My Wacky Special Needs Family

2009-09-10T06:58:00.004-04:00

School Rolling Along

Last two weeks have been really crazy. Lauren started school in late August and Brandon the day after Labor Day. Lauren's first day sent her into a tizzy. When I got home she was in a full blown panic. She was working on a spelling sheet and was having problems with a section involving phonics. She then told me she didn't go to the special language arts class. She was scared that she was going to be staying in the normal class for reading and spelling. After we finished the spelling pages and I got her calmed down, I discovered that her agenda said she had 3 days to complete the spelling pages. Oh well. The next day I tried to call the school and later found out that Lauren class was just delayed and started the second day. In the end, she is happy with both her teachers. She got the teacher we wanted for the regular class and they switched the teacher for the language arts class.

So far Brandon's class is going good too. He has the same teacher as last year and they kept him with his best friend. I think they did it on purpose. They are about the same level in reading and Brandon is taken out for a harder math class.

2009-09-10T06:52:00.003-04:00

Porn Sheet

On Tuesday Brandon started school. He was very excited to be back. At dinner I was trying to get the kids to talk about what they did in school and how things went. Brandon piped up with a lovely comment. "I've got a new PORN sheet in my back pack". As you can imagine, my head popped up on that one. After a question, or two I figured out that he meant POINT sheet. I think this will qualify as one of those things I will remember for the rest of his life.

2009-08-13T14:48:00.002-04:00

Rough Start to New Meds

This week we started Lauren's new meds. I waited till I had a day that I was off work so I could watch her on her first day. Kind of glad I did. The drugs made her very sleepy. In one way, it's a good sign. You see the drug they give is a stimulant. It is supposed to stimulate the neurone on the brain and make them function better. The fact that she was sleepy means that it was working. This means that she is definitely ADD. If she wasn't, she would have been hyper. At lunch she hardly ate anything. But by dinner her appetite was back and she started to wake up. On day 2 of the meds, she didn't have the sleepy problem, but she complained of an upset stomach or really stomach pains. Not sure if this was the meds. Don't remember either of the boys having this issue. Lunch was more normal, but the stomach pains were causing her some problems. On day 3 she was just generally freaked out about eating because she didn't want her stomach to hurt. In the end, it was hurting because she was hungry. Today seems to be going fine. No sleepy issues, no stomach pain issues and appetite is OK. Thankfully, we have not had any issues with sleeping at night. That was one both the boys had when they started their meds. On the positive side, she has not fallen this week. Time will only tell if this is just luck or the meds helping her focus to walk. Next week we are on vacation and that should be the true test. There will be LOTS of walking and hiking all over the place. If she can make it through next week without falling I will be a true believer.

2009-08-11T07:08:00.006-04:00

Back from Camp

On Saturday night Brandon and Jim got back from Cub Scout Camp. Brandon has not stopped talking about it since. He really had a great time. The first thing he did was show me some targets and tell me about the baby (bebe) gun he shot. I have tried to correct him about 5 times a day, but he still calls it a baby gun. He was apparently pretty good at it and hit the bull eye. Last night he wanted me to scan the target and send it to everyone he knew. I haven't tried it yet, but have a feeling I will. He also got to shot a bow and arrow, a sling shot, and a catapult. From the pictures, it really looks like he was right in there doing just what the other boys were doing with no problems. I'm so proud of him. Here are some pictures that Jim took while they were there.

2009-07-31T06:26:00.003-04:00

Expected News in an Unexpected Way

OK, let me explain. We went and saw the Neurologist. We talked, he read all the reports, we talked more. Then he put Lauren through several tests. The good news . . . its NOT dsypraxia, just ADD. He then went on to explain the I'm too used to the boys version of ADHD. Lauren has what he calls the GIRLS VERSION. OK. He then went on to explain that girls have different issues, especially when they're not hyper. He thinks most of the issues she's having, expect for the dsylexia, is all due to ADD. The falling, the memory, the lack of focus the panic attacks. The falling part surprised me and I even asked if he was sure it wasn't dsypraxia like Brandon. He assured me it was not. He thinks she falls and trips due to a large problem with inattention. She so distracted that she doesn't focus on walking or going up and down the steps. SO, he suggested we try the meds that Brandon takes. Now don't all you people freak out. I know there are people out there that are fully against meds, but not me. I've seen the difference it can make for my boys. If it helps her stop falling and the emotions that are running wild, I'm all for it. Of course we will be keeping a very close eye on things for the first month. With Arion I kept a log, think I will do it again with Lauren. Things like how she feels, if she falls, change in appetite and if it effects her sleep. So, wish us the best. I really hope this makes a big difference in her life.

2009-07-29T06:20:00.003-04:00

Packing For Camp

This week is a little crazy. I am trying to get two kids packed for camp. Lauren is not too hard. She was just there last month. I really only had to get some new batteries for her flashlights (yes, two . . I assume she will lose one). I guess the bigger issues is Brandon. This will be his first year at camp. Last night we went out and got him a new pair of hiking boots. His old ones were just too small to go another year. As we shopped, we were talking about what he needed to bring. He wants to take everything. I told him he could take his blanket and ONE stuffed animal, but then he wanted to take his dream catcher. I told him that the dreams he has here wouldn't travel and he would have camp dreams. I know, lame. Then last night he was having nightmares about having nightmares at camp and I decided that I would squeeze it in. I guess I am also worried that he will have a good time. At least at boy scout camp, Jim will be with him. The whole troop goes at the same time, so they will all know him. I guess it will be an easy first time out.

2009-07-25T12:59:00.004-04:00

Stability Sneakers

So, the PT therapist thought it might help if I got Lauren these "stability sneakers". They're really stability running shoes. She gave me a coupon for a running shoe store. Went there yesterday and saw a whole wall marked "STABILITY". Explained what I needed and sort of why. Funny, he looked at Lauren and then back at me and then checked that it was her and not me that needed the shoes. Now I know I walk with a limp, but come on. Of course he started out my showing me some for $140 and then $100. HELLO, she's 10. NOT HAPPENING. I kindly told the man that I had a problem with spending that much for a 10 year old that might only get 6 months out of them. He then mentioned "last years model". Like I'm worried some guy who reads running magazines is going to notice her out of date foot wear. With my coupon, the clearance shoe was only $57. That, I can do. They better work or we won't be getting any more. Definitely going to check some other store to see what prices they have.

2009-07-23T06:18:00.002-04:00

Last Night of PT

Tonight will be Lauren's last night of PT until she can see the Neurologist. I am hoping he will write another prescription for her to continue. She fell again yesterday. No major damage, just hurt her chin and shoulder. In the 6 short weeks since she started, her endurance is better. I'm not so sure that it has had any effect on the clumbiness. I guess there is no quick fix. This is going to take a while. I feel myself getting nervous about the upcoming appointment. What if I'm wrong. What if it's not the dyspraxia and it's something else. I guess the known is better than the unknown. It least I understand the dyspraxia. Then there's always the chance that he says nothing is wrong and then what do I do. I guess I will cross that bridge when I get there. I should have more faith in this doc. I've known him for more than 15 years. He's always know what to do. I guess I'm just tired and worried that the next fall will break a bone or need stitches.

2009-07-19T07:49:00.002-04:00

Big Day Yesterday

Yesterday was very busy. Jim finally got a day that he could take Lauren up in a plane. Brandon had his fight a month or so back and now it was her turn. They flew down to the beach and had lunch. While there Lauren hurt her finger. She closed it in the plane door when they landed. On the way back the weather started to get a bit rough. Jim took the plane to 6,000 feet to get over it and that was great for Lauren. She got to see the clouds from above. Really liked it. Unfortunately, Jim didn't get any pictures. He brought the camera, but he said the wind and all took all his concentration. Couldn't put the plane on auto pilot.

I decided to take Brandon to play tennis. He has been asking to learn for a while. I think they did a little at school and really peaked his interest. When we stopped to get some balls I saw some kid size rackets. I checked the chart and found one that he like that was just his size. It was only $15 so I got it. We stayed at the court for about 30-45 minutes. No bad for holding his interest. I think the heat was what did it. I plan on taking him back some more this summer. Of course I didn't get any pictures, since Jim had the camera. I will try take some when we go back.

2009-07-12T08:01:00.003-04:00

Lauren at Camp

Can't believe Lauren has been back from camp a whole week. Meant to write and just don't seem to have the time anymore. By the way, she had a great time. She earned lots of credit towards badges and should be able to finish at least 3 before the end of summer. She also wants to work on two other badges, just need to find the time. When I picked her up we stood waiting for her group picture and I asked the one question I needed to know. The director was there and gave me a look. One other counselor looked at me like I was crazy. "So, Lauren, did you make it through the week without falling??" Yeah, didn't think she would. Fell twice. No bad injuries.

The picture is cut from the group picture at camp. You can see her wearing her hat. The hat story is kind of funny. You see I have a similar hat that I put our SWAPS on. A swap is something you make with a pin and pass them on to friends or keep to remind you of something you have done or a place you have been. She wanted a similar hat so I found a cheap one and she has since filled it with swaps. Before camp she made swaps for all her bunk mates. When she got to camp she started to feel very embarrassed about the hat. I told her not to be. That the leaders would really like it. It's a Girl Scout thing. Still she was worried. When I picked her up, she was not only wearing it, but some of her bunk mates had added swaps to their hats too. It was like a badge of honor. She ended up not only giving out the swaps she made to give but some of the one she had for her on the hat. I told her we would just make them again.

All in all she is excited about going back in August.

2009-06-23T06:51:00.002-04:00

We're Back in PT Again

Last night we restarted PT again. This time they aren't just focusing on her calves, it's also about her balance. Funny some of the stuff she had her doing. Started with the tread mill like before, but then had her walk backwards. This was a little scary. The therapist kept a hand on her in case she fell. They also had her throwing a ball while standing on one foot. Not so easy at first, then she figured it out so the therapist changed it a bit and made it harder. By the end of the hour, Lauren was worn out. We go back again on Thursday. Then we will have to skip a week while she is away at camp.

2009-06-19T07:29:00.002-04:00

More Dsypraxia Research

Yesterday I decided to re-read some research on dsypraxia. It's been a while. Most of what I read before had more to do with verbal dsypraxia then just plain dsypraxia. I started with the symptoms. Found it a little shocking. About half of the symptoms were problems that Lauren is dealing with. It really has me more convinced then ever that she does have it. Here are the 7 our of 14 symptoms from the list. Poor balance, clumsiness, short attention span, poor short-term memory, difficulty in reading and writing, easily distressed & emotional. You could also throw in the poor fine motor skills if you count things like tying your shoes. We pretty much give up and just buy the no tie laces. I remember from other research that it was one of the thing they look for. Anyway, the article says there are a few dozen known symptoms and this was just a list of the more common ones. I will keep researching, but everything I've read says there is no cure, only treatments to help with some of the issues. We still have to wait till the end of July to see the neurologist. Till then it's life as usual. Lauren starts her PT on Monday. then she goes to camp and summer school starts on July 5th. I am hoping by the end of summer, we have a program in place for her.

2009-06-12T06:52:00.003-04:00

Long Day at the Hospital

Yesterday was Lauren's appointment with the Pediatric Orthopedist. We had to travel to one of the local children's hospitals. Not too bad a ride. Only 45 minutes. Our appointment was at 1:00 pm and we got there at 12:30 pm so we could do all the paperwork. At 1:00 pm they took us in and started the LONG process. First they had one guy do her vitals and place us in a room. Then a PA came in and examined Lauren and went over family history. Then she left to discuss and set up Lauren's X-Rays. I figured that was coming and had sort of warned Lauren. She thought they were fun. They took a full back and pelvis set. Then we got sent back to our room to wait. Then we met the Doctor. She seemed nice. We went out and she had Lauren walk up and down the hall and then run up and down the hall. By the time she let her stop, Lauren was really starting to get winded. Then we went back the the room and did some more tests. In the end . . . . she is just clumsy. OK, that was a no -brainer. The long and the short of it was that there is nothing physically wrong that would cause it. She has balance issues and is noticeably clumsy, but there is no reason on the orthopedic level. Yeah, so maybe I was right. They said they would send their findings to the Neurologist. It's all up to him now. She also wrote a prescription for Lauren to restart PT. They need to re-stretch her calf and work on balance and gait issues. Probably some endurance work too. Wanted me to put Lauren in a sport. Lauren gave me a look. They only one she might agree to is swimming. We don't see the Neurologist till late July. So now we wait and start PT. By the time we left it was 2:45 pm. I think we both were exhausted.

2009-05-30T07:10:00.003-04:00

These People are Really Freaking Me Out

On Wednesday, I took Lauren to her PT evaluation. Didn't go so well. I guess in the back of my mind I was just hoping that they would say "she just clumsy". Yeah, that didn't happen. From the very beginning she saw something wrong. She started with just having Lauren walk back and forth. After the third time down, she asked me when I had the Neurology appointment scheduled. When I told her late July, she told me to move it up. SCARY. That was all she said. Had me freaking out. Of course, it was all on the inside. Didn't want to freak Lauren out. She then kept asking Lauren if her hips or knees ever hurt. Lauren kept saying no. She then check her balance and put her on the table and check things. Then she had her walk some more. At one point Lauren tripped and then the next time she walked right into a piece of equipment. The woman then asked when I last checked her vision. I laughed and said that her glasses were only a couple of months old. It had been one of my thoughts too. She looked at me and said, "but she just walked into it like she never saw it". YEAH. In the end she wanted Lauren to be evaluated by a Orthopedist right away. She also wanted me to try to move up the Neurology appointment. Good luck on that. I make those appointment 6 months in advance. He schedules 3 months out. She thinks something is wrong with her hips. Said that her gant was wrong for her age. Sounds like Lauren is in for X-rays and maybe more. For the last two days I have been trying to get her a Ortho appointment. Thought it would be easy. The problem is her old Ortho guy is now only seeing back patients. The receptionist said he wouldn't make an exception because it been too long since she's seen him. I called two others, but they can't see her till late August. I finally got a list of names from the insurance company that work out of a local children's hospital. The Neurologist said they all were good. Going to try to call on Monday and see what happens. As always, I will let you know.

2009-05-22T11:45:00.002-04:00

Lauren's PT Evaluation

So this morning I decided that I was tired of waiting for the school to finish it's PT evaluation on Lauren. Let's face it. Even if they saw something, they aren't going to tell me. That would mean they would have to do something like give her therapy. This morning I stopped by the place that used to do her PT for the toe walking and ask if they had anyone that did evaluations. Seemed like they didn't even know what Dyspraxia was. Scary. The woman recommended that I talk to a Physiatrist. Well, I have never even heard of such a thing. She also said something about ruling out things like Lyme with a blood test. I then stopped by the Pediatrician and asked what he thought. He said I was banging my head against the wall. He then wrote me a prescription for a PT evaluation and sent me over to the office across from his where they do evaluations. So I took the prescription and went over there. They had a woman that mainly does children. I made an appointment for next Wednesday. You may ask why I am so crazy to figure this out. It really has to do with all the falling. This week she tipped her whole desk over and hurt her head. BIG LUMP. Before that she fell at scouts. Hurt her hip and elbow. Before that she fell face first of a step at the sitters while picking up Brandon. I'm just waiting for her to break a bone.

2009-05-22T07:44:00.003-04:00

Brandon's IEP

On Wednesday I had Brandon's IEP meeting. I always go in worried that they might try to pull Brandon back to the regular schools. With the economy, I was even more worried. Usually, there are all kinds of people there. Teachers, therypist, directors and always the person from the district. I got there first, I know, I'm just a little crazy about being late. About 5-10 minutes later, his teacher and speech therapist came in and announced that they were it. I asked about the district guy and was told he wasn't coming. She looked at me and said "It's a good thing". DEEP BREATH. She then told me that we were just going to phone conference them in. Since it didn't look like there would be a fight, we were just doing the small group. When we went to call the district, the person we were supposed to get wasn't even there and they gave us a woman who normally does secondary school and didn't even know anything about Brandon or his case. We went over his therapies and how he was doing. Basically, he is doing great, but still has big problems with word retrieval. The speech therapist is worried about him being so self aware. He gets embarrassed when he's with the other kids and can't come up with a word. Doesn't like to ask for help when others are doing it without. The teacher thinks she has come up with a way he can ask for help without the others knowing. Really kind of smart. They are going to put a two sided chip on his desk. Green side for everything is good and a red side for help. Next year the teacher can just stop by his desk to help as she walks around the room. Reading is slow, but he is improving. Math, science, health, social studies are going great. They are even adding stuff in the IEP to increase amount and level. He really excels and they want to give him something to really be proud of. It really is weird that he will have trouble naming a number, but can do a simple algebra problem. Once again, it's all in the word retrieval. Anyway, when all was said and done, we talked for an hour and 15 minutes and he is to stay for another year. YEAH.

2009-05-08T05:42:00.002-04:00

Let's Go Camping

So it's that time of year again. Time to take the Girl Scouts camping. We meet up on tonight and then stay till Sunday around 1:30-2:00 pm. Last year, it was 98 degrees. This years forecast is for rain. I am really hoping for some spots of sun. We did plan on several outdoor activities. They were supposed to be canoeing and doing archery. We'll see. At least the rock wall is in the gym area and under cover. The other leader and I have tried to gather some crafts to do. I really would like just one trip that it didn't rain or be so stinking hot. I took the day off today to finish getting ready. Of course, Brandon woke up with a bad dream and here I sit at 5:30 am. Arion wants me to run him around today. As usual, I will make the best of it. I'll post pictures when I get back.

2009-05-04T16:22:00.003-04:00

Blue & Gold Award Night

Sunday night was Brandon's Cub Scout Award dinner. Jim and I went and it was great. Not long after we got there, Brandon came and dragged me over to the table holding all the trophies and awards. Then he pointed to a large trophy that had his name on it. It was for second place in the Pine Wood Derby. He and his friend Quinn both got large awards for 2nd and 3rd place. Then they both got promoted to Wolf Scouts for next year. When they were switching their neckerchiefs, Quinn was having a problem and Brandon went right over and helped him. I was so proud. It was really great to see them interacting that way. Needless to say the night was a huge success and a great ego boost for Brandon.

2009-05-04T16:18:00.003-04:00

Father Daughter Dance

Friday night was the Gal Pal dance for the Girl Scouts. Lauren and Jim went and had a great time. When they got their, one of her friends was wearing the exact same dress. Guess I'm glad their not older. They both liked that they were dressed alike. What a difference a couple of years makes. Anyway, Lauren had a great time.

2009-04-28T08:38:00.002-04:00

Brandon's Big Day

Yesterday was the Special Olympics for Brandon. His whole class went and a large portion of the school. It was really fun, but really hot. I think it was in the 90's. Brandon was in the 50 meter race, the standing long jump and the softball throw. He got a ribbon for third place in the race. He ran the race in 8 seconds. Afterward I took him out for ice cream to celebrate.

2009-04-26T07:11:00.004-04:00

Brandon's Dream Blocker

Lately, Brandon has been having a lot of trouble sleeping. Not normal for him. Can't be the med, if anything they almost need to be raised again. He has taken to wearing his camo bandanna to block the bad dreams from getting in. So . . . I'm thinking it's from a rash of bad dreams. When Arion went through this, it was from something that was going on that was freaking him out. Guess I need to figure out what it is and stop it to stop the dreams.

2009-04-17T14:45:00.004-04:00

Brandon's Independence in the Tub

Last night I told Brandon that he needed a bath. He announced to me that he was doing it himself. My first thought was GREAT. It took me all of two minutes to start to worry. Was the water too hot?? Was he going to use the right stuff on the right part. I then sent Jim up to see how things were going. Apparently Brandon threw him out saying "I need my privates". Of course he meant privacy, but it made us both laugh. From what Jim could see, all was well. I stuck my head in after about 15 minutes to find him standing in the tub washing his hair with soap all over his body. I was also kicked out. 10 minutes later Jim went back up and helped him rinse his hair and got him out of the tub. Brandon then dried himself off and got on his PJ's by himself.

Now before you get too excited, I learned why Brandon had a sudden desire to do it himself when I went to tuck him in. He started talking about a friend that had written on his arm to give himself a tattoo. He said it was in ink and he was wondering if that was a good choice or a bad choice. I told him that it was more of a bad choice, but if he wanted a tattoo, we could go out and get one of the one put on with water. I then asked if that was why he wanted to give himself a bath. He nodded his head. I thanked him for telling me. I tried to explain about the ink soaking into his skin and how that may not be to good for him. I think he understood. He really is growing up. Anyway, he did prove that for the most part, he can give himself a bath. Just needs to work on the rinse.

2009-04-11T08:03:00.002-04:00

Trip to the Movies

Yesterday I had off and decided to take Lauren to see the new Hannah Montana movie. Brandon decided he wanted to go so he went too. Here lies the problem. When I first asked, he didn't want to go. Too girly. We got there early and made it into an earlier show. Sat down in good seats and I gave them some gum to keep them from starting on the candy before it started. About half way through I noticed that Brandon was having a hard time keeping still in his seat. I kept having to stop him from kicking the seat in front of us. Then he would lean forward over the seat and I would have to pull him back. I really wish no one had sat in front of us. Then I realized that he hadn't had his meds. My fault. Didn't think he would be going, so let it go. We don't always give them to him if he's not going to school or somewhere he might need them. I finally put him in my lap. Good thing he's still small enough. Anyway, things went pretty good. They both liked the movie and had fun.

2009-04-09T12:43:00.002-04:00

The Big Hunt

Lately things have been crazy with Brandon and Arion. You would think Arion was a little kid they way they play. Right now they have a thing going where Arion keeps trying to steal Brandon's little animals. He then holds them up to his ear and tells Brandon that they are saying that they love him (Arion). Brandon, in turn, has been trying to hide his animals from Arion. The first two attempts that I observed did not work out so good. The one night Brandon was showing me where he had hid them and Arion snuck into the bottom bunk and reached up and grabbed on from the wall side of the bed. Brandon layed in bed awake for the next hour trying to come up with a new plan. The next night Brandon tried hiding them in his pillow case. While giving Brandon his good night kiss, Arion found them again. Last night, I told Brandon I had a plan. We hid them in-between the two blankets on his bed. There is a lump, but when Brandon got up this morning, he was beaming from ear to ear because Arion hadn't found them. He even came up and gave me a big hug and kiss and said "Thank you Mom".

2009-04-06T18:31:00.003-04:00

My Lovely Ham Dinner

Lately Jim has been complaining about the amount of chicken and turkey we have been eating. It's his fault really. He and Arion are the one's with the high cholesterol. They both have been told to eat more white meat. So when I asked what he wanted for dinner, the response was "anything but chicken". So while at the market, I saw a large ham on sale and grabbed it. Jim's mom came over and I made my usual big Sunday dinner. So here we are, I have a big ham, garlic & parmesan potatoes, asparagus with hollandaise sauce and a salad with the red onions he loves. I pulled the ham out and asked Jim to carve it then started trying to get everything else on the table. Next thing I know Jim has disappeared. I didn't pay much attention, just started carving it myself. Then I noticed Brandon couldn't get into the restroom for his pre-dinner pee. Next thing we know I hear the distinctive sound of Jim barfing. Long story short (too late), he was unable to eat my lovely dinner because he had snuck out and had a Frosty and then ate the french onion dip and chips that I served before dinner. Next Sunday, he gets chicken.

2009-04-04T07:54:00.002-04:00

Conversation with Brandon

Mom: How was your day?

Brandon: Good, I dyed Easter eggs.

Mom: Great. Where - at school or the sitter?

Brandon: School.

Mom: What color?

Brandon: The same color.

Mom: No, what color did you dye the eggs?

Brandon: Blue and Red. It was funny. They turned blue and yellow.

Mom: You dyed them blue and yellow?

Brandon: No, yellow.

Mom: You dyed the egg yellow.

Brandon: No. I fingers got dirty.

Mom: You turned your fingers yellow.

Brandon: No. The egg.

Mom: Did your fingers stain the egg when you where holding it.

Brandon: Yes, it was funny.

The funny thing is that all I could think was that 2 years ago, we never would have gotten that far. It may still take a while to figure things out, but I do and it's really cool.

2009-03-26T12:31:00.005-04:00

Big Night All Around

Wednesday night was a little hectic, but great all around. Brandon had a pack meeting and received his Tiger Badge. He also got 6 belt loops and some other awards. I was unable to go with him and Jim because Lauren had a big concert up at the High School. It was the first time she played in a concert with her clarinet. She found the whole thing very exciting. The last piece was very cool. They had all the kids from the elementary, middle and high schools playing one piece at once. They said they had about 600 kids playing and it took about 3-4 conductors to pull if off. The elementary section (all the elementary schools in our district) played two pieces. Then the middle did a couple and then the high school. The high school has a very good band. Their last piece was strictly percussion. Very cool. I don't have any pictures of the concert, because I sent the camera with Jim to get pictures of Brandon getting his award. I was able to take the video camera for the concert, but had a bad seat and couldn't see Lauren at all.

2009-03-26T07:52:00.002-04:00

Museum Overnight

Last weekend we took our Girl Scouts to the Natural History Museum in Philadelphia. They have an overnight program for scouts. The trip started out with a very hectic drive. First of all, we all hate to drive in crazy traffic. We had 5 cars and we were all trying to stay together. We finally got there and checked in. The program was good and the girls had a great time. Mary (sister) and her troop was there as well. They put us in different groups, so we didn't see too much of each other. The next day we were able to stay and see anything that wasn't open the night before. There were only a couple of problems. The food was not that good and the floors were very hard. Sort of expected that. The most irritating part was from the other troops. Some times I wonder what these leaders are teaching their girls. They had some rules like no air mattresses and you were not supposed to bring PJ's or a change of cloths. Bathroom space was limited and there really was no place else to change. Mary's group got squashed because the group next to her had air mattresses and took up way more space than they should have. The group next to us had the leaders sitting up and talking while the girls were trying to sleep. I had to go over and ask them to stop. The thing was, they had a room set up for people that wanted to sit around and talk at night. They just had to go down there, but they sat there and had their little coffee clutch. Anyway, our girls did great and had a good time.

2009-03-23T06:59:00.002-04:00

Lauren's New Photo

Here is Lauren's new photo. I think it is really good. How come the spring photo is always so much better than the fall photo.

2009-03-21T13:27:00.002-04:00

Being Anal at the Grocery Store

Really people. Am I so anal that I let the grocery store check-out girl piss me off. Yes. Not only could she not grasp the concept of "NO" to the paper and plastic (that's why I have this large bag of re-usable bags), but is unable to efficiently pack said bags. She seemed to think that the bread and eggs would fare better in plastic. How, I don't know. She also thought the grapes "would be less smooched" in a plastic bag. I finally said "PLEASE, I don't want the plastic bags." To that she gave me a look of horror.

2009-03-20T22:13:00.004-04:00

Derby Troubles

Last night was the Pine Wood Derby at school for Brandon. I think he really had his hopes up. He had done really well with the car in the Cub Scouts. Seems they were having some issues with the track. We noticed that not many cars won on the 1st lane. Lots of cars were falling off the 4th lane. So you not only had to be fast, but lucky. In the first heat, Brandon's car was inched out by his best friend. In Cub Scouts they race more than once or let two cars from each heat move forward, but at school they only let the 1st car go on. Brandon's friend ended up taking 4th place. After it was over, Brandon thru a major fit. There were lots of upset kids. First Brandon took off for the back of the gym to hide. I tried to calm him down, but he was in full shut down mode. NO TALKING. He then took off past me. I thought Jim had him on the other end, but Brandon took off into the parking lot without his coat. I grabbed Lauren and was trying to find Jim and Brandon. We went outside to find Jim walking around. No Brandon. He had followed him to the car and then Brandon took off again. Jim and Lauren said they would search outside while I went back in to recheck the gym. Just when I was getting ready to call in some teachers to help look, Jim texted me that he had him. I got to the car to find Lauren crying. Apparently, after Jim got him in the car, he started throwing stuff. The zipper from his coat (Jim had just given it to him to put on) caught Lauren in the face. I then caught his glasses. When we got home, he went up and hid in his bed. I guess he finally calmed down and went to sleep. This morning there was no sign of trouble. All was fine in the world again. The paper from school even said he did good in class. Wish I knew a way to calm him down. It's so hard when he won't talk. Oh well, it's been a long time since we've had one that bad. I hope it's a long time before we have another.

Brandon's car is the white one.

2009-03-18T08:04:00.002-04:00

Lauren and Stress

Lately, it seems that every time I turn around that Lauren is stressing about something.This week she has PSSA testing and she was stressing about that on Monday. This morning it was about a project that is due NEXT Wednesday. She was up and dressed before I could even see straight. So as I tried to shower, she sat on the toilet asking me questions about her family history so she could write her report. HELP

2009-03-16T12:56:00.002-04:00

Lauren's IEP

It occurs to me that I never posted about Lauren's IEP. Not really much to tell. They pulled the same old stuff with trying to remove stuff from her IEP. I noticed and had them put it back. Almost missed the one and had to e-mail the teacher the next day. They won't discuss dyslexia programs until she has a "formal" diagnoses. Lauren is set to see the Neurologist in late July with Brandon. I discussed meds with a friend (who has a similar daughter) and kinda hope that they don't use what Brandon takes. There are others that might help with the anxiety while helping with the memory and focus. Seems like a day doesn't go by without Lauren crying or having anxiety over one thing or another. This morning is was an upset stomach and headache. I'm thinking it's over the PSSA testing that starts today. She was better by the time she went to school. I just had to keep reminding her that there was no pass or fail.

The only other thing will be after the PT/OT testing is done. They set that date for mid April. It is being done by the county IU. I may also look into one of the PT places around here just in case the district pulls the same thing as the dyslexia. You know, tell me they see the symptoms, but won't say she has it and should be treated.

2009-03-14T15:59:00.002-04:00

It Runs

Well, here is the new car. Not the best, but it runs and has 100,000 less miles than the rolling paperweight. Now we just need to get rid of the old one. Maybe someone will want it for parts.

2009-03-14T07:09:00.004-04:00

LIFE

Life this last week has been absolute ciaos. The weekend (last weekend) went good. It was full of stuff for the kids. We went shopping and then rode bikes. I told Brandon if he learned to ride without training wheels that I would buy him a new bike. I needed to buy him one anyway, but it gave him incentive. I had him use Laurens old bike. It took him a bit to get over the pink part. Lauren is comfortable with her new bike. It's much bigger than the old one, but a really good fit. Brandon caught on in no time. Really cool. Now I have to buy a bike. On Sunday, we had Girl Scout Sunday. Lauren was to wear her vest and you guessed it, if she had to so did Brandon. She ended up having a panic attack in church because she thought she was the only one that wore it. She calmed down later when Lexie came to sit with her. She had her vest too. After church, we made candy. This was a first for them. They did pretty good.

Now the bad part. On Tuesday I blew the engine out in my car. Yeah, now it's a big rolling paperweight. Jim and I started discussing what to do. Can't really afford a new car. New engine was more than the car is worth. As we were discussing it the van started making a funny noise. Sounds like that one is not long for this world either. Later I found a car to buy from a old resident that had pasted away. Her kids are selling it for a good price. Can't beat $3000. Not a great car, but it runs and has no major problems. Mileage is low. I will just have to make do. Good thing is now we can replace the van if we have to. I just need the money from the 401K to get here NOW.

2009-02-28T07:04:00.003-05:00

Pulling out the Word Tiles

In my home, the words "Mommy Homework" is pretty common. The fact is that when I ask Brandon if he wants some "Mommy Homework", he'll say "Oh no", but start to laugh. I have several things we use. One is the word tiles. I hadn't tried them with Brandon yet and decided to give them a try. Word types are broken up by color. So you need a red (verb) and a blue (noun) and so on to make a sentence. We used them a lot with Lauren. It actually went pretty well. Brandon's reading progress is still pretty slow. I was recently reminded that so was Lauren's. If anyone is looking for these things, I think I found them at Staples.

2009-02-27T08:34:00.004-05:00

Anxiety and Timing

Last night, I'm sitting on the coach. Brandon is in bed. Lauren is in the shower. I'm just sitting and thinking. I had just finished reading the 18 page draft report, not counting the 3 graphs, from the psychologist in charge of Lauren's retest. Pretty much what we talked about, just more in depth. I found the charts interesting. I'm visual like Brandon. The one thing that really caught my eye was the difference between what I saw and the teacher saw. The teacher this year is pretty good. I find her to be observant. The thing is I rated Lauren's anxiety level much higher than the teacher. So now the questions.

Is she really that much more emotional at home? Why?

Am I seeing something that's not there?

Am I exaggerating what I see?

At that point Lauren came around the corner into the living room. Her face is red and she's crying. I ask what's wrong and she comes to sit by me. She then proceeds to tell me that someone moved the bottles around in the shower. Because of this, she put body wash in her hair. To her, this is a major disaster. I put my hand in her hair and feel that some is still there. I tell her it's alright and we go up to rinse her hair and put the conditioner she meant to put in her hair in and then rinse again. She finally calms down after much reassuring that's it's not a big deal and that I have done the same thing too. After I get her in bed I came back down. I looked at the report on the table and start to laugh. Yeah, I guess I do see more than the teacher. I have her when she's tired. I have her for more of the things that personally affect her. Although I felt bad for Lauren, it was just what I needed to relieve my doubts.

2009-02-24T07:56:00.003-05:00

New Flash - Arion Ate a Health Breakfast

Almost had a heart attack this morning. Arion came down and ate a healthy breakfast. A fruit cup and a bowl of Cheerios. What could this mean? The kicker is, his bad eating habits are my fault. When he was younger, he had problems with being to skinny. The doctors kept telling me to feed him more and give him junk food so he could gain weight. Then he hit puberty and started really packing on the pounds. By then he was in the habit of eating all kinds of things. Hope to do better with Brandon. Even though he is under weight, we still talk about eating healthy. I refuse to give him lots of junk. I have really been talking to Arion about trying to eat better. Maybe some of it is sinking in.

2009-02-24T07:52:00.003-05:00

Lauren's Meeting Date is Set

We have finally set the IEP meeting with Lauren's school for next Monday. They have lots of people attending. Once again, they want the principal there. Last night, while I was picking up Lauren, she saw me and called "Hello Mrs. Druger". Is that a good thing? Are principals supposed to know your name, or do they only know the parents that are a pain in the ass. Oh well. I'll let you know how it goes.

2009-02-24T07:47:00.002-05:00

Brandon Has Fleas

OK, not really. He just thinks he does. It seems his dry skin problem has now popped up in his head and he really is itchy. The last couple of days he has been telling me he has fleas. This morning I soaked his wittle head with some spray conditioner. Not to sure what else to do. Can you put lotion in someones hair? Maybe tonight I will put conditioner on and let it sit for awhile before I give him a bath.

2009-02-21T07:48:00.003-05:00

The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

About two weeks ago I got an email from the owner of my company. It said he would be making some cost cutting measure by the Wednesday of the next week. He had already had his first lay-off back in November and this didn't sound good. Rumors started running wild. Everyone was freaking out. On Monday, three people were laid off. Tuesday, there was a rumor that said he was done. Wednesday, the calls started again. You see, you got a call to come to the main office. The company has many satellite offices. He doesn't just run apartments, like the one I run, but offices, sells houses, etc. About 2:00 pm, I heard one of my friends had to go up. They laid him off after 18 years with the company. Late in the day I heard that one of the other managers had gotten laid off. I started to wonder who was going to cover her site. Didn't have to wonder long. At 4:45 pm I got the call. I was to report to her site in the morning. Now, I have been in my small office 6 years. I was sort of attached. The real pisser was it had just started to really get good again. I had some trouble with two of the old Supers. The new one and I got along great. So, Thursday morning, I stopped at the old site and grabbed some of my stuff and drove to the new site. I knew the two maintenance guys already. They got me in and then it took 2 hours to get me keys and log into the computer. Things were not planned to well.

Now the fun part. The other manager did thing really different than me. We all have the same forms. Our letters are similar. We all have to thing that have to be done by certain dates. But filing, and some other rules are site specific. I started looking around and saw that many thing had not been done. I started freaking out. I'm really anal (OK, OCD) about things. My old site was color coded by year. Things were usually done on or before the date you were supposed to do them by. The bad part, there were a lot of vacant apartments. A lot more then she had been reporting. Still more coming at the end of the month. So, for the past week and a half I have been trying to play catch up. The accounting was a mess. By Friday, I had gotten some of the piles off my desk and replaced them with more. I have to work today and hope to rent at least one. Traffic has been really slow. The funny thing is the other site was doing fine. Only one not rented for the next 3 months. It may take time, but I think I can turn things around. Anyway, that is why I haven't been posting. I've been spending every minute stressing about the new site. Wish me luck today. I need all the help I can get.

2009-02-20T08:44:00.002-05:00

Sit, Not Squat

There are phrases that I say at least 10 times a day. This has now been added to the usual. Brandon has developed a new habit of squatting on his seat instead of sitting. It's not just at home either. The teacher mentioned it when I saw her last. Not sure why he's doing it. This morning it was especially bad. Not 5 seconds after I got him back on his butt, I'd notice him switch right back. Any ideas??????

2009-02-13T08:06:00.005-05:00

What A Good Big Brother

I feel I have to talk about Arion. He has been such a big help lately. Yesterday, Lauren had to say home because she got the stomach bug. Arion watched her all day. Even when she threw up, he remained calm and called me to see what he should feed her for lunch. He had already made her soup. When I said that she couldn't have it, he just calmly said "OK, I'll eat it and make her some bullion. When I got home, he had run and unloaded the dishwasher. Everything from lunch had been cleaned up. For that I made his favorite dinner. He even didn't balk when I asked him to help Brandon read his journal for homework. One day, he is going to make a great Dad.

2009-02-11T12:32:00.003-05:00

Long Call Last Night

Last night I spent about a hour on the phone with the psychologist in charge of Lauren's retest. The end result was not surprising. I was nice to finally hear that someone was seeing what I've been seeing. Once again she said that she wasn't allowed to use labels or diagnosis for the conditions she was seeing, just the symptoms. She said Lauren was listed has having "Specific LD's" (learning disabilities) and if I wanted it changed to "Other Health Concerns", I would have to have a diagnosis from her doctor. This would insure that when she met all her goal that she would still be able to continue with the special programs. She started with telling me that all her teachers noticed an issue with attention. Oh let me guess. Since she's not hyper, that would make her ADD. My comment was that a lack of attention could be seen as ADD and her reply was that you could make a case for that. She then said she found issues with sequencing. Let me guess again. DYSLEXIA. The sequencing problems were not just seen in her "language arts", but also could be seen in some math. She said that Lauren's issues were more with long strings of numbers and fraction, but overall she was doing good in math. She doesn't want Lauren to have math in the special class, but thinks the teacher needs to be attentive to the issues. Lauren, once again, scored very low on all the memory tests. Well, we knew that from the last testing. She mentioned that the memory could be a function of the attention issue. Since I know memory issues are a problem with kids with ADD, that's not a far reach. The anxiety issues were still there, but not as bad as before. They still can be seen as affecting her school work. After discussing the development of her gross & fine motor skills as a young child, she informed me that Lauren would be getting an OT and PT screening from the IU. None of her teachers had noticed her toe walking, but they really weren't looking. She also is much better with shoes on, so she wouldn't be doing it so much at school anyway. We should have the results by the time we do her IEP meeting in March.

Later that night I told Jim about the conversation. He had to leave in the middle to attend a meeting. I asked what he thought. His comment was to take her back to the neurologist. I asked what he thought about putting her on meds like the boys. She not doing to bad at school now, but I know it can have a big affect on attention and focus. Jim thought we should give it a try if the neurologist wanted to. We really trust him. In the end, it will be Lauren's decision. We will let her try and see what she thinks after 6 months. Of course the neurologist might not want too put her on meds. I know some of you have hang up about putting kids on meds. We really have seen the benefits. Please understand. I could care less about whether my kid is hyper. The meds are mainly to help their focus and concentration. Brandon tells people that he thinks better when he takes his medicine.

2009-02-10T07:54:00.002-05:00

Jim's Response to Lauren's News

I was a little worried about how Jim was going to take the initial news about Lauren. His comment was the House that ADD built has claimed another one. Yeah, I guess that about sums it up. Still I feel the guilt. It mainly comes from my side. Not that I meant them to have these issues. After thinking about it all day I have come to peace with the situation. I really don't blame my parents for how I am. I don't even blame them for not knowing to get me the special help I needed. Back then, who knew not to trust the schools to know what was going on. Even now a days teachers really don't even understand something as simple as ADHD/ADD.

2009-02-10T07:45:00.002-05:00

Brandon's Teeth Brushing

Last night was one of those nights when Jim and I knew something was up, but are not sure what it was. Brandon kept talking about needing to brush his teeth. He kept wanting to leave the dinner table to brush his teeth. We kept trying to explain that he needed to eat first. Finially we let him stop eating and go on up. After I got home from Girl Scouts, Jim said he figured it out. It seems that Brandon had eaten some of Arion's Frosted Flakes and it was making him burp. That or it was setting off his acid reflux. This used to be a big problem when he was a baby. This morning he was at it again. I think it is leaving a bad taste in his mouth. I tryed giving him a childs Pepto, but not sure if it will work. He hasn't taken Zantac since he was 3. If this keeps up I might have to call the doctor about getting some more. Bottom line is no more Frosted Flakes for Brandon.

2009-02-09T12:51:00.002-05:00

The News on Lauren

Just got off the phone with the Doctor working on Lauren's retest. She started off with saying the they don't use the words dyslexia, dyspraxia or ADD when giving the results of the testing. She then said they would just mention the issues they are seeing, i.e. lack of attention affecting memory, flipping of letters and words, etc. She also said that she has ordered a OT and PT re-screen for Lauren and suggest I should take her back to the Neurologist for the proper diagnosis. In other words, they don't want to get sued for saying what we all know she has. She is supposed to call me back tomorrow night to give me the full report in depth. We'll see what happens when I get the long version.

2009-02-05T08:16:00.003-05:00

Brandon's Comment

For the past several days my back has been out. Really painful. As I was cooking dinner two nights ago, I remembered that I had a pain pill left over from some dental work. I decided to take it to get a break from the pain. What I forgot was that I was supposed to take with food. After about 20 minutes I started to feel sick. I sat down on the couch and things got really bad. As I sat there with my bucket in my lap, I realized that I really needed to eat something to calm my stomach down. I had Arion bring me some chicken from dinner to eat. Everyone else was eating dinner at the table. Jim then yelled out to see if I wanted some spinach too. I said no. Brandon's response was "It's good for the colon". At least that lighten the mood. Still not sure where he got that from. You never know with Brandon.

2009-02-05T08:11:00.002-05:00

The Hair Thing

After talking to several people, I have made a decision about Lauren's hair. She can keep it. Several other mothers I know are having the same problem. All of them just give up and brush it themselves. I have decided to do that too with a twist. I plan on letting her do it first. After that I will brush her hair and give positive re-enforcement depending on how many knots I find. This morning wasn't too bad. She did miss some small knots in the underside, but better then some mornings. Hopefully, it will encourage her to improve her efforts to get the job done right by herself.

2009-01-27T07:56:00.002-05:00

And Jill Came Tumbling Down

Yesterday morning Lauren fell down the steps again. Yes, that makes 3 times in 3 months. I mentioned it to Doc (the Neurologist) and asked if he thought I should have her tested for dyspraxia. It is referred to has Clumsy Child Syndrome. We talked about all the things that are worrying me. It's not just the stairs. She trips all the time. She's fallen in the tub once or twice this year. He agreed that it is more than normal. With Brandon having it, it is likely that she would have similar problems. He wrote and note for her regular doc and asked me to talk to him about who he wanted to do the eval. He said I could bring her in again if I wanted. I guess it might mean that I will need to find time to get her back into physical therapy. Maybe they can help her with some of the gross motor skills problems. We'll see.

2009-01-27T07:48:00.003-05:00

He Used That Word

I know. We had discussed the possibility before. I sort knew it was coming, but part of me hoped it wouldn't. We went to see the Neurologist yesterday. We discussed that Brandon was still having problems with reading more than any other subject. He started having Brandon look at some charts and having him try to read different things. He then looked at me and said he was dyslexic. Like he really needed one more thing to deal with. He told Brandon that he was dyslexic too and I mentioned that so was I. Still, I feel a little depressed this morning. Today I will call the school and have them add it to the list. On the bright side, I mentioned how good Brandon is doing in math and he started giving Brandon some math word problems. Brandon got everyone right. Doc said the one was a 4th grade math problem. Pretty cool. He might have been guessing, but he did get all three right. Otherwise, things are good. He is gaining weight and height. There are no changes in meds, so we just need to keep doing what we are doing.

2009-01-22T13:24:00.004-05:00

SBD Lessons

Now I know my house is a little more lacks then some. But the gas situation has gotten out of control. The other night I had a little woman to woman talk with Lauren about Ladies and gas. Yes, it was one of those talks I don't remember my Mom having with me and I never expected to have to have. This being said, I told Lauren that Ladies do not make loud noises out in the open. They either have to leave the room or learn to be quiet about it. I swear she can be the loudest in the family at times. It's really shocking. So after I try to explain the art of the SBD I explain that she needs to start to practice. I guess it's going OK. Now every once in a while she looks at me and says, "hey, I did it". Great, . . .I'm so proud.

2009-01-21T11:41:00.004-05:00

Brandon On The Boat

Last Friday night Brandon and Jim went on a Boy Scout over night at the Battleship New Jersey. Pretty Cool. Brandon seemed to enjoy himself. Jim got no sleep due to Brandon not being able to sleep. Seems Brandon had the runs and was just too excited. When they got home, Jim just went upstairs and slept for 4 hours. Brandon sat down and told me all about what he had seen. At one point he couldn't think of the word he wanted and started snapping his fingers and then he looked at me and pointed at his teeth. I said "dentist" and it was right. It was great. He was able to cue me to give him the word. We then were able to go through the other stuff he saw with me cuing him from time to time. The next day he got a sore throat from the outside part of the tour, but all in all it went well.

2009-01-19T09:35:00.002-05:00

Second Blog

So now I have started a second blog. It's just for the Genealogy stuff. I figure to post about the people I am researching about and see what happens. I would love it if I could find other people looking for the same people. They have to be out there. It can be found here http://www.ifinddeadpeople.blogspot.com/. Come and visit if you get a chance.

2009-01-16T10:42:00.003-05:00

Brandon Update

I occurs to me that I really haven't posted lately on the progress Brandon has been making. It really has been incredible. He has started reading small CVC words. He even can read some 4 letter words. The teachers wrote a note home that he has started to learn how to write in cursive. I do find if funny the his hand writing is neater than the other two. He seems to always have two stars for Math. At home we have started using some of Lauren's flash cards and doing really well. He has been really excited about the stuff he has been learning in health, science and social studies. Some favorites are anatomy and Benjamin Franklin. This morning he was telling me all about Martin Luther King Jr. He even came home yesterday and said he tied some shoes in OT. Boy scouts has been really great. He really loves all the things they do and wants to go to camp this year. We are thinking about boy scout camp, but also his school is having a camp expo of all the special needs camps in the area. I think we will go and see what's out there. Maybe he can do a week at both. Later this month we have our bi-annual appointment with the Neurologist. The one thing that really makes me smile is that a couple of years ago, I remember just wishing I could hold a conversation with Brandon. Back then it was next to impossible. Today we sit down and talk about his day and what he's learning. I still have to help with prompts when he can't come up with the word, but we do get through it and continue. Back then he would just get frustrated and give up. Now, he can be like a jabber box.

2009-01-15T07:53:00.005-05:00

Lauren's Day

As you know, Lauren's day didn't start out to good. When I got to the school to pick her up, I noticed that she was starting to cry again. My first thought was the hair again, but asked her what was wrong. The tears really started then as she told me that the zipper on her coat just broke. I look at her coat and saw the zipper was half way up and not zipping either way. I worked with it for a minute and determined that this coat was done. If you haven't heard, PA is in the middle of a super cold period. Not the time for a kid to have a coat that won't zip. I start telling her that it's not her fault and we would have to just get her a new coat. I get home and inform Jim that I will be going out tonight to find Lauren a new coat. He made a face, but agreed. We did go out and found her a new coat. The silver lining was that it was 60% off, which was great considering I had to get her an adult coat. Oh, by the way. I didn't get off easy about the hair. While I was cooking dinner, Lauren came and sat in the kitchen. I asked what was up and she started in on me. "You yelled at me this morning and hurt my feelings". This prompted a discussion about why I yelled at her and how she should be responsible for her own hygiene. At least we had a good talk. Here's the new coat.

2009-01-14T13:10:00.003-05:00

What to do About the Hair

Lauren is presently have an issue with her hair. She has decided that she wants to grow it long. The problem is she is not one for brushing real well. Lately I have been finding HUGE knots in the back of her hair. She seems to take the brush and go over the top part but not the underside. I tried to have her flip her hair over and brush, but she fails to re-brush after she flips back. We're using conditioners and that's not helping. This morning I asked if she had brushed her hair and the response was yes. When it came time to leave for the bus I noticed a huge mat by her ear in the underside of her hair. I lost my patience at that point and ended up yelling at her while I brushed her hair at the bus stop. Of course she just can't handle being yelled at and was in tears. Now I feel bad. GUILT. Think we might need to rethink the whole long hair thing. What do you think?????

2009-01-14T13:01:00.004-05:00

Disqualified

There are some things that a mother should not be woken up to. Two nights ago, Brandon woke me up at 4:15 am and said "Mommy, I disqualified". My response, after a 10 second delay (it took that long to register), was "Oh Crap". For those that don't understand, disqualifying is done when one is trying to make a "gassy" and something else comes out. So my response was appropriate. This is my family, and I love them. Really.

2009-01-08T08:39:00.005-05:00

The Bold and The Beautiful

Last night Lauren and I went to pick up her new glasses. Unfortunately, she seems to have my eyes. That would be the eyes of a bat. Last year at this time she got her first pair and was already 20/100. The school nurse sent home a sheet this year and said she was 20/100 with the glasses on, so Jim took her in for another exam. She went up another 3 points. NOT GOOD. Of course the problem is that she is falling so fast and our insurance only allows 1 exam a year. Not sure that's going to do it at the rate she's falling. It did pay for two pair of glasses and Jim let her pick both out. She decided on one bold pair for everyday and one more reserved pair for church and dress up days. So here she is in her new glasses. See if you can tell which pair is which.

2009-01-08T08:34:00.002-05:00

Oh, Yes I Did

For Christmas, my good friend Shannon sent me a 1 lb. Sugar Daddy. It is one of my favorite types of candy. You people can keep your chocolate, I will take the caramel. Anyway, I know most people my age would not even think of really eating it. NOT ME. I started sucking on it two nights ago. I have to be careful not to pull out any teeth, but, man it's good. Jim keeps telling me I'm going to throw off my blood sugar, and I did feel it the next morning, but it was worth it. So far I really have only put a dent in the thing. We'll see how long it takes me to eat the whole thing. Thanks Shannon

2009-01-05T13:53:00.003-05:00

List Mis-Uses

I am a list person. Let's just get that out of the way up front. I make list everyday; work, home, you name it. If I didn't, I would never get anything done. It's the only way I can stay organized. My family has gotten to know this and are now starting to mis-use the lists I keep. For Christmas I had two lists going. One for what we were going to eat and what times they needed to go into the oven. I had another list for what I needed to do, such as set the table or peel the potatoes. Sometime after lunch Christmas day, Jim's mom noticed that "someone" had added that I should hug my husband. Yeah, like I had time for that. So I did it and then added "Give wife a back rub" to the list, and funny, that never happened. Big Surprise. Over the weekend I was talking to Lauren and said that I had so much to do and her response was to make a list. That's my girl!!!! So we got out my list paper and started writing all the stuff that needed to get done. The next part of the list is to assign letters next to each item for the person that should be responsible for the item. That way everyone knows what they need to do and everyone see that everyone is pitching in. A couple of hours later I notice that Arion and Lauren have been adding things to the list that really don't belong there and assigning it to one another. GREAT. Like this is going to help me get through another list. Did I mention how happy I will be when everyone gets back to school.

2009-01-05T13:43:00.002-05:00

Silver Lining to Boring Meeting

Let's start this little post by stating that about a month ago I couldn't find my Ipod. It really was upsetting. I remember putting it in my purse, but couldn't find it anywhere. Super Uterus was definitely not working. I was scared that I lost it in some graveyard, because that was the last place I remember using it.

So I was in this boring meeting the other day. Once a week we have to go to the head office to discuss how we are doing and if there are any problems. I really was ready to leave and had just grabbed my bag and purse and put them on the table. That's when a new round of some discussion started. I sat back down, wishing they would just stop so I could get out of there. As I half listened, I noticed a zipper on my purse. I started to think "what's that zipper to". "Was it always there". "I wonder what was in there." So of course I slowly pulled the purse over and started to open it without anyone noticing that I was now paying NO attention to their discussion. Low and Behold, there was my Ipod and all the lipsticks that I thought I had lost. Funny I don't remember putting them in there. Didn't even remember that zipper being in the front under that flap.

The lesson for today is that sometimes boring meetings have their purpose. You can clear you mind and find things you had totally forgotten about. To reward myself, I downloaded 4 more songs.

2009-01-01T10:35:00.006-05:00

Just Catching Up on Things

It's really been a crazy Christmas season. I feel like I just stopped running. It didn't help that Brandon got really sick right before Christmas. I have never seen him so sick. I really thought we would be spending Christmas in the hospital. Luckily, it's pretty much gone now. So I guess I should catch everyone up on the happenings.

Let's see, we made gingerbread houses.

The girls scouts went caroling at one of the assisted living facilities.

Brandon's school had a concert on his birthday.

We later celebrated his birthday later. He really loved the snowboard and can't wait for the snow to come.

Christmas was good. Everyone got what they wanted. Nana spent the night and enjoyed our crazy morning and dinner with the big family. Jim and I really didn't exchange to save money. We have agreed that if we see something down the road we are each able to buy something small in the after sales.

We went to Mary's for new year's eve. We had a great dinner and then came home to watch the ball drop. Lauren and I fell asleep on the couch and Brandon and Dad got caught up on Survivorman and missed it too.

2009-01-01T10:33:00.002-05:00

Great Grades for Arion

We got Arion's grades for last semester. He got 2 A's, 1 B and a C. The C was in cinema, so not really a big deal. I thought they were great!!!

2009-01-01T10:31:00.001-05:00

Brandon's Quick Lesson

When blowing out the Advent candles, it's best to not have a mouth full of food. Yeah, it wasn't pretty.

2008-12-09T06:55:00.003-05:00

New Picture for Brandon

Isn't it great. We don't always get such great pictures from the school, but this year it really came out good. God he's growing up. This morning we were discussing Germany. They have been learning about it at school. It's been such an exciting year for him. I guess it shows in the picture how happy he is.

2008-12-08T12:48:00.004-05:00

Cold Day for a Parade

You guessed it. My girl scout troop was in a parade this weekend. Boy was it cold. When I got up in the morning it was only 20 degrees. I had Lauren put on long underwear and all kinds of layers under her coat and snow pants. It was kind of fun and not too bad when the sun was out. The problem was there was a judging booth at the end that each group was allowed to stop at if they wanted to perform. Each group was allowed up to 3 minutes and at times this caused a long backup down the line. We were 104th in the line. We were outside for more than 2 hours and very tired by the end. Today I still feel it in my calf's. The girls did look really cute in their hats and scarves they made.

2008-12-08T11:46:00.003-05:00

Super Uterus

Just before Thanksgiving I was trying to explain the concept of the Super Uterus to Rebecca, a girl living with my friend Shannon. For those who are unaware of the concept of the Super Uterus, it is possessed by every mother or wife. It is the part of the anatomy that give the female the super human ability to find any item in the home that is lost by her husband or child. Things like; "Honey, where are my keys". Da na na na NA "they are in your coat pocket". "Mom, where are my shoes" Da na na na NA "they are under the table". She looked at me like I had lost my mind, and maybe so, but the next day as we were talking in the living room and Jim yelled at me "Anne, where is ...." and after looking at Rebecca and voicing the "DA NA NA NA NA" I informed Jim where the item was. Now. . . you may be asking, what in the hell made me think about this today. Well sports fans, this morning both Jim and Lauren couldn't find her project and came upstairs to ask me where it was. Of course I told them (without breaking stride) that it was on the breakfast bar. After he left and I was all alone again, I did do the DA NA NA NA NA. See Rebecca, Super Uterus still lives.

2008-12-03T18:47:00.003-05:00

Progress With Testing

I got a phone call today. The school is now acknowledging the receipt of the letter requesting outside testing. They didn't waste too much time, did they. They gave me the name of the doctor that will be doing the testing. He or she is supposed to call me to set up a time. I'll let you know how long that takes.

2008-12-03T18:42:00.002-05:00

OH MY GOD, SOMEONE HELP ME

Tonight after running around like a crazy person, making sure everyone got home. Jim says something about Lauren's necklace. I don't remembering her having one on this morning so I ask if she bought it at the Christmas shop. NO. I asked if someone gave it to her. YEEEESSSS. It was a boy. A boy in her class. GOD HELP ME. She's only 9 and I'm freaking out.

2008-11-18T13:52:00.004-05:00

First Sign Down

Girl Scouts have been going pretty good this year. We ended up with 16 girls in our troop. More than we really wanted, but it's working out. Last night was our Investiture/Rededication ceremony. We only had one girl that was new to scouting, so there wasn't much for our troop to do but watch. The girls did get the 2 badges they earned along with their first Sign. For those that don't know, Junior scouts are a little different than Brownies. We just don't have badges to earn. You have 4 Signs, a Leadership Award, a Junior Aid Award and the Bronze Award. It really is a progressive thing. To get the Bronze you need a Sign and one of the other two awards. To get a sign you need some badges and other activities totaling 5 things to complete. At this point, if the girls were there for every meeting and went to the weekend camp, they have earned 3 badges and one sign. All in all, being one of the leaders has been fun, but hectic.

2008-11-11T08:45:00.003-05:00

Dropping the Bomb

Last night was Lauren's parent/teacher conference. It went pretty well. She is doing pretty good. Reading is coming along well. Reading Comprehension is going a bit slower. Regular classes are going OK too. Some tests are good, some not so good. Both teachers say she works hard. After I heard what they had to say I dropped the bomb on them. I gave them the letter for the re-testing. It's been 2 years since the last testing. For any parents out there that don't know, these things must be in writing. I explained to them that I was requesting outside testing. You need to check the Procedural Safe Guards for your school, but ours will pay for outside testing if you have already received school testing. The special ed teacher seemed to know why. She admitted that the school districts rarely call a child dyslexic. They consider it a liability. She said we would turn it in to the school psychologist. I told her that I wanted the results for her March IEP meeting and this should give them their 60 school days. Please note that 60 SCHOOL days, not real days. It works out to about 4 months. They really don't need this much time, but they like to drag their feet. Anyway, they took it well and thought it was probably a good idea. Thank god they didn't argue with me about it. So now I wait and see what happens.

2008-11-11T08:38:00.002-05:00

Who Would Have Thunk It

You know, you just never know. I was working with Lauren this morning on her clarinet. It was not going well. YES, TEARS. Big surprise. She just was having problems with the whole concept of some notes are held longer then others. I was trying to clap it out. Then I tried humming it. I just wasn't getting anywhere. Then I remembered the CD's and DVD's that came with the lesson book. I grabbed the CD and showed her how to put it into the stereo. We started playing the lessons and the light went on. She just had to hear another clarinet playing what she was supposed to play. Duh, I guess that's why they give you the CD's. She really is a auditory learner. Nothing like Brandon, he's is a visual learner.

2008-11-11T06:42:00.003-05:00

Veteran's Day

Today I would like to honor two veterans. The first is my friend Shannon's husband. Hello Tim. Tim has been to Iraq twice and was also in Desert Storm all those years ago. The second person I would like to honor is my Great Grandfather, Samuel Ashton. Sam died in the First World War and is buried somewhere in Belgium. For these two and all the others that have worked real hard for us to keep the freedom we sometimes take for granted, Thanks guys.

The metal shown above was sent to Sam's family for him giving his life for his country. It is signed by King George.

2008-11-07T11:34:00.003-05:00

Searching the Schools

Jim and I are once again looking at houses. This becomes so stressful because of the school systems in our area. We want a better school district for Lauren while finding one that will at least consider leaving Brandon in his private school. The responses have been mixed. The one said they had kids at Brandon's school, but would have to evaluate his case. Another said they wouldn't even consider it. They said it would be handled in house or he would be sent to the IU. He really wasn't very nice about it either. He seemed irritated that I would even bother him before I moved to his district. So they were taken off the list of possibilities. The third said that they would probably leave Brandon where he was unless they felt they could give him more. He seemed very positive about what they could provide and sounded upbeat about what it would be like for Lauren. Mostly it sounded like nothing would really change for her at all. Of course we could stay in the same school district. Overall the system is not rated very well, but they are willing to leave Brandon where he is and Lauren is now getting 4 days a week of after school help/tutoring. The middle school is really scary, but there are some charter schools in the area. So I'm not real sure what to do at this point. We did put in one offer, but it was in our present district. We'll see.

2008-11-06T08:53:00.002-05:00

The Finisher

Why oh why do they think that because Brandon is small for his age that they can pick on him. Jim took Brandon to the park last weekend. Brandon really loves the big sand box. While they were there, another boy started hanging around Brandon. He had a large stick and was taunting Brandon with it. Brandon was ignoring him for the most part. Jim had tried to stop it but the boys Mother didn't seem to care. Finally, the boy attacked Brandon's tunnel that he had been working on and that did it. Brandon jumped up and decked the kid with two punches. Jim grabbed him and told him it was wrong, but at the same time really felt that the kid got was he deserved. For punishment, Brandon was told they would have to go home so he really got mad at Jim. The kicker was the kids Mother. She had the nerve to say to Jim that her kid was usually the bully. Jim's reply was that he was the bully and if he hadn't been taunting Brandon, it wouldn't have happened. You see, Brandon is used to wrestling with Arion. You know Arion. 5'10" tall and 240 pounds. Not a little person. So what these kids don't realize is, that to Brandon, size doesn't matter and they really can't intimidate him. The lesson here is you can start with Brandon, but he will finish it. Not sure we like this lesson.

2008-11-06T08:38:00.003-05:00

Freaked Out At Cub Scouts

Last night Brandon had his cub scout meeting. Jim thought he was fine so I didn't go to help out. Well, I won't make that mistake again. At 8:20 pm Brandon came running in the house and disappeared. I waited for Jim so I would have a clue about what was going on. I knew something had gone wrong. Jim came in and told me he wasn't sure what happened. During one of the games being run by one of the parents, Brandon had disappeared and they found him 15 minutes later hiding in the girls bathroom, crying. I went upstairs and finally found him in my bedroom, sitting in the dark. I pulled him into my lap and started the long process of figuring out what had happened. You see, when Brandon get upset, he shuts down. No talking. I was able to get him to nod one way or the other and at one time he burst out, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. I started with the thought that someone had said something to him. Then I went though what I knew was supposed to be happening during the meeting and finally got to the balloon game. Before Jim left he had mentioned that they were going to have the boys sit on balloons and pop them. I then found out that this was what upset him. I think it was the noise. Sometimes we forget that certain noises are hard for Brandon to take. Mainly it's been music at church or concerts at school. He has earphones to help soften it, but neither of us thought the balloons would set them off. After I told him it was OK to not like the balloon popping and that he should have just told Daddy, he calmed down. Then I let Arion spend about 5-10 minutes of guy time and he was back to his old self. So today's lesson is no balloon popping around Brandon.

2008-11-06T08:30:00.003-05:00

Good Ego Day

Yesterday was a good ego day. She doesn't get too many of them, but yesterday was a good one. She had a clarinet lesson. There are 3 other girls in her lesson that are taking the same instrument. Her teacher told her she was the best out of the class. I told her I was really proud of her for practicing so hard. She had practiced during the week. It's actually going much better than I remember it going with Arion and the violin. I remember having to fight with him all the time to get him to practice. She has been practicing each morning and it really shows. It's nice to have her being the best at something.

2008-10-27T13:56:00.003-04:00

Frustration

Sometimes Lauren's memory issues are more frustrating then Brandon's language issues. Case in point. Last Monday, Lauren had "Chapter 2 Test" written in her agenda book. I asked (like any mother would) what subject the test was in. It seemed a logical question. She couldn't remember. Go Figure. She had just copied it from the board and didn't pay any attention to what it said. I asked her to find out. The next day I saw that she had again written "Chapter 2 Test" in her agenda book, so I asked if she had figured out what subject yet. The answer was of course "I forgot". So I wrote a note in her agenda book asking the teacher (who initials the book every day) what subject it was. No response. The next morning I e-mailed both teachers, even though I knew only one teacher would know what I was talking about. I received an e-mail from the one teacher that the subject was Social Studies. GREAT. So I ask Lauren that night "What are you studying in Social Studies". You guessed it. "I can't remember". So I ask her to bring it home so we can study over the weekend. You see by this time we have lost a week in study time and the test is on Tuesday. So, of course, she brought home Science. So I e-mailed the teacher to remind Lauren to put the Social Studies in her book bag and let me know what to study. The teacher e-mailed me that she had to know the words highlighted in the book and she had already had Lauren put the book in her bag. So tonight we have to study and hope it's enough for her to get a good grade.

2008-10-17T06:47:00.004-04:00

Lauren's Eye

When I got home on Wednesday, Lauren told that her eye was hurting her. She told me she had been at the nurses office and that the nurse had taken some pencil shavings out of her eye. It was red and swollen. After supper I tried to flush her eye, just in case they didn't get it all out. When that didn't seem to work and I couldn't see anything else, I tried a cold compress. Finally I sent her to bed, thinking that it would work it's way out while she slept. No such luck. When she woke up, her eye was even more red and swollen. She said it hurt more when she blinked. To keep her from rubbing it I finally put a patch over it. That seemed to help. Then, instead of taking her to school right away, I took her to the place where she got her glasses. I THOUGHT the woman who checked her eyes was an eye doctor. There were initials after her name. I was informed that she was not qualified to check her eye and was referred to a REAL doctor. Guess where I WON'T be going back to. I called the real doctor and asked if I could bring her in and was told that I would have to make an appointment. GREAT. I made on for 2:15 pm and then took her to school. WHY, I DON'T KNOW. She said her eye was feeling better. I left her there at 9:14 am. They called at 10:10 am to tell me to come and get her. I left work and picked her up and then took her to Jim's Mom. Oh, by the way. That patch I worked so hard to put on, yeah, they took it off. Then back to work, which was one bad thing after another. Just not my day. Then at 1:40 pm I left and took her to the REAL doctor. He was really nice. He ended up numbing her eye and flipping her lid to find another piece of shavings. So now we have eye drops for the next 3 days. She has small scratches on her eye and we need to keep them from getting infected. The funny part was the e-mail from one of Lauren's friends asking if she was alright and if she had to go to the hospital for the CUT on her eye. The lesson is not to blow into a pencil sharpener. Lesson Learned.

2008-10-15T08:39:00.002-04:00

New Picture for Lauren

We got Lauren's school pictures yesterday. Not too bad. She is very happy. Boy is she growing so fast.

2008-10-14T08:31:00.007-04:00

And Then It Was Gone In A Flash

This weekend started off pretty good. Lauren and I decided to start working on her camera shots badge. We went to the mall and visited a camera store. Then we stopped and got some new shirts for both her and Brandon. When we got home we started going over the stuff she needed to learn. How to clean, maintain, load and take pictures. She needed to learn about three different types of cameras, so I got out my old 35 mm camera for her to use. She needed to take some pictures so after walking around the neighborhood, we headed over to the park. It seemed like a great place to get pictures of nature. Brandon loved it because while she was taking pictures, he played in the large sand box they have. We came home and Lauren only needed about 4 more shots to finish out the roll. Sunday was good too. Went to church, then my sisters. Watched a movie, harassed my niece, GOOD TIMES. When we got home I started cooking. I planned to make bread, apple butter and turkey tet. This is when things started going a little crazy. Jim's mom came over and the kids went out to play. The bread was giving me a hard time till I moved it closer to the stove. While I was milling the apples, Lauren came into the kitchen carrying the camera. She then opened it and pulled the film out and asked "Mommy, how was I supposed to take this film out?" Yes, the memory was not working again. She had forgotten what we had discussed on Saturday morning. I ran over, but it was too late. The entire roll had been exposed. The only thing to do is to trash it and start over. Here are some pictures I took while she was using the 35mm. She now loves this camera, if she can only remember the differences.

2008-10-10T11:30:00.003-04:00

Webelos

Last night at dinner we were discussing the things that Brandon needs to learn to earn his first cub scout badge. The first badge is not so hard. He has to know the handshake, the motto, the solute, what Webelos stands for, etc. So Jim and I are asking him "do you remember the sign?". Then Jim asked his he remembered what Webelos stands for. Brandon thought for a minute and then said "We Blow". After Jim and I stopped laughing we reminded him that it meant; We be loyal scouts. Still makes me smile to think about it.

2008-10-08T08:33:00.005-04:00

Grave Hunting with Grandpop

On Monday I had my long awaited trip to New Jersey to work on the family tree some more. Me and Dad do this about once a year are usually around my birthday. This year I asked to do it a little early so we could check out a cemetery or too. We started at the Trenton Archive. I was hoping to find more information on the old death certificates, but the ones before 1900 do not have any information like parents or where they are buried. Very disappointing. So I had to change gears and only really found 2 new pieces of information. At about 12:00 we headed to the cemetery I wanted to check out. After eating a great lunch at a cafe across the street we headed into the Church office to see what they had to say. They handed me a list of the old section to look over and low and behold, I found a name that I didn't expect to see. You see I knew they had one surname there. I knew my great grandparents were there. I knew my gg grandparents were there. I knew my ggg grandmother (Mary) was there and hoped that her husband (Stephen) was there. This name on the list was a gggg grandparent. VERY COOL. Thank God I had printed out some pedigree charts before I went. Dad and I went out to find the grave and after about 10 minutes of looking find it. I started taking pictures and then we wondered into what they said was the newer section. In my view, this was still a very old section. After a little while we were able to find Mary and Stephen. I then almost had a heart attack when I noticed that his parents were right next to them. As we walked around I started seeing names that I recognized. LOTS OF NAMES. It will take me quite a while to figure out how many were actually related, but I did find another set of gg grandparents from another surname. I guess they all lived very close back then and that's how they all met to marry. I might have to ask the church is I can review their old records. Here are some of the old stones I found. You might think I'm nuts, but I had the BEST time.

2008-10-02T15:18:00.004-04:00

Update on Lauren

New things have been happening for Lauren. First, she has decided to play the clarinet. I bought one on e-bay which turned out to be much cheaper than renting. The instrument even turned out to be pretty good. Secondly, the school sent home a letter stating that she now qualifies for an after school tutoring program. They will bus her home when she is done, but we will need to see how long that takes. She gets done at 5:30 pm. If it takes very long to get home, Jim or I will just have to pick her up. Right now it's two days a week, but they are trying to get funding to expand to four days. For once it seems that they are stepping up and giving her more without me have to do anything.

2008-10-02T15:03:00.004-04:00

Horse Camp

Last weekend (I know it's Thursday, very busy week) Andi and I took the Girl Scouts to Camp Wood Haven to earn their Horse Fan Badge. OK, imagine this. 2 Leaders, 12 girls, no beds. Well they had very thin mattresses to lay on the floor. After the first night Andi and I doubled up to help our backs. It rained almost the whole weekend. We really don't have very good luck. Last time it was 98 degrees and this time rained. Anyway, the girls had a good time and although they didn't get to ride, because of the wet conditions, they did get to groom them.

Jim is supposed to have an overnight this weekend with the Boy Scouts. Brandon is very excited. It might be a little chilly, but there is no rain forcasted.

Here are the girls in all their rain gear.

Here are our sleeping conditions.

Here is Andi with her pony. The leaders had to lead in the horses.

Not my best picture, but me with my horse - Duce.

Here's Lauren in the dining hall. And no, the food was not that great.

2008-09-20T18:41:00.002-04:00

Letter for Brandon

I got a letter from Brandon's school on Friday. It came home in his backpack. It says that he has started a new reading program. They feel that Brandon should attend a Reading Tutorial. Isn't that great. I didn't have to say a thing. They just sent a letter for me to sign. At Lauren's school I could do back flips and they still wouldn't give her a tutor. God I love this school.

2008-09-20T06:53:00.003-04:00

OMG, HE HAS A DATE!!!!

Shhhhh. Don't tell I told. When he announced it at dinner Jim and I just looked at one another. On the outside I said "That's nice". On the inside I was screaming for joy. OK. You don't understand right? Let me explain. Arion is 20 years old and has never, to my knowledge, been on a date. He only ever went to one school dance. I couldn't get him to go to either prom. He barely ever even went to any ones house to hang out or go to a party. That's how it is when someone is slightly agoraphobic. They really hate to go anywhere. Now, he might have done something when he was away last year, but all I ever heard about was class and his dorm. Every time I called he was in his dorm. He didn't even like to leave to eat. So I told Jim that I thought we should not make a big deal about this, but both of us are dieing of curiosity. I won't even be here to see her, because I will be away with the girl scouts.

2008-09-16T06:53:00.004-04:00

Girl Scouts Kicked My Ass

Last weekend was a little hectic. I had been on the waiting list for some training and hadn't really thought that I would get in. On Friday I got a letter and an e-mail that I could go to the first part. You see what I needed was both parts. Part 1 is Fire & Cooking. You need this to build a fire or cook with your girls. Part 2 is Overnight, which you need to take your girls on an overnight trip. The problem was I hadn't turned in the silly Home Study course that you are supposed to do first. I figured that if they sent me the stuff they knew that and I decided I would go anyway. At that point things started to turn crazy. I tried to call the office and found out the the Girl Scout office was closed for that Friday. GREAT. Then I tried to send an e-mail and got "out of the office" replies. OK. Then I decided to fax my Home Study form. Two out of three fax numbers would not pick up. So I took a copy with me. I pack up some stuff and drove to the camp. I get there early, yeah I'm annul. There I find out that they had another cancellation that morning and they now had room in the overnight portion. GREAT. I didn't bring any overnight gear. So now I'm trying to find Mary, my sister, who lives not that far away and get her to bring me some stuff. Jim's in the air taking another lesson so there is no way to reach him. I leave a message with Arion, knowing that chances are 50/50 that Jim will get it. Then we HIKE up the hill to the camp site. Pay attention to this. We are at one of the FAR off sites. This means you walk up carrying your stuff. I helped some of the others because I didn't have as much. We get there and a couple hours later Mary called and was at the Camp. She agreed to meet me half way so I start to hike down. The I realize that she took the short cut and I went the long way. Back up the short cut trail I go. Later in the lesson the Home Study course was mentioned. We are told that if we didn't turn in the test paper, we can show them a copy so they can sign our cards. Of course they had told me I could leave my paperwork in the CAR at the bottom of the camp ground. So after the first part I walked down AGAIN with the leader to get the person for the next session and get the paperwork. That makes three (or four) trips up and down the hill so far. The next day we were told we needed to take a TOUR of the camp. That's right. A very LLLOOONNNGGG walk around the camp, so we could see all the sites and facilities. Then drag some carts back up to the site and load up our stuff. After we were done, we then dragged all the stuff back down to our cars.

I got home in time to shower and take Brandon to his first Tiger Scout Popcorn sale.

Yesterday I had a very bad limp and still feel a little stiff today, but it done now for 5 years. Thank God.

2008-09-16T06:45:00.002-04:00

The "P" Word

Last nights adventure, I am happy to report, was Brandon just being a very funny, very cute little boy. As we were starting dinner, and one of our neighbors kids walked into the house looking for Lauren and Brandon to play. I explained that we were eating dinner and they would be out soon. He said we wanted to say goodbye to Nellie, our dog. Brandon piped up with "She's a girl". Isn't that cute. Yeah. It would have been much better if he didn't follow it with "Because she doesn't have a penis". Yeah real cute.

2008-09-11T07:01:00.004-04:00

My Big Tiger Scout

Last night Brandon went to his first Tiger Scout meeting. He seemed to have fun. Two of the boys he knew from T-ball. They talked about some great trips and selling popcorn to raise money for the troop. Today he gets to wear his uniform to school for 911. Next week we will get the scarf and other patches we need to finish his shirt. I hope he ends up liking it as much as Lauren does.

2008-09-11T06:55:00.003-04:00

2 Months & 20 Pounds

Arion had his physical last weekend. Good for my stress, bad for his. They told him that he weighs to much. They said that he could come back November 25 if he lost 20 pounds. They told him to start running and diet. Well, Arion's will power is not the best. He keeps telling me that he will start tomorrow. Jim has joked about buying a lot of fatty foods. I don't think Arion is really trying since I came home from a neighbors party Tuesday night to find him eating 20 wings from Dominoes. He also asked me about going back to the big college from last year if he got good grades and got his scholarships back. I told him it was a possibility.

2008-09-04T10:50:00.003-04:00

So Far, So Good

So far, thing are going good with the kids at school. I was really worried about Brandon starting a new class. Sometimes he doesn't do change real well. He was so excited and really was happy to be going back. When I asked him how his day went he said it was great. He told me one of the boys was causing problems, but he loved being in his new class. Highlights seemed to be the BIG equipment for recess and the BIG lunchroom with the BIG kids. This makes him a BIG kid too. He also has two of his friends, not just one. When I asked what part of the day he didn't like he said nothing. YEAH. Next week he starts back with all the therapies and more real class work. I have a good feeling that things are going to go well.

Lauren seemed to have a great day too. She knows some of the kids in her class from last year and is making some new friends. The two bullies that she has had in her class for the last two years are both not in her class. Thank God. She likes the teacher and says she nice. The new bus route even picks up some of her other friends from school, so she gets to spend some time with them.

Arion is still meeting his teachers. The worst seems to be one teacher that drools. GROSS. He liked his Abnormal Phyc teacher. There is just one more he needs to meet on Friday. That should be American Cinema. He should love that class. He leaves Friday night to go for his physical on Saturday. It's kind of far away, so he will be spending the night in a hotel.

In two weeks we start the ciaos of Girl and Boy Scouts. Brandon can not wait to start and asks me almost every day if we can go. When I get his shirt together, I will take a picture. Until then I have to get things together for Lauren's troop. Since I am one of the leaders this year there is so much to do.

2008-09-02T13:08:00.004-04:00

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for all three kids. Brandon was the first out the door with Jim to the sitters to catch his bus. Then came Lauren and then I drove Arion to his first classes at the local community college. At this point he still hasn't called me. I asked him to call after his first class and he didn't. Big Suprise. Oh well, I hope it's going good. Everyone was a little excited. Brandon couldn't wait to see his friends and have recess on the big kid equipment. Lauren was very proud of her outfit. By the way, Arion wouldn't go for the first day pictures.

2008-09-02T12:56:00.005-04:00

Weekend Fun

This weekend was nice. We went to the river and it was really nice. Even Nellie had a good time. Silly dog just went in and laid down. Lauren found a very small snail, always looking for animals. On Monday we went to Jim's brothers house. We had a nice time and the kids spent time with baby Jack. Specially Arion. Don't know why that kid doesn't think of a career in child care or preschool teacher. Anyway, it was nice to relax for a while before school starts.

2008-08-31T08:05:00.003-04:00

Decisions, Decisions

Life with Arion has been really stressful lately. He has been thinking of joining the Army all summer, but he has also been dragging his feet to get things done. I have been telling him to have a back-up plan just in case they won't take him. You see the Army is funny about ADHD. They definitely want you off meds. Arion has been off for quite a while. There are other issues, i.e. weight. The recuiter has advised Arion to lose weight and he has, but not that much. So I talked Arion into registering for the local Community College. The main issue is health insurance. If he's not a student, he can't stay on our policy. So we signed up at late registration and Arion set a date for the Army physical. Now the problem. The school called and said they needed payment NOW. If we didn't make the payment Thursday night, they were going to drop him. So after a long discussion with Jim, Arion and myself we decided that he would stay and complete this semester at the Community College. If the Army did agree to take him, he would go in under a delayed program. This means the rush was off for the Army and Arion will get another semester under his belt. Now we just wait and see how the physical goes. I'll let everyone know when we get the result.

2008-08-31T07:57:00.002-04:00

Squigglypoucht

You could also call this Arion's Speech Therapy, Part II. As some of you know, Arion loves to teach Brandon new stuff. It's just that most of the time, it not anything that's really useful. This time is no different. He has now taught Brandon that there is a part of his body called a Squigglypoucht. My spelling might be off, but the word is made up anyway, so who's counting. Now when Brandon pokes Arion in the stomach, Arion says "Oh my squigglypoucht". Then Brandon will reply "I got him in the squigglypoucht". GREAT. Now Brandon wants to know what a squigglypoucht is and exactly where is it. God help me.

2008-08-24T09:07:00.002-04:00

Suprise at Dinner

Last night we went to Brandon's favorite place, the air port cafe. As you eat you can watch the planes land and take off. It's just a small local air port, but it's the one Jim uses and it's close. We all order, nothing strange, the order comes. I ordered soup and fried mushrooms. Brandon got the usual, cheese sticks. Not normally an entree, but he eats them. I ask Lauren if she would like to try the mushrooms. She is starting to get to the point that she will try new things. She ended up handing it to Brandon. Now, as some of you know, getting a child with a sensory disorder to eat is something of a challenge. It's not just the taste, it the feel. Getting Brandon to try new things is next to impossible. And even if you can get him to try, most of the time, he doesn't like it. Well I almost dropped over when he popped that mushroom into his mouth and chewed it up. No comment. I looked at Jim. I asked Brandon what he thought. No comment. I gave him another and he ate it too. I guess he liked it. He wouldn't eat anymore, but of all the things that I thought I might be able to get him to eat, fried mushrooms was not one of them.

2008-08-22T09:10:00.002-04:00

I Hate Ants

Last night I came home to find my kitchen invaded with sugar ants. I HATE ANTS. They are everywhere. So I start cleaning and spraying. I KNOW SHANNON, chemicals in the kitchen. So here I am, trying not to get the ant killer near anything related to food, while cleaning everything and throwing out anything else. I ended up emptying the spice/baking cabinet. I have lived in this house for 12 years now and I have never pulled everything out of this cabinet. In the end I ended up throwing out almost half of what was in there. Of course this morning I came down and the ants had now found a ice cream bowl that Brandon had left out. Oh well, I have all weekend to re-clean everything and continue to kill the little buggers till their gone.

2008-08-22T09:00:00.003-04:00

God Help Me

As mentioned before, I was stung by a yellow jacket and was put on steroids. OK, let me tell you, if you are having problems with menopause, DO NOT GO ON STEROIDS. The last four days have NOT been good. Last night at about 4:00 am I realized it was the steroids. Let me explain. For the last four nights I have been having problems sleeping, usually not a problem for me. I have also been having more then the usual hot flashes. The last two night have got my legs killing me from the leg cramps that hit just after the crazy nightmares. I'm so tired that I just wanted to crawl up in a ball and hide from the world. All I can hope is that it will start to wear off since the prescription has now run out.