Another Thanksgiving is over and another Christmas season is starting. Thanksgiving dinner was edible and that was one of the good things. I didn't cook a whole turkey this year as I always end up throwing alot of the leftovers away. This year I cooked only a turkey breast. Which I just remembered (7 hours later) was still in the microwave where I put it to keep the cats off while we ate our dinner. Had to throw it away - hated to do it but I wouldn't want to eat it after it sat (unrefridgerated) for 7 hours. Too bad - at least there wasn't much left on it. Anyway, I wasn't going to cook stuffing as no one eats it, but the kids convinced me to cook some. I put it in the bottom of the pan and placed the turkey breast on top - I rembered doing it that way in the past when it was only me eating. Something was different this year though, the stuffing became dried out, burned bread cubes. That also got tossed. The rest of the dinner was very good. I'm not a cook, however so I was just glad that we got what we got. And I am thankful, that for all my whining about not having any money, we had a good dinner and didn't have to eat the burned parts.
Christmas is going to be interesting this year. I don't know if I am going to put up a tree or not. If I do, it will somehow have to be protected from the destructive duo (aka puppies). They chew EVERYTHING!. In fact, we will be going out tomorrow or Saturday to buy A a new pair of shoes. His seem to be the preferred chew toys - of course, that could be because he takes them off and drops them wherever so they are easy for the puppys to find. So far, nothing really major has been chewed but I don't think I'm brave enough to put up a Christmas Tree and put presents under it. This is really going to require some thought.
Puppies are going to puppy kindergarden and are really smart. We started teaching them to ring a bell on the back door to let us know that they need to go out and it didn't take an entire day for them to get the hang of it. Of course, now they ring it all the time just so they can go out - I also believe that they feel that they have trained us - look, we hit this bell with our noses and the big hairless ones run to open the door for us!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Bits & Pieces & I600 approvals
It has been way too long since I posted but life here has become very busy recently. The two pups are growing like weeds. I took them in for their 2nd round of puppy shots last weekend and they have more that doubled in weight. The harnesses we bought when we brought them home no longer fit. And, of course, as they get bigger, the more they can reach to get in to. They have already chewed the audio cable on the kids computer. and, also of course, since A plays all these fighting games and insists that he has to have the sound up, I haven't made a strong effort to get new speakers. Bad Mom!
Both A and C have had a couple of bad weeks at school. A because, for some reason, he just quit trying and started putting the first thing that came to him down as the answer without even making an attempt to read the instructions or the story that went with the questions or anything. This doesn't make for good grades - let me tell you. His teacher talked to him, I talked to him, I tried bribing him, threatening to take away things from him, nothing worked. Then his reading teacher found the key. She told him that she would be checking with his regular teacher and if he hadn't made a good effort on a paper, he would come in to her room and stay until he did his best on the paper. He'd miss computer time, specials, recess, whatever, until he had done the work to the best of his ability. This was the key, he is now back on track and doing better. I don't know what set him off, but he is an A/B student and for him to be bringing home 43's and 25's was bad. He is dyslexic, but they didn't think that was it at all. It may be related to bringing home little brother soon, he has said that he is a little afraid that LB won't like him and he is also loosing his 'baby of the family' status, but he always seems eager to go get LB.
C, on the other hand, is learning that she needs to ask for help studying for her tests. She has straight A'd it since coming home 3.5 years ago, but it has been on memorization alone. This year, in 4th grade, she is having to learn, to think, and to reason and since her comprehension isn't at a home-grown 4th grader's level, it is hard for her. For some reason, she just won't admit that she needs help or that she doesn't understand/know something. As a result, she is not doing as well as she could.
The furry babies are 3 months old now and start puppy kindergarten tomorrow. This should be an experience. I don't know if they will let me take pictures, but if they do, I'll post some.
And last, but not least! I got my i600 approval this morning. This means that the CIS has determined that LB is truely free for adoption under international adoption law and I will be able to get a visa and bring him home. They expect me to be able to travel in a couple of weeks, but I told them that unless I can be home in time for Christmas, I'd rather wait until after. If I could afford to take all the kids, I wouldn't hesitate to go for Christmas, but since I can't, I don't want to be away from them. So I can wait a couple more weeks. LB won't know the difference. We'll save his presents for him and have another smaller Christmas when he gets home.
Both A and C have had a couple of bad weeks at school. A because, for some reason, he just quit trying and started putting the first thing that came to him down as the answer without even making an attempt to read the instructions or the story that went with the questions or anything. This doesn't make for good grades - let me tell you. His teacher talked to him, I talked to him, I tried bribing him, threatening to take away things from him, nothing worked. Then his reading teacher found the key. She told him that she would be checking with his regular teacher and if he hadn't made a good effort on a paper, he would come in to her room and stay until he did his best on the paper. He'd miss computer time, specials, recess, whatever, until he had done the work to the best of his ability. This was the key, he is now back on track and doing better. I don't know what set him off, but he is an A/B student and for him to be bringing home 43's and 25's was bad. He is dyslexic, but they didn't think that was it at all. It may be related to bringing home little brother soon, he has said that he is a little afraid that LB won't like him and he is also loosing his 'baby of the family' status, but he always seems eager to go get LB.
C, on the other hand, is learning that she needs to ask for help studying for her tests. She has straight A'd it since coming home 3.5 years ago, but it has been on memorization alone. This year, in 4th grade, she is having to learn, to think, and to reason and since her comprehension isn't at a home-grown 4th grader's level, it is hard for her. For some reason, she just won't admit that she needs help or that she doesn't understand/know something. As a result, she is not doing as well as she could.
The furry babies are 3 months old now and start puppy kindergarten tomorrow. This should be an experience. I don't know if they will let me take pictures, but if they do, I'll post some.
And last, but not least! I got my i600 approval this morning. This means that the CIS has determined that LB is truely free for adoption under international adoption law and I will be able to get a visa and bring him home. They expect me to be able to travel in a couple of weeks, but I told them that unless I can be home in time for Christmas, I'd rather wait until after. If I could afford to take all the kids, I wouldn't hesitate to go for Christmas, but since I can't, I don't want to be away from them. So I can wait a couple more weeks. LB won't know the difference. We'll save his presents for him and have another smaller Christmas when he gets home.
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