Colby Suspended

Okay, there's some good news and some bad news about today. The good news is I'm down 5 pounds. The bad news is Colby got suspended from daycare for biting a kid on the nose and drawing blood. Yes, I just said my THREE YEAR OLD got suspended for two weeks. There's nothing else on earth that can make you feel like the worst parent on the face of the planet. If he bites again when he goes back, we will have to find a new daycare. Brandon and I are sorting through our options. We think that his current daycare is great, but the classes are super big so he might benefit from being somewhere where he can get more supervision and attention. We might just get through the summer with a college student and then enroll him at the high school for the childcare class. We'll see. I'm just having a really hellacious day :-(

Memorial Day 2011

Yesterday I blogged about starting my diet. I must've done something right because I lost 4 pounds between yesterday and today :-) That's the other reason I like this diet - I see results almost immediately and it gives me the motivation to keep going. And I'll need the motivation because I realized that this week at school will be pretty tempting with at least two cakes for various birthdays.

Today was a pretty good day. It was Memorial Day so we were all off. We went to the park for a good hour and a half this morning and Colby had a blast making friends and running around. We went to Walmart to get a card because a family friend's husband passed away. He was only 52 with three kids in their twenties and upper teens. I'm sad that they didn't get to spend more time with their dad, but in an odd way it motivates me to keep losing weight. He didn't safeguard his health and died too young so I need to safeguard mine so that Colby can spend a good long time with his mommy.

Oh...and I bought an outdoor clothesline! I'm super excited to make these super hot days work to my advantage and save a little money in the process!

Hangin' with Friends and Dieting

Yesterday I got to hang out with my best college buds. It has litterally been years since we've all be together at one time. We had dinner at Macado's in Lynchburg and because of Colby we had to leave early. It was short, but fun and I'm super glad I got to see everyone.

Today I started a diet. I'm going back on the Weigh Station diet because I know it works and it's so strict that I don't have to stress over what to eat because there's very few things TO eat. I really hate dieting because it's such a pain. When I'm dieting I literally want to eat everything sweet in sight. But I'm doing this because I really don't like what I see in the mirror these days. I just see fat. I want to look in the mirror and like what I see. I want Brandon to come home to a hot momma :-) My goal right now is to lose 30 pounds. I know I can do it! (if the sweets stop calling to me!)

First Home Visit

Today was the first of three home visits for the fostering to adopt. We met our case worker and she gave us a ton of paperwork to fill out including a whole giant packet about our personal lives. We have to go get fingerprinted and our families and friends will have questions asked of them to see if we're fit parents. One thing was clear - we need to fix up the spare bedroom so it's not our junk room anymore :-) Plus Brandon will need to start putting his gun in the safe and he's not supposed to have a gun in the car while driving with foster children, so that will be a change.

In other news I have seven more days of school left. I'm pretty excited about being off for a couple of weeks before my internship during summer school. I like my kids but they wear me out! And they have some serious spring fever! We'er almost done with The Road so it'll be a breeze to get through the rest of the school year. Yay!

PKU Picnic

Saturday was the annual PKU picnic. We drove up to Charlottesville to the park outside of town. The weather was nice and there were lots of people. We got to talk to a family that lives near us and we also talked to other families who live farther away. We learned a few new tricks and found out about some new foods - namely sliced cheese that we can get for cheap. I also learned a trick to making Colby's mushroom burgers that will hopefull keep them stuck together. We got a bunch of free stuff like pasta and formula samples. I'm always really encouraged when we go because there's plenty of kids that are doing really well and one young man with PKU that attends UVA. We got back home around 6:30 so it was busy, but nice. We even won a gas card, a walmart card and Colby got a new hand made truck!

Gardening!

I am slowly but surely planting the big garden. We should have already done this a week and a half ago, but we've been busy. Last Sunday after the rain came to an end, I worked on the new front flower bed. I planted some sunflowers and some orange flowers that are doing well in the other flower bed and some new pink flowers I've never planted before along with some lilies Brandon bought. And Brandon was busy with planting his new peach trees. We now have two decently tall trees with fruit already on them. If only we could keep the dogs out of them. Brandon has fenced them off like Fort Knox, but those dogs still keep messing with the one closest to the house. This year we're planting the usuals - tomatoes, peppers, onions, lettuce, okra, squash, zuchini, watermelon, pumpkin, potatoes, carrots, and green beans - and we're also planting sweet potatoes, strawberries, and spaghetti squash. I'm super excited about getting some awesome veggies...oh, speaking of I need to go out and take the blooms off my tomatoes so they'll grow bigger before I get some fruit!

12 Days of School

This week is SOL testing. Yesterday I got to help proctor the Earth Science SOL. I got kind of irritated when the teacher paused to say something like, "You know, I teach them all this stuff and then they have to apply it." It sounded sort of whiney. I don't really understand what's wrong with a test that requires students to apply what they learned. Overall the students did pretty well. Some of my students complained that they failed, but honestly, the ones that compained are the same ones that come to my class without a pencil and without a will to succeed. Those are the same one's that will be taking my class again next year. I wish for them to fail, but sometimes they need to. Maybe next year they'll be the phoenix rising from the ashes of a wrecked ninth grade year.

In my class we're slogging our way through The Road. Some of my kids seem really into it and they complain when I stop reading to them. Others couldn't care less. I feel pretty good about teaching this book because it's really different and it's challenging. I can reach some students with this book that I can't reach with others, plus the boys kind of get into it.

Potty Training Victory! Taking the Fostering Plunge!

So, Colby has finally decided that he wants to use the potty. All the time! He finally filled up that potty chart I started weeks ago and he got to go pick out a new truck. I think he liked that because he literally filled up another chart in three days. He got to pick out another truck and now he's all about putting stickers on that chart so he can get ANOTHER truck. I now swear by the potty chart because it works! Sure, some call it bribery, but I call it success!

In other news, we finally took the plunge and made the phone call to start the fostering to adopt process. We're not giving up on having more of our own children, but I know that Brandon has always wanted to bigger family and I certainly don't mind having more children :-) The thing is, we're not getting any younger and there are a lot of kids out there that need loving parents - we can provide that. There's been a lot of success stories at my church, so I know there's a lot of support there. I know my parents are okay with it. We haven't talked to Brandons' parents, but we think it will be mostly okay. We're supposed to get a packet in the mail and we set up our first home visit with the agency. We'll be doing training in June and we'll have two other home visits before we're approved so it'll be several months before this happens. In the meantime pray that this will be an excellent decision and experience. FYI- fostering to adopt means that we will be fostering children until their parental rights are terminated. Terminating parental rights is a really long, emotional process. Sometimes it doesn't happen causing the child to age out of the system and sometimes the children are sent back to their families, which if my imagination is anywhere close to reality, that would be heartbreaking. I'll keep everyone posted as to whats happening with this adventure!

All My Monkeys

I've been making sock monkeys for my church to take to central america on a missions trip. It's pretty fun, but sock monkeys are not up to professional standards by any stretch of the imagination. Colby likes them though and keeps asking if he can keep them, so I think they'll be okay to give to kids :-)

Colby Food Issue

We had our first real food issue yesterday with Colby. Up until yesterday he was pretty cool with eating things that are different from mommy and daddy. Yesterday I fixed pigs in a blanket and while I was cooking I talked to Colby about how hot dogs were not Colby foods and that they were bad for him. He said okay and repeated what I said so I put them in the oven and moved on. Way later Colby decided to sneak into the kitchen and take a bite of one. I was watching him and when it got really quiet I followed him, saw what he was doing and made him spit it out. Then he went to timeout for not listening, but I felt really bad. After his two minutes I went to hug him and hold him and explain to him again that hot dogs were not good for him. He said okay again between hiccups. What a rotten predicament. It's awful to have to deny him a food that we all take for granted that we can eat. :-(

Computer Woes

I killed my computer. I was sitting on the couch with it in my lap and Colby started peeing on the couch (the joys of potty-training). I hastily set the computer aside and when I turned around, the computer fell off the couch right on the power cord. That pushed the power jack into the computer. I didn't think that was a big deal. I thought it could be an easy fix so I took the computer apart in an attempt to fix it. I learned how to take apart my computer, but I could figure out how to fix it. Next step I called Best Buy. Best Buy says that it will cost $100 to send if off and then it might be a one or two hundred dollar fix. I was like 'what!' I called a local repair shop and they wouldn't even touch it. I called Gateway and they said it would be $199 to fix it, but they needed the stupid serial number which I could not locate. Then I start wondering if I even want to get this computer fixed. I don't like it - it shuts off at the most inopportune times and doesn't like to have flash drives, mice or printer cords plugged into it. Plus it has the dreaded Vista on it. At the moment we're borrowing Mary Lee's spare computer until we decide what to do. The most annoying thing is my big paper that was due on Friday and the reflection paper that was due on Saturday was on that computer. Thankfully I have some understanding professors and it isn't a big deal to turn things in late.

In other news Brandon might be going to Alabama for 10 day to assist in keeping the peace in the tornado areas. I'm nervous about being the only one to take care of Colby for ten days. I'm afraid I'll get sick of it and get short-tempered with him. Beleive it or not I really enjoy the times when Brandon and I both look after him because between the two of us it's not as much work. But I'm, like, mom of the year right? :-P