Tuesday

Today was a busy day. I am tired!

We woke up late and had to rush this morning. (I am so not a morning person so this was not fun!)

We went to MMCC this morning. It was the first Tuesday so we had to combine classes and move upstairs. It was very hectic, but we made the best of it. We made Valentines for our families and watched Hermie.

Then errands had to be done. Kalie and I had to go to county tax office and the DMV. YUCK! (and expensive) It took forever at the county tax office but I was able to convince them to waive the late fee since it was their fault. I was so worried about going to the DMV, thinking it might take hours! It was our lucky day though...it only took 7 minutes from start to finish. Can you believe it?

Kalie went to her first Art class today. She did very well. She stayed in the kitchen and I was able to sit in the living room (cutting out pages for future lapbooks). I could not see her but could hear her. She did very well. She participated and interacted with the other 3 children in the class. I was so happy! She had fun and did a wonderful drawing!

While I was cutting, I remembered last year. Kalie left public school in January of 2007. I made the mistake of trying to get her into "classes" too soon. She took an art class at a local art mission (school) that lasted all of 3 classes. I had paid for the complete semester ($120) and did not get a refund. What a difference a year makes. Not only in Kalie but myself as well. She has become more trusting and less anxious. I have relaxed ALOT and realized that it is not about me and what I want and need, it's about what is best for Kalie.

We did not get home until almost 4:00. It was such a nice day that we spent the next 2 hours outside on the back deck. Kalie playing with toy animals, bubbles, the cats and riding her scooter, while I continued to cut. My hands are cramping from all of the cutting I have done today. LOL!

The sun started to set, so we had to come inside. Kalie worked more on her Books of the Bible lapbook. She is taking a very long time to finish this lapbook because she is working so hard to make everything "perfect". I am very impressed with her diligence. She is very excited to show her sisters. She misses them so much during the week and then drives them crazy over the weekends. LOL!

All in all I would say today was 7 out of 10! I am very happy with a 7. I hope your day has been at least a 7!

School Day

Hey guys,

I only have a few minutes, but wanted to let everyone know that we had a great school day. We spent the morning playing some dolch word games, working on our Books of the Bible lapbook, math facts lapbook, reading Cinderella stories, some handwriting (yuck) and watched Animal Planet. I am so glad that we have changes our "school" to reflect more of her and less of me. A school day with only 2 disagrements! WOW! We have never had that. Kalie has been such a great little girl today! I am so happy!

This afternoon we picked up her (used, but new to us) loft bed. We will have to buy some lumber and fix it. I would like it to be a bit more stable before I let her climb into it. She is very excited. Maybe soon she will start sleeping in her own bedroom. LOL!

Tonight is Scouts. We will be working on our Caring and Sharing Try It. We are making Valentines for sick kids in the hospital. Our local Christian radio station is sponsoring this project.
I will try to post pictures soon.

I hope everyone else is having a great day!

What have we been up to?

Hello Friends!

I am connected to the world again. Last July our internet was having problems. The provider (was Bellsouth now AT&T) figured out it was because the neighbors had tapped into our line. They fixed it and within a week we had the same problem. They disconnected it with a promise to run a new line soon to fix the problem. Well 6 months later the problem has been fixed. I am just so happy to have internet at home again.

So I will try to update everyone briefly. Ha Ha. Like that will happen. LOL!

In August Katie and Kasie went to college. Kalie was very sad. We started school with a bumpy start and it took a few weeks to get into the grove. Katie and Kasie were both having problems with their roommates. Katie was rooming with her same roommate from last year (which I thought might not be a good idea). Kasie and her roommate did not get along from the start. They had VERY different levels of cleanliness, her roommate had a level of -5 and Kasie is a 9. LOL! Kasie was able to get a new roommate after about 4 weeks. Kasie loved her new roommate, but Chelsea had to move this semester because of costs. So Kasie has a room to herself right now.

In Sept I started working for our church. I provide the child care (MMCC) for the mom's Bible Study. It is every Tue morning from 9:00 - 12:00. I am making $10 an hour, which is almost half of what I made watching Carlee with only one morning of work. We have 3 classes, an infant class that has 2 babies, a toddler class that has 6 kids (18 month to almost 3 years), and then my class of 9 kids (3 years to almost 5 years). I decided after the 3rd week that my class needed to be more structured and I developed a plan. I am now "teaching" preschool again. I love it! My kids are great, so sweet and loving! The parents are thrilled and have been so supportive. Only 2 of the kids in the class go to any other kind of activity or group setting. All of these kids will be going to public school. I am working on the alphabet and numbers with them. Kalie plays a letter matching game with them (one at a time) every week. It has been wonderful for her to be the BIG one and she has really taken to "teaching" the kids. It has also made going to church on Sunday mornings much easier because she wants to she the kids.

The only bad part was that we could not attend our Tue morning play group. (the one with Lara, who also uses MBTP). But it is OK now, because on Jan 16th, they moved the day to Wed, so we can join them again! Yea!

We moved on September 12th. In August our landlord sold our home and the rest of the homes they owned in our neighborhood. The new owners wanted to fix the many problems in the house we were renting so they gave us the option of moving across the street. So in September we moved across the street. Crazy I know. The new place has 4 bedrooms instead of 3 for the same rent. So Kalie has her own room now! She doesn't sleep there, but all of her stuff is in there. The new house has a much better floor plan. We are loving the extra room and the new layout.

Oh one more major thing that happened, on Sept 30th Bill was baptized and became a Christian! We were all very happy and relieved. It was an answer to over 9 years of prayer.

We had a pretty uneventful October. Kalie's daddy was not doing well so we spent alot of time with him and less time on school work. I was trying to make Kalie do all that I had planned in about half of the time. That obviously did not work. LOL!

The mean neighbors moved at the end of October. (The new landlords evicted them.) A few days before they left, one of the kids brought Stanley (the cat) to our house and asked us if we wanted to have him. We of course said yes. They next week we took him to the vet. He got his shots, neutered and microchipped. That way they couldn't change their mind. LOL! So now we have 3 cats. In August we had to give Theadore away. Kalie was very sad. He was just to much for us to handle. We gave him to a family that has a large fenced yard. He is doing well there. Kalie still wants a dog (and a fish, a hamster, a guinea pig, a horse, some chickens and any other animal she can think of). LOL!

At the beginning of Nov Bill went into the hospital and we thought it was the end, but we were wrong. He rebounded and was feeling great. He even went to the Mall with us to see Santa the week before Thanksgiving.

Katie's best friend had her baby on November 26th. Kasie and her roommate (Chelsea) were in a small accident on their way home from the hospital. Kasie injured her bad knee, again. So she is back to frequent visits to the orthopedic doctor and physical therapy.

Bill took a turn for the worse the day after Thanksgiving and after about a week didn't recognize anyone except Kalie.

Katie was in a car accident on Dec 14th. No one was not hurt, but she totaled her sister Kasie's car. Kasie can not drive because of her knee injury, but was hoping to be released from the doctor soon so she could get her license. Now she does not have a car though. Katie has promised to replace the car or give her money to help replace it.

Bill's health declined very fast. On Dec 21st Bill was transferred from the assisted living facility to a nursing home. While we were doing the paperwork and getting him settled in, he was very agitated and did not even recognize Kalie. She was upset. We left him at about 4:30 in the afternoon. We had a few errands to run and the entire time we were in the car Kalie asked ALL of the difficult questions. I was completely honest with her. I didn't want anything to be a shock for her. He died the next morning at 4:30am. The girls went back to bed around 8:00 and slept until 1:00. We all took a mental health day. The girls called into work and we decided to have a fun day. We all went and got our hair cut. (I got 12" cut off mine.) Then we went out for an early dinner. Went to see the Christmas Tree display at the Hyatt and then the lights at Roper Mountain Science Center. We all left our phones at home and focused on each other. The next day I decided that we needed to get back into life and try to make things as normal as possible for Kalie. Bill's death was not a surprise, we were all expecting it, and it was somewhat of a relief.

We had a very quiet Christmas. Katie's boyfriend Charlie and his father (Barry) came over for supper. It was a very relaxing day.

We started school again on Jan 7th after a very long break (we had not done anything formal except holiday studies since mid Nov). The girls went back to college on Jan 8th. Kalie and I were having a great week. Then.....

On Thurs, Jan 10th (around 8:30pm) Kasie was in an accident. She was walking in the parking lot at school and someone backed into her and then drove away. Her body went into shock to protect itself and she was paralyzed for over 14 hours. She had spinal cord shock. (I had never heard of it before) I was VERY scared! We (I stayed with her the entire time) were in the hospital for 5 days. She has made wonderful progress since being released and is almost back to "normal". One good thing that has come of the accident is that she has finally been referred to a neurologist for her RSD.

We started school AGAIN this past Mon (Jan 28th). So far this week we are doing great! I am now taking a very different approach towards homeschool. In the fall I was trying to make Kalie catch up to where I thought she should be and do so much that we both were burning out very fast. After Kasie's accident I decided to take things much slower.

We are a little more scheduled with activities and a little less scheduled with school work. I know this is probable a reverse of what everyone else is doing. On Mon nights we have girl scouts, Tue morning MMCC, Tue afternoon an art class, Wed morning LTBAP (play group), Thursday morning Explorers (play group) and Thurs afternoon PE. We do not always go to both playgroups each week, sometime we do not even go to one. I just think after every thing that has happened the past couple of months we need to live and enjoy life a little more. Kalie is so smart and she picks up so much by just living that I figure we will have plenty of time later for a more structured learning schedule when she is older.

So I am leaning more towards unschooling for Kalie. We will probably not be using RightStart or ABeCeDarian much longer (she hates them). We will read every day, do some sort of math most days (not always a lesson, it could be playing a game, sorting, patterns, cooking, measuring), work on her animal notebook when she feels like it (which will probably be every day). We will continue to do MBTP (as science and social studies) 3 to 5 times a week. We will need to find a language arts program (one that is not very structured). Creative writing, music, Spanish and "whatever else" will happen when she is in the mood. This is not how I would like to homeschool but I guess it isn't about me. I am also leaning towards having her "repeat" 2nd grade. Not because I do not think she has learned this year or is on grade level with public school, I just do not want her to graduate high school at 17 and go off to college a week after she turns 18.

So that is the update about our life for the past 6 months.

Our Weekend

We had a very busy week / weekend!

Kasie brought her friend Mandy (Manderia, an exchange camper from South Africa who is Indian) home for the long weekend. She has come home for the last 3 weekends. We really like her. She is so homesick and misses her mother so much.

On Wednesday (July 4th) we were going to get up early, go to the dollar summer movie (this week was Flushed Away), go to the grocery store, come home and have the big traditional cook out and then go downtown (Greenville) at about 5:00 for the RED, WHITE AND BLUE Festival to see the fireworks. Instead we were lazy all day. LOL! The girls stayed in pj's until about 5:00. We did go to the festival and we had a great time.

Thursday we got up early. Went to the bank. Kasie had a therapy appointment at 11:00. While she was there Mandy, Carlee, Kalie and I went to the main library downtown. (Just to show Mandy what our libraries are like.) In the lobby there is a huge globe that rotates and is to scale. It was neat to compare where we were to where she lives. We are doing a very informal unit study on South Africa and the Indian culture using her as our main reference. It has been so interesting. Then we picked Kasie up, went to Mass General Store and then out for lunch at Mellow Mushroom. I love that restaurant. They have the best hummus and pizza. They use a spring water wheat dough and all of their ingredients are FRESH! It is so good. We then played in the park for a while. Downtown there is a park called Reedy River Falls Park. It has a series of waterfalls, some large and some small. There is a few sections of the creek that the kids wade and swim in (maybe 3 feet deep). Kalie and Carlee had suck a good time. After wards we went to the eye doctor to pick up Kasie's new glasses and then off to the grocery store. Carlee's mom met us at the grocery store to pick her up. We came home with a ton of groceries (I had not done real shopping in 3 weeks). I cooked a good dinner and the girls danced to High School Musical, Grease and some Indian music. It was so funny. Mandy was trying to teach them traditional Indian dances, it did not work.

We were home for most of the day on Friday but gone for all of the evening. I so wish we had a pool. Kalie has a wading pool (5' X 5' X 12") that we (her and I) "swam" in on Friday. LOL! The neighbor kids looked at us like we were crazy. For Kasie's "school year" job she works at Build A Bear Workshop. During the summer she has to work one shift a month to be kept on as an employee. Her shift this month was from 5:00 to close (10:30) on Friday night. So we (Kalie, Mandy and I) took her to work and walked around the mall for awhile. On Kasie's break we met her at the food court and had Chinese food for dinner (Kasie's favorite). Then we went across the street to Toys R Us for Kalie to "dream", after that we went to Barnes and Nobel (also across the street) for mommy to "dream". Kalie and I love to spend time there. Our B&N has a great kids section (with a train table), comfy chairs and a Starbucks (one of my weaknesses).

Saturday we went to Hollywild (http://www.hollywild.com/index.html). It was so much fun. We had never been and Mandy had never seen anything like it. We had a great time!


It has been a very busy weekend here. I hate to say this but I am glad to have taken Kasie and Mandy back to camp. I am verrrry tired. We did so much the past few days that I am exhausted! LOL! We had a great week though. This week will be busy but a little less exciting. LOL!

On Monday (07/09) we are going to Story Time at our branch library, having a picnic lunch and then Kalie has a therapy session. Tuesday we are going to the Clemson Botanical Gardens with LTBAP (our local play group) which will take up the entire day. Wednesday is the $1 movie (Doogal) and Friday has a play at another branch of the library (30 min away). Hopefully we will be staying home on Thursday. I think we are going to have to go back to "school" just to get rested up!! This summer stuff is going to kill me!!! I am looking forward to September. LOL!

I would love Kalie to do something like dance, gymnastics, karate in the fall ... but with her anxiety it is hard. She did a fall and spring session of soccer with the YMCA last year. It was pricey at $80 each session (2 months). In the fall she had a wonderful coach but not in the spring. She says she does not want to do it again. We have tried 4 different dance studios but none of them let the parents in the room so she will not do it. I tried to have her take a homeschool art class but she was to afraid because she couldn't see where I was sitting and got too upset. We tried Girl Scouts but had a bad experience with both troops. She finished the year as a Juliette (independent) but I do not know if she will continue next year or not. I want Kalie to take swim lessons in the fall. A pool near us (15 miles and 25 min) has homeschool swim lessons. We might try those.

Who are we?

Here is a quick intro / explanation about all of us.

Katie is 19 (March 5). She will be a sophomore at Anderson University (in SC). She is studying to be a special education teacher (and loves it), she would like to work with downs or austic kids. She has almost a full ride with her scholarships (20 out of the 24 thousand a year). She has a wonderful boyfriend, Charlie who has orange hair, LOL! He is almost 20 but a year ahead of her because of his AP and dual credit classes he took in high school. They have been dating 10 months. I think he might be the one. (She had a not so great boyfriend for almost 3 years, boy are we glad he is gone!) Katie is working 4 jobs this summer. Bruster's Ice Cream (she has worked there almost 2 years), Eddie Bauer (where she gets a great discount), and then she does ABA therapy with an almost 3 year old austic boy (Scott) for 6 to 10 hours a week and she also babysits a 6 year old austic boy and his twin sister (Hayden and Hannah) 3 to 5 half days a week. She is busy! Kalie and I do not get to see much of her. Katie graduated with honors from the local High School. She was homeschooled for half of 8th grade and 9th grade while we were moving from Florida to South Carolina. She missed the social aspect of school. So she went back in 10th grade and had a great high school experience.

Kasie just turned 18! (June 29) She graduated from Home School High School in May. She will be attending North Greenville University in the fall with a full ride (except books). YEA! She took dual credit classes there in the spring and loved it. She is working as a camp counselor at Camp Wabak (Girl Scout Camp). She has to be there at 11:00 on Sundays and does not come home until 5:00 on Fridays. She does have one night a week off from 5:30 until 10:30. Kalie and I miss her! Kasie was homeschooled for half of 7th grade, and all of 8th and 9th grade while we were moving from Florida to South Carolina. She loved being homeschooled but made the cheerleading squad so wanted to go back to school. She went back in 10th grade. She then came home for her last year due to her knee injury (cheerleading). She has RSD in her knee and will be partially disabled for the rest of her life. She now says she wished she had never gone back to public school.

Karie is 16 (December 18). She does not live with us. She is in foster care. She has under treated Bi-Polar, ADHD, RAD, ODD, DBD, and a few other things. This is a LONG SAD story that I will share another time.

Kalie is almost 7 (August 5). She went to PS for Kindergarten and half of first grade. She is very smart but so far behind academically. Kalie has severe separation anxiety and social anxiety and suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Bob is my ex husband. He is Katie, Kasie and Karie's dad. We were married for 4 years. We has no contact with him from 1992 until 2004. (That was very nice, LOL!) He was very abusive mentally, verbally and physically. Katie and Kasie now want nothing to do with him now that they know him. He has made many empty promises since her has come back into their lives. Karie idolizes him and thinks that she is going to go live with him.

Bill is my current husband and Kalie's dad. Katie and Kasie call him dad also. He has lung cancer and does not have much time to live. He lives in an assisted living facility that is about 20 minutes away from where we live. Bill is a great Dad!

Carlee (27 months) is the little girl I watch. I have had her since November 2005. She is like one of my own. We love her so much! Her mother drives me crazy. LOL! She wants Carlee to be clean and quiet all the time and would prefer if we watched TV for at least 5 hours a day. Ha! Ha! Like that is going to happen at our house.

Oliver is our cat. Katie brought him home last July. He is almost 1 year old. He is a pure breed Manx. That means he does not have a tail, his hind legs are longer than his front and he has a very small voice box so he barely makes a sound. He is my cat and lets everyone know. LOL!

Theodore is our CRAZY puppy. Katie brought him home at the beginning of April. He is almost 5 months old. He is suppose to be a cocker spaniel / black lab mix puppy ... but I do not see any cocker spaniel in him. He is HUGE and so hyper. He drives me crazy!

Stanley was our new kitten. Kasie brought him home on her birthday. He was a stray that she found in the yard. We had him for one week and we ALL bonded with him. Kalie was so happy to have her own kitten (as Oliver does not want to play with her, LOL!) The mean neighbors kids next door said that he was their kitten and we had to give him back. We were all sad. Kalie cried for days. So... Katie took Kalie to get a new kitten.

Ralph is our new kitten. Katie got him out of the paper for free. He is so small and tiny. He is not 6 weeks old as the woman claimed. He doesn't have many teeth and his eyes are not completely opened yet. He was also completely covered in fleas. He is to young for any treatment so we have been giving him a bath every 4 hours or so. The fleas fall off into the water or Katie picks them off with the tweezers. In the first bath about 100 fleas (I am not kidding!) came off. It is crazy. I tried to give him tuna but he is to young, he just kept licking it not biting or eating it. We have purchased kitten formula and are having him drink it out of a bowl.

That is our crazy family. More about our adventures later.