Finally Emerging...

from the sea of boxes I was drowning in. Needless to say things have been insane. I am so sick of unpacking. There's still about 8 boxes that haven't been unpacked sitting in my living room. It's mostly scrapping stuff and I just don't know where to put it. I'm seriously considering setting up a spot for myself in the garage, with the low humidity here I'd probably be ok, but do I really want to risk it? I really don't have many other options, there just isn't anywhere for me to put it all.

Last week was a pretty rough one for the kids. They all had benchmark tests to take. It was stressful for them but the girls pretty much took it all in stride. Caitlynn got a B on hers, not bad since they're covering stuff that dodea doesn't cover until 6th or 7th grade. I haven't heard what Hannah got, but I'm not too worried, she's been picking things up pretty quick since we've been here, and she's one smart cookie. Elijah on the other hand ended up not taking his test at all. He's not been sleeping well, I'm pretty sure it's the stress from school. They aren't doing anything yet to implement his IEP, and I don't think his teacher has any clue on what to do with him. Every time I suggest something or mention what I think different behaviors mean she gets a glazed look in her eye. So the day of the test he fell asleep in class 3 times and she had to wake him up, and he refused to take the test just kept insisting he didn't know how to do it. Of course I didn't hear about any of this until after school, at which time she told me he absolutely had to get it done the next day so the scores could be reported. We go home and he's working on homework complaining he's tired and wants to go to sleep, definitely not his usual behavior. I figured someone would have asked him during school if he wasn't feeling well or see if he was hot, I man how often do 8 year old boys fall asleep multiple times during the day? On the off chance I felt his forehead and he was on fire. Ends up he was sick, of course he wasn't going to do well, I keep telling her he won't speak up for himself and she needs to be proactive, but I feel like I'm talking to myself. Then I go to the office the next day to try and get the name of the head of the special ed dept, so I can try to figure out what they plan to do for him, since no one's talking to me. And the woman at the front desk who I've dealt with a few times now, she's sweet as can be, but definitely has no clue as to what's going on. I ask for the name of the special ed director and she frowns and looks at me and says well the principal is in charge of the whole school. While that may be true, I know she doesn't have time or intimate knowledge of my sons IEP. Then she says I should go talk to the teacher...so I try that route again. She finally tells me to go talk to the counselor, though she doesn't know what his name is. Can you see my frustration yet? I have to say the counselor was wonderful though, he pulled Elijah's record, found that the copy of the IEP I watched the smart lady make didn't end up in his folder, though somehow the speech therapist knows what he's supposed to get. Anyway, the counselor listened to my concerns, took my number and promised to figure out what was going on for me. I figured sure it'll be just like everyone else I've talked to so far, absolutely no help. I was pleasantly surprised to hear from him 15 minutes after we got home to let me know the head of special ed was on her way out for vacation, but that she would call me next week when the kids go back to school. Hopefully that's what happens. While talking to the counselor I officially asked for a meeting to writeup a new IEP, and they have 30 days to get everything in order, hopefully they don't drag it out that long. Elijah was having trouble in Guam where they were way behind where this school is, so as you can imagine he's drowning here. And it wouldn't even bother me if it wasn't affecting his sleep and everything else. Since we left Guam he's been flapping his hands, something he never did before the last couple months, he's looking at everything funny kind of at a tilt, and totally zoning out way more than usual. This morning at Wal-mart he kept wandering off whenever I turned my back for a second because he was zoning out on the pattern of the wooden floor and following it around. He's also started saying things like his brain just won't work right, or that it's being crazy, I don't know how much of that is what he feels and how much is what he thinks other people think about him. Anyway it's breaking my heart to See him having such a hard time.

The girls are having a hard time too, but they show it in different ways. It seems like they fight more now then they ever have before. At times it's almost like they're bipolar, they go from being over the top lovey with each other to ready to pull each others hair out. This afternoon at the playground I had to give them both timeouts. Hello at 10 and almost 9 I thought we were way past the timeout stage. They had an argument and kicked each other, then 5 minutes later they were spotting each other to do walkovers and other stunts. It's all kind of surreal to me sometimes. I honestly thought the fighting would lessen up when they went back to school and weren't stuck together in a hotel room all day, and especially now that they have their own rooms and all their stuff, but I was way wrong.

I had wanted to d something fun with the kids this week while they're out of school, but I decided not to because of their behavior. Lucky for them they have a nice daddy, when I told Dave I had changed my mind he told me we should go anyway. Maybe getting away from the unpacking stress and everything else will be good for us all. On Wednesday we're going to Knotts Berry Farms, an amusement park in the area. Here's the website www.knotts.com I think we're all going to have a lot of much needed fun.

So far so good

So far the kids really seem to like their new school. Caitlynn didn't realize until I told her, that her entire class was a gifted class. She kept arguing with me, but we didn't go to gifted, we didn't do any gifted things etc. I had to explain to her that everyone in her class was gifted, and her teacher was a gifted teacher, so she is in gifted all day every day. Once she understood she was really excited. She came out of school on her first day with her new friend who is also Caitlyn, spelt almost exactly the same, and they sit next to each other in class. Her new friend was so excited that I had to meet her mom, it was very cute. Hannah said she plays with a bunch of kids at the playground but doesn't know any one's name. She has a male teacher who reminds me very much of Mr. Kranz in Guam who I thought was a phenomenal teacher. She really lucked out because her class is going on a field trip on Wednesday. As usual, I don't get much feedback from Elijah, but I do know he has a very organized teacher who's really on top of things. After the first day of school she came and asked Dave a few questions because he freaked out on her when she tried to do spelling with him, which is the usual response I get for at least the first 2 days of new spelling words. And the kids are supposed to use the bathroom on their own during recess, so they don't have to go during class, he didn't remember and had to go during class. Today he said he lost his class on the way to lunch but found them quick, not sure what that means. They haven't started any of his services yet, but hopefully they will soon, I believe they have 10 school days to get everything in order. Something happened this morning that almost made me cry, as we were dropping the kids off I was debating if we stayed until Elijah got into class or hoped he could do it on his own. Just as I'm about tosay something to Dave, a little boy from Elijah's class comes and says hello to him and tells us he'll show Elijah where he needs to line up to meet the teacher. How sweet is that?

I am definitely not winning any Mom of the Year awards this week. Somehow I totally screwed up the time school let out. For some reason I thought it was 2:50, but it was really 2:10. Yeah I know, not good. So we pull up to the school at 2:25 and are wondering why all the kids are out, oops. Of course I figured it out real quick. So we look for the kids at the office, nobody knows what I'm talking about, and tell us to go check their class rooms. As we're rounding the corner to Caitlynn's classroom my cellphone stars ringing, it was Caitlynn's teacher letting us know she had all the kids. Thank goodness we updated our phone number yesterday lol.

Back to school

The kids started back to school today, and I'm really excited about it. It's a year round school, so every Thursday they have a half day and get out at 12:15. We couldn't have picked a better day for them to start, they only have to make it through a few hours, have a full day tomorrow and then the weekend. I'll write more later when they come home and tell us about it, but I have a good feeling so far.

Hello San Diego

So the flights on the way here were hell, but we made it in one piece and are ready to end our first day in San Diego. Can't say we did anything exciting today, basically just dragged ourselves through the day until we could go to sleep. Hopefully the kids will nod off soon and I'll be able to sleep, oh the joys of sharing a hotel room. I actually can't believe I'm still functional, Sunday morning I woke up at 1am and couldn't go back to sleep, and somehow no matter how hard I tried I only slept about 1 1/2 hours the whole trip here. Needless to say I'm a little out of it right now. Tomorrow is house hunting, we looked at the school districts and would like to find a place in Poway, it seems to be the most affordable community with good schools.

Wow, that was quick...

It seemed like we had all this time before we had to leave Guam, and now it's less than 12 hours, where did the time go? This week has been a real roller coaster. We checked into the hotel Wednesday, and that made it real that we were close to leaving. It's totally bittersweet, we've really enjoyed our time here and met so many caring and loving people, but it's also been a very long time since we've seen our family. Friday was Dave's Commissioning ceremony, which all went terrifically. It was great to see both our church family and our military family in the audience, and fellowshipping during the reception. It was both exciting and sad, we're starting a new chapter in our lives, and as always there's that part that's scared and wants to hang on tight to things it's used to. Of course throughout the reception there were all kinds of conversations that choked me up and made me cry. Then last night we went to the Southard's for dinner and trick or treating. It was great to spend a last evening with friends, but sad as it came to an end, the nice part is that they'll be in San Diego in a few months, so we'll see eachother again soon. We ran into the Gills while out and of course saying goodbye again made me cry again, but Kerrie will be at the airport in the morning, so there will be more tears. A lot of our church family said that they will also be at the airport tomorrow, so it really should be quite the tearfest. There are so many people who have made our time on Guam so great, our military friends Fischer's, Gill's, Southard's, Sweeney's thank you all for your friendship and until we meet again. Thank you to our entire church family at Agana Heights Baptist Church, thank you for loving us and making us feel so at home and allowing us to serve the Lord beside you, until we are together in heaven.

To our families, I know San Diego is still far from home, but at least we'll be on the same side of the world, same continent, and able to talk on the phone at "normal" times.