Monday, July 29, 2013

It Has Been Awhile........

Since I posted.  I am sorry about that.  Summer seems to have slipped by and the girls start school in 2 weeks.  It seems like it was June and school was getting out.

Summer was slow around these parts.  No real activities to speak of.  LGA turned nine and we celebrated at her summer school class with cupcakes and at home with her fave dinner spaghetti and she wanted store bought cake this year.  It's hard to believe she has turned 9.  She's still more like 5 or 6 in maturity, but this transition was a hard one for her.  She had a hard time in summer school (which was a month) and then transitioning from summer school.  Her birthday coming and wondering what her school class will be like was hard for her.  She will have a new teacher and will be in her special ed class with grades 4-6.  She always does much better with the younger kids so I anticipate a harder adjustment for her.

There has been a lot of fighting going on this summer between the girls and once I had to break up an actual physical fight.  They really do not get along very well, although I can see BGA trying, but LGA still does not have the maturity to try either.  I have had to threaten to take away electronics and tv/pool time quite a few times. 

We got one of those hard sided Intex pools and set it up in June.  The thing had a leak evidently when we got it and water drained out - that was not fun.  We did not get flooding in the yard luckily and there is a tarp under the pool so it mostly drained there.  We also had a drain put in on our concrete slab that the pool sits on so water drained out.  But we (I should say Dave) fixed the leak and now the pool is a great feature for us to utilize.  The girls can stand in it (I am 4'11 and it comes up to my chest and I can stand in it to) and also swim under and around.  We have some inner tubes and they get on those and float around.  I have been towing them around too and doing some water exercises so it's been good for me too.

I had some time with BGA when LGA went to summer school (another issue for LGA jealousy of what she thought BGA was doing - none of which BGA was actually doing).  We had some great talks and this time must have been needed because she kept telling me how much she loved me and how happy she was.  We didn't do much, Dave and I took her to a movie together when he was off, we went to breakfast, shopping, breakfast with one of her former teachers, etc. It was very low key but relaxing and we didn't have to rush, etc.  She has always liked Hannah Montana (why I don't know because Miley Cyrus has really taken a turn for the worse in my opinion) so we started watching the show on Netflix together.  The minute she saw it was on Netflix she practically screamed at me to play it.  So we started with season 1 (I think there were only 4 seasons) and are on season 3 now.  BGA seems to like the earlier seasons much better.  I don't know if she has memories of watching it somewhere else (she came home in season 2 I think) but she gravitates to the first 2 seasons and has sort of gotten bored in season 3.  But we did have some great time together and it was fun to have one on one time with her. 

Both girls are home now and it is ok, now that they have transitioned back to being together and LGA has some issues but mostly I have been able to see her triggers and stop them before the fit or tantrum starts.  Not always, but most of the time.   I have to say I am enjoying not having to be in a routine at all or be anywhere or go anywhere.  I will miss that when school starts.

Dave and I have each spent time with friends (me with my adoptive moms) during this summer but not nearly as much as we should have. I have to admit I am looking forward to our Mondays together when the girls are in school.

I have been doing a lot of cooking and some baking this summer.  I've been on a budget and so I have been trying to find meal rotations I can make.  The temps have risen to the 100's on a couple of weeks so I have wanted to find recipes for the stove or even better the crock pot.  I have tried out a few that have gone over well, so will be trying to organize my recipes into a binder so I can have the recipes we like at hand (instead of my current method of printing them and putting them on my book shelf where my cookbooks reside. 

I also have been able to get my beading desk and station (still in our room as there is no other place I could have it) cleared and the beads put away. I had two rolling carts and when the new carpet was put in I had to shove things in them and in boxes.  My beading desk (more like a computer desk) was storage to all the stuff that ended up in our room and I had been putting off getting it organized and doing some beading.  This past weekend I got most of it sorted out, and did some beading (I really am out of practice and had to spend some time with my wire wrapped loops, etc.) but still need to find homes for stuff so items got piled on my bed to bead, then piled back on the beading desk when I was done.  I got interrupted to fix dinner and by girls who are not used to mom being in the same room with them.  The dogs all hung out with me too, guess they are used to mom being around and wanted to be with me, LOL.  I hope to get back to beading this fall when the girls go back to school.

We have taken the girls to two movies this summer, making a day out for us all on Dave's day off.  We saw Monsters University and Despicable Me 2. We liked both movies.  I tried to take the girls to Regal's $1 movies but LGA was in summer school, BGA wanted to sleep in (and I let her, which is one of the reasons we really didn't do much.  I felt she needed the sleep) and we couldn't make the 10:00am time.  I might try to take them this week or next before school starts.

So there you have it, not very exciting summer, and not a lot to blog about, but since it's been almost 2 mos since I have blogged I thought I'd post an update. 

Hope you are all enjoying your summer......I'm enjoying reading the blogs of those who are traveling and having exciting adventures.  :-)