Putting on my game face and my birthday suit

Well, I guess it was time. Time to get my Eyeore on and whip out some summer time malaise. Hey, if that opening line doesn't leave you begging for more then, I don't know HOW to please you.

You know, I made it through non-camping like the hotel staying champ I am and didn't feel the least bit stressed all week. The persnickety little D checked his troubles at the fish farm door and had the happiest week he's had in a long time. We were thrilled at the way that boy entertained himself in a 4x6 baby pool hour after hour! Water truly has a way of soothing a child with sensory issues. And, as I have been reading in my book about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome characteristics, MANY of these kids are attracted to it in the same way our boy is. Fascinating.

Happy Camper

I didn't manage to blog while on the trip because, well, I was watching cable, doing laundry, and eating cheese in my room most nights. That was enough multi-tasking for one gal. And trust me, you would have thought I was in a five star facility the way I enjoyed my ME time each eve. I'm ridiculously simple dahlings.

Until it came to the drive home.

Then, my nerves collectively started acting as if someone had taken a potato peeler to them slowly skim skim skimming away until I just started feeling like someone was repeatedly scaring me. That's not fun, but the part that most bothers me about depression/anxiety is the lack of interest in ANYTHING. I mean pahleese, I struggle with that when I'm perfectly happy! Take the psyche down a couple notches and the mayday alerts start sounding.

But, alas and alak, I talked it out with Jamey and that really did help! He noted that I often don't seem to realize that being a parent to a special need's kid can really wear on a person without her necessarily noticing. Then one day, someone gives you an odd look in the grocery store and you leave with a sackful of paranoid depression you never even put in the cart!

I have been struggling with whether to keep Dev home another year for school when none of the choices we have for him seem perfect. I like that he can concentrate at home better but he has become even less tolerant of groups and noise when we are around them on small occasions. I guess we'll know more about the new small school in town after our meeting at the first of the month.

Now I am relieved to be mentally perkier- putting things in perspective, remembering that it's my favorite season of the year, that I love my family madly and they love me too, and that God has a purpose for me (yes, even on loser days). I am not alone here and even though I sometimes feel freaky, the reality is life IS occasionally more comparable to a confusing Japanese game show than the board version by Milton Bradley.

Though we might spin the wheel and collect from our chosen career on payday, we can also expect to sometimes feel like we're being repeatedly pelted by giant wet sponges while maneuvering across a slippery punching conveyor belt. "Heey, I think I'm gonna..wait, what's this?!"

It really just depends on the day now doesn't it. And speaking of days, tomorrow is MY special day. So I think I'll hit the sack so I can wake up and enjoy my facebook wishes properly rested. :D

Happy Birthday to Donetta and Dawnetta my b-day buddies!

XO Shan

Just Illin' and cold chillin'

First signs of life: Day two-the orneriness returns.

And story time humour for couch bound youth:

And finally, when your sick you can sleep most anywhere.

Be warm and well fellow bloggers!

(Facebookers click on 'View original post' for videos)

Another birthday already?

Yesterday our Dandy dude turned SEVEN! I can't believe it has been five years since I saw his tiny little sleeping face and immediately went squishy with love. He was our first foster child and a complete answer to prayer as we had been hoping to adopt but felt God was leading us toward fostering through the state.

Shortly after arriving in our care at not quite two, he needed two separate surgical procedures done to correct hearing and vision problems so he was placed on the extreme makeover circuit to get him caught up. It was an all consuming stressful but joyous time for all of us. Getting to know him and seeing him heal physically and mentally, were our main focus that first year before he became ours officially. We tried not to give in to our trepidation about his future as to whether he'd remain with us or go back to his father who gave us little hope of rehabilitation or parental competency. And instead tried to do all we could to further his future either way. Of course once we met him, we could never imagine life without him!

And now we're here. Still discovering, still healing and growing together as a family.

The learning curve continues. One of the things that we now understand more clearly is just how affected the bonding process is when a child has had a rough start in life. The brain actually forms differently in children who aren't cared for properly and they become practically hard wired with defensive mechanisms that keep them going in a state of self preservation, preventing them from feeling too deeply and therefore detaching themselves from true pain. It's an incredibly helpful AND hurtful dose of denial built right into the newly forming brain chemistry.

As an adopted person myself, I've not had any understanding of Attachment Disorder having gone home from the hospital and fully bonded with my "forever" family.

It was not until we planned on adopting a nearly three year old that attachment concerns even came to my attention. Even then to me it seemed pretty black and white. They get to know you and trust you, then you have attached. Check mark on steps 1,2,and 3. Nurture wins every time!

Of course this is not the case. And now I've even come to learn that some kids have it way worse than most people could ever imagine. This is called Reactive Attachment Disorder(RAD). Having a challenging child such as Dandy, I've tried to educate myself on this and many other possibilities that have come to mind when attempting to understand our own little complex guy.

As no two children are the same, we've found that our Dandy especially follows no previous pattern or rule book. He is wonderfully unique in the way that each fine human piece of art created by God is. But, he IS an abstract creation and a head scratcher to be sure.

He is diagnosed with Mixed Developmental Disorder, which we are told is sort of a blanket label to allow him to receive all the services available to him from which he might benefit. If they put him in the spectrum of Autism, then he would receive only specific help in that direction. And he's not entirely Autistic but more a mix of that,Oppositional Defiance, Cerebral Palsy, Microcephaly, Sensory Processing Disorder, ADHD, developmental delays,Failure to thrive, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Attachment Disorder, all in a colorful candy shell.

Yes, he has some challenges and therefore so do we. I'm of course not saying he's the most difficult child in the world. I've met and read about much more medically and emotionally challenged children. He is just such a mixture of issues, we never quite know what needs to be done to help him deal with things easier.

He hasn't been doing well with the school setting since he began kindergarten and though we even have him in a special school to handle this, he seems to be doing the same or even worse. He never integrates in with the other children and even disrupts the class so much with noise or destructive behavior, he has to be removed several times per day.

About a month ago he decided, by pitching huge fits and unbuckling his seatbelt, not to ride home in the transport vehicle. So I've had to pick him up myself which usually takes more than an hours worth of driving time at the same time Ratchet is getting out of school in our town each afternoon. This just doesn't work for us at all.

Every time something new comes up we can't help but wonder if the experts know what their doing. Is our child in capable hands or are they putty in his? Why does he seem to confuse them on a daily basis? Aren't they trained in every possible situation? Should we let our instincts override the conflicting voices in our ears or trust the people who schooled specifically for these things? I'm not really sure.

I am sure that he is going to keep surprising us in good and bad ways. Just as we expect a certain behavior from him, he totally throws us an opposite. For instance, he potty trained in less than four days. He quit a major six year thumb sucking habit in two. He can't put his own socks on or take his shirt off by himself but can read an entire book to you if he so chooses. He is a wonder not to be underestimated.

What a wily little coyote we have in that kid! He is so adorable, creative, and focused one minute and so donkey stubborn, destructive, repetitive, and manipulative the next. He wants to please, but also has a strong voice inside him working to sabotage any good rapport he's formed with someone.

We have gained so much ground with him over the years though. SO much. (I repeat for myself). We definitely go backwards occasionally too, but are trying to keep the wheels pointed forward and the positives accentuated when he's having them.

I ache to keep him home from school at times when I'm most frustrated with his behavior there. He would never throw a chair or peel up a floor at my house and know he could get away with it. We do let him make his quirky noises more at home because he doesn't have to sit in a classroom without disturbing other children.

But, "they" keep telling me he needs to deal with this now. He needs to be able to be around people and interact with them properly. And he does. But he also needs the physical, speech, occupational therapies and psychiatric care he is receiving at this school. He just wouldn't get those things at home without us breaking the bank entirely.

So we are tightly squeezed between the rock and hard place doing what we are told is best for our child. I am claustrophobic in here, but with the help of medicine for Dandy(and ok, myself too ;), we are learning to deal with the anxiety and sometimes debilitating daily challenges that swoop in and try to steal our confidence and joy. It is an endurance thing not a quick fix.

Still we wonder what next year will bring. And the next. And the next. It is scary raising an oppositional child that doesn't respond much to consequence and has trouble forming bonds with people. I know many parents with kids like this struggle with thoughts of the future when it's hard enough to deal with life's pressures on a child without any challenges.

I pray daily that we will grow stronger as a family in dealing with difficult periods in our Dandy's life. And that God will give him a supernatural wisdom that keeps him safe and able to make good decisions as he grows into adulthood and goes out into a dangerous world on his own.

In the meantime, I must remind myself that though wedged, I'm not completely confined in this hard place. I can still glorify God from this position and that is really all that is required of me. No excuses Shan. Stop that worry and get to the GLORY! God loves these wounded children more than any of us can comprehend.

Thank you for letting me spill. I guess I slipped into essay mode there. :}

I don't mind at all if you skipped to the part where I say "HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRECIOUS BOY!!!" We love our gift!

Talent Show: Day 2

He speaks Whale....

I especially like the note around second 52 if you have the higher reaches of your hearing. If you don't, your dog might perk up unexpectedly there and that would be fun to watch too. ;) This is one of his favorite things to do so I have several of these vids in my collection. Don't worry, I'll stop after sharing just the one....for now. Baha

Object betrayal

I was traumatized by my medical supplies last night and I wanted to share it with my lovely readers today as it reminded me of recent incident that happened to another thumb I'm fond of.

Warning: This post contains some material that may be too graphic for some.

Please read with caution or avoid all together. :}

Were you too busy looking at his sweet face to see this?

On a recent trip to OKC to visit my parents, Monkey Fingers McGraw(a.k.a. Dandy) got himself into a little scuffle with a stapler.

My mom, Dandy, and I had just popped in for the briefest visit to her office for troubleshooting (or something I can't now recall), before heading off to do our favorite form of geocaching-shopping!

Instead, as you can see, Dandy immediately fired a staple into his finger and then began screaming one continuos shrill note that lasted without breath until I airlifted him out of the office and into the car. (Need your workday spiced up? Call on us.)

Now, I've stapled my thumb before as a child, perhaps you have too. Normally, this type of wound is quickly taken care of when you pluck the thing out, daub it off, and get a band-aid topped with a kiss for your troubles. Because this was a stapler that is used to dealing with insurance claims, that thing fired with the tenacity of a tail gunner and went straight into my baby's little thumb bone and it was not coming out!

So with an ER visit, an x-ray,one hemostat, and a trip to the pharmacy for antibiotics, our "brief troubleshooting" errand had a lot more trouble and shooting in it than we'd bargained for.

Now, back to me.

I wear an insulin pump that uses infusion sets that have to be changed every three to four days. The ones I use have an inserting device that is extremely spring loaded and tends to "insert" the plastic tube coated needle with a lot of force. (Still with me?)

I've hired this male model to show you what they look like. We'll call him Mylan.

Thank you Mylan for that tiny thumbnails worth of ab you've given us. Next time bring no less than an 8x10 if you want consideration! VERY disappointing sir!

Anyway, I had my spot picked out and was pinching up some skin for the needle that goes in at an angle almost parallel to the surface skin.(Notice Mylan's other hand was well out of frame). I fired it in and got a pain in my thumb that felt like the wide plastic coated needle had poked me and rammed right into my nail on the other side of my thumb! That's because it did.

I said "OUCH!" which sometimes I say anyway, but this time I kind of yelled it indignantly. Then I looked down to find that not only had I failed to get my port inserted properly, I had managed to shoot the two inch needle into my stomach, out through another place and then into my thumb all at the same time!

It totally bruised my thumb and my feelings as well when I realized I'd been shish-kabob-bed by my own "user friendly" device.

After daubing my wounds and inserting a new site, I laid down to go to sleep and could feel that my face was still frowning. I have been known to feel sorry for myself when I get fed up with the ins and outs of stupid Diabetes(like the time when I looked down with a syringe in my mouth and stuck myself in the boob). But, this was a different feeling, like a betrayal of trust between me and an inanimate object. That's strange.

I know that actually it was just a simple case of user error like Dandy's stapler incident (and, yes, my accidental boob injection). And, in the end I found myself saying the same thing he said while holding up his freshly stapled thumb.

"Ohhh, I shouldn't have done that!"

No, you really shouldn't have.

He's Gradumacated!!

Boy oh Boy it's been quite a year!!  Today we celebrated the Dandy One at his kindergarten graduation in the park.  Not only did I enjoy my third free hot dog lunch of the week (quite an accidental accomplishment in itself), but I also got to see my babe receive his tiny little signed diploma saying that yes, in fact, he WAS at school all this time and hopefully learning things as well!  Huzzah Huzzah!!

Now,  even though I think it is silly to call the transition between kindergarten and first grade a "graduation" requiring Pomp and Circumstance or any other official procedure, I am so relieved that we've come this far with our sweet 'n' sour sauced little Dandy this year.  He's a corker, that boy!  A sauce dipped corker!

We'd known he would have challenges with school from his rough start in the world but we started him in a special therapeutic school midway through the year that helps him deal with his various issues and monitors his progress along the way for maximum success. 

 

Here's a video he's working on for his final thesis this year starring lovable furry old me.  I went all squishy last night when we watched it together because he kept pausing it to tell me he loved me.  Little Punky.  I heart my graduate!!!! XOXO :D

A Tale of Two Parties

Eeks!  How is it I remember blogging about something that happened BEFORE I ever had a blog!  Are blogs like cell phones and Diet coke now?  We can't seem to remember how we did things before they came along?  I can almost swear I blogged about Dandy's birthday party last year because it was a crazy day where I gave his party and attended two others plus an entire parade!!!  That was a day etched in my mind and my camera!  I must have emailed my tales to people before blogging because I put those events together somewhere.  I just know it.  

Well, anyway, I'm going to try to push past this and do a little compare/contrast with my birthday boy's 5th and 6th  parties now that I'm actually blogging outside my mind.  I am right?

OK!  So.  Dandy, our little party planner extraordinaire, likes to plan his birthday celebrations well in advance.  We've known all year, for instance, that his number six party would be a "blue" party with an underlying "Thomas the Tank Engine" theme.  Easy enough, we made it so.  

Here we have things like: blue rice krispy treats, blue chips, gummy bears and m&m's in blue, blue dip for the non blue veggies, blue chocolate dipped pretzels(not pictured because I forgot to get them out), blue filling in the non blue tortillas, white cheese and white cheese dip ( I just didn't have the heart to soil the cheese dip after everything else was doused in food coloring.) 

And then we had the Thomas cupcakes, stickers and gifts to round out that portion of the theme.

Yes, he was one happy party host, walking around handing out spoons and stickers with a most hospitable air.  There was no room for blue moods by the time this party started.

We had trains coming and going for engineers young and old to busy themselves with.

And my sweet sister-from-another-mister, Arlynda and her family even came up from Tulsa!  :D  (We have always been twin-like in our looks and sillies.  HI ARLY!)

What I have failed to mention or picture in this happy go lucky post is that while everyone was blueing it up heartily, slowly the children were dropping like flies.  Two kids left early with stomach aches (NOT caused by my colored food-I promise!), and then one of my nephews fessed up to his tummy woes but couldn't bring himself to leave while the leaving was good.  About an hour later.....we saw the party again....all..over.. the..floor.  Yep, after so carefully keeping the fluorescent punch in restricted areas away from the carpet-- hurl happened.  And it wasn't train colored.  

Did I say up there I was going to compare and contrast two parties?  Do YOU have all day to read this blog entry?  Did you check out after the first picture realizing this is just another had-to-be-there post?  That's what I figured.  And I'm supposed to be washing my dogs for Thanksgiving travels!! That is, no doubt, the reason I'm still here. 

Ok, instead of changing the title of this post (which would be the logical choice),I'll just show you what last years party looked like so I can say I included it.  It was quite the Festivus of Verdis if I do say so myself.  Which would you rather eat (or hurl)?  Green or Blue?   

    

As you can see, our adorable Dandy is a colorful chap at any age!  Happy birthday big D!  I'm hearing talk of Red and Orange for next year so we shall see. We shall see. 

Have a great week and Holiday weekend everyone! I may not see you for a while! 

Dandy the lion

Shall we start the week off with a dance?  Dandy has been enjoying having the drum machine in his room this weekend.  He has been urgently calling us in for impromptu dance parties off and on for the last two days.  

It's kind of funny because he's not really into loud music so when this song first kicked in he stiffened for the quickest moment and I thought we were in for a panic.  Then, as if the pause was for dramatic effect, he suddenly went into lounge dance mode.  That's my boy. If your caught off guard, always turn it into a comedic side step cha-cha-cha whenever possible.  

Meanwhile on the downbeat, the gip is having new sensory overload manifestations at school.  He is acting out in brand new ways that are both mysterious and depressing to his parents. I've been up there "helping in the classroom" and lurking in the hallways- sneaking peaks at him here and there at the requests of the teachers.  My plan has been to seem like I'm EVERYWHERE and know EVERYTHING he is doing or not doing at school so that he remembers how to behave.  The teachers and staff, much to their credit, have been bringing in all the help they can to try and make his first year a success.  Why, he even has his own personal assistant with him full time.  Is this special needs or a mastermind in his earliest stages of manipulation training for new subordinates?  Sometimes we aren't quite sure to be truthful!  So far the work has not been a problem for him as we suspected, but the behaving? 

 OH BEHAVE!

I have another meeting in the morning to get some more services set up (complete with the usual healthy heaping of paperwork don'tcha know-wheee!).  Otherwise, we are just trying to educate ourselves in the various possible issues going on while being as consistent with rewards and consequences as possible to keep Dandy going in the right direction.  I have yet to find the manual on this kid!  He is uniquely and wonderfully made to say the least!  Now, if we can just keep him from turning into the next Dr. Evil, we'll eventually save the planet, or at the very least, one small town's school system along the way. 

(cue: music)

Dramatic pause........................................AND, Side step- cha cha cha. Front step-cha cha cha. Side step-cha cha cha. Back step-cha cha cha.......

Teaching colors to monkeys

Can it really be that two weeks of school has already slipped behind us?  Well, apparently it has but lousy, someone has surely sped up the clocks lately haven't they?!  I don't even think my crows feet and previously mentioned gray hairs can keep up with this new time pace the world seems to have taken to.  

Now that first week WAS super busy with non stop school related action.  I was up at both the boys schools at different points throughout the week either helping file the massive amounts of registration forms each student turned in at the third through fifth grade building. Or I was busy helping the tiny cuties sharpen their pencils and find their red crayons to color their first of many theme related coloring pages at Dandy's school.  I even sang along in my best school marm voice to the hit song

R-E-D red

R-E-D red

I can spell red.

I can spell red.

Fire trucks are red.

Stop signs are red too.

R-E-D

R-E-D

To tell you the truth, spelling "red" is actually the easiest part of learning to go to kindergarten.  Boy those kids were ca-raze-y!  I just don't know how teachers of first year students handle all of those little bodies going every which way and doing everything BUT spelling or coloring anything resembling red!  

When I arrived in one of the classes after lunch on the first day, I went straight to the class who's teacher had been called away to jury duty for her whole first week of school (Bless her heart).  Now, the sub was doing the best she could (now bless hers) on such short notice, but 23 five year-olds who barely know their own names in a new setting, is hard on even a seasoned prepared teach!

As the kids were supposed to be napping but were instead doing the worm on their mats and scooting from one side of the room to the other with a stream of endless chatter, "Teacher, what's this?!", pointing to a bolt on the chair. "Teacher, when do we get to leave?", "Teacher, my eyes are burning." One child was granted permission to go to the bathroom and I volunteered to escort him there.  Well, that was of course a GREAT way for bored nappers to pass the time, so pretty soon bladders were spontaneously filling and kids were getting up to crowd around their new diversion: Me.  I was starting to get a little nervous at this point because these were not orderly young Vontraps eagerly lining up to their own distinct whistle calls.  No, these were ferrel kinder pupae who at this point all looked EXACTLY the same to me!  I didn't really know how to contain them or keep them straight.  

My concerns became very real to me as I almost immediately lost all eight of them at the end of the hall into a  great sea of classes who's teachers had decided to declare a universal bathroom break and took to the halls by the dozen. 

Neither my little troop nor I knew how to take turns in the mass urination process, so we all just dispersed into different directions, some against walls with other classes to get in line, some went straight in to the toilet area, and some (me) just sort of did a clumsy pirouette as confused new students passed on either side causing me to turn myself round and round straining to see if there were any familiar faces from the short walk from our classroom.  

The teachers of the hallway classes all looked my way with pity and a hint of disgust.  I felt bad because someone's child could have easily gone down the toilet and been roaming the sewers unbeknownst to me and would never get the sheer joy of hearing me sing the R-E-D song later that afternoon.  I really had no clue how to get them all back to the room from which we came.  And neither did they.  

In fact, at the very same time I was losing 6-7 clonelike children (The eighth one I had fully in my sites.), the principal and an assembled posse with walkie-talkies were describing one particular little girl with milk carton concern.  I heard them telling what she was supposedly wearing  and saying things like " "You try the East wing!" and other uncomfortable sentences like "We've got the doors locked down and there's no one on the playground."   Yikes.

I decided that I would just pretend like whatever little children remained after the congestion subsided, would be the group I take back to my assigned classroom. And then, if there seemed to be some discrepancies when each child found his or her desk, we'd go from there.  

It all turned out better than fine because the missing "purple dress with a flower on it" girl actually was sleeping in OUR classroom!  By the time I got in there, someone in the walkie-talkie group was guiding a drowsy Goldilocks  back to her assigned room and  once again all Kindy classes were accounted for.  I was not the only one confused that day.  There are probably more than 13 classes in each grade so this school is always an absolute beehive of activity on the first day of each new year.

The rest of the day we stayed safely in our room singing those perky songs and coloring with fresh new crayons.  It was cute how some of them didn't know which crayon was red even after we learned the song.  Oh what simple beginnings we come from.  

One precious tiny boy, who appeared to mumble quietly in a language I couldn't make out(perhaps Farsi, perhaps English), kept methodically going over to his backpack and loading up all of his supplies.  The sub or I would walk over and say "These stay right here Soandso.  This is YOUR cubby and your crayons will be here for you when you come back tomorrow."  He'd give an unintelligible  but unemotional argument and allow us to escort him back to his desk, only to start the whole cycle over. He must have done that eight or more times in about a two hour period.  It was quite peculiar to me but also so endearing.  Poor little guy probably has to learn English as well as adjusting to a school environment.  

I left school that day feeling like Dandy, with all of his delays and physical challenges, might just pull off this Kindergarten thing.  Of course, that same day, in a room around the corner from ours, some other parent was probably kindly unpacking my boy's bag over and over, pointing him back to his chair.  Only time will tell I suppose.  Happy weekend all!

Fireworks of all sorts

Let's see here.  Whasa goin' on....Well, I've got a little time this morning while Ratchet is at V.B.S.(vacation bible school, to those of you outside the Bible Belt, wink).  And of course Dandy is slaving away at school,  so I thought I would try post a little something.  

I guess I could tell you about my weekend.  Wait, maybe I shouldn't, it didn't go all that well. 

 We did have a good time celebrating the third of July with our family in town.  Ratchet and Dandy got to hold sparklers (while clothed in their mandatory flame retardant one-piece suits), and watch  from across the yard, as their uncle Daryl lit the larger rocket-shaped firecrackers for a slightly more dangerous feeling show. 

 Of course, it's never really fun unless you get the youngest of the children blubbering in tears at some point during the exhibition.  We managed to frighten my tougher than nails two-year old nephew a couple of times.  And, just when I thought noise sensitive Dandy was faring well, he got caught off guard by a loud boom and crumbled into his first of many sobbing moments that became a recurring theme for the next several days.

Like I said, it wasn't a very good weekend.  But I do have a couple of pictures of our group of friends before watching fireworks at the airport on the fourth.  I was far too busy OOHing and AAHing by the time the show started to get pictures of the actual reason we were there.  

(Ratchet, Dandy, Beck's Boy, and Dandy)

It is funny to me how small townish (red neckish) we look out in the middle of a giant field surrounded by trucks.  But it was fun chatting with my gf's and letting the kids run around in the grass together.  There were some men there as well but they never seemed to be where the camera was snapping.  

(Trish, Becky, Beck's girl, Me, Beck's Boy, and Beck again)

Dandy was having such a good night after an extremely iffy day so I had to get lots of pictures of him in this pleasant state.  The resourceful young tike made a house to 

live in while we were there waiting for the real action to begin.

 

This evening there was NO crying over the fireworks (from our group anyway) so that actually went without a hitch.

Ah, but the next day....Dandy was full of explosive behavior himself.  I could practically smell the gun powder rising from his little blonde head.  We were all vicariously distraught as he continued to explode in colors around us.  Breakfast brought tears.  Puzzles and toys brought tears.   Time out brought head slapping foot stomping tears.  You get the picture. 

This was clearly the unfun portion of the weekend.  Jamey and I had different versions of concern.  Mine apparrantly took the form of a nasty visages and angry tones as Dandy once declared me to be "mean", looking at me sideways while asking his Daddy to button his pants. 

Jamey just got quieter and more down as the crying and vigorous gnashing went on.  

Then just when I thought our youngest had taken a huge turn for the worst on his summer maturing process, J realized his little head was warm.  Then I remembered noting the same thing the day before. " THAT'S IT!  BY JOVE HE'S SICKLY!"  We concluded at once. 

Normally one is not relieved upon discovering their child is ill.  But this was only a cold type thing with a mild fever. And that beats a mental condition hands down in a side by side comparison any day!  

Our little guy has enough on his plate without new unknown behaviors popping up on us out of the blue, so YEAH to the common cold...or hayfever-whatever-YEAH!  He never says he feels bad when he's sick, he just cranks up the attitude and the upset until we, the parents, can take no more!  You'd think we'd remember this, but so far it's been a surprise each time. [Wah-wah, YOU LOSE!  The video game in our heads is rudely sounding off...again]. 

But these things shall pass.  We will not be defeated. And fortunately for me, I've got Nice 'n Easy for those days that tend to whiten my hair before it's time. 

[Cheering sounds. I gave that round the one two punch now didn't I?]

Sigh...It's always nice(and easy, ba da bom) to pretend all troubles can be solved by tossing a bottle of color at your head.   Superficiality is bliss;  Ignorance is so last year.

Short trip to the City proves painfully slow for readers.

Well rats.  Now I've simply lost all will to post about our week in OK. City because I've waited too long.  That's a bummer since I did take some pics and I suppose it would be fun to share some of the sights and scenes I took in while I was away....

Alright!  I'll go ahead and put up some pictures.  But I may not explain them at all because I barely remember any of it now so...Ok I'll explain them too -Good grief!  Will it keep you all from pestering me so about it?  I mean come on. It's like I've got paparazzi at the gate of my blog just beggin' for me to throw them a bad angled shot of myself driving around with a kid on each knee or something!  GeeYaw!

I'm stalling to see if I can muster up a little blog vinegar but clearly it's just making me go into my "imagination brain" as Ratchet would say.  So I'd better get on with it before things get out of hand.  

We had a nice week with my parents.  The boys and I left Jamey and the pups at home and though we all really missed each other by the end of the week, I think we had a nice visit and a fun adventure that sent our little trip scooting by.  

While the kiddos went to Camp Dakani during the days and learned all about what to do in the out of doors, My mimsy and I decided it would be fun to redo her master bathroom with a new wall color and some different lighting and mirrors.   It's funny how channels like HGTV can make you think do-it-yourself manual labor "updating" is inexpensive and exciting?   I like to pretend I'm one of the designers walking an audience through our clever color choices and ideas but then I always want to say "CUT" and  go sit down with a cold drink and watch a huge crew come in and bring my vision to life.  

 The thing about the t.v.  is that they never seem to get dirty or tired looking at all while knocking down walls and constructing custom furniture by hand.  And the project is ALWAYS finished to entirety in two days!  Sadly, WE were only down two layers of wallpaper in two days time and still had to finish hosing down all the walls with warm fabric softener water and scrape the remaining paper sack colored layer off and sand before priming and painting could begin.  Here's a portion of the  large room minus the three layers of paper.  Somebody please cue the work crew already!

My mom took off Monday, Tuesday and Friday, so on Wednesday she sent me around to do some accessory shopping for our new "spa" themed room.  She knew all it would  take to keep me happy was to hold out some money and point me in the direction of the stores. So that was what happened on the third day of camp.  I'd swear that was surely the shortest day of the week because I didn't have to muss myself at all AND I was able to get fully immersed in The Zone (Sometimes when I'm gone from home for hours at a time on a "quick store run" Jamey has to call me to try and get me back on task.  Occasionally I don't even hear my phone in this state, but when I do, I can barely recognize his voice faintly calling as if from inside a well, warning me I've gone into The Zone and to please come back to them before the weekend ends.) 

So needless to say, I had an enjoyable day and managed to bring home eight huge vases from Hobby Lobby for my mom's perusal. And I also picked out some pretty spa related items from Pier One and Target.  Woot a woo!  

I'm realizing it might have been nice to have a picture of our completed look but it was far from complete when the campers and I pulled out Saturday.  Maybe once it's done we'll get the "after" for all my decorating friend readers. ;) Meanwhile here are the campers before heading off for a rainy  day outside (awww shucks ;).

The next day I was left to my own devices, I decided to summon the brave and social me and go visit my old workplace pals at the O.U.-College of Dentistry.  I took some pictures of the clinic I worked in from 1995-2000 so I could share them with all who just know me as  Siloam Shan-now specializing in childcare and housewifery.  Here are some of my favorite ladies who still work there eight short years after my departure!  It was SO FUN seeing them.  HI GIRLS!! ( I showed them my blog so hopefully they are tracking along with me now :)

We had two sides to our Oral Surgery clinic. 

 This side, where the dental students saw patients cattle-style who were brave (or just plain desperate) enough to come in and have teeth pulled by someone who had quite possibly never attempted such things before.  Oh the wild times we saw in that clinic!  This place was a bundle of nerves for student and patient alike, so you just never knew who'd be up and fainting on you or crying out with the barnlike glottal sounds of childbirth.  It was strange, funny and sad all at once.  As assistants we tried to respect the young students who were learning the art of giving effective mouth injections and going through the various steps to loosen a badly decayed tooth.  But most of the time we wanted to rip the giant plier out of their trembling hands and get in there and get down to business!  

The other side of the clinic was for the Oral Surgery residents and the private practice of the Oral Maxillofacial Surgeons on staff at the college. 

 This is where I worked most of my stint as a surgical assistant.  It was fun working with so many different residents during their four years in the program.  And when the seasoned surgeons did bigger cases involving the whole face, we really were able to see some exciting procedures. Here is our #1 scrub tech Frank who was our front man for the big stuff. 

Once I almost offered up my own nose for a visiting surgeon who was teaching the art of rhinoplasty to our senior residents.  At some point while pondering my new narrow nose, I realized even though it would be entirely free, I would need to be passed out in front of all my coworkers and a huge group of students, all gathered around my gigantic shnozz opened up and spread  out over the room.  And if that wasn't enough to deter me (which it was) I would also have to have yards and yards of packing removed from my smaller nose days later.   I had seen how that tended to go for those before me and I wasn't prepared to suffer that for a button snoot either.  So I kept the one I was given.  Here I am with the lovely Angelia.  Guess which one of us is an avid coffee drinker.  Ding!

My favorite thing about my job as the clinic coordinator was being the great drug keeper.  I loved knowing about the various sedatives, and all the different meds we used for pain, swelling or special conditions.  Part of my job was to order supplies and  and keep our crash carts stocked and current in every clinic of the school and I found myself very interested in the pharmaceutical side of medicine while learning about the different uses of the drugs in our inventory.  If my grades from the early years of school weren't so mediocre(to hideous) and I thought I could ever finish, I'd love to have the chance to study medicine or pharmacy.  

Ah, but I'm getting too old and thick headed for such lofty goals now, so I think I'll set my sights on less time consuming and brain contorting things like wall paper removal and shopping for sea glass and toilet room accessories.  

And that brings me to back to my week.  Here are some cute pictures of the boys golfing in my parents back yard.  Ratchet played hole #5(behind their house) every evening after dinner and was able to play nine on Friday with Gido.  Dandy waited with us until they got to the backyard portion of the course and hopped in for a spin on the golfcart as they cruised by.  

The boys also enjoyed swimming at the pool in Ginger and Gido's neighborhood.  Dandy is so happy when he swims.  It's like all of his physical frustrations go away as he enters the water and he just squeals with excitement from beginning to end.  

Camping proved to be a challenge for Dandy even though he loves the outdoors.  He tended to spend a little time in the office each day when he found himself leaving the other campers and going off on his own.  Apparantly he also felt the need to scream with alternating happiness and impatience through the flag raising ceremonies and song times.  In result, the Dakani staff politely requested he become a half-day camper and that seemed to help a bit.  He was super big showing us the different things they did in their "home in the woods" though.

Ratchet really enjoyed himself as well and decided he might want to save his money for a bow and arrows because he loved archery so much.  That's kind of like wanting a Red Rider BB gun to a mother though.  "Everyone get your safety glasses and protective vests on if your going to be in the backyard.  And STOP aiming at the chihuahua!"   

And now that you are all collectively nodding off in your chairs from my inability to self edit, I will close this post.  It's true that I left out some details.  But I WAS hoping to have one brave reader left by the time I stopped typing.  Anyone there?  HELLO?  Oh, it's just me so I'll quietly sign off. xx

 

 

Some Summer Stuff

Summertime summertime sum sum summertime's almost here for me and my household.  And that means there will be two early risers around here just rarin' to take hold of some free timin' interactive fun.  I really love it when school is out and the schedule is ours again to do with what we will.  

But what will we do?  For some reason this year I don't seem to know.  There are SO MANY different options posted around for sport camps and workshops on anything from photography to pirating, swim lessons, teams or pool passes.  What about piano or guitar lessons and what's this brochure about church camp?  

 Jolly Roger the choices!

My boys are 5 and 10 now and they are both eligible for enrollment in this plethora of $50+ a pop classes, which together would equal more fun than I or my pocketbook could possibly shake a stick at.  

All of these options have caused me to struggle with my theory of busyness which goes something like "AVOID BUSYNESS AT ALL COSTS".  And it has worked up to this point in that we have not been terribly overachieving thus far in life.  But then the downside of that is that (you guessed it) we have not been terribly overachieving thus far...in life.  Wah wah.

I finally decided I'm OK with that still, and  recently chose to shake my stick at a one week day camp in Oklahoma City, because my kids were feeling for a "nature" experience this year(and it was the one camp I actually enjoyed in my youth-don't get me started).  This also sounded great to me because that meant I was able to enroll myself in a self taught "Advanced Bargain Browsing" class that will consist of me wandering around my hometown visiting all my favorite "big city" stores with my Mumsipoo.  Woot!  

The problem I've always had with being too busy is rooted in the fact that I think children need plenty of free time.  They need time to explore their world in curiosity.  Time to imagine, to read, to be alone, time to rest.  I don't want to always be rushing them feverishly from one scheduled event to the next.

 Nope, there's plenty of time in adulthood for that.  I actually egged my own house today in such a desperation to get in the door with some groceries.  I have no idea why I was even in a hurry.  It's entirely possible though that I might have had some repressed rebellion against my own busy week and felt the need to egg the lady responsible for it.  This certainly backs up my theory.

And then there's the fact that my youngest starling has begun acting up at preschool in a most unflattering way (gasp, the scandal of it all).  I feel fairly sure he was only head butting his teachers out of love though, and he saw a billy goat at the petting zoo once?.. (nervous laugh developing)...Then they must have mistaken a yawn for a right hook on that other occasion.  I'm almost certain. What? Hello.

Nah, I'm not one of those mother's who's precious Junior's behavior is all to be blamed on his teachers and caregivers.  I know his challenges were given to him by his first parents rotten choices.  And OUR challenge now is to try to keep the little guy seeking the right choices and controlling the wrong impulses to make his unique and  magnetic personality work in his favor.  He just needs time...and lots of attention.

 

I mention these recent behavioral issues because they are also changing our plans this summer.  We've decided maybe our Dandy should have another year under his belt before he starts kindergarten.  And since we were advised to keep him in school all summer to keep his momentum up for Kindy, we now think he should probably just take a break and do some of that resting and playing business his mother is so fond of.   All work and no play makes Dandy want to take a swing at somebody!  We appreciate our school system, but we want his thirteen years there to be good years if at all possible.  What better way is there to go about it than to have a long easy summer together to contemplate it all.  Ah, yes.  That'll do it.