Dang Them!

**I decided I needed to edit this post because I broke my rule about not posting about anybody specific who could possibly see this.

This past year has been full of changes for us, and it turns out, the changes aren’t done yet. Schwan’s is turning out to be a bit more than we anticipated. For the past month or so, Chris has been gone from about 8 am until 10 pm Monday through Friday, and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. That just does not work very well for us and the 6 kids we currently have. So we’ve been exploring other options. But lately, I’ve been wondering why do we even bother?

I get so tired of seeing people do the absolute minimum that they can just so they can continue to recieve welfare. I actually watched a documentary once where one of the single mothers interview said that she has the "right" to be a stay at home mom for her child. I hear so many people complaining about Human Services and what they expect people to do…like work. (Oh, and the term "work" is used very loosely, as that can mean "looking" for a job, which can mean putting on your application that you may have a conflict with jail in the near future) Now, I’m just saying, if you want to be a stay at home mom, you should probably wait to have a child until you’re in a stable relationship with a partner who can support you and the baby.

If it was a "right" for people to stay home with their kids, there wouldn't be anybody paying into the welfare system to support them. I get that it is a very fine line that the welfare departments are walking. Yes, the children absolutely need to be supported, as it is not their fault who they were born to. But the problem with that system would be the reason my youngest 3 children are so close in age. If you lose your benefits because the county took your child away, the only way to get those benefits back right away is to get pregnant again...because then you get benefits throughout your enire pregnancy.

So this brings me back to my point about why do Chris & I even bother to both work? If he quit at Schwan’s and we just both ran the existing daycare, we should be able to get all kinds of welfare benefits, right? And before I get a bunch of hate mail, I am NOT against welfare, or food stamps or any of that. They are all important programs that people have a legitimate need for. But it was never meant to be a permanent source of income for people who just don’t want to work. And I really get irritated when people who are receiving benefits bitch about being expected to actually look for a job.

And so, Chris will continue putting in his time a Schwan’s until one of us can find something better. Dang my parents for teaching me that I actually had to work to earn a living and support my family!

Eight Minutes

So, Tyler & Cameron are at my sister in laws for the week. Fun for them…not so much for me. My last daycare kid didn’t leave until 6, Chris is working until at least 10, we were completely out of milk & I had my online chat for the ADHD class I’m taking. So, the kids & I rushed to the grocery store (as rushed as you can get with a 4, 2, 1 & 1 year old) to get milk …6 gallons to be exact, because I am NOT dragging them all back to the store again this week. We got home about 20 so 7, so I had twenty minutes to unload everybody & everything unloaded, put away the milk & get the kids something to eat so I could be online by 7 for my class.

And I did it. I made the kids a wonderfully nutritious meal of bologna & cheese with potato chips. (I wasn’t in a bologna sort of mood, so I seriously had bread & butter.) But I got to the laptop and logged on by seven, eating my bread & butter, and waiting for the next 8 minutes for the instructor to finally get logged on. She had an excuse…something about having to reboot twice, but still. Even though it wasn’t her fault…if I’d have known I had another 8 minutes maybe I’d have given them some mayo with their bologna or found something else for me to eat!

Parade Fun

We went to our first parade of the summer last night. If we were willing to put forth a little more effort to drive to more small town parades, I’m sure we could have made it to at least a dozen by now. These days, though, making it to FestAg & Kernel Days each summer is about the best we can do.

The kids had a good time. Chris headed up early with Caleb, Amata & Cameron to enjoy some rides, and then Tyler, Baylee & I went up right before the parade with some DQ cheeseburgers for dinner. (Because nothing says I love you like fat soaked cheeseburgers to clog your arteries) CJ was at the parade, too, but his paternal grandmother is in town this week, so he hung out with her for the day.

Caleb, Baylee & Amata all enjoyed the parade, and got more candy than they will ever eat. But now I can throw away the rest of their Easter candy. There was a girl sitting about 10 feet down from us who kept running in front of us and taking “our” candy, but when she tried to take my the kids’ candy corn, her parents finally noticed my expression and made her give it back to our kids and told her to stay by them. After all, it is an unwritten rule at parades that you don’t run in front of people and take the candy thrown to them!

Amata & Caleb had a couple of ride tickets left, so after the parade, we headed over to ride the carousel. While we were waiting for our turn, a woman came up and said, “hi, I’m J**’s mom.” She is Amata, Caleb & Baylee’s biological grandmother. Amata has been in our care for almost 4 years, and I have never seen this woman before in my life. J**’s cousin, who I do know, was also there, so I do believe that’s who she is, it was just kind odd.

She were nice, she just wanted to take a picture of the kids. She did ask a few questions about them, and so I told her about Caleb’s speech and Amata’s FAS. She said that J** was also very aggressive when she was Amata’s age, so according to her, it’s probably just hereditary. (Because I’m sure she never abused alcohol while she was pregnant.) I also couldn’t help but wonder to myself if J**’s aggressiveness started before or after mom’s boyfriends began sexually abusing her, because one might think that could cause some undesirable behavior. I was polite to her, though, and did let her take their picture.

After that it was definitely time to go home, since it was everybody’s bedtime. CJ got back about 10 minutes after us, he was so tired he didn’t even notice when I took him out of his car seat and took his jacket off before putting him to bed. He ended up sleeping until 10 this morning…and then grandma was back around 12 to pick him up again – I could get used to this, but sadly, she heads back to California this weekend. Guess I’ll just enjoy it while it lasts.

Catching My Breath

I’ve been thinking that if I didn’t actually have to write these blog entries, I could probably get a lot more posted. I think of things I’d like to post about all the time, but I just don’t seem to get them into the computer! I also think about getting my house cleaned. Like the whole house all at once, not just one room at a time, but that never seems to happen either. You’d think by this day & age, somebody would have figured out a way to let you get things done by just thinking about them.

Oh well, until that happens, we’ll all just have to put up with my sporadic blogging.

June was a very busy month for us. I think there was only one weekend we were not traveling, and so of course we were at the camper that weekend. I am so glad we decided to get a seasonal site last summer. We don’t even have to move it over the winter, and it’s all set up and ready to go whenever we can get out there. (And they have a baby pool, which is VERY important to me!)

We went to my cousin Tracy’s wedding the last weekend in June. It was very pretty, and my girls had a blast at the reception. My sister Megan hit the dance floor with Amata (A.K.A “Mini Meggie”) and Baylee is apparently quite the little groupie! She would stand on the dance floor for 10 or 15 minutes at a time just staring at them. At one point the guitar player got down on his knee to play to her. I’d love to show you some pictures of it…at one point I thought about bringing my camera, but it was a fleeting thought because I completely forgot to grab it.

On the way home from the wedding, we stopped at the Mall of America to take the kids to Underwater World. They all really enjoyed it, although it was quite spendy. We’ve gone before and I didn’t remember it being so expensive. (And Caleb & Baylee were both free because they are both under 3, so it wasn’t because there were so many more kids that is seemed expensive.) Oh well, it was probably worth it since they all really did get a kick out of it.

From there we went to the Rainforest Café for lunch. They little ones really like seeing the fish & animals there. It was also a little spendy, but that was probably due to the fact that I completely forgot about the gift card I had in my wallet. I was ready to head home after that, but for some reason Chris always wants to walk through Nickelodeon Universe. That’s not a fun area for me to walk through with 5 kids on a weekend…without a stroller. We made it, though, and finally made our way home to pick up CJ from respite care.

Our Forth of July week & weekend was not so very exciting though. Unless you consider 2 children under 3 with very runny diapers & vomiting exciting. I seriously cannot even count how many diapers we had to change. I chose not to count how many towels, sheets and blankets that had to be washed, because I think it would just depress me. Caleb seemed to be better by Saturday, so I decided he could go camping with me, the boys & Amata. We decided to skip heading out to the fireworks show when he threw up at the table.

Fortunately by Monday, they both seemed to be fully recovered. I am slowly, but surely making through that pile of laundry! Here’s hoping the rest of July goes better, and it not quite as busy as June was!

I’m Sorry Cameron

I have suffered from migraines since Cameron was 3 months old. And, so, I have always contributed the migraines to being pregnant with him and delivering him…a delivery with very non-effective pain meds.

But, I started to rethink that. Tonight, at dinner, during the 25 minute discussion with Tyler about him having to eat a meatball before he could have another cheese filled breadsticks…a meatball that was less than 1 inch in diameter…I really began to rethink that.

When Cameron was 3 months old, Tyler would have been 2 ½ years old, about the time he would have started talking with words & sentences. I think that might be what caused the onset of the migraines. And here I've been "blaming" Cameron for all of these years!

What would I do without her

I took Amata with me last week to Mankato, to get some supplies for CJ & take Baylee to Now-Care (She was not exactly looking her best, with yellow gook coming out of her eyes & her nose). From the back seat Amata said, “Mom, you need to follow that white line. Don’t go over the yellow line, just follow the white line.” And then, “You’re doing a good job, mama. You’re following the white line.”

I have no idea who taught my four year old to drive, but thank goodness she was with. Because I’ve only been driving for over half of my life, so I may not have known to stay between the lines otherwise.

I did feel a little bit better when she started telling Chris the same thing on the way to my dad’s last weekend. Apparently, I’m not the only one who needed a little help driving.

And at least it was better than the new phrase she must have learned from TV…as she was getting out of the car with Chris, she told a nearby bird that she was going to “kick some ass.” I realize it is not the worst thing she could have said, but still not something I want to hear coming out of my 4 year old’s mouth!

He's Back

Baby CJ came back last Monday. Quite honestly, I’m not exactly sure why he was pulled again. I’m guessing she relapsed, but I’m not sure. She’s definitely using now, though; she was on a roll on Friday. First I received a phone call from his great-aunt in that morning. CJ’s mother apparently texted his paternal grandmother saying that CJ was with his biological father, so they wanted to make sure that CJ was still here. Then right after lunch I received a phone call from the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department that they were looking for a potential missing child to see if I had him, because she apparently called 911 saying she just ran CJ over.

Last I heard she was in jail, I’m not sure if it’s for the fake 911 call or something else.

Last month at my garage sale, I decided to sell our extra car seats. I figured CJ was with his mom, and it was very unlikely that the county would place another baby with us since we are not wanting to adopt any more children. So, I do take full responsibility. If I would have hung on to that until next year, he probably wouldn’t have come back. His grandmother in California does still want him, so hopefully his parents rights will be terminated soon so that the paperwork can be started for him to go there.

Happy 4th Birthday, Amata

Amata turned 4 on Mother's Day this year. We didn't get to go out on her birthday, though, because we ended up with a couple of sick kids, but she still enjoyed her gifts & ice cream cake.

She actually got to open one of her gifts a day early because her auntie, Meggie Pie, was here for the garage sale that weekend. (And don't even try to call her Megan in front of Amata, she will correct you.) She loved her new Baker outfit and all of the goodies that go with it!

I did end up taking her & Tyler with me to Mankato to get some groceries and a quick trip to the pet store. Once we got home, she got to open her gifts.

She got a stuffed monkey with a blanket...

Some Moon Sand, which needs to be an outdoor toy because it is NOT just like Play-Do that doesn't dry out!

She also got a washable Dora Doodle Mat, however, we did discover that is wasn't the same as the magic markers that will only write on the things it is supposed to write on. These markers show up very well on skin, too.

And what was probably her favorite gift, her own digital camera with an LCD screen to preview the pictures...because she really doesn't care if they ever get developed, she just wants to see them right away. (This is my favorite gift, too, as I'm hoping this would stop her from using my digital camera)

Caleb decided that if Amata was going to start taking still pictures with her new camera, he would be in charge of the video camera. (Notice Tyler in the background, excited as always)

Her cake is actually a brownie ice cream sundae pie from Schwans, but she loved it as did the rest of us, 'cuz it was yummy!

Poor Baylee...she always ends up asleep during cake time. (She was one of the sick kids that day. Cameron was the other, but he still managed to suck down the cake!)

We did make it to the Wow Zone last weekend to finish her birthday celebration for pizza & games. And by now, a couple of weeks since her actual birthday, she has even started giving her correct age when people ask how old she is. Prior to her birthday, she was telling everybody that she was going to be 6.

Sweet Victory

I was at Wal-Mart last night to pick up necessities for the camper. Probably the exact same “necessities” that we bought last year and should still be there, but somehow disappeared since last season. And when I was going to check out, I noticed that they no longer had the 25 items or less signs on the self-check-out lanes. I got to say, it is pretty sweet to think that not only did somebody actually read the comment I left at Wal-Mart.com, but they even did something about it!

I also noticed that the check-out lane that they keep all of the baby formula in is also no longer a 10 item or less lane. Of course they waited to change that one until my babies were all done with formula, but it makes me smile none the less, because that is just crazy to think that any parent buying formula would have 10 items or less.

Now if only I could find the person who keeps buying every single package of hot dog buns…I’d like to have a word with them. Because, seriously, this is the second time in a row that there have not been any at all. I don’t mean they didn’t have any good hot dog buns or any really cheap hot dog buns; I mean there was not one single, solitary package of hot dog buns left in the entire store. (Or at least the bun isle, because I admit, I did not actually look in every single isle.)

The Nerve

About a week ago, we had our annual garage sale. It went really good. Of course, it did rain on Friday but it wouldn’t be a sale without some rain! We were busy the entire sale, we actually set a new record...$1392.00! My share was about the same as usual, but I really didn’t have any big stuff; I think almost everyone else made more than in the past.

There was one thing that really irritated me, though. At one point I looked down the driveway and noticed a familiar person walking up. Familiar in a bad way. It was a former daycare client…one who still owes us quite a bit, even though her children haven’t been here in almost a year. Now she certainly isn’t the first person who has stiffed us on a bill, but I just think it takes a lot of nerve to come to my garage sale and buy my stuff knowing you owe us money! I guess it shouldn’t surprise me, a good friend of hers also owes us money & yet still brings her daughter trick-or-treating at our house every year.

And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the very next day I got a phone call from a previous client who also owes us money (although not a huge amount). I chose not to answer because I see no reason to waste my breath on someone like her, but she did leave a voicemail saying she was looking for daycare for her 4 year old. No mention of the fact that she still owed us from the last time we cared for her daughter over a year ago. And when I didn’t call her back after that, she called again a couple of days later. It makes me think there are probably a few other bridges she has burned with other daycare providers and so now she is trying to find somebody who doesn’t remember her.

I’m just saying that if I owed somebody money that I had no intention of paying, I would at least try to avoid from them.

Peanut

I had discovered that on Jeff Dunham's website, you can sign up to be notified when an item comes in. And since my Christmas gift for Cameron didn't happen, I had signed up hoping it would become available by Cameron's birthday, but that would have been too easy!

However, today I received an email from jeffdunham.com stating the Peanut doll was now available. So I went to the website & purchased one. AND I have received a confirmation email this time, so that's a good sign. I just wanted to let you know in case any of you wanted to run out & buy one, too. (an interesting side note, his actual company is called Brasma...I just that it was a odd.)

So Long, CJ

Well, it looks like miracles do happen. CJ's biological mother actually checked in to a treatment center that allows children to stay there with their mothers. She had checked into a similar one a couple of months, but left early because "the other girls didn't replace the outlet covers after they had used them, and what if he was crawling around with a fork in his mouth?" Personally, I thought a better question might have been why what would a nine month old be doing crawling around with a fork in his mouth, but she never asked for my opinion.

She had to make it there for 2 weeks before he could go with her, and since I had no idea if the people at that center would replace the outlet covers, I wasn't certain CJ would be going until the social worker actually arrived here on Wednesday morning to pick him up. (I learned long ago that nothing is certain in foster care until

it actually happens) As long as she follows her "plan" as prescribed in the chemical dependency assessment and she doesn't relapse she'll get to keep him.

As far as babies go, he was actually a very easy little guy to take care of, once we came to an agreement on exactly how much he needed to be held. But the fact was, he was still a baby, and we seem to have an abundance of little people around here these days.

Since he is not with us anymore, and since some people (Megan) called me a sucker for taking him in the first place, I will share the one picture I did take of him right after a bath.

How could anyone have said no to this little cutie?!