Spring Break

It was a kind of strange weekend. It was the beginning of spring break for Sean and Steph's schools. Steph was going to go to Costa Rica for her Aunt Liliana's birthday but Khloe got sick so she used her vacation time to be with Khloe. So she decided at the last minute to fly to Costa Rica this week. She told Giannini but know one else. I don't know what is with those Costa Rican's and their need to make surprise visits. They can't just say "Hey I'll be there on Saturday" they have to walk in a room and say "surprise." The real surprise was when they didn't show up for Liliana's birthday when everyone was expecting them to.

Alex and Loreal spent Thursday and Friday night. Loreal came to town for a scrap booking show. Phoebe left Friday night for New York. She went to the airport when AJ dropped Steph and Khloe off because their flights were only an hour apart.

Alex brought their new puppy Ziggy. My boys and their dogs.

Khloe and Sean played a duet. Khloe is like Sean's little minion. She follows him around and whenever he's not home she wanders around saying "SEAN HELRO SEAN!? Sean say's he's her minion because he is always doing what she says.

Don's Toys

I think Don is becoming a car hoarder. Maybe he can get a reality TV show. He's been looking at Corvette's for a while. He found one in Reno with 19000 miles on it. A 1985. How you have a car that old with that few miles is amazing. When he told the guy he was going to fly down to Reno to pick it up he wanted to know how he was going to get it back. When Don said drive it the guy was appalled. I think he thought twice about selling the car to someone who was going to actually drive it. Worse yet he's going to take it out to the Salt Flats and race it.

This looks like his old white every day car but it's actually a new one with less miles and a sun roof. Go figure. He's also got the truck in the driveway and the Fiat in the garage.

Don took the truck into Jiffy Lube for an oil changed. They asked if he wanted the reminder sticker to say 3000 miles or 5000. He said 3000 but I guess they decided 300000 was better. 

Getting our Chinese Culture on

We went to PF Chang's for dinner. When you got to a Chinese restaurant with a Chinese person and she looks at every dish and asks "what is this?" you have to question the authenticity of the food. Apparently there are no lettuce wraps in China and a whole bunch of other stuff we ate. I told her they were Chinese taco's. She said they have the stuff that goes into the lettuce wrap but they put it in hard tofu.

We went to Shen Yun Performing arts show at the Capitol theater.

$80 bucks a ticket. It was a pricey show.

I had mixed feelings about this show. It was interesting to see it with Phoebe otherwise I would have felt like it was just anti-China propaganda. "China is bad, China has no freedom." Phoebe said you really can't see Shen Yun in China and you can't even search it on the Internet. She saved the programs to give her mother. Sean got bored about half way through the first half of the program. There were a couple of dances he liked but most bored him. When the opera singer sang he put his fingers in his ears. He did well though he made it through the entire show.The show is anti Chinese propaganda and pro Falun Dafa sect propaganda. It's like a weird show trying to convince Americans that the Falun Dafa way is the better way. I was confused when it was all over.


  During the singing performances they had the words on a screen in English and Chinese. I asked Phoebe if it was translated poorly because it was so damn funny. There are funny translations all over China. She said they were not great translations but the words to the song were funny.   I wish I could remember exactly what it said but it went something like this "Atheism is a lie, the theory of evolution is a sham." I started to laugh, it was so hard not to laugh out loud. My shoulders were shaking and I was actually crying. The majority of Chinese are atheist and they were calling this performance a review of Chinese history. I think it's more like propaganda for Falun Dafa as opposed to being historically relevant. That said, I'm glad we went it was an interesting evening.

Spring is in the air

They had kite day at school so I got two kites from the dollar store and joined them for recess. I know they were cheap kites being from the dollar store but it would have been nice if they has lasted 20 minutes. I had to take them inside and tape them up. The kids had fun anyway. There was also a serious lack of wind. All and all not a great day to fly kites. I love how happy Sean is when I come to school. One day this week I surprised him by bringing him Subway at lunch and he was so excited.

St Patrick's day. Sean wanted a green snack so he had green ice cream, green milk, pickles and spinach. He ate everything but the spinach.

A school assembly on St Patrick's day

Sean wanted a butterfly net. We bought a couple and then Don and Sean went up in the mountains to catch butterfly. They caught two. When they got home Sean let them go. This made the butterflies very happy.

The past couple of days Sean had been complaining that his head itched. He complained so much that he actually got up in the night and had me wash his hair. I got out a flashlight and checked for lice and nits but didn't find any. The school nurse in me immediately assumes and itchy head means lice.  The next day he was still complaining so I buzzed his head and then used conditioner in case his scalp was dry. Not sure what's up with all the itching. That kid of mine has a lot of hair so it was time for a spring cut anyway.

On another note. Jennie had the baby. His name is Jack. I've seen pictures and he is very cute. He looks like a little Sean. It hurts my heart to look at that baby and know the life he is going to have. I keep hoping they've changed but no one is working and I don't see how anything is different. That baby is going to be in a house full of smoke, screaming, swearing, no one is going to read to him. When they are drunk they will just put him in a crib and shut the door. No matter how much he cries no one will feed him, change him or comfort him. His first words will be swear words. He will be dirty and smelly and behind in school. 

It's been hard because Jennie has been texting, messaging and calling wanting me to bring Sean to see the baby. She has been absolutely burning Lanette's phone up wanting her to bring the girls over.  It's a hard thing because there is no reasonable compromise. You can't have Jennie half way in your life, once she's in she consumes. It's not like I am going to drop Sean off at their house and let him spend time with the baby and I'm not having them bring the baby to my house because then they start asking for diapers, formula, food, money, babysitting and the cycle starts over. The hysterical calls in the middle of the night, "Ryan beat me up" and the phone calls from the jail and I can't go there. I won't go there. My heart breaks for this beautiful little baby who is Sean's brother but having Jennie and Ryan in Sean's life would not be a positive thing for him.I'm sure they will find someone else to give them tylenol and food and watch the baby while they are out binge drinking. 

 Lanette finally had enough and sent Jennie a text;

"Here is the message that I just sent to Jenny she will not stop calling texting and messaging see below…I have been debating on how to handle this but the girls are having all kinds of problems dealing with this baby. I thought they were excited and they tried to act that way but then things went crazy and they started crying and couldn't sleep. They thought we were taking the baby, but when they realized that wasn't happening and he was staying with you, they have been really worried about him. They are very afraid that bad things are going to happen. Its bringing out all kinds of bad and scary memories and now they are back in therapy. I stopped talking about the baby and I haven't even told them he was born. So for now and I don't know for how long we are not going to be bringing this into their lives. He is dang cute but unfortunately due to the past history, its too traumatic to deal with this situation right now. To be honest I am worried for his welfare too, the odds are not in his favor. So please, take good care of him, don't repeat the past and somewhere down the road we may be able to deal with this situation. We will be working through things in therapy and just take it day by day."

Lanette is the kindest human being so this letter took a lot for her to write. The girls have been having a hard time lately. They are really worried about this baby.Sean has very few memories of Jennie and Ryan but he expressed concern regarding the baby when Kylie told him Jennie was pregnant. Since that day in the car Sean's never brought it up again. I don't know if he's forgotten or he just doesn't want to talk about it.

After Lanette sent the message Jennie sent her a message saying she never did anything wrong and "if it wasn't for Carol I'd still have my kids." I thought about that comment for a long time. Perhaps she is correct maybe if it wasn't for me she'd still have her kids. I'm guessing she wouldn't as she hadn't met me when she lost the first one. I did tell Sabrina about the slap marks on Brie and I did take the kids to DCFS when they called. I also advocated like crazy for the kids when they were in DCFS but I didn't make Ryan leave a kid alone in a house full of alcohol and drugs and I didn't make them break every reunification plan that DCFS made and I sure as heck didn't make Jennie get arrested and show up in handcuffs at the termination hearing. They were in jail half a dozen times while the kids were in state custody. I suppose if blaming me makes her feel better then she can go ahead and blame me. I think her view of reality is so skewed that she really believes she was a good mother and that the world is just out to get her. There is no reasoning with delusions.

I keep wondering who leaves a newborn with a stranger for weeks at a time. That's what they did with Sean. They left him for weeks at a time and would have me drop him off at their house for a day or a couple of hours. Sean's 7 and I still have anxiety when he's away from home. He went to the mall with Jacob and Susan last week and I worried the entire time. At one point when Sean was about six months old I left town for a cruise and then I went to the beach with Lucinda and while I was gone they left him with Stephanie. Those kids were always used as a means to get stuff: food, housing, welfare, toys, clothes. They sold the food stamps to buy crack for Ryan and let the kids go hungry. It was never about the kids or doing what was right for them it was about holding them up and saying "look at these adorable children now give us stuff." I think Jennie just picked the wrong person to play that game with when she picked me. She held those kids up and said. "look at my cute hungry kids give me stuff." And all I was kids who are exposed to drugs, smoke and violence, kids who were filthy and left home alone and I really looked at those kids and I protected them and I would do it again. I don't know how Kylie, Brie and Sean will feel about their history when they are adults but I hope they are happy with the homes they were raised in and the opportunities they were given. I've told Jennie over and over to become they type of person who her kids will want to have a relationship with when they are adults but nothing has changed. I worry that as soon as the kids are teenagers she will be asking them for money and taking advantage of them once again.

I know Sean would not be the person he is today if he stayed with them. He is confident, popular, an excellent student. Phoebe said he writes in Chinese as well as the 5th graders. (I think Phoebe gets credit for that). I don't know who he would be if he had stayed with Jennie and Ryan but I'm guessing he would be a sad angry boy. The only positive would be he'd be with Kylie and Brie and they would have watched out for each other. Just like when Kylie would hide Brie in the closet when her parents were beating the crap out of each other.

Lego display

 There was a big Lego display at Fashion Place Mall. Susan (Jacob's mom) actually took the kids.  Susan seldom leaves the house so that was a first. I don't know what's up with Jacob lately he's been kind of strange. He sighs all the time. He sighs in between every bite while he eats. I don't know if eating is that big a chore. When I ask him what the problem is he sighs and says "I don't think there is one." Strange little boy. He's had an ear infection and his ear drum ruptured. When I asked him if his ear hurt he sighed and said "Maybe, I'm not sure."

That's a lot of Lego's.

Finger painting with Khloe

Khloe came and spent the day while her dad helped her mom chaperon a field trip to the children's museum in Lehi. Khloe kept wandering around the house yelling "HelRo Sean!" Sean was at school so it was just the two of us. What to do?

We went to Target and got some finger paints. Khloe loves to be outside and the weather was nice so we decided to paint the steps. At first she was tentative, just one finger in the paint.

Then she added a couple of toes.

All the toes, it felt squishy.

Look Grandma my hands are red!

Don came home and was working from home. He brought us out a couple of buckets of water to clean up in.

All that adventure made her a very tired girl. She has great stall tactics when it's time for a nap. She pulls books down off the shelf and wants to read.

We had taken my car over to Big O for an oil change so we had to walk back over and pick it up. She loved watching the pin wheel go round and round. Eventually she started dragging it on the ground watching it go round and round that way.

Dog lover that she is she went next door to give Zeus some love.

A snow day

 A snow day as in singular day. It has been a dismal snow year. Nordic ski resort closed after the second week of classes. It snowed twice during Christmas break. Once on Christmas day and another storm a couple of days later. We were driving to the airport on Christmas during the first storm and we were in Florida for the second. We have seen next to nothing this year. No snow leaves us at risk for fires and no water. On March 3rd we got about three hours of heavy snow and then it stopped. It was fun while it lasted

Snow Tubing

 We went to Gorgoza snow tubing with Catherine and her family. The kids had a great time. Sean was scared at first and was crying and saying he didn't want to do it again. I was frustrated with him. He's tubed before and he's not scared. I told him he had to go down one more time because it was the only way off the mountain. I hung on to his tube and told him he was fine. I was holding his tube the first time but I wasn't looking at him. He said it was fun and he wanted to go again. He went down the bigger run and did fine. Kylie and Brie were never scared. Brie even went down on her stomach.

 We were sitting in the yurt talking about all the ways the kids had lost their teeth. Sean's tooth was so loose I thought it would fly out going down the hill. Kylie told him to take another bite of donut and it would fall out. He took a drink of hot chocolate and it fell out. We all laughed.

It was a fun way to spend the day with the girls.