Find me on my new Site....

As you can tell, it has been awhile since I have posted anything on this blog. With work and all I have been busy and just too tired to type anything out for awhile.

For a birthday gift, Rob created me my own domain for me to post pictures, blogs, and whatever else I want on the site. From now on please follow me over at: www.amyrschumaker.com. I am still learning what I can and can not do on that site as it is more advanced than what Blogger.com has to offer. So just give me a bit, but I would love for you to still know what I am doing. There is a way to follow my site with the RSS Feed, and I have added a "Follow Me" widget to the site as well. One though has to add each posting possibly. I am not too sure how that works. I was hoping to find something where one could register their name an be able to follow the entire site with one click.

Quote Frames!!!

While at the retreat this past weekend we had a craft session. I had so much fun doing this craft that I had to share with the rest of you. Coley posted how to make our craft earlier today on her blog and I thought I would just link her blog to mine. Click on the link below to see what supplies you will need to create one of these cute Quote Frames!! Coley's Corner: Group Craft: Quote Frames  **Come back to my blog once you have read her little blog on how to make one of these!**

Now that you have read how to make one...be creative and make one of your own!!! Most of the supplies you could probably find at the dollar store! 

Here is the finished product of my own frame. I had so much fun making one this past weekend that it makes me want to make a few more!! 

 

Below is what my frame looks like with something written on the glass: 

Birthmother's Weekend - Charlotte, NC

27 women, 27 unique stories, less than 5 hours of sleep each night, 3 days in 1 city all combined together creates a very exhausting weekend. Sound like fun?? Well I was one of the 27 women doing exactly that, this past weekend!!



For some of you who follow me on Facebook will know that I went down to Charlotte, North Carolina this past weekend for the Birthmom Buds Birthmother's Day Celebration. Birthmother's day is the day before Mother's Day. Since a lot of birthmothers may be parenting children as well, Birthmom Buds put on the retreat the weekend before. This was my first year to be able to go. I had been wanting to go for several years but could never figure out how to go. I was given an amazing opportunity to go this year and I took it. Thank you to the person who gave me this opportunity!! I flew out early Friday morning and met Lani at the airport as her plane landed just about thirty minutes after my flight. We then shared a taxi ride over to the hotel. I met up with a couple other birthmoms who were sitting in the hotel lobby eating some breakfast. I sat for a few minutes while my room was being straightened out as our party was all suppose to be staying on the 10th floor. Once I got my room I went up and took a shower to try and wake myself up as I knew it would be a long day and probably a very late night.

Once I was ready, I heard a kock on the door and it was several other ladies wondering if I was ready to go. I grabbed what I needed and made sure I had my camera. Our hotel room was just across the street from the brand new NASCAR Hall of Fame. Two other birthmothers were already inside of the Hall of Fame and so Coley called them to see how far into the exhibit they were. They were not very far and so I embraced my inner redneck and excitedly walked up to buy a ticket for admission. If you are a NASCAR fan, please take an entire day and spend it at the Hall of Fame if you are ever in or very near Charlotte. Completely worth it, and discounted tickets can be found through your AAA membership!! After spending the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon at the Hall of Fame, we went back to the hotel to rest for a bit. I went back to my hotel room to get dressed for dinner as we were headed to a nice Italian place.

Ladies at dinner - Friday Night

Friday evening was spent with 19 other birthmothers and a few of their mothers. I shared an entree with someone as the entrees were huge!!! So yummy and I have found a place to eat at again when I go back to Charlotte! Friday night some of us ventured out to a bar called Howl at the Moon where there was some dueling piano playing going on. I didn't know what to expect, but found myself singing along to songs like "Brown Eyed Girl" and "American Pie". When we got back to the hotel a small group of us sat in Coley's hotel room telling each other our placement stories. I has been awhile since I have verbally told my story and it was great to hear other women their placement stories. It was amazing the bond that was really felt in that room. Women who were all like each other in so many ways young and older. 2:30a rolled around and it was definitely bedtime.

Saturday came quickly and I found out that I should probably share a room with someone next year. My alarm went off, and I thought I had hit the snooze button. Well the snooze never went back off and I woke up 40 minutes before the actual Birthmother's event started!! Talk about a rude awakening!! I took a very quick shower and tried to look as presentable as I could. I skipped any eye makeup as I figured it would be a pretty emotional day. I am a sympathy crier at times and didn't need to end up with burning racoon eyes!! The morning consisted of sitting through two different break-out sessions. The first one I chose was on close adoptions. Now before you say anything, "Yes I do have an open adoption, but I wanted to learn something new and I find the closed adoption world very interesting!" The session was on what to expect if a reunion happens and it goes wrong, or if a reunion never fully happens and how to cope. Most of the women who gathered around the table were all from the era of closed adoptions. Myself and another woman were the only ones who had an open adoption. I am just in awe at the women who were not given a choice of why type of adoption they wanted due to the time period of when their placement was. The other breakout session that I chose to sit through was how to deal with the shame and guilt one may have when dealing with adoption emotions. Once again very interesting and some got very emotional with this session. I am at peace at where I am for the most part in my adoption decision and so even though I may have some shame and/or guilt...I have been able to process a lot of these emotions already.After session number 2 we all ventured over to a different room and created a fun little craft tht was extremely easy. I will make sure to blog about that later this week!!!

Katrina - one of the speakers who was a birthmother and an adoptive mom

After lunch came a pretty emotional afternoon. Speakers that ranged from all sides of the Adoption Triad that had different walks of life and how they have dealt with the emotions from being in that part of the adoption triad. Once the speakers were done we did a balloon release and then watched the annual slideshow. I am one who can only watch the slideshow once a year and then I am done with it. I love viewing it each year but it is something that I can't watch over and over.

2011 Balloon release

 After the slideshow came probably the most emotional part of the day which was the Birthmother Candle Ceremony. Once the actual event was over I went back to the hotel room and took a nap before the next set of evening festivities would start. I was dragging and full well knew it could be another very late night. Dinner was spent at Rock Bottom Brewery and then we all headed over to an 80s/90s dance club. Some of us dressed up in 80s/90s clothing and jewelry. I left early as I was just needing some time to sit and be alone. It had been a long day and I was looking forward to going back to a quiet room.

The dance club had glow glasses!!

 Yesterday I woke up and got ready to head on out. I didn't know what time check-out was and so I wanted to be prepared that it may be an early checkout right after breakfast. I said "see you later" to some of the women who had early flights to catch or were headed back home by car sooner than some of the rest of us. I l and 6 other women who all had late afternoon or evening flights spent the afternoon together exploring a little bit more of Charlotte. I fell in love with everything that Charlotte has to offer and I was sad when I was in the airport having to say goodbye to such an awesome city and the amazing women who I met over the weekend.

Pam, one of the ladies who I hung out with Sunday afternoon

I am looking forward to next year as I am definitely going back. I have already made plans that the day after I get back from my trip next year I am not doing anything but staying home and sleeping if I can. The retreat/girls weekend or whatever you want to call it was completely worth loosing sleep. I made friendships that I feel will last a very long time. I look forward to getting to know some of these women a little bit better (on their adoption life and their non-adoption life) over the next year and hopefully see some of them in person before next May!!!

Melanie and I who share lots of things in common!

Spring Season = Baseball Season

When one thinks of the start of spring they probably think flowers starting to bloom, the weather starting to get nicer, and spring cleaning. When I think of spring I think of two things warmer weather on its way and BASEBALL!! I was one who never grew up counting down the days until the start of baseball season, but ever since I got married to Rob my love for baseball has grown more and more.

 This year had even a stronger excitement for me since Rob and I are in Cleveland. Opening Day tickets were purchased before Thanksgiving and so they stared at us every time we opened the refrigerator. I kept looking to see if April 1st was coming any closer. I would drive past Progressive Field and see the large countdown that was posted and I would get even more excited. Some people may think that Opening Day is bigger than Christmas. By Opening Day, I felt like a little kid on Christmas Morning. It was a cold cold day, but I didn't care. I was going to sit outside and cheer on the opening season of the Cleveland Indians Baseball. By the end of the game, I had my fleece lined stocking cap on, my hoodie over that in addition to wearing gloves and my coat zipped all the way up. My feet had went numb, but it was all worth it.

The Indians didn't do too well with their opening series against the Chicago White Sox, but I couldn't complain. The Opening Ceremony was a tribute to the late Bob Feller who passed away this past winter. A sad day for any true Cleveland Indian fan as Bob Feller was one of the greatest players who ever played for Cleveland. I had tears in my eyes when Mrs. Bob Feller was escorted out to the pitchers mound to lay a baseball in honor of her late husband. 

 

Since opening day, I have been to two home games and Rob has been to three. Rob's office at school is just a little over a mile walk from the ballpark. He scored a great deal on tickets from Stubhub.com  and enjoyed an afternoon game after doing a little bit of work at school. We then used a set of our free tickets for last week's game for a Friday evening. It was Dollar Dog Night at the park, which I have decided that I don't ever want to go for ever again. The concession lines were extremely long due to everyone wanting cheap hot dogs.  I told Rob that I would rather go on a regular night and pay full price for a hot dog! He laughed but understood where I was coming from. We are headed to a game a week from tonight on the 28th of April. Great way to spend the evening together before I head out of town for the weekend. A friend of mine asked me why we don't go and buy season tickets. I thought to myself, "Why? Well because it is more fun to be spontaneous for which games to go to rather than feeling as if we have to go since we have tickets!" I want to see the Seattle Mariners play when they come to town next month. Rob will be out of town, but that is ok. If I can not find any people to go with me on the day that I want to go, then I will just go by myself. It just always is a bit more fun to go with other people.

The Indians are doing great this season so far, and I hope they keep it up!!! Even if they start to slip **knock on wood they don't**, I will still be out at the ballpark cheering on the guys to keep up the good work.  Baseball is a long season, so get out to the closest ballpark and enjoy yourself a hotdog and watch a game.

Daily Joy Project 2011 - Feb 16

 Like I stated in yesterday's posting, I will post my daily joys to keep my attitude in check. So here goes it for today!!

DAILY JOYS: WEDNESDAY

1) had a decent day at work even though I wanted to strangle several members

•  This is a great praise as I was extremely moody when I woke up this morning. If I could have, I probably would have stayed in bed all day. The sun was not out and I was just frustrated at life, even though nothing was really happening. The phone calls today were difficult, but I took deep breaths and got through it.

2) I found out that in January I averaged 6 calls per hour, which I can improve on

• This seems like a lot if you think about it on an eight hour work hour scale. I pretty much average around 48 calls per day. I though know that I can do better than that. I need to learn how to talk and type at the same time and make my notes while I am speaking with a member or provider. I then also need to place myself back into the holding cue rather than wait for my phone to do it for me. I am going to challenge myself for the rest of the month to try and raise my daily call intake. I will update you next month!

3) It is pretty warm this week for temps and I love it!

• I like everyone in the NE Ohio area are very tired of the super cold weather and drab days of winter. I am very excited that the temperatures this week have been in the mid-40s to low 50s!!! This is huge!! I never thought how warm 40 degrees would be!! Spring is on it way soon, even if we do have one more snow storm before everything is all over with.  

4) My chef salad from Cracker Barrel hit the spot

•  Rob and I couldn't agree on where to go to dinner until he said, "I wish there was a Cracker Barrel near by!" I being one who remembers where food places are, replied with, "I know where one is!" It was out of the way from where we were in town, but the chef salad did sure hit the spot!!

5) 2 weeks from today I will have had a total of 24 hours in Oregon!

• I am so excited for my trip to Oregon! I am feeling a bit on the homesick side right now only because my sister, nephew, and niece are in Oregon visiting my family. I know I will be there soon visiting my family members, being able to see Kaylee, and bonding with my close friends. I sure wish Ohio was closer to Oregon, so that the trips home could be more often than once a year!

"Don't come back for 7 to 10 days!"

1991 the movie "My Girl" with Anna Chlumsky and Macaulay Culkin. The scene when Vada (Anna's character) learns that her period started. The next scene, Vada answering the door as Thomas (Macaulay's character) rings the door bell to see if Vada is able to come out and go swimming. Vada pushes Thomas and yells at him, "And don't come back for seven to ten days!" She then turns around walks in the house and slams the door.

Vada learning she will have her period for the next 7-10 days.

As women we can all relate to this scene all too well every month. Well I am feeling that way tonight, and it is just the start of PMS. I had a decent day at work, but then this evil poisonous monster took over me on my way home from work. Not too sure where it came from...but I hate it!! I wish that I could yell at everyone from my front porch to not bother me and to not come back for seven to ten days, but if I did that then I wouldn't have a job after those ten days were up. I guess I will be like any other woman and have to suck it up. 

I will force myself to post my daily joys each day as I think this will help me keep daily life into perspective. So here is to today's joys:

1. The sun was out on my way to work this morning. 

2. A fairly good day at work with not too many challenging phone calls.

3. I spent the evening with my husband and three dogs.

4. Bravo's Real Housewives of NYC started back up tonight. 

(Ok, for most of you, the last joy is a stretch, but I love the NYC housewives. I admit, I have a television junkie, but this is one of the shows that I can sit back and laugh at because even people with too much money have relationship issues with men and women.) 

Valentine's Day: Love it or Hate it?

Pink, Red, Mauve, Crimson, and Black. These colors are ones that one typically sees on a day like today. Movies, dining out, candles and flowers are items that you either see or do on a day like today. Yes, today is Valentines's Day and for many it is the one day of the year that they either love it or hate it. I don't think there is a happy medium for a day like today. The single women hate it because they are constantly reminded that they are not with someone, and the married or coupled women love it because it is the one day they hope to get flowers from their mate.

I am one who tends to love Valentine's Day. I even enjoyed Valentine's Day when I was single. Yes it was bummer to realize that I was single and a bit depressing to see classmates or co-workers recieve flowers at school or work, but I still smiled on the outside. I knew that even though I was not in a relationship, I could be happy for those who were in one. I though could also treat myself on a day like today!

Being married though and going through Valentine's is a bit different. When Rob and I were first married, we had been talking about different holiday traditions and what our expectations were for each holiday. He asked me, "How can I keep you happy?" I said, "I would like flowers and a card on Valentine's Day, our Anniversary and Birthday." I had to respond like this as my husband is one who needs a very direct and precise answer. Since we laid out the rules...I have never been disappointed on any of these days. I was surprised today when I got home to find a potted plant of flowers on the counter with a heart shaped balloon attached to the basket. I say that I was surprised because I didn't think he would get me anything since my Valentine's gift came early for both of us, since he got me the Xbox Kinect last week, and the painting I bought for him came in the mail early last week as well.

My flowers and balloon from Rob

So here's to you who are married and single, "Happy Valentine's Day!" I hope that you had a wonderful day. If you are single please know that your friends and family love who you are. If you are married and your husband forgot to get ya something, be thankful for who he is and know that he still loves ya!! Treat yourselves to something a bit extra this week!