Better

I feel a bit better tonight.  Maybe it was because I got some of the crap out last night.  Maybe I just needed to release it.  Maybe that’s why writing is such a great tool.

I’m going to visit my grandma and grandpa for a bit tomorrow.  Grandpa decided to put her in a nursing home on Monday.  It’s for the best I’m certain but I think it’s really difficult for grandpa.  I don’t know if she’ll get better or not…we’ll have to give her a couple of weeks and see.  I think the cancer and the treatments as well as all of the stress and pain and heartache has just taken its toll and she is done.  I really wish she would have told me stories - written the stories like I asked…she was the only window I had into my mom’s childhood.

We went to Miss T’s ‘Green’ program tonight.  They sang songs and narrated about recycling and conservation.  It was a cute program.  Of course I’d heard all the songs 100 times over the last 6 weeks…but it was nice to hear them all singing and so happy.

 

Overheard

You know that song…  “Juke Box Hero”?  Last night in the car, it was on and I listened to Miss T sing along…

“Juice Box Hero…”

She cracks me up!

 

I’m still here…

Life sort of took over for a while.  Or maybe it was work that took over.  Either way, I’ve been very busy - so busy that an extra 8 hours in each day would be perfect!

Miss T lost her 3rd and 4th teeth - the two top center teeth.  It’s amazing to me how much older she seems with no teeth.  She is truly growing into a beautiful person.  She is helpful and considerate and smart.  I am very proud of her.  She continues to love school, doing ‘homework’ and loves to read.  While she doesn’t read nearly as much as her Colorado cousin, she reads enough - and more than her brother ever had the patience for!

Mr. B is passing all but one class and has made a plan to pull that last grade up.  He is also taking advantage of offers of extra credit where he never did before.  He, too, is turning into a responsible and caring young man.  Today he is really upset as his best friend - the one he claims is ’the other half of his heart’ - moved to Colorado.  The kid’s mom had been going up there every weekend to see some guy and this kid had been staying with us and he lived here over spring break.  Mr. B is devastated.  I wish I could, somehow, make it all better.  I talked with his this morning and I let him stay home - he’s just crying.  I feel so bad for him!

Cap has officially been qualified as a driver.  He’s been driving off and on as needed and working preload when he’s not driving.  When he’s not driving, and after preload, he usually heads out for the day helping his dad.  Needless to say he’s been staying very busy.  It’s good for him.

Work is the same as it’s always been - just busier due to the acquisition.  There are have been many requests for reports and data.  So - I’m a little less worried now about losing my job but I suppose it is still a possibility.  Just not anytime soon.

Sis is pregnant - due end of September or early October.  I am happy for her and a little jealous.  I would have loved to have had another child with Cap, but it just wasn’t in the cards.  At least now I can have a baby to play with and then send home.  Sis seems to be turning things around a bit - she is more focused this year on her son and keeping him on a schedule.  It’s been very good for him school-wise.  I think sis just finished the first trimester so she is well on her way.

I’ve been working on the de-cluttering and have made progress - just a little - but hey - it’s progress none-the-less.  My office is clean!  The filing still needs to be done, but it’s been divided into 2 bins - one personal, one for work.

 

A Beautiful Sunday Morning

I’ve been focusing a lot on myself and my isues of late…  To catch you up on the rest of my life…

Mr. B passed all of his classes first semester.  It was amazing - we’re really proud of him.  He procrastinated and really pulled it off by the skin of his teeth.  There were a few Ds - barely passing Ds.  I’m hoping he’ll continue to improve and have an even better semester.  Oh - and he’s officially a sophmore now - half a year late - but at least he’s there. 

Miss T is doing fabulously in school - just like always.  She continues to be a model student.  She seems to struggle with the language arts - she can read and spell extrememly well.  The part she struggles with are the mechanics of writing - grammar things like nouns and writing complete sentences.  She’s awesome at math - she gets that from her Dad.  All in all I think she is doing quite well.  Miss T is also about ready to lose her top front teeth.  They’ve been loose forever - since before the holidays.  We thought for sure they’d be out by Christmas and make for some great pictures - but here it is almost February!

Cap has started driving in his new job finally - he’s trying to qualify so he can start on a route full time.  This is the worst time to try to qualify - with the weather the way it’s been.  With good weather I’m certain he could make it in no time.  For now - he’s trying really hard.  I know he’ll make it - he’ll just have to work extra hard.

I’ve been fighting a cold/the flu since Christmas Day.  I think the flu part is over - now I just wish the cold part would get better.  The extreme cold and dry air have made it very hard to get over.  I’ve felt really weak this weekend…just tired and not myself.

We got 6-8 inches of snow yesterday.  It literally snowed all day long.  It’s beautiful - and the night was so peaceful.  I love how the snow muffles sounds.  Bitsy loves loves loves the snow.  She just romps around, bounces around and burrows her nose deep into the snow.  Luckily we’ve never taken the trampoline now so she has a little area where she can go potty.

I’m off to get some laundry started.  And maybe play in the snow!

 

Catching up on life

I’ve really REALLY not been in the mood to write lately.  I’ve also not had the time to write.  October’s been a busy month.  It should slow down now…quarter is closed at work…the con call will be on Tuesday.  The following week, I will be going to PDX for a week.  YAY!

Let’s see…a quick status update on everything… 

B ended the 9 weeks with 4 Fs.  After all the work he’s done.  After all the tears, heartache and worry.  C (the youth officer) wasn’t happy with B either.  He was very disappointed.  I went to P/T conferences  even though I knew they wouldn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know given the fact that I’ve been in frequent contact with B’s teachers.   I sat and listened to each of them tell me how intelligent B is but how lazy he is when it comes to doing the work.  C ended up giving B an 8pm curfew.  It nearly killed B.  He does not like to be kept from social activities.  So - maybe this will wake him up.  C and I both told him how much we cared for him.  B is smart - I know he understands.  Hopefully he will get busy.

Miss T’s conference went fabulously - she is a stellar student.  A in math, A in reading, B in writing.  Her teacher did say that she is over-sensitive at times.  I think that this is because she is our baby.  She’s so much younger than B and she’s a girl, and she’s the only grand-daughter.  We need to toughen her up a bit. 

So - talk about a roller-coaster ride!  We went to T’s conference first and then to the HS for B’s conferences.  I was so uplifted, so proud, then I got to sit and listen to 5 different teachers how incredibly unmotivated my first born is.  It’s so draining!

Cap is finally driving for UPS - he’s on-call right now, drives as needed.  Should pick up by mid November.  And he’ll likely be driving full time through the holidays.  He enjoys it.

Grandma just finished up her last chemo treatment this week.  She made it through all 18 weeks or so with minimal sickness.

My brother was down at the beginning of October for a wedding and we got to spend time with them.  The kids had a great time.  We kept the kids for a slumber party.  They destroyed the play room, jumped on the trampoline and really enjoyed each other’s company.  I made homemade pizza and picked up some pie pans and let each of the kids make their very own pizza.  The girls went with straight cheese.  The boys opted for a little more in the way of toppings.  They each made faces - pepperoni facial features, hamburger hair and a green pepper nose.  We had G-Ma and G-Pa over too.  It was a good time for everyone.  After pizza I had the girls make cookies for us all.

Miss T has been sick off and on the last few weeks…first she complained of a sore throat - nothing ever came of it.  I even too her in for a strep screening.  So she sort of got over that, then one night out of the blue she vomitted in her sleep.  She had felt fine when she went to bed.  She felt fine when she woke so I shipper her off to school only to vomit her lunch in the lunch room.  Poor baby!  She got over that mostly, but is still not eating much.  She’s slowly getting her appetite back…

Need to get to seep for now…hopefully November will allow me more time to write…

 

Lost tooth #2

Miss T has lost another tooth.  That makes two total.

She’d gone to grandma and grandpa’s house for dinner - invited herself which is pretty typical.  They had dinner, and Cap had gone to pick her up and run by my sister’s house to put up a flag holder on the side of her house.  While there Miss T mentioned that she didn’t have her tooth.  When she got home she wanted to call up grandma and tell her she lost the tooth and that she COULDN’T FIND IT!  We had no clue - we figured she’d just left it over there or something.  So she called grandma and when she told grandma, grandma said - hey - do you remember that rock you found in your cheetos?  Miss T says yeah and then the lightbulb clicked on!  She finally figured it out!

Luckily grandma had told her to throw it in the trash (which she’d just emptied) instead of telling her to throw it outside.  Grandma (Miss T’s hero that night) dug in the trash and retrieved the tiny little tooth.  Miss T started crying when grandma called back and told her she found the tooth.  She yelled, “I’m crying I’m so happy!” into the phone then hung up.  We went and picked it up and carfully placed it in the Tooth Fairy pillow that she has.   The tooth fairy showed up that night - Miss T awoke to a dollar in place of that little tooth!

 

Males and Females

Miss T brought home a new library book yesterday - just like usual.  It was called The Life Cycle of a Dog.  It talked about puppies being born and growing up.  Then it talked about how FEMALE dogs would go into heat to attract MALE dogs.  Then puppies woudl grow inside the FEMALE and then she’d give birth and the cycle would start over again.

Ty seemed confused by the word FEMALE so I asked her if she knew what it was - she wasn’t sure so I explained to her that girls were female and that boys were male.  She thought that was just about he funniest thing she’d ever heard.  She giggled and ended up calling grandma to explain MALES and FEMALES to her.  It was hilarious to watch the wheels turn.  I’m sure grandma got a kick out of it too.

 

Miss T turned 6!

My Miss T turned 6 on Monday.  We celebrated on Sunday with family.  She wanted to eat lunch at Lone Star so we did that and then we came back home for cake and homemade ice cream.  I surprised her with the cake - I didn’t tell her what I was making.  Since she’s so into princesses now, I decided to make a castle.  I looked around online and found this idea:

Disney Princess Party, Party Supplies and Ideas at ReasonToParty!

Seemed simple enough, so I set about making a castle cake for my little princess.  I made a few changes - I went with silver accents in lieu of gold.  I also got edible cake decoration spray in blue and used that to paint the foil-wrapped board blue (the moat).  I also had some little princess figures from last year’s store-bought cake.  I think it turned out good…  I was pretty proud of it and Miss T loved it!  The best part was that it tasted good too.  To make sure everyone was happy and since I had to make 2 cakes, I just made one white and one chocolate.  Here it is: