Maniac Monday

What a crazy day! The bus was late picking the kids up for school which just threw my whole afternoon. Well maybe I should start by saying dh came home early for lunch saying his elbow was really hurting, he turned his nose up at the lunch I made. GRR!! Typical male I think??

Anyway the bus was late, had I been smart I would of just told dh to get the kids on the bus when I saw him come home and left then. So the bus was late, I had to be at the dr.'s office in Kearney at 1:00. The bus comes at 12:15 (usally) today it was almost 12:25. Jumped in my car and drove the 45 minutes to Kearney, was 10 minutes late for my appt. The dr came in 20 minutes later (now it's 1:30) didn't even look at my elbow (I have psoriasis..fuckin' yea..) gave me a script and said "come back if it doesn't work" and left. Went to the hell-hole Walmart (again had I been thinking I should of gone to Walgreens) got the script filled (took 25 minutes...it's now 2:05 now). Jumped in the car and flew home.

Kids & I played outside when they got home from school in the beautiful 45° weather, though it was a tad windy. Dh left for his Hunders Education Class (he's teaching) and the kids & I went to the grocery store.

Before we left for the store my mom called and told me one of her co-workers daughter died today..at the young age of 40 from a heart attack. Like David Letterman said tonight "Just because you get through today, doesn't mean you have tomorrow too." Everyday is a gift.

Is there life after "mom"?

Well before I get into that thought provoking question I should update what happened on Wednesday at the boys meeting.

It ended up not being an IEP meeting, because my boys therapist couldn't attend. So we'll be having another meeting in May for the actual IEP. We ended up having a sit down meeting and just going over how the boys have changed this last school year. They've made some great progress! It was decided that the boys (and Abby) will be attending another year of preschool next year..and it sounds like they ALL will be going to the same school they are going now! YEA! I was (and am) sooo happy!!! I still have my fingers crossed, but things did sound pretty promising when I left the meeting on wednesday.

And one more positive note-----WYATT IS POTTY TRAINED!! It all of a sudden clicked for him this week! I am offically DONE with diapers and pull-ups!!

Now on to my title question. Is there life after being mom? Last night I had a dream about a very, very dear online friend of mine that I lost touch with about 4 years ago (right about the time my life started going crazy). I woke up this morning with a heavy burden on my heart and just felt like I needed to share this dream with her. I emailed her, having not spoken to her in years I figured the email would come back as undeliverable..thinking maybe she no longer had internet, maybe switched servers, etc. What a suprise I had when several hours later I got a return email from her. She shared what was going on in her life, how much she has missed me, etc. I sent another email to her telling her what was going on here, how much I also missed her, etc. Then I felt like I had nothing to add. Before I had kids her & I would sit online and chat for hours (and I mean HOURS) and since she lives in Australia and the time difference we'd talk most of the night (morning for her) and 1/2 of the day (night for her) while I was at work. We never ran out of things to talk about. Now I feel like I can't contribute to anything beyond how the kids are.

Im in a few email groups, parenting groups, reading groups and a couple friend to friend groups. I can talk in my parenting & reading groups, but I feel so inadequate in my friend to friend groups.

Why is that? Is there life after being "mom"? How can I get back into the living and become a "friend" again?

Tomorrow is the day!

Actually today is the day since it's 12:30am..I gotta get to bed!!

At 1:30 today I (dh can't come with..grr) am meeting with the rest of the IEP team to discuss my boys school and that BS for this coming fall! All prayers are GREATLY appreciated!!! Im also going to have a fight on my hands to get my dd in the school also.

Look for an update tomorrow. Im off to bed now..

The weather outside is frightful..

boy if that isn't the truth!! The last thing we expected was 17" of snow in a 2 day period on March 20th!! So I think it's safe to say this is the last hurrah of winter snow for us here in Nebraska..at least I hope so. The kids had a great time outside yesterday with daddy blowing snow and almost driving me to the nearest looney bin by driving through snow drifts on the 4-wheeler.

Today the kids & I went outside again. Considering there is sooo much snow it really wasn't to bad outside. Unlike yesterday the wind wasn't blowing. So it was a nice winter day. We stayed outside for about an hour. All our winter gear is in the dryer now and we'll go outside again when dh gets home from work and blows snow again.

I did finish a book during the snow, "The Shop on Blossom Street" and it was fantastic!! Im anxious to get to the sequel "A Good Yarn".

Have to go scream at some kids now, they have been fighting like cats/dogs since we came in the house an hour ago.

Geeze!!

I've only been trying to log into my blog for the last 3 hours. Now Im to damn tired to even blog! I should of just given up several hours ago and read my book instead.

03/16/06

Well this morning I decided to forget Kindergym and my work out because I had way to many other things planned for this afternoon and didn't want the kids to hit meltdown while we were out running errands in the middle of the afternoon. So that's my excuse for not working out today..pretty lame one huh? I'll get back on board tomorrow.

So this afternoon after lunch the kids & I loaded up and went to the big city of Kearney.

The first thing on the agenda was haircuts for all the kids. Like usual, B & A were great and sat there like great kids. W on the other hand..screamed and ended up NOT getting a haircut, I sure hope dh's elbow gets better REAL soon so him & I can cut W's hair. It takes 2 of us to cut his hair, me holding W, dh chopping the heck out of his hair. When it's all said and done, it really does continue to amaze me how good dh is at haircutting. lol

So after the haircuts we went to Wal-mart. Im not a huge wal-mart fan at all, no it's not because "Wal-mart is destroying America" or any of the other BS that I've heard about Wal-mart. I hate it because the place is a damn zoo!! Having to park over a block away from the store (with 3 kids) is hell. Why did I go then? Well I hadn't been there in awhile (for the above reason) and just felt like risking all of our lives walking through a parking lot. WOW was I shocked to see the remodeling going on in there! I must admit, it was really great going today because the place feels like it was literally thrown in the air and everything was in a TOTAL different location then the last time I was there (6-8 months ago). So it felt like we were in a different Wal-mart in a different town. It was a mini-adventure trying to find the things we were looking for and not get ran over by carts.

After Wal-mart, dh called me on the cell and said he had to run to out of town for work for a few hours, so knowing he wasn't going to be home for dinner I took the kids to Burger King. They played, and played and played..and surpised me by even eating almost ALL their food!

Then it was 6pm, we went to the library. Got a couple videos for the kids, some books for the kids and went home.

I got 2 bookring books in the mail today which really puts me in a bind. My CR Im going to also throw into the wild world as a bookring and I was really hoping to finish that before I got any new rings. So Im stuck..do I finish my CR (that Im JUST starting) or put it aside. I suppose I should put it aside and read what I *know* other people are waiting for.

Dh finally called the dr. today about his leaking elbow. He has an appointment tomorrow morning at 8:15 with the surgeon. My guess..they're going to put a drain tube in and restitch it.

Real beautiful day!

And if the weather really does what the weatherman says it's going to do this was the last "nice" day we'll be having for about a week. Nothing but snow for the next 7 days. WOW..didn't we just have spring break last week??

Today I was hoping to just stay home while the kids were in school, but alas..no such luck. I went to Kearney and ran around town, and literally got home 5 minutes before the kids bus pulled into our driveway. I had to make a dr. appointment, went to check out the YMCA in Kearney (they have a great swimming pool that Im going to take my kids to maybe this weekend) and went to a USB and of course..picked up 4 new (to me) books. I came home and had another book waiting for me that I got off of ebay. So it was like Christmas while I surrounded myself with my new books! lol I need to get a bookbox or something together for bookcrossings so I can get some of these books I've already read out of the house. My little drawer under my computer desk is overflowing with books I've read.

Tonight the kids & I went to church, every wednesday (starting tonight) we are watching a video about the book of Matthew. It was wonderful. The kids played downstairs with Grandma Jane while I had 1 hour to watch a movie uninterrupted!

Not much else is new..Dh's elbow (that he had surgery on) is seeping some and I've been bugging him for 3 days now to get his ass back to the surgeon and have it looked at..typical male.."it'll be ok..it's just healing."

**Kim**..I know you're reading this..it's seeping clear liquid mixed with very little red blood from the incision..should I be concerned?? He says it itches like crazy on the inside. It's leaking enough to where he needs to wear a band-aid.

Jen

We've all heard the saying..

"If you don't like the weather in ___________ (insert your state here) then wait a minute." Well today was JUST that! The kids & I went to "Imagine & Learn" at the Y (them to "imagine & learn", me to punish myself with another 30 minutes on the dreaded treadmill). When we left the house it was 9am, and 45°, we got out of the Y at 10am and it was cold and raining. The kids left for school at 12:15 and it was pea size hailing, they got out of school at 3:30 and it was snowing, with snow actually on the ground! At 4:30 it was raining again and the snow was melted. Now it's probably in the upper 30's and calm with a very cloudy sky.

While the kids were at school I ran around town like a mad woman (what else is new?). While gone Mardell (if you don't know who she is yet, you'd better read the last 10 or so posts!!) called and the IEP meeting for the boys is set up for Wedenday the 22nd at 1:30-2:30. Good..another week to get my ducks in a row.

I gotta get my butt to bed now, the kids & I are going to Kindergym tomorrow (well them to Kindergym..me another 30 minutes on that damn treadmill). Im going to TX in July to meet some of my triplet friends, I need to get in shape or at least die trying! I'm down about 5 lbs now since beginning of Feb. WOO HOO!!

Nothing to do with school!

I thought it would be fun to blog one entry that didn't have anything to do with school issues! :)

The last several days have been sooo nice here! Unbelieveable nice with temps in the 60'70's and the kids & I have been taking full advantage of this nice weather! The last several days we've gone to the park, played outside and even went for ice cream and ate it outside (in March!!). Tomorrow the forcast is rain, which will be nice because we need it soo bad.

Dh had surgery on both his arms last week (did I mention that?). He had golfers elbow in his right elbow, and tennis elbow in his left elbow. And he doesn't even play these sports?! Anyone who knows my husband is probably dieing from laughing reading this, just thinking of him..in shorts! And on either a golf green, or the tennis court! My hubby is much more comfortable in camo hiding in the woods. :) So he's still mending. His right elbow is pretty much back to normal, but his left one he still wears in a sling. He goes for his post-op appointment on Thursday. And hopefully starts therapy for his left elbow.

Wyatt was suppose to have his post-op appointment today for his adenoid/tube surgery, but it was cancelled, so I have to re-schedule that sometime in the future. Oh great another thing to TRY to remember to do.

I finished an AWESOME book! "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke. I highly recommend this book to ANY book lover! It was bigger then books I normal tend to gravitate to, but I didn't give the size of the book another thought once I read the first page. AWESOME and probably will be the best book for me this year!!

Im starting "SAHM I Am" by Meredith Efken tonight. I think this is going to be a quick read for me, it's all in email format with a subject matter I can totally relate to. :)

03/06

And today Mardell called me to set up the IEP meeting and she's STILL saying that the boys won't beable to attend preschool. She said "We want to have this IEP meeting soon so we can decide what school you'll be sending the boys too so they can continue to receive service."

THIS WOMAN IS PISSING ME OFF!! She obviously thinks Im stupid and seems to think that she can pull this shit!! I still have a strong feeling that this will work in OUR favor, not HERS! Im still clueless on what is going to happen to Abby. I went to the preschool today and talked to 1 of the teachers there and asked her if she thought the boys would backslide if Abby was removed from their classroom next year. She said "I think it would benefit the boys." I said "That's not what I wanted to hear." She said "I understand your concern, and I totally see your point, but Abby does mother the boys quite a bit and that may hinder them from achieving more." {{SIGH}}

So the IEP meeting is next week, either Wednesday or Thursday. That gives me 1 week to get all my concerns regarding removing Abby from the classroom together. And it gives me 1 week to get in touch with all the other IEP members and get a feel of what they think regarding both the boys and Abby..I don't want there to be any suprises. Im doing my homework and miss my "bookmates" terribly!! I hope all of you are doing good!!

03/02

Again this should of been posted last week.

On Thursday (?) I got another call from Jan Thelen (NE Dept. of Ed
for special services) and she told me after 10 phone calls she
finally got Mardell on the phone! She said to me "I don't know if
Mardell mis-understood the regulations or what, but I have gone over
everything with her again and Im sending you the information that I
went over with Mardell. So both of you will have the same paperwork
and hopefully there will be no more questions regarding this." Jan
told me that the school district CAN NOT dictate where a child who
has an IEP goes, it's the IEP team to decide if kids with an IEP go
on to kindergarten, or if another year of preschool would benefit
the children. Jan told me that she told Mardell that the IEP team
COULD NOT wait until May to meet and Jan told me that Mardell
said "You can call Jennifer and tell her I'll be calling her early
next week and setting up an IEP meeting then." Jan said if there is
anymore problems or questions I can call her. I told her
how "thankful I was for her and how happy I was that I contacted
her". She said "you're welcome and yes I am VERY happy you
contacted me also, I don't know where Mardell got that
information." I *think* Troy & I might have a bad name with Mardell
now, since we went over her head, but personally I don't give a
crap.

It makes me totally angry that someone who is on an IEP team
(Mardell) doesn't know the regulations!! Troy & I are left
wondering how many other kids she pushed like this, when she
shouldn't of!!

So I really think that the boys situation is behind us. Everyone on
the IEP team (minus Mardell) agrees that the boys would benefit from
another year of preschool. Now we just have Abby to deal with. I
don't want to enroll her in another school, but I don't know how
much of a chance we have to get her in the boys school. Keep your
fingers crossed for us!!