Friday, April 20, 2018

Ups and downs

Khalif had an amazing month last month at school.  He got his first IB trait, thinker and followed it up the next month with another one!  He has yet to get one and got 2 in the span of 2 months!  His teacher told me that she has seen a new level of maturity from him as he is trying to make better decisions about his friends and who he hangs out with.  I was very proud of him because a new student started and he befriended him right away, making him feel comfortable.  I was volunteering on the new students 2nd day and asked him how it was going and if he had made any friends and he said yes and he was trying to get Khalif's name out and I helped him (it is an unusual name) and he said yes, that's him!  He can be so sweet :).
The boys also had a couple of swim meets and Khalif has done amazing!  Got 1st place in a couple events and he was so excited and proud of himself.
And then, things can turn so quickly.  He started working on his most traumatic memory a few weeks ago, being taken from his mom at 20 months and put in the police car that took him to social services.  Wow, did things shift!  He wet the bed every night for a week and his challenging behaviors came flooding back.  Even though it is hard, I know it is for good.  If talking about it has that much of an impact on him, then it is clear that he needs to work through it.  I'm thinking he'll be on this memory for quite awhile and in the meantime he is going to have to figure out how to manage himself.  I got an e-mail from the teacher this week that he has been having issues with controlling his impulses in class, so we've talked strategy and hopefully, it will help.  Please pray that God will heal him!

Volleyball and Trampoline

Ainsley has found 2 new sports that she loves!  She tried out for the school volleyball team and we figured she would be on the 6th grade team, but they moved her to the B team (Three 6th graders made the squad so it was a big deal!).  The coach told her that she loves watching her play because she learns so quickly and has improved so much in such a short time.  She is the setter and I guess that is a difficult position, so it has been a lot of learning for her.  We've had volleyball 4 days a week, 2 practices and 2 games for the last month and she still wants to play at home after school and on the weekends.  I arranged a mom/daughter volleyball playdate at the sand courts and we all had a blast.  The beauty about sand is that it doesn't hurt when you fall, although it is very hard to move quickly.  She wants to do club volleyball when the season is over, but I think we'll try something else for a bit and then go back in August when we return from our summer travels.
She's got a pretty good serve!
The other sport she is loving is Trampoline!  It is a fairly easy transition given her background and she is learning new things every day.  She is moving up to a new group next week and is kinda bummed about not being in her group anymore (she's only been there for 3 weeks, REALLY!).  The groups are co-ed, so she enjoys that very much.  I just found a family to carpool with which will help with the late night pick-ups!!! 
This sport has 3 events, tumbling, double mini and trampoline.  It is different than gymnastics because you can be different levels on different events.  Unfortunately, her wrists were giving her trouble when she was tumbling so we got her some tiger paw braces and she has been loving them!  No pain at all, but makes her disappointed that they were not allowed at her gym because I think she thinks she would have been able to continue and maybe she would have.  But, in the long run, I think this has been a really good change for her.  She has been hanging out with more school friends and has a new little family at trampoline and they all seem like such nice kids!  Even having 2 activities in place of gymnastics, she still has a lot more time on her hands.  She and Khalif have been playing a lot of basketball and trampoline, and even Reggie has joined in playing volleyball and nerf guns, so that has been great to see too.  And she has time to hang out with our foster babies!!! 
Video of her on the double mini:

DC and New York

Reggie was invited to go on the 8th grade Washington DC trip and Ryan remembers that trip more than anything from when he was a kid, so we signed him up and since I've never been, I went too!  We packed a whole lot into 5 nights and 4 days.  The first night was spent on the plane and we had a layover in Arizona, so the flight was only 4 1/2 hours.  You can't travel without problems and the first was taking off from Arizona...the plane was in full throttle getting ready to take off and then we slowed and stopped.  A warning light came on, so we got a new plane and were off 2 hours later at 1:30 in the morning๐Ÿ˜†.  I brought melatonin and Reggie was out for about 4 hours.  The tour company had to rearrange our day because of the delay and when we landed, we got on the bus and immediately started the tour!  First stop was Ford theater and although it was interesting, the "show" was dark and the seats were comfortable and I was head bobbing in no time.  From there, we went to the Holocaust museum and then to the memorials.   It was starting to get dark and it was freezing and windy, so we were all happy to get back on the bus and head to the hotel.  We arrived at 9:30 and I think everyone was wiped out!



We got to the hotel and I heard the boys talking in the next room and as I listened closer, it was Reggie's voice, so although us parents were not chaperones, we were there and able to help the kids stay on task.  I had several kids that I was the go to for since their parents couldn't go, but all of those kids did really great (except one had some motion sickness on the airplane).
My roommate was awesome, maybe a little too much because we stayed up late chatting it up every night and basically were working on 6 hours of sleep each night.  I hope the boys got more....we didn't hear them, but playing video games can also be very quiet.
We were up bright and early the next day and headed to Arlington national cemetery, the Bible Museum and George Washington's house in Mt. Vernon.  Later that night we went to Virginia and did a "ghost" tour which I could have done without, but at least there was a little bit of history.
Notice how this guy walks...his head stays completely level.  They have hour shifts and it is quite an honor to guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The Bible Museum had artifacts that were very, very old!  We chose to detour from the group....they went to the Smithsonian museums, but this had just as much history and meant a lot more to us!  Reggie said this was his favorite thing in DC.
 Amazingly old bible!  They had a few pieces of the dead sea scrolls on display, but they were not in very good shape.  We learned that the bible still needs to be translated to several hundred more languages, but they are making progress.  It was really cool to see some beautiful, old bibles from all over the world.  We only had an hour to explore, so unfortunately, we couldn't do the audio tour with over 15 hours of information!
 I thought this was  a clever way that they read scrolls.
George's teeth were not made of wood!
The next day we went to the White House and capital.  Then we got on the bus and headed to New York.  We made it just in time for our appointment at the Empire State Building.
Reggie spent much time on his device ๐Ÿ˜ ๐Ÿ˜ ๐Ÿ˜ ๐Ÿ˜ .  I hope he absorbed some of the history.
 75 of us went on the trip!  That's a lot when the entire 8th grade only has 84 students (but there were quite a few parents).  I had a lot of fun getting to know many of them :).
 The next day we did the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Central Park, rode the subway to Times Square and went to the Broadway show, Wicked!
It was soooo cold!
Video of Times Square...it was insanely busy-I think more than Tokyo!
 Wicked was amazing!  I'm not into the theater or musicals and after the first 5 minutes I was really worried, but about 15 minutes in, the story took over and it was great.
The theater had the Dyson tap and I may have been the only person who knew what it was or how to use it!
We got back very late that night, so we got to sleep in the next day until 7!  We went to Chelsea Market and I was super excited because we hardly had time to pee, let alone shop for souvenirs.  To my disappointment, it was kind of like pike place market but a whole lot bigger, no souvenirs :(.  Reggie had been asking the entire trip to go to the Nintendo store and we had been just a mile away the day before, but couldn't go.  There was a group of boys and moms and we decided to ditch the market and hire the bus driver to take us there!  The boys were over the moon excited, but it was Sunday and we didn't realize it didn't open until 11.  We had a few extra minutes and there was a big area with flags that looked really cool, so we walked over to kill time and it was Rockefeller Center!!!  What a bonus...people were ice skating and everything!  It was only about 2 miles away from where we were but it took about 1/2 hour to get there and we barely made it back, but I'm pretty sure that was the highlight of the boys' trip!

After that, we went to wall street, the twin towers memorial and Brooklyn bridge.
The twin towers was quite a sight to see.  Reliving what happened was so sad.
We were all toast about the middle of the day.  I stopped taking pictures and just wanted to sit down.  We were happy to get on the bus and head to the airport!  After about an hour we got to the Newark airport and someone read the sign out loud and the teacher perked up...Newark?  She asked if that was a joke because we were supposed to be at JFK!!!  It happened to her last year and the kids missed there flight and got routed all over the US, so she was freaking out.  What are the odds it would happen again? Thankfully, we had a very aggressive bus driver, but it was stressful and rushed and we didn't really get much dinner except what we could find at a snack shack at the airport.  The other bus went to the right airport, so they had been there for a good while (they got the shaft the entire trip because we made it to every stop almost 1/2 hour before them, so this was redemption!).  The plane was a lot quieter on the way home.  Reggie, along with most of his classmates, slept close to the entire flight and we arrived in Oakland at 12:30 am and were in bed around 1:30!  It was fast, furious and exhausting, but tons of fun and a great learning experience!
The next day a one year old foster baby arrived at our house, so there was no rest for the weary!  He was with us for 9 days while his foster family was on vacation and there were lots of laughs in our home.  Ainsley was such a great help...I couldn't have done it without her.  It wasn't the best timing, but I'm thankful that he was such a happy, easy going little guy.  I am glad to finally rest and get back to normal, well, for a couple weeks anyway, until we do another vacation respite for a 15 month old little girl.  Our first girl....should be lots of fun!

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Windsor/Safari West

I set up a little trip for Ryan and the kids while Reggie and I went to DC for spring break, but we left much later than expected so we all packed up and went!  Reggie and I had 2 suitcases because we had to be at the airport the day we returned. 
It is a pain checking into the Worldmark there because they don't let you go without getting the spiel, but other than that, it might be one of our favorite properties.  They have a volleyball net in the grassy area (which was a huge bonus this year), basketball courts, ping pong and all the usual other stuff.  Plus, the small town of Windsor is really cute, although we didn't really have time to explore it (I did with a girls trip a couple years earlier).
The kids always love staying somewhere new.  It does have challenges for us when Khalif gets excited or anxious, we get some ADD type behaviors and it is frustrating, but can also be very scary.  This trip, he disappeared from the pool area which isn't exactly the place you want to go missing.  I wasn't too concerned because he is a great swimmer, but where was he?  Just as I was starting to get a little worried, I saw him running from the parking lot, way on the other side of the resort.  He decided he was going to get our ball out of the locked car and didn't think it was necessary to tell us....hmmm.  Not sure how to improve this as it is a constant struggle when we travel, maybe it will improve with age?  I'm just not sure it is within his ability to control it.  Anyway, the good news is he's always survived our trips and he has a ton of fun.  Reggie, on the other hand, is starting to get bored and not want to swim, but he did enjoy volleyball and basketball (we taught the kids how to play bump) and the work-out room....maybe he didn't enjoy this as much, but he's not going to sit on his phone!
 I think her days of doing this are numbered!  She's a big too big, but they had lots of laughs trying
The next day we went to Safari West.  Khalif and Ainsley sat up top in the Jeep and a giraffe was staring them in the face....I think they probably could have touched it!  I couldn't get Reggie to go up, but we enjoyed the view from the back of the Jeep.  It was nothing like our safari in Kenya, but I enjoyed the educational piece and learning about the wild fires.  The kids thought it was o.k....its such a bummer when you spend a lot of money and think the kids are going to be amazed and they would rather have stayed at the condo ๐Ÿ‘Ž.  I am glad we did not stay there because we talked to a couple people in our group and they said they hardly slept at all because the animals were so loud!  It is REALLY pricey to stay, so that would have been a royal bummer.
We learned about how giraffe's eat and if you watch its neck, you can see the food going down and then back up



We could see charred areas all around us and the devastation from the fires on the drive was amazing.  Random fireplaces and pools where houses used to be.  The vegetation had grown back so it was even more strange.  They think Safari West survived because all the vegetation was eaten by the animals, so the fire had nothing to ignite.  It got very close on one side, but thankfully all the animals were fine.  We also drove through the main neighborhood that was destroyed and there was a bit of rebuilding going on, but not too much.  It was the strangest thing to see....the fire came out of nowhere and so many neighboring houses were just fine.  Usually, you can see the path of the fire, but I think because it was so windy, it just jumped all over the place.  Thankful to have our home for sure!!!!

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Fun for all in March

Life was a little treacherous for mom and dad in February.  Dad was in the hospital with intestinal bleeding (from low blood pressure that he caused by taking an extra pill) and it took them a bit to figure out what was going on.  Thankfully, that doesn't usually happen to people a 2nd time, but it was a bit scary for all.  Then a couple weeks later, mom was tracking a deer in the snow and slipped on a tarp and broke her rib.  I was a little concerned that they weren't going to make it to our house yet again, but they rallied (I sent my mom the Great Mender chinese supplement and she was better in less than 2 weeks!).  They had lots of plans here while Ryan and I went to Maui, so it is a good thing it all worked out.  Aunt Sue and Uncle Rich flew down to stay with them for a week and they had a lot of fun and found a new hobby!  Unfortunately, they weren't playing by the rules, but got a little lesson when we got back from Maui.  Then Patricia and John stayed for a couple of nights on their way to Arizona and it sounded like they all had a wonderful time.  I'm glad the kids are older and can take care of themselves!!!  I'm not so sure about these crazy cats!

We enjoyed Maui as usual.  The weather was perfect and there were lots of whales and turtles and for the first time I saw a dolphin!!!  We relaxed and rested and read on the beach.  We were spoiled to have gone twice in one year (although it was a little different with the kiddos).
My favorite view
 We were finally in the right place at the right time to see a sunset

Mom and dad came a few days before we left for Maui to go to a women's church event.  It was really great, although I can't remember much about it now!  Anyway, we didn't have a whole lot of time to do much, but we did volunteer at our church packing bags for the homeless.