Hello!

Wow, has it really been three months since my last entry? School has been out for a month now, but we got the boys the weekend before the last week of school so life never really slowed down enough for me to write.

My long term sub job went well. No one flunked, including three kids who had given up! Two passed with only low 70’s, but one of them only had a 32 when I got there so I was very proud of her efforts as was her mom:) But I had a little help with that one in the form of an in-school-suspension day. She found out in my class about it and I took full advantage of it. She was right across the hall and I just kept trucking over all her missing work and it all got done since she was bored anyway! LOL! The teacher was getting a kick out of my methods and he had no problem with my constant interruptions. So in the end, she passed. Yay! And at the close of the year, the head of the department even included me in her thanks to the teachers, telling everyone how I had gotten work out of kids that no one else could! That kind of blew me away, in a nice way of course! So that, and especially the kids passing, made all the stress worth it!

Once we were home for the summer, we had an upside down house to deal with since we had our 4th of July party coming up. We have decided not to sell the house after all. While this house will never be the style I like, it has come to hold many memories for us and even for the kids so I am reluctant to let it go now. Since we refinanced and have gotten on our feet with our bills, we can afford it now. Not to the point where we can make major repairs yet, but since we couldn’t we couldn’t sell the place without the repairs anyway, it takes away the stress of getting them done.

We got all the kids home together for the first time in 5 years on the 4th so we managed to get a family portrait. I’m not all that happy with it though, but I guess we will have another chance at Christmas! Stephanie and James were always the two we couldn’t get together since they lived the farthest, Steph all the way in Louisiana! But she is here for the summer and is coming back at Christmas, unless she doesn’t go back at all and moves in with us. It makes for a very full house but she has a problem with her ex and I don’t feel comfortable sending her back anyway!

I have lots more to tell, but I also have lots of housework waiting on me, so I will stop here for now and hopefully I will be back soon!