Update on Everyone

Well, apparently Mike is avoiding us as much as possible. If he isn't home long enough to have a conversation with us about not being able to live here, I guess he thinks we can't kick him out. He disappeared at 9 last night and we haven't seen him.

Rand is doing well with his new job and appears to be handling school OK. He is very independent when it comes to his school work and hopefully his grades will be OK when his semester ends next week.

Kyle is overwhelmed and stressed out with the end of his first semester of his senior year of college. Bart and I both remember those days well -- he is all of the sudden unsure of everything.

We haven't heard from John since I confronted him about his lie over Thanksgiving. I'm waiting for him to contact us.

Jimmy is busy looking for a job since he turned 16. He is still growing and is probably about 6'1" now.

Salinda gets to come home this next weekend for the full weekend. Then it is just a week until the staffing for her that determines her future.

Ricardo has been moved up to varsity in wrestling which is quite impressive since he has never wrestled in his life and has only been in 7th grade for 2 weeks.

Mercedes is getting teeth pulled out this week, 3 Monday, 2 more today and will have braces put on in two weeks. Her social life isn't quite as demanding as it was before I grounded her for her quarter grades.

Tony had a Christmas concert last night and looks like he is doing well socially at school. I took pictures of him, but I can't seem to find them on the camera so I'm not sure if they didn't save or what. At his IEP meeting yesterday the teacher could not say enough about how nice and fun he is at school. Said she had a hard time getting mad at him because he was so pleasant. I offered to make her a video at home that might help her feel a little anger next time she needed to scold him. I'm very glad he is holding it together at school and occasionally we actually think he's doing better here as well.

Leon is fitting in so nicely into our family. He likes to complain and is very picky -- his senses work overtime. PIcky eater, everything smells bad, noises drive him crazy -- but overall he is very good natured. He says he hates school but seems to do what he needs to do. Wrestling isn't going as well for him, but he is still being a good sport and participating.

Dominyk remains a consistent challenge with his OCD/ADHD combination but is doing better in school than ever before. His obsession with pop (even caffeine free diet) nearly takes over his life some days. I don't know how long he's been this obsessed, but I do distinctly remember his obsession taking over our labor day picnic..

And Wilson. What can I say about Wilson other than that he is the most delightful eight year old we have ever parented. Funny, smart, calm, affectionate. He's just a doll and never tires of giving me hugs or getting them and lets me kiss on him whenever I want to. He consistently makes me smile.

Well, there you have it. Twelve kids, relatively few major issues at the time. And today I really need to start buying Christmas presents for this group.