Monday, July 30, 2007

Guess what happened....

Court was CONTINUED!!! Big Surprise! NOT! SW called this morning to apologize for not calling me on Friday. Yeah whatever. Then she asked a bunch of questions about how the weekend went and how the kids are doing. I just told her fine. I really am not in the mood to go into a bunch of details. The weekend really did go pretty well for the most part.

JP decided yesterday that he wasn't going to lay down and rest so he picked his nose until it started to bleed and got blood EVERYWHERE in his room. His sheets/pillow/comforter/his clothes he was wearing/the carpet. You name it, he had blood there. I was so mad! I bet you could have seen steam rolling out of my ears! :-(. I asked him what happened.

Me: What happened? What was bleeding?

JP: "I didn't want to rest!"

Me: (I figured out it was his nose by now) So you picked your nose until it bled?

JP: NO!

Me: So how did it start bleeding?

JP: I didn't want to rest.

Me: Whatever.

Then I had him strip his bed of the bedding and bring it to the washing machine. Then he had to take his clothing off and give it to me so I could wash it too. Then he got a bath to wash the blood off himself and put his jammies on. He was not happy that he was getting his jammies on at 3:30pm in the afternoon but why should i dirty ANOTHER set of clothes when he was going to be getting ready for bed at 6pm anyways? (We had to call gma last night so they both got ready for bed early so we could watch PARENT TRAP on tv and be ready to call gma).

Other than this little episode, we really did have a good weekend. I didn't get everything done that I wanted to, but that is how it always goes. Oh well. My mess is still there tonight.

4 more days and we are leaving for Missouri for my cousins wedding!!!! I CAN"T WAIT TO GET AWAY!

Friday, July 27, 2007

Why don't the do what they say???

I talked with sw at 11:30am. She told me that she wasn't sure now if they would be calling me during court or not. Dad needed to be called so she wasn't sure how that was going to work. Dad doesn't even have a court-appointed atty so she was also pretty sure that we would just be continued for another 4 weeks or so. UGH! She told me (and I'm quoting her) "NO MATTER WHAT I WILL CALL YOU AS SOON AS COURT IS OVER SO YOU KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON!". Well, it's now 4;17pm and I haven't heard anything. I really doubt that they are still in court. Why can't she pick up a phone and just give me 30 seconds of her time and tell me what the verdict is? I don't understand some people. These are not dogs we're talking about...they are children. Beautiful, Wonderful children who deserve better.

She also told me that she can't get them into therapy until sometime in Sept! Hmmm, maybe you should have called 3+ weeks ago and made the appt and we would probably be able to get in in Aug sometime.

I am just so frustrated!

Last night

Thank you Heather & FosterAbba for your kind comments. I still feel extremely bad about what I said to her but maybe she will get the hint. After all, she is old enough to know what she is doing.

Last night's bedtime went better. Actually it went PERFECT!!! Granted i had to work until 8pm so it was 8:30pm before we got home. Then it was jammie time, brush teeth and hugs to Hubby and off to bed. Hubby told Emilee that she needed to go to bed and stay there tonight(last night) and to tell me she was sorry. She did tell me she was sorry for the way she acted. I told her thank you and that I loved her and gave her a hug & kiss. SHE STAYED IN BED!!!!!! Thank heaven for small favors. I told Hubby he needs to be home for the next few days at bedtime and he said he would be. (Now we'll see if he actually is!~I know I'm so negative these days)

I'll update after court this afternoon.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Relief FINALLY and kid issues

the heat wave has broke at least for today. It's still in the 80's but it's raining so that is helping matters. It is supposed to be back in the 90's for the weekend but the humidity is supposed to be gone so that is what matters. I like hot weather. I just hate the humidity.

Well on the kid issue side of things. Last night was horrible. Let me first say that originally bedtime was 8pm. Then we moved it up to 7:30pm because the kids just seemed extremely over tired all the time. At their old foster home bedtime was 7pm. About 2 weeks ago we started our bedtime routine at 7pm so the kids were in bed by 7:15-7:20pm and we could read them a story. If they waste time and don't get ready as we ask, then they lose their story time. No matter what, they are tucked in bed, lights out by 7:25pm. We've been having issues with Emilee going to bed ~ or should I say NOT going to bed~ since day 1. Well lately it has been getting worse. Last night was it for me. First she didn't want to eat supper. It was "gross". However, the night before she had 2 helpings of the hotdish and told me it was her favorite. Then she got mad at me because I wouldn't let her have a brownie when she wouldn't eat supper. I told her to finish her hotdish and she could have a treat. Nope, she didn't want to do that, she just wanted to eat a brownie. Sorry, doesn't work that way Sweetheart! Plus Hubby has been busy haying so he hasn't been around lately and I think that is part of the problem. She knows she can get me going if she keeps at it long enough. Last night she hit and kicked me repeatedly. Hubby happened to call while we were still fighting about bedtime and he talked to her. Then he came home and talked to her again and she finally gave in and went to sleep. This was after we had been at it for 2 1/2 hrs. I don't know what to do with her. I could write every little thing she did /said to me but I would be here all night typing and you'd be here all night reading so I'll save you that headache. I actually am getting to the point where I hate to get done with work at night because I know what kind of evening I'm going to have. I told Hubby last night that at this point, I will not be accepting them as an adoptive placement if TPR happens tomorrow. We had Perm Plan over 2 weeks ago and I still don't have a date for our first Therapy appt and they want me to accept placement in Aug??? I don't think so. I'm not saying that I'm giving up on her or that we are for sure NOT going to adopt them; but maybe us backing down from accepting the placement at this point in our journey will get a fire lit under their butts and get us some of the services that these kids need. After all, it's been almost 8 weeks since they came to us. Other than changing the time they go to bed by 1/2 hr, the routine is still the same. They can't tell time anyways, so they really don't know that it's earlier unless I say something that night.

Kids have issues. Kids are not perfect. I know this. However, they do come with baggage and when we don't know what that baggage is and we're getting no help, I can't do this alone. I even have some resentment towards Hubby right now because he's not around. I know that it's not really his fault. Our cows and his dad's cows will need this hay this winter, but his little brother could get off his lazy little butt (it's not so little - the kid wears size 38 waist jeans) and help. It would do him good. Right now, I NEED Hubby at home with me and the kids.

I am also wondering if something in Emilee's past happened to her at night/bedtime. Was she abused? I don't know. Her sw doesn't think so. So why is it EVERY night at bedtime, we have these MAJOR issues????

Last night when she was yelling at me and telling me how much she hates me and doesn't want to live with me anymore, I looked at her and said, "Well, you know what. Keep it up and I'll call SW and tell her to come get you because right now I don't want you here either". That was wrong of me, I know it so you can refrain from commenting about it. But it was 2 hr + into our fight and I had just been kicked/hit and didn't care anymore. This morning, she was pretty meek and mild and didn't say to much to me. I'll let her cool down and we will need to sit down and talk but last night was it for me. I do not deserve to be hit and kicked. It's not like it was an accident. She did it on purpose.

UGH! What to do....what to do...what to do???? Guess we'll see what happens with TPR tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

HEAT WAVE!!!

Ok, I don't know who forgot to tell Mother Nature but this is NORTH DAKOTA!!! We are not supposed to have temps in the upper 90's/lower 100's for a week straight!!! Let alone heat index in the 110-115degree ranges! A day every now and then is fine but a week of this. Come on!!! The a/c can't even keep up here at work to keep the dealership cool. Ok, so the whole west side of the showroom is windows and I'm sure that has something to do with it, but still. They havev shades on them and it's still got to be pushing 85+ degrees in my office right now. It's a good thing everyone around here stinks or I'd be embarrassed.

Tomorrow there is supposed to be a cold front coming thru late in the day. :-) With that it brings the high probability that we will be dealing with SEVERE thunderstorms tomorrow night. So I'm prepared. We will be sleeping at my mom and dad's lake home. Just gonna go there to start with and get the kids to bed. That is so much easier than having to get them up in the middle of the night and leave.

It's also worrysome because of our animals at home during this heat wave. I make sure they all have plenty of water before I leave in the mornings, but WOW it's hot! At least i don't have to worry about watering my garden. My hubby has had a bad habit of leaving the gates open this year after feeding the cattle. Yep, you guessed it. The other day Emilee came out and said,"Ummm Mom, there is a black cow on the driveway by the fence". I was like, it's just pepper (the dog) cause daddy tied her up last night. Then I looked outside and didn't see any black cows on the driveway so I looked to the other side of the yard and there staring me down was one of our highlander/long-horn cross cows. Yep and they have LONG HORNS!!! I was like, Hubby, ALL OF THE COWS ARE OUT!!! So out we went to chase them back in. I walked around the corner of the house and was like "Oh shoot (but a little plainer english than that) the bull is out too!" The cows don't scare me. The bull scares me. So hubby and I chased them back in with no trouble; however, I have no idea how long they had been out. We were so lazy on Sunday that it was probably all afternoon. My corn/colorabi (?sp)/onions/lettuce is all gone out of the garden. They did leave my cucumbers alone though! :-)

Guess I don't have to worry about pulling weeds too much now. They whole thing can just be tilled except the little area around my cucumbers. Thanks Hubby, I really wasn't wanting much of a garden this year anyways.

You know as much as I'm complaining about the heat today, give me 6 months and I'll probably be complaining because we are having high temps in the -20 degree range. Actually I really don't mind that so much. You can always put on more clothes to keep warm....you can only take off so many layers here at work before it's inappropriate! ;-p

Monday, July 23, 2007

What was she thinking....

Well the day is about over already and I'm just getting time to blog....

I ran into G's birth mom last Friday at lunch. Had I not been the next one in line to order, I would have turned around and walked out, but as it was I was trapped. She came up to the line and here's how our conversation went....

T: Hi Jody. How ya doing?

Me: Fine.

T: Any kids right now?

Me; Yep 2 of them.

T: How old?

Me: Excuse me, I have to order now. (Gave the lady my order & tried to make small talk to avoid T's question).

T: So what's the story on these two?

Me; Sister/Brother. Good kids. Gonna be in school this fall.

T: So gonna try to adopt these 2?

Me; Don't know what's happening yet.

T: I got to see G on Wed.

Me: Good for you.

T: She's so confused..she doesn't know if she should call me Mommy or T? So she just calls me Mommy T.

Me: Oh.

T: You know, we all kinda got screwed in court.

Me: Well I know WE got screwed in court, well I gotta go back to work. Bye.

Had there not been a TON of people in there eating I would not have been so polite. what does she mean We all kinda got screwed in court??? She got what she wanted. HER FRIENDS got MY little girl. I hope what she meant is that they aren't letting her visit as much as she wanted to. For G's sake, T has caused her enough pain for a 2 1/2 yr old.

This just ruined my whole afternoon/night. I am doing good. I've accepted what happened and moved on....So WHY WHY WHY did I have to see her???? Hubby told me I should have played dumb and just asked her where G was? Had I been quicker thinking, I just might have, but I was so worried about avoiding her that I didn't think that fast.

Some people just have no brains!!!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Update on Court

I met with the kids' sw today. She told me that the kids' dad has re-surfaced. He wants them back. He will be at court. UGH! We had 1 more week and that's it - since we know he received the papers as he was served in person, i was hoping he just wasn't going to show up. Oh well. Guess it's actually safer this way, right? We KNOW he will KNOW what is going on and IF we get the answer we are looking for, it should be it, right? I sure hope so.

I love these kids with all my heart and I pray that we get dad TPR'd next week. Yet, as the day has gone on, I feel bad because I've also had the thoughts that , well, what happens, happens and guess it's not my problem to worry about. How mean of me? I don't have the "I'M GOING TO FIGHT THIS WITH ALL I'VE GOT" feelings. I mean with G we hired our own attorney and paid big bucks and lost and I was heart broke for a long time. I don't know if we will do that this time. We will just let the state fight their case and if they lose, then the kids will be leaving. I think I'm just so scared of forking out all that money again and not having anything to show for it. These kids are MY kids in all I do and I care about them more than life itself, and yet we both still have this wall up around our hearts because we've been down this road before and I'm SCARED to death to go down the same path we did with G.

SW and AASK CW think he doesn't have a chance. Well, we've heard that line before and where did it get us? Childless and broke (or darn close to it!). I am just sick to my stomach thinking about this and I've got 7 days to worry.

SW did tell me that she got it approved for me to be present via phone for the hearing. That I am happy about. At least i will get to hear exactly what is being said and done and not have to rely on waiting for a phone call to find out.

SW also talked to the kiddo's about their bio mom and the fact that they can't go live with her. I was a little upset because she was supposed to do this when I was there so I could hear what she had to say and what the kids had to say. Oh well. She did tell me that they told her they missed bio mom and they understand that she can't care for them and that is why they are living with us. Do they understand?? I don't know. To a point I think they hear what SW is saying, but understand???? That's a lot for a 4 & 6 yr old. We'll see how many times I hear Emilee crying because she misses her and wants to go live with her.

Nothing else new. JP is having some issues at daycare so I took her 2 journals to start keeping for me. At least this way, I will have someone else telling what is going on and it's not just coming from me. He has been yelling and screaming at "Kappy" when she tells him no for something. That is what he does at home when he doesn't get the answer he wants to hear. Hopefully this will also help the therapist.

Work is about over so that's it for now. Have a good evening all.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Update on Car and other news....

Well, the new part is in for my van.....hmmmm yesterday is was backordered, but they got it in today.....how does that happen? My guess is that they called around yesterday and found someone who had one in stock and had it shipped in. Anyways, I have an appt for Friday to get it fixed. I will have to drop it off on my lunch hour and get a ride back here to work. Then they will be delivering it out to me as they close before I get done. (And in my opinion, they owe that to me).

Thanks for all the comments. It does suck that customer service seems to be falling by the wayside as people change. I'm not old by anymeans and it wasn't that many years ago that I was in highschool (my 10 yr reunion is this fall). I can't believe how the kids around where I live have no work ethics. They expect everything but want to work for nothing. This may not be how it is in your area's but it is what it's like here. The cashier's in the grocery store can't even count back change! Come on, that's like Math 101 isn't it????

It's especially frustrating being treated like I was at the other dealership considering I work for a new/used car dealership. I SOOOO wish i could have my vehicle fixed here by I don't drive the make of vehicle for the dealership I work at and since it's only a year old ~ we can't trade yet. If there was any way - believe me - I would be doing it!


Other news.....
I got a call from our AASK worker yesterday. They want to place Emilee and JP for adoption the end of Aug. Good news, right? WRONG! That means we lose our monthly foster care check and we won't even have the diagnoses back from the Therapist by then. Heck, we don't even have a scheduled appt yet. That doesn't give us enough time to negotiate a subsidy or anything. No matter what we can't finalize til Dec so why the hurry? They said if we do this, we don't have to update our homestudy with them. Well I want it updated anyways. We are not done adopting kids and we haven't given the green flag for Emilee and JP yet anyways. Yes, we love them. Yes they are great kids. But we still want to find out what therapy has to say and I want to read their complete files and heck, we don't go to court for 2 weeks to TPR bio dad. To me, it sounds like we may be getting screwed (and not enjoying it!) if we go with their plan. Thoughts anyone????

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

This is a crabby post....Read at your own risk

My van had to go to the shop this am because there is a problem with the steering. I got a call at about 10:30am that it was done. They have to order a part (Intermediate Steering Sector or something like that). I went to get it at noon hour and here's where it all goes bad...

Usually our Chevy dealership will bring the vehicle around front for you because they park at "Service" vehicles way on the west side of the building and there's no door close to there that customer's can use. The guy handed me my keys and said "It's on teh west side of the building". Ummmm ok. So I go grab my 2 car seats out of the loaner vehicle that they gave me and start my trek to the total opposite end of the building. (Keep in mind I am required to dress up for work so I have high-healed sandals on today). When I get around there and get the doors unlocked, I see my glovebox is open, my DVD player is down and the sunglasses holder is hanging open. I NEVER use the sunglass holder - i just throw them on the dash so I KNOW I didn't open it! The glovebox - ok, they could have needed something but my vehicle is already in their computer system so they shouldn't have. Even if they did - they should have shut it when they were done. I remember putting the DVD player up when JP got out because I made him come across to Emilee's side to get out of the vehicle.

I called the owner of the dealership and complained. He said he would look into it and call me back.

After all, we buy hubby's vehicles from them and buy brand new every 4 years. Customer service is VERY IMPORTANT to me. I have worked in jobs all my life that customer service plays a key role. I expect to be treated the RIGHT way.

But then we are talking about the dealership that once told me that they were going to drill a hole in my fog lamp to "dry it out" because it had moisture in it. Ummm....I may be a female, I may be a blonde, but I'm NOT STUPID!!! They didn't like it when I made them replace the lamp...afterall, GM parts have 1 year warranty on them and it had only been 3 weeks! Give me a break.

I got a call back from the Service Manager a little while ago. He said he asked all the guys in the service department (even the one's who didn't work on my vehicle) and no one remembered anyone being in it.....hmmmm so who diagnosed the problem?? Someone was in it. And he also said it is policy to bring customer's vehicles around for them but someone dropped the ball on mine and he apologized. Well I can tell you who dropped the ball...the guys sitting at the parts desk discussing their golf game last night. He asked if anything was missing and I told him that i didn't think so but I hadn't had a chance to totally go thru the vehicle because I had to get back to work. He told me to look tonight and let him know.

I told the owner of the store that if I could take it somewhere else to have the part fixed, I would but unfortunately they are the only dealer in town for my brand of vehicle. He thanked me for letting him know my concerns and told me that they would get to the bottom of it.

We'll see how they treat me when I take it back in to have the part fixed. I will just be glad to get it fixed and not have to deal with them. I can't trade vehicles for a few years though so hopefully, all goes well with it from here on out.

Monday, July 16, 2007

I HATE STORMS...

well at least now that we have kids, I hate storms. When it was just hubby and I at home, we would only leave if we REALLY felt like it was getting bad outside and we needed to be at a home with a basement. When we have kids in the house, I am a CHICKEN and I leave at the first sight of bad weather. Since Emilee and JP joined us the beginning of June, we have left 3 times (counting last night) due to storms. And each time, it was just wind/rain/thunder/lightning. I'm scared what MIGHT happen though if we were to stay home. Last night was no different. My mom called me about 8pm to see if I was watching the local tv channels at all. I wasn't. She told me to. I had noticed that they sky was getting kinda dark outside but didn't think too much about it. The kids had went to bed about 7:30pm. So i found our Scanner and plugged it in. At about 8:30pm it went crazy and at the same exact time, my phone rang again. It was my mom telling me there was a tornado warning located about 25 miles from us to the north west / moving south east. Hmmmm not exactly what I wanted to hear. So, I got the kids up and we went to mom and dad's house. Hubby and his dad were out making hay and said they'd watch the weather but they wanted to get down as much as possible. MEN! :-p

Needless to say, the kids wouldn't/couldn't/didn't go back to sleep until close to 10pm. Then by the time I went and picked Hubby up at 9:30pm and we got to bed close to 11pm; Emilee was awake ~ scared. At 1:30am I awoke to her tapping my arm cause she was scared again. Then at 6:00am mom I woke up when Mom and Dad started moving around upstairs and we had to get the kids up and head back home so Hubby could get to work by 7am. UGH! I HATE STORMS!!! They screw up my schedule so bad. Of course, all the MAJOR storms/tornado's went around us last night. I guess it's better safe than sorry, right?

What does this all boil down to???? WE NEED A BASEMENT!!!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Heart Health....

Check out this site at Mamanista http://www.mamanista.com/2007/07/be-winner-like-baby-diva.html . Her little girl is celebrating her 1st birthday. A birthday that is super special because Baby Diva was born with tetralogy of fallot--a congenital heart defect that would be fatal without surgery. A few days before Baby Diva turned 3 months old, she had open heart surgery. Her picture is on this website. She is ADORABLE! From this website, I also learned that approx 40,000 babies (that's 1%-2%) born in the US are born with a heart defect. WOW. That's a lot of innocent little lives.

My twin sister was born with a heart valve defect. To this day, they are still watching her heart closely.

PLEASE help these innocent children. You can visit Baby Diva's birthday tribute page at the American Heart Association http://honor.americanheart.org/site/TR?pg=fund&fr_id=1030&px=1041441 . You can read more about Baby Diva's story and possibly even make a donation to the American Heart Association. Any amount will help out.

Oh and if you want to do all this, there is even a contest that you can enter but that is the least of our concerns...let save some babies lives!!!

Better night

Well we had a GREAT night last night. The kids helped me clean their rooms and put all their clean clothes away. Then they took their showers and got ready for bed without any fighting. We even had time to sit down and cuddle and watch a few minutes of a kids movie that was on tv before bedtime. No arguing when I said it was bedtime either. :-) Now these are the kids that I know were inside those "not so nice" kids from Monday night.

I also got a call from the school today. They said, I hear you have 2 children who will be attending school here this fall (registration is Aug 7/8). I was like, Yep I do! She took their names and said she would be calling me to discuss more at another time. They are at the class size limit for 1st grade so they are wondering if they should hire another 1st grade teacher or what to do. I hope they do. With Emilee there are 26 kids in 1st grade this year that they know of. That's a lot! I think smaller class sizes will be better for Emilee and JP this year especially as they are still adjusting to everything. We'll see what happens.

For anyone out there...I'm looking for ideas for JP's birthday party. It isn't until the middle of Aug but if I don't start thinking about it, it will be here and I won't have any plans. Got some fun ideas you want to share???? I really appreciate it!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

As if I don't have enough....

Sis just called me and told me mom has to have angioplasty done on Thurs. Boss won't let me have the day off. LIFE SUCKS right now.

Perm Plan and Phone call....

The Perm Plan meeting or should I say Child and Family Team Meeting as they are called now went very well. A lot was discussed. We are on track for TPR in 3 weeks. We have decided to get both kids in for psychological evaluations and start therapy again for both. We will be meeting with our adoption worker the beginning of Aug to update our homestudy as it expires the end of Aug. We will also start working on getting all subsidy paperwork completed and getting the kids diagnosis for "Special needs" completed. The meeting lasted 30 minutes and I was very pleased with it. This is only my second perm plan outside of our local county. boy, do they run things better than our county. They actually start theirs ON TIME!! :-) They believe people have lives and if it's scheduled for 2pm - it starts at 2pm. After what transpired last night - I am truly on board 100% with the therapy issues.....read on......


Well the phone call I guess wasn't bad...it was the aftermath from the phone call. Emilee and JP have been wanting to call "Donny" and "Connie" their foster parents from their last home. Emilee lived with them for 16 months and JP for about 12. The phone call itself went good. The aftermath - not so good.
First for Emilee….
She talked for about 7 minutes. She told them about all the animals we have on the farm and about playing on the swingset. She also told them about her new daycare and the substitute daycare that they went to and learning to swim. She was crying the second she handed the phone over to JP to talk. I was able to re-direct her to playing with the kitties and the crying stopped within a few minutes. At 7:45pm it was time to start getting ready for bed. The crying started all over again. She cried until close to 10pm. She was up and down out of bed 12 times crying that she wanted Donny and Conny. In her words last night…. “I hate living with you. I’m going to run away back to Donny and Conny's house. You shouldn’t have taken me away from Donny and Conny. It’s not fair. You don’t love me. Donny and Conny love me.” I heard this over and over and over. Finally I got her to settle down a little bit and told her we could send them a card if she wanted to make one. That seemed to help. This morning she asked if we could call them again tonight and I told her no. She started crying again. I told her that we couldn’t call them every night and that we would call them again, just not tonight. That seemed to be ok for her.

Now for JP….
He talked for only 5 minutes tops. I didn’t hear a lot of what he was telling them because I was with Emilee while she was crying. At bedtime, he threw a major temper tantrum. He never cried any tears. He just yelled and screamed and kicked the wall. In his words, “I hate you. I want Donny and Conny. You can’t make me stay here. I want to run away.” His tantrum lasted about 45 minutes and finally he settled down. When I went to check on the kids before I went to bed (about 10:30pm) he was sleeping on his floor and his room smelled of urine. I woke him up thinking his jammies must be wet but they weren’t. His blankets weren’t wet. I asked him where he pee’d in his room and he said he didn’t. Well it didn’t smell like that when he went to bed so I know he did somewhere – I just couldn’t figure out where last night. This morning he got dressed, went in the bathroom, lifted the lid on the toilet and stood there and pee’d in his clothes. When I asked him why he did that, he said he didn’t know. I got him cleaned up and changed into new clothes and we went back into his room. I asked him where he pee’d in his room so that we could clean it up. He said he didn’t know. Tonight he and I will be tearing his room apart until we figure it out.

I knew this was going to be a tough phone call to make. I guess I just didn’t understand how tough it was going to be on them. After seeing their behaviors last night I do really think Therapy is a good idea for both of them. I think their relationship with Donny and Conny is important; however, at this point, I think the phone calls are too much for them to handle. I think we need to address some of their other behavior issues and try to explain to them why they live with us and not Donny and Conny anymore. They are smart kids. I think if we can get into some therapy that will also help hubby and I to know how to handle these behaviors better. We are learning every day right along with Emilee and JP. I think I will email Donny and Conny and ask if we can send emails and pictures maybe every other week or something for awhile and see how that goes. What are your thoughts? I know we need to address the behaviors after the phone calls too, but until we (hubby & I) can get some more knowledge on how to deal with these, I think we need to stick with emails/letters and start with one thing at a time. I think JP especially is just getting overwhelmed. He has met so many new people in the last month and he doesn’t know how to express his feelings and I’m worried about him. Kids in school can be mean and with the anger he has at home when he is told no, I wonder what will happen when he is told NO by his teachers for something.

Monday, July 9, 2007

We made it thru the last 11 days and

Alyssa and Brady went back to their other foster home this morning. They really are great kids but I will be happy to have it just the 4 of us again. Emilee and JP had a rough last 7 days and we need to focus on them. We have our Child and Family Team Meeting this afternoon that I will be participating in by phone (their worker is over 9 hrs from where we live so no way to make it to the meeting). One thing they keep asking me about is whether or not I think Emilee needs to be in Play Therapy again. She is seeing a play therapist for a year before coming to our home. I've never had a child in therapy. What kinds of things are "therapy issues" and what is just a "phase" she's going thru??? I need some help on this one. I don't want to let things get too far outta hand, but I don't want to shove her back into something that she may not need. If I had to pick one of them that NEEDS therapy now, I think it would be JP. I think he has a lot of built up frustration/anxiety that he doesn't know how to communicate. I think Emilee was labeled the "problem" child in their old home and he was the "perfect" child and he isn't sure how to handle things now. I think she got a lot of attention for her misbehaving. I don't know - just my thoughts. We will be discussing things more this afternoon. The other thing is, the closest Play Therapist is 60 miles from where we live. Don't get me wrong - if they need it - I will take them, but this will also take some planning and schedule re-doing on everyone's part so I want to know that it is something that is NEEDED. HELP!!!

What a neat tool....

5 minutes for mom is having another awesome giveaway! Check out this link (I can't get my link thingy to work on here again so I have to post the whole address - sorry) http://www.5minutesformom.com/1936/scanalizer-contest/ . This would come in so handy with fostercare. We need to keep our receipts for everything when we get new kids and I could organize them by child. Also, with 2 starting school this fall, being able to share school work with family - What a GREAT idea! Check out their website or the NeatReceipts Website http://www.neatreceipts.com/index.asp to learn more and sign up for this great contest! 10 lucky people are going to win!

Thursday, July 5, 2007

We survived

the 4th of July. No major issues. The day started out with the parade which the kids weren't too thrilled about. JP and Brady were scared of the load horns on the fire engines. Alyssa didn't really get the idea of running around picking up the candy. Emilee had fun but thought it was too long of a parade. It didn't help that the parade got interrupted twice by trains! I've NEVER seen that happen. OH well. We played at my parent's lake home most of the afternoon. The kids had a blast. We have a LAUNCH POD (a big trampoline that you blow up the sides of it and it floats). It also has a slide off the one side. They thought it was the best thing. I had fun too. My dad and I (dad is 58 yrs old) were doing flips down the slide. Boy, am I outta shape! I am so stiff and sore today I can hardly walk. It's worth it though - I can' wait to go to the lake again. Alyssa didn't like the water too much. After a while she got better with it but it took a long time. Brady never did get in the water. He took a 3 + hr nap. Then we went for a pontoon ride and Emilee and JP got to ride in the tube behind the pontoon.

Then we went to hubby's relatives place. I did my good deed and showed my face. I was the "MEAN MOM" though because i took my kids home at 9pm to put them to bed. Oh and I wouldn't let them just sit at the candy bucket and eat candy. I'm so mean! Oh well. We are supposed to go to Hubby's aunt and uncle's place at the lake this weekend. Don't know if I want to or not but we'll see what happens. It supposed to be upper 90's close to 100 degrees on sat. Not sure I want to sit in the heat with 4 kids all day. We'll see what happens I guess.

I also got a call from Emilee and JP's sw this morning. Things are on track for TPR at the end of the month. She is coming to visit them next week. They will like that. Then in August she is going to come for a weekend and stay with us to observe how the kids are doing. UGH. Nothing like putting your parenting skills thru the wringer and being under the watchful eye of someone. Their sw is a very nice person but she's younger than I am and she's going to tell watch and see what I'm doing wrong parenting? Ummm....ok whatever. I just keep telling myself, only till Dec! (I hope!)

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

And the doctor says...

Brady has a left side ear infection to go along with his runny nose, cough and 101degree temp. Alyssa has a sinus infection (hmmm couldn't have guessed that one since she's had a yucky nose and cough for 4 days now). Not what I needed with a holiday tomorrow and a TON of running around. At least Alyssa isn't slowing down at all. Brady on the other hand..is a different story. Daycare said they would take him today. She called me at noon and said his fever was going back up (it was down to 99.3 at the clinic) so I took some tylenol and ibuprofen over to her. At 2;30 she called to say he was just too whiny and clingy and she couldn't get anything done with the other daycare kids. So I talked to my boss and went to pick them up. I got to Emilee and JP's daycare to get them and their daycare lady (who is a SAINT) told me to bring them in and she would keep them for me. She had kids leaving within 15 mins and so she would have room. What a WONDERFUL woman she is. (She's also a relative of my mom's!). So now I'm back at work. Brian does feel miserable and I felt bad leaving him there but I need to be at work. It's not that we're busy or that I have tons to do but I can't afford to not be here. As it is I was 1 1/2 hrs late getting here due to the clinic appt. Took 30 mins to go take meds to them at noon. HOpefully I can just make up the time Thurs and Friday and they won't dock my wages. I'm salaried but still. They are kinda sticklers on that sort of thing.

Emilee and JP are also starting to act out a little bit with the other two getting some of our attention. Last night JP Had a terrible night. Anything he could do to get me going, he did. He spilled his juice all over his supper plate and then when I told him that he was going to use a warm rag and soap and wipe up the sticky floor(i wiped up the juice right away), he layed on the floor having a MAJOR temper tantrum. This morning the first thing he did was get up and come tell me he was sorry. It was so cute! I sat them down and reminded them that they are very special children and we love them. That Alyssa and Brady were only staying with us a few more days and then they would be going back to the other foster home. I asked them if they had any questions and they said no. I don't know what else to do. Each kid (little ones included right now) get their own special one on one time right at bedtime where we give hugs and kisses and Emilee and JP get to tell us about their day without interruptions from the other kids. At this point, I don't know what else to do. I really think I will have to think twice about another placement, whether it be respite or foster care. I know it's a big adjustment for them to move to our home and it's only been 3 weeks so we probably shouldn't have taken this respite, but I felt like I had to from what this foster family had done for us. Was I wrong?

Ok now I'm rambling on. Have a safe and Happy 4th of July!

Monday, July 2, 2007

Question

Ok, I decided to start another blog about stuff a little more personal that will be private but how do I make it appear on my profile but still be private? I know on some of your profiles, it lists both blogs but one is private open to invite only... HELP PLEASE!!!

Weekend was survived

Well I survived the weekend with my 4 little munchkins. They were really good kids. Thank heavens for friends! I had to work on Sat and a friend of mine who I'll call Kassie watched all 4 kids from 7:30am - 1:30pm and she wouldn't let me pay her!!! Wow that, plus she has a 3 yr old of her own. She is a life saver if there ever was one.

Alyssa and Brady had a visit with their bio family (gparents and parents and uncle) yesterday at a local park. It went very well. I was surprised. They are a different bunch of cookies though. The kids were so tired by the time we left the park though that they fell asleep on the way home.

Hubby took Emilee and JP to Grandpa house (his dad) last night so I only had 2 to feed supper to and give baths at a time. That helped out a lot.

Then we called their Grandma Faye. She is the one who took care of them when they were very little and bio mom and bio dad couldn't take care of them. The call went pretty well. The kids didn't want to talk though cause they wanted to play but I was able to get each of them on the phone for about 6 mins and that was it. Guess it was better than nothing. We now call Grandma every 1st and 3rd Sunday evenings.

So what do people have planned for the 4th of July?? We will be going to the local parade in town Wednesday morning. Then out to my mom and dad's lake home for the afternoon. Some friends of the my parents will be there! We always have a blast with them. Then Wed evening I suppose we have to make the dreadful stop at hubby's aunt and uncles house. At least with 4 kids I can use that as an excuse not to stay long! I'm such a bad person but I can't help how I feel about some certain family members.

Have a safe and Happy Holiday and I'll be anxious to read about everyone's happenings on Thursday!