look at that form!

These are our new family members, Cosmo and Harvey. They have made themselves right at home as you can see! (They don't always get along this well, don't let the picture fool you!)













Cameron and Harvey get along great most of the time but they tend to fight like siblings! Harvey is great with him though and puts up with a LOT from his 3 yr old brother! Here they were hanging out for a Sunday afternoon nap together.

I still can't get over how big he's grown! Here is a pic from our recent trip to Nebraska to visit my Grandma.

What has happened to me?

I recently realized that I no longer remember what my life was like before I became a Mommy. I'm pretty sure I used to go out with friends and have a not-so-occasional cocktail. I think I used to have semi decent taste in movies, tv and music. Tonight I just spent half an hour looking up The Wiggles on Am@zon.com trying figure out what CD has the song 'Rockabye Your Bear' on it. 'Nuff said I think...

Bad Mommy

I'm done drooling over Johnny Depp for a while and decided to get back to my mommy blog. (Ok, I was actually over my JD excitement a few days after the meeting, but I haven't had time to post anything.)

Today I stayed home sick from work. I'm not really that sick, I do have some kind of allergy thing going on and did not get much sleep last night, but mostly I was just tired and had a case of the Mondays and decided to play hookie. (I do this VERY rarely and end up feeling guilty the entire day...I feel guilty right now...instead of relaxing and recharging which is what I really need) So I went back to bed and tried to sleep, and for whatever reason I started thinking about lifebooks. Or more specifically, my lack of any kind of lifebook or adoption journal for my son. I think this popped into my head because Brian and I were discussing how in a month it will be our 2 year anniversary of Cameron's gotcha day, 2 years since we became a forever family, and we thought we should do a little something to celebrate. Which also got me thinking that my boy is getting older, and although I do bring up the adoption idea in casual conversation and in some of his children's books, it's probably time to start exploring this idea with him a little more in depth.

A lifebook is something I feel is important, something I've been meaning to start for a long time. You know, about 2 1/2 years now, since we first got the call that we had a baby boy. But here it is 2 1/2 years later and all I have to show for it is a somewhat-kept-up-with photo album, some random souvenirs from our Guat trips, and lots of adoption documents in a fire safe. Oh, and the ramblings on this blog which I guess would count as somewhat of a journal. Not very organized, eh?

So I went and dug up my "Lifebooks" workbook and read through it for about the 4th or 5th time hoping for inspiration. Then I surfed the net for a while and found some really great examples of scrapbooking pages, but I am not a scrapbook type person and I don't know if I have the creativity in me to put one together. I found a good article on making digital photo memory books through various websites, which are pretty cool too and you can even add captions and journals, etc then it gets printed up and bound like a regular book. Cameron LOVES books and loves looking at pictures of himself and our family so I could see this being right up his alley, but then I wonder how much information do I put in it? If it was a scrapbook with removable pages I would put more confidential info in about his birthmother and a picture, but if it's just a printed up photo book I don't want the whole world to see that information, because that is for my son's eyes and when he is older he can decide who to share that with, if anyone. But I also don't want him to have this book but not be able to share it with poeple if he wants just because a page or two is sensitive.

So now I'm sitting here frustrated and confused, knowing I want to do something for my son but not sure what. Part of me is thinking I could whip together a cute photo book for him as a gotcha day gift, but not get into too much detail and then when he's a bit older we could do a lifebook together with the paper cut-outs and the whole nine yards. For a toddler maybe this is best anyway? Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? What have you done for your children? I don't know if many people even still even look at this blog anymore, but if you are lurking and have some ideas please help me out!

My week as a celebrity stalker

It's been a crazy, fun week for me. Some incredible news hit a while back and I have been eager with anticipation: Johnny Depp was filming a movie in Wisconsin, and part of it was being filmed in the town where I work! It's a 30s gangster flick and Johnny is portraying the bank robber John Dillinger. How cool is that? Wait, it gets better. The parts that will be filmed in our town will be in the downtown area, only 2 blocks away from where I work!!

Now all of this would probably be exciting to anyone, but for me it was AMAZING because Johnny Depp is one of my all time favorite stars, one who was plastered all over my room as a teen. As I got older the pin-ups come down but I have always held a special place in my heart for Johnny so this was so incredibly exciting! Then I find out that some of the scenes are being shot at a building that is directly across from where I work, in clear view of my window! I couldn't believe my luck. I charged up the batteries in my digital camera, dug out some binoculars, and got ready for the week of filming. So begins the story of how I went from a mild mannered occasional celebrity gossip follower to a full-on celebristalker. (I don’t think that’s really a word but I like it.)

Here is how the week played out…

Monday, April 14: This is the morning when filming for the movie began downtown. As I mentioned before, the window in my cubicle at work directly faces the building they were going to shoot for one of the bank robberies. I was psyched thinking I would have awesome viewing for this event. Armed with binoculars and my camera I head upstairs to me desk ready to spy, but lo and behold I find this scene out my window:
Please take note of the GIANT green screen in front of the building, blocking our view of all the action. We are guessing this was used so they can insert a better background into the shots than the skuzzy parking lot, but come on Universal Studios, throw us a bone here! Hmpf.

About 9am or so they did drop the screen (woo-hoo!) and the girls in my department and I were able to catch a glimpse of what appears to be rehearsal of John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) leaving the bank holding a gun and a hostage through the binoculars. We think we have officially spotted Johnny and there is much excitement. (I didn’t know that many women could fit into one cubicle!) A little while later one of the women on our floor whose son is working as an extra in the bank scene texted to say that it was NOT Johnny we saw, it was one of his doubles. We are bummed and have convinced ourselves that we saw the real thing, we don’t care what anyone says!

Having had just a small taste of the action, a group of us head out at lunchtime on the hunt to see what we can see. We want to get a closer look at the set, and we can see crowds of people forming by the barricades so there must be something exciting down there. Of course you cannot get anywhere near anything, and there are obstructions EVERYWHERE. This is as close as we can get from the front.


We walked the full perimeter of the set as close as we can get behind the roadblocks and see nothing but some extras going into a building for lunch break. Drat. Here's a picture of our group, I am the one sporting the giant binoculars. (Not obvious or dorky at all.)

That afternoon the green screen was back up again, but there is a chase scene being filmed in front of the building so we can hear gunfire and then see cars racing through the openings between the buildings. There is a definite Johnny sighting through the binoculars, he is hanging off the side of the car as they fly by! Very exciting stuff! We are all cursing the fact that we have a deadline this week and cannot take the afternoon off to go outside and watch, but at the same time we know we have a better view from the window. (In reality nobody got anything done all afternoon because we were all watching out the window anyway…) They ran the scene several more times but there was always a good half hour or so between takes. I’m amazed at how long and slow this movie making process is. At the end of the workday I wanted nothing more than to be able to stay after and go down to watch the filming, but alas I know I need to go home to my son and husband and I have choir rehearsal. Day one of celebristalking is kind of a bust.

Tuesday, April 15th: I arrive at work and of course the morning coffee talk revolves around the filming. I found out that Johnny went out and shook hands and talked to fans after filming wrapped the night before and I’m cursing the fact that I went to choir practice instead of staying. I really need to rethink my priorities I guess!

It’s now day two of filming. We’ve been told by a reliable source that filming will continue outside of town today, which turns out to be true. They shot a few scenes in the morning outside our building again but there is no Johnny, and by noon they are all packed up and gone. I got a lot more work done on Tuesday, go figure!

Before leaving work my friend Lindsay and I make a pact that we will spend as much of the day as possible stalking Johnny on Wednesday.

Wednesday, April 16th: The morning begins with my coworker friend sharing her exciting story of how she got to meet Johnny Depp last night at her friend’s church! Apparently the production crew had rented out her church to be "base camp" for the crew because it was close to the site they were filming a car chase out in the country. Apparently her friend had called to let her know he was going to do another “meet and greet” at that site when they were done filming that night and she should get her butt over there. She did and she got to say hello and shake his hand! She has a cute picture of Johnny talking to her 13 year old son. We were all excited and happy for her, but also insanely jealous. Lindsay and I have vowed we will not rest until we too have had our own face to face encounter.

Today filming is back in town, this time they are in the middle of downtown filming at a different bank. These scenes are a lot more involved and much the downtown area has been spiffed up and decked out 30s style. It was really cool to see the transformation. We can no longer see anything from our building so Lindsay and I take a walk at lunch to see what’s happening. Today things are blocked off even farther away from the action so they don’t accidentally get people or cars in the shots. We do a walk around the full filming perimeter, but even through binoculars you can’t really see much. It’s still exciting because we know SOMETHING is happening down there and there were tons of extras in 30s attire wandering around which at least gave us something to look at.

Unfortunately we had to head back to work but as we were, but as we were crossing the street on the back side of main, kind of near where all the actors trailers are parked, we suddenly the crowd of gawkers ahead of us starting to wave and yell. We whip around to see what’s happening and here comes Johnny Depp’s SUV driving around the corner straight for us! Literally, we had to move out of the way in order for it to get by us! And there was Johnny in the back seat on the side towards us. He had the window open and was waving at the crowd, then he waved and smiled at us…less than 5 feet away! We were so excited that we finally got a glimpse of the man, and it was just dumb luck! Of course I didn’t have my camera ready since we were walking back to work so as I'm gawking and moving out of the way of his moving vehicle I'm also trying to get my camera out and turned on. In all the frenzied excitement I managed to only get this awesome picture of my head. Ugh! I did get a picture of his vehicle AFTER he was way out of eyesight. So I missed my perfect photo opportunity...but we had a great story to get us through the afternoon!

After work Lindsay and I decided to go find a spot near the trailers and stay there as long as we had to in order to see Johnny again. Rumor was that he would do another “meet and greet” after filming and we were not going to miss it this time! We checked out the street near the trailers and there was an area that seemed to be set up for this. (It kind of looked like a cattle corral actually) The very front by the barriers was already filled up with people but we found a good spot which was very close to the front, definitely close enough to reach for a handshake, so we were psyched. As we were standing there the crowd starts yelling and waving again, it's another drive-by! This time I have my camera on and ready to go...but I'm so excited that I accidentally clicked the picture way too soon and by the time my camera reset itself for another picture he was long gone. I did get this stellar shot...

I'm feeling that a future career as a paparazzi photographer is NOT a good idea!

We waited some more and were chit-chatting with the people in front of us, sharing our sighting stories, and even held their spots for them while they went to use the bathroom. It’s always good to make friends with your neighbors in these situations I think. Then one of them tells us she has to leave so to take her spot. We thought she meant temporarily leave again, but no she means she has to leave altogether and she is giving us her place! She had been up at the very front and pretty spread out so we were both able to squeeze in that spot and suddenly, there we were at the very front of the barrier, waiting to meet Johnny Depp!

We waited and waited again, for what seemed like an eternity, but we were in a good spot near a lot of the security guards so we could hear them talking about what was going on. There were a LOT of people out that night and they kept cautioning everyone to be quiet and stay calm or he would not come out. Apparently there was concern over the large crowd getting unruly and that we would maul the poor guy or grab him and run. But everyone was calm and shushing each other, we did NOT want to ruin this perfect opportunity! Finally the word is that JD is out and working his way down the line. We weren’t sure we believed it because it was SO quiet, but people were behaving just as they were told. Apparently at these meet and greets he doesn’t sign autographs but he shakes hands and chats with the crowds. By now we were so nervous and excited and were trying to come up with something cool to say to him! Everyone was craning their necks trying to see how close he was, but it’s now past 8pm and it’s dark outside so we can’t see anything. He finally got close enough so I could take some pictures of him with the zoom all the way up so I’m trying shoot but the stupid auto focus on my camera always freaks out and can’t seem to adjust when it’s dark! Thankfully I did get a couple good pictures of the side of him as he made his way towards us.

He got up to Lindsay and I tried to snap a picture of him talking to her, but it was so dark and couldn't tell what I was aiming at, plus I forgot my stupid zoom was still all the way up so all I managed to get a picture of half of his face! (But you can see how close we were to him!)

Then he walks in front of me and I put my camera down because I was NOT going to ruin this moment by futzing around trying to take a picture. He grabbed my one hand while he was shaking hands with other people off to the sides of me but then turned and looked at me and I was so star struck all I could think to say was “It’s so great to meet you” and he said “Thanks for coming out tonight” or something (I honestly don’t even remember) and then he grabbed my other hand and he’s still looking at me (I think because Lindsay was taking our picture) and of course I can’t think of anything else to say so I just stare with a big dumb grin on my face. Then he squeezed my hand and let go and moved on. It was short and sweet but a moment I will treasure forever!

Here's the picture Lindsay took while he was talking to me. You can't see me, but he's holding my hands!

I was surprised at how short he is, only a few inches taller than me. He was very soft spoken but seemed genuinely nice and happy to come out and greet his fans. Thankfully he got through the line without incident and then was whisked away again by security.

Day three of amateur celebristalking turns out to be a total success, mission accomplished!

Thursday, April 17th: Lindsay and I spend most of the morning at work retelling the story of our adventures from the previous evening and sharing pictures. My boss has been a good sport about all of this because she likes Johnny Depp too and knows this is a once in lifetime experience, but I know she cannot WAIT for this week to be over so we can all get back to regular business!

At noon Lindsay and I took a short walk over by the set to see what’s happening. Nothing could top our experience from the day before so at this point it’s mainly just to get some fresh air. While we were standing there the big black SUV drives by again heading towards the set, but I couldn’t see if anyone was inside and neither could Lindsay. The girls nearby were super excited and said they saw Johnny wave. We are not convinced but we let them have their moment.

Thursday night was back to normal and I went home to the family. This stalking business is very exhausting and hard on the body so I was tired. Plus the entire week Cameron hasn’t been sleeping well so it’s been a double whammy. I showed Cameron my pictures from the night before and tell him its Captain Jack Sparrow (we watched Pirates of the Caribbean together the weekend before). He’s unimpressed and wants to watch Elmo. Life is slowing getting back to normal.

Friday, April 18th: It’s a quiet day. They are still filming downtown but again we can’t see anything from work. We didn’t go walking at lunch because we had a prior engagement to meet a friend, and besides it’s getting old at this point. I was a little sad knowing this was probably the last day of filming, and come Monday things would be back to normal, but I’m relieved as well. Celebristalking is very tiring work.

About 3:30pm things start happening outside my window again. Police are starting to gather and a few old cars are being parked on the street in front of the “bank” building. It seems as though they are going to film something there again! The binoculars come out again and sure enough, here comes Johnny to that spot again! We’re excited to see him again, but at the same time once you have touched and spoken to someone you really can’t top that by looking at him through binoculars from so far away. They must be shooting some really close-up’s of him because he’s leaning on top of the car with a giant gun shooting and the camera is almost in his face. It will be interesting to see how they edit that scene knowing that the close up shots were filmed 4 days after the original bank heist shots were filmed. Movie making is definitely an interesting process.

Anyway, I stayed at work a little late just to watch then about 5pm they finish up and Johnny’s SUV whisks him away. I said good-bye to him and headed home to my family. Now we just have to wait a year until the movie comes out so we can see Johnny and relive the memories all over again!

Next week I’m in New York for a few days for work so I won’t have much free time, but when I get back I’ll try to get back to writing about Cameron again because he’s way cuter and more important than Johnny Depp any day! (Sorry Johnny, it’s true.) Check out this future pin-up boy, matching socks and all!

Easter grass is evil

It's now almost a full week past Easter Sunday and I'm still finding little translucent strands of plastic Easter grass all over my house! Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best housekeeper, so it's not like I've vaccuumed everyday or anything, but the vacuum has run at least once since then and somehow the stuff seems to hide from it! Whoever invented that stuff should be shot, who says candy needs a decorative bed of fake grass to sit on/sink into?? Ugh!

Oh well, at least it was a nice Easter spent with family (though colder than we would have liked...and it SNOWED...) and Cameron had a great time. He got 4 (yes, that's right 4) Easter baskets this year. One from daycare, one from mom and dad (aka the Easter Bunny), and one from each Grandma. His favorite part by far was hunting for eggs, though he definitely has a sweet tooth so the massive amounts of candy were a big plus as well! Now I have spent the week trying to ration the candy that he is consuming while not consuming too much myself. No easy task.

I know I'm a little late but here are some pictures from the holiday. (Jenn - no I'm not in any of these either because I'm always the one TAKING the pictures...talk to my husband about it!)

Coloring Easter Eggs...note that Cameron's fingers were actually picking up more dye than the eggs!

Who says that an Easter basket can't double as a hat? (All that candy makes a boy do strange things...)

I can't imagine HOW that Easter grass got all over the house...

EGGS!!

Yay for Pl@y-Doh, that Easter Bunny knows what's fun! (FYI, Pl@y-Doh is evil as well...I'll be vacuuming up little tiny dried up pieces of that stuff until he outgrows it...sigh)

And it was a bit cold but we still managed to get outside and play in the sun. I think that swingset in the backyard is going to get a lot more use this year!

The winter of never-ending sickness

This has been a looooonggg winter for many reason. There has been a shit-ton of snow for one thing, alternating with weeks of below zero temps, add to that a stir-crazy toddler running around the house wanting to watch Elmo 24-7 for lack of anything better to do (he has learned to ignore the giant piles of toys all over the house, those are soooo last year), but to top it all off there has been "the sickness".

I can't remember exactly when it started, but it's been going on continuously all winter long with no end in sight. I'm pretty sure Cameron caught a bug at the daycare and brought "the sickness" into our home (I don't blame him by the way, we are the horrible working parents that subject our child to the germ-ridden daycare in the first place), but it's been passed around our family ever since. So first Cameron was sick for a while, then I caught the sickness, then Brian caught it. Then maybe there were a couple days there where we all felt pretty good...but that didn't last and the next thing you know one of us was sick again. I think I'm going to use up all our flex spending money on antibiotics and over-the-counter cold meds! At one point poor little Cameron had to be on nebulizer treatments for his nasty cough. Now let me tell you that stuff really works for him and his cough would improve dramatically after the treatments, but try getting a 2 year old to sit still for 7-10 minutes with a mask on his face blowing medicated air into his system. 'Nuff said.

So then last week we ended up taking Cameron in to the Dr. for the 3rd or 4th time this season (turned out he had a double ear infection, poor little guy!) and we are told that his pediatrician no longer works at that office. Wait, huh? "Didn't you get a letter in the mail?" they ask us? Um, no. So they have "assigned" him a different Dr., who seems very nice and I'm sure we will get to know and like, but in the mean time I can't help feeling really bummed out and slightly betrayed by his old dr. whom we saw just a month ago and gave no signs that she was leaving whatsoever! I really, really liked her...and now it sounds like she's gone to a different city to start her own practice. Well, good for her because she's awesome, but it sucks for us. Phooey.

So that was the bummer last week. Cameron is feeling much better though and seems to be on the mend. I'm sick again however. But then again it's Easter week and I cannot remember an Easter in my entire lifetime where I wasn't sick so I should know to expect this.

Anyway, enough of my whining for today. I'm off to medicate myself and then to bed! I'll be dreaming that Spring and good health are right around the corner!

4 Months in pictures

What's been happening since I last posted? Not a whole heck of a lot. Mostly I've been busy being a working mom, nothing out of the ordinary has really been going on. And Cameron's been growing up in a hurry, a little too fast for his Mommy's liking. Since I know you're just here for cute kid pictures I'll try to recap the past 4 months in pictures.

Cameron turned 2 in November!

He loves the movie Cars so he had a "Lightning McQueen" cake. It appears that he is blowing out the candles in this picture but he was actually coughing on the cake! Oops. (Note to self: teach child how to cover his mouth when coughing and sneezing.)

He also LOVES Thomas and has spent a lot of time playing with this train set he got for his birthday.

This was one of the first snowfalls of the year...you know back when we thought snow was fun!

We tried to get the perfect Santa Hat picture for Christmas but this was the best I could get. Daddy's actually underneath our little Santa in PJs.

At some point this winter Cameron decided that he hated baths and would scream and cry through the entire thing until we discovered bathtub finger paints and wall stickies! Bath time has been fun ever since (thank goodness!).

Oh look, more $*&@*$# Snow!!! To entertain ourselves we put our kid to work shoveling the driveway and cleaning off our vehicles.

In February we took a vacation to (sometimes) sunny CA to visit my brother and SIL and meet my 5 month old niece Gemma. Cameron had lots of fun with his baby cousin (unless his Mommy tried to hold her in which case he became EXTREMELY jealous!). We tried to have a photo shoot of the kids together but they were both too busy staring at the TV!

And although it was the rainy season there (they live near San Jose) so it was still pretty cool in the 50s and 60s but it was about 50 degrees warmer than Wisconsin so we were loving it! Cameron had a great time playing outside and we can't wait for Spring to arrive in our neck of the woods!