Countdown to the boy's birthday and the start of school has begun

It's August and the countdowns begin. The first to the boy's 13th!!!!!!!!!! birthday and then to the first day of school for this year!!!!   I think I am little more excited for the second one- the kids are driving me crazy.  They have a list of things to do before they can have electronics or watch TV, this list should take them 2 hours max- it includes some school work to keep their skills, reading, chores, creativity (crafts), music and playing outside or playing a board game.  you would think I was torturing them and making them do things for hours.  School work is 4 pages (1 page is the front or the back of a page).  OMG the drama over it is wearing me down every day.  Sis can not do math to save her life and then plays dumb when she has to do grammar stuff.  I spend my lunch time showing her the steps to do the math.  She is really living proof that kids can not learn when they are worried about their next meal, their personal safety or whether their parent is going to be alive when they get home from school.

 

Rocket is showing immense maturity this summer- he does his work and only complains about the chores (every chore with the exception of grass cutting can be done in under 10 minutes). Sis got her cast off today, so she is going to be learning grass cutting.  this should be an adventure.

 

Some pictures from the last week.

Rocket showing that he is now strong enough to lift the 1st grader from next door onto his shoulders.

Sis on a walk in the park with Pablo.  There is a story here- the kids were up and down the stairs to my office all day long, they were "bored".  As I am finishing up my work, the neighbors next door invited them to swim, but that meant I would have to stay home and not do the errands I had planned and I nixed the swimming (oh the drama started up again).  One of the errands was getting them both out of the house because they had been inside all day.  they ended up enjoying the walk and learned a lesson- that if you bug mom while she is working over trivial stuff she is not going to let you do the fun stuff you final find to do.  We ended the night with grocery shopping.

climbing the tree at the park.  they were both happy.

Saturday night, we had movie night with a friend out at the drive-in movie theater.  We had a great time.  Definitely on our to-do list for August and September.

Last night, we went to Tortilleria Gracia for taco Tuesday.  $1 tacos and some refried beans, chips and guacamole and we were set.  Adult conversation for me and life was looking much better.

the gang: Stuart (friend from college), sis, E (Rocket's buddy from school), Rocket, and Lisa (another friend from college).

Me in the picture too.  Such a good night.

 

So 15 days until I really have a teenager, not just a kid that thinks he is teenager and 23 days until school starts.  I am totally counting days until school starts.  I will so enjoy having the house to myself for 7 hours- blessed silence and no one following me around all day seeing what I am doing when I leave my office.  No more crafts all over the dinning room and then being told it was cleaned up when I can see it all still sitting there.  No more arguments over the electronics.  Which is all false, because now the arguments will be condensed into the hours after school when homework should be done and there are evening activities.  but, I am not going to think about that now, I am going to live in the promise of blessed silence for 7 hours when they head back to school.

 

Love and hugs,

Deb

mid way through summer and the heat has hit.

Rocket finished up his last summer camp last week.  He was at jr. band camp, working on his drumming skills.  He had a great time.  But he loved the camp the week before band camp- FOOTBALL camp.  He had a great time learning the positions on a football  team.  He definitely wants to play football and I definitely don't want him to play football.

Saturday, the long promised/awaited event- coloring  Rocket's hair.  First, we had to bleach it.  He only wanted the top, so it was easier.  it took 60 minutes to get his hair to this color.

then putting on the blue coloring (yes, I got some on his forehead).  It was 45 minutes of this processing to get......

My blue haired, happy boy.  He loves it!   The blue on his forehead was gone by mid afternoon.

Saturday afternoon, we went to a surprise party for my nephew, Jason.  His birthday was back in May, but his girl friend planned this to throw him off the trail.  She planned nerf gun wars, had 2 cakes and cupcakes, lots of food.  The only thing she could not control was the weather.  It was HOT!!!!!!  We were dying in the shade.  In the nerf gun wars- there was NO shade.  I sat and watched.

Rocket and Jason.  Note the blue hair. 

One of the cakes - a BB8 (Star Wars character). Jason loves Star Wars.

During the nerf gun war.

I worked on Laura's quilt this weekend- she likes Dr. Who (Science Fiction show from England). 

Today, Rocket worked on a butterfly house as his craft (he is not allowed to watch TV or play on the ipad until certain things are done).

we have a quiet week planned this week- just some swimming and working.  We are trying to stay cool in the heat.

Love and hugs,

Deb

not much happening here or I am falling down on the picture taking job

the first week of summer vacation has come to an end.  We are starting the second week and Rocket has hit the ground running.

Last week, he did basketball shooting camp and basketball league.  He and 2 of his friends wanted to be on the same team for basketball, but they were placed on different teams.  This picture is from Friday, when Rocket's team played the blue team.  The red team played before the green and blue team, so the boys hung out as they could around the games.  Rocket's team has a 3-1 record, the red team has 3-1 record and the blue team has 1-3 record.  The boys have one game today and then go into 2 days of championships. 

Interesting note on the boys, Red and Blue are both older than Rocket by almost a year.  Notice that Rocket is the tallest.  Rocket will 12 in August and I can really see the teenager he is becoming.  And, I can see the teenager in his behavior.  We had a hard week of behavior issues last week.  I know that it is related to the change from school to summer and the lingering affects of the adoption process.  This is always a hard time of the year.  Last Friday and Saturday, he told me that he did not want to be part of this family any more and he did not love anyone.  I was exhausted and I did not handle it well at all.  we are both in a better place as of Sunday.  My one linger concern is that he will not tell me what is bothering him the most.  Until he can get to the point of actually telling me what he is feeling or what is the biggest issue, he just explodes.  Right now, due to his behavior on Saturday, he has lost access to his computer and his IPad.  he is not happy with me at all.

Saturday morning, before the storm of emotions hit, we went to the symphony.  We loved it.  It was superhero themed. One of the best performances we have seen at the symphony.  They had the children's theater of Cincinnati performing a play in the front while the symphony played.  The kids did great, the music was great.  it was so engaging. 

After this, we went home and had to cut the grass.  Rocket was supposed to cut the front on Friday, but he wanted to wait until Saturday. We got home, we changed clothes, and then we headed out.  I cut the back grass while he does the front.  I have 2/3 more to cut than he does, and I have more obstacles, and the front is all flat.  Usually it takes me 30 minutes to cut the back, while the front takes at most 15 minutes.  I finished the back and then went out front to help Rocket finish the front.  In the 30 minutes I had been in the back, he had done 4 rows in the front- he was less than 1/4 of the way done.  I finished it all, made him sweep up grass on the sidewalk and driveway.  He had no clue why I was mad- at least that is what he said.  It was a long afternoon.  this is when he decided he wanted out of this family.  He even went so far as to take one of our family pictures out of the frame (in his room) and put the picture on my bed. 

We had a discussion about being in a family and how our family is a team. if one person does not do their part, then the other person has to do it all.  Because of not doing his part, he lost privileges of having the I Pad and computer. 

He was much more helpful on Sunday, so I think he just needed to get it out of his system.  He also took the picture back and put it back in the frame in his room.

If this is what the teenage years are going to be like, it is going to be a long struggle. I am hopeful things don't go like this all the time, perhaps it will only be in June when the change in schedule and anniversary comes around that things will go south for a few days.  I can hope and pray.

Me and the boy

One of the basketball games.  I think this is Wednesday.  Rocket is the shooter. 

Rocket is basketball skills camp this week during the morning, so no pictures from this week's camp.  the weather has also turned hot and humid, so I don't think he will be going outside to play after camp.  I am going to try to get him to the pool for some swimming this week just to help cool down after camp and to help wear him out some more.

Love and hugs,

Deb

Friends from far away

Friday, we got a call that our friends from the north were coming down for a quick visit.  Some hasting cleaning so the office could be used as their room and we were all set.  We had a great evening catching up.  In the morning, they headed out for an appointment and once they came home, I was in charge of the kids while my friend headed out for another appointment.  It was very hot and humid and neither of the kids (Rocket and Little C) were prepared to entertain themselves.  I packed them up and headed out to a splash park near by. 

 

They were not too impressed at the beginning.  Neither of them was going to get wet, but after about 15 minutes, they were both all in .

 

 

Rocket, playing in the spray (before he would get wet).

Little C, deciding if she is going to get into the water.

All in

Really all in here- Rocket is running out of the picture.

We headed to the playground- Little C was happy to play here.

Rocket played the bored pre-teen.  He would have been happy to have one of his buddies to play with, but that was not an option.

 

We ended up staying for an hour or so. After we got home and I fed the kids, Little C and her mom headed back north.  We will see them again soon.  Rocket and I finished up packing for his trip- see the next post and then we headed out for dinner with friends and a trip to the drive in movie theater.  I will post those pictures on Monday.

 

it was busy weekend for us.

 

Love and hugs,

 

Deb

4th of July Weekend

Saturday night, Rocket and I head out to the local outdoor music venue for a Pops concert.  He was not too sure about it and was not happy that I bought tickets for it and we might miss church on Sunday.  But, he got there and was OK with it.  We had to stand around for a while before the gates opened, but once they opened we headed out to the lawn to find a seat.  We had tickets for the area under the cover, but it was not supposed to rain and I thought sitting out on the lawn would be nicer to see the fireworks after the concert.   I had made some chicken for dinner and packed our bag.  We got all settled and I pulled out the chicken- I must have let it sit in the refrigerator too long before cooking it, because it was GROSS.  We threw the chicken away, I bought us some coneys and pizza to have instead.  Rocket was pretty happy about the food after that.

Our view of the stage- it is way back there in the black area- thankfully, there are screens.

The Rocket man and me.  We ran into a few friends while at the concert.

As it got darker, we could see the stage.  The show was patriotic music, with the USO tribute included.  We got to see 2 WWII vets, vets from the Korean war, the Vietnam war and more recent conflicts.  Every vet received a standing ovation.  During the last part of the concert, the Pops played the theme music for each of the branches of the US military and the vets from those services were asked to stand in the audience so we could honor them.  We had some Army and Air Force vets near us.  It was very a very moving tribute.

As the concert started, the rain started, not enough to seek shelter, but enough to be annoying.  Rocket sought shelter  under the blanket, I stuck it out.  Next time, no matter what the weather forecasters say, I am bring our rain ponchos.

 

 

After the concert, there was 10 minute wait until the fireworks started.  They were great!  I love watching fireworks.

 

After the concert, we had a boring wait in the parking lot until the cars cleared out.  Seriously, it was longer than expected.  On the way home, the rain started coming down in earnest.  We got home around midnight.  I was all for sleeping in on Sunday, but Rocket really wanted to go to church as the youth group was having "game day". 

 

We did get up for church and Rocket had a great time at youth group.  After church, he and I worked the pre-registration tables at the Pray-Hope-Believe 5K run.  I was handing out the goodie bags/ number bibs and he was handing out the tee- shirts.  I expect quite a lot of people to come in right after church to pick up their stuff, but when we left after 3 hours, not even half the people had picked up their stuff.

Our friend, Jodi, with rocket in the background.

Yep- he is thrilled to death to be doing this.

 

We had to leave after about 3 hours, my foot was killing me and I had a migraine.  I have plantar fasciitis in my foot.  It is not fun at all, but standing and walking really bother it.   By the time we left, the rain was just pouring down. 

The rain was expected all weekend- including on the 4th.  On the 4th, Rocket and I stayed home, slept in late and played games (card games and board games). 

 

Rocket is off to Y camp starting tomorrow.  I think he will be happy to be back in a routine, I know  I will be happy to be back in our summer routine.

 

Happy Birthday America- 240 years young.

 

Love and hugs,

Deb