what's happening

With three kids and a husband that works off shore my life is never boring.
Let's see...this is what is going on right now.
We are still waiting on Dylan's online home schooling to start up. That's right, he is going to be home schooled for his Junior and Senior year. I won't discuss the private details here but I will say it has been one of the hardest, most difficult and painful episodes in my life and I am sure his.
He has been withdrawn from public school, registered with a private online school, his transcript is being read, the dues have been paid, his new desk has been put together, and the computer is all hooked up and waiting in his room. Now all we need is the user name and password to come through which we expect any day now.
The swine flu is at a school district about 15 miles away from our home. So Bre's preschool is being very cautious. I have to wait every morning while her temperature is checked before I can leave her for the day. No biggie, better safe than sorry but it is scary to think how a deadly virus is just mere miles away especially with the way Marcus's immune system is.
Dylan is sick. He is cold, clammy, dizzy and weak. I really need to take him to the doctor tomorrow if he isn't better but I am to be in St. Louis by noon for another MRI and more nerve testing. With everything that is going on I can not tell you how many times I started to call and cancel today.
Then there is Marcus~sigh. He stayed home from school today because his Fibro is acting up to the point he could hardly walk this morning. Then came the phone call, the one telling me that he did in fact suffer a fracture on Thursday.
Let me back up a bit....Thursday night he was running from Dylan and he slammed his foot into the wall. I took him to get it x-rayed the next day cause he was having to drag his foot sideways in order to walk. The doctor said the x-ray didn't show any breaks or fractures but they would call if the radiologist found anything. Of course he did and back off to the doctor we went this morning for his new stylish 'boot' which he has to wear for the next six weeks.
I think that is all the main highlights for now.

No, it doesn't.....

ever let up around here. More on this in a moment.

My Guys

These two have grown up way too fast. I will admit I probably depend on both of them more than what I should. With their dad gone a month at a time they each have to step in and take the role of the man of the house sometimes.

Just today I called on Dylan to use his dad's air compressor to air up my back tire on the Jeep. Then Marcus was asked to put a small creature out of it's misery.

As for the story of the small creature here it is....When Marcus looked out the picture window this evening he seen that our cat Sasha had a new 'toy', a very small baby mouse. I sent him outside to get a closer look. It was obvious once Marcus took it away from Sasha that the damage had already been done, it couldn't even stand up anymore. He asked me what I wanted him to do with it and I told him the only thing I could think of-put it out of it's misery. As I went and hid so I wouldn't see or hear anything he took care of it. I know my baby well enough to know he didn't have fun doing it but only done what needed to be done.

On The Top Bunk

Compromise

Remember the clothing wars we were having a couple of months back? How Bre only wanted to wear the same clothes over and over and would throw a fit if I tried to dress her in any thing different. Well I think it may finally be over.

The last few weeks I go to her closet without her and take down what she is going to wear that day and she simply gets dressed. If she is in the room with me she may want a certain pair of shoes or hair accessory and that is fine. If I dare say it....I think we both have learned to compromise!

Here she is in a brand new dress that she refused and I do mean refused to wear just a couple of weeks ago.

Comfy Seat

Dylan and I went shopping for him a new desk and chair for his room. The chair barely made it through the front door before Sadie claimed it as her own. As Dylan was dragging the yet to be assembled desk downstairs this is what I found.

So Peaceful & Quiet

Dylan is at the movies with friends and is staying the night away from home.
Marcus went bowling with a few friends and won't be returning till tomorrow.
Bre is staying the night with Grandma Ward and will not be home till around 4PM tomorrow.

I don't know if I know what to do with myself or not! The quietness is almost giving me a headache, LOL.

Playing With Legos

Sherry, this one is for you

This is what happens after spending the weekend with Uncle Don, Aunt Sherry, Alex and Grant.

Sound asleep on the floor between the love seat and ottoman.

You won't believe this

I was getting ready to open the door to let Daisy out. I told her "go find Sadie and bring her home". Of course I didn't expect a dog to listen, understand and obey what I was saying but guess what happened next. We looked out the front window to see Daisy shoving Sadie in the butt with her nose. She shoved her all the way up to the garage!

The past two days have been Hellish (for lack of a better word). Now my baby kitty cat Sadie Bell is missing.

Sweetness

Love This Outfit

Oh My!

Any one who is a parent has had one of those moments when you are less than proud of your parenting skills. You know the kind I am talking about...when you realize what you THOUGHT you had taught your child turns out to be a lesson UNlearned instead.
Bre is a girly girl who loves dresses that twirl and make her feel pretty. After having two boys this thrills me to get to dress a little girl that way. I have always told her that when she has a dress or skirt on she must keep the dress down, don't raise it up cause that isn't nice, etc, etc,..
Yesterday when the boys and I went to pick her up from preschool Dylan got out to get her. He returned to the Jeep shaking his head. Turns out that Bre is no longer to wear a dress unless she has shorts on underneath. Why you might ask? It seems she spent a better part of the day in a way that every person at school knew what color her panties were. At one point she had her dress pulled very far up while running around the playground yelling "you can't catch me". Guess what? They really couldn't catch her!
From now on I am not even going to bother with my talk. Instead she will just have shorts on underneath.

First Day Of School & So Very Different

Today was Dylan's first day as a high school Junior and Marcus's as a sixth grader.

I always take a picture of them on their first day back to school. They were sitting together on the couch and I found even myself shocked by just how different their style choices are.

Here Dylan had on his typical black rock t-shirt. I didn't notice till he was getting ready to get out of the Jeep this morning that the shirt had the word Hell on it. I figured I would be getting a call from the school but he somehow managed to get by with it. Anyway to go with his black shirt he had leather cuffs with embellishments on each wrist and black rings on his fingers. His jewelry look also included a black leather necklace with tiny skulls hanging from it. Then there was the black 'Misfits' shoes. Of course his jet black hair that shines blue finishes off his look.

Marcus's look like always is complete jock all the way. With a Cardinals cap on his head and a Mizzou t-shirt along with his Nike Shox shoes he was ready for his first day of school. His only accessory choice was a silver link chain.

It just amazes me how two children that came from the same parents can be soooooo different.

She's Amazing

Can you tell I am having a rough night by all the posts? Nothing like electrical shock type pain to interfere with your sleep!

The other morning when Bre had the house to herself from approximately 5:30 AM to around 11:00 got me to thinking.
I held my breath as I walked into the kitchen and living room area. I just knew it was a mess, that she had created some sort of disaster. The least I expected to find was she had used the wall as her personal coloring book. I was so shocked but happy to find nothing even out of place.
She really is a good little girl overall and she has adjusted so well to having us as her family.
Before we adopted I tried to read about every worst case scenario I could find. It isn't that I was expecting the worst but I did want to be prepared for it or at least what she threw at us.
She has had a few bumps along the way but nothing out of the ordinary or what we expected. Her main issue has always been food. Since the day we meet her and first feed her anything she has had to know that food is always available. It took months before she could walk around and play without at least holding a cracker in her hand. Now we all sit back and watch in amazement at how much her tiny body can consume in a day.
She also showed some post traumatic stress syndrome symptoms in the past that were quiet hard for her to overcome but she did in time with a lot of patience and work. There were also a couple of night terrors and she still doesn't sleep through the night.
Overall though we have been so lucky and so blessed. She is thriving and is such a happy go-lucky child. It has been almost three years since we first meet her and she has changed a lot. She has grown so much. I think she will always be incredibly slim but she has filled out and no longer looks thin. Her hair that was once dry and brittle now is thick and looks and feels like silk. Smart, she is so smart. I know there is no way I could have learnt a whole new language as fast as she did. Heck she even has the slang parts down too. She can count, knows all her numbers and most of her letters, can write her name, and sing many songs by herself. She picks up on everything going on around her.
To have went through all the life changes that she had to experience and to come out the other side smiling and singing is nothing short of a miracle. Simply put-she amazes me!

A Place To Sleep?

I know these are not very good pictures since they were taken in a near dark living room but I couldn't resist when I saw my two youngest and their choices for a bed.

This is what I found around midnight.

Bre had made a bed out of the rocking chair by pulling the footstool up to it. She had placed pillows on both sides of the chair to add some padding and found a sheet to cover up with.

Then there was Marcus all nice and cozy on the couch.

I swear both kids have bedrooms, nice bedrooms as a matter of fact. Remember the beautiful canopy bed in the princess room? Or the decked out St. Louis Cardinals bedroom that any fan would kill for?

Conflict and Growing Up

Right now there is a big conflict going on between Marcus and one of his very best friends. This isn't the first time they have gotten into it this summer. Last time, just like I knew it would, it blew over and worked itself out. This time I am not so sure. Marcus is ticked off, I mean REALLY ticked off. Heck I have never even seen him this mad at Dylan and I think that says a lot.
Personally I just think they are developing different personalities at this very awkward age of growth. They no longer click like they used to and it is no ones fault.
I remember when this happened to Dylan. All the boys he had hung out with for years just started disappearing from his daily conversations. Their names were being replaced with names I had never heard. I found myself asking "and who is that?" more than a few times. Now his very best friends are not those of his elementary days. Neither are the girls but that is a whole other post :)
As far as their fighting goes my motto is as long as there are no broken bones or a lot of blood-leave it alone, stay out of it, and let the kids work it out on their own- in their own way-in their own time frame.
The mother of the other child though took a different approach. Let me start by saying we are good friends and I truly love her and don't know what I would do without her and her never ending support. Anyway she chose to handle it another way and face it head on. She wants them to get along so bad and hates to see their friendship change or worse, be damaged.
Today we had a long chat and I told her what I fear to be the truth. These two boys are simply growing up and their developing personalities may just clash. They may work all of this out or they may just not be close anymore. I know that is hard to hear especially since he is her only child. You don't want to face that they are not little boys anymore and this is a time that is full of changes for them. I know it is hard in so many ways to see your little boy grow up.
It is difficult on the mother in another way too. You spend years getting to know your children's friends. The close ones you learn to love as almost your own. In many ways they feel like your own and that you have helped raise them. So when your child is no longer best friends with them you have to accept the fact that you will no longer be seeing that child on a regular basis. This makes for a huge loss on the mother's side of things cause we had no choice in the friendship cooling off and others taking off.
Dylan has a friend that became like my fourth child years ago. Even though him and Dylan are no longer that close we still consider him family. He comes and stays for days at a time still and it doesn't matter if Dylan is even here or not. He will always be special and at one time we thought about trying to get guardianship of him even.
My point here is it is tough when they change or loose a friend. If it was a close friend then more that just the child suffers the loss sometimes. But it is a fact of life that people come and go out of our lives. Once close friendships may start to fade as other intensify. It's all part of growing up and growing as a person in general.

School Starts Tomorrow-SMILE!

I believe these kids think that since it is time to start back to school why not be total demon children and see what they can get away with on their last days of freedom!
I have yelled more these past two days than over the entire summer break. If I was big enough Dylan butt would be between his eyes by now! It's kind of hard to do that when the kid is bigger than me.
I love my firstborn with all my heart but he has been awful today. At 16 years old he should not have to be told to take out the trash or to put his clean clothes up. I have found myself riding him on and off all day just to get any movement out of him. Every request is met with "ooooooh I will do it later right now I'm watching tv" or "mommmm, I'm tired, later". Uggggh!
Tomorrow is the big day though. I will be smiling to myself all the way home, while listening to MY choice of music on the radio.

Talking about school makes me think about how far we spaced these children out. What were we thinking? Oh yeah, we weren't thinking-we just done!
We tried for another child when Dylan was around 2 but God apparently didn't think we were ready. Then Marcus was conceived when Dylan was 4-total shock! Next we decided to adopt without so much a thought as to how this would place our children apart in age.
So this year we have a Junior in high school, a sixth grader, and one starting her last year of Pre School. Next year we will have one at almost every corner. One senior, one starting Jr. High (7th) and one in kindergarten! Yeah-we weren't thinking at all.

Wake Up Call

Bre is my alarm system. I don't bother with setting an alarm clock cause she is always up early. Well she attempted to get me up at 5:30 AM, to which I told her to take her little booty back to bed. Next time I heard from her it was a little after 11:00! I panicked when I realized how late it was for two reasons....one Dylan had an appointment to get his hair dyed at noon, two because it was scary for many reasons to think about a four year old having the run of the house for a few hours.

Luckily we made it to the hairdresser on time and when I asked Bre what she had been doing for so long her response was watching cartoons and eating Tic Tacs. Needless to say she skipped school today and hung out with Dylan and me.

All Dressed Up

Bre was all dressed up and waiting to go to a special church service in which Uncle Don was to be sworn in as a Deacon.

Of course she had to pose once she seen the camera.

Heat Wave-Pog Style

Daisy still goes outside knowing how bad the heat is. When she finally comes back in her tongue is hanging out and after a quick drink she heads to this A/C vent in the kitchen. She just plops down on it while it cools her off, so funny.

All I Got

My daddy and brother went to Six Flags and all I got was a stuffed beaver and fish.

Guitar Playing Panda

Dylan really is this goofy all on his own!

Putting on her shoes

Where's My Daddy?!

"Where's my daddy?"

Those are the words I woke up to this morning. It was said in more of a blood curdling way but you get the point.

I quickly reminded her that daddy had took Dylan to a concert and would be home tomorrow. She doesn't know that daddy and Marcus were going to Six Flags or she would have really had a fit. Oh yeah she would ride all of it if she was tall enough, she is our little dare devil!

Pictures by Daddy

Vacation Coming To An End

Summer is winding down and now is the time to squeeze in those last few things the kids want to do.
Marcus spent almost a week at church camp with Alex and Grant. He enjoyed himself but was ready to come home. I know I was ready for him to come back. There is something about him that makes me not like it when he is away for more than a night or two. I mean I miss the other two but when Marcus is gone I almost drive myself crazy missing him. The only thing I can figure out is because of his health needs-makes me more protective of him than his brother or sister. All that matters is he is home safe and sound now.
It was funny. Marcus said that he was only gone a few days and comes home to find daddy bought two new vehicles. He asked us if we had purchased anything else he should know about?!
Dylan's ride to the concert in St. Louis fizzled out. Believe it or not the kid that he was suppose to go with has been signed to a record label and is on tour right now!
Marcus has been asking to go to Six Flags before school started so I suggested that Joey take him on the day of the concert. That way Dylan's ticket doesn't go to waste and Marcus gets his thrills at the amusement park.
So as it stands Joey, Dylan, and Marcus (along with a couple of friends) will be heading to the city very early Monday morning. They will stay the night then come home the next day. Bre is gonna be upset having to stay and it being just me and her but she will make it. She will be fine once she knows they will go camping later next week.
Joey is outside playing with Bre right now. I told him to take the camera with him. If he gets any good shots I will post them on here later.