Hello Monday Morning

I woke up to the sound of screams this morning for the first time in many months. I immediately knew my child was in pain. Curses. I groped around in the blurry room for my glasses and thought about how disappointed I was in myself for staying in bed past 7:15. Once I finally found my glasses on the ground wedged between my bed and the end table, I stumbled down the stairs and found Eliza kneeling on the ground grieving over some scotch tape that refused to adhere her construction paper to the basement door. Somewhere in my memory I had a partial recollection of her proudly displaying her marker illustration of a turtle with a human foot looming ominously above it and a crossed out circle drawn over the whole thing. It was a nice drawing. She had been doing art lessons with her dad this summer, and they had worked specifically on drawing turtles. Eliza had a special affinity for the smelly reptiles since we adopted our three swimming turtles several months before summer break. They now inhabited our basement, spending their days vainly and perpetually pumping their little legs in the shallow water against the glass trying to escape us, their gracious saviors and hosts.

I validated my child's frustration, demonstrated some tricky scotch tape skills for a crafty teaching moment, and secured the drawing to the basement door before cautioning my dear Eliza on her histrionics' possible side effect of misleading people into thinking someone was recently dismembered, hemorrhaging, and/or in need of life-saving rescue. She agreed that she had not cried that hard even when sustaining her current
bruise on her shin that shared a similar circumference to a 1/2 measuring cup, a battle wound from an unfortunate collision with a pool ladder.

 Somewhere upstairs, I heard the faint sounds of my alarm going off. Time to start my day.

Possibly my favorite video EVER.

Eliza learned this Halloween song at school. 

So.Freaking.Cute.

Back to Blog

So for a variety of reasons, I have been quite MIA from the blogging world. Things including non-functioning camera, no time, feeling like blogger takes FOREVER to upload things, no consistent computer/laptop, and no photo-editing software.

Well I still feel like I have no time, but I have all of the other stuff and REALLY want to share tidbits about my family's life with more of my family and friends who live far away and/or don't use facebook! Especially my Grandpa Bob, Aunt Joan & Uncle Dean, Aunt Barbara, and my Oma.

Tomorrow's Labor Day so I don't have to go to my job at Sexual Trauma Services of the Midlands where I am the Advocate Counselor. See my Staff Profile HERE. 

I provide therapy to survivors of sexual assault ages 12 and up. I also have a specialization of trying to make STSM's services more sensitive to the LGBTQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trangender and Queer) survivors. This means I've also been serving on Task force with other agencies in our community including police, forensic nurses, other social workers, etc., to provide effective interventions and build a support group for LGBTQ persons who have or are experiencing Inter-Personal Violence (Sort of like domestic violence, abuse, or sexual violence). This task force is led from the Gay and Lesbian Center here in Columbia, SC (YES, I did just say there is a Gay and Lesbian Center in Columbia, SOUTH CAROLINA). It's called Harriet Hancock Center. If the name sounds peculiar here's the explanation:



In 1982, not long after her son came out to her, Harriet founded the Columbia chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) – the first PFLAG chapter in South Carolina. She soon became a quite visible and active public spokesperson, combating prejudices and stereotypes in Columbia. Since then she founded or co-founded four state organizations that have made South Carolina a better place for gays, lesbians, their families, and people living with AIDS. She helped organize Palmetto AIDS Life Support Services (PALSS) in 1985 and the first South Carolina Gay and Lesbian Pride March in 1991.  

In 1997, Harriet received the Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign, the largest national LGBT organization in the US.

And one of the BEST honors in my opinion was that last year Harriet received a personal invitation from President Barak Obama to attend a reception at the White House in Washington, DC in honor of LGBT Pride Month and got to meet the President in a private session before his public speech. Some people affectionately call her “Mother of Pride,” or “Mama H”, and she truly is a surrogate mother to many of the LGBTQ community here who have lost their families and friends because of who they are and who they love.

It's wonderful working with some amazing people committed to growth, healing, and change at both STSM and Harriet Hancock Center! I've had a lot of changes in my life over the last year and a half but certainly for the better!

One of the best changes on my home front was moving into a little 3 bedroom house in West Columbia with my girlfriend, Nicole, and her daughter, Tori!

Eliza and Tori are the BEST of friends, which is sooo fantastic! I never believed my mom when she said that having two kids is easier than one but it's TOTALLY true. They entertain each other to no end!

 

And then I got in a terrible accident on the day I was moving into the house (accident not my fault), and my Subaru was totalled, and I had to get a new car. Behold: 

 Goodbye, my poor Subaru Legacy. :(

My Scion XB for anyone interested.

Oh and one of our 2 cats, Rapunzel:

Gave birth to two adorable (but busy) kittens, Sunbright & Aida:

They're pretty stinkin' cute! Oh, and sorta stinky as well. Jk. Sorta. 

 Happy September Everyone, from our family to yours!

Back to School

8/16/2012

Back to Ballet!

Eliza and Tori have started ballet classes for the fall. 

We also decided that we're going to take on the daunting task of allowing Eliza to participate in The Nutcracker at The Township Auditorium this year with The Carolina Ballet! My response is mostly trepidation. 

Eliza's response was elation and when I told her my decision, she said, 

"I've wanted to do that my WHOLE LIFE!!" 

Auditions were last Sunday. It involved a lot of WAITING which was lame. However, Eliza did so well that they asked her to stay for the try outs with the girls ages 6-8 (even though she's only 5 1/2)! Eliza did great and is thrilled to have a role bigger than being one of the mice. She thinks she will be either an Angel or a Soldier! I think I'll find out next Sunday at the "Mandatory" Parents Meeting. 

I'm proud of my brave ballerina! 

Still would rather be on the soccer field, but I'm dealing...! 

Groovy Valentine's Day

Eliza and I spent some time tonight getting her valentine's ready for her after-school Montessori class' valentine's celebration tomorrow. It's not going to be anything big. The kids will get to exchange their valentines, and their teacher is serving some bread and fruit... but for Montessori kids it's BIG! haha...

Eliza demonstrated to me how she plans to pass out her valentine's to her classmates tomorrow. Hint: It involves mostly skipping around her trampoline... not sure how that will translate for tomorrow, but it looks super fun!

I just had a moment where I thought about last year when I tried to get Eliza to be "involved" in the Valentine card making by drawing/scribbling on the valentine, and maybe, if I was really lucky, coaxing a letter E out of her.

This year she wrote out her whole name. 22 times! She often turns her Z's into S's.

I also found out about a peculiar talent/skill of Eliza's... she can write her name backwards and upside down! Weird Da Vinci styled! I noted that when I wrote her friends' names on the valentine and then flipped it upside down for her to write her name on it, she would write hers backwards & upside down. So then I just had her write her name on the cards before I wrote the child's name.

(she wrote this upside down!!)

I was pretty pleased that Eliza ended up choosing some Tye-Dye Peace Valentines that came with little temporary tattoos (We're really into tattoos around here these days). We also got princess cards but didn't end up using them! (not yet at least).

I had trouble trying to explain to Eliza some of the phrases from her hippy valentines, such as... "You're groovy!"

"You're far Out!"

"Right On!"

"Your Out of Sight!"

"You're Way Out!"

All I could come up with is that they meant, "You're really cool..." So hopefully that's the message that Eliza wants to send out to her not-square Montessori friends.

Have a Groovy Valentine's everyone!

Home "sick!"

Eliza got pink eye this week, so I had to keep her home and torture her by inflicting her with eye drops and benadryl. She kinda looked like she had two black eyes. This picture doesn't capture just how PINK her eyes started out looking...

But by the time Tuesday around lunch time rolled around, she clearly was not feeling too sick...

She came up with this creative rock star costume/pose all herself!!

I will often say, "Eliza, you crack me up!"

and Eliza will say to me, "Mom, you crack ME up!"

I just love her creative spirit!