Someone Left the Cats Out in the Rain

Well, it happens.

They busted out and I thought, fine! Begone with you both! The litter box is getting stinky anyway. So I let them out and they ran off. It wasn't until much later, after I had watched the thunderstorm from the living room window, and after Rusty had curled up on my lap and purred himself to sleep, that I suddenly realized that his warm bliss wasn't the way of the household today!! I ran to the slider and pretty much discovered the above. Now, which cat looks to be smarter and more street-wise? Hint: one came in soaking wet, the other, only a little wet from waiting to be let in.

In other news, the guidance counselor continues to earn my disrespect. When I checked Brian's folder after he came home from school, I saw the handout from the science teacher. It does not call for, as Sir Guidance reported, a TWO inch binder dedicated solely to science, but instead, a ONE inch binder to be SHARED with social studies. This is to prevent the students from confusing themselves and bringing the wrong binder, as they have social studies and science on alternatibg days. However, Brian will always have the binder with the science notes in it, because the way I have it set up, this binder is being shared with math, which is an every day class. And I haven't received a call back from Sir Guidance one way or the other, which is really fine. I'm not listening to him anymore anyway. If I need to go back in there, I'll just bring counsel with me. Otherwise I'm dealing directly with the teachers.

My World, in Brief

It was bound to happen, things have been going too smoothly. I'm not enjoying today. I seem to have run up against the same stumbling blocks at the school with Brian. It continues to boggle my mind that teachers all must think theirs is the only class students are taking. I was trying to get Brian's accommodations to include a caveat that he should be able to organize his classwork in a way more conducive to his understanding (due to his scatterbrainedness) and to reduce the load of his books (due to his syrinx and chiari). This just isn't really going well, and I am once again beating my head against a brick wall.

I emailed the guidance counselor, and he called me back. His solution is that Brian should get another binder, a 2" binder (which ends up being closer to 3" thick, because the measurement refers to the circumference of the metal rings within.) This is in addition to two existing 1" binders and a 3-subject notebook. In order to reduce the burden, Brian is allowed to stop at his locker after science, and leave the book there. But, I pointed out, he will still have to carry all of these binders home!! I just honestly think these people don't get it. As I do every time, I have appealed to my support groups for suggestions. And if anyone suggests that I get Brian a rolling backpack, I'm throwing the computer out the window.

So now Megan is home. Alone. I guess E is rearranging some classes. I texted her but got no reply. I wonder if I should go up to the school and wait there, or just wait for a call? I don't want to leave her there alone, but if she wants to handle it independently, I also don't want to step on her feet. The problem has been that since things are taught differently "over there" it was difficult to figure out at which level she might need to be. And whether it was a question of honors vs. non-honors (I think not) or of changing to a different level of class; staying in honors (I believe this might be best). Our math goes Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, PreCalc (which can be taken together) and then Calculus. They just have "math" and it's all mixed up. I did tell her if she ever needed to go to guidance, that would be fine. She should just call me and I would come to get her. I am just hoping she has a more effective guidance experience than I had today.

And these are my musings for the day. In other news, Molly is not chewing on herself now that she is on an antibiotic, so that is good. I must find the positive and focus on that. I also bought some chicken to make for dinner tonight, although I also considered pasta. I was in such a funk while I was out, after having spoken to the guidance counselor. I remember last year why I finally gave up and just rode out the year. But that didn't have such a good result either, so I'm going to have to find another way.

Hanna Who?

The next time I get 27 phone calls about a rainstorm, I'm disconnecting the phone. As I suspected, Hanna blew through our town with nothing more than some downed tree twigs, as far as I could tell. Even the "high winds" didn't seem to make it to our neck of the woods. From the news reports, I see that there was some flooding, but I don't think they expected much along the Jersey Shore up here, one reporter said the storm hit mainly during low tide at the beach.

So we wake to a lovely sunny day. I think I will probably not go to church today, in favor of getting the house ready for our BBQ today at 4. Kevin is already outside readying the pool. Yesterday Brian and I did a little running around, then picked up E who had had a sleepover with her first outside friend. She had an interesting week at school, just has a couple of classes to sort some things out with, and also her lunch dilemma; because as I expected kids are coming out of the woodwork and wanting to be her friend. She seems taken aback by the social impact of the lunch period. I think she's finding that to be her hardest class!

Megan has liked all of her classes so far, with the exception of one of her teachers, who has been teaching for many years and may have grown a little stale. Brian seems happy as well, he has all "good" teachers this year. Will that translate into good grades for him? I don't know. He also has an elective, which this year is drama in the first half and art in the second half of the year. The class is full of characters, and I know he will enjoy it, but I hope he will be able to manage his own behavior in that group.

In other news, I took Molly to the vet yesterday for the lump on her paw. He squeezed it, and it is a cyst, but not worth removing unless it bothers her, he said he couldn't do it with a local because they are too hard to get out. So she's having an antibiotic, hopefully it's just some inflammation and infection that set in because she had the itchy paw and was chewing. That part at least seems to have improved. He also drew some blood to make sure she is OK (she pants a lot even indoors), so I should get those results tomorrow. And so we enter the first full week of school, which also ends with the start of swimming. Of course, Brian already has two conflicts the first week of swimming. He has the orthodontist on Wednesday and baseball on Friday. Just lovely.

And They're Off...!

I don't actually know how this is going to go. I got the girls out of the house right around 7. Brian will be OK, because by the time all the hustle and bustle of their waking up is in full swing, he gets up and still has plenty of time. Having two girls who need to shower, fix their hair and primp will be challenging. Although perhaps as in the past, Megan will lose the drive to fix her hair and primp, possibly before next week is out. She took her shower last night, too, so today wasn't too bad. It just got a little crowded by the bathroom sink at one point.

Tomorrow will be tougher, because their bus will probably come much earlier. That's what it did last year. I suppose it isn't a big deal for me to just drive them, and drop them off early at school for now. My problems will start when I also want to use the showers in the morning for work and don't want to take the time to drive them to the bus, which is a five minute walk away. I don't want to get E used to the luxury of leaving at 7 when some days she might need to be ready to go at 6:40. 7 is already an hour earlier than she had been used to at home. She said she had a hard time falling asleep last night. This has been a long anticipated day for her.

Brian always has trouble falling asleep on the night before school starts, but then he's wiped out by Friday night. It's a good thing our school starts on Thursday. You can't get too tired out in just two days, and then you're more ready for the first full week.

I took my shower before dropping Brian at the bus, thinking I didn't want to leave the new cleaning people (turns out to be one girl) alone. But now I am just waiting for things to open so I can go out and do things. I'm holed up in the basement with Molly, so as not to be in the way. I ironed Megan's shorts that were down here, but there isn't much else I can do, unless I scour the bathroom and kitchen down here, and vacuum and dust. But I'm trying to be quiet! At least I have the laptop, but I'm growing quickly bored of this as well.

In other news, Hanna seems still willing to spare us Sunday, which is good if it comes true. I have to run and do some party shopping today at Costco, and I have to plan for seating for about 40 people!! If the weather is bad I'll have to buy some pictionary paper or something!! :-D And I am beginning to worry myself about the MRI. I thought I was so smart, getting out of having it done over the summer! Now here I am in the beginning of the school year, having it hanging over my head. I was thinking today how things would be if we didn't follow up with the neurologist. We would probably only have annual follow-ups with the surgeon, and he would never order MRIs and would tell us every year how great Brian looked. Then I wonder, why didn't I go that route? And then I say, "oh yeah. Because this guy is thorough." I know I would panic either way. I suppose the more frequent MRIs are less stressful each time, but they bring more frequent bouts of stress.

Boredom in a Blog

I stalk some blogs. There it is. I confess. I find them through google's blog search function, and some I save in my favorites, others come up time and again on my google alert emails. I never identify myself as a stalker, but I continue to stalk nonetheless, I am curious to see how things will turn out. Most of the blogs can be fairly mundane, but they have some relevant experiences at times. The majority that I follow regularly have to do with chiari patients, so I don't count myself as a stalker in that case, rather a concerned compatriot.

This morning, as I was blog-stalking in procrastination, I discovered again what I have seen before: the world of the creative blog. For example, now that I have made my blog public again, I have to think about what I write. Such as not being able to call E by her real name, although I do identify myself and every member of my immediate family. So if someone were to stumble upon us and actually care, they would be able to figure out with minimal sleuthing just who we really are.

It made me think that I should really have names for us all: such as Professor X (that would be Brian with his XBox obsession) or King Homestead for Kevin. I would have to really give it some thought. But how would I ever remember those names, and my regular readers (all 2-3) would never be able to remember the cast of characters. Most of these couldn't be bothered to remember a password when the blog was briefly private!

Anyway, these have been my musings of the morning. It's like a whole Facebook blogworld out there, where people make friends through blogging and 'tag' each other and give each other 'awards'. I don't think I am really up for that aspect. But the creativity and a chuckle here and there might be nice.

So in other news, today is the last day of the summer break. I still plan to spend it at home, getting ready for the school days to come and for the cleaning service that will finally show up around 8am tomorrow. I don't know how I will occupy myself during this onslaught, but I'm sure I can find a way. Right now I think I had better go and wake the kids. They're in for a big shock tomorrow at 6am! The only one who has been setting an alarm so far has been E!

Brown Spot: BEGONE

And it is! The brown spot that has plagued me all summer is not only gone, it is benign. I got the call today from the nurse at the dermatologist's office. Of course, after checking messages all day, I went out to pick up Megan and E at the mall, and called home to check again. Brian picked up on the second ring, so I assumed there had been no calls.

"Oh," he says. "No, the doctor called."

:-O ... he knows I have been waiting, but he was too ensconced in his XBox to call and let me know, or even to NOT pick up the phone so that I would get the message. I called a second time. "BEEEEEPPPP" The machine malfunctioned. I was broken out in a cold sweat before I finally managed to get through and get the message to play, and I heard that it was the voice of a woman, signifying a favorable result. The doctor had said that if it were bad, he would personally make the call.

During this time I was also listening to the radio, and they were discussing the meningitis vaccine, the same one that I just agonized over for Megan, and finally opted to take. Not only did that radio conversation reinforce my thinking that I did the right thing, it made me want to run Brian in, rather than wait another year or two for him, as I did for Megan. I wanted to make sure that he isn't at greater risk of a side effect, due to his 'events' of recent years.

And tomorrow is the last day of summer vacation. I plan to spend it at home, doing laundry and getting things ready for school. We have also hired a cleaning service, and they will come Thursday for the first time. I am so excited to have a clean house, and they'll do things like clean moldings and doors. I can hardly wait!

I took Megan and E to the mall so E could meet my friend's daughter, and I think it went well. Brian and I joined them all for lunch, but we came home sooner. My credit cards are up pretty high right now, so I have to wait until Friday to start charging again. Oh, and I have to take Molly to the vet for that growth on her paw. I hope it won't need to be surgically removed, but I fear that it might. It is on the same paw as the one that was removed back in February 2007. Poor old dog.

A few nights ago we were down at a restuarant by the beach and we saw some girls doing a photo scavenger hunt, so Megan and some others dreamed up the idea that they should have one as well. They have made up some teams, and they're meeting up there at 6:00 tonight. We'll see how this is going to go. I asked her if they were all dressing alike, and she went, "oh."

Guess not.

In other news, the mailbox manages to remain upright. The pool chemicals are normalizing after an attack by chlorine, at the misguided hand of Kevin. We need it to recover in time for a little BBQ we are having on Sunday night for some swimming families. We also need the approaching hurricane to move through on SATURDAY even if it does mean Big Brown will have to outrun a bunch of old nags under sloppy conditions. Oh, and I think Megan is trying to coordinate the like-dressing after all.

Monday!

I can't believe it. Summer is over. The beach club is closed. The day was beautiful. I guess there were still a few more jellyfish than usual for this time of year, but overall it was a beautiful beach day.

I think we all had a nice last day at the beach, of course Brian had to cause a bit of scene when we told him we were leaving at 6:30 but we snapped him out of it pretty quickly. The beach had been ridiculously crowded when we arrived, so much so that they had to take our car and park it across the street at someone's house, the cars in the lot were double and triple parked. They brought it back in and it took me ten minutes to find it at the end of the day.

So we left around 7 and went for dinner at Windansea, a restaurant with beautiful views of Sandy Hook bay. We had a great table and some good company, and it was a great end for summer. Tomorrow I plan to introduce E to the daughter of a friend of mine, and then we're supposed to go down to the beach for a 'scavenger hunt' if Megan can pull it off. (well, I won't participate) and then we'll take Wednesday to get ready for the beginning of school.

In other news, I actually got a cleaning lady! Well, team. She starts this week (they start) on Thursday. My house should be clean for the weekend! Ater that, she will come every other week. Most thrilling news, that it is, that it is.