Did I say I would not be good at posting? Well, summer has come and gone and things have changed.
We took the first fosters to their forever home on Father's Day. It was bittersweet. We miss them, but are glad they are where they are supposed to be. They are doing great. We decided to take the summer off and recover from the chaos of W & R. Well, that lasted three days. We took the new fosters (8 month old twins - a boy and a girl) on June 19 "just for the weekend"........It is now September 10th and the twins are about to turn 11 months old and are quite settled into our home.
Let me give a word of advise to anyone thinking that they want to start over after 6 years. OMG! Really think about it before taking that leap! I forgot what it was like to not sleep through the night. M on the other hand has not. In fact, the other morning he woke up and said to me, "It sure is nice when all of your kids sleep through the night, isn't it?" My reply, "It sure will be." M in his best surprised voice, "They didn't sleep through the night?" Me in my most sarcastic matter of fact voice, "No, but you sure did." M in his 'should have stopped while he was behind' voice, "Well, I never heard any of them." Me in my 'you REALLY should have stopped while you were behind' voice, "Well, I barely heard them over your snoring!" M then just utters, "oh" They did both sleep through the night last night. We will see tonight if it was just a freak happening.
M is on a kick to drop some weight before our trip to Mexico in October. He came home from work on Sunday and had decided that he was now on a diet that resembles South Beach. I say resembles because it is his own version he calls the no white food diet. White food being mostly starches...bread, potatoes, pasta, etc. This could be a great idea except for the fact that every meal we eat has contained these items as staples for years. He starts "modifying" his food Sunday night and on Monday tells me, "Don't be mad at me, but I have lost 3 pounds." I reply flatly, "You can loose 3 pounds going to the bathroom." He's unimpressed with my "support". I like most women can fluctuate at least 5 or more pounds a day. So on Tuesday, I weigh and tell him "Don't be mad at me, but I have lost 4 pounds and I had house fried rice for lunch and pizza for dinner." He being ready to show me up weighs and has gained 1 of the lost 3 pounds back after eating salad and no bread or other good "white" foods. Woo Hoo! There is a God! I'm sure he will drop weight and I will probably gain it, but at least for the moment I am winning and still eating bread.
I believe C man has helped push the weight issue. The other day we are in the living room and he says, "Dad, do you have excess body fat?" M ignores the question, so C repeats it with more assertion, "DAD, do you have excess body fat?" M finally replies in a put out tone "YES, I have excess body fat" Then C tells him, "Don't get Lipozene because I like your excess body fat where it is." Almost a good save son! Mental note to self...Reduce the amount of time C spends watching t.v.
Well, maybe it won't be so long before the next post and MAYBE it will be more interesting. Until next time, love and hug your babies.......they will be the ones who choose your nursing home one day.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Mother's Day...Some are better than others
OK, so did I mention that I would not be consistent about this blog thing? Here we go again...
Mother's Day.....some are better than others. Mine this year started with M leaving the house at 6 am to go to Springdale to work on his race car. Yes, I just just said that my loving husband left me with three children on Mother's Day and took the only vehicle that we all would fit into since he needed to use it to pull the trailer. Fortunately, the fosters' future "forever family" wanted them for the afternoon and came to get them around 11:30 after they went to church. I ask C man where he wants to go eat lunch and he picks the usual Mexican restaurant that he loves and that we happened to eat lunch at the day before. That's OK because I'm going with my little dude. Well, the restaurant is crazy busy (it is Mother's Day after all) so I suggest the other Mexican restaurant owned by the same people. He refuses claiming that that one "freaks me out!" Whatever! Where to then? "Pizza Inn" is the response. "Great" (sarcastic tone) I think and head that direction. As we pull into the parking lot C says, "see Mom, Pizza Inn isn't crowded at all" I reply in my most loving explaining mommy voice, "That's because most moms don't want to eat their Mother's Day lunch at Pizza Inn." I get a response of "OOOOOhhh" like a light bulb turns on. After our lovely pizza dinner we head to the movies to see Speed Racer. Once again, not my first choice, but I am with my little dude which is good. On our way out of the movie, the forever family mom calls and says that W has been screaming for 3 hours and she wants to know if I have any suggestions. All I can think of is "Happy Mother's Day!" We go home and I spend the rest of the afternoon and evening painting the window sills so I can hang the blinds and quit living with bed sheets on my windows. M shows up around 10:30 and says he's sorry it wasn't a wonderful Mother's Day (just wait until Father's Day! I'll be making a trip by myself to somewhere unnecessary) and promises to make it up to me later that week. I hold him to that promise Monday night and make him take me to the big city and get a new video camera.
Now, I need the video camera since my other one was slung out of a race car 3 years ago at 150 miles per hour and came home in a box in a million pieces. I need to be able to record my sweet baby boy in his kindergarten year end play on Friday. He is going to be a "big beautiful planet" When I asked him if there were going to be a bunch of "big beautiful planets" he replied in his most I'm smarter than you voice with, "well no Mom, there aren't that many planets in the world." Duh! He has to get those quick remarks from his father......well, maybe not.
Overall, things are good. The fosters are doing really well and seem to be bonding well with the future forever family. Looks like they may be moved there by the end of May or beginning of June. We are going to miss them, but it's GREAT that they are going to be with their God chosen family for good soon. Remember that you save the world one child at a time and that there are thousands waiting to be loved by someone every day.
Mother's Day.....some are better than others. Mine this year started with M leaving the house at 6 am to go to Springdale to work on his race car. Yes, I just just said that my loving husband left me with three children on Mother's Day and took the only vehicle that we all would fit into since he needed to use it to pull the trailer. Fortunately, the fosters' future "forever family" wanted them for the afternoon and came to get them around 11:30 after they went to church. I ask C man where he wants to go eat lunch and he picks the usual Mexican restaurant that he loves and that we happened to eat lunch at the day before. That's OK because I'm going with my little dude. Well, the restaurant is crazy busy (it is Mother's Day after all) so I suggest the other Mexican restaurant owned by the same people. He refuses claiming that that one "freaks me out!" Whatever! Where to then? "Pizza Inn" is the response. "Great" (sarcastic tone) I think and head that direction. As we pull into the parking lot C says, "see Mom, Pizza Inn isn't crowded at all" I reply in my most loving explaining mommy voice, "That's because most moms don't want to eat their Mother's Day lunch at Pizza Inn." I get a response of "OOOOOhhh" like a light bulb turns on. After our lovely pizza dinner we head to the movies to see Speed Racer. Once again, not my first choice, but I am with my little dude which is good. On our way out of the movie, the forever family mom calls and says that W has been screaming for 3 hours and she wants to know if I have any suggestions. All I can think of is "Happy Mother's Day!" We go home and I spend the rest of the afternoon and evening painting the window sills so I can hang the blinds and quit living with bed sheets on my windows. M shows up around 10:30 and says he's sorry it wasn't a wonderful Mother's Day (just wait until Father's Day! I'll be making a trip by myself to somewhere unnecessary) and promises to make it up to me later that week. I hold him to that promise Monday night and make him take me to the big city and get a new video camera.
Now, I need the video camera since my other one was slung out of a race car 3 years ago at 150 miles per hour and came home in a box in a million pieces. I need to be able to record my sweet baby boy in his kindergarten year end play on Friday. He is going to be a "big beautiful planet" When I asked him if there were going to be a bunch of "big beautiful planets" he replied in his most I'm smarter than you voice with, "well no Mom, there aren't that many planets in the world." Duh! He has to get those quick remarks from his father......well, maybe not.
Overall, things are good. The fosters are doing really well and seem to be bonding well with the future forever family. Looks like they may be moved there by the end of May or beginning of June. We are going to miss them, but it's GREAT that they are going to be with their God chosen family for good soon. Remember that you save the world one child at a time and that there are thousands waiting to be loved by someone every day.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Day "Off"
Looking back, I would classify Thursday as an overall success.
Let me begin by explaining about the unholy amounts of rain that we have been receiving. Animals are pairing up and searching for the ark. Our yard (5 acres) became super saturated a week or two ago and it has continued to rain. There is water running everywhere. I feel that I should hang on to the kids anytime we walk out the door due to the fear of them being swept away by the running water. Wait, did I say fear? I must have meant due to the parental, protective responsibility I feel.
M was apparently was feeling pressure from the previous blog's mention of his "helpfulness" because he was a new man bordering on the helpfulness of a wo'man'. It was pouring down rain when I packed the fosters up in the Tahoe to head to the doctor and M fought the C man into the RX-8. When I say fought, boy was it a fight! He was screaming and crying and reaching for me. He in no way shape or form wanted dad to take him to school. I just blew him a kiss, reminded him I loved him, and told him to have a GREAT day at school. M looked thrilled about being so helpful.
Got to the doctor and managed to get the fosters into the building dry (them, not me because I was soaked from my toes to just above the knee) and signed in first on the list. Woo Hoo! This is going to be a great rainy day. M shows up and tells me about how the C man never calmed down and the teacher rescued him by prying C off of him at the school. "welcome to my world buddy" I think, but respond with,"oh gosh, I'm so sorry he was having such a rough morning".
Got the scripts I wanted for the fosters, they got the candy they wanted and we all head for the door. It is now crazy pouring and lightening. While M waits with R, I run W to the truck with the umbrella and climb in to strap him into the car seat that is in the middle of the backseat. Just after I shut the door to the truck behind me it dawns on me that I have that stupid little child lock switch flipped on so the doors in the back won't open from the inside. Great for the kids, but not so great for the out of shape, inflexible, soaking wet mom who now has to climb over the kid in the car seat and maneuver herself over the seat to get into the front. All I can say is thank God it is pouring outside and all anyone could see is a dark shadow moving around in the vehicle. "Let's make this look planned" I think to myself and start the truck and pull up to pick up R from M. Wasn't that so thoughtful of me???
Drop R at day care (who whines that her jacket is wet on the outside - oh please, I'm wet up to my belt) and head with W to the health department for shots. M meets us there to do his duty of holding the poor victim. Go back to get the shots and find out he needs to get 4 of them and that they do it in his arms one at a time. OMG!!!! Let me just tell you something, I cried more about it than he did even when they sunk those 2" needles into his two little arms four times. He was so tough! I guess all of that fighting with R has paid off. Now W has his second piece of candy and it's not even 10:00 in the morning. That's more candy than he has had on my watch in 6 weeks. Oh, who cares? He's going to be at day care for the rest of the day.
Speaking of 10:00, we have 10 minutes to get across town and sign him into daycare or we have to feed him lunch before dropping him off. I also need to get to work because I only have 1 hour to make up if I hurry. I run W to daycare and sign him in at 9:58. Run home to get Motrin for him (yes I forgot he needed it before the shots). Run back to day care, drug W, make R go to the potty, and kiss them both goodbye and get signed back into work by 10:15.
Now, sometime between the health department and the daycare my mother-in-law calls to say she is planning to come stay for a few days and should be at the house around noon. Most would normally not be too happy about something like this, but I am THRILLED!!! The crazy rain has driven her work inside and she is coming to work on my house!!!! Our hall bath has been out of commission because of a leak since before New Year's. We have had all 5 of us using my bathroom the whole time the fosters have been here. Let me tell you that boys and toddlers have made it seem like a truck stop in there.
M finishes out his helpfulness for the day and everyone shows up at home at their respective times, dinner is eaten, dishwasher is loaded and running, baths and showers are given, and all under the age of 6 are put to bed by 8:30. It is still raining, flooding, and begins storming sometime after 9:00. Tornadoes and crazy rain and wind start up and move across the state in our direction. The kids and puppy all sleep through it and M decides to go to bed around 10:15 because after all, "it's just another tornado or two." What a crazy man! Mom-in-law and I stay up watching the weather coverage until it passes around 1:00 in the morning.
Why would any of this be considered worthy of calling Thursday a success? The success is that we were not blown away by a tornado, I lost no children to the running yard waters, I'm getting a second bathroom back, and no one from DCFS (DHS) in any county called wanting to place another child in our home. The biggest success is that my husband spent the majority of this one day "off" much the same way I spend all of my days "off."
Let me begin by explaining about the unholy amounts of rain that we have been receiving. Animals are pairing up and searching for the ark. Our yard (5 acres) became super saturated a week or two ago and it has continued to rain. There is water running everywhere. I feel that I should hang on to the kids anytime we walk out the door due to the fear of them being swept away by the running water. Wait, did I say fear? I must have meant due to the parental, protective responsibility I feel.
M was apparently was feeling pressure from the previous blog's mention of his "helpfulness" because he was a new man bordering on the helpfulness of a wo'man'. It was pouring down rain when I packed the fosters up in the Tahoe to head to the doctor and M fought the C man into the RX-8. When I say fought, boy was it a fight! He was screaming and crying and reaching for me. He in no way shape or form wanted dad to take him to school. I just blew him a kiss, reminded him I loved him, and told him to have a GREAT day at school. M looked thrilled about being so helpful.
Got to the doctor and managed to get the fosters into the building dry (them, not me because I was soaked from my toes to just above the knee) and signed in first on the list. Woo Hoo! This is going to be a great rainy day. M shows up and tells me about how the C man never calmed down and the teacher rescued him by prying C off of him at the school. "welcome to my world buddy" I think, but respond with,"oh gosh, I'm so sorry he was having such a rough morning".
Got the scripts I wanted for the fosters, they got the candy they wanted and we all head for the door. It is now crazy pouring and lightening. While M waits with R, I run W to the truck with the umbrella and climb in to strap him into the car seat that is in the middle of the backseat. Just after I shut the door to the truck behind me it dawns on me that I have that stupid little child lock switch flipped on so the doors in the back won't open from the inside. Great for the kids, but not so great for the out of shape, inflexible, soaking wet mom who now has to climb over the kid in the car seat and maneuver herself over the seat to get into the front. All I can say is thank God it is pouring outside and all anyone could see is a dark shadow moving around in the vehicle. "Let's make this look planned" I think to myself and start the truck and pull up to pick up R from M. Wasn't that so thoughtful of me???
Drop R at day care (who whines that her jacket is wet on the outside - oh please, I'm wet up to my belt) and head with W to the health department for shots. M meets us there to do his duty of holding the poor victim. Go back to get the shots and find out he needs to get 4 of them and that they do it in his arms one at a time. OMG!!!! Let me just tell you something, I cried more about it than he did even when they sunk those 2" needles into his two little arms four times. He was so tough! I guess all of that fighting with R has paid off. Now W has his second piece of candy and it's not even 10:00 in the morning. That's more candy than he has had on my watch in 6 weeks. Oh, who cares? He's going to be at day care for the rest of the day.
Speaking of 10:00, we have 10 minutes to get across town and sign him into daycare or we have to feed him lunch before dropping him off. I also need to get to work because I only have 1 hour to make up if I hurry. I run W to daycare and sign him in at 9:58. Run home to get Motrin for him (yes I forgot he needed it before the shots). Run back to day care, drug W, make R go to the potty, and kiss them both goodbye and get signed back into work by 10:15.
Now, sometime between the health department and the daycare my mother-in-law calls to say she is planning to come stay for a few days and should be at the house around noon. Most would normally not be too happy about something like this, but I am THRILLED!!! The crazy rain has driven her work inside and she is coming to work on my house!!!! Our hall bath has been out of commission because of a leak since before New Year's. We have had all 5 of us using my bathroom the whole time the fosters have been here. Let me tell you that boys and toddlers have made it seem like a truck stop in there.
M finishes out his helpfulness for the day and everyone shows up at home at their respective times, dinner is eaten, dishwasher is loaded and running, baths and showers are given, and all under the age of 6 are put to bed by 8:30. It is still raining, flooding, and begins storming sometime after 9:00. Tornadoes and crazy rain and wind start up and move across the state in our direction. The kids and puppy all sleep through it and M decides to go to bed around 10:15 because after all, "it's just another tornado or two." What a crazy man! Mom-in-law and I stay up watching the weather coverage until it passes around 1:00 in the morning.
Why would any of this be considered worthy of calling Thursday a success? The success is that we were not blown away by a tornado, I lost no children to the running yard waters, I'm getting a second bathroom back, and no one from DCFS (DHS) in any county called wanting to place another child in our home. The biggest success is that my husband spent the majority of this one day "off" much the same way I spend all of my days "off."
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
It's Raining Kids
Let me start by saying that M thinks I am a complete loser for doing this blog. I have to admit that his disapproval of me doing it probably fueled a desire to do it. Can you feel the love? :)
This morning's chaos began with having more children needing to go to school and day care than I have seats in the car (thanks to the stupid front seat airbags). We had one of the neighbor's kids spend the night so she could make it to her appointment first thing this morning. This extra kid presented the problem of 4 kids (2 foster, C man, and the neighbor) and 3 available children seats. Turns out that the 2 year male foster kid, we will call "W", needed to go to the ENT at 9:30 so I decided to keep him home from day care until the appointment time to resolve the car problem. M was home since he didn't go into work until 11:00. You would think that would mean he was a wonderful help getting all 4 kids up, fed, dressed, and out the door. Well, he did finaly get up and put socks on W before I left with the other 3. What did I expect, he is male after all. I so want to come back as a male when I die. It would be like being on vacation all of the time! Upon my return, I found M and W on my bed. W was wearing his coat zipped up to his neck and smelled strongly of a poopy diaper. When I asked about the poopies, M looked surprised (like you couldn't smell it from the back door) and W nodded yes. I explained that the "present" was made on his watch for him and left M to change W. The ENT trip went fine, another drop off at the day care and then back home to work some more.
It's month end, so work is crazy this week. Even crazy work is often a nice relief from even more crazy kids. How sick is that? Speaking of more crazy kids....Took a quick break from work to pick up the two big boys from school and then the 2 foster kids when M came home for his dinner break. A little after 5:00, the four kids and puppy started getting hyped up running up and down the hall screaming while I was fixing dinner when the other lady helping the neighbor showed up at the door with the neighbor's one year old. SO now it's 5:30, M is at work, and I by myself have 5 hungry children ages 1, 2, 3, 5, and almost 6 running crazy in my house. UGH!!!! Calgon take me, never mind just shoot me!
This morning's chaos began with having more children needing to go to school and day care than I have seats in the car (thanks to the stupid front seat airbags). We had one of the neighbor's kids spend the night so she could make it to her appointment first thing this morning. This extra kid presented the problem of 4 kids (2 foster, C man, and the neighbor) and 3 available children seats. Turns out that the 2 year male foster kid, we will call "W", needed to go to the ENT at 9:30 so I decided to keep him home from day care until the appointment time to resolve the car problem. M was home since he didn't go into work until 11:00. You would think that would mean he was a wonderful help getting all 4 kids up, fed, dressed, and out the door. Well, he did finaly get up and put socks on W before I left with the other 3. What did I expect, he is male after all. I so want to come back as a male when I die. It would be like being on vacation all of the time! Upon my return, I found M and W on my bed. W was wearing his coat zipped up to his neck and smelled strongly of a poopy diaper. When I asked about the poopies, M looked surprised (like you couldn't smell it from the back door) and W nodded yes. I explained that the "present" was made on his watch for him and left M to change W. The ENT trip went fine, another drop off at the day care and then back home to work some more.
It's month end, so work is crazy this week. Even crazy work is often a nice relief from even more crazy kids. How sick is that? Speaking of more crazy kids....Took a quick break from work to pick up the two big boys from school and then the 2 foster kids when M came home for his dinner break. A little after 5:00, the four kids and puppy started getting hyped up running up and down the hall screaming while I was fixing dinner when the other lady helping the neighbor showed up at the door with the neighbor's one year old. SO now it's 5:30, M is at work, and I by myself have 5 hungry children ages 1, 2, 3, 5, and almost 6 running crazy in my house. UGH!!!! Calgon take me, never mind just shoot me!
The next 2 solid hours are spent feeding, bathing, disciplining, refereeing, wiping noses, butts, etc. and fixing a dinner plate for the neighbor's husband who picked up their 2 children at 7:30. By 8:30, my three brats are bathed and in bed, the dishwasher is loaded and running, and I fix myself a dinner plate and sit down to begin the thought process of planning out tomorrow's schedule which along with the normal work, school dropoffs, laundry, meals, baths, etc. has to include
- a trip to the health dept for shots for W (M is off and wins this trip by default),
- a trip to the Dr office with both W & R (the 3 year old female foster child) for new allergy prescriptions because both weigh around 30 pounds each and I truly believe 25 pounds has to be snot. (this one I win because M might not get it right),
- a trip to Walgreen's to pick up the scripts, (perhaps M gets this one)
- a trip to the school for lunch with C man who is feeling neglected because of the foster kids(M wins again!)
- try to make arrangements for the brats for next Tuesday night when I am supposed to be an hour away for a work meeting and M has to work.
Just another typical day in paradise. Great news is that after 6 weeks of having these two children, R reached an affection milestone tonight and gave me an unsolicited hug AND kiss at bedtime. That's the first kiss she has given me without first being prompted by receiving one. One small baby step in a wild day of chaos, that my friends makes most days worth it.
As I close to go to bed, I noticed that Max, the 6 month old Yorkie puppy, has drug out his favorite pillow and is getting very friendly with it until he can't walk straight. So much for his neutering slowing that habit down! You can't help but laugh at him.
Hug your babies big and small and someone else's too! They all need to be loved.
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