I Keep Saying I'm Going To Post More....

...and then I totally forget to. Been crazy busy a lot of the time around here. Heck, sometimes I get sidetracked just going to get a cup of coffee. We've been doing pretty good, no major issues. Getting things done and doing school and all that.
Gabe is working on the book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons," we had started this book part of last year, and it went well for the first few lessons, and then he wanted nothing to do with it. This time is going much easier and he seems to remember a few of the sounds. He's been recognizing words on the tv, and on dvd cases and books, things like that. We're also doing some of the BrainQuest things that I picked up over the last couple years. We have the 2-3yo all the way up to the 1st and 2nd grade ones. And we just picked up a phonics one usable for ages 2 and up.
Caleb is reading more and more, and seems to be thoroughly amazed every day when he can read something new off the tv or newspaper. Still can't seem to spell, but we're working on that! He's shown an interest in the phonics stuff that I picked up for Gabe, and has asked a few times if he can do them. I'm more than happy to let him, it will help him make more progress. Now I understand what people were talking about when they said that one day it just clicked for their kids with reading!
Caitlin is doing great school-wise, of course she's pretty much always been easier to teach than Caleb or Gabe. Her biggest issue is her attitude and it seems to get the best of her pretty much daily. So, we're working on her controlling her mouth and her behavior.
James is doing well school-wise, and is getting a ton of practical life skills work. He's learning to do things in the garage with dad and grandpa, he's helped with taking beds apart, putting things together, measuring space to make sure things fit. He knows how to do laundry in grandma's front loader now, and is also learning to cook! So far he can make eggs, and of course he's learned to read the packaging on pretty much everything else. He can microwave, make toast, etc. Knows how to make mac and cheese too. It's amazing to see how he changes and matures. Hard to believe he's 13 already!
Mike's doing good at work, he's been working in the smokehouse the last month or so. I think he likes thins job a little better. It's been 2 months since he hit the deer and totaled the car, and just under 2 months since he got the truck. And 2 months since I got my tongue re-pierced. Kind of funny that he called with the news of hitting the deer when I was at the Tattoo Shop.
Myself, I've been pretty laid back about what I've been doing. I gained back about 5 lbs, mostly because I went back to drinking pop again for a while and because of skipping my walks for a couple weeks. But I've already lost 2lbs of that just by cutting out the pop and coffee again. The weather has been up and down lately, and with it getting darker earlier it makes it more difficult to get my walks in. But that's really no excuse, so I'm getting back in the swing of things and even picked up some weights that I can use without even having to leave the house. Can't wait to be down another 60lb!
It's great to be able to measure my loss by what I used to wear as opposed to what sizes I can wear now. I've gone down 2 band sizes and a cup size bra-wise, 3 underwear sizes, 2 shirt sizes, and I can wear jeans now! I used to not be able to fit my largest jeans, which were a size 26-28. Now I can fit a 22 stretch with a little room and a regular 24 with no spandex at all and not have to lay down or suck it in to fasten them. My size 24 skirt that I so wanted to be able to fit into is now WAY too big, and a lot of the other skirts that I couldn't wear are fitting so much better! I even wore my size 20 capri's this summer! I haven't worn them in at least 5 years!
Since the kids are awake now, and it's time to start our school day, I'll have to update more later.kids

New School Year

Not a whole lot going on here, just gearing up for another school year. James is doing 5th grade this year, the twins are doing 3rd, and Gabe is doing 2nd grade. Or more correctly, he's in 2nd, doing Kindergarten age work. But it's better than it was at this time last year. I've gotten a lot accomplished with him. He's also much happier with how things are going now.

Shorty is home, he's doing great. I went and got him on Saturday and I couldn't believe how happy he was to be home. He and Scooby are getting along fine, almost as if he missed Scooby as well as the rest of us.
Gabe is finally feeling a little better, no more fever, but very chapped lips. And the more chapped they get, the more he resists my putting anything on them. They were getting quite cracked for a few days there, but are starting to heal now. Still has a cough, and a bit of a stuffy nose. Hoping that all goes away soon.
And the boys all got haircuts tonight too. Buzzed it right on down lol. This will probably be the last haircut for a while, maybe till Spring.
We're going to do a bunch of Fall stuff for the first couple of weeks for school. Then about Mid-October we will start doing Halloween things. I plan to do studies on the origins of Halloween and then Thanksgiving in November, and then on the origins of Christmas and New Years celebrations. We aquired a book entitled "Holidays Around the World" and we plan to do a number of lessons out of it.

Guess I need to get moving and finish finding the pencils and sharpeners before we start our studies in the morning.

Trying To Catch Up!

Things have been busy around here still. The weather has been good and bad, warm and cold, and is wreaking havoc on Caleb's asthma. Gabe has been having some rough nights and some days, with frequent waking and accidents again. It's more of the one step forward two steps back kind of dance. All in all we are all doing fairly well, not overly sick or anything.
The dryer is still broken, so we are still hanging clothes. We are still waiting on news about our apps for the house we looked at. Mike is back to work full time and is even getting some Saturday work. We did finally get the van window replaced, to the tune of $100. But that still beats paying the $500 deductible.
School is hit or miss some days as far as getting actual written work done. But we always manage to get something read or looked up on the computer, and we are picking 1 thing a day that they want to learn more about and at least getting that accomplished. It takes some of the pressure off, because with it getting nicer out, they want to go to the park and be outside more. It gives us a chance to learn about things that we see or hear outside, or about the plants that we see coming up. We currently have our own plants that the kids are helping with as part of their schooling. That's another thing that is so awesome as of late with how the kids are learning.
Caleb found a pumpkin seed in Nintendo's (the bird!) dish. Neither Mike or I thought that it would grow, but we told him if he wanted to try and plant it he could. Imagine our surprise when a few days later it was already growing and had 2 leaves!! It is now 2 weeks later and the plant is like 2-3 inches tall and has been transplanted outside to its own box. He waters it every other day, and checks it daily to make sure that no critters got to it.
The younger 3 also each got a cactus when we went to Lowe's, they are called "Moon Cactus" and they only get about 5-6 inches tall, which makes them quite manageable. They came in very small pots, and we will be transplanting them soon. The plants are proving very useful in teaching Gabe especially how plants grow and how much water, sun, and nutrients they need. Gabe's learning how often the cacti need to be watered, and when to move them, how not to touch them and all that.
I've been trying to pack things that we aren't using and get rid of things that are too small or won't fit anyone within the next year or so. Just generally de-cluttering and de-junking the house. It's been kind of crazy most days, which makes it that much harder to get on the computer and post.
Hope to post more, not guaranteeing anything though!

Finally Getting Better!

Well the week didn't kill me. He had his meeting at work with the managers on Tuesday, and was informed on Thursday(a week after being walked out) that he had his job back. Friday we went and looked at a house in Hanover, rent to own, awesome house. It's a 3br 2 ba, ranch style house with an attached 1 car garage. And we go Monday to fill out apps for it. A good friend of ours is willing to co-sign on the loan, and will be living with us in the furnished part of the basement.
Adrian went home to his parents on the 24th, after 12 days of being here. They've decided to get back together, and are working on their problems together. He's doing good and will be 2 in a couple of weeks.
The other kids are doing well, same stuff different day. I'm really hoping that we get this place and can move their this summer. It's a really quiet neighborhood, small town and only 20 minutes outside of the city we live in now.
Hopefully more on that later this week.

Crap Just Keeps Hitting The Fan...

Things have to get better instead of worse right? I sure hope so, because this last week almost killed me. Mike got up late last Saturday (he was supposed to work), and called in. Apparently he called in 3 whole minutes AFTER he was supposed to be there. Which sucks, because it put him over on points for work. Which means that he was effectively fired on Thursday, when the paper work caught up. It also means no holiday pay for Good Friday. And we won't find out until later this week if the other manager was able to get him back in to work.
Then, on this Saturday, my rear driver's side window was smashed out by some punks running through the neighborhood. The cops didn't catch anyone, and our deductible is $500. Which of course we don't have since again, no job. A used window will cost about $75, but the salvage yard doesn't have any for my van. Go Figure!
This totally sucks! Not that I mind having some help from Mike, but he drives me nuts after a while. He's been home since about 2pm on Thursday. It's only Tuesday and I already need a break! On top of all that, the heating element on the dryer went out, and of course no money for that either. So I'm (again) hanging clothes to dry. All this crap has to hit at the same time, because if it hit one at a time, I'd be better able to handle it.
It's been chaos around here, getting the plants ready for the garden, doing school and keeping up the house. The kids are doing good, Gabe gives me less of a hassle on school than he used to, as long as Mike isn't getting on him about it. Caleb is doing really well with this math game i got him for the DS. It goes from 1st grade all the way through 5th, and he can do almost everything on it! Caitlin has been doing more and more reading without even realizing it. They've all been using the magnetic letters that I have up on the door. James is working hard on 4th grade work (3rd in some areas), and working hard on doing things correctly the first time so he doesn't have to re-do them later.
Adrian is doing great, talking more and more. It really irks Gabe when he repeats whatever he is saying. His favorite is to say mom over and over like Gabe does, he knows how much it bothers him and you can see a grin on his face when he does it. Little stinker! He also sleeps all the way through the night here (at home he wakes a lot), and is taking regular naps. I still can't believe the difference between him and Gabe at this age. It's sad in a way because Gabe at this age is so firmly in my mind still.
Gabe is also getting more jealous of Adrian. When he is here, Gabe has WAY more accidents, and even refuses to go potty. He frequently tries to push Adrian away from me, and likes to get his attention and put his arms around me and say "MY MOMMY" to him.

Gotta go for now, Gabe is still awake and I need to check the other kids.

Wednesday, but feels like Monday...

Hubby went back to work today. That at least went well. Had my eye appointment yesterday, which did not go so well. My eyes are ok, need a different script for my glasses, that part was fine. He dilated my eyes, and told me that they should be back to normal in about 2 hours.
Yeah. Right. Not.
More like 12 hours at least. Got them dilated at 3:30, and by 11pm, they were still huge! I looked like I'd done some heavy duty stuff, if you know what I mean lol. Went to bed with a ginormous migraine, and woke up being able to see, but with the same headache. Not cool.
Of course, Wednesdays are guitar lesson days, and Adrian's mom also wanted to hang out. No problem, had another friend pick her up, and bring her down to meet me where the boys get their lessons. Things were busy, but it wasn't too bad. Took her and Adrian home with me, and hung out here for a while. Things are going well, Adrian's taking a nap now, and we're gonna keep him for a couple days (or more lol). I still have the headache from yesterday, but it's not quite as bad. Kids are being quiet, Hub's is playing on the net, and I'm thankfully able to post on here, as my net has been up and down since the crash.
I think I have the problem fixed though, downloaded some drivers and reset my modem, and it's been working for the last couple days just fine. Weather here is nice right now, it's about 40 degrees, and all the snow is melting into huge puddles that the kids of course cannot avoid. It even tried to rain for a few minutes this morning.
Have to wait a week for my glasses, but I will also have a back up pair, since we all know I can't help losing/mangling/destroying a pair. Not too bad, I got a full exam, and new bows and lenses for the original pair, plus my new frames and lenses for about $200. Thankfully I only have to do that every 2 years.
Hope everyone else is doing well, and the weather is fine other places too.

C.diff is Negative!

So now we just need the Health Dept, and the Dr's office to both fax a note to work saying that he can go back to work! Unfortunately, the health dept lady is "away from my desk at the moment", and has been all day. The Dr's office is faxing their note, and faxing the health dept as we speak, to get them to fax the note we need.
All it means is that he'll be home tomorrow too, and go back on Wednesday, exactly 2 wks after he got called off work. It also means that he'll get a 3 day paycheck, which will cover his gas back and forth to work and a few groceries. It's great news, and I've been praying that it would hurry up and be done.
Thank you to all who have been praying for us, and have kept us in their thoughts. It's meant a lot to us.
I'm still reloading my computer, and have lost some of my bookmarks forever, but am slowly getting things set back up the way I had them before. The kids are all well, and I'm getting back to normal, just glad things have turned out for him to go back to work. With my stomach in knots the way it's been, I've been living on coffee, and lots of Monster. Hopefully once he is back to work, my stomach will be back to normal.
Gotta go for now, need to finish loading some more things into my bookmarks, and finish loading my music. Got bored yesterday so I took a break from getting it done.

Didn't Sleep Well, Too Much On My Mind

Too much stuff on my mind. Hubby takes in his "sample" today to see if he can go back to work. We can't afford for him to be home for another week, so I'm praying that the meds have worked and he's good to go. Stressful, because he throws off the whole schedule by being here, and is driving me nuts. Also because we need to figure out how we're gonna pay bills and get groceries and everything if he's 0ff for more time. I know that he can take his other week of vacation if he needs to, but I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.
What amazes me is that no one else has gotten what he has. I've been obsessively cleaning for the past week and a half, and rearranging and vacuuming like a madwoman. Not to mention mopping and scrubbing everything, and making kids wash their hands a million and one times a day.
I don't do well with this kind of thing. Or pretty much anything to do with the city, the health dept, important ppl that can come and inspect your house, or the ones that can take your kids if you know what I mean. It makes me nervous, it even sometimes makes me physically ill.

For an example, we had a dealing with CPS about 4 yrs ago. We'd had a friend (my best friend) and her boyfriend staying with us. He's not known for his good temper. Caleb is a very difficult child to put to bed some nights. This was before I started putting him and Gabe to bed together. So I'm downstairs with Gabe, and he went up to tell Caleb to quit jumping on the bed and go to sleep. Well, he's yelling, and Caleb's yelling. So I put Gabe down on the couch, and went to see what was going on. I go up, and the boyfriend was coming down. He said that he swatted Caleb on the butt for screaming in his face and spitting at him. I went up and checked on him, and asked him what happened, and he told me a different story.
Caleb told me that he was jumping on the bed, which I already knew, and BF came in and told him to go to bed. He said that he told BF that he wanted mom and wasn't going to bed. BF told him to lay down, and he screamed in BF's face, and then BF backhanded him, twice, hard across the side of his neck. Well, I'd never known BF to EVER hit my kids, because he knew that if there was a problem to come get me. And I didn't see any marks, so I figured that Caleb was being a drama queen and I'd just check it again later.
Yes, BF knew that hitting my child was not appropriate, yes he knew that there would be consequences if there was even 1 mark on him. So I let Caleb sleep in my bed with me, since he was upset, along with Gabe (who at the time ALWAYS slept in my bed). And I went to bed, figuring on checking it in the morning. (BTW BF was asked, and denied hitting him like that.)
So when I looked in the morning, I was totally shocked by what I saw. A hand print shaped red mark, with petechiae (hemmoraging) , his neck looked like it was bloodshot. And he had a finger splint shaped bruise. And guess who was wearing a finger splint because he had hurt his finger at work? That's right, the BF.

So I called hubby, told him the situation, and when he got home, he asked BF if he'd hit him and he still said no. So we took Caleb to the police station, filed a report, and had them come talk to him. He told the cops that he did indeed hit him, and that he'd actually hit him twice. He knew it was wrong, and was willing to leave without a fight. Since BF was on probation, his PO revoked him, and he spent 5 days in jail. What does that have to do with CPS? Well if you report that someone else has hurt your child, YOU are investigated too. Yup, that's right, you are investigated.
So, being the not great housekeeper that I am, and having been called on myself because my house was a mess, I totally freaked the hell out! I cleaned everything, called my mom and mil, and they came over and helped me clean every nook and cranny. The worker came and talked to the kids, at school, and called me to say that she needed to come out to the house.
So, she came, and looked thru the whole house--even the fridge and freezer--and her only concern was that she thought the birds cage needed to be cleaned. Of course I laughed, and said that if I cleaned the cage more than 3x a week, the bird would not stay sitting on her eggs, and that since I was breeding birds, I needed her to sit.
I told her how nervous she made me, and how I felt about spanking and how all it takes is just 1 person getting mad and turning you in for something stupid (ie house was a mess cause everyone was sick) to make you freak whenever something happens to your kids. The whole experience affects me even now, I don't leave my kids with anyone except grandma, and my cell phone is on the whole time. I freak over little bumps and bruises. I get physically ill, and sometimes even to the point that I throw up. During that experience I lost 16 lbs in 2 weeks, because I was so freaked I couldn't eat, or sleep and kept throwing up.
Long story short, the case was closed, BF got 5 days in jail, and a 1yr no contact order on us and the kids. He and my best friend got married, he got counseling, and they had a child. My godson, Adrian. Even though he's had counseling, he will never be left alone with my kids. Even if I'm home, because I can't trust that he won't hurt one of them again.
Well, this got way longer than I intended, and I didn't plan on partially writing my life story, lol, but I just wrote how I felt and what was on my mind. Comment away!

Going Slowly Insane

Having him home is great, especially if I need help with something or need him to get the kids to do their chores or something. But he's driving me NUTS! It's fun enough to rearrange my schedule because of him being home, because I can get things done that would otherwise have to wait for the weekend. Like we got the front room and dining room rearranged on Wednesday and Thursday, and the basement picked up and looking decent on Friday. Ordinarily I would've had to get it all done in 10-15 minute spurts, over the course of a few days to a week. And had to re-do a lot of that work due to the kids and the dog messing things up day by day. But other things, like the kids getting school done, and the little things like the work I do at the Cup on Mondays and Tuesdays, and the kids guitar lessons on Friday's. I've had to rearrange those types of things, either because he doesn't want to go, or thinks the kids should stay home and do more in the way of school work, or from Dr appts.

Of course I think I'm driving him nuts too. I've been vacuuming at least 2x a day, but when he was working, all he saw was once a day. I mop everyday, but he only saw when I mopped at night, which is only like 2x a week. We do 3-4 loads of laundry a day, but he only sees like 1 or maybe 2 when he's working. There are dozens of little things that we do everyday (when he is working) that he never sees that are driving him nuts.
The kids are going stir crazy too, wanting dad to leave them alone. He has definite opinions on how much school work they should be doing each day, and what they should be working on at any given time. But like I told him, the kids' school time is MINE. He needs to back up and leave it alone. Gabe is doing well, better than he was before. He may not do as much "book work" as the other kids, but he's learning in his own way. The others are doing well too, to a point, but they don't deal well with dad constantly up their butts as far as what they're doing and when. Caleb has a problem with reading, and doesn't do well when pushed (he will cry and get very upset to the point where he sometimes throws up), so I've backed off and used what he wants to know to get him to read more. Mike doesn't back off, he pushes and pushes, because apparently "back off and leave him alone" is NOT in his vocabulary. Hence, one of the reasons that he isn't allowed to do school with them. It's not just Caleb, he does it with all the kids. That's why it's my job and not his.
Anyway, off to find something else to do, since I've actually caught up on emails and everything else on the computer!

It's Monday again!

And boy does it feel like one! This week, we are taking my sister's two kids to school part of the week. That means doing something we haven't done since the middle of December...waking up at the butt-crack of dawn! Today went pretty well, but it was really hard for me to get out of bed. Got the kids up and dressed, fed, and out the door to pick up her 2, all within an hour!
Today's been pretty laid back, just kind of getting things done little by little, no real hurry. School has been going well, but we aren't doing as much book work as I had anticipated. Mostly what we are doing is watching educational programming, and picking something each day that they want to know about and going from there. Like the hawk in the yard. We see, we look up, we learn. Seems to work well for the older 3. Gabe is hit or miss with a lot of it, it all depends on what catches his attention and keeps it for more than a few minutes.
I also did something I thought I'd never do recently. I bought 4 Fisher-Price Kid Tough DVD Players. One for Caitlin, and each of the boys (James got a regular portable dvd player instead of a kiddie one), and an extra for those times that one or the other needs to be charged. We're eagerly waiting for them (YAY for Ebay!!). The main use for them is (supposed to be lol) to watch educational, learning dvd's. We'll see about that though, lol.
The biggest problem that I'm having with teaching Gabe is that if it's geared for his actual age, he can't do it. But even if it's geared toward a pre-k level, he is still having problems attempting to do things. He seems to have a real fear of trying and failing. I think it ties to his public school experience, where nothing was really expected of him. By the time I pulled him in December, he had JUST (after 2 + yrs of public school) started to attempt writing his name, but the kicker is, even when I sat in and watched during school, they weren't making him do anything! He didn't have assignments, or homework (other than have mom or dad "help" you read for 15 min a night). They expected him to sit in his seat with a minimum of noise or redirection. They gave him the same papers as everyone sometimes (other times they gave him paper to draw or pretend to write letters on, or trace letters), but didn't expect him to actually accomplish anything. I think that he figures home is the same way, and I've been trying to impress upon him that we DO have to do work when it is school time. I need suggestions on working with him!!! Anyway, this is turning into a book, and I have kids to chase and do more school stuff with!

Everything seems to be closing...

In the past few months our area has been hit with a whole slew of business closings. There was the GM plant in Janesville, one of the Kerry buildings in Beloit, and before those, we had Beloit Corp, Sears, JC Penney's, and the stores in the Beloit Mall. We also had KMart and Sentry's close, and got word that June 30 will be the last day for the Alcoa Plant here in Beloit.
The latest is that the Cub Foods in Beloit, and one in Madison, and 2 in Green Bay are closing. Beloit's last day will be March 13, and 71 people will be out of jobs. That's on top of all the people that lost out from all the other businesses closing. My husband worked at the Beloit Cub's. He'd been working there 2 years on the day we married. He worked there a total of 9yrs and 3 mos, then left to work at Alcoa. That didn't work out, so he spent 2 yrs looking for a similar paying job to pay the bills, while we made ends meet on me working at McDonalds. Then he got hired in at Tyson, and he's been there 3 years as of the 12th of Feb.
I keep thinking about if he'd stayed at Cubs. He would have been there 14 years in March. 14 years. That's a long time to work at one place. What would he be doing now, if he'd stayed there? He'd be looking for work, trying to find a place that would pay somewhere near what he makes now, so we could make bills. And I, well I'd be freaking out, wondering what the heck we were gonna do about the situation.
It's scary to see all the people that are going to be out of work, especially the ones that work there that we went to school with, and that he worked with. It really opens your eyes to see the numbers in black and white, knowing how the economy already is, and wondering how much worse it's going to get.