10 Years Ago

I was handed a tiny little bundle full of so much warmth and goodness that I still can not fully fathom how many ways it has blessed me. Happy Birthday Boogie! Momma loves you.

Way Behind

I have over a hundred posts to read, a 'Work of Art" cake for scouts (I thought about putting pictures of the boys on it, do you think they'd get it? A work of A.R.T....hahahaha!) and an In.diana Jon.es birthday cake that will require me to work with fondant. Deep breath...I'll be fine.

I have 2, probably 4 mm wide divots in my leg. One at my hip and one above my ankle. They are deeper than I thought, and still oozing because of the depth. He said it will take 3 days for it to scab over. They were shipped of to MA to see if I have any signs of small fiber neuropathy. We're just eliminating things. If this doesn't show anything, it's off to a spinal tap.

Thanks for all of the comments. I want to comment back, I just haven't gotten to it yet. Hopefully I will be able to catch up this weekend. It will help me procrastinate from my therapy homework which is writing out the story of my life. Not looking forward to that.

And It Was Flowing...

Mom, dad said he'd buy me one of the those chocolate ice cubes. Will you get one?
Sure.
Hey! This doesn't feel cold at all. What rip off!
I think it's about the melting in your mouth effect, not temperature.
Hmmm. I'm not not feeling it. It's still a rip off.

Do you know what that is my friends? It's a Neti Pot, for cleaning one's nasal passages. While it is hard for me to believe this die hard nose plugger would ever willingly pour water up her nose, they won me over with the expression of sheer joy and happiness on the models face as a stream of water streams from her nose. That and the fact that I am tired of chronic headaches, some of which are from the dryness the rest are from my husband. (He says he reads this sometimes. We'll see.)

The first attempt left me gagging on water. Lean farther forward and bring chin in line with forehead. You should be able to take deep breathes through your mouth while pouring water through your nose. WTF? There is something inherently wrong with this. I kept expecting to drown, which I learned that if you try to swallow while completing this task, it feels like you just might.

I cleansed my dry sinuses upon waking this morning and hour and a half later was a church making coffee. I leaned down to pick something up and out of my nose came a stream of water! HORROR! At least there was no one in the kitchen with me. Or the 2 other times it happened at church. At home I was lucky enough to have my back to my dad when it came out of my nose again at home. Where in the heck was it hiding. I will not be using my magical nasal cleaner in the morning any more, even if it lasts all day.

It may be all for not because as I'm typing this the vapors seeping from my dogs @ss are quickly killing my olfactory system. Good Lord it's AWWWFUL! How can that smell be possible?

I'm Not the Best Dresser

I've sported a muffin top on occasion and old sweats and sweatshirts are my friends. I'm a big girl and I try to hide that some times which only makes it worse. While I may not have the best fashion sense, I think big girls should not wear their shirts tucked into their too small skinny (haha) pants that are punctuated with pointy toed high heeled knee high boots. It's reminiscent of Tweedledee...or Tweedledum which ever is your favorite.

Unless that's what your going for, in that case carry on.

To Homeschool or Not to Homeschool

At least for part of the year. Last year we had an issue with G repeating something inappropriate he had heard on the playground to a girl. I got a call from the counselor who said he had talked to him and that he understood what he was saying. It didn't sit right with me, he didn't really seem to grasp what was wrong about what he said. We are very open and this just didn't sound like him. And from the expression on his face when we talked about it I knew something was off, so I pried a little further and learned that he didn't have a CLUE what he had said. That, my friends, is how he learned that sex is when a man puts his pen.is in a woman's vag.ina. He was mortified, to say the least. He knew that what he said meant to 'do it' and he knew that 'do it' meant sex but he had no idea what sex actually was. Now he does. He no longer repeats things he doesn't understand 100%.

What bothered me about this was that the counselor had said he was at risk of having a sexual harassment ding on his record if he was cited again. Panic panic panic. My alarm button raised even higher when I realized that he really didn't know what he was saying and that when we told them that it really didn't seem to matter. Should he have said it? No! But is it sexual harassment when you don't even know what sex is? We learned during our meeting with the principle and the counselor that this had been an increasing issue at the school and that last year was the worst they had ever had for harassment in the older grades. Throughout the year they had watched it trickle down through the grades. There was one boy in particular in G's class that was in trouble repeatedly for not being able to keep his hands to himself or his mouth closed in regards to improper comments. My guess is the kid didn't really know what he was saying, he was mimicking an older sibling...or acting out what was happening to him. I was bothered because there was no heads up. No, hey we're having an issue with this kind of language or behavior please take the time to chat with your child about what is and is not appropriate. Because I would have gladly spoken to him about the dangers of repeating things you do not understand. I would have rather discussed that with him than have the conversation that I had with him at a moment I didn't think either of us was ready for it. His face contorted into a look of disgust and fear and I didn't even pull out any visual materials.

Today he gets in the car and he's upset. He tells me that one of his classmates found a note on her desk addressed to another classmate. The note said something to the effect of "I love you. I mean it." in side that note was tucked another note that said something like "I want to kiss you. Meet me by the flagpole after school." that one was signed with G's name. The girl who the letter was addressed to tore up the note that had his name on it and threw it away. She was reluctant to believe him when he said he didn't write it but eventually she did and he brought the other note to the teacher. The teacher didn't know about the signed note until I called to discuss it with her. When I spoke with her I told her about last year and I told her I understood it would be hard to figure out who wrote the note. She didn't realize G was being blamed and she said notes were a problem this year. I told her that I remember writing notes so I wasn't bothered by that, what bothered me was that they were writing notes and signing them from other people, namely my son. Can you see how I might flash back to the whole threat of a ding on his record from last year and how it wouldn't matter if he actually did it or not it would follow him and he would be labeled? Yeah, I'm crazy I know. I also think that some of you are probably thinking it's child's play, they do this. Except it's my child being played and if it were my child doing the playing I would be pissed and he would know it. Dramatic? Maybe. Maybe not. My job is to protect him. To defend him.

Look, if you think I believe my kid is innocent and never does anything, I don't. I know him and he's part me so yeah, I know he does things. If he does it, he's required to own it. He was still punished for repeating things he didn't understand because he said it, though I think learning about sex was punishment enough. I don't feel like he has protection in that school. I feel like the school is more interested in how they are perceived rather than making sure they know the whole story before doling out the blame. I'm worried that he'll become a scapegoat for a problem they already have. I've felt uneasy for over a year now. I know that he's been bullied. I know that he's been peer pressured into asking girls to be his girlfriend under the threat of no longer being friends. I know that he has to learn how to handle these things but I don't know how to help him do that and I don't want him to pay for my inadequacy while I'm trying to figure it out. For all his fire and obstinate with us, he has a good heart. He wants to be liked he doesn't want conflict, so he concedes and he tolerates and he appeases...and that scares me.

I mentioned to him last year that I wanted to homeschool him, he was adamant about not wanting to. I mentioned about a month ago that I wanted to homeschool and he was adamant that he wanted nothing to do with it. I mentioned today that I wanted to homeschool and he wasn't so adamant. As long as he could still see his friends and have play dates he was fine with trying it. I'm thinking we'll wait until Christmas break so I can gather info and get organized then we'll try it. At least until summer break. If we can't hack it, I'll re-enroll him in or look at private school.

What would you do?

**I had his permission to write this post. He wanted to know what other people thought. He wanted people to know he's not a bad kid and he didn't write the notes, just in case you heard about this somewhere.

Positive Vibes Needed

The blog I pointed you to in celebration has posted about a hiccup. Please keep a positive thought for them that this is just a bump, that they will return home with their baby soon.

It's Tuesday? What?

More importantly, how did it become the 10th of November?

Okay a recipe....Chicken and Rice in a crock pot.

Here's what you need...
·olive oil
·2-3 pound of chicken (I used chicken thighs and breasts skinned, next time I will use skinless ·boneless breasts)
·1/2 cup flour
·paprika
·salt
·pepper
·1 onion
·1 clove garlic (used 3-4 *shrug*)
·2 cups long grain rice
·enough chicken broth to substitute for water listed on the back of the rice bag
·1 cup fresh diced tomato (I used 1.5-2)
·Mexican oregano

Add 1/8-1/4 teaspoon of paprika, pepper and salt to flour; dredge chicken in flour and brown in olive oil. Remove and drain chicken. Add rice to the pan to brown, stir to coat rice in oil then try not to stir too much so it can brown. Add onion and garlic, cooking another 3-4 minutes. Place rice mixture in your crock pot, place chicken pieces on top of the rice.

In a separate bowl mix, broth tomato and 1/4-1/4 teaspoon oregano. Pour mixture over chicken and rice.

I have a crock pot with 4 temps. I used the second to highest temp for 2 hours and the second to lowest temp for 3 hours. Did that make sense? You know your crock pot and how long you 'need' it to take so select the temp accordingly. The rice is crock pot rice so it's slightly mushy but the taste was really good. We served it to guests and they all seemed to enjoy it.