Loosened the belt

for a moment.  I totally thought we were a few hundred behind and would have to use Brian's extra check next month to make up for it (he gets paid every two weeks so we don't budget on those two extra checks).  But, I was balancing my bank statement from last month (teach me to be late) with my book and realized I had written in daycare twice!  YAY!  That was just enough to cover it with $28 left over for the month.

What did I do?  Turned around and spent more.  I still say money well spent though, when it comes to safety for my kids.  You know when we were growing up parents didn't have to worry about all the things that driving kids can be distracted by nowadays.  I absolutely love my bluetooth in my car and kinda wanted it for Cole.  Had no idea you could get it on an older car 'til today.  He wanted a new radio since his car's radio has some problems and was planning on getting like an $80 radio.  Nothing extravagant, but his money anyways.  I got to thinking that maybe we could get him to buy a radio with bluetooth so he wouldn't have to reach for and find his phone when he's driving.  I found a good deal on one for $130 and then found a place that could install it reasonably.  Since Cole would probably have to have it installed anyways he upped his allowable, gave me $100 and we're paying for the rest for him.

I will feel so much better having that.  Not that he has some great cell phone and uses it all the time or anything, but kids will answer a phone if it rings and this way he can be safe doing it.  I did tell him that I'll yank it back out if I ever find out he bypassed it or it unsynced and he answered the phone anyways.  Just pullover and resync please.  Mine does that, is the only reason I brought it up.

So far he seems like a pretty careful driver...almost scared.  Which a little fear is sometimes a good thing.  Good thing the boy's been working on a local farm so he could afford his new radio.  He'll be all set up in the next month or so.

Crazy Little Boy

Someone wet their pants tonight, so no iPod games or tv tonight.  Needless to say it was a better night.  Sometimes I'm so unsure if Jaemin will outgrow the quirks and idiosyncrasies, but tonight it was like there was a little piece of hope to say he could.  I think it's going to take work on our part to keep him away from the things that overdose him on stimuli.  I got great support from some adoptive parents on what they do with their sensory kids, so next time there's a major meltdown or family gathering with too many faces and activity for Jaemin I'm going to try it out.  He's sucha  great little boy and I love him so much.  I want the entire world for him.

Jaemin's always a little on the wild side, but tonight he actually played like other kids sometimes do.  He made things up and played with trains with the girls.  So I decided it's video time which Jaemin totally loves!  Pictures, videos, attention....that's Jaemin.

My cutie

Happy Easter!

Easter is sort of a new start, so I prayed for God to give me patience and more kindness this morning.  I know I need to work on something myself.  The qualities I'm not always the proudest of.

The kids have enjoyed Easter so far.  Last night was chicken dinner at one grandmas.  It was nice except the moment I was about to go off on someone.  I know this will offend some, but I'm sorry.  Think about it slowly and realize that other people have rights too.  You can smoke.  You can do that to your body and though it's wrong you can subject your own children to it.  But, you CANNOT subject my kids to it.  I have kids with health concerns or were born with issues that could make smoking exposure more harmful.  You do NOT hang around my kids when there are plenty of other places for your body to be a wave a cigarette around them.  I counted to ten more than once, but I will not do it again.  This is NOT one of my qualities I will work on.  I can judge you for smoking around my kids when they are little.

This morning the kids behaved relatively well in church.  Even Jaemin...surprise.  Brian had a little baggie with cereal towards the end and that helped.  Yet it was late enough the sugar didn't kick in until after church.  I decided on the way home we should start our own little tradition and let the kids go to the store and pick out whatever kind of donuts they want and eat that when we got home.  They've never gotten to do that before and really liked it.  Jaemin picked out one with blue icing.  He was a pretty darn happy camper.  Easter bunny brought Jaemin a bowling set and since Jaemin loves bowling this was perfect for him.  The girls got hair bands, hair ties and socks.  Hello Kitty is still super big in our house.  The big boys got fishing lures.  And then there was chocolate!  No one has touched it yet....too many donuts.

Grandma's house....hunting....or in Cole's case directing Jaemin.

Hunting at home.

Hauling it all back upstairs.  Poor Jaemin had to have mom's help for his load.

Easter Donuts and afterward.

And apparently after some really sugary donuts and little sister leaving all of her hair ties and hair bands in the chair, big brother gets bored and pretty.

Here are the last pictures from Great Grandma's house this evening.  More fun....too much food and too many sweets.  Jaemin is WOUND up!!

Kaelin helped Jaemin and mostly he stopped to eat.

They looked up and down.

God and Angels are With Us

My little Jaemin. He's a wild one, but he could have really been seriously hurt today.  He was at mom's and I guess something on their little deck-like thing was broke or loose and it gave way when he leaned on it.  This thing is pretty high...over our heads, so about 7 feet in the air.  He fell all the way down and only had a small burn on his arm.  I cannot believer how incredibly lucky we were to not have him really hurt.  He could have broken something.  I immediately think at least legs, arms or worse yet his neck.  He could have fallen on his head and had a head injury.  My heart skipped a beat when Brian called to tell me.  That's the second big scare, after his seizure last March, and I don't like his scares.   They're tooooo much for me.  Angels and God were with us today protecting my baby from harm.  I don't know how because there's no explanation for how safe he came out of that, but he did and I'm THANKFUL!

With 3 boys in the house, the inevitable has happened

we got a call with a girl on the other end asking for a boy.  We are unlisted and don't even list with the school, for personal reasons, so we figured it would take a while.  But, it turned out it was just a neighbor girl who wanted Cole to meet some of her friends.  They're a year behind him.  Him being, well, him he jumped his rip stik and went down the road.  They said hi, he said hi and went on his merry way.  He says they weren't very pretty, but I have some doubts since I'm sure he's not going to tell us he thinks they're cute.  I guess when he and Chase go down there to see her little brother he talks to big sister occasionally anyways, so they've gotten to know each other a little.

It's good for him to have some girl communication and I guess this is an easy way to ease mom and dad into it.  :0)

Another apron thread fringing loose

Just another moment in motherhood where you can feel your apron strings loosening up.  It's not always voluntarily, but definitely necessary so you can have a well-rounded, responsible child.

We have licensed and insured Cole's car and he got his permit.  It's a little scary putting so much power and responsibility in the hands of a 15 year old, but necessary in rural areas where there's no public transit.  He has to have a car.  If he doesn't have a beater car to drive then they fully insure him on one of ours and that's EXPENSIVE.  He has to be able to work after he turns 16, so this is a necessary part of life.

I'm trying hard not to worry too much about what may come, but still it's a little bit of a scary part of a mom's life.  I hope it gets easier with each one.