technical difficulties!

UGH, We'll we moved in June and seeing we moved to just this side of the middle of nowhere we don't have a great internet connection. I'm using Sierra Wireless through ATT wireless. We used Wild Blue Satelite internet and immediately cancelled our contract with them. Anyways... Updates....

We live in a 3 bedroom house.. its just a normal no frills house on 10 acreas now and have our 5 alpacas and a baby alpaca due sometime really soon. We named the little boy who was born in june Cody, I think his registered name will be NLAP Secret Decoder Ring.. LOL. We also now have a Quater Horse named Buddy and a Shetland Pony mix named Jedi. We are hoping to get another big horse soon and a few miniature ponies and the kids each want a goat! We've been busy thats how sure.

Seeing our internet isnt so great I'm having blogging problems .. I can't get my pictures from my blackberry to download to my computer but they will download to my husbands computer... BUT the internet isnt working on his computer.. UGH!!! So.. I think I have to email the pictures to myself from my blackberry and save them on my computer...

School starts Sept 2nd... so does work. I'm not sure I'm ready to go back to work... sigh

Food Frustrations!!

Ok.. I give up!!! Kylie is the pickiest eater EVER!! I don't know how she got this way. She started out breastfed, introduced solid foods just like I was suppose to, She ate great as a baby.... but somewhere in Toddlerhood something went wrong!!!! She can't even stand the sight of most foods... she's 6 1/2 yrs old and you'd swear she was 2 yrs old throwing a tantrum at the dinner table.

Hates:
ANYTHING green, even green candy!
ALL vegetables exept corn
ALL fruits except apples and occassionally she'll eat a bananna or frozen purple grapes
ALL berries
ALL juices except apple... wont even drink an Apple blend.
MOST cheeses.. occassionally she'll eat a piece of string cheese
Peanut Butter
Jelly-any flavor
mashed potatos, french fries, baked potatos, tater tots.. will eat McCain's Smiles, Waffle fries and potato wedges from KFC
baked beans
mustard
mayo
fish
salad dressing ( although she doesn't eat anything that you would put it on anyways!)
pasta-any pasta.. but will occassionally eat a few bites of mac and cheese ( white cheddar only)
anything "minty"
anything "spicy"
anything that is more than 1 color, more than 1 texture or more than 1 food.

Will Eat:
nutella ( gross!!!)
bread ( as long as it doesnt have grainy things in it)
chicken - baked, fried, nuggets, breasts, legs
turkey- white meat only
ground beef -plain ( when we eat tacos or sloppy joes i have to save her some before i add the spices)
steak ( LOVES steak)
pork - pork chops
ketchup
rice cakes ( cheddar only)
grahm crackers
oreos
chocolate
vanilla icecream ( no toppings)
hard salami
bologna
hotdogs ( usually cold... GROSS)
butter
LOTS of milk
cereal - cheerios, kix, rice krispies
beef jerky -- or pretty much any other kid of smoked meat

Thats about it.... and i REALLy had to think about it to get that long of a list.....it really makes having a picnic a PITA...

Plus because her diet.. well it sucks.. I can't think of a better word LOL .. she gets constipated and has to take milk of magnesia every couple of days.

For the record, Chase is a WONDERFUL eater.. he'll eat pretty much anything except Lettuce or Onions.. he was a picky eater but grew out of it by the time he was 5.. but he was NEVER as bad as his sister.

Yesterday while at the store we were talking about how she has to eat better or she's going to get sick and her brother talked her into getting Orange Juice... so I bought the kid kind, ya know the kind with all the extra vitamins in it.. she said she was going to drink it. This morning with her cereal i poured her a small glass ( really small) of OJ and she dipped her finger in it and tasted it and made a horrible face and proceeded to try to get me to drink it for her LOL. She mentioned she wanted ice cream... well I dont normally give her ice cream for breakfast ( nice try thouh LOL).. but i told her that if she drank all the OJ she COULD have ice cream.. i fully expected her to throw her usual temper tantrum and end up spilling her drink and her running to her room screaming about how i hate her because i want her to drink orange juice ( yeah, thats how it usually goes) ... but instead she asked for a straw and took another drink.. and made a face and said she couldnt do it. So i told her DONT DO IT.. I dont want you to have ice cream anyways.. I want it ALL for me!!! And I told her that she should dump it out that it was horrible and that I didnt want to share my ice cream. She wouldnt let me!!! She ended up drinking the OJ, it took her over an hor to drink what was probably only 3 ounces of OJ if that! But she did it! I told her grandma that she drank OJ for the first time today and grandma asked how it was and kylie said " ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE!!! "

It's a BOY!!!!!

Our first Cria (baby alpaca) was born last sunday June 1st and it was a beautiful boy!! Here's some pictures from his first day... we haven't named him yet.
We also got a Guardian Livestock puppy yesterday. She's a great Pyrenees/Maremma and she sure is a cutie, it's gonna be hard to not spoil her rotten. I'll post pics of her as soon as i take some...Oh, her name is Angel.

Found a few more....

<---- My "sensory child" examining the pizza to make sure it's safe to eat.


















<------ VICTORY!!!!! Over what ?? No One knows!


















<----- Kylie and Isabella conquering the slide!















<--- Kylie, Isabella and some other girl. Kylie can spin all day on this tire swing and never get dizzy.... apparently the "other girl" has the opposite problem :p








<--- Me!!! Being silly for Ashley who is 10 and was taking "poppa rotzi" pictures... and No, those are NOT my gigantic glasses!

Pics from the weekend

<---- Kylie and her best friend Isabella at Kids Kove Park, Friday night after school. My 2 kids and my friend Lindsey's 3 kids played for 4 hours and we ordered pizza to be delivered to the park!

<-------- Saturday morning at MagiQuest. The kids spent 4 hours running up and down stairs click objects with their wands while on their Quests. Here is Kylie getting her first Quest. She is now a Jr Magi and is so proud to have more points then her older video game addicted brother.

<---- Chase getting his Quest.

<---- YAY! We found the red crystal!!!

<---- Chase battling the Dragon.

<-----

Saturday night we went to The Cherry Bowl Drive In with Lindsey and 2 of her kids. Here is Kylie and Isabella trying to stay warm before the movie started.

Couldn't get a good picture of Chase and Brandon to share because they didn't hold still longer than 3 seconds and my camera just isn't that fast!

here comes the pictures!!!

OK, the pictures didn't load in the order I wanted but I'll just have to make it work :)



<------ Here Chase is in the Alpaca Field at the Farm we went to last weekend to purchase our Alpacas. Chase is so excited and wasn't intimidated at all. He just loves all animals

<------ This is The State Of Michigan, the Great Lakes Maritime Academy's training vessel. Drew's on this ship right now (and in the picture). The Ship is just leaving it's dock on West Grand Traverse Bay

<----- Sitting at the dock getting ready to leave for a 2 week tour.

<----- "Reggie" who Kylie has named "Cosmo". He's our 6 mo old Male Haucaya Alpaca and will be Kylie's 4H project next year. He looks brown but is actually Black and VERY soft and sweet.

<---- "Petey" who Chase has named "Anakin" is another 6 mo old male haucaya alpaca that we just purchased. He will be Chase's 4H project next year. Here he is standing with his mom, both boys will be weaned this week.

<----- "Camilla" is our 10 yr old female Haucaya Alpaca and she's pregnant and due in June. We just purchased her also ( she's the one sticking her head up). We will also be getting her Cria (baby). We will be picking all 4 up in August after we have moved and gotten the barn and fencing in order.

<------ Kylie is playing with her toys!!!! Seriously, I HAD to get a picture of this momentous occassion!!! Normally she is following 2 inches behind me saying " I'm bored, I don't know what to do!"

<---- Chase at Track Practice. He HAD to do Hurdles : ) He did make it over a few times :) He tries so hard, I just love him.

<--- First, I live in a real house and I have a real family and Dishes NEVER come first.. so excuse the dirty dishes in the sink :) Here's the story. We had just picked Yoda up a few days before this ( he looks so much healthier now) and all of a sudden I didn't know where he was. We were calling for him and calling for him and we looked under the beds and everything. Finally I caught a puffy little white blob out of the corner of my eye and found him.. He was walked across the back of the couch, on to the breakfast bar, across the stove, down the counter and fell into the kitchen sink and couldnt jump back out! Silly dog.... He thinks he's a cat!

<---- My parents brought this home for Chase, Because apparently we don't have enough animals to feed..... This is when we first got him, he's in a comfy tank and is well taken care of now.. he's a farm raised red ear slider baby and I think Chase named him "Bob"

bras?

Since when did 1st and 2nd graders wear Bras??? While at Target with Kylie the other day she informed me that 2 of her friends wore bras and that she thought that was cool. I at first said, "you mean undershirts?" and she said "No, bras!". Ok these are 7 and 8 yr olds! Kylie is still only 6 and she's of the thin/atheletic build side of things and her 2 friends are a little bigger than her but they are by no means preteens. Kylie acted like she wanted one but I told her she was too young for one and she didnt need one and when she was older she could get one. I dunno, something just feels wrong about letting a 1st grader wear a bra. I let her buy a new pack of camisole undershirts instead and some cool socks :) I'm not ready to let her grow up that fast!

why no updates???

Because my camera broke!!!!!!! And blogs are just boring with out pictures! I just have my camera phone and I'm not sure exactly how to link it up yet. Maybe I'll figure that all this weekend.

Quick boring pictureless update:

Drew left on a 2 week cruise aboard the State Of Michigan this morning.

We have decided to buy a few Alpacas and raise them when we move in a few months.

Chase is doing better at school now, now that the year is almost over! And he's been receiving private OT and PT and loves going to it. He's also running track at school right now and is doing fairly well.

Kylie had her private OT eval but we havent gotten the report back yet. She's socially doing well at school but is seriously struggling with writing... her reading how ever is catching up to grade level and she seems to like reading which is HUGE seeing our biggest battle with chase was that he hated it.

I'm still working and looking forward to summer vacation and being a stay at home mom again. I MISS MY KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We havent given up on adopting but have put it off until late winter, still trying to conceive.. no luck.

I'll never smoke.....

Today out of the blue Kylie informed me " I'll never smoke mom! " I said "Good, Smoking is gross" and she said " yeah, it leaves a white spot on your shirt and on your body and it doesn't wash off! "....hmmm I think someone watchs too many TV commercials ( I dont know if they play that one where you all live but its like a PSA from the heart and lung association saying that you cant see lung cancer). But hey, If that's what she wants to believe and that keeps her from smoking then I'm not telling her otherwise!

Winter Break

Here's Chase's 4H bunny.. it's a Polish Buck and his name is Weasley ( we had a Harry and a Potter but unfortnately the cage wasnt as predator proof as we thought)

Kylie today after I forced them to go outside and play!

Chase, Kylie and our baby puppy Boomer ( a 12mos old male F2b ( which means his mom was a goldendoodle but his dad was a poodle ) goldendoodle that was shaved a few months ago)

Kylie getting ready to go Tubing at Timberlee Resort

Our Christmas tree. Not so spectacular but it has alot of memories on it...

The World's Worst Blogger EVER!!

Ok, I never claimed to be good at this : )

I did end up getting that Toddler Assistant job, I LOVE IT!!! It's really keeping me busy though

Kylie had her IEP and qualified for services based on a Learning Disability Label and now recieves special help in Language Arts daily.

Chase HATES the 4th grade, says it's too hard, too much homework and he doesn't like the other kids in his class. His class is a 4,5,6th grade and I think that there's been some bullying going on and seeing Chase is small and different he's the one who gets picked on. He's NOT use to that AT ALL. He has never had a problem socially before so this is something new to deal with.

Drew FINALLY jumped on board with the adoption plan I have. He said YES!!!! So the search for our child is on... Not sure where we will find out child but I know there is one out there waiting for us to find him/her. We have decided that we are looking for a child 3 or younger, girl or boy (although Drew is pushing for a girl.... I feel like it's going to be a boy), mild/moderate physical special needs... something like Mild CP, Clubbed Foot, Etc....

Here's a few pictures of Kylie at her Holiday Program at school. This year it was "Holidays Around The World"

monday moments

Another busy day! I found out this morning that Kylie will be getting special ed services for language arts and will also be getting some OT. I'm amazed that they actually qualified her because the whole team originally told me that she didn't qualify but after some thought they did additional testing on her and she does now qualify.. her official IEP is friday morning.

The kids were at my ex's this weekend and chase ran another cross country race on saturday, 1 mile in 9:02..... his past races have been 9:09, 8:30 and 8:47. He loves it! He's not the best at it but he's not the worst either. I'm glad that he's finally found something that he enjoys and is good at.

OHHH!!! At cross country practice today that principal came out and talked briefly with me and strongly hinted that I got the toddler assistant job, i'll find out officially later this week when human resources call!

A couple of days ago Kylie decided that she wants to be Pippi Longstocking for halloween...remember her???? The worlds strongest girl who has a suitcase of gold, a monkey, a horse and lives alone because her pirate dad is lost at sea??? I LOVED THAT STORY!!! So I was so excited to make this costume that I finnished it in ONE DAY!! I found a navy jumper at goodwill for $1.79 and i cut the bottom off of it seeing it was a size 10 ( kylie is a 6) which gave it that well worn baggy look that i wanted. I bought a square of bright yellow and a square of bright red for the patches on the front of the dress and stitched them on by hand with white thread.. i literally stitch it on to look like a 9 yr old did it. Then I bought an adult small long sleeve red shirt at walmart and these funky stripey knee high socks and another pair of sort of solid color knee high socks ( remember she worn mismatched socks!) ... i picked up pipe cleaners for her braids to stick out too. Anyways it was so simple and it turned out adorable. I tried to take a picture but the flash wasnt working and the picture was too dark. I'll try again tomorrow. Chase wants to be a Fisherman.. that should be easy!

Bye Summer

Summer's officially over : ( It's definately fall in Northern Michigan, the trees are turning colors and people are wearing pants. I'm sad that the lazy days around Grandma and Grandpa M's pool are over...time to drag out the sweatshirts and hot apple cider.

Me and My Lil Guy

I hate pictures of myself, but I hope Chase's adorableness hides my ickiness. This was taken a month ago at the Maritime Heritage Day thing ...

how can I be so different

I'm struggling right now with my strong desire to adopt and our inability to be able to afford it right now. But what's the hardest to deal with is my parents. They actually told me that if i adopted I would be taking "things" away from chase and kylie... I sooooo don't see it that way at all. I see it as giving chase and kylie a sibling, someone to share life with, to learn with and to love. Which is so much more important than things. My parents looked at me like I had 10 heads and didn't have a single thing positive or nice to say. It shocks me that I was raised by these people. My whole life I have wanted to adopt, internationally and most likely a special needs baby. But I don't know why I have always felt so strongly about it, especially seeing my parents definitely didn't instill this value in me. But I have always been the person who cares way too much about everyone else and who would cry when ever i heard of something bad happening to someone else...even if i didn't know them. I am a strong believer that it takes a Village to raise a child, and that children are our future and if we don't care about them then we don't care about our future and that every body is important and deserves someone to love them. I know that my children have this value, they know that they can NOT tease or make fun of someone because if mom finds out then they are in HUGE trouble and that they know that they wouldn't want to be teased. We were looking through pictures of adoptable children on the Internet and chase was sitting next to me and he saw a picture of a little boy who had dwarfism and chase said " oh look at him he's so cute , he really needs a family so that he can grow up and be someone and i bet a family could learn a lot from him" I was so proud that he thought that way, that not only would the little boy be lucky to have a family but the family would be lucky to have him. My kids amaze me every day... they have more humanity in their little finger than some adults have in their entire bodies.

I love this boy

I feel lucky that I have a child who has always been a little slow at growing up. Sure we get stares when he's acting like a 4 yr old in public (he's 9), and when he makes faces and acts silly when he's nervous... but I have the priviledge of having a 4th grader that makes sure to hug his mommy in the hall before school no matter who is watching... I don't want him to be a "mommy's boy" but I have to smile and be thankful that I have such a special little guy.

Chase's IEP

Yesterday morning was Chase's IEP meeting. It was fairly uneventful. He will still be receiving resource room help (thank goodness!) but will no longer get O.T. or Speech. I'm not surprised with the O.T. seeing that it was just as a consultation this past year, she basically said that she doesn't expect him to improve and that he's about as good as he's going to get as far as his fine motor abilities go. I'm sort of shocked that he won't be getting Speech anymore, his speech is strange and immature. But the speech therapist felt confident that the resource room teacher could keep an eye on it and if anything arises to just call her but she didn't feel that at his age speech was going to help much more. We talked a little about my concerns that there is a bigger picture that if causing Chase's problems and they thought my concern were valid based on his birth history and developmental track and told me what steps to make with that... so I'll be calling his Ped. to get a consultation on what to do next.

Busy week

Wow, It's been a busy week! Kylie is finnishing up her testing at school to see if she qualifies for Sp. Ed. So I've had phone call after phone call from the school asking me questions and asking me for my thoughts on this or that. And then the social worker called because Chase's IEP is up for renewal next week.
I've been on the phone with my lawyer all week too. I'm still in a custody battle with my ex... we are requesting that he has a psychological evaluation done. He's just screwed up... he doesn't know how to parent. He relies on his mom to do the parenting and he says very inappropriate things to the kids and they HATE going there. Based on the evaluation he might have to have supervised visits. That court date is next week too.
And then the good news is that I got a new car on Friday!!! Brand spanking new! It's an 07 honda civic hybrid which is awesome because we get over 40+ miles a gallon. I was driving a 04 ford explorer that got 12 miles a gallon going down hill. So hopefully even though our payment is higher we will make up the difference in gas and then some.
Yesterday I took part in a Road Rally.. it's like a scavenger hunt. It was a fundraiser for the catholic school system. I'm not catholic and my kids don't go there but I had friends attending and it was going to be a fun night out. So 8 of us piled in a suburban and solved puzzles and ran all over town taking digital photos of us at different locations with different items. There were 21 teams and our team came in FIRST place!! We won cool prizes and had a tons of fun!!

chase's fishing trip

Chase and Drew with the catch of the day!


Chase and his buddy



First fish of the day

Chase had a great time fishing ( he always has a great time fishing though) and the guys caught 9 Salmon in Lake Michigan.

Kylie's home of imaginary friends

If you have a child in the early school age or even younger then you have heard of the cartoom Foster's Home of Imaginary Friends. Well kylie doesn't just want a TV show she LIVES it. Since she started watching the show she has a collection of her own imaginary friends. Most are based on pokemon characters and some are completely made up creatures. Awhile back she gave one to my dad... it was a small alligators named Zitty. Grandpa plays along and tells Kylie the misfortunes that Zitty gets into . Like when he stepped on his tail and he hid under the bed. Kylie actually looked under the bed for it and scolded grandpa for hurting his friend. When pressed Kylie will agree that the imaginary friends are just pretend but I think that she wants to believe that if she believes hard enough that they will be real. It drives her very literal brother nuts, he can't pretend something unless it could actually be real. Even as a toddler he couldn't pretend that his dinosaurs were going on a picnic or to a movie. They could only fight or hide or walk around and growl.. they couldnt even talk!

While I sit here and type, Kylie is running back and forth in the living room literally bouncing off the walls. When asked what she was doing she said "I'm trying to go so fast that I run right up to the ceiling." I tried to get her to calm back down and she said " oh fine mom...but I don't know how I'm ever going to be a spider then!" Sometimes I don't even bother asking her to explain....