The Making of a Champion

Here's a little advice for game show wanna be's:

1.  Glean information where ever you can get it.  You'd be surprised what you can learn in a discussion with the family pet.

 2.  Get some hands-on experience in as many categories as possible--like "pastries".

3.  Yes, even sports.

4.  Consult with experts on how to look poised under pressure.

5.  Practice your on-stage bantering skills.

6.  It doesn't hurt to practice early for writing your name on the podium screen.

7.  And last of all, read...

read...

read...

read...

read...

read...

read...

and read some more.

Many thanks to all who shared in the Jeopardy! excitement with us.  We had so much fun watching Alison shine.  You can read about her experience on the "Winners' Blog" here.  If the next champion's blog gets posted here, you may have to look Alison up in the drop-down archives menu on the left--she would be July 26.

Congratulations, Alison!

The Icing on the Cake

Guess what!  You don't get to plan your life.  Sure you can try, and goals really are a good idea.  I'm just saying, you need to learn to be flexible and you need to count your blessings.  The five children we talked about having when Scott and I were newlyweds didn't come as planned.  Alison eventually moseyed on into our lives.  Five years later, Neil arrived as described in yesterday's post.  We were so grateful for these two beautiful miracles that we thanked our Heavenly Father and decided not to be greedy.  They were enough, and then some.

Five years later, lo and behold, another miracle--Eric was born!  It was touch and go in the hospital for a while as he had an infection that required lots of monitoring and intravenous medicines.  My being discharged from the hospital before he was was tough.  So were the many trips each day to the hospital for feedings.  But, oh he was worth it!

Try to tell me that's not worth waiting for!  

I've learned it's okay to be greedy sometimes and to ask for your heart's desire, and then to trust God.  He knows what he's doing.

Happy birthday, Eric!
  

Two Mothers

Today, on the anniversary of Neil's birth, I'm thinking about a woman I have never met.  Twenty years ago, when most adoptions were closed with very little information exchanged between the families involved, she made the heart-wrenching decision to show her love for her son by giving him up to a life she felt would be better than the one she could offer him.  I will never be able to adequately thank her for her sacrifice.  There are no words that would suffice.  I think of her often, but on his birthday and Mother's Day my prayers for her are a little stronger and go a little bit deeper. 

Someday soon we will begin the search to find her, if she wants to be found.  We will go about it carefully and prayerfully.  But until that time, I keep a promise that she asked me to make in an unsigned letter she sent shortly after Neil came to us.  "Please tell him every day that you love him," she said.  Oh, I do!  I truly do!  And I love her too.    

I'm Sorry, Utah

You missed two great shows.  Not sure why your station blew it, but you can find the recap for Thursday  here:

Thursday's Jeopardy!

I'm guessing tonight's show will be up tomorrow.  Anyway, Alison's a winner!  But I knew that back in 1985.

Watch her on Monday, if you can!

Tonight's the Night!

Check your local listings.

Just Call Me Mr. McGregor

Peter and I have been having a bit of a row.  He's been eyeing the garden since we first planted.  He was never afraid of us, which we should have seen as a bad sign, but he was so cute and he never caused us any trouble... until now.  You see him here enjoying my snapdragons.  I plant snapdragons purposefully because the deer won't eat them.  Apparently, bunnies do.  I guess I can excuse him because they are growing outside the garden fence.

About that garden fence....  There is a little gap under the door, so I put some bricks there to close the space up.  Just last week I found a brick had been moved.  Inside the garden I found some evidence of a munching and tasting party.  In the corners it appeared Peter had tried to escape by digging through the quarry process.  I say "tried" because that stuff runs pretty deep.  I guess he eventually got out the way he came in.

So, I beefed up the bricks.  How could he possibly get through that now?  Well, you see the one little lone brick on the right?  Yeah, he tipped it up on it's end and burrowed underneath the door.  What you can't see here is that there are bricks on the other side of the door as well.  That is one strong little bun!  Now the bricks are stacked a little more securely, so it should be impossibly impassible.

But just the other day, as I strolled in to pick some green beans, I turned around to see that Peter had followed me in!  The nerve!  I literally chased him around the garden a bit before he scootched out the door.

He's strong, he's smart, and he's a menace, but he's still so dang cute!

The Best Present

It's really not for me to say which present was Scott's favorite when he opened gifts at our little family birthday party on Saturday, but I do know which one took the most time to prepare.  Neil worked for a month relearning to sing, "Happy Birthday to You" as a special surprise for his dad.  We kept it a secret as week after week his speech therapist drilled him on when to raise his voice to reach for high notes, and how to stair-step down the scale on the third line.  Because he needed to visualize the melody, she drew it out on paper so Neil could see each note in relation to the others.  The final product was sweet and sincere, if not completely on pitch, but believe me, it was music to all our ears!