you : ) Please go back two posts and choose your one or two favorite photos from 2007. Or if you've been following the blog for that long, suggest other photos you remember that I didn't choose.
When rereading posts I saw that I'd written a lot about problems with the boys, especially Adam since Jeff was already gone. I was very tempted to take those off, but then I decided not to because those struggles were a big part of our life at that time. Some days it didn't seem he could make a good choice if it was right in front of him. He's come so far from those days and he's really doing so much better at thinking of consequences and choosing things that will help him reach his goals. Perhaps his progress will be an encouragement to another mom whose teen son is walking down the wrong path. Stay firm and consistent, pray a lot, love them anyway and leave the rest to God (and give a good swift kick when needed). Seriously, it's hard to know what to do. Hard to separate the child from the problem. Hard to know when to be tough and when to grant mercy.
I thought I'd give a brief update on each child. Some of it may be repeats from earlier posts. I don't always remember what I've said here and what I've said on facebook.
Tyler--He still does not have a job. He did go to Job Corps orientation. He goes back November 7 for an interview. I don't know what they are looking for or what they'll ask him, but I'm hoping this will work out for him. If it does, he'll be leaving for a while because it's a residential job training program. Rick said Tyler was the only white kid in a roomful of kids. I've heard there can be racial problems at the program. Hopefully he'll be fine. He has three black brothers, but of course the kids there won't know that. He'll have to take a family picture along and hang it up. There were so many years he was the target kid at school because he was much smaller and because of his autism. I don't want him to go through that again.
Jessica--She's in her junior year and at FSU this year. She's in criminology with an underwater crime scene investigation minor. She found her first submerged head last week! They grow up so quickly..... Okay, it wasn't real, but that is what she's training for. Personally, if I found any body part or dead body I'd probably be too busy throwing up to be much good to anyone. Kiara passed beginner obedience class last week but she has a long way to go. She's VERY hyper and really only follows the commands at class where she knows she has to or no treat. I posted her certificate a few posts back, but here she is on graduation day. She does not look too excited to me!
Jessica is trying to decide what to do next summer. She is interviewing for a job at a summer camp. They only interview in a few cities so we need to plan that out. Same city Ty will interview in for his program, but of course not the same day. She will have her advanced SCUBA certification by Christmas and be a couple steps more advanced by summer, so she's hoping maybe she could help with the camp's SCUBA program for teens.
Jeff--He ran at the army ten-miler in D.C. today. He was 119 over all (out of 21,000 runners) and 3rd in his age group out of 300! He ran ten-miles in 57:24. Do the math. That's less than six minutes a mile for ten miles!! He will be home for a few days at the end of next week.
Adam--If you've been reading the blog, you know that last week he went to Montgomery and took the ASVAB and had his physical. He signed his contract for the Marine reserves, still planning to go to college but also be in the reserves. If he gets an ROTC scholarship, he would not be in the reserves. Adam has a few more weeks of cross country. He tried out for soccer last week and thinks he may have made it this time. The final results are tomorrow. Soccer and cross country overlap a couple of weeks, but the coaches have been good about working with the kids that are in both sports.
Jasmine--She is holding her own at school. It's getting tough. We are starting her project for history fair. We aren't doing dance this year because she is going to try city basketball. She's in city soccer and may try out for the school team. It's very competitive and I'm not sure Jasmine is that intense about it. She just likes being on a team. She'll start basketball soon. She played a little this summer and that's all the experience she has.
Kaleb--He is playing soccer. He has days where he's an angel at school and fun to be with. And then he has "other" days. He had a good ending to last week, so I'm hoping that will carry on through next week.
Kayla-She is pretty much recovered from having her tonsils out. We go for her follow up tomorrow and if the doctor says it's okay, she going back to school.
Kind of a long post, but that's our updates for now. Now it's your turn to go back and vote on your favorite pictures of 2007. Look for 2008 soon. You can vote anonymously if you don't have an account and word verification is off for now. If you don't see your comment post right away, make sure you've pressed post comment. If it goes to spam, I'll catch it and okay it. I am getting tons of spam now that word verification is off.
PS I've had about 15 or so book give aways in the past and I had to take those down because someone would read about it 12 months later and be upset that I wouldn't send them the book!!
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