AA's 5 Year Gottcha Day 1/13/10

So last Wednesday was AA's 5 year gottcha day - the day a judge approved our adoption. 5 years has flown by so fast. We did not get to celebrate until last night - at TGIF's - the one place we were able to eat while in Russia.

I watched airport video with AA the night before the 5 year mark. I love how he fits right into the luggage carrier. Thank goodness he is bigger now!! The second video is of him walking. He was 19 months old, but had only started walking. These videos will be 5 years old on January 21st.

And where is AH? Well you can see her in the first video - 5 months in utero.

We Are Still Here

Wow - can you believe the last time I posted to the blog was May of 2008?? I guess we live busy lives!

What is new with us? We sold the restaurant in November 2008. We moved in February 2009 - just a few miles down the road. The kids must have grown another foot since May 2008. Here is a current family picture - friends from Facebook will recognize it.

My goal is to communicate better through this blog. Let us know what you think:)

Our Little Dancer

AH took her first dance lesson today as a trial class. We decided to sign her up for the summer once school is out for 3 lessons a week. Never know if you child will excel in the classes you put them in, but she so loves music and dancing at home. When I told her we were going to a dance class today, she did not even want her after school snack. Instead she insisted that we go dance! I hope her enthusiasm continues once we start classes in June. She also participated with out Mom being in class which is a new first!

Bus Update and Newest Family Member

On Thursday, the day after the bus fiasco, the transportation tried to let us down again. After being told that the bus was running 10 minutes late, we still had no bus 30 minutes later. Of course I got a little snippy and told transportation that we wanted to AA to get at least 5 hours of education in his 10 hour week. I am so glad that our regular bus driver will be back on Monday! Really makes you appreciate a good thing when it is gone for a few days.

On Tuesday last week, my sister had her first baby - a boy named William Arthur. William is not doing real well right now, so please say a prayer for him. He arrived just a few days after his due date, but is currently in NICU for Sepsis, Reflux, and Thrombocytopenia (low platelet count). The whole family hopes that he can come home this Tuesday. AH and I will be visiting him in 10 days as well as my sister.

AA Goes on His First Field Trip

or as I origianlly was going to call this post, PV school district transportation lost my son today!

The afternoon started with AA's afternoon bus showing up 10 minutes late. I tried to call his regular bus driver to see if there was a problem, but she did not answer her cell phone (I realized she was not working today). I had him half-way loaded into the car to take him to work. The bus driver was a substitute and there was no assistant on the bus. He got on the bus, no problem.

Half an hour later, the school called to see why AA was not in school today. NOT IN SCHOOL? I put him on the bus, so he should be there. The admin person said she would check back with his class to see what the mix-up was and call me RIGHT BACK. Half hour later I had not heard from her. So I called. She said that Transportation should have called me. Now I am thinking maybe there was a bus crash. But no. AA had fallen asleep on the bus and was never taken off the bus. The school loaded more students to take home (the 1:30 run). AA was never taken off the bus. The bus driver would be bringing him back after she did the stop she was nearing. The school said they would call me as soon as AA was back to school.

So I used the time to call the Supervisor as Transportation to find out why I had never been called and why this had happened in the first place. He said he did not know that Transportation was suppose to call me, but that he knew of the issue and would research (speak to the substitute driver) and get back to me.

Since I had to get AH from school, I called DH every 15 minutes to see if he had heard from the school yet. Our regular bus driver (cell phone call earlier) called me eventhough I had not left a message. I told her the whole story. Of course she was not surprised he had fallen asleep as he does this most days for a little cat-nap. I asked her why it should be so hard to count x number of students on the bus and x number of students off. Or the very lease to look through the bus after all the kids off-load. I mean, it is a short bus with very few seats and these kids have some issues which is why they qualify for transportation in the first place!

Finally at 3:25 (5 minutes before school was over), I called the school to talk to the admin who had said she would call me back when AA got to school. But instead I found out that she had gone for the day!! The person answering the phone said that AA had been at school for about 30 minutes and sympathized with my concerns (polite way to describe my end of the conversation).

Anyway, AA's teacher called me about 15 minutes later to see how I was and to add her appologies. She is soooo upbeat, she said that he had just been on a "field trip" and was in good spirits when he got to school at 2:45. He had had a snack, socialzed and went potty on his own.

Thirty minutes later the Director of transportation called me to follow up. Again, very applogetic and said that they had learned something new in the way they were handling the kids. Love being the issue that sparks change!! Anyway, our regular bus driver had called him based on our conversation earlier in the day - he said she felt just horrible that the whole thing had happened (and she was not even involved).

Fortunately they have assigned a different (better) substitute for tomorrow, so I am not going to keep him off the bus. But the whole thing was very nerve racking to the least. Wonder why I am so against putting him on a big bus for kindergarten with kids ranging from 5 to 10, no seatbelts, and no assistant!

I asked AA about his bus adventure, and it had very little effect on him. He just told me that he was on the bus for a long time before he got to school. But once he was there, so were all his friends:)

And, Happy Easter!

Despite all the excitement at the restaurant this weekend (see post below). We did have a fabulous Easter today. We were lucky to be able to celebrate with Brenda and her family - thank you Brenda! The kids a great time eating, playing, hunting easter eggs, and taking pictures. Here is our family picture for you to enjoy.

Weekend Burglery Attempts

Well we were the unfortunate victims of not one but two burglery attempts this weekend at the restaurant. Saturday morning someone tried to break our side door (first by cutting the glass in a circle and then etching the X inside the duct tape). They were able to cut the metal door jam and pull the door open. Of course that sounded the alarm so they did not try to enter the building. I spent Saturday morning from 5:30 am until 9:30 am in my pajamas (yes, had to give my report to the police in my unbrushed, unwashed, pajama best) since once I was at the restaurant I couldn't leave - the door would not close.

Spent over $900 to get the door glass replaced on Saturday and the door jam bent back to be able to close the door (will be repaired later in the week). So since the door jam was bent out of place, we were not surprised that the alarm sounded two times Sunday morning because their was give between the door and the door jam. When the morning paper was delivered, it set the alarm off. Then later in the morning we assumed the heavy winds bounced the door or perhaps a customer attempting to enter.

But we were wrong. The window right next to my NEW door had been smashed in. The losers even redamaged my NEW door! They also bent the door frame above the door so now the landlord has to see what he has to do to fix the structure of the building.

We thought it was only us who was being targeted. But the restaurant/bar down the street was hit mid-day today. The cops at least saw the guy drive off, but did not catch him. I so hope they find the creep(s) soon!!