A scholar and a dancer

I swiped the title of this posting from Vicki at Heritage who read our monthly updates before we did. The reports are pretty standard and state that the boys are both growing, eating and sleeping well. Richnightder is an outstanding student and "Asks searching questions during class." He reads and writes and is very attentive. Teacher John loves to have him class. Now for Jerome. Jerome is a very sweet boy who likes to play with everyone and enjoys doing puzzles. It also said he is paying attention to the teacher, but "Would prefer to be dancing."

Teacher John who writes these reports actually wrote in ours that Jeromes transition from the creche to our home will be smooth, but that perhaps we should enroll him in a dance school since he loves to dance soooooooooooooo much. Super! I have no problem with putting him in dance classes, but what I think is freakishly weird is that I now have two sons who are so very similar and yet are an ocean apart from each other.

Thomas was always getting busted in school for singing and dancing during class. Heck, he even got in trouble during the Christmas play because he was dancing on the risers during the songs. So how in the world do I end up with two boys who are both driven to dance and sing at slightly inappropriate times when neither of these children have been produced in my womb. I guess this truly means that these kids were meant for me by a higher power.

I am thinking that when Jerome and Richnightder come home I will have to teach school by wearing tap shoes, a feather boa, and sing show tunes. This could get interesting. Oh, and Tifanni, I will be mailing out this week the coconut top for Aurorra. I finally tore it away from Thomas who has enjoyed wearing it immensly since it was "rediscovered."

Our monthly report....that sounds like I am going to talk about my period, but I am not.....also showed that we are in Archives. I know we are in Second Legal right now, but if I am reading one of Vivian's old post correctly from the forum, then I think we are in the second step of Second Legal. Geez, can that sound anymore confusing?? I think our docs are now in the long phase of second legal where they need to get the actual archive documents and produce them for the judge. I think this is what happens and I hope ours won't be too bad since the docs were created and filed when the boys entered the creche, so hopefully they are in PaP. If anyone has any info on this topic, just let me know.

And I think I found a Sheltie breeder in South Dakota. She has a litter ready to go in a few weeks and I am waiting to find out if I can go and see them, maybe this weekend. Stay tuned.

I want a Sheltie

When I was a little girl we had a Sheltie named Lina. She was a wonderful, sweet little dog and was very protective of me as a baby and toddler. When we moved to the farm, my mom would tell Lina to "Watch the baby!" and Lina would dutifully keep me confined to a small area of the yard. She had a litter of puppies when I was about 6 years old and we kept one of those puppies that I named Lassie. I know, how original but I was only 6. Lina died when I was 8 years old and Lassie was run over by the UPS man in our driveway when I was in 8th grade. I knew something was wrong when he wasn't waiting at the end of the driveway when I got off the school bus.

So fast forward 30 years and here I am looking to add to our family by adding a puppy to our chaos. Now we don't take adding pets lightly here. A pet is for life and it is our job to ensure it is healthy and kept safe from harm. But the point I am trying to make is that there really is no rhyme or reason to my madness of wanting another animal at this point in our life. All I know is that I am searching for a reputable and ethical breeder of Shelties somewhere in the upper Midwest.

Pebbles, our Rottweiler is a very friendly dog and won't mind having a new addition and Chowder, our Chow Chow mix is friendly too, albeit a little whacked. See, Chowder has separation anxiety and has to take Prozac everyday to help him from becoming so panicky that he bangs his head into the wall until he is unconscious. Yes, he is high maintenance. We took him to a doggy psychologist in Portland who told us that our dog was clinically depressed and suicidal. NO JOKE. How bad can life be in our house if the dog is trying to kill himself? So that is why he takes Prozac everyday. Bad part about that is that I have to go to CVS pharmacy to fill the prescription and when I pick it up, they always ask for the patients name and when I say Chowder, they look at me all weird. I tell them it is my dog, which usually gets an even odder reaction.

So if anyone out there that may stumble upon my blog, knows of any reputable and ethical Sheltie breeders, let me know. I defintely want a female and will get her spayed. I am not going to have a litter of adorable puppies and crying kids because they can't part with them. Guess that explains why I have 4 rabbits when we only started with two.

I am off to clean stalls, rabbit cages and litter boxes. Wow, I do have a lot of fun on the weekends. And this after having taught Sunday school this morning. God, I am such a good woman. And humble too! Geez, I hope God is watching and remembers all the good things I do and rewards me with peace and quiet. Actually, I'd just settle for my kids coming home soon from Haiti and bringing their own baggage of chaos.

the absurd and mundane thoughts of a homeschooling mom

Madison woke up this morning with a sore throat and nasty head congestion. She is lying in bed studying for her history test which covers the Industrial revolution all the way up to the civil war. I had no idea how little she had learned in public school. She had never had history before, even though she was in the 5th grade when I began to homeschool her last January. I find this a sad statement on behalf of our school system. She never had to study for tests and had no idea of how to study. We have had to work on note-taking skills, and actually remembering the material that has been studied. Previously, she only had to read it and not necessarily remember the content. Having written all this, I must note that she had always been and "A" student and I thought she was doing quite well academically. I now have a vested stake in my child's future and in ensuring that she has all the knowledge and tools to succeed in college and life in general.

Homeschooling is tough. Until I started doing it, I was always the first mom to drop the kids off at school, barely slowing the car down so they could hop out and run into school. I loved having the days to myself. It was mental and physical freedom and I loved being able to decide what I would do on any given day between 8:15 and 3:00. What I hated about them being in school is too numerous to list. On average, 4 times a week Thomas would appear after school, frowing and angry, jump in the car and burst into tears. I later learned from other moms, that Thomas wasn't the only boy to exhibit this frustration. Seems his last teacher didn't like boys very much and always had an extensive list of infractions that the boys' had done thru out the school day. One of the ones that the teacher complained about to me at least 25 times during the first half of the school year, was that Thomas took his shoes off while he was working at his desk. She told me it was a violation of the fire code. My retort to her was always the same, that if the 2 room school house burst into flames, I would expect him to leave the building without shoes regardless of regulations. She always like to send notes home to the parents of the 4 boys in her class, expressing her disdain in the fact that the boys made farting sounds during class. Guess the boys were on to her. As soon as they knew she hated it and it bugged her, they "HAD" to make those gross sounds. This young woman had no business being a teacher to young children; she was in the wrong profession.

I like to see my kids learn things and know that I am responsible for imparting the knowledge. Some days are just plain rotten and I want to run into a closet with a large bottle of Tequila. But then there are days when, out of the blue, Thomas mentions the Prime Meridian and how it divides the world into the Eastern and Western halves. YES! We covered that in world geography before Christmas and it is till inside his brain. Those are the moments that make me forget about the moments when we all have had just a little too much togetherness.

Today is homeschool gym class. Madi and Thomas have chosen tennis for this month's activity and my only concern with this activity is that Thomas doesn't let any bad words fly from his mouth. I don't think a lot of the other moms would appreciate Thomas' extensive vocabulary. So i spend the drive into town preparing him for appropriate language use.

Moving onto adoption news.......We are still waiting for this months update on Richnightder and Jerome. It is always bittersweet to receive these updates as sometimes it shares things you wish you had been there to see for yourself. I like to hear that the boys are both growing, healthy and doing well in school, but as my stack of these updates continue to pile up, I realize how much time has passed us by that they are not home with us.

We were matched with them in May of 2007 and here it is nearing the end of 2008 and still are only half way thru the adoption process. It is cruel how slowly the process moves for these kids and their families waiting for them. We have actually contemplated putting in for the openings that have come up for Marc's office in Santo Domingo, DR as it would be on the same Island as our boys. Then we come back to reality and realize that it may seem odd to the new boys to have the adoption final, and to find out that they are only moving across the border. I told Marc I thought if we were going to put in for a transfer, I kind of like Geneva, or Rome. But then what do we do with our myriad of animals??

Enough of my absurd and mundane thoughts. Oh, one more. I just saw Jamie Lee Curtis on the Today show and she was discussing how sad it is that our children today don't have an extensive vocabulary. They seem to use small, everyday words to express thoughts and we are losing the ability to teach "language" to our kids. Just a thought to close with for today. I will now go check on the ailing Madi and see that Thomas is reviewing his science lesson. Off to the trenches....

Looking ahead to the youth world show

Madison seems to have some natural talent when it comes to competing in horse shows. She started showing in leadline when she was 2 years old and then quickly moved on to the walk-trot classes. She rode my horse, Tommy an AQHA gelding in walk-trot classes until she was 8 years old and faught with him to get him to just walk and just trot instead of bursting into super-fast run-downs. Miraculously, she took year end high point that year and then started showing in the youth reining classes.

Kevin, our friend, neighbor and trainer who Madi travels with to some shows, had set her sights on merely completing the pattern in the ring and not to expect placing. Well her first show, 2 summers ago in Rapid City, SD she placed 3rd and had the audience standing and yelling cheering her on. SHe wowed the audience and obviously kicked some serious butt! That's my baby. Last season she continued to keep placing higher and higher against much older kids; I'm talking 13 to 18 year olds and captured a first place.

So with all that in mind, and a reduced show season this year because of our trip to Haiti and the expenses involved with that, she is planning on going to as many shows as we will get her to so she can try her little heart out, to win enough points that would qualify her for the youth world show. Now with all that said, Marc and I have no plans of her going to World at her age of 11 years. The entrance fees are STEEP and she would be riding against some serious competition and much older kids. I think we will wait until she is 13 and then let her have her fighting chance there.

I never get alone, quiet time. I just wanted to do a little blogging and in runs Thomas to show me his newest wound. He was running around barefoot and peeled the skin off the tip of his big toe. Nothing gruesome by Thomas standards, but painful just to look at. Now that it is clean, he is sitting next to me on the couch, flicking the huge flap of skin back and forth. I think when he goes to sleep tonight, I will sneak in and cut the piece of skin off. Yucky to look at and yucky to watch him fiddle with the remnants of what was momentarily ago attached to his body. Boys are so groddy. And just think I will have two more of these fun little creatures in my house to pester me and gross me out with their "boyness."

Me, doing what I do best!

Although Madi and Thomas are still completing last years curriculm, another year of school has just begun. I didn't begin to homeschool Thomas until October 31, and Madi on January 2 and I began each of their academic year anew. So with that in mind, Madison will finish 5th grade about November 1 and Thomas will finish up in late Sept or Oct. We are going to continue to homeschool all year 'round as I think it has worked really well for the kids. Every 20 lessons we take a few days off.

Anyhow, yesterday we met with the homeschool families for the first time and registered for gym with them twice a week. Every Tuesday and Thursday the kids will have P.E. with the other homeschool kids. THere are quite a few other families and kids involved. It seems to be a neat organization with lots of different activities and a different sport every month. This month, the kids could choose from soccer or tennis. Both Madi and Thomas have chosen tennis. I am not looking forward to March however as that is swimming month and I have volunteered to help. Way way, far back in my life, I was a lifeguard and swim instructor. Then i had a swimsuit worthy body, but now, not so much. UGH So I now have a goal and a reason to stick to weight watchers and try to lose these sneaky pounds.

If I were a horse, I would be an "easy keeper." I love to eat! I eat when I am happy, sad, angry, depressed, sick, or well. It is the only area of my life where I seem to consistently be an over-achiever. And it is the one area of life that I wish I could just chill out about. I hate these extra pounds......like I don't know where they came from?......right! And then to make myself feel better, I hit the cookies. Geez, what a vicious circle. I wish I could have a little of Thomas' eating "problem." Somedays he tells me he just isn't hungry! WHAT!! I didn't ask if you were hungry, all i did was tell him it was dinner time.

Before everyone gets worked up that I am causing him to have an eating disorder, I never make him eat if he is not hungry. But honestly, I think that is weird. I eat because it is fun, social, and tasty. He eats for the altruistic reason of being hungry and needing to give his body energy. How weird is that! So if I could be a little more like my son, I would have Denise Richard's body and be wearing spandex everywhere.

Now if only the other homeschool moms would be in favor of having a Margarita while the kids were exercising I would be in heaven. I will have to work on that and see if I can corrupt a few of the other hagard looking, zombie-eyed moms.

So the picure I posted is me from last year when marc and I went on vacation, sans kids. This shot of me I call " Enjoying every ounce of liquor here on the beach in Grand Cayman." Oh, did I mention Marc and I got NASTY sunburns. Who would have guessed that liquour dulls your pain receptors. Oh, well, back to homeschool. Now that sounds funny!

From North Dakota, with love!

Everyday, every minute I miss Richnightder and Jerome. Today is one of those down days when I just really feel that a part of our family is missing. I am missing out on so much of their childhood and each day that they are not home with us, makes me realize how quickly time is moving and that they are experiencing things that i will never be a part of.

I know Richnightder has a birthfamily that undoubtedly felt pride with each milestone he reached in his 3 years of life with them. They got to hold his hand as he took those first shaky steps, watched his first tooth pop up, and reveled hearing him say mama and papa for the first time. Jerome, as a true orphan at this first O, probably had no one to take notice of his milestones, and it breaks my heart that I was not a part of his life then. Each day that passes by that my boys are not here at home, reminds me of all the "firsts" that I have missed out on and will never get back.

Last months report stated that Richnightder is reading sentences and continues to write very well. How I wish I could be there to hear him read outloud for the first time. Jerome, they noted, loves to dance. I wish I could have been there to see him make that discovery. I know I will have plenty of "firsts" discoveries when they are home, but there are somethings that can never be duplicated again.

I just want to hold their hands and walk with them as they discover life here with us. It will all be so new and probably scary. I continue to wait for them and every moment of everyday, they are in my thoughts. It is indescribable how much I love them and how our family is not whole, with two members still not here.

I have so much to share with them in life. Little tidbits of wisdom to pass on that my Irish Mother passed on to me. I have a sarcastic sense of humor that I want to impose on them, and I am somewhat hopeful that Richnightder has a smidgen of my sense of humor. I want to kiss the boo-boo on Jerome's ankle and tell him that never again will he have to soothe himself when he is hurt; he has a mom and dad to do that. I could ramble on, but the boys are on my mind today and I just miss them so much.

The picture I posted today, shows the boys sleeping together. It makes me feel good to know that they are behaving like brothers and I hope it is a bond that they never forget.

flailing hooves

The farrier was out yesterday to trim our horses' feet and to put new sliders on Tommy. Marc was at work and the kids were done with school for the day, so I was almost looking forward to time alone with the farrier and some adult conversation.

Trimming the grown up horses is never a problem for us or the farrier, but for added fun yesterday, we trimmed our three month old filly's feet for the first time. Madi and Tom have done a super job of getting her halter broken and being able to touch her feet, ears, face, legs, etc., but actually cutting her hooves.......whoa, she was a little tiger.

Actually, Pat, the farrier said she was the best baby he had ever trimmed in his 20 years of experience, but nonetheless, the hooves came flying at my face. We put Coco's butt in the corner of the stall and I held her head down with the leadline, but as soon as he started rasping, her little feet were up in my face and her legs were on my shoulders. It would have been a cute sight had she not been scared witless and been clubbing at my face and shoulders with her little hooves.

I have a few battle scars from the adventure, mostly bruises and sores muscles. But the weird thing is that my back has been killing me since I slipped getting out of the limo 2 weeks ago and after yesterdays smack-down wrestling match with the pony, my back is almost perfect. So the moral of this long story is; who really needs a chiropractor when you can wrestle with horses and get the kinks worked out? But hey, it sure beats setting your finger on fire! Right Tifanni!!