Finally a post!

Being a full-time mom with a 30+ hour per week job (at home) and a blogger can be a bit difficult, especially during election season (since after all, I do work for the League of Women Voters). So, at times somethings got to give and in the past two weeks it has been blogging.

That doesn't mean there's been a lack of excitement around here. Where shall I begin??????

First, I am now a celebrity. I appeared on CNN's Election Center with Campbell Brown twice now. Once this past Thursday and again Wednesday of the previous week. I was a part of an all women focus group that watched the presidential debates and gave my opinion on how the candidates did. The first night they said my name out loud which thoroughly embarrassed me and then the second night I was clearly having a bad hair day. Although, I have to admit, it was fun to see myself on television and it was a bit of an ego booster to have CNN say that they were so impressed with myself and the other members of the group that they wanted to interview us a second time.

Now lets talk about the Monkey. She hasn't killed anyone yet. Although yesterday she bit the Kangaroo and his friend at the same time. I do hope the biting gets under control soon. I am getting daily reports on her behavior at school and I must share with you the comment made by her teacher on several occasions: "She needed a little extra teacher help today to make good choices." I can't think of a more positive way to say "your daughter is a bit of a maniac and doesn't listen at all" (yes, I may be overstating it for dramatic purposes).

The Monkey, along with her brothers, has been fighting a cold but she is the only one that didn't get an ear infection. The Hawk woke up this morning swollen and covered in red spots. The doctor says he's having a Penicillin reaction which means no more cheap antibiotics for him. Great! Our health insurance is NOT GOOD when it comes to medicine. Other than the coughing, the buggers, and the ear gew, there's not much different with the kids.

Now for my job (the paying one). Elections make me nauseous, and not just because of the commercials. My work load quadruples in September and October. I could go on and on about all things that annoy me during this time of year, but I'll spare you the details. I know the commercials are bad enough for you.

My house is suffering greatly right now. For example, I haven't been able to clean the toilet in my bedroom for quite some time. Yesterday, when I was standing outside the school for the Kangaroos teacher conference, wondering why the doors where locked (Hint: the teacher was there the day before when I was SUPPOSED to be there), my sister-in-law used that bathroom. Absolutely humiliating! Not only was the bathroom YUCK but the fact that the male animals in this house refuse to properly use toilet paper was quite evident in the underwear that were VISIBLE on the floor. New rule: Absolutely no one except immediate family is allowed in that bathroom - NO EXCEPTIONS.

Dad is doing well. He spent a week ALONE in San Francisco at no cost to him for a conference. The conference was work related but don't fall under his spell and allow him to convince you to pity him. He was alone in San Francisco for 5 days. What I wouldn't give to just go to the bathroom alone...............

On a more serious note, my neighbor, very good friend, and part-time seasonal assistant (all the same person) was diagnosed with breast cancer this week. So far it appears that it was caught early and after surgery and chemo, she should be able to get her life back and be done with it forever. Keep her in your prayers. Also, always tell people to have mammograms and follow-up with them to make sure they do. Knowing the importance of mammograms since my Mom died from breast cancer, I knew my friend hadn't had one yet and I bugged her for few years to get hers done. The only reason why she finally did was because I dialed the doctors number and put the phone in her ear and demanded that she make it. Doing this to everyone we are close to can truly save lives.

Alright, I've waited long enough, I must go clean the bathroom.

September 22 Came and Went

If you haven't been able to figure out already by my background music, I'm a Celine Dion fan. Yes, I admit it, I think she's great. There are two artists I'd pay any amount of money to see and they are Celine Dion and, of course, Madonna.

So it should come as no surprise when I tell you that last October, immediately following an episode of Oprah where Celine Dion was the guest, I jumped at the chance to buy tickets to her concert when an advertisement aired on the TV. I called my sister-in-law and mother-in-law and asked that they come with me. My mother-in-law said "absolutely, I'll go and price is no issue". My sister-in-law said okay while making sure I knew that it was only to keep us company and that she would pay any amount of money also to do that (but only to keep us company). In no way did she want to be mistaken for a die-hard fan, but I could tell she was dying to go.

The next morning I was on-line by 10 am sharp, ready to purchase the tickets. Based on the map, it appeared that the tickets offered to us at $176 a piece were good, so I bought them. Price was no concern of mine.

After the excitement of the purchase wore off, I realized that I had to wait 11 months to go. Geesh, I could be dead by then (well, I knew that was unlikely since at the time I was only 33 years old, however, you never know). I thought about everything that would happen during that 11 month wait, the Monkey would come home from Guatemala (I hoped), the Hawk would finish Kindergarten and start first grade, the Kangaroo would start Kindergarten, and the entire winter, spring and summer would pass by. It felt like a lifetime away. So, I tucked the tickets away under a pile on my desk (yes, I agree, very bad place to stick tickets worth almost $600) and forgot about them.

Well, all the things I mentioned above happened plus some and suddenly it was September 22, the day of the concert. Wow, time flies. Soon I will die of natural causes at the age of 88.

So, the three of us hopped in my car and drove down to the arena. As we were walking in,my "too cool" sister-in-law didn't pass up the opportunity to mention that she figured she'd be the youngest one there while looking around and noticing all the more "mature" concert goers, but there were plenty of younger ladies also and even some men (husbands of course being drug in by their wives, but still men).

Then we took our seats and waited anxiously for Celine Dion to come out and start singing. We couldn't wait, even my sister-in-law (she's going to shoot me when she reads this). Finally at 9 pm, she emerged! She's short. Did you know that? I always thought she was really tall and yucky skinny. But she's not. She's short and thin, but not yucky thin. And, she sings perfectly all the time. It's amazing how well she sings, she didn't miss a note the entire night. She was just as amazing as I thought she'd be. She sang for almost two hours and I'm sure by the end, she was exhausted. I wasn't as impressed by the dancing as I thought I'd be, but she was great. She gives her background singers the chance to be front and center, which I thought was great also.

In the end, I'm glad I went. I forgot to mention, our seats were perfect. We were about 20 feet away from her. We could see her great without looking at the giant TV's. The show was well worth the 11 month wait.

Remember how at the beginning of this post I said I'd pay any amount of money to see two people? The other artist I mentioned was Madonna. Well, a few weeks ago my sister-in-law and I purchased tickets to her show in Detroit. We are headed there on November 18. What a year this will be. I brought the monkey home, saw Celine Dion, and am going to see Madonna. Assuming nothing tragic happens, 2008 might go down as one of the best years.

Sorry I have no pictures. Our tickets said no cameras allowed so I didn't bring one and at the concert I discovered we were probably the only ones without cameras. That's the last time I'll follow that rule.

We Had a Hurricane, Well Kind Of

Usually when hurricanes hit down south, we just see the photos of the devastation, thank God we live in Ohio, and laugh at the newscasters trying desperately to stay on the ground while trees fly by behind them. Occasionally, we do get a couple inches of rain a few days later, however, since it is usually Fall and our grass is dried up from August, we're thank full for the rain.


On Sunday, we got something quite different. No rain from Ike came, but his hurricane force winds did. In central Ohio, wind speeds were between 50 and 75 miles per hour for 4 hours. Keep in mind, our homes are built Ohio Style, meaning in a way that doesn't consider weather as a factor, since after all, it is Ohio.


My kitchen cabinets were shaking, yikes. We had our house built 4 years ago; this works in our favor.


1) We have planted 17 trees (we've been trying so hard to get some instant shade, but the trees aren't growing fast enough so we just keep adding more, in 20 years it will look like we live in the forest). These trees though are small and flexible. Did you know that the top of an oak tree can touch the ground and not break in half? Ours can and its even been struck by lightening a couple times.


2)Our shingles and siding our fairly new and the screws holding them in place haven't had enough time to rust and become ineffective. So, our house has no damage. Also, the part of central Ohio that we live in just starting being dramatically developed within the last 10 years. Because of that, we have few telephone poles and most wires are underground. This works in our favor also because we have electricity. Most of Columbus has not had electricity since Sunday and many people are told not to expect it until the weekend. See, the electric company wanted to be nice to Texas and they sent all their workers down there to help them, not realizing we'd be struck too.


While we haven't been inconvenienced a bit, most other Ohioans have been. The winds ripped through Cincinnati and didn't stop until they hit Cleveland. Several people have died from having trees fall on them. Ohioans aren't used to this kind of weather and go outside without realizing what can happen. In my sister's neighborhood in Cincinnati, many are left without siding on their homes and most homes all over the place have roof damage.


So this week we are thankful. Imagine my house with the 3 animals and nothing to do without electricity (most schools have been closed all week, the animals got to go back on Tuesday though). I promised to sell my soul for the kids to have had school on Tuesday. Hopefully the devil doesn't come knocking.

Here's a couple pictures of the Monkey from this week.


This is her doing gymnastics. She's pretty good.

If Hollywood children didn't turn out to be such hellins, I'd get her an agent! She's been having a good week, with the exception of yesterday (she was MOODY). She's started picking up heavy things and saying "it's so heavy." Her voice is so cute and sweet.

Which reminds me. I got a note from the teacher. I had asked the Monkey one day if she hit anyone or pulled hair (I ask her this everyday). One day last week her response was "no, I" and then she squeezed her face, just below her eye. She does this to me often, and when she does, I bleed. I asked her if she got in trouble and she said "si." I asked her if the child cried and she said "si." So, I put a note to the teacher in her book bag asking if it was true. This is what the note said: "Overall, I've been happy with her behavior." (She must start off on a positive note.) "She is bossy and tends to hit and push, and I have to remind her to keep her hands to herself. Although, most times she is receptive to the things I tell her and needs little intervention." Okay, that's good. She's bossy, she hits, she pushes, but overall well behaved. I suppose that's a little better than I expected. Tomorrow though might not go so well. It's someones birthday in her class. The Monkey is VIOLENT to those celebrating their birthday. She gets very angry and wants it to be her birthday. We'll see how that goes. I think I'll warn her teacher. I have been preparing the Monkey all week in hopes that it helps to control her anger.

I must get back to work. Thanks for reading.

Stories about the Monkey

I spend a lot of time complaining about the "malo" things the Monkeys does and not much time on the sweet things about her. This past week as been full of cute stories, so I thought I'd share a few.

Last week I was deep into one of my "see Amy, you are creative" projects and was cutting some fabric on the living room floor. The monkey was sitting on the floor next to me watching Brother Bear. I heard her making sniffling noises and I looked up to see what she was doing. She had tear after tear streaming down her face and her eyes were glued to the TV. I noticed that on the screen, one of the characters was crying and singing a sad song. The movie had brought the Monkey to tears. The Kangaroo and the Hawk have NEVER gotten emotional over a movie and seeing her so deeply affected by it was precious. I held her close to me and told her it was okay. Once I started talking to her though, she began crying right out loud. I'll have to show her Steel Magnolias and see what happens.

Then there was the pinching incident in the car. We were driving home from our camping trip and the Monkey had gotten angry at the Hawk (probably because the Hawk's shirt had brushed up against her car seat). She began pinching the Hawk one time after another. He started screeching "Ouch, she's pinching me." I ignored it, as I do most of their fights, until I heard the sweetest tone come out of the Monkey's mouth. Her voice was very quiet but high pitched and she said slowly "he pinch me," and began softly crying. Dad and I just started cracking up. She sounded so innocent and abused. After I was done laughing I turned around and told her "that's what you get for pinching him."

As you know, the Monkey has started school. (No, I haven't gotten any notes yet. I have no idea how she's doing.) One thing she doesn't like to do is talk (or babble) about it. On Thursday I was trying so hard to get her to tell me just one thing about her day while she was eating lunch. Well, she didn't like that. While I was in the middle of asking her a question, she stuck her hand in my face and said "bop, I ee," (translated: Stop, I'm Eating). Again, very cute!

And my last story breaks my heart. We were at the Kangaroo's soccer game on Saturday and the Monkey got mad at me, once again, for something stupid. I think it happened when it was time to turn around to the field directly behind us and I turned my chair before she turned herself around. Anyway, I told her to stop crying, only angering her more, and she smacked the innocent little girl that just happened to be walking by her at the time. I did scold her for doing it and attempted to get her to apologize to the girl, with no success of course, the Monkey is only 3.

Well, a little later, the Monkey noticed the girl had Play-Do and she wanted to play it with her. Usually, when other kids are at games, the parents encourage them playing together, but not this time. The Monkey was nervous to walk over to the girl and try to play with her, but I encouraged her and was able to get her to go over to the little girl. Since the Monkey doesn't speak well yet, she just stood next to the mother waiting for her to ask the Monkey if she wanted to play. The mother ignored her and the Monkey eventually walked back over to me. So, I sent her back over, telling her to walk over and say "will you play with me" (knowing that the sentence was a bit too tough for her to say, but hoping that the mother would notice her this time).

After the Monkey walked over, the mother looked at her and said "what" with an awful sarcasm to her voice. The Monkey walked back over to me with tears in her eyes. I wanted to go smack the mom in her face and say "excuse my daughter for not having as perfect behavior as your daughter, but she did spend the first 33 months of her life fighting for anything she could get her hands on in an orphanage and struggles at controlling her anger. Give her a break, BRAT." But I didn't. I just told the Monkey that I'd buy her some Play-Do the next time I go to the grocery store.

That incident is exactly why I don't want her in a main stream preschool yet. She will eventually bite someone or hit them at school and as soon as the parent finds out, then she won't be able to live it down. Parents of "normal" kids (meaning kids that have lived in a "normal" home since birth) don't understand her behavior or why she acts like she does. Parents of special needs children will expect the other kids to have behavior problems and she only has 8 kids in her class with 2 teachers, it's great and I know she'll get so much help before I have to toss her in with the "normal" kids. How can anyone be mean to this sweet little girl?

That's it with the cute Monkey stories. I wish she were home right now because I'd give her a kiss and hug.

This weekend was our 11th wedding anniversary weekend and my 34th birthday (yuck!). Grandma and Grandpa came up on Saturday to watch the kids so we could go on a "date." One thing we learned was that after 11 years, we've become very boring. We went to dinner and then drove to the movie theater but couldn't bring ourselves to spend $9 per ticket to see Will Farrell (as funny as he is). So then we walked around the mall and after admitting to each other that we HATE window shopping and really only like going to Kohls, we went home. We even got home before the boys were in bed.

Which reminds, I've got to tell you quickly about my husband. I love pineapple upside down cake and wanted him to bake me one for my birthday. I told him NUMEROUS times "do not buy the pineapple upside down cake mix, it is gross. Buy a yellow cake mix ONLY and it better not be generic either." So, off to the store he went and when he got home, this is honestly what he said, "look Amy, they had a pineapple upside down supreme cake mix, so I bought it, I think it will be really good. I was proud of myself for finding it." I responded, "are you kidding? That's really what you bought? How many times did I tell you NOT to buy that and ONLY to buy a yellow cake mix." So on our date, we stopped at the store for a yellow cake mix. He's always complaining about no one listening to him..........

My birthday was great though. We took the animals bowling and then went to Sonic. The boys have been begging to go to Sonic all summer (one just opened by our house a few months ago) and I decided we'd go yesterday. Last time we'll do that. First of all, Wendy's is much better and second, who wants to eat in the car, especially on their birthday. Here are a few pictures of the weekend.

The Hawk took this picture which explains the lack of a full head on Dad.

Have a great week!

Camping!

I forgot to mention in my last post that we were going camping to celebrate Labor Day, of course, and my sister-in-laws 30th birthday. I assumed we wouldn't have much fun and we'd roast. I was wrong about both. We had a great time and we DOUBLE ROASTED. The nights were freezing but by 10 am it felt like 100 degrees. We hiked, watched the men drink beer, and rode a pontoon. The Hawk and Kangaroo even got to be the boat captain for a little while. The Monkey's behavior was decent. She had her moments, as she always does, but all in all, I give her a B in behavior. She had lots of family there to keep her busy.

There was an invasion of skunks though by our campsite, which had us a bit nervous, especially Grandma. Fortunately, none of us were squirt. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

The Monkey passed out from the extreme heat on the pontoon.

Captain Hawk

Captain Kangaroo (isn't that a real name of something?)

Because of camping, I wasn't able to make the first day of school movie, but hope to get to it soon. I'm going to be honest though; I may end up using the second child excuse and not get around to it until the end of the year (last year I had the Hawk's first day of school movie made before bed-time the same day). Poor Kangaroo, he just had to be born second.

Which brings me to the Monkey. Today was her first day of preschool and I have absolutely nothing to show for it. The bus got here a few minutes early and I was not prepared. The Monkey's shoes weren't on and the camera was no where to be found.

When she got home I wasn't prepared either. I was sitting at my desk working and saw the bus pull up out of the corner of my eye. I had to run out quick to get her off. So, my three year old had her first day of school and even got on a bus and I don't have a single picture. Well, except for the one I took when she came in the house. Here it is.

Papee (what she calls Dad) stayed home today so he could see her going to school but it all went so quickly that he missed it. Then he figured he'd be here to see her get off the bus, but missed that also (I think he may have been in the basement and didn't hear me holler for him. He was very disappointed.

Last week when I met with her teachers to go over her educational plan, I said one of my goals was for her to be able to come home and tell me about her day without babbling. I didn't realize until today how much that meant to me. I asked her what she did, what her snack was, if she was good, if she bit anyone, if she hit anyone, if she pulled the teacher's hair, and so on and so on, but her only response was matytalskdfrjaskheoajdhsthoe. I have no idea how she did. I was hoping for a note from her teacher at least telling me if she threw any fits, but nothing. It makes me very sad. When she was in Guatemala I hated not knowing what she was doing, but since she's been home, I've known exactly what she was doing all the time (except for Thursday night when she turned the hose all the way on outside and I didn't notice until this morning, yes, 4 days later; that water bill is going to be between $500-$1000; I am absolutely sick over it). She didn't have a note saying "please never send her back" so she must not have been too bad.

Oh well, maybe I'll get a note tomorrow. Brownies are burning, I've got to go.

We're Back, Thank God

Have you ever spent 2 months thinking about something and felt it would go perfectly just to have it all blow up in your face? Well, I have, at least NOW, I have.


We chose Erie, PA because its quiet and on the lake. We chose this specific Bed and Breakfast because it sat right on the beach and we thought the view would be spectacular. Based on the pictures, it was pretty and peaceful looking. When we got their, we discovered that the pictures portrayed the place accurately, pretty and peaceful. What they didn't show were the cats or the scent of old mildew. My husband is VERY allergic to cats and it wasn't until after we came back from dinner that we realized they were there. We knew the place was stinky but figured we'd get used to it. The sneezing, wheezing, itchy and watery eyes however, were hard to ignore. I told the owner we were going out to get allergy medicine, even though my husband hasn't had much luck with them in the past. It was our hope that the owner would offer to give us our money back (since we'd already paid in full) and then we could go stay in a hotel that wasn't stinky or infested with cats (and there were A LOT of spiders in our room). But, no such offer was made, however, she did offer some Zyrtec. My husband took it and we waited. I begged him to let us leave and find someplace else to stay (I told him we should leave because of his allergies, but really I wanted to leave because of the spiders), but he refused to waste the money. Fortunately, the Zyrtec kicked in and his allergies were under control. So all was well, until 3 AM.


The electricity went out and you would think what's the big deal it's the middle of the night, who needs electricity. Well, the big deal was the spotlight directly above our bed that only turns on when the electric goes out. The light was BRIGHT and was shining directly on us. My husband tried to find a way to turn it off, but no such luck. It stayed on until it burnt out 2 hours later.

Great, now you could sleep, I'm sure you're thinking, but you're wrong. When the light burnt out the ticking started. It ticked and ticked and ticked really fast and loud for about 30 minutes, until the batteries ran out. Yes, then we slept. But It was now about 6 AM and we were told that breakfast was served between 7 and 9. If you can remember from a past post, I like to sleep and eating breakfast that early was out of the question. At 7 AM I went out and told them about the drama during the night and their was now no need to cook breakfast for us because we'd be sleeping.

Once we finally woke up we spent the day at Presque Isle State Park, which more than made up for the night before. We rented a paddle boat (really wasn't a great idea since it was almost 90 degrees). We also went on a boat ride out on the lake, which was the best part of the whole trip. We did manage to have a quiet weekend and despite Friday night, we enjoyed ourselves. When we checked out on Sunday, the owners of the Bed & Breakfast refunded us our money for the first night, which was TERRIFIC.

So far this week has been very busy (I've actually been working on this post for three days, I just keep getting interrupted). The kangaroo had his first day of Kindergarten yesterday and I hope to post a video this weekend, so check back on Sunday.

YEAH and BOOWHOO!

Let me start by telling everyone the Monkey was ACCEPTED! She scored really well on understanding what was being said to her but not so well on saying it. Here's an example, the reviewer asked her where the apple was and she pointed to the apple. Then when the reviewer pointed to the apple and asked her what it was called, she said "ba ba blah da nee tee kay ba zotee." It was like that with everything.

She scored 3 deviations below the norm in speech, but to be accepted she only needed to score 2 deviations below the norm.

She was also tested for behavior/social issues (mainly through questionnaires that I had to fill out), however, I don't know the score in that area. I'll find that out next week, but I'm guessing she'll score low in that area also.

So, in 2 weeks a bus will pull up to our driveway and take the Monkey to school four days per week (half day) (and there's no cost!).

This is really great news for the Monkey because she's going to get so much help over the next two years and she'll be SOOO much better off when she has to join the main stream kids. She'll work with a speech therapist two days per week and also with a child psychologist (to help her better handle social situations, be nicer to other kids while playing, listening to authority, learning to trust again, etc.)

It's great and I'm thrilled.

Now for the boowhoo. Monday was meet the teacher for the Hawk and the Kangaroo. I knew I was in trouble when I walked inside the school building and began crying. I wasn't even leaving the boys there. We were just meeting their teachers.

The Hawk found out that he gets to sit (with their desks touching) right in front of the girl he seemed to be quite found of in Kindergarten. I'm having a lot of fun teasing him about that. There are also several other children that he knows in his class.

The Kangaroo, who is going into Kindergarten, has the same teacher that the Hawk had last year, which I'm thrilled about.

Since Monday, butterflies have been going crazy in my belly. I even woke up last night thinking I may have been coming down with a stomach bug, but it was just nerves. While the Hawk absolutely drives me bonkers, I do love him. He has been home, except for a few hours in the afternoons, ever day with me for the past seven years. Now he's going to be gone from 8am-4pm. That's a long time to not see his face or hear him screech. It breaks my heart.
Also, I can't sleep in anymore. I have to have him at the bus stop by 8am, which makes it impossible for me to sleep any later than 7:30am, YIKES.

So today we got up at 7:10am, got dressed together, brushed our teeth together, and then ate our breakfast together. I then packed his lunch, took a few pictures and walked him to the bus stop, with my video camera in hand (after the Kangaroo's first day I'll post the video). It went well because it was too early in the morning for me to cry.

The kindergartens don't start until Tuesday, so the Kangaroo is still home with me. I'll let you know how that goes next week.

Now, my lunch is gone and I must get back to work. Tomorrow Dad and I are headed out for our weekend away.

Have a great weekend!