Yay! Summer is finally here! We had our last district day of school on Friday. And while I love teaching and love my class, I adore summer. Not because I'm done with work, but because I'm able to be a stay at home mom. I relish in it. I wish I could do it full time, but I just have not come up with the way to do it yet. (Still would need some income as a single parent.)

This summer is going to be crazy busy for us!!!

The first weekend was spent getting ready for our trip to FL and getting most of Girlie's things together in anticipation for her transition to her new home shortly after we returned. Lots of laundry and cleaning and taking out garbage and tying up loose ends and finishing those end of year items.

Monday, June 2 was spent mostly in Chicago for Olivia's three month check up at Univ of Chicago. Went very well. Her nutrafill (SP?) count had been extremely low for a while and they were watching it, readying the switch from one of her meds to a new one. Then her count unexpectedly rose. This time it was down again, so they changed over the med. No big deal, except that the new one is a liquid only until you reach the adult dose, and we were so good with all pills! So much easier for traveling. At least this liquid doesn't have to be refrigerated, that does help tremendously. After her appt, we went to IKEA and picked up a few things for the basement. I'm changing it over from being a huge toy/play area, to more of a family room, still with mutitudes of things to play with. We grabbed a new tv stand, another computer desk ($40), a chair ($15), and an as is huge "leaf" that hangs on the wall (You have to see it it's so cute!) for only $3! I haven't taken it out yet, but it looked like all parts were there, and I've looked at them every time we've gone. We also went to Woodfield Mall to eat at Rainforest Cafe as a special treat.

That day J met with our agency about Girlie. They presented her in a very negative way, but J was ready for everything they had to say and showed how prepared and thought out she was. She will begin transitioning there when we return. They want to transition her slowly until the 15th. I had asked for July 1st to be her last day. I am still transferring my license the 1st, so I hope they're ok with that. The slow transition really seems silly to me. First, with her RAD she does not discriminate new and "old" people and really wouldn't have much of a transition anywhere. Honestly. But with J, she knows her extremely well and J has even had her over a weekend, with no issues. They want to start with a 3 hour visit, then 5, etc. Seems like a drawn out process when it doesn't need to be. Oh well.

Tuesday June 3 I had to renew my driver's license. Braeden had diarrhea twice the day before and had to stay home! I thought I was in for trouble. But, he did really well and we ended up not being there long at all. We had DQ after for a treat.

Wednesday morning was the ACR about Liam. His mom didn't even show!!! There was some info in my copy of the paperwork that I never used to get before. I don't know if the caseworker (CW) doesn't know what to put for me and what not, or if I should get this info, but it was nice to see. It talked about the reasons he came into care. It was hard, but good, to read. They did put in writing in the paperwork that they will not be looking at grandma as a placement as he has been with me so long, so I'm extremely glad of that. Although I was nervous at seeing mom now that she knows about termination, I kind of wanted to in hopes that she would ask about visits and communication, etc.

We left for FL as soon as the meeting was over, driving through the night and arriving at 5:30am our time, 6:30 FL time. The kids did GREAT!!! They each had about a 5 min stint at some point in the day with crying, and Liam cried about 15 min around bedtime because he wanted a drink and as I was driving in mountains there wasn't anywhere to pull off right away. But that's it! They were soo sooooo good! Makes for such a great drive!

We are in FL now and having a great time. Liam and I are a little red, even after spf 50, but having fun. Already found some great deals and I saw Indy last night. To tell you the truth I was a little disappointed. I liked the movie, but I really liked how the first three had a religious "theme" to them, especially the third. This was about aliens. Kind of disappointing to me, but the movie was good overall as a movie and I liked how some of the old faces were back. :)

We'll be here until June 22. Liam and Olivia will be in day care/day camp the whole next week. Liam has court on June 24, so Braeden and Girlie will be in care that day. June 26 and 27 I have day long workshops for school I'm attending. Braeden also has a week of Little Farmer's camp in the mornings one week, Olivia has three days of Girls camp all day long, Braeden has his circumcision appt for July 2, we go to New York July 19-26, then we go to Orlando on Olivia's Make a Wish trip August 4-10. August 11 I'm hoping to start the boys back in day care and use that week to get my classroom ready for our first day of school which is August 18. This summer is going to fly by!!!

Sorry I have no pictures of craft time for last weekend, we just didn't get to it. :( BUT, we have some great things to do down here with a "beachy" theme, so be looking for those! I'll have to see how to upload pics from here. It's also hard to get computer time as it's in the room Liam and Olivia (my two good sleepers) are in and I usually get on at home after they're in bed.

Tomorrow we head to Krispy Kreme for breakfast and then to Barnes, where my dad works part time to get the discount, to see some of his coworkers/friends who we see everytime we come down. They get to be like family!!! Hope all is well in your world, I try to read when I can!