Apple Orchard

Christine and I went out together on Saturday. It was the first time in months that we have been somewhere together with out any kids at all. Sometimes I forget how nice it is to have normal adult conversations with out being interrupted, having to put kids in time outs, etc. We went out to dinner, hit up a haunted house (yes I actually made it through), and then we went to the casino. I won all of our money that we spent for the night back and still had extra. It was really exciting because I never win when I go.

Sunday we took the kids and Isabelle's friend to the apple orchard. They had a blast. We did the kiddy part with activities, picked apples, took a wagon ride, and went through the corn maze. Let me just say next time I go through a corn maze I will defiantly put my moby wrap on instead of trying to push a stroller. Not a good idea! Overall the weekend was awesome. The only downfall was I did absolutely no housework! My house looks like a tornado went through it right now so I'm trying to talk myself into cleaning. Guess we will see how that goes....

Thought of the day

I am going to take this moment to just talk about myself. I finally reached my 75lb mark after being plateaued for about two months. I am excited about that accomplishment, especially since that means I only have 37.8 more pounds to loose until I reach my goal weight. With that said I have really started to evaluate why everything in my life seems to plateau at one point or another. I guess there comes a time when things I used to put thought into just start to blend into daily life. I have found that is not always a good thing. Everything in life needs maintenance. If you aren't willing to maintain it then you will end up getting what you put into it. Life is not easy. It's not easy to constantly maintain everything, but is it easier to let it all go to hell? A weight loss comparison that I heard the other day goes like this "It's hard to loose weight, it's hard to maintain your weight, it's hard to be over weight. Choose your hard." I really like that. If I'm going to spend time thinking about how hard something is I sure as hell want some results when I'm done with it. I feel like this can go for just about anything in my life. It's hard to do a lot of things, but if I choose not to do it, isn't the outcome just as hard? Well those are my thoughts for the day...

"The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice."  George Eliot

Silver Lake Adventures....

We took the family to Silver Lake over the weekend. We are so blessed to have the cottage available for us to use. My friend Jess and 3 out of her 4 kids came along. It was a ton of fun, even with Isabelle being sick. She was a super trooper. We climbed the side of a dune, took Jessica's Jeep out on the dunes, got fried in the sun, roasted marshmallows, swam, read, and loved every minute. I wish vacations lasted longer, I never want to come home.

Life seems like it gets crazier and crazier. Whoever said the fostering children is an amazing experience never did it! Sure the children are great....it's the parents that are the problem. They don't show for visits or cancel, they drop dirty, they work crap jobs, live in motels, and the state says maybe we will give them another chance. So three months later they do everything the same and the state says maybe we will give them another chance. When one parent starts dropping clean, but doesn't even show up to court the state says we will give unsupervised visits. After 4 visits when that parent drops dirty again the state says, maybe they just need another chance....REALLY??? so they put that parent back on supervised visits, but they want us to supervise. We finally put our foot down and say no we aren't going to do that. So after two supervised visits the state worker says that parents looks like they are doing fine we will give them their unsupervised visits back. I just don't get it. The goal of foster care is reunification. I know that, but at some point they need to assess the situation and see if reunification is really the best thing for the child. I feel like no one is really looking after the child's best interest, just the courts best interest in trying to do reunification at any cost. I'm really trying to just give it to GOD, I have a very hard time doing that. So that is why I am ranting to you about it. If I don't I think my head might explode.

Sick....

Isabelle has been sick for a week now. Last Friday she started not feeling well, by Saturday she spiked a temp and almost passed out at rib fest. It had been a long day and she had only munched all day long, so I figured her almost passing out episode was due to the combination of heat, not feeling well, and not eating enough. Sunday her temp hit 103 and by Monday I took her to the doctor. They said it was viral, I swear they always say it is viral. By Thursday she still had a high temp, so I took her back to the doctor and demanded that they figure out what was wrong. After doing a chest x-ray the doc said that she had pneumonia. Poor thing is coughing and hacking like crazy. Now that she has been on antibiotics for 2 days she is starting to feel better, I hope her recovery goes more smoothly than her diagnosis.

Our plans to go to Michigan Adventure have been cancelled, but we are still going to the lake to just chill. Hopefully some good chill time will do her some good. I would love to see a happy HEALTHY child by the time school starts on August 24th. Guess we will see.....


"Sick" By Shel Silverstein

'I cannot go to school today,'
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
'I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox
And there's one more-that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut-my eyes are blue-
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke-
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb.
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is-what?
What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is...Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play! '