[hydroxybutane]

Okay...so after crying my eyes out writing the other update...How is everyone else? Summer updates?

Myself...I will be turning 30 in a few days. We will be going out to a celebratory dinner and a show


R will be turning 13 in a few weeks..She is very excited. Since the trial, she has completely blossomed. It's almost like she is free now...She still tries to "care" for her sisters, but not nearly as much as before. I let her decide what she wanted to do for the summer, and she chose a combination of summer schools (to repeat math and english, her most difficult subjects) and do some really exciting day camps, theatre and science. She is also showing affection and love towards me and even bigger, towards hubby!! She came and sat on my lap last night while we were watching a movie... She didn't even move away when I rubbed her back and patted her head She hugged hubby for good night the other night spontaneously!!

B, my little angel She has been at 1/2 day camps..hehehe..That's about all she can take, plus they swim all afternoon, and she is not a really good swimmer (even in a lifejacket) and I feel more comfortable taking her swimming myself. She also has "Mommie school" in the evening...I just keep telling myself...she will retain SOMETHING!! So far, she has learned all her colours and can recognize all her ABC Wooo Hooo! Now we are working on the sounds of ABC...and numbers She will be repeating grade 2 She is happy, because she gets to stay with her teacher and she is socially closer to the younger kids anyway...

M...She is at home with me and S all day..They have been riding bikes, playing outside. M has also been doing lots of at home speech therapy, OT and physiotherapy. She has been attending 2 hours camps at Early Intervention..She has made amazing progress....she has about 25 signs now..and uses them a lot!! She is also WALKING, RUNNING and JUMPING! Woo Hoooo! She is also GROWING...a lot! She was 18 month to 24 months clothes when she arrived..and now she is a good size 3 She also loves to snuggle...loves to snuggle.

Soooooo how is everyone else doing?

[momraine]

It is sooo awesome to hear how your girls are blossoming under your care!
My kids lets see
DH S and W went on a two week driving vacation at the beginning of the year. They saw things like yellowstone, the grand canyon, mount Rushmore and other stuff. They had a great time of bonding. The first week they were gone P went to a weeklong sleepaway camp for handicapped kids. M used that week to really, really fall apart. Too much change for him, Sis and her two girls moved out leaving the same weekend as everyone else so in 48 hours we went from 9 people in the house to two. Big mistake. Anyway also at that time I discovered he had been hiding food and throwing up in his closet. I keep finding more caches all over the house. He is one sneaky kid. Because of that he has not been to any camps yet. I do not trust the supervision there to keep him eating and drinking enough to stay healthy. So he has been home. However some of the new things we are trying seem to be helping.
dh S and W are also going on a mission trip towards the end of the month and then we all go to amputee camp. S and W are volunteering as junior conselors and then each kid brings and adult and that means we all go. P also went to church camp for a week and loved it. W went to leadership camp at a college the same week and had a great time. S will do church camp, then the mission trip and then the amputee camp back to back, and then it will be time for summer marching band. W and P are supposed to do a clogging clinic but I am not sure that will happen.
Anyway, as you can tell I am spending my summer driving kids places and dealing with M. I am hoping I can get enough theraputic parenting done that I will be able to send him to school in the fall. Otherwise I am considering homeschooling him, or showing up at school for lunch or just having him eat lunch after school or something. I dont' know yet. I do know that it's too easy for him to pretend to eat at school.

[lucyjoy]

My mom is back home from the hospital finally and seems fine but has more tests this week. They don't know what is causing the oddities in her blood, but that is where the cancer is so could be lots of things.

R is here visiting and gave me his deployment manual for emergency info. He's getting use to the idea that he will be in Iraq in a few short months. I'm not getting use to the idea.

RA is coming from Washington this week as well. He says he misses his mommy.

M and mouse both turned 20 this week. Mouse says he plans to go to school to become a minister. M is in a manaic cycle and mostly calls me with "emergencies" at 2am.

D is getting the "17" attitude a few months early. It's rather boring after seeing it so often. Was hoping he'd wait a bit longer but guess he'll have lots of quality mom time since he's grounded forever (which means until I think he can make safe decisions).

S is doing a lot better with the food changes but currently isn't sleeping at all and does not appear even remotely tired. Not sure what the next step for that is.

Baby L is adorable and crawling(feet and arm crawling with butt in the air)

Baby A may come for a visit in Sept-I hope so. B and K are doing a lot better where they are now. K is in nursing school and working full time. B works full time at a job he loves, though his arm is out of socket again which may cause an issue.

C is missing again. Last I heard he was on his way back from his trip to New York to "fix his life" No one has heard from him in over a month but that's not unusual with the way he chooses to live.

DH is looking for a job as he thinks he likely will be getting laid off soon. He survived the first round of layoffs but doesn't think he'll survive round two.

T is remaining in the group home at least until the end of Oct. Legal Aid, suprisingly, has been my biggest help and have been calling me with agencies and places to find help for his situation. They want me to call them if he is denied assistance.

My house addition is mostly finished and usable so we are less cramped. Still have lots of work on the old part of the house and the outside but it's so much nicer.

That's pretty much it right now.

[chickymum]

Funny hydrox, for some reason I always wondered how old you were. I think it is because you are in college.

Pretty boring here. I bought a kneeboard for the kids to learn to use for behind the boat this summer. My daughter picked it up instantly, mostly because she is so strongly all about selfpreservation (due to the things that happened to her so early in life) that she will go on the kneeboard and not let go of the rope no matter what. She also has no fear. She insists on being pulled on the tube behind the boat with the dads because the dad rides are a lot more rougher than the kiddie rides. She is an animal!

I am still contemplating weather or not to do another adoption. The disruption that we had a few years ago is coming into play and it is hard for me to sit here and be judged as a parent. I know it is what they have to do but it will break my heart if I get told that I can't do this when this is what my life is all about. I am very scared. Oh well next week my very highly reputable adoptive parent counsillor will be putting in her two bits and she was the one who suggested I adopt again in the first place. I love her!!!

The boys are enjoying being out of school but my daughter is silently miffed that they are around all the time and her homeschooling has halted. Sometimes I just wish she would throw a tantrum instead of being so silent all the time.

Oh yeah!!! We crashed our first wedding last night. HEHEHE It turns out that the brides brother/best man told my husband last week that we should stop by the reception but I didn't know that so I thought we were just tagging along with another couple, totally uninvited.

[aspenhall]

Well, I'm still 32.....lol

A has decided to pull passive agressive control battles all summer, but she makes sure that they're minor enough that I just give in, rather than fight....which isn't ok with me.

Things like getting dressed in the morning and doing her chores....I know we aren't going anywhere and if she wants to leave the house to play she'll go get dressed.....but I don't like the fact that I expect her to get ready for the day in the morning, and SHE gets to decide if it's important enough to her to pay attention to what I want. Or she'll say "you ASKED me to do it, you didn't TELL me to do it." .......so last week, I gave her a list of her morning routine and posted it on her door and told her I expected her to complete the list before ANY Playtime....she can either stay in bed, or do the list...no more playing in jammies all day ignoring me...

Well, no surprise, she decided that day to ignore the list too....so I quietly did my ebay stuff, asking her if she was going to get ready for the day, replied that she was NOT. So I got things ready that needed to ship, and at 3pm came in and announced we had to go to the post office, and while she was still in shock and horror, I took her by the hand, and led her out the door and into the car. At that point she realized she had no shoes and was in a oversized adult tee-shirt (bright pink, with tweety-bird on it) and hair sticking out all over unbrushed....She tried to put up a fuss and I just said "you picked not to get ready, I'm ok with that"

Then she tried "won't you be embarrassed when everyone sees me in my PJ's" to which I replied, "NOPE, will you? BEsides, I'm not in my PJ's I decided to get ready for the day"........She is 7 and starting to be very image concious...and was mortified as I wouldn't relent and let her just stay in the car...after the post office, we needed to go to the grocery store and again she was to horrified at the prospect to begin to formulate a defense...and as we pulled into the parking lot, I mentioned that the HOT asphalt would hurt her feet to walk so far to the doors, and asked if she liked, I could drop her off in front of the doors, where she'd wait on a bench for me to park....again she was mortified, but her only options were wait out front where everyone walked past and saw her, or walk across hot pavement (pretty far)....she chose to wait out front...and sat there in abject horror as people walked past her and looked at her....we did a brief 10 item shopping trip, and then I decided since we hadn't done anything fun all week, that we should go out to eat for lunch...again she was mortified, but off we went, and again I dropped her off so her feet wouldn't get burned by the pavement...and once again she stood there in front for everyone to notice...

She claims everyone was staring at her because of her pj's, I told her they probably smelled the rotten underwear she was STILL IN from yesterday and looked to see where the smell came from...she hadn't thought of the dirty underwear part of her ensemble....and was mortified all over again....

But since then, she's gotten ready for the day WITHOUT FAIL, including chores completed! Most days she's up, dressed, and chores done before I even wake up.

I told her "the Day" starts whenever *I* get done with my stuff, and she'd better finish before I do, because I won't wait around anymore. I also told her that next time, she can choose to stay home if she isn't ready, but that I'd be calling a sitter, who SHE'D have to pay with her DVD's and Jewelry (who wants toys?)....She seemed fairly motivated by that possible outcome....

[waited2long]

Nothing really new for me.

Still childless, still poor and getting poorer.

[jbee]

everything fine here, fs 17 and 18 are doing well.
fs 18 has started correspondence school to try to catch up this summer so he can graduate end of next year and join the air force. he will be in grade 11 but dosen't want to be old when he graduates finally. no behavior issues, getting more and more adult and independent. he has changed so much since he came 1.5 yrs ago!
fs 17 has been staying out of trouble cause he's home with us mostly, besides work. no more smoking, cause he can't get it. getting up without help because for the summer if he dosen't he will hear about it allllll daaaaayyy. but still, bring on the school year.
the two fkids we watch for the summer (both 17 brothers) in our 'daycare' had a meltdown today. they don't live with us and so don't realize it won't phaze us. we just don't care. their fdad lets them get away with so much crap (he is single and works so had to find other fparents to watch them during the day). i am so embarrassed for them, actually. walking down the street swearing acting like idiots while dh and i just stood there. so we will see if they come back tomorrow. their fd dosen't have much choice since no one else will watch them. so we will see, lol
that's my update. nothing too exciting.

[marythemom]

Let's see, D got kicked out of Summer school for bringing an air gun that he'd altered to look like a real pistol (it did) that he was going to trade for dope. Luckily since it wasn't a real gun the police decided not to get involved (although they said they would have shot him if he'd pulled it on them - it looks that real).

The nanny that we found is not intimidated by D, but H, with her ODD, absolutely HATES the new nanny and has started having melt downs. We've taken H to work with us a couple of times, but time before last ended up having to restrain her and carry her out of the building over Hubby's shoulder. Very embarassing and not good for business.

Our company has not made a profit in 6 months. My husband and I have not drawn a salary in that time either. Almost every call is a debt collector. We borrowed a ton of money to purchase the business a year ago and now we owe money to everyone. The employees are finally busy, but it may be too late.

I was supposed to have outpatient surgery on my thyroid tomorrow, but the hospital just informed us we would have to pay $1000+, so we cancelled it.

Luckily I'm still current on my meds, but Hubby refuses to take meds so his mild depression continues untreated.

So that's my Summer so far. Hope everyone else is doing much better!

[jbee]

mary that sounds like it just sucks. i did get a laugh at your title, though...'our summer'...just reminds me of those stupid 'what i did over my summer vacay', lol
hope things start looking up for you! i know we borrowed about 30k to do the addition and i am so nervous for when the payments start, this crappy economy makes my gut tense when i think about it.

[missw005]

Well, I'm still trying to sell the house. Listed it with a realtor almost 2 months ago, and have only had ONE showing. The real estate companies up here don't do open houses, so that's not an option. I email my agent regularly, and her response today was that there are just too many houses on the market (true) and not enough residential home buyers. Most buyers are looking for lakeshore or land, as we are a tourist area near the BWCA in northern MN.
Doesn't make it any less frustrating, though.

So the rest of our new family life changes are on hold until the house is sold. We'll be moving to the Minneapolis suburbs, which is exciting, and I check the real estate listings regularly. (just in case )

Finding my next child(ren) is going NOWHERE. My CW is currently on vacation for most of July.
I still have one match meeting left, but it also is going nowhere. I applied for this little guy last September (2007!!!!!) and there have been nothing but delays since then. The match meeting for this month has been delayed until the beginning of August, and I'm doubting that will happen either. I'm told I'm in the top 3 families, which is nice, but I feel like it doesn't matter anymore because nothing ever happens.

J is having an okay summer. We had a scare when he tried Vyvanse, which didn't work. Back on the Tenex. But he finally got a new meds doc, which is only an hour away (old one was 2-1/2 hr. drive one way!), and through the same clinic his therapist is out of. He has his first appointment Friday, I'm excited about that.
He's been going to his school counseling summer program twice a week, which is a nice break for Q and I. He's made some new friends, which is great, as he really struggles with that. Oddly enough, the new friends are from the next town over and are my students, which I think is funny.

Q is doing pretty well. He's back to the sobbing over nothing issue, but I'm trying to cure that by sending him to his room when he does it, so there's no attention when he does it. At least the sobbing isn't lasting as long. (less than 30 mins.) He's really close to swimming without floaties, but not quite.
Unfortunately the boys are truly in the Bickering/Fighting/Teasing/Annoying Each Other phase, which is driving me over the edge. In fact, they're doing it right now - J's trying to finish his Star Wars movie, Q wants to play with J outside, and they're going at it. Good thing they're going to daycare this afternoon! (I'm going to the dentist)

Our CPS visits seem to have stopped. I've never received any letters or calls from them, so I'm not sure what's going on. But I'm certainly glad to have them out of our lives, and hope I'm not speaking too soon.

We've taken 1 big roadtrip - a couple nights in a hotel - but don't have any other big ones planned. I don't work in the summer, which is great, and this may be my last summer at home. I've gotten sunburned a few times already, which is sad and painful, but am trying really hard to keep sunblocked heavily from now on.

Mostly I feel like we're in this holding pattern, like a that just can't find a runway, with the whole trying to sell so we can move thing. I have days where I obsess and debate with myself about why this is happening - house not selling, new child(ren) not coming........and the opposite end - once we do sell, how difficult it's going to be to find a new house, new job, new daycare, etc. in a short period of time, how much mortgage I'll qualify for, etc. So I'm trying not to drive myself with that crap!

Sandy

[ajjhmf]

Here's an update from our piece of the world...

J has responded very well to the new diet. He's okay with the changes since he loves fresh fruit and veggies. He's not to happy about not getting the junk food anymore, but seems to understand why. He's processing things so much better now. On the downside, the wellbutrin is completely out of J's system and we're still seeing major mood swings. I like our new therapist though and meet with him next week to discuss a treatment plan. Bi-polar is still a concern.

H is a smart and sassy almost 4yo. She's really a lot of fun right now and I just love listening to her. Yesterday she discovered that J hadn't flushed after going number too. She comes out of the bathroom, puts her hands on her hips, glares at her brother and exclaims "J____ A____ F____! You come look at this! You are in BIG trouble! You know better than this MISTER!!!" LOL! who's in charge here.

M just got into a Toddler Language Class for the fall that focuses on speech development with a sensory approach. Exactly what he needs! YEAH!!!! He also figured out how to ride his little two-wheeler with training wheels and now goes down the street saying "pedal-pedal!"

Dh and I are doing lots of work on the house right now. Inexpensive fix up to get the house ready to sell. Our plan is to have it ready to go on market in 18mo, hoping to move the summer between J's 4th and 5th grade year. We still want the country life. Maybe even have a horse barn and a couple horses to ride. Definitely with some chickens. And maybe a goat. LOL

Dh has also applied for a few federal security jobs in nearby Dayton at WPAFB. I told him it would be funny if after 3 years in the AF, he ended up working for them as a civilian again. LOL