Happy Labor Day Weekend!

The kids and I had a movie marathon yesterday (along w/ sleepovers for both girls), complete w/ popcorn, Milk Duds, Dots, and other assorted bad-for-you treats. We watched two movies last night, and saved the last one for tonight....gotta spread our fun out. We're also going to head out to the park and get some fresh air and exercise :) This is really the last hurrah of summer so we might as well go out big!

That said, the sleepovers are pretty much done. One of our guests decided at 1:00 am that she wanted her mom, and was awake trying to decide whether to stay or leave until about 2:00 am. She ultimately stayed, and I think forgot all about her desire to go home. The big kids all slept until about 9:00, but Trey had an early morning wake-up call for me around 6:15 am.....I'm tired!

Anyway- now I need to pick up all the popcorn remnants, put away all the assorted blankets that are all over the playroom/bonus room and family room, and run the dishwasher for the 2nd time today. Enjoy the weekend all :)

I'm flying solo this weekend.....

Rob left (very, very early) this morning for his annual football trip w/ one of his closest friends from high school. I'm sure he will love having a weekend to do nothing but hang out w/ another guy and watch USC play football- I'd love it (but I had my weekend last week, as you all know....I'm thinking about making mine an 'annual' trip also :) Anyway- he borrowed my iPod (which I had to think long and hard about, LOL) to download movies for the plane. I had them downloading last night, and all he needed to do this morning was transfer the movies from the library to the iPod- simple. Not so much, somehow the computer switched into sleep mode, so the downloads paused. Instead of bailing on the iPod idea, I was awakened at 5:00 in the morning so I could take care of the iPod issues. We were up fairly late last night and I am definitely not a morning person. So, I started my 'single' weekend, tired, and a wee bit cranky. Sorry kids!!! Blame your father. I hope he enjoyed his movies :)

I had to chuckle at the differences in our weekend watching material. I downloaded "27 dresses" and "August Rush", he chose "Vantage Point", which I actually would like to see, and " There will be blood", zero interest...I know it's supposed to be good (at least the Academy thought so) but it holds no appeal for me. Bring on "27 dresses" anyday.

I also managed to bend the prongs on Trey's implant to a point that I'm not sure it will work- I'll keep you posted on that one (LAME mom moment.....)

We've reached a whole new level of BAD...

and I don't mean that in a GOOD Michael Jackson kind of way. Jake had his 5year checkup (yes, he's actually closer to 6, but in Melissa adjusted time, we're right on schedule). He is tall, big, healthy, and horrible. Literally I don't think he could have been worse (at least I hope not). The doctor wanted him to stand straight and touch his toes, and he kept sticking a foot out, so we'd have to start over. He was supposed to look towards the light for the eye check, and he kept looking everywhere else in the room. In between all that he would try to karate chop his sister and brother. I was ready to wring his neck, but no, he survived. Barely.

The worst part of the visit was that we saw a doctor who I actually knew from back in the day (college...) He dated one of my best friends in college, and I was all ready to play the "I finally figured out why you look so familiar" game, but was almost too embarassed- Almost. I did it anyway, and we tried to have a conversation in between the kids all running around like wild animals. It was fun. But, Jake now is up to date on immunizations, so he can start Kindergarten- that's the only saving grace.

Of course, as I was looking at everyone's shot records I realized Delaney needs a chicken pox booster or she can't start on Tuesday- bummer. Guess I'll have to drag everyone back in tomorrow :)

I am DONE w/ the 80's music....stay tuned for updated tunes

And a post :)

Reunion recap and more odds and ends

After the many pictures I remember taking (or being in), only about 5 of them came from my camera. Which is probably pretty good, judging by how mine came out-LOL. But, I did share one that kind of summed up the night. Lots of laughs..... (I'm the one in the middle of a laugh in the picture- not the best picture ever but oh well :)

This is a picture of some friends and I right when we walked in the door. By the end of the night I gave up on pictures- it was just too crowded, and we ran out of time. For the most part, people feel into two categories: those who look exactly the same, and those who look SO different. Both were fun to see, although it was fun to 'guess' who unknown people really were. All in all- very glad I went!


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Interesting school note- I called Delaney's school on Monday and spoke with the Principal and Asst. Principal both yesterday. They had no idea an IEP child would be starting this year.....I guess they always receive notification regarding 504 kids, but the IEP kids don't instantly get flagged. It is up to the elementary schools to let them know. Weird little computer glitch, huh? Basically this means they have no FM system ready, no sound field ready, etc. Good thing I called :)

Not counting today, 6 more days until school starts....

and I'm so excited! Of course, we're still working on Trey's schooling (where he is going, who is funding, etc). Nothing like waiting until the last minute- although that statement is not totally true- I know where he's going, but the school district is still proceeding as though he will be heading their direction, for now. Anyway- I'm now hoping for a meeting on Friday, but my school district contact did not feel overly confident about that actually working due to Labor Day.

Emily has the same teacher as she had last year, which makes everything easy this year. I will not have to 'break in' a new teacher in terms of the FM system, etc. Which is good, because we are going to make many adjustments to her speech therapy as suggested by our Audiologist. She will be doing speech this year w/ her newer implant only- our Audi. felt like her discrimination should be quite a bit better than it was at our last appointment. That said, she had major negative ear pressure caused by ???? so that might have been part of it. Do any of your children get random negative ear pressure?

Delaney will have her back to school night/bbq on Wednesday, and I'll hopefully know who her teachers are, etc. at that point. Still have some logistics to work through in terms of her FM system, speech, etc.

And then last, but not least, is Jake. I'll just need to arrange for an FM for him- Edit: Should have been PIECE not, peace, of cake (hopefully)....

This post was really just my to-do list written out. This way if I get lost/confused I can just read my notes-LOL.

Home! Yes, I survived the 20 year reunion....

and am totally reunioned out. It was very fun (but what's not after several glasses of wine, some 80's music, and lots of chatting with people I barely remember-LOL). I'll have a full recap (w/ pictures- oh the horror) later today. At the moment I am fully immersed in back to school stuff. Meetings, phone calls, more meetings because of the phone calls, and divvying up school supplies before back to school night. Maybe that would be more fun after several glasses of wine and some 80's music......

TTFN

Bye (for all of us who are NOT familiar w/ text language). I am flying off, solo, tomorrow for my whirlind trip to my homeland. Not my TRUE homeland (as that would be further South), but my 5th grade until marriage homeland. I'm hoping for a great weekend, hanging out w/ those special friends from high school, who can really never be replaced (for better or for worse-LOL).

I'm sure I'll be back Sunday (well, of COURSE I'll be Sunday) with lots of stories (maybe just not w/ funny enough stories, we shall see).
Miss you already :)

My kids are all cranky...

I think they're just sad that I'm leaving town tomorrow-LOL. I think they are trying to make sure I will truly appreciate having the weekend off. Emily is sitting next to me, on the floor, sobbing that she needs a new mom. One that is nice to her. Oh the drama of it all......

A suggestion for those who might make the same (STUPID) mistake I made yesterday....

I decided to get a jump on the sorting of school supplies so I could see what I'm still missing- see how on the ball I am??? Trey walked in as I was sorting and saw the brown paper bag w/ his name on it (he recognizes his name in written form, which is great, except when you're sorting school supplies). He walked all over the house showing everyone his school supplies, so I let him take his bag upstairs to put away in his closet- I had complete trust in him.....which was the fatal error.

10 minutes later I wandered upstairs to his room, to see him carrying his school supply list out of the room, loaded with thick, white, liquid (that was spilling all over the carpet). You see where this is going, I'm sure. He had taken two HUGE bottles of glue, and poured them all over the school supply list, his bag of supplies, etc. He also opened up his package of markers, and drew all over himself. Fortunately the school requested WASHABLE glue :)

Lesson to those moms brave (stupid) enough to make the same mistake: If you decide to do school supplies early, do not give them to the 4 year old child, thinking they will just look at them lovingly until the start of school.

Two weeks to go....

and my four kids all head off to school. Yet again, for the most part, this summer has flown by. I always seem to dread that last day of school, and yet I'm amazed, yet again, that we are so close to back to school. I have so many things we didn't get done this summer (trip to the beach, weekly essays that my kids were going to write-LOL, daily 'homework' sessions), I think the whole concept of 'nothing to do' won out.

So here I sit, realizing that I still need to purchase remaining school supplies (and replace those that Trey has already used/destroyed), get everyone's hair cut, get everyone up to date on immunizations (that will be a hit I'm sure), and start adjusting everyone's bedtime and wake up time to avoid the shock of the first week of school.

I also have to have further discussions with the school district, because as of right now their new suggestion/offering is that Trey can do two additional years of preschool to catch him up. Not quite what I had in mind......

Life According To Jake.....

Jake frequently amuses me (exasperates me, frustrates me, angers me) with his ability to talk NON-STOP, about anything and everything, frequently asking "why?", just to annoy. But every once in awhile he comes up with something that makes me laugh out loud.

Yesterday, while lounging on the couch, he kept gazing at his arm and looking contemplative. After a few minutes of this, he looked up and said "Mom, you know what? I really wish I was chocolate, so I could eat myself....." . Where on earth he came up w/ this idea, I don't know, but the more I thought about it (as a fellow chocolate lover), it wasn't such a bad idea!

Olympic Hangover

As much as I enjoy the Olympics, I must admit- I NEED them to be over. I can't keep staying awake until 1:30 am to watch my favorite events. I just don't have that kind of 'late night' in me anymore. Not when I have two little boys who like to wake up at 7:00 and need me to be up with them. I need about three hours more sleep.......

A note to my children (and nephew)....

You are so very loved by myself and your Aunt Laura. I want this documented so that when you become teenagers who are accusing us of not loving you and being 'so unfair', we can bring out the proof- that at age 2,4,5 and 8 (in Emily's case), we loved you all enough to endure 3 long, loud, sticky hours at Chuck E. Cheese. Yes, we hauled you all to this fine establishment and endured the sticky floor, the screaming children (mainly our own), and the really bad pizza, not to mention the large mouse roaming around handing out hugs.

We love you!

New Hearing Screening Recommendation? Food For Thought.....

Recently I have learned of two local children who at around 2-3 years of age were diagnosed with Autism. They demonstrated a lack of interest in what was going on around them, they would hit and lash out when frustrated, and had a lack of social skills. Thanks to the persistance of one of the moms they had the child's hearing checked, and they actually had a moderate to severe hearing loss. Once the child received hearing aids, the behavior immediately changed. This smart mom had a friend whose child received the same diagnosis, and she immediately asked if the child's hearing had been tested- No. Same exact situation.

I guess this caught my attention because when Delaney was just shy of 3, we were struggling to figure out why she was *so* speech delayed. She was diagnosed with developmental delay/speech delay due to unknown cause. I pushed the issue and asked for a hearing screen- Moderate to profound hearing loss. Much easier to treat when you know the underlying cause. I wonder how many older children w/ progressive hearing loss are *not* being caught by the newborn screening process, and if we need to routinely re-test children who are being diagnosed with general speech delay, autism, etc. We lost 9 months with Delaney due to incorrect diagnosis (or let's call it incomplete diagnosis- they were correct in that she suffered from a severe speech delay, but there was a cause that needed to be addressed.

I don't want to point the finger at Pediatricians because I don't believe they are expected to be experts on hearing loss. But, rather than grasp at the first diagnosis that fits, maybe a simple OAE screening test could be recommended to rule out hearing as a cause, and then move forward to whatever specialist is recommended. Any thoughts?

While I was having fun w/ my cheesy '80s music, I was actually writing a letter regarding Trey to our school district.....

Nothing like a little "White Wedding" to bring out the serious side of me. All kidding aside, I realized I had no excuse to put off writing the letter asking for either a high level meeting between us, Trey's current school, and the Director of Special Services at our school district, or request a due process hearing. I'll be curious to see which option they prefer. They really are in no way, shape, or form prepared to educate Trey this Fall. But, I know they *think* they can. And so, let the fun begin.

Keep your fingers crossed that once they read my letter, they will instantly agree that he needs to stay right where he is, and pay full tuition for Trey's schooling-LOL! I'm sure there will be more to add.....

Flashback Tuesday

Just a few random "facts" from the year 1986- I chose '86 because this was the year I started driving. Notice the price of gas (wouldn't it be nice....)

Cost of a new home: $111,900.00
Median Household Income: $24,897.00
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.22
Cost of a gallon of regular gas: $0.93
Cost of a dozen eggs: $0.87
Cost of a gallon of Milk: $2.22

Milk isn't that much more expensive- I'm surprised!
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Fun 80's facts from the year I graduated:

George Bush Sr. is elected President.

The greenhouse effect is discovered.

America's Most Wanted debuts.

Prozac is introduced to the public.

Sonny Bono becomes mayor of Palm Springs

Yo! MTV Raps debuts.

CD's outsell albums for the first time.

Lionel Richie's wife was arrested for assaulting Lionel and a model she found him with.

Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson get hitched.

#1 Song of The Year: Roll With It - Steve Winwood.

"She's Like The Wind" shows Patrick Swayze can sing as well as dance and act.

Salt N Pepa get their breakthrough hit with "Push It".

Julia Roberts hits the big screen in her first breakthrough role in Mystic Pizza.

Top grossing film of the year: Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Spuds Mackenzie becomes the original party animal.

Oprah Winfrey is the hottest talk show in America (and possibly still is)

The new Suzuki Samurai gets bad reputation for flipping over when turning corners.

Penny Loafers with a penny in them and Levis with the cuffs rolled up were the fashion statements of the year (not where I lived???).

U2 records Rattle and Hum album and then later the documentary.

Flying chair thrown by skinhead hits Geraldo in the nose on his self titled talk show. (good times....)


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I also updated my playlist. I was getting really tired of the same songs, so I went with a theme. I was going to have everyone guess, but it's a bit obvious now. Anyway- for those of you too young to appreciate the musical gems I have selected I apologize. For the rest of you old people, myself included, I know there are many great songs not included. I'm also not sure I would let *my* children listen to some of this music-LOL.

I'll try to do a 'real' post later today :)

Rare Saturday Post....

I've been so off-schedule with when I'm posting this Summer, but I guess that's what Summer is all about. Laziness :)

We all got up at 7:00 this morning so I could get the soccer girls (Delaney and two friends) up to one of the local reservoirs to go boating, swimming, lunching with the soccer team. The rest of us trekked back down to our second home, the soccer field, where I left the boys with their dad so that Emily and I could go buy what we needed to make Rice Krispy treats and dip for the after boating bbq later tonight. We grabbed some sandwiches, picked up the boys, hurried home to whip up the RK treats, and quickly washed the sticky off of ourselves so that we could all hurry back out to the field for Emily's game. That's where we're at so far......

We'll be leaving in about 15 minutes, hoping it doesn't start to RAIN (it's summer......the time when we're supposed to not worry about rainy soccer games or boating trips), so that we can watch a game, re-load everyone for the 40 minute trip to Delaney's coaches house for a (hopefully dry) bbq/team party. The wonderful (CRAZY) coach is having all the soccer team spend the night (which means *no* sleeping for anyone), and we'll all drive back up to collect the very very tired girls tomorrow around noon. I'm being summoned by the sound of silence- with the gruesome twosome (the boys) no noise is a bad, bad thing. Last time it was this quiet I was greeted at the bottom of the stairs by a kitchen floor covered with about an inch of flour. Good times.... Better run!

So long hair

Due to the rapidly approaching 20 year reunion, I actually did my homework prior to heading to the hairdresser. I scoured the internet looking for the perfect hair- and I think I found it. Unfortunately, what I wound up with is a blunt cut, classic, chin length bob. Exactly like I had when I was in high school.....I think this may be carrying the 'high school' reunion thing a bit far.



Does Milla's hair look like a chin length bob to YOU? I thought so- not so much to me either. We'll see how quickly it grows.....

Wordless Wednesday

A smattering of pictures from the last week

Trey held this pose until they FINALLY let him in the bounce house


Delaney being a goof after the team's big tournament win


Emily just being.....well, Emily


You all probably recognize these two knuckleheads by now



A weekend in review

My sister is 'blog' challenged....

She claims she cannot pull up my site, so I thought I'd run a quick test.....

The lure of the penguin- she is very intrigued :)

So I troubleshot it myself, and I had the same issue???? So I deleted my cute chubby penguin picture...any ideas?

Exciting Friday around here.....There is a new 'catalogue'.....

available through Club Penguin!!! Now, I have NO idea what that means, exactly, but my two girls are certainly excited about it. Even the almost 12 year old, although she claims she only plays Club Penguin to *help* her younger sister. She tried to stay up last night until it was released, but I nixed that as 9:00 approached (the catalogue was not due out until midnight.....not happening). That said, there were sure a lot of little penguins hanging out in the waiting area, dancing their little penguin tushies off. (Did that statement really just come out of my mouth????)

Anyway- I don't mind children's websites, and Club Penguin, while not really educational, is certainly a child-friendly site; however, it does make me wonder if we are just training our children to be the next set of parents who wake up at 4:30 in the morning on the day after Thanksgiving to rush out and stand in line (w/ the other 100 or so crazy people) to get the newest, best, or at least cheapest 'things'. I've certainly done it (typically in our former state, where it was ALWAYS cold and snowy) and actually found it to be fun- but I think that was because I got to get out of the house, kid-free, after spending the entire day before cooking and cleaning.

Anyway- those are my mostly random thoughts this morning, as I watch my youngest daughter bounce excitedly in her chair over the latest fashion items available for a chubby penguin.