17 Years!

Jonathan & I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary this last weekend. It's hard to believe we've been married that long already ~ it's been a wonderful 17yrs. though!

Saturday night we went to Saba's in Saskatoon. At first we had planned on going to another place closer to home ~ we have some coupons for this place and thought we might as well use them (and try out a new restaurant ~ new to us anyway)... but long story short, the coupons stayed home. So we decided to go to Saba's ~ African cuisine. It was good! And a nice evening out.

Then yesterday after church, my sister invited us to go out for Chinese buffet (like their whole family and our hole family)! What a huge blessing/treat! We loved it. Of course, they have SO much food selection (including western) that everyone found more than enough food that they enjoyed. At suppertime we still were not hungry.

blogging break

Wouldn't it be nice to have the house to myself for a week? Do i really think i'd get done all that i keep thinking i might get done if i no other responsibilities?? But the reality is that it's really not an option... at least not the best option. Primarily, Brenden's program needs to be consistent ~ we were reminded of that at his follow-up appointment yesterday. Just Brenden & I made the trip out to Quill Lake yesterday ~ a 2 1/2 hour drive each way. It was good... a nice drive, good to have the assessment (because i don't see as much progress "day to day" as they will see in the actual evaluation after 4-5months), nice to hear the encouragement, but i knew there would be areas where we haven't been doing well enough. Goodness... for the money and time that we are putting into it, we better maximize the potential! Not to mention, i don't want to be doing this forever!!!

So the truth is, best case scenario, we stick to it diligently (as per schedule ~ i've got it all nicely written up on paper) and we get through basically everything on the list before lunch time (leaving only a few short activities for after lunch). Oh, and the part of the program that Jonathan does with him.

So Reagan is 10 since Tuesday! He's having a friend over to celebrate tomorrow... guess i have a cake to decorate yet, but it should be pretty easy (he wants a snowman cake like the one he did for the Gospel Echoes cake auction last year).

Still babysitting, and maybe it is still almost full-time?? I just take it as it comes and i think it's working out fine with homeschooling too. Might be a little distracting on kindergarten days ~ to bring J to school in the morning, pick her up for lunch, bring her back after lunch, and pick her up again after school. Not a big deal since the school is so close by... but if we keep this up for winter it could be a little more time consuming, etc. Maybe by then J can come/go with her "big sister" or maybe they'll take lunches then? or maybe their mom will be done work by then. (take it as it comes ~ lol).

I'm feeling a bit under the weather (and like a nap would be pretty wonderful today), but i've had my little blogging break and should tackle a project of some sort ~ hmm, computer room, bedroom, downstairs, kitchen, or any other part of the house??

but, Oh right... it's "snack time" (one of them was asking for a snack while we were still eating lunch... and i've heard a few requests since then too... it's about that time).

It looks like we might be doing part-time babysitting now... maybe?? Lol... we take it as it comes, but for now it looks like on days when J has kindergarten, their mom will stay home. So for however long she decided to do that, we'll have them 2-3 days/week. Of course, being a seasonal job, she might be done soon too. ?? Last week, we only had them one day. This week might not be much different since kindergarten is usually Mon & Wed. and i had to ask for Thursday off because we're busy that day (Brenden has his appointment with the Hope Centre).

I'm feeling just a bit under the weather today (& tired), and one of the kids got up with a bad attitude this morning... not a great way to start the day or the week! I think we're re-grouping, but i also think a nap might be a good idea after lunch.

Oh, strange thing... Janique had Coco outside this morning, and all of a sudden she's calling the boys ~ "Coco has a dead bird stuck in her ear (fur)." How does a toy poodle get a dead bird caught in her ears? Lol... i guess she was rolling around in the grass, and must have caught on the feet of the bird? Darwin got it out ok and I think Coco is getting a bath now (fun fun! ~ i'm just glad they can manage that without my help).

K, time to make something for lunch...

Back into some sort of "schoolish" routine... i think

Well, I don't think we're jumping in with a splash this year ~ but we've gotten our feet wet now anyway. Would've started Monday, but with two boys having eye doctor appointments at 11:00 i decided it wasn't worth trying to work school around that. So we "started" yesterday, and both yesterday & today we had three extra kids for a few hours each day (like, three extra besides the two we usually have ~ plus their sister before & after school and for lunch). Surprisingly, we actually did pretty well anyway ~ lol. We're still waiting for some of our materials ~ science for everyone, handwriting for two of them, and then i need to get some photocopying done too ~ so we didn't do everything on our "list" yet. Janique was happy to take care of the baby, and even when the baby fussed/cried, she assured me that she was fine and didn't need me to take over. :-)

Monday is Janique & Reagan's first violin lessons ~ they are excited about that. I am too! The little girl we babysit also starts kindergarten on Monday... it'll be an adjustment for "little brother."

On the adoption front, we're planning to check with our social worker about changing our request. The way it is written up right now is pretty restrictive, so we want to open that up, and probably ask to go up to "under 6." We really can see ourselves accepting a 5yr. old (somehow that seems to suit us more than a tiny baby, although we're open to that option too), and have thought of 6yrs. as well, but our social worker was suggesting under 48mos, so we felt 60mos. was a comfortable compromise and sufficient at that time. Either way, there haven't been many siblings coming into care at the transition home lately, so timelines have been getting longer and longer for those requesting siblings. We're now being told to expect 12+ mos. for a referral. YIKES! Guess it's better to prepare for a long wait and be surprised if it's earlier...