Crayons, Playdoh & Wax

This is one of my favorite months of the year. I LOVE pumpkins, I LOVE Halloween. I love the leaves changing and the colors! The weather has been amazing. Right now we have been averaging 10-13 degrees above normal. It’s October and I am still wearing shorts!

We leave next week for our cruise. I can’t believe it’s here.

I can say that I am truly ready for this whole election stuff to be over. I have been enjoying all the discussions that have been going on. I do think I have to agree with Whoopi when she says that it doesn’t matter how much experience they have, NO ONE is ready to be President unless they have done it before. I do totally enjoy Tina Fay portraying Sarah Palin though.

Speaking of The View, I LOVE this show… I even tivo it… the only talk show I tivo. My thing is, I wish they would at least comment on this whole rumor about Elisabeth leaving. Either confirm, deny or just tell us that the offer is on the table but no decision has been made, but stop leaving us hanging! I find myself reading something into everything. Whoopi came down on E on Fri or Mon (I don’t remember which) Today Barbara made a point of telling her she’s glad she is there, but be specific (even if E did make a smart a*$ comment that you would expect from a teen and that would have gotten my dd’s mouth smacked). I like Elisabeth… cheered for her on Survivor, was excited when she got the job, but I think they nailed it today and I have been saying the same thing… She is passionate about her beliefs, which is great, but sometimes, you just have to say that the other side is right! Sometimes you have to admit that your people screwed up or stepped in it. There has only been 1 perfect person on this earth, and they strung Him up on a cross almost 2000 years ago. EVERYONE ELSE is human, and human’s screw up!

So there you go… my .2¢ on that. Still have no clue who I am voting for (but still curious who will be on the ticket come Nov) I heard about this Psycic who has called every election since JFK, and he said that the 2 people that are on the ticket now, won’t be who we are voting for come Nov. I am more curious to see if he is right this time!

I was really hoping after last year, school would get better. Ok, it would help if I had her at a quiet room, at a table and I could could go about my business. The problem, she doesn’t need me sitting right there, cuz she can DO the work, but you can’t leave her alone because she won’t do a thing.

Right now our days consist of fighting in the morning (to get dressed). She will be awake, and then just sit there. Then even if she is ready, she has to put on her shoes. I figured out why we always wore Crocs, No tying! She takes almost 5 minutes per shoe! They don’t make Good Quality Shoes (that will make the podiatrist happy) that valcro.

Then she gets to school, doesn’t get everything done, not because she can’t do it, but because she is slow. So they send home whatever she can’t get done, meaning MORE homework. So then we spend the after-school FIGHTING, doing homework until dinner, then finishing what she hasn’t gotten done.

If we let her work in the kitchen without supervision, she turns on the TV. If she has to do work on the computer, she goes to the Warrior sites instead of the homework. She is 10, I shouldn’t have to watch EVERY SINGLE thing she does. No consequence seems to phase her. The first thing I actually found that comes close to working was me taking away her Warrior books. I had to explain to her teacher that she was saying she didn’t have a book to read, and I pointed out that she has library books and can read them. I told her teacher I only took away the 1 series to try and teach her about appropriate times for reading. An hour in the bathroom instead of homework, or at 10:30 at night instead of sleeping on a school night. Reading is good, but, HELLO!

She then doesn’t get to sleep on time, doesn’t get enough sleep, doesn’t want to get up, or wakes up late. Is crabby at school and doesn’t want to do her work, which they send home, which means more homework, which makes a vicious cycle!

Tuesday her teacher said to me “she isn’t turning her work in” and how “behind she is getting”, how “it is becoming a habit”, etc… I won’t even start on my frustration of Monday night, I had my reunion group… nothing new… every Monday for at least 3 years now! Tuesday, Ken has bible study, so it was just us. She was almost done with what is in her planner, so I left her alone, and I was not listening to MY doctor and was weed-eating the yard (the teen we hired did not come back as promised, and did a horrible job… Will not hire him again btw, didn’t want to this time, but K wouldn’t let me mow and I couldn’t even guilt the other person in the house to do it) Anyway, using the weed eater was not a problem, til I went to our south side of the front yard… to big of a hill and it hurt my toe! (trying to hold myself up… I had Ken’s croc on the surgery foot and my croc on the other, so toes were covered)

Anyway, my point, cuz I was way off track, she told me she was done except printing her grades and I had to approve the website (I Love my Mac), so I said she could play, and we would print the page after dinner. When I got in the house, I was looking in her folder and found MORE homework that she ‘forgot’ about. So, we spent the rest of the evening doing that. At 9:30, I reminded her she had’t had dinner yet. I had eaten while she was ‘playing’. Our neighbor’s gma was taking them chasing the moon since it was full. So, not only did she not get a shower, I was making her a sandwich at almost 10. Ken had gotten home and was hiding in the basement. Wednesday we ALL over slept, and she still moves just as slow! She gets very upset when her friends don’t wait, but if she doesn’t walk right out the door when they get here, they leave without her! (even when it is early!!) Then I get frustrated, cuz she gets upset.

Then in the afternoon I get a call from the school cuz she is ‘off’ at school and having issues, (she wrote on a paper that one of the para’s was Stupid… kids!!) cuz she is exhausted, which leads to more homework, and the cycle continues. Not to mention the fact she now has NO time for chores, the cats scream at me all day because their litter box is FILTHY, and it is self cleaning, but it is so full, it can’t do anything…. I gave up on her putting away dishes, because the sink was so full of dirty dishes, I couldn’t stand it anymore… and I did it… etc….

On Wednesday night K has bible study. She got her homework done, so she got to go, but was finishing the last 2 math questions and finishing coloring her map on the way up… it is a 15 minute drive to the Ministry Center, and I had to take her, even though I am still not allowed to drive! Then I asked Ken to get her dinner on his way to get her, so she could eat on the way home and get in the shower, cuz today is picture day. And he waits til after so she doesn’t have cold food. Since when does she care? So, at 10:30, she is heading to bed, cuz since when can K take a 5 minute shower… and Thursday is choir, Before school, which means getting up early. And then he wonders why I am putting in a call to my therapist before he leaves to go get her to see if they have an appointment for today!!!!

I am going to spend the night in Denver tonight, so I don’t have to get up so early tomorrow. I just need to get away!!! Women of Faith is this weekend. I so NEED this!

So, incase you haven’t noticed, I have been talking about my feet a WHOLE lot lately! I had surgery on the 3rd on my little toe. This toe is the toe I broke in 2003. I have even had physical therapy on this toe to try and get it so I could wear closed toed shoes, but no luck.

I had finally, half joking, asked the doctor at one of K’s appointments to cut off my toe. It was then that he said we could do hammer toe surgery. The doctor asked if I wanted the big toes or little toes done first, and I said little. If we had actually x-rayed my foot first, we would have figured that the bone spur on my right foot was as bad as the one on my left. My mom tried to talk me into postponing my surgery to do both, but I didn’t want to wait and the doctor didn’t have time in his schedule to add the 2nd toe, and if I wait, I wouldn’t have my boot off by the cruise. (yah, I haven’t gotten that far in my posts, we were going to do the Alaskan cruise, but that is a whole lot of money for not knowing if we get sea sick or if the weird ‘issues’ will tolerate the closeness, so we are going on a 3 day cruise next month to Mexico)

The doctor never x-rayed my toe until the week before surgery, and no wonder I had so much pain! My toe was shaped like ) instead of l and there was some extra bone. Plus I believe when I asked him about my big toe spur, his exact comment was ‘oh, that is interesting’. Not something you really want to hear from your doctor, and something I hear way too much!

So, I think my toes have something to do with my closterphobia, as well as being my thermastat. I made it til Tuesday last week before I had to cut the new bandage off my toes. Tonight, I made it about 4 hours before I cut it open, but that was my toes itched! I told them that when I called last week about the itching, it wasn’t healing itching, cuz if it was, Zyrtec would not of taken care of it. I said something about being allergic to the dressing. The tech said, it doesn’t have latex. I laughed and said, since when do I do anything normal? All I know is my foot itches and my toes look like water balloons. I put lotion on both feet tonight (the parts not covered at least) but now BOTH feet itch. The weird part is, it was one of the lotions I could use and not have a reaction. Not sure what is up, but looking for my Zyrtec again!

And 1 more week til they remove the stitches! (btw, pictures in Flickr ->)

July started really nice. My MIL & SIL were in town with 2 of the 3 nieces, so K spent a lot of time at Kerry’s.

4th of July we spent in Broomfield with friends and could see 10-12 firework shows at once from the park we were at since Broomfield is just a little higher.

We celebrated our nephew Z’s 2nd bday early, so the family could be there. His bday is the same day as mine, and we were in San Diego for mine. My MIL & crew left on Monday and we flew to San Diego on Tuesday.

We were so excited. We realized that we had not taken a family vacation since we went to Hawaii when K was only 16 mo. Ken says going to visit family doesn’t count, even if we do try and do something fun during the trip. We went to Carlsbad Caverns in 05, but it was on the way to Texas for his sister’s wedding. K and I went on a month long vacation in 05, with my Mom & Sister, and it did include family, but Ken wasn’t with us.

We got the Go San Diego card, which included so many things, just not Sea World. We thought about the 3 for 5 pass, but then we had to pay for everything else, and the zoo & wild animal park were on both. So that is why we decided to go with the go card. We got a great deal on ou Sea World admission too. We got the adult tickets for the price of a child and got a 2nd day free. K is old enough, she is considered an adult for Sea World. That is also one of the things that helped us decide on the go card, cuz with the 3 for 5 card, we had to get K an adult card. Every where else, kids are up to 11 or 12 and Sea World is 9.

Well, I will do our trip in its own entry. This is getting long on its own.

So, my favorite part of summer is all the new movie releases. I think between Memorial Day and my bday, I saw almost all the movies available (that I was interested in!)

Ironman… getting clean did good for Robert Downey! This was a great movie and set it up not only for a sequal, but set it up for them to make The Avengers.

Wanted… I saw this one twice. I love action movies. This is definitely not for kids. Practically the first line of the movie has the f@*’ word and the last line. I think that people have become too numb to the use of that word, and it is not needed. I did try to explain to a friend, that for this movie, it was just more appropriate.

Walle… Very cute movie. Pixar & Disney did good. Good story and entertaining.

Kung Fu Panda… I need to see this one again, as I had to step out in the middle, but it had a good ending
Don’t Mess With the Zohan… yah, we saw the beginning of this at Panda (theater messed up that one) which was not appropriate. This had a great story with it, once you get past the pelvic thrusts and hacky-sacs with butt cheeks. A good Adam Sandler movie.

Mama Mia!… I got to see this one for my bday. I so LOVED it. Not only the story, but the music was fabulous! I took my sister and niece to see it when I went to Phoenix in August. I did laugh last week when I heard they released a sing-a-long version. Apparently they didn’t go into any of the theaters cuz both times I saw it, I was NOT the only one singing along (Ken said he had it in stereo the night we saw it in San Diego)

Hancock… Another Will Smith movie smash! Dd and I went and she said the rest of the summer that it was her favorite

Dark Knight… Well worth the wait. Heath did do an amazing job. Not sure if I agree that it is Oscar worthy, but will not be surprised to see him nominated.

Journey to the Center of the Earth… 3D… Brandon did great in this one, and it is set up for a sequal

Indiana Jones… It was all that I hoped for in an Indiana Jones movie. Harrison still looks amazing, much better than he did in Firewall!

Narnia-Prince Caspian… great sequal. Granted, I haven’t read the books, or I wouldn’t have been disappointed in the ending (it was good, just not how I hoped it would end)

Going to have to go look at ticket stubs to see if I missed any.

Still on my list:
Sisterhood 2
Fly me to the moon
The Mummy
The Women

So I did post some at the beginning of summer. I had to go back and look. I didn’t see anything aboutour trip to Montana though.

Memorial Day weekend we tookan extra day since school wasn’t out yet and we went through The Teton national park and Yellowstone. I was extremely disappointed because it was cold, rainy and overcast. I was excited about seeing the Tetons. The problem, cloud cover was so low, I didn’t get to see a single mountain! Yellowstone, however, was wonderful. Only in Wyoming do you have a traffic jam because the bison are walking down the center of the road! Our pictures of Old Faithful are sad though, because you can’t tell the geyser from the cloud cover.

Our niece, Andrea graduated on Sunday. It was a really nice ceremony. The nice part of small towns is that these kids all know each other. There were less than 50 kids, which is a whole lot different than my class with over 450!

Speaking of my class, this is my 25th year, so I kept watching for something about my reunion. We finally heard something in August. They are going to have my 25th reunion next year. The cool part is, they are having 3 classes together, 83, 84 & 85. This could be fun, since most of my friends were younger than me.

So, we got home and K finished 4th grade. I have not been so glad to have a year finished as I was this last year. K’s teacher announced to them at the end of April that he was not coming back. I questioned his timing choice, but thought he made that decision a year too LATE! This was the worst year of school for K. Granted, all of her diagnoses came through this year, but if he had said to me one more time ‘I just don’t know what to do with her’ I was ready to scream!

My parents got here about the 12th, and our niece, M, came with them. She stayed w us the rest of the month and then I flew her to catch up w my parents. I was going to drive her to NE, but with the price of gas, and my time, I decided to buy the ticket. We had a not so good incident while she was here, and that ended our visit on a sour note.

The last week of June was Bible school. I was the preschool craft coordinator. I was supposed to work a Walk to Emmaus weekend that Friday, but they ended up cancelling the men and women’s walks.

That Wednesday of VBS Ken’s Mom, sister and nieces arrived for a visit. K spent a lot of time at Kerry’s visiting with them. Ken’s Mom finally got to see our house. She hadn’t been here since we moved out of her house.

Our niece Heather was in a Miss Teen Texas pageant, and I was trying to figure out how to go to that as well, but Ken promised if she won, he would buy us tickets to fly to the Miss Teen USA pageant. What I didn’t realize was that it was not the one that went to the Miss Teen USA pageant.

Pictures of all this should be in flickr ->

The Walk was amazing! I so enjoyed being able to sit back and watch my pilgrim in through the weekend! The hardest part for me was, (and people who know me will understand) sitting there, not doing or saying and just observing. Yah, I did well with that one, NOT! I didn’t realize how hard of a time I would have with that one. I actually got called on the carpet Friday night because I was being to nit-picky and everyone felt like I was looking for faults. That is not the case at all… but I did realize how horrible detail oriented I am!!! You would never know it by looking at my house… but apparently I am!!!

I found it interesting that I had someone I barely spoke to all weekend inform me that I am seeking attention to fill a void. Yah, I seek attention? I just kept turning to a friend of mine who use to be in my reunion group. It was nice at least 1 of the people this weekend knows me well!!!

In the mean time, my mom left me a message Saturday morning. My Aunt Edna died. Aunt Edna was the last of my grandma’s siblings. She was like a 2nd Mom to my mom. Grandma was #13 in their family, Aunt Edna was #12. I remember as a kid going to her house with my cousins and we would go pick these little round watermelons and eat them until we got sick to our stomachs. Granted, half the time it was because they weren’t quite ripe yet, but still!! Mom is now in Michigan. I was trying to figure out how to go, but I have F for this one last week, and not sure her mom would let me get away with just taking her with me ::giggle::

Anyway, keep mom and the rest of the family in your prayers. The funeral is Thursday.

Were my quotes that hard or did not enough people see them??? go here. There are only 3 figured out… out of 15. Come on people… can’t be that hard… or is it that no one knows me and my favorite movies???

And I can’t believe I totally forgot to post about Ken having surgery today. Yesterday was his birthday, and I didn’t post that either. Last week at his pre-op appointment, we talked about us being sick, and the doctor took a swab of Ken’s nose, just to cover the bases. They changed his meds on Thursday, but I only had an idea of why, until this morning. I knew it was a possibility from reading about the meds but I had no clue that he had MRSA (meth resistant staph)

The first thing I did was to put a call into my PCP to find out if 1. K and I need to be treated and B. If this is why I haven’t been able to get better?

Got to love it. I’ll update when he is out. This is the 3rd time Dr. R. has operated on someone in my family and the 2nd septoplasty. I still need mine done too, but I teased the nurses that I wanted to make sure everyone else did good before I let him do me I will most likely get my toe done first, cuz that seems to bother of more. (Bone spur)

Ok, I had to in buy a new belt for the vacuum, and while I was there, I decided to look at the hand held ones. They had one by Black & Decker that is supposed to be for pet hair. I was a whole lot skeptical, because nothing ever works as good as it says, and for the price, I decided to give it a try. This vacuum is the best $30 I have ever spent! There is so much power. I don’t think our floor has been this clean since we moved in! Oh, and I forgot to mention in the middle of all this, I got the wrong belt!