And a Little LATER This Morning...   
 Typical morning....Rayna is wearing roller skates as she snarfs down her Ramen Noodles and chocolate pudding. Meanwhile, Darcy has her nose buried in a book as she eats her breakfast!   ¶ 8/31/2006 07:30:00 AM 0 comments

  First day of Second Grade...


Waiting, waiting, waiting for the school van to arrive! Getting Doug to finish up his breakfast is usually an excercize in utter ENDURANCE. He is the SLOWEST eater on the face of the earth...particularly at breakfast time. Being on the Ritalin, he has no appetite at all...so breakfast time is always tedious. Usually, I am still trying to get him to finish up his breakfast when the school van arrives to pick him up. Not so THIS MORNING! He not only had all his breakfast eaten (chocolate milk, a wildberry toaster struedal and a cup of strawberry/banana yogurt), but, I even had time to soak down his shirt spot-cleaning the blue frosting from the streudal off it AND his shirt had time to completely DRY and I had time to read him a book and he had time to pace up and down the driveway five million times while we were still waiting on that van to arrive!

The weather is beautiful here this morning...nice and cool! If you were going to have a morning waiting around outside for the van, this was a good morning to pick! The girls slept in...just waking up as the van pulled into our drive. I have decided not to start homeschool with them until mid-September. I begin a two week (M-F) orientation at the VA hospital on September 5th....so, if we began school today, we would only have two days to do school before they had to take a two week break. Just seems best to start school late this year. After my orientation, I will just be working on Saturdays and maybe an occasional Sunday.
The van DID finally arrive (right on time, actually), as seen in the photo here! In Doug's backpack is a little brown paper lunch sack that his teacher had given each of the children the night of Open House, with the instructions that they were to fill it with items that were important to them...then tell the class about those items today. Doug placed a Batman figure, Superman figure, and the Mystic Force Power Ranger figure that he bought in Canada in his sack. He wanted to put one of his little Spiderman figures in there, too...but, alas, Spiderman has gone into hiding.

 The only other new news on our front is that after a year or so of being a single car family, we got a second vehicle Monday night. It is a 2000 Ford Contour. We wanted something that would get better gas mileage than the van. Grant will be driving the Contour back and forth on his long daily commute to work...once I get it aired out/fabreezed out properly! (Previous owners evidently smoked quite a lot inside it.) Fabreeze does wonders, though! Neither Grant nor I would pick a red car....but, when it comes to car shopping, color is a minor detail. The only thing important to us is that it is RELIABLE and doesn't strain our budget...everything else is optional! (Grants' folks really LIKE the color of the car, though. They usually pick that sort of red for their cars. I guess I am more a gray/silver/or black person myself and Grant likes the more subdued colors best. I must say, though, that I would take red over WHITE any day of the week. Don't know why I am biased against white, but I just don't like white cars. (Grant likes white, though.))  ¶ 8/31/2006 06:38:00 AM 0 comments

  Changes Tomorrow morning (Thursday) is Doug's first day of second grade. I was a little worried, at first, when I found out last Saturday afternoon who his teacher was going to be. I didn't know any of the second grade teachers by name, but Doug's best friend's mom called me to say she was going to try and get her son moved out of that same teacher's class. Her impression was that that teacher is really impatient and yells at her class a lot. My mother instinct got to worrying overtime, too, until I had Luke's Mom DESCRIBE what the teacher looked like. The minute she described her, I realized who it was and my anxiety level begin to subside. That teacher does seem to yell a lot at her kids in the hallway (the only time I have seen her with her class), but she has been the MOST interested staff person in Doug since the moment he arrived at that school two years ago. (Many of the staff, there, have followed Doug's progress with interest...but, she didn't have any reason to even know who he was two years ago or care--but she did.) She has always gone out of her way to come over to me and ask me about Doug whenever I am up at the school for anything. It has always surprised me how interested she has remained in him. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if she didn't REQUEST to be given Doug in her class. So, I am at ease with her...even if she does yell a lot and is impatient. When you know someone LIKES your child a lot, their teaching style isn't quite as important any more.

Doug has had very gentle souls for his teachers the previous two years....quiet spoken, ever patient, gentle teachers. And, he has blossomed under their love. But, he is a resiliant kid. I don't think he is liable to wither if he gets yelled at and if he has a very strict, stern teacher. Actually, MY IMPRESSION of her is that she is a very ENERGETIC, BOISTEROUS soul (maybe even a bit on the brassy side)....and, that might just be good for Doug this year. I think she will EXPECT and DEMAND a lot from him...but, I know that for some reason, she is particularly interested in him, personally...and she genuinely LIKES him. (He can be a handful....so, I would understand if some teachers might dread having him in their classroom. But, like I said, I have a sneaking suspicion she may have REQUESTED to have him in her classroom.) I think he will get along just fine with his new teacher! At junctures like this, it is a relief that none of our children are easily daunted or discouraged. There isn't a shrinking violet or timid soul in the lot. (Though, many a day I WISH there were!!!)

She told Doug (and us) that she is going to work at getting him to TALK more this year. Poor dear. She doesn't yet realize that getting him to TALK is not the problem. The kid TALKS non-stop, every waking moment of his day. Variety, though...THAT is the problem. He talks non-stop but is happy enough to use the same four or five words for 99% of his conversing. Here we WANT him to learn to use language, yet, for the sake of my own sanity, I catch myself, at times, telling him, "Doug, you need to be QUIET for a while, now. No more talking." He just wears my ears out. We have been making a lot of progress with him at home, though, by NOT letting him get away with saying one word and miming the rest as he repeats that one word over and over. Even though we KNOW exactly what he is trying to tell us, we play dumb and make him WORK at adding more words in so that it is closer to an actual SENTENCE. Often, we will tell him the sentence he needs...say it for him and then make him work on repeating it over and over again, until he finally says it clearly, before we address his wants. It is very tiring. I would think it would be very tiring for him, as well, but he takes it all in stride. Grant and I were talking the other day about how utterly UNMOTIVATED the child would be to learn to speak if we didn't push him...but, I guess the flip side of that is that because he ISN'T terribly self-motivated, neither is he hard on himself! Things that would make other children shrivel up in defeat and discouragment, just roll right off his back like water off a duck! He is content and happy...in circumstances where I would be giving up and feeling utterly defeated. I guess that is a really good thing!

One thing about it, Doug LOVES school! I didn't want him to go to summer school this year, but he begged to go, so we let him. Three days after summer school ended, he was begging to go back to school. Then, last night (Tuesday) was open house at the school. We brought Doug up so he could see where his new room was going to be and meet his new teacher and choose his desk and put away his school supplies. They always let the kids choose their own desk. Without fail, Doug always chooses the very center of the front row. This year, his best friend, Luke, will be in his class once again. Luke chose the desk that is paired up with Doug's...much to Doug's delight! Doug was a bit upset when we began walking OUT of the school. He had misunderstood...he didn't understand about Open House. He thought he was going to get to GO to school that day. Then, this morning (the next day) he was fully dressed at 7:00am (long before I rolled out of bed). When I got up, Doug announced to me "Me dress. School!" He argued quite vehemently with me when I told him there wasn't any school yet, today! He was really bummed about the whole thing when he finally accepted that he wasn't going to get to go to school today. He is quite excited tonight, though, because he DOES get to go to school in the morning!

Rayna is starting homeschool kindergarten this year. We have the Sonlight curriculum ready to go! And, Darcy will be starting seventh grade homeschool. (Actually she has already gotten into some of her books and read ahead...until I made her school books off limits.) This year, Darcy will have a notebook computer to use with her school work. We are having to let the horses go...so promising her a notebook computer eased the sting, a little bit, of losing the horses. It really is for the best. She and her grandfather spent three hours straight this morning just doing upkeep on the horses. Since the one horse is allergic to poison ivy, we haven't been able to put the horses out in the pasture all summer. Even at that, the allergic horse (Begins) has had an awful time of it...he gets so itchy that he scrapes himself raw against trees...losing his hair and ending up with open sores all over. We have spent a small fortune on vet bills, prednisone, and medicated shampoos and ointments trying to keep him well. He needs a home free of poison ivy. Something our pasture will never be, it seems, no matter how often we mow it or how often Dad C. goes through it chopping down the plants growing up the trees that are heavily scattered about the edges of the pasture. So...Darcy and her grandfather have to string up electrical wire to fence off places on the lawn for the horses to graze (safely away from the poison ivy)...but, as they graze so much, the fence must be moved every couple of days (a very labor intensive (in our rocky ground), time-consuming process). And, lately, Begins has figured out that the electrical wire is dead...so, he ducks under it and goes wandering over to the neighbor's place! Then there is all the SHOVELING that must be done. Since they aren't in the pasture, all their waste is left where it must be shoveled and hauled off. Those horses make more piles than I would have ever believed possible. Darcy shovels on her own, most of the time. She insists she doesn't mind...but, I think that is just because she doesn't want to see the horses go. If we could let them out in the pasture, it wouldn't be such a problem. But, as it is, it is a full time job just caring for them. They keep Darcy and her grandfather busy a large portion of the day. It takes so long to do the maintenence work with them, that we seldom have the time left to ride them. It would have been a lot harder for me to see them go six months ago. But, after that time that Rayna slipped and fell beneath Begins and I watched helplessly as he walked on top of her prone little body, something in my own heart changed. Rayna was not seriously hurt...just a bad bruise the shape of his hoof on the meaty part of her calf...but, it would have been so easy for that hoof to have landed on her chest or her stomach, instead. She could have been killed. Just like that. One slip. That was the moment that my own heart let go of the horses. Silly, I guess, that I still was happy enough to go to Canada and let my children ride horses we didn't even know through the Rocky Mountains. That didn't bother me. It isn't letting them be around horses that makes me queasy. It is hard to explain, really. I just had this feeling that maybe that was a warning that we shouldn't keep the horses, afterall...just a shadowy uneasiness that never quite left my heart. So, though it will break my heart to see the horses go, still I am at peace with them going. It is just heartbreaking for Darcy. There isn't peace in it for her. But, she wants a notebook computer so badly, that, knowing we will get one after the horses are gone, gives her something bright to look forward to. She really wants the computer a LOT...but, she gets very quiet and somber at times and comments that she would much rather keep her horses than have any computer. She is accepting of it, though...and taking the changes ahead gracefully. Dad C. is donating the horses to the City Union Mission. They have a camp for underpriviledged children at Truman Lake in Warsaw, Missouri. That will be Lightening and Begins' new home.  ¶ 8/30/2006 06:51:00 PM 0 comments

  After a Day at the Dino Diner:





The kids had a blast today with Grandma B. at the T-Rex Cafe. In the restaurant's gift shop, there is a "build-a-dino" area (like "build-a-bear"). Rayna and Darcy both chose a dino to stuff. Doug chose a pteradactyl hand puppet. Rayna named her dino "Heart", Darcy left her dino with it's store name "Trixie", and Doug named his flying reptile "Rick". Since they got back home, today, "Rick" has been ferrying Batman around our house non-stop. Seems Batman prefers flying to racing about in the Batmobile, these days! I made the mistake of petting "Rick" affectionately on the head....little did I KNOW that THAT was a HUGE insult to such a ferocious beast as "Rick" (treating him like a common dog, I suppose...in retrospect). Anyway, Doug was QUITE put out with me for that lapse in common sense. Oh well! Rick seems to have forgiven me, at least!  ¶ 8/25/2006 07:02:00 PM 1 comments

  A Few Burjowdy Snapshots...  
Thursday evening...
Doug--swimming HIS style!

 
Grant and Doug were the first two awake Friday morning. I woke up to find they had been quietly watching a Western, together...sharing a blanket, with their chairs pulled up right next to the TV...while we, girls, slept in!

 
Friday afternoon found us cruising the antique malls!

   ¶ 8/19/2006 09:31:00 PM 1 comments

  Boy Howdy,
It's BURJOWDY!!!

Well, our famous floating family holiday, Burjowdy Day, arrived!

For those of you not acquainted with Burjowdy Day, it is a holiday unique
to our family that began seven and a half years ago. Darcy, then four
years old, had just had the drama and thrill of Christmas and New Years.
She loved having her daddy home from work and loved not having to go to
school. (At that time, she went to a once a week school for
homeschoolers....sort of a hybrid private school. She attended there for
four years. That particular year was her first year there. She had
started out liking it a lot, but, over the course of the holidays had
decided that EVERYONE staying at home was much better!) That Tuesday
evening, as I had been putting her bed, I told her she needed to get her
sleep because she had school the next morning. She was INSISTANT that
she did NOT have school the following morning, NOR did Daddy have to go
to back to work. I assured her that, yes, she did have school and, yes,
Daddy did have to go back to work. She said, "No. Tomorrow is a
HOLIDAY!" Amused, I asked her, "And just WHAT holiday would THAT be?"
Not missing a beat, she replied in total earnest, "Burjowdy Day." I
asked, "Bur-whatey day?" Darcy replied, "Burjowdy. B-U-R-J-O-W-D-Y.
Burjowdy Day." (As though SPELLING it would make it sound like a more
established fact!) I told her I had never heard of Burjowdy Day. She
shook her head at my ignorance and explained, "That is the day when
mommys and daddys stay home from work and children stay home from school
and they all sit on the floor playing games together all day." Sounded
like a terrific holiday to me! But, I told Darcy she HAD to go to school
the next morning and her daddy really did have to go to work.

Later, when I told Grant about our conversation, he was so tickled, that
he decided to take that Friday off from work. We didn't tell Darcy ahead
of time. We surprised her that Friday morning, announcing to her that it
was BURJOWDY DAY. And we spent the day as a family, sitting on the floor
playing games. Since then, we have had a Burjowdy Day every year. It is
a mysteriously floating holiday that pops up when least expected. And,
you never know just what form Burjowdy Day will take. But, it ALWAYS
involves their daddy taking a day off work unexpectedly. Sometimes it
comes in the winter during the blahs after all the other holidays have
passed...sometimes it pops up in the Spring, Fall, or Summer. This year
it popped up in August. One year, the children awoke to find the house
decorated with all sorts of little presents dangling from ribbons from
the ceiling. One year, when we were really broke, our social worker
(well acquainted with Burjowdy Day from the years she has done adoption
homestudy after adoption homestudy for us!) offered us a box of things
her teenage daughter had cleared out of her own room and was planning on
giving to GoodWill. It was a veritible TREASURE trove for our three
children!....full of all sorts of party favors, animal masks, and knick
knacks and inflatibles (palm trees, flowers, etc) that we decorated our
home with. The kids had a BLAST with the Burjowdy Day box that year!
This year, Grant planned a surprise trip to Springfield. We all knew
that we would be racing down to Springfield Friday evening after Grant
got off work (to go to Lamberts in Ozark for Grant's sister's suprise
birthday party), and, then we were planning on driving the four hours
home through the night on Friday since I had to leave for work at the
hospital at 6:00am Saturday morning. We were planning four hours down
there, a couple of hours for a late birthday supper, then four hours back
home again. Unbeknownst, even to me!, Grant had requested that Friday
off and was planning on coming home from work Thursday evening and
surprising us all by saying, "Grab a change of clothes...we are going
down to Springfield early!" Then, we would have all day Friday to goof
around together in Springfield before meeting up with the rest of the
family in Ozark late that evening. Grant planned to spring this Burjowdy
Day surprise on me, too.... But, then someone wanted Darcy to babysit
for them on Thursday evening, so Grant had to let me in on the
surprise...to explain to me why Darcy couldn't babysit Thursday evening.
And, then along came Sunday and my surprise surgery. It didn't dawn on
me until the next day that since I couldn't lift for "six weeks" I
wouldn't be working this Saturday!!!!!! Which, meant we got to extend
our Burjowdy Day plans from Thursday evening clear on through Saturday
evening!!!! I am completely serious when I say that getting to be off
the last two weeks of my old job was TOTALLY worth having an emergency
appendectomy for! I am so glad I had to have surgery! (Tonight, I
called my co-worker to see how the day had gone. He said he would love
to have surgery, too, so that he could be off. He was completely
serious. We both of us dreaded our job that much.)

We left town Thursday and wound up the first night in a really nice hotel
(and reasonable) that had a fantastic pool for the kids. Grant HATES
swimming and manages to never swim with us at hotels, but, bless his
heart, he picked this hotel specifically BECAUSE it had a nice indoor
pool (you taught him well, Pop John!) and he had the kids pack their
swimming suits even though he knew I wouldn't be able to take them
swimming. GRANT took them swimming. I would have dearly loved to have
gotten in the water, but fresh incisions and swimming aren't generally a
recommended combination....so, I entertained myself by taking photos of
Grant and the kids as they swam! The next day, we enjoyed our morning at
the hotel--channel surfing, etc (we can't get cable out where we live and
we don't have satelite....we have about three channels we can tune in and
there isn't really anything on those, so we just don't watch TV at
home...so, the kids and Grant think it is great when we are at a hotel
and have so many channels to surf through!). We had breakfast at the
hotel and didn't bother to pack up until it was check out time (on the
rare occasions when we stay at a hotel, we always leave bright and
early--in a hurry to get on to where-ever we are going....so, it was
really nice to just lounge around and take our time about leaving!).
Then we traveled the rest of the way to Springfield and stopped at
various antique malls, etc, along the way. We checked into a hotel in
Ozark well ahead of needing to go to Lambert's to meet the rest of the
family. They didn't have roll-away beds at that hotel (for Doug), so,
they just gave us two adjoining rooms for the price of one room. The
kids thought they had really arrived....getting to have a room all to
themselves! They watched the Disney channel until after 11:30pm that
night. Well, at least the GIRLS did. Doug fell asleep about 10:30.
Meanwhile, Grant channel surfed in our room...never lighting
anywhere...much to his delight. I was a bit wiped out, but enjoying
every minute of it, none-the-less! Then, today, we had a very leisurely
trip back home....not leaving the hotel until check out time and, again,
stopping at a few antique malls on the way home. We had given each of
the kids a new DVD for Burjowdy Day, so they had fun watching their new
movies in the van on the ride home. (Since it was BURJOWDY Day, I got
them movies they would have chosen for themselves...."Herbie Fully
Loaded" for Darcy, "Batman--the First Season" (cartoon) for Doug, and
"Barbie as Rapunzel" for Rayna. I KNOW, I KNOW....I had decided
absolutely no more DVDs that involve Barbie or violence....but, it was
BURJOWDY Day.) We had an excellent supper Friday evening at
Lamberts....surprising Grant's sister! She and her husband and two
college age sons were traveling through on their way to take one of the
sons back to Rolla for school. They just 'happened' to stop in at
Lamberts there in Ozark for supper and there, waiting for them, was our
family, Grant's other sister and her daughter, and Grant's parents! It
was a really great idea--hatched by my brother-in-law, Eric...but, alas,
Grant's sister is as allergic to surprises as Grant is! (He HATES
surprises pulled on himself....though he likes to pull them on the rest
of us! And, the rest of us LIKE his surprises. I don't know why he and
his sister don't love surprises....must be that same gene that makes
Grant HATE being tickled...even though all his kids and wife enoy being
tickled.) But, even though it was a surprise, I think Jan really enjoyed
the supper together. The rest of us sure did!

Anway, it was a fun couple of days that we had out of town, together as a
family. And, tomorrow, for the first time in TEN MONTHS I will be able
to go to church with Grant and the kids. (Thanks to my appendectomy!)
It has been a long time. A really long time. It will be so good to have
Sundays off again...like I used to have. Even once I start my new job, I
should still have most Sundays off.

  ¶ 8/19/2006 08:47:00 PM 0 comments

  There seems to still be a job waiting for me!

Well, not to worry! The VA still wants me...even without my appendics!
In fact, they still want me on our original time frame...ie, September
5th. So, hopefully, when I go back to see my surgeon this coming
Tuesday, he will write me a release for heavy lifting as of September
5th. Since it was a LAPROSCOPIC procedure, I really think SIX WEEKS of
not lifting is a bit overly cautious, anyway.

I can't believe all the hoops one has to jump through to get a job at the
VA...I guess because is is a government facility(?). Today I spent TWO
HOURS there running from department to department filling out paperwork
and giving blood and urine and getting a twelve lead EKG done. After all
that, I THOUGHT I had had my 'physical'...nope. Turns out that is just
preliminary stuff! They won't give me my physical until they have that
doctor's release in hand...but, they suggested that I come see them
immediately after my 2:00 appointment this Tuesday--hoping they can give
me my physical then. They also wanted a copy of my immunization record!
It has been thirty years or more since anyone has asked me for that! I
have no clue where to even go to find it. (And I had thought they were
reaching back in time when they had told me they needed official
transcripts of my college degree from 1983!) I have NEVER had to hop
through so many hoops for any other hospital position I have ever applied
for. A few times I have thought to myself, "Is it worth all this?" I
think, mostly, though, my doubts are just the fact that what lies ahead
is unknown....and it is always more comfortable to stick with a miserable
known than face the unknown. I am so glad my final shift at my present
hospital was so typically horrible. Had I had a decent day, I would have
been filled with regret at leaving...but, as it was, my last day just
cemented in my heart and mind that it is time to leave, even though I
will miss my co-workers and my boss, a lot. I didn't know that was to my
last day, either. I thought I would be back the next day and also the
following weekend. But, appendicitis changes plans!

Speaking of which, my aunt and mother (and tonight Randy, in the band)
pointed out that it is a blessing that my appendics decided to fester
this week instead of a couple of weeks ago when we were in the
backcountry of the Canadian Rockies...a five hour horse ride out! They
are right. As much as I struggled over the decision whether or not to go
to the ER last Sunday, I know there is no way on earth I would have asked
to be taken out of the Rockies early....wrecking everyone's vacation
plans. I would have just sat there and let my appendics fester until I
fizzled away! (You always hear of appendicitis being this horrific
pain....THAT is what I wanted to feel if this WAS appendicitis, so that I
would KNOW it was something serious. Instead, I just had this really
PERSISTANT pain that wouldn't let go of me, but wasn't what I would
classify as unbearable. It was never unbearable....or even too terrible.
But, it was right there in that right lower quadrant...and it just
wouldn't go away. I wouldn't have ridden out of the mountains to get it
checked out, but I would eventually head over to a nearby emergency room
to check it out.)

Of course Aunt Vonnie has to theorize that the horse-back riding is what
jiggled my appendics into it's state of festering! She would take any
chance to point out once more why she should never again be co-erced to
mount a horse! Ahhh....that truly WAS an excellent vacation! The best
ever!

  ¶ 8/15/2006 08:39:00 PM 1 comments

  LOTS has gone on! Okay...a LOT has gone on the past few days! Thursday I had an interview at the VA Hospital and Friday they called to say they would like to have me come in for a physical (this week) and that I needed to provide four more references. If my references were acceptable and I passed the physical, then I would have a start date of September 5th. Well, I didn't worry about the "if's"...OF COURSE I would pass the physical and OF COURSE there would be no problems with my references. So, I put a letter of resignation in my bosses' box that very day (she wasn't in the office that day) and I notified our staffing coordinator that my last day would be Aug. 25th (giving them two weeks notice, but letting me have two weekends off before starting my new job).

Friday afternoon, I started experiencing some abdominal soreness. I worked a thirteen and a half hour shift at the hospital Saturday...the soreness nagging at me all day. A little after 1 AM Sunday morning, I awoke with chattering teeth, freezing to death. My fever shot up to 102.5 and that nagging band of soreness that had been over my umblicus since Friday afternoon, shifted down to my right lower quadrant and became significantly sharper. I had been wondering "Could this be appendicitis?", even before the pain shifted to my RLQ...but after it shifted down there, I pretty much knew. Talk about BUMMED! Suddenly, I realized this could really throw a kink in my new job plans. Plus, I didn't want to call in sick to my old work place, having JUST put in my resignation...how suspicious would THAT look...and, though, I really thought this was appendicitis, I thought, "Well, I ALWAYS think worst case scenarios. What if I just THINK the pain moved to my RLQ because I know that is where it would be if it were appendicitis? Maybe I am somatasizing!"

I was awake all night...the pain wasn't excrutiating...it was just PERSISTANT. Had it been excruciating, I wouldn't have doubted my own judgment and would have just called in sick.... but, as it was, I thought I had appendicitis, but was worried that maybe I was just over-reacting. I had called work earlier in the night and had asked to be the first placed on stand-by, knowing that we had three nurses scheduled and would probably only need two. However, one of those nurses was an eight hour person, so it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that they would have me be on stand-by for the first eight hours, but that I would be called in for the last four hours. Had the pain been excrutiating, I would have high-tailed it into the hospital...but, as it was I kept thinking, "If I let Grant take me into the ER and this is just a virus, I am going to feel pretty stupid...and just walking through the ER doors will cost us $500 out of pocket because we haven't filled our annual deductible yet....all because I THINK I have appendicitis. I'll not only look silly, but it will cost us a LOT of money for me to look silly." So, while Grant INSISTED I go to the ER, I pulled rank on him...."You are the head of the house-hold, but I am the only one in this family who has some medical background." He shook his head in frustration and muttered something about me being the most stubborn person in the family. That was at 2:00am Sunday morning. At 5:00am, Chris, from the hospital, called to tell me I was on stand-by (so I wouldn't have to leave for work at 6:00am). At 7:00am, Grant insisted that he and the kids would stay home from church with me. At 9:00am, I decided we'd better go to the ER and get me checked out...but, first I wanted to take a shower and wash my hair. Then, when I found I couldn't get a comb through Rayna's hair (she must have gotten something liquid and sticky in it the day before while I had been at work), I asked Darcy to wash Rayna's hair for me and her own hair. After that, we headed out for an ER...a hospital we have never used before, but one I chose specifically BECAUSE it had a group of surgeons that I knew were good (from working with them at my present hospital back before they left our hospital...and recommended to me by the day house supervisor at my hospital, whom I had called to let know that I wouldn't be at the house near my phone--usual stand-by mode).

I was REALLY impressed by the efficiency of this ER. Wow! We presented ourselves at the front desk and, even though there were plenty of patients there, they had me seeing the triage nurse IMMEDIATELY and then whisked me back into one of the curtained rooms where my nurse took my vital signs and promptly sent me in to give them a urine specimen and directed me to get into a hospital gown when I returned. I hadn't even had time to tie the gown before the doctor was there ready to check me over. He was thorough and then left and the nurse came in and popped an IV in me (first try...quite slick!) and told me that they would be giving me an oral contrast to drink and then in one and half hours they would take me to CT to have a cat scan with both oral and IV contrast and that they should have the results with-in one and a half hours after that. I asked if I could pop out to the waiting room and let Grant know the planned time frame. I hated to think of him sitting there three hours with three restless kids. Grant wanted to STAY right there, and wouldn't take the kids home...but, he finally agreed that he would take them out to lunch and let them shop or something until 2:00pm which was the earliest we would know the results of the CT scan.

Well, they took me to CT a bit ahead of schedule and the radiologist read the films immediately, rather than taking the predicted hour and a half to get there and read them. Next thing I know, they are calling in my surgeon and the surgery team (it being Sunday, all had to be called in from home). The nurse told me my room number upstairs would be room 357 (a private room, too!). And it was only 12:30! I had sent Grant off and told him not to come back until 2:00. Oops! Silly me, I am used to all ER experiences being EXTREMELY slow and drawn out. I just didn't KNOW this hospital! (Turns out, my ER experience was very indicative of the whole hospital. They are just SO efficient, organized, and FRIENDLY.)

The ER nurse was trying to recruit me to apply at their hospital when she found out I had just resigned at my old hospital and now wondered if the VA would offer me the job or not...since I obviously would not be there Monday (today) to pass my pre-employment physical!

I called my hospital at 1:00 to let them know that I was headed to surgery, so there wasn't much way I could be available if they needed me to come in at 3:00! They said, not to worry...they had already figured that was probably the case and had it covered!

I went to surgery about 1:20 (Grant, bless his heart, came back earlier than he was suppose to have...true to his nature! So, he was there to see me off...as were both of his parents. I had called their house thinking Grant might call them and they could pass the message onto him to come back early. They were at church...so, I didn't get to talk to them...just left a message.) I was in my room at 4:30...without my appendics!

At 7:15, I laughed and commented to Grant that, as of that moment, I was officially off 'stand-by' for my own hospital. It just struck me funny that I was still, technically, on stand-by the whole time I had been under anesthesia!

I was released from the hospital tonight around 5:30 pm. I'll wait until later to write more...I'm sleepy now. (I do have to admit something, though...As they were wheeling me into the CT scan, I was mentally calculating just how much money that CT was probably costing, and thinking, "This pain really isn't very bad...I am going to feel so foolish if this is just a virus." So, when the doctor said there was absolutely no doubt looking at the CT, that this WAS appendicitis, I just felt like high-fiving the guy! My heart was singing, "Whoopee! I don't look stupid for coming in and I haven't wasted a lot of money needlessly! YES!!!!" Ironic! Celebrating that I DID have appendicitis...just because I was so worried that I was being foolish for thinking I might have it. Go figure! I was RELIEVED to hear that appendics needed to come out ASAP. How silly, THAT is!  ¶ 8/14/2006 07:28:00 PM 2 comments

  The Trend Continues... Doug's six word sentence today:
"Can I watch a DVD, please!"
It's encouraging!  ¶ 8/09/2006 11:02:00 AM 0 comments

  Alas...gone the way of Elrond... I guess I should update everyone on our brave, little fish...
One by one, Mario, Luwigee, Tiger-Charlie, and Angel-Sue have each gone the way of poor little Elrond.

I think we had better just stick to turtles and dogs!  ¶ 8/08/2006 11:39:00 PM 2 comments

  School is just around the corner! Schooltime is in the air and my three are dying to get started! Seriously. Doug LOVES school and started moaning he wanted to go back three days after summer school ended. (He goes to public school.) He is such a sociable fellow, that school is pretty important to him! Darcy, on the other hand, was SO GLAD to be finished with school this summer (well...sort of finished(!)...we still have the last eighteen math lessons to go...she DETESTS math as much as her father does!). Anyway, Darcy was more than happy for her mom to drop the ball and not finish up math. Never mind that that is exactly where we will be picking up this year! But, even Darcy is now begging to get started back. Kindergarten through third grades, we tried various mixes of curriculum for home-school...but in fourth grade, we found the curriculum that Darcy absolutely loves...Sonlight Curriculum. Sonlight is expensive--because of all the books you need to buy--but it is so worth it. That curriculum is made up of hard-core excellent literature. I first tried Sonlight because it was really worrying me that Darcy (then seven years old) was devouring junk left and right at the library. I had long since given up trying to pre-read all her books...this child speed reads (and RETAINS). It was nothing for her to go through twenty chapter books in two days. Unfortunately, more and more, what was turning up in her library bag was pre-teen junk books. You know what I mean, Mary-Kate and Ashley this or that type of stuff. Series churned out ninety to nothing...fluff, designed for easy consumption, aimed at adolescents. I tried steering her towards GOOD substantive books, but she turned her little nose up at them. So, I switched to Sonlight Curriculum. The Fed-Ex truck delivered several large boxes to our doorstep full of really great books. Looking down at all those books, her eyes began to glisten greedily even though her mouth was still saying she didn't think she would like THOSE kind of books. It didn't take her long at all to change her tune! Even the books that were chosen that were above the grade level (that the parent was suppose to read aloud) got devoured in nothing flat. She started out letting me read them aloud to her, but then would get frustrated when my voice would tire after four or five chapters straight. I would put the book up for the next day, only to have her sneak it away and finish the whole thing up that evening! Finally she quit letting me even make the pretense of reading aloud--she would sneak the book out and have it read months before it appeared on the schedule to be read!

Once Darcy had spent a semester exposed to really great books, her reading habits changed tremendously. She still reads the bubble gum series kind of stuff once in a while, but, now she really digs in and LOOKS for the great books that are hiding there on the library shelves! Whenever she reads a book that she likes in her Sonlight Curriculum, she will immediately do a search through the library listings to see what ELSE that author has written and she reads through them, too. (Within two weeks of discovering "The Hobbit", she had read all three of the "Lord of the Rings" books.) My biggest problem these days is making her WAIT. Our books for this year arrived Saturday, but I wouldn't let her open the boxes until yesterday. Last night, we sat down and inventoried the new books to make sure they had all been sent and then put them on the bookshelf. By this morning, she had already read all of "Murder for Her Majesty" (even though I had told her last night not to go beyond the second chapter) and half of "The King's Fifth". I am BOUND AND DETERMINED that this year we are going to read the books on the correct time-table instead of her getting so far ahead with all her reading. The reading is the part she loves most, so it makes sense to distribute it through the whole school year. Besides, the books are ordered to correspond with the period and place in history being focused upon...it just seems better to wait and read the books alongside the history lessons instead of way in advance. Anyway, I have resorted (as of today) to making the bookshelf that has her Sonlight stuff on it "off limits". She can't read any of it until I give her permission (which will be when we START homeschool for this year). Needless to say, she is now dying to start homeschool.

Since I won't let her devour her own books, she has been tearing through all of Rayna's books. Rayna (age four) wanted to start kindergarten this year. She wants to go to public school with Doug, but, as that is not an option at four, she decided it would be fine to do homeschool kindergarten. (Then, next year, we will see if she wants to repeat kindergarten and go to public school (we live in a wonderful district) or if she wants to go on to first grade and continue homeschooling.) I was surprised at some of the Sonlight books for kindergarten...they are more advanced than I expected (though I should have known this would be the case!). Darcy has had a glorious time reading through her sister's books for the year. She even read several of the chapter books aloud yesterday to her little sister and her little brother. Rayna sat all the way through "Dolphin Adventure" and most of "Dolphin Treasure", but then, the lure of "Wild, Wild West" series DVD playing upstairs pulled her away. Not Doug! NOTHING could pull HIM away! I was amazed. After all, HE is my little DVD monster. That child spends every waking moment hounding me to let him watch this DVD or that DVD. He would spend all his time zombied in front of the TV if I would allow it. He is a VISUAL child...not much of an auditory child...and he loves 'westerns' (if you can call Wild, Wild West a western!)...so, I was amazed that he remained riveted to Darcy's side, hanging on her every word as she read aloud through books that don't have very many pictures (and no color). (Mind you, his ATTENTION span is normally a nano-second long for anything other than a DVD.) ....even Doug is coming under the spell of Sonlight!

Today we went to the elementary school to enroll Doug in second grade. Darcy will be doing seventh grade this year and Rayna will do kindergarten. All three of them are eager to get started. Poor Doug...he thought he was going to get to GO to school today. He didn't understand that we were just going up to the school to enroll him. When we got there, he wanted to leave me and go to his class! I told him, "Honey, none of the teachers are here yet, because school hasn't started yet! You have to wait a few more weeks." Of course, two seconds later, who should walk up to him except one of his former teachers! So, "yes, Mommy was wrong, SOME of the teachers ARE here today, but you still can't GO to school today!"


This year, I am going to have Darcy continue working with Rosetta Stone to learn conversational Mandarin Chinese, but, I am adding written Chinese to the mix. Darcy has had plenty of exposure to Chinese characters...having attended (on the weekends) for three years at the Chinese School of Greater KC. But, since third grade (when she stopped attending) we haven't made any systematic effort at learning to read and write in Chinese. That changes this year! I found a nice book that teaches the most used 4,500 characters. There are about 2,000 characters that need to be mastered in order to be relatively literate in the language. We (she and I together) are going to memorize ten a week from now on. By the time Darcy graduates from high school, we will both be literate in the language. Darcy, at first, was really put out with me for deciding this would be part of our curriculum for the next six years. She would much rather stick with the 'easier' Spanish that she has also been studying using Rosetta Stone. But, tonight, I was pointing out to her some uses for being fluent/literate in Chinese that made sense to her... (forget the line about how it will really give her an edge in the job market...that just bores her) I suggested (quite seriously) that if we were fluent/literate in Chinese that maybe she and I could hire out to accompany a single parent on her adoption journey to China. We could be a HUGE asset...able to translate when needed (if we were in a Cantonese speaking region, at least we could communicate by writing--as Chinese is the same WRITTEN out no matter which of the hundreds of different Chinese dialects you are communicating in). Not only that, but we are experienced travelers to China and have done the adoption thing ourselves. (Darcy came with us when she was seven to adopt Rayna...she was a model traveler even at that young age and an ENORMOUS help to us.) We KNOW how STRESSFUL that experience is to new parents (even though it is JOYFUL)...we could really be a help...an extra set of hands...yet, sensitive to the need for the baby to bond with the parent, not a traveling companion. Add to that, that Darcy and I both LOVE to take photographs (and are pretty darn good at it). In all our adoption trip photos, it is either me with the baby or Grant with the baby...never Grant and I both with the baby. If Darcy and I were there, there would be LOTS of photos of both parents together as they receive their new child. ALSO, Darcy and I have experienced what it is like to acclimate an OLDER child into the family that doesn't speak any English. THAT is a WHOLE different picture than starting out with a baby. I just know we could be a blessing to an adopting parent/parents. And we would work really cheap...say $100, our airline tickets and hotel accomodations for that week and a half or two weeks. (I would do it just for expenses...but, Darcy thinks she needs to make something!) That is at least five or six years away...if ever(!)...but, at least it helps Darcy see a REASON for learning to read and write in Chinese! Who knows???!!!!... (Anyway, Grant and I ARE going to take the three kids to China and Taiwan one of these days to retrace each of their roots...it will be nice if Darcy and I are already comfortable in the language before then! So, studying now won't be wasted...even if Darcy and I never hire out as adoption traveling companions!)  ¶ 8/08/2006 09:52:00 PM 2 comments

  The Humiliation of Car Seats... Today Rayna vehemently proclaimed amidst a torrent of indignant tears, "I'm getting TALL and I'm going to be sixty ninety-four because THAT'S why I don't want to sit in a BABY seat anymore!!!!"

(I think this child has been reading Junie B. Jones, or something! Then funny thing is that I disliked the grammatical massacring in the Junie B. Jones books so much, that when I read them aloud to Darcy, I always secretly CORRECTED the grammar--'reading' things that were NOT written on the page. Darcy was shocked the first time she read one of the books on her own--around age four--because, Junie B. was nothing like her mother had made her sound!) So, my retribution?...God gave me a child who could have been the dialogue MODEL for Junie B! My four year old is every bit as melodramatic as Junie B. ever dreamed of being...and just as colorful with her language destruction!  ¶ 8/08/2006 03:00:00 PM 0 comments

  So goes a mother's life... Rayna and I were enjoying a moment alone, upstairs, this afternoon. She and I were singing the alphabet song--sounding rather well, together, I might add(!), when Rayna exclaimed eagerly, "Let's do it again, Mommy, WITHOUT YOU!"  ¶ 8/08/2006 10:24:00 AM 0 comments

  Yes-a-do! Wow!...in the past couple of days, Doug has, out of the blue, said several five or six word sentences that were perfectly formed and clearly spoken! This from a child who has spent his eight years of life communicating with single words or short phrases of two or three words. We thought we would NEVER get him to use VERBS. He used to communicate soley with nouns and charades. I really thought that we might be doing him a disservice not teaching him sign language (ASL) and letting him rely on that method to communicate--as he is VERY VISUAL and made up his own sign language, anyway. His signs were very effective and he used them consistantly. Grant, insisted, though, on making him SAY what he wanted instead acknowledging his made up signs (which all the immediate family clearly understood). (People who didn't interact with him regularly didn't understand his signs...but, he was really good at TRAINING people to understand them!)

The last couple of days, I have seen him really round a corner. Yesterday morning, out of the blue, he popped out with, "You may have my bowl, Rayna." Clearly spoken! I about fell over. When I exclaimed, "That was a terrific sentence, Doug!" he beamed with pride and then tried repeating it five or six times in a row. The more he tried repeating his sentence, though, the more garbled it became. Words were dropped and the pronunciation of the words he did keep in the sentence deteriorated. He seemed unable to repeat the sentence even once. It had popped out perfectly clear when he was relaxed and not THINKING about it...but, the moment he focused on trying to say it again, he lost it. Then, this morning, he popped out another perfectly pronounced six word sentence: "Yes, we DO have eggs, Mommy!". He had asked for eggs for breakfast and I didn't want to fix them...so, I had said, we didn't have any eggs. (I had honestly forgotten that Grant had bought eggs yesterday.) Doug had NOT forgotten, and he wasn't about to let me off that easily! So, I had HIM make the eggs...much to his delight! We made LOTS so that tomorrow morning when he wants eggs, I can just microwave left-over scrambled eggs!

After breakfast, he asked, "What's that noise, Mommy?" I am so used to him garbling the pronunciation of his words (horribly garbling them) and so used to him communicating soley with short, incomplete phrases that it just stuns me each time he comes out with one of these sentences that are just as clearly spoken as the girls, themselves, would speak them.

Funny how we all rub off on each other... Doug has a couple of phrases that are so uniquely HIM.... "Yuh-huh!" (for "yes") and "Yes-a-do" (for "Yes you do"...a very useful come-back to be used any time Mom tells him we DON'T have something or CAN'T do something.) I catch myself THINKING "Yes-a-do", sometimes!  ¶ 8/08/2006 08:20:00 AM 0 comments

  Sunny Boy While on our pack-trip in the back country of the Canadian Rockies, we were introduced to Sunny Boy. I guess it is quite a breakfast favorite in Western Canada, but we had never heard of it before...nor had the French cook in our group, prior to being hired on there a couple of months earlier. We LOVED Sunny Boy (well, at least Grant, Vonnie, John, and I did). None of the kids liked it at the time...but, in the weeks since then, Rayna has decided she loves it too (provided I put lots of sugar AND CHOCOLATE MILK on it!). Doug will eat it without too much complaining (fixed the same way as Rayna's). Darcy detests it. (As she does all vegetables and grains...except potatoes and corn.)

Vonnie and I loved it so much that we made the men stop at the very first grocery store we came across, after riding our horses out of the mountains! Grant insisted that I could probably order it over the internet and really didn't need to purchase a life-time supply right then and there...but, Vonnie and I still pretty much wiped them out of what they had in stock! Since returning home, I have finished off the first bag--almost single-handedly. If I can't order more over the internet, we will just have to run back up to Canada to restock me, I guess!

While we were in camp, the other two guides had no end of fun retelling poor Isabel's mishaps in trying to cook Sunny Boy. She had never HEARD of Sunny Boy before being hired on there (don't think it is readily available in Quebec, just Western Canada). Anyway, she dutifully followed the instructions on the back of the bag...the results of which were deplorable as far as her Western Canadian counterparts were concerned. They expected their Sunny Boy to be SOFT...like cooked oatmeal....not crunchy like granola! They were amazed that Isabel would have no idea that THAT is how it was suppose to be. They really did give the poor girl a very hard time over her earliest Sunny Boy attempts. By the time we met up with them, though, Isabel had it down to a science (almost!). In bafflement she told us that it took her over an HOUR to cook Sunny Boy. On the package, it says it takes three minutes. But, as she pointed out, the directions on the package are DIFFERENT depending on whether you read them in English or French! If you are French, you are suppose to use one cup of water per serving, but, if you are English, you are only suppose to use 3/4 cup! Whether you are English or French, you are suppose to boil it for three minutes and let it stand for two minutes. I have discovered, that if you are an American cooking in a microwave, you need to use 1 1/8 cups of water per serving and boil it for twelve minutes! So, it takes me fifteen minutes to cook Sunny Boy in a microwave...three minutes to get the water boiling and then twelve minutes to boil the Sunny Boy. If I were cooking over a wood flame, like Isabel, I am sure it would take me over an hour, too!

 Sunny Boy is a delightful combination of wheat, rye, and flax. I prefer it served with raisins...and sometimes a little milk or chopped banana. Grant likes his best with brown sugar and raisins. Rayna likes hers drowned in chocolate milk and coated with plenty of sugar and sprinkled with raisins.  ¶ 8/07/2006 08:52:00 AM 0 comments

  Quick update on VBS...Doug did BEAUTIFULLY at VBS--or, maybe, to be more accurate, I should say that the volunteer staff managed Doug beautifully. The first night he went, I was planning on shadowing him to keep him reigned in. But, when we arrived, I found that his teacher was an old friend of ours, Mike W., who has a grand-daughter that has brain injury (a lot more severe than Doug's). Needless to say, I felt no need to shadow Doug, afterall that night. I knew Mike wouldn't be overwhelmed having Doug in his class. So, I went over to my dear friend Lisa's house to pick up Rotten Ellie (our baby box turtle). Lisa and Iran had graciously agreed to care for Ellie in our absence. It was a bit traumatic for them, I think! Lisa has a very delicate stomach and blanched when she realized that caring for Ellie would involve handling live mealy worms (which she declared were nothing more than glorified maggots!). I tried to make it easy for her...not even bringing over Ellie's vitamins or UV lamp (Lisa had a place next to the window for Ellie's aquarium). Still, Lisa had to bathe Ellie daily (she won't drink, otherwise) AFTER digging her up...then feed her the squirmy meal worms. Ellie, being a typical baby box turtle LOVES to bury herself. The day before I brought her over to Lisa's I changed her aquarium significantly.... Always before, her aquarium had had soil in it ten inches deep (to accomodate Ellie's live plants). The problem with that is that Ellie has no objection to burying herself ten inches deep, anywhere in the aquarium...so it could be quite frustrating trying to find her every day or two in order to bathe and feed her. To make it easier for Lisa, I took out all but the bottom two inches of soil in her aquarium just before bringing her to Lisa's...but that meant that I had to uproot the plants and replant them in just two inches. I forgot to mention to Lisa that I had uprooted the plants...so, three days later when they all died, she was stricken with guilt (and Lisa is VERY PRONE to extreme guilt) that SHE had failed us...causing the demise of Ellie's plants! Even BEFORE that, Lisa was already being struck with angst over her new responsibility... The day before we left for Canada (we had taken her the turtle a couple of days in advance) I had a frantic message on my answering machine. Lisa could not find the turtle. She and her husband had dug up the entire aquarium three different times....and no Ellie. They were in a panic. That message was followed by a second message from them saying they had found the turtle the fourth time they sifted through the entire soil content of the aquaurium. (Ellie is a TINY little turtle.)

Anyway, a few days before we were to return home from Canada, I had received an e-mail from Lisa informing me that "Rotten Ellie is doing fine and AWAITING your RETURN." So, it is, that ever since reading that rather brief e-note, whenever I think of Ellie, the pre-fix "Rotten"(!) just jumps right into my head, too!

Anyway, I went to pick Rotten Ellie up, since I was in town and had three hours to kill. Lisa and I had a delightful visit...and Lisa was glad to be relieved of her responsibility... (She had been terrified that Rotten Ellie would die on her or something!) Doug had mourned Ellie's absence since the moment we took the turtle to Lisa's. He worried aloud about his turtle multiple times in Canada (afraid that we had GIVEN Ellie away forever) and then he asked about her over and over again every day after we got back, not understanding why we couldn't make the forty minute trip over to get Ellie, the moment we hit Missouri soil.

The next day of VBS (Wednesday evening), Grant and I, both, took the three kids in to the church and then WE HAD A TWO HOUR AND FORTY-FIVE MINUTE DATE ALONE TOGETHER! (You have to understand, Grant works Monday through Friday and I work twelve and a half hour shifts EVERY Saturday and Sunday)...so, we don't have much overlap time. And time ALONE....well, we have gone somewhere alone together exactly TWO times in the last three years. So, Wednesday night was quite an event for us! We went to Longhorn Steakhouse and had a really long suppper together. (We had gotten McDonald's for the kids on the way to VBS.) We had so much fun, that we decided to take advantage of VBS Thursday night, as well. After dropping the kids off Thursday night, we grabbed a bite at Sonic, ourselves, and then spent the evening browsing through Border's Bookstore. I found a really neat book teaching Chinese characters...enough to be fairly literate in Chinese. And Grant found a new Lonesome River Band CD. (I also found a Beverly Cleary book and three Agatha Christy books for Darcy.) It was just so deliciously decadent to be able to browse slowly through the store without three children climbing up my leg! (Those of you who have NORMAL children, cannot possibly understand. Actually, Darcy is old enough now that she isn't a head-ache to shop with (by herself, anyway)...but, those two younger children of ours are just SO ACTIVE. Doug is in hyperdrive all the time and forever in 'repeat loop' and Rayna is drama queen of the world. And, put together, the two of them EXCELLERATE each other. Apart they are each a hand-ful. Together they are THREE handfuls! Add Darcy to the mix, and it is even worse. Her self-appointed task it to make SURE the younger two stay stirred up!) So, shopping without children was quite an indulgence for Grant and I!

Friday was the parent's night program...so we had to go to VBS with the kids. It was nice, but, I was secretly mourning that it signaled the end of our freedom for another entire year! Oh well! Those three evenings were bliss! (I did feel guilty once...I mean, this is the first VBS in the life of my children that I haven't HELPED all through VBS (even the two times our children have attended VBS at a church that wasn't ours, I still stayed and helped every day).) I guess Darcy has gone to her grandparents' church's VBS a few years and I haven't gone or helped then (but her grandparents were helping). But, this year, I sent the kids and I didn't do any of the work. So, I did feel momentarily guilty...but, not enough to dampen the enjoyment of that wonderous freedom! ....an evening alone with my good friend Lisa and two nights in a row dating my husband! (Grant was at his weekly band practice the night I went over to Lisa's to pick up Rotten Ellie.)  ¶ 8/07/2006 07:32:00 AM 0 comments

  Yesterday... Darcy's friend, Ruth, spent the night with us Wednesday night. Thursday morning, all four kids rode the horses. It was the first time we have ridden since returning from Canada. I was amazed at the difference our horse-riding experiences in Canada made in Doug's riding abilities. Even though his horse was led the whole time in Canada, he picked up a LOT of riding confidence and know-how. Yesterday, he rode Begins on his own outside of the corral and directed the horse beautifully. When Begins broke into a trot at one point, Doug was steadfast in the saddle and unphased. HUGE improvement. Rayna rode Begins outside of the corral, too, and quickly readjusted from neck reigning (as the Canadian horses were accustomed to) back to direct reigning. Darcy was glad to get to ride Lightening, too. The horses are in the process of being sold...so, our time with them now is bittersweet.





















Our dogs drive me nuts...always running through the stick-tights and cuckleburrs. Rivendell was in typical (sadly!) form yesterday morning...before I combed her back out again.














Darcy and Ruth had fun picking out two new fish each and getting them settled into their new homes. Darcy's newest fish are "Mario" and "Luwigee" (I am sure I spelled that completely wrong!!!)













Ruth said hers were named, "Tiger" and "Angel" when they are being good, but that when they are being bad, their names will be "Charlie" and "Sue"!
  ¶ 8/04/2006 10:00:00 AM 0 comments

   
 
     ¶ 8/04/2006 09:49:00 AM 0 comments

   Elrond at a happier moment...    ¶ 8/01/2006 10:48:00 AM 0 comments

  Back to the real world. We got home Friday, then I worked 12 1/2 hours at the hospital on Saturday and 13 hours on Sunday (faced afresh with why I am in the market for a different job!). Monday found Grant having to return to work (reminding him anew of why he is in the market for a different job!) and the kids and I ran errands and NAPPED (that was nice!). Darcy went to Vacation Bible School (three hours each night) on Sunday evening. Rayna and Doug stayed home--not wanting to go. But, Monday, Rayna decided SHE wanted to go, too...so I took the two girls to VBS yesterday (which involves two hours of driving since our church is 30 minutes away and I had to take them there and then pick them back up later). Doug came with me to pick the girls up. Kids were dancing about, still singing with the peppy VBS music and carrying the crafts they had made. The atmosphere was electric and Doug decided right then and there that HE was going to go to VBS, too. Because of his particular situation, I think I will shadow him through his class tonight. The teachers at our church don't seem to recognize when he is getting over-stimulated or know how to help him get back in control of his impulsivities. For this reason, he hasn't gotten to participate much in activities at our own church...though we visit a different church most Wednesdays and he does well in the R.A.'s class there (which is led by the father of a Down's Syndrome child). It really is hard for parents of kids with special challenges to find a church home that is as beneficial to the child with special issues as it is to his/her 'normal' siblings. Maybe I just need to accept that I will have to shadow Doug if I want him to succeed in things like VBS...most places, at least. It is sure nice at the other church where the teacher of his age group has such a good understanding of how to help children with special issues...but, that church doesn't have the program (AWANA) that our two daughters thrive on.

Boy...does anyone else have e-mail woes? I just got around to checking my e-mail today for the first time since we got back home. ONE-HUNDRED-SEVENTY-TWO messages. Only a handful of which were PERSONAL....all the rest were forwards or, even worse, SPAM. I am so sick of SPAM. Once they get a hold of your e-mail address, they are relentless. I have had my juno address for almost seven years now...and never had much trouble with SPAM until the last six months. It is horrible now, though. I don't want to give up my address, but I hate wading through so much advertising/phishing, etc., every time I download my e-mail. It has gotten to where I just highlight and delete like crazy without even looking at stuff. That's too bad, too, because I miss something from someone sometime simply because their e-mail address isn't one that I immediately recognize. Oh well!...life on the net!

This morning Darcy ploughed back into her math, again. We finished all of her curriculum last year except for 22 math lessons and some language arts. Meant to finish that up while Doug was taking summer school, but, oops...that time just flew without us ever getting to it. Then it was birthday season. Then we were off to Canada...and WHERE DID JULY GO????? So, this morning found Darcy dejectedly sitting at the table getting reacquainted with Mr. Saxon (Math!). I want to start working with Doug each day on the computer studying English through Rosetta Stone (I LOVE their language learning software). He has been with us two years now, and he UNDERSTANDS English great...but he continues to struggle with the simplest of pronunciations and cannot form sentences. This isn't a secondary language learning issue...he already speaks better English (poor and limited though it is)than he spoke Chinese...rather, it is a brain injury issue. But, I think if I sit with him and help him work on SAYING the words and phrases as through he is learning them for the first time, maybe it will begin to cement in his mind how to form sentences and work with tenses, etc., as well as helping him learn how to pronounce words. ....So, yet another thing for my "to do" list!

Speaking of "to do", I haven't even BEGUN to sort through the eleven thousand photos taken collectively with our three cameras during our 12 day vacation. I want to sort out the best 500 or so and make them into a slide show movie with music background...but, just thinking about sorting through them all to find that 500 or so, makes me tired. I wish it were just done! (I used to LOVE fooling around with my photos, but I have lost my enthusiasm for it...)

Doug just came down telling me that Darcy's fish has died. He was right. When I went upstairs, there was Darcy staring wistfully down into the bowl where Elrond was floating sideways at the top. Poor Elrond. He was pegged to be a "feeder fish"...listed at 17 cents in the pet store, but Darcy had planned for him to be a pet, living a long, healthy life in ourh home, instead. I don't think her fishbowl was a healthy environment, though. I think the decorative shells she had in his bowl were toxic. All three kids are in their way outside, now, to bury poor little Elrond.  ¶ 8/01/2006 09:53:00 AM 0 comments