Quick Update

Christopher decided this morning to wake us all up by throwing up! YUCK!!! He is asleep on my mother's chair right now. (We had to come here to be here when the Sear repairman came to fix the washing machine.) He was not so patiently waiting for him to leave and now he is waiting for me. Anyway, hopefully this will not travel through the family!!

Update

I have a little update about Brad. He got out of jail last December. I expected him to really cause a lot of problems for me right from the beginning. I have been pleasantly surprised that he has been on his best behavior. He only communicated with me through his mom because he was not allowed to talk to me until I talked to his counselor. I did not talk to her until the very beginning of August. That was the hardest meeting I have ever had to go to. Everything that I thought I had gotten past was brought back to the surface. I have come to the decision that I am not quite as over everything as I thought. I have gone back to talk to the counselor twice. Once alone and once with Brad. (The first meeting Brad was at and he had to do all the talking.) I am getting child support, again another thing I did not think I would ever see. Brad has not tried to see the kids yet. It is part of his parole that he stay away from kids under 18. From what he has said, he does want to see our kids. I am still a little uncomfortable with the idea, but it will be court supervised, so it should be fine. The kids have all figured out that he is out of jail, but Christopher is the only one who is having a hard time with not seeing him. After my first meeting, Christopher said that since I had talked to "Daddy" he should be able to see him too. I have been considering getting Christopher some counseling, but could never afford it. I found a place near our home that counsels kids for free, so we have our first appointment on Wednesday right after school. Cassidy has started telling people that her dad is dead. I have told her that she cannot lie to people about things. She may start counseling also, if I see that she is continuing to have an issue with the "Daddy" stuff. I think that she is angry that her dad is not around to do thing with her, like her friends' dad's do. Matt and Nick have both done special things with her, but she is starting to see that it is not the same. (Nick and Matt both took her to her Girl Scout Daddy/Daughter Dance the past two years.) Barry does not seem to care much about whether or not he has a daddy in the picture. Anyway back to Brad. I have been told that he may not be able to see the kids until at least December and if that does not happen it could take as long as December of 2010 or 11, before he can see them. Anyway, I will let you know how things are going as things happen.

Just wondering

Well, I am a little confused. I have been sneezing like crazy and my nose keeps running, but until today I was not coughing at all. At first I thought I was just allergies, but now I am not so sure. Also, my kids started swimming lessons again this week. Of course, I HAVE to swim too. I wonder if that has anything to do with me feeling sick. Anyway, Cassidy has a horse show this weekend, her first girl scout meeting next Tuesday, AWANA started on Wednesday, Christopher's boy scouts start next Tuesday (after Cassidy's girl scout meeting), and the swimming lessons are every Tuesday and Thursday. I think that I am going to go crazy this month. Maybe that is why I am sick!! :)

August update!

Well, we are officially back to school. The kids are having a good time in school. Barry came home last night and told me that there are 5 school days and the other two days are called weekends. He thought that was the greatest thing to learn. Our church starts AWANA on the 3rd. All three of my kids are in Sparkies! They are getting so big. I am the director of our girls Truth and Training club. Our theme for this year is going to be Women of the Bible. We are starting with Deborah. I am really excited about the year and I can not wait to see the girls again. Have a great Labor Day!!

Horse Show, August 17, 2008

My kids all competed in a horse show today.

Cassidy competed in SHOWMANSHIP, WALK / TROT 9 & UNDER, PONY WALK / TROT, SENIOR HORSE WALK / TROT, NOVICE RIDER WALK / TROT, and ENGLISH SADDLES WALK / TROT 18 & UNDER. She came in second in WALK / TROT 9 & UNDER, fifth place in PONY WALK / TROT (she did better than Connie did), and sixth place in NOVICE RIDER WALK / TROT. She did not place in the others. This was her first English saddle competition. In her SENIOR HORSE WALK / TROT, there were 27 people. Cassidy was the youngest. She had a really good time.



Barry competed in LEADLINE class. Connie (my sister-in-law) lead him around while he tried to guide the horse. He came in first. He was quite excited.



Christopher competed in the WALK class. He rode the horse with no one around (all by himself). He was proud of himself. He was afraid of first. He also got first.



We spent the whole day at the show and the kids cannot wait until they can go to another show!

Summer Update A Little Late

WOW!! It has been a long time since I wrote any update! This has been an interesting summer. I have been babysitting my nephew (Brad's older sister, Kim's son) every other week all summer. Zack is eleven so he is a little older than my kids. Christopher, Cassidy, and Barry are all fine. They love having Zack over every other week. Cassidy and Chris were is Danny Martin's wedding in July. Cassidy was the flower girl. Christopher was the ring bearer. They thought it was great fun. I am still working for my mother. Nick (my brother) is building a deck for her. I am helping as much as I can. The kids start school next week. Barry is in full day kindergarten, Cassidy is in first grade and Christopher is in second. Cassidy and Christopher are in a multi-age class. These classes have about 10 first graders and 10 second graders, so they have the same teacher two years in a row. I really like the program. They do have two different teachers, but the teachers work together some of the time. Cassidy is still riding the horses. She moved up from the Leadline class to Walk/Trot. She is working on the canter part and is almost ready to move up to the Walk/Trot/Canter class. She is also learning to ride an English saddle and bareback. She has not competed in English riding or bareback yet, but she is getting there. She went to the Lake County Fair last Friday and came in first place in the Walk/Trot class and second place (out of 12 people 18 and under) in the costume class. She had a great time. Christopher came in first in the Leadline class and Barry came in first in the "Stick Horse" class. They both thought it was cool that they got to be in a horse show like Cassidy does. She has another show hopefully on Sunday of this week and them she is in a weekend long show on the 22nd-24th. She can not wait. The boys will be able to ride in the show if we go this Sunday, but not the 22-24. On another note, I had a meeting with Brad and his counselor about two weeks ago. It was the first time I had seen or talked to Brad in over four years. It was very hard to get through that meeting. I got the first apology since everything happened and he also told me that it wasn't my fault. (I know I did nothing, but it was nice to hear from him.) He had to tell me some stuff I did not know about. I thought I was over most of that stuff, but, it reopened the hurt and I guess I am not as over it as I thought. He will still not be allowed to see the kids for at least a year. After a year he can petition the parole board and maybe get to see them, but if not it will be at least three years. We will see what happens. I have a meeting with his counselor on Saturday and then another meeting with him and her in about two weeks. Anyway, life is not bad. The kids are ready to go back to school and I am more than ready for them too. :) Here is a picture from the wedding.

I just realized how long it has been since I wrote anything! I have been finishing a semester in school. (I have two classes left to take.) My life is pretty full right now. My kids seem to be going in ten different directions. Christopher has boys scouts and swimming lessons. Cassidy has girl scouts, swimming lessons, and horseback riding stuff. Barry has swimming lessons. Last week was the last week for AWANA so that is one less direction to go. Cassidy competes on the horse. She does showmanship, costume class, trail, and one other class that I cannot remember the name of with a Western saddle. This year she is also learning English riding. She has her first competition of the season next weekend. She is really excited. Last year she came in second in the state for her age group. She was in 6 and under lead line. (The horse was lead around the arena.) This year she could still be in lead line, but she is good enough to ride without a lead line, so she is doing it alone. She loves it!!! Christopher is doing great with his swimming. He is reviewing the guppy class at the Y, but I could have just let him move up to the next class. He has not taken swimming lessons in almost a year. Barry and Cassidy are in their first class. They are both doing great also.

Christopher is still struggling with his ADHD. We changed his meds (again) and instead of helping they are making it worse. We go back to the doctor on Monday to see what we can do next. He is trying so hard and I feel so bad when he ends up in trouble for something I know he can do, and has done, right.

I will try to keep up on this blog stuff, but I cannot promise anything!!