Helloooo out there...

Ok, I know I have been a major slacker around here. I would update you on all things if I could remember where I even left off- and what has happened since then. So I will post things as I remember them, ok?

Lets see...I'm sick. I have this weird never ending lingering flu/cold thing. And it's irritating me. My body is aching, like really aching. Hurts to move aching. And my throat hurts and I have a fever and I'm sooo tired. And I'm coughing. The flu/cold thing has lasted the past week and a half. The achy thing, for about 2 months. So I'm pretty sure the 2 are unrelated. In fact, that reminds me. Awhile back, I woke up to my ankle hurting so bad that I vcould not walk on it. Waited a week for it to feel better because I know I hadn't hurt it. It still wasn;t any better so I went to the doc. After many tests and xrays it was determined that I have psoriatic arthritis. So I'm pretty sure that is what the achiness is. But it still hurts. The pain comes and goes but the achiness stays. So I need to ask the doc if that is to be expected or what.

Kids started school, and so far it's going well. Megan is excited to play the saxaphone in band and Elias is in the gifted program. Nephi is in 7th grade and despises school. What can I expect, he's 13.

I am going back to school -again. This time, pharmacy. I'm very excited. Back in the day I hated school. But now that I'm a grown up, I rather enjoy it.

Well, I should really go clean the house. The new baby kittens have learned how to poop, but have no concept of "PLEASE POOP IN THE LITTER BOX!!!!"

Then I'm going to go take a nap. Because I really don't feel good. Not good at all.

Still alive, I promise

I just know you all have missed me oh so much....but I'm still here. Not really blogging, but I do read everyones blog. I've been a lazy commenter too, so I'm sorry.

The flu has made its way around our house twice, and so has the dreaded winter cold that lingers forever and ever. So When I haven't been sick someone in the house has.

One of our cats had a weird seizure thing and died on the kitchen floor. I heavily cloroxed the floors afterwards. Another cat, one of my favorites also died. We aren't sure why. He was sick and just never got better and slowly faded away. We came home from the grocery store and he was dead, in the same place he was sleeping when we left that morning. It was a fairly quick thing. He was very tired one day so we figured he wasn't feeling well. He layed around for a few days. We figured he was resting like we all do when we are sick. Then he was just weak, and then dead. He was a pretty cat, so well behaved. I miss him alot. I was his favorite human.

Elias won first place in his cubscout pack pinewood derby. We went to the district races on saturday but he didn't win anything there. He got to race 3 times before he was eliminated though. I'll post pics later.

Megan had the puberty class at school. I have also had several talks with her about different "things". She knows it all now.

My psoriasis is finally going away. The dermatologist gave me a foam to put on it and it seems to be clearing up. I am supposed to be starting a shot called humira too. If I am approved for it. But if I do the shot, I can't get pregnant yet. And it will suppress my immune system which may not be good, but we'll see. So ,praise the heavens, I will be wearing capri pants this summer for the first time in 3 years!! And short sleeves too!! I have missed being able to dress like it is summer when it is summer!! And I can finally so swimming without people staring at my scabby arms and legs!! I know it sounds silly to you all, but it has been a large factor in my little bout of depression. I feel really unattractive with all the scabs, but they are finally almost gone, so I am happy !!! I won't post pics of my psoriasis, but feel free to google it if you really want to see what severe plaque psoriasis looks like. It's gross. I have a severe form, and when not treated it feels like my skin is burning off. ok, so enough about my scabs...

It doesn't normally snow here but it did snow 3 times this winter. The schools closed and everyone was hunkered down like the end was coming. And it wasn't even what I would consider a "snowfall"., being from deepfreeze Canada and all. But the ground was nicely dusted and all the southerners were panicking. It was funny. I laughed when the news people said they were closing schools due to "severe weather conditions".

well, thats all for now, I will be back tomorrow.

How safe are our kids at school????

ok, so I have decided that this is the year of change for me. Because I am severely bothered by several things right now.
The main thing is something that happened at my childrens school. My daughter wasn't the victim but she easily could have been and the whole thing has changed me. I have been a different person since the incident...which in some ways is good and in some ways its bad. Bad because I am bittter and angry. Good because it has caused me to take a step back and do some serious thinking.
A girl my daughters age was almost raped in the school bathroom.
It happened back in November I think. About the time I stopped blogging as much as I used to. Megan walked in the door after school and says "mom, a girl was almost raped in the school bathroom". She didn't ask what rape is so she obviously already knows. She says everyone is talking about it but that she overheard that the teachers don't want it "getting out". So she says not to tell anyone. This is where my blood started to boil and my face started to burn and I started contacting other parents. The school of course gives out minimal details so God knows I will never get a straight answer form them. They are such a bunch of clowns. There for the paycheck and that is it!!! It has been on my mind every second of every waking moment and I am so angry that I don't know what to do. I wish I could pull my kids out of school and never send them back. I am the most angry because How in the H*** does something like this happen at school!!??? The teacher now sends them to the bathroom in pairs. But that doesn't make me feel much better. I feel like by sending my kids to school I am just throwing them in harms way. And that is not a good feeling.There is a very good chance that my kids will be homeschooled for the remainder of their school days. Because I know that the world is falling apart and this is just the beginning. And I know that if something happens to my kids at school I will blame myself and never forgive myself. I would rather know they are safe no matter how little patience I have witht hem at home 24/7!!! Some parents are brushing this off like it happens all the time and it's no big deal. And that makes me ILL!!!!!!! So , it's eating at me and haunting me and bothering me like crazy. I really want to hear what everyone has to say about this. Don't worry about offending me, I honestly want everyones opinion. I know you read my blog,so come out of hiding and comment!!!What would you do?? Would you pull your kids out of school?

Christmas

Christmas Eve gifts from the Pate Party. I don't remember who had Elias's name,but he got this cool car that can drive on the wall. And a toy wrestler from grandma.Little cousin Harley had Megans name and she gave her the glam girl makeup set. And grandma gave her some cat statues. Elias was TIRED!!!!

On Christmas Eve I gave the kids the quilts I made and a webkinz. Elias a frog and Megan a mommy and baby cat. And of course new pj's. They both already had a webkinz,so they were excited to get more!!

Grandma gave them this little tree for their room, so I put a few little things under their little tree. Good thing I had extra stocking stuffers because before they went to sleep they asked if I could leave some presents under their little tree.

Presents under the tree.


Kids FINALLY sleeping. We won't discuss how many times Megan was up during the night. I will just say that I was exhausted Christmas day!!!!

Grandma gave Megan a cupcake maker , and Elias a skateboard.

Megan with her stuff Christmas morning.

Elias with his stuff Christmas morning.

So we had a great Christmas!!! Our smaller budget for the kids went over very well. I don't think they even noticed that they got less. Especially considering they had gifts from other family to open Christmas morning as well. Thats why it looks like alot in the pictures. Our 3 gift thing worked great, the only thing that really happened different than I planned was the nintendo DS situation. I was planning to get a used one for them to share,remember? Well, Chris thought that wasn't such a good idea, since there is so much that comes unknown with used electronics,you know? And also, he thought they each needed their own because he did not want to hear them argue over whose turn it is,etc. I admit it would have been a daily battle to keep it running smoothly. So I gave in and they each got their own DS,cases and one game each and 3 other gifts. Elias's star wars action figures all counted as one, and megans petshop stuff counted as one...bakugan stuff counted as one. I did it that way simply because it made sense to me. For their Christmas morning pictures they arranged all their stuff, including stocking stuffers,gifts from great grandparents and gifts from my family.

I didn't get a picture of Elias with his skateboard,which he got from grandma peggy Christmas day,and his star wars stuff from timothy ( who had his name to buy for on the Deaver side). Megan got a petshop winter wonderland set thingy from Carolina who had her name on the Deaver side(also no picture).I forgot to bring a camera to the family parties. Thank you timmy and Carolina,they loved their gifts!!!!

And Nephi is with his dad so I don't have pics of his Christmas yet. I wish I could see his face though. I sent him a HUGE box full of stuff. A camera,webkinz,blanket made by me,clothes,dvd's,some books,and a stocking stuffed with goodies!!! I can hardly wait until I see him again!!! Few more months to go until I bring him home!!!! Thank goodness for phones and webcams!!!

Ugly fat rat

Look at this thing.

I just happened to be standing at my front door the other day....

NOT spying on the neighbors...

when I saw this gigantic ugly rat just strolling down the lane. Like he owns the neighborhood. Like he doesn't have a care in the world.

Gotta love North Carolina wildlife.

....Fat ugly muskrat who ruined the little pond in my inlaws backyard.

gross.

I hate the school bus

So when the bus driver drops the kids off yesterday,she calls me out there to talk to me. When I got to the bus I saw Megan standing there crying.



There is a kid on the bus who bullies the other kids. Not physically, but verbally. I have the pamphlet on bullying that the school gave all parents at the start of the school year, so I KNOW that what he is doing is bullying.

I read the pamphlet.

And come to think of it, he does hit other kids on the bus,but has never hit mine.

SO anyways, the bus drivers explains to me that this kid,his name is Nick, was telling Megan "yo mama so fat..." jokes. Now I realize that to some people this is funny, and the "yo mama" thing is really..."cool" right now. And in some cases the words "yo mama" are ok to play around with. But not to sheltered and overprotected kids like mine. Megan thought he was actually directing these insults at me. And I understand how she could misinterpret this. Because I am overweight right now. And Because my kids are not allowed to use "yo mama is so fat..." jokes. So Megan lost it. she didn't do anything physical to anyone,she just cried.

And yes, she got in trouble for freaking out on the bus.

And I talked with her about how some people think inappropriate jokes are funny but we don't etc,etc. And I had actually let the whole thing go until this morning when the neighbor girl came to wait for the bus with us. She told me how Nick bugs the other kids and how the bus driver won't do anything about it because "Nick has freedom of speech". Ya.



So when the bus came, my blood was boiling from the fact that she has such a passive attitued about kids who bully other kids. SO I walked to the bus with the kids and called her on it. You should have seen her face. I wish I had my camera. I asked her how this is ok and she replies"well, I can't just make the kids sit and behave". "Um.... ",I said to her,"excuse me? There are things called rules? Don't you think it is kind of rediculous for every kid on this bus to have 'freedom of speech' where they can do and say whatever they want without consequence? Don't you think that will cause problems? And maybe and accident, because it has to be distracting? " She says" yes". I said "ok, well I am going to go in the house and call the assistant principle and see what she says". Well, the bus driver politely dismissed me and drove off with my kids and 50 other kids who are doing and saying who knows what and maybe causing an accident. By now I am BOILING OVER with anger. I cannot believe the attitude of this bus driver.

I used to like her because she was so punctual and comes at exactly 7 am everyday. I have no choice but to have the kids ride the bus. Chris gets home too late in the morning to drive them to school and I don't have a drivers licence. Ya, I know, don't judge. Bad experiences which have made me terrified to drive and therefore don't anymore. But that's for another day.

Hopefully she will return my call. And if she doesn't I will keep calling the school until she speaks to me. Because I want and explanation as to why this kid has so much freedom of speech on the bus and can get away with bullying and hitting but my kid gets in trouble for crying on the bus.

If they don't do anything about it I am calling "5 on your side". The news chanel that gets answers when no one else can. Yep, I am.

Oh, and go here to enter Devri's giveaway. I was sure I had already linkied to it but obviously I did not.

Halloween

ok, so it was a rough week.

Monday teacher work day, so kids at home which means no relaxing time.Tuesday was the day of the yelling. Wednesday Elias got sent home sick from school. Thursday I was worn out already and stressing over Halloween costumes. And of course Friday was Halloween.

But we won't talk about that anymore.Just put it in the past,right?

Ok, so Halloween. It was a busy day. When Chris got home from work in the morning he decided we needed to go buy new tires. Good thing we did because when we got to the tire place,we noticed one of the front tires starting to split. That would have been a disaster having the tire split with the kids in the car,and to get anywhere around here you need to drive awhile. SO we got the tires. Took 2 hours.

Then we stopped at Walmart. I had never been to this particular Walmart because we don't really go to Clinton at all. So we went. I have to say that this walmart had the BEST craft section I had ever seen!!! I think I counted 6 aisles of craft stuff. Plus a sewing and fabric section!!! Plus the back walls. SO more like 10 aisles. It was amazing. They had everything! Of course I couldn't leave without getting something. Or a lot of somethings. I won't say how much money I spent, but lets just say I did not get a cart on the way in and so I had to grab a basket from the basket section and even after that was full I was overflowing and my arms were numb by the time we got to the checkout. Ok, so about 1.5 hours in Walmart. Then home.

By now it was 1pm and I had not slept really at all the night before and I was really hoping for a nap. I tried but could not fall asleep because I knew I still had costumes to finish.

I didn't get any Halloween cookies made. I am still going to make them because I promised them to the kids. So what if it is after Halloween. At least I will be able to say I made them.

Trunk or treat started at 6:30 so at 5 I started getting the kids ready. Elias changed his mind about his costume 20 times just while getting ready!!. Can you say STRESS??!!!! And I had to put an entire new elastic in Megans lady bug tutu. So good thing I started getting them ready early.

We were ready barely on time. SO I did not get any pictures.

And by the time we got home their makeup was all smeared. But a friend of mine took pics at the trunk or treat so I will have some,just not today.

I did however get a few pictures of Booboo while the kids were at school that day. He decided to be a bumble bee. He wore his costume willingly. I think he knew he was being spoiled by getting a fancy costume when the other cats did not.

Anyways, now to battle the sugar rushes. We used to take the candy,hide it in our closet and only let them have 2 pieces per day but that seemed to go on forever and into the next year before all the candy was gone ,so now we just let them have it and in less than a week it's gone. I hate candy so this just makes it be over faster. I don't ever buy them candy so the kids really look forward to Halloween and Christmas and Easter.

This coming week will hopefully be ok. We are having our primary presentation next sunday. Other than that I don't have too much to worry about this week,thankfully.

Unless someone gets sick.

Knock on wood.