Ready for School

We've been keeping busy enjoying what's left of summer. We've done more fishing, gone to the lake again, and of course we have everything we need for the school year. Well, except jeans. They all need new jeans. That can wait though since they all like to wear shorts for as long as the weather allows.

This is the beginning of the busiest time of year for us. Ty, Jay, and Logan are all in soccer and Cory runs for cross country. At the high school now. Can you believe that? A high school student! Anyway, it's challenging to work a schedule that allows us to eat together as much as possible this time of year and for me to get to as many games for all the boys as I can, but I absolutely love it. Fall sports...bring it on!

Pictures

Here are a couple of pictures from the baseball game. They didn't all turn out that great but I love them! There's also a pic of Jay's family birthday cake.

Fun

Since my last post, the boys' behavior has gotten even better. There's the typical sniping at each other because of the enforced togetherness that is summer lol but I can deal with that no problem. We've actually been making some headway, I think. Real progress! This isn't to say that there won't be other backslides or brand new issues that come up but I feel good about where we all are right now.

One thing that might be helping is I am trying to keep us as busy as I can. We're doing the usual swimming, library visits, and park outings. We went to a AAA professional baseball game on Saturday for Jay's birthday. Cory was the only one who'd gone to a pro game before. They all were so excited, though, that you would've thought it was Christmas. I loved every minute of it lol. I've been to two Phillies games and this little AAA game? Had them beat to heck because of the boys. I bought each of the boys new baseballs before we went and the players were very gracious with their autographs. The whole thing was just a blast!

Day 5...Home Sweet Home

The boys got a few last turns in with the go carts then we packed and headed home. We were sad and partly not ready but man it's good to be back! I'll leave you with a few pics from around the campfire!

Day 4...Underground Again

We headed for Penn's Cave today. We enjoyed it a lot. One of the funniest things is that one of the men in our tour group looked so much like my BIL (but older) that I swear I thought it was his brother! The pics from today are my favorite from inside the cave, a group shot of the boys outside the Penn Cave House, and a shot of Ty and Cory just because I love the pic so much! If you compare Cory in it to him in the header of my blog (from last October) you can really see how much he has matured in less than a year!

Day 3...More of the Same

We spent day 3 just enjoying the campground again. The pics in this post this will be the boys enjoying the bumper boats and go carts. The campground had different activities each day too. Today the boys enjoyed the foam party by the pool. There was a huge blow up pool filled with soap bubbles to play in and you got hosed off as you came out.

I enjoyed every minute but my best memories will be from around the campfire. It's amazing what the boys will talk about in front of the relaxing fire with nothing else to focus on but the flames and each other. I feel like we got to know each other all over again and they sure can surprize me! They laughed, talked, told jokes and stories. Even L at 4 years old told amazingly creative (although frightingly graphic for his age) scary stories in such a wonderful story teller voice. It was so beyond what I expected of him that the shock of it made us all laugh til our sides hurt. It was just so surprizing to hear that breathless, edge of your seat tone from him as he told the tales. I'lll NEVER forget those nights around the campfire, just me and my boys.

Day 2...Aaaaahhhh

Day 2 (Tuesday) we spent enjoying the campground. There was the pool and splash park, bumper boats, mini golfing, game room and pedal carts. There's a hot tub there too but it wasn't very hot lol. Still relaxing though lol.

The pics this time are from the pool/splashpark.

Day 1...Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho

We're back from our vacation. We had a great time and got a much needed time away together.

We couldn't check in til later in the afternoon on Monday so we left home early and went to one of the points of interest on our list. We took a mine tram tour of a PA coal mine, which was very interesting and educational. I'm not sure the boys cared about the educational part but they thought it was "wicked cool." The tram took us to the middle level of the mine I guess you'd call it. This meant we could look up gangways (emergency passages for the miners to climb if needed) and down into the ones to the lower level. The pictures just don't do justice to the scope of the length and incline of the gangways. The one we saw from above looking down into the deeper level of the mine was mind boggling. To point out how dangerous it could be the tour guide turned off all the lights and said, "Now find the Wishing Well (what it was called.)" In the picture you can see a grate over it but back when it was in use of course they couldn't block it off. Another thing that hit home for us all was the story of what they used for brakes on the mine carts (12 yr old boys used to stand along side the tracks and throw wood into the spokes to slow them down). We all really enjoyed the whole experience.

After the mine we checked into the campground. We had time to enjoy the pool and splash park and the boys rode bikes and pedal go-carts for a while.

I Love You, J

J,

I can't believe you're 8 now. It seems like yesterday that you walked into our lives and into my heart. I'll never forget that first night (How could I? You remind me often lol) when you were so quiet and shy and you wouldn't even eat dinner. Pizza. YOU.

It's hard watching you work so hard to put your past behind you but I'm glad you're doing it. I'm so proud of you! I hope that if I'm allowed to try I can be the mom you need to help you through this. You may not trust in this yet but I'll be here for as long as I can, forever if I have my way.

My hope for you is that some day when you look into the mirror you see what the people who love you see and NOT what your past has taught you to see. You are so smart and creative. It's always in the stories you write and the machines you build with your toys. You are considerate and appreciate the things people do for you. Not many kids would care enough to thank their mom for bringing their back pack to school when they forgot it. You show your kindness and generosity every day, whether you're helping me with chores, bringing Cory his cup, or sharing your gum.

Thank you for being my son! May your 8th year be your best ever and your life get happier and more blessed each year after!

Life After Visits

It's amazing how much stress the visits and case were causing in our lives. The difference has been striking! J is the pretty much easy going kiddo I used to know. He has his moments but they seem to be mainly reasonable kid moments. There has not been a single rage since the cw stopped by to tell the boys that visits were going to stop until the judge made up his mind. For the moment at least, the whole messy situation isn't in every activity, every moment of our day. I have to admit I like it.

We've been busy here lately. Despite the fact that it seems to rain at least for a bit nearly every day we've manged to get in some summer fun. Swimming, mini golfing, going to the park, that kind of thing. I'm working on a small mini get away and there's still camping to look forward to as well.

Yesterday we went to a small circus that was at the local fairground. It was pretty good for such a small one and it was especially nice because we were able to go with Ty's family. His mom, sister, grandparents, and 2 cousins made it. After that we went to my sister's for dinner and a tour of their new home! (same property but their new house is finished and gorgeous!)

The not givng adhd meds over the summer thing seems to be working out well. Seems like the worst that's going on is chasing after the messes they make and the occasional bout of the summer grouchies. The boys really know what buttons to push on each other and then I get to hear "Mom, he's got my toy." "Mom, he's looking at me." "Mom, he called me hippy." I can't really say that either of these things would be helped significantly, if at all, with meds so I'll deal with it and be grateful they aren't driving me nuts lol.

Time Flies

So far today has been a pretty good day as far as behavior, especially as it's day one for the bigger 3 with no ADHD meds and it's the dreaded "v" day. I was literally sick to my stomach last night dreading today. It's been a full day, though, and I think that helps. It breaks my heart that the only way J can handle visits is if he's so distracted the rest of the day he doesn't have to deal with it internally.

We started the day by picking Ty up from his lock-in, an all night slumber party held at the school by the 4th grade teachers. We then headed to the STPR Pro-Rally which starts right down the block from us pretty much. After the visit J had a birthday party to go to and the rest of us went to the library and then hunted down a new a/c for downstairs. It's installed (yeah me and Cory lol). After a light dinner we're meeting my friend for ice cream and then relax and bed.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. We can sleep in and then we'll head to my sisters' to have a cookout, meet her new goats, and check on the chicks that she was kind enough to take from Ty's class experiement.

Less (News) is More (Stress)

The hearing is now scheduled for June 19th. Other than that I STILL don't really know much more than I did before and part of what I now know is NOT good news. Apparently there is disagreement among people in the county as to what's best for the boys so that's all up in the air again. I'm still hopeful that the judge will see the truth and do what's best for the boys. I'd feel better though if the county and the GAL went into the hearing asking for the same thing. As it stands now ANYTHING could happen at this hearing.

Saturday was hard. J raged for about 45 minutes before the visit. He later admitted that it was because of the visit but during it he was completely making up stuff to scream at me about. For instance...I "broke a lovie" of his (that a. was NOT remmotely ripped or otherwise broken and b. I hadn't touched). He got over it and we made it to the vist but he was edgy the rest of the day as well.

Sunday was a much needed "fun day." We went to the circus with my parents and my sister and her dh. It wasn't a huge circus but the boys all liked it. Cory was a bit jaded (think "This is it?") at times but even he enjoyed it. We all ate out together after so all in all it was a really nice day.

Aunt Val

We went out to dinner last night with my sister. I told her that one of us needs to sit by L. Lol. I'm not so sure she'll choose to be the one that does again. He ran her ragged with his messes and needing "nakins." But they did share "furly pries" (curly fries) and ice cream lol. Though apparently they THOUGHT they were having a shake???