{{What a long Week}}

Boy has it been a long, funky kind of week. Monday was fine, but by Tuesday, I was already feeling as if it should be Friday. Getting up every morning has been a struggle. I was exhausted AND I even went to bed at earlier times.

We had two birthdays this week (pictures to follow). Emily turned 15 and Greg turned 17. I can't believe my "babies" are this old. For some reason, I was more depressed that Greg is his age than Emily. He's always been the easy going, no drama, all around great kid. Shame on me for saying this but of all my kids he is the easiest. Very low maintainence, except here of late where he reminds me on a daily basis (numerous times a day) that he doesn't have a car! He has put several job applications in but no luck. That's the hold up. Job=car. It also has really hit me hard that he will be a senior in high school in less than 6 weeks. Where has the time gone? So, my next year will be focusing on him and getting him ready for college. I think he will go locally though unlike Liz. That's okay with me. We have several awesome univerisities close to home. USF, University of Tampa, St. Leo University. But who knows, maybe he will change his mind.

Oh my goodness, Mark is doing great in school. Without going into to much detail, he finally (after two years), got his IEP (Individual Education Plan). He's been getting one on one, tutoring, extra time for tests and he is doing so well. You know how you have people come into your lives and just make a huge impact? Well, he has two. Ms. B. has been tutoring him since after Xmas getting him ready for the FCAT. She was instrumental, along with his everday teacher, getting someone to finally help us. This has been ongoing since he was in first grade. Ms. D. is his one on one teacher that comes and sits with him and keeps him on task. For the first time EVER, he likes school and doesn't fight me to get up and get ready in the morning. We hit a roadblock with one particular person and now that that person is gone, we had someone new to start all over with him and actually help him. It's just a bummer that I can't get all the money we have spent on our own getting him tested back. We shouldn't have had to go to that extent but we did what we had to do. On a happy note, he had a 90% on his math test last week. This week he brough home another 90%. The teacher ended up retesting the kids since there were so many other low grades. So he retook it and got a 105% (he got the bonus). This is HUGE.....

Liz will be moving back home on Thursday. I'm very excited but at the same time, we will be back to a "full house" again. YIKES. I think she will have a hard time getting back to rules, curfew and other things. I don't blame her though. I wouldn't like to move back after having freedom like she did. I think the hardest thing for her will be tolerating that we all still have to get up for school. She will just have to adapt.........I figured I would give her a few days to get some sleep before I push her hard to get a job.

Tomorrow Emily is having some friends over for a birthday party. This is when I am so happy I live in Florida. All I have to do is order a pizza, turn the pool heater on and then we are good to go. I won't have all these teenage girls in my house. Man, I love Florida!

Well, happy Friday. I'm sorting and organizing pictures. I've also purged a lot of old scrapbook supplies out. I'm hoping to have this room done by the end of the weekend.