Not as young as I used to be

Earlier in the week I went out to the aforementioned horse farm and worked out a schedule with them. The owner is really nice lady, and has experience with attachment challenged kids, adopted a teenager in round about way and a former grade school teacher. We worked out a schedule where I'll go a couple of mornings a week to work and the best part is she has no issues with Igor tagging along. So this a.m. I dropped Sonny Boy at school and Igor and I went to the barn to clean stalls. Igor had fun playing with a cat and running around while I cleaned stalls. Uff da my arms are going to be sore tomorrow as it's been a few years since I've cleaned stalls and it took me a couple of stalls to get my process back, believe it or not there is a method to shoveling poop. It will be good though. I will work for a couple of weeks to bank some time for my riding lessons and to give my cranky knee a rest before getting in the saddle.

I went to the doctor about the cranky knee earlier in the week and he deduced it was a mild sprain and said to go easy on it. Like that's really possible - who's gonna do the laundry? Anyway I'll mind my manners with it for a few weeks and see what happens. In the meantime I will try to be delicate with it as much as possible but I tend to forget and do dumb things like lean against a door frame on that leg while I put on my other shoe.

We went up to the old house to get a load of junk last weekend all in one day. Most of the day was spent in the car with a brief interlude at the old house. We left at 9:00 am and got back home at 2:00 am the next morning. The kids did well all things considered but I was ready for murder by the time we got in the van for the trip home. Tomorrow I will drive up to return the trailer we borrowed, sleep at the old house (there is a mattress there my father-in-law is due to pick up) and drive back. Hubby will stay with the kids, it will be a mini-vacation for me as I don't think I've been alone that long in years. It's bittersweet seeing the place empty now, but it makes it somewhat easier because it doesn't feel near so much like home.

Saturday is Halloween of course. We have plans with The Flying Eagle to go to her house and hang out, trick or treat and likely spend the night. The boys are excited to see her son (also a Ukie) and wear their costumes. Today the kids wore their costumes to school. Sonny Boy is an astronaut and Igor is stuck with an old soldier outfit hand-me-down. I'll post pics whenever they have them on at the same time. The kids Halloween parties had them revved up when I picked them up from school, but Igor was ready for a nap as he'd had a big day with going to the barn too so he was easily coaxed into bed for a nap which will make us all happier this evening.

I suppose I should get off my rear and do something now instead of staring at this time wasting screen.

more rambling....

Igor home 18 months on this day!

I'm late in posting it, but last week marked Igor's 18 month home anniversary. How far he's come, it's amazing. Certainly not the shy little guy we met in Ukraine that was just starting to walk, couldn't talk (in any language) and didn't know how to eat solid food. Well all that has changed. Igor is still a little shy around new people but just a normal amount of nervousness which is good. Forget walking - the constant din you hear in the background is me screaming "STOP RUNNING IN THE HOUSE!!" and while he's not quite where he should be in his large motor skills he's catching up faster than I would like some days. While I still wouldn't call Igor a champion eater - that award goes to Sonny Boy - he's catching on and meals are not longer excrutiating ordeals for all of us. He now eats most anything and actually asks for seconds on occasion. He's always the last one at the table but it's not forever. Progress for sure. Emotionally Igor has done wonderfully, he's a sweet little guy full of hugs and kisses for me and has become my boy, Daddy will do in a pinch but he's all about Momma which is fine by me most of the time (sometimes it would be nice if Dad could tuck him in at night). Honestly I don't see any behaviors that are outside normal for a three year old. I won't say we've won the adoption lottery yet because of course things can always pop up but I'd say we are just waiting on the powerball at this point.

A little excitement

We had a dead/dying maple tree beside the rent house and Hubby has been concerned about it as well as the landlord. Last week hubby discussed it with the landlord and he was going to come over this weekend and take it down while we went north to get the rest of our junk. This pm a grubby dude knocked on the door and I wasn't too thrilled to open it and finally he answered we are here to cut the tree down, well OK, I'll move the van out of your way. So the guy shimmys up the tree and goes to work. Made me nervous as a cat watching them as parts of the tree were really dead and as he dropped them they would shatter they were so rotten and he was up in the dead stuff. After watching for a while it occured to me to get the camera and got this shot as he was dropping the last of the top. Now there is quite a mess out there and I'm hoping the landlord comes and takes care of it this weekend since the scary part is done. Kids missed the show as they were at school. Sonny Boy was less than impressed with the day's accomplishment.

Looks like I'll likely start work at the horse farm next week. I went out last weekend and watched the stable's schooling show. If your not familiar with horse stuff it was basically a show for the people who a) are beginning riders, b) have young untrained horses, c) or board their horses there and just want to play around. The weather was brisk but a pretty sunny day and it is a really nice place, much bigger than the place I worked at in Arkansas. They have some nice looking schooling horses so it should be fun. Bummer is my cranky knee started acting up again the last day or so. Today it was cranky enough to make me make an appointment with the doc and go buy a knee brace as I'm scared I'll step wrong and do more damage. Riding will defintely flare it up.

Random thoughts...

Why are commercials 10 times louder than the show you are watching?

Why am I a sucker and spend way too much money on Sonny Boy's Halloween costume? - I know the reason, I'm a sucker for Halloween and the costume is cool.

Why is it the year 2009, almost 2010 and I'm handwashing dishes?

Where am I going to put the remaining furniture that is in WI in this little house? Ever try to stuff a 4 bedroom, 1800 sq ft house into a 2 bedroom (don't know the square footage but it's not enough) house.

I really hope the leaves hold off dropping from the trees until after the house closes. I really don't want to turn it over needing two solid days of yard work but I really don't want to do the two solid days of yard work.

Why do people on Facebook feel the need to post about everything they eat?

Is it ever going to stop raining?

Will I have to put on rubber boots to do laundry tomorrow? (the answer is probably yes)

Why do I live next door to the crazy cat lady? I like cats ok, but putting 50lb sacks of food for all the local strays is a little much. Landlord loaned us a live trap and we are down one. The trap works better than Hubby's shoe which merely scared said animal. Landlord said guy down the street had enough and started shooting them earlier in the year, killed close to 30 cats. Don't know if that's an actual number or not and can't imagine him shooting animals in the middle of town, but this is Korn-ton IL so anything goes.

Why do I always seem live in a house within earshot of RailRoad tracks? This is the worst one, when the train goes by the house shakes and you can not hear the tv or each other. Basically conversation stops while the train is blowing it's whistle. Oddly does not keep me awake at night but the occasional train must go through town at 2 mph and feel the need to blow it's horn the entire time, when that happens it even awakens Sonny Boy, the child that could have an entire marching band go through his bedroom and he would not wake up.

Is excited to see Igor at Halloween this year. Sure he was here for Trick or Treat last year but he had no clue. This year he can say Trick or Treat and has figured out what candy is for sure. Next year he'll probably want some outrageously expensive costume too.

Thinks that Sonny Boy will eventually get the hang of getting up and getting ready for school without it starting WWIII, however I'm beginning to wonder if it will be in my lifetime.

Is wondering if Igor will ever learn his colors or if he's color blind. Do you know anything about this?

Wishes she could turn her mind off and fall asleep instantly like Hubby does. The man can crawl in bed and conk out in less than 2 minutes. I'm jealous, the only period of time I have ever done that was my last semester of college and I was student teaching 40 hours a week and working at Wal-Mart 20+ hours a week. Hubby tells me I would fall asleep in the middle of a sentence. My mom took me on vacation a week after graduation and I basically slept in a motel room for 18 hours a day.

I wonder about the socio-economic average of the children in Igor's Pre-K classroom and thinks that if you combined their entire edcuation you might get a high school diploma. I know that's mean but you should see the line-up when picking up the kids.

How do you know if your kid is getting his IEP pull out services when he can't really tell you if it's happening or not? Makes me wonder what's happening at school and I don't totally trust them to follow the IEP.

Well that's my random ponderings and thoughts for the night. Do you know the answers?

thou shall not covet thy neighbrs wife or toys.

I don't really covet anything of my neighbors or even anyone I know. I want an expensive new electronic toy. While I'm content with my pedestrian cell phone (don't really know how to work it) and I certainly don't need the camera feature but it appears to be standard on all phones now days. I don't have an I-pod and if I did I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have the patience to put many songs on it and I really can't walk around with ear buds in all the time because I really need to make sure the kids are not killing each other (though sometimes the ear buds would be nice). My laptop while a brick and has some software issues will work. What I REALLY REALLY want is a Kindle. Have you heard of a Kindle? The best way to describe it is a an I-pod for books. The newest version will let you download books from a 3G network (if your in range of course) the books cost about $10 or less even for just realeased best sellers, it will hold up to 1,500 books, thinner than a pencil, contains a dictionary too and is just the ticket for a reader like me who now lives in a town with possibly the most underfunded library that only orders one copy of a book regardless to it's popularity. I'm likely number 247 on the list for the new Dan Brown book. I may get my chance at it this time next year. Can you talk to Hubby for me?

Igor seems to have bounced back from his crud. All the test results came back normal so it was just some strong viral bug. He is still battling a little cough mostly at night but nothing terrible. Somehow I think the rest of us have missed this round of sickness.

The kids weren't the only one's at the doctor this week. I figured I better get myself in the door as I had no more refills left on my migraine prescription. He went through my medical history etc and noted some things to watch, none of it new news to me. I'm a walking genetic time bomb frankly. Sad to say that even though I take reasonable care of myself ( don't drink much, don't smoke, try to eat decent) though I lack the excercise part, hitting 70 will be pushing it. Luckily there are a few good genes on my father's side so hopefully they trickled down but it's iffy since out of the four siblings on the paternal side 2 died from cancer, and another has recently battled it and hasn't been clear for too terribly long. My mother's side is even worse. Sad odds to contend with.

So far the house sale is going smoothly, the agent expects them to inspect and hopefully appraise next week as that be our biggest hurdles. The buyers have an FHA loan and sometimes those can be a little picky on things. We plan on going to get our junk next week barring any issues.

With the house weight off our shoulders Hubby has the house bug. Drove me out to look at lot he found, and is wandering around looking at rural properties. He's dreaming larger than our budget allows and putting the cart before the horse somewhat. It's very tempting with prices so depressed, there's a 5 bedroom house on an acre lot with a tennis court here in town going for 140K?? Not that I want a tennis court or even that big ole house it's certainly a buyers market.

Well I'm rambling about nothing and everything and not making much sense. Sonny Boy has a soccer game in the am (only a couple more to go, Yay) and then we'll likely watch the Arkansas Razorbacks be stomped on by Florida, but we still bleed hog red -even converted that Yankee husband of mine into a Razorback fan- so we will watch and cringe, but hey, a girl has got to dream! Turn up your sound and put the player on track one - and learn to call the hogs if you are some weirdo who doesn't already know how!

Sold! to the highest bidder.

Yesterday we received not one but two offers on our house. One offer was fairly insulting but the other one was pretty reasonable. My real estate agent figured since we had two offers come in at the same time we would be safe to counter offer the good offer for a little more and we counter offered the pitiful offer up to full price. The pitiful offer came back, higher but still pitiful but the good offer came back approved. We are now under contract - officially tomorrow as we have to fax paperwork around tomorrow but it's simply a formality. WOOO HOOO what a relief off of our shoulders. Making payments for a house we are not living in and don't even want and watching our little nest egg shrink a tad each month as we pay for two abodes was stressful. We will loose money on the deal, no doubt, likely even have to pay some cash but we have avoided a short sale which would ding our credit hard. Now we are stuck in this crappy rent house for a year. After this episode we are very reluctant to purchase another house as many houses in this area are lingering on the market as well. We'll see.

We still have quite a bit of stuff left at the house in WI, some wouldn't fit in the truck, some we don't have room for and some we left on purpose to stage the house. I'm not paticularly looking forward to pracitcally moving again and with our wet basement woes storage is a tricky issue. We will likely have to rent storage unit. It does seem I keep looking for stuff that is in that house. I want my green striped curtains and the kitchen curtains for here. I'd like my little shepherds hook garden thingy to put a birdfeeder on in the back yard. The thing I miss most is the outside sending unit to my indoor/outdoor themometer.

Igor has been battling a nasty bug the last few days, fever, cough and the like. We suspected flu and I took him into the doc today who did a flu test - negative, a strep test - negative but they were concerned with the fact his lymph nodes were very enlarged in his neck so we trotted across the street and had blood drawn to test for both mono and a blood count. We'll get the results tomorrow. I really doubt they find anything and it will just be some unknown viral bug. His fever has seemed better today however but I'll keep him home from school again tomorrow. Luckily the rest of us seem to be avoiding the nastiness so far.

Ups and downs.

First for the up part. When Hubby and I first married I started work at a horse farm in exchange for dressage (English riding for those not familiar) lessons. It wasn't my main job of course, I had one that actually wrote me a paycheck but this was the job I lived for. I spent many happy hours in the barn shoveling poo, lugging hay bales, and filling water buckets and once or twice a week the owner would have me saddle up Max -who was in his mid 20's, quiet elderly for a horse - and teach me to ride. I loved it and spent tons of time at the farm and worked there even after Max went lame and there was no longer a horse for a beginner to ride. Soon life took over, we moved from the outskirts of the city and were quite a ways from the farm, my mother became ill and had to be taken care of for several months and the owner of the farm sold the place and moved to the Houston area. I haven't been on a horse since. Well looking around and in boredom one night I googled and found a very nice dressage facility nearby and decided to e-mail them with the proposition to work for lessons. I didn't hear from them for a couple of weeks and figured that they were not interested, however today I got an e-mail from them and they are! I'm so excited and can't wait to start work and riding. My husband says I'm a little girl that never grew out of her horse phase and I guess he's right. There's just something about a soft muzzle and the nature of a horse that calms me from the craziest stresses. My only worry is that my old body won't hold up to the stresses of riding anymore. My left knee has gotten cranky, not from any known injury but just seems to hurt occasionally for no apparent reason and I fear riding will aggravate it. I also know the first few weeks of lessons will near kill me in relation to soreness. I know that my very first lesson years ago the next day even my hair hurt. That passes as the muscles grow and learn however it's tough.

The downs - Sonny Boy had decided he wanted to be an astronaut for Halloween. Oye! Anyway I managed to scrap him up a helmet on e-bay that was reasonably priced (because of course you have to have a helmet) and sprung for the expensive astronaut costume. Everything was ordered and should have been hitting the front porch any day now until I checked my e-mail this evening and the helmet I had ordered would not be shipped due to some snafu. The e-bay seller did refund my money but there were no more inexpensive helmets to buy and now I had the expensive costume on the way! Well I sprung for the expensive helmet which cost as much as the costume because Halloween is only a couple of weeks away now. So now Sonny Boy will get to wear the costume for Halloween - he better not do any damage to it - it will go in a box and next fall I'll auction it off on E-bay in hopes of getting at least close to the miserable amount of money I paid for the thing back. The things we do for our kids.

The downs - there has been gobs of rain in the area for the last couple of days. Today it has rained non-stop. Guess what has happened to my basement. Yep leaks and several boxes have gotten wet. I don't think anythin is ruined but there is a mess down there. Hubby I went and piled things on top tables, the ironing board and some shelves that were built in down there to get things up off the floor. I hate this house.

More boring tidbits from our lives...

Since no one will give me a topic I'll bore you to death with daily life. I know your reading or at least looking at the blog - I see the map!

Yesterday I took Igor into the city to pick up his shoe inserts. I hit the trifecta of city nightmare. Heavy traffic coupled with road construction in front of the hospital campus and a parking gargage full of circling idiots made me thirty minutes late for the appointment. I wandered into the building I was told to enter knowing I would be linking into another building somehow, when I got to the first building the lobby was packed with people lined up to get free flu shots. Anyhow I asked and received directions to the suite I needed and walked the back recesses of the hospital complex to get there, the appearance of the place went downhill quick, carpet ended, no windows, etc very instutional and I saw signs that said things like "Lung Transplant Education" and printed signs giving directions to classes that were being followed by groups of young adults in lab coats (there's a med school there as well). We ended up in the bowels of the medical campus in what must the crappiest suite of offices there to get the insoles for Igor's shoes. Ten minutes later we walked out. All that for a 10 minute appointment!

Since we were there and they were free we lined up for the flu shot. Having a young child with me actually helped as there was a separate line for people with kids and we didn't have to wait, while the adult only line was miserably long. Wish I could have had Sonny Boy with as well and the whole family would be covered under the seasonal flu shot since Hubby's work gave him one the other day. The county health department is supposed to give H1N1 vaccine at school in a few weeks when it becomes available to them, I haven't decided if I will let the kids get it or not. My common sense tells me to vaccinate them, however I've heard a lot of rumours about the vaccine I'm not sure of. I have to think on it some more.

The betta fish has now started eating so he may last a little while. Still pretty dumb and we don't turn the light on in the little tank as tries to attack himself in the reflection.

Please call / write your Rep in the house and ask them to support The Adoption Tax Relief Guarantee Act of 2009, HR 213 right now the bill is in the House Ways and Means Comittee. This is the 10K tax credit that adoptive parents are enjoying right now, however it's set to expire and this bill will make it permanent. This is especially important if your rep is on the Ways and Means Comittee right now. The link will give you this info. I know we would not not been able to afford Igor's adoption without the tax credit.

The kids have been paticularly rowdy the last few days so I've taken some Super Nanny steps and written out rules and posted them on fridge and have been quoting them chapter and verse and punishing left and right. We'll see how that goes - there have been a lot of removal of TV, video and computer and a lot of sitting in the corner or on the bed this afternoon already. Time to NIP IT IN THE BUD as Barney Fife would say.

Fun stuff Eh?

You ask the question...

You come up with a topic, I'm suffering from writer's block and feel I'm the most boring blogger on the web. Ask a question, suggest a topic, tick me off and see what I write about.

Sonny Boy purchased an El Cheapo telescope with some birthday money. Hubby's binoculars work better, he was disappointed but I think he made an impression on the neighbor kids as being cool.

Just some random thoughts on the above picture. Yes those are our house number laying on the porch. I hope there is not a fire, however we simply need to tell the 911 dispatcher "second house from the gas station". I would like to give a good talking to to the ding dong who spray painted something round on the front sidewalk without at least putting down a sheet of newspaper, I have similar spots on the sidewalk in back. Most of the town does not have curbs and storm water drains so everyone has a ditch in their front yard with a culvert to drive over. Our sidewalk has odd cement slabs to cover the ditch, the middle one has fallen in - watch your step.