The Family Introduction
Hi everyone. My name is Catalina. I'm 36, married, and a stay-at-home-mom of six kids, who has yet to master the art of actually staying at home. I have high aspirations for my family and for my life, I am a recovering perfectionist. And I'm still learning a lot about myself.
Let me introduce you to my family: First off, let me start by mentioning the fact that I am divorced and then remarried. My ex-husband, Melvin, and I are on good terms. For the most part, we get along fairly well. We were married for 14 years (and had four kids) before I called it quits for the final time. It took another year and a half for us to go to court for our divorce and it was another six months (the day before what would have been our 16th anniversary) before the divorce was final.
During that time frame, I moved into our good friend, Frederick's, house. Eventually, he and I ended up together. We are married now and have two kids together. We live in a nicer neighborhood in our city, with a rental house that isn't too far away, but in a definitely less affluent area. It's the house we moved here from. Although Melvin and I have 50/50 split joint custody of the older four kids, in reality, Frederick and I have them about 80% of the time. And we are about 90% solely responsible for their care.
Frederick is in the military. He is a dual status technician, which means that his civilian job and his military job are the same, but worked at different times and paid for by different sections of the military. He loves to shoot for sport and for hunting, work out (such as kickboxing and water aerobics), camp, garden, work outdoors, fish, build and repair things. He grew up on a farm and every year, he goes back to the family farm to help with harvest and other things as needed. He is a neat freak, although organization somewhat eludes him. Change is not his strong suit either. He has a steadiness and consistency about him that makes a person feel either extremely safe and protected and cared for. Sometimes, it makes me also feel stifled, as I am creative, love change, am also a neat freak, but with a major emphasis on organization and being intentional. I also love to shoot for sport, camp, build and repair things. I don't really enjoy working out, but I do it. Growing things has always been a foreign concept to me, but I do enjoy gardening when I am doing it with Frederick and our two year old. I mentioned that I was creative. I love to take photographs and scrapbook, I write, knit, crochet, and sew.
My oldest son is Cephas. He is almost 17, a junior in high school, who also works nearly full-time hours. He is working hard in school, hoping to earn enough credit hours to graduate if he takes two classes this summer. For whatever reason, he wants to graduate before his senior year. I am fully in support of his goal, as long as he chooses to pursue it. Between school and work, he doesn't have much time for a social life, but his best friend goes to school with him, works almost all of the same shifts as he does, and quite often spends the night with us, even on school nights. But mostly, outside of school and work, Cephas is into gaming and playing guitar.
Next in the lineup is Koren. He is 14, an eighth grader, who is taking some high school differentiated classes, as well as differentiated classes on his own grade level. He also works with Cephas, although he has only worked one 4 hour shift per week so far. He's 14, so I'm good with that. I think he could easily handle more hours, but that is up to Koren to decide. If he wants more hours at work, he will mention it to his boss. And his 4 hour shift each week has given him enough money to be able to do and buy the things that he wants. Koren has an interesting academic history. In early elementary, he had an extremely difficult time learning and retaining information. He consistently scored poorly on exams and was a slow reader. At one point in time, he was in three separate remedial reading groups, in addition to his regular classroom group. He worked hard and got to the point where he was in only his regular classroom group. When he was in fifth grade, shortly after Frederick and I started dating, I received an email from his teacher, telling me that they wanted to move Koren to differentiated classes. I was uncertain about that, as he was performing below average in his class, but agreed to it. He flourished! Much to the surprise of his teachers from early elementary, he excelled in the advanced class and when he started middle school, they added more advanced classes to his schedule. Away from school, Koren likes to spend time with friends, play video games, and create YouTube videos about gaming.
Oralee is our third child. She is 11, a sixth grader, and like Koren, is also in many differentiated classes. I was excited about it until her teacher told her that she was in diff classes (as they are referred to here) and Oralee decided that the work was too hard and that she wanted to go back to the normal classes. She is creative like her mother. She likes to draw and paint, build with Legos, read, write stories and songs and poetry. Her style can be a little eccentric, but mostly, she just isn't phased by what other people think about her. This is both good and bad. She is confident, yet extremely shy. She is an introvert, who also often happens to be the center of attention. She is fun-loving and friendly.
Her brother, Jeriah, is often mistaken as being her twin brother. They are seventeen months apart, but they look quite a bit like one another. He is 10 and in fifth grade. He is also a high-functioning autistic child, who also happens to be highly intelligent. In third grade, he had been identified as a gifted student and was placed in differentiated courses as well. In fourth grade, he went though a lot of personal emotional trauma outside of school (it was nothing that he did - Melvin had made some poor roommate choices, which led to Melvin being forced to move out of his own home while he went through a very long, very stressful eviction process with said roommates.) Anyhow, during fourth grade, while all of this was happening, Jeriah stopped performing in the classroom and shut down hard. It was such a struggle. He was removed from the advanced classes and was barely even doing the work in his regular classes. Thankfully, the issues at his dad's house were resolved, he advanced to fifth grade, where 60% of the homeroom teachers are male, which I think also helped him. He is an amazing child. He loves to read and his niche is technology. When he was five years old, he initiated a factory reset on our home computer from the log-in screen. When we asked him what he did, he told us. When we asked him why he did it, he said that it was because we had a password on the computer and that by initiating a factory reset, there would be no password and that all of the programs that we had on the computer could simply be restored, downloaded or uploaded, depending on the program. We pegged him as a good candidate for a government agency someday.
Melvin and I decided after Jeriah that we had too many marital and financial issues to even consider another child, so we made that a permanent decision. I was not expecting to have any other children at all. Then, eight years later, Frederick and I were together and we had our first child, Orion.
Orion is currently two years old, loves tractors and trains and airplanes. Granted, his father is in the Air Force and seasonally works on a farm, so Orion comes by two out of the three quite honestly. He is absolutely in love with being in the tractor and can ride along with Daddy for hours on end. Due to the nature of Frederick's work, Orion isn't allowed to spend nearly as much time near the planes as he is the tractor. That doesn't deter Orion's love for planes though. He is also very smart, often surprising us with the things he sees and understands and comprehends. Six months ago, he barely spoke, and now he talks in complete sentences and initiates conversation. He recounts his day's events for us, with an amount of reliability. We can generally pick out the factual portions of his conversation, "It was Carter's birthday. We had cake and sang happy birthday," versus, "I went on Tasha's airplane." He is memorizing the books that we read to him each night, which is fun for me, because I can recite most of them and it drives Frederick crazy when I do it while he is reading to Orion. Lately, Orion has been particularly two years old, meaning independent, headstrong, and opinionated. He's also learned some hard, natural lessons about being so headstrong. He is also very cuddly, loving and affectionate. He absolutely adores his older siblings. He and Cephas hang out and Orion watches Cephas play guitar and they listen to music together. Koren and Orion don't really do too much together, but Koren will help out with Orion when I need an extra hand. Oralee loves to read to Orion and they will snuggle on the couch, watching movies or reading books. Jeriah and Orion play together with toys and rough house some. We have to be careful because Orion hasn't yet learned self-control and when it is appropriate and inappropriate to play rough.
Last of our children is Baby Arabella. She is 8 months old and still very much a baby. She just cut her fourth tooth a few days ago and eats stage two baby food. She coos and babbles, but doesn't yet talk. She can roll and stretch and get from one place to another, but she doesn't yet sit up unsupported or crawl. For the most part, she is an extremely happy baby, although she does get cranky if we stay home for too long. She is so used to us being on the go all the time. Also, she has a super social personality and she likes being around a variety of people. I think it's just because they all tell her how smiley she is and what a pretty girl she is. She loves the attention. There's really not too much to tell about her. Cephas will come home from school or work, pick Arabella up and snuggle with her, sometimes even falling asleep with her, before I take her from him. Koren doesn't really interact too much with her. Oralee loves holding her baby sister and helping out. Jeriah likes to talk to her. Orion loves to hold her (with support and for approximately three seconds at a time) and he also likes to snuggle her and give her hugs and kisses.
Cephas's friend cannot go without a proper introduction as well, being that he is more or less a part of our family. Nhan lives up the block from Melvin's house and he actually started hanging out there with Melvin, Cephas and Koren. In time, he started coming to our house as well. He ended up spending so much time here, that we eventually ended up setting him up with his own bed, set of drawers and his own bedding (that matches the other boys). He spends most holidays with our family - going to Melvin's family's get-togethers as well as ours. He is also 16, just a few months younger than Cephas and is also a junior. As I had mentioned, he works with Cephas and Koren, although his hours are the same as Cephas's hours. Nhan does not drive, but Cephas does, so Nhan is dependent on Cephas for transportation to and from school and work most days. Nhan is a good kid and a hard worker. He helps out around the house, encourages the other kids to help out. He's an avid gamer and has recently taken a liking to playing the guitar. He adores Orion and Arabella and interacts with them without prompting. Orion also adores Nhan and whenever we are in his neighborhood, Orion will ask if we are getting Nhan.
So that is the family. There's a lot of us. Our life is crazy and busy and loud. But it is fun and exhausting.I wouldn't trade it for anything
Let me introduce you to my family: First off, let me start by mentioning the fact that I am divorced and then remarried. My ex-husband, Melvin, and I are on good terms. For the most part, we get along fairly well. We were married for 14 years (and had four kids) before I called it quits for the final time. It took another year and a half for us to go to court for our divorce and it was another six months (the day before what would have been our 16th anniversary) before the divorce was final.
During that time frame, I moved into our good friend, Frederick's, house. Eventually, he and I ended up together. We are married now and have two kids together. We live in a nicer neighborhood in our city, with a rental house that isn't too far away, but in a definitely less affluent area. It's the house we moved here from. Although Melvin and I have 50/50 split joint custody of the older four kids, in reality, Frederick and I have them about 80% of the time. And we are about 90% solely responsible for their care.
Frederick is in the military. He is a dual status technician, which means that his civilian job and his military job are the same, but worked at different times and paid for by different sections of the military. He loves to shoot for sport and for hunting, work out (such as kickboxing and water aerobics), camp, garden, work outdoors, fish, build and repair things. He grew up on a farm and every year, he goes back to the family farm to help with harvest and other things as needed. He is a neat freak, although organization somewhat eludes him. Change is not his strong suit either. He has a steadiness and consistency about him that makes a person feel either extremely safe and protected and cared for. Sometimes, it makes me also feel stifled, as I am creative, love change, am also a neat freak, but with a major emphasis on organization and being intentional. I also love to shoot for sport, camp, build and repair things. I don't really enjoy working out, but I do it. Growing things has always been a foreign concept to me, but I do enjoy gardening when I am doing it with Frederick and our two year old. I mentioned that I was creative. I love to take photographs and scrapbook, I write, knit, crochet, and sew.
My oldest son is Cephas. He is almost 17, a junior in high school, who also works nearly full-time hours. He is working hard in school, hoping to earn enough credit hours to graduate if he takes two classes this summer. For whatever reason, he wants to graduate before his senior year. I am fully in support of his goal, as long as he chooses to pursue it. Between school and work, he doesn't have much time for a social life, but his best friend goes to school with him, works almost all of the same shifts as he does, and quite often spends the night with us, even on school nights. But mostly, outside of school and work, Cephas is into gaming and playing guitar.
Next in the lineup is Koren. He is 14, an eighth grader, who is taking some high school differentiated classes, as well as differentiated classes on his own grade level. He also works with Cephas, although he has only worked one 4 hour shift per week so far. He's 14, so I'm good with that. I think he could easily handle more hours, but that is up to Koren to decide. If he wants more hours at work, he will mention it to his boss. And his 4 hour shift each week has given him enough money to be able to do and buy the things that he wants. Koren has an interesting academic history. In early elementary, he had an extremely difficult time learning and retaining information. He consistently scored poorly on exams and was a slow reader. At one point in time, he was in three separate remedial reading groups, in addition to his regular classroom group. He worked hard and got to the point where he was in only his regular classroom group. When he was in fifth grade, shortly after Frederick and I started dating, I received an email from his teacher, telling me that they wanted to move Koren to differentiated classes. I was uncertain about that, as he was performing below average in his class, but agreed to it. He flourished! Much to the surprise of his teachers from early elementary, he excelled in the advanced class and when he started middle school, they added more advanced classes to his schedule. Away from school, Koren likes to spend time with friends, play video games, and create YouTube videos about gaming.
Oralee is our third child. She is 11, a sixth grader, and like Koren, is also in many differentiated classes. I was excited about it until her teacher told her that she was in diff classes (as they are referred to here) and Oralee decided that the work was too hard and that she wanted to go back to the normal classes. She is creative like her mother. She likes to draw and paint, build with Legos, read, write stories and songs and poetry. Her style can be a little eccentric, but mostly, she just isn't phased by what other people think about her. This is both good and bad. She is confident, yet extremely shy. She is an introvert, who also often happens to be the center of attention. She is fun-loving and friendly.
Her brother, Jeriah, is often mistaken as being her twin brother. They are seventeen months apart, but they look quite a bit like one another. He is 10 and in fifth grade. He is also a high-functioning autistic child, who also happens to be highly intelligent. In third grade, he had been identified as a gifted student and was placed in differentiated courses as well. In fourth grade, he went though a lot of personal emotional trauma outside of school (it was nothing that he did - Melvin had made some poor roommate choices, which led to Melvin being forced to move out of his own home while he went through a very long, very stressful eviction process with said roommates.) Anyhow, during fourth grade, while all of this was happening, Jeriah stopped performing in the classroom and shut down hard. It was such a struggle. He was removed from the advanced classes and was barely even doing the work in his regular classes. Thankfully, the issues at his dad's house were resolved, he advanced to fifth grade, where 60% of the homeroom teachers are male, which I think also helped him. He is an amazing child. He loves to read and his niche is technology. When he was five years old, he initiated a factory reset on our home computer from the log-in screen. When we asked him what he did, he told us. When we asked him why he did it, he said that it was because we had a password on the computer and that by initiating a factory reset, there would be no password and that all of the programs that we had on the computer could simply be restored, downloaded or uploaded, depending on the program. We pegged him as a good candidate for a government agency someday.
Melvin and I decided after Jeriah that we had too many marital and financial issues to even consider another child, so we made that a permanent decision. I was not expecting to have any other children at all. Then, eight years later, Frederick and I were together and we had our first child, Orion.
Orion is currently two years old, loves tractors and trains and airplanes. Granted, his father is in the Air Force and seasonally works on a farm, so Orion comes by two out of the three quite honestly. He is absolutely in love with being in the tractor and can ride along with Daddy for hours on end. Due to the nature of Frederick's work, Orion isn't allowed to spend nearly as much time near the planes as he is the tractor. That doesn't deter Orion's love for planes though. He is also very smart, often surprising us with the things he sees and understands and comprehends. Six months ago, he barely spoke, and now he talks in complete sentences and initiates conversation. He recounts his day's events for us, with an amount of reliability. We can generally pick out the factual portions of his conversation, "It was Carter's birthday. We had cake and sang happy birthday," versus, "I went on Tasha's airplane." He is memorizing the books that we read to him each night, which is fun for me, because I can recite most of them and it drives Frederick crazy when I do it while he is reading to Orion. Lately, Orion has been particularly two years old, meaning independent, headstrong, and opinionated. He's also learned some hard, natural lessons about being so headstrong. He is also very cuddly, loving and affectionate. He absolutely adores his older siblings. He and Cephas hang out and Orion watches Cephas play guitar and they listen to music together. Koren and Orion don't really do too much together, but Koren will help out with Orion when I need an extra hand. Oralee loves to read to Orion and they will snuggle on the couch, watching movies or reading books. Jeriah and Orion play together with toys and rough house some. We have to be careful because Orion hasn't yet learned self-control and when it is appropriate and inappropriate to play rough.
Last of our children is Baby Arabella. She is 8 months old and still very much a baby. She just cut her fourth tooth a few days ago and eats stage two baby food. She coos and babbles, but doesn't yet talk. She can roll and stretch and get from one place to another, but she doesn't yet sit up unsupported or crawl. For the most part, she is an extremely happy baby, although she does get cranky if we stay home for too long. She is so used to us being on the go all the time. Also, she has a super social personality and she likes being around a variety of people. I think it's just because they all tell her how smiley she is and what a pretty girl she is. She loves the attention. There's really not too much to tell about her. Cephas will come home from school or work, pick Arabella up and snuggle with her, sometimes even falling asleep with her, before I take her from him. Koren doesn't really interact too much with her. Oralee loves holding her baby sister and helping out. Jeriah likes to talk to her. Orion loves to hold her (with support and for approximately three seconds at a time) and he also likes to snuggle her and give her hugs and kisses.
Cephas's friend cannot go without a proper introduction as well, being that he is more or less a part of our family. Nhan lives up the block from Melvin's house and he actually started hanging out there with Melvin, Cephas and Koren. In time, he started coming to our house as well. He ended up spending so much time here, that we eventually ended up setting him up with his own bed, set of drawers and his own bedding (that matches the other boys). He spends most holidays with our family - going to Melvin's family's get-togethers as well as ours. He is also 16, just a few months younger than Cephas and is also a junior. As I had mentioned, he works with Cephas and Koren, although his hours are the same as Cephas's hours. Nhan does not drive, but Cephas does, so Nhan is dependent on Cephas for transportation to and from school and work most days. Nhan is a good kid and a hard worker. He helps out around the house, encourages the other kids to help out. He's an avid gamer and has recently taken a liking to playing the guitar. He adores Orion and Arabella and interacts with them without prompting. Orion also adores Nhan and whenever we are in his neighborhood, Orion will ask if we are getting Nhan.
So that is the family. There's a lot of us. Our life is crazy and busy and loud. But it is fun and exhausting.I wouldn't trade it for anything
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