All of Jim's Kids (my grandkids)

I don't know what possessed Jim's older boy (another Jim). That is not his natural color, believe me. My Tim dyed his black when he wasn't much older than Jim is now and I did the same thing when I was 19 (huge mistake). We seem to want to be something we're not. I almost went bald trying to strip the dye out. Ended up the first time with a shade of red you'd never see in nature. Second time a beautiful but totally unnatural platinum. At least hair grows.

My natural color isn't much different than what it is now. I went from very blond to white without even noticing until someone else said something. It never was gray.

Back row, left to right:

Jim 15, Samantha 17, and Michael 14 (6 months older than Elcie) and one year ahead of her in school. Sam was born nine days after Ray and I married.

Front row: Jonathan of course.

I've never posted pictures of the older kids. Their parents are divorced, Jim's remarried. I wasn't sure how their mom would feel about it.

Jim says he has their pictures on MySpace and the kids each have their own. If they're there, it shouldn't be a problem having them here.

I don't see nearly as much of them as I'd like. High school kids have such busy lives. We've decided Jonathan must have been focused on dirtying his diaper. Look at that concentration.

Elcie's appointment went well. The surgeon agrees with the pediatrician. It's a harmless cyst and eventually it will disappear on its own. If it seems to grow or if the pain becomes worse, he'll remove it. He's one of these surgeons who believes "less is more" and doesn't cut any more that necessary. The leg he performed the surgery on at the end of 6th grade is doing well and nothing more is needed, at least for now. The other leg is doing fine. For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, she has an internal brace in her right knee to prevent the bone from growing in the wrong direction (which it had begun doing). He lengthened the tendon once again at the same time but wanted to wait before doing anything with the other leg.

It's a relief. He said 90% of those childhood cysts are harmless but I was right (and so was the pediatrician) to get the second opinion. He's the expert in orthopedics and cerebral palsy.

Conferences with teachers today. I already have their report cards. Rebecca is doing better than I dreamed she would; Rochelle okay but I want to talk to her teacher about her attitude in class. Her conduct grades are fine but I worry about her lack of enthusiasm this year. She's always been the one who loved school the most. Probably just puberty but I don't want to miss any danger signals.

This is short but just received the pictures late last night. I'm heading out in a few minutes for coffee with my friend and then over to the school.

Thanks to all for the comments. Hope you like the introduction to some more of my local family. They're good kids and I think Samantha is one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen. Not that I'm biased, you understand.

Take care everyone.