Good friends

When you have good friends, they should know it. Tom, Tanya. Thank you. I love you. You guys are awesome, and I don't know what I would be like at this point in my life without you. You are so quick to help, so helpful at identifying what I need to hear and saying it at the perfect time....it's like you are in my head.

Tom, what you said yesterday stuck with me. Thanks.

Tanya, you make me feel normal! :)

I hope I can be half as good a friend to you all as you are to me.

Seriously, I appreciate you so much. God is good....He sent you guys in to a special place in my heart...just at the right time...He's good all the time.

Trip to the ER

Well, we've done broken arms, dehydration, RSV, baseball line drives to the temple, and all sorts of other lovely things to land our family members in the ER....but last night I experienced my first trip for stitches - on Gabriel.

Last night was supposed to be smooth - smooth for having a million places to be and only one place I could be. I was supposed to get Drew and Evan to kindergarten round-up, register Gabriel for pre-school at our church, and have my elementary honor choir sing at the art show. The art teacher in my building does SOOO much for me, that I HAVE to help her out this one night a year. It's not that big of a deal, and the kids get free ice cream out of it. We got home after some delays at about 5:15. I was trying to unload my stuff and get Gabriel out of the van when he started pushing me out of the way saying he wanted to close the sliding van door. He has done it a few times with success and caution, so what would it matter? My hands were full anyway. I turned around and started toward the house from our parking spot in the garage, but I stopped in my tracks when I heard my 3 year old screaming bloody murder. When I turned around, I saw fingers stuck in the sliding door and his little arm yanking back to no avail with his eyes desperately seeking my relief. I got there as quickly as I could obviously. Chad had just pulled up from work to hear the screaming. He was there just as I opened the door to release Gabriel who tucked his tiny fingers in his other hand and was screaming "OW OW OW" with huge tears streaming down his sun-kissed cheeks. Chad scooped him up and calmly told me to get ice. Neither one of us really saw blood yet, I don't think.

Chad set him on the counter and asked if he could see his fingers. Gabriel didn't want to untuck them from their safe place, but Chad convinced him calmly that he wouldn't touch it he just wanted to see it. I was filling a sandwich baggie full of crushed ice from the door of the refrigerator when Chad's tone of voice totally changed from comforting and soft to serious and...well, lower. "We're gonna need stitches."

Well Gabriel was still crying. Luke's eyes got about as big as dinner plates and started to fill with tears. Drew and Evan were hovering but not that concerned. My mind went to all of the things we had scheduled. Chad was going to take Drew and Evan to the kindergarten round up. I was taking Luke and Gabriel to his parents' so I could go to the art show and have my kids sing. I was already going to have to miss important things. We had worked it out to get the paperwork for preschool registration so I wouldn't have to be there. He's our 4th to go, so we're pros, after all.

I knew the art show was NOT in my future. The phone rang. I answered to hear Chad's mom start asking me about the crying. I told her as quickly as I could what had happened. She said Tony (her husband and an EMT) was right around the corner at his parent's house. I instantly hung up and scooped up my screaming child who was now yelling, "I don't want to" over and over, put him in the van, told the rest of the kids to get in a vehicle (didn't care which one at this point), and drove to Tony.

He took one look and said, "He's gonna need stitches." He cleaned up the finger and bandaged it really well. It's good to have an EMT in the family - especially with all our boys running around.

I left Luke there with Chad's dad, Chad took the twins to get ready for round-up, and Gabriel and I headed to the ER. I called about a million times trying to get a hold of SOMEONE in my school building to let them know about my little emergency while he screamed....He finally calmed down about half way to Kokomo. From then on out, he was perfect.

I stayed surprisingly calm, and with the exception of the two HUMONGOUS shots to numb his finger, he let the doctors do whatever they wanted without so much as a peep. When he heard there might be a red sucker and ice cream in his future, he was good as gold.

Two stitches and 4 stickers later, he is good as new. Milking it, of course....but I say do it while you can.

License

My teaching license expires this summer. I have taken the classes to renew it. My grades are now all officially in. Next is the paperwork to renew. Please pray that this process goes smoothly and quickly. I'll be SOOOO glad when it is over.

Follow up from last week

1. The counselor apologized to Evan the next day.
2. I hit a squirrel on the way to work the next day.

And the hits just keep on comin...

In reference to post just preceding this one....(if you haven't read it, you really should go back and read it first....) Found out that the cat I hit was a third grade teacher's in my building. Joyful day.

And to top it off, when I picked up the boys from my babysitter's today I found out that one of the other kids had been taunting Evan and coaxing him to fight all morning. (This child was a girl.) He kept telling her he didn't want to wrestle or fight her. She wouldn't let it go, calling him names and such. The babysitter and her two daughters had been all over it...but when they were alone for 2 or 3 minutes outside, Evan had had enough and threw the girl on to the ground where she hit her head on the nearby side walk - leaving a red mark under her eye.

Well, obviously, he should not have reacted to her....and he definitely should not have hurt her - accident or not. When her mother got there to pick her up (this mother just happens to work at my school as well...) she saw her daughter's face and promptly degraded and belittled Evan to the point of bawling. The babysitter was shocked that she acted this way (especially since she is a school COUNSELOR). When I got there, Evan was still crying. And I was about an hour later than her because of a project that I was working on with the art teacher.

She proceded to tell my 5 year old that she would be calling me...I haven't decided if I should let her make that move or if I can speak calmly enough to make that call myself and catch her before she calls...Either way, knowing her, if we don't connect tonight, she will unload on me in her true form, and she won't care who hears. I've decided that if she pushes me after I tell her I don't want to talk about it during school because it is a personal matter that I will let her know that after discussing this with Evan (and Drew, for that matter), that Evan has learned he cannot under any circumstances wrestle with girls. He also cannot play with her little girl for a while - no matter what she says to him. He also should never throw someone on the ground - especially near a side walk or cement. Then I'll be sure to ask her what her precious little girl learned from the situation other than the fact that mommy will fight all battles and belittle anyone - no matter what their age.

Ok. I think I'm going to catch up on laundry and try to relax tonight. Sheesh! What a day! Thank GOD it's almost over!

The one positive note was that I got to arrange my schedule today to come and eat lunch with Luke at school. He has wanted me to do this for several weeks, and I finally had the opportunity to make it happen today. He was excited. I am saddened by the thought that one day he won't want me there...but for now, I am glad to be wanted. He even hugged me in front of his friends!! How long will THAT last?

My morning. Unbelievable.

You seriously won't believe this.

I need to start by saying that I WAS READY ON TIME TODAY. Gabriel peed his pants before leaving this morning and I almost couldn't find underwear for this child. After ten minutes of searching, I finally found a pair....I'm hoping I pulled it from a clean pile!! :) HA!

So now I'm late and I have a teacher's meeting at 7:40 and breakfast duty at 7:50.

Obviously, I'm driving a little quicker than I need to be...about 5 miles from Maconaquah, I get pulled over. The officer asks if there is any reason for my speedy driving. My answer? "I'm late for work. I have 4 boys. The 3 year old peed his pants, I couldn't find underwear, I'm late for a meeting and breakfast duty. Can we speed this up?" (Ok...looking back I realize my tone may not have been the best. But I'm hormonal..Yeah. We'll blame that.)

He comes back with a ticket for 10 mph an over the speed limit, so he took pity on me there because I was going slightly faster....

I leave, turn down a different road than I'm used to because they are doing some road work. Get up to about 45 mph, a deer darts out in front of me. I knew I was going to hit it. I slammed on my brakes, squeeled tires, slid off the road in to a field where I HIT A CAT. It was a calico. DEAR LORD! CAN THIS GET WORSE?

Yep. Apparently, it can.

I get to school. Go directly to the cafeteria because I had duty. The cafe. Manager had already heard about my ticket because while I was waiting, I had called the school to tell them I was going to be slightly late. She gives me the sympathetic tilt of the head with the courteous smile that you get in these situations as I walk in.

Not even 2 minutes after I'm there, N., the BANE of my existence at school is calling a girl a whore. I looked him square in the eyes and said, "I'm not in the mood for this. You knock it off or get out of my cafeteria." It got quiet around him.

Next thing I know, there is a commotion in line and a cafeteria lady is pulling P.H. (schizophrenic with anger issues) out of line by the arm saying he was "getting physical." GREAT.

The manager and I can't get him calmed down, and he is screaming at me and waving his milk carton like a crazy person. I said we were going to the office to calm down. He said that the principal had told him to go eat breakfast first. He had already been in trouble on the bus....but was to eat before seeing him in the office. I explained that Mr. Baldwin had told him that BEFORE he hit David in the head and kicked him and tried to punch....P.H. wasn't having it.

In my head, I'm thinking, I SHOULD NOT restrain this child since I'm pregnant (Last year he was expelled for attacking his then-pregnant home room teacher), but no one was coming over to help me. I hadn't even set down my keys, sunglasses, and water bottle yet. So I set them on the counter in the kitchen, and I took P.H.'s arm. That MADE HIM MAD. I asked one of the ladies to call the office but there is no phone back there. SERIOUSLY?!?! The cafeteria manager finally came and asked if I needed help. The two of us had to drag/carry P.H. to the office. He tried to hit her, but I had a tight grip on his arm. The worst that would happen was going to be a kick.

Of course when we got to the office, the cries of protest over ME being the one to restrain and drag/carry him up began. My answer? "What was I supposed to do? Kids were in danger! There was no phone close by."

So yeah. I should have stayed in bed. All this happened BEFORE 8:15.

I should say that the cafeteria workers were waiting for me when I finally got back to my classroom a few minutes ago. They said they didn't have any chocolate or candy to make my day better but they did have something for me. I'm notorious for grabbing a few bananas when they serve them. They know how much I love them, so they each pulled a banana out from behind their backs. I have a lovely bunch of them now. Should last me a few days. :)

That's right- your eyes are not deceiving you.

Above, you will notice a countdown. We are officially having our last child in November. We're excited about the opportunity to introduce another child to the love of Jesus Christ....and I will admit, we're very hopeful that this one can be wrapped in pink blankets!! Pray with us! We have decided this is the last child - no matter if we have a girl or we complete our starting five! :)

The first dream

Well, on Saturday night I had my first Dad Dream. Eh.

Here's what I remember.

I had been on the bus with students and we were all exiting to go back in to the school, which was not the school I currently work at. Nor was it Eastern, however Dad was sitting on a bench in the entry way with the girl who played Ruth in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers that I had seen Saturday night at Eastern....so I know why she was in the dream. When I walked in, I noticed him sitting in casual clothes, shorts, I think. He had shaved his beard. I begged him to do this for years! Finally in my dream, he had, but I said nothing about it. At least, I don't remember saying anything about it.

Across from my dad's bench where he sat next to "Ruth," sat my deceased Aunt Maxine. She died while I was in high school. My great-aunt had a navy blue box with green foam in it. That's all I could see at first glance. I heard her talk about how Dote (this is a lady who knew my other great Aunt Alta from Nebraska and took care of her and Uncle Lester, a jovial man who liked to flirt with the ladies - harmlessly, of course) had mailed this package to Dad and how it was all we had left from my mother. This is when I "remembered" in my dream that my mother had died. And of course, that made me feel horrible. I'm so glad that this part of the dream is NOT true!

Back to the dream...

Dad and Aunt Maxine sat talking, Dad all relaxed and leaned back with his arm on the back of the bench while Aunt Maxine sat prim and proper with her jaw cocked to her right side - a nervous habit I don't think I ever saw her NOT do. They were discussing what to do with the jewelry, which I had seen by then, and it was hideous and avadcado green shaped like insects - cartoonish insects - big ones.

After talking about who they could give these pieces to, including my cousins, friends of the family, and all kinds of acquaintences, they never mentioned me. I began to ask my dad questions. He sat in silence, staring straight ahead. I asked louder about the jewelry. No answer from either of them. I began to be frustrated and annoyed. No matter what I did or said, my dad would not speak to me.

I woke up angry. I laid there for a while recalling more of the dream's sequences and details, like you sometimes do when you wake up disoriented. The longer I laid there, the madder I became that he wouldn't talk to me. Then at the height of how angry I would become, I realized, he wasn't even alive in real life.

When I realized that his silence had made me mad and that he was dead - all over again - I came unglued. Even now it's hard to keep from tearing up. At the time, I wish I could call on Joseph to interpret my dream, but now I realize there is no real reason...I don't put a lot of faith in meaningful dreams - well, maybe only when it suits me...but this one did not.

I was such a mess that I could not stop crying all morning. I finally fell back to sleep...maybe the extra sleep is what I needed.