Adventure and Attitude

I don't know if it's the weather, the time in the school year, the fact that teachers and school staff are overloaded, lack of common sense, or that I have become too sensitive about things affecting my children; but whatever it is, it is driving me nutty! Last Friday, I  drove Jackson home from school because he had his Valentine's Day party at the end of the day and his was my last school party that day.  I always like to get the kids one on one in the car.  The pressure is off and they just talk about people and things in their lives.  Anyways, he began to tell me about his day and how they all had a group picture done and how that picture messed up their lunch time. As he told me more and more of the story, I asked more and more questions and it became evident to him that Mom was not a happy camper. He's buddled up in this picture, but is still cold! You see, after pictures, lunch had already started so the boys got in line for the hot lunch and the girls

This year Michigan weather has been BRUTAL!  As I type this snow is coming down fast and furious yet again!  I am pretty much done with all of the delays, snow days, and cancellations.  Having negative temperatures and wind chills is not my idea of fun.  It is so sad that I am excited to see a 30 degree day!  I'm not sure how many more times I can open the door to let the dog out only for him to run in the opposite direction because there is a wall of snow blocking his path before I go crazy! At any rate, we do try to find fun things to do in the middle of this artic blast.  Yesterday since the temperatures weren't too bad (in the 20's) we bundled up and headed to the beach.  Yes, you read that correctly.  We went to the beach.  We drove out to Grand Haven.  The fisherman's pier parking lot is cleared as are some campsites so you can park and walk to the pier and the beach.  We should have brought sleds because there are some huge frozen waves the kids would have en

Yes, we have another new child in the house.  He is also from Honduras and is eight years old.  He arrived on Friday.   Last week I recieved four calls to take in children.  We were asked to take in a 16 year old and her baby, an 11 year old and a 7 year old sibling group, and an 10 year old and 7 year old sibling group.  It is harder for me to say no then it is to say yes, but we always have to put our own children first in considering which calls to say yes to. We are glad we said yes to the call that we did.  This child is the happiest child I have ever encountered!  He has a constant smile that just gets bigger the happier he gets!  I walked into his school to pick him up yesterday and he lit up with such delight that I felt like the sun was shining inside just for me!  He spoke with his mom tonight and she told him that this weekend he would be able to be reunited with her.  He ran to each person in our house and told each of us in spanish about his news.  (It didn't matter th