Thursday, February 5, 2009

5 weeks and counting

It's not exactly 5 weeks, but even if I enter the latest date in there that I think he would be home, it still says 5 weeks.

Yesterday was trash day. Seems like we have been stuck at 5 weeks though.

Abs didn't wear the pink dress today, but the other girl wore the same red dress. Ab's teacher emailed me laughing at the goofiness of the girls in that class.

I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday even if I do have to spend all Saturday in class. I have one more website review to do once I locate an interactive math site, and I am waiting to hear back from the professor if the first website review I did was okay before I crank out another one.

I am thankful I am a(insert maiden name here). I had a 5 page article review and I did it in about 40 minutes, and it looks great. Let's hope she thinks so. It used to drive my mom nuts that all of us would start working on a paper the night before it was due, at 10 pm, and be done in an hour and make a hundred on it. We never minded.

My MIL isn't talking to me. No idea why or what happened. She watched the kids Wednesday night and I just went to personal training and came back and she was sitting on the couch where I left her, arms crossed. She didn't talk when she arrived and then left after I said thanks. She didn't feed the kids or anything. She hasn't called for our weekly dinner out, and when she took Abs to therapy today, my FIL texted me to tell me she was back at school. That's great, but he's in freaking California! So she had to call him and then have him text me. I wonder what I did this time, lol.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Humpis Day

as my friend Dave would call it.

Abs attends a school where you have to wear a uniform. This morning she told me that because it was the award ceremony she could wear her own clothes. Sounded plausible and I recall reading somewhere about that. She wants to wear an elaborate flower girl dress that her sister wore in my cousin's wedding. Big. Pink. Flowery. Billowy. The dress of all dresses. I told her she had no shoes to match and she countered with the fact that her pink cowboy boots would look perfect.

I couldn't remember if she had PE, so I told her no and made her pick something more sensible. Abs was so worried she was going to be underdressed for the awards ceremony.

I got an email from her teacher that said that her girls (3) must have conspired because they showed up in dresses. One was wearing a flashy red dress, obviously from Christmas. Poor Abs was there in her sensible jeans and sensible shirt.

Want to know what today was? Class picture day!!! Those three girls would have been there in the most outrageous dresses they could find. I could just imagine Abs in a sea of uniforms, glowing pink right in the middle. Maybe I should have sent her in pink?

The teacher was amused thank goodness. Class picture was taken. Tomorrow is free dress and the awards ceremony.....she has music so her teacher said that if she wanted to wear the pink dress, it was okay. :) Abs will be delighted to hear that!

What to do...

The last time I took Abs to VBS, I was one week away from delivering Junior, in the middle of the Texas heat. To say I was miserable was an understatement. Abs lasted three days before she was asked to not come back. I really wanted to ask "What happened to turn the other cheek?" or "Judge not lest you be judged" but I didn't, since I know she was not behaving. I am so tired of people judging me and assuming I don't try and get her to behave. Most days that is all I do. So my daughter got booted from VBS, probably the only one.

Anyway, I got an email from the girls' Girl Scout leader and Abs is on her second warning. I will have to pick her up and the next time she is out of the troop.

I can't go to the meeting because it is during Junior's nap time and he has to sleep (only at home) or our lives are miserable and he screams the rest of the day. That would have been my first solution to the problem. The leader has tried separating her from her sister and the girl that she has problems with (the other girl is on her 2nd warning too), to no avail.

If Abs did get booted, she would be upset, but not enough to change her behavior. No reward systems work with her. She already goes to a counselor, she is getting her medication changed in a few weeks, and I am out of ideas.

I'd love to send Abs to camp one summer because I know she would have the time of her life. At the rate she is going, she will never make it.

There aren't other troops available, and I am not going to be a leader!

What do I do? The leader is very nice and has 4 kids of her own, and is very patient. If I had to pick Abs up early and it would work, I would do it. Em likes to go too, so I could just send her, but to be honest, I love for those two hours that they are at Girl Scouts and Junior is sleeping. I need a break! And if I picked up one, I would have to pick up two. I am already short on time, I don't have time to be driving around in circles.

I know Gunner will be home, but we already have a TDY setup and there is a school he needs to go to before then, so.......

My inlaws can't help because my MIL works that day and my FIL, well, it just won't happen.

If anyone has any sort of ideas, short of a straight-jacket, please let me know!

Maybe I should change my title to Whiny Wednesday....

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

A Family Affair

My mom is back from Japan and is keeping the kids Friday night since I have class on Saturday. Good thing since I am not done with my homework yet. I am a (insert maiden name here) so procrastination is par for the course. There are so many other things I need to do!

Em had her scoliosis check last Friday at school and I got the form that says she needs to be checked further. Great.

Abs is about to drive me insane these days. If she just had a volume control and an "erase the screechy voice" button, I might survive.

Junior is doing better and is into everything again. Probably a good sign, but it wears me out.

My house will be getting cleaned tomorrow, thank goodness. I am madly run around trying to pick up a little. After two weeks, it got a little out of control in the living room.

The countdown continues...

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Thank goodness for poison control...

The kids were screaming and I was trying to give Junior his medication tonight. One of them he takes 1 1/2 tsp and the other he takes 3/4 tsp. I was going back for the 1/2 tsp when I realized I had given him 1/4 tsp more of the other medication. Following me here? So I called my friend Abbey but she wasn't available, so I broke down and called poison control.

They were so nice! She asked a lot of questions and then assured me that the medication was not strong and he would have been okay if he had swallowed the whole bottle. Kind of makes me wonder why they even gave it to him? Still made me feel like a bad mom. I'm definitely not winning any awards here. I'm just glad everything is okay.

When I was about 4 I went in our house and found a bottle of baby tylenol put away on the top shelf in the back of the cabinet. I ate the entire bottle, and of course it was family sized. I remember my mom was gone, and my dad was home with all 4 of us. I remember him chasing me around the house and I put a chair on the stairs to try and keep him away because I just wanted to sleep. My dad dropped the three kids off at a neighbor and then took me to the er. I remember them giving me some awful stuff and putting a blood pressure cuff around my tummy and pumping it till I threw up in a green trash can.

Wish I could forget useless memories like that.

P.S. I swear this is my last post tonight.

No beer for Gunner

When Gunner called this morning I asked my non-sports loving husband if he would partake in the two beer limit during the Super Bowl.

He won't. Apparently you have to drink it while the Super Bowl is on, and you have to be off duty and have 8 hours off afterward. He won't get off duty till it's over and he has to go back to work in 12 hours. He said most people he knows won't be able to participate, but he says it's no big loss. He didn't even know who was in the Super Bowl, didn't really care, and he said he wasn't thirsty anyway. LOL

The girls and I are watching it, although we didn't even know who was in it either.

I have to admit, that having a husband that is not into sports is nice. I never have to worry that he will be glued to the tv all weekend long or on Monday nights. We don't have to go from one sport to another with him glued to the tv and me taking care of the kids. Hmmmm....maybe I need to watch sports so he can tend to the children and I can sit there and do nothing. Nah, I plan on doing that anyway for a few weeks...days.....hours....okay probably I'll make it minutes or seconds.

It's sunday night which means we are having lunchables. I did cook dinner last night and we had ham, mac & cheese, and olives. Talk about gourmet!

Just so you know...

The family with the grumpy tween, the loud 2nd grader, the unhappy 2 year old and the mom on the edge of tears at Walmart today, was us. Luckily we didn't have anything knocked off the shelves this time, although I was sure my mop wielding daughter was on the verge of it. For Gunner's homecoming, I think a trip to the store with all three kids and an extensive list of supplies is definitely in order. I know how it would work though, he would have the time of his life and the kids would be perfect!

Gunner called this morning and was able to talk to each of the kids. He heard about how many seeds were in Ab's tangerine, that Junior was watching tv, and that Em was annoyed with me--big surprise on that last one. He told them that Daddy bootcamp was going to start up again when he got home, and I could relax. Em said "Yeah right, more like daddy fun camp". She's probably right, he's not a big fierce drill sergeant.

The girls have Girl Scouts in a few minutes and I am looking forward to an hour and a half of no fighting because the girls otherwise engaged. Junior is due for a nap, my lesson plans are done, and I am going to .......clean. Hard to contain the excitement, but since my idea of the girls being involved in a gi party didn't work out, I am on to plan B which is me, mr. clean and a roll of paper towels.

More ramblings...

I DVRed "A Very Duggar Wedding" and it shows it's there, but it clicks off. Maybe someone knows I don't really have time to watch mindless tv! I still want to see it though.

I was watching when Jon & Kate plus 8 visited their new home. Oh to be so anal and clean to spend 4 hours cleaning a fridge! I wonder how long she will spend cleaning that house each week after they move in. I was lucky to do two loads of laundry, wash the dishes, and sort through two cabinets. No telling what is in our fridge, but I better attack it before we go to Walmart to stock up on my healthy food and Em is in charge of snack at Girl Scouts today.

Still no call from Gunner, but he did comment on the last post and said "BTW, the locals had another election and things went smooth in our AO." Things have come a long way. He has been bounced around from place to place as things have been turned over to the Iraqi people to run.

I realized last night that out of 14 years of marriage that Gunner has been deployed for 47 months. That doesn't even include TDY's and field time. That's a lot of time apart.....a lot of time.