sandy's general musings

Well going to Jersey this weekend. I have to get ready today as tomorrow is a swim meet and we will get home very late. Then I have to go to work early on friday to make my flight. on top of everything else I am not feeling very well. not sure what is wrong wwith me. Almost feels flu-y, but not.
So far hte YMCA camp is going pretty good.

MEt my new boss. He has kids, abeit a few years older than mine, so I hope he will be sympathetic to my schedule.


will porbably post more when I get back.

School ended up friday. so now Iam on my summer schedule, which is, every week different. Some weeks 9-4 and others I hope to still be on 8-3. There are many camps that I could not sign up for becauase of having to work. I hope my new boss understands my schedule. I also hope eto be able to work from home one day a week soon.
Alyssa is still on her "im injured" phase. Now its her foot. She wrapped it up. Everything these days is sprained. I told her yesterday that I feel like I am dealing with a china doll with her. I know that its a phase and also has something to do with attention (peers moreso), but sometimes I think wwe need to go back to the phsychiatrist for a visit. The school counselor probably things i am this monster as alyssa told her amoungst other things that I yell. Yes I do yell, and that is something that I am working on. Its worse around now, since I am PMSing and have less patience. Yesterday Jack went ot the potty and did not wipe very well. He did not put his clothes back on and sat in their computer chair... you all can take it from there.... WE went to a friend's pool that is very large and has a water slide, sprayground, diving boards, snack bars, etc. They live in a very large subdivision; it is over a 1/2 hour away though. But the kids always have a great time there. What is neat about this friend is that she is technical as well, so I can say things that she understands; for example, I used the word avatar and did not have to explain it.
Since I will be gone next weekend I am really trying to do most of hte things with the kids this weekend and giving felix a "break". But after taking the kids shopping at kohls, and then to the pool for most of the day, I myself was worn down. The problem is that Alyssa ALWAYS says she will do workbooks, etc with me, but then complains and causes issues when I as her to. She has pinky sworn she will do it this morning. We shall see.... Her sleepover at her best friends is at risk. Math is her weakness so I want her to work on that. What I noticed is that she still has issues with addition and subtraction math facts and that frustrates her. I think Jack might even be a bit faster knowing addition. If she doesnt practice stuff with it and get it down, we are headed down a long road with math.

I am getting worried myself about the drought here. It has not rained in over a week and there is no plans for rain. This is good for swim team and other activities, but otherwise very bad. Yesterday we smelled the smoke from the wildfires 200 miles away. I am not as concerned for my lawn. For me, gardens and lawn is not a big thing.

When I go to NJ next weekend I need to find a way to tell my brother that he should probably get one of his kid's thyroid checked. The child is overweight, but my mother tells me that when she watches them that she is very active and her sister eats more. I have always thought that the weight issue was due to something else. With my sister in law so sensitive,, and my brother so defensive all the time (lawyer!) I dont know how to say something. Of course I could be totally wrong her, but with their 5 year appt in Aug, its probably something that they should ask about. It may not be that at all, and just that she really does eat more than we think and is not as active as we all think. My brother is diabetic(type 1) and has issues with food himself. I have seen that when he is around his kids that he tries to feed them all the time. I personally feel that one should wait until a child is hungry , baring that they know when they are hungry and wont starve themselves. With my kids, especially Alyssa, that is usually right when she needs to go to sleep LOL :). Of course I still feed them breakfast lunch dinner, but if they just had a big snack before a meal, I wont push a big meal. I also never push my kids to be part of the "there is starving kids in India clean plate club". I try to encourage them to eat about 1/2 of whatever it is, and there is a 3 bite rule for new stuff. I sttill have issues where Alyssa doesnt like fresh fruit or veggies, and Jack is limited on his likes of snack food, so my feeding habits of my kids is not perfect by any means. I also do a lot of prepackaged type stuff, versus fresh due to time contraints and my lack of cooking skills.

oops I rambled on.

the best way to heal a sprained wrist is by then hurting your fingers :). I knew that Alyssa was sorta faking that her wrist still hurt and just wanted the attention. When someone stepped on her fingers at swim practice yesterday and they now hurt, her wrist is all better. She kept complaining about the wrist and wanting more Xrays again, but I could tell that it was probably no broken and that she really wanted the attention. She asked if people could sign the beige wrap that she had on it. Of course I said no. Yes, a sprain takes a while to fully heal, but I knew that she could do things. I did not have her do the bars at gymnastics, since that would really be putting pressure on it, but the swimming is fine. As a matter of fact, I have quite a butterflyer on my hands. That is her best/favorite stroke. Surprised me! We had the mock meet on monday. Back to writing on the kids with sharpie. They really enjoy that .... This one ended around 8, which is early. Jack still has issues with backstroke, but improved since last year.

Yesterday was the suprise retirement party that I planned for my boss. It went very well. I remembered a camera, but forgot to get a cake. But we went italian, which gave us so much food. I am glad that its over. Though I do enjoy event planning. I wonder if I could actually ever make decent amount of $$$ from it.

Wow, I did not realize it had been almost a week since I last blogged. I know that I think that I need to write in my blog and then other things come up and I just dont do it.
Things to note:
The kitchen needs to be closed after 8pm and I need to stick with that. I am so tired of the "im hungry" right at bedtime.
THe regular activities are now over. Last baseball game was sat and yesterday was the gymnastics flipfest. now we just have swim team for the next few months.

I dread camp starting, in that I prefer the school schedule to the camp one. Most camps start at 9 so I will be later to work everyday and work 9-4 mostly. This is the last week of school. For Jack, its more like the 1st week of camp, but at school :). I got home a schedule of things that they are doing this week for fun. Not sure what is going on in Alyssa's class. She said I should put a puzzle in her backpack today. The worse part of summer camp is packing the food/drinks for the day. I like that most days the kids have the school lunch. Also things easily stay cool in school (versus being in the hot sun, even with a cooler). I also have to now worry about water bottles, towels, etc getting lost. Camp is so much work!
The scary part is that in 2 weeks I am going to NJ, so Felix will be in charge. I figure he will probably stop at camp for lunch and drop off fast food (LOL).

Alyssa still complains about her wrist, but then uses it fine when nobody is paying attention. I do believe that it was only a sprain, but it is taking a long time to fully heal. And we do keep it in a splint when doing activities. During the gymnastics thing she did not do the bars.

How do I stop jack from picking his nose in public. He also puts fingers in his mouth when he is nervous. Some suggested duct tape. he has a hard time playing with the kids as they say that he picks his nose.

Oh and though of the day, why is it that my girl prefers to play with boys and my boy prefers to play with girls.?

My mothers day was nice. Felix wrote emails to me with hints to where stuff was. Every 1/2 hour I would get an email with better hints. For the 5 cards I got the clues on the 1st try. The gift (earrings) took a few tries because I fogot we had a tigger frame in the house. We then did nothing for the morning and went furniture shopping for Alyssa's room in the afternoon. I figured that I never have time, so why not. The kids behaved themselves pretty good. We went out to dinner for Mexican.
Sunday night I watched the season finale of survivor, with watching desperate housewives at the same time. I know I would love Tivo, but dont want to commit to pay something else monthly. We have some many small monthly expenses that all add up. Last nigth I watched part of the bachelor and part of the show on TLC called "jon and Kate plus 8". About a couple that has 6 year old twins and 6 2 1/2 year olds. The mom , kate , is very OCD. But you probably need to be with that many kids. I will say that they handle it very well. I love watching that show.
I am very mad at myself for allowing myself to gain weight back. I am about where I was before I got pregnant with each kid, but a few years ago I was 15lbs thinner after losing weight. I just cant get motivated again. Also, lately, exercise is getting pushed in the background. I neeed to take the kids to the greenway for bikeriding and I also need to start up the nightly walks again. Now that swim team has started, things get really crazy. Practice or meets are every night until the end of the June. Not that you cant miss a practice...

Also the 1st weekend in June I am going up to NJ to help my parents move. Felix will have to handle getting the kids ready for camp on monday, which includes all their food/drinks. On top of swim team and other stuff for monday. I know that he will not starve the kids or anything, but I also know that it wont be done very well. I bet he doesnt pack a lunch for the kids and stops by the Y with fast food :). Actually that might not be a bad thing if it only happens once.
I am more afraid of stuff getting "lost". When he picks up Jack from afterschool, half the time , things are missing. But overall I am sure the kids will do fine. The house will be a hugh mess, laundry will be piled up, but we shall survive.

Well I should know better than to trust my brother to take care of mother's day for me. My parents are currently in NJ so I called my brother and he said he got theatre tickets at scalper prices. I offered to help pay for my mom's ticket. I also sent my brother the card to give my mom since their mail is forwarded to FL.

Then this morning I find out that my mom always knew about the tickets; that originally they were not even suppose to be a mday present, but rather my brother's usual way to look like he means well. Noone but my brother even knows why and how he overpaid for these 4th row tiks to Wicked. Then my brother says he doesnt want to even see it, that my parents and his wife will see the show...

So after hearing all that, and also knowing all that my parents are doing for me financially (they are contributing for the kids summer camp and also will buy Alyssa her new furniture that she needs as a 9th bday present), I called a place that has specialty foods and ordered a basket to get delivered. I wish I had done this to begin with and not sent my brother a check. I really did know better... My brother does very well, but as much as I am frugal he is a spender. I can go on for paragraphs about his money ways.... but probably no a good idea. Oh and I know that I look bad by taking $$ from my parents; compared to many people, we can be considered very well to do. But believe it or not, sometimes we do struggle to live off our paychecks. I know we could cut back, but its so hard to, when you have grown accustomed to a certain way. So these extras are nice. If my parents did not have it I would never take it. Also, its always for the grandkids that I accept $$ for.

Now lets get to his wife. She has always been very "sweet" and the right match for my brother. She lets him do what he wants. He always needed a more laid back wife. But on the other hand, she is not very independant. She lived at home before marrying him. She is a decent mom, but is always looking to not be with her twin girls. REcently she fractured her hip, so she could not drive for 6 weeks and they had to get some help. Luckily they have so many friends that they got a lot of help. I think is a small way she was happy this happened. Lots of free time to herself.
Now the BUT.....
She has changed. I guess the people that they hang out with in their town has rubbed off. She is planning my brothers 40th SURPRISE bday party. Of course she invited her friends as well as their friends, and has about 80 people coming. I was still going to come up for it; thinking it was around my brothers actual bday of sept 29th. Well, without consulting my parents she picked Oct 20th. Which is Jack's actual Birthday!. Also she did not call me to tell me the date. I found out from my mom. Well I know that I would never do something around their girl's bday. I would not expect them to come. As a matter of fact, for my 40th they did not come and that was OK. So at this point I will come up to Jersey for my brother's actual bday, but not for this party. I figure
1. my brother wont then suspect anything else going on.
2. I wont be an afterthought in a party that has so many people.

Anyway, that is probably more than I should have revealed about my family. I usually try to keep this blog about myself, the kids, felix, aquaintances, and more general stuff. If anyone reading this knows my brother , SHHHHHH about the party :)

And can you guess whom I am talking about... Yes, just one guess.

First there is school and getting in trouble. Of course its "NEVER" her fault. I tell her if other kids are bothering her to remove herself from the situation, but someone that is "not possible".

Then there is the wrist. Its still bothering her and she wont go without the brace. The Dr doesnt see anything wrong with it. I am sure that it bothers her, but she makes it out like its a really big deal. I heard that sprains take a while to heal and that you need to "exercise" the area to help stretch the ligaments. Well so much for Alyssa doing that. But if by next week its not improving we will get another Xray done.
This impacted swim team practice which just started up. Also Alyssa doesnt really have great stamina. I recently noticed this. I guess even with all her "movement" its not a substained type.
Swim team is great for both my kids though in terms of exercise and social skills. Jack was so happy to be back on swim team, though when he had winter lessons he was less than happy. I know the "drill" this year, so it makes it much easier for me. The bad thing is that its everyday. Currently at 5pm. Baseball is over is another 1 1/2 weeks. Everything else is also over at the time. So just swim team then and camp when school is out.

Back to the drama.... Being really tired of it all, I mentioned the words "boarding school" yesterday. Sometimes I mention "live with grandparents". I would not follow through on these, but just saying it seems to make ME feel better.

First the good news.. Jack got into tag. I am very happy about this, but still sad that Alyssa did not get in. though I sorta knew all along. Both kids did about the same in academics and creativity. Both have about the same IQ, where they did not meet the 96%tile criterion, but the difference being that Jack's is almost the same in all 4 areas and Alyssa has a 11 pt gap between her highest and lowest. The BIG thing is that Jack scored a 98/100 on motivation and Alyssa got in the 60's. This is indicative of my kids. I can always ask Jack to do a workbook or something and he will jump in and do it. Alyssa will moan and groan about it. Up until this year she never finished her work in school so she never got recommended before. TAG is a program where you do your work and then extra stuff.
Alyssas big issue about not getting in is that all her friends are in there. She wants to be with those kids. I am happy that she migrates towards the more studious kids, but she honestly doesnt belong as much as she and I both want her in TAG. I do hope before middle school she does get in though, as I heard without it our middle school sucks. Those in TAG have a much better experience. The thing about Alyssa is that she is bright and intuitive. I believe as they get older she will do much better in school work. Also, she understand the world around her.
TAG is not the right place, though advanced classes as she gets older might be.

Then we migrate to the social issues my kids have. Neither of my kids excel in socialization. Alyssa does have some friends but a lot of it is me pushing playdates all the time, etc. She has has her issues as I have discussed before. I guess I was asking too much to have social kids.
Jack , on the other hand, would just rather be by himself. He does prefer girls. He is very social with grownups and is "outgoing" with them, but not with other kids. He is a bit touchy , so he needs to learn to back off a bit. But then come recess and school he just would prefer not to play with the other kids. I REALLY need to make male playdates for him. I guess he is so easy at home, that I usually let it slide, whereas having playdates for Alyssa made my life easier. Today at the school carnival Alyssa did meet up with this one girl she has been on again , off again friends with; today they were on. Jack really just hung out with Felix or myself except when this one girl he is friends with showed up, but he barely talked to her; just hung out.

One thing that suprised me at the carnival was the one mile fun run. For jack being a total couch/computer person, who I have to push to play outside, he pretty much jogged the entire run. Alyssa, who seems like she always has ants in her pants, cannot jog and kept talking about how she "wanted to puke". I though Jack woudl give up and be the one to lag behind. Nope.
you watch him at soccer or baseball and you would never know he could do that. Now that he is riding his bike, that is even better; I almost dont mind the TV /computer time that he does.

Alyssa in her dramatics last night (must be pms'ng) also talked about how much she hates her hairy arms . Not much she can do there. Then she talked about how the girl that she hung otu with today is "perfect". So I asked that girl if she did not like anything about herself. She said her height. Now Alyssa is also smaller, but the height thing doesnt bother her as much. So I made my point that everyone has something that they dont like about themselves. Noone is "perfect".

Also I must have missed a few nits last week, as when combing Alyssa hair last night I found a few small lice, but no nits. Hopefully that is the last of them. I really hope they are the ones that hatched that I missed and we still dont have a big issue. I went over Alyssa's hair today and could not find nits. I am also beginning to think that I have them, though never finding them and maybe I am passing them to her? We dont share brushes or stuff though. I have had others look at my head, but honestly with all the dry scalp/dandruff it must be hard to find nits. Maybe I should just fully treat myself regardless. Nothing has been found, but who knows. I have checked Jack and so far he is still "safe". Felix has been as well.

Ok I got googles today. The duck webkinz. the one Alyssa gets at the end of the year if she has a good report card. I happen to call the halmark store at the right time.

Meanwhile Alyssa has a sprained right wrist. Has to wear one of those velcro things for about a week. She hurt it initially falling off monkey bars on sunday. they she aggrevated it falling off her bike monday afternoon, so off to Xrays we went. luckily its no broken . Though I had to remind her to be "careful what you wish for" apparently casts are "in". I think Alyssa now realizes what a pain it is not to be able to do activities and its really not so worth it.

Today we get part II of the braces.

Jack got his 2nd webkinz this week. Tovie, the tiger. He was soooo happy.

I finally walked yesterday while the kids were in activities. Since I got back from vacation I have not exercised as I got sick. Then I got too busy. Now its time to get back into shape.