Getting it all out...and wishing it would go away...

My problems compared to others are pretty small...

but they are mine

and

they suck

.

My oldest is getting ready to go on a field trip across the county to D.C. which by itself is making me nervous, it's just that when she gets back her world is probably going to majorly change...

 and in more than one way.

Way #1

we are having her evaluated for Asperger's

She has always been immature and impulsive, but now that she and her peers and falling headfirst into puberty, the gap is becoming wider and her uniqueness more apparent.

I am having her evaluated so that I can make sure all the resources that are available are made accessible to her.

Way #2

A genetic anomaly for an asymmetrical skeleton that makes itself apparent during puberty.

We have an appointment with my nephew's geneticist in March.

We need to see how much of her body is being effected and get a referral to an orthopedic doctor to see if her knees are showing the same juju that her cousin's and dad's do...I want to push her to her own personal limits, but do not want her held to the same standards as her peers if they are too physically challenging for her or could cause her knee to dislocate.  We had noticed that her gait was off and she is a bit knock kneed, but didn't think it was the skeletal thing until we looked at her face.

So, we get to tell her, hey your brain doesn't process the way everyone else's does, but on the bright side, we will know why everyone thinks that you are weird...and by the way your face is starting to get call catty-wompus and we aren't sure how off center you will end up, but we can start saving for your facial reconstruction surgery now...you can have a head full of titanium like your Aunt!

The upside is that she doesn't think like a "normal" 14 year old right now and doesn't really care how she looks, but right now doesn't realize that her face is changing...hell, we didn't even notice it until the other day.

I hope and pray that her trip to D.C. is incredible and can become a "Happy Place" for her to go to when the cards she has been dealt start to bring her down.... 

While you were out...

The hubby is headed out of town for a the weekend to do a 1/2 Marathon

and I am going for a Marathon size surprise make-over on the house...

The first week of the year I organized both girls' closets...


I would show a pic, but experiencing technical difficulties...


Knowing that I am going to overhaul some things, I have let this place go...it looks like a bad episode of cops in here...it's pretty bad...and I grew up in a trailer park...I've seen bad!


I am going to shift some things on the walls
complete the gallery wall at the bottom of the stairs
get unused furniture out of the teenager's room
paint a dresser I now have placed under the stairs
hook up a new phone system
trailer park engineer 2 queens size quilts into one cal-king
sort out and purge my 4 giant boxes of "Stuff"
New blinds in the little one's balcony door
Install cork board art area on the back of her bedroom door
and general putting away of things that haven't been put away for the past two weeks


:)


Hope I can pull this off!



Things I learned on the mountain...

Grabbed the kiddos last week and headed for the hills.

Literally!

We had a family vacation at Mammoth Lakes

 

: )

 

Here are a few things that I learned...

 

1.  My hubby drives fast, but he is a badass and got us 400 miles in 6 hours.

(not a whole lot of traffic on the San Diego freeways at 4 am on a Sunday)

 

2.  20-35 mph winds with 60 mph gust will take the pinecones right off of a tree and slam them against the condo.

 

3.  Snow is awesome!  Especially when the hubby already went to the store and local brewery for beer when it was only windy.

 

4.  Kids raised at sea-level can be endlessly entertained by snow.

 

5.  I learned how to build a fire...in the fireplace of course.

 

6.  I waste too much food down here...so much more compelled to eat leftovers when the alternative involves driving on an icy road.  No jumping in the car and heading to a chain restaurant or grocery store.

 

7.  I like having only the basic cables channels...there were a ton of channel on the tv but nothing good on.

 

8.  I can read 5 books in 7 days.

 

9.  I am obscenely out of shape!  Being mostly sedentary, while being 44 and at 7,800 ft is not a good combination, but has motivated me to get up off my fat ass!

 

 



BUT I SAID I'M SORRY...REALLY, REALLY SORRY!!!!!

It is a hope of mine that my seven year old will one day soon realize that screaming "I'm Sorry" at the top of her lungs does not an apology make

I hope she also learns that some things actually ARE her fault - and very rarely her sister's

And that she will talk to us with respect

She will not raise her voice and

she will not stomp her feet when she heads up to her room

I also hope that she figures out that when I say go to your room - that isn't the best time to ask for another chance...because she has already had 2...we go the baseball rout with 3 strikes in this house.

I have no idea where some of this behavior comes from all of the sudden...

I think she is emulating her 13 year old sister...

so that means in our house we have

a 7 year old going on 13

a real 13 year old

a dad who hates his job and works too many hours

and a peri-menopausal mom that just went back to work

oh, yeah...school stated back this week too

Almost there...

In the final stretch of Back to School prep...

Living room - clean

Bathrooms - clean

Laundry room - clean

Kitchen - mostly clean and geared up for some baking this afternoon

going to try an bake ahead and freeze some "on the go" type breakfast-y things since I know were are going to be dragging our asses the first couple of weeks

Teenager's room -clean

2nd grader's room - work in progress

she has been right there with me directing me what to get rid of for a big ol' yard sale at my friend's house in two weeks...she has a better location : )

More room for her and a couple of bucks in the meantime...everything that doesn't sell will be dropped off at the thrift store on the way home.

 

Will be headed back to work tomorrow as well...been working here are there as I can to get some positive cash flow, flowing...

 

combined with the whole house purge for the yard sale...maybe we can take a little vacation during the 1st quarter break...

I don't mind making a couple of bucks on our old stuff, but at this point I just want to get unused/unloved stuff out of our house!

Our place is 1,323 sf and it can't get any bigger since we live in a townhouse community with an H.O.A. and of course we live one of the only levels (there are 5) that don't have garages!  How can levels 1,2 and 5 have garages, but not 3 & 4?  I am tired of being an expert in shoving 10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag.  If we had 1 more bedroom or an actual garage, it would be a little different...maybe...we would probably just buy more crap.

Ready to embrace routine....

Back to school is almost here!

YES!

Get to find out who the little one gets for a teacher tomorrow night and then find out the 8th grader's schedule on Thursday.

 

I love that my kids are in a charter school system...but man we have to work for it.

if you don't show up to the meeting to fill out and turn in all of your paperwork and emergency contact info, you don't get their STAR tests results from previous year, don't know who their teacher is AND will lose their spot.

I honestly don't know what folks that have both parents working do around modified days, teacher work days, week long quarter breaks and so on

 

When I was young we went to school every day, ALL day long, had a few Federal holidays off, Christmas break (NOT Winter Break!) and Spring Break and I think for the most part turned out ok.

 

Now it's half day here, half day there, assemblies every time you turn around and don't forget the fund raisers!

 

ok, changed my mind...I'm not ready for them to go back to school.

Mental Illness and Heart attacks...out of the frying pan and into the fire

So my mom had to cancel her psych appointment to take my dad to the emergency room...

have I mentioned that one of the things that may have led her to "vacation" was the constant care of and fear of my dad dying at any given moment?!

 

His heart kept stopping and his enzymes were a little elevated, but them let him go...

he is quite famous at several local area hospitals for a variety of reasons, the most blatant one being that he is still alive. 

 

My mom has always been my source of information on how they are doing while my dad has always sugar coated the issue...

for example...

Dad:  I'm going in for a little procedure.

Mom:  His going to have a cow artery inserted into his forearm for dialysis

 

And now I have to depend on my dad for info on my mom.

he hasn't even looked at the paperwork from when she was released...we don't even know her diagnosis

my guess is bi-polar

and some of her cognitive tests indicate early signs of dementia...

 

so who knows, maybe her little breakdown helped them get an early diagnosis for the dementia and she can actually get some treatment that can help.

 

They only upside of this so far is that I am actually developing a relationship with my brother...it's a little late in coming, but I think we are both okay with that...he actually just called me while I was typing this to see if I was okay

 

:)