Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween and a big thanks to everyone that gave my children enough candy to stay up for a month straight. The kids, Brad, and I all had a lot of fun despite some rain. We met up with a co-worker and his daughter to have dinner and than it was off to the fun part. Believe it or not, we did get the children to eat a little. We had to threaten them with no candy - but hey, what's a parent to do on Halloween. J was dressed as a Hotdog - I'm not joking here. I've had enough weiner and bun jokes from him to last a couple years. He had a lot of fun with it though. D was dressed a Bumblebee from Transformers and I think he knows everyone - every house we went to it seemed like he was saying hi to so and so. Our little social bug. AB was dressed as Abby Caddaby from Sesame Street and she had the most fun riding in the wagon, I believe. The rain held off until the end which was wonderful but even with the rain it wasn't cold. All in all it was a great night and as a benefit - an extra hour of sleep (don't forget to turn your clocks back tonight). Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween this year!!!!

Fall Festival

Tonight was Fall Festival and D was the lucky kid. That kid knows everyone at school and he's only in Kindergarden. How does this work????? D also won the cake walk 4 times - I made him start giving his prizes to friends. It got to the point that won of J's friends was upset that he hadn't won yet and J tells him "Come with me - we'll win you something" J than proceeds to grab D and off they go. D wins on the first try and tells Max, "What do you want???". Tonight, he had the luck. Also, I put a bid on a craft basket, on D's class ceramic project, and J's class ceramic project. Well I got outbid on J's (that was the one I really wanted because he's in 5th grade and I haven't gotten his class project) but I did win the craft basket and D's class project. It was a lot of fun.

Carowinds

Last weekend, we all went to Carowinds theme park and to the Boo Fest. We had a great time despite a slightly chilly weather. The boys rode many rides together and AB got to go on some of the kiddy rides and they all had fun. No waits for the rides which was fantastic. Brad took the little ones over to the Boo Fest area where they had games, hay maze, karaoke, shows, trick or treating, etc while J and I took to the rollercoasters. We rode the Night Hawk, which is an amazing ride, and I literally thought I might die and I do believe there was a look of terror on J's face as well when we first flipped over and were facing the ground. Basically there's a vest harness that goes over your chest and bar that rests just above your knee. It lays back and than you're off backwards laying down up a hill. You than go head first looking up slightly down the hill and than you flip over so you're facing the ground and the ride really begins with some loops and what nots. Anyways, it was a lot of fun and we rode that one several times. All in all, it was a great time and I'm glad we went.

AB

Ok, several things. First, I thought I would be able to handle people asking if AB was my daughter or "did you adopt her" and such questions. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of being asked "Are you her babysitter?" or the other day when some lady came up to us saying "Is she yours - I saw her running around and didn't see her parents anywhere (Brad was 2ft from her and she was running around playing with D)". The hardest part is that a lot of these questions come from kids. And I can't be upset at kids - after all they're just curious and none of them have meant any harm; but I'm tired of explaining that yes, I'm her mommy. Last week, AB fell off the swing and I ran to her to make sure she was ok and to brush the dirt off of her and these girls about 11-12 yrs old came over to also be sure she was ok and stared at me like how dare you help this girl when you're not her mom and where's is the this girl's mom. After waiting for an answer that I didn't give, they eventually asked if I was her mom. I told them yes and that she was going to be ok and thanked them for their concern - they waited for more of an answer and I was too tired to give out an answer. Maybe it's just been a long couple weeks.

Keeping on the subject of AB, we are back to working on potty training. At daycare, she goes with the other kids and sits on the potty and sometimes goes when the teachers tell her too but she doesn't go on her own. I sat her down last weekend and told her that she was going to have to use the potty. I told her and named all of her friends and all of our family members and we and they all use the potty and she needed to use the potty too. She than proceeded to ask me why? Why, well I don't know why we all just use the potty. Anyways, I told her that it was icky to go in her pants and that it gives her sores on her bottom. I don't know if she bought all of that but she told me ok and has been using the potty. Was it this simple???? Why didn't we have the talk several months ago????

Next Surgery

Well we are finally scheduled for AB's next surgery (hopefully last). We're on the calendar for December 16th - just before Christmas (poor child). We're praying for no asthma attacks prior to the surgery as we really need to get this one in before the end of the year for insurance reasons. We also got her in the early start program through the state for speech therapy - she's to start that next Wednesday. I'm really hoping the speech will help her out - she understands everything that we're saying but we still have a difficult time understanding what she's saying. So I'm really happy that we're finally moving on this and getting her the help that I think she needs.

The boys are doing well - fighting more than usual, but they are brothers. Need some prayers for Brad's mom who is in the hospital right now having a procedure done. She's been in the hospital since Wednesday and is looking at several more days of stay. I know she must be bored out of her mind and in need of rest that doesn't come at the hospital with nurses popping in every hour or so.

I believe we are over the flu and the only victims were D and Brad. So that's fantastic. All that OJ and vitamins must have been good for something. I can only pray that once is all that it comes into this household. Well I've got a house to clean and everyone has disappeared. Funny how that always works out when it's cleaning time.

The Flu

I detest the flu - who doesn't???? We've been very fortunate over the years in avoiding this pesky virus; but it has struck. Poor Dylan started out with a temp of 103.6 so we went to the ER where he was diagnosed with the flu. There was no mention of the H1N1 but I heard that they can't say that's what it is without testing him - they did not test him for the H1N1. At any rate, here we are Monday still battling a temp. He seems to be feeling better though - still a cough and his ear hurts. Brad has also wound up with it. The rest of us are drinking lots of OJ, taking vitamins, and praying a lot. So here we are on Monday and he's still running a temp. Just now, it was 100.6 so we're doing better but I'd really like to get this virus out of our house. Hope everyone else is doing better.

Updates

Well so far the school year is going well. D is having a pretty good time at Kindergarten this year and is having some difficulty in learning how to raise his hands before talking, but who doesn't!!! He's doing very well on his reading and schoolwork though. He's also playing soccer this fall and dad is coaching again. I think he's having a good time with it - having more fun just playing with his friends than soccer but as long as he's active and having fun that's all that matters.

We've celebrated our 1 year forever family day with AB on 10/7/09. She has blossomed into such a confident little girl over the past year. It's hard to remember how insecure she was when we first brought her home. She still has some issues but she's come such a long way! We do have another surgery for her cleft palate that we'll be going to Wake Forest on Tuesday to schedule. I'm also very excited that they are going to start her in speech, hopefully next week. She's such a trooper - and yes, she knows that she's the baby.

J is having a great time at school and sports. After the CVYSA soccer fiasco - he decided to play rec tackle football and we are so glad. He's having a great time at football and he's doing great at school as well. We've noticed that when J does well in sports and is having fun at it, it follows him at school and at home. He won school vice president a week ago and had to give a speech in front of the student body and he did GREAT! All of the kids did great as speaking in front of that large of a crowd can be very intimidating but all of the kids were great. He also has straight A's right now. J is doing fantastic at football and is having a great time - the kids all seem to get along the coaches are fantastic, I can't say enough good things about what is going on with J right now. At the game on Saturday (mom, Amy, Dan, Nina and our crew were there to watch) J caused a fumble, got the ball, and ran it back for a touchdown that wound up being the game decider. It was great to watch and I'm so happy for him.