I Am Not "That" Mom

Reading Fairs. Three years ago Macey came home with a sheet of paper that said that she could do a story board for a reading fair at her school. By the time I had finished reading the rules and requirements I was very excited. It required reading a book and putting together a tri-fold board with all the elements of the story. It even said to use your imagination! What?! We could do this! This is every scrapbookers dream. I could whip out my cricut and use my fancy paper. This would be so much fun. Macey loves to draw and could draw the pictures from the story. She could write out the words and wear a costume. All of this made me positively giddy. I think I even giggled a little when I read the paper.
We decided to do a great book by Mo Willems called "Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!". Macey loves this book. It is quite hilarious.

Macey and I had a blast putting it together. Here is what we came up with.

Macey won third place at her school. Here is Macey calling her Daddy at work to tell him all about it.

Winning at the school meant we were able to go the District Reading Fair. Woohoo! Macey gets to ride a bus, pack a sack lunch, miss a day of school, and spend the whole day in the city auditorium! I was ecstatic because get this....I could go too!

Finally they announced the awards. My Macey won first place!!!!

This meant she could go to Regional Reading Fair. So off we go to Regional Reading Fair at Delta State. I took off work and brought the whole family. Exciting stuff. Here is Macey dressed as the bus driver in the book.

Macey didn't win here but that was okay. The long trip and all that waiting around was fun at first but I didn't want to do it again.

So the next year came around and we decided to do another Mo Willems book, "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late!". They are so funny.

Here is how our board turned out.

Macey won second place at her school and then second place at District. She was so excited to walk up there and get her ribbon. 

So, this year rolled around and we chose another Mo Willem's book called "The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!".

Here is our board.

Macey won first place at her school. Last Wednesday, we went to District Fair in the auditorium. That morning I tell her that she can't expect to win all the time and please don't be too upset if she doesn't. I could tell Macey wasn't listening because she asked me two seconds later, "When are they going to tell me I won and give me my ribbon?". Good grief. Turns out she didn't win. Macey didn't even get an honorable mention ribbon. She was sad at first but she got over it quickly. It broke my heart when she asked what she had done wrong. I considered the whole thing a lesson in humility. The chick can't win all the time, and she has got to learn this at some point. She did get a fifth place ribbon for presenting her classroom board, "Julius".

Chase was able to come with a classmate and present their class board with his teacher. They won fourth place!

Last year Chase won fourth place for a classroom board too! It was the same scenario, he went with his teacher's aide and a classmate. This was their board.

 It was nice that Chase and Macey were able to stand up on stage together with their ribbons for their classroom boards.

Now if you are still with me, here is where the tricky part came in. Macey didn't win for her Pigeon board and something bothered me. I was watching her while she was waiting to be judged and she was playing with the little boy next to her. At one point, they were playing with the little slips of paper that were placed in front of their boards. I had no idea what these papers were for but they were swapping them around, dropping them, picking them up and sword fighting with them.

Pay attention here, this little boy won 1st place. So......this nagging feeling came on and I couldn't shake it. What role did these little slips of paper play in the judging process? What if his paper was in front of hers and hers in front of his? Don't get me wrong, this little boy had a nice board. He could have easily won but what if...?

I didn't know what to do. I could be like that crazy mom who yells at the referee on the baseball field or act like a defeated politician who demands a recount.

 

After consulting with some well-balanced and level-headed friends, I decided just to ask. So I did. It turns out the little slips of paper were not that important. They just marked what division the child was in. So looking back, I am glad I didn't act crazy and demand a recount. I am glad I asked because that would have bugged me for life. Macey didn't win this year and that is fine. She needed to learn that little lesson about life.

There is always next year! She wants to do this book.

So we will be back next year. Maybe... if we win. If we don't win, that is fine too. 

"Make Sure your Brother Gets in the Building"

When Chase was a little over a year old my husband and I discovered that I was pregnant. It was not planned, in fact it was far from planned. We had just bought a house, Charles had just lost his job, and I was working two jobs while he stayed home with Chase. This seemed the smartest thing to do because I could make twice as much working PRN at another hospital every other weekend than he could working full time. It worked out really well.
But a baby was not what we thought we needed at all. I was in denial for a while. I didn't tell anyone I was pregnant or go to the OB until I was over 4 months along. Don't get me wrong, I told the doctor about the pregnancy because I worked with him but I never actually attended an appointment till late in the pregnancy. We didn't find out the gender because I was sure the baby was a boy.

9 months later: One night while I was working I felt a little pressure and got a friend in L&D to check me out. I was dilated 4cm. The only problem was that it was 3 in the morning and my relief didn't show up till 7am. I wasn't hurting so I stuck it out till 7am. I clocked out and walked over to L&D to have a baby. It was the perfect delivery because I got an epidural before any pain kicked in. I delivered Macey at 11 that morning and I'll be darned if she wasn't a girl. What?! I had no girl things. She was beautiful but she was a little mean. She yelled at me... a lot. Macey wanted to breastfeed ALL the time.

Around the middle of the night that night, she was crying and I was crying. My fellow professional coworkers decided I was nuts and confiscated my child. They took her back to the nursery and fed her a bottle because we all realized that I had not slept in 30 hours and I had just delivered a baby. I was entitled to be a little crazy.

It took a day or two for us to bond but we did. She is mine and I am hers. I wouldn't trade her for anything.

A few months after her birth Chase was diagnosed with Autism. The genetics doctor informed us that had Macey been a boy, she would have had a 1 in 3 chance of being diagnosed herself.  She was a girl, so her chances were only 1 in 7. She turned out fine.
Lately I have been feeling tremendous guilt for Macey's future. It is becoming more and more obvious to us that Chase is going to need some kind of assistance his entire life. He is doing really well but I don't see the potential for him to be a fully independent adult. I may be wrong, he may make tremendous strides in the next few years but I am not seeing it.
Chase and Macey are 23 months apart and I find myself asking her to do things for Chase. For example, this year we decided that Chase was able to go through the morning drop-off lane at his school. This means I pull up to the school, the car door is opened by a faculty member, and he walks into the school and into class by himself. Chase has done wonderful with this but I still find myself telling Macey to hold her brother's hand and "Make sure your brother gets in the building."

That is a lot to ask a child. How far do we push her in taking care of her brother? At what point do we stop asking her and hope she just continues to care for him on her own? What happens when they both get into highschool? Will she take up for him? Will she still hold his hand? How do you instill a sense of family obligation into a teenager? I know I am borrowing worries from tomorrow but this has really been on my mind a lot lately.  My husband and I won't be around forever. I hope Macey will be there for Chase when we aren't but that is really up to her. I don't want her to feel burdened or overwhelmed.
The only thing I can do with these worries is tell myself to "Let go and let God." I say this to myself and it brings some peace. Macey may have been unexpected but she is a God send. She is a beautiful child that is full of imagination and enthusiasm for life. Everyone is her friend and I know in my heart she will be there for Chase. We just have to show her love and know in return she will love.

Deuteronomy 31: "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave or forsake you."

My New Year's Resolutions are Boring Reruns

Every year I make the same resolutions and every year nothing changes. Number one on my list is to lose weight. I am sure this tops 99% of the American population's lists. I weigh EXACTLY the same as I did last year. No more, no less......exactly the same. I tried many things to correct this situation but I didn't try that hard for very long. As we all know, I am a bit lazy.

So I said to myself, "Self, what is your deal?!" Why is nothing motivating me? I am obviously overweight but I guess sometimes I just don't care. I have decided I need to figure out the underlying issues as to why I don't care. So I sat myself on my therapy-shrink couch in my head.

After much deliberation, this is what I have come up with.

1. I have no set time to myself. I have free time but no set aside time JUST FOR ME. I eat to reward myself. I need another reward system.  

2. I have never taken much pleasure out of name brand clothes or dresses, I just wear what fits. I am a nurse and I wear scrubs a lot. We all know scrubs can stretch very far so I am oblivious when I start to gain a little weight. The following picture is not me, I just thought it was hilarious.

3. I eat when I am bored, I eat when I am tired, I eat when other people eat, and I eat when there is something in front of me. It feels good and I love food. 

So I have decided to make up a whole new set of resolutions! The theme is loving myself.

1. Make one day a week all about me. On that day while the kids are in school, I will go nowhere and do nothing for anybody but me. On this day I will scrapbook, catch up on projects, take a nap, walk around the neighborhood, get my house in order, and just watch the DVR while I do laundry. The rest of the week I will full fill my obligations to work, family, and friends but Tuesday is MINE! If I tell you I can't do something on a Tuesday because I am terribly busy, I am probably just taking a nap.  

2. I will take better care of me! If I see cute clothes, I will get them because I can't tell you the last time I bought anything but underwear! I will put on make-up when I am going to see people. I will paint my toe nails. I will get my eyebrows waxed on a regular basis and ....... wait for it..... I will shave my legs above the knee.

3. I plan on fixing my third problem of eating whatever by..... eating. You heard me. I am going to eat a lot. I believe there is a war term for what I plan to do and it is called a pre-emptive strike. I plan to never reach the point of just looking for something to eat. I will wake up and eat a big bowl of some high fiber cereal (Cheerios or Honey-Bunches of Oat) with a banana. An apple for brunch. Then I will eat a huge salad or chicken salad for lunch. An orange for snack. Then I will eat a whole can of vegetables with my meat at night. I will tell myself, "You HAVE to eat this! I don't care that you aren't hungry. Eat it!" (I am talking to myself a lot in this blog). I will be so full of food that I won't even look sideways at a vending machine or any other junk food outlet.  

So that is my big plan. I have a few other resolutions such as being a better parent, wife, saving money, blah, blah, blah.... I will focus on all that later.  

Word World

Autism is such a strange disease because no one knows for sure what causes it and no two children diagnosed with it are the same. There is also this whole spectrum to consider and a child can be considered high or low on the spectrum. We are pretty lucky. When Chase was diagnosed he was considered low on the spectrum because he is severely language delayed but had few of the other tendencies seen with autism. It could have been worse.

He does have a few other symptoms other than language delay. One of those is finding something he likes and becoming semi-obsessed with it. Luckily for us, the obsession changes every few months. His first one I can remember was Cars. He watched it over and over. We ended up buying 2 DVDs because he wore the first one out. I didn't think you could wear out a DVD but you can. He has every "Cars" character car there is:

That lasted a while. Then we moved on to Thomas. He has every train and DVD there is. He even learned how to pull it up on the Internet and watch it on You Tube all by himself.  

Then he moved on to Toy Story. I was excited when he started in on this one because I really like this movie.

And now we have moved on to Word World. Some of you may not have heard of Word World. It is a a show on PBS.

Chase LOVES this show. He watches it as soon as he gets up in the morning and as soon as he gets home from school. All the way home from school he says, "I want to watch Word World. I want to watch Word World. I want to watch Word World." The show basically teaches children how to spell because they put the words together and the words come alive. For a child that is language delayed he has started speaking A LOT because of this show. He wants to know what every thing says and how it is spelled. Chase doesn't just ask, he orders you to spell it like a drill sergeant. "Spell pizza!!!" and keeps it up till you spell it. He also has started spelling things constantly on paper, so much so that we have had to buy more copy paper:

I find these all over the house. I used to not even be able to get him to color, now I can't keep up with all the paper everywhere. He also mimics the characters and knows their lines. Chase shouts it out at random, "You broke my letter L!" Kind of catches you off guard sometimes. There is this one scene where Duck is vacuuming and is singing this song, "I don't need a mop, I don't need a broom, all I need is you vacuuuuuuuuuuum!" Here is Chase reenacting the scene:

I can't tell you how excited I am about this show and how grateful I am that he is learning so much. Hopefully he will stick with this show a while.

Who said television wasn't good for your kids?! 



People You Work With

Do you ever just stop and think about how much time you spend with the people at work? I was thinking about it tonight and I was a little startled to realize I spend just as much time with them as I do my family. Think about it. You spend 40 hours a week talking to, eating with, and making decisions with these people. You may go home and spend a good 3 to 4 hours with your family before you go to bed but basically the majority of your waking hours is with coworkers.

I think I deserve a little more sympathy because I work in a hospital nursery. The nursery is a locked unit and I work 12 hour shifts, so that is basically 12 hours in a locked room with a couple of other people.  I don’t get to pick who I work with so I am at the mercy of management as to who I spend those 12 hours with.

Lately tensions at work have been running high. Why? I’ll tell you. In a hospital, there is something called “low census.” This means that if there are not enough patients then they can tell staff to stay home. Hospitals are businesses and the hospital I work at is a very good hospital. In order for the doors to stay open they have to be smart with the budget. So if there aren’t enough patients to care for then some of the staff needs to stay home. This has been happening a lot and we have to take turns taking “low census”. As a result, my coworkers and I are losing money and nobody likes to lose money.

I usually just work 6 days a paycheck (72 hours every two weeks) but I requested to add a seventh day (84 hours) on a regular basis. Almost everyone in the nursery works 7 days a paycheck, so I requested to be 7 days too. This way I can get my regular paycheck even if I get low census. Many coworkers feel this is unfair and that it takes away even more from their schedules. They may be right but at what point does your relationship with your coworkers trump your way of life? If they were presented with the same dilemma, what would they do? On my list of priorities, these people are at the top of my list:

So what do you do when the people you spend the majority of your time with are unhappy? I can’t help but think that I need to be invested in these people as if they are family. Granted, I am not going to sacrifice my livelihood so they can be happy but I do need to care. If my family was unhappy, I would talk and fight it out. We would get to the bottom of it, find some common ground, and move on. So I explained my actions and pray they have the character to understand where I am coming from. I am going to continue to smile, go beyond my duties to help them with theirs, and try to get along with everyone because I like the hospital I work at. I love what I do, like my boss, and at the end of the day I like my coworkers.

I am sure everyone in the workforce has the same sort of problem. There is something to be said for trying to keep the peace. Nobody wants to live a life where the people they spend most of their time with are unhappy. It is easy to write off people that you work with but I don’t think it is good for your well-being. Yes, times are tough but I try to remember better times, a time when we had great conversations and laughed about crazy stuff.

Try to find the best in people because giving up on the people you spend most of your time with doesn’t seem smart. It is like my Granny quotes, “This too shall pass.”

Living Successfully......Who Does That?

The other day I saw this reality show about this couple who were in financial trouble and were seeing a finance counselor. The counselor was explaining that the couple in the show were living "paycheck-to-paycheck". He went on to state that in order for a person to be considered "living successfully", they must be able to save a third of their paycheck comfortably. They must do this on a regular basis. A third?! Really?!

I thought we were living successfully because we have electricity, water and have not had anything repossessed....yet. I guess I was wrong. I don't see how anyone does. For example, if a person made a $1000 a month, he is supposed to put $333.33 a month away in savings in order to be considered successful. He just puts it away cause he doesn't need it. What? I guarantee that person lives with his mom and spends the other $666.66 on Wii games and pizza.

I don't know about you, but I got bills. Who doesn't?  We pay the bills and are responsible about them but stuff happens and sometimes it can get tight. Just last week our garage door spring snapped and the door was stuck in the down position. My husband thinks it had something to do with the kids hanging off the door while it was trying to open the other day. The bill was over $200! Kids are expensive.

It seems like every time we save a little bit, something happens. You might be wondering about our retirement savings. Never fear! We have a plan! Have you seen that new reality show "BBQ Pitmasters"? It is my new favorite show and it is all about these people traveling across the country competing in barbeque contests.

 

I LOVE barbeque! I am especially crazy about ribs. I could eat ribs all day!

Around our house we don't use no skimpy napkins when we eat our BBQ, we use whole towels. If you don't get it all over you while you are eating it, you are eating it wrong. So anyway, I have been paying close attention to the heating times, dry rubs, cookers used, and general methods of cooking ribs on the show. When the time comes to retire, we are going to sell our house and travel the country cooking BBQ! I would consider that living successfully. 





First Day of School

I have seen a lot of posts on Facebook with people worried about their kids and missing them on their first day of school. There are even a few people crying right along with their kids. That used to be me once but not anymore. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids but I was so glad to drop them off at school last week.

-One reason is that I work Sunday nights and staying up all day on Mondays to watch my kids gets old quite quickly. Yes, this picture is of me.

-The second reason is that my house is a wreck. My kids are the messiest people on the face of the earth. Sometimes I will walk into a room and think "What happened in here?!" or "I don't even know what that is hanging from the ceiling fan." Picture of my house.

- The third reason I am glad they are back at school is that I am awful at teaching them anything. I bought this 1st grade workbook for Macey at the beginning of summer. I counted out the 200 pages and divided that by 8 weeks. I had a plan to cover so many pages a day and by the end of summer we were going to ready for 1st grade!!! Well, don't judge me but we completed about a third of the book before I gave up. At one point, during my "teaching" her that vowels had long and short sounds, I was poking at the cute cartoon drawings on the worksheet of April the Ape and Anna the Alligator with such force that my finger almost went through April the Ape's head. I had explained the different vowel sounds at least 20 different ways and had resorted to semi-screaming as if my child were deaf not just confused. I decided that I needed to stop before I shattered her love of learning in one summer. I am glad my Macey is back in school because I know someone at that wonderful establishment has the magic words to help her understand (without the need for cartoon animal beheading).

-The last and final reason I am glad they are back in school is that I LOVE their school, it has the best teachers and therapists! Chase has been there since the age of 3 with Autism therapy and I am nearly brought to tears every time I think of all the help and love he has received. Macey is doing very well there too. I know they are in good hands.

So don't judge me the next time you see me racing out of the school parking lot. I got my reasons.