Tragedy Strikes Again

Another day, another tragedy. I'm so sorry that the world is such a tough place.


I can't fill you in on the whole story because I don't know it all and it's really not my story to tell. I just hurt so much when others hurt. What I can say is that there was a very nice high school boy who felt that he had few options last night. Something happened, the police followed him and he eventually ended the pursuit by using a gun on himself. He's currently on life support.


I knew of him but didn't know him personally. Brittney knew him because he had a locker near hers. Our young friend Suzanna was his girlfriend. Our friend Ron was his teacher and confidant. They are struggling.


I'm reminded of a short time ago when my friend Eric committed suicide. There are no words.
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Just Another Day

So yesterday, lots of phone calls, lots of meetings set up, school concert skipped by our whole family. The good news is, I was only blindsided once. By a call from a police detective. Wasn't expecting that one. Now I'm off to a school. I hope it's the right thing to do.

What I Have Discovered

I have discovered that if you're open, honest and vulnerable about feeling overwhelmed and needing help, you get reported to social services and nearly a trip to the psych ward. Yikes! So I believe I shall go back to my old ways of carrying the world on my shoulders and not letting anyone know how hard it is. Although the looney bin would probably be more sane and relaxing than my house. Maybe I should go!  :-)

Complicated and Messy

This is one of those weeks where, if you happen to see our family, we would look perfectly normal. But inside, we are not ok. I'm not talking about Steve's and my relationship. We're fine. I just mean that there are things going on right now in our family that are really complicated and messy. They're so messy that I can't even write about it. Once the dust settles, and I'm still hoping that it does, I can probably give a little more information. Just know that we are into some very intense parenting right now and have a specialized therapist involved, but very few other people. If we seem to be 'closing ranks' as a family, don't take it personally, just know that we have issues that we need to concentrate on for the time being.


It's terribly ironic that just when I've really started writing again, something so complicated comes along that I can't even write about it. I'm one of those people who usually hate facebook for that very reason. I think it's ridiculous when people post really vague things and then when someone asks about it, they say that they don't want to share. It seems more like an attention getting thing to me. 


I'm NOT intentionally trying to do that. I DO think it's important that my friends know that we have stuff going on right now. I need a few days or weeks to figure out some things and the next steps we need to take. As I have more information and feel like I can share, I'll try to share more.


I was reminded a few weeks ago at the conference that when I write, people not only get an unexpected glimpse into our life, it also helps others not to feel so alone when they face some of the same types of challenging issues. I'll try to bring you along on some of our journey as soon as I safely can.


So tonight, instead of a track meet and swimming, a few of us will have a late evening consultation with a therapist who has re-arranged her already demanding and hectic schedule to accommodate us.


Then we'll see what tomorrow brings. I'm hoping it brings a massage because my shoulders and neck are so tight from stress that it's giving me a headache!


On a positive note, our new insurance will finally start on Friday and, for the past two uninsured months, we haven't had any serious medical issues! Yet................
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All Nations Festival

I'm not sure if it's called the All Nations Festival or the World Outreach Festival. Either way, we had a booth for Guatemala. We made Chicken Tortilla Soup, horchata  and banana cake.

Brittney's Prom

It's amazing how quickly life can change.

Brittney's been looking forward to prom for months and I almost had to miss it. 

Our life has been thrown into severe turbulence once again

 but thanks to an amazing friend, 

 I was still able to celebrate Brittney's big night with her

and Brittney wasn't even aware of the chaos going on at home.

It got us through yesterday.

So this morning, I choose to spend a few minutes being in awe of my beautiful daughter

and pretending like life is normal.

The Great Iron Incident of 2004

Today is going to be quite a marathon day. No. I'm not running any kind of real race. Ha. Haha. I don't run anymore unless someone is chasing me. Even then, I'm thinking I'd probably just let them catch me and be done with it.


It's just one of those days where a lot of things need to be accomplished. So of course, I'm sitting here at my computer at 6am. Soon, I'll be heading to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. I'm a little afraid to go in there and make any noise because so far, no one else is awake and I'd like to keep it that way.


I'm back with my coffee. Mission mostly accomplished. One sleepy child woke up but quietly parked herself in front of the tv. She's only interrupted my typing twice so far.


Today's three important missions include: cooking Guatemalan food at our house for the all Nations Festival tomorrow, Riley's baseball and then all the 'prom stuff'. Have I mentioned lately that I'm not a fan of prom? But Brittney is excited so I'm trying to be excited too.


I'll post lots of pictures of her all dressed up because it seems to be required. because everyone LOVES scrolling through all those prom pictures other people's kids. because she will look beautiful and I'll be proud of her.


Since I mentioned it the other day and I don't think I've ever written about it, The Great Iron Incident is as follows:


I was scheduled to graduate from SDSU and we were going to have a big party afterwards at our house following commencement. At some point before the ceremony, Taylor, who was about 21 months old, somehow managed to open the door to our hall closet, maneuver herself up the shelves and reach the second highest shelf. I don't know if it was her original intention or if she was just struck with a grand idea after she arrived at that height, but either way she decided to grab the box with the iron. Which was still in it's original box because even then I only ironed when it was completely necessary. And I can pass off a lot as not really being necessary!!! I think it only came out of the box once a year during VBS when the kids brought home those darn adorable iron-on decals for their shirts. At that point, I was still able to be peer-pressured into taking the time to iron them on so that they weren't the only kids not wearing the theme shirts. Peer pressure has little effect on me anymore. So long, iron-on decals!!! Hello sad kids!!! FYI: Turns out they didn't really care anyway.


I totally digress. It's because I've been typing instead of drinking my coffee. I'd better get back on task because I've already had another kid poke his head in the office door so my time is limited. Just saw a third kid. Plus, people are coming over at 9am to help cook. Better finish my story. Have you ever noticed that my actual stories aren't really that good? I just take forever to tell them. I continue to be surprised that anyone reads these at all.


So back to the original story. Tiny Taylor drags the iron-in-a-box all the way downstairs. It's a tribute to our wonderful parenting that no one noticed the two year old with an iron. We can only guess at the thoughts running through her cute little brain at that point. I think she wanted to iron like mom. Someone should've let her know that's not really what I do!!!


She managed to get the iron out of the box, plugged it in and set it face down on the carpet.


Some time later, I think I smell something burning. I proceed around the house doing the smell test. You know, wandering around sniffing everywhere, trying to figure out what the smell is and where it's coming from.


I finally discovered the iron downstairs. I'm honestly shocked that it didn't start a fire. The iron was on it's hottest setting and had been there awhile. When I quickly picked it up, I discovered an entirely melted iron-shape that went all the way down to the cement! I doused the carpet with water and then watched it carefully for a while to make sure it wasn't still smoldering. I also may or may not have screamed at the offending toddler because I was mad about the hole and scared about the possible fire.


Looking back, I probably should've been more concerned about Taylor getting burned but all I could think about was that we were having people over for the party and now we had a big hole in our nice carpet. Ironically, it wouldn't even faze me now. I'm not sure if that's because I'm a better mom and more concerned with the big picture or I've just been through so much worse than a large hole in the carpet or I don't really care what anyone thinks anymore.


I ended up buying a rug to put over the spot and eventually forgot about it...........until we sold our house. Guess our memory is someone else's problem now.


Thus concludes the telling of "The Great Iron Incident of 2004".
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I'm off to mediate a fight going on in the kitchen!

Anthony's Choir Concert

 I left Riley's track meet immediately after he ran his 400m and raced over to Anthony's school for his spring concert.

I only missed the first song but I had to stand on the sidelines for the entire concert.

Special thanks goes to Grandma Sandy for picking me up and running me from one school to the other since I had no van yesterday.

Anthony is the one in the back row with the white dress shirt and tie.

For some reason, he loves wearing a tie.

Riley's Track Meet

For this track meet, Riley competed in the 400m dash and the long jump.

I have no idea what his time or distance was but I know he didn't come in first or last ;-)

The pictures are all with my phone so the quality isn't that great.

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 Riley with some of his friends.

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 Talking to Jeffery waiting for their race to start.

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The 400m dash.

Riley's the one in the black sleeveless jersey.

 

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Taylor even got into the action by helping with pole vault and running stats to the press box. 

She's only in 6th grade so she can't compete yet.

Here she is in the blue shirt cheering on a competitor.

Life

 After yesterday's difficult post and the morning I just survived, I thought I'd just post a few random pictures from my phone.

Ok. So this morning wasn't really that bad. Just imagine six small tornadoes whirling through your house and then heading out the door. Fine. That was an exaggeration too. But you should know that everyone in my house should know that I'm not responsible for anything before I have at least one cup of coffee.

Brittney worked at Perkins last night and then went to babysit. She got really sick and started throwing up. Thankfully, the three kids were going to bed. She survived the night but is staying home from school this morning.

Riley has a track meet this afternoon at 4pm so I had to make sure he has his track clothes, shoes, etc. It's a home meet so Sophia and I will get to watch him.

Taylor went to church last night, didn't get home until after 9pm and then "remembered" she still had more homework to do. So she's just plain tired this morning.

Zeke had an incident the other day that I'm not ready to write about yet. Let's just say that he was really inappropriate and he knows better. This morning, I discovered a lesser offense, but still very inappropriate. I was angry.

And I still haven't had any coffee by this point.

Anthony has a concert tonight. I asked him yesterday if his dress clothes were clean, hung up and still fit him. He told me yes. I wasn't processing things enough to check up on him. So this morning, I asked him again and then got smart and asked to SEE the clothes. His white dress shirt had been thrown on the floor of his closet for who knows how long, (his siblings ratted him out) and then last night, he grabbed it and threw it over the bottom part of a hanger, kind of like a pair of pants. Great. Did I mention I don't iron. Anything. Like ever. I'm pretty sure we haven't even owned an iron since the great Iron incident of  2004. Anyway, I looked at the pants he put with his dress shirt. Let's just say that his definition of dress pants and mine aren't the same. I went on a search and found his actual black dress pants crumpled in the back of one of his drawers. I made him try them on right then and there. They were so small that he couldn't even zip them up. Add 'purchase dress pants' to today's list.

Sophia just needed help with the hot water for her oatmeal so she was the least complicated this morning.

I also have no vehicle because my van is in the shop. I'm hoping they can figure out why it's leaking oil and sounds like an airliner about to take off. I'm also hoping it doesn't cost a million dollars to fix because I'm almost out of money. Aren't we all.

The other day, when Grandma Sandy asked Sophia where she wanted to have lunch,

Sophia said, "I want to go to McDonald's. But my mom's not a fan!"

I guess she's heard me say that a time or two!

Here's Sophia enjoying her McDonald's lunch while we waited at WWTire

for them to change my oil on Monday.

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Here's Nurse Brittney!

She's doing an internship rotation at various clinics, hospitals and nursing homes.

I think she looks so cute in her scrubs! 

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When Steve and I attended the conference in Sioux Falls, we made the most of our time away together. For lunch we tried a new Mexican restaurant called Macho Nacho. The food was really good and the prices weren't bad. 

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We were able to spend that Saturday night in a hotel in Sioux Falls thanks to a friend of Steve's that manages an extended stay hotel in Sioux Falls. I wasn't sure what to expect but I was impressed. We even had a stove and a full sized refrigerator. I jokingly told Steve that we should just run away and move in there! 

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After the session on Friday afternoon, the two of us went to the mini golf course

and played in the sun.

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On Saturday, we used our conference lunch hour to grab a bite to eat and hang out at Falls Park for a while. It was really relaxing. 

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Here's Riley and Taylor randomly having their picture taken with a salad I made for supper. 

 

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I just got the call from my good guy at WWTire.

My front passenger wheel bearing is going out.

I suspected as much :-(

I guess my front brakes are going out too and the rotors are bent.

The good news is that they'll take care of it for around $500.

It's a lot of money but considering what they're fixing, it's not bad at all.

I love having mechanics that I can trust and who take care of me and my van!!!

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Sophia's Biological Father

Warning! This will probably be another really long post!!!


I'm not always sure how specific to be when I'm writing about parts of my childrens' histories. I feel like it's their story to tell: specifics and when and how much information to share. I can describe how certain things impact me and our family and give pieces of their past, but once I put something about my children out there on the internet, I can never really get it back for them. When kids are still in foster care, we aren't allowed to share anything personal. After they have been adopted, it's ours to share as we want, but I still respect that my kids might not want their personal stuff spread out there for everyone to see.


With that being said, I write the following for two reasons: 1) I continue to contemplate the best way to try to help my children. Writing helps me process thoughts and 2) I will be asking for your help. We all know that I don't ask for help lightly so it has to involve my kids and be for a very good reason. So here goes my current rambling:


Sophia biological parents are very different from each other. Please excuse my mixing of past and present tense. It's complicated and I'll try to write as clearly as I can.


Sophia's mom, R, has always tried her best when it came to Sophia and loved Sophia very much. It was due to a lack of resources and support, both emotional and financial, combined with her borderline low IQ, her incapacity to retain information well, her chaotic family background and her inability to judge safe vs unsafe people that made her unable to provide a safe environment for Sophia. There were some very bad people in their life at that time. In short, it just wasn't safe for Sophia to live with R. However, R's love for Sophia has never been in question and R has never intentionally hurt Sophia.


Since then, R has married, gained an extended family, remained employed part time at a fast food restaurant, rented a livable trailer house and has had another baby. We all still remain in the same town and we remain in contact. We have visits and continue to emotionally support R. Her little one is doing ok. Would I leave Sophia in R's independent care? No. Do we love and support R and her continued contact with Sophia. Yes!!!


We also have contact with some of R's relatives and limited contact with R's parents. It's a small town. We basically leave it up to them to initiate contact and then try to make it happen. I've taken Sophia to quite a few birthday parties, was the witness at R's wedding (that's another story ;-),  we meet to play at the park and just generally try to maintain as much contact as we can.


Sophia knows she grew in R's tummy, just like her baby sister Aubree. Sophia used to call R 'Mommy R.......' but now she just calls her R.......... I think it's because that's what all our other kids call her. I don't pretend that Sophia's past history didn't happen just because it would be easier on all of us right now. I firmly believe that how we deal with this now will have less of a traumatic impact on Sophia in the future than if we put blinders on and wait for issues to come up. That's probably another post for another time too.


Sophia's bio father is a completely different story. He and R got together when he was 40 years old and she was around 20 (and actually she is probably mentally/developmentally closer to a middle schooler) At that time, he had already fathered four other children, the oldest of which was 11. Shortly before Sophia was born, he was convicted of sexual contact with his oldest daughter and sent to prison.


Meanwhile, Sophia was born and lived with R and R's next boyfriend (also a child sex offender). They lived across the trailer court from R's sister, who was living with another convicted child sex offender. The house R and Sophia were living in looked like one of those trailers that they show on tv where PETA went in and rescued the pets because the living conditions were so bad. After repeated reports by many concerned people, Sophia was finally place in foster care when she was seven months old.


While Sophia was in foster care, Sophia was supposed to have monthly DSS mandated visits with bio dad, even though he hadn't been in the picture since before she was born, he was a convicted pedophile and incest was involved. Gotta love the logic of the state. We wanted to fight it but we weren't allowed to discuss Sophia's case with anyone. She had one visit with her bio dad in prison, which was fully supervised. After that initial visit, thanks in large part to a wonderful CASA worker and an amazing staff person within DSS, a request was put in directly to the judge who was ruling on Sophia's case, asking to cease the prison visits. Thankfully, the judge was appalled that even one visit had taken place. He immediately put a stop to the visits. Logic can still prevail!


Even though there's been no further contact for bio dad, over the past five years, we've maintained a relationship with all four of Sophia's half siblings on her paternal side, her grandmother, aunt and uncles. Lots of people ask if we have to or not. No, we don't have to but the answer isn't quite that simple. By law in South Dakota (other states have different regulations), while a child is in foster care, bio parents are entitled to have visits with the child. The time, place and length of visits varies depending on the situation. Other bio relatives are also given the opportunity to visit but the visits aren't mandated and aren't usually pursued by the state because those visits aren't required by law.


So some of Sophia's bio relatives visited her in the little DSS visiting room during the three years she was in foster care. Eventually, we began to know some of them and lots of visits took place in our home because it was easier on Sophia and the relatives. That too is probably another story for another post.


Once an adoption in South Dakota is finalized, the adoptive parents have the final say on any contact. The adoptive parent is not legally obligated to have any contact with any bio relatives. We obviously choose to maintain as many contacts for Sophia as we can. I'm pretty sure I've written in the past about why we think that's the healthiest thing to do. I probably should mention that quite a few years ago, Grandma K was granted custody of all four of her grandchildren (Sophia's half-siblings).  This was before Sophia was even in foster care. Three of her four adult children were also living with her. The fourth was in prison.


Anyway, Grandma K told me in passing last week that she wanted to get together to talk. She always has the best of intentions for getting together but she usually doesn't follow up by making definite plans, so when she did, I knew right away that something was up.


After dealing with Dragon Lady all morning on Saturday (see post from a few days ago), I came home and started putting together a desk Brittney just bought. It was really relaxing to follow the directions and construct and build :-)


When Grandma K came,  I dispersed all the kids, mine and hers, and made small talk until she was ready. Then she told us that her son D, Sophia's bio dad, is scheduled to be released from prison in four months. And he's asking to see Sophia. He's been asking since before the termination of his parental rights and now that he knows he's getting out, he's getting serious about a visit.


Let me just say first of all that Social Services hasn't informed us of this at all. Does that make anyone else as angry as it makes me? I'm getting ready to send my sweet little Sophia off to kindergarten in the fall and would've had no knowledge that a very dangerous man who has a very special interest in her and a known sexual interest in children would very possibly be back on the streets in our/his hometown?!?


Ok. Initial shock worn off. Grandma K asked, when he got out, if he could have a supervised visit with Sophia. I very calmly explained to her that if he's released in four months, he would be on parole. It would probably be a condition of his parole that he not have any contact with children, at least until he's off parole. Then, I would have to have a face-to-face meeting with him and I would be asking some difficult questions. It would be at that point that Steve and I would decide if we thought contact would be appropriate. I informed her that because of what he had done, we would probably never feel safe having Sophia around him.


One of the sad parts to this story is that he was also abused as a child. Grandma K wants so badly to break the cycle but she is very naïve and doesn't have the tools to figure out how. She has even taken all four other kids, including the one who was molested, to the prison for visits over the past five years.


That discussion on Saturday was one of the hardest I've ever had to get through. I've had discussions with three of the other sibs but I haven't connect in person lately with the oldest. She's Brittney's age and just had a baby. She moved back in with her bio mom. They'll need someone on their side in the coming months too.


So what do I need help with? There may come a time in the future when I need to make sure he isn't watching Sophia. If and when that time comes, I'll most likely be posting a picture and a description and asking my friends, school and community to help us keep an eye on our little one. Our goal is to keep her safe.
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Brittney Says

This is definitely true because she said saw it on TV. ;-)

"You can't say anything bad about the president because if you even type in something about the president the Social Security will be on you but if its bad they will be knocking at your door!!!"

20's Diner

We just served the last 20's Diner of this school year! We'll really miss these college kids!

The big question us always "What are you having today?"

Today's menu was pork loin sandwiches, baked beans, chips, fruit salad, olive garden salad and root beer floats for desert. I think we fed just over 150 kids today.

Here are a few of our cheery helpers cutting fresh fruit for the salad.

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Some of the kids going through the serving line and two of our young teen girls serving chips. 

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Riley & Steve diligently working.

Lynda & Brittney taking the opportunity for a photo op! 

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College kids happily eating.

They are always so thankful for a home-cooked meal. 

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Some of the worker crew getting a bite of the lunch too!

We've even roped my mother in law into helping!

She helped cook the pork loin on Thursday, came back on Friday to help prepare more of the meal and then she still showed up today to help finish preparations and serve.

Have I mentioned lately how amazing she is?! 

 

I Met The Dragon Lady of Watertown!!!

I'm in Watertown with Brittney so she can take her ACT. Let's just say that the person in charge here is one of the most unhelpful & condescending people I've ever met. It almost cost Brittney the ability to take part of her test.

Brittney originally signed up online to take the test like she was supposed too but she didn't sign up for the optional secondary written test. When she tried, the ACT site told her she couldn't sign up for that part online but would need to check in on site the day of the test and add the written portion.

We arrived 20 minutes early and tried to add the written test, which is given immediately following the original portion of the test. We were sent to two different lines and eventually made it to the head honcho, aka Dragon Lady. As soon as we explained what we needed, she just said, "No, I have 200 students testing here and I can't just add her this morning. "

"Oh," I said, "that's not what the ACT online information said. They told her to check in this morning and add it."

"No. The only way to add the written portion now is if someone doesn't show up to take it. And we won't know that until after the test starts, which would be to late to add someone else anyway. So I can't add her now." This was said with a little toss of her head and smirk on her face, after which she immediately dismissed us by beginning a conversation with someone in the office. By now, Brittney only had 5 minutes before her testing started.

I told Brittney just to go take the regular portion of the test. I waited until Brittney was gone because I didn't want to stress HER out right before a big test. Then I pulled out my legal/debater/mother bear attitude........with a smile so I could also attempt to kill Dragon Lady with kindness.

I very nicely but firmly told the Dragon lady," That's fine if you can't add the written portion for Brittney this morning. If it's not possible, I just need a written statement from you saying that she wasn't allowed to add it." Then I gave her a big smile.

Dragon Lady: "You'll have to wait! I have over 200 students that I'm dealing with who are waiting to start their test!" Then she stormed out of the office.

Funny that all those students were ALREADY in staffed rooms, ALREADY having started their test because it was ALREADY after 8am.

So I very sweetly, but VERY loudly, said to her disappearing form, "That's fine! I understand! I'll wait!"

She didn't come back for 20 minutes.

Here's your bonus advise for the day: If you're going to claim you're really busy, don't just walk into the closest classroom and make small talk with the teacher there. It's probably still within sight and sound of the office you just left. This is especially important if the person you just left waiting is especially vigilant ;-)

When Dragon Lady finally sauntered back in, she seemed surprised that I was still sitting there. She immediately began to look busy again by hurrying to her desk and shuffling papers. I just waited patiently, watching her the whole time. After about 5 minutes of this, she finally looked up at me and told me again that the written portion couldn't be added this morning.

I smiled again and said, "That's fine. I just need a written statement from you to that effect so that Brittney doesn't have to pay again to take the entire test over. "

Dragon Lady retorted with, "I'll call ACT and let them know that we were full. That's what normally happens."

I wasn't letting her off the hook with that.  I ditched the sweet smile, stared her in the eye and VERY FORCEFULLY let her know, "If you want to call them, that's fine. But I WILL still need something IN WRITING and signed BY YOU stating that Brittney was not allowed to add the written portion of the test this morning.  What was your name again?"

Dragon Lady was quick to respond, "That's not what I said! I never said she COULDN'T take it." Let me do some checking. She practically ran out of the room.

She was back within 2 minutes or less.

"She's signed up for the written portion. You can go now", said the now slayed dragon lady.

LESSONS LEARNED TODAY

Don't sign up to take the SAT in Watertown.

Sometimes kindness only goes so far.

Brittney, I got your back!!!

Don't mess with this mom, dragon lady!!!

ROAR!!!!!!!!!

Anthony Says

Anthony had detention again yesterday. He left a voicemail on my phone telling me in a very matter of fact way, "I made some bad choices today so I have detention". No regret or even concern about how or when he would get picked up with that change. In fact, he never even made sure I got the message.

I was already not happy that he got in trouble again. BTW, you only get detention if you receive 4 or more checks marks in one day. So he had plenty of warnings. And it's been less than a week since his last detention. And only two weeks that he's been allowed back in the bus following that fiasco.

I was already scheduled to pick Riley up from track at 5:15 but now would need to get Anthony 4:30. So I asked Taylor to watch Sophia and then I put Zeke in the van to get Anthony, knowing that we'd end up sitting at Riley's track practice for 45 minutes. Which upset me even more because I had so many things I was supposed to be doing.

So I pull up to Anthony's school, he sauntered over to the van, opens the door, slings his backpack inside, climbs in and calmly says, "So when we get home, can I go play at my friend's?"

SERIOUSLY!!!! Kid, do you have no concept of the fact that you did something wrong and seriously inconvenienced at least 4 other people in our family!?!

I tried the old HeadStart trick of Stop, take a deep breath & relax. After about a minute of this, I finally just said no.

We start driving towards Riley's school. After a few blocks, I'm a bit calmer so I tell Anthony that it must not have been a hard day for him because he got so many checks at school.

He shrugged his shoulder and said, "Only 4."

My run of good calm parenting was over. Done. Finished. I stomped on the breaks and pulled over the van. Zeke was terrified but Anthony just looked at me. I turned around in my seat, gave Anthony a death glare and forcefully informed him that even one checkmark was to many to be ok with!!! He had made all of us change our entire day just for him and he didn't even care.

This kid wears me out.

It's That Time of Year Again

Just to give a small insight into why I have trouble finding time to blog:


Tuesday I took a friend to preschool, voted, dropped off Sophia, went to Sioux Falls, came back in time to pick up Sophia, run to Zeke's annual IEP, pick Riley up at track practice, buy new track shoes and baseball cleats for the kids who don't ever seem to stop growing, got Zeke changed and drove him to Special Olympics track practice, made a quick dash through the grocery store with four children, picked up Zeke from track, rushed home so Riley could change into his baseball stuff, turned around and headed to the ball field by 7pm. Somewhere in there, I put braats in the crockpot and left a menu for supper so everyone could eat whenever they were home.


Yesterday was a little better but we're still in that crunch time that always occurs during the last month of the school year, with end of the year activities, concerts and then the beginning of summer sports.  Plus, I always get those little unscheduled things thrown in, like "Honey, I need to get the plates for my car, before tomorrow, and it has to be cash. Can you meet me with the money?" and "Mom, I forgot my work shoes and I'm on my way to work. Can you bring them?"I still try to limit the kids to one activity at a time but it still gets complicated this time of year. In case you're wondering, here are the activities that each kids has going on currently:


Brittney: Cheerleading practice and tryouts are this week, in the midst working at Perkins and The Valley Restaurant. She's also scheduled to take the ACT this Saturday in Watertown.
Riley: Percussion, choir, track (he's running and doing pole vault :) and then baseball practice just started this week.
Taylor: Plays viola in orchestra and I just got her signed up for softball again. She also babysits for neighbors & friends.
Zeke: Special Olympics swimming and track and then his softball starts later in the summer.
Anthony: He's playing Little League Baseball and has a choir concert coming up. I also still take him to SF to therapy every other week.
Sophia: Preschool three days a week. She will start either kindergarten or junior kindergarten in the fall at the new school by our house. I'm hoping to get her into the junior kindergarten program but if there are other kids who need it more than she does, then she'll just go right to kindergarten. She did fine at the spring screening so we'll just have to wait and see if they'll let her do the junior program. I also just signed her up for Safety Town.


The last 20's Diner of the year is this Sunday and then the All Nations Festival is the following Sunday so I'll be putting a few hours in at the church in the next few weeks too.


Steve and I attended a conference together last weekend called Empowered to Connect. I'd love to write more about it but I haven't completely processed it myself. It was about learning to connect with our challenging children from trauma backgrounds. Like one of the presenters said, absorbing the information was a bit like trying to drink out of a fire hydrant!


On another side note, we attended the funeral of Grandpa Mike (the boys' bio grandfather) last week. I could write a whole page just about that. Later.


It's my birthday month. Blah.


I was just informed by a relative (DSS hasn't given us any info or informed us at all) that Sophia's birth father is scheduled to be released from prison in four months. His original conviction was for sexual contact with one of his children. (Not Sophia) He's already asking to see Sophia and I believe he will be living in our town, possibly with his other children. I'll find out more on Saturday.


Maybe I'll start writing more again soon. I haven't been sleeping very well lately so I don't feel like I can write a very cohesive sentence. Although I don't think that will change anytime soon so I might as well entertain the rest of you with my crazy life while I plod along.

It's Finally Summer!