Discrimination

A couple of months ago, while on a trip to the pet store (because, seriously, the kids like the pet store more than the zoo!) Cameron was looking at the ferrets. I wasn’t with, so I don’t know exactly how the conversation went, but the result was Chris told Cameron that he could get a ferret if he saved $120.00. I guess Chris forgot that Cameron’s birthday was coming up. So, even before the big garage sale next month, Cameron had his $120.00. Can you feel the joy & excitement oozing out of me? I was trying to get rid of the animals we currently had, not add to them. The only up-side is that the cage stays in Cameron’s room…let’s just hope he doesn’t escape.

So, last week, Chris took most of the kids (for some reason he didn’t want to take CJ) to the pet store in Mankato to pick out a ferret for Cameron. Meet Hunter…

I guess Hunter is actually deaf. Don’t ask me how exactly you go about figuring out that a ferret is deaf, but that’s what they said. And because of that fact, he was half price. Now, anybody who knows me knows that I am all about getting something on sale, so I am not complaining. I’m just curious. Who really cares if the ferret is deaf? It’s not like we have to learn sign language for a ferret, or that he won’t be able to come when he’s called…because although I haven’t studied up on them, I’ve never heard about training a ferret with voice commands. So why do they feel the need to lower the price for him? Is he going to be any less of a ferret because he can’t hear us? If they hadn’t told us he was deaf, we would never have known. The kids seem to love him whether or not he can hear.

Thank Goodness for EBay

It would probably be an understatement to say that I am kind of “chesty”. And I am not bragging when I say that, bigger is certainly not always better. I cannot just walk into a store to buy a bra, I have to order them online, which gets tricky when finding a comfortable, nice fitting bra; especially ones that cost less than $80.00. But a few years ago I found “the one”. It fit well, was comfortable, and most importantly, cost under $30.00. It’s been a while since I’ve ordered any, and it was definitely time. So I went to the website I get them from and searched for my size, and the bra wasn’t there. I searched by the brand and found the bra, only to discover it is being discontinued and they no longer have my size.

I was crushed. It literally took me years to find that bra! So I spent too much time scouring the internet trying to find anybody that had some left. I searched using the brand & style number and was having no luck. So I just searched for the brand and the size and there it was. A power seller on EBay who had 24 left, and they were only $20 each with free shipping. I almost bought all 24 of them, but spending $500.00 on bras all at once, so I limited myself to 10…for now.

Belated Easter

We were actually able to celebrate Easter on time...I was just not able to get any pictures posted on time. And before we get to the pictures, I just need to stress that the Easter Bunny does not normally bring such big toys for Easter. But, you see, (as I explained to the boys before Easter so they wouldn't think they got shafted) he was out shopping on Black Friday and came across a deal too good to pass up. And since it was more of a summer type of toy, Santa Claus really couldn't use them. And with Caleb's birthday in October, it really wouldn't even work for birthdays. So, Easter it was. Luckily, I also got great deals for the boys, too, so they didn't feel too bad.

We did manage to get the eggs colored before the big day...barely. These pictures were taken around 8:30 Saturday night. Cameron showed the little ones how before they tried their own eggs. Tyler was very excited about coloring the eggs.

Baylee has to wait until next year to color her own eggs, but she was awesome at supervising the others.

It was a pretty late night for the Easter Bunny, but he was able to get all of the real & fake eggs hidden, as well as the baskets. He did a pretty good job at hiding them, too. One of the daycare kids just found one of the fake eggs today, and there is still one more missing. (Notice, I referred to the Easter Bunny who cannot remember where the eggs were hidden as a male.) All of the kids enjoyed finding the eggs.

That is an egg in Caleb's hand, it just happened to be right next to the TV where SpongeBob was on.

Although, obviously, Tyler was the most excited.

The baskets were pretty well hidden, but eventually they all found their loot. Tyler had to be threatened with not getting a basket again before he got off of his behind to go outside & look. He did admit it was worth the effort, though.

The little kids hung outside for a while after that to try out their new wheels. There were some crashes. The first one recorded shows the blue truck running into the pink one, and some people complain about woman drivers. (There was a rumor going around that the pink truck may have actually run into the Suburban before this, but there is no evidence to support that rumor.)

I hope you all had a great Easter!

Happy Birthday, Cameron

It was Cameron’s birthday on Friday…which is actually the exact same day he was born. It has taken 11 years for his birthday to fall on Good Friday. I specifically remember this, because in case you were wondering, there is absolutely NOTHING to watch on a hospital TV on Easter Weekend.

His birthday didn’t start out all that great. I had to go to pick up the tables I won on Ebay for my garage sale (I saved over $60 than if I had bought them new, and got an extra 8 foot table!), and I also wanted to get to the Social Security office so that I could finally apply for Caleb & Baylee’s new cards, because in case I forgot to mention it, a mere 6 months after their adoptions were finalized I finally received Caleb’s new birth certificate. I actually went alone, leaving Tyler & Cameron to watch the little ones. I might have felt bad, but I did ask them if they wanted me to take one of the babies with me, but they said no (I believe it was the dollar signs running through their heads.) I walked in the door to hear Tyler telling Cameron how much money they made. The house was a disaster and I had a bunch of papers on the table, which one of the kids had gotten into (okay, so it did cross my mind to put them away before I left, but for whatever reason I didn’t. Let’s pretend I did it on purpose to test them), and they did not change a single diaper the entire time I was gone – Baylee was soaked and the other two weren’t much better. So, after I made them change all 3 diapers, we had to have a little chat about what I expected to happen when I paid them to watch and care for the babies…primarily that I expect them to watch and care for the babies.

There was one positive note. I had to use the trailer to get all 5 of the tables, which is fine…as long as I do not have to back up. Even if I wanted to try at this point, I wouldn’t be allowed since the last time I tried to back up with a trailer I put a big dent in Chris’ pretty red truck. I get the whole theory of backing up with a trailer, but it never works for me. Since Chris was working, that left me in a little bit of a pickle of how to unload the trailer & remove it from the Suburban so we could meet Chris for birthday fun later that afternoon. Luckily, when I got home, there was a message from some friends of ours asking if they could borrow the trailer. I called them back right away and said they were more than welcome to use it…as soon as they could help me get backed into the driveway & removed from the truck.

Once that was done, and the kitchen was picked up a little, we headed off to meet Chris at the WOW Family Fun Center. They have an arcade, mini golf, laser tag & bowling. The cool thing about their arcade is you actually put money onto cards, similar to a hotel key, and they swipe it to play the games, and that keeps track of the tickets earned. Cameron’s favorite game is the Big Bass Fishing game, so that is where he went first…and proceeded to with the jackpot of 1000 tickets. That pretty much made it the coolest birthday ever for him. He won a jackpot on another game, too, although that was only 183 tickets. Caleb had a blast pretending to drive the car game, and Amata found a dancing game, so she was all good. We had some pizza, the boys played laser tag, and we then we headed home to enjoy some cake & open gifts (after I ran to Wal Mart to buy a cake and then went home to quick wrapped the gifts, because I’m very organized like that).

Tyelr was especially excited about singing Happy Birthday to him.

I think he had fun. And luckily, Caleb & Amata were there to help him open his gifts, as that can be a very daunting task to do alone. He got a PSP game, a jacket, a Giga Ball (Tyler was a little jealous about the giga ball.) and a Struxx kit to make several different electronic animals, which he spent the next 3 days putting it together.

It is such a simple word...only two letters...only one syllable...and yet at times it can be so hard to say. Granted if you ask my kids, they'll tell you that I say it all the time. And I would agree, I really don't have much trouble saying no to them, or to the daycare kids, or to telemarketers. But when someone I know, or kind of know, asks me for help, if I can help, even if I really don't want to, I just can't seem to say no.

So, about a month ago, I got a phone call from somebody looking for daycare for a 9 month old. Since I already have a infant part time & a full time infant who will be starting back next week, I'm technically full. But they went on to explain that it was for an emergency "relative placement" foster child, and that is should only be for a couple of weeks because the mom was supposed to be going to a treatment facility that allows the children to join their mother. And so, since the part time infant's mom was actually on medical leave for several weeks, I said I would watch him.

You'd think I'd never been involved with foster care before! I mean, really, the last time they placed a child with us and said it would only be for a couple of weeks, he ended up staying with us for a year and five days. So it really shouldn't have surprised me when mom failed to go to treatment. I mean, if anything, I should have felt a little badly for not warning the aunt that it rarely goes as quickly as anyone hopes.

The main problem with that was probably the fact that this aunt is a single mother, who has a full time job including most Saturdays and her youngest child is almost 12. She was not exactly wanting to have an infant for an extended period of time. So it really shouldn't have surprised me when the phone rang about 2 weeks ago with the caller id showing it was Human Services. Although I did have a WIC appointment coming up, so maybe it was just my reminder call??? Of course not.

It was the social worker who handles the cases in my county involving children 8 & under. He said he had an infant in a relative placement in town that was not working out, and was wondering if we would consider having him placed with us. My brain said NO...what kind of crazy person who already has 5 children, 3 of which are between 18 mos & 4 years old would even consider taking on a 9 month old? I guess that would be me...because my mouth said yes.

He did say that they were still trying to find another relative to take him, although it was kind of unlikely. Which meant there was still a chance we wouldn't get him. And when the social worker didn't call back for 5 days, I was really starting to think we were off the hook. And then he called last Thursday and said he was about 99% sure the child would be placed with us. And then he called Friday and said that he had officially placed the child with us as of that morning, and since he was already here for daycare, he'd just send out the paperwork.

And so, in addition to our own Caleb, we now have a Baby Caleb staying with us. We've decided to call him CJ to avoid confusion. The only good thing is that he paternal grandmother does want to adopt him, but she lives in another state right now, so she can't have him unless the parents rights are terminated because the parents have to be able to visit him while he is in foster care. So, I can hope that it is a short term placement, in all likelihood, it will be several months so we just have to remember that at least we will NOT be adopting him!

I'm not planning to post a picture of him since he is in foster care, and isn't going to be a permanent member of our family, so you'll just have to take my word for it that he is absolutely adorable!