Year end review

So my damn cousin (love you!) writes up about her last year so I guess I might as well copy her and do my own. You can read about hers here.

Guess the best way to start this is with the kids. I will start from the oldest to the youngest. And for those of you that don't know, there are four kids now!

Kirsten - She joined the family right before the school year started and has been with us since. What started out as a temporary situation now seems to be extending out longer. We just confirmed that she will be staying with us till the end of the school year and I think we are all happy about it.

Kirsten has been a big change in my family, she gets good grades, does her homework, and reads all the time. She is a really sweet kid and I we are all happy to have her around. With Kirsten being in high school we have had to deal with the usual boy trouble and girl trouble all at the same time. I feel the influence of Kylea is starting to take affect since she has begin to let her grades slip. But at least when I call her out on it she fixes it right away. I really love how you can view the kids grades online now. With her being 15 I am going to have to start looking into driving and getting things set up with the school to ensure she is on the right path for college and what she wants to do. No more time to procrastinate. I am very proud of how she has adapted to all the changes with moving into my house, like no TV, lots of chores, and very limited computer use. But on the flip side she really enjoys playing family games with everyone, sit down dinners, and all the little things we do together.

Kylea - Well Kylea has had a lot of changes this past year. The first one being the fact that I have a boyfriend. Since I left Devin's dad she has never known I have had a boyfriend or even really dated anyone. Once or twice I had told her I was going on a date but I never told her who it was and she never meet anyone that way. But then all of the sudden there was Shawn taking up a lot of my time and coming over a lot either alone or with his daughter. She actually took to them very well. We have had a few ups and downs with all that but I think we have all found our roles and how they work together, at least for now.

Kylea's second major event was failing the 6th grade and landing her in summer school for two months so she could move onto the 7th grade. Of course she passed the summer school and started the 7th grade as expected. She is still struggling to keep organized in school and get focused. She has won all but her science teacher over. But she does that every year and that is why I think she is so lazy, if your teachers love you and do everything they can to help you why should you work harder? Guess that tactic is not going to work much longer. The older she gets the tougher the teachers are, even when she puts on all the charm. She will either learn to sharpen her skills at manipulating people or actually have to start working harder at school. Her next major event was Trent (her biological father) dieing. The way I see it, she lost the possibility of her father and not really her dad since she has only spent about 5 hours with him in the last 10 years. So it was a loss, but not as great of one as it could have been. Next up on her list is Kirsten moving in. The girls have had their fights and and make ups. I think most of the bugs have been worked out and Kylea has found her place no longer being the oldest.

Kylea is stuck between being a kid and becoming a teenager. And of course like every generation, being a teenager is never easy. I do feel that now it is harder than ever. She continues to talk to me about what is going on in her personal life and for that I am very grateful. She has made some not so smart choices and some really good ones and I have to say that she has a very good head on her shoulders when she lets it through. I really enjoy being able to hang out with her and chat about all kinds of things. I am getting excited to see the adult she will be turning into.

Devin - He has had his fair share of changes this past year as well. He now has a new baby sister that his dad had with his new wife. He loves his baby sister and really is enjoying being a big brother. This is a big change from my house, where he has gone from being the youngest to now having two older sisters and one younger one. But as much as they drive him crazy he does love them. Devin is doing very good in school still. He is a top student and loves to be in school. Homework is an issue, but that is because he has so many other things to do when he comes home that he doesn't want to stop for anything. He is still skateboarding, next up is for him to learn how to allie (sp?) but I will leave that up to Shawn and his friends for that. This weekend I am getting a mini ramp. Keep in mind that Devin's is a micro mini (2 ft high) and this new one will be 4 feet high. Need to find where to put it. It is a really good deal and will help him go to the next level and not get bored with it.

He is already starting to not want me to watch his new tricks as much and all the other things that go along with a mother son relationship, but I am ok with that. I am grateful to have Shawn around for him to go to now if he needs something I can't give him.

Natalea - Although she is new to my family she has taken to it very well. She has come a long way in the past year. She has almost completely made it from baby/toddler to preschooler. She will now stand up for herself with Devin and will even check out the bugs around the house. I have only gotten her to hold or touch a couple but that is still a huge improvement from before. And trust me, in my house there will always be all kinds of bugs around.

My main concern with her was her neediness and sensitivity. But over the last couple months especially she has really started to change all that. She doesn't call her dad to fix everything for her and sleeps only with a very dim nightlight on at night. She still knows how to work her magic with her dad but he is aware of it now when she is doing it. She helps around the house and has become very active in order to keep up with Devin.

She started pre K this year, and to no surprise to us, she is top in her class. I must say I am glad to have her added sweetness around. It has been many years since I have had a sweet little girl around the house and the whole family loves it.

I am going to have post a different one about Shawn and I. I think this one is long enough for now.

Hope everyone has a great new year!

Almost time for thanks

We are finally in November and I'm I thinking about one of the biggest elections in US history? No, I am daydreaming about going to Big Bend National park with the kids during Thanksgiving week. This will be our third year to go.

Our first trip in 2006.

The same spot in 2007

My good friends daughter went with us last year, she is going again this year too.

This is the end of the window trail. The kids are about 10 feet from a huge drop off.

Website name

Let me know what you like better.

youcanhavemilkorwater.com

or

usandthedamnkids.com

Leave me a comment so we can at least register the name.

Still no time

The website is on hold till I can create a 30 hour day 8 day week. I wish I didn't need so much sleep! That takes up way to much time out of my day. Even with getting the iron infusions I am still super tired all the time.



Here is a quick update of all the kids. I will start from oldest to youngest.



Kirsten - She got all A's and B's for the first 6 weeks. CPS extended her stay with us until the end of the year. She has also started to go with her mom on the weekends. She comes back with a little attitude but that is expected.



Kylea - Still struggling with school but has shown some interest in maybe getting into some sort of sports. Here is part of an email her math teacher sent me today. Sigh.....

Ok, here is how tutorials went

3:40 arrives

3:48 stops arguing about being here

3:48 leaves to tell friends that she has to stay

3:50 came back from talking to friends

3:54 left to talk to friends

3:55 back

4:00 left

4:01 back with friends to help her

4:02 finished one sheet and left



Devin - He is finally growing! I think he is pretty much going to skip size 6 and go right into a size 7. He is doing really good in school. He even helped Kylea with some math homework one night. It was just problems like -9 -8= and -5 - -3=, but still pretty good! We still have our battles since he is so hard headed, but at least he tried to dance with me at his school's sock hop.



Natalea - She is doing really good in preK. She is ahead of her class in almost everything. She is doing really good with becoming independent at my house. She still is very sensitive and cries a lot but Shawn and I are working on it. At least the best we can.

He likes to talk her out of it and calm her down to find out the issue, where I would just rather let her cry and then carry on after she is done. We will figure out something, I am not worried about it.



As for Shawn and I, we are doing just as good as always. Trying to find adult time only is impossible at the house so we take every chance we can to go out and do stuff together. Doesn't happen very often but we have a good time when we do.

I hope everyone has a good week!

Website time

I have decided that I am about done with just blogging. Life with Shawn and all the kids is just to busy and blogger is boring for me now.

Shawn said he would help me set up a website for the family. I want to have a photo gallery and blogs for all the kids to update their own stuff on it.

Please let me know any suggestions that you would like to see on this.

Love,
Billie

you buy the food

I have decided to let the girls take turns buying the food for the week. The get the budget and I take them to the store and then they figure out what to get. Kylea went first on Sunday.
This week is easy since we do not have Devin or Shawn's daughter. She managed to buy food for all week and ended up with a dollar left.
Next week will be harder since she will have the same amount of money but will be buying for 6 people and two of them picky little kids.

That is all for now since I have ACL this weekend and will be getting ready for that.

Thanks for stopping by!

New Kid

Everyone knows that I am fixed and am not having any more kids. Well so is my boyfriend, works perfect right? Not exactly, seems you can have more kids without getting pregnant or adopting. And that is what I did.



I am now the temporary guardian of an almost 15 year old. I now have one in Elementary, Middle, and High school. This should be an interesting year.



The good news is she is a good kid and so far no issues. I know I will have her at least another 5 or 6 weeks and then I am pretty sure CPS will extend my paperwork with her. No need to rush things, plus I think her mom could use the extra time to get a place for them to live.

Side note - Kirsten went to school with Kylea last year, that is how we know her.