A new dawn

A mommy-friend of mine, Dawn Gusty, has had MS for 12 years. Though she, since I have known her in playgroups for the past several years, has kept a super positive attitude and has taken great care of her body to stave off the effects, she fears without major intervention that she will be in a wheelchair within a year. (The past few years she has been relying on a walker and motorized scooter to help her keep up with her preschooler.) The great news is that there is hope for reversal of symptoms through stem cell treatments and she is already halfway to meeting her financial goal! She will be going to Tiajuana to recieve the treatments in June. Currently they are doing a drive for 500 people to donate 20 bucks to help out with the exorbitant expense. So, dear bloggy friends, I thought I would pass along the story of a brave and determined mom who I trust will get the help that she needs to rock a new dawn! To read her story and or to help, please visit www.dawngusty.com. Thanks! :)

Happy Earth Day to you ....

Happy earth day! So good to remember your mother and keep her beautiful!
Today we didn't really do anything special to observe (except for getting out in the fresh air and taking a nice family walk) but last weekend was the earth day festival in Nashville at Centennial Park and we spent the day there. Little Man enjoyed seeing dancers from different cultures, talking to local "farmers", getting a tree to plant and making a bird feeder. It was great to get to take a moment and get to talk about the importance of this blue dot we call home.
Maybe after dinner we will go out in the yard and pick up trash for our planet and feed the birds ... every little bit helps!
Happy earth day to you!

Winner!

Congratz to Sweatpea Blogs for winning the book give-a-way!!!

I'm comin' up, so you better get this party started!

Oh, how I LUV me a party ... even if it is a virtual one! Thought I would hop on board for the Ultimate Blog Party via Five Minutes For Mom. What a fun idea.

Here, have a seat, would you like some cheese?

Allow me introduce myself. Like, I am an Aries and I like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain. No, seriously ... I am an Aries, but this time of year (77 in Nashvegas today, peeps) I prefer margaritas and sunshine.

I describe myself here as a "watered-down earth mother" hence the MudMama moniker. I have been a mommy-blogger for a year now and I love it. I am a mom, writer/performer and live in my hometown of Nashville (back from LA and NY) with my cute husband (pictured after our 10 year vow renewal with "Elvis"),
my wild and wonderful five-year-old boy (who I adore!)

And our feline friends





As part of the celebration I will be having a door prize! I released a book this past year, A Journey to the Son, about my highly dramatic road to motherhood a few years ago (including infertility and IVF, a crazy complicated preg/near-death delivery, PPD, etc!) and wrote a CD to go along with the book with my "brothah" and music partner, the amazing (Grammy-winner) Don Henry.

Please message me to be eligible to win and I will have a random drawing at the end of the week! :) Oh, and if you follow me here you get an extra entry, follow me on twitter too you will get two extra entries.

And if I happen to win any of the FAB Five Minutes for Mom party prizes, I would love the Toshiba Satellite L505D-ES5025**of course! (The better to virtually party on, my dear)
I would like to win a $150 shopping spree at Pedal Cars and Retro Collectibles.
OR Buds to Bloom Photo Tile Necklace ($95) – Features custom photo tile, hand stamped mom charm & bead cluster.

OR any of these things, US10, US11, US14, US23, US39, 47, 49 (starbucks), 58, USC42, USC45-or anything good for a five year old boy!

Thanks a bunch for stopping by this spring fling! Please introduce yourself! Cheers!

A GOOD adoption story

Well, yesterday I posted about a BAD adoption story (the poor little seven-year-old boy from Russia who got sent back by himself from the US on a plane with a note). Tonight I am feeling uplifted after (finally) seeing the Blind Side and thought I would balance out yesterday's contribution with something positive. Now here is a true and amazing story of Michael Oher who was adopted by Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy at sevenTEEN years old, transracially, and (as Hollywood tells it) rocked his way into the major leagues through the power of love (and talent of his own). I would like to believe that that is just the way that it happened!
Here is to all of those special people who make it work!

Russia puts the freeze on US adoptions

As someone who is interested in adoption I am stunned and saddened, as many are, by recent news. An American woman (in Tennessee, thank you very much) boarded her seven-year-old Russian adopted son on a one-way-flight to Russia BY HIMSELF with a note saying that she did not want to parent him anymore (due to his psychological problems). The family paid a man $200 to pick the boy up at the Moscow airport and take him to the Russian Education and Science Ministry.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/04/10/national/a015526D78.DTL#ixzz0ki0ZZFXr
Though this is now international news, here is the full story from our local paper.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/D4/20100409/NEWS01/100409019/7-year-old+adopted+boy+sent+back+to+Russia+unaccompanied+on+a+United+Airlines+flight
When you adopt an older child (he was six) you have to know there is a risk of that child having some emotional issues to work out. Fetal alcohol syndrome is also a possibility with a child who was taken out of a home with an alcoholic biological parent. Though the family claims to have been misled about him and has stated that the boy was violent (he has said the same thing about the adoptive mother) why were these issues not addressed and worked on with a social worker or therapist? You can't just send a kid back, on an international flight by himself, with a note! (Local officials say it is not clear if an actual law has been broken)
A Russian official called this the last straw after a series of adoptions gone wrong and has declared a moratorium on all adoptions from Russia to the US for the time being. Who can blame him? I feel for all the good people in the midst of adopting from Russia who are now left to wonder where this leaves them.

Easter vacation, Florida roadtrip

Please excuse my lack of posting/checking in. We just got back from West Palm Beach seeing Jim's mom, "Grandee" (and cousins!) for Easter.
On the way there, we gave Little Man an ego-BOOSTER, in the shape of a literal booster seat for big boys that he has been wanting for a long time. I had been holding off since he is not yet 40 lbs., but I found one that is okay for kids 30 lbs. and up, he gave it two thumbs up!
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On the way down we got a taste of a throw back from my childhood ... boiled peanuts from Georgia. Now if that ain't an authentic Southern delicacy, I don't know what is!

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Right around the Florida line our hybrid had car trouble. LUCKILY we were 3 miles from an exit that happened to have a motel for the night and a Ford dealership! We left our car there to be fixed the next day and got a rental. (Good thing because it took three days to get fixed!)
On our first day at the beach my manic chasing of my boy at the shorline ended with a dramatic horn blowing from the lifeguard ... SHARKS!

Several had moved in to the shore! I have never experienced that before (in all the years I vacationed at the beach). After about a half an hour the lifeguard said "it's okay to go back in they have moved back out" So people started to go back in and were immediately told to get out of the water. When the people got back in, the sharks started coming back towards them! Creepy! So, we played "dodge the shark"! we enjoyed the pool for the rest of the trip!

We also took Little Man to "Peanut Island". A boat took us to a little manmade island.
We got a tour of a cool replica of an 1812 privateer ship (the sailers dress like pirates and really sail that thing all over the country)


and we also got to tour JFK's bunker (in case of nuclear attack while he was visiting West Palm Beach)
It was pretty fascinating to see. He could have survived in here for 30 days. Little Man sat at the presidential desk for a photo op on the red phone!
My sis-in-law told me that she heard a tour guide speculated that that bunker was actually used for other things (and then sang "heroin and Marilyn"! I take it this was his own assumption!)

Easter Sunday was big fun. Little Man got to decorate eggs and play with cousins to his hearts content.
It was a fast and fun Florida family vacation.