Lots of activities

This was another busy week....seems like the closer we get to school getting out, the more activities we have.  Last weekend the kids got to go horseback riding.  Reggie was dreading it and said, "Why didn't you ask me if I wanted to go."  To which I replied, "I knew you would have said no!"  Turns out Reggie is a natural and was the first to volunteer over and over again to ride the horse :o).  We knew Ainsley would love it, but she was much more cautious.  Here's some pictures/video:

Ainsley had two gymnastics shows at her new gym later that day....she loves her new suit!  We realized she has quite the farmers tan....

Ryan traveled again this week from Tuesday to Thursday and unfortunately, missed some fun stuff.  K had his last day of school performance and got his preschool book with artwork and pictures.  He grew 1 1/2 inches and gained 1 1/2 pounds.  He also had his first swim lesson and he did awesome!  Definitely ready and I'm sure he'll be swimming on his own soon :o).  The fun thing about Livermore is that you run into people everywhere and we hadn't been to that pool before, but I knew 4 families and it was fun to catch up with some I hadn't seen in awhile.

 K with his best buddies, Jayden and Austin.

I'm realizing now that Wednesday was a really busy day.  We went to family science night after swimming and the kids did some experiments and got to hold a snake.  We are good friends with the family that brought the snakes (they have 12!) which was good because one decided it was time to potty all over Ainsley.  It was an amazing amount of fluid that came out of the tiny snake and it was such a strange, foul smell.  We won't ever be getting a snake!  As the dad reminded Ainsley, she now has a story to tell :o).

 Reggie drew a minion and when the water got to it, you can see what happened below.  It was to teach them that there are a lot more colors in color than you can see.

Lastly, open house was on Thursday.  The kids displayed some of their best work from the year, we got to chat with the teachers and Ainsley had a slide show.  

Ainsley with Mrs. Littlefield...the best 2nd grade teacher ever!

Reggie with Mrs. Ezell, also a fabulous teacher!

Exhaustion

Well, the last week has been CRAZY!  I was spending at least an hour each day, combing and de-nitting Ainsley's hair.  I did a Lice Ice treatment on Sat. night and these tiny specks of what looked like sand or very tiny pieces of pepper kept showing up on the front of her head.  They weren't there before, so I figured that it was lice at its earliest stage.  They do not like the smell of mint and tea tree oil which in Lice Ice and were heading for the hills.  When I saw how small they were, I thought I better recheck the boys.  Reggie had it for sure, but Khalif was questionable.  We treated everyone, including Ryan and spent all Mother's Day doing laundry because now it was everyone's bedding/towels/clothes/jackets.  I have learned quite a bit about lice through this experience and yesterday, I was feeling quite desperate, wondering if it would ever end.  My friend had a professional come in to treat her daughter and offered her number, so I gave her a call and she reassured me we were on the right track.  Since she was coming to Livermore to check Ainsley's friend, she was willing to take a look at all of us and found nothing!  I found 2 nits on Ainsley that morning, so I wish I could move forward, but something tells me to keep checking her daily (I found 2 more this morning).  I did get a lice zapper that will electrocute live lice, so if I do that daily, it will stop the cycle.  In talking with her I decided not to do another chemical treatment because she said they are proven to work only if left in the hair for 10 hours (the instructions say 10 minutes!) and we found that to be true as the big lice ended up crawling out of Ainsley's hair onto her towel, but not dying.  After I did the Rid on Reggie, I found a live one the next day before I cut his hair.  Since I cut the boys' hair, the expert said they are fine and at least they are sleeping back in their beds and we are back to only laundering Ainsley's stuff.  I think we are finally on the home stretch, but I may never recover from this nightmare!  It hasn't helped that Ryan has been traveling quite a bit for his new job.  At least he is enjoying it and happy to be reconnecting with lots of work buddies!  Oh and a huge blessing that we switched gyms....Ainsley is loving it and we have had a lot more time to nit pick!  Not sure that she'll stay there forever since she is the youngest and the best and she may want to become competitive again, but it is what she needs for now and we are all happy with the change.
I was surprised with a nice breakfast and cards on Mother's Day and a cherry tree for our yard.  It has been a few months since we worked in the yard and I spent some time out there trimming and pruning things.  It feels much better to be out there now :o).
Notice our hair, crusty with treatment!

Last Saturday, Ryan and 3 of our friends went and got a free piano!  It has been such a change...Reggie has been practicing a lot more and it has been very nice to hear the piano.  Even K "practices" and he is very controlled and respectful with the keys and even his songs sound great!

K had a visit with his aunt that day, so we took the kids to volunteer at a Foster fundraiser at Fry's.  We were selling hot dogs and raffle tickets for almost 4 hours and we all had a blast.  Ryan thought the kids would be grumpy, but they really enjoyed it and enjoyed eating 4 hot dogs each and a pepsi (disgusting!).  The hot dogs, including a pepsi were only $.50, so people would buy 5 or 10 at a time.  Those that bought one or two, came back for more!  They were Kirkland hot dogs, so pretty tasty and all the proceeds went to the Foster Parent Association.
I almost forgot, Ryan and I had a nice anniversary dinner at the Hilton on Friday night (it was the Foster Parent Appreciation dinner).  We met some very lively people with some very interesting stories that kept us quite entertained!  The guest speaker was awesome and although it was a county sponsored event, God made it in there quite a bit.  It was refreshing and good to be told that we were "chosen" for this journey and we should feel honored that we were chosen :o).
It seems as if God is opening more doors in the Foster world where we are getting more involved and I think it will be a good thing.  I have a meeting in a couple weeks with our church leader, Nancy, because she has asked me to partner up with 2 others to lead the Foster ministry.  Ryan and I have already met with a couple considering fostering a couple weeks ago and Nancy has been giving out our contact to others-not sure that after hearing our story people will be gung ho, but they will at least know the reality of what could happen.  We will see what God has in store, but it is nice to have something good come out of this crazy ride (we had court today and Ryan was subpoenaed, but guess what???  The dad fired his attorney again (this one lasted 2 months) and Ryan was sent home and told to come to the next court date-no progress yet again.  3 years that us tax payers are having to foot the bill for this madness).  We are learning more than I ever wanted to know!

3 little words

My head itches.  Ainsley mentioned that to Ryan about a week ago, but we didn't think much of it until we got a notice that someone in her class had head lice!  That someone was her best buddy :o(.  Her friend was so infested that the dentist could see hundreds of bugs during her teeth cleaning and that is how her mom found out!!!  Monday night as she was sleeping, I checked her head and sure enough I saw a few crawling around and they weren't little which meant she probably had it for at least 2 weeks.  I immediately called my friend, Laura, who went through this in Dec. and started the cleaning process at 9 p.m.  I didn't sleep much that night because I was itchy and totally grossed out.  Ryan flew out the next day for Phoenix and the real fun began.  Laura came over first thing in the morning and we treated Ainsley and picked out all of the bugs and nits (eggs) for hours.  She checked me and didn't find anything, but we did the treatment on me just to be sure (since she has used my brush!).
Thankfully, the boys are good and we only have to deal with Ainsley.  It is quite a process making sure everything she wears/sleeps on or touches with her head is clean daily.  Her brush and backpack go in the freezer after each use.  She only sits on one wooden chair, her seat in the car is plastic bagged and her bedding/towel is washed daily, along with vacuuming her room!  I have had very little time to think because on top of that I have been sifting through her head twice a day, looking for eggs and dead lice.  It takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to thoroughly go through all of her hair!  I am still finding a few nits each time :o(.
Ryan gets home late tonight and it will be so nice to have a little help :o).  This process will continue for at least a week because that is when we can do the second treatment to make sure we got everything.
I have earned my Mother's Day stripes this year!
Oh and Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband.  15 years today and still going strong!!!  Who knew the curve balls we'd be thrown in life and the crazy adventure we'd go on, but I wouldn't want to share it with anyone else.  We know each other so well and still have so much fun together (especially competing in basketball and tennis)!  Many nights we don't even turn on the t.v. and just talk or read together.  It has been such a journey with lots of ups and downs, but we've grown and become better through it all.  I love you Ryan!