Disclaimer: Daddy & Bob be warned you may not want to read this entire post. It's up to you.

There are some things one just shouldn't share on a public blog. This may be one of those times where I shake my head in a few days & ask myself "What was I thinking?"

For about the past week or so I've had excruciating back pain. Norm thinks I've just been trying to get out of bath time. Cubby's daycare apparently holds classes in contortionism and failed to get our approval first. The pain is in my lower back and spreads across my hips. It's so bad that my legs are going numb, especially the left one.

Yesterday my co-workers came up with the brilliant plan of - get this - seeing a doctor! Why hadn't I thought of that? So off to urgent care I went and met the most hilarious doctor I've ever dealt with. I even got a lollipop for being the only patient who didn't see him for "snot issues" (his words, not mine). Yay me!!

He started poking around my spine, working his way from my neck, past my ribs and when he finally reached the source of my pain we BOTH knew he struck gold:

He laughed - I cried

He said "That feels so cool! I can feel your nerves short circuiting and your muscles spazing out!"

I said "I'm glad you're enjoying my misery!"

He said "Let me do it again." and without waiting for a reply, he starts poking around that spot again.

I said "Listen Buddy - do it again & next thing you know you're gonna be laid out on this floor!"

It was all in good fun but I tell ya...I have NEVER experienced that pain before and never wish to again.

When he realized his life was in jeopardy, Dr. Comedian drew me a nice diagram of my spine & explained what he thought the issues was. We did an xray just to make sure there was nothing more serious going on. He wrote me a script for some amazing much appreciated drugs and off I went with strict orders to only pick up Cubby if absolutely necessary. Dr. Comedian even offered to write a note to Norm explaining he would have daddy duty all to himself for the next 10 days, just to prove I wasn't going through all of this to get out of bath time.

Cubby didn't understand why I couldn't pick him up last night, why he couldn't climb on me, jump up & down on me, etc. So we did our best to explain that mommy has a booboo and needs to relax and take medicine for a few days.

Let me interject a very important fact here. When Cubby has a little accident, we usually refer to it as an "owie." Keep that in mind.

Let me also interject that this may be a good stopping point for Daddy & Bob (my mom's husband).

So, Cubby goes to school today and he yells. At the top of his lungs. Of course.

Cubby came to our office the other day to provide some comedy relief for our co-workers. He is V.E.R.Y. animated these days and is absolutely hilarious. While he was running around like a wild child, one of our sales guys (who has a pretty thick southern accent) said:

"Dij y'all know u's raizin a Russian rayd-nayek?!"

In case you need help with that, the official translation is - "Did you all know you're raising a Russian redneck?!"

We hadn't thought about it much, but now that he brought it up, Cubby does seem to have a bit of a "twang" goin on these days. Here's a small sample, but trust me the list is pretty long:

Hay-uhnd (hand)
Pay-uhnts (pants)
Ay-unt (ant)
Bay-ugh (bag)
Nay-eel (nail)
Bay-ed (bed)
Thang (thing)
Gee-tar (guitar)

And the one I love the most:

I reckon!

Are you kidding me?! What 2 year old says "I reckon"? I just about fell over the first time he said that. The majority of the teachers at his daycare do have an accent, which must be where he's picking this up. I think it's adorable and am just wondering if it's time to introduce him to grits?! Yum!

As most of you know, Norm's mom lived with us prior to moving to GA. She made the move as well BUT bought her own house and is living there with her dad (Cubby's great-grandpa a.k.a. Vovo). In fact, she moved down in August last year and had to wait until November to be reunited with her precious grandson.

Anyway, having Ilya's Nana here has been a HUGE help as far as getting settled and helping Cubby adjust to all the newness going on. She & her friend set up the room I am only allowed to walk through and never touch anything besides the coffee pot my kitchen which would still be a complete disaster had they not taken the lead on that project.

Let's just be honest people - - my kitchen is & always will be a disaster so long as it is MY KITCHEN. But I digress.

She spoils Cubby rotten, as any grandma should and still cooks for us more often than not. If she notices things on sale at the grocery store that we use, she will pick up extra for us. She was more than willing to spend the day with Cubby last week when daycare closed because of the snow(??????? HA!!!) the news folks say we got. It actually looked more like a few sugar packs exploded in one patch of our back yard. But, whatev.

So while all of that is great and we truly appreciate everything Nana does, the absolutel best thing she's ever done for us is keep THIS gift from Santa at her house:

We love you, Judy! We really, really do!

And as a side note to Santa - please consider what's on the parent's wish list as well next year. You kinda overlooked our needs (and eardrums) in 09.

So says his daddy. Let me explain.

Cubby definitely has a thing for blondes. It's like an addiction. Especially if you're blonde and named C@rrie Under wood. Who can blame him?

Anyhoo - tonight Norm & Cubby were flipping thru channels and Cubby was dissatisfied with the selection. Each channel Cubby would either say "Not that one Daddy" or simply "NO!!" if he really didn't want to watch a particular show.

Finally, Cubby yelled out "DIS ONE DAAADDYYY!! DIS CHANNEL!"

Wondering what finally caught his attention? A blonde bombshell doing who knows what. But it wasn't the "doing" that mattered. It's all about being blonde!

Car Conversations with Cubby after leaving church:

Mommy: "Did you have fun at church today?"

Cubby: "Yes, I did!!"

Daddy: "Did you play?"

Cubby: "YEAH!!"

Mommy: "Who did you play with?"

Cubby (after a short pause b/c he still doesn't know everyone's names): "I played with GOD!!"

Mommy & Daddy (laughing): "Oh yeah? What'd you two play?"

Cubby: "Umm-uhh...Cubby played gee-tar and God played DRUMS!!"


Imagine being at that concert! I didn't know that was a perk of Sunday School teachers!

After church a few weeks ago, we went to a place called Cheeseburger Bobby's for lunch. We like to go there on Sunday's because you'll get 10% off your bill by showing your church bulletin. The money you save goes to the local food bank, so it's a win-win all the way around. Except, of course, for that whole "a moment on your lips, a lifetime on your hips" thang... (Question - - why does this only apply to those of the female persuasion?)

So we're walking through the parking lot and Cubby starts digging in his front pocket. Then, the little clepto whips out a pink toy cell phone & proudly proclaims "Look at my phone mommy daddy!" According to Norm, no self respecting father is going to let their son - no matter what age - carry around a pink cell phone, so instantly we knew Cubby was....a thief!

We asked him where he got the phone, to which he replied loudly "I TOOK IT FROM GOD!!!"

Okay, maybe you had to be there but come on - how stinkin cute is that?!

Ever since then, he has been showing off the phone to people and telling E.V.E.R.Y.O.N.E. that he "took it from God." Since we're the newbies around here, we don't want people to start talking, so today we made Cubby return the phone to its rightful owner. When we dropped him off at Sunday School this morning, I handed the phone to his teacher and told her what he had said a few weeks earlier. Cubby saw & heard all of this, and after we left he apparently told her that:

"I did take the phone from God...BUThetoldmeitwasokay!" (said very quickly!)

Cubby's November 2009 School Pictures. Seriously - how can I possibly argue with him when he looks in the mirror and yells "HANDSOME BOY!!!"

...so I can start blogging again. Dell & I owe you an apology but Mac is trying really really hard to make up for our errors.

Back in November, as we were preparing to move to GA, Dell helped me create an AWESOME presentation of BEAUTIFUL adopted children. Many of you shared pictures of your kiddos, and I sincerely appreciate each & every photo I received.

A few days before our move I had the honor/privilege of sharing our adoption journey to Cubby, and those pictures of your kiddos, with a very large audience. You may recall that I promised to share that video with you once we settled in our new house.

Well, to say we're anywhere near settled is really stretching reality but more than anything I want to share the video. Dell & I tried on many occasions to upload the video to Blogger but darn if I could get it to cooperate without the internet going kaboom each & every time I logged into Blogger.

After a series of maddening attempts to set up a stable and functional wireless home network, our internet woes were finally resolved last weekend. Seems we have a gremlin in the house who switched the wires on the router, making the connection fizz out every 3 minutes. Thankfully we have a nerdy great IT friend who figured this out in all of 30 seconds. His only charges were: letting his kids use Cubby's new swingset and letting them destroy beautifully redecorate our Christmas tree.

Anyway, after our nerdy great IT friend and his family left last weekend, I thought I was golden and would finally be able to post the video.

errr - - NOT.SO.MUCH.

The stress of the whole thing proved to be too much for Dell, and my loyal PC friend seems to be asking me to pull the plug. Permanently. Dell would rather sleep than turn on. If Dell does wake up, often times I feel like the cursor's blinking but the mouse just isn't attached. You get my drift. The ol' PC just ain't wanting to PC anymore.

Enter my sidekick at work - Mac. Mac & I are still getting to know each other, and we both have some kinks to work out but all in all it's going pretty well. Mac also knows how much I wanted to post the adoption video, so we're doing our best to figure out how to recreate it on a Mac platform.

I've been avoiding blogging because I knew some of you were really anticipating the video, and perhaps that was your only reason for stopping by which is okay. I'm just glad you're here and please try to be just a little more patient. It will be posted!!

For those of you who gave me a photo - THANK YOU! Although I haven't been able to share it with all of you yet, please know how touched the audience was.

We reached out to people who otherwise wouldn't have considered adoption, and gave them hope that they, too, could take that first step.

We gave confidence to a 16 year old girl to share her own adoption story. She, too, was adopted from Russia when she was just 4 years old. Something she has shied away from telling many people, but that day she proudly stood up and thanked her adoptive parents for the life they have given her and asked other to please consider loving a child who so desperately needs a family.

The list of people who stopped to speak to me after the presentation goes on & on, but let me share with you the most incredible one...

We inspired a young woman who was considering an abortion that adoption is a better choice for her unborn child...

We - you and I - saved.a.life! And, if she shared her story with those she said she would share it with, there is a very good possibility that the lives of 3 other unborn babies were saved as well.

So while I was extremely nervous about sharing our journey to Cubby with so many people at once, I honestly feel like God gave me the confidence I needed to get through the presentation, and the words certain people in the audience needed to hear. I couldn't have done it without many of you. Whether you sent in pictures, offered me encouragement or lifted up a prayer that I wouldn't pass out from fright, Thank You once again friends!!

You'll be seeing me more here at Love More, Laugh Often this year. I hope to see you too!

Happy New Year (belated),
Kar