New Discipline approach for the new year

Oh, how I have MISSED this laptop! Our one dog thought the power cord looked tasty......so I've been laptop-less!!!! LOL!!!! Tee hee.

Ok, so seriously now, you know how it is. Every so often, ok, way too often, you sit back and realize, When did I lose control? When did this chaos set in? Yep, it's that time again! Back to school, end of summer, I want to get back in a decent routine time!

Now they're getting older on me (how dare they!) and the old standby time-out and stickers not so effective. Now they're 9,8,6 & almost 4! They want PRIVELEGES!! SO here's my new plan!

Based loosely on the Dilley Discipline Ladder....only I'm silly and have this bee theme going on...LOL Blame it on the cute clipart I found ok? SO we have the Hillman Beehave Beehive!

Ahhh.....it's a thing of beauty! We kept the separate Chore Chart system,. as that really works well and all the kids are real clear on it. I re-did the old hand drawn house and family rules as well to keep with it. I'll letcha know how it goes!
So keep your fingers crossed for me! LOL! Its nice to be able to have them all know exactly what they can/can't do, and all i have to say is "Well, go look at the chart and see where your bee is at" and no more arguing over is so and so allowed to do this or that!

My sister

I just want to say a bit about my big sister! She is the most motivated and driven person I know! She is very active with her church, teaches choir and sings, sings and directs with the EPAC Theatre, is a adjunct professor for SUNY Cortland and SUNY Binghamton, oh yeah, AND is a wife and mother!!!! She will be graduating with her PHD in a year! And now, she was just appointed the interim director of multicultural affairs at the college she teaches at!!!!!

I am so proud of her! Although we don't get to see each other as much as I'd like, with two busy schedules, kids and games and all the other activities, we still get to keep in touch online and when we can. She has been very supportive of my going back to school, and I am grateful for it! She has worked very hard to achieve her goals, and has really done amazing with her life. I just want everyone to know what an amazing person she is, an how proud I am to have her for my sister.

I love ya Sis!!!!!!

Happy Father's Day!!!!!!

Ah.......and here he is......the man I married.....the father of my children......the partner of my household...............

I'm in TROUBLE!!!!!!!!!!! Big goofball!!

Just kiddin.........we hope he's having a great father's day! We did good this year! Got Daddy a cool father's day shirt, with Homer Simpson on it LOL! Then he got two new "the best of star trek" DVD's. And the kids all made him super cute stuff at school!! Johnny made him coupons, which are really really awesome! LOL! SO fun! So Daddy's having a good day today!

Hugs to Daddy! Happy Father's Day!!!!!

We love to visit Gramma Mom!!

We just love my grandmother! She's such an awesome lady! She's 86 now, and just the sweetest gramma ever! My kids call her "Gramma Mom" cause being that I lived with her, my mom, AND my great-grandmother growing up, we had "Mommy, Mom and Nanny" LOL! So to me she's still "Mom"! My gramma is the one person who I think has had some of the most influence on my life and taught me the most.
She always had these amazing gardens full of food and
she would make all our meals and canned, froze, made homemade grape juice and jelly every year and more! I learned to cook from her (Much to my family's happiness! ha ha) I also learned to sew, crochet, knit (badly ew) and lots more from her.
One year for my birthday, she made my fav dinner, my fav kind of cake, and then she had knitted an ENTIRE outfit for my fav baby dollie! All in PINK! LOL! I was very into pink!
Well, even though she can't do a lot of those things anymore due to her glaucoma and age, she still is just a sweet and loving person, and I love her to pieces! I'm so glad my kids get to have her in their lives! They love visiting her, talking to her, reading to her and coloring with her. They also LOVE her little shih tzu dog, Muffin. Yes, it's a boy and she named the poor thing Muffin! Could by why he's such a little stinker! LOL! Julianna has a BLAST racing and chasing with him! She especially loved running up and down the ramp, rolling the ball down it for Muffin and riding her little 4 wheel
wheeler down it! Jenna played baseball with her Uncle JP, my youngest brother who is 19 now! AND She learned to ride her bike in the grass at Grammy's house!!! They have these awesome hills, and she learned to ride down them just like I used to as a kid! LOL! We had a great time! We also had a great time visiting with my mother (Grammy, to the kids!) when she got home from work! I am pretty sure that both Gramma Mom and Muffin had to take nice LOOOOOOONG Naps all day the next day from all the excitement of our visit! LOL!!!

I love to Sew!

Well, if you havent' figured it out yet, I LOVE sewing! Especially for my adorable kiddies! I still am amazed at how much I save when they're little making them clothes! And with Julianna being one size in height and another in weight, it's so much easier to make clothes that fit, than buying and trying to alter them! Plus it helps that she LOVES picking out her own fabric and wearing what I make her! LOL! She's so stinking cute!


I also had another great "excuse" to do some sewing today! My friend's Daughter's Roommate had a brand new little baby girl today!! She's adorable! So I got to make some little baby gifts up for Brittany!!! I hope she likes them !

Julianna and her stylish outfit for Grammas!

Ok, so you know how I am, and I just can't seem to help myself! I LOVE making the kids' clothes!! And it's so handy for me that I really pretty much NEED to for Julianna! With her being so tiny, it's cheaper and easier to just make her clothes so they FIT her scrawny butt! Well, she has SO much fun picking out what she wants me to use and embellish with! LOL! Quite the little fashion queen she is! So I got all this nice light denim to make little jeans for her with, and then she found
this really cute jungle print ruffle at Wal*mart!!

Now I'd gotten this same jungle print in a really nice, soft fleece last year and used it for various projects and she just loved how soft and cuddly it was and loved all the cute animals on it! So you can just imagine the happy little shriek that went thru Wal*mart when she saw it there in the fabric department! LOL!!!!

So we're off to visit Grammy and Gradma Mom tomorrow, so of course she wanted her new jeans to wear! So then, being the obsessed seamstress that I am......I HAD to make her a matching top to go with her new jeans! So I found the SAME print in a nice cotton, and picked a really cute little dress top pattern and whipped it up! Course, I HATE, and I do mean HATE doing buttonholes and buttons, so I used good 'ol Velcro (or do we have to say Hook and Loop tape?) For the back opening! LOL! She likes it anyway, cause it's easier for her to do "All by herself!" or as she says, loudly and with feeling "NOOOO MEEEE DO!!!!!!"

Well, I will try to get some great pictures of her WEARING her new outfit tomorrow! They always look so much cuter when there's an adorable little kid in them! LOL!!!!

And she does it again!

Well, she's done it again! Last nite, wiggly tooth number two came out!! Jazzy was so excited that the tooth fairy had come, and took her note and pictures she colored for her, and left a certificate and letter and $2! So last nite before bed, she decided that she'd give that second wiggle little tooth a try!

So first she tried the old tried & true "String-around-the-tooth" trick.....and one little tug and whoooooop! Down it went, and off came the string! So she got it the rest of the way out all by herself!! She was so excited!

So then she colored more pictures and her and Jenna worked on yet another letter for the poor overworked tooth fairy! LOL! SO this morning, someone was thrilled to discover a new game "Go Fish" card game, and another dollar! Plus another note of course! So now when we go off to Jenna's eye dr appointment, we have to make a little trip to the dollar store for a certain young lady to spend her whopping $4!!! LOL!!!!

Jasmine lost her 1st tooth!

Today was a big day!! Today Jasmine and the other kids all had a trip to the dentist! Julianna had her very 1st dentist appointment! All of the kids did GREAT! And not a single cavity for all four kids! Definitely a successful visit! And now Julianna isn't scared of the dentist and has healthy little toofies!

Then we found out more good news! Jenna FINALLY has
teeth moving and will soon have her very first loose tooth! This was a huge concern for her, as she is the last one in her class to have not lost a tooth at all. She's been trying to wiggle her teeth, but all to no avail! LOL!

To add insult to injury, we also found out something exciting for Jasmine - she has two loose teeth! And we didn't even know it! One is REALLY REALLY loose.......so loose in fact, that she had that little sucker out by bedtime! And she did it 100% all by herself! I was very impressed! She is of course, on cloud nine,and super proud of herself!

And since Mama wasn't expecting her to have one so soon (she's only 5!) I had to book it to my sewing room and have her pick out fabric to make her special tooth fairy pillow for bedtime! LOL! She picked out a pretty blue fabric with all different color flying zebra's all over it! LOL! So cute! So she's happy and has her little tooth all ready for the tooth fairy!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!!

Yes! It's true! I'm 29.......again...cough cough! LOL!!!!! I'm totally having a fun day! Picked out a cake with Juli, then the girls helped me write "Happy Birthday Mama!" on it in purple gel! We're going to do our nails, sing, have cake and make your own sundaes!!!!

I also got something for myself.........ok, so it's more for the special needs kids....but heck, I'm a JUNKIE for office supplies so it's a toy for me! LOL! I got a LAMINATING MACHINE!!! Woooo hooooo! I'm so excited! I'm going to make Julianna PECS cards for her communication book!!!! It's so nice to have alternative methods to let her communicate her needs! It's really helping her say new words too! Loving it!

Here's some of the cards I made up for her, that I'm going to laminate for her book!

Valentine Goofballs!

Just had to share some cute pictures of my little rugrats being complete and total goofballs! LOL! We got them these great stuffed animal hearts for valentines day, and they were just being totally silly and adorable playing with them! So of course I had to grab my camera! LOL! I guarantee they will be the cutest little "heartheads" you've ever seen! LOL!

Winter according to Bob

OK, so I probably should mention that Bob is actually, a russian tortoise. Well, we DID have Bob in our downstairs bathroom, on his nifty little table, in his tortoise approved, appropriate habitat. Well, gosh.....who knew that tortoises hibernated!! Bob hibernated for almost 3 months! So I start panicking...thinking...geez, if he doesn't EAT he's going to croak!! So we move Bob and his nine thousand pound habitat (ok, so not really, but it's HEAVY! Think 50bls of sand plus substrate, plus his rock plus the dry corncob half ) into the living room, with the toasty stove. I was worried, cause it took like a couple days, but finally, Bob is awake!! He's eating, moving around (as much as a tortoise does!) and seems like a normal healthy tortoise! I'm so happy! LOL!

We acquired Bob, when his family was moving, and somehow heard of the poor sap that rescues dogs! LOL! So he moved in last summer. We have found www.russiantortoise.org to be an invaluable resource to learn more about him and his proper care to keep him healthy and happy! It's a really great help! Although I am not real great with pets that don't YELL to be fed (ha ha ha!) he is an interesting little guy.

SO long story short...LOL ....we're glad Bob is no longer hibernating and didn't die on us before we even had him a year! LOL!!! We have no clue how old he is, so we have no clue how long we'll have him. They are supposed to live a loooooong time! lOL!!!

Mia update

Mia Update! 2/5/09

Mia is home from the vets at Kim H's!! She is drinking and doing well!! Several of the other pups have now come down with the same thing, so the whole litter is on antibiotics and close watch as well as supportive fluids, so keep them all in your prayers and thoughts!!!

We can use any donations you can give to support all the vet bills this litter of 10 is racking up for care!!!!! We are up to $400 so far, so thanks a ton to all those who have already helped out!!!! YAY!!!!!

Thought you'd all enjoy seeing how Mia is doing!!!

SO PROUD of my SON!!!!!

As most of you know, our son was recently diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome with ADHD. He has really been struggling with school the last three years, not so much academically, but with social skills and behavior. We knew that something was off, but it took so much paperwork, appointments, testing etc. so it was very frustrating for him, his teachers and us as well. But now that we've finally found out what was going on, we were able to get some treatment plans going to help him succeed!!

WE Know what a wonderful kid he is! He's soooooooo smart!!!! He can read well above grade level and has many interests and talents! He is helpful, sweet, caring, loving, wise (yes, as in wisea** like his mom!) with a great sense of humor and a great big brother to the girls! But it doesn't show at school as much, because of his difficulty writing, relating to others and being frustrated when he has trouble with something. But now with his IEP, counseling, therapy and treatment plans, he is doing so much better! Finally, they are starting to see him how we do!

Well this week, he has had two PERFECT days!!!! Today he got a certificate from his teacher!!!! It says:

"Way to go!!!!!! You did a great job on your journal, spelling, math and science partner work today! I am so proud of you!!"

And this is just so huge for him!!!!!! He has such a hard time with handwriting and working with peers, so he really has been trying so hard and he has done so well the last month!!!! We are SO PROUD OF HIM!!!!!!!! Way to go son!!!!! We know what an accomplishment this is for you and we are so proud of your hard work!!!! We love you more than words can say!!!!!!!

Update on Mia

Update on Mia - 2/3/09

Evening update on 2/2/09 - Mia is not stable yet, but is doing MUCH better and is holding her head up and more alert! They believe she may be stabilized by tomorrow and able to be transferred to her regular vet for care there. SO! Fingers crossed!!

Morning update 2/3/09 - Mia is stable! She has not had vomiting since yesterday morning, and no diahrea since the afternoon. She will be being released to Kim H of Hubbard's Hounds Dog Rescue to take to their regular vet now.

Afternoon update 2/3/09 - As of now, Mia has been release from Cornell, and is in the care of the rescue's regular veterinarian. She is having some diahrea again, but is alert, can hold her head up and is stable so that is HUGE!!!!

Unfortunately, another one of her littermates is starting to have some symptoms so has joined Mia at Dr. Millers vet today. Keep Dorrie in your prayers too please!!!! They are not totally out of the woods yet, but at least there is HOPE now that Mia will recover with time and fluids and supportive care. The cause of the infection is still unknown at this time, and often these things are never fully discovered. The pups will continue to be watched closely and given any supportive care that is needed.

Thanks so much for all of you who have given support to their care!!!! We are up to almost $200 tword the vet bill of over $2000, so it's a great start, but we can still use any help we can get!!

Page for Mia

Go here to help save my little Mia!!!!!

HELP SAVE MIA

Desperate Help Needed!!!!!

PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

I am sendi..ng out a desperate plea!.. Please send to EVERY..ONE you know!.. My new foster baby,.. a beautiful 7 week old puggle/chow mix puppy is in Cornell fighting for her life as we speak... I was in the hospital all nite with her. Our small rescue just does NOT have the kind of funds it's going to take to help her fight for her life. We are in DESPERATE Need of donations!!!!!!! Every dollar will help and will go 100% to save her life, and it is TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!!!!!

Please Please go to HUBBARD'S HOUNDS and DONATE with paypal twords her care. I am also accepting donations at my home address:

Julia.. Hillman
c/o Hubbard's Hounds Dog Rescue
for Mia
7157 Prospect St
Ovid, NY 14521

Anything will help... I will be selling some items on Ebay to help and whatever else I can think of.

This poor puppy.., was just pulled with her 9 littermates, from a high kill southern shelter and brought to us here in NY on Saturday. I am just heartbroken at the thought that after.. all we've done to try to save her from death.., she may die anyway. She is Parvo negative, which is a blessing, but her little body is possibly septic, fighting some infection... As of 6am, they had her IV's going thru ICE trying to bring.. her temp down... She's a little fighter and is trying so hard to live........................please can you help?..?????

Julia
PS you can see Mia at SAVE MIA and click on "Puppies"

Christmas Jammies are the BEST!!!

OK, so every year, I make the kiddo's nice toasty new flannel jammies for Christmas!! Usually nightgowns for the girls, and two piece jammies for Johnny. This year Jazzy picked yellow with little elephants all over it (she's our elephant addict!) and Jenna picked this awesome cute flannel with little teenage type little cartoony girls all over. Johnny found an awesome pirate flannel, and with him being SO into pirates this year, well it was perfect! Julianna went NUTS for a purple with little baby monkeys all over it!! So cute!!!!

There was only one problem..........as soon as they came "hot off the press" or sewing machine as the case may be......I have them try em on to fit the elastic and hems etc......well......at the final fit........THE KIDS STOLE THEM!!!!!!! SO they didnt' have them to open Christmas eve!!! Little stinkers!!!! I think it's safe to say they loved them! LOL!!!!!!!