Happy birthday, Catherine!

Well, it's just a few seconds past midnight, so it's officially Catherine's birthday! Go wish her a happy birthday!

GO!

Vamoose!

(Before you all ask, no I didn't order the cake, I found it on Google Images). :P

Also, please don't forget to click here and get Spitgirl into round 2!

Spitgirl's call to the world!

Spitgirl here.

As many of you know, I am an occasional singer/songwriter, less so now that I have things like gainful employment and a husband that likes to eat dinner every now and then. And many of you were kind enough to stop by my music blog and tell me you liked what I was writing.

About three weeks ago, I decided to apply to a songwriting contest, mostly because I was being surprisingly spontaneous and feeling rather brave. In the following week, I went back and forth between being brave and chickening out... and then I found out I got in. So I submitted my bio and photo - all the while waffling wildly between doing it and not doing it - and then got the rules.

The rules were: 1 minute theme song of a fictional TV show starring "you or your band." I hemmed, stalled, brainstormed, complained to my patient husband, and basically came to the conclusion that I would write a song entitled: "BLACK BELT: UNDERCOVER SPY."

That wasn't the song I ended up with.

Due to various time and technical constraints (cooking for 14-20 people in a kitchen with one oven was verrrry interesting this past weekend), I ended up writing a very sappy love song entitled "Cubicle Gopher," which I pitched to Rhonda and others as "a very John Denver song." On a side note, I did meet my husband at work, and we both had cubicles, and... well, it's a long story of how we eventually got together.

So, to make a long story short, I'm in a contest, Rhonda has given me permission to post on the blog soliciting YOUR VOTE for me! I have cast aside all semblance of anonymity for this, so here is my debut:

Vote for Elaine Chao Finnell in the MASTERS OF SONG FU Competition!

If I make it in the top 5, I go on to Round 2!

Beware the mighty hamsterosaurus!

Well that didn't last long...

This morning as I was leaving the house, I walked over to the pine tree to check out the robins and I heard little chirps coming from the branches. I looked a little closer and thought to myself "well that's odd, those don't look like *my* robins". You know why? They were OUT of the nest! What a difference a day makes. There were two of them on the branches, the third must have already flown away.

By the time I ran back inside the second one flew away, so all I was left with was the 'runt' of the nest. He was sitting on the branch rocking his head back and forth like he was listening to an invisible iPod with a really good Bob Marley song playing. I was a bit worried about him, but he just continued to sway back and forth...



























Then just as Josh and I were convinced that he was injured or worse, he let out a giant PEEP, flapped his wings, turned away from me, and flew off the tree limb. *sigh*

I decided to follow him for a little bit and snap a few more pictures and enjoy the last few moments with him, because I knew I'd probably never see him again.





















































I did see their mom come back this afternoon, she landed in my backyard (I could tell it was her, she has a very distinctive mark on her chest). She probably got that from the fight she got into with the squirrel when she was protecting her chicks.

Anyways, I took a picture of the empty nest this afternoon. Hopefully next year the nest will be full again...

Get ready for uber cuteness...

I spent the better part of an hour trying to get these shots, so I hope you all like them. I damn near killed myself standing on a ladder trying to get the pictures just so, while trying to not get pecked to death by mama. ;)

Enjoy!

Guess who's coming for dinner...

Just over two weeks ago we had our gardener over to give us an estimate on a few things we wanted done at the house. While I looked at one of the trees in the front, I noticed an egg just sitting on a branch. He saw it, picked it up, peered through the branches and found a nest and popped the egg back into the nest.

Well, lo and behold, last week the eggs hatched and we have three robins nestled in our pine tree! They're just the cutest little things. I'm going to try to get better pictures of them this weekend and post them, but I have to be careful, momma doesn't really like me hanging around her babies too much (can you blame her?) She tried to dive bomb me yesterday, literally, she flew right AT me when I walked over to the tree.

Last night when I peeked into the nest, one of the robins tried to push its brother or sister out of the nest and it teetered towards the edge, but thankfully they're still all there...I'm hoping they all make it. I really want to see them learn to fly, but we might be on our vacation to see them when that happens. ;)

Did I mention how excited I am to be going away? First leg of our va-cay is in Vancouver to visit my aunt and uncle and then a week in Calgary. WOO!

Teddy's "first time"...

Enough said...

I got an apology...

If you remember how I mentioned that Edelman, the non-florist's PR firm read my blog but didn't comment on it, well, they staked out my blog (my statcounter told me so) on Thursday and I got a personal email from them...and it wasn't a canned apology.

They not only apologized for the "non-mom mom" thing, but they also mentioned that they tried to leave a comment here, but my blog kept crashing their computers. I've tried fixing that problem before and I thought I had a handle on it, but I did giggle a little that their computers crashed. I know, I know, that's just wrong...but yet, it's so right. :)

I thought about posting her email on here, but I decided not to. The general gist of her email was that the category name was an 'oversight', and she doesn't know if Teleflora will do this program again next year. I certainly hope they don't...or at least if they do, someone takes some sensitivity training, or grows a brain. ;)

I will, however, post my response. I was feeling a little cheeky, and felt that they shouldn't really get off 'easy'.

Thank you for responding about this issue. While I appreciate the apology, it's really not what I was looking for; the situation never should have occurred in the first place. The adoption community is still very upset by the entire situation, I can't even put into words how upsetting it was to see those words in print.

I would like to share with you one thing that I saw for Mother's Day, a company that got it 'right' with regards to both Mother's Day and international adoption. Perhaps Teleflora and Edelman could learn a valuable lesson from this?

Thank you again for taking the time to personally respond.

Rhonda -
Just a Mom-in-waiting

Yeah, that's right, I sent them the link to the Pearle Vision ad. I figured that would be the end of the emails. Surprisingly I heard back from the rep at Edelman again and she loved the ad and thanked me for sending it to her.

So, I've said my piece about it. I'm still miffed, but I'll get over it. I still won't use Teleflora ever again. No amount of apologies can sway my opinion on that...

Thank you, Pearle Vision... ***UPDATE***

no banner, no logo, only resizeable option http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1315793544http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=1126101268

Finally! A company that understands and 'gets it', unlike the debacle a few days ago with the non-florist. How refreshing is this?

When the ad was shared on another board, K1 suggested that we should send supportive emails and calls to Pearle Vision and let them know what a great job they did with the ad. After all, it's easy to let a company know when they screwed up, but how often are companies offered a pat on the back?

To let them know your thoughts...

Pearle Vision
Customer Service
4000 Luxottica Place
Mason, OH 45040

1-877-486-6486

To send them an email compliment, click here:

I'll be doing that this morning...

***I just got off the phone with Bridget at Pearle Vision and commended them on their ad. She was taken aback that I "called all the way from Canada" to give them positive feedback, she said it was rare that they get calls like that on their customer feedback line.***

20 and waiting...

If you remember this post, you'll recall the song that my friend E (aka Spitgirl) wrote for me, and by extension, all of us who are currently waiting. Since she went above and beyond the call of friendship by doing so, I thought it was only fitting to return the favour in some small measure by honouring her with this month's LIDiversary. So, without further ado, I give you the charm that is now on my bracelet (which will eventually be Little Maple's bracelet). In case you can't tell what it is, it's a microphone. :P




What's a LIDiversary without cake?! To go hand in hand with the theme, I had to get this cake...how could I not?









I've also added, on the right side of the blog, the song that E wrote entitled "Waiting". If you click on the 'play' button, you should be able to hear it. If there are any problems, let me know...

Earthquake...

I usually don't link to RQ, but today is different...

Teleflora, the non-florist

Yup, that's right, if I'm a non-mom then Teleflora is a non-florist...sounds just as ridiculous doesn't it?

I've seen on a number of blogs that Teleflora has sent their PR minions out in the form of Edelman to various blogs and leave comments, but I have yet to receive one. I know I had a visit from someone from Edelman, my lovely statcounter showed me their IP. Oh how I love that function. ;)

You know, it bugs me more that they came to the blog, read the post and then buggered off to the next blog without doing anything than had they left their canned response. I know I won't get a response now, of course, I'm an angry non-mom mom, or is it an adoptive-mom mom, or was it unconventional-mom mom? With all these changes, it's hard to keep it straight...

I'm a non-mom... ***UPDATE***

Now granted, we don't have Little Maple. Hell, we're not even close to getting her, but that's not the point of this rant and yes people this IS going to be a rant.

I don't know if any of you have seen this, but NBC is going to run a Mother's Day program called America's Favorite Mom which sounds great in theory. Let me say that again, it sounds GREAT in theory, but not so much in practice. You see I have a major problem with this.

Gee, what's wrong with this...?

The Non-Mom Mom

Grandparent, stepmom, or mom to adopted children, each one raising and loving a child. A priceless gift for everybody.

You see, according to NBC, all of us A-moms (and A-moms-to-be) are non-moms.

Apparently, when Little Maple will get up in the middle of the night with a night terror or with a fever, it will be someone OTHER than her mom (or dad) who will get up and hold her, or who will wipe away her tears. When she has a play at school, it will be someone other than her mother who will be sitting in the front row beaming with pride. When she has a scraped knee, it will be her non-mom who will put a band-aid on it, kiss it and make it all better.

Just because Little Maple will not have been born from my body, does not make her any less our child or us her parents. Have we not been through enough heartache and pain? Why is it that at every step through this process that we have to be faced with ignorant people?

NBC should be ashamed of themselves to put such hurtful things on their website, and moreso, Marie Osmond should not be associated with such a show considering the fact that she is an A-mom as well.

If you'd like to complain about the contest, you can contact NBC at 1-800-225-7435 (though you can only leave a message there, I just tried). You can also email them at support@americasfavoritemom.com

***I'm sure that NBC and Teleflora (the main sponsor) were inundated with a ton of emails and phone calls from our very vocal community because the website now mentions "Adopting Moms" instead of "Non-Mom Moms". It still doesn't make me feel any better that their site had that listed for DAYS only to be corrected today. I hope the asshat who created the program gets fired for this.

The thing that still bothers me about the program is this: the various categories, whether they're 'working moms, single moms, military moms or chariman of everything moms' aren't there adopting moms in each of those? Why do we have to be singled out like we're so different? Why do we have to be singled out AT ALL? Why can't we just be considered moms?

Teleflora and NBC, we don't bite...much.***

A new exercise regime? *

*No, this is not Deuce. ;)

Happy birthday, Sam!

Go here and wish Sam a very happy birthday!

Look who's 10!

Yes, that's right, Deuce is 10 years old today and he doesn't look a day over 9 (he has a good colourist). We decided to go a little nutty and celebrate his birthday in style with sparklers*, number candles, because all cats can read of course, and a can of tuna. What's a birthday without tuna breath?! Personally I'm amazed he sat so patiently while Josh set up everything and didn't attack.














Here Deuce is enjoying his bounty...mmmm tuna. You can almost picture him thinking..."I'm sitting, chewing, now leave me alone so I can devour it in peace, woman!"

*Memo to my hubby: Don't use sparklers on Mikasa plates...the sparks tend to embed into the plate causing an annoyed wife. Not good for the health of the plate or, for that matter, the husband.