I am Weak, so Weak!

We got a chickawawa. Weak moment for me. What can I say but welcome to Maxie.

Bullying Update

I am happy to report that Sarah is happy!

It is not just because she is sitting there with her Hello Kitty blanket, laptop, phone and TV remote all within reach.

Sarah is happy that she decided to go back to school this year. She has not had any problems with bullying. She did have one incident where a girl told a boy that Sarah liked him, but it wasn't a bullying incident, just embarrassing.

I think it helps that she is gone half the day to ATEC. This semester she has drama, algebra 2 and ATEC (commercial art). None of the girls who bullied her before are in her classes. Also, ATEC has their own lunch so she doesn't see them at all.

I hope that next semester goes as smoothly. She will have English, history, science and yearbook. Sarah says that it seems like the kids have grown up a little over the summer. They don't disrupt the teacher as much and seem more interested in doing their work.

So, as you fellow moms of teenagers know, if the teenager is happy then the entire household is happy.

I'm off to study.

Good Night and Sweet Dreams everyone.

Hiatal Hernia Anyone?

I have known for awhile that I have a hiatal hernia. It hasn't given me too much trouble except for the other day when I got sick. Literally, nothing would go down to my stomach. It was blocked off for three hours. Do you know how much spit you produce? Wow, a lot! I got some stronger meds and hopefully that will keep it happy for awhile.

I also got a prescription for my thyroid meds. It would be nice if I could blame all my weight gain on my thyroid issues, but I am sure that my lack of exercise is partially to blame. I am not sure how much though. Seems like I have gained about 5 lbs every year since my thyroid issues were diagnosed. Not too long ago my thyroid was "out of whack" according to my Texas doctor. So, both Larissa and I are going in next week to get out blood drawn. Guess we will have to go out to breakfast together afterwards. Can that be counted as a bonding moment?
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I did ask our family doctor about Anthony's bug problem. She finds is concerning given his family history and his own. We are trying to find a doctor to see about medicating for his bipolar. Could it be a manic thing? Right now we are just documenting and hoping it is an odd thing. But, if it happens again then we will have to investigate further.
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In other child news, I lost Anthony today. Not really, but his bus driver and I are at odds. We live two houses away from the bus stop and the bus driver has told me that if I am not standing on the corner where he can see me when he comes down the main street then he will not drop off Anthony. He said he would be there at 3:05 every day. I imagine that you can see where this is leading.
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Today I head out of the house at 2:57 (according to my computer so it must be accurate) to wait for Anthony. Normally I get there at 3 and wait about 5 minutes for him to come. So, I am standing there counting grass blades wondering if they had a fire drill or something. The sweat is pouring down my back and I am afraid to go inside to check on the time because I know that will be when the bus will come. I don't wear a watch because I use my cell phone to tell time. Don't you?
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Finally, Sarah's bus comes and I know that hers comes at 3:30 so I head in to call transportation. They try reaching the bus driver and he doesn't answer. I call the school and they say he did get on the bus. At this point I realize that the bus driver must have come early and just kept on going. I call transportation again and they finally tell me that the driver did pass my street and he will drop him off at the end of his route.
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So, at 4:15 the bus driver comes right to my front door. I tell him that he had to be early because I was at that corner by 3. He says that he must have just missed me. I told him that I didn't have time for this and that I would be picking Anthony up from school from now on.
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So, just in case everyone thinks I am actually sitting home eating bon bons, just drive my schedule one day. New schedule, I will leave the house by 7am to drop Anthony, Larissa and now Sarah off by 8, pick Larissa up at 11:30, pick Anthony up at 2:40. Two day a week leave at 3:30 for class in town, take kids to Tae Kwon Do at least one day a week (the school says do three, hahahaha), attempt to hit some Wednesday church nights, help with algebra and study sometime for myself. I wonder if that is why my hiatal hernia is acting up.
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In my school news they want more documentation about my residency. Geez, I may yet be out of state. So, I have a book of documentation that I need to send them and naturally right in the middle of printing it up I run out of ink. I have a new computer and a new printer. Neither is set up yet. The computer needs the drivers for the wireless card and I can't find them. So, I need to look them up and save them to a flash drive and transfer it to the new computer so I can be online. The new printer will be set up to that computer. well, all this is leading to say that it required a trip to Walmart today to get ink. I now have everything but don't know if I should fax it or take it in. Taking it in will require at least a 2 1/2 hour block of time. Ah, I will fax it.

I cancelled my pets vet appointment for tomorrow morning. I will be taking the kids to school and then coming home to study! I REALLY need to do some reading . I have a quiz on Monday in one class and haven't even begun that reading. Next semester I am definitely only taking two classes!

So, finished with my daily rant and am off to do laundry and clean up. I refuse to post a picture of my kitchen....imagine the one a few days ago.....the before.

MRI Results

Larissa is learning to write her name. She has the L, A and I down pat. Oh yea, she has it down so well that she wrote it all over her bedroom. She was supposed to be in bed.
She is not supposed to go into her sisters room and take her highlighters.

That is one of the dangers of having little ones and teenagers, more dangerous writing opportunities. Did you know that highlighter is not easy, uh sometimes impossible, to get off the walls and furniture. Looks like I will put painting on my list of things to do (one day).

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Today we went to the neurologist to get the results of Larissa's MRI. Thankfully, everything was normal on her MRI.

Unfortunately, her seizures have gotten worse. Imagine driving down the street and then realizing that your child has fallen asleep, you notice because you hear the choking noise coming from the back carseat.

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When they first put her on Keppra we saw some positive results. The seizures got better, less frequent and less severe. However, as we have increased the meds I have noticed that the seizures are now getting worse and more frequent. She had three of them within 15 minutes the other day when she fell asleep next to me.
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We are increasing meds again, get blood work in a week and come back in a month. We will probably look at changing meds at that time.

While sitting in the waiting room Anthony gave me a concern. He was agitated and rubbing himself. He told me that he had bugs crawling all over himself. I asked him when he started having bugs and he said in the car. So the bugs followed him from the car, through the parking garage, up the elevator and into the waiting room. He wasn't sweating or ashy (dry) so that didn't explain the bug crawling feeling. I told him that I didn't see any bugs. He told me that he could hear them buzzing. There weren't any bugs. I found the entire incident kind of concerning. Something else to keep an eye on I guess.

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So far this year Anthony has been doing great. I am so glad that we held him back in Kindergarten last year. He was not ready to move up. He has had 7 good school days in a row, that is a record for him.

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In other kid news, Jason has a job interview tomorrow. I sure hopes he gets this job, he needs it.

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Sarah got a 86 on her algebra quiz. I guess I am not too bad of a math teacher. She has always struggled with math.

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Well, I am going to try and be good today and go to bed and read. Maybe I will go to sleep before midnight tonight.

Feeling Overwhelmed at the Moment

As of today I have attended each of my three classes. The two books that appeared optional at the bookstore are not so I got to go spend another $100 on books. That gives me a total of $500 on books for 3 classes. I don't remember books being that expensive years ago.

It is hard to believe that I graduated high school in 1981. Then I attended numerous colleges before finally earning my bachelors degree in 1999. Moving all the time with the military makes it hard to complete the hours necessary unless you go with one of the colleges affiliated with the military. The main problem with that is that the degree types are limited. I got a degree to finish, not necessarily in something I wanted. This time around I am getting a degree in something I want.

Today I felt odd, I was the only student not working outside the home. There were only two of us not working in the educational field. I guess I need to get used to that idea.

Since I am not working then why do I feel so overwhelmed and tired at this point? I haven't done very much reading because once I start it about puts me to sleep. Ha, I guess I should be in bed instead of on this computer right now. I am a night time person and am finding it hard to go to bed earlier.

I have numerous books to read, online articles to read, need to mentor a child, observe a child with autism for 5 hours, do at least three projects, write several papers (I am not even sure how many at this time), and two presentations to give. I think that one that is an hour long is my biggest concern. How do I talk about something for an hour?

Well, I need to stop whining since I signed up for this torture, uh educational experience.

Tomorrow morning John will head back to Augusta and I will take Larissa to her follow up neurologist appointment. Wednesday I have a doctors appointment. Thursday the pets have a vet appointment. One day I need to fit in some Martial Arts. Thursday is class. Studying will fit in somewhere since I do have a quiz due next Monday. It looks to be a full week.

Guess I'd better head to bed, 6 am comes way too early for me.

Different states, Different rules

I have done some researching today. I really should be doing some studying instead!

Do you realize that every state has different compulsory school age requirements? There are many state that allow kids to drop out at the age of 16. Here in SC kids can drop out at the age of 17. Thankfully, there are some states that require students to be 18. In AZ you can drop out at 14 if your parents consent.

Here in SC a child can also leave home at the age of 17. What I find odd is that we parents can not force them to come home but we are responsible for their actions until they are 18 years old. How can you be held responsible for the actions of your child if you can not force them to live under your roof?

If you call the police to report your child has run away and they are 17 years old, they will not file a report. The child is free to leave. On the other hand, if they want to come back you have to take them in. You can not force them to leave until the day they turn 18.

Seems to me that all the states should require students attend school until they are 18 unless there are special circumstances. Also, if kids are allowed to leave the home and the parents have no control, then they should not be held responsible for the child's actions.

It just seems to me that kids have so much control at an age when many of them are really not ready to be self supporting. They are at that age where they THINK they know everything, it can be a dangerous age!

Well, I need to stop these musings and go read a chapter or two. Tomorrow is Monday already and so much to do.

Busy Saturday

When I say my house is a mess, I really do mean it is a mess! This morning I woke up feeling fine and then I walked into my kitchen, yikes. It seems like every flat surface in our home accumulates stuff. My objective today was to tackle the kitchen.

I can honestly tell you that I will never buy one of those flat top cooking surfaces again. That thing never seems to clean up well and has developed little scratches for the grime to live in.

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I would also like to know why they have these self cleaning ovens that spew nasty smoke into the house. It seems like all the smoke does is set off my smoke detector and coat everything in the house with a nasty smell that is hard to get rid of. We opened all the windows, turned on fans and sent the kids outside with the dog. Still after 30 minutes we had to turn it off, it was just too nasty and my eyes were stinging. After yesterdays fire extinguisher incident I about asphyxiated myself today with a self cleaning oven. Tonight the house still stinks and my oven never got cleaned.

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Lately I have really been thinking of hiring a cleaning person (or crew) to help me keep the bathrooms and such clean. I worry that if/when I add foster kids then I will be overwhelmed. I have had a hard time finding anyone. In one ad I read the person stated that they didn't do bathrooms! Uhh, that is the main area I want done. Seems like they need to think about their career options. My sister in law has been looking for a part time job so she wants to do it. I am going to do that, she knows what slobs we are. So, hopefully it will be mutually beneficial.

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Besides getting the kitchen cleaned, we made it to the farmers market for some fruit. It is really a tiny farmers market but they have some great peaches. Larissa fell there with her cookie and cried and cried. She fell in the grass and wasn't hurt and got a new cookie but she was just so hard to console. When she was younger she would run from us when she got hurt. She didn't want held. I really don't know what to do about the overreaction to any hurts. With her past attachment issues you can't just tell her she will be OK. You have to pick her up and hold her tight while she cries terribly. She seems to have such a deep pain that hurts me so. After being carried around, getting a new cookie (OK, two) and a straw of flavored honey she perked up and was back to her happy self.

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We also drove downtown so I could buy the rest of my school books. I have spent a total of $400 on books for three classes. I could only find one of them used. The class I have on Monday had two other books that he had marked as optional. I haven't purchased them yet, I am waiting to go to class on Monday and see why they are optional.

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Then we took the kids to watch Nanny McPhee. The kids really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it too. No swearing, killing and such. Sarah says that they are too predictable and I agreed, but sometimes I want a predictable happy ending. I wish that more things in life had such a predictable, happy ending.

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Well, tomorrow we are off to church so I need to get off this computer. I need to do some reading tomorrow too. Getting into a schedule of doing my homework is going to be a challenge. Oh, I need to do Larissa's hair too.