holiday busyness and vomit

Three holiday concerts...Brittney & Brooke's B-Day...Christmas Shopping for 7 kids...2 dogs...2 cats...2 horses...Holiday party coming up...Also something BIG...Tears of joy...It's a surprise.

And in other news, Rainia announced to me yesterday that we were the farting family. She also threw-up all over the floor of the stall at middle-school #2 during Kyley's holiday concert this evening. Why did she throw-up all over the floor instead of in the toilet? Because she was having to use the toilet at the same time. Poor, poor girl. And before we left she told me that her ear hurt. Who knew an ear-ache could be so severe? And I am the worst school parent ever, because when I tried to clean it up with little paper-thin brown school paper-towels, it didn't seem to work, and I almost vomited myself. So I genorously covered it up with the paper-thin school-brown paper-towels, and then coincidentally saw one of those yellow "wet floor" teepee things, so I set it up neatly at the door to the throw-up stall so that the middle school girls could be forwarned. Then I went to the office to tell them that I needed custodial assistance, only no one was in the office due to the concert. So we went back to the concert.

Parent-teacher Conferences

Yesterday was parent-teacher conference day. Always a big deal in our house, but this year was different. Having the boys in Kindergarten means we now have 7, yes SEVEN conferences to go to. How do you attend 7 parent-teacher conferences? Let me tell ya. Bear with me, one day my kids will look back on this, and want to know. So here we go...

First of all, for some reason, which I am still trying to grasp, only three out of our 7 dwarfs were responsible enough to bring home the sign-up sheets. On the sign-up sheets, you tell the teacher what 3 times would work for you, and then they send home a note with the time of your conference. So Rainia brought home her sheet, and was scheduled accordingly. As were the Kinder boys. For the unknown reason uummm...irresponsibility, NONE of our middle-sch. students got scheduled. So Wed. I told the kids they better get me a conference time. So Andrew did. They just listen so well. That left 4 out of 7 conferences actually scheduled.

So they got out of school at noon. The kinder-boys and Rainia took the bus as usual, and I headed to pick up Andrew and Kyley. As soon as I got there, Kyley says "I got you a time! And it's RIGHT NOW!" Quick internal conflict: Brooke and Brittney are waiting on me at the other Middle School. Rick is only going to be able to work until 1:30 today. The teacher's are waiting for me in the school. Shit! OK, let me just run in here and get this one down, and that will only leave six more. So I run into the school with Kyley and Andrew, have the conference, and run out. Kyley is on honor roll, 3 A's, 2 B's. PROUD!!!

We jump in the car and quick-drive over to the other middle-school. B&B get in the van. "Did you get me a time?" Nope. "Well girls, you are not getting out of this. Get your little butts in there and get me a time." Brooke runs back out to inform me that the teacher's can do RIGHT NOW. So I head into the school to explain that Rick really wants to be there, and can we get a later time? 3:30 is agreed upon, and we head home.

I get home to find Jake in his underwear and socks OUTSIDE which he knows he is not allowed to do. I quickly get him dressed, grab Josh, and we head to pick up Rick. We get to elementary school, a couple minutes early, so hit the book-fair. After Josh chooses a book for himself and Andrew (AAWWWWW), and Jake chooses a pointer, Yes people, a pointer, we head over to Kinder-building. Jake's conference is first. He is on grade level, did not identify a rectangle for his teacher. (WTF?) He sometimes has trouble staying on task, and Occasionally has attention issues. And oh, by the way, do you know how funny your son is? Uummm, yeah.

Josh is next. He is above grade level in every area, and unfortunately, even though he obviously has a speech deficit, he is not eligible for school-speech because he is reading. He is ready to start the "AR" program (accelerated reading) They will only fund speech classes if the deficit impairs his learning. He knows what the letters are, can identify them, and can sound them out into words (even if the words don't sound right). Internal dialogue: My kid is reading? Hhhmmm, why didn't I know this? Note to self= Have Josh read you a book. Damn, have Josh read Jake a book, let him take care of the night-time story from now on. This will definitely leave more time for wine. Also, apparently Josh doesn't know how to walk. He hops in line, and has to be told on a regular basis to stop jumping, skipping, etc.

We drop J&J off at home, and pick up B&B. We get to Middle Sch.#2, and they are having parent-student conferences, instead of parent-teacher conferences. We flip a coin, which makes Brooke's turn first. She reads off her grades, and the essay she has written on why her grades are what they are, and we are proud! 3 A's, 3 B's, and 1 C. Brittney is next, can someone say Proud Parents? Honor Roll! 3 A's, 4 B's. Then her math teacher jumps on her because she has the potential for an A, and received a B. Internal dialogue: Woman, you have about 2 seconds to shut-up. You are chastising my kid, who is on HONOR ROLL. Leave her alone.

We drop off B&B, and have about an hour before we need to be back at elem. for Rainia's conference. We use this time wisely of course. (We walk around the property, and decide where we will have our HUGE fantasy house built.) We then get Rainia, and head back to elementary sch. Another trip to spend $$ at the book-fair, and then on to the conference. We love Mrs. F, Kyley had her last year, and I use the time to gossip about our middle school kids. Her daughter is in Kyley and Andrew's social circle. Oh-yeah, and we spend some time talking about Rainia. 2 A's, 1 B, and 1 C. Proud!!! Oh, and she is citizen of the month this month, and will be getting an award tomorrow. Plus, she will not be taking Sierra to the bathroom anymore. Sierra is disabled and needs to use the special bathroom in the office, but Her and Rainia have been stopping to socialize with Mrs. Principal, and have been missing too much class-time. Internal=Uuummmm...who socializes with Mrs. Principal? Hhhmmm, my kids are nerds...I wonder if she gets close enough to Mrs. Principal, will she get some sort of award? Will Mrs. Principal take special interest in the boys? You go little brown-noser!!!

We get home with just enough time for the girls to quick-change into cheer-leading clothes, and to grab Andrew. YAY!!! ALMOST DONE! We drop off Brooke and Rain at Cheerleading, and head over to Middle Sch.#1. We are the last conference of the day. (It is 6:45) Andrew is doing great, but is missing his math workbook, and a library book. He has 1 A, 2 B's, and 3 C's. This is really a great report card, considering how much harder he has to work compared to the other kids. On our way out, we check his locker, and find missing workbook, and missing library book. Relief. And we are Done!!!

Until 8:00, when we have to leave again to pick up the girls at cheer. Busy, busy day. And I wouldn't have it any other way. WooHoo!!! We have amazing kids! And are SSOOOOOO Proud, of each and every one of them!

Who needs sleep?

Written 5/20/08

Can I vent for a minute?







I'll take that as a yes.


This week SUCKS!!!!! I mean, our lives are always hectic, but someone needs to put me out of my misery this week.

Mon: 8:00- kids to school, to the shop to work, had to get the girls some clothes for their allstar gymnastics tryouts at walmart, at my job at 2:00, out at 5:35, met Rick at the Gym (gymnastics) at 5:45, home at 8:00, dinner, bathtime, and bed.

I missed my first IEP meeting for Andrew, which was at 2:00. They usually schedule these for Fri. because I dont work Fri. but they couldn't get us in until Mon. Rick had to leave the gym, pick up the boys at daycare, and get pizza for dinner.

Tue: This is EOG (end of grade test) week for the kids, which means a hot breakfast instead of their usual cereal. Rick cooked this morning, I will get up and do the breakfast duty tomorrow morning.

8:00- kids to school, Rick and I had errands to run in the morning, and an appointment at 11:00. had to get some stuff for my job, back to the shop at 2:00, off to my job at 2:30. out at 5:30. Pick up boys, meet Rick at the Gym at 5:50. Home at 8:00. Grocery Store for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and yogurt because it was SO LATE! dinner, bed.

Wed. and Thur. I have to Proctor for the EOG's at my school, which means I will be dropping my kids off at 7:30, so that I can get to my school at 8:00, and stay there all day, walking around a silent classroom, watching students NOT cheat on their tests. I will not be allowed to sit down. In case in that 5 sec. that I rest my legs, one of those crafty 12-yr.-olds breaks out a answer sheet.

Thurs: my job takes a field-trip, with all the other programs like mine, which means that instead of dealing with 25 fresh out of testing, restless, wild, middle-school aged kids, I will get to enjoy 150 of them. I will get out of work at 5:45, and then rush to get to the boys tee-ball game at 6:15.

Fri, one of the kids has an ENT dr. app. I don't know which one, and I don't CARE!

These days of not sitting down or taking a breath until 9:00 at night are going to KILL me!

Did I mention that I can't wait for this school year to end?

You call this a Vacation?

Written 4/11/08

Sorry about the late post, but this is Spring Break week for the kids. Also, because I work in the school system, myself. I did go to the shop to finish some tax stuff before we sent it off to our accountant, but besides that, home. in the house. with the kids. all week. For the last 7 days, we have hosted the neighborhood. Sat. and Sun.=10 kids, Mon.-Wed.=8, Thur.=9, tonight 11? 12? That includes getting rid of 2 of our own one night and 1 last night. So, needless to say, I haven't had the time to post. Unfortunately, it has been cold or raining most of the week. Cold. Or raining. In the hot, dry south. Of course it was, since it is our VACATION!

The two days that it was beautiful, included 2 different parks, a hike, and countless hours on the 4-wheelers. Yes, we have 4-wheelers. (We are red-necks you know)

Make-A-Wish came out on Fri. Andrew ended up wishing for Disney, which is SO exciting. They informed us though that if we wanted to stay at Give Kids The World, we needed to wait until July or Aug. If we wanted to leave before then, we could stay in a Disney resort. Does anyone have an opinion on this? Any comments would be appreciated, especially people who have experienced GKTW.

Rainia still has fluid in her ears, and we go back on the 21st for the final decision of whether or not to put tubes in her ears. They are pretty sure of yes, but they don't want to make a rash decision before making absolutely sure that the fluid isn't related to her upper respiratory/ear infection. I am sure that she needs the tubes though, because I feel that she has had the hearing loss for quite some time. I am also going to have Joshua evaluated, because he doesn't speak english. at 5 years old. I think this is related to hearing loss as well.