Pictures (lots of pictures)

 This is Maggie and Ruby's new baby brother, Oliver.

Maggie at the mall with her friends.

My sweet old guy, Cousin Eddie. His tumors are cancer. They said without surgery he can probably live another 2-3 years, but honestly, I don't know if he has that long no matter what. And surgery was so stressful for him. I'm not putting him through it. I'm going to keep him as comfortable as possible and give him all the love. It'll be a good ending for him.

This is the Broken Bow cabin we stayed in. I didn't get as many pictures as I thought. 

This is Chiara, our new very scared foster. She stayed under my bed for a day or two but she's really opened up. She's a good sweet shy girl.

After we got back from Broken Bow, me and my kids, Laurie and her kids, and Gwen went to the Botanical Gardens. It was so pretty. 

Ruby's class

Baby Maggie came up in my memories. Look at her!

I was exercising and I looked up and Honey was standing between my legs looking at me. I didn't quite get the picture.

She's a stone cold nerd.

Bear!

She had to keep her leash on for the first few days so I could get her out from under the bed for eating and going potty. 

Ruby is presenting her secret 3D shape. I think it was a sphere bath bomb.

These guys showed up at the Arlington Animal Shelter and, apparently, it's really bad to have puppies at shelters because there are a lot of germs and puppies don't have all their vaccinations. So, now they're at my house. What a freaking disaster! They are so cute but dear God, they are tremendous pains in the ass.

Us picking the puppies up. Ruby LOVES the puppies.

Transportation Career Day

Purple collar is Morticia. 

Rainbow day, I think.

Yellow collar is Wednesday. Blue is Lurch.

Spring break

We had Spring Break. We went to Broken Bow, OK with Laurie and her crew. It was very fun. We had this amazing back porch area with a fireplace and big comfy chairs. There was a fire pit and hot tub too. There was a little play structure too, which was why I wanted to pick this place. It was a great choice because the babies played on it almost every waking hour we were there. 

We went to the FW Botanical Gardens with Aunt Gwen, Aunt Laurie, Ella, and Jillian. It was beautiful and fun. Then we had dinner at Benito's, which, of course, was delicious. 

Ruby's been getting into Maggie's room while she's not there. The first time I knew because she left a chair in front of Maggie's door, which jeez not likely to miss that. The second time she stole one of Maggie's toys and left it in her room. I took away her ipad for a week this first time. The second time I took away her ipad and her youtube time. So far, she hasn't done it again. We'll see.

We have another foster. Her name is Chiara and she's the most scared dog I've ever seen. She has scars all over her and she was just terrified. She's getting much better. The first couple of days she hid under my bed and would not come out. Now she's way better. 

Almost spring. . .

 Maggie asked me to help her get strong!!! I'm so excited. She says she wants to be able to pick up Ruby and her friends. 

Ruby got in trouble at school. . . again. She carved in a table in her class. When I asked her why, she said, no one was looking and she wanted to see how it would look. 

Ruby loves Wednesday Addams. There's a new show of her on Netflix and Ruby loves it. She says she likes to play Thing when she and her friends play. She also likes to be Wednesday but all the other kids do too. So Ruby decided every day she will dress like Wednesday (i.e. all in black) so that people will let her be Wednesday because she already looks so much like her. She also wants to dye her hair black.

I was picking up Maggie from sectionals one evening and she was walking with her math teacher. He was very handsome, so, when she got in the car, I told her I thought he was cute. Then! She told him! It was a whole thing and quite embarrassing and she's got a big mouth. 

Then, we were in the car and she said, should I give him your number? And I said, Maggie he's a young cute guy and I'm an old lady, he wouldn't want to date me. And she said. . . yeah. Rude! There's a social contract, man! Also, I feel compelled to state, I would not let her give anyone my number or set me up with her teacher because that's gross. 

Grades

I had a horrifying experience this morning. First, Eddie kept waking me up last night, which he has never done before. He cried at me and licked my hand. When I got up, I went in the kitchen to turn on the coffee maker AND. . . a burner on the stove was on. It had been on all night. I could feel it the second I walked in the room. I wonder if Eddie felt it and was trying to tell me something was wrong. 

When I got Maggie up, I brought her in the kitchen and asked her if she made ramen the night before. She said yes. I told her she left the stove on (I knew it was her anyway because Ruby isn't allowed to touch the stove and she can't reach it without a chair) and she could have burned the house down and killed all of us and all the pets. I told her she has to be more aware of what she is doing. 

I'm getting a second job. Things are tight as is and I'm about to have to add so much. Maggie will do drivers ed (with me!) this summer. But that means adding her to my insurance, maybe buying her a car in a year or two. She will need a phone. She needs braces. Ruby has all her ADHD stuff coming up and I doubt testing, meds, etc are cheap. I got a job at a foster/adoption agency doing home studies. I know how to do that, and it pays more than my previous job.

Maggie's grades have improved so much. I guess she just needed proper motivation. I check every day and make sure I tell her how proud I am. Maggie has decided to take theater next year. I also saw that they have web design/animation classes which I will put her in if at all possible. I think that would be so good for her. 

Ruby also is doing well. I knew I had seen a huge growth in her reading and everything. But I got her Middle of the Year assessment results and they confirmed it. Everything is "graded" on a spectrum. There's below average (needs support), average, and above average. At the beginning of the year, she was in below average to average. She is now above average across the board. Her current reading level is the level expected of 1st graders at the end of the year and she's almost ready to move up. I'm so proud of her!

Eddie may be a hospice foster. The rescue told me the vet would know more after his appointment. But then the vet canceled so now I have to find a new vet and get a sooner appointment. His legs shake when he stands but, on Wednesday when it was warm day, he was like a different dog. He ran and played with Annie. So maybe it's just the cold weather on his old bones.