Destroying his old bed!


In other words, they were fine with another brother or sister, but how exactly would it effect them?

So, over the last year we have been trying to figure out the best and fairest way to assign bedrooms. The only one of our kids that actually use there bedroom, other than for sleeping, is Samantha (12). She likes to go up to her room and escape her three brothers who think it is there job in life to gang up and torture her on a regular basis. She can often be found upstairs, curled up on her bed, relaxing with a good book. She obviously needs a place to escape at times, the other kids, not so much.

Right now Zach (16) has the downstairs bedroom, Tyler (15) and Garrett (10) share one upstairs room, Paige (5) has her own room as well as Samantha. We have five bedrooms (counting mine and hubbies) and five children, with hopefully two more joining us soon.

I really wanted a play room so we could have all the toys in one place for the younger kids which really keeps there rooms much neater and organized. I threw the idea out to Zach of making his downstairs bedroom into the play room and, naturally, he wasn't to keen on the idea. This kid is NEVER in his room so I wasn't giving up.
Mom, quit taking my picture while I destroy my old bed!

When he was looking for his first car last month he had a pretty strict budget. We had been looking for almost three months and couldn't find anything in his price range that he wanted, or we felt was actually worth the money. We then found this truck that had been used by a dealer to run errands, etc. that had 117,000 miles on it but was only four years old and had been serviced regularly. He fell in love and really wanted it. The bummer was the lowest negotiated price we could get the car for was $800.00 more than he had to spend. That's when we had the idea of trading that $800.00 for his room. He jumped at the chance. He got his truck, I got my playroom. We were all happy.

Now, don't get me wrong. If need be I would have TOLD him he was moving upstairs with his brothers because that was what was best for the family. However, I don't want our new children to come home to siblings who are feeling resentment towards them because they have turned there current lives upside down.

I started emptying Zach's room almost immediately after he got his truck and he has not complained once. He doesn't have a bed upstairs yet and has been sleeping on the couch in the family room. He told me the other day that the couch is really comfy and I didn't even have to buy him a bed. That was sweet, but I already ordered him one. It should be here in a few days.

I totally cleaned out Garrett and Tyler's room and they were thrilled to have everything so organized and sparkling clean. Zach even seems a little excited to be moving upstairs with them and they spent one day last weekend hanging up some of his baseball pictures on his side of the room and he helped Garrett hang some things over his bed to. I will post some pictures of how I organized there room when I get his bed next week.

I am going to order a bunk bed for Paige's room with the double on the bottom and single on the top. We are requesting children 4 or under (our agency won't let us go out of birth order) so we thought if the kids were old enough they might feel more secure sleeping together on the bottom bunk for a little while after they arrive. There is also room for a crib if it turns out we need one. So, Paige will share with two siblings and the three boys will share and that leaves Samantha still with her own room.

Mom, I am getting really annoyed with you!!!


I think she was feeling a little guilty about this fact because she told me a few days ago that she wouldn't mind having someone sleep with her in her room (she has a double bed) she just didn't want them to make a mess. Samantha is my child who likes everything neat and tidy and it would not work for her to be with a messy Marvin type kiddo. My heart was warmed by this offer but I told her I thought we were fine for right now but I might need to take her up on it in a few months. We will see.

So, we are busy moving furniture and cleaning out closets. I had to call for a special pick up this week as I had 15 giant bags full of extra trash. Zachary had fun demolishing his old bed (it was falling apart) and putting it out for the trash man. He and Tyler decided to take a hammer to it and give it a proper burial. Those are the pictures you have been looking at.

On another note; I called our home study agency, again, about the forms we are missing and they told me they sent them out on August 28th. We never received them. I mailed them more money and an overnight air bill to send the forms in. Hopefully I will have them in my hot little hands by Tuesday which will make our dossier FINALLY complete and on its way to Ethiopia. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Praise God!

Two years ago our youngest son, Garrett, who was just getting ready to turn 9 decided that he wanted to try football instead of playing winter baseball. To say that it was not a positive experience would be an understatement. One of the coaches was a complete psycho, the other ones were not much better, and they all seemed to fight and couldn't agree on how the team should be run. He didn't have a good time and decided that maybe Football wasn't going to be his game.

Last year the team tried to get him to play again (he is actually pretty good) but Garrett said no. One year was enough.

During baseball season this year some of his friends on the team started saying that they were going to play football this season and wouldn't it be fun to all play together? This is when my dread began.

You see, I really don't like football. OK, that's not exactly true. I do like to watch professional football and college ball. However, I do not like to watch young boys play, and this is mainly due to the coaching.

There is so much yelling and screaming. They seem to think that by demoralizing these children they are going to turn them into star athletes. It's all about the coaches egos and very little about the actual kids. Everyone, parents, coaches, grandparents, seem to forget that these are actually children once they hit the field.

Anyway, Garrett decided to give it a try again this year with his friends. He is enjoying it more, however, his mom is not. These coaches definitely need to read some books, such as those from the positive coaching alliance.

I took Garrett to his practices this week because Dave had been out of town on business. Garrett hates to run. Football has a lot of running. The kids usually have to do two laps around the field after they have done their warm up exercises. In the beginning of the conditioning part of the season many of the boys throw up during this part. They just aren't used to all this hard work. For some reason they had the boys do extra running last night and my son was not happy. He was uncomfortable and struggling and he started to cry.

Now, he did not stop running. He ran and cried at the same time. I was proud of him for not giving up and fighting through his difficulty with the extra lap. One of the coaches kept yelling at him "Smith, stop crying" (we'll pretend like our last name is Smith) over and over again.

I didn't get it. Other boys were crying to but he chose to pick my kid to rag on. The one who wasn't giving up. He may have been crying, but he was still running. I felt proud.

When they finally gave them there water break he came over and tried to be strong. He had snot and buggers running down his face but he wouldn't let me wipe them off. He drank his water and went back to the team...buggers and all.

He had a great practice after that and everything was fine.

This is my question. Why is it that all the pee wee football coaches I have seen are overweight and couldn't run 1/10 of what they expect these boys to do? They all seem to have some sort of inferiority complex that makes them act like mad men once they hit the field.

So, you know what happened right? I couldn't keep my mouth shut.

As the coach yelled at Garrett for crying while he was running I just happened to say something like "Perhaps if the coaches actually had to run with the kids they would be crying to. Somehow I have the feeling if the coaches had to run this part of practice would have been over twenty minutes ago".

He looked at me and called a water break.

He then has the gall to tell the kids at the end of practice that if they want to complain they can just sit on the bench. The head coach looked a little nervous. He knew me well enough to know that I would happily yank my kid off the team (since my kid starts and plays most of the game at guard I doubt he would be happy about that). My husband on the other hand would have a very different perspective on the whole thing.

He thinks its good for him to be challenged. I say it is more like tortured.

I'm not sure if women and men (or mothers and fathers) will ever be able to agree on this one.

Anyway, he is still playing, and he actually seems to like it.

If he doesn't mind the yelling and running and crying and throwing up why should I?

Thankfully his Dad is back in town and has taken over the football duties again.

How long until baseball season starts again?

I have a feeling not soon enough for me!