Can't Sleep

Well, it is 5:30 in the morning and I can not sleep. Since nothing good was on t.v. I decided to come downstairs are check out blogs. Everyone is doing a great job updating so I decided to go ahead and update mine. I know everyone has axiously been awaiting this.

Wolfe's therapy ended. He was in IBI (Intensive Behavioral Intervention) for the past 3 years and since the state will only pay for three years of private therapy it ended. Unfortunately, that meant we had to lose our therapist who we loved. The first two hears of therapy were wasted on very very VERY crappy therapist until we got Chris. The last year he got Wolfe to be able to understand and to start communicating. He is also starting to learn how to spell and because of this his behaviors are much better. We are sad to lose him. I think I am the most sad. Wolfe likes his new therapist but I am still having a hard time adjusting and miss Chris so much. We had him over for dinner a few weeks ago and we will have him over again. His new therapist (Alora) is nice. She has been doing developmental therapy for awhile and I hope together we can get Wolfe talking more independantly. The other night I was watching Judge Judy and Wolfe came out of his room and got right in my face and started saying, "Backa!" I was just like, "Yeah yeah, backa, go back to bed." He was persistent and kept saying "backa". I was starting to lose patience and so I said, "Wolfe! What do you want?!" I was totally shocked when he said (and signed),"I...want...BACKA!!!" As he yelled Backa he did the bubble sign. I figured out pretty quickly that he wanted popcorn. I was so impressed that I turned the t.v. off and spent the next little while working with him to talk more. I can ask him if he is happy or sad and he can answer. It is very fun.

Teddy and Wini have been having a very good summer. They are bestest friends and play so cute together. A couple nights ago (everything happens at night around here) Teddy was running down the stair and ran into Wini. He was screaming and there was blood everywhere. It took awhile to calm him down and figure out what was bleeding (it was the inside of his lip that his tooth cut up). The whole family was gathered around him giving him sympathy and asking if he was okay. Once the bleeding stopped and everyone was calmed down, I noticed that Wini was giving me the dirtiest look. I looked at her forehead which had a big goose egg and I vaguely remember her crying in the background during the commotion but since she had no blood, she got no love. She was pretty mad about it. I took Teddy to the doctor the next day to have his lip looked at and as soon as the doctor walked in the room Wini said,"It's okay, my head feels all better." If you knew how much attention she normally gets, it is funnier. Teddy's lip was fine by the way. His mouth just looks like the joker and it will take a week or two to heal.

Our PCS kid is doing well. She is very dramatic but I guess that is a 16 year old for you. She has been grounded for the past 6 weeks and gets ungrounded in less than a week. I am dreading it because I much prefer her at home where I can keep an eye on her. I don't think she thought I would seriously be able to stick it out this long but it was surprisingly easy to follow through. I don't think this will be the last time she gets grounded but maybe she will be able to stay ungrounded for a little while at least.
A month ago we took a second PCS child. She had a history of aggression due to her disability so we only would take her on a trial basis. We agreed to one month. We got her June 29th and so far everything was going well. She was very helpful and loved the kids. She was only 12 but she was big. Last night things went bad with her and I had to have her removed from the house. I don't think I am aloud to go into detail so all I will say is I am fine, she is fine and none of the kids even saw what happened. Morgan and I have decided to not let her come back which is disappointing because we really liked her and I am sad about what is going to happen to her. That is the reason why I can not sleep. I have to go to court in four hours for her and I have to tell her mom that I can not take her back. Her mom is a wonderful lady and I really hope she can find a home for her daughter. She deserves to be raised with a family. I now have an opening for a child but right now I feel sad about the one I could not help so I think I will wait awhile before I accept another. There are so many children out there that need a home. No child deserves to be raised in a group home or hospital because of a disability. If anyone is interested in becoming a PCS provider feel free to contact me to get info. There is a huge need for it.
Well, Morgan and I decided to start going back to church when we got PCS kid #1. It had been a few years since we had gone regularly. No particular reason for not going except just being lazy. Anyways, our second Sunday back, they pulled us out of sunday school and asked us to be primary teachers. I thought it was a little premature of them but we accepted and now I have to go to church. The kids all love it and I am glad we are going again but I sure do wish I could go to church and get a break from kids. I am really looking forward to school starting again and having a routine. Summers in Idaho are frustrationg because it doesn't get dark until after 10:00. When I was younger I LOVED it but now that I have little kids, it is annoying. So we all stay up too late and wake up late. School keeps us in a regular routine and I am missing that.

To Jenny, Happy 31st Birthday! Love Sara

Thursday (the 12th) was Jenny's birthday. I meant to post something earlier and have not had any time to do it. Fortunately no one else has gotten their post up either. Jenny and I were bestest friends growing up. We always hung out together and since she liked to be in charge and I just liked to follow, we got along quite nicely. She is very creative (if you don't believe me, then go look at her post) and can always get stuff done. She is a great mom, student, homemaker and she is very good with a microwave. We always had so much fun growing up. We were never bored. When I got married, my mom gave me 3 books that were filled with all my school work, my church stuff, my essays from when I got in trouble and other odds and ends. My favorite thing in the book is the contract Jenny wrote up and had me sign. It pretty much sums up our relationship growing up. Here it is, unedited:

I, Sara, promise never to break the morning rules whitch are the following: 1 must be totaly ready for school before finishing unfinished homework 2 be dressed before going to breakfast inless it's an emergely or if we both agree not to be dressed 3 we can't leave until the room is clean 4 hair must be done after we are dressed 5 put pigamages in laundry when your done - or you'll have to make the bed by yourself 6 no playing Netendo. and if I follow these rules Jenny won't boss me around, but if I do break these rules Jenny may boss me around me around about breaking the rules. But if Jenny bosses me around about something else, I can break one of the rules.

My favorite things about this contract are:

1. I never did homework so it was not neccessary to include the part about unfinished homework before getting ready for school.

2. Our room was always a big mess and I wore my p.j.'s to school.

3. The fact that Jenny can't spell.

4. I was 12 and she was 15 when we wrote this contract.

Anyways, Happy Birthday! I love you!! Below is a little tribute with all the pictures that I have of you. I hope you enjoy it.

Sorry, this is the only picture I have of you on my computer.

The Gradute

A year ago, Teddy had qualified to go to developmental preschool. He was a little behind on his speech but he mainly he qualified because he was so shy during the testing that he wouldn't say anything. After a very long year of him not wanting to wake up, being too cold after his bath to get himself dressed, and not eating his breakfast quick enough because of that drop of milk staring at him from the table, he finally graduated. I am sooooooooooooo looking forward to summer time and not having to watch for buses for an hour and a half everyday. Wolfe still has another week left of school and then I am sleeping in for 3 months. Since many of you wanted to be at the ceremony so badly, I decided to post some pictures.
This is him lining up before walking down the aisle.
He is so nervous. He was trying to concentrate on not tripping.
That kid next to him was FUUUUUUUUUUNNY! He was very enthusiastic.
This is him getting his "diploma".

The after party.


This is his teacher, Miss "Mickey". Her name is really Vickey but Teddy can't say it right and since I thought Miss Mickey was cuter, I never corrected it.

He had a great year and is so much easier to understand. He is basically all caught up but still has to do 40 per week in resource room when he goes to Kindergarten but I think it is only for a few months. He is very cute and funny. We like him alot.

It's A Girl!!!!!!!

As I mentioned earlier, we got a call for a PSC child. We went down today and met her. She was super sweet and very smiley. We talked with her and her mother for awhile and after we came home and discussed it, we decided to accept her. She will be coming and living with us as early as tomorrow or as late as Tuesday. We are very excited to have her come.

What You've All Been Waiting For...

An update!
I finally got PCS certified. I got my medicaid provider number last week but then we had no idea what to do. Everyone we called gave contradictory information and I had no idea how to get a kid. Some people said it was so easy to one and others said it is very hard. I also found out that for some reason, they have had a lot of people wanting to be providers. It is frustrating after 11 months of trying to become a provider to find out that no one really knows what is going on. Today, though, as I was lazying around on the couch, watching Judge Judy, I got my first call. I was so excited talking with the lady that my voice was very high pitched the whole time and it took everything I had to not just accept the child without meet her or asking Morgan first. Anyways, we are calling her back tonight at 7:00 and if she hasn't found anyone else yet, then we will meet tomorrow. I am not allowed to give out personal information but she is a teenager and I think it will work out having her live with us.

Two weeks ago my friend had a baby. I got to go in the delivery room and watch her have it. It was very slimy and not nearly as sanitary as a c-section. I was impressed with how quickly she was up afterwards and she got to instantly hold her baby for a long time (I can't hold my babies until recovery). I think I still prefer c-sections because it was gross (sorry Katie) and I like my nice long vacation in the hospital. He was a very cute baby, 7lbs 3oz. She named him Fintin. Now when we go to the movies I have a sweet little baby to hold the whole time.
Isn't he cute. He should keep my desire to get pregnant down for a little while.

As I mentioned earlier, Wolfe is in baseball. It is more for Morgan and me then for him. He gets really bored.

He is so cute in his baseball cap, missing his front tooth.
Here he is about to bat.
I love this picture. He is alittle slow and needs Morgan to help him swing to actually hit the ball but we still let him try a few times by himself before we interveen.
Outfield is pretty boring so he just beats up on us the whole time. I don't know this lady in the picture, she just got in my way.
I know it looks like Morgan is handing him his bat but really Wolfe was trying to hit Morgan and he just caught the bat. It made a good picture though. It is fun to go and cheer him on. We have had a lot of supporters (mom, dad, Bailey Grandma, Amy, Steve and Katie) so Wolfe always has the biggest group cheering him on. Thanks guys for coming.

Wini has been wanting to potty train. She doesn't get how to do it but she loves to sit on the potty and sing songs. I am not very good about staying on her to go potty so nothing much has come of it. With Teddy, I just waited until he was old enough to get me saying "stop peeing your diaper". She is so funny. I love having a two year that can talking. They are so wierd.

Isn't her black eye precious.

Teddy's birthday was on the 9th. He turned 5 and was so excited about it. He had a very Iron Man-y birthday. He got lots of Iron Man stuff, costumes, action figures, cars. He was a great time. Amy and her family came, Jennifer and her family came, Grandparents and aunts and uncles were there too. It was a great time. I love him tons. He is too funny.

Happy Birthday Teddy!!!

Rude Rude Rude Rude Rude

I would just like to say that my blog is not slow...my life is. Not too much has been happening. As far as I go, nothing has changed. I am still waiting to get my kid. I did get my foster license and finished all my courses to be a child care provider. I turned everything in about 2 weeks ago but when I called on Thursday to see how thing were going, they still hadn't turned in my paperwork and needed me to sign a few more things and get more paperwork. So I took care of all that on Thursday and my paperwork got sent out the same day. I am a little nervous because the lady doing it was brand new and my application is the first one she has ever done. That is my typical luck. I have been working on it for 10 months now and I feel like it is never going to happen.
Morgan is doing good for anyone who cares. Real estate is picking up a bit but I still want him to get a job. The main reason for me wanting him to get a job is so I can get pregnant and have insurance (and also so we can pay bills). He likes selling real estate but we both hate how inconsistance the pay checks are.
Wolfe has had a very exciting last couple of weeks. He lost two teeth (one being his front tooth) and he looks precious with it gone. He is funny when we pull them out. He is flipping out until we finally get it and then he is totally calm, spacing off like nothing ever happened. He mood changes so instantly. He is also playing baseball this year. He started a couple weeks ago. It is challenger baseball so it is only disabled kids. It is more for mine and Morgan's enjoyment than his. He gets really bored because every kids gets to swing until they hit the ball and every kid gets to run through all the bases. Plus baseball is just a boring sport. It takes a long time to get through all the kids. It is fun to go to his games and help out. Grandma Bailey is here right now and she came to his game today.
Teddy is very obsessed with Iron Man. He draws iron man on everything and talks about him nonstop. He is turning 5 next week and he is very excited about that. He thinks his face is going to changed and he will look like Wolfe. He is nervous about hair growing on his face when he turns five though. He thinks if he puts baby powder on his face it will make it so no hair grows out of it. Maybe it will work, I don't know. He is quite funny. He is very excited about having another Grandma (Bailey Grandma, as he calls her). He calls my mother in law "Tracker Grandma" and my grandma "Bailey Grandma" and then calls my mom "Other Grandma". My mom isn't too happy with her title. We are trying to teach him to call her Candy Grandma or Movie Grandma.
Wini is a holy terror. I thought having a girl would be so easy. I imagined her just wanting to sit at the table and color in a coloring book but no. She is a boy trapped in a girl body. She is so dirty and wild. She much prefers dinosaurs and cars to baby dolls. When ever she does play with her barbies, she just makes her dinosaurs eat them. And the emotional break downs. Holy crap! She has an emotional break down every day at 1:00 p.m. and again at 5:00 p.m. She is super pretty though and when she is being a good girl it more than makes up for the naughtiness. I love summers because she looks so good in shorts. She too is obsessed with "Ailey Grandma". She saw a lady in the store with white curly hair and started screaming because she wanted her grandma.
So that is what has been going on with us. Do you see why I haven't been posting anything??!! Is this post everything you have been hoping for??

Time For A Change

Some of you may be a little confused. I am sure you are thinking something is different about my blog. Well, I won't keep you in suspense, I changed my template. I went ahead and just used one of the generic blogger templates but since I just had the plain black before it is quite the change. As you may be able to tell, I have sacraficed a Saturday night to go through the different template options and try out different ones. It is a very important job that requires the entire evening. If you happen to pop by earlier in the night you may have been lucky enough to see one of my choices. It is almost bedtime and I must go take care of other important tasks that need to be completed before the end of the night. I am behind by 2 episodes of Judge Judy and need to be all caught up by Monday at 3:00 p.m. I hate to procrastinate so I really have to go.

Our Last Home Inspection

We just finished our last home inspection and we are all finished for the year. We have to get rechecked every year and do an extra 10 hours a year of continuing education but we are done for now. On Monday we will be licensed for foster care and in a week and a half I will be licensed for PCS. FINALLY!

Morgan is packing up right now to go camping with a friend. It is a little nice every now and again to have the house to myself for a day. The kids and I are going to go rent a movie (Enchanted) and get some cookies and have a fun night. They will all sleep in my room tonight because I get scared at night by myself and I need to blame every noise I hear on one of my kids. Other than sleeping I am looking forward to fun with the kids. Last time Morgan went camping I got the crazy idea to go roller skating. I won't be making the same mistake again and will be spending as much time as possible safely in my house.

Update

Well my homestudy went just fine. She wasn't at all interested in how clean my closets were, how organized all my toys were, and she didn't even acknowledge my sparkling base boards. She just visited with us for awhile and then spent about 5 minutes going through our house. Everything was good with the house except she wanted 2 out of the 3 window wells to have better covers on them. I basically stressed out for nothing as usual. I will hopefully be licensed this next week and then on the 12th I have one more course to take on medications and then I can turn in my application to medicaid. I have been working in this for nine months so it is hard to believe that I am almost done. Just 2 more weeks as long as everything goes well.

I was trying to do a new template for my blog and ended up erasing all my links to everyones blog and in the end, I have the same template I had when I started. I got really annoyed and haven't been blogging ever since (it happened 4 days ago but I usually check blogs 2-3 times per day). So I now have to go find everyones blog names again and put links to them all. Very annoying.

Well, that is all for now.

YIKES!

Tomorrow (technically today, actually) I have my first home study. Someone from Health and Welfare is coming over to my house to interview my family and me and to inspect my house. I was very motivated a few weeks ago to get things done and be prepared but as time went on and I was overlooked I sort of lost my interest to keep up on my house keeping. Anyone who really knows me, knows that I am not the tidiest person especially when it comes to laundry. I have been cleaning all day but keep finding any excuse to stop for several hours at a time. Finally after I finished Biggest Loser, I decided to start up with the cleaning. It is coming along but Teddy's room smells like pee. I can't really clean it because he is sleeping right now, and I can't open a window because he will then freeze to death. It is pretty boring and I don't want to clean anymore but I guess I will get back to it. Hopefully I pass and don't give them anymore excuses to not license me.

Some Time Around Here

It is the end of the month and so I have to finish up the birthdays for the month. I believe that there aren't any birthdays next months...right?

Happy Birthday Clayton! His birthday was 4 days ago. Clayton is my brother in law. His is a GREAT babysitter and my kids love it when he comes over to hang out. Hope you had a good day. My present it is the mail.
Happy Birthday Jennifer! Her birthday is today. She is my sister in law. She enjoys dressing up like Laura Ingles
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J/K this is her costume for Christmas Caroling. Hope you have a great day. Even though I am seeing you tonight, I still put your gift in the mail, too.
Happy Birthday Katie! Her birthday was sometime in the 20's. Maybe the 21st?? She is my more racey sister in law (compare the two picture between sister in laws). She is very skinny except apparently she has a lot of junk in the trunk. Hope you had a great birthday! I'm still crocheting your gift but I think I my have the size wrong.

FInally the perfect school!

Morgan and I have been talking quite a bit lately about our children's education. Public schools offer quite a bit these days but in so many areas they are still lacking. We really weren't sure what to do.

Then one day I was watching Judge Judy and I realized that there was an alternative school right here in Nampa that offers all of the specialized education that our kids need to have a bright future!

Welcome To Manhood, Morgan...If You Were A Jew!

Today is Morgan Nish's 13th birthday!! It is hard to believe he is so old now. Morgan was such a sweet baby. He never cried and was very laid back. He is still the same now. He is too cool for his aunt now but I love it when he comes to town and I get to see him. My favorite memory of Morgan was when I went to Vegas to babysit the Nish kids. Becky and Wade went on a cruise and it was during the week so I had to get the Hayley off to school in the morning which I was not very good at. We were always running late so one day we all took off in a hurry and Morgan, Emma, and I were still in our p.j.'s. Hayley was the last one out of the house and apparently she didn't close the door behind her when she left. It was wide open when we got home. So naturally I sent the kids in first to make sure it was safe for me to enter (Morgan was around 4 and Emma 2). Back then Morgan had the CUTEST speech impediment ever! Once the kids entered the house and everything seemed clear so far, I then tried to send Morgan up the stairs to make sure it was safe for me to go up again. He walked up a few steps and then wouldn't go up any further. I kept trying to persuade him to go but he said,"Uh hu, dar a man up dere!" I went screaming and running out to the car (fortunately Emma and Morgan followed) and we spent the entire day at Kmart in our p.j.'s with no shoes until Hayley got home (I always felt safer with Hayley around). I of course told the story to Becky and she has never asked me to babysit again while she went out of town. I loved Morgan words that he made up. A few that I can remember are:
brrrrr = car
vroom = airplane
weee = slide
q = gun (my personal favorite)
He also had a funny one for fork but I can't remember. That is how all his words were. It was a secret code when he talked. Only Becky and Wade could understand him. I love Morgan very much and enjoyed having him a part of our family. So much so that I named Wolfe's middle name after him! Anyways we hope you have a GREAT birthday and MAZEL TOV (if you were a Jew)!
Love,
Morgan, Sara, Wolfegang Morgan, Teddy, and Wini

Again I had to steal this picture off Becky's blog. Please everyone, send me some pictures of your kids!

A Day Late and Dollar Short

March is a busy month for birthdays. Yesterday was Amy's birthday. I meant to post something yesterday but got sidetracked and never got around to it. So I am doing it now. Happy Birthday Amy!! I am so glad she moved back to Idaho. It has been fun having a sister around. Amy really does a lot to help us out. She has loaned us cars, babysat, helped us move, and always comes over to our house for birthday parties (it is a long drive). She is always willing to help out me and everyone else. She is a good friend to everybody. If you are ever wondering what is going on in someone's life who you have not talked to in 5 years, just ask Amy because she just talked to them last week. I don't know where she finds the time to work 5 jobs, take care of her kids and house, have about 125 very close friends, and still manage to watch Alias. My favorite story about Amy is when we flew to Las Vegas last year and there was this really white trash girl sitting in front of us. She was cussing and swearing and being obnoxious. She was pretty slutting too. The whole flight she was talking very loudly, making plan to meet up with the guy sitting next to her and talking about how she is so excited to go to Vegas and get drunk and have fun. Everyone on the plane was really annoyed. As soon as we landed Amy walked straight over to this older couple and started joking with them about the girl. We walked with them to the train thing, rode with them to the other side of the airport, walked to together to get our luggage and left the airport with them. Amy was talking with them so easily and joking the whole time. I almost felt like I needed to give them a hug goodbye and was suprised that she didn't. When we finally parted ways with them I ask her how she knew them and she said that she never met them before in her life. She is always like that. She can talk to whoever and it seems as though she has always known them when in fact they are a total stranger. I am sure a lot people remember her. My kids just came over and I lost my train of thought.....Anyways, Happy Birthday, I love you, sorry I didn't get you a gift. I will get you one in a few months.

Black Sheep Trailer

Okay, first read my previous post and then come back to this. This is one of those movies that you have to own. I haven't seen it yet but I am going to try and rent it. It looks like a GREAT script. If anyone has seen it, LEAVE A COMMENT!!! I have to know how it was.