The potluck wasn't bad at all.  In fact, the food was wonderful because
we didn't take a break until 11am - close enough to lunch time.  Some
of the stuff was awesome!  The new couple we met and have gone to lunch with, wanted to go one more time for Mexican food. After the potluck, I wasn't very hungry and ate 2 tacos.

When I was ready to take the babysitter home,  Luci
threw a temper tantrum because she was asked to put her shoes on the
correct feet (she ALWAYS puts them on the wrong feet first).  She
completely went to pieces.  Jesse and I calmly told her she wouldn't be
able to go - which, of course, made the tantrum escalate.  I finally
picked up her shoes, gave them to her, got in her face (child level)
and said very calmly, "Take them to your room and close the door while
you cry.  We have to leave now and you won't be able to go this time." 
She did as she was told but the screaming was unreal.  That's so
typical of what we deal with several times a week.  I still believe
she's not feeling well.

Anyway, took the babysitter home, stopped at a craft place to get some
silk purple mums for my foyer and the place was a mad house.  Mind you,
I rarely shop on a Saturday and asked if this was typical or if they
were having a sale.  They were having a sale.  I needed purple mums for the foyer and a cream colored table
cloth for my formal table.  I paid my $25.00 without looking back to
see what "sale items" I was missing out on buying!  (Good job,
Cherylyn!)

Next we went to Payless Shoes to buy the girls black shoes for winter and plain white tennis
shoes.  Everything was bought plenty big that we SURELY will not need
to replace shoes until spring.  Rissy has to buy her special black
shoes (due to her walking problem) at a much more expensive price, and we'll
try to get those in the next week or two.

Next, we went to Home Depot.  These 3 stores are in the same area
within 1/2 a mile of each other.  I brought home some samples of colors and think
I like the forrest green with our existing white trim the best.  I also
thought of a dark taupe color with our white trim, but I think it
would blend in too much with the bricks and look lost, or rather boring against the bricks.  Can a
house color be boring???!!!

I'm also thinking the green will help liven up our house during the drab winter months when everything turns brown, beige, or gray.  We have a pine tree in the front yard and some sort of soft needle pine bushes in the entry way, which stay green year round.  I think the green will add to the yucky plain winter.  All of our doors (including 3 car garage doors) and windows are white and the guttering is white.  I've never had to choose an outdoor paint color and my decorating ability stops at the thresholds of all outside doors!!!  I'm landscape and color challenged when I step outside!

I'll welcome all opinions, but must admit I'm leaning toward the green.  Isn't that the color I just covered up in the girls' room with light green paint?????  Me and forest green!!!

I'm going to pick up the babysitter and bring her back here, show her around the house, and then we need to leave for our class by 9:30am.  She lives a 30 minute drive away.  That's an hour of driving!  My girls like her.  I'm just glad we found someone willing to watch THREE children at our house!!!  And, she only charges $4.00/hour.  Yay!

I ran off yesterday without the deposit slip and check, but it worked out.  I went by the post office and there were at least a half a dozen more checks.  Jesse brought home checks with him after working all day.  That will make for a bigger deposit on Monday.

I had a very strict list I stuck to at Wal-Mart yesterday and really only stopped long enough to pick out an anniversary card for my parents.  On impulse I bought bagels and cream cheese and 2 place mats the kind of match what I have.  With the extra foster children, we'll be short a place mat or two.  Still . . . I was in there an hour and a half!!!!  I think it was very crowded and the lines were a little longer than when I normally go.

I was pretty tired last night and made sloppy Joe's for dinner on paper plates.  Just as I was about to serve, someone who has painted for us in the past stopped by.   He looked at the outside of our house and said he'd paint the whole thing for $450!!!!  I showed him the girls' bathroom, a room I've intended to paint 4-EVER, but put off doing.  He said he'd paint it for $50.  So, next week there will be lots of painting, but not all done by me!

Better run, I'm moving slow because I'm not awake!

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Luci cried almost all day (all morning and early afternoon, to be sure) and I, finally, sent her to bed.  I think she wasn't feeling well, but she never napped or stopped her crying and moaning, (remember, she's VERY dramatic!!!).  Heard from the bedroom:  "Oh please, I *BEG OF YOU*, don't make me stay in my beeeeeeeeeeed!!!!!!!!!!, O, pleeeeeeze, I *BEG* OF YOUUUUUU." Pleeeeeeeze!!"   She wailed on and on from her room with other such pleadings; but, "I beg of you"   ????   Where in the world does she hear these expressions?

Rissy tried to run the house with her bossy mouth.  I was so close to smacking her, but instead, sent her to HER room to practice her spelling words and read from her new book.  She was a little over the top, yesterday, with the bossiness and it got a wee bit hard to listen to as I was busy with other things.

For some reason, Annamarie's speech has been slow and stammering for the past 2 weeks.  This happens to her off and on, and we MUST be patient while she struggles to form thoughts and words.  She can't think of words and starts her sentences over and over, talking instead of thinking (first) of what she is trying to say.  Between Luci's pathetic wailing and Rissy's dictator edicts, I had almost no patience when Annamarie would come out (stammering) to tattle tale about something one of the others was doing.  Nothing important, mind you, things like:  "Rissy won't let me choose a DVD to watch."

I ended up not answering ANYONE and plodded through the few things on my list that I felt I HAD to finish, yesterday.  My not answering is very effective in our home.  It keeps me from yelling horrible things (or yelling AT ALL) and forces them to work things out among themselves, although I'm not sure that was actually happening yesterday!!!

BUT . . . I DID get the border primed.  Well, somewhat primed.  I used Kilz and it was like painting with (slightly thicker than milk) milk.  It didn't cover nearly as well as the Behr primer.   We had almost a full can of Kilz in the garage (leftover from when we first moved in here) and I felt obligated to use it up.  Talk about a drippy mess. 

I'm so burnt out on cooking and eating the same things over and over.  I put some Montreal Steak Seasoning on the breasts and some Zesty Italian salad dressing and just slapped them on the electric skillet.  They tasted wonderful!  I was tired, so I served it with seasoned green beans, oatmeal bread & butter, and cranberry sauce.  Everyone thought it was a delicious meal and said so over and over. (whew! wiping the nervous sweat from my brow!)

Besides painting the border, I DID get our sheets washed and 2 more loads (a quilt & some whites) finished.  Jesse came home early and helped me make our bed (a monster heavy mattress).  I jumped in the shower and washed from head to toe (also scratched Kilz from me - it didn't scrub off any easier than the Behr primer or paint) and Jesse left to help a friend get a dishwasher from Lowe's.

Almost forgot . . .

I had ordered new skates for Annamarie.  Everyone always passes sizes down to the next youngest.  All three of my girls' feet have grown at an unbelievable rate this summer!  There was a knock on the door and Luci retrieved a package.  Chirper quickly claimed the box!

We really DID receive skates - for Annamarie - and everyone passed their skates down to the next child.  Now a pair is available to JanaLyn, Luci's old ones.  They all acted like a new package had arrived in the mail for each of them.  Getting NEW "used" things is always a thrill!!!!!

Annamarie and Luci have their therapy appointment this afternoon, I need to go to our P.O. box and the bank.  I have to make up Jesse's deposit slip, as well as enter all the payments into his books, this morning.  I'm afraid painting won't be until next Monday.  Closer to being completed than it was 2 weeks ago, but still behind schedule.  Oh well, not a real issue.  They STILL haven't called us to do a home study, so it's not like anyone will need to be living there next week!

Our final foster care class is tomorrow for 3 hours.  They are *supposed to* have a panel of caseworkers and foster children.  We haven't found a babysitter yet, and I told Jesse we should take our children to be part of the "panel" since usually, no one shows up for the panels, anyway!!!!  They even eluded to the fact it isn't as successful as it should be by cautiously saying, "IF any foster children show up for the panel" we will listen to them, then eat our potluck *good-bye meal* and, then,  IF county  caseworkers show up, we'll have more questions and answers after our meal."   See????  Wouldn't it be great to take my children?  A guaranteed panel of adopted foster children and no hassle of finding a babysitter!!!!  They could ask me questions about caseworkers, since I have some good and bad stories!

I can't imagine eating Velveeta cheese dip, chocolate chip cookies, and barbecued little smokies at 10:00 in the morning, but no one asked my opinion!

I think I'll throw a couple loads of laundry in the washer and get the girls to take a shower and get their hair washed this morning.  While their hair dries, we should be able to make a quick trip around our house and get a light cleaning job done before leaving.

Be blessed ~

Briefly, we did NOT enjoy the fair as much as we thought we would.  I think the last time we went was in 2004, now we remember why!  Oklahoma City is our state's capital and so this fair is a HUMONGOUS one.  Too crowded.  Rude people.  Things and people we don't want our little girls to see.  AND, EXPENSIVE PRICES EVERYWHERE FOR EVERYTHING!!!

I refused to buy a funnel cake for $6.00 and cotton candy was $5.00.  Wal-Mart has started carrying cotton candy for, I think, $2 and so we denied our children the pleasure of cotton candy at the fair.  All totaled we spent $29.00.  $10.00 to get into the fair, $5.00 to park close, and $14.00 on some hot, roasted pecans we took home and have only nibbled on, in an attempt to  try to make $14.00 of nuts last a while!!!!  We took water bottles and some Starbursts and LifeSavers to snack on.

We walked our legs off through crowded buildings selling stuff we weren't interest in and walked through several barns.  I can honestly say we mostly enjoyed the animals.  In Oklahoma, you can go ANYWHERE to see animals, but we loved seeing them anyway.  So Jesse and I vowed to each other that we are to dutifully remind the other (if one of us ever gets the notion to go to the state fair again) that we have decided to NEVER GO TO THE STATE FAIR AGAIN!!!!

Some pictures are blurry because of people knocking into me at the moment I clicked the camera!  (sigh)

Here goes:

Better run!

I DIDN'T prime the border yesterday.  We were late starting school, by about 45 minutes.  Luci wanted to sit in for almost the entire session - new for her, but not required.  AND, we got a little talkative, which made our class time finished AFTER our 1:30 lunch break.  RE: Luci . . . I'm sorry she doesn't have a third book to use in the subjects of: science, health, American history/geography, & community helpers.  She was VERY interested and tried to read over my shoulders as I read and pointed my pen to each word I was reading.  Maybe she IS ready for first grade level information in those subjects???  I'll continue to allow her to read from my books and see how attentive she remains.

She turned 6yo on August 5th and I figured she was immature enough that Kindergarten would be a better starting place.  But, after yesterday, I've decided to limp through with these books in each subject and order 2nd grade books in a set of three each, from now on.  We are more than halfway through with the 1st grade volumes.  The good thing about haphazardly ordering books throughout the year, they always arrive within days of placing the order.  Since we don't follow a strict schedule, modeling the public school's calendar, that's one thing that works to our advantage.

Since Annamarie is so behind (for her age) in reading and math (still doesn't recognize 2 digit numbers, etc.), she and Luci will be starting in some beginning to read at (either) Kindergarten or low level first grade workbooks.  I DO have two copies for each child of reading books.  I imagine Luci will pass Annamarie quickly, but we'll deal with that as it occurs.  Same with math.  They should be able to do beginning work at the same level - once Luci can write numbers and letters.

Rissy is struggling over coin values and all three can sit and listen to that review, as well as counting by 10's, 5's, and 2's.  After that, math will be in separate books for Rissy and the other two (who are near the same levels right now).  Luci's biggest obstacle is not knowing how to write her letters and numbers, nor can she recognize them.  If she could pick that up quickly, she and Annamarie can share the same level books.

The painting job is VERY important to me for two reasons.  I want it done when our person comes out to do our home study, and also I WANT IT DONE so my house doesn't look torn up, with the double bed mattress set sitting upright in the hall.  I can't wait until it's moved back to the bedroom! 

I have to admit that
we have reached the point in our homeschooling that "winging it" will no
longer work and a teacher's planner has become VERY necessary.  I have three, never used, planners that have been awaiting this day!

So that's how I spent the rest of the afternoon after class - planning between umpteen books.  I also began a weekly spelling list for Rissy.  I've been lax in asking her to write spelling words she can easily read.  I sure hope I haven't caused her problems.  We're slowing up on the reading (she still can read for pleasure) and catching up in the spelling and grammar books.

The pages from my planner were yesterday's mixed up attempt to created some semblance of order for this week.  The pages for next week have places for Bible and art and aren't squished into the right margin!!!  And I think Saturday is best left as a make up day for any of the five days we are interrupted by appointments, etc.  Instead of geography on Fridays, I will teach Oklahoma history.  A small book that could easily be finished in 6-8 weeks . . . I'm going to stretch it out.  The introduction to Latin and Greek will also be brief, two days a week, in the language arts spots and it will probably take two years to finish.

I have found that the social studies and science subjects become lengthy discussions, which I encourage, but those days take longer to finish.

Jesse thought he could be home around noon and we would all go to the fair.  I'm not taking anything out of the freezer for dinner.  I'm thinking we will eat lunch at home, spend a ton of money on food at the fair (after looking around), and, hopefully, not need to eat dinner.

I need to take a shower and wash my hair and let my hair dry while I'm teaching school.  So I had better run.

IF today goes as planned, I'll post pictures of our trip to the fair, tomorrow.

The oddest thing was on my patio this morning . . .

Today I'm priming the guest room's border.  A guest room that is, THIS WEEK, in total disarray!  The bedding for both beds is piled on a twin bed.  The twin bed and dresser are in the middle of the room. 

Yes, I expect this to be even harder to see than the light green paint on the primer.  I couldn't believe I had missed so many spots in the green room.  Jesse and I touched up the missed spots a few days ago and there were more than I realized.  Of course, it's a little easier to see now that the green has dried and gotten a little darker.  But, it was still difficult to make sure we hadn't missed anything.

It will be interesting to see how the new cream dries over the old cream color.  Another interesting thing will be how many places I miss this time!  Talk about a boring job!

Not to end on a downer note . . .

Jesse is talking of us going to the State Fair tomorrow morning.  We haven't been in a couple of years.  And, each time we go we are disappointed because the prices are just so expensive.  This year drinks are $3.50 each, and mainly ice!  The girls never go on the rides, and in the mornings most of the rides have no operators to run them, anyway. 

We like to see the animals and to tour the buildings with their booths, etc.  Reba and Glenn told us that Tuesday was $2 admission price day.  Wednesday, is the day they let "seniors citizens" in for free and that age starts at 55yo.  I've been waiting for this year for what seems 4-EVER and finally I'm 55yo.  But, we decided $2 admission prices were still a better discount than me (only) getting in for free. 

Sigh!  The day I have waited for will be for naught!

We're still eating leftover donuts (you can imagine how stale they were this morning!) and leftover food.  A good thing.  But, I need to go out and face our freezer and come up with something to "cook" tonight!

And, hey! . . . I finally finished my book last night!  I've started on a new one that I'm already enjoying a lot!  We'll see how long THIS ONE takes me!

Have a good day, everyone!

I'm so glad we have next Saturday's class (the last one) from only 10am to 1pm.  They were even honest with us and said "IF" the panel of guests show up will do this and that . . .   Like I said about the last time we attended foster care classes, no one showed up on our last day and being in a class was the last place any of us wanted to be.  This class is no different.  WHO wants to go to a pot luck at 10am in the morning??????

We HAVE to go to get our certificates.

This was perfect day to attend because it rained almost all day and Jesse wouldn't have been able to work.  So, we might as well do something we have to do.  AND, we were so grateful to Reba and Glenn for watching our girls.  They helped "clean" their house and helped Reba pick stickers from the backyard.  My children love work and couldn't wait to be told what to do next.

Anyone want to borrow them?!!! LOL

Stuffed myself at lunch on Mexican food (the place that has the huge parrot cage in the parking lot (I've posted pictures recently) and I'm not hungry for dinner.  Just more Pepsi.  I splurged at lunch and had 1 1/2 glasses and, just like the old days, was immediately addicted.  That's why I rarely order or drink soda pop - especially Pepsi.  All I want now is more Pepsi, which would be a sleepless night guarantee at this late hour!  Jesse and the girls wanted only Ramen noodles (which is FINE with me) and that leaves taco salads and the leftover chicken and rice (from last night) for dinner tomorrow.  Only microwave heating up - no cooking.  Another loud, Yay!  I guess I'll quench my desire for Pepsi with some ice water and a cookie or two!

That's about it.  The children and pets were glad to see us and we are glad to be home.  I think we're mainly homebodies at heart!

Be blessed!

Jesse's brother called and said he can't eat lettuce or salads.  I changed the menu from taco salads to chicken breasts with sauce over white rice with glazed carrots.  I bought a turtle cheesecake (a small one) and donuts for in the morning.  The chicken (more than enough for an army) is baking now (special trip to Wal-Mart to buy all this stuff, of course) and I browned the taco meat for tomorrow when we get home after our all day class.  We can have taco salads tomorrow and just heat up the meat. 

Just wanted to share . . .