Unable to stop myself!

In the past few weeks I have had 2 situations presented to me within some families of teen agers. In both situations the teen wanted my help to get them out of a bad situation at home. I guess they think that because I am a licensed foster parent that I have some "clout" with the powers that be. I wish I did. But alas, even really crappy/borderline abusive parents have more rights and more laws on their sides then the children they discipline/abuse. It is really sad, actually.

I have tried to help these 2 teens in the best way I could. Get CPS or Police involved, offer them a place to stay until a suitable home is found, etc. Unfortunately on both occasions the allegations were hard to prove and ultimately the children have remained or have been returned to their parents. Basically until the parents hurt them enough that Police feel there is eminent threat to their lives, they just have to stay and wait for the next beating.

In these 2 situations I have tried to grasp what I was supposed to learn from my involvement in the cases. Up until today, all I had gleaned was a healthy disdain for "the system" and these "parents" and the lack of laws to protect kids in crappy homes. But then a quote came across my email inbox:

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

This quote helped me realize that the reason these kids come to me is because they know I will put my neck out for them. They know I love children and want to foster resilience and help them succeed. They know I will NOT be silent about things that matter. I will stand up and speak for those that are unable to due to fear, abuse and neglect. They know from the first time they met me that I will connect with them and give them respect and support that they may not be getting from anywhere else.

And maybe the reason I connect with these kids is because I remember my own teen years. With all of my brother's antics and my Mom trying to go to school full time, work full time and keep track of us, well I looked for mentors outside my family. I was fortunate enough to find some great women to look to and to model my behavior after in addition to the groundwork my Mom already laid down, to become a successful member of society and someone I can be proud of. It truly does take a village to raise a child.

So even though in helping a teen last night I kinda got burned, I still feel a calling to help those children who can't speak for themselves. I can not be silent about things that matter because our children matter the most!

And I also want to thank my Mom, Grandma Jean, Aunt Terrie, Aunt Jeana, Aunt Kathy, Clare, Margi, Nola, Sara, Stephanie, Sarah, Megan, Jana and Vanessa for all the love and support you gave me and the helping me along. Even though some of us girls were walking the same line on the same journey we held each other up.

I will continue to mentor kids, speak the truth, and try to help, (albeit a bit more cautiously after last night), if nothing else but to pay forward all the help I received growing up!

Never ending cycle......

So I still do not have any signs of Ovulation or my period starting. Cycle day 64 or maybe 65 today. What a MESS. I am getting very discouraged. I am fearful that my body is "broken" and that I won't be able to conceive again. *sigh* I bit the financial bullet and made an appointment with my OB/Gyn for 9:30am on the 21st. Hopefully they will be able to assist me in some way. I am really hoping that they don't suggest BCP. I guess I should start doing some research on what is up with my longish cycles and see what I can find out. Anyone have any good websites to point me to?
I will Keep you posted!

Kaleb & the Poppers!

There are lots of things that Kaleb has done in his childhood that I have documented in film, video, and his baby book. Some of it is expected like his first steps, first solids, first tooth. And some of it is unexpected. The following pictures are definitely UNEXPECTED. These pictures are the ones that you bust out and show to his finance' or to his friends when he is 15 and acting like like he is the boss. You know... the ones that your kids will kill you for taking!!!!!! Or at least resent you alot. But I figure after a horrible induction and 16 hours of labor.... he has it coming! hahahaha

So last week I was on the phone ALOT. I was trying to get things ready for Future's B-day party, moving in with his new foster family, court and the like. When I am on the phone the kids know they have to do something quiet like read a book, play their Leapsters, play quietly in their rooms or in the playroom. Generally they do this with only a few reminder yells that "I am on the phone go play quietly". LOL! After I got off the phone I checked on Mason. Check Check he was playing in the sandbox outside. Jasmyn, check she is on the swing, Check Check Check, Future is pushing Jasmyn in the swing. OK so WHERE IS KALEB?!?!?! I yell, "Kaleb where are you?" I hear nothing. So I go back inside. "Kaleb where are you?". I hear "I am playing with poppers in here". I walk down the hall towards his voice. What I see is unexpected.....

Yup. That's right....Poppers. hahaha. Probably not what you thought, right? He unloaded the tote of "poppers" and unwrapped them and then pulled the strings to make them "pop". I think he thought they looked like those poppers at New years eve with the confetti inside. Yeah.... not quite confetti inside these "poppers". LOL!
He looked so pleased with himself.
I have to say that THIS is my favorite picture. What an AWESOME blackmail picture. "Oh Kaleb you don't want to make curfew? OK, invite your girlfriend over, I have some GREAT pictures to show her" Bwah HA HA HA HA!

And now I need more Poppers... er I mean Tampons! I will never be able to write Tampons on a grocery list ever again without thinking of "poppers!"

Just an update....

We chased the flu outta our house to only be revisited this morning. Ugh. Both Kaleb & Mason are sick with the Diarrhea. Poor kids. I guess Diarrhea is better than puking, but only slightly. LOL! I am hoping that good hand washing practices, no food sharing and changing the hand towels frequently will help. I also think I may need to buy some stock in Clorox Wipes, since we use them all the time in the bathroom, door handles, and to clean the changing table!

Jasmyn's hives are all gone now. She isn't itchy anymore either. We still don't know if it was from the laundry soap or the virus itself. But I guess it really doesn't matter. I know to NOT change her laundry soap now. And if it is the virus, well there is nothing anyone can do about that, since it is within her body chemistry. Thank God for Benedryl or I doubt we would have gotten any sleep!

~Some content deleted~

I have some more stuff I want to blog about. I need to upload some new videos to Youtube. But once I get that done I will get busy getting things blogged.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. We feel them!

Ticker

A countdown Ticker for a friend:






It is gonna happen so soon! Hang in there Girl! I am here for you! What does not kill us makes us stronger!!!!!!

Day 56 and counting...

Yup. Day 56 of my cycle and still no period. No pregnancy either. I *thought* I might have ovulated about 6 days ago, but I think it was just a temp increase due to the virus we had in our house. Probably a low grade fever I mistakened for a thermal shift. *sigh* This is getting O-L-D! I just want my period to start already! I even, on a glimmer of a hope, took a pregnancy test today. Stark white. No line. Negative. Bummer. But at least it has been 10 days since I last took a test, so I am not quite obsessed with it!

Yeah. I am gonna give it one more week. If No obvious thermal shift or no bleeding I will call and make an appointment with the Dr. Grrrrr. What a total pain in the butt.

I will keep you posted.

Puking, Diarreah and now HIVES, Oh my!

Well I *thought* we were on the mend. Future hasn't been sick at all since Monday night. Kaleb has not been sick since Thursday night. Mason hasn't been sick since Thursday around 6pm. Jasmyn has not vomit ted since Friday morning. I have been OK since Yesterday. Ahhh relief right?!?!? Well,yes and NO. Yes in that no more diarrhea or puking. But suddenly Jasmyn has HIVES.
We initially thought that it may have been some laundry soap/fabric softener I was forced to use. See due to all the messes of being sick we had LOTS of loads of laundry, and I ran out of laundry soap. My Mom had left some of her laundry soap here after doing laundry st time and so I borrowed enough to do a load of Jasmyn's bedding. Her sheets, blanket, and pillowcase. So after she threw up the last time Tim put the clean sheets that were washed in the new soap on her bed along with her blanket and put her to bed that night. In the morning she woke up all itchy. Her arms, legs, feet and face were covered in hives. I put some anti itch cream on it and took her to the pharmacy. I asked the pharmacist about what to give her and he said Benadryl. I asked about dosage and he asked how much she weighed and said about 1/2 a tsp. So I bought the Benadryl and gave her 1/2 a tsp. She was still itchy and miserable. I used the anti itch cream again. It provides some relief. I give her doses of Benadryl as prescribed by the pharmacist. We rewashed her sheets in the normal laundry soap. I remade her bed in sheets that were just in the linen closet and had NOT been washed recently. Last night she slept fine (meaning she did not stir enough to wake me up). This morning her hives are WORSE. She is WAY MORE itchy and cranky. Here are some pictures:

After seeing that the hives were WORSE this morning I called the Pediatrician Triage office. From my description of the hives and Jasmyn's recent illness, the nurse said it could be 2 things: Hives from an allergic reaction to the Laundry Soap. Or Hives from an allergic reaction to the toxins released in her body from the virus she had. Either way she is miserable. Treatment is just Benadryl and Hydro cortisone cream. The nurse did give me the correct dosage on the Benadryl though. She actually can have 1 1/2 tsp of Benadryl instead of the 1/2 tsp the Pharmacist said. I was way under dosing her yesterday which maybe why the hives are worse today. I also gave her an oatmeal bath to help the stinging and burning. It seemed to help take her mind off the itching.

If anyone has suggestions on how to make her more comfortable, I would love your suggestions! Also send a prayer or positive thought up for us that she gets to feeling better soon.

Kaleb & Letters

Kaleb loved to watch a show on Noggin called "Little Bill". Little Bill has lots of adventures in everyday life. He has a hamster, he goes to preschool, he has friends, he has a close relationship to his grandmother. Kaleb has basically the same life, minus that Kaleb is white! Anyway, on one of Little Bill's episodes it talks about Mail and the postal service. Little Bill writes letters to his friends and his friends to him and they all arrive by the postal person. It is very exciting and highly anticipated for Little Bill to receive a letter in the mail. (Do you see where I am going with this?!??!) Kaleb has sent out some letters to various people in his life. Most of which have responded in kind. But Kaleb really would like to receive more mail!

So if you have a minute and 40 Cents ( I think that is the cost of a stamp these days), and feel like making a kids day, drop him a short note, a picture drawn with highlighters from your desk, a cute picture cut from a magazine, or a love note, well he would just love it. So would the other kiddos as well!

I promise if you write to him, he will write back. Does anyone want a 5 year old for a pen pal? LOL!

I guess the Laundry CAN'T wait...

Yeah it is never a good idea to have 3 sick kids and 1 sick adult and no clean towels, sheets, blankets, washcloths, or rags. So I have accomplished a few loads of laundry. I made the kids help. I told them that since everyone is sick that NO BODY gets a "pass" today and that we all have to work together. They did not like it, but they did clean their playroom and put their laundry away.

Jasmyn hasn't throw up since last night around 3am. Mason threw up this morning around 8 but has been fine since. Kaleb is now onto the diarrhea stage of the bug and has had a few bouts of that. Yuck! And ya'll don't even want to hear about where I am at in the cycle of the bug!

So this morning as I was caring for Mason and cleaning him up (again) Kaleb and Future decided to help themselves to breakfast. They could reach the bowls, cereal, and milk. But then they got thirsty. The couldn't reach the glasses, but could reach the curly Q straws. So I come into the kitchen and see Future and Kaleb giggling around the full gallon of milk. 2 curly Q straw sticking out of the top. Boys drinking milk straight from the jug. oy vey. So now we are out of milk. And I wonder why we all get sick.... with that kind of germ sharing... yay it is NO wonder!

Awww reinforcements are on the way! I just got a call from Tim and he will be home by 6ish. Only 7 more hours to go until he gets here. So if I throw a nap in there and lunch and a snack, it will almost be dinner time and he will be home! Thank God. I need Tim's help... I am almost out of laundry soap!

House of the sickies part 2

Yes the puke fairy has visited us again this week. I have to say that one of the most horrible things I have had to witness is my little Mason Dry Heaving on and off for 3 hours. He looked at me with such pain in his little eyes just begging me to take it all away. It was just heartbreaking. Not to mention that when Mason was in the throes of his dry heaving, I had Kaleb and Jasmyn puking as well. Jasmyn puked in her bed and while I was cleaning that up she was taking a bath. She puked in her bath water. Poor thing.

Hopefully Tim will be home tonight some time.

I have never before wanted a maid to come and clean my house for me as bad as I wish for that today!

sigh. I guess the laundry will wait for another day.