holidays!!!!

What is it about holidays that make you contemplate things that you just don't let yourself any other time of the year!!

Yes "T" and I are on holidays, we are having a wonderful time on the beautiful island of St Maarten...........we are SO SO SO lucky, my parents have a timeshare there and because they are having a trip of a lifetime in South Africa "T" and I have been lucky enough to use their place! It truly is heaven.........we are having a wonderful time!!

I have been thinking though how funny it is that conversations that you may put on the back burner always come up on holidays..............we have discussed it all.....put it all on the line and made some pretty heavy decisions...........I feel better.......ready to head back and move on....the best part is, something that I knew before I came here...whatever happens I have the best husband EVER!!!

m :)

V-DAY special!

This year I decided (for once) to try and get into the Valentine's Day spirit.....I am not really into V-day....it is something that I always find kind of sappy....when I think about it though I think I thought that because I never had someone in my life that I really wanted to be sappy with....until of course I met "T".....

Now "T" seems way more into V-day than me.....the last few years he would get annoyed with me because I would usually have to work late on the day or I had forgot it was V-day and planned something else...I don't know what hit me maybe it was all the sparkly red hearts hanging from the shop windows....or all the V-day hype on TV had finally gotten to me, or had I become exactly what Hall*mark wanted, a V-day believer...supporter...yes I will go into that card store and spend 6 bucks on a crazy card for my Valentine...........whatever it was it happened to me!!

I got this brainwave on Thursday morning........I know a bit last minute, but whatever I got the itch......I was going to do something special for "T".......instead of him always doing the V-day dinner for me.................so I started with my plan..........I quickly fired off an email to my husband...an invitation to join me at 6pm on Sat night at our house...........he was not allowed to be there any earlier...in perfect "T" fashion he replied with a wisecrack response........"is this for real, is this really my wife.....if it is, I will be there for sure"!!! haha "T"......yes I know this is unexpected and out of the ordinary but give girl a break.....I'm making an effort here!................so then the real planning began!!

I started scouring the internet for some of "T's" favorite recipes......now I love to cook but I HATE to bake.......what is T's favorite thing.... dessert.........so I knew that was going to have to be my focus........I finally decided on dark chocolate molten lave cakes.......easy but pack a lot of punch I was pretty confident that he would love that...........and then the rest of the meal just fell into place.....

I worked until 4pm on Sat afternoon so I didn't have a ton of time to get all of this going, but with some organizing I pulled it off.....Terry arrived home around 6:20 which was such a blessing to have that extra time...we started with some wine, his favorite cheese, roasted garlic and crackers...then moved on to tenderloins with a chili/blue cheese crust, a spicy sweet pepper ratatouille......and roasted sweet potatoes........and of course the lava cakes topped with raspberries and icing sugar for dessert........ahhhh it was a success and really so much fun!!!

I don't know if it is the fact that there is more hype surrounding all of these "hallmark holidays" or what, but I am glad I got into the spirit this year.....tons of fun with my Valentine!!!!! lol

recap!

So now that the traffic has died down a bit on here, I feel compelled to address what happened on this blog last week. "Blogging" is such an interesting thing....so many stories to be told...so many opinions to be heard. My first reaction last week when I started receiving such negative comments about my post was to forget this whole blogging thing and move on........after I calmed down and started really thinking about it I realized that no that was not what I wanted to do at all.

I learn so much from everyone's different opinions in the blogging world, I don't want to give that up. Even from the most negative hurtful comments there are lessons to be learned.

I have a very open mind..........I want to learn all I can about adoption...I feel that there are millions of stories to be told.........some positive, some negative.......and yes I want to hear them. This is why I have searched out couples that have fostered, adopted domestically, adopted internationally.....birthmothers....adult adoptees.....I have searched for these people and asked them about their stories........I want to hear it all......if we are ever lucky enough to become an adoptive family I want to be prepared....to raise a child the best way we can.........


There are a few things I want to specifically address from last weeks post and comments......first off.......last Friday Jan 19th I was having a very hard day.....a very hard couple of weeks....things I talked about in that post were my raw emotions from that time.....I was feeling angry....I was feeling sad and discouraged.......yes that is exactly how I was feeling that day.....I'm entitled, just like everyone else is entitled to their feelings..........to come on to my blog and judge my whole personality from that one post is just ridiculous.....to call me a selfish bitch, entitled cow, stupid idiot.....well I think that is just plain immature.........never in my life have I searched out blogs of differing opinions and thrown out crazy insults when trying to get someone to see my side of the story.....never!!! If anytime in the future you would like my attention....which by the way I welcome....please do in a bit more mature manner........believe me I will take the things you are saying to me a bit more seriously!

I received a few comments...some very harsh and negative asking me why we were waiting for a domestic adoption.....that there are so many children out there that need a home and why were we being so selfish waiting for that perfect baby........believe me this is something we struggle with everyday....I see the need in our country, in my own town........I see it loud and clear.......but when I dig deep in my heart I am not sure that I would be the best mother for these children....at this point in my life I just don't know......I suppose it stems from the fact that I, just like most women want to raise a child from infancy.......I want to share in all those moments that come with bringing a baby home and raising them together. I suppose to some this sounds very selfish........I can't tell anyone what is going to happen in our future........there may come a time that bringing an older child or a child with special needs into our home, building a family with them will seem absolutely right to us.........I don't know.........but right now it does not........I won't apologize for this.....I know many people will have opinions about this....call me whatever you want but I will not get into a situation where I don't think I would be doing the best thing for a child...baby, toddler, teen...any age....not ever.

I suppose I could go on and on about last weeks comments.......there were so many, I did learn a great deal from some and some just seemed like a few very angry people trying to bully others into thinking the way they do.........I think I am going to end this with a quote that a fellow blogger gave me........."opinions are like assholes, EVERYONE has one".....and I guess that is the great thing about this thing we call life, we are all different....we are all going to have different experiences in life that make us who we are....lets just live and let live!

I have now enabled the comment moderation.....so really if you are planning on bashing me don't bother I won't publish anything that is disrespectful or hurtful.....if however you would like to give me your opinions so I can grow and learn from them please do.

m

Eating Clean.....

So "T" and I are just finishing up our 12 day super clean eating detox....yes our prep for our holiday coming up. We have done this before and have always felt SO much better after.....this time though I really wanted to find some new recipes that would make the 12 days a bit more exciting......and boy did I find some good ones.......so good that I will be making these recipes for a lot longer than 12 days....



I love this women!!!!

Thanks to my Aunt who recommended a wonderful roasted garlic and sweet potato soup recipe from one of Tosca's books.....she got me on the Tosca train...I raced out to our local book store and stocked up! I have spent hours scouring these books....besides the great recipes, the books have really awesome information about health, fitness and clean eating! I have already made 4 or 5 recipes and they are all so good and healthy....I have made many "clean" recipes in my day and believe me not any have tasted this good!!!

If any of you are still on a New Year's get fit kick...........go out and get one of Tosca's books...you will not be disappointed!!

m :)