Saturday

Today has been a quiet, rainy Saturday and we have just been doing things around the house and running errands. We had to drain the pool about 1/2 way to fix a leaking valve, then we went to Lowes and Office Depot, then had lunch at Raising Cane's (yum!!). Walter bought some metal for his porch project (covering up the white wall) and some wood for a shelf above it, and I shopped for supplies for school with my debit card that the school board gives us ($180).

I enjoyed figuring out what I need to keep my records organized as well as supplies for the "Why Try" groups I will do. I think I will actually be able to leave things in my office at my "west side" school where I will spend most of my time, so I am very happy about that! I also have a computer (that hopefully works) in both of my offices. I am really excited about my new schools and the kids I will be working with. I have 25 kids on my roster to start with, but before long, more will be referred to me when they start getting in trouble. I will also probably take some kids off my roster once I meet with them and determine that they are not having behavior problems, especially based on how they did last year.

I haven't heard from JP much lately. I still send him letters and pictures anyway, and I keep sending his $20 a week. Walter's sister, Mickey, has been writing to him and says he writes back often and seems to be doing ok. I hope that he is doing ok. My sister plans to visit him soon to check in on him.

Landen had a good first week of school, although he said he doesn't like his teachers. I hope he will get used to them and change his mind about liking them! I'm sure 1st grade is a little more demanding than Kindergarten, so he'll adjust soon enough. He had such a busy summer that I think it is hard to get back to his daily life where he has to stay at his own house, do homework, get up early for school, etc. I took him home the night before I had to go back to work and he asked me, "well where am I going to spend the night?" I said, "at your house?" He said, "noooooo!!" Funny boy.

Not much more going on over here today. We are watching the Olympics some and just hanging out and being lazy.

Questions & Comments:
Chelle asked how Cameron's 1st week of school went. He's been with his dad since Monday, so I don't know! He was mad at me when he left because of the computer restrictions, so I haven't heard from him during the week, but normally we don't talk too often while he's gone. I hope his dad enforced the restrictions we talked about, in which case, he will be handling it better when he comes home Monday.

Tuesday

Ok, first a special request from Molly during my trip to Atlanta - have lunch at a Waffle House, order the Cheesy Steak Sandwich, and take a picture so that she can drool a little bit!

Now, i'll be honest. That really isn't me, I didn't really go to a Waffle House on the trip, and that probably isn't a cheesy steak sandwich. We have Waffle House's all over Louisiana, so I really didn't have any desire to stop by one on the trip, but I wanted to accomodate my wonderful readers, and well, I hope this makes Molly happy! And drooly!!

We had a fun night with Landen and since I have to go back to work tomorrow, I will have to take him home sometime this afternoon. He has had fun swimming, fishing, and playing with all of his favorite toys.

He really cracked me up when he asked me if I would take him to a gymnastics place one day. I said I would, but that he'll have to find out where it is for me. He said, "oh, I will just show you!! This truck is you, this toy is Gram's house, and this yellow sign is the gymnastics place, so you just drive over to it like this!" Ohhhh, well ok then! That shouldn't be hard to find!

So, yeah, back to work tomorrow! I have thoroughly enjoyed having the summer off, and while i'll miss being at home, being lazy, and visiting with friends & family, I am ready to get back to work with my kids. I will be able to talk about the changes in my school assignment tomorrow after our meeting, and i'm really excited! And i'm super extra excited that my friend, Courtney, will be starting work with me tomorrow! Yay! I'm sure my blogging time will be somewhat affected by me having to work, but I do have access to blogger on my work server, so maybe i'll fit it in during my lunch break or something!

Questions & Comments:

Michelle asked if we'd be taking a girls road trip in my new Mustang (assuming I ever get one) and I have to say, hmmm, I don't know!!! If my memory serves me correctly, there is room for 2 people to fit comfortably in the front seat of the car, and then 2 people can cram themselves rather awkwardly in the back, so yeah, y'all can come on a girls road trip, but work those details out amongst yourselves! LOL...I'm driving!

Monday

Landen has been wanting to spend the night with us one last time before school starts back, so I went and picked him up this afternoon. He is starting 1st grade this week and is feeling very grown up! I also got to visit with Mack, so that was fun. He's just too energetic for me to bring home over night, and they live too far away to just pick him up for a few hours and bring him home. Here are a couple of pictures I took of Mack (15 months old) & Elizabeth.

I am back on my low-carb diet today and picked up some good lunch ideas for when I start back to work this week. I am not doing the first phase of the Atkins diet, but am just trying to keep the carbs low. I found some South Beach wraps that will be great for lunch and don't have to be heated up, so that is very convenient for me. I like to eat in my office and don't want to fight the microwave lines, so this is a good option. I ate one today for lunch and it was pretty good.

Bryce spent the night with Cameron last night and they were glad to get to spend some time together. Bryce had lived with us some during the year last year while his mother was having trouble stablizing herself after a bad break-up, and even after she got things together, he still came here every day after school, even on the weeks that Cameron is with his dad, so I am really used to having him around. I made sure with Cameron's punishments not to make it where Bryce couldn't spend the night here. Cameron isn't going to spend the night anywhere for awhile, but I would never tell Bryce he can't come here. He just needs us sometimes, so anyway, it was nice to have him here. He has worked all summer at a local water park and i'm really hoping Cameron will want to work there next summer.

I always get a kick out of Landen. He told me today that he knows how many planets there are, so I asked him how many? He said 9. I said that was great and asked if he could name any of them. He said no, so I named them for him. He said, does Mr. Wizard (our name for Walter) work on one of them? I said, "no, people don't live on any planets that we know of other than Earth." He said, "oh, is that why they are building so many?" He's a funny boy. He's a true southern boy and he proved that when his Kindergarten teacher asked who could name all of the seasons. He raised his hand and said, "dove, turkey, rabbit, and deer." The teacher thought it was the funniest thing she'd heard! He had no idea about fall, summer, spring, or winter! Here is a picture of him in the pool this afternoon. He was determined that those huge goggles would fit him, but they weren't too good at keeping the water out of his eyes!
So, that's all we're up to tonight - entertaining Landen. Walter is supposed to be picking up some bait so they can fish. We really enjoy having Landen around, so it will be a fun night. I am planning to grill some steaks with some sauteed mushrooms! Yum!!

Tuesday morning

Elizabeth called last night after realizing that Landen has vacation bible school all week, so he can't make it to our slumber party tonight. I really just didn't want him to find out that the kids were here and he wasn't invited because he gets very jealous of them being here, so atleast he will know he was included if "word gets out!" Not much gets past that boy!

Yesterday was JP's court date that got reset to December 1 and i've emailed the attorney to let her know that the court date wasn't changed on the jail's website, which to me means he would be brought to court yesterday to reset the trial date. I wanted to make sure the attorney would be there if JP was brought to court, but she didn't feel that he would be. Sure enough, JP called last night to say that he was called to court but had to wait all day without anything happening because his attorney wasn't there. I checked the website last night and now it shows today's date!! I emailed the attorney again to ask her to please check on this incase she is supposed to be there and she emailed me this morning to say she called the court and had them straighten it out on their docket. I'm sure JP was called to court again today anyway since they get them there VERY early (3 or 4 am is when they start the process) and it's just a long day for him. The jail's website is usually pretty accurate. I just wish people would listen!! It was nice to hear from JP though and he is supposed to call back tonight to let me know what finally ended up happening. His co-defendent's trial is set for next week, although JP's attorney says the judge is out of town, so I don't think it will go as planned, but if it does, I plan to be there to sit in. The attorney suggested I call the court on Friday and see if the trial is supposed to start on time or not.

I actually lost another pound on my diet - a total of 8! I was so excited when I weighed this morning!! I resisted the ice cream and sent it home with Cathy yesterday afternoon!! Then when she called later to see if I wanted to go work out, I didn't go!!! I'm not sure how that fits with the good diet news, but I just didn't want to go!!! I did some sit ups this morning, so maybe if I start doing a little bit of exercising around here, I will either tone up or get motivated to go to the health club. This morning I had a few pieces of bacon for breakfast and plan to have a Bubba burger for lunch. No telling what i'll do about dinner since I'm planning to get pizza for the kids. I may have another Bubba burger, which is fine with me! I love them!!!

I'm off to clean the house so that the kids can tear it up!!! Wish me luck! They've already called to ask if they can bring their dog (NO!!!) and again to ask if they can bring their cat (NO!!!!!). I finally told Payton if anyone wants to be with their dog and cat, they should STAY HOME and play with them there!! Amy was going to bring the kids to Blue Bayou Water Park this morning and bring them here afterwards, but as luck would have it, they'd rather come HERE than Blue Bayou! Seriously?? So anyway, they're on the way now. I wont likely be around for the next 24 hours, but I'll have some pictures tomorrow afternoon!!

Adoption story

A bonus post today for anyone who is interested in knowing the story of Elizabeth & I. I waited until Elizabeth turned 18 to join the different adoption websites (because you can't search until the child is 18), but never found any information or got any responses from my information that I put on the websites. I had told Walter about her and we were looking for ways to try to get information, when one day I noticed an ad on an adoption site that caught my eye for some reason (divine intervention, i'm sure). We had been searching on our own for a year and I had never contacted anyone for help and wasn't interested in sending money to someone who I knew would not having any information and rip me off, but this ad said "If you are looking for someone in these states (and Louisiana was one of them), I can probably help you." I emailed the lady and we exchanged some emails and then talked on the phone several times, then she told me that she had the information I needed. She said if I sent her $300 by Western Union, she would give me my daughter's name, address, etc. Now, I will admit to being impulsive, but I am SO not naive or gullible. I talked to Walter about it and we agreed that it would be a cheap lesson (some people spend thousands)if we got ripped off, but I had spoken with the woman enough times that I just felt it was ok. So, we sent the money. The next day, just as promised, the lady called me with my daughter's name, address, and had spent some time looking up her phone number while waiting for me to send the payment. She found my daughter, who's name I learned for the first time in 19 years - Elizabeth Gail! The lady wanted to call her for me, but I wasn't sure what to do. I talked to my step-dad who adopted 2 of my step-brothers years ago and he felt that I should contact Elizabeth's mother and not Elizabeth. The lady was telling me that she does this ALL the time and if I contact Elizabeth's mother, she will most likely threaten me with attorneys if I call there again. So, we made the decision to have the lady contact Elizabeth directly. In the meantime, knowing where Elizabeth lived and freaking out that it was SO close, I called my friend, Carol, who's daughter goes to school in Elizabeth's area and asked if her daughter knew her and she said YES! I couldn't tell her why because I didn't want Elizabeth to hear about me from someone else, so I just told her Walter's son was dating her and could she PLEASE scan and email Elizabeth's yearbook picture for me!! And she did!!

I was so surprised that she had hair the color of mine! Her biological father was Italian and had black hair & brown eyes, so I just assumed Elizabeth would have his dominant features. I found out later that she DOES have black hair and just randomly colors it the same color as mine!

So anyway, the lady contacts Elizabeth, who is just OVERJOYED to hear that I'm looking for her, gets my number to call me right away, but first calls her mom to let her know! Her mom is a teacher and was in the middle of a class (why she answered her phone, who knows) and when she heard the news, she went ballistic! But, it was too late because Elizabeth already had the number and called me anyway. I have to say, it was one of the best days of my life!! We talked and planned to meet for dinner that weekend, with her parents & brother who wanted to be there, and Walter, Sean, Cameron, & I.

Then I had A LOT of explaining to do! My family, including my older son, JP, knew about Elizabeth, but Cameron did not. Neither did any of Walter's family or any of our friends that didn't know me back when I was a pregnant teenager. It's one of those family secrets that just don't get talked about. And how do you bring that up in conversation??? So I sat down with Cameron and talked to him about it. JP was living with us at the time, so I asked him if he remembered me telling him about his sister when he was younger (probably 8 or 9) and he said yes. I said, "well, she's calling here today!" I knew he would be home to answer the phone and didn't want her to feel rejected by someone not knowing about her. I emailed everyone else and received nothing but support then and to this day!

The dinner was one of the most awkward moments of my life, but I got to meet her and her family. This picture is from that night:

I found out shortly afterwards that Elizabeth had just found out she was pregnant the week that found each other! And God gave her a little boy who was not black haired & brown eyed like Elizabeth & her boyfriend, but blonde haired and blue eyed like me! I think if we hadn't been reunited when Landen was born, seeing him would have prompted Elizabeth to look for me for some answers! She had already tried going on the internet to look at adoption websites but said she didn't know how to use them. Our second meeting was lunch with my sister and Elizabeth's childhood friend who they had always said if Elizabeth ever met me, the friend would get to come with her! I was really touched by that.

Here are pictures from Elizabeth's birth until now.

This is the day Elizabeth went home from the hospital. I had held her earlier that day and had always had that head full of black hair & sweet little face in my memory, so to see her again was incredible!!




This was taken at Elizabeth's baby shower shortly after we met when things were still really awkward. I begged my friend, Lesley, to go to the shower with me and she suffered through one of the most bizarre days of my life along side me! Elizabeth's boyfriend's family threw the shower, so they didn't know much about the whole story, other than his immediate family, and the shower host played a game where we went around the room and said who we are and how we know Elizabeth!!!! I am pretty sure I made it through the game, but it was the longest 5 minutes of my life waiting for my turn and whispering back & forth with Lesley trying to figure out what to say!



This is Elizabeth, Landen, & Cameron - one of my favorite pictures!




All 3 of my kids in one place!!! Never before done!


Mack's baby shower
It is incredible how many times our lives have crossed paths and we didn't know it and how we know so many of the same people! I thank God often for bringing Elizabeth and these boys into my life!!! Hope you enjoyed the story!

Wednesday

Once again, I had absolutely nothing planned today and I am very happy about that!! There is nothing better to me than sleeping late and doing whatever I want!! My cats actually let me sleep until 9, which is late for them! I got a little housework done, but nothing major. I wanted to try and get some painting done (remember my goal of painting one day each week all summer??), and I painted 2 door frames and 1 door in our bathroom! That may not sound like much, but everything needs THREE coats of paint, so it takes a while to paint anything. I have only painted one other time this summer and got 1 door and 1 frame painted, then Walter came home with all that sand for the pool, so I stopped to help with that. Maybe one day our house will really be finished, but i'm not sure when that will be!

My mission this month is to create a budget and then figure out a way for us to stick to it. I have been analyzing our spending and have come to realize that we just spend money randomly with no idea of how much "extra" money we really have to spend. I have my budget all figured out to the penny by using my Microsoft Money data from the last year to get an accurate idea of what we really spend. I have cut a couple of things WAY back, like eating out and random shopping trips to Walmart, Lowes, Old Navy, etc. We have already cut back from eating out 4 or 5 times a week to 2, but i'm setting a goal to aim for just once, and yes, of course that would be steak night!!! It's ridiculous to spend as much as we do on groceries and then still spend a small fortune eating out at night. Our friends, Cathy & Brent eat out nearly every night, so it is hard to turn down all their offers! This week worked out well though because they invited us to dinner at their house Monday night instead of going out to eat, so we need to make a point to invite them over too.

I finally finished reading "The Appeal" by John Grisham last night. It was a good book and I enjoyed reading it, but the ending was not great and kind of disappointing to me. I am reading "A Good Yarn" by Debbie Macomber now and so far it is pretty good. It is paperback, so I can read it while i'm floating in the pool without too much trouble.

Here is a picture of Cameron with his braces off. He finally let me get a shot of his pearly whites, but it wasn't easy!! He & Bryce went to spend the night at Bradley's last night, so I caught him with the camera on his way out! Maybe i'm prejudiced, but I think he's such a cute kid. Girls have been after him since he was in 2nd grade. Some girls once hid his shoes at a birthday party so he couldn't leave! He wasn't real amused by that! A lot of people say he looks like Ringo Starr. Anyway, here's my boy giving me my 1 promised picture post-braces:

Once again, i'm loving Louisiana's governor, Bobby Jindal! As a social worker, mental health care is really important to me and the lack of available care is disturbing in our area. Our great governor not only noticed the problem, but here is what he is doing about it:

Our package of bills in the recently completed regular session consisted of five pieces of legislation, and more than $89 million in funds committed to support mental health care services. One example of legislation that was passed was Nicola's law, named after slain New Orleans Police Officer Nicola Cotton, which gives judges the ability to order mandatory outpatient treatment for mentally ill patients who may be a danger to society when not provided with supervision. We have also signed into law legislation that will create mental health crisis centers, which will swiftly and accurately detail a patient's specific mental health needs. We also passed a law that will allow us to use technology to provide better services for mental health patients. Our new legislation will allow doctors to carry out exams on patients who may be deemed dangerous to themselves or society via telemedicine, drastically decreasing wait times and getting health services to those in need much quicker. We will continue working to improve our entire mental health system and infrastructure in order to best provide for the needs of all Louisianians. Our mental health system has been ignored and allowed to decay for too long, and it is past time that we ensure that mental health patients have access to the help they need.

No weight loss today. I guess losing something every day is asking too much. I had scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast, sauteed squash & zucchini (leftover from yesterday) for lunch along with some string cheese, and 2 delicious BUBBA burgers with mayo & cheese for dinner. My newest addiction is Coke Zero and i'm trying to cut back on drinking them and drink more water. Yay to Kim & Kelley for their hard work on their diets!!! Keep up the good work girls!!!

My sister found out this week that her oldest son is having a baby girl in November. He is currently serving a 45 day sentence in jail for a drug charge and has a 1 year old son (with a different girl) who my sister keeps EVERY weekend while my nephew does nothing (and pays nothing). I want to be excited about the new baby, and it's certainly not the baby's fault, but I'm so worried that my sister will have to take on this baby too. She works full-time and is trying to get accepted into graduate school and as much as she loves keeping Elijah, it is taking a toll on her. I hope that my nephew and his girlfriend will be responsible for this baby and allow my sister to enjoy her rather than be responsible. And really...should the baby be raised in a home where the parents use and sell drugs? I only cause fights when I open my mouth, so I don't anymore, but it's disgusting to me and it's scary how these children can and probably will be taken from their parents when something happens. I've made my concerns clear, but as i've said before, my sister turns a blind eye to the drugs and makes excuses for everyone because she doesn't know what to do about it.

I heard tonight that JonBenet Ramsey's family has been cleared in her murder, but I still have a question. They are saying that the tiny DNA molecules found on JonBenet's pajamas that science now has the capability to test does not belong to anyone in the Ramsey household. Whoever touched the pajamas left DNA on them. JonBenet's father picked her up after finding her, so why isn't his DNA on the pajamas too? Sorry, but i'm still skeptical.

I am hoping to get my grandson, Landen, to spend the night this weekend. His social life is quite busy, so I haven't been able to see him. Elizabeth told me the other day that she accidentally ran over Hunter (the kitten I gave him). Landen was very attached to his kitty and I plan to offer to get him another one IF Elizabeth will keep the kitty inside. Here is a picture of Elizabeth, Landen, & Mack.

Saturday

We enjoyed a nice, lazy, rainy Saturday hanging out at home with Cameron & Landen. I haven't seen much of Cameron, but he does come downstairs searching for food, so I do know that he is here! Landen & I got in a little swimming time before the rain started, and he was SO proud of himself that he was able to walk on his own into the middle of the pool. Elizabeth said that he will never leave the side of a pool even when he can stand up, so she was excited to hear it to. We had to take a picture with the camera to show her (since her new lab puppy ate her cell phone) because Landen said his mom would be VERY happy!

Walter & Landen fished some this afternoon and caught a lot of fish, but most were small and they threw them back in the river. They got caught in a sudden rain storm in the middle of their fishing time, so it was cut short. Landen is spending the night again tonight and then has to go home tomorrow for a crawfish boil.

Here is a picture of our 2 cats. J.J. (aka GoGo) who is abnormally large for a cat, but is a really sweet boy. My friend, Kathy, came over once and saw him and asked me "what IS that?" I guess she thought he was some sort of panda bear or something!!

And this is Nadda (named because he's Nadda our cat) who is so scared of people, other than me, that he lives in our bedroom closet and only comes out when I'm the only one home or at night after Walter goes to sleep. Nadda sleep with me, sometimes on my pillow, and is really affectionate with me. He was completely feral (wild) living under the deck of the bad cat neighbor's house nearly 3 years ago when we were building our house and I bonded with him over many months of trying. He was about 6 months old and I couldn't leave him to whatever fate he would meet, especially considering that he is terrified of people. Most feral cats only bond with 1 person, if at all, unless you can socialize them before they are 8 weeks old. He is on anxiety medicine, which helps a little bit, and he is able lately to walk into the room with Walter or Cameron here, as long as nobody moves!!! He's Nadda our cat because I stole him without asking the neighbors and never told them what happened to him when they were looking for him! They had never been able to pet him, but at the time, they did still feed the cats outside, including his mama cat, KiKi, who disappeared to Houston with my sister!

I talked to my neighbor, Lou, this afternoon and she is doing really well, thank goodness! She was outside walking around and trying to get some exercise. Her doctor told her that the triple bypass surgery would be like having her tonsils taken out, so I asked her if that had proven to be true...ummm no! She has plenty of relatives cooking for her right now, so we promised her some gumbo next week.

We grilled steaks tonight and are just hanging out at home. We have the Jetson's movie on DVR and are planning to watch that. Landen has been creating art work all day and insisted that I take pictures, so here are a couple of them.

Enjoy your Saturday night!