sandy's general musings

Day 4

2008-07-14T09:16:00.001-07:00

Alyssa seems happy from the pictures I have viewed on the camp website. I hope to get a letter from her soon. Jack is happy as well. he got to sleep over his cousins house again. This time there was no issues. He even helped his Aunt out with chores. I will post a picture or two from camp.

FElix and I have been doing stuff around the house. I *STILL* cant get the cat smell out of the basement. We fixed a banister that was broken. I did the kids and guest room, as far as cleaning out junk. Stuff has been taken away from the free list on craigslist. We are going to look at a few houses to see if any "rock our boat". Moving is such a BIG task. In some ways I want to move and in other ways I dont. We bought this house as our "last" house until the kids left. But the schools did not turn out the way we had planned.

Today I came to the office for work. Been a while since I was here. I sorta miss it. it is very slow though. I hope we dont have layoffs.

quick , sorta, update...

2008-07-11T05:01:00.000-07:00

I posted an update in my december mom's list. I am copying it from there. I will later speak more about my brother and other stuff. Its been crazy with our trip to NJ, back 2 days with Alyssa and then off to camp for her. June was so so crazy between camps and swim team.

One thing I forgot to mention in my Dec list is that since school ended and Alyssa knows that she is going to a new school, she is almost like a new child in some ways. I see better social skills from her. I still see meltdowns, but less of them. The only thing I see more of, is some anxiety. I just LOVE her therapist. She really helps me to manage many of the issues.

Here is my post:
Yesterday we dropped Alyssa off at sleepaway camp for 3 1/2 weeks.She really wanted to go for the "full session" so we let her go. Shehad a such a great time last year going for 12 days. She has a girlshe was close to last year in the same bunk as her. There are 3bunks (with 10 girls) of entering 3/4 graders. Many girls come fromCarolinas or Florida. This is a somewhat religious camp (reformjewish). There are 2 conselors with the girls.The only sad part is that even though I can see pictures of heronline, and I can send her emails that get printed, she can only sendme real letters. Also, there is no visitation day. You can get astatus from the conselor if you call. last year I freaked out and didcall.While she is gone, her brother is remaining in NJ with my parents. Hedoes some day camps up there. I was very suprised the other day whenhe called and was a bit homesick. Last year he handled spending timewwith my parents just fine. not sure what the phone call was reallyabout. Either way, he gets to eat more junk food than I allow (my dadis buying donuts and ice cream), gets his grandparents to himself,goes to camps that he loves, and will spend time with his Uncle.(felix's brother). There is an issue with my brother that I am nothappy about though.Before Alyssa left for camp, I went to NJ with both kids for 9 days.Alyssa spend a lot of time with her almost 6 year old twin girlcousins. She misses them dearly since we dont live near them. Thatis where the "issue" I mentioned occured. I will probably blog aboutit at some point. Alyssa also got to meet a penpal when we wentinto NYC.. It was the daughter of a very good friend of mine from theBoston area. She had met her before when she was much younger, andthis year they became penpals. She has a brother Jack's age. Thekids got along great. I also got to see a few more of my otherfriends, including my high school friend that has a 3 year old and a9 month old baby! i have not held a baby in a very long time.Alyssa, at the end of hte trip to NJ, started to get "pre homesickness" thinking about camp. She started to get anxious aboutthings she normally doesnt get anxious about. She refused to go intomy parents finished basement. She refused to touch the bottom of thevery deep end of my brothers town pool, though she does it all thetime here. But when we dropped her off yesterday she practicallykicked us out!While the kids are gone , FElix and I are cleaning and declutteringthe house. Yesterday I did the kids room and their bathroom. I got1/2 of Alyssa's room done. I threw out so much junk. She saves somuch stuff and then forgets about it. I will also box some of it.Today, after work, I will tackle more of her room, and the guestroom.Felix has to repaint the dining room due to the sticky felt thatAlyssa put on the wall that tore part of it. (part of her ADDimpusiveness). We may put the house on the market to be closer toAlyssa's private school and get Jack in a much better public school.I really dislike our principal. Where we want to go is moreexpensive and I really do love our house. So its up in the air.Felix always works from home (company based out of KC) and I workfrom home about 3 days a week. This does save on gas, since we have atruck and a crossover SUV.thats about it for now.

Hangover morning.

2008-06-21T07:33:00.001-07:00

Last night I went out with the "original" girls. the 3 of us had a blast! It was for my birthday celebration. We went to this 80's place I went a few months ago where I had a blast!. It was so much fun! I wanted to call it a night at 1am, and by 2am, I finally convinced my friends to leave!

Someone else was suppose to join us and had to cancel due to being sick the night before. her DD was suppose to sleep over with Alyssa. So of course, that did not go over very well with Alyssa.

Also, I had to have Felix bring my wallet, as I left it at home. And nowadays everyone gets carded!!!

Not much planned for this weekend. It seems the weekdays are very busy, but I dont have too much on the weekends.

I know there is alot more to write. Will have to think about it later... Next Sat we leave for NJ

its Friday!!!!

2008-06-13T10:33:00.000-07:00

Its friday... We got past this week. So far we lost one lunch box and one skort. (each kid lost something!). This drives me crazy.

The summer is going by pretty fast though. In a few weeks we will be on vacation, and then the kids will go to camp.

Oh a school note.... Alyssa got her report card and CRCT results. She did very well this year. Having a great teacher really makes a big difference. She ended up with all A's and also ,except for language arts, exceeded on her CRCT's. She actually did better than Jack in Math and Reading. Jack barely exceeded in reading, which suprised me. He is a great reader and has decent reading comprehension. I think he doesnt like test taking. He is going to just be one of these kids that dont live up to their potential. I see it now. I also expected his Math score to be higher (even though it was good). He knows Math. I just know when it comes to school he will frustrate me. Alyssa is going to be pretty successful in school--especially with the new school. She is coming into her own.

So overall, academically, the kids are doing well. Both could have gotten exceeded in language arts, and that would have been perfect, but who needs perfect kids :)

Big week coming up....

2008-06-08T16:36:00.000-07:00

This week is a difficult week with camp . Jack starts at 9am and Alyssa at 10. she is taking sewing camp! I will do stroke clinic for swim team in the morning. Also, camp this week includes swimming, outdoors, and wet stuff. Last week was sooo easy. It was art camp. Indoors, with some dancing for exercise. Nothing but lunch to pack! love iT!!!!! Alyssa is pretty my becoming quite an interesting young lady with lots of questtions. She will do very well in her new school. They love kids that ask questions. She wanted to know if we will ever "lose all our air". She sttll can cry and melt, but not as often... I think she is having a whole lot less stress these days. Jack has decided that he is going to read, read, and read. He read Harry Potter. He is reading this large book about a dragon and a boy. Both kids read the 2nd installment of "Diaries of a Whimpy Kid". The just love it!!!! Alyssa is also playing lots of stuff from "Annie" on youtube an learning the words. I wish it was still playing on broadway. Swim team, as usual, is a bit commitment. The kids are getting better at swimming. Compared to other kids in their age group, they are not that great, but they are improving against themselves. The main reason to do swim team is for them to get some exercise in the dog days of summer... especially my couch potato Jack.

For myself, I had a sore throat for about a week. it was a just a virus stuck in my throat. REally sucked. I just cant handle illness like I used to. I then went thru a bit of a depression Friday night. I wanted to see Sex in the City and had noone to see it with. Made me feel, once again, like I have no friends. It should not be hard to find someone to see a movie. Also a few of my friends keep telling me about all these swim parties that they get invited to, and I dont seem to have these invites. I feel like I need to make more of effort to be friends with people for mine and my kids benefits. Or at least have more aquaintances. I know that at times I dont make the effort that I could to get to know others better. I have to stop feeling sorry for myself. Its not as if I am totally friendless. Its also hard that I dont have family near by. It would be nice to have family around once in a while. Maybe at Alyssa's new school I will make new friends. I know I have an open personality that not everyone likes. With my issues , no wonder I dont have very social kids. The genetics are not helping them to be social beings in their lives. Reading the book "Queen bees and Wannabes" makes life for them even scarier in the future. Someone else was reading this book, so I got it from the library. Being a tween/teen today is much harder than when I had to deal with all that crap. It all gives me such a down outlook. I have got to snap out of it for my kid's sakes.

Today we have the neighborhood general meeting. I had a hard time getting enough people to show up. I hope this means thats everyone is happy, but makes it harder to get a board together. It would have been nice to give up president, but I think I am stuck with it. I guess I am liked by some...

Well i have to clean up the house and get ready for my crazy week. And to think I have to fit in work with everything else. If we could afford it, I would probably be better off taking a month's leave of abstance during the summer.

And to continue....

2008-05-30T06:25:00.000-07:00

Now where was I..... (its a tiring morning, laast nights swim meet lasted until after 10pm!)

The neighborhood. Yes I am president. I really dont feel like I am qualified. I can never get a board meeting together. I am also not a very strong person when it comes to arguing. I really HATE conflict and tend to back down or not bring things up. Well I was doing an OK job, and then came "the shed". I neighbor, who is also a friend of mine, had been fighting the HOA for many years over a shed that they put up. They claim it got approved even though it never did. Well the stipulation was that when they sold their house the shed had to go. Of course, my neighbor lists the shed when they go to sell! She is also a RE agent. So she knew what she was doing. This caused the previous HOA/board to call me, mainly the women I term (and many others do as well), the witches of HC. They are very strong personality women, whom have run this neighborhood for years, and one of which is impossible to have a conversation with! She is just very defensive all the time and always has to be right. Well they were all up in arms and on my doorstep every day. I had the ACC lead send a letter to the homeowners, but it got "lost". By the time they sent a 2nd letter the house was now under contract. Time for me to contact our attorney. (I am the only one who can). Getting phone calls about this shed as well as convo's with the witches and other people on both sides of the issue. Finally, lucky for me, the seller had the buyers agent contact me about why the shed could not remain where it was (it is seen from the road). I then explained about it being "illegal" aka never being approved. So luckily her buyers demanded that the shed now come down. I would have to believe that they also asked for a price cut, but I am not privy to this. Meanwhile elections are coming up and I am trying to get everything together. One board member is very elusive is hard to get a hold of.
Meanwhile, as bad a job I think I am doing, people want me to remain and rerun for the board . I dont mind the board, but president really doesnt suit me fine. the KIDs love that I am "president". It makes their mommy seem important.

Well now that is off my chest. Paranoid issue of hte day.... Why is Alyssa's friend's mom, who no longer lives near by, ignoring us. We have called several times. Also sent email... Talk about insecure.... I think ... " what have I done wrong"..... instead of maybe that its nothing. Wonder where Alyssa gets it from ....

ok. here is the real update...

2008-05-25T06:48:00.000-07:00

I am going to do it. I have some quiet time right. Both kids are reading. Friday was the last day of school. Alyssa has been so good lately. I almost think that school was really stressing her out, even if not directly. I dont know when the shoe will drop, but its been wonderful.

Anyway, these days money is just flying out the door. I am so happy that Alyssa got into High Meadows. It was a great accomplishment since they make a large portion of their decision on when your child spent the day. She apparently impressed them. It also helped that I attended all the open houses and I was very flexible when they needed her. They want parents who will be involved. What I dont know is how I am going to handle two schools, with different hours, including one that is a 15 min drive away. Working on carpool. Also to maintain my work schedule. So I paid that. In the meantime, we found out that under our garage was "hollow". So we had to get a concrete company out to pump cement/concrete. I did nto want the house to sink! When the builder built the home, he did not pack the land down enough. The 1st owners had this fixed, but since more has settled . Also our deck needs work. I should have never hired a friends friend to build the extension. Can you believe that it cost 1300$ to sand, pressure wash, and restain a deck! Ok, now as if shelling out over 5K to do house repairs was not enough, along comes Alyssa's big psychological exam. This is not covered by insurance. We had her diagnosed with ADD from one of hte smaller tests, but decided to do full testing based on recommendations from her therapist, and that Felix wanted it done.
Let me backtrack... one of felix's torah study was about "Was Moses ADD". Turns out our rabbi's daughter is ADD. They had some experts come in and talk as well. This finally opened up Felix's eyes and he wanted the testing. THe results:
Alyssa is mild/moderate ADD. She has no LD's though (learning disabilitities) and is above avg in those tests. here memory is phenominal. Her IQ is above avg on testing, but the ADD makes it a bit lower than it really is. She may have mild depression. Even though she does good in school, she sttill has some social skills issues where she lets things get to her. The therapist is going to work with her on that. We had an incident at school where the mean girls stuff started. Notes being passed around. Also she had this one friend in the class and the other girls were always trying to take her away from alyssa. I am SOO happy that she is at the new school. I know that kids are kids, but at the new school, this is much less prevalent.

Wow, I have digressed from the house costing us a fortune to Alyssa's issues. I have not even talked about her impusivity, mixed with her creativity , which usually is what gets her in trouble at home. (yes, my dining room wall needs to be repainted now). Its funny after the fact, but not at the time. I certainly dont want to stiffle her creativity. It many ways its such a great trait. You can see it in her skating, her drama/singing/dancing. Her art work.

Back on target, it just seems these days that bill after bill is coming in. Summer day camp costs money, even if I dont use the most expensive camps. thats not an expense I have during hte year. Also, the synagogue just keeps going up and up. I sometimes wish I was christian and could "pay as I go". The churches seem to get enough money without forcing it on people. The Bible schools and camps are next to free. Not sure why this wont work in the Jewish model.

Wow, I have not mentioned Jack's name at all. His BIG issue right now is his desire to win. Swim team works real well because he is basically competing against himself. He cannot blame someone else, like in tennis... such as "they hit the ball too low", or "I was not ready", or the million other things. Also, Jack never shuts up. There was an incident at school that got him in trouble when he refused to watch a video in music class because they were showing Elmo. He knows what he wants. I always here a "but mommy.....". He does need to learn respect of authority figures. Not sure how to instill this in him. There are punishments and rewards. I also fear what will happen when school is no longer easy for him. But Jack is still very self entertaining, and charming, and also is a harmonizer. he hates it when we argue in this family.

wow I have not even gotten to my all neighborhood fun. more later...

update soon...

2008-05-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

Will update with the following

1. the money pit (known as our house)
2. the stress of being HOA president
3. Alyssa and the new school . She got accepted!
4. Alyssa update
5. Jack update (including RIP the tadpole)
6. summer plans update

update...

2008-03-06T06:31:00.001-08:00

Reading a blog of a mother of 7, I figured if she had time to blog, I certainly should have time. I know that I always think of things I want to write in teh blog. this happens mostly in the shower.

Life is very crazy around here. Work is my peaceful time most days. I really am starting to enjoy working from home more, but with Felix also working from home, its hard at times.

BIG NEWS.. Sat is our 10 year anniversary. But somehow I am not making a big deal out of it. I explained to Felix that its not a big deal, because our marriage is good. Its not like "wow I made it 10 years", but "ok, 10 years, lets keep going". On Sat he has to be in Huntsville, AL with Jack for a cubscout thing. We are celebrating next friday night when my parents come to town.

THE BIGGGEST thing since I last blogged is that we are trying to get Alyssa into a private school. This school has a hands on approach, with less emphasis on vanilla school work. They have lots of land and an hour of "meadow time" a day! Nothing is really graded. BUT getting her in is a 50/50 shot. Whereas her ADHD makes this environment perfect for her. She is just so creative!!! Her creativity causes messes and lots more work for me, but I cant knock her for it. The only thing is that they need to be independent workers for this school. What this school compares itself to is like "being in TAG every day". I just know that she would thrive here. REgular public school next year, with 25:1 ratio would just be so wrong. I have no idea what her teacher wrote on the teacher recommendation form. We have to wait until April to hear.

Then, on the other hand, is my Jack. He is socially imature, but school is just so easy for him! public school works, but our particular school, I have come to realize, may have decent test scores, but sucks. A good principal makes all the difference. Ours just cares about basics. So the other option we are thinking about, is moving to a better school district. BUT the thought of selling our home just frightens me to no end. IF we moved I would find a foreclosure so that we could remain in a decent sized house.

Spring is real busy with the usual activities. Jack has started tennis. Alyssa is fully involved in a Sat morning program of dance, voice, and acting. also, in a week, she has a skating competition. I just finally broke down and ordered new skates for her. Doing ebay for her, was just ok. I want to know that I have exactly what she needs. I got the same skates she has now, but with better blades. So right now:
Alyssa: weekday religious school, keyboarding after school, skating, d,v, and a, therapy every other week.
Jack: tennis (2 days), gymnastics, social skills class, and speech is now only once a month!!!!

In may , swim team starts.

I have not gone any summer day camp planning yet. This is so unlike me. I have several options. I thinkI am waiting for the town program to release its camps this year. With felix working out of the house, and Alyssa gone for a month, and Jack maybe gone, its hard to plan.

its been a while...

2008-01-29T07:10:00.000-08:00

I know its been a while. I continue to , for some reason, lose interest in posting here, yet there are things that I want to post. I wish what was in my head would magically appear on the page. Anyway, next week felix goes away for a trip to KC, so everything is up to me. I will be the single mom. Not too thrilled. With him WFH, not that he can do things, but he is home and I can leave a kid or two behind at times. Also no worries about meeting the bus on time. Now I will have to worry about that, as well gettin the kids off all by myself in the am. Not to mention everywhere else. I have to do Hebrew school and bring Jack along. I did that once before, but not thrilled.

alyssa keeps doing "impulse" things. You do laugh afterwards, but she needs to start thinking more. But she did say that they other day she wanted to lash out at a poster that was in our garage and stopped herself from doing so. So we are making progress.

A strange thing lately is the amount of deaths that have been occuring. Relatives, friend's relatives, customers. Many of them sorta out of the blue types. Some known to be coming. Its very eerie.

report cards...

2008-01-15T05:58:00.000-08:00

Report cards came home. I must not see all ofAlyssa's graded stuff, as if I avg'd it out in some classes she woudl be getting B's, but to my shock and happiness, she got straight A's. The big issue now is that Jack as reverted back to back behavior. So we are working his reward system.

Yesterday was a long day. It was my BFF's mother in law's memorial service. SHe passed away last friday night after coming home from the hospital. I luckily found people to take my kids and FElix and I went to the memorial service and to sit shiva afterwards. Even in time of sadness, my friend throws some party. The food was incredible. I am feeling very guilty as I type this.
I *LOVE* my new DVR and DISH. Short term much much cheaper than cable. long term, probably not as much, but still cheaper then cable and a DVR from them or TIVO.

Tonight is crazy again. This whole week is. But that is the life of a mother.

I fired the cable company!

2008-01-10T06:05:00.000-08:00

THe cable company raised their rates again (65$ just to have cable!), so we finally got a Dish. With it came a DVR. So I dont have to get Tivo. For the 1st 6 months its about 60$ a month and depending on what we want to do with the HD afterwards (over the network or full) it will go up either 5 or 20$. Still cheaper than cable with a DVR (or TIVO). my cable was about 90$ at this point with HD. A tivo would have added 10$.
I did keep "basic" cable for a few months just in case something goes wrong , or we have storm issues.

Felix got a job from where he has been consulting. In some ways its gonna suck, aka real hours to work, versus when he wants to work, but at least he gets to work from home. VAcation will suck for him as well. I bet he only gets 2 or 3 weeks (tops!) a year. I get 5. I dont know if he will work 4X10 or 5X8. He will have to work Sundays and mondays.

We need to play "bouncing healthcare" again.

The biggest dilemna is to baseball or not to baseball for spring. Jack is not that good, so its probably a good idea to keep it up, but then again, maybe not. If he "skips" a season, that really puts him behind. He does like tennis. So maybe we will do team tennis, and then do baseball in the fall. Or should we try baseball one more time in the spring and do summer/fall tennis. I also have to start putting my camp schedule together.

My brain is really hurting here about all this stuff.

WHINE WHINE WHINE.....

2008-01-03T09:47:00.000-08:00

Well alas, the kids break is coming to an end. Alyssa is coming home tomorrow. she had the best time in Fl. On top of her cousins being there, which she likes 10X having her brother, the girls that she loves were there with their Dad. Come to find out that they might be going to attend the same camp that Alyssa does. THe weather was perfect. Now lets not discuss the behavior of my sister in law. She did not lift a finger. Worse than the kids. my poor mother. Alyssa had one meltdown of mention. Other issues sometimes, but that is Alyssa.. AT least I am no longer being blamed for her issues. Note that my father called her "fragile". Aka emotionally fragile. Jack enjoyed his time here. He did go to camp some, but Felix took him to a football game, we went bowling, we played some games, etc. The weather here... not good much. So the arrangement worked out the best of all of us.

Now what is the whine about. WORK!!!!!! First off, I was suppose to work christmas , but have new years off. Well the guy working new years messed up his flights and was leaving in the am instead of the pm. So he needed someone to cover. So that was me. He worked Xmas for me instead. I would have liked it to remain the way it was. In our group, since I worked 2 holiday days out of 3, I worked the most. one other person worked the 2 weeks, but with the holiday's off. So I have not had much of a break. Before the holiday we found out that our area, aka services, is considered to be the bastard child of HP. While in other groups everyone got decent bonuses, which is what hp does instead of raises, we got an AVG of 1%!!!!!! So HR gets 10% and we, who deal wwith the pain in the ass customer's got avg 1%!!!! Some people got nothing. This REALLY SUCKS. Shows us what the company thinks of those of us who deal with the customers after the sale. They never tell us the goals and just whether we met or not.... THe place has gone downhill REAL fast. But with Felix just consulting here and there, nothing I can do.

Well then there are the customers. The Indians are the worse. They just have poor communication skills with each other and with us. Many companies are outsourcing their IT. Makes it harder for us to do our job. I am also getting tired of doing stuff I should not be responsible for. Hardware, other places in the world, etc. We get taken advantage of so much (our group) for our product set. Today has been the worse. The only good thing is that I am working from home.

Anyway, Thats my whine.

Sandy

running smoothly

2007-12-26T06:56:00.000-08:00

Things are running smoothly with Alyssa in Fl and Jack here. Jack is loving be the "only child" and the quiet as well. Alyssa is loving all the action in FL. She has friends down there, now her cousins, and she has lots of activity. Its a perfect arrangement for the break. Yesterday FElix even joined Jack and I in the game of "sorry" .Today Jack is at camp. We really needed to get him out of the house. The weather around here has changed. from drought to rain almost every other day now. We were going to visit the JCC yesterday, but the weather was icky. Instead Felix had Jack watch the movie "ghostrider". Its PG13, so I am not so sure that was a good idea, but Jack never seems to get nightmares over these type of movies and shows. If Alyssa was around it could not even be on the TV. Jack has watched "the great race" with Felix as well. The only thing is that Jack likes to talk while a movie/TV is on. Also Jack is nto good at losing a things. Sorry is the perfect game to teach him about the fun of playing, not winning or losing. Its part game of chance and sometimes you get sent back to "start". He needs to learn not to get too upset over this.

The worse part is all the work I have to do. I was suppose to have New years off, but I have to work, as someone could not work that day, so I switched yesterday. I would not have minded working yesterday as I am was home anyway and had it planned. Now I really cannot go out for NYE.

Oh, and all our packages arrived on Monday. We dont do Xmas, so it was not that important (memory for camera, new corded phone, a late gift for Alyssa that was priced right, and a book).
I will give amazon.com some credit. This Dec I ordered a bunch of stuff from them. It had been a while. I found it easy and the prices good.

Alyssa's first solo plane ride.

2007-12-21T17:01:00.000-08:00

Alyssa went to FL this morning for break. She flew for the 1st time by herself. I knew that she needed more excitement than hanging around here all break. One day out and she was already going stir crazy. My brother and his family will also be coming to FL. With Alyssa 9 now, it was time. I had called Delta and made sure that everything was all set.
I got up at 5:30 this morning. Alyssa had left most of her clothes over thanksgiving. I packed her backpack with books, some clothes for her cousins, a notebook and pencil, her mp3 player, and one webkinz. Also was a card with my parents numbers on it.
The news talked about how busy the airport was going to be. THe wait for security was already 1/2 hr at 6:30! her flight was at 9:40. WE left the house at 7am. Traffic was not that bad and we got to the airport around 7:45. We did wait for regular checkin as I had an envelop for an unaccompanied minor , needed my boarding pass, etc. They tried to see how many people in regular check in could use the kiosks. WE probably got into the line around 8... and was done before 8:30. Then the security line! It was really bad. Now my friend, who was also flying out that day, only had a 5 minute wait because she had a stroller. We probably got thru around 9am. Note that along the way we passed the chapel and Alyssa asked what that was for. I decided not to answer that question (the real answer is that when tragedy strikes they use it)
Anyway, I got her a starbucks mocha frap, and a choc choc muffin. WE got to the gate and she drank the frap, but said she did not like the muffin. I asked her to eat, but she said when she got there my parents would probably feed her. She was suppose to arrive around 11:30. The took her and this other girl , who was 11, onto the plane first. There were two other kids who fly by themselves. a 13 year old and a 5 year old boy. Anyway the other mom of the 11 year old was very nervous. she was nervous about flying, about her child flying, and about being alone (single mom) for 2 weeks. She was happy that our kids were together. they put all the kids flying alone at the back of the plane. Alyssa thought it was to put them closer to the bathrooms, but its so that they dont leave the plane before everyone else and that they are accompanied. The flight attendant keeps their paperwork. Meanwhile, they board the plane and so many people ran up last minute. I guess others did not think about long lines today! It was amazing to watch.

About 5 minutes later the plane pushes back and turns. It just sits there. I think its because of traffic. I was told that we needed to stay near the gate until the plane takes off--at least on the website it said so. This guy who helped push the plane back came back into the terminal and then he hear that there was a problem with the plane. He told me and the other mom that they were bringing it back to check it out. So they bring the plane back and find a bad "starter" on one engine. Meanwhile it was going to be about 1/2 hr. So I ask if they can now bring food to my child. They said they would, so I bought some stuff. meanwhile, the girl next to Alyssa had a cell phone and was always talking to her mom. So I talked to Alyssa. she was fine! Eventually they found out if was going to be more than 1/2 hour so they said that anyone that wanted to leave and get lunch, etc could . They took off Alyssa and that girl. Alyssa wanted lunch, so I got heer pizza. But the funny thing is that she wanted to get back on the plane. I told her to wait around. This was all exciting to her. Meanwhile that great guy kept telling us what was going on the whole time. he was even the one to bring food to my child earlier. When we wanted info and he was not busy he was always giving it to us, aka what they were replacing, why it was taking long to find the part, etc.
At one point one of the delta employees got the other 2 kids off. They had no money with them and no parents. The 13 year old was connecting, so I understand, but the 5 year old! and I guess they could not reach his parents? The delta employee bought them lunch. I would never leave a 5 year old like that! The re boarded the plane again and by 12:30 they were in the air. We did wait to make sure this time. I headed home. Traffic was awful. I got home around 2. Meanwhile the whole time I called my parents and felix to fill them in. My mom got Alyssa and she was just fine and says that she has no problems flying by herself. She was a bit nervous on takeoff, but I guess having the other kids around really helped. I KNEW she would do good. She knew as well. She said that she was nervous before camp and loved it and knew this would be the same. So on one hand my daughter can be very mature, but then like last night, she can completely melt down over a computer game not doing what she wants. She is like two people sometimes!!!!

Now it makes life a bit easier to send Alyssa places, aka to Fl and to NJ. Myself or my parents don't have to fly with her. We were willing to have one of my parents fly back with her if it did not work out.

LAX....

2007-12-17T07:23:00.001-08:00

I know I have been lax about posting here. I do have so much in my brain, but then I never feel like writing them down here. I wish I could just think things here. Anyway, alyssa leaves for FL on Friday. I cannot wait. WE both need our space. Her daily emotional outbursts drive me CRAZY!. And lately Jack has not been very well behaved either. I think he had a cold that did not help. I also think that having some quiet time will be helpful.

The big thing is history repeating itself. I was an older sister to a younger brother, who was more "charming" than I. Not everything is the same, but I see Alyssa on one hand, wanting her brother to not be around, but then again, pulling him when she needs him. This sends him mixed messages. Next therapy session, I will have both of them together.

keeping it short.

time to get back to normal...

2007-12-10T05:20:00.001-08:00

What a crazy few days its been.. starting on Wed, Alyssa's bday!!!!

My parents came to town. I took time off of work and I brought stuff into Alyssa's classroom for her bday. I was already not feeling well though. I brought in pumpkin CC muffins , regular CC muffins, and choc, CC muffins. I read about chanukah. I got my parents and that night we took Alyssa to American Girl to get some items that she had $ for. Also, my parents gave the kids some $$ for chanukah. JAck calls my dad "the money man". We had dinner at American girl. Alyssa brought her doll. She had a great time.

Thursday I went to work, but my stomach sucked. I was in the bathroom all day and I barely could eat anything. I felt as if it was a bug, since I already starting feeling bad Tuesday night/Wed. CAme home from work and rested until we went to my friend's house for dinner/chanukah. My dad enjoys talking to my friend's DH.

That night, as we left my friend's house (8pm, which was rather late!), Alyssa completely lost it in the car because I would not give her the DS to play with. I know she barely plays with it, but I was tired and did not want to change games for her. She has to understand when I say no, that I said no. She started to throw thing (penny) at me. She was teh 3rd row and my mom and myself were in teh 2nd row. Of course, my mom, the calm peacemaker, tried to talk Alyssa out of it. This meltdown, then turned into a "woe is me" session. I believe it was related to the following things.
1. Alyssa had been coughing that day. there was a lot of stress over whether she should go to my friend's house because she has as toddler and doesnt want him to get sick. She has older kids so she understand that germs come, but tries to avoid them otherwise. So did Alyssa have a cold or not.... Over the next few days she still coughed and seemed a smidge stuffy, but then again we had our heat fixed and the humidifier turned off. No big runny nose, so who knows.
2. When we opened Chanukah presents, I had brought the wrong jewelry box. the one I brought was empty. the ones with her earrings was at home. She knew she would get them , but still.
3. Overtired.

Anyway, friday morning felix took teh kids to school. no bus, as with the grandparents around, and the late nights, it was crazy. my stomach was holding stuff down, but I still did not feel good and I stayed home . I wanted to get Work from Home working. . They switched software and now it no longer works. I have tried and tried and worked with IT. I get an Error 741, which means that encryption thing is missing on my end, but what? I have been over everything. At lunchtime I did take my mom to the school to read to Jack's class. FElix was going to have to do this, but I felt well enuf to that. meanwhile that afternoon, my mom got her nails done while my father bought all types of food (mostly fruit) and stuff I had at the supermarket. I hate to waste food and I was annoyed, but what can I do.

Now to bring up the big thing with my dad. When I was a kid I was afraid of him. He would threaten the belt and was very strict. He is always on my case now about my yelling, which I admit I do a bunch (I feel like noone is listening to me and its a very hard habit to break...). But he seems to think that this came out of nowhere. He doesnt remember that when I was a kid he would yell. that he had a very loud voice, that as a teenager would wake me up, even if I was not up yet. I dare not say anything, as he will just deny it.. Anyway , it really bothers me.

Friday night we had to go to synagogue for dinner, then kids service, the regular service, where Alyssa was to do stuff with her 3rd grade class. Neither kid really wanted to go, but we had to go. That was another late night (10pm!), that we had to do. I wish we could have skipped, but religion is important.

Sat morning the kids were up at 7 (of course!). My parents were busy and Felix took off to his torah study. Alyssa got angry at Jack for not playing the video games correctly (monkey ball). She had one of her big meltdowns. it turned into "I dont want to even go skating to show my grandparents". Anyway, I wanted her to go into "timeout", aka to her room to calm down. At this point my mom tried to get involved and wanted to calm talk to her. I told my mom that all the therapists/etc have said that we need to ignore her and let her calm down on her own. This is waht I was told. Anyway , my mom rolled her eyes,.... but yet, 5 min later Alyssa came out and apologized to her brother. Felix came home with "auntie". She , of course, got my kids all wild. I politely asked her to leave, as she was seeing the kids on Sunday and my dad was having ard time with all the noise. She wasnt doing it. I kept asking. Felix was not helping, as when it comes to her, he has no backbone. We had to leave to skating/airport and I did not need this!

We ended up at skating and my parents did see her. I STILL dont feel great.
I take the kids to the store to pick up the cookie and ice cream and stuff for A's party at 3:30.
my parents are taken to the airport from Felix.

My frustration here is also that Felix is now home all day. I feel having him home makes our house even more cluttered and messy. I am constantly trying and losing the keep the house neat battle (I have someone for the "cleaning" ). I also feel that he helps some, but not enough with the kids.

The next entry will be about Alyssa bday party. it went very well, but was exhausting to me, as I was not 100%!!!!

Sunday was crazy as I had 2 million errands to run, and we had felix's friends over for chanukah since we skipped thanksgiving. I have to be honest that I dont like entertaining. Too much work to clean up afterwards , setting up, etc. Its not having the people, but all the work.

some good days.....

2007-12-04T05:36:00.000-08:00

We are having some days where Alyssa is cooperative and behaves really nicely.yesterday was one of those days.. She was daydreaming and did forget to get off the bus , but other than that, she was overall a sweet nice girl. Sunday was a WHOLE nother story. But we are getting good days and are starting to make good decisions. I think the omega 3/6/9's are helping. She is also trying new foods lately (veggies), BUT at the same time she is very picky with old foods. For example.

She can tell when the health club started to make the Mac and Cheese differently. Now she wont it it.
We got differant ravioli (frozen versus fresh) and she did nto like the other type
We put a bit of milk in her hot cocoa and she had a fit.

Last night Jack tried to pitch an "Alyssa" but with him all I have to do is threaten to take away his Nintendo DS and I am all set.

The new few days will be crazy!!!!! my parents are coming tomorrow on Alyssa's bday. I am also mystery reader in school and bringing stuff in. Tonight Hanukah starts. I am all set for that.
On friday our synagogue has something going on with the 3rd graders. Then Sat is Alyssa' bday party and Sunday we have people coming over for latkes...

I cannot wait until monday.

black friday.....

2007-11-27T07:25:00.000-08:00

thanks to blackfriday.gottadeal.com !!!!

the things on our "big" list this year

2 navigations (one for felix and one for a friend for their big bday)
one 32 inch LCD HD TV.

We decided for the 2nd, to do the 419$ Olevia at Kmart on Tday. So we got to the line around 4:45 for a 7pm opening and there were 2 others ahead of us. (they had waited in their cars, waiting for a male to arrive for safety reasons). So we were 3rd in line. the big thing was that they had Wii's in stock. Anyway, we had a good time in the line talking to people. I would say that the line got up to around 30 people by the time they opened. WE decided while in line to also get the Wii, even though we dont want one. I did end up reselling it for about 85$ profit. I fell bad sort of, but I am not asking what others are. I asked 350, and I did stand in line for it. With tax we paid 265. I saw many people asking 400$ for it. If a friend wanted it , I would not make any profit. My friends who wanted one, did manage to get one already though. Anyway, I also wanted the 19.99 earings that were originally 99.99, for Alyssa. We got the tickets for the Wii and the TV. they had 40 of them. Anyway, I went for the earings 1st. They did not have that many of them. Felix stood in line for the WII. I got the TV and 2 board games, as they were B1g1 free.

when checking out their credit card thing rejected both our credit cards..! could nto understand why. it had to be their system, but the retrying caused both our credit cards to be put on "hold". we found this out the next day. We fixed the problem, but it ended up messing me up in terms of all my charges going on one place.

The manager of KMart did a very good job. I think Kmart is doing a turn around.

The next day was the big day. I wanted small things from target/walmart/walgreens. I always get walgreens 1.99 Tide. So Staples was the place to be. They had 2 navigation systems around 100$, plus a Digital camera (last minute decision) , plus a laptop for 350$. Even without the cold, there was no way we could do the camp out at best buy. We are not that young anymore!!! So Tday dinner ended around 10 and off to bed we went, after getting up around 4 the day before. up at 3. At 3:30 we were already around 25 in line. so no laptop :(. I was beginning to worry about the navigation. Well pep boys had one of the navi's that we wanted for about 20$ more, but still a deal. They were up the street. So at 5am felix went there and got one. We did get a ticket for the other, right at 6 whe n staples opened. staples was not as well run as Kmart. We also got a ticket for the bluetooth for 15$ for my mom. All those things and what I thought was all the digital cameras were to be paid for at the copy center. needless to say the line was crazy there. We waited for about an hour. We also got a power suppy that was on sale. With the camera came a free AR printer. So I grabbed it. I asked about an Mp3 and was told the wrong info. We got the front of the line and they did not have the camera. Aka they never had it in stock. So no camera/free printer. We got the navigation and power supply. missed out on the mp3 as well, but got it from them online later. Also, just to note, online I had ordered on Tday another bluetooth for 19.99 for us.

Went over to walgreens in the same shopping center and got the keychain, reading glasses for felix, and detergent.

Walmart was up the street. While in line for staples, we fixed the Visa issue, but still had the AMex issue, which I then fixed later. In walmart we got the similar Digital camera, but no free printer :(. Also an outfit for Alyssa that was only 8$.
next was michaels. Got picture frames. Had a coupon for 25% off.
Then linen and things. Had 20% off coupon. Got this candy claw thing for 19.99 on sale. plus 20%. oh, circuit city still had a line to get into the store. Wanted to check out DS games, but said forget it.
Then target, parking hard, due to best buy being in the same center. Got the DS starter kit there. not a big price reduction, but something neat for Jack. Got a game on sale for him as well. Got myself some of the women's clothes that were on sale. sunblock and some other toiletries we needed.

Made it back to my moms by 9ish. took the kids to the beach. Felix got to sleep for 4 hours. I tried to sleep on the beach in a cabana, but never quite did it. I cannot fall asleep anywhere and anytime, like most guys can.

That night I crashed before 9 and woke up at 7!!!!

Overall, except for the laptop, I got what I wanted. Tday at Kmart was the best.

finding it hard to keep up....

2007-11-27T07:02:00.000-08:00

I know it has been over a year, and while I enjoy blogging, I much prefer what I think about putting in the blog than typing it. I am getting lazy and cutting and pasting from some of my email lists. I was going to do that today for my favorite holiday, black friday!

had a decent trip to FL. The weather was nice and the kids loved being on the beach. The pool being repaired did not help matters, but it was ok. The problem was once the kids were upstairs, Alyssa, especially, would get "bored". My mom has TV, some computer games, and some board games.. But Jack would want one thing and Alyssa something else. I would ask her to read a book. I also had to make sure that they did not "trash" the place. The good news is thsat I kept a pretty decent bedtime for them, so the adjustment was not bad. They woke up around the same time they usually do for school. I found though, that the sun rises earlier in FL, and also, that because its warmer, the kids got up easier than here.

Alyssa was sad because the girls she made friends iwth down there were not with their dad. The people from Long Island that have a boy about Alyssa's age and a 4 year old, were. The mom is russian. Jack really bonded well with the boy and played nicely. I really think he is slowly getting those social skills.
Jack also , as we thought, got easily addicted to his DS. Now that we are home I am hoping to wean him off it. I did get him more games for chanukah though, as it was easy. Also some board games. I guess I should play with them, versus letting them play with each other. I just never loved board games though. Also, we now have a TV in the "toy room" where theri computer is (our small living room) for his Gamecube. he will probably play more now that there is a dedicated TV to it. once again I have to watch it. I do make sure that he has swimming and gymnastics and gets outside to play when it is nice. I need to be sure to put him in "camp" during winter break, even if felix will be home.
Their schoolwork before we left was the usual. Jack, all great, and Alyssa managed to get a "C" on one test. Her ITBS scores came back. She did very well in math, which is what she hates the most, but as in all sections, she had some really great scores and some very weak ones within the sections. One math section she scored a 97%tile, but another around 70. But overall Math was her strongest, along with reading and science. Social studies and language arts was her weakest. Which is just like me.. BUT BUT she LIKES the subjects that is her weakest. So I just dont get it. On the Reading they said she was a 5th grade level, but they did the same with math, aka a "higher level" but she still doesnt know certain things like division, so I find that info false. Now in math they are doing geometry, which she seems to like lots better than computational math (addition/subtraction). Of course, in the car ride home, she managed to figure out that my clock is 5 minutes fast, and that the navigation said we would arrive at a certain time, and figured out how many more minutes, aka the clock said 10:07, the navigation said we would arrive at 10:18, so we had 16 more minutes to go.

I dont know what to think about the omega 3 she is getting. I think it is helping some. She still had a very big meltdown in Fl about Chocolate chip pancakes. The morning after her big surprise for hannah montana , we went to breakfast on the beach. We walked, so we went to the 1st place, which my mom knew about. Anyway, they did not have chocolate chip pancakes. Well the meltdown could out meltdown a 3 year old. She went across the boardwalk to the beach and played saying that she would not eat anything else. I did get her a hot chocolate and eventaully got her to drink that... then back to play. All the food came. We did order her regular pancakes, and FINALLY she did eat them. Several things come to mind.

1. the 1st chapter in "the explosive child" about the kid who find no more waffles in the freezer. I understand that Alyssa had this "thought" that breakfast on the beach included CC pancakes and not having them, her brain could not handle it. But since we did not *KNOW* that she was thinking that all she wanted was CC pancakes, and we also did not *KNOW* that we went somewhere that did not have them, I cant think of how to the technique in the book, would work. We were not going to switch restaurants, which was her "solution". For many reasons. One being that the next place was much further, and we walked. JAck was tired. She, at one point even said "I hate this restaurant, I want to break their windows". I know she did not mean this, but having her say that was disconcerting in the least. This is something the therapist needs to address.

2. the other thing that comes to mind is that when she is hungry, there is no reasoning with Alyssa. This happened again while stoppin for dinner on the way home, where she wanted drumsticks and felix wanted to get chicken fingers isntead for her, as eating in the car would be easier. You just dont start anything about food when she is hungry. If she is not hungry you can reason with her.

In anycase, I feel like getting the HM tickets were a "Waste" in that the happiness did not even last 24 hours. Though she has told me what a great mom I am since, and I am sure that the tix played a part in it.

Alyssa wants a sleepover for her birthday. Not going to happen. I cannot handle her when seh has a bunch of people over and she gets bossy ,etc. too much headache for me this year, with my parents coming and chanukah at teh same time. just the pottery party....

Now for black friday !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Well I will post in another post about that....

catching up...

2007-11-17T16:10:00.000-08:00

Geeesh.. this past week was a very bad week at work. Also home life was not much better. I worked a very critical case at work and the customer was pretty much up and down for days. I put in a few extra hours on concalls outside of work. Email at night, etc. Felix caught a cold, so you would have thought that the world was ending
yesterday the kids had a makeup swim lesson. I had to straighten out a mess with FElix's cobra. I had to fax stuff for him (since he *Had* to rest). He has a sorta contracting job to the same client that was the reason why he got laid off from his job(he would work directly for the client that no longer uses his old company for support). I took the kids to the pool and then Alyssa did not want to go to synagogue, where Felix was. Dennis Prager has been there all weekend. The kids were "wild" and would not cut me a break. I finally let alyssa fall asleep in my bed. In the midst of all this I got a migraine and started my period!!!!
Today was not much better. Felix left 1st thing. I still had to pack myself and the kids for our trip to Fl. Then i wanted to go to Macy's for their killer sale.. (and YES I got great bargains). Then I took the kids to the rink where Alyssa had lessoons. Also, this morning before we left they were playing outside and jack got red clay all over his shoes and then on my 1st carpeted stair. That sucked. AFter skating, still with my headache (no matter what I take it always comes back and they last for days, so I just give up), I came home and got more stuff done. Alyssa's friend came over and we took the kids to the park, as felix was FINALLY on his way home around 3 to finish his packing, fix the garage door (needed grease) and then sit and watch TV for 2 hours (really... no kidding). I got home with the kids from park and ice cream and FElix was on the coach. The kids played outside some, but I was very upset with how they have been playing in our front bushes. They brought out tons of stuff , markers, paper, and other things to put back there. That and getting more red clay on them... Not happy.

The past two days i have been yelling more than I want to. I guess the stress is REALLY getting to me.

Well felix left AGAIN for the evening program with Dennis prager. I need to straighten the house out. get the kids to bed (did get them fed), and then get any laast minute stuff done.
Tomorrow when we get up ,(probably around 6ish) we will leave for our 10 hour drive to Florida.
Florida shoudl be fun. The pool is being redone, but we have the beach. We are seeing the rockettes (from NY show), and I have the secret hannah montana tix... THen TDAY, at Kmart... for my 32 inch TV. Then there is Black Friday... oh boy oh boy... more shopping. I have babysitting this year, and FElix doesnt have to work. And we are in the warmth!!! what could be better! We counted our money already (during the year we save singles and put them away and use that money for black friday).
I hope to check in while I am gone

still here...

2007-11-16T10:08:00.000-08:00

once again, still here.. work has been a bear.. Kids are ok. I see some improvements from Alyssa since doing the Omega 3's. Jack was upset at cub scouts when they made a mistake regarding his popcorn sales. BUT he held it in until he got home. Thats an improvement.

BEEN also busy planning planning planning my blackfriday... YEAH.... ONE Week away...

feel the excitement.

work is killing me...

2007-11-14T06:08:00.000-08:00

Since monday, I have been working a critical case. Its killing me..... was on the phone for 6 straight hours yesterday.

Its very frustrating when I dont have the answers to fix things and my company makes it harder. Changing to new call system, delayed mail, offshoring engineering, and the list goes on.

Sandy

what have you done with my daughter?

2007-11-12T04:45:00.000-08:00

yesterday Alyssa was, well, pretty well bahaved and "normal". What happened to my daughter?

Its so frustratating that she is slacking in school, has given up making friends in her grade, and so on an so on. So having a good day where she was pleasant, avoided meltdowns, and did things when we asked such as
1. helping me with laundry
2. lettting her brother have the last piece of pizza.
3. not melting at the mall when there was not lemonaide where we were at
4. going to bed pretty easily
5. going to sunday school without a tandrum.
6. Trying Asperagus, even though she did not like it.

Ill take it.. now waiting for the ball to drop. Maybe the DHA is finally kicking in.

volunteering:

2007-11-07T06:10:00.000-08:00

Alyssa did something really neat after school yesterday. She volunteered with me for project open hand, which prepares about 4000 meals a day for the elderly, sick, and other home bound people. These are specific meals that are nutritious and have Dr's input where its important (diabetic, low fat, etc). Alyssa ended up using this machine that seals bags with rolls and butter in them. She also stacked diabetic brownbags, and put stickers on meals. We did this through my work, but anyone can volunteer.
Of course, we did nto get home until close to 7:30 due to traffic and some homework was "postponed" until 6am this morning :(

While we were there Alyssa behaved beautifully. Of course all that great behavior ended when Alyssa got home. She was hungry (stuck in traffic due to accident ARGGGG) , and did not want to finish her homework then. Felix made her a burger, but it was not good enough.

Several things that came up with my convo with felix.

How can she have ADHD when she behaves so well at other peoples home. I tried to explain that she still has it, but there is no school involved, which is as big thing. Behavior is easier to control, but not the distractibility. But the crying and everything else has got to stop on a daily basis. Once in a while is ok, but this daily stuff STINKS!

Our new plan is to try to get her to eat healthier foods and to make sure that she is well fed. For example, Felix did not give her an after school snack the other day and she cried about thumb
tacking sheets to a wall to make a "stage/curtain". Even as toddler, if she was hungry and not happy about what was being served she would have a meltdown. this is why I have not pressed for better nutrition and let her eat way too many carbs and way too less fruits and veggies, which she dislikes. The meltdowns became not worth it, and I did not want an eating disorder. Even as young as 1 this was going on!. But we really, as she turns 9, need to step up her nutrition. The braces killed me in that raw carrots and apples are out, which were one of the few things I could get her to eat. I have to be more diligent on making pumpkin CC muffins for her as well. I like this one person's idea about hiding other veggies in things. I will have to tried mashed califlower with her. She once ate a leaf of raw spinach. Need to push that more. I will accept canned fruits for now, but fresh would be better. AT least she likes grapes. (jack loves strawberries, bananas, apples, grapes, melon. He also likes broccoli, cucumbers and such).

HMMM an idea is to go to sweet tomatoes. A restaurant with a great salad bar.

Extra kids and "sharpiegate"

2007-11-05T05:16:00.001-08:00

Well for a weekend that was suppose to be dull, not the case. Friday night I wanted to take the kids to see the Bee movie. Their first non matinee. I asked a friend who has a son Jack's age and then one that is pre-K. She was not sure. I offered to even take her older one if it was going to be too late for the younger one. This friend is pretty overprotective of her kids. Meanwhile my other friend called that has her DD that is Alyssa's friend since way back in pre school and also her son that is a year older than my friend's young son and over a year younger that jack (in kindy). I mentioned that maybe I could take her kids, as I first offered to take her DD, but she said that both her kids would want to see it. When my other friend called back, she said that she could not make it , but could I take her son. I said sure, but then mentioned my other friend's kid and she got upset because she said her son did not know those kids, and that only really knew Jack. So I called the 2nd friend up and told her it was just too much for me and 5 kids and that the other adult was not coming; to make up for it, I offered to take both her kids for a sleepover Sat night. I ALWAYS get in these situations where I try to make everyone happy and I end up in some way making noone happy; in this case I think I mopped it up enuf to fix it. I was actually pleased that my 1st friend finally trusted me enough with her kid. I have offered many times to take him and she has turned me down.

The movie was fun. I even enjoyed it. After the movie I sent the boys to the bathroom. Little did I know that my friend wanted me to take her almost 7 year old son to the womens room instead. I sent the two boys in together and stood outside the mens room. There were tons of other kids and parents around. I know that Alyssa is already uncomfortable when she is in the girls room and boys come in. Will have to ask if I was out of place.

Sat, Alyssa had skating. she is complaining that the rink is now too cold (compared to teh summer!). well after Sunday morning when she went outside with just a tank top and shorts in 50 degreees she will no longer have a complaint. After skating her friend was going to see the movie. I really wanted to go to the mall. Alyssa wnated to see the movie again with her friend versus going to the mall. So that was done. I guess she really liked it.

Sat night the other friends came over. Jack and the boy played very well together. I got the boys to bed around 10ish. The girls (well mostly Alyssa) were going wild. Alyssa just gets so obnoxious and bossy so much. I know that is part of her ADHD, but I kept warning her to stop. I said no sleepover for her bday if she didnt. She didnt stop. So now I will stick to my word, I hope. I cannot have her behave like this when others are spending the night -its too much. I stettled the girls in the guest room becaues it has a TV and I believe they were asleep by 11.

The girls were up 7ish old time, and 6ish new time. Shortly afterwards they made enough noise that the boys were up. They preceeded to play "slide down the stairs with the sleeping bags". A fun, abeit maybe somewhat dangerous game. I supervised. I did this as a kid. Noone did get hurt and they all had fun. then Alyssa and her friend went outside with their American girl dolls with Alyssa barely wearing much..... Sign..

They left and I ahd to run errands. When I came back I found the kid's scooters by the new neighbor's house. Apparently they had gone over there. Jack likes the kindergartener. Alyssa liked playing with the 4th grade boy, but he prefers the 5th grade tomboy that lives next door. Alyssa feels very excluded. Everyone is hanging out at the basement of hte new neighbor. I know that the tomboys' middle school brother and my other neighbor who is in middle school was over there as well. So we get to sharpiegate......

Jack has a bday party and Alyssa went to the gym with felix.. they came home and she stapled her thumb... Just a bad day for her overall.. Lack of sleep...... Felix brings her to meet me with Jack at the schools "get fit" day at the park. The kids really did not want to many of the group stuff, but prefered to play on the playground. that was ok.

WE got home and the mother of the home called me about some "Graffiti". I came by and by her driveway was written in sharpie "XXXX and XXXX are dum and fat. She spelled the boy's name wrong. FYI the tomboy is a big heavier. Alyssa got angry because was excluded. Well there was also graffiti written on the studs in teh unfinished basement. That one was NOT Alyssa. It said "fuck you man". Alyssa would nto even know to write that, or have a reason to! The problem is that because she had a sharpie and did the other writing, all the kids scapegoated her on that one. I know one of hte middle school boys did it, but they wont confess to anyone, including all the other kids.. Other kids were out (middle school and another grade school) to hear about this and I heard them trying to scapegoat Alyssa on that one. I did interfere and say that it was not her handwriting, nor did she know that phase ---which I am sure of based on questions I asked. She also did not know where in the basement or how it was written (vertical).
I did have Alyssa apologize to the two kids she wrote what she did about and we talked about how she feels left out and was angry with them. She also gave some $$$ to the mom to help pay for stuff to remove the "graffiti" I also talked to Alyssa about sharpies versus chalk. I really really believe that
1. she does not know that phrase.. IF she was to use the F-word, it would not in that context
2. she would not write on walls/wood studs in a house. Concrete yes, inside a house, no.

the mom says that noone is allowed to play in her basement until the person who did it fesses up. Alyssa and I talked about how one of the other kids are lying, and that even if they dont get caught how that is affecting others who can no longer play other there.. how lying is bad, even if you do think you will get away with it.

housekeeping...

2007-10-31T04:03:00.000-07:00

I sttill need to get to the Alyssa meltdown.... but in anycase some stuff:

Alyssa is now able to swallow an Omega-3 vitamin. Hoping that will help
Jack is already an expert at his nintendo DS game. I let him play it at the grocery store.

Yesterday for Felix's bday the kids got up extra eearly. (yes, I managed to get them to bed extra early monday). They made Felix eggs and toast (with help). It was the 1st time all year that the kids were done and ready by 6:30 and could watch TV in the morning. Usually we are rushing thru the morning.

Felix took Alyssa at 2pm to the eye Dr. I met him there with Jack since Jack's speech was canceled. The appt took almost 2 hours!!!! It was really annoying. All to find out that nothing is wrong with Alyssa's eyes. The school eye test was wrong. At least we know, but that is 2 hours and 30$ later. I knew nothing was the matter because Alyssa never complained. If she was having eye issues she would be the 1st to complain!

AFter Alyssa left with Felix for hebrew school, Jack and I went to the pumpkin patch to the pumpkins for the neighborhood party. I will be glad when today is done. I dont like having the responsibility for the neighborhood. WE always do Halloween and this year I got a pinata and also pumpkins to decorate. Normally pizza/drinks.

Today at work is halloween stuff.... Then the kids get all their candy. We are going to use the wrappers from teh candy to make Alyssa's turkey project... Her turkey is going to be a "candy man" so not to be eaten on Thanksgiving (school project).

mindreading and meltdowns...

2007-10-29T06:04:00.000-07:00

I really wish that as I thought of things to put in the blog, that it woudl magically appear, versus typing things in. I enjoy having a blog, but I feel overwhelmed writing everything. I probably should do it daily, and then it would not be as overwhelming, but for some reason I dont like to. Well I never did *love* writing. I love talking though!

Once again the world seems to revolve around Alyssa. I almost think that we should try meds, but everyone is against me, aka FElix and my parents. Felix will fight me tooth and nail about it. Anyway, last week was a bear with her. Then on Friday with the therapist, we talked about her social issues. I know she is like me when I was little. I dont want her to have the same problems I had. I made friends, but the majority were not in my grade, or not even in my school. My mom thinks I did ok in elementary school, but I remember even then not feeling like I belonged. In my case though, I was not opposed to playing what they were playing, I was just very insecure. Alyssa's problems seem to be more than that. She is very bossy and not into comformity in some ways. I hope this works out for her when she is older (aka drugs and such). But then again, she also makes poor choices. Friday night was the big halloween thing at their school. Neither kid hung out socially with anyone. With JAck though, he is a happy boy and people say hi to him, and that is just how he is. Boys in general are like that anyone. I did not see that many of the boys really playing with out boys like the girls do. Alyssa was asked about, but she did not want to socialize. She really only likes one on one socialization. And she wont play with others at recess because they doesnt want to be part of a group. Its a big problem, as she is getting older and really needs to have at least one good friend from school. Aly moving really messed her up, but it has been a while (all 2nd grade and now 3rd grade). I hope the therapist can really help.

Well the next thing has to do with the meltdown of the century over the surprise weekend of my parents visiting. I will talk about the meltdown later...

JAck's appt.

2007-10-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Jack had his 7 year appt. he is 46 1/2 inches tall and 48 lbs. 25 and 40 %tile. I also talked to the DR about his "Social immaturity" and he did not seem to think we should be alarmed at this point yet. JAck is so smart and ahead at school. Its just that he prefers to be alone than play with other kids. Also that he talks a lot of nonsense (combined with his speech issues) , that many think he is 5, not 7. But I think a lot of smart people were like that as kids. I just hate that a friend of mine thinks that he needs to be checked out, that something is wrong, etc. If Jack is happy, and school is going fine now, its hard to get all these expensive evals . Even if they find something.... Not sure what is the solution. Maybe he needs a social group. (they do those). I also think that he has a different form of ADD. The kind that has hyperfocusing. I know that I wont medicate Alyssa , so why would I medicate JAck? In time maybe he will need some therapy as well , but for now,, if he is happy, excelling at school, then what good is all, except to appease a friend of mine.? He is in speech, so that is covered.

happy birthday Jack!!!!

2007-10-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

What a whirlwind 24 hours!!!!

Friday FElix and I headed to the airport and our flight was delayed due to weather, but not that bad. we got to a wet jersey and got our rental car. A chevy that looks like hearst. Got to my parents around 3. My mom joined us and we ran some errands and grabbed a late lunch. We went to see the house my brotheer is building, but it was pouring out. Also got some shoes for Jack. Rested a small bit and got ready for my bro's party.

The party was nice. I did have a few drinks. Unfortunately by 11 ish I was ready to crash. My one niece held up so much better than I did! (the other one fell asleep during parts of the party). My SIL did a decent job of the party itself. The DJ was a bit loud, but the video montage and the poem she wrote was nice. AT one point I was asked if I wanted to speak. I have to be honest. I did not have a lot ot say about my brother. Yes, we are siblings, but as kids we really did not get along and as adults, since we do live apart, and are completely different, we dont speak too much. Its not that we hate each other or fight, but we are just not close. I hope this doesnt happen with Alyssa and Jack, but I know its possible. aka, an older sister with young brother. That combo is probably not the best. TWo of the same sex, or older brother that protects his sister seems better.

Sat we stopped by the house real quick, but it as muddy. The weather was great and our flight back was actually early. Got JAck from my friend's house and then got home and Alsysa showed up. Alysssa bought Jack this thing that grows a tadpole. WE have to order the tadpole. Fun, huh. Paid for 1/2 with her own money, so what could I do. She then "hogged" it and went outside with it and cracked some of the plastic. oh well.

Sat night we went, yet again, to the corn maze. It was PACKED. Note to self. Dont go on Sat night. Sunday we had Jacks party at the gym. Indoor swimming. It went very well. The helpers at the gym were great. Glad that is over. Next thing is planning Alyssa's party.

sleep...?

2007-10-17T05:51:00.000-07:00

I need more sleep. I cannot get to bed early enuf lately. Last night before I fell asleep I did not know where my kids were. I searched the house, the car (just in case), the garbage. Our door "beeps" due to the alarm system when its open. Felix got awokened (did not know this) and finally asked what Iw as doing. I said looking for my kids, and he said that I gave them to him and therefore he had them...

Well Alyssa fell asleep before 9, and woke up at 6:30 on her own in a great mood. Its 'bout time.

Last night I took Jack to the library with me, and then tot he $ store to get stuff for his bday party. Its very easy to take Jack , or even Alyssa, if I just have one kid.

I also went into project "recussitate Jack's party". 4 people that were invited could not make it. Two of my friends outside of school and two of the 4 classmates is had orginally invited. I wish I could have invited the whole class, but if all 19 kids said yes, that would have been too much. I could not do an all boys party as Jack wanted girls to attend. So I was at 9 additional kids. So I questioned Jack again about whom to invite. He also got invited to another kid's party at his class that he had been back and forth about. So that decision was easy. Then there is one girl coming and I asked if there were any other girls. So I got another name. Then he said this other boy at lunch asked to come.

So I called all the parents. the two boys were easy. The 1st, I said that I did not have the number from Jack, so I am glad he is having a party and I now have a number. The 2nd boy I called and said that I was sorry it was late , but Jack had a hard time making a decision and told me to day that he wanted to invite him. The girl's mother was not home. I did not leave a message. I come home and she left one thinking I am calling regarding her being room mom and that Felix is doing reading on Thursday. I called her back. We had a great convo about the teacher and stuff and I told her sorry about the late notice, but how I could not invite the entire class and how Jack could nto make up his mind and he finally did today. all parents were very understanding. So including my kids we now have 15. Which is a nice number.

For the goody bags I am doing "shoe charms" for crocs. I assume that all the kids have them. I will have something else small if they dont. They will be able to pick 2. I got flashlights (with batteries) and also those light up toothbrushes.

My parents might stop by next weekend. I am not telling the kids, as it would be a surprise for them. JAck wanted them here for his party.

I now have to also worry about the neighborhood Halloween party.

too much in my head....

2007-10-15T08:20:00.000-07:00

Last night Alyssa woke us up all upset. she said there was a bug on her. Then we had to put her back to bed. We told her she could sleep in the guest room. But she wanted to go back to her room. First felix and then 15 minutes later, me.. So I was up. Too much on my mind.

Being president of the neighborhood is not fun. I wrote emails at 1am. I think a house is going to be foreclosed upon. The person who lived there moved out. the lawn looks horrible. It is in the beginning of the subd. Not sure how to contact them via mail to send the letter that we can put a lien and mow it for them. I did find their work phone number on google and tried that. No luck. I dont mind mowing it for them, just to make things look nice, but I need permission. I cannot find any foreclosure info yet on line.

Then we still need a board member. Noone wants to do it. We have the Halloween party coming it.

Then there is all the financial stuff with us and Felix . I had to exercise stock options. I also feel like there will be an IRS issue, so I changed my paycheck for more taxes to be taken out. FElix was suppose to do that. Then I found out that the insurance from my work is being "discontinued" and I need to pick another option this year. The dental thing is a mess due to Alyssa's braces and if its transferable. There are other decisions with $$ that need to be made. THe lease is up on my car in Dec. I wish we could extend it for 3 more months to give us time.
The car needs some work on it (interior stains, and some dings that would not be good). FElix should be taking care of that, but of course, he is not. He is working on finding work.

So my brain is spinning with all the stuff to do this week. Get the rest of the stuff for Jack's bday party. order the cake. Get the kids ready for their 24 hour sleepovers. GEt on plane friday and come back Sat. All the usual stuff. And this morning Alyssa was in sleep deprived mood. I was as well. Not a good mix!

teacher work day...

2007-10-13T07:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was teacher conferences. THe kids had no school. I had taken the day off a while back and Felix, well, he is on a permanant "vacation". So in the am I had conferences wwith the teachers. I was able to move Alyssa's to the am. Since I keep in touch with them, I had no surprises. JAck is reading at 63 wpm and the end of year goal is 60. So he meets it. Math is no problem either. I talked a bit about keeping the kids that are more advanced challenged. She does try to give them more challenging desk work.

Alyssa is at 100 WPM and they should be at 90, so she is fine. She loves to read in class and has good comprehension. The teacher has figured out that even though it looks aas if Alyssa is not paying attention,that she really is. She will ask questions and Alyssa will know the answer. In math she can do the math, but this year they have to write out "how" they go to the answer. She can verbalize it well, but writing it needs work. Spelling is interesting as she does fine on the spelling words and ppatterns for the week, but will then go back and make mistakes later on. We need to get a spelling dictionary at home. The biggest issue is organization. Her desk is a mess and therefore harder to find what she needs, aka morning work. Overall she is going well.

Science and social studies are no problem.

So both my kids come out well. Much more + than negative and neither have behavior issues. on top of this, I FINALLY got Alyssa to get heer book report done. After conferences I took alyssa to the gym because afterwards she had her therapist appt and they were near each other. I really like the therapist and so is Alyssa. We are making some progress. Yesterday she started on social skills with her.

Afterwards we took the kids to the pumpkin patch. pics later.... Then to another corn maze. I wanted to stop at the outlet mall on the way back. unfortunately the kids were too wild and then Jack spillled lemonaide all over himself.

OK, ALYSSA IS READING OVER MY SHOULDER rAND ASKING ABOUT MY "DIARY". Have to continue later...

Sunday:
Ok, its later.... Anyway, yesterday was such a busy day. Jack was in the youth day parade. Meanwhile felix's friend (you know the one that I always talk about) brought her old crutches over for Alyssa to have. They are adjustable. Let me tell you that when Alyssa is home all she does is walk around with them. She did let heer friend try them. Anyway, I took Alyssa to her group skating and lesson and from the parade Felix took Jack to a bday party. Alyssa's BFF came over (the one that moved away a while back) and then felix watched them while I got Jack. They all decided to paint all the smaller pumpkins. And play with crutches.. Then at 3pm I took Alyssa and her friend to meet the girl's mom. Alyssa was invited to the girl's step sister's webkinz themed bday party. A new webkinz was the "goodie bag!". Alyssa was to spend the night there. When I got her this morning all I heard was how wonderful Alyssa was and how everything went well and how the girls were asleep by 10:30. While Alyssa was gone, I went to get a dress for that 40th party next weekend that has caused so much strife. (my brothers party in Jersey on Jack's birthday). I went to MAcy's , then to the rest of the mall, and back to Macy's with coupons in hand, determined. I was getting so frustrated, but finally this really good employee helped me. We both liked this one dress on me.

http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=276334&CategoryID=26862

and with all the coupons, etc I got it for about 50% off (it was 25% plus another 20%, plus 10$).

I came home and got jack and went to the gym to meet my friend. later Jack and I went back to her house for Jack to play with her son. Her daughter (who is Alyssa's friend) was brought home by someone who used to be my friend. I am cordial to her, but there is no way we would be friends again. She is very judgemental about others, but seems to not want to look within. She talked about her DD not appreciating things , yet she blatantly spoils her. But I found out that her DD is also into "injury" like Alyssa and would love to have real crutches and a wheelchair! At least my child is not the only one.! Jack fell asleep on the way home. This morning he slept in until 830.

I went grocery shopping, got jack ready for sunday schoool, met up with alyssa, and took the kids to sunday school. It was my turn for juice , challah and snacks for Jacks class. After I dropped them and the stuff off I went to target to get Spanx tights and to get goodie bag stuff for jack's party. CAme home and felix took Alyssa to a friend's DDs bday party. She was turning 6 and had a fashion runway party at their house. Our friends asked Felix to take pics. Since Alyssa used to go to sunday school wwith their son, he brought her along. Alyssa and this boy must really LIKE each other--they fight all the time. Jack , meanwhile, after watching too much TV went outside and charmed our neighbors. Felix dropped Alyssa off (he had dinner plans and I took the kids to the playground and how they are eating dinner. So this was one busy weekend!
We have pictures finally up from the summer and from this weekend felix shot some. Will have to post soon.
Overall I am pretty pleased with my kids lately. Both are doing well in school and behaving better; mostly when they are apart though.... but still.... My relationship with alyssa is getting better as well.

Now to get past the husband_doesnt_have_job, and that my job is making_me_change_health_insurance, and other assorted stuff like that.

This weekend stuff....

2007-10-08T08:56:00.001-07:00

Well after Sat morning's tyrade, I took Jack to see the scarecrows that the town next to us does. Came home and he went to his baseball game. Alyssa's friend came over and we went to this place called Holy Cow farms. The girls painted pumpkins and held baby chicks, kittens, and bunny rabbits. we rode in a "hayride". It was so hot outside. Mid to upper 80's . Doesnt feel like halloween/pumpkin season quite yet, but I heard by the end of the week, the highs will be just about 70. below avg. We got home and I got pizza for the kids and us.

Sunday, the kids went outside to play at 9am with the new neighbors. There was some note passing, including a bike being held hostage? Its sorta fun to just watch kids just "play". We took the kids to sunday school and met up with my cousin (by marriage) and her current boyfriend (my cousin passed away a while ago) for lunch.. It was really nice. Got the kids and then they changed to go swimming at the club. I did get upset with Felix as we both wanted to work out so I asked him to cut his workout a bit shorter since he now has time to go all the time. Well he did not. I was so pissed. The kids were pooled out after I worked out, so we came home. Jack has a renewed interest in webkinz since they added stuff, such as the school and the charm forest (he has 2 charms). Felix made pork (I know , so much for kosher since we are jewish) and potatoes. the kids were meah on the pork. I did have them eat string beans. We did try to get the kids to bed early. By sunday night they are used to staying up a bit later from fri/sat and then by monday morning they finally want to sleep in,. I remember that cycle as a kid myself. I dont want to be putting my kids to bed on the weekends as 8:30. Maybe Monday mornings should be "drive to school" day, versus the bus. Actually they could be carpoolers everyday if we want, but since they want to take the bus, we dont want to discourage it. There is about 20 minutes difference. I know we have thursdays as drive to school day as the kids want to watch Kid Nation on Wed night until 9pm.
Also I know that even once I put the kids to bed at8:30 they dont go to sleep until later. Alyssa flashlighted it last night ot read books. I know she needs more sleep, but its hard to force her to go to bed.

Its nice in some ways not to have to r ush home today. Also that I have the 2nd parent home. But in reality I want Felix to find another job. I helped him write a thank you note to the person he interviewed with last Wed internally. He should have done that right away mind you. They had some concerns that he heard about and his originally draft hit them head-on. I had to help him rewrite it to be a more softer and more subtle about the whole thing.

I wnat to volunteer him at the school for science day, field trips, etc, but if he gets a job, then we are disappointing the PTA/School that relies on him.

Next monday the school is having Math night. that shoudl be fun. It would be Jack's last baseball game, but I would rather see him do math night. Going to get the kids back into swimming. Drama will be done until Jan. Baseball will be done. Now will have time for swimmin again.

not handling this very well.

2007-10-06T07:20:00.000-07:00

I am handling Felix's layoff much worse than he is. I dont like it when "someone moved my cheese". We have money to hold us over. I am strange about money. I dont like to spend more than what I make, but I do like to do what I want without worrying about it. Theoretically we are "rich" in that between the stock market and savings accounts we have over 3 years worth of Felix's salary. We would ahve to sell all our stocks and pay capital gains, but in a worse case, we do have $$$. He gets 3 month's severance. So we are basically covered until Jan. Its just that I want life to go on like it has. I want to know othat I can do what I want for the kids birthday. That if I want to buy an article of clothing I wont feel guilty. I feel bad if I have to hit savings.
The other big issue is that our car lease is up in Dec. Originally FElix was going to get a truck. Now he might have to drive another sedan. There are otheer decisions as well.

Alyssa has been a pleasure ---not! This morning was a crying spree for 1/2 hour over the spellnig of "picture". i was trying to help heer, but not the way she wanted. Then when I asked her to go into timeout , she would not. more stuff for the therapist to deal with. The book report is a disaster in the making. WE picked the "wrong" book for a mystery. yes, there was a mystery, but the solving of it, was not based on clues, etc, but rather confronting someone. how does one talk about clues and such when dealing with it. I did read the book myself so I know what Alyssa should be writing about.

last night the kids behaved horribly at synagogue after childrens services. Jack is so good when he is not around Alyssa. She eggs him on. Today I am going to just take Jack somewhere once Felix gets home. i like that he does religion on Sat mornings, but i dont like that I am "stuck". I would ahve left already but dont want to be around Alyssa . She doesnt deserve to go to the fall harvest.

A friend of Alyssa's is on ADHD drugs. The good news is that she is able to concentrate and do things much better than ever before. The bad news is that she is not eating or sleeping and losing too much weight and is too tired. Not sure what that mom is going to do.

I hope people are sttill reading this blog. Sometimes I feel like I talk to myself.

how a fun night turned into 100$ cost

2007-10-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

Friday night Alyssa had a bday party to go to. Laast minute a friend was in the area and asked if myself and Jack wanted to meet up for dinner and then anotheer trip to the corn maze. She had 2 other friends of hers with her. So we did. While in the maze Jack got his eye hit with a branch. Since he was complaining, even though it was getting better, I made an eye dr appt for him today right after school.

Just to sum up the weekend, beautiful weather.. baseball, ice cream, park, friend for Alyssa /sleepover. Finally got my toes done. ordered new cell phone. Finally went to the gym. Went to the mall. Found $3.74 jeans (marked 90% off).

Anyway go the kids from the bus today and went to the eye Dr. JAck was charming as usual and Alyssa acted like a 3 year old. She wanted to do her homework there, but then complained and whined. So I told her she did not have to do it then, but she whined more that she wanted to, but wanted to be home. Anyway, after my 30$ copay (diary farm/maze 30$ now another 30...) we had to go to the pharmacy to get eye drops (add anotheer $40=100). It took a while and Jack wanted everything in there halloween related. he would "pay with his own money". We dont need more junk. Finally I let him have halloween silly string.

We got home and went to start homework (almost 2 hours later) and Alyssas big binder with everything in it was not there. She had not put it back in her backpack. So someone had to go back to the eye Dr (5 min away). Alyssa had a tandrum. Felix refused to go back for me. I finally lost my cool. But at felix. I am trying so hard not to lose my cool with Alyssa. She was already in her room in her own timeout. I was eating a chicken wing and was soooo angry that Felix would not help me that I threw it at him and stormed out. I NEEDED him to do this one thing. At least while I was gone he helped JAck do his homework. Then when I got back with Alyssa's stuff he worked with heer. Once again she was not being very cooperative.
Then Alyssa went outside to play. Jack went with Felix to baseball and I found out that alyssa took her bike outside of the cul de sac with the new boy (4th grader) and went to the other cul de sac to see if the girl whose party she went to would come out and play. I made her come home. I lectured her about telling me where she is going. I was angry again, but trying to stay calm. She would not go in the house and I was not up for a war. Finally got her in after a few more rounds on her bike. I know I should have stood my ground. She was in a rotten mood and I did not want to set up another meltdown. Then we are settled down and the other kids come by to ask her to come out and play. So much for holding my ground.
WEll now its an hour later, almost bedtime and they have gone home. Jack and Felix are not home yet. Its almost 8:15. Bedtime shouddl be 8;30. It is going to be a war zone tonight. One more thing and Alyssa's doll is taken away. I am trying so hard to keep my cool. I did not reward her at all today. I wish I could do takeaway for bad decisions, as much as it was suggested to reward for good decisions.

Jack wants his own chart. I tried to explain that he doesnt need one, but he wants a reward system. He also makes up his own "I deserve a reward". He will hug or kiss me and then put down that he did something good. In some ways its extremely cute and endearing. I bet I can get some milage out of it.

I am sooo ready for bedtime and my break.

taken from other postings...

2007-09-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some things posted on other blogs, boards, etc.

yesterday Alyssa and I had our therapy appt. Alyssa was in a really good mood yesterday. partly because they got penpals in school with children from NJ and partly because I think she wanted to go see the therapist. SHe even wrote the therapist a thank you note before we went! We had a session with both of us. Alyssa was wiggly the whole time, but did pay attention.

Alyssa and I came up with a few "rules". Everytime she is following the rules she gets a reward (sticker to eventually earn something). The rules for us were thing like.
1. no lying2. stopping yourself from making a stupid decision (aka instead of climbing the closet, ask a parent for help)3. stopping self from tantrum.
We also talked about ways of which I can approach Alyssa about things. For example, when asking the kids to do something, ask them to repeat it back. Also, if she stays something nasty, as for her to rephrase it again in a better way. Ask how she could have done something differently.

Alyssa also came up wtih rules for me, such as no yelling and when I get upset to write it down and send her a letter (she has email and an envelop outside her door that Jack and herself would write notes to each other). Alyssa is one smart girl when she wants to be. The therapist was shocked at some things, such as when she says "yes maam" and also for the thank you note.

Now onto JAck. I posted this on my mommy list:

Jack has gotten into pokemon. when asked about his birthday all hewants is pokemon stuff. If he finds out another kid is into pokemon,he is at least socializing finally! Pokemon has had another benefit,which is based on the previous entries.... He has turned his behavioraround completely! I have found the carrot!!!!!!In school he has only gotten his clip moved once. His current teacherthinks he is such a wonderful child. He gets all "s" on his weeklyreports. Last year we went only one week with no behavior issues(arguing back with the teacher).Then there is the Dentist. Jack's chart has been marked as "problemchild" . They did not want afternoon appt's for him. I promised him anew pack of cards for good behavior and guess what!!! today he wasthe model patient. I could not believe it! The took that sticker offhis chart. Go Jack.

Now onto me:

yesterday I had one of my migraine headaches. I really need to go back the DR and try different meds again. THe meds will kill it for about 12 hours and then it comes back again for about 24. I wish I could knock it out for good. I did Work from home when I felt up to it. I knew by 2:45 I just had to get my act together.

My insecurities are out again. With Jack's party coming, every "no" that I get, I take personally in some respects.. Moreso with the kid in his class that he had this one playdate with. I dont think the mom likes me and Jack, which is very sad. I almost dont want to try to pursue further playdates, but Jack needs them. Also, since he cant make the birthday party, and neither can another boy that is in his class, I am now thinking , should I just invite all the boys anyway. I have kids from outside his class who are coming, but I would like him to have a few from his classroom. This is not an all boys party, so then its "what about the girls". I dont want to just invite the whole class and that would be too many kids. Having social skills as a mommy is sooo important to help our kids with their social skills.

Speaking of social skills. It looks like Alyssa is doing better in that dept. Not so much at school still, but outside of school she is making friends. When Jack takes gymnastics on Wed she plays with this other girl whose sister also takes gymnastics. She does have a friend in her classroom this year, so that is good as well. I dont hear too many social Whines from her.

Other musings... I let my kids watch Kid Nation. The other day they were killing a chicken and warned about that. Alyssa did not want to watch, so she did not (though she almost wanted to peek). Jack was excited about it. Since they chop the head off, it was interesting to see the chicken still active and thus the expressions "like a chicken with its head cut off!" My kids also watch the real survivor. I know that Jack just likes to watch the challenges. In some ways I think these shows are almost better than the Disney Channel stuff that makes Alyssa want to grow up faster than she should.

stress and breaking down...

2007-09-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

I broke down tonight, after a whole bunch of stress. the biggie being that Felix, did , infact, get the "package" at work. We knew this could happen, so at least he has a resume. But the reality of it is totally different. I really fear that if any of the things "in the works" does not happen that this is for the long haul. I know that he should be really stressed out about it all, but since I handle all our finances, plus the fact, that I HATE change (I should say unexpected change), its me more stressing. I remember the book called "who moved my Cheese?". Exactly the situations I dont like. I am the person who is already planning out next summer for goodness sakes!!!
Well today at baseball Jack totally melted down; i went to walk since gym time is no longer in the cards for me lately. maybe once a week. Yom Kippur did not help either. I come back he is not on the field, nor has he been since i left! He did not want the water they had there. It was not cold enough for him. All I wanted was a walk. I was very embarassed and embarassed myself more. my anger started to get the better of me. I should have just taken him home, but instead, I dragged him to the corneer of the outfield and kept working with him. Worked on his hitting. I also made it clear that pokemon cards were gone for a week. I also reprimended him in front of everyone. I looked like a nut job! I was not having him quit... He is not good and needs the practice. I guess deep down , even though its Jack, I FEEL the rejection and took it personally. I even asked the coach afterwards if maybe Jack should no longer play , period. He said Jack was welcome on Sat to play in the game. I plan on working with Jack the rest of hte week.
I was hoping Felix woudl do this, but at this point he is already not a good place. He wants his gym time, and other time, and gets upset that activities get in his way. For example, he wanted to go somewhere Thursday night to hear a speaker and Jack has cubscouts. I cannot take him since Alyssa has her 2nd therapist appt. Tomorrow I am letting him do whatever he wants, including lots of gym time. I do know that he is the one who got laid off. he also is the one that is finally getting into shape. But at the same time I have been overeating and I am at a weight that I am very UNHAPPY with. I want to go to the gym or walk, or whatever.

Well to continue, I did call FElix who had Alyssa. the Hebrew school teacher told FElix that she needs more practice and is not getting it. I dont get it. I did work with her on it a bit a few weeks ago and thought she was doing ok with her hebrew letters. Well it did not help that there was a sub for a couple weeks and that they had 2 weeks off afterwards.. Alyssa hates the fact that she has the same teacher for the 3rd year. Also that there are girls in the class that she dislikes. Felix doesnt know hebrew, so its all up to me. I felt tonight like both my kids "failed me" and started to cry. I know in this case its not completely their fault. Jack was having a bad day and i should have accepted that. I should have remained at practice and not been selfish to walk. I should have forced Alyssa to work harder at Hebrew. On top of everythign else, something else is bothering Alyssa from school today. She has not told me yet. I need to get it out of her. I can just tell. Its not the ITBS tests that they are taking. Its something else.

Other notes
Sunday Alyssa had her old BFF over. I took the girls to the mall. (and the park). When we got back the new neighbor boys came over. At one point I had 5 screaming kids running thru my house playing some type of tag game. I tried to get them to keep it outside. I am glad that alyssa got to see her though

Yom Kippur fasting was very hard on me. I just dont have what it takes anymore to fast all day. I woke up hungry and it never went away. I will say that Jack did a fabulous job of behaving in temple that day. I just wish that he would behave around others. I dont think he will ever have a playdate again with that one friend since he was not on "best behavior " that day. It makes me sad.

Well I should be in bed, but here I am up. I will pay for it in the am.

Yom Kippur

2007-09-21T06:59:00.000-07:00

Tonight starts yom Kippur. I know its the holiest day of the year for us jews, but I REALLY REALLY dislike the fast. My body just cannot do it like it once did. I loved when I was pregnant and did not have to fast. Months beforehand I start dreading it. I have to set an example for the kids though. Having it on a Sat also poses other challenges of not doing anything that would normally happen that day. I lost an entire day of getting errands done. But it is the day that we are inscribed in the book of life, and I was brought up to believe in this Holy Day, so I do.

Meanwhile yesterday I ran around. I had to buy 3 birthday presents! I took alyssa with me. She was fine without her brother with her. I stated this many times. I can take one or the other with me and they are great. EArlier in the day I took Jack to the pet store while Alyssa was in keyboarding class. I did stop at Brusters to pick up ice cream for both of them :)

I am hoping that alyssa gets to see Aly on Sunday. they have not seen each other in a while. Last night I also talked to Alyssa about friends from school. She seems to have no problems making friends outside of school. But once in middle school she really needs a small set of friends. Whether it be one girl or a few girls. It will make life a bit easier.

I am reading about the Hannah Montana ticket stuff. the promoter keeps about 1/3 of the tix!
That is so not right. once again if you know someone you get to go.

I know there is a lot more I can write, but for some reason I dont feel like it today.

A trip to the doll hospital...

2007-09-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

Monday night Alyssa's American girl doll's arm broke off. So I shipped her to the doll hospital. 30$ to get fixed, plus I added in doing the hair. plus shipping to them, probably around 50. A new doll would be 100, but this one is sentimental. So we did this yesterday.

WE had almost 4 days of bliss with Alyssa, but last night the meltdowns and disrespecting started up again. I have gotten myself to stay calm with her most of the time, until she sasses me and disrespects me. Not the "I hate you" , but moreso, " I dont have to do what you say" type things. I lost my cool and apologized right afterwards. If we are trying to teach her not to lose her cool, then we ahve to set an example. I am trying. She cried in public about not getting a frosty to herself when I got one for Jack. She had already had ice cream. I offered to give her some of Jack's but that wasnt enuf. I wanted to keep peace around me, so I told alyssa she had to go home in Felix's car.. she refused, and tried to cling to my car. Felix had to take her to his car.

Well after she FINALLY! went to her room and to bed (after pulling a prank such as turning off my bathroom light while Jack was in the shower) , I thought she was sleeping. nope! She was writing a letter to her teacher, nicely asking for a different partner in their "data gathering". Not sure what they are gathering data about (science). The kid she was paired with is sent to the vice principals office at least once a week, and is causing Alyssa to get very frustrated. Alyssa doesnt want to melt down in school and wants a different partner. Not sure what her teacher will do. I dont want to interfere with this one, quite yet. I also dont want Alyssa to have a meltdown in class. I hope the teacher sees the stress that Alyssa is feeling. Alyssa also wants to meet with the counselor to discuss this boy. Every year there is one boy that she has issues with. I made sure she was not with last year's boy, so she had to find another one. Though this one is not as bad.

Also, my kids are fighting on the bus, so the bus driver has to make sure they are nowhere near each other. this is very embarrassing for me. Once again its Alyssa getting bent out of shape, with Jack doing things that bother her. He knows how to do it, in a subtle way.

Jack is big into writing/typing and learning how to spell things. Its amazing to watch how eager he is to learn. Tomorrow morning I had a meet and greet with the TAG teachers (talented and gifted). Jack is also going overboard with all this Pokemon thing.
I wish Jack woudl finally "get it" when it comes to baseball.

weekend....

2007-09-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

Well over the weekend , aka Sat and Sunday we did not have issues with Alyssa. Friday night we did, and I almost took her door off the hook after many slammings. What is interesting is that Sat night she spend the night at a friend's house. they went to bed at 2am!!!! and were up before 8!!!!... I thought for sure yesterday would be a complete meltdown, but maybe she was too tired.. Also, all afternoon she was with her Dad since I had a HOA meeting and then took Jack to a birthday party. Last night her American girl doll was returned... On Sat she went to a friend's birthday. she did not know any of the other girls there, but had a good time. It was at an art place. While she was there I went all the way to Marietta to get JAck's cub scout uniform. That cub scout org is so cult-like, its scary, but Jack really enjoys it. I paid extra for the stuff that makes the badges stickon instead of sewing. Well worth the extra 8$! I got his shirt put together in time for yesterday's popcorn sale.
Speaking of the popcorn sale, if Jack doesnt become a lawyer or a politician, he will make a great salesman! He did awesome. WAs a bit too much "in face" at times, and we had reel him in, but overall he did a great job. What surprised me is when this guy bought 2 10$ tins, and asked JAck how much that was. Jack said 20$. then they guy handed him a 50$ and asked what his change was and Jack, without hesitation, said 30$. I think that really impressed the guy. That impressed me. THe problem with Jack is that many times he sounds (due to his speech) and acts more like a 5 year old, but his definately has the intelligence of a 7 year old. Lately, by his interest in pokemon, he is doing better socially, but I am sure he seems somewhat "babyish" to other boys at times. He is just not a boy's boy. I hope his speech and social skillls catch up to his smartass ways.

Friday night I went out to a new place with a friend of mine. We tend to go out about once a month to try a restaurant. It was fun. Its nice to get out with the "girls". I also needed to escape from the wrath of alyssa that night. Luckily she seems to have broken out of boarding school behavior --for now. When she is calm I do try to talk to her and explain to her about things and her behavior. I hope one day it gets thru.

On and on a final note. I did not get Hannah Montana tickets.. the whole thing is a scam. Ticketmaster had no tickets to give. I could have gotten the nosebleed tix from the presale, but gave them up .. Hindsight, at least I could have sold them. I hate how popular concerts like these are only for those who "know someone" , or are in the "business", or are for ticket scalpers and the rich parents who are willing pay the prices.. I wont go that far at this point. I will keep trying, but not for the outrageous markups. I dont know if ANYONE can do ANYTHING About the monopoly of ticketmaster and how these thigns are handled. It really made Disney look bad.

Is it too late for boarding school?

2007-09-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

OK I feel like a full fledged teenager in my home!!!
Today the kids went to school and Felix and I went to services for Rosh Hashana. Then we went to the gym. I came home and checked on work. I know being Rosh Hashana I should not wish this, but this one customer, it would be nice if they somehow disappeared. ARGGGGG She DRIVES ME and EVERryONE ELSE ON OUR TEAM CRAZY.

Anyway, I got Jack from the bus stop. While I changed I had felix work with him on homework, just so Felix gets an idea of what I do afterschool. And times it by 2! We went to school to get Alyssa from her keyboarding class. I went to get her backpack and it was soaking wet! I saw her water bottle and thought that was it, but when I opened it up to take everything out I found the root cause----She had a big baggie with her "rocks" and she had it also filled with water, making a muddy mess!!!!! OF course it figures that this was the day the scholastic books I ordered were delivered. I took the mess out and then threw it all out. I was very calm and when Alyssa came out I made her carry all the books while I had the backpack. Once at the car we talked about punishment. Felix, of course, wanted me to just drop it. I said that she had played with water and baggies before and KNEW what would happen. Her excuse was that she was washing her rocks and ran out of time.... Well once she figured out that teh rocks were gone, the tears and in car tandrum just blew up. Her favorite rock in the whole world was "gone" and what a disaster..... Jack tried to even help and she blew up at him. I was a bad mommy for throwing that mess out. I should have consulted her.. Well at least the "punishment" fit the crime. I have ruined books that I paid for!

We were on our way to synagogue for children's services and then teh service where you throw bread into water to throw away your sins. I brought PLENTY of bread for the kids. Well we got there and Alyssa had stopped crying, but homework never got done in the car. I was very calm about this. After services, Alyssa started a game of "chase" with heer brother and anotheer girl, right there in the santuary!!! I , unfortunately had to pull JAck aside, as he is easier to reason with and separate. Meanwhile it was raining out. We went anyway to the park and Felix went to the kids to the stream, where other members of our temple were, to throw the bread in. On the car ride home alyssa did her Language arts and Math homework. Now comes the famous discussion about dinner. Felix decided to not really eat today so he was cranky and hungry. And of course wanted what he wanted, but FINALLY a restaurant was picked. I did not want to go .
I had so much stuff to due around the house. Clean the backpack, empty the dishwasher, fold and put away the laundry. I asked the kids to help. Well no luck with Alyssa. I also came to find out that she got yellow light today for the 1st time. ARGGG . She tried to blame another kid , but I knew better.

Well FElix is now having enuf of her, and he loses it with her when she backtalks him. She keeps crying and now wants me to cook her pasta. Also she goes ahead against what we told her and does a "science experiment" with toothpaste and soap , in her room!!!! luckily nothing on the carpet but I had prevously said no. Well I had been calm and I had asked her to put herself in timeout. She kept talking back and I took away her american girl doll finally... that put heer over the edge. SHE FINALLY went to her screaming in timeout. She came out 10 minutes later and did apologize to me (as she wanted something from me, pasta). So felix went out to dinner with JAck to make sure that Jack ate complete junk, (chicken fingers, fries, lemonaide, and ice cream... argggg). I did make Alyssa dinner but then all she did was watch TV. I asked her to clean up the mess she made in the toy room. I finally had to turn off the TV. Felix got home and she was looking for an ace bandage and got mad again and knocked over our garbage can. Felix asked her to pick it up and she refused.. well he dragged her back to do it. Then at bedtime, she of course, wants me to "lay down with her, and she gets all remorseful. She says that when she was angry she wrote a nasty note to me, but then threw it out. I am not against her doing that and it was a smart thing to do. I know adults that write "fake" anger notes.

So at this point I dont know what to do !. I feel as if I am trying my best to not yell anymore and stay calm, but last sunday and now today, arggg. And last night she got enuf sleep. I am suppose to reward her when she controls herself, but she is not earning it. And I dont like getting in trouble at school. yesterday I got an email from her teacher that she was improving on completing her work and doing much better.

So between JAck doing his thing, where he has trouble at other peoples homes (and who knows if he will ever get invited again to his new friends house). I dont remember if I wrote that he cried there when at the end, after being asked previously if he wanted to go swimming, that he all of sudden wanted to. JAck is so good with me at home, especially when alyssa is not around, but has trouble being a model kid elsewhere. And then there is Alyssa who is so acting teenager and is not even one yet! we are in a boatload of trouble. I am at my wits end. Since she does behave well outside of the home, maybe she does need to spend more time with her grandparents, over breaks and such .. And her behavior is not going to let Felix allow her to fly alone , which sucks. I need that for Xmas break. I need to send her to my folks in FL and just keep JAck around. I also dont understand why she does stupid things still! I dont see other girls doing things like filling water in a big baggie of rocks, or trying to smash them with a hammer, or a million other things that she does. We have a therapist appt in 2 weeks again. I really hope she can help.

Sigh.....

what a day!

2007-09-11T06:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one of those days... Not a bad day, but a day. Anything had to be better than Sunday and Alyssa's behavior that day. AT one point she was upset herself with herself and could not understand why she was being the way she was. Note that I tend to put "lack of sleep" in with it. They stayed up until 10ish and or after 10 friday night and sat night and still got up around the 7ish. BUT sunday night Alyssa had sleep issues and yesterday she was fine.

Felix went to work early yesterday so bus stop was all mine. the usual rush. UGGGG . I hate doing the morning by myself. Felix did not premake the milks, so Jack decided he would do it. He forgot Alyssa's coffee flavorings. So I had to fix that, but at least he got his correct (hersheys syrup in the milk). Once at work it was quiet.. .I did manage to lock in a good rate for natural gas for this winter. Something I forget to do at times. It was almost too quiet (unlike today, which I just got a call from our least favorite pain in the ass customer). I knew the day was goin to be busy when we left.

Got the kids from the bus.

Jack had no homework as his teacher misplaced it.

Alyssa had a b unch of busywork. I was suprised how well she did with it. She had to number her spelling words a=1 b=2, etc and she did it in number order, as opposed to word by word. Interesting. Then Jack has speech. Felix was to pick him up. I left to take Alyssa to see the therapist. She ended up liking her. She was hesitant to go. Apparently she spend a lot of time saying how much she doesnt like her brother. I figured all her dislike would be for me. So we came up with this color system and reward. If she moves from "green and peaceful" towards yellow and getting upset/angry, if Alyssa can then put herself in timeout and get back to green, she gets a reward (basically a quarter since we can make it like she completed a chore). We want to prevent "red" and out of control anger. Big thing to stop hitting Jack when she is annoyed by him.

Anyway, I had gotten tacos for her while waiting for her to finish. She ate on the way to JAck;s baseball game that had started at 6:15. Of course, Felix never fed him dinner. (he was not hungry... well the game is long, make him eat something! ). Felix left to do this career thing. JAck did GREAT at baseball. Did he hit the ball, no.... but did he not complain and show great sportsmanship, yes!!! Best he ever did. He even hustled at times. I need to work with him on his timing and I think he will improve. It was a close game. HE does have a good team, with some kids that are 8, versus 6. (have to turn 7 this year)

Got the kids home and both needed showers, the backpacks needed packing, etc. Jack has a playdate after school and needed a swimsuit and clothes (today was pajama day) and a note. Alyssa needed her reading log signed. the both needed to go to bed. :)

This morning Jack woke up early and in a such a great mood! He is sooo excited about his playdate today. Alyssa has one as well at the rink.

not a good day :(

2007-09-06T15:42:00.000-07:00

I am ready to cry . The kids came home and did their homework. Then Jack went on the computer and alyssa played her favorite game "broken leg". I had to go to target, so we went. It was ok, until the end when they were hungry. But at this target there was nothing that Alyssa really wanted. Jack really really wanted the pepperoni pizza. Well I went to check out and they were going at it with each other so I nixed the dinner at the snack bar. Well Alyssa decides right before that she will eat the regular pizza., but with their bahavior I could not do it. Well Jack says he is not going anywhere and he is going to eat there. He starts to pitch a fit. I have my hands full and say I am going to the car. I wish Alyssa had followed but now she is upset with her brother and while I am outside the store, they have sttill not followed. I quickly put my stuff away and Alyssa comes out and says that she has been hitting and kicking jack. I was appauled. So I am on my way in and an employee comes out with Jack and gives me a dirty look. I honestly was not going to leave them there and was trying to say that when I leave I mean it. I did not count on Jack being kicked and hit by Alyssa. SO I look like I left a child who has been abused by his sister in a store. So the entire point, that if mommy is leaving she is leaving, came out poorly.

They are both in the car and the crying mixed with screaming begins. I am calm the entire time. Each one says the other gets all the attention. And Alyssa just screams more while JAck cries more. Every time Jack talks it gets Alyssa more worked up. She wishes he was never born. She hits again. Nothing I can do while I am driving. WE get home and both need dinner as JAck has baseball soon.
Alyssa needs to fill out a behavior form. Also because of the mean things she said to me I am not making her lunch tomorrow. Too bad, she will have to eat the school lunch. At one point she says that she wished we would get divorced so she could live with Felix and not have JAck around. (also the point that she wants to be with daddy , not mommy, as daddy gives in to her all the time).

Felix , of course, is mad that I even walked away. He doesnt believe in that. Also he tells me I shouldnt take both kids with me to the store. well I wouldnt have to if he was around more. He is mad that now school has started and all this stuff, and his gym time has been cut down. Well mine is almost non existant. maybe 2 times a week! Last week i had curriculum night 2 nights. I needed him home, or on Tuesdays he has to take Alyssa to hebrew school. If he would let us switch synagogues to one closer that wouldnt be an issue. Yet he is all pissy at me that he doesnt have gym time. Well then I have no grocery or target time without both kids (one kid or another and none of this would have happened).

On a different note, i got a notice from school that someone in the 1st grade has lice. My kids better not get it. I am using the tea tree shampoo for sure. Jack was not checked so probably not in his class.

met with the therapist yesterday...

2007-09-05T05:51:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Felix and I met with the therapist to discuss Alyssa. We discussed the ADHD and alla the other "stuff" that has come along with it. Not that everything is "ADHD", but just in general what Alyssa is all about. Felix doesnt even believe in ADHD, which is also part of my battle. Also discussed how I handle Alyssa poorly. I know that we clash and that I need to learn to do a better job. I think she got the ADHD from me in some sense (caffeine does not calm me down though!) and that I have no patience and I react too soon with her. So yes, we will work on my parenting skills as well, but Alyssa needs to learn her own coping techniques. How to work within herself to prevent meltdowns. Do, as the therapist quoted "mundane tasks" which is hard for kids with ADHD. this can include schoolwork and most of the time does. There were lot of tiny things brought up. I remember her saying how working with someone now is better than waiting until they are a teenager. We also discussed how creative Alyssa is. I think Alyssa talking to her a few times per month will be a good thing. She tuned in to what alyssa once said about finding someone else that is strange and different like she is. Aka why she doesnt play much with kids during recess. Also how Alyssa prefers one on one, not a group. How homework is a struggle and Wednesdays (AHOH today is a wed! :) )

Yesterday was a good day with teh kids during homework. Then we had our activities. Baseball from waht JAck played last year to this year is a big difference. Its "real" now. He says he likes baseball, but is very frustrated. You can tell his much weaker than everyone else. I guess their dads go play with them every weekend or something? They were trying to correct Jack's stance and he was very unfortable with it. He just wanted to do it "his way". I wish they would have let him first do it "his way" and then corrected him. But oh well. Alyssa had hebrew school and we got home all around 7:30. Had to shower and do dinner. Meanwhile JAck goes potty and doesnt wipe real good and then goes a head and sits on my bed! now I have laundry to add to my list.

Teh goood news... I told Alyssa lights out at 8:30 and after getting to bed I went to turn her lights out and she had done so already. ! that was a first and really cool.

This morning our boy cat , right in front of felix, pissed on his drycleaning laundry basket. So now we know "who" has been doing that. The funny thing is that my laundry never gets pee'd on. Felix is not HAPPY.

pictures of Alyssa and the cats.

2007-09-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics. The two cats, Alyssa holding one, and then Alyssa with her new skating outfit

our not so busy weekend turned busy!

2007-09-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

AT first it did not look like we had a whole lot planned for this weekend, but then things got crazy. A friend called Thursday about going to dinner friday night. So I got a sitter. There is a new high school girl across the cul de sac. Since the big football game was not until Sat night she was avail. The kids came home from school on friday and they both had good weeks. Anyway, it came time to go out, and my friend calls to say that her sitter canceled so now it was just felix and I. So we head downtown to this restaurant amiss all the traffic. There was a Braves and Falcon game going on.! It took an hour. THe restaurant was a known one that had a deal for 25 pp for appetizer, main course, dessert. Right when we were getting done, the sitter calls. We lost electricity again! it rained by us, but not downtown. So she brought the kids to her house since her parents and older brother were all home. I ended up socializing with her parents while felix took the kids home.

Later that night my headache had not gotten better, so I took stronger stuff.That gave me heartburn at 5am, so i took tums. that gave me a bad tummy ache. I was miserable and in pain! So eventually I did feel a bit better and slept i some. Because of that we did not get to the g ym until 11. A friend of mine's friend is also jewish and her daughter goes to the same camp taht Alyssa went to (different session this past summer). So they will be together next summer. the kids went to the pool for a while and then we had to leave to take Alyssa for skating lessons. Jack wanted to skate as well. So off the rink we went with a quick stop at home. Alyssa had her lessons, but as usual complained a bunch. When her and her skating friend get together, its crazy. The are very similar in some ways that makes it so that they both dont make good choices. AFter lessons we decided last minute to go to the end of summer celebration at a high school. We got there early so the kids go to do the jumpy stuff before it got crowded. We also got good parking. The kids then played all over the bleechers, which was fine. BUT at one point Alyssa and her friend went beyond where we wanted them to go. It was getting close to the fireworks time and we were going to stay to just watch a bit of them because we ehad to be up so early on Sunday for the competition. Well Alyssa just started to melt when I got upset with her for wandering again. So off to the car we went. She did apologize for her behavior then. Jack and Felix came a bit later.

We got home and the kids went to bed. Sunday morning we got up 7! to get out of the house by 7:45 for Alyssa's skating competition. We got her some iced coffee and yes, we all ate Mcdonalds for breakfast. We got there and Alyssa skated her elements. She did good, but alas, came in 3rd. The kid who won, a boy, barely did anything! I am not sure how they scored it. I maybe think she did "too much" and maybe got deductions? That same boy, during the later freeskate (with 1 min of music) fell . We did have a lot of time to kill between the comp's. They had a lot of venders selling stuff. Alyssa did get a new skating outfit. We also socialized some with the other kids from our rink that we knew. This was not in our home rink. Then Alyssa's friend came to watch her. Her friend that skates with her did not want to do a competition. The rink hehre was FREEZING. Good thing I brought jackets for Jack and myself. Much colder than our rink. Anyway, Alyssa skated the best she ever has, with arms and everything, but in heer group of 4 she was the smallest. They do it by age and you could tell she was also the youngest ans the smallest of heer group. If she had been in the group before she would have not placed laast. This really devestated heer. She worked so hard and really did do well for her. After she skated we decided to not stick around for metals and just go home. JAck fell asleep on the car ride home.

There is a picture at the top of hte blog of her skating. She is also on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDixTDCFVaI

THe kids relaxed and watched TV. I was on the computer and did laundry. Around 5pm the natives were getting restless so I called our old Sunday school carpool friends and they happened to be home. THey were in Hilton head but the weather was so bad there , they came home early. So we invited them over for dinner. Well the subdued natives, mostly named, alyssa decided to come alive. She became very bossy. Also, since the kid her age is a boy, she became obnoxious as well. That is how she is around boys. ARGGG.. the kids did eat outside on the deck, which the grownups ate inside at teh kitchen table. They stayed until 830 ish. Then after some TV it was time for bed. Well overtired Alyssa completely melted down again. She wnated to sleep on the couch. Whatver, but she also wanted 10 other things. So by 10! we finally made heer go to her bad, hating us and all.

This morning felix went to work. the kids and myself got up around 8ish. Alyssa is mad at felix for not taking her mp3 player out of the car. Later we are suppose to go to to the club and bring some friends whose kids are Jacks age (twin girls). I certainly hope I can get the kids to bed by 8 or 8:30. I hope that alyssa doesnt have any more meltdowns. I know that last night while the friends were ove rI should have given her coffee to calm heer down, but except for certain situations, like school, or the skating competition, etc. I dont want to overpush the coffee. tomorrow we are going to meet with a therapist for Alyssa. (felix and I). Jack has baseball and Alyssa has hebrew school. Wed is gymnastics and theatre. Thursday Alyssa starts keyboarding after school. Jack has another baseball practice. Sat we may sign jack up for cubscouts and we may go to the water park.

Jack's curriculum night

2007-08-31T09:13:00.000-07:00

Both of Jack's teachers were there last night. THe one that is coming back from maternity leave and the one right now, who is in heer 20's and has all the dad's in a tizzy. I dont know how she teaches in those FM pumps. She dresses classy enough, but it still shows that she is hot and knows it. (she is married). But despite that, she is good teacher. I almost wish she would be the teacher the entire year. 1st grade is somewhat the same as when Alyssa was there, but they have added/changed things. I have to remember that its only 1st grade. The kids dont even get graded yet. WIth the work they have, you tend to think that its much more serious then it really should be. I would say about 1/2 the class showed up.

I finally met the parents of the one kid that Jack has befriended. I couldnt figure out where he lived as the bus stop he got off was in front of a neighborhood where I knew many people. Noone in that neighborhood knew this kid. Turns out he is in the neighborhood across the street. Note that these are the most expensive homes in our area. I am surprised they are not in private school, but having just moved here, I guess they did not have time. our school system is not bad, but I suspect that other kids in that neighborhood all go private. Anyway, it really doesnt make that much of a difference, as any friend that Jack makes is ok.

AFterwards I was talking to another mom whose son is in the 3rd grade class next to Alyssa's . In there they have 11 girls and 5 boys. Alyssa is 10 boys and 6 girls. I dont get it. The only thing is that Alyssa's teacher is very structured and maybe a lot of parents of boys want that type of teacher more.

Long weekend coming up. nothing much going on. Skating competition on sunday morning and if the weather holds out the pool at teh club. Crazy weather here. 3 weeks of NO rain and now rain every afternoon.

Tonight going out to dinner witht some friends and got a sitter. Oh and note to self. NO ASIAN food with MSG ! I have such a MSG migraine!!!

curriculum night.

2007-08-29T04:53:00.000-07:00

Last night was curriculum night for Alyssa's class. Since Felix had to take Alyssa to hebrew school, I got Jack a haircut (badly needed) and then took him to his friend's house while I went to the school.

I skipped out on the PTA meeting since I will be back on Thursday for Jack. Only about 1/2 the parents showed up for Alyssa's classroom. I was hoping this one parent would show up since Alyssa has issues with her daughter (who apparently is mean), and I wanted to approach her parent(s) on it. Oh well. I did mention to the teacher about it.

I REALLY like Alyssa's teacher. For example, she does teach script, but would prefer to teach the kids how to use the keyboard. She feels that being able to type on a computer is more important that learning cursive writing. Also, she deviates some from the textbook on spelling to work more on learning "how to spell words" then memorizing words. I do love her discipline technique. If a child has to move their clip , during recess they have to be in timeout and write about the infraction. This way they practice writing at the same time they think about what they did wrong. I wish I could use that one at home, but it probably would be full of complaints and take forever. School rules are much easier to follow than home rules due to peer pressure it seems. I came out of the classroom knowing that Alyssa has the right teacher. There are mostly boys in her class; Only 7 girls and 10 boys. Other classes has more girls. I guess because of the style of teacher she is, she is better suited to the boys. I also talked to this one mom after class whose son also has ADHD and she doesnt medicate either.

Meanwhile, Jack came home and said that his teacher asked that he learn to spell "intelligent" since he uses that word an aweful lot. I did show him :)

Today is a crazy day. Last day of swimming combined with theatre for Alyssa and baseball for JAck. Since Jack starts gymnastics next Wed, there are some Wed's where he will have gymnastics and baseball, while Alyssa has theatre at 5pm. So at roswell Rec at 3:15 to 4:15 and then Alyssa will have her thing at 5pm. FElix will handle Jack if he has baseball, when he gets home around 5. I do have an every other week carpool with the theatre class. you gotta love carpools! Maybe I can do one for gymnastics if I find someone else with jack. At least bring him home or I can bring their kid home every other week.

ADHD today...

2007-08-27T06:20:00.000-07:00

I heard this over the weekend. One Pediatrician has 50% of their patients on ADHD meds. It seems like everyone has it. Why?

1. I believe that as kids many of us "had it", but it was not something diagnosed unless it was really disruptive, and then as something else.

2. As kids we respected and obeyed our parents (I feared my dad's belt). So at home we managed to control ourselves best we could.

3. Back then, kids could be well, kids.. We played outside a bunch. we did not worry about being kidnapped. our parents gave us more freedoms.

4. now that the meds are avail, the thinking is, it works, so why not. why would you not give your kids the meds. Many believe that without meds, you cannot control it with therapy. Well I have never had meds, and I believe I have/had it, but I am ok in society. Also I read that if you give a non ADHD kid meds, they will also perform better at school and concentration. So it works on everyone. Why not just give meds to all the US kids to make them perform their best (being scarcastic here)

5. lack of sleep and too much overstimulation on today's kids. Between computers, video games, tv, and millions of activities, we are over stimulating our kids. I am guilty as everyone else. Also there are sleep issues. Kids are going to school earlier and staying up later to keep up with their busy lives.

Can you believe that yesterday , other than sunday school, the kids did not leave the house. Alyssa mostly played. Jack, well he prefered the TV. But I did make him turn it off at times. I have to be stricter with that. he watches way too much TV. No more. We had an issue with his behavior at baseball . once again, doesnt listen to other people. We could have gone places, but didnt. Alyssa actually was pretty well behaved. Today she will be a nightmare!
She could no get to sleep and could not get up this morning. I know I am in for it.

I am happy that swimming ends this week. I have 2 curriculum nights, plus jack has baseball (will miss tonight). Every night until friday is crazy this week. I am happy that we dont have activities on thursday yet. We dont have anything really planned for this weekend besides Alyssa's skating competition on sunday. I have to learn to take it easy .

Over the weekend we had some bad storms. Friday night we lost electricity for a while, but we were out for a bit of it. Sat, we were at Stone mountain and were on top and they stopped the tram for a while due to some lightening. But the rain stayed away from there and we managed to see the laser show. It was also felix's company picnic. they did a lot for the kids. For the grownups they had beer. My company would never do that.

not having a good life right now :(

2007-08-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

too many things are not right.

Alyssa is back to being a handful. I really want to get her therapy. Everyone seems to want me to put her on drugs. Yes, teh drugs would work, but what happens when she is not on drugs. How does she learn to cope with things? Felix is so opposed to it as well. Then last night she went back on her word about bedtime that she promised and got her brother involved. They are playing games coming out of their rooms. I am PMS'ing and really lost my cool. I hate to say it, but with Jack I gave him a swat on the butt. That will get his attention, but he really milks it (crying). With Alyssa I took away her doll and she went hysterical about it. I FINALLY had to get Felix involved, who usually ignores all that goes on in the house.

I guess I am at work, then with the kids from teh time they get off the bus, which is an adjustment. Last year I had a few days where they did homework and stuff at the afterschool program.

Also last night I took JAck to find out about cub scouts. He really wants to do it. This is a Felix activity though. I refuse to be the one to do this, as its father/son. So Jack has to talk Felix into it. (who incidentally did not leave the couch the entire time I was gone-sigh). So felix life is helping out in teh morning, going to work, going to the gym to get his full workout. (I never get mine) and then watch TV or use the computer some. I understand he now stressed out because he could lose his job. This is also stressing me out. Even with my job, the severence package just went down. I would have gotten a year's pay, now its down to maybe 6 months.

Oh and lets not talk about my family. My mother is being so unsupporting about everything. She says that I should nto do cub scouts as they are anti-jew. That Alyssa can just do poorly in school and so what. She hated the one guy I found that I liked for Alyssa, as he had had a sense of humor. That I should go back to work full time if I complain about adjusting to be home in the afternoons. That I give my kids too much. the list can go on and on. I really dont want to talk to my family at this point. I should read the parenting book that my brother read, because, after all , he is "parent of the year" (see sarcasm).

so to sum it up.
Felix could be out of work. he is not being very assertive about finding another job. He thinks things should just fall in his lap, aka people should want him and ask for him, versus him asing.

I should have never signed Jack up for baseball. 3 days a week for 6 weeks. too much. The other stuff is not as much, but that does it. Then he wants cub scouts. Its too late to pull out of fall baseball.

My family has nothing nice to say about anything I do at this point.

I am losing my cool with the kids, especially Alyssa.

Alyssa needs help with her ADHD and everyone wants me to medicate. I just want to work on finding some help. Even if I want to medicate, felix refuses. that is not as easy as it seems. Also need a math tutor for her.

The school systems here suck. Either you are in tag, or you are special ed, but if you are in the middle you get lost. I could get Alyssa in IEP, but I dont want her labeled. So far her schoool work, besides subtraction, is fine.

I cant seem to ever lose weight because I eat so much junk.

I am afraid of getting laid off. Of course, my family thoughts is that if I do, just do something I dont like to just make the $$$$.

s.

All this stuff cost $$$ see first item.. then we wont have any.

our trip to the mall.

2007-08-21T07:03:00.001-07:00

Sunday at the mall the American Girl place had a 2 hour wait. Knowning that monday afternoon would be quieter, we set out to the mall after Jack had speech. Sure enough no problem! So alyssa got her "kit" that she wanted, aka the set with the crutches, casts, bandages. Jack decided to wanted to spend his own 20$ to buy the dog there. I nixed that idea, even with his own money. It made no sense! So I steered him to KB toys to get something Pokemon. He really wanted to spend his money. That took forever. then i fed them in the food court.
Earlier I had finally gotten them the webkinz charm bracelets that I had promised. They could nto get them until after homework.

Jack had no problem with his homework. Actually got his spelling words right on his first try, but spelled the bonus word "first" as "frist".

Alyssa's homework is tricker. She did good in her math though. I am surprised that addition is FINALLY coming faster to her. There is hope. She also has spelling words. I am mad at myself for not pushing writing more this summer. It really shows. Her writing has gotten sloppy and also she misspells simple things. (not becaues she doesnt know, but because she is not thinking). This year their spelling lists will depend on their abilities. Alyssa always did well on spelling, but I could see her showing up as a bad speller on the test that will determine this. I am not sure if this is a good or bad thing. The other part of her homework is that we have to record her nightly reading. Then write a paragraph based on one chapter or one book, due every friday. One thing I am not sure of is how much involvement is desired from the parents so I emailed her teacher. She had to do a project making a compass rose, and I did help some, but I am not sure if I was suppose to do so or not. 3rd grade is not going to be easy. And we also have hebrew school to deal with, with its own homework now.

Well getting back on track, after dinner they went to the club for their swimming lesson. AFter lessons, we got home probably close to 8pm. Since I wanted Alyssa to do her paragraph already, I told her she could stay up until 9 to also get the playtime she wanted. Well 9 came, and she got upset then. She started to cry that she didnt have enuf playtime. I was very sad about all of this because she also said "my life is so bad". WEll you went to American girl, you got your charm bracelet, you did get some playtime, how bad is your life???
I REALLY need to stop doing nice things for her. I keep doing nice things and going above and beyond to make her happy and then in a moments notice she gets all bent out of shape. I am going to have to have another talk with her about this. I dont like it one bit.
And then with Jack I have to repeat myself 10 times for him to do something until I threaten to take something away. then he does what I want. That has also got to stop.

pics

2007-08-19T06:33:00.001-07:00

pics..

1st day of school and Jack and felix with Jack's bottom two teeth missing

SAHM without hte SAH part

2007-08-17T05:22:00.000-07:00

i feel like a SAHM, but I dont get the part where I get to stay home . We drop the kids off at the b us, I come to work, and get the kids directly from the bus. When they were in afterschool, on occasion I could leave them there and run errands, etc. Now there is no choice but to be at the bus stop at 2:45. Also I ahve both of them. If only one had an activity I could leave the other in afterschool. But it honestly was not worth the 120/week since most days I did get both kids right away. I wish our county has what other counties do: daily afterschool care. But we dont. Its all or nothing

Anyway, some highlights and lowlights from teh 1st week of school.
Getting kids up and to bed --low lights. though Jack better than Alyssa about going to bed. Goal is 8:30 since we want them up at 6:30

Alyssa seems to be doing good in class, but homework already a struggle.

Jack brought home his classwork that did not get done yesterday. I was very upset at first until I realized he is still on coloring! He needs a bigger challenge than that.

Jack made a friend.

Alyssa rather be by herself. she wanted to be in a difference class with other kids that she knows. I had to teach her the life gives you lemons thing...

Being so hot. When they are done with homework, Jack pretty much plays video games and Alyssa is watching TV or bugging me. Surprisingly neither wants to go on the computer. last night they finally played outside around 7:30. If it could just be cooler than 100, that would be nice.

Alyssa started drama class this week. Jack will start baseball next Sat. Tryouts are tomorrow.

1st day of school.

2007-08-14T07:23:00.000-07:00

yesterday was the 1st day of school:

from Alyssa. I sit next to two annoying boys
From Jack. I am scared, as my teacher is too nice. I want a stricter teacher.

Also Alyssa was exhausted as sunday night she had a hard time getting to bed. As a matter of fact, this morning I had to wake her up at 6:45 and she fell asleep at 8:30 the night before on own. That shows how tired she is. I dont know how to help her get more sleep. How much can be done , if , via nature, a child just has sleep issues. I will continue to help her best I can. I really try to be calm about everything when she cannot go to sleep. the other night I did offer to check on her every 5 minutes , and I did so.

My mom sent pics from when they went to American girl place in NY. I am not going to make any prints as Alyssa was doing "my wrist is hurting" thing again while there and had it "wrapped". I am glad that since we have come back, there have been no "wrappings", but this phase really got to me.

Felix has been told that 50% of his group will be getting laid off. Logic would say that they should keep the good people and senior people, but they figure that they need to get rid of the bigger salaries, not that the salaries are that big! So he is working on his resume and also asking around in the company. I always thought I was at risk, not him. Especially since he gets calls all the time at home about his speciality. But there was some management changes as well recently and noone sees the value in what he knows and does. They think that anyone can do it, but time and time again, noone else has stepped up to the plate.

Back to school.....

2007-08-10T07:23:00.001-07:00

Last night was meet the teachers and open house night. It was total chaos at the school. This year, instead of listing each teacher and the kids, they listed the kids alphabetically and what teacher they had. I had decided to go to Alyssa's classroom first, since the kindy/1st/2nd hall would be more crowded. The problem was that I also had Jack with me and once AGAIN those two were picking on each other. This did not leave a good impression on Alyssa's teacher that she is stepping on his toes, etc. Also she was suppose to fill out a sheet about herself and hemmed and hawed about it. I did tell the teacher about the ADHD , with mostly distractibility. Alyssa ended up with a girl from last year's class and one other girl that she knows pretty well. She probably knows some of the other kids, but those were the notables. Of course, as usual, there is this one class that seems to have a whole bunch of all the kids Alyssa knows. There always is that one class, but she is not in it. Alyssas teacher is Ms. Yoo. I heard that she is organized and strict, but in a very calm manner. That should be good for Alyssa. So far there are 18 kids in her class. I also signed Alyssa up for a thursday , after school, computer keyboarding class.

AFter socializing some, we went to the other side to meet Jack's teacher. His is only going to be there for 6 weeks until his real teacher returns from Maternity leave. This is one thing about this school that I dont like. The tend to move teachers around from grade to grade, and in the younger grades you have the pregnant ones, that tend to be out a bunch at some point. From Alyssa's kindy year to now, there is probably only 2 of 8 teachers still there. 1st grade about the same as well. Even 2nd grade and some 3rd grade has a turnaround. one 3rd grade teacher 2 years ago taught 1st grade, and one taught 1st or kindy last year. Alyssa's teacher last year taught pre-K for many years and this year is doing ESOL. (english 2nd language). The other thing I dont like is that for 1st grade they no longer break the kids out for math according to ability. That is one thing I previously liked. I dont find this school so great as the years have gone by. They have 100 more students that they anticipated due to some unexpected condo development. The principal just sticks to basics here. Some other schools in the district go beyond to meet the needs of the students. But the alternative is private, which I cannot afford right now.

Anyway, Jack will do fine. he has our neighbor in his class, who is also in TAG as well. It would be nice if they became friends, but Jack is not a "boys boy" so I dont know that they will. There is a great girl that JAck played Tball with 2 years ago. Felix remembered the dad and mom since he did most of Tball. I bet Jack becomes friends with her. There were some other names I recognized, but maybe 1-2 kids from his class last year. Not any of his "friends", but that is ok. I know that his one friend (girl) is also in TAG with him.

The other thing is that both my kids have very late lunches again this year. Jack is at 12:00 and Alyssa is at 12:30. Last year Jack was 11:35 and Alyssa was 12:20. So even later. The other good news is that they are putting Math first thing in the am. That was a big issue for Alyssa last year. There is new MAth curriculum, so I guess they want to be sure kids are fresh when learning it.
Another neat thing this year is that you can pay online for the cafeteria, as well as monitor your account. No more sending checks in and not knowning how much $$$ you have. And Jack's DEAR time is after lunch, not before they go home, so I can maybe do it here and there if I visit for lunch.

Anyway, I was worried last night about the impression both Alyssa and I made on her teacher. Alyssa with her behavior and myself with how I handled it all, plus the fact that I probably talked too much.

I wont even go into what happened when Felix left to take them home. He wanted to get them food, but they could nto agree, got into a fight, and good for Felix, he took them home and sent both of them to their rooms!

I know I need to finish my trip info. but......

2007-08-08T07:40:00.001-07:00

Wanted to post about yesterday. It was a good day for both kids. Felix picked JAck up and from camp and on his own he came into the house and took his own shower. He then entertained himself and listened very well. Alyssa was with her BFF (the mom picked her up) so I got her around 7:30. on the way , a friend she made at camp called. AFter I got Alyssa she called her back. She also mentioned how she met a friend at camp. When we got home she listened and quickly took her shower and got into bed with no problems.

I wish all days were like that, but alas, this morning was not fun. Alyssa doesnt want to go to camp in the heat and I thought I could take her out when I was going to the dentist, but I am not sure how long the appt is, so I said that I probably cant now and she got upset.

back to normal....

2007-08-06T03:57:00.000-07:00

THe kids and myself are back from Jersey and life is back to normal. There is so much to write about that I have put this off. Maybe I will do some now and some later, or just gloss over everything. sorta a trip blog.

I went up to Jersey Tuesday night to get the kids. my flight was delayed by 3 hours due to weather in orlando and a mechanical problem. Luckily I did not have the kids with me. The plane I did get was one of hte ones that they have added TV's in the seat backs. That was so neat! I watched HGTV and TLC while on the plane. I was going to read a book on ADD by Dr Sears and someone else, but did this instead after a LONGGG wait at the airport. I do remember having a hard time deciding what to eat for dinner while at the airport. I did not want fast food, but the sandwiches really did not appeal to me. I ended up with one though,

I barely made the bus to get to my parents place.

Wed. was a crazy day. Jack had halloween day at the camp that he was going to. Mon night I had to run out and get a costume for him! luckily they were on clearance at party city. anyway, got him ready for camp and went with my father to drop him off. Then we went to brothers lot where he is going to build his house. AHHH my brother who works as a lawyer and thought he could build a house at the same time.... The one who has to be out of his house in 2 weeks and doesnt know yet where he is going to live while his house is being built. Dont worry , I got at earful from my father about my brother. I got an earful about my bad parenting, I got an earful about even things my mom does wrong in his eyes. I REALLY wanted to ask my father if he ever has anything positive to say about anybody by himself, but decided that I did not want to really cause a scene. I bit my tongue. When I was a teenager I always spoke my mind to him and we never got along. Now that I bite my tongue and just nod, we get along. Since I dont see him very often, might as well. not worth it.

Anyway, afterwards I went to this big shopping center to try to find stuff ot make a "wheel of WOW" for Jack for his carnival project for camp. I needed to make or buy a wheel that spun like what they have at carnival's that give out prizes. Finally got posterboard and foam and managed. The carnival was Thursday. This is what he wanted to do. If i had known my parents had bean bag tic tac toe around, I would have changed Jack's mind. I also bought my nieces their scooters and a gift for my sister in law for taking care of my Daughter. Geesh I quick shopping trip and 150$ later......(cant forget the prizes for the wheel)

My dad dropped me off to my brother's house to see Alyssa, while my mom got Jack. I then spent the afternoon wwith Alyssa and my nieces. I gave my SIL a break and took all the girls to the mall. I am a sucker when it comes to kids that are not my own. I will buy them stuff as long as its reasonable. We got back hours later and we waited for my parents and Jack so that we would go out ot dinner. This is when Alyssa had her meltdown . I knew one would happen when I arrived. It consisted of:

Why did you buy the girls stuff and only got me one little book

Why cant we go out to a fancy restaurant and have everyone get dressed up

Why dont kids leave me alone at school; I cant ignore them when they bother me (left field, huh?)

I dont like my counselor at camp this week (she went to morning camp with the girls everyday)

So now my SIL saw what I deal with. Then alyssa , of course, got "hurt" doing a cartwheel. My family arrived with Jack, and of course, Jack was an angel, seeing that his sister was a mess. my SIL, who had seen Jack misbehave saw what I see; When Alyssa is in her moods, Jack knows to step it up and be the angel child. I went with my father and Jack in one car and the girls all went in the other car. I stayed away from Alyssa at this point. It was better this way. Once again I got a lecture about how this is my fault. My father doesnt believe that maybe some of her issues is because of "how her brain works" and may not be anyone's fault. My mom "wrapped" her wrist and all of a sudden it was all better. Did not know a napkin could do that (enter sarcasm here). We had dinner and departed ways.

Thursday.. Jack went to camp to run his carnival booth. I had plans to have breakfast with an old friend and her 2 1/2 year old, so I would be late to help him out. My parents could nto help him out as they had made plans for the morning. Breakfast was great. Its nice to see my old friends in Jersey as I only go up once, maybe twice, a year. I really wish the kids could have gone down to her house at the shore and we could have done the carnival rides like we do every year, but this year we did not have the time at all. oh well... That has always been fun! After breakfast I joined jack. It was in the 90's, and being in the sun running his booth sorta sucked. Now here is something interesting. I found the boys at his camp to be larger than the boys down here in in atlanta metro. Is that because many of them are italian(where not all, but I believe many italian families center around food) , or does it have to do with the fitness level between the two areas.
After camp, it was too hot to go to any pools, so we came back and my SIL dropped off the girls so that she could do stuff. I kept Jack separated from everyone else to "keep the peace". I also got a chance to sit down with my nieces some. The quieter one really wanted my attn. I sat with a book and started some beginning reading. The book was "Go Dog Go". Later I got ready and left around 5ish to take the train to the city to meet an old friend of mine that I met during a USY convention (united synagogue youth) when I was 14. As teenagers, even though she lived about an hour away, she was my best friend. In some ways Alyssa mirrors my life that in high school most of my friends did not live in my town or were in my grade, except for the friend that I had breakfast with earlier in the day. Alyssa tends to make friends outside of school, or her one friend that moved.

GEtting back .. I took the train to the city. When I changed trains to get to Penn station, it turned out the tunnel was blocked , so it took quite a while to get in . The same happened for her, so we met up at the same time at this fun bar called 230 fifth. Its rooftop and was hopping. Since we are both pretty good looking women for being in our early 40's, we had soooo much fun. On an empty stomach the martini affected me right away. We stayed for quite a while and then headed back to penn station and grabbed some thai food around there. Took the 11pm train home. Even though I can stay up as late as I want as an adult, I still knew my parents would worry and had to consider them, so I came home early. If I was not staying with them, i would have stayed in the city longer. Its funny how I feel so much like a child still; even moreso than when I was in my 20's. I guess I want to be more considerate now.

Friday:
Last day of camp for everyone. Then after Jack's camp I got Alyssa and all her stuff. She was sad to say goodbye to her cousins. We came back and hung out inside since it was hot. then again, around 4:30 I took the car and met another friend in Morristown for dinner. She also has kids, but once again, getting the kids together would have been too much. I was actually home by 8:30. It was nice talking to her as well. We discussed a lot about our kids since she has some "issues" with hers and I took in advice as she has done a lot of reading.

Sat:
Ok, yhou can tell that I am getting tired of typing. Sat was spend with Felix's brother. Maybe I will talk about that tomorrow. Not that it was exciting, but just to add to another page.

Loving the time alone...

2007-07-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

I hate to admit this, but i am loving the last week without kids. probably one of the reasons is that I do know that they exist, are happy, and are coming back, aka I dont think I would be this happy if I did not have the kids. But while they were away.

1. went out almost every night . not good for waistline though. did get to check out some cool restaurants. When the kids are here I hate to go out and pay for babysitting. Also saw one movie and one baseball game. last night we went to Harrys (our version of a farmers market that is owned now by whole foods) . No kids whining and tagging along. Today we are doing habitat.

2. Got so much done in the house. Cleaned/decluttered. the office and laundry room. Cleaned the fridge and the washer/dryer themselves. basement is also cleaned. All laundry is done.
While I am gone felix is to do the garage and his car (that has crayon melted in it,ARGG the car is leased).

3. Slept in this morning. Though with the kids here I can sorta do that now at times as well.
Also not having to make sure kids are entertained is nice.

4. The maturity of Alyssa. STaying with her cousins and being the "big cousin" has been great for everyone. Jack, on the otherhand, is the "good boy who does wise ass things and doesnt listen". I have got to crack down on that.

Well on tuesday I leave to NJ to visit friends, family, and see the kids. I bring them back next Sat and then let the chaos begin! School starts a week later. I do have all my back to school stuff.

S.

bad pms day

2007-07-26T11:10:00.001-07:00

I guess its nice that the kids are not here . I am definately pms'ing.

This morning I called to talk to the girls and wish them happy birthday, as well as talking to Alyssa. My brother says that JAck is a wiseass and that he will straighten him out. THis bothers me very much. Even if Jack is a wiseass at times , its not my brother's place to say anything. JAck , I believe, acts this way, because he is unsecure and being the "class clown" makes he feel better about himself in some ways. I know that. The only reason why Alyssa is staying with my brother is that a while back, when we were having problems, he said "let her stay here, we will straighten her out". I never thought that by her staying with them that would " straighten her out", but figured I would call him out on his offer. The problem is that my SIL is the one that gets stuck all day with 3 kids. the good news is that Alyssa is very well behaved when I am not around. The other thing about this morning's comment is that I sorta said back, well you were one when you were a kid, and he denied it! Jack is so much like his uncle. I guess we have our own revisionist history here.

I tried to call my dad and ask him what is up with my brother's comment and all I got was that I call too much and to leave everyone alone. I dont think that calling a few times a day is bugging everyone. And I have not bugged them to what they are eating, what they are wearing, going to bed, etc. As a matter of fact, they drag Jack out late and then he falls asleep in the car.

Today I do have a valid concern. my mother drove the girls and my SIL to the city to the American girl place. I fear driving into NYC. So I hope it goes ok. Alyssa brought her doll with her, so she will be so happy. When they open up here, it will be a mob scene for a while..

Bored at work today. was a bit busy, but not much. have been all over the web today. nothing exciting. going out to eat tonight AGAIN! . kids gone and I am gaining weight.

s

the kids are away....

2007-07-23T06:55:00.001-07:00

The kids left Sat with my mom. So far everything is fine with them. They are both behaving and doing well. Alyssa is with my brother and is very helpful. her cousins adore her. In the meantime, FElix and I have a lot of work to do. We are cleaning all the clutter in our house. We started with the office and also the art bin the kids use. So far 3 hugh garbage bags have been filled. We also saw the movie knocked up on sat night. It was pretty good. Last night we went to the braves game. got Tix off craigslist last minute. In the morning we went to the gym. Felix has lost 5lbs this month. I am so proud of him. If only I could lose weight. I am toning up, but not losing as I eat junk. I wish I could get back on track. The thing about our house, is that we have the clutter issue and also the cat smell in the basement issue. my mom was very critical of both. Used to be that my parents were critical of my weight, but I guess the way I keep house (and in some cases raise my kids) makes better topics now. I let my mom know how much work we are doing so that its almost as if taking the kids had a "reward" to it. KWIM.?

Jack got into pokemon right before he left and got some cards. I dont know how they work. Its something I should probably learn more about. Alyssa, after years of having an American girl doll is all of a sudden into it. My mom might take her to the store in the city this week. We have one opening up here in Atl near our house soon. I am so happy that my brother in law/niece gave Alyssa her doll a few years back. those suckers are so expensive!!!

I am always thinking of things to write and how I should be writing in this blog more often. I guess the novelty has almost worn off.

president...

2007-07-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

I was elected to the neighborhood association board. Well at teh 1st meeting I was given the slot of "president"!!! Being so noconfortational I am not so sure if I can do a good job or not. I also have to be assertive with everything and have all the bylaws memorized. The good news is that the secretary and treasurer and 1st vice know what they are doing. I was suprised they wanted me to take this large a position. Luckily our neighborhood is not that large and most of it "runs itself". we also have seperate committee of 3 that go around looking for violations, approve fences, etc.

This morning Alyssa had a meltdown over a stupid toy that grows in water. She tried to bring it to camp and made her bag all wet. I then took it away. The drama, oh boy! I am almost scared to put her in drama classes for fear that she will take that skill and snowball me even more.
I did take this mornings drama with a grain of salt. My next worry is what she will eat/drink when she in NJ at my brother's.

Well back to work.

brain spinning...

2007-07-13T08:16:00.001-07:00

Trying to coordinate the fall stuff is driving me crazy. Too many unknowns. When is Jack's baseball practice? Whcih drama class will Alyssa take? When will she skate, aka still private or now group?

Then trying to coordinate my short visit to NJ and trying to get to see everyone.

Then there are those darn cats!!! on top of spilling cups all the time,, now someone is peeing where they shouldnt. I am so frustrated with them.

WE also have ants in our kitchen, but the exterminator cannot come until monday.

Sandy

dont talk about a drought

2007-07-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

well its been wet around here lately.I dont want to hear the word drought again. The funny thing is that all of sudden I have this fear that my house will get hit by lightening whenever we have a storm. I guess I have been too many pictures of house fires from lightening on the news.

Last night at the club the swim people said that I would have to put Alyssa down a class because she never learned side stroke or elementary backstroke. THis doesnt make too much sense as she can do the more advanced stuff. So I may have to go private first before I can put her in surf 3, which is more of an endurance and stroke tweeking class, which is what she needs! This is so frustrating to me, as I can never find what I need , when I need it.

My other issues is scheduling for the kids stuff. I dont know what days of the week baseball will be. games on Sat and swimming also on sat, might conflict. I should have done fall soccer for jack, but he prefers baseball. He also wants to do gymnastics, but Alyssa doesnt want to do the theatre like classes at roswell rec, so I cannot coordinate them. So I could do gymnastics on friday, but Alyssa would be bored since she would not have homework to do. When the weather is nice she could go to the playground though. I could do friday in the fall and then switch days in the winter.... Alyssa has skating, tuesday night hebrew school, and one other day with a theatre class. thinking of one near me wed 5-6. Sports is the killer, with practices and games. The other stuff is once a week. Jack also has speech. I wont do a winter sport with jack, minus swimming though. Believe it or not, I mostly dread , when school starts, sunday school and hebrew school for the kids. I dont have a carpool this year, but sunday we are not 8:30 anymore but 11am. Kills our sundays. plus i have to volunteer in the office or do shopping for the religious school as well. But this is something that is important to do.

So now we know what I lie awake at night thinking about. Since Alyssa has been back she is moving to the guest room around midnight/1am . She doesnt wake us up when she gets up to move (though sometimes I hear her), but I am not happy that she has night wakings again. This morning though, she finally woke up in a good mood. she was calm, and even made her own breakfast and did her own hair. I wish I had more of this calm alyssa than the wild bossy one.

They are in outdoor camp this week but like I mentioned, the weather has sucked, so they have not gotten in the swimming. luckily this camp at the rec center can use the indoor buildings. Alyssa is in camp with her BFF (who is missing today). On thursday night she is spending the night with us.

Work has been ok. I have been logging in earlyin the morning, dropping the kids off at camp, and then going to the office.

shes back!

2007-07-07T04:36:00.000-07:00

What I posted in my december list on thursday:
I freaked out about this whole sleepaway camp. I never heard fromAlyssa and she was not in many pictures. Also they had color war ,which has athletics in it for the last few days. Add in her sometimessocial issues and I was so scared she would have a bad time.Well my daughter had the best time! she cant wait to go back next yearand wants to go back for 4 weeks instead of 2! SHe even liked colorwar and was great at cheering for their team (red, which won).Her "sport" was sand castle building.We managed to unpack and wash everything already. She also loved heernew room when she came home. I had gotten her a new dresser and deskwith hutch. She sttill had her dresser from when she was a baby.

What has happened since. She is back to the "I am injured". She hurt her ankle at camp. Funny how that did not affect her doing cartwheels on thursday. yesterday morning she pull the I cant walk bit. And Felix was taking them to the amusement park. I wanted to put her in a camp and have felix just take Jack, but he would not do that. It was very upsetting to me that not 24 hours home and Alyssa was pulling her usual stunts. Then in the afternoon, when they go home, both kids were asleep in the car. Jack got up, but it took a while to wake Alyssa. When I did, she wanted to be carried. I told her she could walk. So she stayed in the car. Then she starting honking the horn, etc. so felix made her get out of the car and she sat in the garage. She said that we did not care about her because we dont believe her about heer ankle. Well when for the past 3 months something is ALWAYS hurt, what are we suppose to believe. I thought we had resolved this before camp. apparently not. It is very frustrating to me. I have tried ignoring it, sympathizing, reasoning, and of course getting angry. nothing works.

Other things I found out. Her bunkmate became mad at her because she would not return some posters. Alyssa says the girl gave them to her and then wanted them back. So we went out and got some from one of those magazines (where the other came from.. aka tiger beat). and will mail them with an apology. Alyssa was friends with a couple of girls but not everyone. There is this one girl she was closest to, that we will try to get together with. My best friend actually knows her since she lives around the corner from her. Alyssa still had a blast. I just have to remember that for her, its not the social thing that is most important now.
We also talked about friends and such and she says that kids think she is strange. She thinks she is strange as well, but she is fine/happy to be strange.

nice to know that things are "back to normal" here. Its actually 7:45 in the morning and both kids are sttill sleeping. Thats pretty amazing.

brain fog....

2007-07-03T07:31:00.000-07:00

boy has my brain been in a fog! Yesterday thru me off because Alyssa's furniture arrived so I worked from home in the AM. I hope she is pleasantly surprised. I just need some pins for her corkboard on her hutch. That was the part she wanted most. I got Jack from camp and completely FORGOT about speech for him. So instead we got cat food and got his hair cut.

Jack has really been into cartoon network and pokiemon. I had to pry him off the TV after 1 1/2 hours. I would almost prefer the computer. The weather was very overcast so I did not have him play outside. For dinner I made something that my dad makes --scrambled eggs with salami. first you fry up the salami and then add the eggs.

Anyway, Alyssa still being at camp affects me. Its just that I wish so much that she made friends and wants to go back next year and had a great time. Yesterday they had color wars and had all the pics up. there was one picture with her bunk and she, as usual , is off to the side. I just dont know. I wont know until Thursday. Either this is "it" for her, or she liked camp, but not this one, or now hates it. Which, when she is older, she might change her mind about it. I guess I am scared for her as before she left she had a fight with her best friend that she rarely sees. 3rd grading will be starting up and within school she doesnt have any good friends. This was suppose to be the thing that helped with all her social issues. That is the main reason whyI am so worried.
Now here is news--Jack made a friend at camp. When I dropped him off this morning the other kid even called Jack over to play. I am not as worried about him, as Alyssa, but started to think about social classes for him. Why couldnt I have gotten at least one social child? I guess the gene pool was stacked against that (my brother and I both had issues as kids and I believe FElix and his brother were not the most social).

Back to Alyssa. I want to go get her on thursday but Felix thinks its a bad idea. I need to make sure everything is coming home and I am dying to know about camp for her. If I knew that all along she was happy (not just as of last Wed), then I probably would have enjoyed the time off from the chaos more.

Tomorrow I am working the peachtree road race handing out water. Better than running it :)

been a while...

2007-07-02T08:30:00.001-07:00

I know I should post more often. Just havent felt like it. Not because of anything in particular. Still missing Alyssa with her at camp. I now want to go get her on THursday but felix thinks that is a bad idea.

Working the big road race here on Wed mornign. Will be up at 5am. Handing out water around 7:30 ish. Not really into doing much for the 4th. Dont think Jack cares about fireworks.

Jack got to swim at the Olympic pool (96) for this area wide meet. he was 90 out of 140 kids for backstroke. that is not too bad.

Emotional.

2007-06-27T06:40:00.000-07:00

This camp thing hit me very hard. I am not used to not being able to talk to Alyssa. yesterday I sent her a care package with the new hannah montana CD. I am over analyzing all the pictures on the website. I dont see her hanging out with the other girls and that really worries me. I just want to know if she is happy or not. Waiting for snailmail from her I could wait forever. I know i could not wait to send her off to camp. I will admit the house is peaceful and easy with just Jack. BUT I am concerned for my daughter's happiness. Will she make any friends.? that is the main question. The activities are fun, but you can have fun activities in daycamp. PArt of this experience was to work on her social skills. I have a feeling that this fall we will need a social skills workshop for her. I know that her not getting along with her BFF that she saw the week before camp plays a role in how I feel. I know that neither of my kids will be social butterflies, but I want them to be socially content. Especially Alyssa. This does stem back to my childhood and having self esteem issues along side social issues. Even as a grownup, I still , to this day, have social issues at times. Yes, I have friends, but sometimes I do feel like I stumble around socially. Felix is no social butterfly either, but in his case, he honestly doesnt care. For Jack, I am not as concerned. Boys dont rely as much on social stuff for their happiness.

I even tried to get someone from the camp to call me yesterday, but alas that did not happen. Just tell me what is going on . also I need to know if she needs anything. Looking at this logically, even if she is not having a good time, it wont ruin her. Its only 12 days. She doesnt have to go back again if she doesnt want to. BUT I think both Alyssa and myself put the pressure on ourselves that this would be a great experience. She had fantasies about this that I hope she got partially met, and I was hoping that she would make a friend or two and this would be a good summer refuge over the years to see those "camp friends". As much as Alyssa and I clash, I only want the best for her.

UPDATE: the camp called me.. They said that the counselor says that alyssa is happy and that this whole group of girls is getting along great---its one of the best groups they have had of this age group. This makes me feel a whole lot better. Though I would love to see her expression when she gets the package today. Also, she did not want the coffee milk, but this morning they had chocolate milk, so we finally got some milk in my child. I am PMSing this week, so I am also overly emotional and hearing the good news almost made me cry.

wonder if she is happy...

2007-06-25T07:00:00.001-07:00

I found the following pics on the website for the camp. As usual, Alyssa is moreso, off to the side in group photos. I hope she is happy.

what a sucky bday

2007-06-25T06:26:00.000-07:00

First, about a month ago, I discovered my birthday present (luggage) because when felix hid it in the storeroom in the basement, the kids went back to look and left a cat behind. So the next morning I found the cat, poop, and the new luggage. So I got my present early. Then I was suppose to go out friday night. Well that got canceled because my husband got very ill. Also, the one friend who was suppose to come ended up staying out of town. Sat night we were suppose to do a family dinner. Well felix still did not feel good and sat afternoon I got a touch of something that affected my tummy as well. Not that I would react like a man and just say I am sick and then not do anything for 2 days. Women are programmed differently. Men stay sick until they are 100%. If a woman can function she will.
Yesterday we dropped Alyssa off at camp. I really hope she is having a good time. I think it all boils down to if she is getting along with the other girls and making friends. Keeping my fingers crossed. Two girls in the cabin have their moms working in the office. I did ask them to send me email about how Alyssa is doing. I hope there are pics on the website with her in it. I just dont like that the only way to communicate is snailmail. I do miss her, but more importantly I want her to be happy there and I want to help in anyway. The last two days before she left (friday and sat) we got along great. I spend extra time with her, and even laid down with her before bed Sat night (had not done that in a while-aka its now hugs and kisses). She got a new webkinz as well. Of course, jack saw that, and now he has to have his.

Anyway, after we dropped Alyssa off, we stopped in this cute town called Dalonaga. Camp is less than 1 1/2 hours away, which is nice. We had lunch there and walked around. There are some cute shops. One shop had a player piano for .25. Jack loved playing those old fashioned songs and showed how he can "tap dance". We got hope and Jack wanted to go to "auntie's pool" so we did. They have a deep end and diving boards as well, so I could work on teaching Jack how to dive. He did pretty good, but still does more belly flop type diving, or his feet will go in as the same time as his head. He has not quite mastered the "arms first feet last" thing. But he did not hurt himself belly flopping and his version of diving should help with the last swim meet.

We stopped for pizza on the way home. Sat night, we were suppose to go to dinner, but I ended up bringing home burgers from 5 guys... the best burgers around. Last night Felix insisted that the TV come off, but I wanted to go to sleep with it on. With my PMS a fight ensued.

This morning FElix left for work, with nadda a word. Except for my parents, no phone calls. Alyssa would have made a big deal, but she is not here . Though without her getting Jack up, ready, and off to camp, was a peaceful event. Its not so much Jack versus Alyssa, but rather putting the two of them together. Alyssa definately instigates more stuff. But if I have one on one time with Alyssa she is ok as well. on the way to dropping her off, the two of them were so loud in the car. Somethings fighting and sometimes just goofing around with each other.

So I got one ecard from a friend, but somehow its blank. So the intent was good, but the something failed on the execution.... just my luck today.... Not that its a big deal. 43 is not a big deal... but it would have been nice to not have so many things not go my way for me.

Three never works...

2007-06-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

Having 3 in a crowd never works as a child. Someone is always getting left out. This is what happened to Alyssa during the sleepover for her best friend. There was another girl there and Alyssa felt left out. Also, the day of the sleepover Alyssa got up at 6am! and I thought for sure she would crash around 9ish, but managed to stay up til midnight. She says the other girls kept her up. She was also up around 7:30 the next day where they went to the mall to get her BF's ear's pierced. At 4pm was the actual party at a place called the pink room, which is a girly girl type thing with bring your own fancy outfit, and they do the hair, etc. I got Alyssa home after the party and she was so overtired that she did no go to sleep until 9:30. I also knew better than to do anything that would set her off.

This new gym was joined is great. Felix has been working out within the rhelm of his heart condition and excited about it. I went on weight machines for the 1st time in over 10 years. Also I have been taking classes. Hiphop is better than step, as you have to learn moves, but you build on the same moves, versus step that after you learn a bunch of moves, you start all over in the same class. We cannot go tonight or tomorrow, so we will be on Sat. Tomorrwo night I was suppose to go out with a couple of girls in relationship to my bday on monday, but one of the girls is now going to be out of town. I hope to still go out. This year I really dont care about my bday, its just another year. I almost woudl forget about for the most part. I already have my gifts as I found the luggage during the cat-got-accidentally-locked-up fiasco.

Tonight is swim team night as usual. I love swim team and meets, but having them on Thursday nights, which is the night before the cleaning people come, really exhausts me.

fathers day and Alyssa hates me.

2007-06-18T06:17:00.000-07:00

Sat was an early and busy day with the swim meet at Marist. I will give Alyssa lots of credit. She is the slowest swimmer on her team, but she enjoys it and she tries. her issue is endurance. She is great the first 1/2 of the 25 yards and then loses it. 1st 1/2 25 yard time is probably 1/2 of the 2nd half of the 25 yards.. wow ! that was an interesting mathish sentence!
FElix took jack to his friend's pool and i took Alyssa to my office to pick up the father's day cards that I left here. We also went to the webkinz store. I can get any webkinz out there. We went home around 4ish and actually spend the rest of the night at home. On Sat Alyssa acted mature and wonderful--and I did not yell. Sunday was the complete opposite.
Sunday thigns were ok for fathers day. We went to the new gym. I took a step class for the 1st time in over 10 years. Its more like dance moves step. I have 2 left feet and there was no way I was able to keep up with all those moves. I ended up going to basic step moves at times. We then took the kids to the pool. Afterwards they did some rock climbing and we went to the rink for Alyssa's lesson. Things started off badly as she got upset with her friend Taylor. Then with Alyssa being overtired (up early on Sat, stayed up late Sat night and did not sleep in like most normal kids on sun), it was not a good mix. But good news.... She has her one foot spin starting to work! We got home and then went to dinner for Fathers day. Alyssa was mad at me already for the fact that I actually did not give in to everything she wanted. Now the RANT.. Felix does.! She prefers her daddy now all the time because he lets her do whatever she wants. She has even thrown things at him and he laughs. I know she doesnt do it to hurt him on purpose, but she gets wild and does it. I joke with him that maybe he will handle her the day that she really hurts him. It hurts my feeling a lot that she doesnt like me at this point, but its a two way street. I do so much for her. I am always there for her. When she behaves and does good I let her know. But I also to tend to yell when she gets out of control. After we got back from dinner she was playing outside with the neighbors and she decides to turn on the hose and hose them down. That got her inside and in timeout. That did no go over well with her. First, we are not allowed any outside watering, and 2nd that is very rude. Its sad that I am SOOOO looking forward to those 12 days of sleepaway camp. yes, I will miss her, and yes I love her, but I feel like I am in one those relationships with her -aka the boy that you love so much, but is so wrong for you. She is my daughter and its not the same, but sometimes the feelings and behaviors remind me of that time.
This morning we got along fine. We talked about some stuff, I got her ready for camp, I was calm about things......I just want to get past this issue of her not liking me before she goes to camp. She says she is only going to miss daddy, not myself or Jack. I really believe that when she gets back home we need to go back to the phsyiatrist and work things out better.

Onto father's day.. got felix Nascar stuff. he actually liked it. Cards from Alyssa, JAck, and the cats. Those cats are up around 6am these days meowing for food. Its so annoying. I need to teach them to sleep in as well :)

gettin to the bottom of the issue...

2007-06-14T08:47:00.000-07:00

I finally got to the root of the issue of Alyssa, her sprained/broken body parts, and her obsession with ace bandages.. yesterday morning we had a big war over the ace bandages and that she insisted her hand was broken. I knew better as there was no swelling . Sure, she probably hurt it, but it certainly was not broken. The day before she had "snuck" an ace bandage to camp after I told her not to take it and then told the counselor there that I said she had to wear it. I was furious about the lie/deceit. Later that night I did not take her to the kids club at the health club even though she wanted to go. Also, she put up a big fuss at swim team practice. I almost removed her from the team, since she does like swimming. Anyway, yesterday morning she was fussing again and I sorta blew up. She ended up crying and then sorta locking herself in the bathroom. Finally we had to leave for camp and I gave in about the ace. Well I started to think about this whole thing and when this start, aka when she first sprained her wrist. So I figured we needed to have a really good talk about this.

so yesterday, after camp, I sat her on my lap and we talked about it. I mentioned that she would get hurt before she sprained her wrist, but she also put some ice on it and it was over, even if it still hurt a few days later. Why now is she insisting that its broken/sprained, ever time she hurts something (foot, arm, finger, hand, etc). Well it turns out that she is afraid that is going to really hurt something worse, since she did that first sprain. I explained to her how it took her X years to even get to a sprain and that things just dont break that easily. Also how the wrap really doesnt prevent things from breaking. She then asked what ace bandages are used for then :). I told her for someone her mom's age who needs extra support on their limbs :).

I also talked about how in the beginning she also loved the attention, but now how kids would think she is fragile and may not want to play with her.

Since that talk her hand "magically" was all better. This reminds me of when she was about 3 and having bad dreams. We could not figure out what was going on, but eventually found out that she had overheard me talking about how I put her ON the dryer when she was baby and mistook that for IN the dryer.

I hope our swim meet doesnt get canceled tonight due to storms. We had no rain for almost 2 months and now we are getting thunderstorms everyday.

getting healthier

2007-06-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

We joined lifetime fitness this weekend. This is the new big healthclub in the area that everyone is joining. They told us that they already have 9000 members (including kids) and will stop at 10K. One of the justifications I did in joining is that it has a fantastic indoor and outdoor pool, so basically I am paying the same as if I was to join a pool for the summer. Our subd doesnt have a pool. Also, I am hoping that this will motivate Felix to get in shape, best he can, based on his heart condition. I would help him tremendously if he lost about 20lbs. both for his heart, energy, and looks. I hate to say this, but at his weight, I dont have this great "attractiveness" to him. So we shall see. If it doesnt work for him, I will probably just be a member with the kids, which is less money. We did spend 5 hours there on Sat at the pool. Sunday felix and I worked out a bit and put Jack in the kids club. They have a great kids club while you work out. I am very pleased that Jack decided to shoot hoops rather than play video games. Alyssa ended up going with a friend and her mom the rest of sunday. We met them out to ride bikes and Alyssa stayed with them. I thought it was cool that both my kids were riding bikes with Alyssa's friend, who just learned. Also, sunday late afternoon, Jack had a playdate with his friend (female) at their pool. this is basically his one friend that he made at school, so I encourage the playdates.
This is a real crazy week. Today I have an eval at the health club and Jack has speech after camp. Tomorrow the kids have pictures with swim team. Wed I have a crown being put in (YUK) and thursday I get my boobs smashed before the swim meet that the kids have. AT least no sleepovers next weekend. Alyssa went to a sleepover friday night and went to bed really late. I dont know that she ever recovered from that. This morning it was hard for everyone to get up for camp.

everyone healthy....

2007-06-07T09:59:00.000-07:00

Well Alyssa went a whole day without a complaint. The funny part is that I told her that if she could go a whole day without a complaint she could have something (Ijust wanted it to just end). So she asked if she could have the desk we saw at the furniture store. Since I plan on getting it for her anyway, I said yes. So this becomes win/win, except that she thinks that she can get a big ticket item for doing something (which eventually I will let her know was not the case).

We are getting a new neighbor from Florida. they have an 8 year old daughter. So I am keeping my fingers crossed. Alyssa could use a neighborhood friend. Meanwhile she is not that happy with one of her other friends. I am trying to show her that for reasons she is unhappy with that friend, others could be unhappy with her.

Gotta love the summer routine of camp.. get filthy at camp... go to swim team and dirt comes off with clorine... go to showers at pool to get clorine off and wash hair.

The local hallmark has 5000 webkinz in stock. They are pretty much the only ones, but that is fine by me. I am now the official webkinz shopper for people.

back home.. yawn yawn...

2007-06-05T08:23:00.000-07:00

I got back pretty late last night. My flight was delayed by about 2 hours by the time we took off.
Got home around 11pm. Had stuff to do around the house. ThenI was woken up by alyssa at 2:30 in the morning. She cant sleep. Her foot hurts. Felix let her walk around all weekend with her foot wrapped up from when it was "injured" 1 1/2 weeks ago. She finally slept in the guest room and I let her sleep in until around 7:45 and we go to camp later. But this morning it was her "arm that hurt". I now call her my china doll. I also have told her about the story about the boy who cried wolf. one day she will be really hurt and then I wont believe her. Going to bed around midnight and being up for a good part of the night, boy am I tired. And back to being mommy again. I missed my kids, but it was sorta nice to get out of mommy duties for a short while. Not that moving duties are much better. My mom has a hard time getting rid of stuff. She had cloves that were 40 years old! They did not have much time, so I would guess that the getting rid of stuff will happen over time. Its not furniture so much as books. We need to find a place that want french literature books. My mother has many french books. She needs to call some more universities. Bring those that she loves/needs down to Florida with her. The good news is that their apartment is like a regular 2bdrm apartment, but it was a full finished basement. She set up her office there, plus extra living room and the daybed, amounst other stuff. Without that space there is no way that they could have moved.

If I was up there I would try to ebay/craigslist some of their stuff. They have an old meat grinder , for example. But I am here in GA, so its hard for me.

While up there I got to see a friend that reads this blog :). It was great to see her family as well as the expanding belly :))). I will be going back up to jersey at the beginning of Aug , so I hope to see everyone then.

Im here....

2007-06-02T03:36:00.000-07:00

Its 6:30 am and I am here in NJ. I cant believe I got up so early (well I can... the sun comes up early here anda its bright). Of course Aunt Flo came today as well. The flights were delayed yesterday due to the "potential of bad weather". Not bad weather, but that it could happen. I never made it on my original flight, but rather got the the earlier flight that was delayed enough. It was pretty easy-- they were loading the flight and getting standby on and I asked if there was any more room, and sure enuf, there was. I bet the last flights of the day are never as full as they are booked, as all day long people from later flights are standby on earlier flights.
Once here I had to take a bus which was ok. I met a women who has kids my age with grandkids that she was visiting. So it was like talking to my mother as someone else.

Speaking of the kids, I did not post on friday, but they did AWESOME in the swim meet. Alyssa placed 3 in Butterfly out of 6 in a heat that counted!!! JAck did his entire backstroke. Alyssa announced she wants to do year round swimming. Sure, add more business for me... Gymnastics will definately be out then.
At the swim team I met this mom who has 2 girls my kids ages plus a young son. Turns out that they are jewish as well. Now I know everyone is going to chastize me for this one, but the mom , and now that I met the dad, are ugly. A part of me is not pushing forward to become friends as I probably should. It was hard talking to the mom the other day without staring at the facial hair that was growing. OK I DISLIKE myself for saying all this. Its not that I need to hang out with beautiful people; average is fine. Its just way below avg that I am being like this. I guess one thing is that I need to wait and see if Alyssa and her daughter become friends at swimming.
Alyssa did bond the other day with a girl that she did dance with while in kindergarten. The parents also have on other older son and then twin just turned 5 year olds, who were toddlers all those years ago.

Anyway, maybe i should try to get more sleep . 6 hours is not going to cut it.

getting ready...

2007-05-30T12:41:00.001-07:00

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.

Let summer begin.

2007-05-27T03:59:00.000-07:00

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.

how to heal a wrist...

2007-05-23T05:13:00.000-07:00

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.

long time...

2007-05-21T05:35:00.001-07:00

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.?

mothers day....

2007-05-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

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.

family.

2007-05-11T09:23:00.000-07:00

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 :)

Drama Drama Drama...

2007-05-09T08:09:00.001-07:00

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.

TAG again....

2007-05-06T14:18:00.000-07:00

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.

googles and sprains :)

2007-05-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

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.

todays stuff...

2007-04-30T11:02:00.000-07:00

Lets see.

1. Alyssa was allowed to return to school.
2. I took my car in due to a fan issue. turned out to be leaves.. in the spring?
3. Alyssa might have sprained her wrist at the playground yesterday.
4. Jack is really now riding a bike. Made it all the way around this park we went to. Now I have to teach him how to start, and how to stop without dumping the bike. He definately is now catching on fast. I am very proud of him.
5. NEed a handyman, tree removal person, and deck staining person. So much to do around the house.

Thats it for now.... never a dull moment.

my lice experience....

2007-04-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

This whole lice thing has been driving me batty! I discovered lice on alyssa during spring. Getting rid of them is not as simple as using the lice shampoo. The easy part is the stuff. Hot heat in dryer. The hard part is the nits/eggs in hair. I treated her. Got the lice out. A week later the eggs that were left hatched and I used tea tree oil, combed thru it all, and thought I had it all licked. She never went to school with the lice since spring break. I know that she got them from school though beforehand. Anyway, after 2 weeks, then last sunday, once again, lice! Did I miss anything, or did she get them again. Well this thursday her whole class got checked. They sent a lot of kids home with "nits", aka the eggs. Alyssa was fine, but on friday they found nits. I think they were dead ones as they were further down on the hair, which means they are probably old ones. But in anycase I had to pick her up.

Frustrated I made an appt for her locks of love. It was s uppose to be next weekend, but I wanted the long hair gone. Easy to treat the situation. So yesterday she got her hair cut. Below is a pic. Then I went thru and tried to get every nit. There are no lice themselves in her hair. But the school has a no nit policy. the nits are not "contageous", the lice are. I heard that one child that had the actual lice got to stay, which makes no sense to me. The problem is that to get rid of nits is a hand process. The idea behind lice treatment is to retreat every 7 days so that young lice that have hatched get killed before they can further lay eggs. Mature eggs will work with the tea tea oil/olive oil/ mayonaise treatment. Vinegar will lossen the glue on the nits. I know more than I need to know. Last night we did mayo and vinegar. Went thru the hair once again. She cannot go to school unless no nits. I cannot wait for this nightmare to be over. Other fun facts. Lice LOVE clean hair. The greasy, color treated, etc hair is not what they want. So those that are clean are the ones that get it. Dark skinned kids usually dont get it with their coarse product ridden hair. I cannot wait until we are finally DONE with this ordeal. The good news is that since spring break I have been treating Alyssa, but besides her teacher noone in her class really knew.. now it is all in the open.
Yesterday, after the haircut and errands, I had a boy come over from Alyssa's class that she wants to be friends with, but cant because of the teasing. he also had nits. Nits are not contageous and he was treated for the lice. It was nice to have that playdate.

Other news...

Alyssa did not get into tag. she passed creative and academic, but cognitive and motivation did not pass. I have not heard about Jack yet. I did not make a big deal out of this. AT least we tried and now know.

Jack is a new kid at school according to his teacher. He is a model student. The only issue once again is the one where he really doesnt socialize. Once again, I dont make enuf playdates for him. Have to try harder on that one. I cant remember if I talked about this on the last blog entry so sorry if duplicate. I asked him about this and one answer he said is that "he got hurt playing tag wwith the other kids a few months ago, so he doesnt want to play anymore". I will have to pursue that more. I did tell him to try again. He is such a baby about getting hurt. Most of that comes from his sister having sometimes hit him and Jack learning how to play victim real well.

I STiLL have a clogged ear. Other than getting tubes myself, I think it will just take time. The day I get my full hearing back I will be so thrilled. I still feel like I am full of phelm in some ways. I probably need to continue to take some type of allergy or musinex type stuff. I sorta gave up for a while.

sorry its beena while.

2007-04-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, two weeks later and I still am not 100%. My ears are still clogged up. This is a real pain. Anyway, onto other issues.

Today I saw Jack's teacher. She says he is a transformed kid! He is no longer arguing, but a model student. She wanted to be sure that nothing out of the ordinary caused such a change. Nope, its just that I think that JAck finally "got it". The only concern is that he doesnt socialize much. That is my fault still as even this weekend, Alyssa had 3 playdates and Jack did not have any. He did attend a bday party though. I need to work on playdates for him. he prefers the girls to the boys. Also he so much prefers to stay inside playing computer or watching Tv. I need to definately get him outside more. The weather here has finally come back to normal. MArch was so nice. It was above normal. April was below normal so far. Now things are "normal".

I need to really start following thru with Alyssa. She can be a such a spoiled brat at times. The problem is that she really knows how to get to me so that I finally cave in. I need to stop. She needs to start doing more around the house. The problem is that she is not money hungry enuf lately for an allowance based on chores.

There is so much more I am sure that I should mention, but lasast week I forgot to finish my draft and therefore lost what was on my mind.

whose vomit is that? (from laast week)

2007-04-19T06:10:00.000-07:00

Tuesday I came home and found that one of the cats had vomited up quite a lot. I then took Alyssa to skating , came home, and found new vomit. So off to the vets we went. I thought it was Kaikai so she went first. It turns out that she has lost a few lbs since last year. But otherwise she is very healthy. We are thinking bad hairballs.
Then yesterday I took Cobbie. He has gained a lb.! He is the one I have the light food for.. WE are going to somehow how to just feed kaikai without giving cobbie food. He also otherwise seemed fine. So if nothing else I have piece of mind 100's of $$$ later that my cats are ok.

Still working on that health thing....

2007-04-17T06:23:00.000-07:00

By sat morning my ears were clogged up and one was in a lot of pain. A trip to the Dr and I am on allergy meds, antibiotics, codeine cough syrup, and I got pain meds for that first day. We had an event sat night that I wanted to attend, but Felix felt that I was not 100% so it would not be fun. The problem was that we laid out 100$. I guess consider it a writeoff?
I cannot wait to have my hearing back. The coughing is getting better, and overall I have more energy. I did not like being at home all weekend. I did make it to the grocery store, but that was it. I felt extremely guilty that jack did not leave the house on Sunday. Either watched something on TV or played with webkinz. We did some speech and reading comprehension, and he did play some with lego, but that was about it.

This week is CRCT week, where Alyssa takes those big tests. These are the no child left behind tests that all the schools are judged on. Basically our public education has turned into "teaching for the test". I really disapprove of this NCLB thing. The thought behind it was probably good, but have our bad schools become better because of it ? All I see is that that schools/kids that did well before, continue to do so, but I feel that the education has changed and not for the better. Also, because attendance is part of it, if you want to take a family vacation outside of regular holidays, that is a big no no now. I think that should be up to the parent to decide if its worthwhile or not. Not up to the schools and social services.

Anyway, off my rant.

Sandy

sick sick sick...

2007-04-13T05:06:00.000-07:00

This cold that started late Tuesday has probably been the worse cold I have had in a long time. Its the whole shabang. headaches, sore throat, bad congestion, coughing. I have not really been to work in 2 days. I do have to do the kids activities though every afternoon. There is no choice. Felix cannot be in two places at once , nor would he ever take off of work to do activities. He would sooner have the kids miss them all. I wonder what he would have done if I had been really sick on Tuesday to the point that Alyssa could not make her orthodontist appt with me at 2:00 last Tuesday. He probably would have asked me to change it versus taking off of work. This sorta would have really annoyed me.

Anyway Alyssa did great! She did everything they asked and she now has 2 braces and spacers put in to get ready for the bottom jaw expander. She was a bit sore, but handled it fine. Refused tylenol though. I kept offering it to her . She is old enuf that if she decides she would rather be in minor pain than take meds, I feel that is her choice. AFter braces she had skating. I do get somewhat bored hanging out at the rink for 2 hours and need to remember to bring the laptop. they do have a wireless router there. I wish her friend would be able to skate with her before lessons, but her friend has tutoring on Tuesdays.

Wed I did stay home from work, but got the kids and took them to gymnastics/theatre. I also had to look thru the school for Jack's stuff. Basically when Felix got Jack on tuesday he forgot his coat and his homework. Luckily the afterschool teacher put the homework in Jack's cubbie in his classroom. The coat was still MIA. Then JAck told me he had his lunch box, but he did not. So yesterday (thursday) when I got him I finally found his coat outside and he had found his lunchbox. yesterday I went to work for a while, then went home, went to get more drugs to try, and then got the kids. FElix took jack to baseball and I did take Alyssa to gymnastics. I could have just stayed home, but she is probably going to miss gymnastics in a few weeks when part II of the braces come on.

So I just wnat to be healthy. !!!! This truly sucks. Staying home and watching daytime TV is not fun for me. The problem with being here at work is that my brain is not functioning very well for the technical work I have to do. I am also starting to have a short fuse with the kids. Alyssa was not being very helpful in getting ready this morning and I was yelling at her a bunch. She should be old enuf to remember to bring down socks, put on her own shoes without complaining , etc etc. yesterday she forgot her lunch, which was right on top of her backpack. I had to go back home and bring it back to school. Most times I wouldnt have done it, but it had soft foods in it for her mouth. today she decided she wanted lunch as well, but that was 5 minutes before we were to leave, so I told her tough luck.

PR.

2007-04-10T05:48:00.000-07:00

PR, is what I will refer to as Puerto rico.

We got up at 5am to catch a 6:40 flight . My dad suprisingly got up with up and took us to the airport. The strange thing is that we came back around 6ish on friday and at that point we had to take a cab. We could have taken our car and parked it, but figured we should leave it. Being passover it was hard to find something to eat at the airport. I had to settle for some yogurt. May not be really kosher for passover, but better than bread items.

The flight was ok. 2+ hours. We arrived and the luggage did take forever, but we knew that. Then we got our cab to our hotel. I had turned in my holiday inn points to stay at the Intercontenental for 2 days. The last day we were staying at the sheraton in Old San juan. (thru priceline, as what else would sandy do :) )
The hotel is on the beach at isle Verda. At 10am they were able to check us in already. WE did not face the beach, but rather the south side. This is the landing path for the airplanes, but the real noise comes from takeoff, which is the opposite direction, Not much you can do about that. We were hungry so we put on our bathing suits and headed to the pool/beach. I needed some shade due to the last few days crispiness on the top of my feet and a few edges. They do have plenty of shade around the pool if you want it. comfortable chairs as well. But good luck finding one!!! Came to find out that people are out at 7am reserving the chairs! I did understand since at least 1/2 of the guests were from NY LOL:). WE ordered expensive hotel food and drink. I had a salad. Hung out until around 3ish and then walked down the street to walgreens and to see what was there. Not a whole lot. The street in front of the hotel is a bit cheesie, with burger king, et al. came back and went to the beach to just sit. FYI, i had brought 2 books down.
Double trouble -- about a twin who fall sin love with her sister's ex. its a bit more than that, but easiest explaination
The 2nd book from the author of the Devil wears Prada. The people you know? I think was the title.. I cant believe I forgot the title. Anyway, I could totally picture the movie from this book. I do tend to do that a bunch. picture the movie from a book.

We then headed for dinner. there was a restaurant at the end of hte beach, right on the ocean. Felix had is mofungo. That is smashed plantains with other stuff. I had ribs (which believe it or not, PR is also known for). I did eat rice. Not completely passover, but had to do something. We made it back in time for American Idol. Believe it or not we fell asleep around 9ish!

Wed-- we rented a car. Got up early and got the car around 7ish. WE drove west . There were tons of cops on the roads. No speeding here. Went to the caves. If you dont get there early, when they open, you may not get the tour. Got there a little after 9am. That was a good tour. Those are hugh caves. AT the caves you can repel somewehre . I wanted to try that being on vacation, but we had other things to do. We then headed south looking for a good roadside stand, but somehow missed it and ended up in Lares to get the ice cream that Felix wanted. We did have to stop to find the center of town. We brought our navigation system, but it wasnt always 100%. Driving thru town, with the narrow roads, scared me. I was afraid felix sideswipe a parked car. reminded me of europe. We found our ice cream place after searching for parking. It has all kind of wierd ice cream flavors, such as beans , garlic, sweet potatoes, etc.
We got to try a few and I opted for strawberry cheesecake.
Afterwards we heard we can buy authentic coffee here, so we went to a small shop and got some for our cat sitters. 4.99/lb. We then headed to the largest observatory. We made a wrong turn getting out of town, and went on this winding road that could barely hold one car, let alone if someone had to come frm the other direction. Luckily the navi did get us back on track from this road. The observatory was interesting, but felix was disappointed that he could nto walk the grounds. Also, to get to it, you have to walk uphill. With his HCM, it was not easy for him.
He took tons of pics. which is his hobby. I was getting bored. THis happened a lot. We would stop somewhere and I would have to wait for him to take his pics. He did end up with over 1500 pics on this part of the trip.
We got done with the observatory and on the way back we went to the bacardi tour. you get free drinks and a free tour. Of course they hope you spend lots of $$$ buying rum. We did buy some, as gifts and a few for us.
We then tried to make it on the other side of san juan but west of where we were staying , to Condado. The problem was that the navi could not get us on the small bridge. We finally figured out a why via the real old fashioned map. I can read a map just fine. I love the Navi, but dont think its the endall that felix thinks. We finally just parked, as parking was hard to come by. We found a place to eat. We actually asked someone that looked like they lived in that neighborhood. This area also has tons of hotels and more places to eat than where we were staying. I had some fish for dinner. The bread looked great, but I did not take any, By this time I think Felix and I were sorting getting on each other's nerves a bit. Anyway, we headed back to turn in the car and back to the hotel. Got back around 9. Asleep before 10.

Teh next morning felix got up early to take pics. I joined him a few min later . The whole time I was tryin to get my laptop to work since the hotel was wireless, but my laptap wireless card was giving me fits. Only in the business center itself would it work after playing with it. I need to fix that. At this point, around 7am, we saw people getting their towels already, so we did so as well and got a decent place to sit. WE walked on the beach and felix took, what else, but pics. There is an old cemetary on the beach. We came back and went across the street for breakfast at this small place. Very reasonable for your std , 2 eggs, potatoes meal. Then we sat around for about 2 hours reading. We also met some people from long island that we talked to.

Around 11ish we checked out. We got a cab to go to our next hotel in old san juan.
Once again, we cfould check in right away. wtih priceline we did not get one of the rooms of the view of the cruiseship ports. This is a great hotel if you are taking a cruise and come in a day before. WE then found the trolley and went to the fort at the top of the hill. I could have walked it, but it was hot and felix and his health. This is where FElix musta taken so many pics. I just sorta sat there after I was done with the fort. I was like, "payback soon--lots of shopping". After he was down we went down each street and did some shopping for the kids and my parents. Stopped somewhere along the way. for lunch and I tried cold fish with onions. cerviche? I did not like it much. Got back to the hotel and relaxed a bit. Then we headed for dinner. this was the night before good friday. There are some cool churches in such a catholic town. It was neat watching the people around the churches. The place we wanted to go to dinner was closed though. we thought because of good friday,, but they are just closed on thursday night. We found another place not far from our hotel . It had been recommended, but it was ok. Interesting people watching though. We did get to sit outside. Got home late and stayed up past 10 that night!

Friday morning. We went back to the fort, but walked this time. WAnted to see if anyone was flying kites. Its a great place for that. The stores were mostly closed. Oh and we did have breakfast at this place that is the PR version of waffle house. Very famous place. I wish I could have eaten something other than eggs though. they have interesting pizza'a at these bakery/eating places. some shops did open eventually. I wanted to go back and get something and luckily that shop opened. we had also checked out, but left our luggage. After all morning we did stop at the restaurant that felix liked that was closed for a small lunch. Next time we really need to do dinner there. I wish I could remember the name. I am really bad with names. Took a cab to the airport and came back. Flight was about 1/2 hour delayed.

Ok. This was long and my fingers hurt from typing.

travel log

2007-04-07T18:11:00.000-07:00

I know I should have started this right after we got to south florida so that I could remember more details, but I will do the best I can, the night before we leave. Originally we were going to leave today, but record low's in atlanta and snow flurries! made us decide to stay one more day and do the drive all in one day and be rushed when we get back.

We left friday the 30th and spend 2 hours in Atlanta traffic. Along with spring break traffic was the NCAA tourney that was in town. We left at 3pm . We would have been better off getting up at 5am on sat and going straight through. Anyway , we had friends leave the same time as us and they went through downtown and we went around town. Both had tons of traffic but they ended up 45 minutes behind us, so we made the better move. anyway, we got to our hotel in Gainesville, Fl around 10ish. unfortunately all we got was one queen bed. I made a bed on teh floor for jack and Alyssa slept in a recliner. There was NOTHING avail. I had used priceline and not gotten the hotel I thought we would get. I got extended stay instead. The site biddingfortravel.com did not have the ES listed as a potential or I would not have done it. I could upgrade to 2 beds but they had none.

WE got up and left on Sat morning and arrived at my parents around 12:30. We changed and headed straight to the pool. Everyone here is always using the grills and offering food to everyone. My parents happen to know everyone, so my kids got a "free" lunch. Grilled pizza if you can believe. We then ran into the people we met over Xmas. They have a son close to Alyssa's age and another 3 year old. They have a cabana near the pool, so that is always nice. They are also from Long Island and know my close friend's sister. The wife is russian and nice as can be. The kids had a good time at the pool. I cant even remember what we did Sat night at this point. Oh,, we got an early dinner from yet another set of people using the grill. The weather was beautilful of course. As a matter of fact, it did rain this week in S. florida, but only one morning while felix and I were away. FElix and I only saw 5 minutes of rain in PR the entire trip!

Sunday was pool/beach. WE got a cabana by the beach. I did miss a few spots on the kids , but luckiily they only got slightly red. I forgot the top of the feet and got burned there. Crispy around the edges. The kids played with the kids they knew and I even met some other kids for them. The pool /beach was so crowded with weekend crowd and spring breakers. That night we had the movie room to watch Prince of Egypt , considering it was passover and all. I had invited the kids we knew, but at first the mom said they could not make it. We had not figured out dinner so Felix picked up a quick small pizza to bring. then their kids ended up being there and their nanny got upset with us for not offering pizza to their kids. Honestly if they would have asked they could have had mine.. I just never thought, as it was 8pm to offer, and that was wrong. They always offer us food at the pool. I made a major faux pas. I guess I am used to kids asking for what they want. The nanny was really pissed, but then again, if I had known they were coming I would have gotten more pizza. I really thought they bailed on us. Bad bad sandy and we apologized and the next day we brought them wine and some coloring stuff for the kids to apologize.

Speaking of the next day, my mom was busy all day , and we were a bit "crispy", so we went to the big wine store here that felix loves. Also got gas for the car. Then went to this park we once went to before. They have a small playground, but also a big hill with a sorta fort at the top. the kids remembered that park from before. I met a SAHD while there with his young kids. (2,4). Afterwards we stopped for lunch at panera bread co. and made a stop at office max to get a new charger for the laptop as we had forgotten ours . We figure that a universal laptop charger is not a bad investment anyway. We then went up to boomers, which is a mini amusement park. It has a big building of video games (aka dave and busters ) as well as some rides. They are good about height requirements here, so the kids to do the tea cups,, the swings, and most importantly, the bumper boats, on their own. They also got to play mini golf. Alyssa did not want to do the rollercoaster and I did not push it. They also have an awesome gocart course. Alyssa was tall enuf to do it on her own, but prefered that I drive. Jack and felix went together. That was fun!

WE got back around 3ish and I took the kids to the pool while Felix helped my mom prepare passover. Her sister was coming around 6ish we thought. ended up she was here around 5. I came up with the kids and they were here. I had to shower the kids and myself and get them ready pretty fast.

the sedar went pretty well. Jack was charming as usual. I love that he asked the 4 questions and when the question came "why do we recline" , he made a comment about how we were not doing that :). After the sedar I had to a quick run to walgreens before we left for san Juan, PR, here on out called PR for short, at 5am. My father offered to drive us to the airport and leave our car behind. Our flight was at 6:40.. Of course I accidentally put one sunscreen in the carry on, which had to be thrown out. Luckily it was from the 1$ store. That is my favorite sunblock, believe it or not. It goes on so smoothly. I will write about our trip to PR in another entry, another day. Meanwhile back at the ranch here, the kids had $$$ to spend from finding the missing matzah. My parents took them to target and Jack got some type of remote control snake and alyssa got that password diary she wanted. My parents also got them some clothes. Alyssa some capri's, and Jack some boxers, a new bathing suit, and a pair of shorts. Also while gone they went to ft lauderdale and took the boat . AFterwards they went to this famous Ice cream place called Jacksons, where the ice cream could feed a small army. THey also got pool and beach time. THe target run on tuesday, the other stuff wed. Thursday my mom had stuff to do in the morning , so my dad took them to beach. While we were gone they were properly sunblocked, unlike when their mommy did it and missed a spot or two. I know that friday while we were gone, it rained in teh AM and they just hung out. Unfortunately the kids did something to my mom's wireless mouse, so webkinz became off limits. That took one less activity away, but they have the old non networked pc with games. They have those beads that they like, an art kit, some games,, and also other toys. So the kids had plenty to occupy themselves. While we were gone we decided that we would stay the whole day Sat (today) as not to be rushed and to miss the weather.

today was cooler , but still in the 70's. The good news is that the girls that alyssa met in Dec were back from their break (they went away with their mother) and alyssa had a blast with them at the pool. Jack , in his own words "picked up some hot girls". No kidding on that statement. He met some 16 year olds. He cracks me up at times! The pool was cool so all the kids wanted to be in the not so hot hottub. It was crazy. I read a book most of the day. Right now Alyssa is with the girls having a playdate. She really likes these girls and was upset that all week they were gone until today. She played with some other younger kids (aka jack's age) while were gone from what I understand.

Well time to go..

So coming soon, our Trip to PR....

leaving for FL today....

2007-03-30T07:44:00.000-07:00

Very tired... the pollen is even gettin to me and at night I get bad sore throats.

Jack had to have one last treatment on his wart yesterday. He HATES it.

alyssa worried me about lice. But I checked her hair and she is fine. Dont know why she is itching in certain spots though.

Never , ever, a dull moment around here :)

20 year anniversary....

2007-03-28T04:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had our 20 year anniversary luncheon for work. I have been with 3 different companies, but stayed in the same place. DEC, Compaq, and HP. All the changes happened while I was in the current job.

Who knew, when I got out of college and got the job in Burlington VT in manufacturing 20+ years later I would still be around. I started off doing work with my mechanical engineering degree, but then migrated to software and unix.

At the luncheon they only really "roasted" those with 25 and 30 years. The other thing is that since we are HP, all the trivia, etc talked about HP, but 1/2 of those there were from the old DEC/digital. I dont know if anyone was pure Compaq. Talking about someones career I could follow those that came from DEC, but it was harder with the HP people.

Afterwards I came home since the restaurant was near my house and it was almost time to leave anyway (it was after 2pm).

Alyssa has come up with another great idea about the "Teasing" that she sometimes gets. If they are in the classroom, she will just keep saying "what" , "what", until the person saying the thing will get louder and louder and then get in trouble with the teacher. Despite the difficulties that I sometimes I have with her, she has always had an incredible brain, aka she just thinks very well, many times beyond her years. AT her age I would never have come up with all the stuff that she does. She would have a good career in nursing, dr, etc, as she truely does having a caring personality.

I still love that Jack puts himself to bed many nights. He will just say "goodnight" and go to his room and go to bed. He has always been like that. Other nights its a just a tuck , hug and kiss. About once or twice a week he wants me to lay down for all of about 1 minute or two. Its very rare to have a kid that since age 3 has many times put themselves to sleep. I am very grateful for that.

heat wave....

2007-03-26T05:32:00.000-07:00

Well last weekend, it was in the 50's and this weekend it was in the 80's! For March I think we are having record highs. Also no rain recently which is really bad for those with allergies. A few friends and my husband are really suffering. The only think keeping his sanity is that we are heading to Florida this friday and away from pollen.

With the perfect , abeit a bit too hot, weather, we did a lot of outdoor stuff. yesterday felix came up with the best idea. AFter Alyssa's playdate was canceled around 2ish, Felix said, why not go down to olympic park and go into the fountains. They have the fountain of rings down there that they do a water show with, and the rest of the time the kids can play in it. So we did that. It was very crowded. Then we went to the playground in the park. I then called my single friend that lives intown and we stopped by her place. When she lived in the neighborhood my kids loved visiting her cats. There is a microbrewery next door that Felix knew from when he lived on the West coast that he really wanted to go to, so we went to dinner there. The kids did a good job coloring (making their own "designs" ) and behaved well in the restaurant. Thank goodness Jack at least eats veggies. he has asparagus instead of french fries.

On Sat, I was out all day. I was discouraged that with all my runnign around and exercise that I did not lose an ounce. And no, I did not eat mor ethan normal during the weekend. Anyway, we met Alyssa's friend and mom on Sat at the greenway trail. The girls did scootering since Alyssa's friend still is not quite riding the bike. She is at the stage that Jack is. Basically does fine until you let go. We went a mile to end where starbucks and barnes and noble are. We stopped there. Then we went back. We then took the girls to old navy and target. THe girls were no behaving. They feed off each other. TBH, I think Alyssa feeds more off her friend then the other way around. She behaves pretty good in stores when she doesnt have friends around.
I did buy a few things , as we will need more summer stuff for camp. We need 12 days worth of outfits. Anyway, we also went to the mall. Sears had an awesome clearance on girls and boys shoes. Got some great stuff for 4.00$. We ate a 4pm meal at the food court. Then I came home and got Jack. Felix had taken him to a dinasaur puppet show after his baseball game. I then took the kids to the YMCA for open night since we are using their afterschool care and camp. The kids had fun. They had the rock climbing wall open. Also the pool. the problem was that each kid wanted to be somewhere different at various times and I was running around. I could have used Felix, but he was in allergy hell. Alyssa did great rock climbing and repelled back down like a pro. I guess all that tree climbing is doing her good :).

Anyway that was my day. Sunday I took Alyssa to sunday school as our carpool buddy was out of town. I did some walking and then stopped at Kmart. They had unbelievable deals. ! 50% off reduced stuff. Got Alyssa a denim jacket that she wanted for $3.00. Sweaters for men for 1.99.

Oh, did I mention that Alyssa is one of these lucky people.? She won the raffle sat night (floam) and on Webkinz got the 25K jackpot on wishing well at one point. She always seems to "win" stuff, so she is now picking my lottery numbers. She is just one of "those people" it seems.

The other thing is how she finally solved her teasing problems herself. I am very impressed. She has problems that she wants to be friends with boys but then she gets teased. So we tell her to ignore it, which she cannot. She comes the other day and says that next time she gets teased she is going say "Is that all you have on me; Isnt there anything better than you can tease me about ". I think that is geneious. Goes to show that kids sometimes can solve their own problems.

Back to the bike thing. Jack is trying hard. he really wanted a new webkinz. The latest is that he will check the day's activities and tell me "you have to log in at 9pm to do XYZ for me". he is really into it.

I am so happy that the food I feed my cats are not on the recall list. After losing my cat a few years ago to renal failure to have my new ones have problems would devastate me.

Well this was a busy monday to write..

outside...

2007-03-22T05:02:00.000-07:00

Wow, the weather has been nice! in the 70's everyday.... So the kids are playing more outside. On wednesday we are now done with activities by 4:30 , so the kids have lots of outdoor time it seems. I hang out with them and even play with them. aka helping jack with baseball and with their bikes. Alyssa still needs help "starting". Well yesterday we put jack on Alyssa's bike , and drumroll please...... He rode it without me holding on for a short while!!!

now we take the training wheels off his bike.

Alyssa did get frustrated at one point and just crashed her bike in the middle of the street (cul de sac with island in the middle) and went in the big island and just was crying. I asked her to do that in her room, but she refused to get up. I just ignored her after that. If she wants to embarass herself outside that is her business. then she put herself in my car. I was right there so I was not concerned. I just hate when she has these meltdowns.
We did get report cards this week. Alyssa got all A's except a B in math. I knew that was coming. Just got all "s". His schoolwork is fine. Its just the small things of the day... refusing to do the pledge of allegiance one day, taking a pencil from a kid another..... Of course his M.O. is that he "did not know it was wrong, but now he does know". yeah right. Just like his uncle.

you want them away, you want them home....

2007-03-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

After I dropped each kid off at their sleepovers on Sat, I kinda missed them. It was nice to have a night out with Felix and I and I got to sleep in until 8:30 sunday morning, but there was a sadness dropping them off. Alyssa was at a bday party and Jack was at a friends with a very large party. Both were very safe. Yet there are times that I just want that peace and quiet an cannot wait for them to be "out of the house".

This morning alyssa woke up having a bad dream about ghosts. I tried to tell her that our house was new so that there was likely no ghosts. Then she said "what about bloody mary". I was like Huh, when did you hear about that. She said last year. I though she was a bit young to know about that one. aka the one where you see a ghost in the mirror. Finally we got past the ghost thing and Jack, who lately has been picking his nose, even in public, YIKES, said he was stuffed up and therefore could no go to school. Alas I think he has his father's allergies. Not a good thing. Might have to get him some nasonex. But I convinced him it was OK to go to school.

I need to serious consider dieting again. I have gained back quite a few lbs from teh 25 I lost a number of years ago. I am not happy about that. I need to do the low carb thing again for real. I was able to stick to it for over a year and now I eat everything and anything, including all junk.
I dont fit into many of my clothes anymore. I can bring out my old stuff, but I never wanted to see that stuff again. now that the weather is nicer I am hoping for more outdoor exercises. Walking every night with the kids and also before picking them up from afterschool. Also while they are in activities I can walk at teh park 2 days. I want to start to slightly jog again.

two places at one time....

2007-03-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

Well I started speech for Jack on mondays. only problem is that this monday Alyssa has an orthodontist appt. I really want to get these braces started since her teeth are so bad. But no more baby teeth are coming out. her dentist doesnt want to yank. I am not impressed with this dentist and probably have to switch anyway. I know that Jack is difficult, but I dont feel like they handle it properly. So how to be two different places at 3:30. ? I am trying to move speech to later.

It kills me that I pay for afterschool care and they are there for less than 1/2 hour most days.
60/each per week! I really wish I could let them come home on the bus and be home alone for 15 minutes. It really sucks that I cannot do that. Next year, when Alyssa is 9, I could possibly do that for her, but not for Jack. I need to find someone who can take them for those 30 minutes , with the agreement that I would leave work early on the days that they cannot do it.

For example, next week.
monday.. dr appt. 3:30
Tuesday skating for Alyssa -- 3:30 Jack picked up at 4:45 from felix, bu tI could have taken him with me to the rink.
Wed. pick up both kids at 3pm for activities
Thursday. normally the one day I can leave them there. But this week Jack might have speech.
Friday.. nothing really, but I can always pick them up after work if I want. This is the only day I can leave them regularly for the most part.

Yesterday I got them early because Jack had a 2 week followup for his wart on the bottom of his foot. problem was, that they had to freeze it again. He totally freaked out. Because he would not be still they froze probably more around the foot than the wart. I highly doubt he will ever ALLOW this to happen again. If the freezing is not working we have to come up with another solution. He said it really hurt so much afterwards.... Then again, Jack has absolutely no tolerance for pain like that. Alyssa taps him and he cries.. He does sorta need to toughen up a bit. I believe he got this way because he knew that every time Alyssa did hit him, he was the "victim".

I am so tired today. our matress is off to the factory.. The guest bed is comfortable, but Felix's snoring has reached new levels! We had the tonsils out and it got better. But now between the sinuses, being overweight, and allergy season, forget it. I wear earplugs now. In a king size bed it works, but not in a queen. So I tired to sleep on the boxspring with lots of padding. Not really working.... I cannot wait to get our bed back Sat night.

Sat is a busy day... Alyssa;s friend Aly comes over in the am, then Jack has pictures and a baseball game, and then "auntie" is staking her claim on the kids since she did not make the car show. I really cannot deny this. So I have the afternoon off. then at 5:30 each kid has a sleepover! A night to ourselves... Alyssa to a party, and Jack to his friend's house. They are a very large family, so one extra kid wont even be noticed!