Someday

The littles and I were at Fred Meyers and they did their usual act up inside.  So we get done and head to the car.  Stopped at the cart corral to get rid of the cart.  Connor runs into the corral and starts playing in the front.  I'm just standing there waiting him out because there isn't anything to do but that.  This man and his son get out of a truck parked right by the corral.  He watches for a moment and then tells me that someday I can teach this corral trick to my grandchildren.  Baahahahwhhaaa. I just looked at him and said they are my grandchildren.  :p Walked to the front of the corral and then Connor followed me to the car. Guess I just didn't know that was what he wanted me to do.....get up on the sidewalk.  All's well that ends well....and it always surprises me when people mistake the littles for my children.

The End

And the divorce is final. The property deeds are recorded and everything is in place for the money to move. And it may have already.

Little Man is Two Years Old

Connor turned two years-old today.  He has come so far since that day two years ago when he was born withdrawing.  You can't even look at him and tell that he spent the first three weeks of his life in the hospitial being weaned off heroin.  And so far there are no lasting effects from that.  We keep our fingers crossed that that remains true.  Problems from that can peak out at any time until he is an adult.
So today we had cake and ice cream.  He loved the cars on his cake.  Two is so easy and simple.  Everything impresses.  He received jammies, a tv couch, a scooter, a bear, cars and a plane.  He loved the plane.  Audrie loved the plane.  He loved the plane.  Audrie loved the plane.  He hid the plane.  I still haven't found it.
He is absolutely amazing.  He is funny.  He is way too smart.  He is rambunctious.  He is spirited.  He is busy.  He is love.  He is two and has been practicing that for a bit already (glad it's my last one).
Happy birthday Little Man.

Thanksgiving

We had a lovely meal as a family.  Mom, Pat and Dave came over.  We had all the usual fixings.  Connor really liked olives and cranberry sauce.  Audrie liked the rolls.  The honeysuckle turkey from Albertson's was almost as good as last years.
I am thankful for the gift every day to practice patience.  I am thankful for cuddles and snot kisses.  I am thankful to be healthy, have a job and a place to live.  I am thankful for Mom's memory every day.  I am thankful for the time spent with family.
And now on to the Christmas season.

Zoo Lights

The littles and I took Mom and we went to the Zoo Lights.  Every year the zoo lets members in the night before Thanksgiving when the general public can't get in.  It is just fantastic.  The weather again held for us this year so we didn't have to try and see it between rain showers.  Mom had never been so she was enchanted and worn out by the time we got done.  Connor was really seeing all the lights and what they were suppose to be this year.  Audrie was fascinated by the people in costumes.  They got worn out also.  On the walk back up the hill Mom and Audrie opted for a ride and of course Connor was strolling. Amazing that he is the one that fell asleep on the way home.  It was a nice night and perhaps a new tradition since we have done it two years in a row.

Sarcasm

I had the best week. My car went to the shop and then went back to the shop. I will have a couple grand into these repairs. Time to decide on keeping it or trading it in for something else.
The divorce should be final, but I haven't heard. Which means it is time for me to get my behind in gear and get my note ready for a gold medallion signature guarantee for the IRA.
Mike was here most of the week so I got to deal with that and then with Dave's crappy attitude.  Dave seems to be under the impression that the littles and I need rescuing. We don't. Mike and I had an agreement and he kept his end until Dave needed to step in. So Mike is back in the wind. The positive to that is some peace and quiet. But now I wait for the phone call again.
We went and saw Debi today and realized it has been way too long since we got together for coffee. Hoping to set something up.
And now on to the new week and the busy holiday season.

Oy Child

Mike spent five days in the hospital with a staph infection in his finger which moved into the tendons of his hand. He spent two days at Dave's and a couple days here. Dave expected him to remain clean and sober while at his house. And while he can expect it, it isn't what is going to happen. So I told Mike he could stay here while he does his out patient antibiotics for three weeks.  Now I'm counting down. 16 days.

Portland Mini

So my car is in the shop. Lovely oil leak. Turns out I have two and maybe a third. I hope not. We are fixing the two sure ones along with a filter, rear brakes, brake fluid flush and a new tail light assembly.
And while they work on my car they loaned me a red paceman s. Alittle more zip than my car. That zip costs some mileage. I love my car.

Family Dinner

We went out for dinner for Mike's birthday. Dave came with us and picked up the bill. Mike wanted to go to Applebee's. The littles had a good time. They entertained us and the booth behind us. I think Mike had a good time. He hasn't participated much in our family dinners. It was good for him to be with the family.

Busy at Work

Nineteen pallets came in this week.  Oy.  That is a lot of books.  I was joking and saying we got all of winter quarters books in one week.  That is almost true.  We processed out 18 of the pallets as well as all of Tuesdays UPS delivery and all food and beverages.  The rest of the deliveries are awaiting next week for receiving.  That is just over two pallets all by themselves.  We got smart and stacked them on the pallets to keep them out of the way.
And now that the week is done I can tell I worked hard. My joints are aching and telling me about it.  Guess this is the new par as it happened last quarter on the big week also.  :p

Artists

I am absolutely amazed at some of the people that I work with.  Our jobs are mostly just for the paycheck.  We live life outside of the job.  The job allows us our passions.  So I knew David was an artist.  He designed henna tattoos for Elizabeth and I several years ago and did them for us. He has a really good eye.  He created this facebook page for his art and I saw it. That in turn started me on the path of finding out who else did art.  Melody writes and I wish I could have chatted with her about it when she was working with us, but she recently moved on. Meghan is awesome and created this page.  That is going to give us things to talk about besides our two year-old boys when we get past our busy time at work.  I love finding this stuff out and having people in my life who are creative and expressive.
Here is a picture of Elizabeth's henna tattoo from Oct. 2011.  Wish I would have gotten pictures after the henna was all off, but I didn't.

Update

Mike had his second surgery on his finger. He has been moved out of the intermediate care unit to the surgical ward. Still on I V antibiotics and still has his finger. The littles and I went and saw him. He paid attention to them as is his way when he's not on drugs.

Mike

Mike got a staph infection in his finger. Living on the street has all kinds of consequences. He ended up in the ER on Sunday and had surgery to clean it out with the possibility of losing the finger. So far he still has it, but they are going back in today to clean it again. We wait and see.

The Ups and Downs of Addiction

Two days after Mike completed his inpatient treatment he was back on the streets using.  Oy.  Makes me feel like the whole treatment thing was a ploy to get some rest and some new clothes and a lower tolerance for a couple of days.  I don't know that, but it is how it feels.
So here it is three weeks later and he looks like crap.  His feet are disgusting from being wet all the time.  He has infection in his finger and it looks gross.  Guess he has made multiple trips to the hospital.
I wonder when he will make a change.  When will he finally get tired of this life?  Will he ever? It is just a sad situation.  Sad for us and for him.

Tumbling Day Two

Today I decided that Connor and I would take a walk while Audrie had her tumbling class.  Hoping that she would pay better attention to the teacher without us present.  The teacher seemed to think it would work better with Connor kind of attending also.  So we did an experiment and had Audrie do the class by herself today to see which way was better.
When class was over the teacher told me that I was right.  Audrie did MUCH better without us there.  She paid attention and worked hard.  She did her first supported hand stand. Wow.  Ms. Lynne said she is more than strong enough to do it, but was a little apprehensive as a first timer should be.
So Audrie will get the next four classes by herself and I mean by herself.  The class got moved up but not cancelled even though no one else signed up.  I'm glad and it makes it pretty special for Audrie which is what I was going for.

Mellow Week

After two weeks of Audrie meltdowns when I dropped her off at daycare I decided we needed a quiet week and one where we spent a lot of time together. Seemed to work. There was no meltdown Thursday morning.

Dizzy Castle

Dizzy Castle is an indoor playground.  We had a coupon so decided to go check it out.  The littles spent three hours going up and down.  There were two different slides of different lengths.  I thought the bigger one might intimidate Connor, but it didn't.  It is like Kids Club but I thought it was better for the same money.
Audrie only had one meltdown where she got in a scuffle with another girl.  After a time out and some juice she was good and played with that girl after that.  Too funny.

Tumbling

Audrie had her tumbling class.  Connor got to be an honorary attendee as there were no other students.  So this class may be cancelled, but for today she got her class. They pretended to be many things.  A bunny, a frog, a donkey, an airplane, a bridge, etc.  Audrie has great skills for the activities but not the brain work to listen and do what she is told as she is told.  It was like it sunk in after a few moments while she was running all over doing something else.  She had fun and talked about the class the whole way home.
Connor has the skills and the brain.  The instructor was impressed with how well he follows instructions and his skill level for his age.  She called him extraordinary. Yup.