Cameron Left

Yes this post has taken me a long time to write.  I truly have mixed emotions about it.  The other day I got a phone call from Gina Cameron's case worker who said that Cameron would be moving on March 2nd to be in the same foster home as his brother and sister.  I was so happy to hear this but I was so sad to know that he would be going to a foster home where he would be in daycare all day long.  That broke my heart.  I really struggled with this from the moment I knew that would be his fate.  We ended up having Cameron for six weeks.  There were good days and bad days.  He was sick for about three out of the six weeks that we had him.  He had multiple ear infections that we fought.  He and Rachel fought like crazy when he was feeling good but of course a few days before he was leaving they had actually learned how to get along and I didn't have to separate them.  He had an extremely busy schedule.  On Wednesdays I would have to get him up and have him ready to go by 8:00 so that he could have a three hour visit at H&W with his parents.  Then on Thursdays they had me put him in daycare so he would get another day to see his siblings.  (Totally counterproductive because he never got to see his siblings when he was there).  Friday afternoon I would then take him to his cousin's house and he would spend the weekend there with his siblings.  I had told myself from the beginning it would be better for him to be with his siblings.  I know he needs to be with them and lights up every time he would see them.  I never thought giving him to the other foster mom was going to be this hard.  I thought about his short little life and all that he had been through and my heart just breaks for him.  I hope and pray that thing will work out for him and his siblings and they eventually get a stable home life.  Needless to say the night before I was to take him I was checking on him in bed and just broke down. I went into my room where Scott was and he held me and we both actually had a good cry.  He truly had a piece of each of our hearts.

Happy little boy.

 Climbing on the computer.  Not sure exactly what it wasn't doing at this point but he wanted it to do something and so he was shaking it.

 Cutest little smile.

 Help me I'm stuck.  He would get the tutu stuck up around his arms and then couldn't get it off.  Wrapped around both shoulders.

 Totally a good sport about dressing up and playing with Rachel.  He likes this huge tutu better than Rachel does.

The next pictures are the last pictures when we told him good bye.

 They gave each other a big old hug.  It was so cute.

I was the one who took him over to the other foster home while Scott stayed home with Rachel.  I stayed there talking for a little bit just to fill the foster mom in on what routine we had him doing and when I got up to leave he came over to me and put his hands up to me to pick him up. I picked him up and gave him a hug and then put him back down to go play with his siblings.  As I stood there talking at the door he came over to me again to pick him up.  I did again and gave him a big hug and kiss and told him I was going to miss him.  I handed him off to Patty and he started to cry and reach for me.  I left at that point and just went to my car and cried on the way to Walmart.  I sent out text messages to several family and friends telling them I had a broken heart because I did.  I couldn't believe how much I had grown to love this little guy.  It was so great to have such a support group who sent back words of encouragment.  We also got this from Scott's parents and his sister Jamie.

I just have to say I'm not sure how these people who have been foster parents forever do it.  It was an emotional roller coaster for us and in the end I cried for 3 days about it.  Everyone says I need to know that I was doing a great service for Cameron and that's what I have focused on.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity we had to give him a happy, safe and reliable environment while we had him.

Time with Cousins

Paul and his family came to Boise today and we hooked up with them for lunch at Rockie's Diner.  We came back to my house and looked for a movie.  We found Nemo in 3D at Overland Park.  Rachel wasn't very good at the movie.  I thought she would love it and watch it like she does at our house.  I loved seeing it in 3D because you could see so many more things pop out on it.  One of the things we all saw was when the little girl is poking the fish tank you actually see fingerprints on it.  After the movie they decided they wanted to go feed the geese.  Well Kaylene thought they had been feeding them at Ann Morrison park and so we went there but it ended up not being where they were at earlier.  We headed to the river and decided that we would just feed the ducks and the seagulls there where we were at.

  Kids feeding the ducks and seagulls.

Paul was surprised that they went through a whole loaf of bread in 15 minutes.  It was so funny because we had started with two ducks and look at all the ducks that came to feed.  There were so many of them and they would actually fight for the food.  After this we let them play at the playground for a little bit and then headed to Chuckarama for dinner.

Aquarium

Jamie and her family came to our house for their spring break weekend.  Rachel loved having them here and had so much fun with her cousins.  We decided on Saturday that we would go to the aquarium.  I had never taken Rachel there so I thought it would be good.  I should have known that with all that water she wanted to spend most of her time there trying to touch everything.  She isn't afraid of anything.  Here are just a few of the pictures we got while there.

 Petting the lizard.  He was bumpy.

 She didn't want to leave this fish tank.  It was the first one as you walk in.  I was afraid she would totally fall in.  She loved being able to touch so many things.

 Everyone looking at the Nemo fishes.

 Touching the starfishes.

 We got to talk to a mermaid and have our picture taken with her.

 Touching the sting rays.  They were slimy.

 Rachel totally went over and touched this snake and even grabbed him.  The guy kept telling Rachel not to get so close to the snakes head but she kept grabbing him right at the base of his head.  I kept trying to grab for her but of course I'm afraid of snakes also.  So I would try to grab but the snake was right there.  At one point she walked right under the snakes head and his tongue touched her hair.  I just about died at that point.

Once I finally got her I got away from that snake ASAP.

 I love this picture of Keith. It's awesome.  

 Rachel and Hallee

Here's another tank of creatures that Rachel was able to touch.  She almost got into this one but Uncle Keith pulled her to safety.

Hole under RV Pad

We are getting neighbors next to our camper pad.  One of the workers came up to talk to me about the fact they can't find the pipe for the main water line.  I was like oh great.  They said they might have to cut out the concrete to get to the pipe.  I was like that totally sucks.  I ended up calling Hubble to make sure that we wouldn't have to pay for it if they did cut our concrete.  We specifically had Steve come out to check and make sure the utilities were where they would be easy to get to when they built the new house.  He said if they did have to cut the concrete they would pay to have it replaced.  I was like okay then have at it.  Well they were actually able to just dig a hole under the concrete.  These are the pictures of the hole.

This picture shows that the pipe was turned up and that's why they couldn't find it.

The trench along the parking pad.

We of course are hoping that they have compacted it well enough that we won't have any problems with our camper pad later in years because of this.

1st Primary Scripture

Rachel's first opportunity to speak in church.  She had the scriptures.  I wasn't sure she would actually do it but after practicing for a few days with no success she told me on Thursday morning at breakfast "Mom do you want to hear my scripture?"  I said, "Sure" and away she went with her scripture.  Since I couldn't video tape her doing it at church I had her do it here at home. 

She picked out one of her new dresses that I took out of the 4T bin to where today.  

Here is her saying her scripture:

Helaman 14:8

And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall ^abelieve on the Son of God,

 the same shall have everlasting life.

 

I was so proud of her.  She got up to the pulpit and was barely able to be seen over it.  Sister Borzea picked her up and Rachel said her scripture without any help and when she was done she said, "that's my scripture" and then sat right back down.  It was definitely a proud mommy moment.

Bored at Clinic

The other day while I was working Rachel found the hula hoops and was using them to walk on.  I was impressed she was able to figure this out.    One of many things she plays with when she gets really bored.

Jackson Hole Volleyball Tournament 2013

Well it has been four long years since I've played in the Jackson Hole Volleyball Tournament.  I was so happy to finally be back.  I was pretty excited for our team that I had handed picked to come play here.   Scott's parents came to see us while we were up there.  We had to first stop in Kmart to buy a coat for Rachel because we totally left our coats sitting at my parents house in Poky when we stayed there last night.  After that we went to check in and then I headed to the community center to be with my team.  We ended up having one of the 1st games of the tournament and I was glad to be able to get the first one out of the way.  We only had two city games together as a team before we went so we started off okay but ended up having a really rough tournament. We played the three toughest teams in our bracket that first night.  Yes we played well but ended up losing all our games.  After a good night sleep we were ready to play again.

 Rachel was our cheerleader but not really.  She didn't want to cheer.  She just wanted to play under the bleachers and then would talk to me in between games.

 Our team: Alyson, Denise, Janel, Diedre, Amy and myself.

Being ready to receive the serve.

 I'm passing the ball

 Hitting the ball over the blockers.

Rachel had so much fun hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa.  They were going to leave before the tournamnet started but she whined and they changed their mind and came back to be with Rachel a little bit longer.  She's totally goofing around with them.  

Grandpa laying down and Rachel decided she needed to lay on him also.

Hanging out with mom while she was keeping score.   Rachel loved being able to just go around and talk to anyone who wanted to talk to her.  She had all the teams laughing and telling us how adorable she is.   We ended up being in the lower tournament but it was good for us to have that many games together.  We played a total of 21 games in two days.  We were happy that we weren't the first out of the tournament.  We made it to the third round in the tournament.  I do have to say I was kind of glad to be finally out.  I was so tired and my muscles had started to stiffen up I could hardly move.  We as a team went to see the other Boise team that we are friends with.  They just happened to be playing the Utah State team and won them the first game.  We were exctied about it.  The Utah State team actually had bad attitudes and so we were glad they were getting worked.  Our Boise team ended up losing and so after that they had to play the other Boise team.  I was like well my family is hungry so I went and picked up Scott and Rachel and we went to eat at the Merry Piglets.  We had about a fifteen minute wait but oh it was so good once we got our food.  The volleyball tournament is always fun but oh the food at the Merry Piglets is totally what I was excited for.  After that we went to our hotel and I waited for my teammates to finish eating and call me to go soak in the hot tub.  We soaked for about an hour.  It felt so good.

This is what I woke up to after the tournament.  A nice big blister on the end of my toe.  OUCH!!!

The next day I of course wanted to go shopping since we had played so much volleyball we just didn't have time to do any of that yet.  Rachel was a bear and ended up in the car with Scott while I shopped.  We ended up getting her this shirt.

I'm the Boss No Questions No Arguments We will just do things MY WAY!!!

She was really mad that we couldn't find a sweat shirt with strings in them.  She thought we should buy her an adult one so she could have the strings.  I'm guessing they are choking hazards for kids because there are no kid ones with any strings.  We found one she would finally wear.  We also went to Kmart and bought a bunch of clothes on clearance for her to wear this coming winter.  Lots and lots of dresses.  We eat at Bubba's and it was really good.  Rachel and I shared a steak but really she eat the steak and I had the salad bar.  On the way home we got to see the mountain goats.

 Lots of them on this mountain but I just got a few of them in the shot.  It was so awesome to finally stop and see them up there.

Eating at Subway

Rachel and I went to eat at Subway the other day.  This was the 1st time I've ever seen Rachel actually eat the sandwich like this.  Usually she just opens it up and picks at the inside or dumps out the inside to just eat the bread.  She is growing up so quickly it's crazy.

 Eating her sandwich like a big girl.

Enjoying some lunch with Mommy.

Easter Decorations

I made these jars for Halloween and Christmas.  Kristi helped me to figure out another word to use so that I could use these for Easter also.  I loved how this turned out.  I definitely like the pastel colors better than the starburst jelly beans.  I will be doing pastel in all of them next year.  I of course have to do different M&M's because Scott doesn't like the peanut ones but I do so I do some of each so we both have something to eat after the holiday.

Sleeping

You all know how I love to get pictures of Rachel sleeping in different positions.  Here are a couple different ones from where I have found her.

 I had put Rachel to bed but when I went to check on her just before I headed to bed I found her curled up in the rocking chair.  I don't know about you but I think it totally does not look comfortable at all.  Needless to say I moved her back to bed so we could both sleep through the night.

This is nap time watching TV.  I had told her I wanted to take a nap and so she could watch TV and should take a nap also.  I woke up and she had made herself a bed on the floor in front of the TV and had a friend sleeping with her.  So stinking cute.