Today Might Just Be the Day...

What happens in the daily life of the family.. the drama of foster care, the adventures of parenting, & pictures to share with everyone!

Last, but not Least

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All four of our babies have birthdays within a couple months. And all of their ages are really close. So, it can be confusing… Yesterday, if you’d asked me how old my kids were it would have sounded like I had twins.. 13, 13, 10 & 9. Since December 5th, I have had overlapping ages.

Today we reset until next December.

Our oldest is 14.

We have survived our first year of teen parenting.

It was not an easy year. And I don’t know that this year will be any easier.

However, I am happy to report that D survived his first year as a teen!

He is chased by the girls, admired by the boys for his running skills. He’s quiet and shy at times, but goofy and silly and loud at others. His laugh can fill a room. He challenges his teachers.. But, they all still seem to like him. He challenges us, but we do love him.

 

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It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Shopping!

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Now that we’re under the 90’s, we have broken out the long sleeves (for the mornings & evenings only) and I have started shopping in earnest.

I *never* pay full price. And the reason that I start shopping now is to try and get the best deals. One of my newest addictions is Ebates! If you click through Ebates (totally free site), you can get cash back from tons of stores. It’s really paid of for us big time on booking our travel!

Hope that you’re all staying warm!

Fall Traditions

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One of the things that really excited me about our new school district when we moved 5 years ago was the calendar. Our school does a modified year round calendar.

That means a shorter Summer break, but longer breaks in the Fall & Spring.

Which means we get a chance to really enjoy Arizona when it’s pleasant in Arizona. It also means we can travel & not stress about rushing back.

This year we really didn’t travel, but we did what we do when we have the chance… We crammed as much fun in as possible. We went to multiple parks, we met friends at the Science Center, we ate out a million times, we did a day at Amazing Jake’s and a night at Dave & Busters, we slept over & hosted friends, we watched movies at home and at the theater.

As I am typing, we are on the road home from a couple quick days away. Heading home for one of the traditions that I hope my kids will fondly remember. For the last few years we have always had one craft day in the Fall. The last couple have been with our Girl Scout troop, but we had them before our troop, too.

We will make soap and Christmas decorations.. Possibly candles. 

Wish me luck!
Results:

  
Cupcake Ornaments

 
An army of handmade soaps!

  
Jars halfway on their way to being transformed into snowman luminaries.

  
And a part of the cleanup 😉 Dishes, glitter & soap is now coating my kitchen.
But, I think they all had fun!

And I didn’t die!

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The sprint triathlon was yesterday morning.

With all of my races, I get nervous and can’t sleep. But, usually I am really excited, too.

This time around, I honestly wasn’t. I was just freaked out.

Danny was doing it with me and he admitted to being a little nervous (huge for my 13 year old boy to do that!). So, I was trying to keep it in check (and probably failing).

Friday night we laid out our stuff the way that we envisioned it for the race the next morning and practiced putting our shoes on. It felt silly! And, since nothing looked quite the same at the actual race, it probably was. But, I think it did help my nerves.

We got up around 5:00 in the morning.. My neighbor, the one who thought up this whole thing, loaded up our bikes into his truck and we were watching the sunrise as we drove to the race.

This entire thing was so new and foreign to me! We racked our bikes and laid out our gear for the transitions, but there was hardly any space. When Danny dropped his bike at the second transition he wasn’t even able to put it back.

For this swim, we were doing a serpentine of the pool, it was 8 x 50m laps. And they didn’t let you dive… you jumped in, one at a time, every 5 seconds roughly by pace. I knew this ahead of time, but it was so hard to envision! Dan started before me and his swim looked great. I have no clue how he did it without goggles (even with goggles I got jostled by other swimmers!), but he started ahead of me and gained ground.

When I jumped in, I a managed to inhale a ton of water. I spent most of the first lap trying to avoid choking and drowning. It was ugly! And my swim really didn’t get any better. I couldn’t get a rhythm, I kept getting trapped behind 2 slower swimmers at a time. I had a hard time breathing.

But, I will say that it didn’t wear me out! I had more laps in me. I could have gone farther/faster had I not started out in such a poor way. So, live and learn for next time.

When I made it to the first transition Dan was still there. He was a little slow getting into his running gear so we left on bikes together.

This was the last point I saw him :/

We took off on the bikes and I actually felt pretty good. I kept up a decent pace, nothing crazy, but it was ok.IMG_2621

I kept waiting on Dan to pass me. He never did.

Later on, I learned that his shoe lace had come undone and been caught in his chain. His chain even popped off and he took a spill.

While I was worrying about him, I kept telling myself that *someone* would help my baby. I told myself that if he were hurt they would call. If he broke down, he would get back to the transition point and someone would call.

Turns out, he was on his own, but he handled it like a champ. It just took a huge bite into his time.

I was even more worried when I didn’t see his bike at the second transition, but since I was jogging, I sent a text to Brian. Knowing that both of us were looking made me feel a tiny bit better.

The run was ok.. It wasn’t fast or really slow for me. My GPS was off so I have no clue of my actual pacing or time, but I got it done and felt great at the end.

Brian and the other kids came out to cheer and I totally teared up when I saw them. Their high 5’s gave me the boost to sprint to the end.

Danny finished within a couple minutes of me.

So very proud of that boy!

He came in 11th in his age group!

He told me he’s not super excited to do it again, but he also admitted that what he really didn’t like was waking up at 5:00. So, the second I find a race around the crack of noon, he’s all in.

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Silly and Sappy

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The other night I talked Bean into letting me put curlers in her hair.

We have tried it in the past, but she’s always wiggled so much that they fell out before her hair dried. And the girl has straight hair! A curling iron barely bends it. This time it was a success. She looked adorable. And she loved the curls. It made me think about when I was little. I loved having my hair curly, too. I also wiggled so much that most of the time at least a few rollers fell out. She never complained, but I also remember not being able to sleep because of the rollers.

Isn’t it worth the hassle though?

 

 

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FakeBook

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The other day I walked up on a conversation about Facebook.. Really, about how fake we all are in our on-line personalities. And I am, too. Even on here, I guard myself. I try to protect myself and my kids and my husband. I only share bits and pieces. And what I do share tends to be the good, the pretty. Even when I share my struggles, I carefully craft my thoughts. I don’t share the whole story.

And I think there’s some good in that. This blog will likely remain down the road. There’s a (small) chance that my kids will read it. There’s a bigger chance that my parents or husband will read this and could be hurt by something that I say.

However, I started this way back when… when we were in the thick of foster care. And I started it to connect with other people who were foster parents or were considering fostering.

And now I write to connect still.

How can I connect if what I share isn’t real?

I think what I do share is real, but it’s still less than the whole truth.

So, I’m sorry about that.

I hope that if anyone reads this they break free from the fake a little bit… I want to know the real you.

Pay Up

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I am annoyed.

The husband would say that I am always annoyed. And there may be some truth to that.

However, he did agree with me last night.

My current annoyance? Slactivism! If you ever are on the interwebs you have encountered slactivism… It’s the thousands of stupid share of causes and gofundme accounts. It’s the false outrage over something that *literally* had never been discussed by a poster before. It’s the stupid petitions.

Everyone is talking about this lion that died.

And it’s sad.

But, it’s nothing compared to the real problems in the world. Compared to a person being hurt, hunted, killed.. A lion shouldn’t be worth your outrage.

Actually, let me take that back. Go ahead and have a little passion. Go ahead and get angry. Go ahead and rant and share. BUT, then you *must* do more! 

I have a proposal. If you want to care about something I propose that you actually care. I think before you share your cause you should put some skin in the game. You love a politician enough to post about him or her? Before you do, pitch in a little to their campaign or donate some of your time or donate to a cause they stand behind. You want to complain about how little teachers earn? Go ahead! As soon as you donate a little extra. If you are a teacher, then share some resources with your kids’ teachers. Or, write to your local politicians and ask to have property taxes a little higher.

If you want to care about this lion, you may. If you want to post about it, I ask you to donate to some wildlife preservation causes.. 
Originally I was thinking $5 would be a great per post donation requirement. Now I think we could go much lower.. Even a quarter!

I am so tired of everyone having their fake causes. And they are so very fake. Posting about abused dogs and doing nothing in real life is an insult to the dogs you claim to care about.

Go ahead and feel. And then finally do something!

You are Wrong

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You may think you have the best dad, you may think you picked the best father for your kids. But, you’re wrong!

I picked best. B and I have our issues. Sometimes we struggle at this thing called marriage. But, there is one thing that we are awesome at. We are amazing parents together. We had no clue when we wed that our biggest strength would be our ability to parent together. And B is even more amazing because he took the leap.. he took the risk of parenting foster kids. I tell people that we took the step to foster for selfish reasons, and that is true. But, I was the one pushing us to that path and B let us go. He was brave enough to parent kids who were hurting and hurt and he did a great job. And he continues to be an amazing dad as we face the new challenges of being parents to teenagers and adolescents.

And I like to think that I was so good at picking because I had such a great role model.

My dad is the best!

I could write a book about why he is the best… I think I will save that for another day. Today I will share one thing. A year or two ago he asked me to talk to him about his legacy. He wanted to know how I will remember him. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t speak the words aloud. He means so much to me that thinking of him gone is a little much to talk through. I did write down my thoughts for him.

And my biggest thought was how, even though I am grown, he is still working on being a better father to me.

I am a lucky woman.

Hope you all are enjoying the special men in your lives today, just know that they are not the best in the world. I already have that market cornered.

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So exposed, yet not seen…

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With Facebook & Instagram & my whole on-line life I am out in big ways. People across the country & around the world are my “friends” and they are often my biggest connections, most personal relationship, biggest fans.

And I do share a lot of me, this blog has huge chunks of my life story. I have shared my family, my weight losses and gains, my running. 
I have shared some of my personal struggles with depression and anxiety. I have shared some of the struggles of parenting.

But, there are some things I cannot put out there. Some of the things I am dealing with are too big and too raw and too scary to share. And that means that I traverse those alone.