It pays to follow directions

So, lets say you're going to make a cake and you never had made this kind of cake before. You've made a similar cake to it, but not this one. You've made so many pudding poke cakes you can do them in your sleep on Ambien, but not the jello poke cake. And somehow, it sounds like a good idea to make one for your mom's birthday. Cause she likes orange and vanilla together.

And let's say you fail to read the directions carefully and poke holes in the cake with a wooden spoon handle, not a fork as the directions called for before pouring in the jello, you get a tasty cake that looks rather post modern. And you have no cool whip in the house to hide the damage.

Just saying.

School update

Well, I know I haven't talked much about how Bri and Jimmy are doing in school of late. So let me update you.

First, Jimmy is doing really well. We got his progress report and except for still learning three prayers, he is doing great. Ok, he needs to be more social with the other kids, but beyond that little snafu, its going well. He knows his numbers, letters, how to read and is making progress on addition. He loves going to school every day.

Which brings me to Bri. Let's start with the positive. She is quite bright and doing well overall. She is getting good marks in many classes. She's getting an A in religion. She loves to read. However, she got a D in reading and science on her progress report. All because she rushes throught assignments and doesn't have patience to get them done nicely. So she lost using my old laptop for her own websurfing (don't worry, I've made it so she can't get too far on the web.)

She also lost getting a book from the book order.

Hopefully, report cards will be better.

A funny thing happened at the doctors

Ok, not hilarious but hey in my life I take the cake on odd diagnosis. For example, I have thorasic outlet syndrome. If you have no clue what that is, basically my collar bones presses on my nerves and makes my arm (or for real fun, arms) numb, but useable. Mostly. It can be painful. The solutions are stretching and surgery. I opted for stretching.
But anyhow. I have been having joint pain for a while. I know its freezing here, but this is worse than most years. I went and saw my general doctor, Dr. F for some help. If I haven't explained Dr F, let me now. Dr. F is a nice woman doctor. I found her by accident and referral from my ENT. She practices solo in an office with OB/GYNs and Midwifes. She is good at what she does but to the point. Not that she doesn't care, she's blunt. However she doesn;t yell and I appreciate that.
So, I went to see Dr. F for the joint pain that hurts. A lot. She ran a large group of tests and took a bunch of blood. Her first advice was a painkiller and stretching. So we did that for a month, with the first round of tests producing NOTHING. This is nothing new to me. My knee has hurt since I was 6 and the best diagnosis is some form of arthritis, but nothing official.
So I went back, explained I was still in pain and the meds made me really sleepy. She ran another bunch of tests and gave me a new drug to try. And would you believe what came back? I have a B and D vitamin deficiency. How did that happen? I have no clue
So now, I get to take extra vitamins every day and a new painkiller. Which seems to be helping some for the pain. Its not perfect but I'll take it for now.

Well at least its a food, I think

So, I think I may have mentioned before that Jimmy is a really picky eater. I think he eats maybe 15-20 things total. Getting him to try a new food is torture.
Tonight, the kids had swim lessons so I tried to think of something quick that everyone would eat most of. So I came up with Spam, au gratin potatoes and peas.
(Don't laugh at the Spam. It was a Christmas gift last year.)
So, we figured Bri would eat all of it no problem. And she did. However, Jimmy refused to even try any of it. You figure the kid eats cheese, potato chips, mashed potatoes, ham, salami and bacon, he'd eat this meal. Ha!
We had to try and convince him the Spam was ok. He refused to eat the potatoes or peas. We had to cut the "black spots" off the Spam. But he ate it. And then later had bread and sliced cheese.
So we can add one more food to his list. Just not grilled.

That was Christmas 2010

Let's say the best part is its done. Over. Finished. I didn't lose my mind totally. Should make my therapist proud.
I still went to see the families, even thought didn't feel like it this year. But I did. And I survived. The kids had a blast.
So now, we're redoing Bri's room. We went to IKEA today after putting away a TON of laundry. Bri needed a new dresser and a bookshelf for her room. She is giving up the princess theme and wants a teen room. At 8 years old. Ugh. I'm not ready for puberty.

Christmas break cannot come soon enough

So, Friday, Bri got in the car at pickup time and she started telling me the story that the whole class got in trouble that day. Preficed by the fact it wasn't her fault and she didn't do anything.

So, basically what happend was, some of the kids in her class began punching one of the girl's dolls that had been brought in to play Baby Jesus in the class play, "The Big Big Story"on Thursday. And Wednesday. And Friday. Maybe Monday too. They are doing a lot of performances around school for anyone that will sit still. Anyhow, the boys were punching the doll cause it hit one of the Laurens in the lip. When they were throwing it or swinging it around. Then Seth took a sausage stick out of his lunch and began beating baby Jesus with the sausage. Only Bri first told me that Seth was beating the doll with his sausage. I asked for clarification and yeah, ponder than sentence for a minute why I asked for clarification. So the boys were beating the baby Jesus with a sausage stick and their fists. What a great Friday, huh?

Then Gina, the owner of the doll and Bri's best friend, got mad. Really, really mad. As Bri described it, she made her really angry face that you really don't want to see. And then the teacher intervened. Not sure where the teacher or the aide was all this time. And then the teacher took the doll and took Gina to Sister Catherine's office and we may own a piece of a new Bitty Baby doll for Gina.

Sigh. And I pay for these kind of stories in the form of monthly tuition. Oh and this was the play that I got the great directions from the teacher that she needed an angel costume but dont buy anything. Yeah sure, I keep angel costumes on hand. She eneded up with two of my white t-shirts, one was a skirt; a shawl and a headband I glued glittery stars to. Two of the five angels wore their Communion dresses. Yeah, that wasn't gonna happen. Besides, I think she's had too many growth spurts to even wear it anymore.

So I'll be glad when we have two weeks free from doll beating stories and making costumes.

Updates from the land of Snowy Toast

Yup. Two snowfalls so far. Loads of fun. Really. Ugh.

Bri got the hard cast off and has a walking boot. She is also supposed to walk on her ankle without the boot from time to time. Hopefully the stiffness goes away soon.

Jimmy is doing fine. He missed getting a Happy Gram for good behavior last week but did this week so he's happy.

My house is not decorated yet and really not looking forward to Christmas. That's all I'm going to say about it.

Got a new cell phone and its quite an adjustment since I'm used to the iPhone. I'll write about it later.

That's it for now.