Leading up to Christmas

Just a week is left until Christmas. The outside decorations went up early this year. I was surprised that Pop wanted to put lights up since I usually do and he never gets around to it. I gave up years ago trying to make this happen. After the lights went up we put the tree up. Last year I didn't want a tree up. It just makes me sad since the money is low and I feel like I let the kids down when they do not get what they want for Christmas. This year it will be more of the same. Pop took the list, and since Pop gets a Christmas bonus check and I dont, he goes shopping. I tagged along and gave a little direction on some things but try to stay quiet. Its up to him. I can't do what I've always done and I can't get the big things they want so I just keep my mouth closed. Do you know how hard that is? The one day the following week I get it all out and count and see how many they each got. As usual one had more than the other so Pop gets to go back and fix that problem this weekend. I'll give just a little direction and see what happens. Scooter has already notice there is not much under the tree. They each have three small gifts, I have one and Pop has none under the tree. His was his motorcycle riding suit he already has. This makes me super sad but nothing I can do about it. All my income goes to pay the bills and there is nothing left for extras. There would be extra if and when I get the doctor bills paid (6 more months hopefully) and then try getting the tutoring bill paid after that. The bonus check seemed to pay Pops parents back the money he had borrowed from them and also pay for the leather motorcycle riding suit first, then Christmas second or rather third. Hopefully by next Christmas it won't be so hard and I'll be more in the spirit. Until then Bah Humbug!!

A family for Stacey

Girl, Born February 18, 2005

SIGNIFICANT RISK, PLEASE ADOPT ME SOON!!

Stacey is a lovely young lady who is about to turn 5 years old. She has golden blonde hair and big brown eyes. Stacey is DEAF. She is totally normal for her age. Normal development. She is reading by lips, she understands when people are talking looking at their lips. She is a favorite in the orphanage, and the staff and director so hope to find a family for her. She is a beautiful girl with a great personality.

Can you tell I've been looking all morning at the http://www.reecesrainbow.org/angelgirls.html site? These little angels just break my heart. If you can't adopt one now can you give toward helping another family adopt them? Check out the site and see how easy it is.

A family for Olga. Can you be that family?

Here is her information from Reece's Rainbow:

Olga is a beautiful girl with brown hair and deep brown eyes. She is almost 5 years old and has severe CP. She is not able to walk or do much of anything on her own. But she needs a FAMILY!
From one of our own adoptive families who visited with Olga in August 2009: "Little Olga really touched my heart, and I SO hope that she finds a family!!!!! She is such a pretty little girl with a very, very sweet spirit. Her CP is pretty severe, and I don't believe she sees well. Also, her hips look either to be dislocated pretty badly, or else they are just in a bad position. I didn't hold her or try to do anything with her on this first visit but I did talk to her, and stroked her face and arms and whispered sweet nothings in Russian to her. At first she seemed a little wary, but after awhile she softened and I could see what a beautiful little girl there was inside. To the right family who could handle her issues, oh, what a blessing she'd be. I just fell in love with her. I do have more pictures if anyone is interested."
Olga is almost 5 years old and is blessed to still be at the baby house. She is facing institutionalization this Winter, and will likely remain bedridden the rest of her life. :(( Someone please save Olga!
Now... if you are honest you are probably asking yourself the same question that I asked myself. This is all wonderful but, realistically, is anyone going to adopt Olga? In my heart we had to answer YES! We would not be raising money toward her adoption in vain... her family is out there, God is moving in their spirit.

Oh, and by the way, Olga means "Holy".

This post had me in tears. I so wish I could adopt a special child like Olga but I know I can't. How about you? Visit the Reece's Rainbow site and see all the beautiful special children.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. This year it will be a happy one for me. Since I am adopted and do not know my birthparents, I usually feel all alone on holidays. My adopted parents passed away many years ago and I was the only child they adopted. I know very few facts from being adopted and would love to find my birthparents. Growing up my adopted parents and I went yearly to South Alabama to my aunt and uncles house or to my grandmothers house. There were lots of cousins to play with and I loved it there. I always wanted to move there. I've gotten tired of being alone so with the help of facebook I have reconnected with my cousins and my wonderful aunt. We are heading to South Alabama to see (hopefully) all my cousins, their spouses, children, grandkids and my aunt. I can't wait. We went to visit not to long ago and my youngest son loves it there just as I did when I was young. He has been counting the days until he can go back. I so hope that both of my kids can find a family connection there and have some type of connection to family on my side. The next best thing to this would be for me to find my birth family and eventually have a relationship with them.

Homework Hussle

There are alot of kids out there that do not understand all the stuff that is being taught. I know since I have one of these kids. We try hard most every night to work on what we do not understand but it doesn't always help. Many times I feel like I explain it really different than the teacher does and I give up. I get really frustrated since I do not have a text book in one subject and I do not remember the English grammar to be able to help with that. So I find myself doing the homework hussle almost every night. I've finally thrown up my hands and found a tutor to help with the English grammar. I'm very thankful that the Math teacher is willing to help during some of her planning periods so that we can try and bring that grade up. He just needs some one on one time to figure all this out. From what everyone says he does really well when they take him one on one and work with him. He just has trouble in the class room setting. I know its because the teacher can not wait on just that one person and must move on to something else and I can not do the home school thing since I do not understand it either. Its been so so long since I had to do anything with English grammar. I know I could remember if I had the time but after working all day and then going home to house work I just do not have the time or patience. Good Luck sweet boy. We will make it somehow. I hate that it seems harder for you than for others but your doing great. I'm so proud of you and I love you.

Don't sign up if you don't want to do it.

Some things just bother me. Doesn't matter who does it. It doesn't have to be the kids or the husband just people in general. DO NOT SIGN UP FOR SOMETHING IF YOU REALLY DO NOT WANT TO DO IT. If you sign up then make good and dang sure you show up. Others are counting on you. This applies to charities, service projects, helping friends, studying with others, job applications and may other things. I do not want to hear "I don't feel like it today" because there are many many times that I do not feel like working or cleaning up after you or cooking you something when you should do it yourself. If you join a group and you know it is a service organization then you know you will have to do service projects. If you do not want to do this type of thing then don't sign up. Don't get upset when graduation time comes and you don't get as many scholarships because you do not have as many service hours as the others. Do not tell me it doesn't matter when I see every year that people get scholarships for service hours. Sitting at home watching the boobtube is not going to help you through life. A good job will take you far. Get out there and do something with your spare time. You might find out what your meant to be doing for the rest of your life. At least you will be getting the experience and you can use it on applications for years to come. Just because you do not get paid for your service does not mean it does not count in many ways. If you don't want to do service projects then do not sign up!!!

Surprise Party

I planned a surprise party for McMuffin for his 16th birthday. I spread it all around on facebook and told many of his friends. I tried contacting many of the football players and others from school just to let them know. Thanks to A-Dub and J-Dub for getting him out of the house. A-Dub had been out of town with the youth group for a conference and called Mcmuffin to come pick him up and take him home. lol Good idea since there were many youth and a youth leader there that just couldn't do it. lol He fell for it hook line and sinker. Then they took McMuffin to a movie. By the time they got out it was party time. Many of his youth friends and a few kids from school were at our house to jump out and say "SURPRISE"!!!! The look on his face says he was very surprised and even more surprised to find out that I had planned it. They played games, ate hamburgers, chips and birthday cake. I'm so happy I pulled it off. Happy Birthday sweetheart. I love you!!

Race Tickets

I love car races. It doesn't matter what kind. Drag racing, dirt track, or the big boys at Nascar. Imagine my response when dear Pops came home saying he had free tickets to Talladega. Woo Hoo I'm going to Talladega. I love it there. In years past we would take the camper a week early and set it up, then travel back there the following weekend and have a fun filled weekend at the race track. My boys have gone to several races. Some of our friends have also met us there and would camp with us. Well just think of how I felt when I found out that dear Pops had a ticket but I didn't. Those of you that know me I'm sure know what I thought. Might not have said it but I sure thought it. lol Since we no longer have our fabulous camper, dear Pops took Scooter's pup tent, McMuffin's sleeping bag and his motorcycle and road over to Talladega with his motorcycle friends. Since it was raining that weekend a little, they did not leave as early as they planned. They took their time and finally ended up at the camp grounds. Come to find out they had pit passes (but did not go), they had passes to meet Mark Martin (and they did this) and they got lots of free food. Pops said it was a little chilly (ya-think) in the little pup tent but he slept well. On Sunday they went to the race for a little while. By this I mean that he left early. Yes really early. He stayed for about 30 laps and got on his motorcycle and headed home. Now this is where I get upset. He wasted those tickets. I could have gone and taken my car and stayed for the entire thing. He could have come home whenever he wanted to but I could have watched the race and would have been able to see those wrecks at the end of the race firsthand. Sooo his wonderful free tickets were wasted as far as I'm concerned. I also noticed that lots of people are complaining about the race because all they did until the end was drive around the track. lol Well people thats just what race cars do - they drive around the track and try not to wreck. No its not as entertaining as the wrecks but its much safer. Who wants to smell burned rubber from wrecks. lol If I wanted to smell that I would just go burn my own rubber on my own car (yes I did this many times in my younger days).

No Child left behind

I have been helping the kids study for benchmark test. These are the test that are suppose to tell how much you understood from the previous eight weeks in school. The dreaded nine week test. My youngest has major problems in school. Always has, I am guessing always will. We are both tired of the homework hustle we do each and every night for hours. No matter what he does and how many hours he spends studying it is never enough. He keeps his grades up by making sure he has his homework ready so he can turn it in each day. By doing this he can get a 100 homework grade which pulls up the bad test grades. This is where I have a problem with the process. Don't get me wrong. I do not want him to fail. I just think it makes it worse when he does not understand the chapters he is doing but is able to look up vocab words to turn in and then fail the test but still come out with a decent grade. As one chapter builds on the previous chapter he gets farther and farther behind but still has at least a C in the class which is passing. Next comes the dreaded MCT2 test in May each year. If he scores at basic or below he will then be put into a learning class that should help him. Why not help him before he gets to this point. Why not pay attention before the end of the school year and try to help the desperate parent that is struggling to help her child instead of saying he has a C in my class. He is fine at this point. NO he is not fine. He has no idea how to do scientific notation or even what the term means but yes he has a C+ or better in the class just for turning in homework. I've tried tutors, I've tried grounding, I've tried taking things away from him that he really wants, but it just doesn't help. The school says he can learn and is not special ed material which I totally agree with but he still needs help. No child left behind is leaving my child behind and I sit here totally unable to stop it. This seems to be a never ending cycle year after year. He keeps doing just enough to pass and get by and he still doesn't understand things that should come natural by now. Its because he was left behind years ago and was passed by turning in his homework. I've cried, I've screamed, I've begged but so far I still have no help.

Football

Last night I traveled about 30 minutes away to watch McMuffin play football against some of his friends from another school. At one time he played baseball with them so it was good to see some friends from past years. We won 14 - 6 and have now won two games and lost one. One game was rained out and we have one game left for next Monday evening. We are not sure if the rained out game will be played or not. Since McMuffin is on the JV squad and must dress out for the Varsity squad games we go twice a week to football games.

Scooter is home sick today. Had a headache last night, this morning was cold and stomach was bothering him. So far no fever but I didn't want to take any chances so he is taking it easy. Since the bacon flu (yes swine flu) is out and about in the schools I didn't want to take a chance so when he called and said he was worse than when he left home this morning I went to get him. Last time he called like this he was better by that evening. I'm praying this time is the same.

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog. I've been following several people on their blogs and thought I might like to try this also. I am married and have two wonderful boys. The oldest is almost 16 and is driving around everywhere. The youngest is 11 and loves to draw. We also have two greyhounds - Leprechaun and Lacy - and one fat old cat named Charlie Brown.

Pops is on the road alot delivering ice cream to all the stores. He is gone much of the time so its just me and the Mcmuffin boys. I am an office manager to a bankruptcy trustee and taxi service driver for my youngest son. I am adopted and an only child. Both my adopted parents have passed away so other than my in-laws and my husband and kids I am now alone. I have wonderful friends that take up much of what is missing at times when this all makes me sad. I would love to find my birth family and learn that I have many siblings.

My oldest son is nicknamed McMuffin at school which is what sparked the name of this blog. He has always been smart and almost doesn't have to study. Last year in the 9th grade he was 25th of 382 in his class. 25th sounds really nice but imagine what he could do if he would just study a little. One day this will come back to haunt him. McMuffin is on the football team and loves to hang out with his football friends and is very active in the youth group in our church.

Scooter loves to play pokemon cards in a league that meets twice a week, loves art and loves his cat. In school he studies really hard but seems he is just an average kind of kid and that's fine with me. Some of the things they do in school are over my head already and he is only in the 6th grade. Scooter is active in RA's in our church and can't wait till he can join his brother in the youth group.