Whatsup

Spring is really here in New England- the mosquitoes have hatched. Relaxing on the front porch is no longer relaxing....Damn insects. Regardless, The Other Mother and Bobby have purchased and planted flower boxes and have done a super job sprucing up the yard. This weekend my oldest, Alex, is best man at his friend's wedding. Wedding??? When did they grow up? Where was I when this happened? 

Bobby is on the cusp of adolescence. Being more secretive of his school life, quietly testing the limits: not responding to routine requests and selective deafness, for example. All age appropriate. Yesterday he even went to a school friend's house to "hang out".  He walked there, played Wii, and had even had a nice time... Peer relations are a challenge for Bobby. He'd rather hang out with the grownups to monitor what we are doing and saying. To just "go be a kid" is very hard for Bobby.

James is on his second unsupervised weekend visit with his bio-family. Last week's visit did not go so well.  He stayed up all night playing video games with one of his brothers, then missed his gym workout with his mentor, then was not at home and nowhere to be found when it was time to be picked up by his Social Worker on Sunday evening. James' Social Worker did some CSI investigating about the baggie of cash we found. James claims the $300 bucks was from his Mom's house - but apparently Mom looked vacant and confused about this and did not corroborate James story.This weekend's visit was a second chance. We'll see how it goes.

For the past week have been providing respite for a teeny-tiny one year old boy, Logan,  while his foster family traveled far-far away for a long planned extended vacation. The twin bed was dismantled and a crib assembled in it's place. It seemed like the right thing to do: to say YES to caring for a little baby.

Our hearts and home are still a little raw after the emotional storm of caring for Manny. Working through our mixed feelings, of anger, sadness, grief, worry. So many feelings. Helping to transition and to heal our hearts by lovin' on a little one sounded like a good idea.  It sweetened the pie when they assured us the baby, Logan, was a short term placement and that he slept through the night - which he does.

A few days later our Social Worker called again - this time needing to place a sibling group of three under the age of four.... You'll be happy to know we have some boundaries and have not completely lost our minds....So we said YES to the just the youngest - a sweet little 15 month old girl - Natalie. Don't worry - We have a plan to visit regulary with her two siblings. She is totally grooving on having some individual attention and not having to compete with her older, much needier sibs. Next week we'll have a better sense if she is going to be placed with relatives or if Natalie will stay with us for a while...

Love to chat but I had better finish baby proofing the house. Quick.

Not Everything Sucks

Despite what you may have heard, not everything sucks. In fact, the one on the left doesn't suck at all. I tried and tried and yet it stubbornly remains clogged. I don't even want to know with what.  I grabbed the upstairs vaccuum (yeah we have 2 cats and 3 dogs and a million kids so I have one on each floor because lugging vaccuums on wooden stairs is equally ridiculous and dangerous)  I cleaned my floors with a vengance.  If anyone or any animal dares to pee, poop, puke or leave a clump of fur or muddy sneaker prints on my floors I will SCREAM. I have had it with all the living things in my house and their disprespect of my space.....I want them all gone. Now. ARGHHHH.

I put all three WET muddy dogs in the car (yes...it has been raining, too!) and spent an hour vaccuuming and scrubbing...Thank Goodness for leather seats in the van which will wipe clean - in theory, at least.

The timing was perfect:  I was just finishing when the kids came home from school.  I would not let them inside, but directed them to the Mom-Mobile (our Sienna mini-van), grabbed my purse and off we all went to get McD*nald's strawberry-banana smoothies with whipped cream...  YUMMMMMMMMMM. We aimlessly drove around until our smoothies were gone and my floors might be dried. It was worth blowing the gas ($3.99 a gallon here folks!) driving around town.

Manny is still hospitalized and will remain there for quite some time. We have not been asked to visit him by either the hospital or social worker and have not received any calls from him.  Our understanding is he will go to residential and will stabilize there for some time before they try family living again for this guy. So very sad.

James goes home to Mom this weekend for his first unsupervised weekend visit with his Mom. Which is great and all - especially since it is Mother's Day weekend.  However, I hope his brothers are all crashing somewhere else this weekend. James' Brother was recently in the paper for yet another arrest. This time a handgun and crack and tools of burglary...nice.

Two weeks ago James shows up with a new ipod nano...and several weeks prior to that he has an ipod touch (which he claims he traded for his little ipod...All five of  his "explanations" are hinky and don't make any sense.  This past weekend, I found a quart size zip lock baggie just sitting behind James' alarm clock with $310.25 in it. Large bills...rolled coins with a strange bank account # on them.....Hmmmm. I didn't even bother asking where he got the money. We would just get a vacant, confused, disjointed, nonsensical answer...followed with "I dunno..."

With the advice of a Social Worker, I just took the money and am waiting to see what he says about it...Hasn't said squat since Sunday when I scooped it. His Social Worker was supposed to come here today to deal with it - but went home sick and has called and rescheduled for tomorrow.

Whatever...