Our Great Friends

While Kimleighel was at the Winter Ball and Jared was bowling with his friends, Larry and I went to dinner with the Winter's.  It just happened to be their Anniversary and they invited us to join them for their Celebration.  I was  excited to go with them.  Even though they just live a few blocks away we usually don't really get to visit with each other unless we go out of town together. ☺ (we need to work on that)  I love the Winter's.  They have been fun traveling buddies and have always been wonderful friends.  They are just good people and lots of fun!  I always enjoy our time together.

Winter Ball

Well Guess What?  Kimi had a dance and Larry and I were actually home this time.  We have missed the other ones she has gone to because we have been out of town.  It was fun being here and sharing Kimleighel's excitement.  She had such a great time.

Kimi asked Emmalee if she could join her group and Emmalee and her friends were kind enough to let Kimi and Jared (her date) join with them. Emmalee is such a good friend to Kimi....Emmalee always has Kimi's back.

The group went to Emmalee's for breakfast and Ice Skating.  They had lots of fun.  Then everyone went home to get ready.  Trichelle came over to do Kimleighel's makeup and hair.  I think Kimleighel is very capable herself but I think she enjoys the pampering.  She looked beautiful.  Trichelle does such a great job.  I enjoyed watching my daughters together.  I can see that as the years pass these two will continue to get closer...the 15 year age gap is already beginning to close.

Kimi was thrilled with the results.  It was exactly what she wanted.  Trichelle was relieved and very happy to hear Kimleighel express how pleased she was.  I enjoyed it all.  What a blessing my children are to me.....I adore them all!

Just before Jared came Kimleighel put on her gorgeous dress and transformed into a Princess.  She twirled and giggled and we both oooed and awwed!  It was fun snapping pictures of her.  Kimleighel is such a girlie girl!  It was only moments before Jared arrived.....causing more giggles. ☺

Jared is such a nice, polite young man.  His mom text me earlier that he was nervous but he didn't seem like it when he got to our house.  He let me take pictures and even got silly and posed for a few. I was happy to send Jared and Kimleighel off to this dance.  I was certain they would have a good time and knew they were in good company.  Jared has been taught well and is a gentleman.  He treated Kimleighel very well.....they had a wonderful time!

I'm so glad that Kimi is able to experience these fun times in her life.  This kind of thing "lights" her up. Her goodness and fun personality shines through.  Kimi is gitty and fun and this is her thing. (anything that involves nice, cute boys is usually her thing) Oh the Joys of Youth!

Great Day

Today Larry and I took Vicky and Derek up to their cabin in Bear Lake.  Larry wants to help Vicky get the boiler in and needed a few measurements so that the right boiler is ordered in.  When we got their he realized that the blue prints might have had the information he needed on it.  I am glad we went up there though because I wanted to see the cabin and how far along it is.  It was really nice spending time with Vicky.  I love Vicky and her family.....we all miss Dave!  What a great gift Dave left for his family.  They have so many great memories together building this cabin and staying on their lot and will continue to make more in the Cabin Dave built. (with the help of his family) It still needs to be sheet rocked and finished off but most of the work is done.  I felt Dave with us today.

While we were there I got a few awesome texts. From Julie: "He signed his rights away before the trial. Only took 1.5 hours! Kevin's adoption date with Kamryn is Tuesday, Feb. 18th at 10 am.  Kamryn will be there and they said this is a great thing to have family come it if you can make it." ☺ "Kamryn gets to have a picture with the Judge".  Kevin: "Landon terminated his rights!"  Yee Haw!!! I am so relieved and happy for everyone.  Kamryn has a BBQ already planned for the night the papers are signed.  She is learning how to spell Ropelato and is very excited herself.  Kevin is a great daddy and deserves all rights to his little Kamryn.  So thankful that Landon did the right thing!  Oh Happy Day!

On the way home Mya called to ask when she could come over for her birthday sleep over.  I told her we would be home if half an hour and that would be great.  I love having the grands sleep over for their birthdays.  Kamryn started that last year on her birthday.  It's so fun having them over and I think the kids really like it too.  Everyone is our family loves it....Jaydan and Jared really get involved and the grands love them so much.  We had a great time.  We played dolls, had mac & cheese for dinner at Mya's request, went to Jaydan's basketball game and watched Frozen on my iPad. (pretty sure it shouldn't be available but there is a sight with it so we watched it.....twice)

I need to invest in a blow up mattress for times like this.  My little camping pad doesn't cut it anymore. My bones don't like the hard surface...my back really doesn't.  However, it was fun being by my little grand and spending that time with her.  I cherish these moment's and will make them work.

(OMG) Oh My Gosh.....I am such a blessed girl! Happy~ Happy...Wonderful Day!

On Your Mark....Get Set.....GO!!!

I love working with the Special Needs Mutual.  It is so much fun and these wonderful people love and get excited about everything we do.  Tonight we had a young man put on a Pinewood Derby for our group...it was his Eagle Scout Project.  (such a great idea!)  The group loved it.  They had so much fun making their cars and getting ready for this night.

Jim Edwards helped the girls out.  He loves making cars and truly has a talent for it.  He cut, sanded and painted everyone of the gal's cars.  Jim is the guy in the scout shirt in the corner next to the young man who hosted this.  Jim is good and went to so much work so all the ladies had nice looking cars. We had planned on painting them ourselves one week but I think Jim wanted to make sure they looked professional....it's a good thing too because it still took us all night to just tell Jim what color of car each gal wanted.  He had stickers and windows and designs on a lot of the cars when he brought them for the race.  Every gal's name was on her car.  Jim had a great time using his talent to bless these girls...he was almost giddy at times.  We had more stickers that everyone could add to their cars if they wanted...some covered their cars. ☺

I wan't going to have a car but when I saw how cool they were I decided to get one too.  I don't really like the style I chose but it's beautiful none the less.  My favorite was the bus Jim made and a little Herbie car one of the leaders made.

I loved watching the group race their cars.  There was a lot of jumping and cheering as their cars raced down the track.  I couldn't help but giggle at the excitement and fun everyone was having.  Probably the most excited racer was Deann.  She's in a pink shirt with a gray sweater.  She would run down with her car and meet it at the finish line.  She would shout out what place she came in which was first most of the time.  Most of the people only raced their cars a few times....but Deann raced her car over a dozen.  Deann is about 79 years old but her spirit is one of the youngest in the group.  She is such a cutie.  Such Fun Times....with Wonderful People!  God knew I would love this calling!

Fun Days

Trichelle is finishing up her schooling.  This is her last semester of school and she will graduate. Since she's finishing up she doesn't get to pick the time of her classes and has to take the one's she needs when they are offered.  She has to stay late on Monday's and Wednesday and so I get to pick the kids up from school on those days.  We all love that!  My kids at home miss the grands and the grands miss us as well so it's fun having them over.  Any time any of the grands are over it's fun.  I love having their cute little faces around.  I love that they get excited when they see me come to get them.  My what a good thing that does to my heart. ♥

I never cease to marvel at how stinkin cute and smart they all are.  I love just watching them...it's great entertainment and makes me smile from the inside out.  I'm so thankful for each one of my cute grands...and for their cute aunts and uncles who are so cute with them.  Jared is the real reason I think the grands love coming to our house so much.  He has always made them laugh and is still so cute with them.  Life is better with grands!  Awww...they make my heart smile!

Court....I don't care for it!

Today we went to court to support Kevin and Julie in getting Kamryn adopted.  I think the court system is such a joke...not funny though.  Landon (the birth dad) said he had a few seizures this morning and felt foggie and so wanted to post pone everything. (so everything was) Julie and her family predicted he would do something like this.  They were even joking that maybe he would come with both feet wrapped and seriously that is how he showed up.  He hurt his foot last March and mysteriously that same foot continues to get hurt but for some reason both were hurt today.  I kind of feel sorry for the guy...he has problems.  I feel even more sorry for Landon's dad.  He was a nervous wreck and doesn't want to have things settled in court.  I don't blame him.....he's kind of stuck in the middle.  Right now Julie allows Kamryn's papa to be involved in her life and he is and he loves it.  He wouldn't want to do or say anything that would jeopardize his time with Kamryn.

We are really hoping that Landon will just sign the papers and let Kevin and his little family be united as a family.  Landon has never been very involved in Kam's life so I'm hoping he just signs and lets Kevin be fully responsible for her. Kamryn wants to be a Ropelato (she has Julie's maiden name...not Landon's)  She is planning a big party for when that day happens.  I hope that it will happen soon and won't be stretched out in court for months or years like I have seen happen in other cases.

I think that sometimes the court system is just a big game...some of the players know how to make stretch it out.  Some of the players find twists to lengthen it even if they know they aren't the truth.  I don't think some players really care if the truth wins...remember it's just a game.  The longer it goes the more money some get in their pockets while others lose lot's of money.  Justice doesn't prevail...not always! I'm hoping this time it does....for Kamryn's sake.  That's who it's all about anyway...I hope the players remember that!

third times a charm

Finally Kimleighel has her drivers license.  Now just to be clear it was not totally her fault it has taken her so long to get it.  Larry and I both need to take credit for the delay.  Kimleighel took drivers ed when she turned 16 and was ready to get her permit and drive.  I guess we weren't ready since we didn't encourage or take her...oh wait I was totally encouraging and wanted her to take the test while everything was fresh in her mind.  Larry said she needed to study more....I wonder if all those months was what he meant.  To credit Larry, he was the one that took her in for her test and the guy over the DMV gave Kimleighel her test verbally so she could understand the questions.  So she got her permit and it was clipped in my visor for over a year (well over)....we did have to go update it a few times.

I encouraged her to practice driving so she would be ready for her road test.  I guess she wasn't in a hurry because she declined many opportunities. (I didn't quite get that)  My anxiety level increased quite a bit.  I'm not a very good passenger these days especially with new drivers.  I asked the family to help and I think a few of the kids took Kimleighel out driving once or twice and that's all because Kimi didn't like being told how to improve and she wasn't nice to those trying to help her. (bless her heart ♥) So....time kept passing and my anxiety kept rising.

I turned her over to Larry and told him I helped the first five and so he could help the last two.  He didn't quite help the way I wanted and it stressed me out.  Finally on July 26th we scheduled her for her road test. I think it was me that scheduled her even though I turned it over....I guess I was getting to the point that enough is enough.  (I know Larry just didn't want to pay insurance and that is why he kept delaying things...I get that but didn't think it was fair)  Kimi was feeling confident when she went out to test...nervous but good.  Her tears told me right away she hadn't passed.  Her first words out of her mouth were: "mom, I wrecked your car."  I was calm and more concerned for Kimi and asked if anyone was hurt and was happy to hear that no one else was involved...just someone's mailbox.  The instructor had told Kimi to make a U-turn (a worry of hers) in a residential area.  Kimi knew she should stop and back up but thought she must be able to make the turn if she was told to do it right there.  She scraped my bumper on a brick mailbox.  I'm really wondering what the heck the instructor was doing....shouldn't she have told Kimi to STOP?  She only told her to stop after scraping up the bumper and failed her.  The instructor didn't talk to me at all when they came back but had another lady who wasn't there come and explain things to me. (weird)   The more I thought about it the more ticked I was.  I don't care about my car....I'm leaving the scratch....give's my car character and reminds me that people are more important than things.

After that I wasn't in a hurry to go again.  I really wasn't feeling a lot of trust for those at the DMV. Larry worked with Kimi a lot after a few months of delaying again.  This time the instructor was great and complimented Kimi on everything...however, Kimleighel failed to yield at one intersection.  In fairness to Kimi some of the signs are hard to see and they are in unusual spots.  I told Kimi to look at every intersection always....sign or not....it's just better to know if there are other cars coming and what they are doing...just in case they aren't paying attention or miss seeing a sign.  So, once again she went for her road test...we requested the nice instructor and guess what? She passed!!! She was awesome and now has her long awaited licence.  I think I am the happiest!!! Now we get to work with Jared because he is old enough now too.  (this is about as fun as potty training...not my favorite)