Another week has gone by and it seems like I've gotten nowhere, but I know I have made great progress personally!
My visits with the kids went really well, and you got to see pictures if you kept up with my facebook page. We made Groundhog Day pudding cups which went over extremely well! Z ate both hers and A's, and S made one for each of his caregivers and 2 for himself (one to eat later, one to eat while in the visit). It took the entire hour to make them, so we didn't get to play a game. The girls made theirs by crushing cookies in a bag with the toe of my shoe because they weren't heavy enough to crush them with their own feet! They had more fun crushing cookies than any other part of the prep, and just wanted to eat the cookies instead of putting faces on them, so we settled for frosting faces and left of the ears and teeth (almonds). S was so excited and intricate, except that the frosting bag tore down the size and we had a small frosting fight.
The kids switched up housing quite a bit over the past fortnight. My mom upped and left, went back to Montana, keeping most of the kids items for herself and not transferring enough clothing. They were moved hastily and with resentment, as my mom was not speaking to Dave when she left. E and the girls were moved to my Dave's house in Orchard Mesa. There isn't room for them there as his girlfriend has 2 kids and a roommate already, and it's a 3 bedroom house. The girls are holed up in the girlfriends' daughter's room, and E is sleeping on the couch. I don't know why they were fighting, but I found out after the fact that they had been allowing the boys' father's family to have the boys for overnight visits, which not only was against the rules, but was a deep betrayal to me. Social services is intending to seek a release so that the boys' father's family can take custody of E and S, which I'm against because of the family's lack of ethics, drug use and constant involvement with the father, who is still involved in criminal activity. It's so stressful to think about this that I'm shaking!
On a better side of things, S is living with a friend from church. Everyone in the church (Calvary Chapel) just adores my kids as they knew me from the time I was 16 and seem to have been able to see through my mom's facade. That could be aided by Z's former speech therapist being a prominent member of the church and knowing the full happenings since the beginning (the beginning being when I was 16). She is a fantastic woman of God, and I've started attending a bible study she invited me to on Tuesday nights. It doesn't cover a lot, but it's nice to get together with people. I am afraid that they'll find out what I'm 'really' like and not like me anymore, so I have to remember to be cautious with what I say and temper what I say with religious-ease! More on that later, though.
This week, I also had a job interview with Bank of America. I don't think I got the job, but it prompted me to continue seeking another job. I am working diligently to get my wraps business going, and have a new pitch. When people ask me what I do, I tell them that "I help people fix their naked." That always raises an eyebrow and makes people ask more questions, which is called an Elevator Pitch in sales-speak. I'm learning a LOT about sales and marketing too. I will be going to Salt Lake City on the 16th of Feb for a big event and I'll have a table there. I am hoping to sell 20 wraps, which would pay for the table and give me enough money to re-stock. I am also hoping to sign up a few Loyal Customers, which would give me a commission bump. Practicing in the mirror, watching how-to videos, reading and learning about the product...blah. but necessary!
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
SO negligent!
I have been so negligent in posting to my blog, and I'm sorry. It's time to pick up the (keyboard) and put it to (...screen?) and just make it a near-daily thing.
Tonight I got to see Sebastian. We had a fantastic visit, thanks to the new care provider, a friend from church. He finally had a proper coat on, thanks to a friend of the care provider. We have been wondering when he would actually have a coat on for this whole winter. We made the pasta that I had made last weekend, and a pumpkin pie with crumb topping for the crust on the top and bottom (recipe below). We did his homework and played a game called 'Go Fish' with plastic fishing poles and 22 fish in a rotating game board that makes their mouths open and close as they go around. It takes some skill! Sebastian got to learn about winning and losing properly. After three rounds where we had a tie, a win and a lose between the two of us, I explained that I was happy when he won, so he should learn to be happy when I win. He gave me a hug and said he would try. He loved the pie so much that he had seconds and took the remainder home to the care provider's family. The care provider was very very happy about the pie and the homework help, and I thanked her for being the one to care for Sebastian, because she was really wonderful when she was volunteering as the nanny over the past year. She works for the church, and reads stories to Sebastian, and has him talking about God again, instead of talking about Wii and XBox and getting beat up by his brother. I was so apprehensive before, but it really is wonderful. I will be sad when she can't care for him anymore, as she can only keep him for a couple of weeks.
Now on the other side of the topic, I found out that my mom betrayed me by allowing the boys father and family to have visits outside of the permission of Social Services. They seem upset with me that I won't allow my boys to go live with the paternal aunt, who is a casual meth user and sued me for protecting Ethan from his father when we had a restraining order. I feel so violated that she did that. And to top it off, she abruptly moved the children out so she could return to Montana, without more than 2 changes of clothes. She returned about 1/8 of the kids clothes to me, and kept or donated the rest. One thing they didn't have any shortage of was clothing.
I got to see the girls on Tuesday, and both were sick, dirty and hungry (they must have played well at daycare). They have been sick for most of the year. Since they've been moved, they were a little antsy and Abi threw a huge fit for about 5 minutes. I dealt with it very nicely. :-) Good thing since I'm out of practice.
That's about it! Hope to see you tomorrow or the next day!
Crumb Topping for a pumpkin pie.
Make your regular pie filling like you always do. We like pumpkin, but apple, other fruit pie fillings, and some puddings work. Chocolate pudding tastes funny, but cheesecake, banana cream and, in a really odd mood, citrus flavored pie fillings are good.
1 c. flour
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 stick of cold butter.
Sometimes I add cardamom or cinnamon.
Cut all together with a pastry cutter until it resembles crumbs. Works great in a food processor, but the butter melts. Press 2/3 to 1/2 of it into a pie plate, bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.
Fill the pie plate with pie filling. Put the rest of the crumb topping on top, spread out to cover nicely. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or 450 for 30-40 minutes (it only took 30 for mine, but it was pretty shallow).
Tonight I got to see Sebastian. We had a fantastic visit, thanks to the new care provider, a friend from church. He finally had a proper coat on, thanks to a friend of the care provider. We have been wondering when he would actually have a coat on for this whole winter. We made the pasta that I had made last weekend, and a pumpkin pie with crumb topping for the crust on the top and bottom (recipe below). We did his homework and played a game called 'Go Fish' with plastic fishing poles and 22 fish in a rotating game board that makes their mouths open and close as they go around. It takes some skill! Sebastian got to learn about winning and losing properly. After three rounds where we had a tie, a win and a lose between the two of us, I explained that I was happy when he won, so he should learn to be happy when I win. He gave me a hug and said he would try. He loved the pie so much that he had seconds and took the remainder home to the care provider's family. The care provider was very very happy about the pie and the homework help, and I thanked her for being the one to care for Sebastian, because she was really wonderful when she was volunteering as the nanny over the past year. She works for the church, and reads stories to Sebastian, and has him talking about God again, instead of talking about Wii and XBox and getting beat up by his brother. I was so apprehensive before, but it really is wonderful. I will be sad when she can't care for him anymore, as she can only keep him for a couple of weeks.
Now on the other side of the topic, I found out that my mom betrayed me by allowing the boys father and family to have visits outside of the permission of Social Services. They seem upset with me that I won't allow my boys to go live with the paternal aunt, who is a casual meth user and sued me for protecting Ethan from his father when we had a restraining order. I feel so violated that she did that. And to top it off, she abruptly moved the children out so she could return to Montana, without more than 2 changes of clothes. She returned about 1/8 of the kids clothes to me, and kept or donated the rest. One thing they didn't have any shortage of was clothing.
I got to see the girls on Tuesday, and both were sick, dirty and hungry (they must have played well at daycare). They have been sick for most of the year. Since they've been moved, they were a little antsy and Abi threw a huge fit for about 5 minutes. I dealt with it very nicely. :-) Good thing since I'm out of practice.
That's about it! Hope to see you tomorrow or the next day!
Crumb Topping for a pumpkin pie.
Make your regular pie filling like you always do. We like pumpkin, but apple, other fruit pie fillings, and some puddings work. Chocolate pudding tastes funny, but cheesecake, banana cream and, in a really odd mood, citrus flavored pie fillings are good.
1 c. flour
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 stick of cold butter.
Sometimes I add cardamom or cinnamon.
Cut all together with a pastry cutter until it resembles crumbs. Works great in a food processor, but the butter melts. Press 2/3 to 1/2 of it into a pie plate, bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.
Fill the pie plate with pie filling. Put the rest of the crumb topping on top, spread out to cover nicely. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or 450 for 30-40 minutes (it only took 30 for mine, but it was pretty shallow).
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