Spring Break!!

Been a crazy week...i GUESS today starts spring break! She's up and at it early, and somehow i thought the rumor about them shaving a couple of days off for snow days was FALSE!! Honestly...i still don't have confirmation....just the fact that no one is answering the phone at school!! GREAT MOMMY!

Aubrey tested her parents sanity by getting under the kitchen counter (new house-the cupboard locks are not up yet) and taking a bite out of a cascade packet!! She's fine, although I'm not too sure about her parents! (welcome to my world, gabe, the eater of chlorine posts for the apt pool, and drinker of bleach!) i USED to have the number to poison control memorized!

Shauna is done with her 'really big' case...and last i heard was in NYC celebrating that fact with her big sis, and heading for a Fleetwood Mac concert in Jersey! YAY!! This one took a long time, with too much stress!

Bill and Angela came home with thier rude puppies!



They are both adorable but poop too much! (the puppies i mean)

We ate too much (i always cook big when bill is home...as skinny as he is, he eats for 3)
but we always exercise also...we took advantage of a nearly 80 degree day and headed for the river to do some explorin.

bill? why do i have to wear shoes in the river and you dont?


That just doesn't seem right!! Im going to take my shoes off, too!! Too bad i seem to only
know one way to take off my shoes. (check out bill's face...hahahahah)



COLD WATER!!!!




I'm outta here!!



Then we hiked our way up to Blue Springs...this is a continuously 58 degree spring that bubbles up all year long....and a ways back up in the woods. This is the first year molly has made the hike without having to be carried back....just lifted up in a few places.





Looking at the river, and talking...this is the way molly talks now, we have no idea why, but her hand has to be up over her mouth...probably some tool used in speech that has gone awray.



The drop off to the spring is right there...but no amount of telling her to stop will do...BILL!! TOO FAR!!!





Blue spring lies off of the river...which was down, but flowing beautifully.



There were caves to explore:



And monkeys in the trees:



and miss molly went to bed early....and slept hard! IT'S SPRING BREAK HERE!! and more importantly??? IT'S SPRING!

Bone

I have had the opportunity to meet some of the funniest women in the world...and got to catch up with one this week.

We both used to manage competing food marts, and one of the funniest things i ever saw in a newspaper ad was HER store offering a 1 pound pkg of BOWLES for $2.99! (a typo that should have read bowls) Cracked me up and i grabbed a copy of the ad and ran right over to ask her if these were in the meat dept? or freezer section???

Bone (her old name, which i won't let up on, cuz it was funny, too) came in today. She has been a SAHM, something I'm really jealous of (thanks bernard for crashing my 401-I hope you share a cell with big-bubba-roid-rage-ralph) her for being able to do that...but she's changed her status. She's blonde, pretty, not fat at all...but well built. A brick.

"So, what are you doing these days?"

I know it's coming when her eyes start to twinkle

"I am an over-sized escort"




It took me about 10 seconds of gaping mouth-confusion-face to figure out she was TALKING about driving a little truck in front of the "wide-load" semi tractors!

We laughed till we cried...she says it doesn't pay alot...but with a title like that?
who cares!! Love ya, Bone! You made my day!
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We are celebrating a huge step for molly this week...many of you saw me hinting about it on FaceBook!

At molly's school, they have a drive-thru-drop-off section. Since 9-11 they don't want alot of parents wandering around the halls. I've been driving molly in, in the mornings (she had been having trouble with all the chaos on the bus) and we get to park in the handicap section, and walk in. (parent parking is about a mile away..and i don't have a placard, but the school understands how slow molly can walk and granted us permission)

So, we still have to get in the car-line, and watch what the other kids are doing, to get to our parking place. The parents pull up to a stop sign in an area teachers are manning, grab their backpacks, jump out of their cars and walk in a crosswalk to the front doors of the school.

This week, I also stopped at the stop sign and looked at molly and told her to go, like the big kids. It took a couple of days, but on friday, she successfully , with no prompting, opened her car door, grabbed her back pack, and walked to the front door, to a waiting aide!!

YAY MOLLY!

Of course i drive around into the forbidden area to make sure she's connected with her aide, and on Friday??? Molly shot me the stink eye! I guess i shouldn't be checking up on a big girl!

*beam*

a few shots from the week....When Bill came to pick up Bree, he brought brother Josh and his son Haden. Although Josh is the "brother with another mother"..you cannot tell by looks, or attitude at home, that he is not mine. The three boys are CLONES!! And Haden seems to be following suit.



Hatten the Cat likes to stretch out in weird positions to sleep...what a goofy cat (i thru molly's croc in there for size proportion...he's HUGE!)



Sarge gets nervous when Larry and Kelsi take off for a soccer ball, and a sliced tire keeps them away for hours! (oh yea, come monday we're wrapping the Tahoe in some decent rubber...I will be BROKE!)



It's hard work worrying and waiting, so he was resting his big nose on the table that ALWAYS has a bowl of pretzels on it!

And yes, THIS WEEK is KELSI'S spring break...YAY!! Molly is excited to have someone to watch "oswald" with...although "Ducky" (mollys name for her) usually is hooked up to the lap top, japanamation, and emo bands. Shes 16 now.




I love my house, and the fact that any given weekend, we can have 5-15 members of family hanging around, and just being "home"

Have a great St Patty's Day week. Everyone's Irish This week! Even Barrack!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xkw8ip43Vk

lightning, assessments, and Aubrey Jo

I started this earlier, but lightning crashed outside, causing Lucifer the Cat to jump from outside on the deck, to inside on the couch in one flying leap....and then the rains came. Hard rains, knocking out satellite computer and Oswald on television (OHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOO) We're dodging the tornadoes up north (knock on wood) and just getting some violent rain storms that are short in duration.

Spring is FINALLY here, and the grass seems universally greener after a 10 minute monsoon. YAY! IT SMELLS SO GOOD!! My yellow daffodills are opening, and there are buds on everything else.

We are celebrating but tired here...miss Aubrey Jo has come to rock our world for the weekend. She's very comfortable at grammy's, but wouldn't sleep anywhere but WITH grammy. We snuggled on the couch all night...she stirred a couple of times, but with a few pats on the diaper, she'd drift right back off. Being acutely aware of her new found gymnastic abilities, and the speed in which she can pull them off...grammy didn't sleep too soundly.

She has changed so much!! Dang the ice storms!! I last saw her as an infant, and she returns 4 weeks later as a rug rat!

She is a dancing baby, imitates sounds i make,patty cakes, signs daddy and more, laughs, pulls ups and walks around cruising, stands independently for a few seconds..and can FLY on her hands and knees!!

She will make the "scrunch face" atcha:








WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN!! She's still quite small, making her antics even funnier as she is now the 'walking infant'



and ohhhhhhhhhhhh she loves her food...in fact, if she hears someone in the kitchen, or spoons rattling, or cupboard doors being opened?? she is ON IT! LOOK OUT MOLLY...she's diving in for your fries!!



Also? she is quite tasty



She came with a packNplay, but currently molly is in it, and against all of bree's parent's warnings, SHE is not.... but has run of the house (bathroom doors closed) and she's loving it! She runs down to see grampa in the radio room...chases the cats, and loveeeeeees sarge the german shep. He just makes her squeal! There is no taking your eye off of her...not for one second. I think also, i may rename her "woomba" as even though i've vacuumed 37 times, she still is finding things to pick up and put in her mouth. Yes, Gabe, the dog food dish is secured on the back porch!




I am so amazed by her sheer sharpness. She doesn't miss a movement, she doesn't miss a sound. Her eyes flit and scan and move her to the next escapade. I don't think I'm seeing her in such amazement because molly was so laid back as an infant, either....I think I'm amazed....because she is amazing. I see great things happening for this curious little girl.



We did have molly's assessment Friday...to see if she's on the Autism Spectrum. The interviewer came while moll was outside playing, so we had some time to set up before calling her in. The first thing molly does is run over and give her a big hug! BLASPHEME!! SHE NEVER DOES THIS! lmao...i believe molly thought the lady was shauna, as she was young and had beautiful hair!

She filmed the eval while running thru several tests. After she left, i realized i had answered some questions wrong...YES, she does repeat words consistantly...CAT CAT CAT CAT ...should i email her? Why i am so worried about things that i forgot to say....do i WANT her to be Autistic?

Nope

Thanks to Maria, who is dealing with many of the things we are....i want answers. In my heart i would rather not have the label, but i WOULD like some answers. Those answers won't happen for a month or so. It's a long process. I just know there is a magic key to unlocking molly's intellegence, as there is no doubt that it is there, and whether or not the key lies in a diagnosis on the spectrum, or someplace else...we will keep working until we find it. Molly has many contributions of her own to make.

I will end with my frustration/chuckle of the week.

The school sends molly home all the time. She is "out of sorts" or "pushing" or "has an ear infection" (she had a bad case of wax)" "has pink eye" "maybe the flu" and it's just CONSTANT!!!.... to the point that I was beginning to think that maybe molly is just too hard to handle, and it's easier to send her home than to deal with her. And what am i to do? Tell them she doesn't have an ear infections, or take her to two dr's to make sure. Tell them NO, we will not pick her up no matter what YOU think????


Today I opened a warning notice from the school. She's missing too much!

UGH!!

Off i go...the woomba is heading for my bedroom, which is referred to as the 'toy room' by the sarge anyway....too much FUN! OH LOOK, she's found mama and dadda...and is signing with thumb on her head...and saying mum mum mum (shhhhhhhhh don't tell ally)



I'll leave you with 4 generations (with one crooked little finger) of hands,
and hopes that spring EXPLODES in your area..the way it has ours...Don't forget to spring those clocks ahead, either!

EEK!!

i so hate to start with this again, as it is officially march...but IT SNOWED YESTERDAY!! all day...for about 5 inches or better. They are again forcasting 70's for the end of the week, which means we again move from the frozen tundra into the world of slop!

We have no dirt or sand in missouri...only clay and rocks...which is why the schools are closed so often...a wet, clay road is mighty messy and the busses have a hard time navigating down them. We also have no major snow removal devices...just salt trucks AS IT'S NOT SUPPOSE TO SNOW!! I am grateful that there is no ice this time...and it was rather pretty and FUN!






It's only going to be a short inconvenience, but it sure messed up my travel plans...i cannot WAIT to see my big boys & girls, and the baby! Every weekend something jumps up that keeps me here and miserable.

The past Wednesday Molly was in a 2nd grade play at school...we were scrambling because detailed info wasn't coming...ie: i thought she was a pioneer girl (found out she needed a long dress on monday)...but she ended up being a bird. (found out she needed solid colored clothes that WERE NOT pink on tuesday) She would have a better pioneer girl as they don't have to wear beaks, and not even robert "bobert" the boyfriend could convince her otherwise!




She did well in her part, stayed on the risers, standing and sitting appropriately with no aide right beside her. Mommy and the aide were standing close..but not too close.

She goes on stage, does her thing, and the curtains close..the children are suppose to exit stage left...and out they all come, all but the last little bird. UGH! She finally appears, but decides to exit stage right..into the next group! The aide is on it...but not as fast as Bobert, who got to her first! PLEASE don't knock the other kids off of stage right!!



Now to all the parents out there that are shaking their heads at the poor little girl who doesn't know any better??? I hate to inform you, but she knew EXACTLY what she was doing..SHE'S A SKUNK!

Someone built a little Fairview bus..which they call the twinkie mobile (no clue) and it came in on the "Rosa Parks" part of the play....molly was very interested as you can see, i was just pleased she didn't take it upon herself to upstage the bus!




The funniest thing about the whole play was i actually heard her singing!! OH MANNNNN she's definitely a candidate for instant fame on American Idol....and not the GOOD KIND!

She was making up her own words (molly jabberwalky) and belting them out at the top of her lungs. It was precious!!

Thanks to the store for not berating me about my lateness...i THOUGHT it was at 8:30pm....and it ended up being one show only at 8:30AM!! I was not the only parent in the dark...but we manage!

This is a big week for us. Judevine comes on Friday to evaluate my precious (skunk) angel. Although it's been pretty obvious for the last two years that developementally, she's not even keeping up with her peers...Mommy has been dragging her feet on getting offical word. Judevine is the Missouri Autism Spectrum Disorder experts.

The school has already adjusted her learning programs...as they are good at what they do. They have been trying to get some word on it also...referring to it as the "A" word to a "living-in-denial" mommy.

We'll let you know next week what they say....and please forgive the quality of the pics...the 'all-together' mommy walked out sans camera...AGAIN and had to depend on the cell phone to capture the antics!

Have a great week!!

Hiding the markers

To Hide..or not to hide, THAT is the question!

Yesterday an exasperated daddy came flying into the sanctuary
(my bedroom) where i was solving all the worlds problems
(learning how to play bejeweled) and he could not even speak.

Molly was sitting next to me with her books.

Larry is not the best communicator...and as much as it irritates
me sometime, I stop what I'm doing and dutifully follow him out
to the livingroom, to winess sign language at it's best.... the point and scream.

Oh yea...it's so screamable, that i forgot to grab the camera. Molly had taken it upon herself (did i mention that she was WITH ME?) take a black sharpie out of the computer desk...and draw not only all over the oak rolltop desk...but all over my flat screen monitor!

Mr Clean's Magic eraser works well on both oak and flatscreens by the way, but in retrospect...i need a little help with the question.

Do you teach her NOT to do it? Or hide the markers?

Maybe right after I teach her that is is not polite to disrobe in the
kitchen.



(blurry but you get the gist) Do you say no? Or just hide everything your child could possible get in trouble with?
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I was off last week....we joined the nation in celebrating national Flu Week. For the first time i can remember..since having molly..even the MOMMY had to make a trip for anti-bi's and cough syrup. Little Bill joined me in the celebration...ending up with a trip to the ER, Shots and Medications. Molly was off for FOUR DAYS with PINK EYE!! we could NOT get it under control!

It hurt....EVERYONE was hurting, and as if to throw salt on our winter wounds...it snowed here on Saturday morning!! Then I looked out the front window and saw this...














Those are robins eating what's left of my lawn.

HURRY SPRING!!

What do you do with your oreos?

What do you do with your Oreos?

Weird question...but just this week, i found out my boss puts them in a bowl and eats them like cereal! BLASPHEME!! Here i thought there were only 2 ways to do it....dunk or twist, and now my WHOLE WORLD is up in the air...

Are there other ways to eat oreos that i cant fathom??? Do tell.
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This week, Molly and I accompanied the Sarge...who was off to Tenneessee to study what would happen communication-wise, should the New Madrid Fault decide to bless us with a ten spot on the richter scale. Did you know that there were large groups of people, that get together on their weekends and stayed honed in response if the unthinkable should happen??



This is the big bridge across the Mississippi River, and did you know, that if we do have a big quake, it would be the first thing to go?? Yea, TMI, Sarge...some stuff i just don't NEED to know!(particularly when I'M ON THE BRIDGE!)



We stayed at a resort on Reelfoot lake, and i was pumped that we had a lake, and beautiful, warm weather to play with! NOT!





I thought that everyone had recovered from the storm, like we had...and had NO IDEA how horrible the areas south to us STILL ARE! The lake was covered in limbs, the marina trashed and our resort (should be off season) was filled to capacity with power guys shipped in to get them back online.



Oh well, it's Eagle Fest! We can go bird watching....NOT!!

The planned pontoon boating excurstion was cancelled due not only to the tree limb destruction...but to the WINDS! It was 73 degrees and I'm sure the winds were gusting up to 73 mph! All the eagles, who should have been there on a layover from migration, put on scarves and headed for cover.



We busied ourselves outside (wish i would have remembered the scooter) at the gift shops and with the laptop. It's a trick keeping her occupied...not as difficult with the rest of the crew...we pay a squirrel to keep them entertained!



I see in the near future...rescuing the squirrel from the jaws of a german shep...and replacing the big window.

Although the trip didn't turn out how i planned, I can't feel bad about it...there are too many people down there who feel bad for good reason. I hear it's worse in Kentucky, and these crews will move south as soon as they're done in Tennessee.



The ice snapped highline poles at the base.



Today, I'm fighting a virus...i will NOT be SICK! Totally believe in Zycam and G-2 water and am hitting both hard (along with traditional meds) While stumbling around to find those...i cleaned out molly's med cupboard...EEK!!



Double EEK when you figure at LEAST 5 bucks a bottle, and those aren't the amber ones! Into the trash with the out of dates!

My mantra for the upcoming week? stay safe...live healthy...pray for those less fortunate...and COUNT MY BLESSINGS!!

PS..throwing this picture is, cuz my eldest sis's name is Patty Ann...and not only did we find her diner...there was a 51-52 Law vehicle outside! Maybe someone (cuz she STILL isnt ONLINE) will print and take this to her! ha!



love ya.

The Storm of '09

That's what it will go down as....the Storm of '09. People will speak of this for decades. It was one that tested us, took us to our ultimate last straws mentally, scared the fire right out of us, and made us revert to caveman tactics for survival.







I'm sitting in a warm house now, and it's quickly fading as to that one week we lost. The above photo is of my 10 yr old tree. We've watched it grow from newly planted to the majesty that it is now. My only tree in the back yard, much valued for the shade it provides us in the brutal summers.




On day two...it started to droop....the sheer weight of the ice pulling it down. That same ice was working on the power lines.

On day 3...it snapped in 3-4 different places...I nearly snapped with it




I had worked Monday and Tuesday...but left early on that day. We had plenty of warning, and we're well stocked on "snow day" comfort foods...but oh man...if I could go back again, I would have done it all different.

This storm was different than any i had ever experienced in my 20 years down here. It started by raining little hail. It rained these little ticky tacky sounding hail balls...no bigger than bb's....and it rained them for 24 hours straight.

They covered everything like rain, and then joined together, like some horror movie objects coming to life, to coat my entire world in clear, slick, wrap-around ice. Then it started to snow, and iced the slick beauty in about 3 inches of white blanket...

THEN WE LOST POWER!!!...something that has never happened before...we were iced in, too far and dangerous to try to get to town...and we were without power. I have an all electric house.

The irony of the fact that I moved my parents down here with us, to enjoy a temperate winter did not escape any of us. Larry's antenna's for the ham radio came down...the verticals...the beams...all of them. The dollars to replace that mess are still being tallied:








We were without power for 4 days...food supplies drained, emotions raw...and when the thaw finally came it came in the form of a 55 degree day...it only made things more dangerous. The missiles of icicles that were firing down at us made it impossible to get to the vehicles...the thought of 4 inches of a solid sheet of ice on my roof, just waiting to dislodge makes us run out of the house a safe distance even now.

At the top of this pic, you can see where baby tree had split at the top.

We had a small generator, that provided space heaters to keep the chill off, but we did not use it at night. SO COLD! We had a little tv, and the laptop powered to run molly's dvds...and we had coffee or the microwave alternating...but microwave food was NOT what i had purchased!

We ended up moving the propane grill into the house, and blowing the tank on one night of warm. We got the house all the way up to 60 degrees.


Out the front door...it looked magnificent...I can only start to enjoy the beauty now that power has been restored. There are still thousands of homes without...especially our neighbors to the south in Arkansas...They caught the brunt of it...we were but on the fringe of that storm.






Little Bill and Ang made it home, and made everything better. We lost power
again for the entire day Saturday while they were home, but it was back on at the end of the day...It still blinks, and my breath stops for the duration of time until it kicks back on.



Bill made everything better...all it took was some laughs, a snowball fight, and some sledding....and all was well again.





Today I will go replenish the pantry, and then come home and shop for a whole house generator that runs on a tank of propane. We may never have the opportunity to use it again....but...just in case