Monday morning

Happy Memorial Day. JT is home. Woot! P and M are hitched. Woot! The girls are getting ready to drive to CO. Sniff, sniff. Praying for a safe trip for them. It's raining here.

We had a great time at the wedding and the whole weekend really. J did pretty well with just a couple attitude problems. Thankfully, no meltdowns. We played "Ninja" (hand slapping game where you try to keep your hand from being slapped while slapping someone elses) with a large group of people. Definitely more fun in a large group. Swam, sat around the pool talking, lots of eating, etc. And now it comes to an end. Sigh...

Quick update

We finally got word that J's birthmom survived the earthquake. Part of his meltdown the other day was fueled by his frustration at not knowing. We are thankful.

We went into school this morning and picked up J's report card. He is on the honor roll again for this last 6 weeks grading period. He is thrilled. He also got some awards the other day. He got the "Most Improved" award, a math award, and an art award. He was thrilled about those too.

R arrived. She and T were stuck in Nashville traffic for a large part of the afternoon but they got JT's car and she's here. The girls already have big plans for today and we've already played some music. Some other family members have arrived too. We are having a good time. J is enjoying meeting more extended family.

When J plays the drums he does the "white boy overbite". Son, you are not white. Stop that. (It's so funny.)

Our own rainbow

Yesterday evening while I was making supper I looked out and discovered that it was raining while the sun was out. I was trying to figure out where the rainbow would be and T was saying you have to get further back or you're not going to see anything. Ha! Right out our bedroom window in our backyard was a rainbow. Our own private rainbow. How cool is that?!

We never did find the pot of gold though.

This is going to be a crazy busy weekend. R is on her way here. JT is on his way to CO. My nephew gets married on Sat. and lots of friends and relatives are visiting. Woo hoo.

J had a meltdown yesterday. We've been trying to work on not wetting the bed at night. We gave him something to work towards, to earn with dry nights. He was dry the first two but not the third and he tried to cover it up and lied to me. Sigh...the fallout wasn't pretty but we worked through it. Maybe that was his meltdown and now we're good for a while, when we're so busy and there are so many people to see and things to do. Hopefully we'll make it without a meltdown. "See" you on the flip side.

Recent comments

Recent comment from A; see this mark on my leg? That's where I got tanned through the hole in my jeans.

Another recent comment from A; Mom, I'm exempt from all my finals. That means you are looking at a senior.

And a couple minutes after that and said with a dramatic flair; Mom, in 7 and a half months I will be a legal 18 year old adult.

My comment that quickly followed hers; who will still be in high school and living under our roof and our authority.

Recent comment from J while in the pool; I am catching you up!! (meaning I am catching up to you-and catching is pronounced "cotching")

More comments from J in the pool; I am swimming!!! (this after he moved about 2 feet under water) I can swim!!! (this after moving about 3 feet) I drink too much water when I swim.

I find it very interesting that J couldn't paddle with his arms and kick his feet at the same time. I remember reading somewhere that children who have had sensory deprivation cannot work with both arms and legs at the same time. One of the tests for this was to have the child lay on the floor and ask them to move from one point to the other without getting up. Children with sensory deprivation will either push with their feet or pull with their arms but will not use both. I'm happy to report that J is using arms and legs now that we've worked on it a bit. It's not pretty to look at but he's swimming.

If you are what you eat...

If you are what you eat then I should be dark chocolate and J should be chicken. And yet, when I kiss his cheeks or neck I say, "Give me some chocolate!" and when he returns those kisses he says, "Give me some chicken!"

Lost in translation

Tonight we ate out at a Italian style steakhouse and J ate all his soup, 4 pieces of bread, all his spaghetti and didn't have room for all his steak. We took it with us and when we got into the car he said, "Dis stink is making me hungry." We laughed and said we think you mean "smell." Stink=smell. Who knew?

When ordering his steak they asked how he wanted it cooked and I leaned over and whispered to him, "Well done." He looked at the waiter and said, "No blood." I don't know if he thought that's what I said or if he came up with it on his own. Well done=no blood. Hmm.

B b b

Bizarre pictures of a bat hanging on barb-wire.
Bless it's heart. It's really sad. The poor thing caught it's hiney or foot, we couldn't tell which, on the barb wire. It's sonar must have been off slightly or the wire was moving in the wind or something. What are the chances? And the poor little thing died there. If only we'd seen it in time. Sigh...

J got sent to the principal's office yesterday because he told his teacher that she wasn't his teacher and couldn't correct his work. What? Turns out that he thought only his ESL teacher was his teacher and that only she could correct his work. I wonder what he thinks he's been doing in Mrs. K's class for the last 8 1/2 months? He comes up with the craziest ideas and believes them to be true. I think we have him straight on it now and he has apologized (I think on his own) to Mrs. K. Sigh...

A is dancing this evening at a local festival. It's supposed to rain. Sigh...

More randomness...this time with pix

Paige Livesay is running a half marathon to raise money for houses for Haiti. She has raised over thirty thousand dollars already and a company in Haiti is going to match her. How ever many houses she raises money for they will match her. If she raises enough for 12, they will donate 12. She is 15 years old. If you'd like to donate you can click on the Livesay blog over on the right under "Blogs I read" and then click on the "Chip in" part of their blog.

I am wearing socks, with crocs, with shorts. But my daughters will be sufficiently embarrased about that so I don't need to be.

Recent conversation with J just before we walked out the door for school;
J-Mom, guess how many shirts I have on.
Me-Three.
J-How you know?
Me-Because I can see the fleece shirt and the t-shirt and I assume you have an undershirt on.
J-Guess how many pant (he never puts the "s" on jeans or pants) I have on.
Me-I hope two.
J-(big smile)Nope, I have tree on. One underwear, one jean, and one pajama bottom 'cause my legs was cold in dis jean.

Recent comment from J-I like it better when I first came here because evewyting was new. Now I do de same ting evewy day. It's not so fun now.

Recent comment from A-I went to the movies with two guys because you said you'd prefer me to do things in a group. (sigh...two guys and one girl does not a group make. Pray for us.)

Recent comment from R-I need to know how to make an invoice for church. (Apparently her church bought some of her books for their bookstore. How cool is that?)

I've debated back and forth about putting this pic on the blog. I think we can all handle it though. The girls had been after me for a while to do something about my cactus plants. We were referring to them as the "male cactus". Honest, they did not look like that when I planted them a year or two ago. Maybe someone sprinkled some viagra around that one. I don't know. I have since added another cactus to the mix and they no longer look quite so male. I think they still need one or two more though.

T was working on something in the driveway and had his jeep open. He finished up and was about to close the back when he spotted this.
Dexter was asleep on the back seat and his tail poked through. Isn't he precious?

I don't know exactly why but I love this pic of Misty. It's just so funny to me. I caught a really good one of her last night when we were putting flea stuff on them. She was so ticked at us and it really showed on her face. It's on my phone and I don't have the ability to get it off. R, email it to me please and I'll see if I can post it. In the mean time, hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Misty again. She has discovered the top of the cabinets. Dexter can't get up there anymore. She has knocked the fern down twice now. This is where she was last night when we tried to lure her down with a treat so we could apply advantage flea control but she knew what we were doing. She was already squinting her eyes.

"Lo, how a rose ere blooming." My beautiful hybrid lavender rose has completely become a knock out rose bush. It sure is pretty either way.

That's it for the pics. I have lots of thoughts rolling around in my head but am not able to get them into proper sentences yet. Lots about J and doing the right things for him and A and doing the right things for her. This parenting stuff is hard business.

I played keys and sang in church last Sunday for the first time since before Christmas. It was weird and nice at the same time. I don't miss having to be there at 8 a.m.

One more recent comment from J after eating something sour-It make my eyes twist. Twist=twitch. Alrighty then.

Lost in translation

J is still reading at a first grade level. His ESL teacher sends home little books for him to read to us every day. The other day I was really busy and he got his book out to read to me and I didn't take a look at the cover. He told me it was about "our sentences". I wondered a little bit what the story was but didn't question him. He began reading, "We use our sentences to learn about the world" (or something like that-I don't remember exact wording). I was thinking, huh? He kept on reading, "I use my sentence of touch to..." I stopped him and asked to look at the book and told him the correct word is "senses, not sentences". He told me no, look, that it said "sentences". I told him again that the word was "senses-we have five senses" but he stumbled on that word through the rest of the little book. Sentences=senses. Did you know you have five sentences? Me neither.

A few random things

There was up to 10 feet of water in the Opryland Hotel. I can't imagine it. The Schermerhorn has a lot of water damage as well as several other historic sites in downtown Nashville. Many school systems were closed again yesterday but I think most are open today. While we had a lot of rain and some small flooding we were blessed to not have to deal with major flooding in our area.

R has a precious cat named Tonka. He is a little guy at about 7 pounds full grown and seems to have had a back injury at some point in his life. He brings toys to bed with him and plays for a while before he settles down. He has ruined his favorite mouse toy so R bought him a new one and threw the old one away. Apparently he got his favorite out of the trash because he was playing with it again. Too funny.

JT is fine and should be home around the first of June. We'll see.

Misty has now taken Dexter's place on top of the cabinets as he can't get up there anymore. I took a pic of her last night that I'll try to post sometime.

A is still job hunting. At least she's still working for my mom. She has her classes set up for her senior year. Zoiks! My baby is going to be a senior.

J talked a lot about his "Haitian mom and dad". By Haitian dad we think he must mean birthmom's boyfriends because she was not married that we know of and stated that the birth father had died before J was born. He said he liked his Haitian mom ok but he didn't like his Haitian dad.

T is busy at work and at home trying to get some things cleaned up around here.

My dad is doing a presentation on Haiti at a church in AL today.

Mrs. H. found out she had a bladder infection after spending nearly 12 hours in the ER.

Just talked to JT's grandfather and the water was flooded over the bridge on their property. That's hard to imagine too.

That's all the randomness I can think of for now.

Adoption moment

J asked one of those questions today. He was getting something out of the fridge and said, "So, why did you adopt me?" He asked it like he was asking me how was your day. I scrambled for some words and prayed a little prayer and said, "We wanted a boy in our family and God led us to you and we adopted you." He asked something else, maybe about why just him or how did we know he was the one, but whatever he asked I know that I said, "Mrs. C sent us some pictures of three boys and we knew you were the one. We chose you." When I said "we chose you" a look of awe and peace and a huge smile spread over his face. Just to know that he was chosen. This adoption stuff certainly puts a new perspective on life. And just think, God chose us to be His children.

We also had a lost in translation moment this evening. J told me that he choked a little on his drink because he took a big "gullet". Gullet=gulp. Mmhmm.

Cold number 5

J currently has cold number 5 since he's been home. Therefore, since he has given me every single cold he's gotten since he's been home (because he's always in my face), I have cold number 5 in eight months. Sigh...I know I gave you strep throat the first week you were home, but you have more than paid me back, son. I have never had this many colds in this short a time period since I can remember. Thank God for zinc.

Today was a beautiful day here once the sun burned through the pea soup that shrouded us this morning. The Cumberland River is supposed to crest tonight at 8:00 at 55 feet. Zoiks! It's in the Titans stadium and supposed to reach the Preds. That would put 1st and 2nd Ave. under about 10 ft. of water.

Please pray for Mrs. H. She has a fever and chills and is at an ER having tests done. Thanks.

TN floods

We are fine here. Lots of rain has fallen and we've seen some bizarre things. Dad was caught yesterday evening on I24. It took them 5 hours to go about 10 miles. My dad and a friend drove up to IN to pick up a vehicle that will end up at a mission in Haiti and on the way home they were caught in the flood area in Nashville. They and the vehicles are fine. At one point our friend saw a police boat going the wrong way on the interstate. We also watched on the news as a school portable floated down the interstate bumping into abandoned cars and then sinking and coming apart. That was very bizarre to watch. It's not every day you see police boats and mobile homes floating down the interstate. Many school systems are closed, metro Nashville has lots of business closings and the rain is still pouring down.

We have a "sink hole" on our property. It's basically an open cave. Our sink hole is full of water right now and looks like a pond. We went for a walk in the rain yesterday evening and there was something that sort of resembled a piece of bread and J said, "Look (which comes out sounding like "Luke") a sandwich is floating!" We assured him that it was not a sandwich. There were some strange things floating in there and a few minutes later we were talking about the lochness monster. J said he didn't see the monster and A quipped, "That's because it's head is disguised as a floating sandwich." Maybe you had to be there but we cracked up.

I'll keep you updated on any more strange water related sightings.