Where to Start...

It seems like forever that I've blogged or read my favorite blogs.

(The last few blogs were "pre-set")

So I'll plunge right in.

This is no particular time line. I couldn't give it to you if I wanted to.

We were going on a long anticipated Disney cruise November 13th and try as I might I just couldn't get excited about it. Go figure.

As we were getting ready to board that beautiful ship I got a call from my sister saying my dad had passed away..in Indiana. We had my older daughter, her husband & 3 kids, ages 2,4,& 6, then me, my husband & The Boy. HOW do you explain to 4 kids who have waited for this moment for 2 years, you're not going on this ship now? You can't. We had so much tied up in the cruise, not to mention 4 kids with no understanding of such things. I made the very hard choice to go ahead with the trip. I was hanged if we went, hanged if we didn't. So I endured the wrath of siblings, for my so very selfish choice to continue and try to go back to visit my mom at a later date. Needless to say, It was not the trip we had planned for, hoped & dreamed about.

I can't recall more than half of what actually happened on the cruise. Surreal is a good word for it.

On the *fosterCare front, crazy things happened when we were gone. Bitsy & Whiny were in respite care while we were gone. And at a random hearing they decided why not send Bitsy home now. Bmom had 3 weeks living on her own, sober, in subsidized housing, no job, no transport, no daycare. Why not now. Boom, custody with no *dfcs* follow up was granted !?!

And of course we were gone, and did not get to say our good byes.

THEN this past Friday I get a call at 4:30 and they say Whiny's mom really needs to get into housing, but can't do it unless she has children with her (part of the programs requirements) So why not go ahead & give her *physical custody so she can get housing, & they'll keep legal custody. NO housing, no job, no transport, never *parented sober ect. I'm asked to have her ready to go by 5:30.

I just don't get it. Are they setting these women up for failure?

The Boy had a birthday somewhere in the middle of all this. I hope it was a good one for him.

Then the very same day Whiny left, they called for a sibgroup* of 4. Oldest with bipolar, next oldest autistic. No can do. I'm not "made" that way. The 2 youngest 3 & 5, I say yes. then I find out the 5 yr old girl is NOT potty trained and never been to school. Doesn't even know her colors, ABC's, nothing. The preschool year is of course half over. What are the odds she'll catch up?

An interesting sidenote: I had to take her to my favorite local consignment store, because of course, they only came with the DIAPERS on their butt ( I usually say the clothes on their backs, but they didn't HAVE clothes) She had just eat 2 pieces of birthday cake & a gallon or so of ice cream. We walk into the store, get 10 feet in and she says, "I think I'm going to throw up". And procedes to projectile vomit in a 90 degree circle and then all the way to the door.

I will never be able to show my face there again. I did clean it up, but needless to say dirty looks were given all around...and I can't blame them.

So they didn't come with clothes, but they did bring a nice stomach virus to share with one and all. ( insert manic screaming here)

The boy is as cute as a button, well behaved,and wants to use the potty more than anything. SCORE!

Oh and in the middle of all this, the week before the cruise I had bronchitis, which I thought had got better. Only to come back to a nice case of pneumonia. I felt like I wanted to die most of last week. FYI, Z packs are now generic! oh yeah, no more 160.00. Eight bucks, to no longer feel like I want to die.

So now I will have new adventures to blog about my foray into doing ethnic hair and trying to make it up to my mom for being the worst daughter ever conceived.

I promise to post some really awsome photos of our Disney Dream Cruise.