Santa Claus

So my worldly 9 year seemed bound and determined to prove that Santa Clause was not the person who put additional gifts under the tree. He talked about setting up the video camera to survey the tree. He discussed his plans at length with Uncle Bill, Aunt Email, Grandma and Grandpa and whoever else was around Tuesday evening.

Well, this year I did not reserve any of the gifts to wrap in the separate “Santa Claus Paper”. All gifts were wrapped in the each person’s designated paper and on Christmas Eve I moved the pile from my bedroom to under the tree.

The we went to 5 PM Mass at my Brother and SIL’s Church, went back to their house for dinner and gifts. We arrived home about 10:30 where Mr. Morning person (just like his Mom) declared he was going to bed.

Christmas morning he was the first one downstairs (I was in the shower when he got up). He tells me “there are no more gifts there.”

“Nope, there are not. But why don’t you go get your gifts and put them under the tree.”
And he did. “Hey, look at that, You are Santa Claus."

“No I am not”

“Sure you are, anyone who gives gifts at Christmas is Santa Claus. We all give gifts to in Memory of St. Nicholas, a generous man who left gifts.”

Now I’m not sure he bought all this. But I sure hope it sinks in. I want him to think of Santa Claus as the embodiment of giving. My Parents used to tell me “Santa is the Spirit of Christmas.

The picture is of him sitting on Santa’s lap Christmas night.

Included in my Chrsitmas card to Out-of Town-ers

scrapbook pages - digital

I swear they have cameras in my house...

Tidbits

• Yesterday my 9YO Drama King lamented how mis-treated he has been throughout his life ?! - Serious discussions ensued. He did concede that he was lucky that he had a friend next door, both parents married and living together, plenty of food to eat, clothes to wear, Cable TV to watch, video games and internet.
• The 13YO is going to have a rude surprise when he comes home and finds that he cannot get ont he computer. I password protected it. He's been finding other things to do rather than his homework.
• Both boys have Christmas programs (it is a Parochial school, so it is a Christmas program) LOL). The 9 YO had the school where every kids from K-5th participate. The 13 YO has a band concert. I told Hubby we'd flip a coin, but he decided to let the 9 YO choose who he wanted to go to his program. He Chose Dad. Yeesssss! I get to go to the Advanced band concert.

Nightmare Morning

Tuesday morning was the morning I live in fear of. The 13 Yo got up late, argued with his 9 YO brother and did not pay attention to the clock. He went abotu his morning preparations leisurely. He was not concerned that he did not have all of his stuff together. Even when we went outside to wait for the bus, he had to go back inside and find something. The bus came around the corner he flies out of the house and down the driveway forgetting stuff sitting int he garager for him to take.

My take on things is that he should come downstairs int he moring, dressed, pack his backpack, put on his shoes, gather his stuff by the door and then make his breakfast. I keep portable foods and he can take his breakfast with him. The bus drive may not be too happy, but he would have time to eat between the time he arrives ont he school grounds and when class starts. But his focus is on getting food into his belly.

I hate the yelling that goes on in my house. I want him to do things one way and he wants to do them another. I guess that's like with a teenager. Now if only he were an organized teenage.

16 years together

Three Cheers for carpools

So the 13Yo ended up deciding to stick with wrestling this winter. He talked about giving it up. We told him he could if he came up with a differet activity to fill the void. I don't think he took much effort into looking at indoor soccer and came back to wrestling by default.

He has been wreatling since first grade. So this is his 8th year. Moving last year had us at a new program that was much more intense than the old program. He has 3 other boys close to his weight class. He just does not have the killer instinct and last year, when the referee blew the whistle, he got a "deer-in-the-headlights look on his face. He will bein his first tournament of the season on Saturday. It is an alternate tournament - the B team if you will.

My big thing is that with the move, we are in a bigger city. At the old house, the High school where he practiced was 4 miles from the house. It was an easy 10 minutes if you were stopped by all the traffic lights. In the new city, the Parochial high school is 13 miles away. At 3 night a week of practice, that a lot of driving. Very much like the football season we jsut finished up. So when the roster was sent out, I sent an email to a parent who lives not to far asking about a carpool. It took a few days but she got back to me and said we were welcome to join the carpool that 4 boys were already are part of. We will only have to drive once every other week. This really helps keep me sane on nights like last night where Hubby is out of town and the 9YO had to be at practice at 6:00 several miles from the 13Yo practice location.

With this carpool, we all meet up at the house closest to the freeway. The boys call or text when they leave the school after practice and we pick them back up at the same house. This is much less driving and gives me about 3 hours between drop off and pick up. That means I can eat at home and not be finding a Kroger that has the fancy new sushi counter and getting a Californial roll for my dinner.

A Day without the ADHD Meds

I promised my 13YO's new psychiatrist that we'd try a medication vacation. She's the first Doctor who has though this was necessary. I got the impression that she was worried about his small size and weight. (The 9 YO wears the same sized shirts. His leg are not as long).

I was expecting (and dreading) him
to be mouthy and obnoxious. But this was not the case. I believe that they boy tried really hard to contain himself. He was definitely restless. At one point I made him drop to the floor and do 10 push-ups. 9I also did 10). About 20 minues later, we both did some situps.

We had to remind him multiple times to eat breakfast, get dressed, brush his teeth and put in his contacts. Actually, as a new contact lense wearer who has had difficulty getting his lenses in, He seemed to not have trouble.

More than once he'd be in the bathroom just singing or chanting "peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly." We went to the tree farm and cut down our Christmas tree. He was loud and dacing around, but pleasant. Dad would not let him carry to bow saw, but the boys carried the tree back. At one point I was worried we'd have to haul them both and the tree out of the pond. They wanted to trow sticks and try to break the partial sheet of ice.

After the farm we went to the little town and had lunch. Walking on the sidewalk, he wanted to stomp. This drove his dad nuts. On the way back he stomped a bit and then I told him "take Baby steps now", then "skip".

In the evening we had company. My brother, SIL and their 4 kids came over for dinner. His twin cousins are his age and he usually enjoys spending time with them. But he withdrew. I think he felt like he needed to stay away from everybody. While it was a shame he missed out on visiting his cousins, he was quite aware of his state of mind. This seems like the first time he has been aware of him own actions and state of mind.

In the evening he did complain about his stomach hurting. He did graze all day. We stopped for lunch and he only ate half of his sandwhich. As I expected, he ate the rest about 2 hours later. While preparing for dinner, he scraped a carrot and ate it (while repeating "What's up doc?" about 5 times.

Dad could nto tolerate the extra noise he generated. Dad thinks he can control himself more. I am happy that he was quite aware of his state of mind and his actions. I'd not really like ot repeat the experiment again. If the psychiatrist wants to do it just to assist him in piling on the caliries, I sure hope she gets his records from other doctors and sees that he has been growing and putting in weight in an upward curve.

Cleaning my 13 YO ADHD-ers room

Boy, I should have had my camera. I have been trying to be specific with him. My instructions are:

1. Clothes in the dirty clothes hamper or put away in a drawer or the closet.
2. Trash in the trash can
3. Books on the bookcase

The clothes issue wasn't too bad. Go figure, he used to leave a pile of clothing on the right side of his dresser, on the open floor between his dresser and his bookcase. The hamper sat on the left side of the dresser. So it took a year of living here for me to get the bright idea to tell him to put his hamper on the other side of his dresser and instead of tossing the clothes on the floor, toss them in the hamper. It's not perfect, but it does work better.

Book were all over his night stand and under his bed. I moved a bunch of books (kids series such as Jedi Apprentice and Secrets of Droon) into the 9 yo's bedroom since the 13 yo reguarly denies addmittance to his brother to look for a good book to read. I have bought duplicate books int eh past. While I was cleaning under the bed, I found the 9 YO's missing library book. The 9YO asked for permission to look for it in his borhter's room, the 13 Yo denied permission and I believed there would be no reasont he book was up there. Sigh! Won't happen again.

The boy left trash everywhere. Tissues, papers and the candy wrappers. He is not supposed to have food in his room. Under the bed and in particulary, inside the drawer of his nightstand. Ick! I can tolerate a lot of his mess. Not the food wrappers. Then he had left several pieces of chewed gun inside a pencil holder sitting on his dresser. The holder went in the trash.

And oh, the pens and pencils (and marker, highlighters, and even a box of crayons.) He has always been a "collector" of orphaned pens and pencils 9at leat I am tellingmyself they were orphaned). He does not typically do his homework in his room. There is a table in the unused and sparsely furnished living room where he dumps his stuff and sometimes does his homework if he's been banned from the computer desk. So I collected all the writing instrucments and put them in a tim labled "writing instruments" on our bookcase.

I ended up filling up a tall kitchen garbage bag of "stuff" from his room. This incleuded the above wrappers and pencil holder. Also finding their way there were paperclips, rubberbands and some small fast food restaurant toys. I saved some hot wheel cars and dice and removed them from the room. I must have put about 5 small rubber bouncy balls in that bag.

Next up is his closet. I need to recover from the rest of the room before I tackle that closet.

New ADHD Doctor

Yes, we had to find another Mental health provider.

Maybe I'd better state that this is for my 13 YO son. He was diagnosed as ADHD at the tender age of 4. It was not a big surprise, but I did ask the Psychologist if she was sure and what were the specific behaviors that led her to the conclusion. (I was on Ritalin as a child and I have a brother who struggles with ADHD).

We say Dr. B for this condition for 7 or 8 years until Dr. B decided to teach full time and not do see private practice patients. Then we went to Dr. H. Old wonderful Dr. H is a pediatric neurologist who treated both me and my brother. I was amazed he was still in practice. Then after about o year and a half of taking my son to the doctor my Mom described as "The most woderful man int he world" in my baby book, we moved.

So we got a recommendation to the Mental Health facility associated with the new city's Children's hospital. We visited wiht the Nurse Practioner twice, but my insurance would not cover visits to her. Since the Children's Hospital Metal Health department was so busy and my son is 13, they sent us to a new Mental Health center on the North side of town near where we live.

Dr. F is young and enthusiastic. She is going over everything with a fine tooth comb. This is good and I know it's good, but I do find myself wanting to sigh heavily at some of her suggestions and concerns and tell her "we've tried that." LOL!

She is concerned because he's in the 25th percentile of weight for his age. She wants me to switch to Whole Milk and give him high calorie foods. Let me tell you, there is not a lack of high calorie foods in my house. I keep cheese, pepperoni bites and other quick snacks just for him. He's always been in the 25th percentile and his progress is good. (He was wrestling at 86 lbs last year and this year he's weighing in at 92 lbs.)

Becasue of his size, she'd like us to try giving his a medication "vacation". This scares me. Then child is quite impulsive. He also gets a mean and nasty mouth on him. But mostly he has a tendancy to wind himself up so high during the day, that he had no idea how to bring himself down in the evening. We are going to try it the Friday after Thanksgiving. I certainly will no thave him do it on a day when he's home alone. But who knows, maybe it will not be the trying day I imagine it to be.

High School choices.

We had the intention, even before we had children to give the a parochial school education. DS13 is in 8th grade. The Archdiocese we live in recentally did away with the feeder school system for high school becasue of the proliferation of private vs parochial schools, the intenness of Athletics and the accusations of some schools being able to recruit and others not. There are 16 Parochial and Private High Schools in the "Greater Metropolitan area." Ok, 6 are Women only, so that leaves 10. We have narrowed it down to 2 that our public school district will bus too, a co-de and one all Male.

There are only 3 good reasons to go to the one school,

1. It's a lot cheaper
2. My moderately athletic son could make the teams - especially Wrestling
3. Girls go there.

When we move in July 07, to choose what area we moved to, I first tried to think "where do I want the boys to go to High School and I chose "M". So once we did move, we signed the 13 Yo up to wreatling with the club at "M". So we did a good sales job. It's a really great school. They have a house system (yes, like Harry Potter) to keep the boys from getting lost. They are in their 10th year of supplying laptops to all students and 50% of the texts are electronic. (Hello $3000 difference in yearly tuition). There is a real family feel. He's excited to go there. Right now the plans are for him to be a member of the marching band in the fall, wrestle in the Winter and try out for the baseball team in the spring.

But this has been an interesting journey. Since the poor kid probably won't do much College searching - one of my benefits is Tuition Remission at the University I work for, he gets to do it now.

My DVR...

Goodbye old friend, you have been a part of our lives for about 2 ½ years. But it is time for you to go. Its not you, it is us. We need to stand on our own feet.

You have been loyal, recording all the show we ask of you, very often two at a time. You have saved those shows for us to watch at other times. However, getting rid of you will save at least $25 per month and that’s not including the extra we pay for the digital tier.
Why do we need to free up the money? Well, the public story is that next year our oldest son wants to attend a parochial high school. The tuition is triple what we are currently paying for the Primary school tuition.

It took some effort on my part to convince the Mister. He loves to record shows. But he discovered that he can stream them online. He made the decision to cut it out about a week ago. He needed to watch all the shows that had already been recorded. But yesterday he spent time watching a new show on the CBS website. He declared “I don’t need the DVR.”

The 9 YO was taking it hard last night. He wanted to know how he could watch Star Wars Clone wars and total Drama Island. Apparently Nick and Cartoon network don’t have streaming episode. These shows are on after his bedtime.

So Long dear DVR, we will miss you.

Update: I just went to CartoonNetwork.com. They have 2 versions of full episodes online. Now do I show the 9 YO?

Contact lenses

I got the 13 YO Contact lenses. We picked them up on Thursday. He put them in after school on Friday, He wore them for 6 hours on Sat and is planning on 8-9 today.

We left him at the Church Spaghetti Dinner. He is volunteering. We ate our dinner befreo his shift started. Several of his classmates were there and commented. We came across a girl who we have seen at Football games. She always calls out to him. She came by and told him he looked cool.

Thinking about Christmas

I've bought some things: I've finished my brother. I've gotten a pair of gloves for one of the boys.

I am now thinking about my niece. Last night I was wondering around Hobby Lobby, thinking of giving her a frame with a picture of her and I and my Mom taken at the beach this summer. Then I came across some frames that looked like a scrapbook page. Even better, I can create a scrapbook page with the picture and then put the page in a frame. I like the idea of an 8x8 page.

Speaking of scrapbooking, I have only scrapped up until mid-2004. The rest of the pcitures are sitting on digital media somewhere. I must have 4 CDs saying they have pictures form 2003, 2004 & 2005. I guess I did not take many pcutures druing that time frame.
I also discovered that I did an 81/2x11 book on my older son. I need to check where it ends. I suspect it's about 2003.

I can't decide if I want to do some digital pages or not. I was able to get a copy of Photoshop Elements for a discounted price through work. I tried yesterday to create a new blog banner but was unable to complete it. I need to try again.

Monday Randomness

Last Monday was my birthday. I got a pretty purple iPod from Hubby.

Our Weather is still pretty summer-like. They are talking frost toward the end of the week though.

It looks like the busy-ness of the 13 YO is helping him do a good job of keeping on top of his homework. Like his Dad, he is a procrastinator. Football does not leave him much time to procrastinate. Hopefully Wrestling will do the same.

Speaking of the 13 YO, 7th and 8th graders were invited to play with the High School band Friday night. He got to ride the bus to the stadium. I did not stay up to see him when he got home. But the next morning he said he had a great time, he broke his drum sticks and got a stick shoved up his nose. (Boys!) He told Dad he thinks Marching Band might just be his Fall sport. Cool!

My 9 YO thinks he's invincable. He is getting tired of going to his brother's football practices and games. He keeps asking if he can stay home. Friday afternoon he wanted to stay at home while Dad picked up the 13 yo from his after school study session (Studying for the Catholic High School entrace exam). Dad had to drop the 13 yo off at the High School for the big game. The problem was I was riding the bus home from work. If something came up, the 9 Yo was on his own. A few weeks ago he stayed at home by himself while Dad went to pick up big brother practice. The run was that I was 10 minutes up the street at dinner with some friends.

Why?

Do smoke and carbon Monoxide detectors always give their low battery alerts in the dead of the night?

It took us 10-15 minutes to find the detector that was beeping last night. It would beep and then it emitted a voice message "low battery warning". At first I thought it was my pager. Nope, I followed it upstairs. I turned on a light in our bedroom. That made Hubby get up are help find it. He was able to follow their noice to DS9's room where he dounf the detector (I did not realize there was one there.)

Mr. Coach..

That's my Hubby in the glasses, deciding on a play for flag football. What's funny is that as a kid, he played one year of T-ball where he was picking dandilions in right field. In High school he was a memberof the tennis team. When He married me and I dragged him back to my hometown, he started playing softball. Our oldest son was signed up for YMCA Soccer and Baseball at about 4 years old. He watched and learning. He helped out the coaches as an assistant. I thin his first foray into head coaching was as a co-head coach for the oldest son's 4th grade intramural basketball team.

When our younger son, now 9 turned 4, he played soccer at the Y. Dad decided to sign up to coach. Then Dad signed up to coach t-ball. Then he started helping out with the Wrestling team. Parents frequently came up to me and expressed how much they like him as a coach. His Mom often sat beside me and beamed. Once he was asked by another coach what weight he wrestled in High school. That coach was amazed when he learned Hubby had only learned wrestling when our oldest so started the sport in the first grade. By Son's 6th year, guess who was the head coach. And he loves it!

Action picture of the 9 yo in his first Flag football game.

Be careful what you wish for..

I'd love to elaborate, but I am also not willing to spill my guts right now. There is a tropical storm brewing at work. My employment is not in danger, but my current position is being brought into question. My ego is taking a pounding. However, there could be a good side to this.

So is a hurricane going to develop out of this or will the storm break up. Like the weather, it's hard to tell. There can sometimes be some blustering, however, this same question has been brought up before.

There could be some advantages. A lot of what I do, I would still do. There is a public relations aspect to my job that needs work. Do I still have the competitive spirit and drive to attain the skills, knowlege and abilities? I don't know. Now that I am not the main breadwinner in the family anymore, do I want to fade in the background more?

Sometimes the Almighty Father answers prayers in a way you don't expect. But then again I did not think my occasional fantasies of a less intense career were prayers.

A Post about nothing

Oh how I wish I was full of witty posts that has people rolling in front of their monitors. I'd love to be another BooMama or a Mrs Dryer, But I just don't have it in me. Heck. Shalee is a Mom who works outside the home and she posts more regularly that I do.

I stead I give you pictures of my wind-ravaged home and my boys in their sports. But maybe because my life is pretty confined these days. I sleep, work and drive. I take time out to eat and use the bathroom. Take yesterday, I got up, showered and dresses, referred arguments between Whiney (the 9 YO) and Meanie (the ADHD 13 Yo who's meds had not kicked in yet). The 9 YO has been making things with Legos, He had a cars that was made out of DS13s Legos. the 13 YO demanded him Legos back. Yelling ensued until the bus pulled up. I did spedn 30 minutes on the home computer until it was time to pick up my carpool friend. I did have to stop and get gas. Then we came to work. Then we came home. Just as I am 3 minutes from Carpool friends house, Hubby calls me. he got out of work late. Was I closer to school to pick up the 9 Yo from after school care? Yes. So I go back and pick up the ( YO. In the meantime I call DS13 to tell him to eat before football practice and to be ready because i would probably have enough time to pull into the driveway, jettison DS9 to Dad's care and have DS13 climb in to take to football practice. (Lets do a time check: leave work at 3:45, pick up DS9 about 4:35, pull into the driveway about 5:08).

I drop off DS13, and go find the Kroger. I went to the second closest one because of traffic. I got a package of California rolls - Yum, Dinner) and juice boxes to send in for Ds9's class. I stop at Trader Joe's looking for Flax seed supplements. Then I decide to go to Whole Foods - it's another 2 exits up the expressway (yes a lot of my driving is my own fault..) I find Arnica Gel

I sit waiting for football practice to end for about 30 minutes. It's awful dark, but I guess the two little street lights are enough to do pushups and situps to. DS13 is hungry. Ok, it's 8:15, we've got a 15 minute ride home with a boy who procrastinates on his shower, getting something to eat at home would prolong my agony by 20 minutes at least. So it is a stop at McDonalds. Bu=oy are they busy. So I hand the boy some money. He goes in with $8 and comes back out with $5. Hey, not bad. We drive home. Ah, I can now kick off my shoes and change out of my work clothes.

So am I crazy to be starting a very expensive workout program? I am working with a personal trainer. Hubby is behind me. I have not been able to exercise for about 2 years. I have developed chronic tendonitis in my ankle due to my extremely flat feet. Working with the Podiatrist, I have a rigid brace that I am supposed to wear most of the time. Surgery is the next step. I don't like the idea of surgery so I want to work with a personal trainer to find workouts that won't aggravate my ankle. My goals for exercising are:

1. Stress relief
2. Stave off Diabetes for another 20 years
3. Of course it would be nice to drop some weight. (Goal is about 65 lbs)

So to find the time, I and going to work out at 5 AM Tues and Thurs and 7 AM Saturdays. Wish me luck...