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.

The Williams Girls

Hi! My name is April. I live in Greenville County, South Carolina. I am a (soon to be) single parent with 4 daughters. My husband (Bill) of 8 years has lung cancer and will not be with us much longer. He is currently living in an assisted living facility. My oldest daughter (Katie) is a soon to be sophomore in college at Anderson University (special education major), my second daughter (Kasie) is a soon to be freshman in college at North Greenville University (double major in English and Psychology with an emphasis on Christian Studies), my third daughter (Karie, who does not live with us now) is a freshman in high school and our baby (Kalie) is a soon to be second grader who will be 7 in August. I am also a nanny to a 2 year old girl (Carlee). I was a preschool teacher for 6 years when my older daughters were younger. I am in the process of becoming a registered home day care provider so I can afford to stay home with my youngest.

I homeschooled my three oldest daughters from Feb 2002 until August 2003 while we moved from Florida to South Carolina and got settled in. I continued to homeschooled my second daughter until August 2004 and then again this last year (her senior year) due to a knee injury from cheerleading. I started homeschooling my first grader in January of 2007. She was in a self contained special education class for kids with emotional disabilities. She suffers from severe separation anxiety due to PTSD. She is a very bright girl but I felt that she was not learning anything academic (and learning undesirable traits) in her class due to the behavior problems of the other students. Now that she has been home full time her behavior has done a complete turn around. Her therapist has even decided to cut her sessions back to once every two weeks. I am also much less stressed since she started homeschooling. Since she came home in Jan. we have spent most of our time deschooling and focusing on topics that interest her. I wanted to homeschool her from the beginning but I followed the advice from well meaning friends that said 'if she stayed home with me it would increase her separation anxiety' but really her anxiety increased when she went to public school.