Medication

Took Jaleel and Makkiah to their doctors appts today.

Jaleel will be starting in medication for ADHD so that he can function better at school.

We had to get his hearing, vision and learning ability tested before the ped would consider meds.

He sees fine, hears fine and has average to abov average intelligence. So all that looks good.

Now he just needs to be able to sit down long enough to listen and learn.

The pharmacy was out of the medication so I won't be able to pick it up until next week but at least we have a light at the end of the tunnel.

Makkiah is going to get his hearing tested since he already got his vision tested and he also had a consult put in for a child psychiatrist to evaluate him.

He's been having a hard time at school as well but his is more aggression. The ped says that he is more vulnerable due to his chronic medical problems and medication.

He needs to be able to function at school and the other kids need to be able to be safe at school.

I hate to add more medication to the ones that he already takes but that may be the only solution.

Life is so fun at our house sometimes!

They're here

Amah, Poppa, and Lorenzo arrived today. I picked up Angie and Makkiah early from school so that we could go get them from the airport.

Mom called just as I was getting into the van at the school so we headed toward the airport.

Circled through once and they weren't there yet.

One the second circle through I saw Poppa come out of the door.

They saw me and and were running inside to catch me.

Got all their stuff loaded up and headed home.

They had a good flight and we all are glad that they are here.

New title

Children's Ministry Director

I met with two pastors from the church this morning and I will be overseeing Children's Ministry. It will be restructured and improved so that we have the best Children's Ministry we can have.

The pastor even scheduled a training that I will be co-teaching with him (he is going to read over the material I give him and approve it and maybe make a few points!) and I have less than two weeks to put it together. This should be fun and interesting!!!

So I'm off to get some work done.

Suspended.....

Got a call from Headstart.

My 5 year old needed to be picked up and brought home for hitting the other kids in his class:-(

If there's one thing in school that I really dislike, it's bullies and my child is setting out to be the Headstart bully...ugh.

He can't return to school until I have a meeting with the teacher, director and facilitator lady, which I can't do until Thursday morning before I head to the airport.

So he's home with me and will be having NO fun while he's suspended.

Got him situtated in a chair to sit his school time away and I got another call.

This time from Destini's teacher to say that she was involved in two situations on the playground.

The first one she was being bullied by some boys who wanted her attention (don't they know that she's not old enough for that mess!).

The second one her and her new friend were pushing the boys (different ones) off the monkey bars and kicking them in the crotch...did I mention that I dislike bullies...double UGH.

So I arranged for her to sit out of recess for the rest of the week and let them know that should not be allowed to sit out of recess with her cohort in crime.

She also will not be having fun while she's grounded and I let her know that if she has another incident like this she won't be on the payground for the rest of the year.

The other kids deserve to play peacefully on the playground WITHOUT her bullying them.

Hopefully they both learn their lesson and this mess stops.

New Furniture

My new furniture arrived! It came today and I'm so excited to have real living room furniture. I had a sectional from IKEA before but in our large living room it looked lost. We decided that with some of our tax money we were going to buy some nice furniture AND the extended stain warranty with it.

My living room was dark and dreary and smelly when we bought the house. It had a single light bulb that hung from the center of the room (I used to say I felt like I should be in a gambling ring or the mafia with it! LOL) and wall heater that didn't work. The wiring wasn't done right and if you unscrewed the lightbulb to change it EVERYTHING on that circuit lost electricity (It just happened that half of our house was on that circuit!) It also had the old ugly stained glass windows that were screwed shut because they didn't lock, a solid wooden door that wouldn't open when it was cold or rained and industrial type carpet with melted iron spots on it.

Since we moved in to our money pit we've taken down all the plaster from the walls and the heater, rewired the room, hung drywall and textured, painted, put in a new window that locks AND we can see through, put in a new door that opens whenever we need it to, installed a fan with light, replaced the carpet, hung curtains, put stuff on the walls and finally got furniture for it. The only thing that we have left to do in this room is the trim around the windows and the new door.

It really does look different!

Makkiah's Birthday picture

I'm finally getting these pics uploaded to Flickr. For some reason my camera didn't want to flash so only a few came out but here's a good one.

Spring cleaning

I'm on a roll. Cleaned out the guest bedroom - Getting ready for the next family visit from Ahma and Poppa over at Sea-Ami!! - and got the pictures hung up. They've been sitting in there for months but I finally got motivated enough to hang the stuff up.

Also cleaned out several closets and have people coming to get that stuff that I no longer feel needs to sit around and collect dust. If someone else can use it, then please do. I don't even think of doing garage sales anymore. Whoever can get here first to pick it up can have it!

My old couch will be headed out the door today to make room for the new furniture that will arrive tomorrow. It's actually starting to look like a living room!

I think my next project will be the library and the book shelves. I'm getting rid of all the VHS movies since we don't have a VCR. All they do is sit and collect dust so might as well pass them on to someone who will use them and enjoy them.

My house is starting to look like a home instead of a storage area or a construction zone! YEAH!!!

Progress

After having the house for two years and having the living room complete meaning drywall and paint on it) for at least 6 months I finally got my curtains hung up.

My Mom had hung up a red sheet in the window to serve as curtains and some of my kids were actually sad to see me take it down but I did.

So I finally have matching curtains on the windows - well almost - I still need to get one more set of sheers to go with the one set of curtains up but I'm getting there.

I also put up some new shelves AND some pictureso n the wall.

I guess getting new furniture get you in the mood to actually do something to the room.

Honestly, I could have lived with the red sheet in the window forever and it really wouldn't have bothered me. At least not to much!

Safely in God's Arms

TINY BABY

TINY BABY IN MY HEART
I ACHE TO HOLD YOU NEAR
BEFORE I EVEN KNEW YOU
I FELT YOUR PRESENCE HERE

INSIDE MY WOMB I KEPT YOU
EVER PEACEFUL FROM THE STORM
I KNEW THAT YOU WERE ALWAYS SAFE
AND I KNEW THAT YOU WERE WARM

I NEVER THOUGHT I'D LOSE YOU
BEFORE I SAW YOUR FACE
BUT I KNOW THAT YOU ARE HAPPY
AND LIVING IN A BETTER PLACE

GOD MUST HAVE SPARED MY BABY
FROM SOME UNKNOWN TRAGEDY
I KNOW HE'D NEVER BE UNKIND
OR BRING HURT AND PAIN TO ME

THE DAYS AHEAD WILL TRY ME
AS I COME TO TERMS WITH GRIEF
BUT THROUGH IT ALL THERE'S COMFORT
AND GOD IS MY RELIEF

HE'LL HOLD ME IN HIS ARMS A WHILE
AND SHELTER ME WITH CARE
TIME WILL TAKE AWAY THE PAIN
BUT THE LOVE WILL STILL BE THERE

ANON

Yesterday we found out that our tiny baby went to be held safely in the arms of Jesus.

Company

We have been blessed this month with family coming to visit.

Usually the only people that brave coming to see us is my Mom and her family.

This month we had Valerie, Donald, Brent and Aaron who came for a few days.

Rod's brother flew in last night from Florida.

He's staying until Sunday.

Him and Rod are catching up and Rod is finding out what's going on back home.

Not sure yet what all we are going to do while he's here, but we'll figure it out!

Hope everyone enjoys their week.

Change of Orders

Rod is going to the Mobile Bay instead of over to Bahrain for 12-18 months.

We found out today that he will be going sometime around April 15th.

He will leave his current command on March 31 and then be on leave until he checks into his new duty station.

The ship left on Friday for a 5 month deployment so he will be flying over to meet the ship wherever it is.

Not sure exactly which day he will be flying out but I'm sure that it will come to soon.

Still beats a year or a year and a half gone.

He should be home in August!