Not Gonna Mow

I really need to mow today and I thought I'd put some more plants in the ground. It's going to rain instead. Bummer....

Okay, I lied. The weather front seems to be stalling out over Illinois, so after I made (yet another) trip to the lumber store, I set the mower to high speed and knocked out the entire yard in almost one hour. It's amazing how quick it is to mow now that we've added rock borders and expanded that deck! (We should rock the entire yard, to be honest...)

Botox Sucks (and I hate that term but it's appropriate)

Most of you know that Corey, who has cerebal palsy, receives 4 botox injections into his legs every 4-6 months. The botox (yes, that nasty stuff people put into their foreheads, and yes, that stuff that is more appropriately referred to as botulism,) paralyzes his affected leg muscles, which forces him to use his 'good' muscles resulting in a more acceptable gait, or walk.

The last time Corey had his injections (where I have to physically use my entire body to restrain him while listening to his cries of, "Mommy, you're so mean, why do you have to be mean to me?") he had a bad reaction. His legs started collapsing from beneath him three weeks after the injections and he had no leg strength. Why? The doctor got him good. That, and he needed more physical therapy than he was getting to strengthen up his rarely-used muscles that suddenly had to do all the work.

It's been a year since Corey had his last botox injections, and I really struggled with the decision to do it again. Aside from the fact that I can't stand watching Corey suffer, the FDA had put out a warning about deaths occurring with high doses of botox similar to the amounts Corey had been receiving. I had talked to his therapists, I had talked to his doctors, and finally made the decision to go ahead with another series of injections at a lower dosage. Oh, yeah, and one other thing, I refused to go to the appointment. Ken had never had the pleasure of being the bad guy, and I was done with being privy to the torture (literally) that Corey went through on injection day.

So Ken took the day off and about 30 minutes ago, held Corey down for the shots. I've had an upset stomach ever since they left and I've been waiting for Ken to call me and tell me that everything went great and that Corey barely cried. Well, the phone just rang, and I didn't hear what I wanted to hear...

I answered the phone, and there was Corey on the other end going, "Mom? Mom?" I said, "Corey, baby, it's mommy, how are you doing?" After a big deep breath, (here goes...) "WAAAAAHHHHH!!!! Mommy, you made me get shots and that was rude and it's NOT NICE!!! WWWAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"

I guiltily tried to comfort Corey, and soon had lost all kinds of patience. I kept saying, "Honey, put your daddy on the phone. Put dad on the phone. Put daddy on the phone NOW!" Finally Corey quieted and Ken must have heard me hollering for him, and he takes the phone from Corey. "What the hell were you thinking, making him call me?" I yelled. The whole point of Ken taking Corey to the appointment was so that I didn't have to be the bad guy or have the massive guilt trip (which I most certainly deserve, but can't stand) while inflicting this trauma on my own child.

"I didn't know he was going to start crying, he was totally fine when I asked him if he wanted to call you..." explained Ken. Well, duh!!! (Can I say that again? DUH!!!!) THEN Ken went on to explain that Corey did pretty good, only screaming for me the whole time, while the doctor gave Corey TWELVE injections. At this point, I really freaked out! How do you decrease a dosage of medication, yet increase the amount of injections from four to twelve?

Ken explained the doctors rationale (okay, I guess it kinda made sense,) and eventually I mellowed out a little. By the time Ken explained the chain of events, Corey was in the background, tear free and happy, asking if they could get a pop. I was still fuming about the phone call, but glad that Ken (and Corey) handled the whole thing fairly well without me. I would have had a breakdown had I been at that appointment, I swear. And I just have nothing more to say about it other than the thought of Corey suffering through twelve (did I mention TWELVE) injections, only makes me feel slightly nauseous at this point.

What's Up

If you haven't heard from me in awhile, there's a reason! My neighbor is redoing all of his backyard landscaping, and rather than pay for a demolition team, he told us we could have all of his rock and decking if we just remove it from his property. Over 40 wheel-barrow loads of large river rock and a small deck, not too tough, right? (My aching back!!!)

Well, after a week we had everything removed and our deck expansion has begun. I wasn't happy with the way my plants looked against the large stones, so I also ripped up my main flowerbed and inserted 15 new plants. You don't want to know what possessed me to re-rock this area twice in two days, but trust me, it really wasn't fun.

New rock and border installed in front.

Stripped twice, old plants removed, new plants installed.

Deck expansion has begun.

Additional rock (98% moved by Colleen,) without a permanent home.

The boys enjoying the neighbor's bobcat.

I DID take some picture of our rainy day fun, which I'd explained in a previous post. Here's Shannon and Anna taking advantage of the puddles...

Picture Day

I did the one thing that is not recommended by photographers all over the world yesterday afternoon. I took Corey in for a haircut and he ended up with a new hairstyle, the day before school pictures are to be taken. The style involves an amazing amount of hair gel, as well, and styling products and I don't have a very good relationship.

I think I have Corey (and the other boys) looking pretty spiffy, and I'm hoping for three good sets of pictures. This is the only year that all three boys are in the same school, and the only year that, for certain, they will have the same backgrounds in their pictures so I splurged and ordered an 8x10 of each. If the pictures turn out, I might just put them on the wall!

For that to happen, though, the kids will have to keep their hoods off their heads, remain upright on the bus rather than recline and muss up their hair, keep from swiping snot across their faces, avoid bloody noses, put their shirts on correctly (Shannon's was backwards this morning,) sit tall for the camera, avoid lens glare with eyeglasses, avoid eating their snacks on the bus on their way in to school which would result in crumbs all over their faces, and keeping any support staff out of the pictures (Corey's teacher's hair appeared in the pictures one year because she physically had to hold him in position.)

Or mommy should just show up to volunteer to help with picture day so that she can ensure that the boys look polished and don't look so much like.... well, like boys.

I'd better go get ready to head up to school...

Banned

Today was "Dress as Your Favorite Storybook Character Day" at school, and although we had hashed out different ideas for the last few days, neither I nor the boys could come to any agreement. My only stipulation was that the costumes had to be simple and require no sewing. (For some reason the boys are under the impression that I can construct a costume from scratch overnight!) I had checked out about 40 library books to get ideas, and still we couldn't figure anything out.

Well, I was so busy yesterday that dress up day completely slipped my mind, only to resurface at 6:55 this morning. Yikes, what to do? I had Shel Silverstein in the back of my mind because he comes up with some crazy characters (visible in his outrageous drawings,) so I grabbed a copy of A Light in the Attic and flipped through it. A few pages in, and a light bulb went off in my head!

There is a great poem called Spelling Bee, and it goes like this:

I got stung by a bee
I won't tell you where.
I got stung by a bee
I was just lyin' there,
And it tattooed a message
I can't let you see
That spells out
Hello... you've been stung by a bee.

In the book, the line, "Hello, you've been stung by a bee," is spelled out in bee stings on a characters (tactfully drawn) naked rear. Well, I couldn't do that, but I got out Riley's toy tattoo gun and tattooed this line on all three boys' forearms in perfect pointillistic dots. The boys were thrilled, even more so after I sent them to school with their own photocopy of the poem (thanks for knocking that out this morning, Heather,) so they could show their classes where the character originated.

After putting them all on the bus, I came in to post about it on my blog, and figured you'd get a better feel for the poem if I could copy the poem with the picture. So I type into my Google bar, "Shel Silverstein spelling bee poem," and all sorts of things popped up. And everything that popped up included the word banned. Uh oh...

Turns out the book A Light in the Attic is one of the ten most frequently banned children's books of all time! (My teachers in elementary school, nor my local library, must have been aware of this fact!) Hmm... why would people want to ban this book you ask? Two reasons, one of which is the drawing connected to the poem in question. The very drawing that I sent my children off to school with this morning to show their classmates.

Oops.

Needless to say, Corey read his poem to his class and showed them all the picture, and I've heard no complaints. Shannon's teacher read the poem to the class and showed the picture, and as Shannon said, "Everybody laughed about his butt with the words on it!" Once again, no complaints. Riley didn't bother taking the poem out of his backpack, so once again, no complaints.

I am so relieved. Pheeeww! I'd hate to have to explain to the principal or angry parents just what I, (the PTO secretary, none the less,) was thinking when I sent in a poem complete with a picture of a naked butt.

Bucket Dipper (AKA Cold Prickly)

I was informed today that I should no longer send occasional notes to school with the boys in their lunchboxes. Apparently it's embarrassing. Shannon said, "It's okay that they laughed at me, mom, but don't do it again." Talk about a bucket dipper. (Doing something that takes away somebody's happiness.)

On a better note, when Ken came home Shannon yelled, "Guess what, Dad? I got to do homework tonight!" (As in, I am LUCKY to have homework.)

Apparently the boy's aren't that grown up, or they would realize that homework really isn't something worth getting excited about. He'll figure it out in a few weeks I bet...

Wet

It has been raining pretty steadily for three days now. Yes, the kids are experiencing cabin fever. I took a note from my girl June, called Anna, and sent the kids out into the rain to play. What fun! (Actually, Anna and I had the most fun.) Riley only lasted about ten minutes, but Shannon and Anna got out a bunch of blocks and wood and I showed them how to make a dam out of all the water flowing down the street.

The kids weren't able to restrict all of the water so I filled up about 40 water balloons to help fill the gaps. Then I threw them some sidewalk chalk and we made streams of green and yellow water. Anna decided to grab some gravel to plug up the dam a bit, and soon we had two interesting piles on either side of the storm drain. Then the torrents kicked in...

Shannon was done. Heavy rain started pouring down and the wind had kicked up, so he tore off for home yelling, "It's tooooo cold...." Anna gave me a look like Shannon was crazy and I said, "I guess you and I are having a water balloon fight?" That girl soaked me as I ran around dodging her, my useless umbrella in hand! Soon the balloons were gone and we gathered up our junk and headed in.

After nice warm baths and pancakes for lunch, we all moped around the house. Soon Riley was telling me that it was raining really hard again, so I looked out. The back yard was starting to flood again, and the water along the street was really high. "Who wants to drive through puddles and look at the lagoons?" I asked.

Riley and Shannon were up for it, and with a little convincing, Corey was too. We zipped through the neighborhood, watering everyone's lawns, driveways and mailboxes, with the kids screaming "More!" the whole time. We decided to check on the lagoons, and as we went to exit the neighborhood, we realized the main entrance was completely flooded. No problem, we snuck out the back way and found the lagoons about 1 foot shy of flooding over. The kids were in awe, and surprisingly quiet.

"More puddles?" I asked. "Yeah!!!" they screamed. We did another five laps or so and decided it was time to head home.

"Mom, you're a bucket-filler!" Shannon said when we got back into the house. (That means I do things to make people feel good.)

"Yeah, mom, that was AWESOME!" yelled Corey. "NOW can I play Shift 3 on the computer?"

Rock-A-Bye Corey

Corey rocks himself to sleep every night. He gets up in a crawling position and rocks his entire body back and forth, humming as he does so. When he has a hard time sleeping, he can do this for up to an hour, which apparently is what he did last night. Here's what Ken and I found when we checked on Corey before hitting the hay yesterday...

Corey was sleeping like a log after he (once again) rocked his mattress clear off of the bed frame.

If you look, you'll see there isn't a dust ruffle on Corey's bed, either. That's because it's impossible to keep one in place when Corey shifts his mattress night after night.

Mass Hysteria?

Okay, so the pick-up for Riley's First Communion pictures was less than smooth, but I finally got them in. These are grainy copies, but the originals are nice and sharp.

The standard 'prayer pose.' Riley, keeping his distance from Father, as always.

He never gets too close at communion, often leading the communicant to question Ken about whether or not Riley is allowed to take it. What can I say, the CCD organizer scared the heck out of the Riley with his 'Don't-be-alone-with-or-let-any-clergy-touch-you' talk implemented by our church. You can give Riley a little shove or tell him to move closer, but he always stands at least a foot away at Mass.

1986

I have finally managed to listen to all 1986 songs on my IPod! (Yes, I am proud of myself.)

I brought this information to Ken's attention and he said, "Wow, you must have a lot of time on your hands to listen to 2000 songs on your IPod." I could see the little brain cells firing as he mentally calculated how long it would take to listen to that much music.

Before he could announce his findings, I quickly reminded him, "I only listen to my IPod when I'm mowing the lawn, vacuuming, or scrubbing bathrooms..." After a long pause, "Hmm..." was all he had to say.

(By the way, 1986 x 4 = 7944 minutes of house work. 132.4 HOURS of housework.) I should get an award or something.

Out With the Trash

When Riley first started taking his lunch to school, he kept bringing his half eaten food back home. The crust from his sandwich? Bring it home! Banana peel? Bring it home! Empty milk carton? Bring it home! It seemed like it took him forever to understand that I didn't want to see his table scraps.

Now Shannon is taking his lunch to school, and he has yet to bring me home any remnants of his lunch! Of course, yesterday he failed to bring home his spoon, and today I found his tupperware lid, but no actual container. When questioned about the missing tupperware, he said, "I didn't mean to throw it away, but then it was too late!" I'm just hoping Shannon learns proper lunch disposal quickly or I'll go broke restocking my kitchen supplies.

Socks and Stuff

Riley and Shannon are off camping with Anna, and if things go sour, she might come home with the boys for a sleep over at our house. Being that Anna is a girl, and therefore a little selective as to what she will sit on when using the potty, (IE: boys' pee, slide-offs, and the like,) I decided that it would be a good time to clean a few bathrooms and straighten up the basement. It was ugly.

It's amazing what you can find in an area of the house where only little boys dwell. For instance, lately Corey's become sufficiently obsessed with socks. He fills them up with noisy miniature toys, swings them around, or just hides them in the basement apparently. I found seven socks down there, some with toys, some without. Almost all of them are Shannon's nice Wilson brand socks (these things are impossible to destroy!) which appear to be Corey's sock of choice.

I also located two pairs of underwear, a pair of shorts, two gnawed up apple cores, two pairs of sandals we hadn't been able to find in weeks, a torn up Yahtzee game, 60 destroyed birthday balloons I'd been saving, two living room throw pillows, numerous piece of chalk, five hot wheels in the bathroom sink, and miscellaneous food wrappers scattered about. Do I need to mention that we'd cleaned the basement thoroughly less than two weeks ago?

Spaceballs

Today I have to go to the library to check out the movie Spaceballs. The edited version was on TV last night, and the boys loved the 1/2 hour they saw before bedtime reared it's ugly head. I set the DVR to record the movie, and as soon as I left the room, Ken kicked off the recording. The boys were not too happy when they discovered Daddy's error this morning...

Have any of you seen this movie? It's a hilarious take on the Star Wars movies, with a lot of subtle (and not so subtle) humor going on. I'm just hoping that the unedited version isn't as vulgar as I suspect. We'll find out tonight when the boys and I will be sitting on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn watching our movie, and Daddy; well, we'll probably have to put him in time out.

Not As Bad

Well, it was warm today, but not as bad as yesterday. We've been patiently waiting for a cold front and some rain to close in, but it just looked like it was never going to happen. I asked the boys if they wanted me to fill up the kiddie pool since they were so hot, and they said sure. Before playing, we went in to eat real quick, and by the time we came back outside, the cold front had arrived. Too cold to play in water, that was for sure.

The water from the kiddie pool didn't go to waste, however, because since the rain never showed up (surprise, surprise,) I was able to water a portion of my lawn with it.

108.7

108.7 DEGREES. On my front porch. Today. The hottest day of the summer, literally.

Granted, the porch retains heat throughout the day, so the actual temperature is 103.7 degrees. 103.7 degrees on the kids first (long, hot) day of school. The boys were soaking wet and beet red after their one hour bus ride with no air conditioner. Uck.

Oh Happy Day...

Back to school time in Michigan! Here's how the bus stop went:

The boys were nice enough to pose together (I fear this might be the last year for this type of cooperation...) As soon as the picture was taken, Riley and Shannon went off to trade Pokemon cards.

We were able to get most of the kindergartners together for a picture (one wouldn't get in the shot, one was driven in to school,) and all of these kids are from just our little neighborhood. Sadly, the bus boarding picture didn't do justice to just how many children actually boarded the bus.

All the kindergarten moms were heading up to school to follow their kids in, and I felt like a bad Mommy for plotting my morning of solitude. Giving in to the guilt, I headed up to school to watch the buses unload. Sure enough, the Aide that was supposed to greet Corey at the bus was there and walked him into school. She paused to introduce Corey to the music teacher (Corey is very adamant that he does NOT want to go to music class,) and Riley was right there to ensure that everything was okay. (So proud of him!) Shannon... he was off in his own world marching toward his hallway.

There was a mom watching nearby, and she was new to the school and upset that she couldn't get closer to the bus. She explained her situation and convinced me to go into the school with her to check on the kids. (I was in the first thing I threw on- no shower, no make-up; just HOW did I end up in a school full of people who know me???) Anyhow, it turned out that my presence was a good thing after all.

I went to check on Shannon first, and he'd made it to his classroom. I was impressed, because neither Shannon nor I can ever remember the name of his First Grade teacher. However, Shannon was at his desk talking to the teacher and he looked completely baffled. He started for the door, where I was standing, and I caught his attention. "Mom, you're here? My teacher said you sent in stuff but I don't have it. I just brought my backpack!"

Hmm... suppose if he'd have looked IN his backpack, he may have found it? Especially after I'd drilled into his head what he needed to do with all of his stuff? We walked to his locker to get everything unloaded, and there was Shannon's fully loaded backpack. On the hallway floor in front of his locker. Huh?

So I took everything out of the backpack, showed Shannon where his lunch would be, reminded him where his snack would be, asked him to make sure to put his backpack IN his locker, and sent him back into his classroom. He was still looking a little baffled but also a bit relieved, so I moved on to Corey's classroom.

In no time, the Kindergarten teacher and 20+ children arrived and started piling into the classroom. Corey didn't even notice me as he parted ways with his Aide. (She won't be with Corey all the time, she will just monitor Corey's needs and help when needed.) Mrs. Gordon, the aide, said that Corey was doing just fine, told me about the introductions she made with Corey, and of course reminded me that he was such a sweet little boy. He has them all fooled.

Riley of course knew the ropes, and after seeing him follow up on Corey, I knew he didn't need me to check up on him. Unfortunately, Riley is resigned to the fact that school is a necessary evil and that Mom will not home school under any circumstances. I'm sure this was on his mind as he grudgingly headed on into the school. I'm hoping he gets over his anti-school attitude and starts to like school again soon.

As soon as I could get out of there, I headed to the grocery store to make some quick prints of my pictures I had taken. I've already distributed some to other parents, and now I'm contemplating my next scrapbook layout. But wait a minute... I think I'm getting sleepy. Maybe I'll take a quick nap instead?

Pictures AT School

Riley heading into school after checking on Corey.

Shannon worried and confused about that stuff his mom should have sent in.

Shannon, after I helped him find his stuff, returning to his teacher for further instruction.