Your Heart I Will Choose

Oh God. I can’t even give an excuse as to why I haven’t posted in here. *laughs* If you follow me on youtube, you know I’ve been doing more videos than anything lately. I need to really find some dang balance with everything.

But anyway… Guess what? We just celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary!! Isn’t that CRAZY?? Well, Aldwyn says it’s not really crazy. But still…crazy!

We did laugh, though, thinking about some of the people who said that I was just the “flavor of the month,” even though by the time they said it, we’d been together for almost half a year. I’m still the best flavor, suckers!!

Instead of having a big party or anything, all I really wanted to do was hang out with my little family. It was actually kind of a big night for us!

I’ve mentioned the SL adoption-to-birthing process before in a previous post. Not in really great detail or anything, I’m sure. But as simply as I can explain it: Some parents in SL choose to “birth” their adopted children. It’s a symbolic thing more than anything else. The child is not considered adopted anymore, but a true born child of the parents. Now most parents who do this, the mom goes through the SL pregnancy process – belly bump, labor, and all! Even complete with a prim baby in most cases! But this was not something I was interested in doing. I didn’t want to look pregnant [blogging would be difficult!] and I didn’t want to do the labor thing or have a Zooby baby of the girls. *laughs* I just didn’t. BUT, the whole symbolic thing appealed to me. Because well…they just feel like ours. So I felt like it was time.

I made a video for the girls. [It’s private, but I’ll share one day.] They loved it! Then I presented them with new birth certificates, and the whole family with rings with a Z on them. I actually want to get proper signet rings for everyone one day.

After that, we went on a mushroom hunt! It was the neatest thing. We got to hunt mushrooms and make potions that sometimes made mushrooms grow from our heads. It was soooo cute! We also carved some pumpkins as practice for next month!

It was really a wonderful evening, and the best wedding anniversary. ❤

But I Thought They Were Going To Disney?!

So last month, Abby and Birdy came to me very excited. A camp was going to be happening in July, and would it be possible for them to go? It wouldn’t even cost us a cent other than buying the normal supplies. Well, of course I said yes! All kids need a summer camp and with Camp Hardknock no longer in business, I was glad that they found one that they were interested in. This would be a great chance for them to get away for a week, have some fun, and hopefully meet some new friends. They said the camp is actually going to be happening at Disney! They will be taking a train with other campers all the way to Disney. We heard that there might have been some problems with the train tracks… but hey, I’m sure they have it fixed by now. Although I also heard that last camp, the plane to Disney got lost with the kids on it. Maybe that’s why they’re taking the train this year?

They leave for camp on Saturday, so today we started packing them up. Camp girls need lots of things, like surfboards and dolls and spare underpants and…

Wait. Why do these girls think they need a bow and arrows, a sword, tactical gear, and a…bomb case?! What in the world?!

Hmm. Why do I get the feeling there’s more to this camp than they are telling me?

PS: I said no to the tactical gear and bomb case. I’m a good mom, after all.

The House Is Full

Guess what?

THEY SAID YES!!!

Tonight we asked Rory and Heath if they would be official Zanzibars, and they agreed!! We didn’t scare them or bore them away! *laughs*

We asked them in a surprise way, since that’s how we roll around here. Aldwyn had suggested to me last week that we ask them by flying a spaceship up into space. I have a space ball we have used before and planets that explode [which everyone loves to do!] and so we decided that it would be fun to ask them that way. I decided the aliens could greet us “in space” with the sign. Of course, the ride to space was… well, it’s US. What can I say? We’re just US.

But we eventually made it to space, and the aliens were holding the sign, and there was a flurry of “YES!” and “YAY!” and screams and everyone was just incredibly happy. 🙂 Then the time came for them to accept their new names.

[21:01] Second Life: Heath Matters (Heath Pevensey) is now known as Heath Ryan Zanzibar.

[21:01] Second Life: Rory Matters (Rory Larnia) is now known as Rory Olivia Zanzibar.

We really could not be happier! When Aldwyn and I had talked about possibly adopting again, probably late last summer, we had planned on just one kid or perhaps just being godparents again. But these two just slid into our lives so perfectly and are exactly the kids we needed to complete our family. This is it – our last adoptions.

I think we did brilliantly. ❤

We’re Two of a Kind, Workin’ On A Full House

Remember in my last post, I said we had plans and I’d talk about them later? Later is now! 🙂 Guess what we did?

That’s right! Our family is growing! Well, in the way that SL families grow – by trial and hope and luck!

Over the past few months, I’ve gotten to know our friends, Rory and Heath, better through camp, and plurk, and they have showed up at some of our family events. They are exceptionally darling kids! When they mentioned back in November that they were putting up a panel at Heritage…well, thoughts started forming in my mind. *laughs* But after the “little blonde girl that wasn’t” debacle back in October, I was hesitant to even bring up my thoughts with the family. But believe me. I had thoughts!!

A bit before Christmas or so, my thoughts suddenly became pretty much everyone’s thoughts. We had the room for more kids. We definitely have love in our hearts for more kids. Our girls let us know that they would like to have more siblings. Especially these two kids, given that they were already becoming big parts of our lives. But our holiday schedules were all over the place and I did not feel comfortable bringing someone in for an adoption trial if we were not going to be around very much. So we waited.

So cut to last week. Aldwyn and I sat down and had a talk with each other on if this is something we both really wanted. And we talked to the girls because, ultimately, this affects them more and we would never want to expand the family if they were not completely on board. But of course they were! They have been so excited about this! They have been asking me almost daily WHEN we were going to do this!

But, things had to be ready. We needed a bigger house. I know, it would be easy to have the kids share rooms. I simply like for each kid to have their own spot. We really don’t spend a ton of time in the bedrooms or anything, but I think it’s best if they have their own little spot that is JUST theirs. And, again, I really did want to go back to using our old house! So we packed up, put out the old house, had Lolita fix our landscaping [we just went spring on Bluebonnet!!!], I made a sign for Rory and Heath, and we were ready to go!

Of course, being us, it didn’t go as planned. We actually planned to do it Friday night but well. *laughs* It’s okay, though. It actually worked better doing it Saturday night! I think we were all nervous. I know I sure was. I mean…they could have said no. I was literally shaking! AND THEN THEY SAID YES!! We have demo kids! LOL! Abby and Birdy have never had a brother before, so they are pretty excited about that. Poor Heath. So many girls. *laughs* But now we have FOUR guys in the OZ family. Oh my heavens. 🙂

Aldwyn and I spent some time with all of them and then said goodnight to our kids and went for a short date with each other. It was good for us because we have not had this chance in a while, and also I am eager for the kids to start developing more of a sibling bond with each other outside of when we are with them.

How long will the trial last? Couldn’t tell you. As everyone knows, we believe in long trials so we can get to know each other well and make sure that everyone is on the same page, family-wise. It’s better that way! But…we have known Rory and Heath for a while, and I think they have a pretty good idea what our family is like, so who knows. I’m not rushing anything. We’re not going anywhere. ♥

Got The Sun!

We had kind of a more RP-ish day on Tuesday. It’s rare that we do a whole lot of what people think of when they think of SL families. I mean, just answering questions from folks, they think we are in this constant RP mode where we’re doing dinners every night and tuck ins and all of that stuff. Truthfully, we’re kind of boring and most of the time we’re just sitting or standing around the house talking about random stuff or being quiet while we do our own things. *laughs*

But our friend Jill has opened up a little homeschool and the girls were invited to attend. Birdy, unfortunately, couldn’t do it because of her RL school, but Abby was excited to give it a try. She asked me on Monday if I would be able to take her to school, and if so, could I also take our friends Rory and Heath to school, too. The more, the merrier, so of course I said yes! I decided since we were doing the drop off thing, maybe I should be a better mom and feed the kids before we went. So before school, the kids had sandwiches and lemonade. [I considered cupcakes and soda, but I thought I’d take it easy on Jill and not get the kids all riled up!] My niecey, Riley, was also going to school, so I snatched her up before we left so she didn’t have to go on her own. School drop offs are very easy, and the kids were excited to see old friends, so I just dropped them off quickly and headed back home.

When I caught up with the kids later [I had to be offline for a while, so I dunno how they made it home. Magic, I guess.], they were quite happy with how their class had gone and I was glad! Schools come and go in SL and some of them have NOT been very good. I’m just happy the kids have something to do. There’s not always a lot that SL kids can go do where they can be together in a safe space.

Abby wasn’t feeling well so she went to bed early, and so Aldwyn and I took Birdy, Rory, and Heath out for dinner. The kids had to deal with my driving and they MIGHT have gotten an ocean bath on the way to get burgers, but… well, yolo. 🙂

I really had a lot of fun with everything on Tuesday. We don’t often do that kind of thing and we really should. Plus it was fun having more kids in the house. I’m soooo lucky that Aldwyn just rolls with the punches when we’re doing things because most of the time when he logs in, he doesn’t really know what he’s logging into. *laughs*

He really is wonderful and I probably don’t say that enough. ♥

And speaking of him, I’ve been putting his gift to good use and I made us this pose! Woo! It’s better than my last one. *laughs* Well, kinda. It’s still pretty rough but I’m learning how to work with the AnyPose. There are a few things I wish it had – like the ability to rotate the arms a little better, or being able to adjust how small the increment is when adjusting limbs. Or maybe there is and I don’t know because I don’t read instructions? I mean…that’s pretty likely. 🙂

But, if you like this pose, you can buy it here on marketplace. Because well, I think it’s cute, so if you think it’s cute, you might as well buy it.

Man, I’m good at marketing. *laughs*

Springtime

It’s family picture time! We always take pics with the whole family when we have parties and stuff, but I try to do a more “professional” decent picture of just the Zanzibars at least once a season. Given how nuts my little family is, trust me. This is not always easy. *laughs* But this is our picture for the spring of 2015!

They’re pretty adorable, huh? I think I’ll keep them.

We’ve also been busily packing for our rainforest vacation that we are going on with the Oleanders on Monday! I’m so excited to go!! I just LOVE our family vacations because it gives us all time to reconnect as a family. Sure, not a week goes by that we don’t all see each other, but vacations are different. It’s more of an immersive experience and I don’t know about the rest of the family, but I really do need that sometimes. My girls are pretty low maintenance, so I fall slightly out of practice of being more of a mommy. We get in the habit of basically just talking about our RL and stuff when we have a chance to be together in the evenings since we don’t always have much time together and so vacations give us more of a chance to play. 🙂

Tomorrow is our family Easter party with the Oleanders so that should be very fun. Easter was later in April last year, but it was the first family party our Birdy came to when she started her trial with us! I can’t believe it’s been just about a year since we met her!

Time for bed so we can continue packing a bit more tomorrow!

The Best Tree

The girls have been itching to get a Christmas tree up, so tonight we headed out to Inglewood’s Farm to cut our own tree down! The place is really lovely and there are things to do and see out there.

After we stopped at the little cafe to get coffee, we headed out into the tree farm to look for the best one. The girls ran around until they found the tree that they felt was the fluffiest.

Luckily, Daddy Z is pretty handy with an ax. And he’s big and strong, because you know, we’re delicate girls. We couldn’t lug the tree around ourselves! We might get splinters! But he chopped and chopped and got us our tree.

After we got our tree, met some reindeer [Birdy shared her coffee with them!], and Abby met a woman who probably didn’t realize that wearing pants is usually a good thing out on a snowy farm, we headed home to set up our new tree. There is still tons to do in the house to get it ready for Christmas, but we got our tree up, so that’s really what counts. But setting up a Christmas tree is hard work! It was bedtime for our little ones, but they didn’t want to stop looking at the tree.

We have a busy couple of weeks coming up. Next week [the 17th], we’re having an ice skating party to celebrate Abby’s 1 year adoptaversary with us. Plus we are going to see the Polar Express and Santa with the Oleanders, and there will be an ugly Christmas sweater party and I think a camp fire stories night, too. Lots to do, but it’s all good stuff. 🙂

Goodnight!

The Best Cookie Bakers Ever

Tomorrow we are having our family Thanksgiving dinner! You might remember last year Abby and I made a dish to take to dinner. Only…well, we ended up forgetting it in the fridge. It was probably for the best.

But this year, I have two daughters instead of one goddaughter! Between the three of us, I think we made some awesome cookies to share with the family!

And I PROMISE no one sneezed in the flour or stepped on any cookies. I PROMISE!!

It’s funny how things change in a year, isn’t it? We went from just having this little goddaughter to having two amazing daughters. We have much to be thankful for this year!

Baby, I’m amazed at the way you love me all the time

So it’s been a running joke in the family that Aldwyn never changes clothes. In fact, he was in Bob Marley board shorts for like 4 months. I know. Embarrassing. LOL! The girls have been pestering him to change and finally last week he put some pants on. But yesterday I showed him some new stuff from FATEwear, so last night we grabbed the girls and headed out to do some shopping. They. Were. THRILLED. *laughs*

Since he actually changed clothes, I decided to get him on a pose with me to take a pic for the fashion blog. I’m one of the FATEplay bloggers, so I also get all the FATEwear stuff and feel awful that I so rarely get to blog it. I have a male shape and all, but I don’t have a current male skin, just some old group gifts from Belleza. I really should put something together for when I get male items, but I just haven’t. I’m kind of a lazy blogger that way.

I’ll blog the actual picture tomorrow, but after I took the pic and we were still just standing around on the pose, I snapped this one. It’s a teaser! *laughs* Or it’s just a pic. Whatev.

So we suck and we totally let our 3 year wedding anniversary go by without actually doing anything for it. It was on the 18th. Can you believe this man has put up with me for this long? And now he has to put up with me AND our girls, who are [unfortunately for him] pretty much just like me. *laughs* But he loves us, even if we bother him about his clothes.

I should probably get in bed. It’s way after midnight and I need to do stuff tomorrow – like getting snacks ready for our scouts meeting! I love our little Bumblebees and miss them during the week! I have some of them on plurk, but it’s different there than when we’re playing at the meetings. Tomorrow’s should be a great one! But for that, I need sleep!

All I’ve Got To Give To You Are These Five Words Tonight

Tonight, the girls and I headed to Prehistorica and met some dinosaurs!

It was a lot of fun! The dinosaurs are avatars, but most are bots. We happened to come across a T-Rex that was very obviously being run by a person and that T-Rex chased Abby and Birdy ALL over the place! It was so funny! My girls might have little legs, but they are FAST and at one point, the T-Rex went and laid down. It was super cute how he played with them.

A little while after the girls went to bed, Aldwyn came online and we got to spend some alone time together. It’s been a while, so it was really nice. 🙂

Some things have been going on lately, unpartnerings and unfriendings because of some serious serious stuff. As I was filling him in on what has been going on [he has been around the past few days but he’s been under the weather so hasn’t really stayed online long enough to understand], he stopped me and said, “Thank you for being you.” Awww. 🙂 No. He’ll never have to worry that suddenly I am going to tell him I’m a man or an alien or a cat. After over 4 years together, he knows who I am and what I have done in my SLife. We laughed about how we were in our very early SL days, too, when families were weird to us but being in the club every night or walking around wearing latex was normal. It’s funny how things change. It’s good that things change, especially when they change for the better. We are both just so happy with each other and our girls and the rest of our family. We don’t always have a lot of time to spend with everyone, or each other, but that just makes every moment precious.

bedtime!