Last Weekend of Freedom

We start 'officially' home schooling Judson next week. Sawyer starts school the following week. Sometime in between, we have to get him on the school bus and HAPPY about it. ("Can't ride on the bus if he's crying")

Kimmy and Olivia came over and we played and celebrated last days of SUMMER by getting out the HALLOWEEN costumes. We had a great time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's also tax free weekend, so Mom gets some retail therapy. YIPPEE.

Last of the Swimming

For this year....I think.

Judson is trying to overcome his fear of the water. He's getting better. He swam across without putting his feet down. That's quite an accomplishment for him! (Even in 3' water, his fear is very real. I wish I could help him but alas, I had the same fear as a child. Time did help me and hopefully it will him, too.)


Sawyer spent his time jumping off the side and then trying to get back up. He has blisters and a cut on the bottom of his feet he tried so much. When he's done, he gets out of the pool, slaps his hands together and says, "All done". He means it too. Once he's done, he's done! Remember, my whole thing with S was safety. I think we made great progress towards that. (He's now taking a marathon nap! Nice side benefit.)

He went to end but would not jump. It was too 'bouncy'.

(I wouldn't have jumped because it was too dirty. There was a lot of wind last night. The pool was full of debris.)

Sick Little Girl

Abby needs your prayers. You can check out their blog (The Riggs Family Blog) on the right side of my blog. She is battling leukemia and has had a set back.

Dumplings

1,2,3 Freeze (yee, urh, sahn, ?dong?)

learning our colors

Singing! (London Bridge)

Summer's Simple Pleasures

Coming Soon

To a City Near YOU!

BUDDY WALK.

Ours is October 18th. See if there is one near you.

Check HERE to see if there is a Down Syndrome Chapter close to you.
I promise you'll have a great time if you volunteer.

Pretty Good Day

The boys did well swimming today.

They LOVED Disney's Swiss Family Robinson. We watched that this afternoon.

Plus, Dad is now taking Ansley and Judson for a bike ride around the neighborhood. The only one not so happy right now is Turner. He is too young for swim lessons and too young to ride around the neighborhood. To top it off, the only good part in the movie was when they fought off the pirates. I think maybe he's having a "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". We are NOT moving to Australia!

Give 'em Back, NOW

Okay, who took my nice, sweet 6 year old boy? The one who said Thank you and Please and kissed me good night and snuggled with me, please give me that boy back. You may have the one who has a smart-allec answer to everything. You may take the one who is bored with everything. This one may have stopped hitting (or at least is doing it less) his siblings but he's also lost his sweetness. Give my boy back and no questions will be asked.

And, if you have taken my 4 year old son and replaced him with a terrible 2 year old living in a 4 year old body, I want him back too.

Post-Placement Report

CHECK. The kids acted well and life is good.

What We Did on Saturday

You will see that no cleaning was done for our post-placement visit. We did manage a monthly Sam's visit though.

Insight

Yes I know I keep posting short posts but the spirit comes over me and I cannot help it.

Tonight I was telling Judson we were going to need to spend some time cleaning up the house this weekend because the social worker was coming on Monday for Turner's 1 year post placement. (Can you believe it's been 1 year almost?) Judson's comment: Did anyone come to visit me when I was born? Mom: No baby, we didn't have a social worker when you were born. Judson: Not even when I was a baby. Mom: Nope.

See the irony in all that? That any body can produce a baby and no one checks up on them. Even if the child is removed, they will spend months and years trying to put that child back in the same home(from which they were removed) while temporarily(forever) housing them in a foster home. Yet, we had endless numbers of FBI/GBI/Homeland Security/DHS checks run on us. (Not to mention the many medical exams and letters written on our behalf and many hours of classroom studies. Oh dont forget the septic tank inspections) Then we have numerous post-placement visits afterwards.

Not offering what should and should not be changed. Just saying, there's an irony about the whole thing that even a 6 year old can see.

Numbers

So, I took Judson to the grocery store with me tonight. I gave him a pencil and a piece of paper and asked him to keep a running total of what we were buying. He was very excited and extremely diligent about keeping up with everything, down to the penny. We even had produce for which we estimated the cost. There was no calculator used in this exercise, nor did Mom help. (Hey, it's Friday. I don't have any brain cells left.) His total: $83.11. The subtotal rung up at the register w/o tax: $83.20. The cashier was quite impressed.

*Can you say: "Like Father Like Son"

What She Said

http://ethiopiaguzo.blogspot.com/2009/06/adoption-is.html

Too Worn Out to Talk

All I've had lately on this blog are pictures. Why? I just haven't had the brain power to write much. This summer is wearing me down, I think. There's a chaos to this summer that has just gotten to me. Now, in a family of 6, there will always be chaos. This summer, though, has been a disorganized lump of days with very few plans. Anyone that knows me, knows, I am not a fly by the seat of your pants kind of girl. I like 'plans'. I live for plans. I NEED plans. What to do to recover from this break we call 'summer vacation'? Make plans!

THE PLAN

1. Start Judson (and Ansley and Turner) on his home schooling August 1st. (now we've done some this summer but nothing PLANned. ) Going to turn in the paperwork this week to make it official.

2. Sawyer starts school August 10th. This should be interesting since we are hoping to get him on the bus and going 5 days a week. He doesn't like the bus, so this will take time.

3. Find a dance class for Ansley. Yes, I let the summer go by without doing that.

4. Find a Cub Scout troop for Judson. (along with his karate)

NOW, I have something to keep me sane, a PLAN to flesh out. In between all that, I'm going to finish the kitchen painting.

Summer Time....

So, how many kids can fit inside a kiddie pool? At least 7! (There was also a sprinkler going but they said the water was too cold)Make sure you slide the bar over to catch the hand on the hip.

Love This Picture

Cousin Emalyn with hairy Cousin Libby

A friend of my sister-in-law (who owns a photography business) took some pictures of the kids.
My kids were VERY uncooperative that day but Libby and Emalyn had a good time.

We're Back......

After a relaxing weekend in LA. (Lower Alabama) We....















Had our pictures made.....(with our cousins)















Rode 4 wheelers......















Had water gun fights.....(Aunt Robyn got caught in the crossfire)















Got to see some young quail, chickens, pheasants....

And Got to play with Baby Emalyn.

Swimming Progress

Funny. With Judson, he's working on getting Judson to keep his head in the water and just come up to breathe. With Sawyer, he's working with him trying to get him to keep his head up so that he can breathe. They are making progress. I'm very proud of both of them.

It's Decided (a load off my mind)

After much deliberation and thought, Judson has finally decided where he'll be going to college. Whew, I thought we'd never get that decided. Now we can start filling out the paperwork. So glad, we didn't wait till the last moment!

Where you ask is he going? Georgia Tech. It meets all of his requirements: Meteorology, Physics, Trig, Math AND most of all, it's close to home and he can still live here. (That's very important when you are 6 years old)

Now, he can fixate on something else!

Happy 4th!

So, we were supposed to have 2 parades and a playdate. We bailed on parade #2. The kids are worn out. It would NOT have a been pretty.

Parade #1 was much smaller and more low key than in previous years. I guess the economy played a part as there are usually many participants from out of town/state. This year there was only 1 band in the WHOLE parade. At least the bag pipe group had drums, as Sawyer LOVES drums. It isn't a parade without drums. Here are the highlights.

Bike Brigade

BagpipesVeterans

Smiles

There were also fezes, cars (mini coopers and corvettes), motorcycles and dogs.

Then we came home and had a playdate/grill out. They played for several hours and are worn out. Therefore, we will be foregoing the evening parade.