Happy (Belated) 11th Birthday Bethany!

January 29th was my daughter's 11th birthday. I meant to post something then, but I've been sick for the past week with a nasty cold. I'm finally starting to feel better now. If there's anything in my life that makes me feel old, knowing that I'm now officially the mom of a preteen (yes, Bethany likes to inform me that she's a preteen now) is it, ha, ha! Only two more years until she's officially a teenager - yikes! How can it be that dating, driving, and high school are only a few years away??? Gulp!

It really doesn't feel like it was that long ago that Bethany was this little:
Now I have this almost as tall as me, going through puberty, becoming concerned about clothes, and hairstyles, talking about what's cool and what isn't from a 5th graders' perspective (apparently the kids in her class spend a lot of time discussing that), wanting a cell phone, and looking forward to be old enough to babysit, preteen.
But I also have a smart, funny, creative, sweet, pretty girl, and I'm proud to be her mom. She made me especially proud the other day when she told me that even though her little brother (Dominic) annoys her sometimes, that she still loves him. Awww!

Although the 29th marked a happy occasion in my life, it also marked a sad one. My dad passed away 4 years ago this month. His funeral fell on Bethany's 7th birthday. I thought it would be fitting to post this:
This is me (a much thinner me - I actually weighed less 9 months pregnant with Bethany than I do now -sigh...) and my dad at my older sister Desiree's wedding in 1997. I was 5 months pregnant with Bethany in this photo. I still miss my dad a lot, but I'm thankful for the time I had with him, and I take comfort in knowing that he's no longer sick or in pain.

I also have something wonderful to remember my dad by - my black and white kitty, Stormy (AKA "Mitten" because of her little white mitten paws). I was going through a really rough period in my life in the winter of 2001, personally, financially, and health wise. My colon became infected and ruptured unexpectedly, requring me to have emergency surgery to remove a foot and a half of my colon. I spent a week in an ICU, and came home with a colostomy. My other black and white kitty at the time, Sasha, who I had for 6 years, got lost right before I went to the hospital. The local animal shelter found him a few weeks later, but he died at the shelter the next morning, before I had a chance to come pick him up. I was heartbroken, and it was a lot to deal with so soon after my surgery.

A few days later, my dad and brother went to the drugstore, and my dad saw a tiny black and white cat wandering around in the parking lot, freezing, and trying to get into the store - my Stormy. My brother grabbed her, and they brought her home for me, and it did a lot to cheer me up. I still have her now, 7 years later, and she holds special meaning to me, since my dad found her. Happy belated birthday, Bethany! And rest in peace, Dad.

Happy 6th Birthday Dominic!

Yep, today is my son's 6th birthday!

Lesa, I copied the "cake" you had on your blog! : )

It's hard to believe my little boy is 6 already. It went by so fast! It doesn't seem like that long ago that he was this little:

But now he's this big:

He even lost his first tooth last week! One minute he wants to do every thing by himself - getting mad if I try to help him zip his coat, or put on a DVD for him to watch (he's better at operating the DVD player than I am, ha, ha!), and then the next minute he'll run up to me, throw his arms around me, and tell me "I haven't had any hugs today!" or "I haven't had any kisses today!". I'm not looking forward to the age when he'll get embarrassed if I hug or kiss him. Happy birthday to my sweet little boy!

I realize I haven't been updating my blog much lately. I've been so preoccupied with my job situation lately that it's been hard concentrating on anything else. As you probably already surmised, I was laid off from the BOE again. They laid off all of the temps on Christmas Eve, but never bothered to notify anyone. Yep. I didn't work on Christmas Eve because of the weather, and most of the temps left early that day. From what I heard from another temp, one of the supervisors said late in the day (after most everyone had gone home) that Christmas Eve "might" be our last day.

We weren't scheduled to go back to work until the 29th. I came down with a horrific case of the flu two days before that. I hadn't been that sick with the flu in years. I barely made it out of bed to go to work on the 29th, but dragged myself into work anyway (as did most of the temps), only to find that all the temps were indeed laid off on Christmas Eve. No one got a call saying they were laid off, and the supervisors were shocked that so many people showed up to work. What did they expect?! The supervisors were trying to find work for the day for people who showed up, but I felt so sick and apparently looked so bad that the head of the department took one look at me and sent me home.

I had applied for unemployment pay after my first layoff in mid-December, and got the determination on Christmas Eve. I was turned down, because according to the unemployment office, I didn't have at least 20 weeks of "covered" employment or earned at least $206 a week before taxes during my employment. I earned more than $206 a week with the BOE, but was only there about 15 or 16 weeks.Upon looking into the unemployment law though, I realized that they were looking at any employment I had during what they consider my "base period", which is from 7/1/07-6/30/08. I was employed at my pre-BOE job during that time period. That employer was a nonprofit (church), which don't pay into the state unemployment fund, so the unemployment office told me that employment would most likely not count.

However, I found this on the unemployment bureau's website:

What is covered employment? Under Ohio law, most employers are required to pay contributions for unemployment insurance. Work for such an employer is "covered" employment. Work for a nonprofit or government agency is "covered" employment, even though the employer does not pay regular contributions, but instead reimburses the cost of unemployment benefits paid to its former workers. In that case, my employment with the church qualifies as "covered employment" for the purposes of receiving unemployment pay. I filed an appeal that day (stating that I did indeed have at least 20 weeks of covered employment, with all of the necessary information), and just received a new determination today.

So, in that case, my employment with the church IS covered employment! I filed an appeal on Christmas Eve, and was told it would take 21 days for a decision. I recieved the decision today, and well, I was still refused unemployment benefits, for the same reason as before! I'm so angry I could scream! I've been out of work nearly a month with no pay. Prior to that, I hadn't had a full paycheck in over a month, between my first layoff, and the BOE cutting the temps' hours after the November 4th election.

I filed a second appeal today, which will go to the Ohio Unemployment Compensation Review Commission, who will grant me a hearing on my appeal. In the meantime though, I can't afford to wait another three weeks to a month to see what will happen with my second appeal. I feel just sick over this. I've been applying and applying for jobs and haven't had a single interview in months. A friend of mine - a temp from the BOE, who recently found a permanent job, and who has HR experience, revamped my resume for me. Maybe that will help, but I'm not very hopeful, given all the bad luck and disappointments I've had over the past year with job hunting.

In other news, my husband's company just laid off 1,300 people across Ohio and I think Pennsylvania. This is the second round of layoffs they've had in a month. Fortunately they haven't laid off anyone from my husband's department (maintenance) yet, but he's worried that it might still be coming, and with him having the least seniority of anyone in the department, that wouldn't bode well for him. I'm praying they don't lay him off, because we'd be just absolutely screwed financially.

I have finished some crochet projects lately, and I'll post them in the next day or so. I've been working on some things for my Etsy shop. I set one up, but haven't put anything up for sale yet. I need to get a foam mannequin head to display hats, and some kind of banner for my Etsy shop (I don't have the software to make one). Those will have to wait a while too.

Belated Merry Christmas

I hope all my blog readers and fellow crafters had a good Christmas! Mine was OK. To be honest, my job situation has had me pretty distracted lately, and really put a damper on Christmas for me. I went back to work about two weeks ago. The first week back, there was a big water main break downtown a few blocks from the BOE, and the BOE had no water service, so we ended up being sent home at 9:30 in the morning. We had to work on Saturday to make up the time, but Saturday was only a partial day, so between that and the time I missed from work when I took the Census test, I was short a few hours for the week.

This week I stayed home on Monday and Wednesday because the weather was so bad. I've lived in the Cleveland area my whole life, so I've dealt with some pretty nasty weather conditions traveling to and from work. I can deal with snow and cold, but after falling on a patch of ice downtown last year, and breaking my right wrist, I'm paranoid when it comes to ice. Now that I have no medical insurance, the possibility of breaking something else really worries me more than it would normally.

We had freezing rain Sunday night, and by Monday morning, the roads and sidewalks were completely ice covered. My husband had an awful time getting home from work, and said the sidewalks looked even worse than the streets, and he doubted I'd be able to make it to the bus stop OK. A lot of the ice had melted by Tuesday, so I went to work, and then we got hit with even more freezing rain on Tuesday night. When I looked outside on Wednesday, the sidewalks just looked rainy, and not icy, so I got dressed, left the house, and didn't even make it halfway down the street without nearly falling a few times, because everything was completely ice covered. I couldn't even walk in the street, because the street wasn't salted. Things were so bad, many freeways were even shut down overnight, because of the high number of car accidents.

The suburb I live in used to be pretty good about getting the streets, including the side streets salted, but this year they really seem to be lax. I haven't seen a single side street salted (including mine), and the main streets don't seem to get salted until after the morning rush, which is useless. I read in the newspaper a few months ago that the state of Ohio is expected to have a road salt shortage this year (there's endless amounts of salt underneath Lake Erie, but apparently the mining companies can't mine it quickly enough to keep up with demand), so I'm going to be generous and assume that's why the roads aren't getting salted on time.

I felt terrible having to miss those two days of work, when I already haven't had a full paycheck in a month. The BOE kept changing their mind about which days they were going to close for Christmas, and finally they decided to close through Monday, which is great for regular employees, who have paid time off, but not so great for temps, who get nothing. On top of that, we're just about finished with the voter history, and from what one of the other temps told me, based on what she heard on Christmas Eve, next Tuesday might be our last day of work. The BOE had been pushing us to finish up the voter history by December 31st, presumably to get us off the payroll before the beginning of the year, so I'm anticipating being permanently laid off next week.

I knew this was a temp job, so I guess I shouldn't be upset, but at the same time, I had expected to find another job before this one ended. I applied for unemployment pay when I was laid off the first time, but my claim was denied because I hadn't been at the BOE for at least 20 weeks (I've only been there about 16 weeks). Normally they'd take into account my prior employment as well, but my last job was with the national offices of a church, and churches are not required to pay into the state unemployment fund, so the 3 years I spent at the church don't count as "covered employment". In my opinion, just because an employer doesn't have to pay into the unemployment fund, doesn't mean they shouldn't.

I'm just really scared about how my husband and I are going to manage once I'm laid off again. We're already struggling as it is, and I can't stand the thought of having a repeat of this summer, where we had to choose between paying the rent and buying food. The selection of jobs out there has been pretty slim lately, and I haven't even been able to get any interviews for the ones I've applied for. Things have gotten so bad here in the Cleveland area that one of the major hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic, has a hiring and raise freeze. I ran into a friend of mine who works for the other major hospital system in the area, University Hospitals, and he said they cut all of his overtime. My landlord has a tenant who works for Lincoln Electric, another major employer here in Cleveland, and his tenant told him Lincoln laid off a ton of employees, basically anyone who has been there less than 3 years. This is the first layoff Lincoln has had since 1948 - 60 years! If that doesn't show how bad things are with the economy, I don't know what does.

Needless to say, Christmas was pretty lean for us this year. I spent about $250 on presents for both of the kids, and wouldn't even have spent that much, if not for my mother and sister giving me $75 to use towards the kids' presents. My husband and I didn't buy each other gifts this year. Even though I didn't buy a whole lot, the kids were happy with what they got. On Christmas Eve we usually go to my older sister Desiree's house for dinner and a gift exchange among the kids. This year I didn't know anyone had organized a gift exchange, and no one told me about it until a week before Christmas, when I had already spent my extra money on my kids' gifts. My mom bought gifts for me to give to my niece and nephew (whose names I had for the gift exchange), which I really appreciated, because I was pretty much broke before Christmas.

Since I didn't buy anything personally for my niece and nephew, I wanted to crochet something for them. I raided my yarn stash and made hats for both. The first is a newsboy-style cap that I crocheted for my 11 year old niece, Alexis (Desiree's daughter).
I used some Red Heart Kids and Caron Simply Soft from my stash. I had barely a full skein of the Red Heart kids, and it ended up being the exact amount I needed for the hat. The pattern was a free one I found on Ravelry ("Swirls Cap"). I'm really happy with how it came out (although I think the swirls would show better in a solid color yarn), and I anticipate making a lot more of these. Everyone raved about it.

My kids had fun on Christmas Eve. My sister has a big house, so there's a lot of room for them to run around and play with their cousins. Here's the "three amigos" - my Bethany, her cousin Alexis (middle) and her cousin Rosie (right end). That's Alexis's dog, Tanner, in the photo. He's a Labradoodle (Labrador and Poodle mix). Alexis is allergic to dogs, but Labradoodles are hypoallergenic and don't shed (his fur feels just like a lamb's wool - I bet someone could even spin it into yarn!), so Alexis isn't allergic to him.
My kids had fun on Christmas Eve. My sister has a big house, so there's a lot of room for them to run around and play with their cousins. Here's the "three amigos" - my Bethany, her cousin Alexis (middle) and her cousin Rosie (right end). That's Alexis's dog, Tanner, in the photo. He's a Labradoodle (Labrador and Poodle mix). Alexis is allergic to dogs, but Labradoodles are hypoallergenic and don't shed (his fur feels just like a lamb's wool - I bet someone could even spin it into yarn!), so Alexis isn't allergic to him.
Here's my adorable little niece, Jenna with her dad: And Jenna with Bethany:
My birthday was December 26th, and my brother-in-law's was the 27th, so my youngest sister Shauna baked a Christmas tree shaped cake for us on Christmas Eve. I turned 35 on the 26th. Only 5 more years until I turn 40 - boy, does that sound depressing! I was feeling pretty lousy on Christmas, about my job situation. A temp coworker and I were joking around about how it's a good thing we can't see into the future, because if we had looked ahead to 2008, and saw ourselves at the BOE scanning signatures in poll books for $10 an hour, we'd have wanted to scream. I told her if I could have looked into the future to see what I'd be doing when I turned 35, I'd really be upset.

I get introspective around this time of year, and I can't help but feel disappointed in myself. I worked so hard to get an education and work experience - I dropped out of high school in the 11th grade and worked at a fast food restaurant, but I went on to get a GED, went to a trade school to learn some office skills, graduated from college after attending for 10 long years off and on, started graduate school, and got progressively better paying jobs. Now here am I am feeling like none of it mattered. I have a $10 an hour temp job (the last time I earned $10 an hour was in 1999), that is ending shortly, and no prospects for another job. I'm still renting. I have a mountain of bills I can't pay. I have no medical insurance. I can't sleep at night and have been getting stomach pains from the stress. I've taken my graduate education off my resume, thinking it probably makes me look overqualified for most jobs I've applied for, and now I'm at the point where I'm wondering if I shouldn't list my bachelor's degree either, which is a pretty depressing prospect.

I woke up on my birthday not even wanting to get out of bed. My husband tried hard to cheer me up, and I appreciated it. He bought me birthday cards from him and the kids, and bought me some slippers and a fleece blanket (since I'm always freezing). He had gone to Walmart, and wanted to buy me a sewing machine, but couldn't find one he could afford. I appreciated the thought though. My sister Shauna gave me a pair of (pink!) fleece pajamas, and the Doris Chan book, "Everyday Crochet" (crochet books are good!). My good friend Latanya, who lives in Dallas (and who makes me jealous with reports of the warm weather down there!) sent me two flannel nightgowns for Christmas and my birthday. My husband and I kids I went out to eat at Bob Evans for dinner. We don't eat out very often, and when we do, Bob Evans or Red Robin are about as expensive as we get. We're on such a tight budget right now, that I wouldn't have gone if not for having two coupons for free kids' meals and drinks (which the kids got from Bob Evans' free birthday club).

I also got a couple of surprises in the mail recently. Last week I got a box in the mail, and I had no idea who it was from. I opened it up and found a beautiful pink knitted scarf (interestingly the exact color of my winter coat), and some pretty pink yarn. I was racking my brain all day trying to figure out who it was from, until I realized it was probably a PIF gift. I was right - it was my PIF gift from Hayley of Knittyauntie.com. It wa a really nice surprise!

The second surprise was a package of gifts for my kids from
Katrina, which arrived on my birthday. Here's what she sent:

a Hannah Montana bag and notebook for Bethany:
a Disney Cars apron (great for arts and crafts!), and a Cars wallet (I didn't get a chance to take a photo) for Dominic:And yes, there's more - two beautiful Christmas stockings!

Katrina handmade the bag, the apron, and the stockings - aren't they awesome?! The kids love getting mail, and they were thrilled with everything Katrina sent. Bethany thought Katrina had bought the bag, because it looks so well made. The apron looks wonderful too! Thank you so much, Katrina! I am always amazed at how generous fellow crafters on the web can be. Katrina's package really made my day!

That's about all that's been going on lately. My husband's company is shut down until January 5th, so I've been enjoying having him home at night, and it helps that he'll be able to stay home with the kids for their Christmas vacation. Other than the hats I made for Christmas, I haven't crocheted anything else lately. When I'm worried about things, I can't concentrate on crocheting. I've been reading a lot lately though. I just finished a couple of books - "Something Like Beautiful: One Single Mother's Story" by asha bandele (no typo - she spells it lowercase), which I got free from Amazon.com through their Vine program, and "Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx" by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. Something Like Beautiful was good, but Random Family was fantastic, definitely one of the best books I've read in a long time. I highly recommend it.

I still have no satellite TV service, so I've been checking a lot of DVD's out from the library lately. My husband and I watched Michael Moore's "Sicko" yesterday. It was excellent, and heartbreaking, too. One story particularly bothered me - a 30 something year old man, married with kids, who died from leukemia because his insurance company would not pay for a bone marrow transplant (his son was a marrow match) because they said the treatment was "experimental". The whole documentary is a real condemnation of the state of health care in this country.

Well, it's pretty late, so I need to finish this up and go to bed. Can you believe that after -20 degree (with wind chill) temperatures and freezing rain for the past couple of days, that it's actually 64 degrees and dry here in the Cleveland area right now??? I'm trying hard not to get my hopes up that it's going to stay that way!

Happy Belated Mardi Gras!

Happy belated Mardi Gras day! The 4th graders at my daughter’s school get to dress up as clowns for Mardi Gras, and they get treats, and parade around the school, visiting all the classrooms. Here she is all dressed up before school! How did I do on the homemade costume (well, I did buy the wig and the makeup)? She was so excited about getting dressed up that she got out of bed yesterday morning without even complaining like she usually does every morning.

As a nice treat for me, my daughter didn’t have homework yesterday, so I got a break from helping her with homework. She also didn’t have math homework today, which was nice too. I sit down with her every night to help her with homework, and she only needs minimal help with spelling, religion, science, etc., but math is a huge chore. She was diagnosed with a math learning disability in second grade, after struggling with math since kindergarten, and, despite receiving one on one tutoring twice a week through the school, and my nightly help, still gets D’s and F’s in math.

I understand how she feels, because I’ve struggled with math as long as I can remember too. Math was a nightmare for me in elementary school. I used to be mortified when I’d have to get up in front of the class to do a math problem on the board. I ended up taking a bunch of remedial math classes in college, and had to take a required statistics class three times before finally passing it with a C. I just don’t “get” math, never have, and helping my daughter with it is very frustrating. It takes us a good 40 minutes to get through her nightly 26-26 math problems, and I feel like a moron when there are a few problems that sometimes I can’t even figure out.

Hey, it’s only 4th grade math, and I nearly have a master’s degree, so the math should be a breeze for me, but it’s not. I feel terrible because my daughter loves science – has loved it for as long as I can remember, and wants to be a scientist one day, but I’m afraid with her math difficulties, that she might not be able to. It seems like most of the really good paying jobs require strong math skills, and not having them excludes a person from a lot, but I don't know what more I can do to help my daughter.

Well, as for me, I’ve been sick for the past few days with a nasty cold that I no doubt caught from my kids. I woke up this morning with a sore throat, cough, stuffed-up nose, and the whole right side of my face hurting, so I didn’t go to work. After getting the kids ready for school and daycare, I took some cold medicine, went back to bed after my husband left to drop them off, and didn’t get back up until 2:30. I’ve been trying to rest (when my kids will let me!) and following along on the Internet with this Bobby Cutts trial.

Now, I like to watch true crime TV shows, and I’ve been on jury duty twice in the past four years (once for an aggravated murder/aggravated robbery case and once for a robbery/kidnapping case), so I’ve seen some sick stuff, but this case really takes the cake.

Bobby Cutts is a former Canton, OH (Canton is about an hour south of Cleveland) police officer who is accused of murdering his pregnant girlfriend (Jessie Davis) in front of their 2 year old son, and dumping her body in the woods. He was married at the time he killed her, and, as if that weren’t bad enough, it turns out that he was also seeing two other women (so four women total including his now ex-wife) while all this was happening! Then on top of that, one of the girlfriends was also married, and had gotten pregnant by Bobby, and had an abortion the day Jessie was murdered! And, Jessie and the two other girlfriends all knew he was married, plus Jessie had actually gotten pregnant by him three times (she miscarried one).

The prosecution is saying he killed Jessie because he was deeply in debt, and didn’t want to have to pay child support for their second child (he was already paying child support for a daughter conceived when he was in college, plus child support for Jessie’s first kid, and was ordered to pay child support to his ex-wife, who had started divorce proceedings before Jessie was killed). Can you say sick??? I know paying child support is no picnic – my oldest brother pays a small fortune in child support every month to his ex-wife for their one biological son, but to murder someone over it? All this could have been avoided if he hadn’t been messing around with all those women in the first place! And, I can’t figure out how this guy even got on the police force in the first place? Don’t they do psychological testing before letting a person join the police academy? Just crazy!

I did get manage to make some progress on two crochet projects today at least. I finished my daughter’s cupcake pillow. OK, I didn’t get it done in time for her birthday, but at least it’s done, right? I’m going to give it to her tomorrow when I get home from work. I used an H hook, Lion Brand Cupcake yarn in Pink Lemonade for the top, and Bernat Satin in Lagoon for the bottom. I had originally crocheted a cherry for the top, but after I sewed it on, I didn’t like it, so I cut it off, and used fabric glue to glue on some beads instead. The beads were just cheap ones from the beauty supply store. You’ll have to excuse the glue marks (it’ll dry clear) and the pins on the bow (those are just to hold it in place until the glue dries). I used a pattern I bought from a seller on Etsy for the cupcake, but I made it larger than called for in the pattern.

I also finished the inside pillow part of my sister’s ring bearer pillow. Now I just need to crochet the back cover, crochet them over the lavender pillow, and add a lavender ruffled edging. I’m still plugging away on her shawl when I have time. I like to crochet on the bus to and from work, but a bunch of busses were cut from the route I normally take, so most days the bus is so dang crowded, I can’t crochet at all. : (

That’s about it. I’ve got to clean up my house and get my kids’ clothes ready for tomorrow and then am going to bed

Happy 10th Birthday Bethany!

Today is my daughter Bethany's 10th birthday! It's hard to believe she's already 10, and will be going into the 5th grade this fall! That makes me feel old! I still remember how excited I was when I was pregnant and found out I was having a girl. I had multiple ultrasounds during my pregnancy for various reasons, and every one showed a girl, but I was still so afraid the ultrasounds were wrong, that I hardly bought anything pink for her before she was born. I actually brought her home from the hospital in a blue sleeper! I made up for it with lots of pink, ruffled socks and dresses later on, until when my daughter was in kindergarten, and announced that ruffled socks were for babies, and refused to wear them again, LOL! And she still won't wear anything too frilly to this day!

My Bethany has always been a stubborn, opinionated one. I had a horrific

pregnancy with her - every pregnancy ailment imaginable right up until I gave birth. I was so nauseated throughout the pregnancy that I only gained 15 pounds. My water broke at work two weeks before my due date (yep, at work!), but I had to be induced, because I wasn't having contractions, and still didn't have her until 12 hours later, and she insisted on being born face first instead of head first!

When Bethany was 3 weeks old, she came down with what my husband, her pediatrician, and I all thought was a bad cold. She continued to get worse until one day she refused to take a bottle all day, and wouldn't even cry. Being a young and new mom (I was 24 when I had her), I didn't realize how ill she was until my youngest sister came home from work (my sister and husband and I shared an apartment back then), picked her up, and my daughter went limp in her arms and turned blue. I paged my husband (he was working as a maintenance man in our apartment complex), and called 911. While I was on the phone with a dispatcher, my husband came home, and we rushed out to take Bethany to the local emergency room, which fortunately was only about a 5 minute drive away. When we got to to the emergency room, they took Bethany back right away, put an oxygen mask on her, and called for an ambulance to take her to Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital here in Cleveland.

My husband and I followed in our car, and when we got to the hospital, had to spend the next hour sitting in the waiting room while the doctors stabilized our daughter. When we finally got to see her, nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. She was lying in this huge hospital crib, on a ventilator, unable to breathe on her own, with a tube down her throats, and dozens of other tubes and wires all over her body. She was kept tranquilized so she wouldn't knock the tubes out, and I couldn't even hold her. I was on maternity leave from my job, so I spent every day and night in her hospital room, only going home to shower and change clothes. My husband still had to work, but he spent every evening and night at the hospital with me.

Bethany was diagnosed with dehydration and a severe case of RSV (respiratory synctial virus), and spent the next week in the PICU growing sicker and sicker while my husband and I watched helplessly. She eventually became so ill that the virus spread throughout her whole body, and her body started shutting down. The hospital listed her in critical condition, and my mother arranged for a Catholic priest to come baptize her in the hospital in case she died. I started thinking about funeral arrangements and possibly donating her organs. The doctors said the only thing left they could do would be to give her a blood transfusion, in the hopes that an infusion of white blood cells would boost her immune system. My husband and I agreed to the transfusion, and miraculously, after the transfusion, she gradually began to get well.

I thank God for the anonymous person whose donation of blood saved my daughter's life. I am also thankful for all the kind nurses and doctors who helped us through that horrible time. One of the nurses made me laugh when she said Bethany woke up from the sedation, and the nurse tried to sedate her again, and despite giving her the maximum amount of sedative, Bethany just laid awake, staring at her, and refused to go to sleep!

After two weeks at the hospital, we were able to take Bethany home. Her pediatrician told me at a follow-up appointment that he felt bad that he didn't realize how sick Bethany was when we brought her to see him before she ended up hospitalized, and that quite frankly he was surprised that she lived, considering how young she was, and the severity of her infection. I've felt guilty for years that I didn't realize either how sick Bethany was, and I often think about if my husband and I hadn't taken her to the hospital that evening, that she probably would died before morning from either the dehydration or not being able to breathe. Bethany spent the next few years of her life it seemed, constantly sick, with one thing after another. Unfortunately my boss at the job I started a few months after she was born, had no sympathy when I needed to miss work when Bethany would get sick. He had two teenage daughters, so it had been years since he had a baby at home, and his wife was a stay at home mom when the girls were growing up, so he didn't understand the concept of a parent needing to miss work to stay home with a sick child.

When Bethany was 5, she developed a really bad cough, that would worsen at night, to the point where she would wake up in the middle of the night coughing so bad that she would vomit. I made an appointment with her pediatrician, but it was a week away. One morning I got to work, and had a voice mail message from her daycare (the child development center where my son now attends), saying my daughter was really sick, and my husband or I would have to come pick her up. Before I could call the daycare, I got another call saying Bethany had gone into respiratory stress, and nearly passed out, so the teacher who was with her had called for an ambulance. The teacher and the director of the center rode to the hospital in the ambulance with Bethany, and stayed with her even after my husband and I got to the hospital. I was so thankful that the teachers at the center are CPR certified, and were able to recognize how sick Bethany was.

My husband and I found out at the hospital that Bethany had asthma. Before that, it never occurred to me that coughing could be an asthma symptom. Bethany spent the next month in and out of the hospital emergency room and doctor's office. With all the grief I was getting at work (from a woman who had became head of my area when the mortgage company I worked for was sold to a large bank), for taking time off with Bethany, and Dominic, who was only three months old, and extremely colicky, I ended up quitting my job and staying home with the kids for the next few months and finishing up my bachelor's degree.

Bethany's being diagnosed with asthma added another layer of guilt to what I already felt from her earlier hospitalization, because I believed that the RSV infection damaged her lungs and made her more susceptible to asthma. Over the past few years, I've met so many parents with children who had RSV infections as babies, and who later developed asthma, and I saw a medical journal last year also suggesting the same. Bethany has also has allergies and eczema, and her pediatrician said that allergies, eczema and asthma are all related, and many children with one will develop the others.

In the past year, my son also developed asthma, although a much milder form than my daughter, and my husband and I found out, after getting him tested by an allergist, that he has multiple allergies as well - cats (very mild), dogs (more severe), dust mites, and pollen. After one of my nieces developed similar allergies, although very severe (she'll ended up hospitalized if she's anywhere near a cat) and asthma, I began to feel a bit better about Bethany's asthma, realizing that with all the family history of asthma and allergies in the family, that even had Bethany been treated sooner for the RSV, that she still most likely would have ended up with asthma eventually, although maybe not as severe - she takes three medicines regularly for the asthma.

Sometimes (well, quite often!) Bethany frustrates me with her stubbornness, but I believe God made her that way for a reason - I truly believe her strong will even as a baby, helped her survive the RSV infection, and I thank God that's she's here with me today. I enjoy doing girly things with her, like taking her downtown for a hair cut at the salon, shopping and lunch, reading chapter books with her every night, laughing at the goofy names of kids in her school math book story problems (Jimbo, anyone?!), and laughing ourselves to tears while we make up new Red Haired Lady stories. I'm proud of how she tries hard at math, even though she was diagnosed with a math learning disability, and even the most basic math is extraordinarily hard for her. I feel proud of how the battery of tests she received to diagnose the learning disability showed that she's several grade years ahead with her vocabulary level, as is her reading ability. I enjoy her love of pink, jazz music, animals, science, and old TV shows and cartoons, like Betty Boop and Felix the Cat. She's a smart, funny, sweet, beautiful girl, and I'm proud to be her mom.

Wedding Gifts

Well, I ended up dropping that human resources grad school class, and am taking a capital budgeting class this semester instead. The capital budgeting is still challenging, but not nearly as bad as the HR class would have been. I had started taking the capital budgeting class in the spring of ’07, but ended up dropping it when I broke my wrist. Having to wear a cast, and then a brace, I was reduced to typing one-handed, pecking at the keys, and there was no way I could have taken any tests or typed up papers like that. Anyway, I’m hoping nothing will go wrong this time, and I’ll be able to complete the class and pass it.

I also started working on some wedding gifts for my younger sister Shauna this past week. Her wedding colors are ivory, lavender and periwinkle. The first is a ring bearer pillow (my son is going to be the ring bearer!). I searched online for patterns for crocheted ring bearer pillows, but couldn’t find any, so I just made my own design. I’m crocheting the cover in a v-stitch pattern, using Bernat Satin in Silk and Star Dust.

I got my husband to take me to Joann Fabrics so I could buy some lavender fabric to make the pillow part. It’s no fun shopping with a man at a craft store! I need to learn how to drive so I can go by myself. My husband looked positively miserable! I would say he looked like I would if I had to go to Home Depot with him, but actually I don’t mind Home Depot, because they sell plants and home décor items. It’s more like how I’d look if he dragged me to a musical instruments store like Sam Ash. My husband loves music, and plays a few instruments, so when we went to Sam Ash a few months ago to buy our daughter a flute for the school band, he kept stopping to look at everything, and ask the salesmen questions. I was so ready to leave! The only good thing was I found a cute pink cell phone case there to match my pink cell phone!

Anyway, I found this lavender fabric at Joann’s with the fabric remnants for sale, for only $1.49. I got the ribbon and pearls at Joann’s too. I bought the rosettes from a lady on EBay. I glued the ribbons and roses on with fabric glue, and had such a hard time trying to get them into a nice heart shape. I keep looking at it thinking the heart looks a bit “off” on one side. I realize the fabric, ribbon and yarn aren’t identical lavender shades, but they look close enough, I think. I guess I shouldn’t beat myself up about it, because my sister isn’t a picky or critical person. I’m sure she’ll be happy with the pillow as it is. I’m going to sew a pillow from the fabric, stuff it, and then put it in between the two crocheted pieces (I still need to make the back), single crochet them together with the ivory yarn, and then crochet a ruffle edging with the lavender yarn. The ribbon is to hold the rings. I need to figure out how to use the zoon feature on my camera, so I can get more detailed photos, because it's hard to see the heart in the picture.

The other gift I’m working on for Shauna is a wedding shawl. She’s getting married in May in an outdoor wedding, and May weather here in the Cleveland area can be unpredictable, so I thought it would be nice for her to have a shawl to cover up with in case the day is a little chilly. I got the pattern for the shawl from the book Cozy Crochet. The pattern was actually for a head kerchief, but I’m just adding more rows to enlarge it. It’s supposed to be a granny square type design, but it’s difficult to tell from my picture. I’m using discontinued Patons’ Katrina yarn in a blue Dawn color, to match the blue trim on Shauna's wedding dress. The yarn is super stretchy - it almost feels like crocheting with elastic - so I think that’s distorting the design a bit too. The yarn is really pretty – very soft and sparkly, but the stretchiness is making it difficult to work with. I have 5 skeins of the yarn, and I’m hoping that will be enough. I bought the yarn from a Canadian seller on EBay – the only place I could find it in the color I wanted - and it took two weeks for it to come, since it had to go through customs, so hopefully I won’t end up running out of yarn and needing to order more. After I finish the body of the shawl, I’m going to crochet a pretty scalloped border around it, and weave ivory satin ribbon through the scallops. I’m hoping I can get the shawl done in time to give it to her at her bridal shower in March.

The last project I have to show is some dishcloths I also crocheted for Shauna. These aren’t a wedding gift – just something to cheer her up because she’s been going through a tough time with some things in her life right now. She and her fiancée came over my house yesterday for a little birthday party for my kids, and Shauna saw my granny square dishcloths hanging up in the kitchen, and really liked them, so I though I’d make her some. I crocheted them with Lily Sugar N’ Cream in Soft Violet and Summer Twists. The first one is a granny square with a picot border, the second is a griddle stitch design with a scalloped border, and the last one is just rows of single, half-double and double crochets, with a ruffle border. I’m going to drop them in the mail to her tomorrow along with a nice card.

I figure her fiancee probably won't like the girly designs and colors, but she puts up with his collection of horror movie character figurines, so he can deal with some ruffles and lavender, LOL!

Thank you everyone for all the nice comments on baby Genna! She was able to come home from the hospital last week. My brother says she's doing better, but is colicky. I had two extremely colicky kids (both were lactose intolerant as babies), and it's definitely no fun, so I'm hoping Genna isn't actually colicky. Her mom is breastfeeding her, so it could just be that she seems colicky to my brother because it's been 13 years since he had to deal with a baby (his youngest son is 13). Thank you too for the nice comments on my son's birthday! My daughter's birthday is this Tuesday, so I'll have to post some pictures of her then.

Happy 5th Birthday Dominic!

Today is my son Dominic's 5th birthday! I feel so blessed to have such a smart, funny, cute little boy! When I found out I was pregnant with him, I really wanted another girl, partly so my daughter could have a sister, and partly because I just enjoy "girl stuff" and figured I wouldn't be too great at raising a son. I'll admit that I was a bit disappointed upon finding out I was having a boy, but it's been 5 years since he was born, and I couldn't be happier.

How can I not be happy when my son tells me he loves me every night when I put him to bed, and when he runs up to me every evening when he hears me come in the door after work, and gives me a big hug around the waist, and says, "I really missed you today, Mommy!" And how can I not be happy when he's always coming up with something funny - like the time when he and my daughter and I were watching a Snoopy special on TV that showed Woodstock dancing on top of Snoopy's doghouse, and he said "Hey, what's that yellow kid doing?" Or when my husband and I were trying to get Dominic to eat more fruits and vegetables, and I was reading his monthly lunch and snack menu from daycare, and asked him if he ate his peas and carrots at lunch time, and he said "I don't want to tell you!" I then asked him if he ate his raisins at snack time, and he said, "I don't want to talk about that, either!"

My funny little "Cubby"! I look forward to lots of more happy years raising him!

A Little Bit of Crocheting...

Thank you everyone for your kind words, thoughts, and prayers about my niece. Hopefully she'll get to come home this week, but it waits to be seen.

I don't have any finished crochet projects to show yet. I'm still working on my mom's poncho, hoping to have it done in time for her February birthday. I haven't gotten much done on it lately though, because my right hand and wrist have been totally stiff and sore the past few days. I've had occasional bouts of wrist pain since I broke my wrist last year, and really cold or rainy weather seems to bring it on, strange as that may seem. I'm also trying to finish up my daughter Bethany's cupcake pillow before her birthday on January 29th. She'll be 10. My son Dominic will be turning 5 on January 20th. That sure makes me feel old, to think that I have a daughter who will be a teenager in no time, and a son who will be starting kindergarten in the fall. I'm already getting emotional thinking about him starting kindergarten! Technicially it won't be much different, as he's been in daycare pretty much full-time since he was a baby (except for a few short periods of time), but it's just the idea that he's growing up. Dominic loves his daycare - it's a child development center run by our local school district (although they charge tuition), and it's a wonderful place, but he says he wants to "go to the big kid school with my sister". LOL! He'll still get go back to his daycare for summer camp with his "Sissy" every summer though.

I do have some cool crochet books I got this weekend to show though! My friend Janette invited my husband and kids and I to her son's birthday party at Chuck E' Cheese last Saturday. I "met" Janette online through a group for Cleveland-area interracial families, and the group dissolved, but Janette and I kept in touch through email. I finally got to meet her and her husband and kids in person on Saturday. She turned out to be just as nice as she is online, and her kids are adorable, especially her 6 month old daughter - sometimes I miss my daughter being that little, back before she started thinking she knows everything!

Anyway, the shopping plaza where Chuck E' Cheese is located has a Half-Price Books store, so I talked my husband into stopping in there with me. They actually had a pretty decent selection of crochet books. I bought a book called "Cozy Crochet" and one called "The Cool Girls' Guide to Crochet". I really love the Cozy Crochet book. It has a lot of cute patterns for advanced beginner crocheters, which is what I consider myself to be. The Cool Girls' Guide is a bit overdone - the author tries too hard to sound hip, but I bought it anyway because it has some cute patterns too. I also got a few crochet pattern books from eBay - a Red Heart Strata pattern book, and "Total Crochet Fashions". Now I just need to get some more yarn for all the projects I want to make from the books (just an excuse to buy more yarn), LOL! You get a bonus picture of my black & white cat Stormy, who was lying on the floor when I was taking the picture of the books. I also got a new Lion Brand catalog in the mail, with some super-cute new patterns for baby blankets and clothes - I love their catalogs!

I'm hoping to have some finished crochet projects to show soon, but it might be a while. I just started a new semester of grad school this week (I'm enrolled in an online MPA program with the University of Texas at Arlington), and I'm only taking one class, but it looks like it's going be a killer. The class is "Personnel and Human Resources in the Public Sector". My mouth dropped open when I saw the list of assignments:

·Discussion questions (DQ’s). Students will provide the answers to the DQs based on the readings for each topic. DQ’s and are due each Tuesday and are to be posted in the appropriate topic discussion area so all course participants can read your responses. Use outside scholarly resources and provide the citation and reference using APA 5th edition format. DQs and all written assignments are found at the end of the lectures.
· Several mini-papers/reports or case studies and two group project papers are scheduled and required. These written assignments are generally due each Thursday.
· Reviews. Three written reviews are included that support your final paper requirement (listed below).
· Participation. You are required to respond to their fellow student answers just as you would in an on campus classroom, posting a minimum of 3 separate days in a 7-day period.
· Final Human Resource Organizational Analysis written paper. Each student will also be required to prepare an analysis of a personnel management or human resource department in a public organization.

On top of grad school, and my regular job (which is super busy from mid-January through mid-April), I also serve as a Community Investment Committee volunteer with the United Way of Greater Cleveland. Last year I served on the Early Childhood cluster of the Learning & Earning for Life Initiative, but they've since revamped the committees, so this year I'll be on the Basic Needs & Self-Sufficiency committee. My position is starting back up next week. I'm also in the midst of planning a bridal shower for my youngest sister, who's getting married in May, and dealing with all the preparations for being a maid of honor, my daughter being a junior bridesmaid, and my son being the ringbearer.

Aaack!!! Did I mention that I think I might barely have time to breathe over the next few months, let alone get any crocheting done??? If I go AWOL with my blogging for awhile, at least you'll know where I am!

My daughter is going to Girl Scout camp this weekend (yes, winter camping here in snowy, frigid Cleveland!) - she leaves on Friday evening, and gets back Sunday morning, so hopefully that will give me some extra time for homework and to get some crochet projects finished. She's just thrilled about going to camp, because she'll get to spend time with her best friend Madison. They've known each other since they were babies, but they go to different schools, so they only see each other regularly at Girl Scouts activities/camp, summer camp, birthday parties, and the occasional play date, so Bethany really misses her. Here's a picture of my daughter and Madison (my daugher is the one on the right) from this past October when they went to "horse camp" in rural Ashtabula County, Ohio (about an hour and a half drive from Cleveland). I have an adorable picture of my daughter with a horse at camp, and if I can get my scanner to work, I'll scan it and post it.

Crochet and Vultures!

I’m not crocheting any vultures, LOL! I’m talking about the vulture lawyers and chiropractors that have been deluging mine and my husband’s mail and voice mail with phone calls and letters trying to solicit business since his (minor!) car accident! Apparently these places scour the police reports daily (because we received one letter the very next day after the accident), looking for auto accidents, so they can try to prompt the victim? accidentee? (I know that’s not a real word!) to sue someone. Here’s my favorite one: “Dear Mr. _________, We are sorry to learn from the police accident report that you were involved in a motor vehicle collision. This can be a very frightening experience…We have enclosed our Injury Video that contains information about our law firm as well as important information the insurance company would prefer you not hear…”. Or how about this one from a chiropractor: “SECRET REPORT. WARNING: THIS REPORT CONTAINS INFORMATION YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY DOES NOT WANT TO YOU KNOW!”

Apparently these places didn’t read the police report too well, because all my husband did was hit a fence, and get stuck in a snow bank. He didn’t even have to go the hospital! I just think it’s pretty funny. Anyway, my husband is OK. I appreciate the kind comments left about his accident.

My husband is getting nervous now though, because of something else that’s happening – he’s getting “fixed” tomorrow. Yep, he’s getting a vasectomy. He had been planning to get one since our son was born 5 years ago, but never got around to it. We knew during my pregnancy that we didn’t want any more kids, so I arranged to have my tubes tied after the birth, but it didn’t work out. My doctor took me to the operating room about an hour after I had my son, and after cutting me open and poking around for about an hour and a half, told me he couldn’t find my tubes. It turned out they are completely covered with scar tissue from two colon surgeries I had in 2001 and 2002. My doctor told me the only thing he could do would be to bring me back in 6 weeks for a more extensive surgery (laparoscopy), but that he was reluctant to do it (and I didn’t want any more major surgeries either). My husband said he would get a vasectomy, but never got around to it.

After my miscarriage this summer, we decided it was time to finally get it done, so my husband had a consultation with a doctor, and is having the surgery tomorrow. He’s getting nervous about it, but I told him if I could handle giving birth twice, having two major colon surgeries (and a colostomy), and having a D&C (after my miscarriage), he can handle a 15 minute, local anesthetic vasectomy, LOL!

Actually both of my brothers in law had it done, and they said it’s an easy procedure. We had a huge blackout here in Ohio (and a bunch of other states) a few summers ago, and it happened right when my second-oldest sister’s husband was having his vasectomy. The clinic was dark, and they had no backup electricity, but the doctor was able to finish the surgery with the light coming from the window! YIKES! My husband was sure glad it wasn’t him! That sister and her husband planned to stop having kids after my sister miscarried their third child, and her husband had an appointment for the vasectomy, but my sister got pregnant about a week before his surgery, so they now have three kids.

I’ll probably always have a twinge of sadness about my miscarriage, but I’m thankful for the son and daughter I do have, and realize that the miscarriage must have happened for a reason. I can’t handle possibly having another miscarriage if I were to get pregnant again and my husband and I already have our hands full with our two kids, so the vasectomy is for the best. Also I feel that my husband and I are getting too old to start over with another baby – I’m 34, and he’s 42. Now I’m just hoping my husband won’t be too terribly sore after the surgery, because he has to go pick our kids up from school and daycare tomorrow afternoon.

Anyway, I do have some crochet project pictures to show! None are completed, just work in progress. The first is a poncho I’m crocheting for my mother for her February birthday. She saw a poncho I crocheted for my daughter when I first learned how to crochet, and asked I could make her one. I finally got around to it, and am hoping to have it done for her birthday. It’s nothing fancy – it’ll just be two double-crochet rectangles seamed together, and then I’ll crochet a pretty border around the bottom. I obviously don’t have much done so far. My mom’s favorite color is blue, but she didn’t want a solid blue poncho, so I’m using Bernat Softee Chunky in “Nature’s Way”, with a K hook. Hopefully I can get it done in time for her birthday.

The second project is a crocheted cupcake pillow for my daughter Bethany’s 10th birthday on January 29th. I bought the
for the cupcake from a seller on Etsy. I added a few more increase rounds to the top and bottom though, because just following the pattern, the cupcake was coming out much smaller than I expected. I used the new Lion Brand Cupcake yarn in “Pink Lemonade” for the top. It’s a boucle yarn, and I usually stay away from boucle yarns, because I can’t see my stitches in it, but this yarn was surprisingly not too difficult to work with. The color is much paler than it looks in the picture though. I’m using Bernat Satin (one of my favorite yarns!) in “Lagoon” for the bottom. Are you seeing a trend here with the aqua blue for my projects? I love aqua blue! I guess it's because it brings back happy childhood memories of eating with my dad at a Woolworth diner (remember Woolworth's?!) - the waitresses and cashiers wore aqua blue smocks. I need to finish up the bottom of the cupcake, and buy some stuffing. I was originally thinking about sewing beads to the top of the cupcake, to look like sprinkles, but I hate sewing, so I think I might just crochet a cherry for the top of the cupcake I need to get the whole thing finished soon so I can surprise my daughter with it on her birthday.

The third project is a baby sundress for my pregnant sister in law. She’s pregnant with a girl, and is due January 17th (actually exactly a month before I was due with this last pregnancy). She's gone into labor twice already, and was admitted to the hospital, but was sent home both times because her labor wouldn’t progress, and her doctor won’t induce until she’s past her due date. I hope she has the baby soon, because she's having a really hard pregnancy, and is anxious to get it over with. It’s too bad she didn’t have the baby today, because today is my brother’s birthday, and it would have been pretty cool for his daughter to share a birthday with him. About the dress though, it’s semi my own pattern. The skirt design I got from a pattern in Crochet Today, but the top is my own design. I’m using Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in the discontinued “Sugarplum” and “Strawberry Cream” colors. I’m trying to make it about a 6-12 month size, so the baby can wear it in the summer. Hopefully it’ll fit.

The final project is a hat I crocheted for the Ships Project. The hat looks big, but it follows the group’s hat size guidelines – 22 inch circumference, and 8 inches long, and brimless. I modified a beanie pattern from the book “Crochet Kid Stuff” for the hat. The yarn is Bernat Satin in red and black (the hats have to be unisex colors). I took a picture of myself wearing the hat, because it looks so large when it’s not being worn, but is actually a good size for an average adult.

So, now you finally get to see what I look like! I really dislike getting my picture taken – I’m very self-conscious about how I look, especially about my big ol’ Italian nose, LOL! Yes, I’m a red-haired Italian woman! Well, only half Italian. My dad’s parents were born in Sicily, and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1930’s as adults. My dad was born in the U.S., and was just as Italian looking as it gets – ruddy skin, black hair, and the big Italian nose, which I inherited! My mother’s maternal side of the family though, immigrated to the U.S. from County Mayo, Ireland. Her paternal side of the family immigrated to the U.S. in the mid-1800’s from a country which was then Austria-Hungary, in Eastern Europe. My mother said her mother, my grandmother, had red hair until it turned completely gray in her early twenties. She said there were a few other redheads in the family, guess as a result of the Irish genes. Two of my nieces, my sister Desiree's daughters, ended up with red hair, even though my sister has black hair, and her husband has blonde. Strong red hair genes!

My mother had blonde hair as a kid, that turned brown, and me and all of my 4 biological brothers and sisters (my oldest sister is adopted) actually look different from each other. My oldest brother and sister (twins) have black hair and brown eyes, my second oldest brother has brown hair and brown eyes, and somehow, my youngest sister ended up with blonde hair and green eyes! Milkman’s kid, LOL! Just kidding! My dad said one of his grandfathers had light hair and blue eyes, so I guess that’s where it came from.

I actually had jet black hair when I was born, but it gradually lightened, and was auburn until I became a teenager, and then it turned brown. I never liked the brown, so I’ve been dyeing my hair for the past 18 years or so. My hair started growing in almost entirely gray (sigh…) when I was pregnant with my son, so now I color it religiously once a month to hide all the gray hairs my kids are giving me!

Now you know where the “Red Haired Lady” name came from too! Red Haired Lady is actually the name of my fictional alter-ego from stories I’ve made up for my kids. I don’t have any of the stories written down. I just make them up as I go, and my daughter and I do all the voices for the characters, including several talking animals, LOL! My kids and husband think the stories are hilarious, and my husband thinks I should write them down and look into getting them published. I know I can’t just submit them to a publisher – there’s a special process to submitting writing, query letters and whatnot. I’ve thought about doing it, as I’ve loved to write since I was a little kid, but I’m afraid of rejection.

I’ve had a few things published before though. I had several articles I wrote published in the (unfortunately out of print) Interrace Magazine in the early 90’s (my husband and I are an interracial couple – he’s black and I’m white, and our kids are biracial). One of my articles from the magazine was actually reprinted in a book, ”Just Don’t Marry One: Interracial Dating, Marriage, and Parenting”. I went to the library one day on my lunch break from work, was browsing the books on interracial relationships. I picked up “Just Don’t Marry One”, and was flipping through it, when I saw something that looked like an article I had written. I looked at it closer, and saw my name and my article (“Ten Annoyances Faced as Part of an Interracial Relationship)! The book even had a discussion question based on my article at the end of the chapter! Needless to say, I was shocked, but thrilled! I emailed the authors, and found out that they had reprinted my article with permission from the magazine. So, that was 15 minutes of fame!

I also had a freelance writing position for a year with a mom’s website, ClubMom.com. I was a “Go-To Mom” writing on Work-Life Balance and Multicultural Families. I really enjoyed the position. I had my own webpage with my articles, and I got a check every month, and ClubMom points (rewards points that you can cash in for gift cards, movie tickets, etc). Unfortunately ClubMom discontinued the Go-To Mom program at the end of 2006.

I had actually completed nearly 3 years of a journalism degree in college, but changed major to urban studies (urban planning) in my junior year, and graduated with an urban studies (urban planning) degree. I had taken a few urban studies classes to fulfill general degree requirements, and loved them so much that I changed my major. I also wasn’t too happy with the journalism program at my college at the time, although I know it’s been improved since then. I love the field of urban planning, but can’t help but wonder sometimes whether I should have pursued a writing career.

Well, I hope you liked my crochet projects, and that you aren’t laughing too much at my photos!