What a week! I'm exhausted lol. We have good news! Boy child will be receiving Speech Therapy through Babies Can't Wait. He isn't talking well, and this will help him SO much! Girl #2 had her first Lock-in at church last night. Her Sunday School group went to the dairy farm and went through the corn maze. They went to dinner at her favorite place too :) When I picked her up at 7:30 this morning, she was tired and happy. She had a wonderful time! I'm so glad that they will be starting to do some of the fun things like this with her class. Girl #1 is, well, Girl #1. She's being a typical teenager atm. Surly and pissy about everything. But what else would you expect? More good news! We will be traveling to Michigan for Thanksgiving this year! I haven't seen my parents in 2 years, so it will be a happy time. I feel bad that they haven't seen boy child since he was a new baby. BUT, I still say the door swings both ways, and my mom had opportunities to come see him. I can't help it she gives everything to her other daughter. *shrug*

Oopsie

So yeah, it's been a while. I blame moving :) School has started. Girl child #1 is in 11th grade. A fricken junior! I am scared for her. Driving and Prom and looking into colleges. She wants to be a teacher. I think she'll make an awesome one. Girl child #2 is in the 4th grade. She is smart and clever and is already excelling. I am so proud of her. She wants to be a Vet when she grows up. With her compassion for animals and her brains, I know she will be an awesome one. Boy child just had his second birthday. 2 years old already! He's cute and silly and so lovable. He and his sisters are my heart and soul. Work has started back up for me. I am in the toddler room this year, as boy child is in the 2 yr old room this year. I am hoping for a great year this year, and I have decided that after boy child graduates from PMO that I will take a year off to chill out and get my bearings back. It'll be 4 years of taking care of other people's kids at that point. I am ready to take back my own.

House!

Well, it's been a few weeks since I last updated. Let me get us all up to speed.

Wednesday was Ali's 9th birthday. Yup, my baby girl is a whopping 9! She was so pleased when Kait and I walked into her school with roses and a balloon for her and cookies for her class. But that wasn't the best part of her day. It wasn't the fun playdate at Catch Air either. Nope, the best part was this:

That would be our new house! The bid was accepted ON her birthday, so she thinks that part of her present is having her own room again :). I am not arguing with that, since we are all excited about it.

For now, I am not going to be worried if I don't update often. We will be so busy packing and getting ready to move. Please forgive me if I am slow on the update :)

Missing You

Dan got me an Edible Arrangement for Valentines day this year. It was a sweet gesture, and I really appreciated it. So as I sit here this morning, I thought "Hey, I should totally order one for my dad!" You see, my dad is in the Veterans Home in Grand Rapids, MI. He doesn't get to see us but once a year. It sucks, since I was really close to my dad growing up. But as I was looking at the different fruit flower arrangements, tears started flowing. I got hit with the overwhelming sadness of missing my dad. I haven't seen him since the boy child still had that new baby smell. That was Thanksgiving 2010. We didn't go up for Thanksgiving last year because we're trying like mad to buy a house. I want to go up this summer, but we'll have to see. So I'm sitting here crying and missing my dad. I don't have his number to call him. Even if I did, I couldn't right now since it's 6:30 AM. Dad's other daughter (I just can't call her my sister) lives about an hour and a half/2 hours from him, and refuses to go see him. I sit here and think "doesn't she realize how good she has it? She can go see him whenever she wants!" I know she doesn't want to go see him because he's under the impression that our mom and she keep him a prisoner there. I wouldn't care myself tho. I would still go. I know he loves when we come up, since he doesn't see us very often. He loves to see the older girl child and how much she's grown into a beautiful young lady. I know he loves to see the younger girl child because of her red hair and sunny disposition. I wish my kids would have the wonderful memories of their grandfather that I had. Alas, they won't. My dad will be in the Veterans home for the rest of his life. No pie and ice cream at 2 AM. No croquet matches in the lawn. No impromtu baseball games in the driveway. I mourn for the loss of such wonderful memories. He would have been an awesome grandpa if the dementia hadn't taken hold. Not that he isn't, but there is so much more he could have done with them. My son will probably have the same vague memories that I have of my mom's dad and my dad's bio dad. Little snippets here and there of certain things they did with us. I remember the wonderful things my dad's step-dad did with us. I wanted those things with my kids. Dad and I used to laugh when I was pregnant with girl#1 about all the things he wanted to do when she would come to stay. I know I can make the memories myself with the girls, but it isn't the same.

Insulted and Offended

People, let me explain something. I have a hyperactive 8 year old. And this hyperactive 8 year old? She *gasp* PLAYS OUTSIDE! And she plays HARD when she's out there. AND.....*gasp again* SHE GETS DIRTY!!!!!

Ali comes home from school yesterday wearing a new coat. Now, mind you, she has 3 here at home. The one she wore to school was tucked happily under her arm. Why did she have a new coat you may ask? Because her other one was *gasp* DIRTY! I wash her coats once a week. The blue one she has is always dirty. I wash it and she's immeditately outside playing in it. What's the point of me worrying about it being spotless when it's just going to get dirty again in a day? I'm actually offended that they would think that I can't afford a new coat for her. It's not that. It's that since she has 3, I figured that there was no point in buying her yet another one. I can see that next year I'll have to buy her 2. One for her to play in at home and the other to wear to school. I'm insulted that they apparently don't think I can wash said coat (even if I do wash it frequently). So off to school I go today so they can blow me off again. I am going to get the number of the Superintendent and just go to them I think. The Principal, after all, did NOTHING when a little girl told Ali that she had a gun in her backpack and threatened to shoot Ali with it. UGH!