Taking My Own Advice

I am known for telling my kids to make a change or quit complaining. I think it's high time I took that advice. I'm going to give it a whirl this week (in real life that is, I may still have to rant away here a bit).

T and I were reading tonight and just cackling away at a Junie B. book. It was hilarious. I don't know if he was laughing at the story or me.

DH made it home from Virginia safely. I'm always glad when he is home after being gone for a week. I was so grateful to be able to go to sleep before 1 or 2 am last night.

I got to go grocery shopping BY MYSELF this afternoon. These are good times.

M isn't feeling well right now. I don't know if she ate something weird or not but she has been on the floor of the bathroom for two hours. Poor kiddo!

T's doctor visit

I have to admit. I didn't really want to go to visit the pediatric gastroenterologist. This is going to sound so stupid but well, I didn't really want to bother him when the meds they gave to Topher seemed to help quite a bit.

DH said go. Good friends said go. Mom said go.

So I went. (After all, I am a bit of a pushover and a pleaser.)

I'm so glad. And in reality, the doc couldn't be too unhappy because he gets paid one way or the other. And in reality I was kind of surprised to not see other people in the office. You would think that someone that gets booked a half a year in advance would have a busy office. Maybe they just knew from the phone vibes that we would fill the office all by ourselves.

The doc did thing we need to check T out some more. He was the same doctor we saw almost 4 years ago when they had to take T off of all food and put him on the predigested stuff to give his little body a chance to heal.

Maybe we'll figure this kid out. We do get to do some more bloodwork and a stool sample. (Mom gets to collect the stuff in an old cool whip container. EWWWW!)

So the hope is that we can figure out T and that will help me with little C since she does the same things he did as a baby with her tummy.

And that is good news!

The visit was also a hit because I actually got the children kid's meals at Wendy's. I would normally not do it because we have this saying that we go to restaurants for food and not for toys. But I couldn't resist. They have the Magic Tree House books on CD. How great is that! I'm tempted to go and buy myself a kid meal for lunch tomorrow just to get another story.

D's First Day of Kindergarten

After having a couple of kids start school you tend to have expectations about how the first day goes. In our house it usually includes perfect hair, perfect school clothes, a nice meal in the tummy, a walk to school, and a few tears from mom.

I thought that is how some of our day would go. Then two days ago the people at S's preschool called and told me that she HAD to come in for her assessment. I informed them that D had his very first day of K only two hours later and they said it would be no problem because the assessment would be easily done in an hour.

I'm sure you are all starting to see where I am going with this.

Here's how the morning went.

Everyone got up cranky because no one would fall asleep last night including me.

T didn't have his homework done. (How can we have such bad habits after only a week?)

T and D were fighting over cleaning their room.

I shoved T out the door with a piece of bread in his hand.

I tossed C into the tub to try to get the rest of the diaper ointment out of her hair. Mission accomplished.

I made D get in the shower and then later S.

We zoomed out the door to S's assessment.

I put D and C in the daycare at the assessment center.

S passed the vision test.

S got mad at a kid for looking at her while waiting for the cognitive test.

We were randomly assigned D's therapist for an evaluation. (I didn't even know he would be there.)

S refused to play the 'games' that her tester had for her.

I chatted it up with D's therapist while S tried to distract me and tried to keep from doing the test.

The first alarm went off.

Everyone ignores it. Then we are all ushered outside.

D and C are somewhere on the campus without me.

I keep checking the time because D has Kindergarten.

We finally get in and talk to someone who reviews our results. I try to inform her that we are in a hurry and she doesn't seem to care. She must have been the head honcho or something because people kept asking her which copies of things they should make.

She says that S didn't score well on the verbal part. I look down and it says that she flat out REFUSED to do it (later she tells me she just didn't feel like playing).

That lady finally lets us go and we head to the dental. I tell them she just went in for a checkup (true) and they let me go.

Luckily the next people let me go with a promise to get the lead level in her tested.

I realize we have 15 minutes to make a twenty minute trip.

I find a daddy juice (juice pouch) in the back of the car and some left over pretzel crumbs from a month ago.

D gets that for lunch as well as two suckers I had in the front seat. Had I had ANY idea that we might have a fire alarm evacuation I would have come up with something better than two suckers for lunch.

We get to school five minutes late. D's hair hasn't been combed. He's using the violin lesson backpack from the front seat. My camera has no batteries AND I forgot his homework.

Oh what a day! I can't believe I sent him on his first day after having a lunch of smartie suckers.

And he loved it. The day was great for him.

Back to Blogging

Heck, if I take off a few days it starts to be overwhelming to continue.

So a few random thoughts to get over that and back on track.

My knee isn't as bad as it could have been. I guess the cartilage is worn in a spot and there is some bone on bone action. My knees aren't tracking properly. This is no shock as I have feet that are flatter than the ground they walk on. I'm taking a bunch of old people pills to try to keep those joints lubricated. And for now, the doc says I shouldn't run unless I want to make it worse. I was very bummed initially but I am somewhat over that now. I'm hoping to get my knee tracking better and maybe look forward to a few runs a week and a 5k or two next spring/summer.

Today I went lap swimming at the pool. So I haven't really gone swimming since having C. I went to a cheap store last night and found a not so functional swimsuit. I tried that puppy on last night and thought, dang, I can't fit well into this thing but I am going swimming tomorrow anyway. Luckily, this morning I figured out I had part of it twisted. WHEW!

The swimming was harder than I thought. I haven't done any laps for a couple of decades so 30 minutes of them killed me. But that's good because obviously I need it. At the end my friend climbs right out of the pool and I thought, "Dang, what in the world am I to do?" Climbing out of the pool would so not be pretty. I ended up dodging people in other lanes to go to the shallow. During this time my friend was patiently waiting (and slightly shivering) for me. I'm so grateful she said she would go because I so would have chickened out.

What else has happened? The kids started school and this time I didn't cry.

T's stomach is finally doing better. The very pricey meds they gave him helped a bunch.

C has started singing Bob the Builder all the time. It's kind of a funny choice for her.

D is excited for school to start.

S tried to hit her substitute church teacher over the head with a toy. She also spit at him and stuck her tongue out. I asked her why and she said she just didn't want him there. He wasn't her teacher. Hopefully she will be allowed back in after that. And thankfully the man (a friend) had a quick hand and caught her arm before she decked him. I don't know if I should be frustrated or not. At least she wasn't caught up in being fake. That has to be something.

Life is still busy busy busy. My basement is coming along. Nacho (I think that is his name. I only heard it when he called) was supposed to come today and didn't. Oh well, it has waited long enough what is another day or two. The 'sheeprock' is all hung though and it has been mudded. YIPPEEE!

And with that I will try to sleep. I feel so much better knowing that I am somewhat 'caught up' on this. (Okay, I know I really am not but I'm considering this done.)

Not the best of wake up calls

You know, sometimes when you are down in the dumps you forget how lucky you are.

Last night before bed I quickly popped onto nieniedialogues.blogspot.com. She doesn't know me at all. Her SIL was my good friend when we were teenagers. My friend died several years ago of cancer and I haven't seen her family since then. They have a fabulous family of 11 kids, all of whom are super talented and genuine people. So when I found a few blogs from their family I was hooked. I love seeing what has happened to them and their kids (including my friend's little boy who was just more than a newborn when she died). Good people are inspiring and this family is like that.

Imagine my surprise when I read that my friends brother and his wife, the writer of nienie had been in a plane crash. The flight instructor has already passed away and it sounds like nienie and her husband are in for a very long haul.

It's hard to understand life occasionally. This family is awesome and I really mean awesome. They cause you to wonder how so many good people can come from just one family. But to have your daughter die of cancer in her twenties and your son to be in a plane crash just seems against the odds. Those aren't normal things.

It helps put things in perspective.

Oh, and M got her hair cut today. She's a big ponytail of it to Pantene's program to give wigs to people with cancer. I'm so thrilled she decided to do it.

Quick Note

I can't be posting bummer stuff all week and not mention a good day.

S went to bed easily in her new room both last night and tonight. YIPPEEEE! She woke up much happier.

DH survived his 18 mile run this morning and wasn't super grouchy today. He got up at 3:30 to do it so that we could drive an hour north to do a race for the kids.

The kids loved the race. It's was S's first one. They each got a stuffed animal as well. I ran it with S and she ran the entire .6 mile. I'm interested in seeing what the MRI says on Monday because it did hurt my knee. The good news is that I got a little weepy when we were about to cross the finish line. That's a good thing because it means there is an attachment. If I can cry the first time M and T ride amusement park rides, I should feel weepy when S crosses her first finish line.

At the race M won a 17 inch Corolle doll. It's a French doll but I didn't know of it. (What kind of crappy French speaker am I?) It's beautiful and will fit in well with her American Girl dolls. T won some hanging art supply organizer thing. David and S didn't win anything in the drawing but D was happy that his stuffed animal was a Build a Bear and was the only one that talked. S loved her chicken (a Sandra Boyton one).

We went to DH's parents' house after and his mom made a fabulous breakfast for us. The kids played with their cousins. I messed up a little when I was ordering my MIL some shoes online. Instead of asking what size she wore, I asked how big her feet were. Then later I was putting her checkbook back into her purse and all I could find was this big black bag (later I found out it was her computer bag). I asked something like, "Is it this big bag?" She didn't know that her purse was actually at her feet and that I was referring to the computer bag. And I didn't know if I had the right bag because that is not something my MIL would carry as a purse. She tends to have pretty cute purses. Luckily we got it cleared up and she didn't think I was rude too long.

The kids played in the water and ate. S hasn't had a snackfest like that in months. Boy, the old S came out quickly. She just couldn't get enough. C wanted to eat and eat too. My MIL commented on how her belly fills up outside her ribs. Yep, that's her milk belly. M had the same belly. It's flat in the morning and very round after drinking a lot.

We made it home and had soup and carrots for dinner. The house still needs cleaning but I think we'll probably just go to bed.

I found some music for my first choir practice tomorrow. It's not the most fancy, that's for certain. I found some really pretty music but decided to keep it easy considering I have NEVER been in a choir and have no idea what to do. I had this dream and imagined my self thinking of sopranos as first violins, altos as seconds, tenors as violas, etc. It may not be pretty but I have to start trying. I hope it works out. I hate to not do things well. I also didn't want to pick stuff that had the men and the women singing separately much because what if no men show up. I don't know the makeup of the choir. The closest I have come to being in the choir was playing the violin with them.

T didn't throw up again last night. We'll see how we do tonight. He has gone as many as 3 days before it all started up again. I am hesitantly hopeful.

Crazy Day

Last night a good friend and I were talking and she pretty much said we were going to switch the rooms of the baby and S. Now the oldest and youngest share and S has a room to herself. The plan was to get this done today. I'll tell you that we did accomplish it. S is in the room that isn't painted with giant flowers and with a lattice fence around the bottom. She no longer has tons of things to look at and occupy her time. She has a room with a bed and a dresser with clothes only in one drawer. We put a lock on her closet and her toys and her hanging clothes are in there. We even took down the drapes in case they might cause her mind to stay too busy. And the kid is asleep. She went to sleep really easily.

Now onto the craziness. I had a hard time catching many breaks today. My friend had offered to come help me switch the rooms. I wanted to get working early and have a bunch of work done. When I came out of the purple room I found the couches turned into forts, the bill drawer open and bills torn up, a spill in the recently cleaned living room floor, things EVERYWHERE, etc. But you know, that is kind of expected.

S went out in the backyard and laid on her back on the porch and screamed and threw a fit because she was angry.

Then it got better. T came in and asked if he could have some more medicine. Um, no kid. You don't get extra medicine. Several minutes later (that could be 5 or 20 I really can't remember) M came in and told us that T had spilled some medicine. Yes, the kid had gotten the lid off of his rx and spilled 3 doses. There were two left and he had taken one. Did I mention that with insurance that rx was 40 buckaroos. I was furious. He could get so hurt if he just gulps down medicine. Luckily he didn't. I called the pharmacy and they said to get 3 more doses of that medicine it would be 87 dollars. So I called the doctor's office and he said to see how the next two doses go and if they aren't helping then there's no need to buy more.

I then fed the kids lunch. S was going to put her bowl in the sink and I took it from her so she wouldn't drop it and break it. Usually she puts her cup on the counter (it's more of a small mug) so she can get a drink later if she wants. That's not how it went this time. She dropped that puppy in the sink and broke it.

A little big later I went to shut the pantry and found my mandarin oranges gone. You have to remember, I just fed the kids lunch. And really, I don't mind if they eat mandarin oranges. But when we are at home, we use the cans. The little single serving super pricey ones are for lunches away from home. So to find that almost all of the 16 packs of mandarin oranges I purchased earlier this week gone was more than frustrating. My friend went into T's room (where he was on his bed for getting into his rx) and found the missing oranges. He was stashing them in his room. A little bit later she found 4 bags of future school lunch chips under their bed. I know T is hungry now and I don't care how often he eats. But keep it out of the bedroom.

So we continue to work and work. Someone came over and bid my 'sheeprock' and later called back with an acceptable bid (yeah work starts next week). My friend and I were moving the full sized bed to another wall in the purple room for S. It has been up in there with the crib for company. I didn't S to be on the same wall as the baby though and so we were going to move it across the room. I looked down and thought I saw the baby playing with a white crayon. I don't really think little bite on an icky crayon is the end of the world. Several minutes later I walked into the other room and found 3 blue and white capsules on the ground with one opened and empty. I immediately called my mother because they stay in that room. Fortunately, the pills were antibiotics and not my mom's blood thinner.

Of course, S got possessive about her things in her room. I got out her play house and let her play. C stepped on it and got slammed to the ground. (We later did the lesson on what to do if that happens again.)

The rest of the day wasn't bad. I'm sure I am missing a few things. It just seemed like it was one thing after another all day long. And as crazy as it was, that's how all days feel.

I had DH get a lock for S's closet door on his way home from work. He also brought some hamburgers home so I wouldn't have to cook. I was really grateful.

Once again, it was successful, if even for one day. S went to bed without a 3 hour fight.