I know-it has been a whole week!

These weeks I work 7am-3pm really screw me up!I feel like I can't get anything done!
I am so lucky, though. This week my cousin Brandi left in my care her 18 year old son Alex, who we love to death. He is staying last week and this week with us until we take him to college at Washington and Lee next weekend. He is so great. He helps with the girls and shuttles them around, he cleans, he does the dishes-I keep telling him he is the son I never wished for! He laughs at that! He is great and we are happy to have him.
Other than that, the only big thing that has happened this week was Carli getting her shots for middle school, which turned into a traumatic event. She got the meningitis shot, which has a 2% chance of terrible side effects. Well, she got terribly sick. Fever, vomiting, diarrhea, arm swollen-she was really sick and she was scared to death, because of course, she doesn't understand all of this. Poor thing. She is better tonight, but she still looks a little pale. I am going to call the Dr. office tomorrow to report it. I just don't know what to do about immunizations. Friends with children with Autism really argue against them, and what they say makes sense, but my kids never had any problems. But when you see a reaction like Carli had, it makes you wonder if you are doing more harm than good. I just don't know if I had any more children (which I won't!) what I would do.
Anyway, have a good Monday everyone!

The last summer blast

This weekend we went to visit our friends Alex and Jodie and their daughter Allison. They are going to be at their lake house on Smith Mountain Lake all week and asked us to join them-we could only go for the weekend, but it was still so much fun! Carli loves to go, she loves being able to swim in the lake, the boat rides, but most of all, she is very comfortable there. She knows which room is "hers" and where to find all her favorite snacks, and she like to see Allison and their dog Murphy. Murphy and Ruby are big buddies. They run and play and wear each other out all weekend. Ruby loves the freedom she has at the lake, but she never gets in the water. She was very sad when Mark and Alex took the girls for a boat ride and left her on the dock-she ran right up the hill to the car, like she wanted me to take her to go find them!
Courtney didn't go with us this weekend, her cross country team had a cookout and she stayed here with her friend Rebecca so they could go. She had a great time-being on this team before school starts has really been fun, she is getting lots of exercise, and she has met lots of new friends. She is loving it.
Caren, Jodie and I relaxed yesterday while the kids swam with the guys, then we made dinner and Jodie opened her gifts. Our birthday is on the same day and we usually try to spend it together, but she went to visit her mother this year, so we had to celebrate a little late. This morning we got up and after Jodie's usual bed and breakfast-quality breakfast that she always prepares for us, we started making sauce to can. That's right-we have tomatoes going bad, so we had to take the show on the road and Jodie was more than willing to pitch in and help. Caren brought all of the canning stuff and we made a delicious Marinara sauce. 6 Quarts. After lunch, we headed home. We weren't there long, but we packed in a lot of activities!
Poor Stevie, he was on call this weekend and couldn't join us. He was nice enough to make dinner for us all tonight when we got home. Ruby needed a bath, she was covered in Murphy spit, and I am sure he was equally disgusting. Caren and I are going to try to get together this weekend around work schedules and can more tomatoes and hopefully some green beans. Sometimes it is hard to go to work when there is so much to be done at home-oh, but wait, I don't get paid at home....

So much to talk about!

It has been a week since my last update-we have been so busy!
After my birthday, which was wonderful, we spent the weekend staining the deck. It turned out good, and the swingset we stained the weekend before looks like brand new. All this manual labor is definitely a sign of the times-we used to hire someone to do it for us! Oh well, it's good for us.
On Monday Courtney and I finally made it to Busch Gardens for the roller coaster check-off. She did great, we rode them once, then went back and rode them in the front seat! We did not, however, ride the Griffon, which we both agreed was way too scary. We were on the Loch Ness Monster, and looked at the highest hill on the Griffon, and it was almost twice as high. Too much. We rode Apollo's Chariot, which is also higher than Loch Ness, in the front seat, but somehow, it just didn't seem as scary. We had a great time. We had to get home early though, Courtney's cross country schedule is brutal. She has to be at the school at 7:30am and they run 3-4 miles and work out every morning. She seems to be enjoying it though. Some of her friends from middle school are on her team and she has made lots of new friends, too. In fact this weekend they are having a cookout on Saturday night with a DJ and she is going to stay here with her good friend Becca to go to the party, rather than go with us, her loving family, to the lake! Go figure!
So this weekend we are off to the lake to spend the weekend with our good friends Jodie and Alex, at their beautiful lake house at Smith Mountain Lake. We love going to visit them there. It's always so fun. Caren and I have been canning tomatoes this week, and we are not done, so we are going to pack it up and take it all with us so Jodie can help us-it'll be fun! The guys can take the girls swimming while we hang out in the kitchen-we will have a great time. Stay tuned for great pics-
Well, back to work, I have been off all week and it has been wonderful. Carli will miss me when I go back to work tomorrow and Friday-but she has the weekend to look forward to!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday was my birthday-I had a great day. I started it with a nice long run all by myself, then Courtney took Carli to the movies, just the two of them-Carli thought she was such a big girl-leaving me one and half hours of pure shopping bliss. I browsed Barnes and Noble for most of it. I love to have the time to go to Starbucks, then spend time checking out the books. The only way it could have been better was if it had been raining. There is just something about finding a great book to read on a rainy day.
After I picked up the girls and came home, Caren came over to begin preparation for the celebratory dinner. Mark picked up the wine on his way home-and excellent choices they were. I wanted to help make dinner, because that is my favorite thing to do, pour a glass of wine and cook a fantastic meal. We made the most amazing seafood paella I have ever had. It had mussels and clams and shrimp, mmm... it was so good. Caren's parents Dick and Nancy were in town, so they joined us for dinner, it was so nice to see them again. Courtney baked me a yellow butter cake with chocolate frosting and it was beautiful. She even put a "41" on top.
I received so many nice cards and phone calls and text messages and emails yesterday, thanks again, everyone!
You will notice in the pictures from yesterday, I am wearing the new apron the girls gave me for my birthday, as well as my very special birthday hat, which Caren gave me last year on my birthday. Mark showered me with plenty of flowers, gifts and cards as well. It was a lovely evening.
Courtney and I had to reschedule our Busch Gardens trip, there were thunderstorms in the area all day long and I did not want to a)ride roller coasters in the rain, or b)have to leave early because of the storms when I paid to get in. She was fine with it, we are going to try again on Monday.
Have a great night...

Problem solved...for now!

Good news! Our friend Angela Karousos works for the school system and gave me an email address to contact the Asst. Director of Chesterfield County Special Education. I emailed her about a week or so ago and yesterday she sent me an email asking me to call her today. I called her, and sure enough, there was a big mix up. Carli was on the transportation record for Robius, which is where she was supposed to go, but someone apparently decided she was closer to Bailey Bridge, and changed her paperwork to show she was going there. Theoretically, she could have been picked up on the first day and taken to Robius, but all her paperwork would have been at Bailey Bridge!
So, anyway, this very nice lady straightened it all out for us and assured us that Carli is indeed going to Robius, which is what we want. She is on track to go to Robius.
So that's a relief. Thanks, everyone that called wanting to know what was going to happen and if there was anything anyone could do to help!
Tomorrow Courtney and I are going to Busch Gardens to ride roller coasters. She has always been afraid, but she is determined to learn to ride them tomorrow. Her friends all go, and she wants to overcome her fear so she can go with them. She asked me to go with her. Yeah. I am not a huge fan, but I will ride them-it will be fun!

The Weekend

We had a very busy weekend! Casey came for a visit, and Casey and Courtney and I went shopping all day Saturday, while Carli and Dad went to get her a new movie and some ice cream. Casey and Courtney bought me an apron from William-Sonoma for my birthday, which is Wednesday. That is one of my favorite stores! We had a lovely afternoon, shopping, lunch, more shopping, then ice cream for the way home. Later that night, we all played Cranium-Mark and I won the first game, Casey and Courtney won the second. It was alot of fun. Carli enjoyed her new movie.
Sunday morning Casey went home and Courtney and I started the dreaded summer project-staining the swingset. UUggghhh. We bought the swingset about 6 years ago and we have never stained it. It was starting to look pretty faded. Carli plays on that swingset everyday, rain or shine-she swings every night just before it gets dark. We call it "The twilight swing". She looks out her window to check how much light she has left-then gets out there right at sunset and swings until dark. Every night. She is a funny girl.
Anyway, Mark power washed the swingset last weekend and Courtney and I stained it this weekend. It took all day, and it was like 100 degrees. I think I gave myself a little heat exhaustion. I came in and had to take a cool shower and a nap! I still don't feel so good tonight, and it was a very loooong day at work today.
I did finally get an email from the school board today, with a phone number to call tomorrow and they will be "happy to talk to me". So we shall see how that goes. I am off until next Thursday-I took a week off every month this summer to spend time with the girls. Courtney started cross country practice today for Cosby High School. She said it was so hot out there-it's hard to believe it is almost time to get them back to school!

Time to start the back to school fight...

This is what it is like having a child in the school system with special needs. The schools really don't want to deal with these kids, they do it because they have to, and they are always an after thought.
We had Carli's IEP meeting, which is her education plan meeting, back in May. She is moving up to middle school this year, which is something I have been dreading for a long time. Middle school is difficult for most girls, especially if you are a little different. Girls can be so mean . We have worried about so many things for Carli, changing classes, PE, everything. Not to mention, she will no longer be at our home school, so she won't even see familiar faces at school like she does now. The kids in our neighborhood have always been so good to Carli. She is not going to have that safety net anymore-everything is changing. She really won't understand it until the first day of school. So I let everyone know how uneasy we were feeling about this. When we had the meeting in May, one of the teachers came from Robius Middle, the new school,and explained how carefully they plan the kids school year-how they do PE seperately and-one of the best parts-they take the kids swimming at the same pool where Carli did her Special Olympics swimming every other week! They were so excited to be getting another girl in their class and were very welcoming. We felt so much better after that. We signed the IEP and relaxed a bit. Then, the very last week of school, we get a strange message on our answering machine-Carli's teacher is telling us it looks like they are opening a new program at a different school - Bailey Bridge Middle School-and Carli may have to go there. She said she does'nt have any information but she will let me know as soon as she finds something out. She never calls back or responds to my notes. I ran into the school principal one day and ask her about it-she says she knows nothing about it. As far as she knows, we are still following the IEP we signed. We are thinking, maybe it is just a rumor and Carli's teacher got a little ahead of herself repeating it to us. Then Tuesday night I get one of those pre-recorded messages from the principal welcoming us back to the school year, and letting us know what the dress code is. Guess where he is from? Bailey Bridge Middle School. We don't know anything about this program. We have gotten no letters from the school board, no notification at all that things are changing. The office at the school is not open yet. This is how we are treated by the school system. They think they can just jerk these kids around, and we should be grateful for it, because they are providing the education that is required. I think at some point, maybe when Courtney is in college and Carli is early in high school we have no choice but to move north, where the programs for kids and special needs adults are so, so much better. They make you so mad, you have to constantly be advocating for your child or they just get lost in the shuffle, and then when you finally snap and yell at someone, you are labeled as a difficult parent. It's all so frustrating.

Courtney and my favorite daughter, Lee

Courtney and Lee are at it again, singing their Spongebob favorites. They always make me laugh. Mom, click the play button to watch the whole song-(the arrow, right under Lee)

"Friendship" while making grilled cheese sandwiches

Yawn!

I am exhausted tonight! I worked Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but I was off this weekend. That's always nice, having weekends off. Friday, Caren was nice enough to come over and take Carli to see Ice Age 3 (again, it's her favorite movie this summer.). Carli thinks Caren is the best! She has been telling us all weekend that Caren took her to the movies, she had a hot dog with ketchup and a bottle of water, Caren had popcorn. She had so much fun.
Saturday Mark power washed the swingset, next weekend we plan to stain it. I went for a run. Saturday night we had a little dinner party. We were having so much fun I forgot to take pictures! My friend Jodie was here visiting her sister, so they came over for dinner. We also had our good friends, Dan and Carol Carey. Dan and Carol are such nice people and alot of fun. Carol has been on our girls trip to Jodie's lake house and has been with us for a girls trip to Vegas a few years ago. She is always fun. Then there was Sandy, we had invited her and her husband Roger, but Roger is a pilot and got called in to fly to Paris. I didn't know pilots had to be on call like doctors. Interesting. Anyway, we grilled shrimp and mango and avocados. We had some really nice wines. I made a bruscetta on grilled bread for an appetizer with the tomatoes from the garden-oh, it was so good. We had sooo many tomatoes we made everyone take home paper bags full. The colors were amazing, I wish I had taken a picture. Purple Cherokees, green stripees, little yellow heirlooms, big orange and little yellow ones, it's a rainbow of tomatoey goodness! We also had lots of green peppers-so tonight, I made stuffed green peppers and had dinner ready for Steve and Caren when they got home from a wedding they were attending. We were all very happy when we realized the peppers, the garlic, the salad ingredients and even the beef were all from the farm! How exciting!

This week I have a full work schedule-Mon, Tues, Wed and Fri-off Thursday and off again on the weekend, so I don't know if anything blog worthy will be occuring! But you never know! Tuesday night is our neighborhood Night Out party-it saounds like it is going to be alot of fun.
Check out the picture of the sign-Jodie gave me that for my birthday. She knows me so well. Jodie and I share the same birthday, and we share alot of other things, too! Have a good week!