Wow! Has It Really Been That Long?

These days between blogging sure went by fast!

Well, the first week of school flew by fast. Funny enough the headline in the paper two days after my last post was that the bus agency was going to hire a security guard...go figure. Today when I left to drop the kids off at school the neighborhood kids were still standing out there, when I got back parents were taking them off to school. The bus company out here is the only one and it is independently opened. It sucks.

This morning Hubs got a call 5 minutes after school started. I wasn't quite home yet because we live about 7 minutes away. It was the boy's teacher. The boy said we weren't feeding him. He wanted to go to the cafeteria. I can think of some choice words to post here because of my anger. Hubs was even more pissed since he sits with them and watches them eat, trying to teach them to eat like civilized people and not like animals. Literally. If only you knew. Those with RAD kids know the grossness I am talking about.

At any rate, I started this post 4 hours ago. I thought I'd pop into my website account with The Oldest's School (where I am a troop leader) and add some Girl Scout Information, that was hours ago and I finally got a rough outline going of what I want. sheesh!

Back to school night is (now)tonight. I will be meeting parents as a GS leader for the first time. *blankly staring around the room* I hope I don't do that tonight. lol

I'll have to update about the house another time. Also, about Poufy's doctor appointment today. She may have Grave's Disease or Hashimoto's something or other. I'm not going to stress until her bloodtests come back.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to school they go!

Whoo Hoo! First day of school, FINALLY! *doing the happy dance* We survived!

After all the kiddos have been pushed out to the curb dropped off at school, Hubs and I drive onward to the realtors to draw up our offer for THE house. No, not putting much pressure on this particular house but oh would it be a miracle if they accept our offer.

I've pretty much talked myself out of it so much that I've already started looking for other houses. I can't find one with enough bedrooms. Every kid definitely needs their own room out of necessity, not want. I'm convinced it will cut down at least 50% of the BS going on around here.

At any rate, my nerves are racing to the point of aggravation because it's taking me forever to get anything done around the house since I want to keep running back here to my laptop to "just" check out this article or to reword my search for a new home for the gazillionth time. I have to keep putting myself in check and reminding myself there will be no other home if I don't get this home ready and sold. I have about a week to get it show ready. I think.

By the way, it is so frickin cold here I don't know whether to be happy or sad. First it was too hot, then it was beautiful and perfect and now? Should I dare say it, it's cold. But wait, if I got off my butt and quit googling and did some of the work I needed to around here I probably wouldn't be so darn cold.

Oh, and I am livid about my stupid budget. The healthy, not in need of any extra care or understanding of others needs have decided they are shifting people to another care option and until they figure out how to write a letter (from what I could gather) all initial care budgets are on hold. So we've been put on hold. They tell us until Tuesday and then we can play the waiting game while they sift through all the paper that has been sitting on their desk for three months waiting for this letter. Really, three.months.today. I've been laid off for three months. These people are unbelievable because think about it... If it weren't Hubs I was taking care of, what person could really wait three months for a budget?

Even I shouldn't have waited three months. If they don't have an answer by Tuesday I am going to have to go out and get a job where I leave my house and work certain evening or grave yard hours. I know most people do this (work outside the home) and I did for almost half of my life.

But it's stressful because if Hubs has issues (which he does everyday, it's a rare day when he's "good") I'm not here to correct it right away. Which it all needs to be corrected right away or he could die from a stroke brought on by autonomic dysreflexia. Plus, when I leave for a couple of hours to run errands (groceries, prescriptions, bank, etc...) the kids go haywire and the schedule just does not work. Hubs can't keep them under control. I come home and the next thing I know everyone's been grounded until they are 18. lol

So yes, very stressful. Not to mention, when would I sleep?

I'm afraid to start my consulting business up so soon because it will be like "Hey! I'm here for you when ever you want"... One month later, "uh, I gotta move, can't help you with that. Sowwy! " Not good for business.

Plus, what if there isn't any work in consulting any more?

ARGH! I feel my hair losing color as I type!

Have a good week everyone!

Well, I Won't Do That Again...

Today was registration for the last 4 of my kids. They start school on Monday (WHOOO HOOO!!)

I thought I was oh so smart scheduling them all for 1 pm. "I'm oh so cool because registration for 4 kids is ONLY going to take me an hour!" Well, we get there and I realize that I have forgotten my planner with room numbers and directions. Crap.

At least I remember the teachers names, but uh oh! They haven't cleared the two new fourth grade teachers and a reading assistant will be administering the tests..but where?

We couldn't find her and didn't find her until 1:45. LATE! That's how long it took to drop off the other three but luckily the woman let her go ahead and test after some minor complaining. After all, I'm sure I was a sight, dripping sweat and out of breath because we walked to every corner of that school, no doubt and I had to do four separate orientations for each child. Good Times!

Some how we managed to make it through. SS was still testing so I decided to drop off the 3 others with Hubs and go back and get her and then head off for The Oldest. All I have to say is they weren't kidding when they said they try to have the campus cleared by 3:15. They get out at 3 pm and I arrived to pick her up at 3:09 and there were no cars there.

There were about 8 kids including mine and she told me they had just announced that the kids that were left would have to go to aftercare in a couple of minutes. I guess I should have prefaced all this by saying that this is a private school with 420 students and NO BUSES. Each child is picked up and dropped off. That's why I am so amazed at how organized and efficient they are when it comes to getting the kids in and out of there pronto.

After that we grabbed some things for a semi-impromptu End Of Summer/Back To School party of sorts. Hubs and I knew we wanted to do it but now that it seems as of tomorrow we will be moving forward with the sale of our house and buying a new one now that we have a lender, it's just going to get really hectic from here on out.

So the kids donned their swimsuits and ran the whole evening away until bedtime. They were so happy.

This shot slays me because it looks so bad but in the moment I took the pictures they were laughing and running and I never saw these expressions.

I put out a few things buffet-style and let them at it. Ignore the "construction" and crap in the background. I am still working and now have torn apart the house giving more stuff away, packing a little and deciding what to put in storage. Fun. (note sarcasm)

Why yes, that is a mini sundae bar set up back there. They had a choice between sundaes or cupcakes. I'm the only one in the house who had a cupcake. lol

I wish everyday could be like this. Where I can just say..."You know what? Let's forget about everything that needs to be done and just have some fun!" and we do and everything goes perfectly, no tantrums, no fighting, just plain fun and happiness. These are the best days but they are so hard to come by aren't they?

The First Day Of Middle School

I'm going to write this down because Lord knows I will never tell you this...or at least I don't think I will. I probably won't remember all my feelings.

Today you started middle school. I could tell you were nervous, scared, and excited. You showered and dressed the quickest I have ever seen you in the past 2 and a half years. Even though you don't want to admit it, I think you like your school uniform. lol

I also think you don't want to admit it, but you like the fact I take your picture on the first day of school. Dad was up to see you off as well. He teased you and told you to say "superstar" for the camera. My guess is that he wanted you to impersonate Molly Shannon (I think that is her name being as I only saw a commercial and never saw the movie.) because of your catholic school uniform. You declined because you aren't about to act silly. I don't know why you get so embarrassed about everything. Maybe it's just your age.

Last night as I transferred Dad into bed, I told him "You have a daughter who starts middle school tomorrow." He said "I know, I'm old." I told him he was right, he is :-) It's still kind of hard to believe. I was there when you were born. I was one of the first people to hold you and now it's 12 years later.

I snuck a note into your backpack. It was just to let you know you'd be ok and you'd have an excellent day and make plenty of friends and that we loved you. I signed it Mom and Dad. I was nervous about that. Nervous because I didn't know if it was going to embarrass you or how you would feel about me signing Mom and Dad.

I want to write this down because I want you to know what I was thinking and how I felt and that these days do matter to me, probably more than they matter to you. After I dropped you off and left the school parking lot. I was sad and proud, that combination equals tears. lol

Sad because I have a baby in middle school and proud because you are so smart and so brave. I found a card last night that you had made for Dad. It was addressed to Uncle and it said that you would always remember him and there are just a few more years before you would be gone and how those years would fly by. It was clear you are planning to leave the minute it's legal for you to do so. I hope you don't. I mean, you can't stay forever. lol But I hope by that time you feel that this is home and not just a temporary place. I want you to have that. I want you to feel like you have a home and place to come back to. I've never had that and I think it's important. I'm planning for it.

At 8 am, when the living room clock chimed, I told Dad your day had started. I said a little prayer for you.

I love you more than you'll ever know. Probably because I forgot to tell you that when I dropped you off and was interrogating the crossguard. lol Sorry! But in my defense, you forgot too!

So, I'm saying it now, I love you (Drooler! )

Back to School Night and P-Touch

Thursday was back to school night. 5 classrooms in an hour. I'm barely recovering.

I thought it started at 6:30 but I was wrong it started at 6pm. With the "extra" time we had I broke out our brand new p-touch. I've been wanting one of these for ages... Seriously, since like '97 or something. I loved the one at my old job. Anyway, I digress.

Of course, after I got the machine up and going I could not remember much less think of one thing that I had wanted to label. So I decided to label my hubby. After much ohhhing and ahhing and securing the label to my hubby. We now realized that we were going to be late (still not knowing that we were already late.)

So we scramble out the door and finally get to the school. Where I realize we are, indeed, late. We go from classroom to classroom by location. In each classroom, DH is greeted heartily by his name. Now, I know one teacher knows him, but the others is a mystery because although he was with me at registration, he stayed behind with the kids while I ran like a wild woman from room to room.

Finally, we are in the last classroom. Which happened to be the teacher we are very familiar with. We are talking to the teacher and the boy (who I might add had just gone to the bathroom less than 20 minutes earlier) is standing there. Not a peep, nothing. That would be because he is standing there peeing on himself.

I freak out because I'm like "Stop all ready!, Why are you standing there still going!?!" So here comes the lesson...

Did you know? Boys and men can't stop peeing once they start. I had no clue. At least that's what DH told me.

I was like, "Ok, time to go!" As we are heading out the door, I see it. I see the label with DH's name on it. I pull it off. DOH!

We head out only to be stopped in the cafeteria. See back to school night was also ice cream social night. When we came through the first time it was jam packed and I told the kids we had ice cream at home. But with their long faces on the way back... I had to weigh the situation... pee'd brother or ice cream. As gross as it was, I gave into the girls. Because another little known fact (to me only I guess) the boy was dry as dry in the back, just wet on the one side in the front and we rinsed him down.

So, there sat our row of kids, munching on ice cream quietly. *sigh* And THEN we were off.

What a mess we are! But from what the teachers told me the kids are doing in great so far.