Earth Day

No, I'm not a tree hugger...I just thought that Earth Day was a good excuse to post these pictures of Jacob, Gabriel and Cadence enjoying the beautiful spring weather. Todd kept telling me the picture of all 3 kids wasn't any good (you can't see Gabe's face). But watching my boys love on their sister gives me warm fuzzy feelings. It brings to mind the scripture "How good, oh how pleasant it is, for brothers to dwell together in unity." As a parent, you love your kids no matter what - but there is a extra pleasure derived from watching them all get along and love each other. And the moments of harmony somehow overshadow the times of chaos when they are all yelling at each other. I am repeatedly amazed at how having children has given me insights into the heart of the Father....

Happy Days

We've recently been celebrating birthdays around here...Jacob, and then 5 days later, Cadence. I was really worried that he would be upset about her birthday being so close to his, but he loves it. He thinks that sharing his party or cake or whatever with her is great. (He is such a good big brother!). Jake was excited that his birthday fell during spring break - that meant breakfast with Grandma and Nate on his birthday. I didn't have a camera with me for any the special things Jake got to do on his birthday, but I did take some pictures when we "celebrated" at Splash Lagoon - we got a cake to celebrate both of their birthdays, and the trip was in place of expensive birthday parties.

When it is somebodies birthday around here, I try to make one of their favorites for dinner. Jacob got Shepherd's Pie. Cadence prefers the taste of rocks and crayons to most of my cooking, so I knew that the only acceptable birthday meal would be pizza. But Todd and Gabriel won't eat pizza (especially homemade). One day when I was bored I tried making boneless buffalo wings, and they were a huge hit, so now they must always go with the pizza. Thankfully, Jacob wants to be a chef and helps in the kitchen every chance he gets. So he does most of the work for the boneless buffalo wings. Her majesty was delighted with her birthday meal...

And today my mom and I took Cadence to Build-A-Bear to spend some of her birthday money. Of course Gabriel was all kinds of upset that he wasn't getting a new animal, but he got over it eventually. The purpose of our trip was actually to find a dress for me to wear to my mother's wedding. My goal was to find a black dress that can double as a funeral dress (her "honey" is 84, and she is 56 - I give him 5 years tops). I did find a black dress, but I think that it is a little too dressy for a funeral.

Anyway, back to Build-A-Bear - Cadence was really cute making her puppy, who she named Spot (at first she kept telling me that his name was Dog). First we had to wait in line (and wait, and wait and wait).

Then, Cadence had to step on the pedal and push the buttons to stuff Spot full of love and all that good stuff.

Then, she had to pick out a heart for Spot. The heart had to be rubbed on her nose and her toes, and warmed in her hands, and spun all around, and finally it needed a kiss.

Once the girl sewed Spot up, Cadence gave him a bath and brushed his fur. We selected a Birthday outfit for him to wear, then brought him home. He is currently napping with Cadence upstairs in her new Strawberry Shortcake bed. I'm sure he will be very happy here with us:)

The Story of Stupid

I need to vent... Last August, Jacob's biological father quit his job (he told me it was just a six week leave) - in order to do some work under the table and without paying child support - so that he could accumulate the money he needed to pay some fines and get his driver's license back. It was 5 years ago that I discovered he had no license, because Child Support tried to take it, but found that it had already been revoked. During that time, he left the state since he kept getting pulled over in New York.

A few years later, he returned and continued to drive without a license until he got pulled over a few more times. Then he agreed with me that it was not a very Christian thing to do to knowingly drive without a license. So his wife became chauffeur. Then, he moved an hour away from his job, when he had been living about 5 min. from work. So, of course, it seemed very logical ( in his mind) to quit the job when he did. It was just a few months before he quit his job that he finally got caught up on support. He swore when he "took a leave" that paying support would be his first priority, he didn't want to get in that big hole again...

Six weeks came and went, he wasn't ready to go back to that good job he had. Six months later he was finally looking for work, but its hard for a contractor to find a job in New York in the middle of winter. No worries, he said, his old job said they would gladly take him back (or so he thought). When he called them, they didn't really have any work for him at the time. But he had finally managed to get his license back. Now, he would send in a payment or two every couple months, but nothing at all after Christmas.

When you are delinquent on child support for 4 months in New York State, they automatically suspend your license! I already knew this since I talk to the Child Support people all the time "Have you gotten any money from him?" "Has he notified you of an employer?" "Why doesn't the employer send the money every week like they should?" But dips?@t didn't have a clue....So at the end of Feb. a notice was sent to him saying "pay what you owe in full or your driver's license will be suspended. He says he didn't get it, but if it is true "I won't have a job" he says. Because his grace period is gone, and as of last week his license was suspended.

He has offered to look into the matter, and come on Saturday with a current abstract of his driver's license. But I'm willing to bet the the Abstract will not be current enough, or he will forget. Maybe his wife will be driving, but what do I do when the unlicensed idiot shows up to take my son? Would you let your kid ride with an unlicensed driver? I'm thinking I will have to call the PoPos and let them explain to the moron what "suspended license" means, but I really don't want to have to go there, so pray for me....

Anyway, it really is pretty stinking funny to me that he quit a job (and quit paying support) so he could get his license back. He got his license back about a month ago and now he lost it for not paying support. Oh yeah, and he pulled into my driveway with a new (used I am sure, but new to him - second vehicle for their family) truck yesterday. He had the money to pay off the back support and bought a new truck instead. RETARD!

April Showers Bring May Flowers...What Does April Snow Bring?

Okay, I know its Syracuse. I know it has snowed on my birthday in the middle of May. But really, I'm sick of winter. Even my kids are sick of winter. They keep saying "We don't want more snow. When will it be warm out?"

This morning I was all ready to take Jacob to school, but turned the radio station to check for school closings just to be safe (I already dropped him off at school once this year when it was closed due to the cold). I couldn't believe the list of closings, and of course our school was on the list. So here we are with a snow day in the middle of April.

Back inside the house where it's warm, Gabriel is continuing to amaze me with his reading. I'm starting to get a little bit nervous. Shaping his mind is a huge responsibility. I got him a preschool workbook at Wal-Mart the other day so he can work a little bit on math concepts and big/little, up/down, and other stuff like that. I also pulled out a book that I used for Jacob in 1st grade - it is a children's encyclopedia that we used for history and geography. Gabriel loves learning about the contents and weather and stuff like that. But I wonder, should he have music lessons or foreign language? He really loves to learn. He begs for reading lessons (when Jacob was at this point in the reading book at age 5 it was a huge chore to get him through a lesson). Now he is accurately identifying 2 digit numbers, and once again no one ever taught him that.

Then there is Jacob...I think I need to get him another appointment with the psychologist. He has been really bad lately about putting things in his mouth, and I swear there is something going on with him other than ADHD. In a lot of ways, Gabriel is more mature emotionally than Jacob. He also drools a lot, and seems to have some sort of sensory issues. But he is a really good kid - he is just hard to take in large doses.

Splash Lagoon

Everyone (including Todd) is down for a nap, so I have some time to myself. I've been thinking a lot lately about a day of rest. I don't think that "Remember the Sabath and keep it holy" refers to setting aside an hour or two to attend church on Sunday morning. I think that the way we were created, we need rest. God meant for us to regularly take time to recharge and spend time relaxing with our families (and maybe friends). In our society, relaxing is almost a lost art...so do we forsake this God given command in order to pursue the God of self? Any thoughts on this are welcome.



All right, enough of my ranting. As promised, here are some pictures from our little trip to Splash Lagoon. We didn't take many pictures because I was worried that the camera would get wet or stolen








One thing that we discovered on this trip is that Jacob DOES NOT like water slides. People who know him tend to be surprised by this fact. You see, Jacob is ADHD with emphasis on the H(yper). He is mister crazy, all over the place, bouncing off walls. He is always playing superheros or fighting the bad guys...he is all boy and then some. So from the time he was very small we all assumed that he would be one of those kids who participates in "thrill-seeking behavior". You know, roller coasters, bridge jumping, fast cars...But oh, no! Wherever there is danger, Jacob will not be!!!! I bribed him to go down one water slide with me (thinking that once he did it he would realize how fun it is and want to do it over and over again - like me). It was a tube ride, and we went in a double tube. When we got to the bottom he said "I don't ever want to do that again. I felt like I was going to throw up." Both of little kids loved going down the big slides, but Jake was more than happy to just play in the pool. And I thought it a little odd, but he also liked playing in the little area where they had water squirting out of the ground, which you can see in the picture.

They had one wading pool with kiddie slides, which is where I spent most of my time. Gabriel would only go down these slides with Todd, and even then, there were other things he would rather do than go down a slide. But then there is Cadence. My family all call her "Kelly junior". She insisted on going down by herself, and I would stand at the bottom to catch her. The second I set her down, she would run (usually laughing) right back up the stairs to the top of the slide. Then she would stand there and yell at all the other kids "MY SLIDE, MY SLIDE" and give them various directions as she emphatically pointed her finger and waved her arm. I wish we had video of it...But then eventually, some older kid would help her get situated at the top of the slide and down she came.







So I guess if I ever want anyone to go bungee jumping or skydiving with, it will be my daughter. Yes, God must have a sense of humor. I wanted all boys, because I thought that my boys and I could have a lot of fun together - I love sports, I like to fix things, and of course the faster and more dangerous the better (although children have mellowed me a great deal, I do still enjoy things like crazy roller coasters). I didn't think that I could handle a daughter, but now that I have her I am very grateful for her. God knew just what I needed.

It was really a great little getaway. We had a lot of fun together just relaxing. There was no agenda to follow, no place that we had to get to at a certain time. We really enjoyed each other. Sometimes vacations can be full of stress - you get so caught up in wanting everyone to have a good time that you forget to relax. My goal is to make every vacation like this one!

Easter Surprise

Todd and I had been dying to get away, so we started looking into places we could go for a weekend...The problem we kept running into is this: It is cold in the New York/Pennsylvania until at least May, so anything that it is an outdoor activity doesn't open until after Memorial Day (unless you want to go skiing) and there really isn't much to do inside that would appeal to the whole family. We thought of Splash Lagoon, an indoor water park in Erie, PA, but knew that was more than we really wanted to spend. But we were getting desperate, so we took a look at the website. We discovered that they were running a special, making it more in our price range, but the only weekend that the special and our calender lined up was Easter.


We decided to surprise the kids with a trip to Splash Lagoon for Easter. I got everything all packed while Jacob was at his sperm donor's (or father, if you want to call him that) house. Then, Sunday morning we did the Easter thing - baskets, Easter story, egg hunt.



Each of the kids got something besides candy in their basket (in part because they didn't get much candy). Jacob was really excited about the Buzz Lightyear sweatshirt that he got. I think that Cadence's favorite part was the baskets themselves, and as you can see, Gabriel was excited about the Peeps (yuck).


Yes, we did an egg hunt in the snow. It was a short one! If you look carefully, you can see the snowflakes coming down in the picture.








The egg hunt led the kids into the van, where I told them to sit down and buckle up. Jacob figured out that we were going on a trip because he saw the suitcase in the back of the van, but he thought we were going camping. (Funny side note, every time we go camping, the weather is horrible, and when our neighbor noticed that our van was gone she said "They must be camping, it always snows when they go camping") And then we stopped at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast on the go. Cadence enjoyed it....


It was a four hour drive, and the thing we were most worried about was Little Miss Potty Trained. She has been doing great, but would we have to stop every hour? Would she not give us enough notice when she had to go? Should we just put a diaper on her to be safe? Well, no worries! She was great! She didn't have any accidents the whole vacation, and when we told her to hold for a little while, she did.

About two hours into the drive, Gabriel realized that we weren't going to church. This upset him because he loves his schedules. He's getting the hang of the days of the week in order, and he knows that certain things happen certain days. Saturday and Sunday "Daddy has no work", Thursday is grocery shopping, Tuesday is small group, Sunday is church. So he couldn't understand why it was Sunday and we were not going to church. Todd explained to him that we were having a special family time, and he eventually got over it.

Stay tuned for pictures of Splash Lagoon.