My Fashion Sense (or lack thereof)

Scott just doesn't trust my ability to pick out clothes for myself. Not that I am a fashionista in any sense of the word, but several times when I've brought new clothes home he's given me "the look" - - a mix of befuddlement and horror. The first time was when I was pregnant. I'd bought a pair of maternity jeans at Target, liked them, and asked him to pick up another pair for me on the way home. He called me from the store to ask, was I really sure this was what I wanted? Yes. Really really sure? Yes! I was a little impatient. He described the jeans and I assured him that those were the ones I wanted, with the jean material legs and the nice soft stretchy tummy. When he got home and presented them to me he gave me the look and said, "Ali, those are going to look awfully weird when you tuck your shirts in." Poor guy, didn't realize that when you're pregnant you just don't tuck!
Another time I bought a pair of bright pink scrubs for work. I came out of my room and Scott gave me "the look" and said, "that's a nice outfit, very . . . pink." Later I discovered that he didn't realize I was going to work, he thought the outfit was just a regular going out on the town outfit. See what I mean?
And last week I came home with a new pair of jeans. They had a big cloth sticker on the front, a red star (which, if you looked closely, bore the words, "can you cinch an inch?"). Scott gave the jeans the look and said, "are those your Hannah Montana jeans?" Once again doubting my ability to shop for myself, he thought the sticker was part of the jeans. Good grief!

Continued

I stink at the technical part of this, could only upload a few pics with that post. So here are a few more.

Disneyland

We spent last weekend in Disneyland with my sister Brittany (fondly known as Beebs) and her husband Scott, and boys Weston, Aidan, and Brennan. We had a great time! We spent the first day at the main park and the second at "California Adventure." Both have fun rides. Noah was so happy - - Disney is his favorite place on earth. We waited in line for almost an hour to go on the Toy Story 2 ride, which was pretty cool (although the wait with 4 little boys was pretty brutal!) Disney has some nice restaurants too, and I ate the best fries of my life - - seasoned with parsely, garlic, and parmesan cheese, with a thousand island dip. Amazing. My pants seemed a little snugger when I got home, I can't imagine why . . .

We also went to church and visited the LA Temple. We ate in a cute little diner nearby, and the hostess was born in Pocatello! Small world. I had so much fun visiting with Beebs, who I rarely get to see. She is darling, so patient and so fun (she didn't even lose it when Weston threw up chocolate donut all over the back seat of the car). I wish we could have spent more time together. We had to leave Sunday night, didn't get on the 6:00 flight so ended up taking a red-eye to Baltimore and then a morning flight to Chicago. Noah got a fever and didn't feel well part of the time, but he's fine now.

I'm also posting some gorgeous pictures of Lake Louise (when Scott took the boys to Canada). I told him that next fall we're going, just the 2 of us!

You Never Know . . .

Yesterday I was sitting in the TV room watching Ethan play his Wii game (Mario Party 8?). He was really doing well, as far as I could tell, and I told him what an awesome player he was. Later he came upstairs (after I'd hollered at him several times to quit playing and do his homework) and said, "Mom, when you complimented me on my video game skills that really got to me." I tell him I love him about 50 times a day, and constantly try to build him up, saying what a good brother he is, how nice he looks, making specific mention of nice things he's done or good schoolwork. But what made a difference to him was knowing I thought he was a good video game player. Isn't that funny?!

Canada

Scott took the kids to Canada this morning. I really wanted to go, but I've been recovering from a 2 week cold and was so buried in paperwork that I didn't feel I could do it. Plus next weekend we're going to Disneyland with Beebs and Scott and their kids. Now of course I'm missing the Scott and Ethan and Noah like crazy. They were all so sweet this morning. But I'm attacking the mess in my office and hopefully over the weekend I'll be able to get everything so organized that I won't be a stressed mess next week. Amazing how paper just piles up, coupons, schoolwork, mail, junk mail, adoption stuff, church stuff, FINDS (Down syndrome group) stuff, etc. So I'm making about a hundred little piles and trying to throw out as much as possible. The weather is great, cool and crisp, and tomorrow I'm going to attempt to clean the rest of the garage and do some yardwork. Scott's parents are going to be in Canada too, so he and the kids will have a great time. They're staying in a beautiful hotel on the shores of Lake Louise. I wish I could be with them! But I was really suffocating in backed up to-dos. So I'll unbury myself and be a better wife and mother when they get back.

Updates

Life is going on, busy and chaotic as usual. We're working on new adoption paperwork, which is a huge pain in the neck. Trying to coordinate between our new agency, our old agency, and our homestudy agency is not easy. Our profile is being showed around though, so at some point we may actually have a baby.

Ethan is doing very well in school, and recently ran for class president. He didn't win, but that's mostly due to the fact that there were 4 boys and only 2 girls in the running. What 6th grade girl would vote for a boy? But Ethan did a great job with his speech, misquoting Patrick Henry ("give me lunch or give me death") and JFK ("ask not what your school can do for you . . .). He started out, "In this time of political turmoil, vote for a candidate who cares more about having fun than about the issues." He got a lot of laughs and his teacher loved it. I'm really proud of him, he did it all on his own and it was a good experience for him.

Noah is doing well in school. Every day he gets a paper with smiley faces or thumbs down stamps for each of his classes. Thumbs down is for disruptive behavior, not listening, etc. Monday he got all smiles! Now the goal is a whole week of smiles. He does love school, and he's working hard.

I'm putting together our Down syndrome Halloween party. The kids love it, we do a pinata and it's always a big hit. I love seeing the costumes. I'm really looking forward to it. We also have the National Association for Down Syndrome conference in Chicago in November. They always have great workshops. Needless to say, I'll be attending the potty-training one. Still working on that.

Scott is busy with work and planning lots of trips for us. That's his stress reliever. I just curl up with a good book. I've been getting through an awful lot of pages lately . . .