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