Happy Birthday, Jackson!

Today is Jackson's 7th birthday! He has been counting down all month. Jackson is a pretty intense little dude with all the classic signs of being the "class clown". He struggles with APD, but works very hard in school, impressing me everyday with his reading abilities. He loves cars, sunglasses and baseball caps.

Happy Birthday, Kid!!

Happy Easter

I know this is coming at the end of the day, but we had a great weekend away.

Here are pics from today...

The owner of the lake house that we rented had plastic eggs hidden when we got there and she had these wooden mask that the children could color. Such a nice surprise and the kids loved the egg hunt. The weather was beautiful for the weekend and we enjoyed the outdoors.

Surprise Vacation

We will be leaving for a surprise vacation and it has been so hard to keep from the children. I have been doing laundry for the last few days as normal, but pulling items out bit by bit to put aside for packing. No one noticed until today when 7th grade said, "Hey Mom...it kinda looks like you are packing or something.  Are we going somewhere?" I started asking about chores and she exited stage left with a quickness. LOL!

We did Entertaining Angels again today and had so much fun. We served 3 new families. One was a mom with 10 children! She basically cleaned us out. My kids made a big sign and put it outside and stood out there waving trying to get more people to come in, but mostly just got stares. We will have to do another big shop when we come back.

Down to 5 & Spring Break with Snow?

I am back down to a mere 5 kids. LOL!  The little one that I was doing respite with went back today with very little fanfare. It's funny how 1 kid gone makes the house so much quieter.

We are suppose to start our spring break this week, but with us waking up to snow this morning and rain planned for the rest of the week, it kinda dampens my plans.

Last year we went to our first Easter egg hunts at local churches. The kids hated it! We decided to have our own this year, so I have about 70 plastic eggs filled with stickers, candy and trinkets.

7th grade is the owner of a brand new C**lpix S3000 Nik*n Digital camera and she got a pretty good deal on it. She babysat for 3 weeks and earned a nice amount of pay. Lots of pics with googly eyes to come. ~Smile~

Full House

We have had a full house this week with Jordan co-babysitting  a 12 week old and I got an emergency respite placement Monday evening. What a little manipulator we met. I had to laugh at some of her ploys and had to crack up at the response that my kids had to her behavior. They had a "does that really work?" look on their faces and then when I stayed consistent they had the "Now you know what we have to deal with" look. LOL!!!

Overall, she fell in with the group pretty quick. She seemed to enjoy school here and really liked working at the food bank. I love the lady that runs the food bank as I brought in a extra kid in a Rotties shirt and the lady just put her right to work, stocking shelves and packing orders.

I was suppose to have a yard sell this weekend, but the weather was not so conducive, so another time.

Have a great weekend.

Room Make-Over

For her 13th birthday, Jordan got a room makeover. 3 years ago she got switched to the boys room and the boys to the girls room. They very quickly took down the princess wall border, valence and jumbo princess wall stickers. She said she kinda liked the space theme and left it up along with the glow-in-the-dark stars. comets and planets.

Jordan loves music! So I found this great set on E-b*y and surprised her.

(Notice the doll baby and the e-Reader on the desk. The contrast is not lost. LOL!)

A fresh coat of paint and a whole lotta purging makes for a nice teen girl room.

Gainfully Employed

7th grade has been babysitting for these past 2 weeks and has 1 more week to go. He is an 11 week old baby and is as cute as can be. She does very well with little babies....poopy diapers and all. He really likes her and his little face lights up when she walks in the room. He knows her voice and prefers her. The baby's mommy is doing well too and the anxiety of leaving him seems to have lessened.

Jordan is rolling in the big bucks now and very close to her goal of saving enough money to buy a very nice digital camera. I may need some ideas for a quality 'point and shoot' for her.

Now if I can survive the eye rolling and other mess......

Happy Birthday, Jordan

13!!

How did she get to be 13?

Her story: About 3 weeks before she was born, "The Worker" asked me if I was ready for a new baby? I laughed and said, "I don't know nothin' 'bout takin' care of no baby!" in my best "Gone With The Wind" Southern drawl. She laughed, I laughed, we went our separate ways. 3 weeks later I was at court with a different client and the supervisor from my agency was there also. She came up to me and asked if I was here for my new baby? I had no clue what she was talking about. She said "Worker M said you were taking the new baby. She was born today and will be discharged tomorrow." I was in kind of a "dear-caught-in-the-headlights" mode when I said, "I thought she was kidding when she asked me that, but okay"

So a tiny, pink, little girl was discharged and when they placed her in my arms... I can't even describe the feeling. The initial thought was that I would foster until she was placed for adoption. Little did I know that her forever family had already been found in us!

Happy birthday, Kid!