Wednesday, August 31, 2011

If You Can't Find it

It's probably somewhere on the fridge.


Monday, August 29, 2011

Slip & Slide

On Saturday Jasmine had soccer clinic for two hours. When she got home, we loaded up to go to the springs. We haven't been for almost two years. Back then I dropped them at the creek by one spring and they floated down to the other in tubes.

The plan didn't work out though. Even though we went down a couple of dirt roads narrower practically than our laundry hall, we couldn't find the first spring. The second bigger spring was closed for rennovations. So we'll try it again in a couple of months.

We had driven for over an hour dand didn't want to go home without doing anything (there is nothing else to do in that area) so we went to a Hardees and got everyone food. That was a good trade, especially for Kaleb who is all about food. He had a chili dog and onion rings!

We came home and decided to get out the slip & slide. No one has used it much in the past couple of years. I thought Scrappy looked hot and should have a go.

He wasn't sure about it. Dogs don't really dive and slide.




Rick demonstrated for him, but Scrappy wasn't impressed.




We added a little dish soap to speed up the action.




Kaleb didn't really get it. He would run, flop down and lay there. The Slip and Slide was torn along the edge so the water didn't go where it was really supposed to go. The girls and I went to K-mart (the nearest store) to see if they had marked down slip & slides yet. There were three different ones, and they were all half priced. We bought two different kinds.



We didn't get the new one set up until after church Sunday. The new slip & slide is way shorter than the old one. I forgot that I had searched for a longer one when I bought the old one. Didn't even think about it this time. It's about five feet shorter and that makes a big difference. But it will do for now. The only thing is that Jessica and Jasmine go off the end at times.




Kayla can even make it to the end on this shorter one.








They only played on it for an hour because we got Soul Surfer from Netflix, and we planned to all watch that. Three of us had to leave about twenty minutes from the end for TeamKid at church though. We finished it after church.




Today I'm off to the dentist (oh yay) and then have to finish the proof pages for the quiz book that will be out next spring.



Saturday, August 27, 2011

An Ordinary Week



It's been a pretty ordinary week here. School started Monday so this has been a week of getting into a routine. Some of it has gone smoothly. Like, it works perfectly for Jessica to walk the twins to their bus on the way to the city trolley she takes to college. Not only that, but she gets home on the trolley right before their bus arrives, so she walks them home too. Monday that bus was over half an hour late, but that's not unusual for the first day of school.



Jasmine is on a different schedule than the others. She would ride Adam's high school bus to the high school to catch the transfer bus to her charter school, but we don't think she needs to be exposed to high school language and behavior. So Rick leaves at 6:10 a.m. (same time as the bus) and drives her to the high school and makes sure she gets on the transfer bus okay.


High school gets out at the same time she does, so the transfer bus takes her to the middle school instead (since the high school busses would be long gone). It's the school she would have attended next year except we don't want her exposed to all the language and behaviors.

So she would get off the transfer bus and ride the middle school bus home arriving here at 3:45. But the first day it was over half an hour late. Not a lot better the second day. Also, Jasmine was very upset by all the swearing on the bus. Jessica volunteered to drive the middle school and pick her up at 3:15 when the transfer bus gets there. She talked to the middle school bus driver the first day we did this, and the driver confirmed that swearing is a major problem on that bus. Now Jasmine is home around 3:35 which I like better anyway. Just some extra driving time for Jessica and extra gas.


Adam rides the 6:10 bus, but he goes to cross country after school and gets home around 5:00.
He has dropped gymnastics due to cc practice but remains in tumbling because it's later.


Jessica has night classes Monday and Tuesday, but there aren't classes on Fridays.




Jasmine's school not only requires the uniform, but a belt has to be worn and the shirt must be tucked in. Friday morning at 6:50 a.m. Jasmine calls and says that she's forgotten her belt. So I start getting ready to drive to the school. It's probably a 20 minute drive, but then I realize school hasn't started yet, so I'm going to be in all the school traffic and the long drop off line. Jessica is with me. I suggest we stop at the gas station nearest our house and fill up to stall for time a little so maybe some of the traffic will have cleared.


Jessica was pumping the gas and I looked over and a girl wearing a shirt from Jasmine's school is getting into the car next to us. Unusual because most of the kids are from the other end of town. I jump out and call, "Excuse me" as they are getting into the car. Thankfully both the mom and daughter heard me. I asked if they could deliver the belt since the mom was obviously on the way to drop the girl off. They agreed, and I wrote down Jasmine's name and her teacher. The girl had the same teacher a couple of years earlier. I was so glad that worked out because it probably saved us a full hour by time we would have gotten there, got stuck in line, dropped the belt off and drove back home.

On Thurday I went to a thrift shop and got a load of shirts for Jessica as well as four pairs of pants. None of the pants fit, but all the shirts worked out. We decided we'd go to the Goodwill discard store. It's right next to Goodwill and all the stuff is just dumped together in bins.


Most of the time you have no idea what anything costs except that the clothes are 1.79 per pound. That sounds cheap, but it adds up so you have to choose carefully. I'm not sure how they figure out what goes to that store since some of the jeans still had new tags on them. But, like I said, it's all just dumped into bins. So if you want clothes, you go over to about four large wooden bins and start digging.


Jessica and I were on a mission to find work out clothes for Tyler and jeans for her. We came up with plenty of jeans, but nothing for Tyler. I also saw this horse. We have way too many stuffed animals, so I'll only consider them if it's something different. This turned out to be a Build-a-Bear complete with outfit and shoes. Turned out to have the horse sound box too. (So about $49 new altogether before tax)I added it to our stuff. I had about 8 Tom Clancey paperbacks too. Having no idea what any of it cost, I had my own limits set in my mind. I'd get the books if they were $1 or under. (They were .50) and I'd get the horse if it was $5 or under. It was $1!!! I think the lady just made up the prices and thankfully she was in a good mood. Another person would have probably charged a whole lot more for the horse since it had the outfit and is in really good shape.


We went to the mall and bought nothing except Sarku's for lunch. Then off to Walmart where we got one pair of shorts for Tyler. They had wind pants in little boys but none in men's. They probably will soon. J.C. Penneys already had their winter coats on the racks!

Jessica and Jasmine made cookies. Snicker doodles. They were boxed but they were really good!



Of course this couldn't go smoothly, without issues. One twin snuck out to the kitchen and tried to take some before it was time so didn't get them. The other twin was given two nice warm cookies a little later. However, instead of sitting down and eating them, that twin snuck over and grabbed half a cookie Jessica had set down. It resulted in the twin losing the two cookies along with the half. I was really disappointed because it was such a poor choice and such a greedy thing to do. Like, wasn't two cookies enough? Did we really have to sneak over and take half of someone else's too?

The cookie incidents, along with some earlier issues during play time and one twins breaking school rules all week, resulted in the twins staying home from a movie tonight so Jasmine had a daddy date and I stayed home to work on proofing the galleys so the girl's quiz book.



Anthony took Jessica out on a late birthday date. They went to a movie at another theater. Anthony hadn't looked at the time right though, so they missed the first half hour of the movie. He had the tickets, just didn't double check the time on them.


Today Jasmine has soccer clinic--we think. There seems to be some confusion and I don't have any phone numbers to call to find out. We're just going to assume it's being held as planned and go.


Dance/tumbling (not Adam's which meets at the gymnastics place, but tumbling at the dance academy) doesn't start until after Labor Day. We are working on plans for Labor Day. Anyone doing anything exciting that weekend?

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

TeamKid

Sunday night TeamKid at church.





Basket on the head? Must be the new look.





It was water day to celebrate the last Sunday before school started.










Anthony was baptized Sunday morning. We bought him an xtra large ham and pineapple pizza.


































6:40 a.m. The last three are off to school








Yesterday the twin's bus was about 20 minutes late so they got home about 2:20. Jasmine's bus was over a half hour late and she didn't get home until 4:30!! Hope the bus routes go smoother today.





Monday, August 22, 2011

Off to School

Yesterday I posted pictures of Tyler at college. Here are pictures of the others off to school today.


Adam, a junior in high school





Jasmine, 5th grade. This year she can wear an assortment of colors of shirts but they have to be bought from an expensive uniform shop and have the school logo on them. It's under the backpack strap.





Kaleb, 1st


Kayla, 1st, who wants everyone to know how sad she is. She drank a bunch of water before bed last night, and then wet herself. But she would not shower. I would not let her get dressed without showering. Then she took so long in the shower, refusing to get out until I turned the water to cold, that she ended up having to have bread because it was time to go. So she decided to show me how unhappy she was by wearing the wrong socks and her boots instead of her new shoes. Wow, showed me alright. Hope she has fun in PE in the boots.


Kayla had a major fit at Rick last night and knows she doesn't get fun time today. Jessica has agreed to play a half hour of Wii with anyone who has had a good day. That means following the rules, going to bed with a good attitude, following the school rules and following the classroom rules. Tyler is our Wii person, but of course he's at college.

Jessica is a sophomore at the local college. She needs 31 credits this year to get her AA, which she has to have to enroll in the college that has her major. An AA is required to enroll there.




Tyler and his roommate rode the bus to the service at the Baptist Student Union together yesterday. Once there, Tyler found a student from his church here. Hopefully he will remain motivated to go each Sunday. Yesterday there was a free lunch : ) Tyler has never been reluctant to go to church, just to get out of bed. The service there isn't until 11:00 though, so maybe that will work out for him.


Jessica's "friend" Anthony was baptized last night and hopefully I can get the video to upload later.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Tyler's Off to College

Yesterday we moved Tyler to college. Jessica and Jasmine are on his bed.


The twins are on his roommate's bed. There is only about two feet (if that) between beds.




Ty and his roommate. Ty is 5'11" and looks little next to this guy.



Outside his dorm.







Ty trying to get internet on his iPad (that he won at ICRS).



Stopped at a free play area on the way home. I left the college with no tears!!! Amazing.








Jessica read a book. I had my kindle, but there was a guy there who decided I needed to talk to him. An older African American dad. That happens to me a lot. I must have one of those faces. He didn't realize at the time that I had African American children. His child was mixed so that was kind of funny. I gave him the Bible I had in the car. That makes #2. I guess I should have taken the whole pile of Bibles the guy at ICRS tried to give me. I only took four of them. They are a really easy to read Bible.





Rick and Kaleb left ahead of us, and Rick was making peach cobbler when I got home. He's never done one before, but it turned out well.





So now it's Sunday morning and it was kind of strange not to be trying to drag Tyler out of bed for church. Last night was different too. I almost went to his room to see if he wanted to watch a movie with me. But no Tyler. I guess I'll get used to it. I'm glad he has this opportunity but I don't like the feeling of him missing from my life. Other parents have survived. I will too.



Friday, August 19, 2011

Orientations

Went to new student orientation at Jasmine's school, and then took her supplies to her 5th grade classroom.








Then went to first grade orientation at the twin's school. Tyler went with Kaleb and I went with Kayla.












I hope this year goes well for everyone. We are moving Tyler to college tomorrow, and Jessica is having to change her schedule for the third time.


We are having issues with Kayla that I hope don't carry over into the classroom this year. When I am not home, whether I just run to the store or I am out of town, she takes on a very sassy attitude with Tyler or Rick. They have told me about it, and Adam has heard it even though she doesn't use the tone on him.

I left a tape player for Tyler to tape record her when I went to Universal. He played it for me when I got home. I was blown away with the smart mouth sassy tone I heard. It was REALLY bad. He had put her on her bed in time out. She tore up the room so he moved her to Jessica's top bunk. She started yelling, "Don't care. Don't care. I am just going to get down right now so you can just watch this." She then wagged her bottom in his face. She said a few more smart mouth things and then jumped off the bed. He said, "You are going to be in trouble with Mom and Dad."

She said "I am just going to scream at you. TYLERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR" then went into loud, dramatic crying when he set her back on the the bed. I took the tape to her counseling session and played it for the counselor. She said Tyler had remained a lot more calm than she would have. Then we talked about how Kayla will not be able to have any privileges until she can learn to be respectful with whoever is in charge.

Why I am writing about all this? Because her sassy mouth just blew me away. Because I wonder why she doesn't do that to me, Jessica or Adam but does for Rick or Tyler. (And it upsets me because Rick spends so much time playing board games with her which drives me crazy. And he will put her to bed early or in time out or spank her same as me.) Because someone else might be going through this and think they are all alone. Because I'm hoping that her teacher will demand respect from the start.


While I'm sharing here, I will just say that we have a situation that needs a small miracle. I can't say much about it, which is why I haven't mentioned it. But we need one person to sign one paper which she is absolutely refusing to sign. If it doesn't happen in the next week or so, it will be too late.

Well, need to help Ty finish packing and find a large box of kleenex for tomorrow (Saturday).

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Half Birthday and Lunch Out

I took Tyler out to the Chinese buffet today. He moves to college Saturday. Sniff. Sniff. Why do they have to go and grow up?? Okay, some are harder to let go than others because some have different needs than others.





Today is Jasmine's half birthday. She is 10 1/2. We do either a half cake or a small cake for half birthdays. The body of this bear is made up of two cupcakes. All the rest is frosting! We also bought 12 mini cupcakes to share but we don't have a lot of cake for half birthdays. Just a little for everyone.

I am so proud of these two! Both have had a lot to overcome, but they are doing it. You don't get to pick your genetics, and both have special needs that make life challenging. I think they have developed stronger character because of having to deal with disappointments, being "different," and having to try much harder than others at some things. I am proud of their hard work. You rock guys!!!