Sunday

Sunday was much more eventful than Saturday. We got up, had breakfast, got ready for church and then had lunch. The speaker was was awesome. I'll post about it later. After lunch, we laid Anthony & Zeke down for a nap and Grandma Sandy stayed with them so we could take the bigger kids. We drove about an hour to Custer State Park and went on a cave expedition. The tour only cost $4.00 apiece for the kids and $8.00 for Steve and I, and we didn't even have to pay to enter the Park.

The tour was listed as strenuous and it definitely was! We opted for the historical tour as opposed to the regular scenic tour and I think the kids really thought it was awesome. We had to take a long path and about a hundred steps just to get to the old cave entrance. Once there, the ranger, who was dressed in the park ranger uniform of the 1930's, met us and took us into the mouth of the cave. We all had lanterns since that part of the cave was completely natural and had no lights or real walkways. A little way in, one of the girls on the tour with us started to freak out a little so the guide left the rest of us and took her back out.

It's probably good she left when she did because the cave got much smaller and darker after that. We were completely in the dark except for the lanterns of the 15 of us on the tour. The farther we went in, the more difficult it became. The cave had old wooden steps that they called statters because they were steeper than stairs but not quite a ladder. Most of them were about as steep as a step-ladder. Imagine desending on a step ladder into a hole into complete darkness while trying to hold a lanterns. The steps would go one way and then abruptly turn another for a few hundred feet almost strainght down. I went in front of Taylor carrying her light and mine so that she could kind of scoot down on her butt. It was pretty intense but so worth it! The tour lasted about an hour and a half and had about 700 steps.

Riley even got to see a bat. He wanted to see more but I told him it was a compromise. The girls didn't want to see any and he wanted to see a whole cave full so God gave us a view of one cute little bat to make everyone happy!

Saturday

We all survived the trip to Rapid City and the weather was great. There were a few fights and arguments but the trip was pretty uneventful. Only one child drew blood (Taylor vs. Riley, Tay won) and the trailer stayed attached to our van, unlike our Pennsylvania trip. We arrived at camp in time for lunch time on Saturday. The kids settled in and made new friends right away. The four bigger kids tried out the waterslide while I tried unsuccessfully to get an internet connection. Steve's mom, Sandy, got to camp that evening and she and Steve went to the evening service while the kids attended some fun kid sessions. All in all, it was a pretty good day.

Scared

I'm awake when I should be asleep because our dog is scared of thunderstorms. The kids sleep right through but she literally cries until you get her. I intended just to put her in bed with me like I usually do when it storms but she got so scared that she had pooped and then walked in it. So in the middle of the night, I'm cleaning up my dog and waiting for her feet to dry so we can go back to bed.

Off to Family Camp

I've got all the kids packed and the trailer loaded for our trip to Family Camp in Rapid City. The upstairs bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom are clean. The kids are fed and the dishes are done. All that's left is to pack my own stuff and attend the Daktronics Picnic tonight. Perfect because I won't have to make supper! We're also taking Brit's friend Tia to the picnic and to camp. We'll all be off at 6am tomorrow :) Let's see if I'm still putting smiley faces in my blog after riding six hours in the van with six kids!

My Favorite Soldier

This is my nephew Joe, my brother Jody's son. He just shipped off to basic training last week. I can't believe that he's already old enough for the military. I'm proud and sad at the same time. He's always had a special place in my heart, partly because he was my first nephew and partly because I always felt we had a lot in common. I met Joe when I was 20 and he was 4. The first time I saw him in person was at my younger brother Jeremy's high school graduation. I was really intimidated to be around a lot of biological relatives I didn't know very well, as I had just met them when I turned 20. (I'm adopted) They all knew each other but I didn't know them at all. To add to my confusion, I was there with my parents (the ones I grew up with) and I had no idea how a kid was supposed to react with two sets of parents. About this time comes an adorable little four year old boy that hardly knew anyone there either, since he grew up in Florida with his mom and sister. We bonded almost immediately. He loved the fact that an adult was taking an interest in him and I loved the fact that I had an ally in a world I knew no one. He's always been an awesome kid and now he's turning into an awesome man. Sigh........ Love you, Joe!!!

Barber Shop

If you ask Anthony where he gets his haircut, he'll tell you, "at the barbie shop."

Boot Camp

Last night, Brittney and her friend Brianna took all our kids to the back yard and pretended they were in the military. She asked them if they wanted to be in Boot Camp. Taylor and Zeke are always up for anything Brit does so they joined right in. Anthony excitedly raised his hand and yelled "Yes!", while his older and wiser brother just said "I guess so." Brit had them doing exercises and drills outside in 90+ weather. One involved running around the back yard with their hands clasped behind their heads. I think there were also some pushup, situps and an obsticle course. Britt told me that she was wearing them out so they wouldn't be naughty! When they were finally so worn out they didn't want to play anymore, Anthony came in and emphatically told Steve and I that he got to go to "boob camp".

Fastest Hide & Seek Game Ever

Direct quote from Anthony: "Brittney, after you eat brefist, come find us in the closet."

New Kind of Party

Just as I was going to start typing, Anthony says, "Mom, turn around and look at us! We're wearing underwear on our heads!" When I asked them why they had underwear on their heads, they told me that they were having an underwear party.

Men & Women

1. Names

If Laurie, Linda, Elizabeth and Barbara go out for lunch, they will call each other Laurie, Linda, Elizabeth and Barbara.

If Mark, Chris, Eric and Tom go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla, Peanut-head and Scrappy.

2. Eating Out

When the bill arrives, Mark, Chris, Eric and Tom will each throw in $20.00, even though it's only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back.

When the women get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

3. Money

A man will pay $2.00 for a $1.00 item that he needs.

A woman will pay $1.00 for a $2.00 item that she doesn't need, but it's on sale.

4. Bathrooms

A man has 5 items in his bathroom: a toothbrush, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap and a towel from the Marriott.

The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify most of these items.

5. Arguments

A woman has the last word in any argument.

Anything a man says after that is the begining of a new argument.

6. Future

A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.

A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

7. Success

A successful man is one who makes more than his wife can spend.

A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

8. Marriage

A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.

A man marries a woman expecting she won't change, but she does.

9. Dressing Up

A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the garbage, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail.

A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

10. Natural

Men wake up as good-lookings as they went to bed.

Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

11. Offspring

A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.

A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.

12. And Finally

Any married man should forget his mistakes. There's no use in two people remembering the same thing.

Riley

I currently have 2 kids playing downstairs, 1 at the neighbors, 2 swimming with Boys & Girls Club and 1 taking a nap. Which explains how I can be on the computer in the afternoon. Since nothing really humorous is going on today and I've already discussed the fighting, I guess it's time to write about one of the kids. I'll pick Riley today because he seems to be the one having issues right now. One day I'll blog the story of how we got the boys but today I need to think though a few things. Most of the time Riley loves being a part of our family but there are times when he's angry/confused/upset/sad, etc. I still remember when all the kids were playing school shortly after the boys were placed with us. We had had discussions with all the kids at different times about adoption and everyone involved was doing as well as could be expected. Brittney the teacher was downstairs with the students and she called "Riley Wilkins". He told her that wasn't his name and they argued back and forth. (Brit was 8 and Riley was 5) Eventually I had to intervene. I pulled Brittney aside and asked her to please use his old name for now and I would talk to him later. A week or so later when I was alone with Riley we talked about names and how names are how people know who we belong with. Steve, Brit, Tay and I all had the same last name so that people would know we belonged together. I told him I used to have the same last name as Grandma & Grandpa but when I joined Dad's family, I got to use his last name. I asked him if he would like to use the same last name as us so that everyone would know we were a family. He smiled really big and said "Sure!" He's been Riley Wilkins ever since. :) The first few months after the boys arrived, Riley had nightmares and wet his bed a lot. One night I heard him crying. I went in and held him and asked him what was wrong. He cried a while longer and then said, "I miss my old mom." We try to let him talk about his "old" family (his words, not ours) but as time goes on his memories really blur together. He was 4, Zeke was 3, and Anthony was 9 months when they were placed in foster care in two separate homes. In his mind, Riley still imagines his "old" mom and dad are happily living together (they're not) in a house kind of like ours (they never did) and they want him back (they refused to follow judges orders to regain custody). When Riley talks about his "old" family, we usually just listen. When he asks why he can't live with them, I just ask him if he remembers why he can't. He does. I let him know that his "old" mom and dad loved him, they just didn't know how to take care of him and his brothers. Someday I'll have to figure out how to explain how they can take care of the youngest brother but not him, without him feeling like it's his fault. No wonder God has a perfect plan for marriages and families. There would be so much less pain if we could do it His way. The cool thing is that no matter what happens to us in life, God allows us to use that experience in the future. I can only pray that Steve & I can help mold Riley into the wonderful person he's meant to be and that he will change lives through his story in the future.

Skip the Coffee & Go Right to the Dew

Today was a day of huge personality conflicts. As of 7 am this morning, Riley was crying in his room and Taylor was at the the bottom of the stairs screaming at the top of her lungs "I hate this family! Everyone hates me! I hate everyone!" Meanwhile, Zeke was upset because he didn't get the cereal he wanted and Anthony was just generally getting into everything and making a mess. Steve was trying to get ready for work since he's supposed to be there at 7:30am and Brit was just tired from the sleepover she had this weekend. I know it's going to be a challenging day when I skip my morning coffee and go right to the Mountain Dew! The fighting continued through breakfast, making beds, brushing teeth and the arrival of David, the 9 month old I babysit. As I piled all the kids into the van to drive Brit to gymnastics @ 8:30, I took a deep breath as the fighting began again, only now everyone was in much closer quarters. After a few minutes, I turned on the CD of the Vacation Bible School music and I kid you not, there was instant peace! Every kid, except David, began singing along. Even though I've heard the same few songs a million times and tend to get a bit annoyed with them, today I was so thankful that the kids love them. And who knows, maybe they'll actually understand the words and put them into practice some day. God works in mysterious ways :)

New Generation

Brittney teaches the 2 year old class on Sunday mornings. Today one of the kids was repeating something over and over. Brit was exasperated and turned to me and said, "He sounds like a broken CD."

Weird Snack

Today I took Anthony & Taylor to the grocery store for milk. Usually when we go shopping, they want to buy candy or a snack but this time Anthony spotted something he claimed he LOVES! I had to do a double-take to see what he wanted. Turns out it was a can of quail eggs! It was only $1.77 so in an insane moment I let him put it in the cart. I'd say that I was teaching them to expand their horizons but really I was going to tease them when they tried it and didn't like it. We opened the can as soon as we got home and the four younger kids popped one into their mouth. They looked and felt like mini soft-boiled chicken eggs and the kids ate them like candy! My children are a little strange :)

Driveway Concrete

I traded driveway concrete for babysitting. How great is that?

Storm

Brittney has a birthday party today so last night we ran to Walmart to pick up the birthday present. We noticed the sky was getting pretty dark so we tried to hurry with our shopping. We rushed through the store, grabbed our 4 things and were just heading to the check-out when they announced "Code Black" over the intercom. For anyone not well versed in Walmart-speak, Code Black is bad! The poor customer service girl was freaking out. Our area was in a tornado warning and they were locking down the store. We quickly went through the self check-out to try to get out of the store before they made everyone take cover. That actually happened to Brit and I last year. We had to sit in the layaway area for a couple of hours with 50 other people. Anyway, last night we sped home to ominous clouds, thunder & lightning and reports on the radio that there was rotation in clouds 15 miles away. I fully expected to arrive home and find Steve glued to the radio or the TV and all the kids downstairs. When Britt and I pulled into our driveway, there was Steve calmly sitting on a lawn chair in the garage with the garage door wide open and talking on his phone. When I told him that we were in a tornado warning, he said, "It's in Oldham, not here." Never mind that he doesn't know where any of the small towns are and the bad weather was right at our back door. I kept trying to convince him that we needed to put the kids in the beds in the basement but he was positive that nothing was going on. Until 5 minutes later when all the tornado sirens in town started going off! Long story a little longer, we threw all the kids in Taylor's room downstairs. Taylor & Anthony on opposite ends of Tay's bed and Riley & Zeke on the trundle. They went back to sleep eventually and the storm blew over within the hour with just a lot wind and rain. Five miles south of us the hail was 1.5 inches and just east they had tornadoes that didn't touch down. This morning the kids are all downstairs "playing tornado". One says "tornado" and the others all run and hide under the bed :)

Parenting

I really hate it when I attend a parenting class and the very next day my kids seem to push my parenting abilities to the limit. Already this morning Riley was having serious attitude issues. I'm supposed to "love him through it and further develop our relationship" but I took the easy way out and sent him to his room. Not much love available with a baby with a double ear infection, a daughter that was up too late, a really wild four year old, a ten year old that needed to be at gymnastics by 8:30am and Zeke constantly crying, whining and clinging to me. Calgon, take me away!!! 9 days until we leave for Family camp, 36 days until I see my brother, 62 days until school starts again :)

Walmart

Today in the van my 10 year old informed me that she and her best friend Tia want to buy a Walmart and live in it. Her reasoning is that Walmart has everything she needs. In her words, "they have beds, stuff to play with, food and even microwaves you can plug in and cook the food." I rationalized that she would always have people wandering around in her "house". She said that she'd just close the store. I told her she'd run out of stuff eventually but she says that the delivery trucks would still come so they'd always have new stuff. Ok, I'm convinced. Let's just buy a Walmart :)

Taylor

Taylor's bedroom is beside the family room downstairs and she's supposed to be asleep right now. Brittney is watching the CMT Music Awards down there and every time they announce Taylor Swift, a "whoo hoo!" comes from the bedroom.

Camp Kaleidoscope

These are some of the photos of our experience at Camp Kaleidoscope. It was a great weekend getaway for families who have adopted children. There were family activities, as well as kids' groups, a parent group and free time in the pool and game room. Brit developed a friendship with a girl her age from Mitchell whose family also originally started with two daughters but then adopted two kids from the Ukraine.

We met a lot of special people who have a lot of the same challenges that we face. We're hoping to go back next year!

Bonding

"It is not the adopted older child's job to bond to their new adoptive parents but rather the new adoptive parents' job to prove that they are worth bonding to." -Barbara Tremitiere

One Busy Summer Day

This is my first post on my new blog spot. I was really good at keeping everyone updated while Zeke and I were in the hospital but have pretty much been out of touch since then. I kind of miss writing, even if no one but me reads it :) My thought this week: Sometimes He calms the storm and sometimes He calms His child. Today started out rather normally in our family of 7. The kids had breakfast, Steve went work, David came (the 8 month old I babysit 3 days a week), I piled all the kids in the van and took Brittney to Gymnastics, came home and fed David, piled all the kids in the van again and went to swimming lessons. Riley is in level 3 and does really well when he actually listens to the instructor. Taylor is in level 2 and is very cooperative, at least in swimming. Anthony and Zeke are both in level 1 this year. I was actually nervous about both of them being in the same level but as long as they don't sit beside each other it goes pretty well. Especially considering Zeke can't walk on the surface area around the pool without his braces on and because of his hearing loss and the acoustics in the pool, he yells a lot and can't really hear the teachers unless he's right beside them. But it level 1 so he fits right in! I had just gotten all the kids into the pool and David rocked to sleep in the stroller when I got a phone call from the 13 year old. She was supposed to be walking to pick up her niece and nephew from summer school but she was lost. Our town isn't really that big but she only came to town 3 weeks ago and doesn't really know her way around. Plus, it was raining. I asked her where she was and she had no idea so I jumped back into the van to go look for her. She called back and said the she was on 12th St. I thought she probably mean 12 St . South so I cruised around until I found her. She soaking wet and clinging to the street sign. I rolled up, she hopped in and we went to pick up the kids. After swimming, we filled the van with gas and headed home for a quick bite of lunch. Steve took the afternoon off to go to Zeke's orthopedic doctor with us so he picked up Brittney from gymnastics while I droppped Riley and Taylor at Boys & Girls club. We met back at home, dropped off Brittney and Anthony and started our hour drive to the doctor. Steve and I actually conversed on the way since the only two kids we had with us decided to take an afternoon nap. How great is that! The appointment took about an hour with the end result being a new pair of orthodic braces for Zeke. Two weeks ago I had taken him in to be casted for them and now they were ready. He loves getting new braces because he knows he gets to pick what he wants on them. These have Batman. He also gets new shoes since his new braces don't usually fit into his old shoes. This time the shoes had to be Transformer. I'm happy that we can still utilize places like Payless. We were able to get the fun shoes and also a black pair for church for only about $35.00. That's about it for the day, other than supper and Taylor's first T-Ball game tonight. It rained most of the day so I'll probably keep the other kids home tonight and Steve will attend the game. He can cheer extra loud for me! Riley's games actually look like Little League Games but Taylor's tend to be more like something out of America's Funniest Home Videos :) FUN QUOTES FROM THE WEEK FROM ANTHONY: *Can we go sleep in our cabinet? (While we were camping in a "cabin") *Hey, guess what? My pee is like lemonade!