The Birdie Knot Dress

When I'm productive, I'm productive! Here's what I made in three hours on Saturday night. I've been in such a sewing mood. The dress I made for Romania's school auction got my juices flowing. I've found great fabric on etsy.com.

This is a layered knot dress (instead of buttons, the straps are knotted through buttonholes) and ruffled capri pants. The hardest part is choosing the fabrics and what goes where.

Vacation's Over

Although it was a nice few restful days, the turmoil is back. They had lots to share of what they did at the beach (and more importantly the things they got at the Dollar Store). But it's back to being stressed-out. On top of all the stress, I got sick. Really sick. I was really thinking it had completely missed me. Super-hero got really sick; and both boys had it in one form or another. Egypt kinda got stuffy but nothing too big.

Sunday afternoon I had a headache, but that's so normal. The only other thing was I was so completely tired. Not just tired I'm gonna take a nap. Tired I can't even walk. I rested and when I got up I felt no better. The pile of dirty clothes covers the entire upstairs hallway and I couldn't even get up to do it. Super-hero made dinner for the kids and I actually ate. But when I went to bed early (I was told to go to bed!) at 9.15, I lay in bed until 12.30 and hadn't slept at all. I just lay awake singing hymns in my head. Now hymns aren't normally bad, but I could not stop my mind from going and I think I may have slept an hour after moving downstairs to the couch after listening to my bed-mate snore.

By Monday I was throwing up whatever I ate and I only ate toast and ginger ale. The kids watched movies and the boys spent some time next door with the neighbor boys. I haven't felt this bad in a long time. Super-hero bought some Unisom for me and I actually slept last night, but woke up with a dry mouth and a little loopy from the sleep aid. Today was a little better. The boys went back to play next door, Egypt watched movies and played with play-doh and painted. I just lay on the bed and wondered how I was going to fix dinner.

The worst part is, when the boys were called home (and I warned Holland about this), they were told they would be eating dinner here and not going back. Then I was told that they had been invited to spend the night. Not only is this not a good idea for behavior reasons, I would never let the boys spend the night there because I just don't trust the situation between the two adults (who aren't married). This sent Holland into a tailspin. It was so not pretty to look at. We had upped one of his meds this past Sunday because he was getting so out of control. There was no other way, except hospitalization, to curb it. So on Sunday, he falls asleep on the way to church and I just let him sleep on the pew next to me during the whole service. He just could not handle the situation. We ate dinner, he took a bath and went to bed at 7.30.

And now I have to figure out how I'm gonna go grocery shopping with these three for my Bunco game on Friday. I so want to do something fun and normal again.

A Mini-Vacation

So things have been pretty hectic here, but I actually got a mini-vacation (or should I say "stay-cation). My parents took the boys to the beach for two days. They spent Wednesday night at their house so they could leave first thing in the morning. Egypt and I have had nice mom/daughter time together.

Yesterday I had a meeting to discuss getting technology assistance for Holland. Everything's about the meeting when you're on an IEP. "Let's have a meeting to plan a meeting." Basically I was told that even though the district already owns the software I want, there might be someone else that needs it more (????) Ok. I don't understand that at ALL. WEEEEEE need it! They're going to let us try it out, but my take is that they want the charter school to buy it. I'm ready to put it on a credit card and buy it because I'm tired of everyone dragging their feet. One of the members of the IEP team wanted to know my goals for using this software. "I want him to learn how to read and write" I said. I've been trying to teach him for 4 years and she's worried I'm expecting this software to solve all my problems. Well, I'm not that stupid. Give me some credit. I would think after 4 years and countless methods that she knew I wouldn't be expecting this software to solve everything. She kept bringing up other software that I knew wouldn't work (there's one she wants us to try that uses hand signals for the different sounds of speech). I've already told these people that he isn't a phonetic kid - he needs pictures to help him connect meaning to the jumble of letters he sees. The software I want has little pictures above each word and you can go from pictures to words or words to pictures.

My stay-cation included running some errands yesterday and having a quiet day with Egypt reading on my bed, playing and doing an art project. Today I borrowed the cultural pass from the library to go to the Children's Museum in Portland. We haven't been there in about two years. The last time I took her, I had the boys with me and they complained the entire time (it really is too young a place for them, but what was I supposed to do?) So today it was just us and we had a great time. She shopped in the grocery store, brushed an aligator's teeth, floated ducks in a water bath and drew with a light on a tree trunk. We did a few errands on the way home and checked out some movies at the library.

Now I'm getting ready for the loudness to return. It's been so nice to have quiet here. Hopefully they had a good time at the beach even if it was cold.

Someone Dropped the Ball

Today I met with my ES for an IEP review. We meet three times a month, but four times a year we have to review Holland's goals and mark his progress. He has not been in a good mood lately which is making everything difficult. While we were waiting for the ES, I asked about the Co:Writer software that we're waiting for. The secretary said that she couldn't find the paperwork. When I asked my ES about it, she said we both signed it and she gave it to me to turn in. I do NOT remember it this way. I never turn in any of the paperwork for things I want ordered. I fill out the form, sign it and give it to my ES to order. So this whole time I've been waiting for what I thought was approval for the software and no one actually had the order form. I don't get this at all. I spoke with these two people several times about the process and was told we were waiting to get approval because if the school couldn't use the software on someone else, they may not want to order it for a single student.

People all around me are dropping the ball. I'm ready to cancel all the speech sessions we've been having. Well, I don't really need to do that because our speech person has been doing that for me. I had to move my entire schedule around because she couldn't meet on the two days per week we originally agreed upon. We finally worked out where she would come to our house for Holland's speech. On Thursday, the day of the speech session last week, she called saying she needed to reschedule for some reason. So we bumped it to Friday, which I didn't want to do because that left one day to shop for birthday presents for the boys. I agreed to it and Friday morning she calls and says she misjudged the time it would take her to drive to my house from her last appointment. She wanted to bump it an hour. I said no that I could do it 30 minutes later than she originally said. Luckily I had my mom coming over to watch the kids while I went out. But it just happened again today. It was Romania's first full day of Spring Break and I had a dr. appointment, a meeting with the ES and then Speech. I just listened to the machine as she left a message saying she needed to reschedule yet again. I haven't even called her back. I'm so tired of being bumped around and it really messes up Holland.

I need a vacation.

JRA for TMJ

I went to my first JRA informational meeting on Saturday. Two of the kids stayed and did crafts and pet an aligator in another room (I would love to have seen that!) while I listened to a doctor talk about the effects of arthritis and TMJ. He had amazing before and after pictures of patients with jaw problems. Basically if you have TMJ resulting from arthritis, there is mandibular hypomobility and loss of posterior face height. Several of the patients were from Guatamala and Ecuador, so obviously the chance of early detection and treatment is not as high as in the States. But it was scary to see what could happen - when the condyle erodes away, the chin disappears, the cheeks puff up and you cannot close your mouth without straining.

But I learned some new vocabulary in the process: ginglymodiarthrodial; condyle reconstruction surgery; and arthrocentesis. Don't ask me to explain them. We just hope we never have to deal with this!