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 |  Being a stay at home mom is never as cut and dry as you think it is. |
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Originally my pregnancy blog, now continuing on as the life of a mom and her two wacky kiddos thing till I don't want to write in it anymore  . So come on in and see what's going on in my world for a bit if you like...Be careful where you step, as the kids have all their Pokemon cards out! Feel free to hug a Hello Kitty plush! Come join in the fun, Super Mario Bros. and Hello Kitty style!![Merit Badge in Parenting
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Congratulations on your pregnancy*^*Smile*^*. You already are a wonderful mom to your son and I know this baby will be very blessed also
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In the midst of how you are feeling right now, know that it can be fixed & I'm proud of you for writing the poem that reflects how you feel. The love of your children clearly shines through. *^*Heart*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Family-584.gif) ![Merit Badge in Journaling
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I'm so glad to be back blogging and reading yours. The kids have grown so much! I'm so glad that you, myself and T are still here journaling together!](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/type-Journaling-2180.gif) the wonderful badges my "Sister", silversara, graced me with. Thanks Sis, I  you! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Thanks to all of you for your support, your comments, your love, your generosity and your time! Never met a greater bunch of people then on here! Besides, who else would want to listen to a rambling crazy mom, both during and especially after pregnancy?
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| Open House for school is tomorrow. From 1:30 to 3 pm. Don's taking the afternoon off work to help me haul the bags of school supplies in. We got the postcards in of who their teachers are. Journey got Ryan's first grade teacher, and Ryan got a good 4th grade teacher. I'm hoping for good things since I've worked with Journey's teacher before. Journey needs some patience being worked with, and I hope that her teacher is good with that. I don't see why she wouldn't be, but I know that Ryan is a very different animal than Journey is. Ryan excelled in her class because she motivated him to do his very best, and he was (and still is) an exceptional student. He's a very bright kid. She was able to push and bring out the best in him, and he excelled because of it. Journey, on the other hand, is about an average student. Not that this is a bad thing, but she doesn't understand to go out of her way to make a big impact the way Ryan did. She just does as she's told pretty much. She's a pretty good reader, not a bad writer, does alright in math...she just doesn't stand out academically like Ryan does. Not that there's anything wrong with that, there's NOTHING wrong with that. She's a smart little girl, and she does her work well. I don't think the methods that their first grade teacher used on Ryan are going to work on Journey is what I'm trying to get at. Either way, I'm glad I have someone I'm familiar with and who I like. Ryan lucked out and got a pretty good teacher! I've heard great things about her, and I think Ryan will do well in her class. I'm half tempted to write into the principal and say "Since we're giving Journey the teachers Ryan had, why not make sure she gets his second grade teacher as well?" I really adore that teacher, she's one of my favorites. We'll see how this year shapes up. I already offered my services as room mom to her teacher, who says it sounds good, but we're waiting to see who else is interested in being a room parent as well. I also wrote to see if it was okay to bring in popsicles for Journey's birthday on Thursday. We're waiting to find out if any kids have allergies before I get the okay to bring them in. School supply shopping is (obviously) done. Found everything but the primary journals. It says on the school supply list on the school website that the primary journals will be provided with the first grade activity fee. The list that I got from Target says otherwise. Not sure which one to believe, but I'm going to talk to her teacher tomorrow to find out if we have to go look for them or if they will be in the activity fee. Spent about $20 over what I would've spent if I had just bought the school supply kits from the school.:Live and learn. Next year, I'm buying the school supply kits for sure. No running around trying to find everything. I used to think school supply shopping was fun, and I adored walking through the isles, digging through things and buying them. This year, it was just a pain and stressful and frustrating. I don't know why this is. Definitely though, buying the school supply kits next year, and then next year we can do mini school supply shopping, stuff for our house for the school year, and stock up stuff, you know? Maybe that will stress me out less. Had to go purchase snacks for the kids for school. Cost me around $80. Hopefully they last them awhile. Susan and I were debating about snacks in school on Facebook. We are from the belief that a little tummy grumble isn't going to kill a kid, and that they should be okay without having to have snacks at school all the time. But, since it's asked by teachers, I'll just go with it I suppose. I don't know. I mean, all through summer, the kids didn't do any snacking. They just stuck with breakfast, lunch and dinner. If they can sustain those amounts of time with no snack, I don't see why they can't at school...but that's just me I guess. Journey's birthday party is looking pretty good! So far, the weather says it's going to cooperate (I hope and pray that's the case!), and quite a few people said they were going to make it! I'm very excited for Journey! I just need to send out the reminder on Facebook, and I'm pretty sure Evites is going to send out a reminder email to all those that I sent an Evite to. Had to order Journey's cake today, but not from the bakery we normally get it from. We usually go to BJ's and get the cake, but the bakery worker said that the cake decorator is out of town until Sunday, so we had to go to Walmart bakery and order the cake. Now we have to pay an extra $12 for it. So upset. Oh well. At least this one will have all the Rapunzel stuff on it, instead of just a picture like I was originally going to go with. We'll see how that shapes up. Soon, hopefully, I'll have all these bags of stuff off my living room floor! Should be by Saturday night. We're taking Journey out to Bob Evans to get her free birthday dinner on Friday. She also has her well check up doctor's appointment that day too. Hopefully good news all around! I'll decide whether I'm giving her a couple of presents on her actual birthday, or if I'm going to hold out until her party. Not sure yet. |
| This entire paycheck that we're getting this week is going to school supplies, back packs, and shoes. We have TONS of supplies to buy, including things like baby wipes, ziplock bags and disinfectant wipes. I'm not sure where we're going to find all this stuff; Target doesn't carry everything we need, and Walmart is mostly sold out. We might have to go to Staples and pay a hefty price for it. Normally, I do school supply shopping in July, but we had plans for that check, including two birthday presents to buy, as well as other things, so we missed the boat on that one. Now we've got to make up for it, and it's going to be expensive. Lesson learned, I will be purchasing the school supply kits from the school next year. *Sigh.* The good news is, the shoes we're buying are during tax free week here in Maryland, so we don't have to pay tax on them at least. The thrill of the century was when I went to Old Navy to get three pairs of jeans a piece for each kid, and it only cost me $54 total. That equals out to $9 a pair, when the jeans are normally $19.50 a pair. I got them tax free for tax free week, plus an extra 10% off because I spent over $50. I love Old Navy. If they had long sleeve shirts for girls right now, I'd go buy a bunch of those for Journey, because she is in desperate need. I have a $20 off a purchase of $50 or more for Old Navy in September. I hope I can take advantage of that. Haven't heard much about Girl Scouts lately. I've been in touch with the leader of the area a few times, but I haven't heard from her in awhile. She's supposed to get back to me on who the troop leader is, and where we're supposed to meet after school. I hope I hear from her soon, as Girl Scouts starts when school does, and school starts in 9 days. We're getting some confirmations of who's coming to Journey's party so far. I'm still waiting on a couple of people, but there are two out of three that I'm sure are coming even though they haven't RSVP'ed yet, and then there are three that are questionable that I'll plan for just in case, and then two I'm certain that won't make it. Either way, I have to purchase some extra goodie bag things. Oh, speaking of, this check goes to goodie bag supplies too. So much to do this check! I really hope we can pull this all off.  Kinda stressed about all of this. |
| These kids are growing like weeds. I wish I could slow them down, at least until we have some money to buy all that they need. Ryan needs new pants for the waist size. Journey needs new pants because her legs have outgrown her old ones. They currently reside an inch above her ankle, which doesn't go over well in colder weather. I decided to check now, because Old Navy is having a sale on jeans, $10 a pair. They're only having it till the 15th of August, so next check we get has $60 to go to pants for the kids, 3 pairs each. Luckily, all they need right now is pants. Shortly though, they'll be needing long sleeve shirts...or at least, Journey will. Right now she's got so many short sleeved shirts, it should be illegal. I'm pretty sure she has one short sleeved shirt a day for two months, literally. Ryan doesn't have nearly that many, but he's got quite a few to last him. We went through his wardrobe this summer to see what still fit and what didn't. Journey didn't have a whole lot of long sleeved shirts to begin with, so looks like we'll be scouring for some for her very soon. Not only are they growing out of clothes, they're growing out of shoes, which are just as expensive, if not more so, than clothes. Supposedly, if we buy Ryan a good pair of shoes, they should last him all year, right? Wrong. The heels end up getting worn out after 5 months of wear. $45 for a good pair of shoes, only to get worn down on the soles 5 months later. Seriously, I'm contemplating just getting him the $18 pair of shoes since he runs through them so fast, till tax time comes and we can splurge $45 on a pair of shoes that will only last 5 months. Otherwise, I just don't see a point in it. And then there's the glasses. Oy. We have to wait a year before we can take her into the place that accepts our insurance, which is in October. She needs new glasses NOW, not two months from now. So, I decided to get her into the best optometrist in the county (in my humble opinion anyway, who also happens to be the cheapest one around out of all the guys you have to pay for, $44 a visit), who I trust with my whole family. When Ryan needed glasses, we took him to this optometrist so we could see how badly he needed glasses, and he didn't mince words. Now Ryan sees amazingly with his glasses. At the time we bought his glasses, we had money. Now we're short on funds. We have $44 to pay for the optometrist visit for Journey, and then BJ's is having a sale on kid's glasses, $40 for a pair of glasses, including lenses, on frames up to $100. Hopefully we can find frames $100 or less, and she only needs poly carbonate lenses, so I pray we can get her these $40 glasses after we get her the optometrist visit. Otherwise, we'll have to find a way to make it work till October. *Sigh*. Someone give me a money tree. I need to plant it in my garden and start cultivating cash so I can afford these growing kids! |
| Sadly, my friend has left. She left on Saturday afternoon. I look forward to next summer when she'll return. I miss her immensely, even though most of our time was spent in the house in our pajamas . It was so nice to have her company, and to be there with her. The kids adore her! They love including her in our games, and going places with her. We visited a few stores while she was out here, and it was a lot of fun. The kids love to go out. It's a shame we don't have the car that often, otherwise we would go out more. Today I have the car, because Ryan has a dentist appointment. Then it's out to BJ's to get a couple of things, then back home again. So far, it's been a busy summer, instead of a boring summer. Last year was pretty boring. We stayed inside all the time, and worked on school because we had nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. This year, there are play dates and appointments galore. Because Journey has friends from school this year, we're invited to birthday parties and play dates, which I'm thrilled about! It's good for her to get some socialization in. We also have speech therapy sessions going on till August 9th, which Journey definitely needs. Ryan's not really been having a busy summer, but James has been keeping him occupied on Mario Kart almost every week over the phone. Ryan is, however, invited to the play dates as well, and he enjoys that too, especially when we're at Journey's friends' house swimming. Only 23 more days till school starts. We still have about 3/5ths of their stuff to buy. Hopefully we can find it all, and get this all done. I'm not sure I'm ready for school to start, but the kids are. We need to get new glasses for Journey, because she squinting to read with the original pair she has. Don should be getting a bigger check because they're back paying him for his raise that he didn't get for the first 6 months of the year. I hope we get it soon, because that's what we need to get Journey new glasses with. It would also be what we would use to put Ryan in fall soccer if we get it too. I'm not holding my breath though. Things like that don't always come through, and I'm planning for it not existing, but that's just the skeptic in me I guess. All in all, plenty of things to keep us busy for now. |
| My very good friend from Connecticut is spending a week with us again! I'm very excited that she's here! I miss her immensely, but I always look forward to her visits in the summer. That's one of the things the kids always count down to; when my friend is coming to visit in the summer. She spoils us! She takes us to dinner, and buys the kids books, she's so silly, she doesn't need to do all that, but I appreciate it all the same. We took her to dinner last night, and she's taking us to dinner Friday night. She has to leave on Saturday back home, and we will miss her very much. We have so much fun when she's here. We go to the library, and we go school supply shopping, we play games, it's lots of good fun! It's so nice to have another adult to converse with too! We have yet to start any school related studying this year, and July is nearly over. The more I think to myself though, the more I feel that maybe they should have a summer off once in awhile. I pushed Journey hard last year because she needed to learn to read, that was a very important skill. She still needs to learn to sound out words she doesn't know phonetically, but we work on that with her every night at bed. I would work on math with her, but I don't recall exactly what she was learning in kindergarten, so I think it might be better just to let them do the refresher course on her at the beginning of the year, and grow into the higher math from that. I may try to do school things with them still, the closer to school we get. I'm not entirely sure yet. One of the kindergarten moms set up doing a play date every Thursday morning since the end of June. Not many have been able to attend, but Journey's gone to two so far. The second one she's going to is at her friend Grace's house, at their swimming pool. Journey's very excited; she hasn't seen Grace all summer. She's seen Lindsey once, and Bradley once. Hopefully, she sees a few more at her birthday party at the end of August. I worry that there's not going to be as many guests as I hope there will be. I've ordered extra things just in case though. One can never be too sure. |
| Today was the first day of Girl Scout day camp. Journey says she enjoyed it, but she couldn't tell me what parts. She brought home a door hanger, a shell necklace and a blue bouncy ball. You have to play detective with her to get answers. I asked her where she got the shell necklace from. She said she didn't know. I asked her if she made it. She said yes. I asked her if other girls helped her, she said yes. Okay, that's where that came from. | asked her about the door hanger. "Where'd you get it from?" "I made it," she says. Did other girls make one too? Yes. Okay, that's where the door hanger came from. "How did you get the ball?" "I got it from a white bag." "Why did you get it from the white bag?" "I don't know." "Is it a prize? Did you win it?" "Yes!" "How did you win it?" "I don't know." "Did you play a game?" "Yes!" "What game did you play?" "Red light green light!" "And you won?" "Yes!" "Did other girls win too?" "Yes, other girls winned too." So that's where the ball came from. "Did you meet any new girls?" "Yes." "What were their names?" "I don't know." "How old are they?" "I don't know." (I'm thinking they have them split by age group, you know, Daisies with the Daisies, Brownies with the Brownies, Juniors with the Juniors...I don't think there are any Cadets there, unless they're helping with the groups, but I could be wrong.) Tomorrow's mission? To meet a new girl, learn her name, and her age. Hopefully Journey remembers. "Did you go outside today?" "Yes." "What did you do outside?" "I ate my lunch. I went to the bathroom." "Did you go to the bathroom in another building?" "Yes." (I knew today the fire department was going to be there, thanks to the confirmation letter.) "Did you see the fire department with the other girls?" "Yes." "Did you get wet with the hose?" "No!" So that pretty much did it for the interrogation. I noticed you have to ask a lot of loaded questions that lead to yes or no answers. Her speech therapist was telling us that it's the easiest way to communicate with her. We're still trying to get her to the point where she'll talk about her day freely without having to be prompted; that's what her progress reports from her special ed teacher are about during the school year. Her speech therapist is trying to get her to label emotions, and make inferences, and give deeper answers than just "yes" or "no". I wish I knew how to do that with her. I fail on the speech front. I get an idea of what her therapist wants me to continue doing, and I remember how to do it for a day, and then the next day I forget how. It's terrible. I'm sad that she's missing out on more speech therapy this week due to the day camp, but I know that the day camp is an experience she needs. It will help her be more social, and give her more experiences to go off of when she talks about things. I'm certain I can trust the validity of her answers right now though, because at this juncture, she doesn't know how to lie. I don't think she understands what a lie is. I don't think she has the capability to do so. For now, at least. Maybe that will change by the time she's 10, 11, or 12. We'll see. Ryan doesn't lie much, only because he knows that if he does, it's a cap full of vinegar for him, and he hates the stuff. But I know her answers to be true, which makes it a lot easier when interrogating her. We'll see how tomorrow shapes up, shall we?  |
| I know I have most of you as Facebook friends, but I thought I'd post it in here as well to remember, as I'll have this journal for awhile, whereas status updates get lost in the shuffle. We are officially a disposable training pant free household! HOORAY!! For the past week, Journey has been keeping her Easy Up dry at night. (We call it her Dora pant, because it has Dora on it.) Anyway, for the whole week, she'd wake up dry every morning. I told her as long as the Dora pant was dry, she could use it the next night. She kept it dry for six days in a row! I couldn't believe it, six whole nights of keeping it dry. So two nights ago, I decided to let her sleep in panties and see how she did. I was nervous at first-what if she had an accident that night, and I could've prevented it by putting her in a Dora pant?-but I trusted her, and let her go to sleep. She woke up dry the next morning! So I let her do it again last night, and again she woke up dry! I'm so proud of her! Day time potty training was much the same way. She was in Pull Ups for 3 months when she started school. By Halloween, she decided she was going to keep her Pull Up dry, and go to the potty instead. I wasn't sure if I could trust her not to wet her pants anymore, so I kept putting her in a Pull Up for a week after that, and she started wetting it again because she was getting dependent on the Pull Up. So I cut her off, cold turkey, I put her in panties that day during school, and she stayed dry all day. I knew then that she had finally decided to potty train. Journey's only had 2 accidents in the time that she's been potty trained. So far, she hasn't had an accident at night time. It's very possible that she will have an accident, but I'm not worried about it anymore like I was. She's moving forward, and never looking back! I'm so proud of her! When I was a child, I wet my pants and my bed for the longest time. I had a very weak bladder, and my timing wasn't that great, so I'd be in the middle of something when I'd have to go, and I'd get so caught up in it, I wouldn't listen to my body, and I'd have an accident. Journey hasn't shown that problem at all. I'm so glad my potty troubles are not hers, and she's able to move forward without any problems! It's just a shame that we don't have anyone to give these extra Pull Ups and Dora pants to! The only little girls that are younger than Journey are already trained, and the Pull Ups are for size 3T-4T, and the Dora pants are 4T-5T. I don't think we'll run into anyone that needs them. We have two half packs left.I guess we'll just throw them out. Either way, I'm glad of this. We no longer have to spend $20-$30 a month/every other month to get these for her, she's perfectly capable of being dry without aid! WAY TO GO JOURNEY!!! I'm so proud of you! |
| So here I am, have three topics to cover. I like to save up for blog entries. Went to Journey's doctor appointment in Baltimore. Still nothing doing on furthering the diagnosis. He was very concerned about her coping mechanism of meowing when she doesn't know what to say. He suggested a speech therapist over the summer for her, as school is going to be awhile before it's in session again. I'm trying to call the place that takes our insurance, but so far we're playing phone tag and haven't been able to set anything up. He wanted to see us back in October, but his office couldn't find an open date till December. Then we had to reschedule that, because Don's boss refuses to let him off work for the appointment. That got me extremely angry, it's not like he's doing it to take a vacation, he's doing it because we have a doctor's appointment in Baltimore. She doesn't seem to care about that though. Ryan's birthday party was small, but successful. His three best friends came, which we were very excited about, and Jenn and Mark and the kids came, and Deanna and her mom and Angelina came, along with Russ. He got a boatload of Wii games for his birthday (two from us, one from Russ and one from Deanna and family), and two $25 gift cards to GameStop, and $10, so he went and used those to go get two more games. He also got two Lego sets. And Journey got him a Webkinz to keep his account active. We got a smaller cake, and only 3 pizzas (with about a half a pizza leftover),but it was enough for everyone. Journey's party, we might have to go with a bigger cake and some more pizza, as there might be more people coming to her's. We'll see. Ryan's birthday was a fun day yesterday. Don took the day off work, and we took the kids swimming, and Ryan out to dinner for his birthday, and then to the local ice cream place to get dessert. He enjoyed his day immensely. So now I have a nine year old. Crazy how fast they grow. We haven't started doing school work yet. It seems like every week we have two things during the week to do, so we never get to it. I'm tempted to just let them enjoy the summer and say forget it on the school work. It didn't really give Ryan an advantage in school. It did Journey though. I'd like to work with her some more, just to get her ready for 1st grade. We'll see though. |
| So we've got 5 major things going on this month, and then we're back to being bored, until Journey's day camp starts. Journey has a playdate with her friend Bradley on the 19th at our favorite park, which I'm really glad about, because apparently the two of them were asking to see each other right after school ended. His mom said that he was asking about Journey, and Journey kept asking me about Bradley, so they'll be glad to get together again since it's been a couple of weeks that school has ended. The 20th we're going to Baltimore to see her developmental pediatrician again. This time, I have two more evaluations for him and a new IEP. I wonder what he's going to say about these things that have come up. Just telling me that she's "developmentally delayed" isn't cutting it anymore. I want specifics. If I can't get them from him, I'll get them from Kennedy Krieger, which we're scheduled to see in 4-5 months. I will find a way to get an official diagnosis on her. I know it's more than just an over the counter "developmental delay", there are more specific areas than just a generalized diagnosis. At least, that's what I feel. I don't want to be told "She's developmentally delayed, there's not a whole lot we can say, there's not much we can do. It is what it is." Which is basically what he told me last time we were there. I want something more. I know there's something more, I feel he's just not taking the time to tell me. Sorry, it's just a frustrating topic for me. One that never seems to have any answers, just leaving me with a load of questions. Anyway, then the happy stuff comes! Ryan's birthday party, and Ryan's birthday. We got him all kinds of good stuff this year, he's so spoiled! LOL I would list what we got him, but he's in the background playing Mario Kart Wii with his best friend James, so he could peer over at any minute and ruin his birthday surprises. No thanks. The only reason I'm on the desktop computer is because my laptop is having issues with the space bar, so i thought it would be better to write it out on here instead. Either way, Ryan's getting a lot of stuff that he wanted for his birthday, which I'm glad about. We're smart, we buy them things months in advance. Luckily, they're little still, and they don't change their minds often. Journey's been fascinated by the Nyan Cat for several months now, and I don't see it stopping any time soon, so she'll be getting a Nyan Cat shirt, and a necklace for her birthday. I'm going to get it for her either this month or next month. We always buy gifts months in advance, because it's easier on our pocket books. We do the same with Christmas too. Just easier for us, considering we don't make a whole lot of money. Ryan's birthday party is sure to be a good one. His friends Zach and Rory are going to make it, and of course James will be there. I don't know if his friend George is coming or not, and I'm pretty sure Andrew isn't going to be there. But Angelina should be, which Ryan will be thrilled about, because she's become one of his closest friends. The kids are devastated that she's going to middle school next year and they won't be seeing her in the mornings anymore. If her mom gets in on the apartments that we live in though, I offered to keep an eye on her after she gets home from school, she can ride the bus here and I'll hang out with her till it's time to go get the kids from school, and then she can play with them till her mom comes to get her from my house when she gets home. I don't know if it's going to happen or not, but I just thought I'd put it out there in case it does. But Ryan's party should be good. Then on his actual birthday, we have a surprise for him. Don's taking the day off, we're going to go swimming, we're going to go out to dinner to Bob Evans to get his free dinner, and then we're going to get ice cream at Bruster's. It'll be a nice day for him, just some family time. Then, on the 30th, Don is taking Ryan to his first soccer game, to go see the D.C. United play. Don's going to go to a baseball game with his friend Travis, who bought him a ticket to go. The only catch is that Don has to be the one to drive all the way to Baltimore, which takes up a bit of gas (I should know, we have to drive up to Baltimore for her developmental pediatrician appointments, both the doctor she has now, and when we get going to Kennedy Krieger.) in order to go. So he's going to be needing a lot of gas for the baseball game and then for the D.C. United game. Granted, the metro stop is a lot closer to our house than Baltimore is, but it still takes some gas to get there. Other than that, we're hanging out. I let the kids off the hook for school work this week. They're just allowed to hang out and do whatever. We've spent a lot of time on Webkinz, and Ryan has spent many a day phone conferencing James and playing Mario Kart Wii. Maybe one day, when the stars align, Jenn will actually come to my house and help me out like she's been promising to do for 5 months now. Hmph. We'll see if that ever happens. I highly doubt it. Out for now! |
| So here it is, the start of summer vacation. It's vastness open to possibilities, and we're probably going to be staying in most of the time. Lame, I know. I could take the car from Don plenty of times if I wanted to I suppose, and take the kids to the park and the library. I need the car on the days they have dentist appointments for sure. I dunno. Then I'm obligated to pick him up from work all the time, and that's just aggravating to me. I mean not REALLY aggravating, but just...meh. Maybe I just want to go out to the park and then stay home the rest of the day, I don't know. Right now, I'm kind of lethargic about it. I'd like to set up play dates for the kids. We always meet James at the playground, which is good. Sometimes Kelly asks if Ryan can come over to play games with James. I'm sure if I call up Margie, we could set up a date for Ryan to go over to Zach's house and play games. Ryan said Rory said he can spend the night, but I haven't heard from Rory's mom about that. Besides, we don't even have Rory's number to call about that. Setting up for Journey, I've already spoke with Carolee, and she says setting up play dates for Bradley and Journey will be great this summer. I have Megan's mom's email to see if she wants to meet for a play date, and I have Grace's mom's number to see if she wants to meet for a play date as well. All of these are great possibilities, but I don't know what the schedules of other people look like. I suppose I could just call or email and find out when would be a good time. I know that Kelly works from home, so her schedule is semi-open, but James has a lot of sports that he's doing this summer, tennis and golf. We'll see about setting up play dates with James when he has a chance. Kelly always makes sure they have time for us though, and I love that about her. James has been Ryan's best friend since first grade. He thoroughly enjoys any time James calls or we go out to play or he goes over there to play. I think Margie stays home, but I don't know what all her three boys are into this summer. It's possible that Zach will be into tennis this summer as well. Margie always makes time for Ryan too, so I can see Ryan going to Zach's house a few times this summer as well. I'm not too sure about Rory, since we don't have any contact information. Ryan gave Rory his phone number a few months ago, but I don't know if Rory saved it. We don't have a personal white pages to look up numbers, so I can't see if I can find their number. As for Journey, I know Melissa can be busy, especially with four kids, so I'd have to give her ample time to schedule a play date with Grace, and it would probably have to be earlier in the morning because of Grace's toddler sister's nap time schedule. Carolee stays home, so we can pretty much just email and set up a play date without much hassle. I'm not sure what Amy's schedule is, and she has I think three kids? The older boys could be into things this summer that I don't know, and that might not leave a lot of time to have a play date with Megan. Lindsey's mom was talking to me about getting email addresses to invite people to play dates this summer. I have to email her the list of the kids in the class though. The only thing we're absolutely sure about this summer is Journey has girl scout day camp from July 9th to July 13th, 9 am to 4 pm every weekday that week. Anything else is up in the air and open. I got Don to take off the 25th so we could go swimming that day, then to dinner that night, and get ice cream for dessert, for Ryan's actual birthday. I guess, more than anything else, we'll be staying inside in the air conditioning, doing school things. Journey's teacher said she was going to send home a packet of work with them, but she didn't send one that I saw. Her speech therapist sent home a PACKED folder of stuff to work on with her, which I'll be doing with her often. Her special ed teacher is so very sweet. She gave me her home phone number and her mailing address for us to keep in touch with her over the summer. I'm going to have Journey write her a letter or two, and we'll call her throughout the summer. I hope I don't interrupt anything when we call. Finding out her schedule will allow us to find out how often we can call. If she didn't mind, I would say once every week Journey could call her. I pray we have her again next year. I'm going to miss her so much. Journey is too. She's all she's known her entire school career, and though she may adjust to the other special ed teacher that might get her, she will dearly miss the one she has now. She is definitely coming to Journey's birthday party! We're very excited about that! So pretty much, summer is what we make of it. Depending on if I can schedule play dates, depending on if I have the car, depending on if we have money, depending on if Don puts in for a day off...etc. It's all open at this point. |
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