Adoption Update

I was looking back and saw it's been about a month since the last adoption update, so it's time to post another.

I contacted of Social Worker this week, since it was the middle of March since I last heard from her. Our profile has been shown once since her last e-mail. When she says "profile" I'm not sure if that means our short profile or the long profile. I didn't ask her to clarify because I'm trying really hard not to get bogged down by details. I'm trying to take things at face value and not analyze every little word. Between our crazy dog, crazy neighbors, crazy cows and a kid that peed on 2nd base - I don't have much time to think about details. But on a positive note, it was shown 1 more time than Jay and I had figured.

Ball Schedule

At practice Monday night we finally got our ball schedule. The first game shows as May, 12 but it says BYE. We asked if we were still practicing that night. The coach said “yes, I believe we need all the help we can get” - couldn’t agree more. Once the games start I’ll have some pictures to post. So far no other parent is snapping pictures at practice so I don’t want to be the one to mark my child for life. I did sneak some on my phone, but I’m not smart enough to know how to get them from the phone to the computer. Practice has gotten better except for Benjamin. Monday night he was playing 2nd base and needed to go to the bathroom. Rather than saying something he just peed all over the base. Of course his dad didn’t say anything and the coaches didn’t see it, but the mother’s were horrified. I made Cade take his shoes off as soon as we got home. It’s one thing to think you’ve probably stepped in stuff at one time or another, but to actually know your kid is running through it is disgusting.

Jay wanted me to post the ball schedule so everyone would know where it’s at. I’ll abbreviate the away games, but those from around here shouldn’t have a problem figuring them out.

May 5 6:00 @Gnfd
May 19 6:00 @Home
May 22 6:00 @Home
May 26 6:00 @Home
May 29 7:00 @Home
June 2 6:00 @Lckwd
June 5 6:00 @Home
June 9 6:00 @Home
June 12 7:00 @Home

Our Weekend

This weekend our family had a first – we took one of Cade’s friends to SDC with us. It was a first for all of us, it was the first time Cade had a friend to play with, it was the first time Grandma Robyn was around 2 boys, it was the first time we were responsible for someone elses child (except for Avery but she doesn’t count, she’s the next best thing to having our own), and it was Neilson’s first time to be at SDC. We all had a great time. Both boys were extremely well behaved. Neilson was an entertaining little boy to say the least. He comes from a family of 4, he has two older sisters and one younger sister. Neilson has a maturity that Cade doesn’t have yet, which comes from having older siblings. I really don’t mind that, Neilson was concerned because his 16 year old “girlfriend” went to prom with someone else. He said “can you believe that”. Much to mine and Jay’s relief that is the last thing on Cade’s mind right now. I’ve also decided we’ll have to monitor this friendship as the boys get older. Neilson seems to be the type that has absolutely no fear of anything. I’m used to riding rides with Cade, who is a lot like me. Heights and speed are not our thing. Jay and I had to ride the Flying Elephants with the boys because they weren’t tall enough to ride by themselves. Jay got Cade and I got Neilson. At one point Neilson was trying to hang over the side to get a better look. I had to drag him back in the elephant. Totally unlike Cade.

It was fun having him with us, it added to our normal family dynamics. Neilson came up with some zingers throughout the day. One of my favorites was him telling us about helping his dad and granddad turn their bulls into steers. He told us that they cut off their guts and fed them to the dogs. I’m sure his parents would love to know that he told that story. Then of course that makes we wonder what Cade’s told his parents. It’s probably best that we don’t know. I also decided that having 2 is much easier than one. Jay and I weren’t nearly as worn out as we normally are after a day with Cade at SDC. I think we’ll try to take him back with us later on this summer.

Everything was going really well on Saturday until we were on our way home from dropping off Neilson. Jay hit a calf in my car. We are very fortunate, God definitely protected us because it could’ve been so much worse. My car has some minor damage but no one got hurt, except for the calf. We were close to our house so Jay took Cade and I home and then went to find the calf’s owners. Cade told me that he was worried about the baby calf. I was worried about the mamma cow – she watched us kill her calf. Jay came home and was upset because, like Cory has said, he puts a $value on every animal. He hated that he had caused someone to loose money (even though the owner’s fence isn’t good). I told Jay what Cade and I were worried about and he said at least we had all our bases covered. I’ve driven by the spot several times since then and I feel bad for the mamma cow. I feel like she’s staring at me every time. It was definitely traumatizing for all involved.

Happy Birthday Jay

Today is Jay's 31st Birthday. I wish I had a picture of him in his marching band uniform to post. I guess this one will have to do....
Jay with his state winning Ag Mechanics Team

We love you!

Charlie Update

Wednesday evening Jay tried turning Charlie loose again. We were outside practicing baseball so Charlie stayed in the yard for about 30 seconds and then he was gone. Cade batted for about 5 minutes and he was done. I went back in the house to do dishes. Jay stayed outside and talked to a previous student who stopped by. Jay came in the house later and told me what had happened to Charlie.....

Charlie got a ride in a VW Bug. I've never ridden in one, Cade hasn't ridden in one and as far as I know either has Jay, but our dog has. He ended up at the neighbors again so they brought him home. Jay has tried to be nice about it, telling them they don't have to worry about Charlie but they won't listen. We know they're being nice, but Jay doesn't like people micro manging his ability to take care of his dog. He gets that enough at home, he doesn't need input from the neighbors. So now we don't know what to do. We want to turn Charlie loose, but we don't want the neighbors bringing him home every night. Of course when this happened Wednesday night it led to all kinds of jokes between us about them wanting to see what Jay was wearing. Charlie was just an excuse to see if Jay would be wearing something crazier than the snowman pants.

I'm sorry I was in the house. I keep imagining Charlie in a VW Bug and I laugh. I think those cars are cute, but yet I think they're funny looking. Same thing with Charlie, he's cute but his legs are so short it makes him look funny. When I put them together in my mind it's just hilarious. Of course Jay isn't laughing quite as much as I am about the situation. He just wants them to leave our dog alone, but we don't think that's going to happen.

Jay finally read the blog after this last problem with Charlie. He seemed to be a little on edge because he informed me that I was wrong when I said the kids were using a softball. It is in fact a baseball because they couldn't get their kindergarten hands around a softball. I think he's just sore about the last post, but thats what he gets. If he's not going to read them I can post whatever I want about his attire :)

The Charlie Incident

As most of you know, Cade got Charlie for Christmas 2006. He’s a Welsh Corgi who started out being extremely cute. Then he got hyper – so hyper that Cade doesn’t want to play with him. So hyper that I don’t want to deal with him. That leaves Jay to take care of Charlie. To get his leash on him we have to grab his collar and choke him because he won’t stand still. You can hear him gasping, but he won’t stop moving. Jay has said that the dog is going to be the death of him.

Part of the reason why he’s so hyper is that he’s penned up all the time. He won’t stay in our yard and we don’t trust him to be out during the day. Cade and I don’t like to mess with him, but neither of us can stand the thought of losing him either. Jay has decided he’s going to start turning Charlie lose when we are home. It really has to be done because otherwise Charlie is going to have a miserable life. Cade and I have adjusted and Charlie has been handling it pretty well. The first day we turned him loose we shook up our neighborhood. One neighbor (across the lane) carried Charlie back to our house and the other one (older couple at the end of the lane) called to tell us Charlie was running around their yard. Jay said that no one would get off his back about the dog. At least we know we have good neighbors that look out for us. It was the third time Jay let Charlie out that we had problems…..

That evening (last Friday) Jay went out to feed him and mess around for awhile. After he came in to take a shower I realized our garage door was still open. I wondered why, but thought Jay had just forgotten to shut it. About 10:00 that night Jay went back outside and then I knew why he’d left the door open – Charlie was missing. Jay can say all he wants to that he wasn’t worried about Charlie but when he and Cade said their nightly prayer I heard him quickly whisper “please bring Charlie home”. Neither of us ever want to have to tell Cade that Charlie's missing. Luckily Cade never figured it out.

We got into bed and neither of us could sleep. I was imagining Charlie lying in a ditch someplace and it was such a cold night. I asked Jay if he should go drive around to see if he had gotten hit. Jay somewhat reluctantly got up and drove off in the truck. I couldn’t leave our yard because of Cade, but I felt bad laying in our nice, warm bed while Jay was out looking for the dog so I got up to help So I did all that I knew to do - I went outside in my pajamas calling for Charlie. I walked around by the road yelling “Here Charlie, come here Charlie”. Off in the distance I heard a dog bark. I thought it sounded like him but wasn’t for sure. I’d yell, the dog would respond. We kept this up for quite some time. Finally I saw the truck approaching. Jay got closer to the house and then he just drove right past me. There was a lime green VW Bug right on his rear. I figured he hadn’t seen me out in the yard or he would’ve at least acknowledged me. Me and the mystery dog went back to our same routine, I’d yell, he’d answer. Eventually I gave up and went back in the house to call Jay.

I tried calling twice, finally on the second call Jay answered. He told me he had my pooch. With fear in my heart I asked if he was still alive, Jay snorted and said of course. Then he had to go because he was trying to back up. I met Charlie and Jay out in the front yard (still wearing my pajamas) and told Charlie he’d been a naughty dog. Then I got a good look at Jay – he was wearing a gray t-shirt, sky blue pajama pants with snowmen on them tucked into a pair of boots. We got back into bed and Jay told me the story….

Remember the green VW bug? The person in the car had Charlie. He was new to the neighborhood and Charlie came to their house right after Jay turned him loose. The guy got concerned because Charlie was wearing a collar, but none of our information was on it. The guy decided to pen Charlie up, thinking he was helping us. He and his friend heard Jay yelling for Charlie so he went out in his lime green VW bug looking for us. After Jay drove by our house he turned into a drive way to turn around. The green car stopped and asked if he was looking for a dog. Jay followed this guy back to his house to get Charlie. Remember what Jay was wearing? Jay said that’s why you don’t pen up people’s pets. Charlie would’ve been home hours ago.

I asked Jay if he saw me out in the yard when he drove by, he said he had but he didn’t want anyone to know that he knew me. He said my pajama pants were almost as bad as his. Once he met the new neighbors he was trying to point out our yard light to describe where we lived. He didn’t want to tell him it was the house with the woman standing outside. Jay told me I looked like I was watching for aliens.

We can’t wait until Cade’s old enough to share this story with, this one could become a family favorite. I laughed until I cried Friday night. Then long after Jay had fallen asleep I'd think about it again and start laughing. Even typing this today has made me laugh. It may be more of a "you had to be there" story, but if you know Jay you can hear him saying "that's why you don't pen up people's pets". Now I'm laughing again.

Moral of the story – Charlie’s getting a tag with Jay’s name and our phone number before he’s turned loose again. I asked Jay if we should put Charlie's name on the tag instead. Jay said "No, we'll have people asking for Charlie and you'll tell them they have the wrong number". Good point.

Ball Practice Update

I'm here tonight to retract my last post. The most annoying person on Cade's ball team is now a toss up, between a boy named Benjamin a/k/a Jinjamin and someone's mother. I think it's going to swing back and forth for me the rest of the season. As soon as I make my mind up on which one it is, the other one will do something to change my mind.

Leading tonights race would be Benjamin. Jay and I call him Jinjamin because that's what Cade called him last year during summer school. As long as he's in school here he'll always be Jinjamin to us. Benjamin is the one shaping up to be the class bully - the one that's 6 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier than the majority of the kids. He's also the one with the loud mouth who never shuts up. Tonight the kids not only batted, they ran the base. Somehow the coaches had Cade start running around the bases before he batted. I was talking to one of the coaches wives and both of us didn't think Cade batted. I tried to get Cade's attention to ask if he had batted but the coach started yelling at him to hurry up and get back in the outfield. Once the coaches thought everyone had batted they'd asked to make sure. Cade raised his hand but they didn't see him. I had to get their attention to let them know that Cade still needed to bat. Jinjamin started yelling "he's already batted, why does he get to bat again, that's not fair" etc. He wouldn't give it up. My momma bear instincts came out and I had to control myself from telling Jinjamin how it was. Then during the rest of practice Jinjamin keep yelling things to the other kids and the coaches - I know how to do it, I'm already doing it, etc. The coaches wife and I decided Jinjamin needed a good spanking. If Jay had been there he probably would've been the first to volunteer to do it.

The reason why one of the mother annoyed me was once again due to my momma bear instincts. She was teetering on the verge of annoyance during the first part of practice when she kept yelling at her child to pay attention and get in position to catch the ball. It wasn't helpful criticism, it was the kind where she's sitting in her lawn chair halfway across the field yelling at her child. Public humiliation of Cade is something Jay and I try to avoid. I know we'll do enough to embarrass him without meaning to over the years, we don't need to do it on purpose. Our method has been to pick up on what he needs to work on at practice and address it in the privacy of our home.

At the end of practice the kids lined up at homeplate to run the bases. The first time they ran them Cade didn't know what he was supposed to do and completely missed first buy running to the right of the pitchers mound. The second time he got closer to first, but he still missed it. The yelling mother took it upon her self to yell at him to come back and touch the base. All while she's still sitting in her lawn chair and hasn't moved a muscle since she had came to practice. This is one of the times I'm glad Cade has selective hearing, he either didn't hear her or he ignored her. That's when my Momma Bear came out again and I was so mad - how dare she embarrass my child in public. Winning games are nice, being a good player is also nice, but not at the expense of a 6 year old's self-esteem. Once again I realize this is probably as good of an experience for me as it is for Cade. Right now I'm thinking that me, Jinjamin and the yelling mother have a lot of years of school ahead of us.