Pre Easter Arrival

Saturday morning at 1:10 am I hear "Mom.......Mom my water broke!"
I fly out of bed wake up Jim and Michael and proceed to get everything Brittany needs to go to hospital. I enter living room and she is just standing there. Not moving just watching us. I realize she needs a towel for herself.
As the commotion in the house begins I tell her to call the hospital and let them know we are on our way.
In the car we both begin our designated phone calls to make.
We get to hospital, get her in the delivery room and begin all the motions involved. As her mom watching her go through all the pain with contractions my heart breaks because I can not make the pain stop.

Slowly but surely others begin to show up at the hospital.(not by my choice on some)She is in so much pain and is really not up to having people visit but she still allows them to.
Later in the morning she is given a epidermal and her pain is relieved and with that stress relieved she is beginning to dilate more. Her girlfriends arrive to spend time with her and to be here for her special day.
As the day progresses more and more friends and family arrive at the hospital.

Final at 5:39 pm Ian David arrives. I had the pleasure of being my daughters birthing coach and be apart of my grand son's birth.

Unfortunately there were some complications after the birth there fore the guest I call Ian's fan club had to wait to see him. Some were very upset about the wait. Some were completely understanding or decided to visit another day.

All I can say that I am truly blessed for the family and friends that came and took over the small waiting room on the arrival of a very precious gift from god.
All things are well and today they come home.

Geocaching Again

It has been so long since I have been out and looked for Caches. I think we stopped because we found all that were in our area and the cost of gas was really out of hand. (Not that gas prices have changed much). This pass weekend my son and I began to hunt again. And we took some of the neighbors with us.
Now, you must know that there is plenty of snow on the ground still and I really did not put on my thinking cap when we went. We went around one of the local county parks and began to hunt. And I will admit that it took me sometime to get my barrings since it has been 4 years since we last hunted.
We had a blast even though I did end up waist deep in the snow. (more than once) I had snow fill my boots and ended up at one point crawling out of the snow.(thank goodness no one took pictures of that.) I have decided to wait until the snow thaws before we head out again. But maybe not. LOL

A Grandma To Be

I am scared to death. In less than 3 weeks I will be a grandma at the age of 37. I am scared because this is not where I saw things going with my daughter. But I have embraced it.
I tear up at night when looking on Facebook and see all these girls getting ready for prom and remembering last year all the fun we had shopping for dresses and bonding time. I love spending all that time talking about what she wants to do with her future. To now look and listen and explain that she is now second and this little guy is first in priorities. And know she does not really know what she is in for.
As,a parent my heart is still breaking. Even though I had her at a young age I was working and had my own place. Where she has yet to graduate from high school and no job and a young man who does not feel he needs to be involved during the pregnancy. (A story for another day)
Now, I am working on embracing this new adventure for myself and our family. Hmmm lots more to think about here

School Troubles

I have not blogged in years. But this is a subject close to my heart.
Back in the fall we found out my teenage daughter was pregnant. We as parents went to the school and notified them and explained that she was due April 9th. And what we needed to do to make sure she graduated. She was asked at that time if she wanted to stay in mainstream school or if she wanted to transfer in to the ALP (Alternative Learning Program). She stated that she wanted to stay in mainstream school. I was told by the assistant principle that they could work with us. That there would be no problem.
Fast forward to the beginning of this semester. My daughter goes to her school counselor and ask her about working on a plan for when she does have the baby and has to be out of school for a number of weeks. She was  more or less pushed off. And it was said to her that you should know the day before you go in to labor and we can talk at that time.(someone who has never had a child) Lets wait till the end of March. She had a few teachers that same day ask if there has been a plan set up yet so they could get her assignments and find out what they need to do. She informed them that she has been told to wait till the end of the Month of March. One teacher planned on emailing this counselor to hopefully work out a plan. This all happened on a Friday. I was planning on going in myself and handling this myself. But, she ended up in the hospital with preterm labor. She was put on modified bed rest.
I in turn went to the school to talk to them about what they can do to help since she will not be able to return to school until after the baby is born and the doctor says she can return.
I was informed at this time that she would NOT fall under the HOME BOUND ruling and that she would end up falling behind in all her mainstream classes. And her best option is to go into the ALP program and that they would let her do what she needed online. (Was told this by both the assistant principle and school counselor.)
This was going to be the only way she would graduate with her class.
Both her and I were very upset by this but both agreed that getting her graduated was number one.
Fast forward 2 weeks. I get a phone call from the assistant principle informing us that she DOES qualify for the home bound program. And even though she is in the ALP now she will still need to have someone come to the house and spend 4 hours a week working with her on her homework. The school principle had no clue about my daughter and they type of student she is. He did not know she tutors others on math. He just say that she was pregnant and assumed that she was what they consider a high risk of not graduating.
She is over 2 weeks behind in mainstream school and it would be very hard for her to go back and be able to get caught up with the remaining of her class. (did find out last night that if she continues to work at the pace she is now she will be done hopefully before baby is born)
My biggest problem is I have people at the school talking and giving advice to parents and students that is incorrect. That even though we are not a big city school there should be plans in place for these types of circumstances. Not that I am condoning teen pregnancy but it does happen.

Summer at a glance

We have all been so busy this summer. I have taken lots of picture but have not had the time to just sit and blog about it. I am going to take the time and show some of our summer so far.

 

Reason I live where I do

 

Any question?

What have I made my children into

 

I have to admit I have wonderful children. They make me laugh daily. Sometimes I wonder why I got so lucky to have them.

This past Monday my oldest did the most shocking thing. To understand what she did you have to know a small piece of history.

She has been in a Civics class all year. And even though the teachers are to keep their political views out of the classroom she realized that her teacher is a Liberal. And my daughter has become quite outspoken about her own political standing. And she has done her own homework on what has been going on with Healthcare.

On, Monday she walked up to her teacher in the hallway at school and approached her teacher and said, “ You got your “FREE” Healthcare”.

The teacher looked at her and said, “Wow.” Brittany did get a little worried that she may have over stepped. And asked, “ Am I in trouble?”

Her teacher told her no. She had the freedom of free speech. Then her teacher told her to write to the President and tell him her views and that maybe she could change his mind.

 

Then, just the other day we were at a friend place and he owns a salvage yard. Michael loves to walk around the yard. Brittany like to do this also. It was after hours so the yard was closed so it is ok for them to walk around out there.

We headed up to the house to sit around and BS. I looked out the patio window to see Michael walking up to junk cars and looking in the windows.

I said, “ Oh my, my kids are becoming scavengers.”

Jim looked at me and said, “ Where do you think they learned it?”

Ha ha ha was my reply. After a while they came in and Brittany looks at me and says, “Look mom, I found two pairs of jeans that will fit me!” I instructed her to put them in the car and I would wash them when we got home.

I sat there and thought about it a while. And then I said out loud, “ I am so lucky that I do not have kids that have issues with clothing from out of junked car or thrift stores. There are so many children out there that would turn their nose up at such an idea.”

My daughter is so wonderful when it comes to things like that. She could care less about where I bought it. As long as she thinks it is cool and she will wear it.

Pinewood Derby 2010

Michael Had his Pinewood Derby today with his Cub Scout Pack.

They first judged on coolness..

Then the fun of the race began.

Michael won the first heat. He had to run his car backwards due to the nose of it being to low.

He had fun and learned good sportsman like behavior. He did not win but that was ok with him.

There is always next year. 

Kill the Bill Rally – St. Paul MN

Yesterday the kids and I went to the “ Kill the Bill Rally”. Now, had you told me a year ago that I would be taking my kids to a rally against Health care reform, I would have laughed in your face.

Nick, Britt, Michael

It was great to hear all the voices being shared together in a common cause. What I thought was even greater is my kids getting involved. And understanding that what Big Government is trying to do is wrong.

I chose to have what they call the “ Cadillac” of health care plans. I could get a different plan. But, there is the thing called choice. Government has no right to tell me what I need to carry or have their nose in my health business.

This was the first time my youngest has been to the capital so of course I had to get his photo of him on the steps.

He was so proud to hold the sign he worked very hard to make.