Monday, April 22, 2013

The post where I boast.......oh look it rhymes!

Sorry for the lack of posts, although seriously I am never sure who reads this ole blog anway.....but I'm going to do a big old update anyway.

BGA got her "citizen of the month" award (I thought it was Student of the Month but I was wrong) and both Dave and I got to be there.  We were very proud of our girl.  She's been on Student Council all year long so she goes to the assemblies and helps the Principal and Vice Principal and the teachers.  Her teacher has been so proud of her that she's sent me a few notes about how proud she is.  I couldn't be ANY more proud if I tried.  This is a kid who hated school when she came home to us at age 6.  She was sullen, hated homework and trying in school.  Her first grade teacher was a wonderful teacher for all of us, she wanted to encourage BGA so as BGA achieved her milestones she got a lot of awards that year.  She got spoiled.  She thought she'd always get awards. When she hit 2nd grade we finalized the girls' adoption. I think she grieved, and it was a hard year for her.  She really struggled and got in trouble and suspended because she followed a little girl in her class' lead and wrote a bad word on the bathroom wall - and got caught.  We were devastated, wondering if this was how her school experience was gonna go.  3rd grade we got the teacher we requested, but hadn't put the girls on ADHD meds yet.  The teacher came out and said she was studying for her masters and a mom to 3, main bread winner, and she said she couldn't handle BGA and wanted to transfer her.  Many of you might remember my frustration as I knew I didn't want her transferred.  I simply told the teacher I would not transfer her and if she would be patient, the meds would work and I was sure BGA would be a different girl. She was, she did a complete 360!  She made the most improvement and growth of any child in the class.  Her teacher loved her.  She blossomed under this teacher.  4th grade was tough, BGA found she would need to be responsible for a lot of her homework and failed.  And lied to me about it.  It was another hard year.  She struggled with the fact she told all the other 4th graders she'd been adopted and they teased her, they teased her about her red hair.  She was not happy a lot and it showed.  She needed her pm med in the afternoon the teacher said because she just couldn't focus, and she was not organized.  The teacher assigned another child to "help" her organize herself.  5th grade has found us at another school with another teacher, who seems able to motivate and inspire BGA and while she did have homework issues, she went from an S (satisfactory) 1st quarter, to a U (unsatisfactory) 2nd quarter, to an O (outstanding, highest you can get and one she's never achieved).  So she's made progress and we're really proud of her.

The surprise for us was LGA's teacher called us and told us that she was getting BOTH math and reading awards! She said she'd been out as her daughter had had a baby and she forgot to send the notices home.  So she was calling to ask us if we could come.  Dave was able to come to this awards assembly as well so we shouted as loud as we could for LGA!  She also got the teachers award for reading and math and both girls had missed 0 days of school so they went in a drawing for an auctioned off item (that they both told me they didn't win, but you know, that's how it goes).  We were so proud of the girls and took them to a spaghetti house with the name the same as LGA.  LGA had a Shirley Temple and BGA had a bambino daquiri. We celebrated both girls with a nice pasta dinner.

I have to say, I'm really proud of them.  I know they have issues and we deal with those daily, but I am just really proud of the growth I have seen in them.  They've come a long way from the 4 and 6 yr old girls who came to live with us.  So many years we went through so much and now I see they are more relaxed and settled in at almost 5 yrs.  It's nice to see that part of them (the lull before the teen years I think).

Now, on to the house update.  We have floors both carpet, lino and laminate.  It was not without drama, it meant going through a few things in the house that we hadn't really touched or looked at for a few years and now as of Friday, we have the laminate in.  Evidently we had to have our floors 'grinded' so now there's some discussion on how much labor time was involved.  We will see if it gets resolved.  No one told us we had to pay extra for grinding the floors.  Quite a bit extra.  We also have our patio cover and concrete done, and some sod that was put in yesterday.  We have the drains done and the water flows out to the front yard, so I hope this eliminates any more water issues.  It's really nice to have the floors done, updated after 13 yrs of carpet.  It was nice when the old carpet was ripped out for sure!  It has been almost 2 mos of non stop waiting on people to get stuff done and house torn up a bit, LGA in BGA's room, etc.  But now it's all back together (minus a few little things) and we couldn't be happier.  Welcome Spring!

This weekend BGA competes for her school in a local track meet.  She's really excited and is running about 3 races so far.  Dave has to work as there are people out with surgeries and healing time so he's been working 12 hour saturdays.  So he has to miss her meet, as he just can't go.  She cried huge crocodile tears and was NOT happy.  She even cried about it when my friend was here yesterday, even though my friend is coming with us to see her run.  We got so used to his promotion and making his own hours that this one threw us all for a loop.  But I'm going to try to film it on my camera. I've been told I need to practice before this weekend so I have it completely down and don't miss any of it.

Temps have heated up here this week, going into the upper 80's, so welcome Spring, with a bang!

Hope you are all enjoying the warm sun.

5 comments:

  1. Wow! Congratulations to all for the amazing progress your girls have made. Great job, Mom!

    Maggie S

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  2. Thanks, Maggie. It's funny how it started happening this year.

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  3. Hey Molly, wow! Amazing update! So happy to hear how well the girls are doing. It's so heartwarming.

    And congratulations ont he carpet and all. Sounds like you've done some great work there.

    Keep the updates coming!

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  4. Thanks, ladies. I'm really proud of them. And yes, house has flooring and outside has patio cover, grass and cement for a hard sided med size pool for summer. It will be a good summer. We are going to have a good time outdoors. Have to wait on patio furniture but hopefully we can get that soon, still have time though, as it's not really summer yet.

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