CASA

So, I have decided instead of sitting around and sulking about our house not selling, I am going to go out and do some volunteering (You see driving a school bus, homeschooling a preschooler, driving a middle schooler to her activities and keeping up the house and yard while hubby lives two hours away is not enough).

I have signed up to be a CASA volunteer. If you don't know what that is I am going to be a Court Appointed Special Advocate. I am going to be the voice for a child in the court system. Children who are either removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect or in the court system for the same reason need someone to speak for them on their behalf. I will be assigned a child(ren) and my job is to get to know them, talk to their teachers, foster parents, doctors, therapists, case workers, biological parents and anyone else involved with them or their case. I gather information and spend time getting to know the child(ren) then I go to court and give my opinion on how their situation should be handled and also tell the judge what the child wants.

I am on my second week of a nine week training session. I am amazed at what kind of power the CASA's have. We can ask for ANY documentation that has to do with the case and medical or psychological records etc. The judge looks to the CASA just as much as they do the caseworker. If I don't agree with the caseworker I can actually take a stand against them because my job is to express what the best interest is of the child(ren).

Mike and I were foster parents a few years back. I would love to do that again, but Mike is not going for it. We had some pretty wild situations that came our way and he is not interested in getting involved it that again. (He knows his wife has a really hard time saying "no" and would take any child that needed a home.) I figured this was my way of being involved and helping out children that are in need without dragging my family into the middle of it. Hopefully I can keep it together and not get to emotionally involved......

Raffleway-CHECK IT OUT!!!

Some friends of ours are getting ready to go to China to adopt a beautiful little boy. They are trying to come up with the funds for their upcoming trip.

Rebecca is having a raffleway for a beautiful jewelry set that is made by Lana and very talented young lady who was adopted at the age of 12 from China. You need to head on over to Rebecca's blog and check out this set and get your name in on the drawing. I personally believe this is a cute set for an adult or a younger girl. I had to get Morgan's name in on it.

No matter what, I would love for any of you who can to chip in and help Rebecca and her family bring little Owen home so he can know the love of a family!

The Flowergirl

My dad is getting married on October 11th. Olivia is going to be a flowergirl. Here is the dress we picked out.

Our Little Ballerina

Olivia started Pre-Ballet classes last night. She was so very excited. She can't wait until next week to go back.

* Note her ballet shoes were too small so we should be getting her new pair this week.

The end of summer.....

Well today marks the end of summer. We closed the pool today. I hate closing the pool. For that matter I hate opening the pool, I hate cleaning the pool, I hate spending money on the pool...do ya get the picture. I remember last year when we closed the pool we said "Yeah! The last time we will ever have to close the pool." Little did we know that we would still be here and would have to once again do all the above to the pool including another closing. I won't say it again....for fear of a jinxing and another round of pool care next summer.

We did get an offer Friday on our house. It was a sucky offer though. Mike wanted to throw it away and not even respond he was so insulted. Luckily he was two hours away so yesterday I talked to our Realtor and we made a counter offer but we are soooo far apart I really don't see anything happening. They offered us less than what we paid for the place 6 years ago. In that six years we have added a two car garage, a pole barn, finished the basement (with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, laundry room and rec room-pretty much doubling our living space). It was just ridiculous. It is such a frustrating process.

A family needs our prayers

There is a family in China right now to get their little girl. When it was time to pick her up they found out she was in the hospital and may be dying. They are desperately trying to get things on the fast track so they can get her home to the US and better medical care. They are also praying for a miracle so she improves enough to make the trip home. Please pray for this family!

http://roomforatleastonemore.blogspot.com/

I'm Baaaaack!

Well, back in July I did try to post a "I am taking a hiatus message" but it evidently didn't go through. I decided that I just needed to take a break for a while. I had been going through a depression and just needed to take some time to get myself back together.

So, to do some back tracking and updating....

The end of July was fair time for us. It wasn't as much fun as usual because we didn't camp out at the fair. We let someone else use our spot. If we are still here next year I will borrow someone's camper because I want a camper to go back to in the evenings!

We didn't have a goat this year but Morgan helped another family out that had three younger kids and they had brought about 20 goats. She got to show more this year than when she had her own goats.

She also was in dog club this year. Annie didn't cooperate so much for the obedience class, but did great in the showmanship class. Morgan got Champion! That was very exciting for her first year.









Last year we couldn't keep Olivia off of the rides. This year she begged and begged and when I finally picked a day to buy tickets she cried and cried and wanted nothing to do with them. I am not sure I understand this child.





Sometime at the end of July I also came to terms so to speak about our house being for sale. The area we live in is considered the RV capital of the world. That translates into "when the economy takes a hit our area takes a major nose dive." There has been company after company that is either laying lots of people off or closing their doors all together. That doesn't do well for the housing market around here. So, I decided we were just gonna have to ride it out. We had pretty much no showings this summer. I came home one day and put all the important school dates on our calendar and decided that when it happens it happens and I am not going to stress about it. It has been a huge relief. I quit shopping for houses and don't clean now unless we get a showing appointment. (We have now how three in the last week). Maybe that is where God wanted me to be all along. Out of control and just letting things be.

We had a long summer this year. Our community is building a new high school so they delayed the start of school three weeks. Three very long weeks. Even Morgan was more than ready to go back.

This year I am homeschooling Olivia for her preschool. We didn't sign her up this last winter for this year because we thought we would be moved. I bought a preschool curriculum and decided to do it myself.

I am still driving a school bus. This year started out as a nightmare though. They had redistricted the school and all 50 drivers got new routes. The first couple of days was complete and utter chaos. I was almost wishing I could quit! Things have seemed to calm down now this second week and we should be on a regular schedule.

This is a picture of Livi and Nolan (my nephew). They are great buddies...mostly because Olivia is about 1 1/2 years older and can boss him around....and he allows it.

Today we are on our third day of rain. I think today we are getting what is left over of Hurricane Ike. We have had about 10 inches of rain. Our lower garage/shop has standing water in it....and we have a showing this afternoon. Great timing. It isn't suppose to quit until tomorrow. The whole community is flooding. UGH. And we live in Indiana!!!

Well, I think I am about caught up now. I will try to be better, but there are no guarantees. :)