Are You A Summer Mom or School Mom?

I recently read an article in Woman's Day magazine. The question was: Are you a summer mom or a school mom? I know for sure I am a school mom. As much as I love sleeping in and not dealing with the homework battles, I also like having order in the house! I hate hearing "I'm bored" 20,000 times a week. I hate the messes all over the house. I would so love it if our school was one of those year-round schools where the kids go for 6 weeks on and 2 weeks off. That would give us different seasons to explore places. Just enough time for the kids to get bored but then have to go back to school.

Let me just end this by saying I love my children dearly but I am so happy that school is back in!!

Back To School

The kids started back to school last Monday and it wasn't a day too early. We were all getting on each others nerves after being home for the last 4 months together. I don't know how you home schoolers do it! Luke was not happy with the idea of school starting saying "Mom, I'm not going. I don't need to go to school!" and Sage could barely contain her excitement to put on her new school clothes.

Since I take so many pictures and try to put a picture on each post, you would think I would have pictures of their first day of school or at least their 3rd day of school pretending to be their first. But it just didn't happen. I do have one excuse to offer...the bus. When we went to the Meet the Teacher we stopped by the transportation booth to see how the bus schedule worked here since we are new to the area and school. It was the weirdest schedule I have ever seen (OK, I have only seen one other bus schedule, but still!). They tell you what time the bus picks up the first stop, how many stops there are for that route and obviously you know what time the bus needs to get the children to school. Everything after that is just a guess!!! And every day last week the bus arrived at a different time! One day the bus stopped right in front of our house as my kids ran across the street with their shoes in their hands! So getting a picture just didn't happen. I should have taken the picture of Sage running up the street with her shoes and socks in her hands and her belt half way around her shorts! I don't even want to talk to you about what time the bus drops them off! The office assures me things will smooth out.

This school has adopted a new dress code this year....uniforms. Luke was not thrilled at all. Until last year he had worn uniforms to private school. One of the big things we used to entice him to the public school was having the freedom to choose what he wanted to wear. I asked around about the uniforms to the few parents I came in contact with over the summer. There were varying degrees as to how many kids would be wearing uniforms. Since it is public school they can't force the kids to wear them I guess. Sage chose to wear the uniform and Luke didn't. I was okay with that. Luke only has one more year of elementary so I let it slide. So far I have heard about 50% of the kids are wearing uniforms. We left tags on all of the clothes (except what they wore the first day) just in case but they are both sticking to their decisions.

So the first week of school is done and they both made it through. They both have a heavier load of homework than they are used to. Remember, Sage went from first grade and being babied to a big third grader. It seems 5th grade is a lot about getting the kids prepared for middle school. They each like their teachers and so do I.

The school has tested Sage already and has her in speech and language already. I just got a note home that she also qualifies for ESOL and I am learning what services she will get for that also. They gave her a test to measure how much English she understands, can speak and can write. It was very low and I was surprised. With the top score being a 6, she scored 2.7. The year is going to challenge her for sure but I know with support she will be okay.

Maybe I will take a picture of them this Monday! :)

Happy Birthday Chloe and Chase

This blog has mainly been about our adoption and life afterward. That is why I chose to begin another blog about my personal life.

Today and tomorrow are the birthdays of our children who were born too early 11 years ago. I have written a post about them and our experience over at my memoir blog http://www.thewayiveseenlife.blogspot.com if you would like to read it. I just wanted to say here "Happy Birthday Chloe and Chase". You will always be in our hearts!

We Found Her Birth Mother

I have wanted to do a birth parent search for Sage since we brought her home. We didn't have much to go on but I felt that we owed it to her to try to find her birth parents before the trail (if there was one) went cold. I had several things I wanted to accomplish if we found her:
1. Sage pours over our family albums and scrapbooks often. It is like she is studying them. I wanted to try and get her pictures of herself as a baby or of her earlier childhood. I wanted to give her some history before we met her.
2. She wanted to let her birth mother know she was okay and happy.
3. I wanted to let her birth parents know she was in America. I wanted them know that she had a family that would always love her and care for her.
4. I hoped that we could get some information about her siblings and grandmother. I hoped that we could get pictures of them as well.
5. And like all AP's we hoped for some medical information.

We didn't go into the search thinking the mother did the best thing for Sage by letting her go. We didn't think rosy thoughts about her. We knew the information may be bad if not incomprehensible. We used Gene Sagin. When we first contacted him and sent him all of Sage's documents, he told us that he didn't think we had that great of a chance since Sage was abandoned in a public place and according to the orphanage documents, was never visited. Sage insists that she was visited by her mother and father. The orphanage told us that a woman came to see her once and could not produce the correct paperwork to prove she was the mother. She never came again.

Last Tuesday Gene found Sage's birth mother! I was a bit skeptical because a lot of the information in his report we already knew. In his first email he sent some pictures of the birth mothers boyfriend and mother neither of which Sage recognized. Then he said he was having trouble sending the pictures of the birth mother. Later in the day I checked my email and right when I was downloading the birth mother pictures Sage walked up to me to ask a question. When the picture popped up she said "Dats my moder! Dats her!" Sage had a smile on her face.

The conditions the BM lives in are horrible. I won't go into what the report revealed but to say Sage will have a better life here with us is an understatement. She lives 60 miles from where Sage was found in a small village. Her name is not what we thought it was. She is not married. She was not happy to know Sage is in America. Gene was not able to get any of the information we requested or pictures. But maybe we have the most important thing...a picture of where Sage came from. A picture of her birth mother. A connection to her life before us.

Later in the day Sage and I were in the car and I asked her how she was feeling about seeing her BM's picture. She said "My heart felt so happy and squishy and it was beeping so fast but my heart also felt sad." I asked her what about the picture made her happy and she said that she was able to see her mothers face again. I asked her what about the picture made her sad and she said "Pecost (because) I don't know why my mom left me." Heartbreaking! She told me that she wanted to send her mother food. She wanted to send her my old clothes so she had something better to wear. She did not look anything like what I thought she would. I pictured a tall, skinny woman with long straight dark hair. She was very over weight with curly, short dark hair. I have spent so much time studying these pictures of her looking for resemblences.

We do not plan to tell her about what the condition of her mother is or what she said until much later in life when/if she asks. I do feel some closure though and now we have a picture. It was more than we had before....

Microwave Disaster!

I had to go to Orlando for a doctors appointment and planned on taking Sage with me. I was just driving down and coming back the next day. The day I was leaving Luke had a tooth pulled and begged me to take him instead. Neither of them really wanted to go but I wasn't going to leave Drew home with the two of them.

When Drew is in charge the supervision is a little sketchy. It is worse when it is a work day (which it was). I knew it meant that Sage would have free range of the TV, computer and pantry. I didn't think it would mean she would have free range of the microwave!

I guess she asked if she could make graham crackers with chocolate and daddy said yes. She set the microwave for 45 minutes!!!! Drew got a wiff of the burning creation and came upstairs to see what was happening. Not only was it burned but it had exploded all over the microwave!

Later in the evening she asked if she could make a hot dog. Drew asked her how long she was going to cook it for and she said "Tirdy minutes. Is that right, daddy?" Luckily for all parties involved, he came up and made it for her. I did have a nice little mess to clean and a horrid smell I still can't get rid of! I have forbidden her to use the microwave unless there is an adult around!!

In so many ways she is still like a 4 year old...

Happy 9th Birthday Sage!

She is 9! Sage had been counting down the days for 2 months I think! Just about 20 times a day she would remind us that her birthday was coming. We got a little too many "I wants" and tried to remind her about being grateful for the gifts that she did get.

Along with the gifts she got from dad, mom and Luke, she did get some cash from Aunt Aimee which we spent all day long yesterday at the mall spending! I am so proud of her...she bought all clothes! She and I had a great day together. She is very frugal when she is spending her own money! It is funny, when she goes into a store she checks out the price tags and decides if we are going to stay in that store or leave! She has an obsession with shoes...the Ukrainian kind. If you've been to Ukraine you know what I am talking about. They are so high even I would have a hard time walking in them. She points them out everywhere we go and wants to know at what age she can start wearing them.

She really wanted an Ipod. She had one right after we came home with her. Problem was, she dropped it so many times it finally broke. We found her a hot pink MP3 player that was cheap and is so much better than an Ipod! It has FM radio, voice recording, video and MP3! This way if it gets broken it wasn't so expensive that I will freak out. I don't think the ear buds have left her ears yet! Poor child cannot sing. For some reason she always sings the lyrics right after the singer does. She knows the words so that isn't it. It can be a little annoying when she has the ear buds in and she is singing along really loud to the same station I am listening to.

We had a little drama about what dessert she wanted for her birthday and what Luke thought she should have for her dessert. He can be so controlling! He and I were out grocery shopping and we called home to check to see what she wanted. I guess she wasn't near Drew when we called and he told us to surprise her. She will eat anything (besides fish) so we knew any thing sweet would be fine with her. NOT!!! Boy, she was so mad. She promptly came upstairs and told me "I said I wanted brownies!". Now I knew she really must have wanted brownies because she is rarely disrespectful to me. I guess I should know by now you shouldn't mess with a girl and her chocolate! After much fighting between the kids and a talk with her about how to express herself better, she settled on a strawberry cake. You can see how happy she was just to have cake and singing!

***Sometimes Blogger drives me up the wall!!! I have been working on this short little post for over an hour! Sometimes when I try to close up the gaps Blogger puts in, you delete things you don't mean to delete! One wrong move and you have to start over. Urrrg! They need to be able to let you copy (so if you loose your connection when you are publishing) you don't loose the entire post (it has happened to me more than once!) and you need to be able to "undo". ****

Meet Snowflake...

Last summer Luke's beloved hamster, Bart Simpson pass on to hamster heaven. He was sad and kept begging us for another hamster. We kept telling him no because he didn't like cleaning the cage I didn't feel like cleaning up after another animal or kid.

This past week he asked me if he behaved all the way until Christmas could he have another hamster. Knowing this would never happen, I told him yes. What a stupid thing for me to do!!! He and Sage received some cash (thanks Aim!!) and decided to get a hamster now! Urrrggg!!

I really don't mind hamsters except when they are loose and Luke is crying for days because we can't find it. The first weekend we had Bart, he snuck away from Luke and hid between the bathroom cabinets and the wall!! Luke was distraught and wanted us to rip out the cabinets and sink so we could save him! We were sad for him but not sad enough to destroy the bathroom! Bart was an escape artist and was found wandering through the house more than a handful of times! Each time he was apprehended.

They are supposed to be sharing the hamster but I can already see it is going to be a problem. Sage has no idea how to even hold the hamster which scares Luke and then makes him mad at her. I have explained to him that in a lot of ways his sister is still much like a 4 year old. She doesn't have the same life experiences as he does. He insists I am telling him this just to stick up for her. We have the same conversations when he makes fun of her for watching Barney on TV. I guess it is hard for a 10 year old to comprehend when he has lived here all of his life. So now Sage has to be supervised with the hamster and is not allowed to shake the little sleeping box upside down to wake him up.

As you can see our dogs are incredibly fascinated by little Snowflake. We are not sure

if Zoey (the cream colored one) is trying to eat him or protect him. She even got snippy with Luke when he tried to take the hamster out of the dog bed. Minnie...well she just wants someone to play with!

Let's hope this little hamster stays in her cage and lives longer than a year!

Funny Picture

Sage goes to bed way before Luke each night. She needs her sleep and Luke just doesn't. He is an insomniac like I am. We will tuck him into bed in his room and after we leave, he sneaks into his sisters room. I really wouldn't mind if they slept together but Sage wakes up earlier than Luke and wakes Luke up. If he is up until 11 then I would like him to sleep at least until 8:30.

I don't know what made me go up in the middle of the night and check on them but I found that Luke was not in his bed...no surprise, even though we have rules against him sleeping with Sage. This is they way I found them sleeping.

I think I have mentioned it here before, Sage is the lightest sleeper on the planet! I tried to sneak in and take this picture but as soon as the flash went off she put her hand over her eyes. One of is feet is over her mouth and the other is on her eye!! How in the world do they manage to sleep this way???

4th Of July

*****Some days I really hate Blogger! I can't make this post lay out right!!!****

Happy Birthday America!

Ok, so I am 3 weeks late...there is never enough time in the day for the mom to get done what she would like to get done!

We started off the 4th by going up to the club pool. They were having a DJ, waterslide and other fun activities for the kids. Sage wanted to do every activity but Luke wouldn't hear of doing any of it! He is just getting too cool!

Sage knew what hoola-hooping was but when the DJ said it was time for the limbo she had no idea! I explained the game to her and she was in line! Being tall and skinny with long legs isn't the best for the limbo! She had gone around several times but was very disappointed when she got out. She isn't the best at loosing!

A friend of Luke's parents told us that the club did fireworks each year and they were really good. Since we are new here we didn't have a clue where to go. They invited us to join them to watch the fireworks. We are so glad we did because they were amazing! It was totally a professional show than had to have lasted 25 minutes. It was great!! Here are some pictures of us pre-show...

I wonder what she is telling him??

The club somehow did this to the grass on the golf course. Isn't it cool!

An Update On Our Birds

We have been watching our little bird house and heard some little peeps coming from there. We took the flashlight and a ladder and saw that a whole family was now living in the house. This was really exciting for the kids.

For the last couple of weeks we have been watching the bird parents taking their young food and listening to the squawking of the babies demanding more. Each day we would look inside the nest to see what was happening and how big the babies were getting. We were all really anxious for the babies to start venturing out and watch how they learned to fly.

Last evening I was out with the dogs and went to the bird house and saw there were some ants crawling on the house. I knew this wasn't a good sign. I thought maybe one of the babies had died. I got the flashlight and to my surprise was greeted by a snake inside the house!! And no babies....

I didn't want to tell the kids. We all were so sad. What were the bird parents thinking? They had been working so hard to raise their babies. And how in the heck did the snake slither up the tree?!!! We are all trying to think of a way to have another bird house in a place a snake can't get it.

This is the second time this has happened to us. We had a nest of Cardinals right outside our dining room window in Orlando. We watched and watched those birds. One day one of the babies was out on the ground. I kept putting that little guy back in. I tried to build them a better nest with a box. The parents were so mad at me but I was only trying to save their little baby. One day we checked the nest and they were all gone. They didn't fly away, they were too young.

This time we will do a little more research and try again....