I thought last week was busy.....

Last weekend the kids were off of school Friday and Monday.  We were invited to breakfast on Friday at Kelly's house (our past respite provider), so we made the trip and enjoyed a nice breakfast and visit and played a little Uno Attack :o).  We took Angel for the weekend and it was a pretty quiet (besides the dog barking in the morning and at night) weekend for us.

We hung out at the pool on Sunday and Ainsley tried a new gymnastics place.  The gym gave great instruction, but everyone was so serious and frankly the older kids looked unhappy.  She liked it, so we may go there short term until we can figure out a better option.  We just found out that her favorite friend at the new gym is quitting level 4, so that might be another reason she is open to this new place.  We'll see.  I just don't understand why it is so hard to find a place that gives good instruction and let's the kids have some fun.

K had swimming again on Wednesday and earned his first ribbon.  It has been really fun to watch him:

A little piece of heaven here on earth....we are so happy the market is open again!

Ryan enjoying an apricot from our tree:

Friday was a really crazy day....Reggie and Ainsley had the mile challenge to start the school day.  Ainsley told me last week that she made it and I was a bit confused because she NEVER runs during running time.  Her heel always bothers her and she just doesn't seem to have much stamina.  She has made a new friend late this year and decided to run with Ginger and she qualified with that time.  After school she ran up and told me that she was really worried about it and didn't know what to do.  I told her just to run with Ginger and have fun!  To our surprise, Ainsley IS a runner.  She kept turning around waiting for Ginger and Ryan encouraged her to catch her other friend Dani.  So she got 2nd place for girls in her grade with a 7:38 mile and wasn't even really tired.  I wonder what she could've done if she pushed herself?  Reggie was also nervous.  There's a 5th grade girl as tall as me who broke the school record last year and finished with at 5:38 mile!  Reggie also got 2nd place for 4th grade boys with a 6:04 mile.  He and a girl were tied coming to the finish and he turned on the burners and beat her.  He thought he might throw up...it was great :o).  Too bad he didn't run like that during track!

 Close to the finish line!

From there, we went right to Robert Livermore Community Center for K's birthday party.  He was counting down the days all week!  We decided to do it early because it is much harder to reconnect with preschool friends over the summer and the big kids are still in school.  It was his first friend birthday party and it was really important to him.  For some reason, those type of things are a big deal to him and seem to stabilize him in a big way.  After his nap, he told me it was the best day ever!  He had never been to that pool before and I am pretty sure he'll be asking to go back!

Sorry this video is sideways, but you can see he is swimming underwater!

 Opening presents :o).

That evening, I drove to Brentwood to pick up a kitten!  K's aunt had been fostering 5 and we lucked out with Elsa (they named all of them after Frozen characters).  I was a bit worried in the car when my right eye started itching and my nose got pretty stuffy.  I've been praying since that if I have cat allergies, they will disappear because she is an amazing kitten.  She is so friendly and social.  If the kids sit on the floor, she finds a lap.  We could just watch her for hours.  The kids giggle and are amazed by all the things she does.  We have been having a few challenges because she wants to sleep with us and play all night!  She really likes to tunnel under the covers and then attack.  Hopefully, she learns quickly or Ryan and I will be very grumpy!

Today we had a little excitement at the high school (about 2 blocks from our house).  Ryan went to Costco and called and told us there was a big fire on the trail and they had the road closed.  We walked over to the school and it came about 6 inches under the fence that borders the school.  It was crazy.  We saw some flames but it was mostly contained by the time we got there.  There were some other lookie-lu's hanging out on the wood chip pile we were standing on.  Ainsley noticed that it was smoldering and one of the guys stomped on it.  We called the fireman over and they brought a truck and started digging through the pile and spraying it....pretty crazy!  I think Ainsley saved the high school :o).

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!

Lots of changes in the Wade household

Ryan will be changing jobs again and at the end of the week, he will no longer be at Dyson (almost 2 years to the day).  He is excited to return to the hi-tech field and we are hoping he will be able to manage the work/life balance this time.  He will be managing a team in Northern California, Portland and Seattle, so it will be great that he can work over our summer and Christmas trips :o).  It was a hard decision for him, but I think he will be happy and he'll have opportunity within this company to move up.
We also had another hard decision with Ainsley.  She has been complaining of her heel for several weeks and I finally took her to the doctor and they said she has Sever's disease.  Sounds like a nagging, chronic injury that with rest will heal, but typically comes back (sounds like my mom had it as a child).  We tried ice and ibuprofen with little success and we are tired of hearing about it.  Just when it seems to get better, it gets worse.  We are going to take a break from gymnastics for a bit and try swimming.  We have been having issues with one of her coaches anyway, so it was the straw that broke the camels back.  Hopefully, this isn't the end of gymnastics for her since she is very talented and super strong!  She will continue in a more recreational capacity just to keep her skills.  It will allow her to try some new things and maybe that will be good for her.  She started piano a couple weeks ago and is picking it up very quickly and loving it!
Speaking of piano....Reggie had his recital today and he has really come a long way.  Here's the video:

Here's a few pictures of our Easter.  What a beautiful day it was to celebrate Jesus!  We went to the Williams and swam in their pool, ate a wonderful dinner and the kids enjoyed an egg hunt:

 Reggie and Noah

Reggie just finished his first typed report on the Missions in California.  We all learned a lot, but it was quite entertaining to use the computer for a project.  Ainsley was very interested and a good helper and can't wait to have her own report someday.  The typing was painful to watch....I think it took him 3-4 hours with Ainsley reading and spelling things for him.  It was fun to watch them work together.  We are definitely going to download a program that will teach them to type!  When he finally finished, we changed the font (size and color) and moved things around and Reggie got so excited every time we did something new.  He was truly amazed and I couldn't keep myself from chuckling.

Ryan and Reggie at a Giants game:

We had good intentions of planting our garden weeks ago, but I just couldn't get out there.  My mom guilted wonderful Ryan into throwing a few seeds in the planters, so we will see what happens.  We started very late, but it has been 2 weeks and things are really growing (peas, green beans, carrots and watermelon).  The yard has also been alive with bees and the orange tree and lemon tree smell lovely and we can see lots of fruit starting to grow on them!  Our young trees have also produced a few apricots, peaches and plums :o).  I'm not sure why it is so exciting to watch things grow, but we love it!
We finally solved the cat poop problem with these metal grids (actually supposed to be for stucco):

Spring Break

Well, amazingly we had just about everybody getting sick before our trip to Universal Studios. Reggie had a fever and sore throat Monday night and Ainsley had a terrible stomachache Tuesday evening so we thought she was getting the stomach flu that K had. He threw up again on Sunday night and that was an amazing mess but at least this time he made it into the bathroom. 
Ryan took Reggie to the doctor on the way to get grandma Peggy on Tuesday to see if he had strep so we could get him on antibiotics and feeling better, but no such luck. In the past when he has had fevers it's been several days but he was feeling much better on Tuesday afternoon. 
We had plans to go to the movies but since Ainsley was out of commission, just Reggie, grandma and I went to see God's Not Dead. It was more of an adult movie so probably a good thing the little ones didn't go. It was fabulous!!! 
The next morning we made the drive down to Glendale where we stayed in a fancy Hilton property, courtesy of Ryan's Hilton points. The kids were so amazed at the glass elevator that overlooked the pond with fish and turtles. That was an activity in itself! We could also look out our window and spy on who was in the elevator :o). 
The pool was well over 90° so right when we got there we headed down to the pool for awhile which was good since we were stuck in the car all day. The weather was kind of chilly so it was really good the pool was so warm. Grandma Peggy found a Shakey's pizza and was so excited to go there for dinner. Unfortunately they had changed the pizza crust and it was not like she remembered :(. Even more unfortunate was the look on K's face during dinner and him motioning that he was going to throw up. He didn't give us much warning but luckily there were a couple empty plates which he filled to the rim. Grandma about tossed her cookies too! He was fine after that and starving the rest of the trip and the next several days we could not feed him enough. 

The next morning we were treated to a fabulous breakfast at the hotel including omelets, hash browns and bacon :). We left bright and early to head to the park and thankfully we got there early because it was very quiet and the kids were able to go on the despicable me ride a few times. I had to close my eyes on that one....it was a motion ride and I did not want to be the next throw up victim. K barely made it on the ride because of his height. He had to be 40 inches tall and the first measurement you have to slide underneath and he fit underneath which meant he was not quite tall enough. I gave the guy a hard time and made him feel bad and he said well you can take your chances and see if he passes inside, so that's what we did. Thankfully, I left his hair long on top and he passed with flying colors at all three different measurement stations!!! The kids were too chicken to go on Jurassic Park or transformers, but we got K to go on the transformer ride (it's was his favorite!). We got lots of pictures with characters and saw most of the shows and pretty much did everything in the park and never really had to wait in line!!!! Ryan's work buddy hooked us up with front of the line passes so we were really spoiled :). It was a really long day but the kids did great and we had a lot of fun. 

(Isn't Reggie getting tall???  He blocked grandma!)

 Ainsley thought this guy was so cool.  We were watching him for a long time-you would never guess it is a real person!

The next morning we went in the pool again for a couple of hours and K made some progress going underwater and going back-and-forth between Ryan and I with no life jacket. It was a big step for him!
Then we packed up and made the long trip back. It always feels so much further on the way home. We were all happy to be back and sleeping in our own beds.  In the small amount of time we were home, the kids taught grandma how to play UNO....not sure she's such a fan.  They played one game that was an hour long and we had to leave for dinner before they finished!  They also played some BINGO :).
Saturday was packed with Reggie's track meet, Ainsley's gymnastics and K's brothers birthday party. It wouldn't have been a proper visit without a trip to Sweet tomatoes so before grandma Peggy got on the plane we had dinner there :). And that was spring break!!!

3 a.m.

I woke up to the sound of puking and quickly jumped out of bed, only to find K on the stairs with lots of dark spots on several of the stairs in front of him and the pungent smell of puke!  We went in the the bathroom to get him cleaned up and I suggested that since we were up that he go pee.  He just looked at me and said he didn't want to go.  I encouraged him again and he said, "it feels like something is going to come out of my butt!".  I tried to keep from laughing and told him he might think of sitting on the toilet in case he had to poop.  He finally decided to do that, but wanted me to stay with him.  He had a series of blow-outs and between the smell of vomit and the noises coming from him, I was ready to toss my cookies.  Then he says to me, "my fots (farts) sound really gross....I think you should cover your ears mom!"  It was quite comical.
Ryan and I spent the next hour cleaning the carpet and I felt pretty sick by the time we got back to bed.  I woke up to a rumbling stomach and thankfully it was only diarrhea, but I felt pretty yucky most of the day.  Glad to be feeling better now and hoping the rest of the house stays healthy!

Maui

Maui has been a lot of rest and relaxation. We spent most of our time at the beach, laying around, reading, watching for whales and body surfing! This year we learned that you could hear the whales under the water so we spent quite a bit of time holding our breath to hear them talking and it was truly amazing!!!! I also read a fiction book (the last hunger games book) for the first time in years (even Ryan who prides himself on how few books he had read in his lifetime).

We've been trying not to get too off our sleep schedule so we've been going to bed every night around 8:30 and we're up at 5:30-6. I have been exercising in the morning since there's so much time before we can do anything. Today we woke up at 6:30 which is 9:30 at home so we're in trouble :(.

The last couple days here called for wind and clouds so we sort of last minute decided to make the trip to Hana. We experienced torrential downpours, sun and lots of rainbows all in a 10 hour span.

It was definitely worth the journey but we were very tired. We saw colorful eucalyptus trees, many waterfalls, black sand beaches, caves (where we got eaten by mosquitoes. I counted 17 bites yesterday morning just from the knee down!), a bamboo forest, and some amazing scenery and views. The road was just as windy as you hear but neither of us got carsick probably because we were so focused on the amazing amount of rain hitting our windshield. We got caught outside in the rain twice and by the time we got to the car we were absolutely soaked. There was a lot of laughing going on :). Our last stop was The seven sacred pools at Kipahulu. There was a 4 mile hike to see a 200 foot waterfall and we were not really thinking we were going to do it because of the rain but then it cleared off in 3 minutes (because that's what it does here) and we decided to make the hike. It was awesome, but seemed like 8 miles! We were very happy to get back in the car and take the unpaved, windy, one lane road (with a several hundred foot drop to our immediate left). We downloaded an app that told us where to stop and little stories about interesting things along our drive which I would highly recommend.

We spent our last day at the pool getting wind blasted and sun burned :).

Back to reality tomorrow......

Swim meet

We got up at 5:30 AM last Saturday to volunteer at Reggie's swim meet. When the home team hosts all parents are expected to participate. Ryan was one of the meet marshals (Responsible for keeping the kids in line) and I was check-in and lead timer.

It was a pentathlon meet so all the kids participated in five events. It was great because the meet was quick and it kept Reggie busy. He got a B time in his 50 freestyle and 100 IM-that is really great for him! I'm not exactly sure what a "b" time means but I know it is good. He has improved so much the last couple months and it has been super fun to watch. If he gets his initial start dive better and his exchanges at the wall, he will be right up there with the top kids :).

I ended up doing a few more jobs… Hospitality… Snack shack. It was really fun and although it was a long day, we all felt accomplished. Head timer was a bit tricky. I had to use two stopwatches when they started the race and if another parents failed with their stopwatch I had to hand one off and then find the fastest swimmer and stop my time when they hit the wall! I ended up with exact times four times and sort of became a little competition :). One of the parents said he's timed at a lot of meets and never had the exact time of a head timer. Who knew I had this hidden talent??!! Too bad it isn't worth anything!

Court Outcome

Well, I wish there was better news. I can't share too much but court took a different turn and I am trying to remember why... Maybe it was because the potential biological father was there and his paternity test was not yet available, but they decided to discuss the visitation issue instead of terminating parental rights.
I took the stand for about 20 minutes and then we broke for lunch. We returned at 1:45 did not reenter the court room until 3:45 and we were finished at 4:30. Lets just say it was not a productive day and we left very frustrated. The next day I was cross examined and Ryan took the stand for a bit. The father did not like how his attorney cross examined us so they had us all leave while they had a pow wow. They parted ways, so after almost 3 years and being on the last hearing, he was appointed a new attorney and that was it for the day. Well, almost....if you remember the visits were dramatically reduced pending the hearing. But we weren't able to finish the hearing because of the new attorney, so they went back and forth and the judge changed the order to increase visitation to one 8 hour visit per month. I have to tell you that we are disgusted with that outcome but even worse was the antics and disruptions in the court room that were allowed. I don't ever want to go back because it makes me so very discouraged. The next date is mid-May and Ryan has been called back to be cross examined. Feels like this really isn't ever going to end :(.
We are looking at having the court appoint us an attorney but if there's a cost involved we will not take that option due to the fact that this may go on for many years and could very well bankrupt us. Other than that, I guess we just be patient and pray A LOT!!!!  I am very glad that there are so many other poisitive things in our lives that we can focus on. We did go home on Friday with a new appreciation for our kids and especially cuddly appreciation for our children and especially Khalif, so there is good that comes from bad....we just have to be aware and look for it :).

Court

This Thursday and Friday, Ryan and I will be in court all day.  We are really hoping that the judge will make a decision that K will be able to be adopted.  Please pray for this process and that truth and justice will prevail.

We did get some good news a week or so ago that visitation will be reduced from 2, 8 hour visits per month to 1, 4 hour visit per month, so it feels like we are finally moving in the right direction!  This change in visitation will be huge for K's stability :o)!!!

Art and organization

We have a bunch of artists in this house!  I don't know where they get it, but they all are good at it and love to draw/color.  Maybe it is because Reggie does it so often and the other 2 participate with him.  Very recently, even K has started drawing things and taping his artwork to the wall.
Last Friday, the kids had an art assembly, followed by family drawing night in the evening.  Reggie had scouts, but chose to skip it to go to art night.  They drew 3 different sketches and then the artist did a raffle of 6 drawings and Reggie was the very last winner and was so super excited!  they have been drawing the same drawings all week on their new nicely organized table.

I finally got the organization bug after a year and a half of living here (maybe it took me that long to recover from moving).  The laundry room has been driving me nuts because it hasn't been very functional and my initial ideas to make it functional didn't work.  I guess with my children if it has a door or drawer, nothing will land in the right spot.  Thank goodness for wire cube cubbies!
My small laundry room project turned into quite the overhaul.  I absolutely love it now, but Ryan was less than thrilled to help me with my project.  The nice thing is that his old office is completely cleaned, the art area and photo books are all in one spot and the laundry room is wide open!  I still have to get a couple cabinets and then I'll be satisfied, but now I'm motivated to work on the garage and other non-functioning parts of the house.  
It doesn't look that exciting, but it is a big improvement :o).

What happened to the last 5 weeks?

I guess we've just been doing the usual stuff....school, sports, birthday parties, homework, date nights, housework, blah, blah, blah.  Thankfully, there's nothing too exciting to write about.  Everyone has been pretty healthy, except for a few colds.  Allergies should be starting really soon as the flowers are starting to bloom on the trees and the smell of spring is in the air.
Until Valentine's Day, I hadn't taken a single picture!!!  I took this one at K's party and got him doing the monkey bars which he is obsessed with.  He was so excited to have me there :o).

Video of the monkey bars:

We went to see the Lego movie yesterday with some friends and it was really entertaining.  It had a good message for adults too :o).  The kids got some Christmas money and have decided to spend it on going to the movies.  They are patiently waiting until RIO 2 comes out.
Reggie started track a couple weeks ago and is loving it.  I am very glad he has a friend doing it with him.  It changes the entire experience.  He is so competitive even in practice, always looking over his shoulder to make sure he is winning.  His friend was telling his mom that Reggie is REALLY hard to beat.  He has an interesting running style and it will be interesting to see if they get him sprinting on his toes.  The timing for ending swimming wasn't the best....everything was really starting to click and he got moved up a lane to swim with the faster swimmers.  He will go back next week because he is participating in a swim meet in March, so we'll see just how much he improved.
Now that I think back over the last month, maybe it was a blur because Ryan traveled every single week.  It was really hard keeping up with the ever changing schedule!

Court

Court was last week and it was interesting.  We have been waiting to get DeFacto Parent Status since September and our judge just can't make a decision.  That is why we are almost 3 years into this process!!!  My prayers have been directed toward the judge because he will ultimately make the decision and he really struggles in that area.  Well, God is good and fixed that problem on Tuesday.  We had an unfamiliar face sitting in the judge seat.  She was wondering why there was such a delay in giving us this status, so even with opposition, she granted us DeFacto Parent Status as well as held the March court dates that they were trying to push out yet again.
Unfortunately, while waiting to enter the courtroom, I had a conversation with K's dad.  The relationship that I have worked so hard to build between us is unraveling quickly.  We do not agree on what is best for K and he was enraged by my honesty.  It confirms we are doing the right thing, but it is really hard and a bit scary.  Please pray that his emotions will settle.
Not sure who our judge will be in March, but it will be a game changer if it isn't out usual one.  What a miracle that would be......

Cats

We have 4 very large planters that have become the local cat litter box.  This weekend we decided to clean them out and get ready to actually plant some fruit and veggies.  I got several ideas online and decided to go with a 3 part strategy.
Here's a picture of what we came up with.

Unfortunately, the next morning a cat decided to walk right through the skewers and was not deterred by the chili pepper or lemons (cats aren't supposed to like citrus).  So, I rearranged the skewers to cross and point toward the outer rim and so far so good.  I also put motion activated Zurg out there to scare the cats away.  I sure hope we can get this figured out.  It is so gross!!!