Korbin's Sick and Miserable

Korbin was just fine, a tad emotional but thats typical on a no meds (ADHD)day for him. We were at Brandy's and he was running around and acting normal. For dinner he had two sloppy joe's (his favorite!) and went to play. A bit later Kirke found him laying on the couch in Brandy's living room. Kirke carried him into the play room so he could watch TV while we played Wii.

A short time later Kirke checked on him and he was sleeping and hot. We got him home and found he had a 103.8 fever. Both boys always run very high fevers so no need to worry yet. A little Motrin and a good nights sleep should help.

Here he is at Brandy's last night.

This morning the same thing. His temperature zips right back up over 103 every time the Motrin wears off. Poor little guy! It wouldn't be so concerning for us if he didn't have his kidney troubles but that always makes us a bit more cautious when he get sick. And I must admit that the whole H1N1 crap worries me too.

And here he is sleeping in my lap today. Poor little guy.

~Till They All Come Home~

Baby Mama Drama in a Family Fued Sorta Way

"Jane", the birth mother of the baby we're adopting in March, is having some problems. She was living with my mom and they had some issues so Jane has moved out. We don't know who she and her two girls are living with or where exactly they are living. I spoke with her briefly yesterday. She assures me that things won't change for us and the adoption because of the problem with my parents but it makes me nervous. I'm also worried about the girls. She seems confident in our abilities to raise this baby and that we are the best fit for this child.

We need happy thoughts and prayers that this all turns out alright. We are still confident that Jane will follow through with the adoption I'm just concerned about her taking care of herself, the girls and my baby.

Tayton told me two or three days ago that we were going to have to teach him to make bottles so he can feed the baby since he's the first one up in the morning! Too cute! Korbin chimed in to say that he also needed to learn since he was the last to fall asleep at night. They are excited to have a baby brother/sister. I'm excited too and so is Kirke I just hope the time goes by quickly and everything goes without a hitch!

~Till They All Come Home~

Help A Blogger Out

Manic Mariah has an equally manic teen aged daughter who wants to travel to Japan and fight off dolphin killin fishermen on her surfboard. True story! So she talked said daughter into staying home in the good ole USA until after graduation. Now all Mariah has to do is raise money for the cause. She's not asking for your money, she simply needs us to win free Ugg boots....Now for some people that might be a little painful but really, it's not so bad. Free is good!

~Till They All Come Home~

Adoption in the Eyes of an 8 Year Old

I just asked the boys if they knew what adoption meant and Tate replied "yeah its when you buy a baby!"

No baby, that's illegal!

An Innocent Moment

I'm sitting here minding my own business. Well actually I'm doing language arts lessons with Korbin and Tayton is on the floor in front of me working on math.

Out of the blue Tayton turns to me and he says "what does presence mean"?

I was confused because I didn't know if he meant "presents" or "presence" so I said "what do you mean"?

He looks at me with his innocent little face and very serious look of wonder and says: "like if someone says "never scratch yourself in the presence of a lady".

I'm struggling not to laugh and he says what does that mean? At first I wasn't sure if he meant the scratching part of the presence part because I was so caught off guard. So rather than answer I asked him where he heard that. He said "on Home Alone".

So I went on to explain the word presence instead of how to act in front of a lady!!

Thanks a lot Macaulay Culkin!

~Till They All Come Home~

Hinder & Saving Abel, Cracker Spelling and Hunters Bags

Each year the Fort Leonard Wood hosts a concert. Last year we went to see ZZ Top and Bowling for Soup. I love love love me some Bowling for Soup! This year we got Hinder and Saving Abel!! I love Hinder and only knew a couple of Saving Abel's songs but I loved it!

I'm too old to be so close to the stage and deal with the nonsense of others. I was "accidentally" groped, fondled and even dry humped more times in that 2 hour concert than I have ever been in my life! And I yelled at so many people and made use of my being a bossy, pushy witch more than my share of times. It got to the point that I was intentionally taking up more than my one square foot of space just to be able to block people who thought they could squeeze in a little closer!

Hinder

Here's Saving Abel

Buying a concert ticket is like buying permission to reach back into your closet where you stashed all of your bad 80's clothes and squeeze yourself into them and think you look great!

Here a few examples. Since were stuck so close to others I only got a few pictures this year as opposed to last year when I could actually turn my head from where I was sitting.

Yep the blue leopard print, skin tight skinny jeans!

And then we have the horrible zebra-ish print stretchy capri pants with a too short skirt and sneakers. I'll be finding me a pair of these so soon!

These three girls were some of my favorites! First is the hot pink skinny jeans with white sneakers and a stripped sweatshirt...weird. And Then the girl in the middle with her skinny jeans in red and flip flops...interesting. But their buddy takes the cake with her mini skirt with a tulle tu-tu under it and sneakers.

Here's a picture of some oddly dressed people. Weird, t-shirts and tank tops and blue jeans that aren't tapered, weird. Or hot! I think HOT! Aren't we cute? If only I could've fit into some skinny jeans.....wait I still wouldn't have!

Enough of that nonsense! Here's what we've been up to on the home school front.

I found these great Scrabble Cheese-It's at Wal-Mart (don't judge me, it's the only store within 30 miles. And even then there's only a K-Mart. The nearest Target is 70 miles away!)

The kids were each given 30 crackers and had to make 5 words and write them down. It was fun to see them asking for the letters they needed to complete their words from their friends. We had another homeschooling family over for group day.

We're studying the Revolutionary War right now and have this awesome book:

It inspired us to make these really cool hunters bags like they used during the Revolutionary War to hold their ammunition and the kids think probably a sandwich for lunch!



We also made these cool pierced tin lanterns yesterday.

Tomorrow is another group day and I'm gonna have my camera charged this time! We did other activities last week and I missed out on pictures because mine and Tayton's camera's were dead!

~Till They All Come Home~

We had a great weekend with great friends, great music compliments of Saving Abel and Hinder, good food and drinks. Tons of laughing & I made a fool of myself!

They Are Gone

With the move to New York in our future and the fact that I'll be spending about a month in Michigan with my family waiting for our baby to arrive, we had to let go of the chinchillas.

We loved them but knew that they couldn't live in a tiny travel cage for a month while we're in transition. Kirke's going to be taking the dogs and going on to NY to get us a place and get settled in a tad while I go to the last few baby appointments before he/she is born.

It was a tough decision but I guess it was the right one. We placed a free classified ad online and we got one call and they were sold. The family has an 11 yr old and 6 yr old boy as well as a 1 yr old girl. The chinchilla's will be loved and we'll miss them terribly.

~Till They All Come Home~

I Think It's A Girl

I think this baby is a girl. People say they carry differently with different genders right?

Well I'm certainly carrying this baby differently than the first two! It's gotta be a girl!

~Till They All Come Home~

Come Inside My Head

It's been a crazy few days inside my head. Ever since we decided that we are 100% sure that we want to adopt this sweet baby, life has been interesting. We're looking at things a lot differently. We are very very excited!

We're hoping for a little girl. We'll be happy no matter what but can you imagine adding a little girl baby to our wild house! And imagine being the baby sister with two brothers in this family! My mind just keeps going and going! My mind is consistently going back to thoughts about our baby.

I figured it was just me who was thinking about our baby this much but tonight Tayton made a comment about the baby. I can't remember what it was but it was something happy cause I can remember the feeling of knowing this is the right thing for family. Earlier today he giggled and asked "what if we end up with more than one baby"! It was cute.

Kirke is happy too and he's just quieter about everything. He has been telling his friends at work and that makes me happy. Kirke is such a good daddy and he loved having babies and it won't take him long to fall in love with this baby just as he did the boys!

Korbin is just Korbin. He's funny and optimistic. He says that "babies are adorable and so cute." Both boys will be great with a baby around!

Jane is doing well. She and I talked for a while the other day and there is no doubt in my mind that she is 100% in this. She doesn't consider this her baby and we already talked about the birth plan! She wants me in the room because she wants them to hand the baby to me when he/she is born. We still have lots to do to get things legally ready but I feel like we're on track.

~Till They All Come Home~

Here's Something to Think About

We didn't know we'd ever have the opportunity to have another child. So we didn't think we'd ever get to name another child.

What to do with the extra names in your head that you didn't expect to get to use?

Name a pet of course!

Some may be relieved we won't have be naming our baby Allie or Sawyer. But I'm a little sad.

Allie

Sawyer

My Advice is to never name your dog something you would possibly want to name a future kid. Even if you THINK you're done having kids.

Now we're starting fresh with the name game......

~Till They All Come Home~

Wonder if He Still Loves Yellow?

We went fishing yesterday. We decided to try out a new pond because we weren't having any luck where were started.

We got to the pond and Tayton decided he needed to use the restroom (tree). He was only about 10 ft from where I was fishing. He saw a hole in the ground and thought that would be the perfect place to pee.

These guys disagreed!

He started screaming and running and flailing his arms. I dropped my pole and I knew right away what was happening. When I got to him he had four yellow jackets on the back of his shirt and some on his pants. I ripped off his shirt and we threw it down. Kirke managed to get to us and lifted Tayton up and I ripped off his shoes and pants.

Meanwhile Amber was grabbing her bee sting/snake bite kit from her van.

Christian came over and helped us get the venom extractor onto his ONE (that's right only one actually managed to sting him) sting in the middle of his back!

(these two pictures were taken in July when Christian got into a nest of something or another)

He spent the rest of the time in Amber's van in his boxer shorts watching a movie!

Yellow WAS his favorite color............

~Till They All Come Home~

Surprise! We're expecting!!

Wait a minute...... I had a hysterectomy nearly 5 years ago. Oh yeah and Kirke had a vasectomy two years before that because me+pregnancy=horrible! I didn't handle being pregnant so well. so while we always wanted more than two kids we knew that I would not handle another pregnancy especially with two naughty little blond boys running around.

So you are probably wondering what on Earth I'm talking about then right?

Well we have a family member who has found herself in a situation with an unexpected pregnancy. There is no way she can keep this baby as she struggles to make it work with the two small children she already has.

My mom has been the communication link between me and this family member, we'll call her Jane just to keep things straight. Mom told Jane that we would like to adopt the baby. Jane was very happy about this and has already told her doctor that she is giving this wonderful gift of being able to add to our family!

Our baby is due in March. Jane and Kirke and I will be communicating and working together to find an adoption facilitator in their area that will help us with the process. Due to this being a direct placement adoption between relatives things will be handled a little differently than a regular adoption.

I'm excited, and scared and most of all grateful that Kirke and I will be adding to our family and the boys are very excited about having a baby brother or sister! I'm scared that Jane might change her mind. That's really the only thing I'm afraid of at this point. I'm praying Jane is taking care of herself. She is giving us a wonderful gift and I'm certain that she will do her best to make sure this child healthy.

We weren't expecting this opportunity to come up and many of you are probably shocked by this news but we're excited and happy and we know in our hearts that this is right for us!!

**Please reserve any negative feelings/thought/opinions for somewhere else. We have been talking this out for a few weeks now and come to a decision that we believe is right for our family. Thoughts, prayers, well wishes and other positive comments are always welcome and much appreciated!

~Till They All Come Home~

We're Still Kickin

Just wanted everyone to know that we got back on track and homeschooling is going great now. We remembered everything we love about it and we adjusted and we're back full force!! Which also means I'm super busy and there's lots happening around here. I catch everyone up soon.

~Till They All Come Home~

Room For Rent

For Rent: A newly repurposed remodeled home. This classic stone covered home is perfect for anyone hopping along looking for a new place to call home. The view from this home is fantastic and it will be perfect for one or two occupants and possibly a few little ones. It's simple yet elegant and placed snug in an up and coming area. The neighborhood is very secure and the home comes with it's own security system. We are an equal opportunity housing for toads manufacturer .

This is the toad house we made today after visiting one of my favorite blogs here.

Then I found out she was guest blogging here with homeschooling tips. Her tips were for homeschooling a teen but still apply to all. That post led me here , We decided we could do this!

And then we did. And now I have this rock house front of my house that is the perfect home for a little toad or three! We had fun fitting the rocks together to cover the outside of the flower pot.

Then they added their own little touches to finish it off and this is the finished product!

~Till They All Come Home~

Avoiding Alzheimer's

Kirke is home for lunch and we're watching TV. A commercial for an organized walk supporting something or other just came on and Kirke turned to me and said:

Kirke: There's an Alzheimer's walk coming up here I heard about it on the radio.

Me: Oh really? When is it?

Kirke: I don't remember.

I busted up laughing and he didn't realize why at first.

I'm pretty sure this is a cause we REALLY should support.....

~Till They All Come Home~

Now I Remember but Did I Forget to Mention That?

I got a little side tracked and thought for a moment or twenty that the reason we were homeschooling was solely based on the whole sexual assault thing. I had forgotten it was something we had always considered and even actually figured we'd end up having to do one day. The reason being that my children have a problem fitting into the cookie cutter student mold. Most types of children can find their fit in public schools but with Tayton's Sensory Integration Disorder it makes things hard. One day he might be fantastic at one thing but need major improvements in other and the next week it could be completely opposite. This makes it tough on the teachers, other students and especially on Tayton.

After the rough start we had with homeschooling last week I needed a little time to regroup. I realized that what I did wrong was pushing the kids too hard too fast and forcing them to conform to how I expect them to learn. I put work books in front of them and said work. Well DUH of course that doesn't work.

We took Thursday and Friday and slowed things down and did some new plans. Today was the first day of the new plan and it was perfect!

We spent the morning at the eye doctor (health). We came home the kids played outside for a bit while we made lunch. After lunch we colored maps (geography) and talked about all of the states the four of us have been. All of our maps are colored differently. It was fun. We also checked out the new states the boys (Kirke and I already have them colored) will get to color when we drive out to NY in March.

OH did I forget to mention that? We're on orders. We'll be leaving the great state of Missouri and heading back to where Kirke and I met 11 years ago. Ft Drum, New York! But that's another story. We can't wait to get back up there and show the boys that part of our past! Our first home as a married couple, where we met, where we spent time together and so much more!

Ok so back to school. We played a math game instead of focusing on work sheets. We did language arts workbooks and they were okay with it. Then we went to the playground and the kids wandered down to the skate park where they had a blast running up and down the obstacles.

I think I can remember what works for us. Again the 4 month break was a bit much it's going to take some time to get back on track!

~Till They All Come Home~

A Four Month Summer Break is a Bad Bad Plan

I honestly had no idea how much information kids lose over the summer. We finished our required hours and grade level work at the beginning of May. We had it all set so I figured "no big deal we'll just start our summer break 3 weeks earlier than the local public school".

I AM SUCH AN IDIOT!

I'm pretty sure we should have to pass a common sense test to home school our kids. What I mean is "ignore my college education for a minute please" because obviously I didn't use it when making these choices! I figured we'd stay up on our skills over the summer but who was I kidding? If I'm not held accountable for what we're doing then not much is gonna get done!

During the school year we document EVERYTHING! We keep good records so when the rat bastards who screwed my kids over in the public schools here decide to be pricks and come knocking on my door for educational neglect I'll make a fool of them! But my plan for summer was just to wing it. We did some educational stuff. Some. Obviously not enough. The only thing that didn't seem to lose out was Tayton's reading abilities. He's still a good little reader and his comprehension is impressive. But his math is screaming for some serious review and brushing up on skills he'd once mastered!!

Korbin has decided he doesn't know how to do anything. He's taking forever just to fill in a simple 100's chart. Today I decided we'd try a little addition and see if maybe he's just bored with the 100's boring review crap. THANK GOD that was the case! I thought we'd be starting back over at the beginning of kindergarten instead of first grade! He's good and in time will be right on track and realize that taking all day to do one assignment is a bad plan.....for all of us! He's still reading, well learning to read, pretty good. He's lost some of his sight words but he'll get back on track. Right?

As for me i almost lost my mind by day 3 but after taking a chill day to relax, review and reevaluate our plans I think we're gonna be alright.....I think.

Lesson learned: More than two weeks break is probably too much!

~Till They All Come Home~

Old Friends New Committments and an 8 Year Survival

We made the most out of our leave (vacation) time. It all started with a camping trip to Arkansas with good friends of the present. Then we sent our boys off to Texas with my in-laws who joined us on our camping trip. From Arkansas we drove to Chicago. Wait let me back up. We were supposed to take the train, the day after we got home from AR, but there is NO parking beyond 24 hours at the damn Amtrak station. They wanted us to pay to park at the Sheraton. $17/freakin day! It only cost $99 for the damn tickets! We had to park for 4 days! So we drove.

Ok so we drove to Chicago for one of my best childhood friends wedding. I was a bridesmaid. It was beautiful, fancy and amazing! My friend, Diane and I met when I was 7. That was 22 years ago. Her sister is another of my best friends and was also a bridesmaid. Two of the other bridesmaids were long time friends of mine as well. I met Jody and Amanda both when I was 12. I probably met Jody before that but I don't remember. I had seen all of them in within the past 2 years but it had been a while. We had a great time and celebrated a fabulous union of two wonderful people. I danced, and I shouldn't cause I have no rhythm and my dress was about 8 sizes too small on my hips and I looked like a pregnant mermaid. We laughed, we hugged, we had a fantastic time!

The new Mr. & Mrs. Clancy!
The wedding party getting ready to party.

Kirke was a good sport and spent the weekend piddling around while I did bridesmaid stuff. By the time this picture was taken the makeup had worn off and the hair had gone flat but I sure was happy!

We left the morning after the wedding and drove to our home in Missouri to pick up our two dogs. We were home about 15 minutes and back on the road to Texas to retrieve the naughty little blond boys. While we were in Texas (3 whole days) we decided to have a birthday for our oldest son Tayton. I wanted to keep it small and simple.

Well for all of you who live close to relatives know that you can't invite without inviting them all. I intended to invite my long lost buddy Mark. I haven't seen him since my brothers wedding 8 years ago and he lives just an hour south of Kirke's family. I hadn't met his wife and he now has a 10 month old son. Any of you who know Mark know this is definitely something you have to see to believe! Love ya Mark! I also wanted to invite Korbins first wife, big Megan and her daughter Jada. Kirke's nephews and parents (their mom is another of my best friends) as well as Kirke's cousin and her family who we try hard to stay in touch with and looked forward to seeing. But we ended up with around 25 adults and a mess of kids. It was fantastic!

We loved getting to see everyone. Especially Mark, Marcie, Peyton, Megan and Jada who we miss dearly. I hope that our families understand that our family grows with each new duty station. So these friends aren't just friends but also important parts of our families.

Mark, Marcie, Peyton, Me and Kirke in Texas. We always end up there in August! HOT!!

Here's Korbin with his first wife. They are still obviously in love even though he married that "other Megan"!

We drove back home on the 21st and on the 23rd our little Tayton turned 8 years old. He's such an awesome kid and I've loved watching him grow. Over the past year he has progressed (according to his testing at OT) over 4 years in most areas and over 6 years in one area. Sorry I can't remember which were which because that news was so incredible to hear! I find it hard to believe that we've had a kid survive 8 years with our parenting! He's an amazing little boy and despite my wanting to string him up by his toes I love being his mommy!

These pictures are in random order, thanks blogger!


There's nothing like a good book for a 2 year old!

He still dresses kind of funny!

Pot holders made by Grandma Vettel can double as hats!

As Eskimo as my little Alaskan born boy gets!

He was so freakin cute! He had to have been close to 2 in this picture cause I wasn't pregnant with Korbin anymore.

He's always been inventive.

Long and skinny! He was maybe 2 in this picture. That's one of Korbins blankets in it so he had have been at least 19 months old.

Korbin was 3 months old so Tayton was 21 or 22 months old here.

And now he's 8 years old. Amazing!

~Till They All Come Home~

Traveling with dogs is a pain in the tail! We lost Maggie, our navigation system, so we've been winging it since Friday. I will be back to blog details soon!