What Really Happened in Vegas

I have this new job as Social Media Director for our business. I gave myself the title. I also gave myself the job. And the pay is super good, not really, but I'm pretending it is.

Anyway, as Social Media Director I get to blog for the business. Eyewear can be very exciting.

My first post was about our trip to Vegas for a vision convention.  My second post was about what happened while we were in Vegas.  Hubby wasn't very happy with my story for the business, so I had to tone it down a bit. 

Here's what really happened.

I had booked us on an early flight home. Really early. It was cheaper.
We, being old, didn't go out the night before our flight, we went to bed.
Our car went out. (The car did not go out alone, I'm just not naming the driver.)

The morning of the flight, at 5:30AM we were all ready to go to the airport, but our car didn't come home the night before.  We were a little concerned until the car called and said it was running approximately 15 minutes late. 

No problem, we still had plenty of time, not to worry. Until the car called again and needed about 15 more minutes.  Then we decided to take a cab and the car would get itself to the airport.

Walking out to get a cab we ran into our car and minutes later we were all off to the airport.

Whew! 

Until, we tried to return the car and there was a huge line.  We still had to take a shuttle to the airport.

We decided to leave the car (and driver) and hop on the shuttle.  We were able to check in, get through security, and even grab coffee before boarding the plane.  The car (driver) made it too!

Again,Whew!

Everyone was relaxing, sleeping, or drinking coffee and enjoying our flight.
The ride to Portland was super quick and we were ready to get our bags and head home.

Until, hubby reached into his bag and couldn't find his car keys.

It went down like this:

Hubby, searching his bag-"I don't have the keys."
Me- "Aren't they in your bag?"
Hubby, now taking things out of his bag- "No, didn't you check the nightstand?"
Me- "You mean, the nightstand on your side of the bed?"
Hubby, completely exasperated- "But you always check!"
Me-"I always check the kids rooms..."

And then we both burst out laughing.  I mean, full on belly laughs. We were laughing so loud and so hard that everyone around us started staring.

So, hubby being super resourceful, put us on MAX and we rode all the way home.

Here's the point: I am so very blessed to have a husband that deals with life well, because you just never know what is going to happen in life, so it's best to keep laughing.

Homework and Zombie Strippers

We just came off a long weekend.  The kids had Friday off of school, so an extra day.  They even had half a day of school on Thursday, but half-school days just make me angry for a variety of reasons, mostly because what's the point of going to school for two hours.  It takes a ton of effort on my part to get my kids to school, so it had better be worth my time and two hours doesn't cut it.  This is a whole post on it's own...

Back to the long weekend, which was wonderful; beautiful weather, a birthday to celebrate, lots of family time.

Monday morning, everyone was up and dressed and eating breakfast and doing homework. 
What?! Homework?  Hello, didn't you finish your homework yesterday? 

Well, yes, you did finish some of it, but you kind of "forgot" about math, history, and science.

I AM NOT HAPPY.
The kids are not happy.
Now Monday totally bites and it's only 7:45AM.

So, kids go off to school and I started thinking about a homework solution.  Actually, I only started thinking after I was done ranting and swearing about what a pain my kids and homework are in my life.

I got over myself pretty quick and started gathering up remotes to all of the televisions in our home.  I had remembered that when my kids weren't doing homework they were watching TV.  Like, all weekend. All weekend the TV's  were on.  And to be fair, it wasn't all just the kids, their daddy was watching football which just happens to be on 24/7 during the weekend.

My thought in taking the remotes is, if I have all the remotes (there are 10, seriously 10 and I don't think I found them all) then that will make them do their homework. So, in my mind, no TV=homework done. My thinking may be flawed.

Monday afternoon/evening was great.  The kids were feeling the pain from the morning/homework finishing/mom getting super mad.  They came home, did homework, ate dinner and were even nice to each other.

Tuesday, they came home, snacked up, went to dance, came home, ate dinner, and I thought they were doing homework.

Turns out, one of them found a remote, and was watching Zombie Strippers. 

ZOMBIE STRIPPERS!

He found it on OnDemand, and luckily it was free. I would have been super mad if he was watching Zombie Strippers and then I had to pay for the movie. And, just in case you are wondering, we do have parental controls on everything. EVERYTHING. So, I'm not sure how he even found the movie.

Now, I am back at square one, trying to solve the homework problem while monitoring the televisions, the remotes, and free movies. 

And, someone is running around dressed as a zombie and we are out of toilet paper.

PS- Hubby just read this and informed me that zombies don't actually use toilet paper and that I was thinking of mummies.  So, there you go.  My zombie used all the toilet paper in the house.  I guess if you're undead it doesn't matter what you are wearing.

It's Not My Birthday

Here we are.  My beautiful daughter is 14 today.  Today is her birthday.  And she won't let us celebrate.

I really can't remember a year that she was excited about her birthday, maybe the first few.  I think, around 5-6 years old she decided that birthdays just weren't her "thing".

There is worry and anxiety weeks before the actual day.  She doesn't want any gifts, cards, or parties.  She doesn't want the day or the week acknowledged and has made this very clear to her friends and family. 

Part of this is just her personality.  She hates to be the center of attention.  Part of this is her age.  Everything at 14 is a HUGE deal.  And, part of this is because she is adopted.

To be fair, our boys, 11 and 12, also adopted, love their birthday.  They also, share many of the same issues as their sister around their special day.

There are tons of articles written about birthdays and adoptees, this is just our experience.

Birthdays bring a profound sense of sadness.  They were born to one mother and are celebrating this special day with another.  They have questions that I will never be able to answer.  They have feelings of loss.  They wonder, what if...

In our family we spend birthdays celebrating the individual, their life, and their birthmothers. What a wonderful day to remember the love of a woman who gave them birth.  It allows us to celebrate her, the birthmother, who sacrificed more then we will ever understand. 

What I Learned From Outdoor School

This last week we sent our child with issues to Outdoor School (ODS).

It takes a lot of preparation to send a child with so many acronyms somewhere overnight.  ODS is two nights. Two whole days and nights.  That meant medications readied, paperwork filled out, and calls from the ODS nurse just to check in.

Now, we aren't the type of parents to never leave our children.  We leave them all the time.  In fact we went to Las Vegas while he was at ODS, but I digress.

Our children are used to staying at grandma and grandpa's while we are out of town.  But grandma and papa know this child and how to handle him.  He is also with his siblings and feels safe.

So, off he went, totally excited about this adventure.  He couldn't sleep the night before.  I know this, because he came into our room several times. He wouldn't say goodbye or even look at me.  Which is fine.  I think I may have gotten a little emotional if he had.

His teachers sent me messages throughout the day and evening.  "He's having a blast.  He's asking questions and participating in the field studies."  "He even ate his dinner.  He is loving this."  "He is helping with the tree planting!"

He came home. Grandma picked him up from school, made him shower, and take a nap.  He refused to talk with me when I called that evening, or the next morning, or the next evening.  That is actually a good sign.

Here is what I learned from this experience:

We've done a decent job raising this boy. After all of the long days and nights, doctor appointments, medicine trials, lots of tears and prayers, we are seeing the fruit of our labor of love.

We have fabulous parents!  They are always willing to stay with their grandchildren so we can get a break.  They love on the kids and endure the yelling and fighting.

We have the best teachers ever! They told me last spring that they were taking this kid to ODS.  They watched over him the entire time.  They kept me informed and worry free.

So, thank you grandma and papa and my fabulous teachers.  We couldn't get through this childhood without your support.