Khloe takes a selfie

Khloe takes her first "Selfie." I would say it's in preparation for her teenage years but who knows what new technology  we will have by the time she is a teenager.  

A selfie with Grandma.

Seriously, the indignity of it all. Forced to wear a diaper on my head for the amusement of adults. 

Birthday Pictures

We went to Red Lobster for lunch on Sean's birthday. I had to work at five so we couldn't have dinner. I went to school in the afternoon for his "Star Day" to help him present his poster and tell the class all about what a great kid he is.

A dinosaur ice cream cake.

Sean's dinosaurs have been a little roudy lately. They got into his inhalers. Sean had a cold last week and missed a day of school. Fortunately he never got a fever.

The dinosaurs helped Sean with his homework.

Sean is all about Mario! This is a picture he drew of Bowser's Castle.

Don's contract with the VA was supposed to be up in October but it has stretched through November. His supervisor told him that the termination letters are coming out. He will get two weeks severance and benefits will go through December. We can sign up for insurance through the health care exchange which is good. With Don and Sean's pre-existing conditions we couldn't even get health insurance through open market. The Select Med plan is $950 per month, eek! The plan has a $750 deductible and a $10,000 total out of pocket. Some of the plans are over $800 a month with a $5000 deductible. Crazy! I'm glad we don't have a house payment so I can afford our insurance payment.

The Relatives Came

 There is a children't book I love called, The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant
My favorite line in the book is:
"…They ate up all our strawberries and melons, then promised we could eat up all their grapes and peaches when we came to Virginia. But none of us thought about Virginia much. We were so busy hugging and eating and breathing together." This picture reminded me of the book. My niece Stephanie and her family came from N.C. One of the kids found a bucket of Halloween candy in the play room and they ate it all up. Too funny. Just today I was putting toys away in the playroom and I saw that bucket of candy and I almost threw it away.  I'm glad I didn't because the cousins had so much fun eating it all up!

Nate and Sean reconnected over Wii. Steph said Nate said "Sean's my number one friend." She said "I don't know if he's your number one friend but he was your first friend."

Yep, Sean was Nate's first friend and he was Sean's.

Work

I finished up seven weeks of clinical with RN students from Eaglegate.  It's a change of pace to spend time teaching RN's as I spend the vast majority of my time teaching aides. I always do clinical at the same facility so I know the residents.

I was in the memory care unit (aka Alzheimer's) a lady was standing in the hall. I stopped in front of her. She looked down, looked up at me, looked down again, back up and said "I'm not wearing any clothes." I said "you are right." She asked "will you help me?" I took her back in her room and helped her get dressed. She had her shoes on. It reminded me of a dream I've had many times where I show up at school or somewhere not wearing any clothes.

I had another resident throw a shoe at me as I helped a student give her a flu shot. I told her it was a good thing I wasn't from Afghanistan. They had a birthday party for a resident who turned 100. She still plays the piano every day. Very cute lady.

I enjoy my seven week stints with the college but am equally happy when they are over. Getting up at 5 a.m. is not one of my favorite things.

Sean's Birthday Party

Last year Sean went to a snake and lizard party and he thought it was awesome so that is what we did for his birthday. Funny story: Catherine told Jameson that Sean was having snakes at his birthday party. Jameson said, "Sean has the coolest birthday parties. He had a pony for his party." Catherine said, "the pony wasn't for his birthday it was a party for his adoption." Jameson said, "Sean's adopted! Does he know?" 

Alika there's a snake around your neck.

Most of the kids were from his kindergarten class but of course we had to invite Ethan.

Jameson checking out a turtle.

I was little nervous someone would break an arm on the trampoline but no one got hurt. There was one little boy who was about to have a nervous break down. He kept counting how many kids were on the trampoline and then he would come and report and tell us it was TOO many. "MY mom would be REALLY MAD!" Lucky for us, his mom wasn't there.

The lady who did the party was great. She let the kids hold as many animals as they wanted for as long as they wanted.

Little Miss Brooklyn loved the snakes. She has a mad crush on Jacob. First thing she said to me when she arrived (with her hands on her hips) did you invite Jacob? I said "yes, we invited Jacob but he is in Georgia." She said "what does that mean?" So darn cute!

The kids were so excited to give Sean his presents and couldn't wait for him to open theirs.

Catherine loving and albino boa.

Giani and a walking stick.

Khloe didn't play with any of the creatures. She just hung out with her talking stuffed dog, Violet.

Sean holding a 45 pound boa. Yes, I know Sean has his shirt on backwards but he likes to see the 11. The kids are assigned a number at school and his is 11.

Learning about the animals.

Look Khloe a frog. Khloe is thinking, "I wonder if I could put that thing in my mouth!"

Samantha, Sean's best girl friend. When I asked him if he wanted to invite girls to the party or just the boys he said "The boys and Samantha." I told him it was an all or nothing deal he couldn't invite just one girl from the class. He likes Samantha, she reminds him of Brie.

This is one heavy snake!

With the exception of Ethan and cousins all the other kids are in Sean's Chinese class so they wanted to sing Happy Birthday in Chinese.

Singing Happy Birthday in Chinese

Halloween

Sean got his new glasses. They fit well. He wore them to school for an entire day. He said "there's nothing little at school that I need to see." I guess they don't make enough of a positive difference in his vision to entice him to wear them regularly. This is why I didn't spend a lot of money on his glasses. He looks cute in them! His teacher told him they made him look smart and he thought that was funny

I helped out with the Halloween party at the school. Apparently, I didn't get the dress as a witch memo. Maybe they figured it was my natural state. The party was cute, organized chaos. The kids were so wired.  Sean couldn't sleep the night before Halloween, he was that excited.

I was in charge of the "making bats craft." The other little boy in the picture is Caleb.

We dressed in a Mario theme. We went trick or treating with Catherine and her boys. Her neighborhood has so many kids it's almost freakish. We  realized in the morning that we never carved our pumpkins, we just ran out of time.

Running with the pack. The weather was perfect this year.

Sean and Ryder.

Sean catching a ride on Yoshi.