Give Me a Break!

Today is our first official day of spring break and the kids stayed in their pajamas all day.  I ran 10 miles this morning and then, after getting showered, I stayed in my pajamas the rest of the day too.  We needed it. . . desperately. 

In January AH and I made the tough decision to take Mr. B off his ADHD medication.  We think it may be causing an undesirable side effect and can only find out if that’s the case by removing it from the equation.  It has been hard for us all.  AH and I are refreshing ourselves with “The Incredible Years” program that we did a few years ago, Mr. B is doing a refresher as well.  We haven’t had to deal with some of these behavioral issued in a long time or at this degree and at times I feel like a soldier sent back to the front lines but still suffering from PTSS – all the anxiety came back on very quickly and to a heightened degree – my mind and body do not want to go through it again.    Mr. B and I are now meeting with a specially trained Incredible Years therapist – it’s helping a lot.

This week I had to meet with Mr. B’s principal.  Due to his heightened behavioral issues Mr. B and his teacher have been at each other’s throat and it only seems to be getting worse.  I really need for her to get on board with our program – I need for her to listen to me in order to be able to help her have a wonderful experience with my son (because he really is wonderful especially when you understand how to work with him).  There is no doubt that she is a really great teacher but I need her boss signed on too in order for this all to come together since he is vital in providing encouragement and support to her.  Thankfully our elementary school is fantastic and our Principal had already sent some staff to be trained in the Incredible Years program several years ago just for Mr. B.  It was a great meeting and he fully agreed with me on my plan.  He spoke with Mr. B’s teacher that very day and then called me to say she was very receptive to the plan.  I hope it all works because this program could rock her world if executed properly.

So now I look at a long week of no homework, no lessons, and no plan – just fun.  I am looking forward to taking the kids to the beach for a few days and just spoiling them with undivided “mom” time.  They are looking forward to swimming in the pool, staying up late, eating popcorn while watching movies,  playing at the beach (if it’s not too rainy), sleeping in the loft, and playing with friends. 

Tonight while AH was attending a meeting the kids and I made chocolate chip cookies together and then we pretty much ate them for dinner (very unprecedented for our house).  Hallelujah for Spring Break!

Forts

Warning:  No pictures for this post, though there should be, but I am a bad bad lazy mom.


Mr. B rearranged my living room a few weeks back and made a stellar fort along one of the walls using our couch, all the cushions off the couch and nearly all the blankets (about 5).  The fort stayed up for about 10 days despite my daily pleas to the children and AH to return the family room back to normal.  AH and Mr. B struck a deal that Mr. B could sleep in his fort on a non-school night.  Due to our unusually busy calendar we had two weekends of very late nights and kept putting off the fort sleeping experience, looking for a day when we'd be home and Mr. B could enjoy the whole evening of fort bliss.  This past weekend we gave up and let Mr. B sleep in his fort despite it being 10pm when we got home.  He loved it!

Beeb, not wanting to be left out, wanted a fort to sleep in but Mr. B refused to share the family room (and mom & dad refused to let them sleep in the same room knowing no sleep would actually happen should that occur).  Being a judicious parent I built Beeb a fort in her room between the foot of her bed and her giant doll house.  She was very pleased and actually slept in it two night in a row (to Mr. B's chagrin) because AH is wrapped around her little finger.

I know these are the kinds of memories that will last for them and that makes me very very happy!

A Vortex of Activities

My life is spiralling out of control busy these days.  I simply don't know how working parents or single parents do it without live-in family or paid help.  So I am especially thankful that my husband has a great job that allows me to be home trying to manage the crazy schedules of our own lives, church responsibilities and our childrens' activities. 

One of these nights I will clean off my desk (again), organize all my "to-dos" (maybe even check a few off) and put together a weekly plan to get me back on task so that I can at lease feel some sort of sanity again.

That's it . . .  I have to run my kids up to ski lessons now.

Up To No Good

This is the new desktop background image on my monitor, courtesy of AH, Mr. B and my scanner:

Santa, The Big Meany

Mr. B has not written his letter to Santa yet and tonight he is in a bit of a panic. 

Mr. B:  "Wouldn't it be great if Santa brought me Lego Star Wars III for Christmas."

Me:  "Too bad you can't guarantee it since you didn't write a letter to Santa this year."

Mr. B:  "Well if he doesn't get me what I want I'll just get a receipt and return it."

Me:  "There is no receipt; Santa makes all the gifts he gives out."

Mr. B:  "Then if I don't like it I'll just give it away."

Me:  "Okay.  That's very generous of you."

A minute later. . .

Mr. B:  "Santa is just a big meany making me write to him so I can get what I want."

Me (to myself):  Yes she is.

Mr. B has resolved to writing his letter in the morning but this is how he felt about it tonight:

2011: Out With A Bang

It seems that Beeb is determined to go out with a bang this year. 

Today, while sitting in the emergency room with my niece (another story all together), I received a call from the school.  Beeb had fallen during recess and had hit her face on the cement.  I was assured that though there was a red abrasion across her cheek and above her eyebrow but no blood had been shed.  The nurse was called in and her evaluation determined that she was fine and sent back to class.  Due to the nature of the injury a report was written up (head injury) and thus I was called.

Mildly distracted at the time I took the calm voice of the office assistant to mean that Beeb was really just fine, which she is, but she looks terrible!  When I finally made it home I was a bit shocked to see my sweet girl with the below. 

I guess the swelling came later and I bet she will have one heck of a shiner to show off in the next day or two.  The poor girl is just so full of energy and always flittering around but she's not necessary the most coordinated person - which makes for memorable blog posts for me.

Something is Missing

She never seems to lose her teeth at home - I hate missing these important milestones! 

Today Beeb came home from school with this big gap.  Apparently a boy in her class bumped into her during P.E. causing her to fall against the wall and hitting her mouth which resulted in her tooth to be hanging limply to just one part of her gums - it was then extracted. 

Tonight each time she talked to me I just thought to myself that she looks so strange with a big gap in her teeth!  It was hard not to stare.

Hall-o-ween!

My neighbor, friend and running partner has been playing single parent for these last few weeks.  On Tuesday evening her son called to see if Mr. B could play but instead we invited his family to our house to carve pumpkins.  These things are always more fun when friends join in.

Beeb's pumpkin

Mr. B's pumpkin that he carved himself!

AH's pumpkin on the far right and my vampire pumpkin in the middle.

The kiddo's could hardly contain their excitedment for the actual Halloween day!  Thankfully our rainy weather took a break and we ended up having a nice trick-or-treat evening.  Our neighbor joined us again and we teamed up to take the kids out.

Beeb was a "My Little Pony" - I forget which one specifically though you'd better bet she knows!  She has a horse head hat but she misplaced it sometime on Sunday and we didn't locate it in time.

Mr. B was a ninja.  He really wanted to be an "army guy" again, but thankfully they didn't have his size so I had to go with his backup costume.  I think he looks cute!

Apparently in this picture Beeb is a MLP Ninja.

 We did our usual route through the neighborhood but then followed a friends advise and headed into town.  It was really fun to see the residents of our quaint little town get into the holiday spirit.  The decorations were amazing, there was a potluck and even a bonfire; I felt it all had a very New England/Martha Stewart feel to it.  What a great little community we live in.

A House of Sickos

My house is under quarantine unless you have the strange desire to become ill.  I have had a cold that has lingered with me for four weeks and continually morphed its symptoms just about every 7 days.  Thankfully I am finally on the mend and nearly 100% again.  Unfortunately I passed it on to other members of my family. . .

AH (and several of his hiking buddies) appears to have contracted giardia from his hiking adventure last month, and if that wasn't fun enough he recently caught my cold and has a full blown sinus infection.  Every time I walk into our bedroom I feel like I can cut through the germs with a knife.  Seriously gross!  (I'll be nuking the room once AH is all better) 

Mr. B has been sniffling up a storm the past 5 days and has permanently moved the bathroom waste basket to his bedside along with his own personal box of tissues.  One night this week he was up four times between 10pm and 11pm because of his cold and was so miserable that he asked for some medicine (you have no idea how much he hates to take cold medicine!) to which I accidentally gave him the "day time" version.  We were both then up the rest of the night.  I kept him home from school the next day so as not to subject his teacher to the delights of a tired Mr. B and we both took a long afternoon nap!

Beeb has remained unscathed throughout it all.  She flutters around and occasionally complains of boredom due to our confining ourselves to the house but, overall, she's been a good sport and I am praying that is skips her all together.

Beeb: The Delinquent

Our sweet little Beeb is finally growing up.  We have basked in the glory of her obedient behavior for years but it was inevitable that she would stray from the path and test the waters.  {sigh}  2nd grade has been hard for her thus far.  A few weeks ago she got into trouble for vandalizing the girls bathroom (locking the stall doors and writing on the mirrors with soap) with her new BBF.  After a harsh punishment of lost recesses at school, a letter of apology to the janitor, and a grounding at home she seemed to be back on the straight and narrow. . . until today.

Today I contacted her teacher to find out when homework would begin after weeks and weeks of having no homework coming home on Fridays.  Apparently homework began the first week of school.  Miss Beeb has been hiding her homework packets in her school cubby so that (in her words) she could "have more time to play with her friends at home".  This is the same little girl who told everyone at the kindergarten concert that what she was most looking forward to in 1st grade was "homework" - it was short lived. 

Beeb is in the process of making amends (or in her case "a-girls") by having no TV until she is all caught up with her homework and she is grounded from playing with friends for a week.  Beeb is humiliated that she has tarnished her image, meanwhile her brother is gloating about not being the one in trouble for a change.  Mr. B offered lots of other suggestions for her consequence but we ignored him.

AH tells me that Uncle Tip did the same thing when he was young - he is now a dentist.  I hope this pans out as well for Beeb.

Friday

Today is Friday (I love Friday). 

Today I volunteered in Mr. B's class and watched

him ace his spelling test - so smart! 

Today I played army with him - surprisingly fun! 

(his army totally destroyed my army)

Today Beeb cheered with the big cheerleaders during half-time at

the high school football game - adorable!

Today I am so happy to be a mom!

(as usual - in case you thought this was uncommon)

On Friday We Climbed a Mountain

A few months back my friend Jeff contacted me about joining a group he was organizing (most of them from St. Louis, MO) to climb Mt. St. Helens.  AH and I jumped at the chance to join in.  Previously I have climbed this mountain 5 times, though the last time was over 13 years ago, and I was eager to see how the landscape had changed.  For AH it was the final mountain that he needed to summit for him to be able to say that he has climbed all the volcanic peaks in Washington (I tease him that he saved the easiest for last). 

We met up on Thursday night with Jeff and his group for a late dinner at my favorite pizza parlor (Pizza Pete's) in Castle Rock, WA.  It was fun to finally meet everyone and get a sense of who they were and a better sense of their fun personalities.  It was a really outstanding group of people. 

Friday morning we headed out a little later than intended but it worked out to our advantage.  During the night a bit of clouds and rain came in and it took most of the morning to burn off.  We came across several groups of climbers along the trail who had turned back before reaching the top because it was incredibly cold, windy and the visibility was very poor (due to the heavy clouds in the AM). 

The Fearless Climbers

(now we just have to climb 5,000 feet in 5 miles)

My friend Jeff.



AH and I at the base of the boulder field we would be climbing.

Me at the beginning of the boulders (I already need a break!).

The long trek though the boulders.

Mid-way up the boulder field the clouds started to disperse and a view of the valley below is becoming visible.

AH and Brad taking a quick break (at this point our group had broken into two - we wouldn't end up really seeing the others the rest of the climb).

AH and I in the clouds.

There is something magical about looking round and seeing that you are high above the clouds. 

The last section is made up of sand and ash.  It was not as bad as I remember but still a tough section to complete with a very steep incline.

 From the top looking back to what we had just accomplished.  I love this view!

The new dome of the mountain is much larger/higher than my last visit.

Looking to the right of the new dome (Mt. Rainier in the distance). The steep drop off on the left is where the mountain blew out in 1980.

Looking to the left of the new dome. 

AH and I - see I really did make it.

From the top we could see Mt. Rainier and Mt. Hood.  We were only able to catch glimpses of Mt. Adams on the descent due to heavy clouds around it most of the day.

A gorgeous view of Spirit Lake and Mt. Rainier.

 

When you reach the top you a literally standing on the ledge looking down into the new crater dome.  It's an amazing feeling seeing the power of nature up close and personal this way.

If only I could have done this the entire way down!

 AH on a ledge of the boulders during our descent. 

A closer shot.

We made it to the bottom of the boulders.  My legs and feet were protesting greatly at this point so I traded my hiking boots for my super comfy tennis shoes for the remaining hike through the trees back to the car (2 miles). 

To my disappointment we weren't able to wait for the rest of our group to descend.  It was a 4 hour drive home for us and we needed to be on our way to relieve our babysitter near the time I told her that we would be back.  I really missed congratulating everyone on completing this tough climb; I would have loved to have heard their perspectives.  I am really proud that they all toughed it out and made it to the top - that is quite an accomplishment!