Gonna Have to Start Going to Bed Earlier

I don't know what's been wrong with me this week.  I've been staying up WAY too late every night, and that's causing me to NOT want to get out of bed the next morning.  So, that's the reason for my skipping days here and there.  I'm not getting up early enough to write my blog.

The past few nights, I've been up until at least 11PM... and this gal needs more than 5 1/2 hours of sleep to function.  Which means not getting up until around 5:30 each morning.  Thirty minutes isn't long enough for me to write a decent blog post, so I've just skipped those days.

This week has been CRAZY busy, though.

Tuesday I was at the math training.  Wednesday I started my Minecraft blog and then got all caught up in Twitter, networking with other educational bloggers and Tweeters to get some traffic to the blog.  Yesterday was Butter's birthday.  It's just been pretty hectic both in and out of school.

I wish I could say we did something nice, last night, for Butter's birthday.  But, we didn't.  We've decided to hold off until tomorrow and Sunday to celebrate.  I did manage to sneak away from work and order Butter a plate of chocolatey goodness from the local candy store/bakery.  So even though we didn't actually do a big celebration, he did get to enjoy chocolate chip cookies, Oreo and peanut butter cookie balls, dipped pretzel sticks, and a giant brownie.  Nothing says Happy Birthday like a good chocolate/sugar coma, right?  Hubby and I also bought him a video game he's been wanting, but he got that this past weekend.

It's hard to believe my boy is 13.  He's growing up so fast.  All my kids are.  He's grown up so much over the past couple of years, both literally and emotionally.  And regardless of the rough times we've had over the years, he's pushed through and has become such a sweet, caring, mature young man.

Tomorrow, I'm going to be spending the day PLAYING volleyball.  Yep.  You read that right.  Playing.  Not watching...actually on the court, hitting the ball, a part of a team, playing.  I'm taking Peanut and Butter along with me to help out.  Teachers, staff, and other adults from the county are getting together to have a charity volleyball tournament.  

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I volunteered.  I mean, I'm not exactly a volleyball pro, nor really in shape for an entire day of playing volleyball.  But, then again, maybe it might inspire me to get my big behind off the couch and start taking advantage of the warmer weather to lose weight, once again. Lord knows I've tried SO. MANY. TIMES.  But, now that the weather is getting nicer, I can start going out and walking again.  I'm still planning on participating in the Race for the Cure next month, and even though I won't be jogging or running it, I will still need to be ready to walk 3+ miles.

Which doesn't really go well with the fact that after I spend the day playing volleyball, the kids and I are going to out and eat dinner to have a little birthday celebration for Butter.  Hubby and Jelly are going to have a Daddy/Daughter day tomorrow.  Not really sure what they're going to do, but the other two kids and myself are going to get to spend some time together.

On Sunday, we are all going over to P-Momma's for Butter's actual birthday celebration.  We'll have the cake and candles and singing and all that stuff.  We haven't seen P-Momma in TOO long, so all the kids are excited to go over and see her.  They love going to her house.  They get spoiled rotten while they're there... so why wouldn't they?  And, with the weather being nicer, they'll be able to play outside and stuff while the adults get to catch up and visit.

I am WAY overdue for a P-Momma catch up session.  So much to tell her!

But, with a day of volleyball and a day of P-Momma's house, that won't leave a lot of time for working. So, no doubt I'll have a couple of late nights over the weekend in order to write out all of my lesson plans and enter in all of my grades.  But, by this time of the year, I've managed to figure out how to make that process as simple and quick as I can.  I've actually done pretty well at getting a head start this past week during my plan times... so I shouldn't have to spend TOO much time working over the weekend.

Yesterday, I got blindsided with a letter from the IRS.  Gotta love letters addressed from them, right?  They decided to audit my tax return not from this past year, but from the year before...and I didn't report the bingo winnings I had on my 2012 tax returns, so now I owe them a nice chunk of change.

It's my fault for forgetting to claim them, but it also chaps my behind a little because even though I had a very lucrative bingo year in 2011, I didn't get to keep ALL of that money.  I split the winnings with my Mom.  So, now I have to pay out a couple hundred dollars even though we evenly split that money.  But, not much I can do about it. I have to pay the back taxes and the fine and the interest they've added on.  

Lessons learned.

One, make sure I claim any bingo winnings that need to be claimed, and two make sure that if I win a sum that has to be claimed, I take out money from the amount to pay for taxes BEFORE splitting the money.  So that way I don't end up winning, but losing out on an even share.

Not that I get to play bingo very much these days, but food for thought for if and when I do play and win a couple thousand dollars.  I had completely forgotten about winning that money, yet stuff like that always comes back to bite me in the behind... so it's only right I PAY for the mishap.

OK, time for me to get ready for work.  It's going to be a fun day in the classroom today, and I'm going to enjoy it.

Everyone else enjoy your Friday, m'kay?

Ending the Week on a High Note

It's Friday.  And for the first time in a while, I haven't felt like the week has whizzed by in the blink of an eye.  It's been a pretty long week.  Lots of downs, lots of ups, swimming, and riding on boats.  And, honestly, I'm really looking forward to the weekend so that I can just rest, relax, and clear my mind.

Yesterday was another day of me not feeling so stressed.  I ended the day still in a good mood, and not worrying about how much still needed to be done before the week ended.  I'm really focused on keeping the kids accountable for their learning, and I've explained to them that with all the changing I'm doing for them, I expect them to return the favor with the effort they put in.  Grades will reflect effort.  Something I'll be reminding parents, also, when I send home next week's newsletter.  

The start of a new semester is a great time to shake up the parents a little and send a reminder on how important things like finishing homework and spending a little time reading at home can be.  I'm also really focused on stuff like reading and following directions.  And, if directions aren't followed, it can have a HUGE impact on a grade for an assignment.  

I have a feeling I'll be sending home a few F's on the weekly report cards I send home next week (because there's only one or two assignments submitted).  With the new semester, grades start over.  And, it's in those first few weeks when I can really grab the kids' attention.  When they see those F's, they start to panic.  Some even panic at the sight of a C.  But, with every failing grade that's handed out, I offer the opportunity for a make-up assignment or extra work.  I haven't had a single student take me up on that offer this week, so when those grades go home on Monday and the parents are informed of why the F's were given and the opportunity for those grades to be improved were passed by, I'm hoping it will shake things up a little.  

I know that sounds kinda harsh, and not exactly a positive outlook, but I'm all about taking some responsibility.  I've realized my mistakes and have vowed to work on fixing them, but the kids also need to realize that in the end, they won't be spoon fed just so they can pass.  They want to earn all A's?  Well, they are going to have to actually do the work to get them.  And, an F on an assignment is never "game over" for me.  I will ALWAYS offer opportunities to make it up, replace the grade with something different.  But, if it's not that important to the student, then it's not that important to me when I send it home for the parents to see.

And just when I start to get my ducks in a row in the classroom, we have a setback at home.  

Long time readers will know some of the struggles I've had with Butter in the past.  His past.  His ability to overcome a disorder.  And, for the past year and a half, that boy has come leaps and bounds to what we were going through two and three years ago.

But last night, we had a setback.  All the hard work he and Hubby and I have put in, set back leaps and bounds.

It all started over finding out he's been taking candy from my room when I've asked him repeatedly not to.  I buy candy to keep in my treasure chest at school.  For my students.  My biological children get plenty of treats at home, and need to stay out of the stuff I buy for the students.  

All of this I've told the kids over, and over, and over again.  Most days, Jelly will ask if she can have a piece of candy.  Sometimes, I'll let her have a piece.  Sometimes, I'll let Peanut and Butter have a piece.  IF THEY ASK!  

Yesterday, I discovered the new bucket of candy I bought over Christmas break (that has yet to have a single piece taken out for a student) was almost empty.  I'll admit, I was FURIOUS.  We've been back at school all of two weeks, and a TUB of candy.. almost gone.  And, I discovered my culprit when I hunted Butter down, and found him and his after school friends chowing down on yet another handful he had helped himself to.  The janitor had let me know that she'd seen Butter go in to my room countless times, while I wasn't in there, helping himself to the candy by the handfuls.

So, I confiscated his cell phone.  Told him that if he was going to steal from me, he was going to lose his phone for a few days.  And, had he let the issue stay right there, that would have been the extent of the punishment.  Besides him not being allowed to be in my classroom unless I was in there for a while.

But, he couldn't let it go.  When he got home, he went in to one of his moods.  When it was time for dinner, he refused to eat.  When Hubby went down to try and talk him in to eating dinner, Butter snapped and said some pretty nasty, disrespectful stuff.  Which earned the removal of his PS3 and his tablet.  

Hubby nor I will tolerate being spoken to that way.  And, he has to learn that when you do the crime, you pay the fine.  If you make that crime worse, your fine also increases.  I usually give an early release for good behavior, and had Butter made an effort to apologize for his actions, done his chores last night, and just let what happened go?  I probably would have given his cell phone back to him, after a harsh talking to.  But, now he's blown it, which really upsets me.  Yet, he needs to really understand that throwing things and going in to a temper tantrum never solves anything... it just makes matters worse.

However tough the situation may have been last night, I'm not going to let it get me down.  I'm not going to let it ruin my last day of work.  I am making a point of ending this week out on a high note.  I'm going to be happy, and stay in a good mood, and not let anything get in my way.

I'm excited about the work I'll be doing this weekend, planning my first reading unit.  I'm excited about the progress that will be made in the classroom in the next few weeks.  I'm certain that this week is just a transition week, and that once the kids really understand that I'm not kidding around...they'll step up to the plate to make me and themselves proud.

Just got to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Alright, I'm ready to get this Friday started!!

There's Nothing Like a Trip to the ER on the Last Day of ThanksgivingBreak

Note to self:  The next time I have an extended break, get ALL of my work done on the very first day of the break.  DO NOT WAIT until the last day of the break to write lesson plans.  Something WILL happen to mess with those plans, causing me to stay up WAY past my bedtime the night before I have to return to work.

OK, now that's over with, I can explain what the heck I'm talking about.

When I left work last Tuesday afternoon, I knew I had only one thing to take care of work-wise over the break.  That would be this week's lesson plans.  I had already gotten a good start on them before I had left for break, so all that was left to do was finish typing them up and putting in the plans for the few spots that were still missing.

The plan was that I'd spend some time over the break coming up with more fun, hands-on activities for my kiddos to do this week.  I wanted a somewhat fresh start.  To change things up a bit and break free from the doing the same ol' activities.  Nothing major, just a few ideas that would shake things up a little.  

The only problem with that idea, however, is that I knew it would take some time to figure out what I wanted to do, prepare any materials that I would need, and write the plans out in a way that would allow for such activities while still hitting everything else that HAD to be done.  

I told myself that the day I'd take care of all that would be yesterday.  Sunday.  The last day of my break.  That way I could spend Wednesday preparing for Thanksgiving, Thursday enjoying Thanksgiving, Friday with my parents, and Saturday Christmas shopping.  Just like I did.

However, on Friday, there was a kink thrown in to my plans when I wasn't able to spend near as much time with my parents as originally planned, and my mom asked that we go back over there yesterday so that we could spend a little more time together.

Me, being the optimist that I am, figured we'd head over to my parents' house pretty early yesterday, leave before dinner time, and I could spend the evening taking care of what I needed to take care of.

Except, I should know better than anyone that it wasn't going to be that easy.... it never is.

When we first arrived at my parents' house, all was good.  My mom, me, Peanut, my brother, Butter, and four of the foster kids sat around the kitchen table to play some board games.  We had a great time.  We played a couple of games of Blurt, and then we tried a new game called Anything Goes.  Both games created a lot of laughs, and it felt so good to be spending some quality time with my family... just like we normally do over the holidays.  I didn't feel crowded or uncomfortable.  I didn't feel like I was having to force myself to enjoy my time.  It really felt like the "good old days".  Jelly was playing, quite happily, with my niece and nephew and everyone was having a great time.

That was until I looked over and noticed something about Butter that scared the crap out of me.

Butter had stayed with my parents on Friday.  That way, Peanut and I could go shopping and Butter would be occupied with my brother at my parents' house.  I knew Jelly would be totally content staying home with Hubby while Peanut and I shopped.  

Before we left my parents' house on Friday, Butter had told me about a sore he had in his ear.  It looked as though he'd scratched it somehow, and it had gotten a little infected.  I decided to clean it out with peroxide and thought nothing more about it.  Yet, when I got back to my parents' house yesterday, the little sore had completely spread over his entire ear and it was nasty and swollen and infected.

Please excuse the severe TMI, but his ear was covered in lots of pus filled blisters and sores, and all around his ear was a yellow, waxy, crust.  And I just threw up a little in my mouth thinking about it again.  Yes, it was gross.  Is gross.  But, while we were playing games, he also showed me that a couple of cuts he had on his legs had started to swell up and were also nasty and infected looking.  My mom told me that they had cleaned the blisters, put antiseptic cream on them, used peroxide, and they just seemed to be spreading and getting worse.  

My mom and I were both very concerned that Butter had some kind of staph infection.  And I decided that it would be best to take him to the ER to get the blisters checked out and treated right then, rather than waiting to get in to see the doctor sometime this week.

So, game time was over, and a trip to the ER was in order.  My mom offered to keep Jelly with her, and my brother and Peanut decided to tag along with me to the ER with Butter.

Thankfully, when we got there, the place was pretty empty.  We were able to get straight back in to a room to see a doctor.  The doctor came in, took one look at him, and told me that he had impetigo.  Awesome.  

They gave me a prescription for a strong oral antibiotic, and an antibiotic cream to put on the sores.  I have to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't start getting a fever or anything, and it should clear up in about a week.  The doctor let me know that it was nothing too serious, and that he should avoid touching anyone or sharing towels or clothing or the like with anyone else until the sores were gone.  Even though impetigo is contagious, she told me that after the first couple of doses of antibiotic, proper hand-washing, and taking necessary precautions, the rest of us at home and at school should be safe.  

I was relieved, but also noticed that it was after 5PM by the time we got out of the ER.  We then had to get to Walmart to fill his prescription - which took 30 minutes.  By the time we got back to my parents's house, it was after 6PM and my mom told me that we were staying for dinner.  

After a fantastic dinner, cooked by my dad, and giving ourselves a little time after dinner so we didn't just eat and run, it was 8PM before we left their house.  

When we got home, the kids all got ready for bed.  Butter took a shower, got his ear all cleaned up, took another dose of antibiotics, and headed off to bed.  Jelly went straight to bed.  Peanut decided that even though we'd been off school for 5 days, she needed to do some laundry.

Me?  I headed to the living room with my laptop and my planbook to get my work done that I had put off all break long.

By the time I typed up my plans, came up with the extra activities I had decided on, and prepared the materials for all that, it was 11:30PM, and I was finally ready to go to bed.  

4:30AM came awfully fast this morning.  When my alarm went off, it felt like I had just closed my eyes.  I guess it's a good thing that I spent a lot of my break getting plenty of rest.  I should be able to make it through the day without getting too tired.  I hope.  

But, lesson learned, I suppose.  I should know by now that procrastination never really works out.  Something will always come up to throw off my good intentions or plans.  

Peanut has band practice tonight, so I have to stay at school until 6PM.  My plan is to write out my plans for next week...so I'm ahead of the game.  I want to make sure everything is taken care of before this coming weekend, because it's Jelly's birthday on Thursday, the Christmas parade on Saturday, and another day of Christmas shopping is planned for Sunday.  I know that I won't have much time to work over the weekend, which means I have to get my work done NOW.  Ahead of time.  No putting it off.  

If I can pull it off, my hopes are to keep myself a week ahead between now and Christmas.  A whole three weeks.  I'm optimistic that I can do it.

OK, that's enough from me today....time to get my head back in to the real world and get myself ready to go back to work.

It's funny, as much as I've LOVED these five days off, I'm actually ready and excited to go back to work.  I love this time of year, and as hard as it is to focus on school work when Christmas is so close, I really get creative and inspired to come up with some fun activities for my kiddos to do that are both fun and educational.  

So, it's time to get started!!

Spending an Evening at the E.R.

I would go out on a limb and say that one of a mother's worst nightmares is to receive a phone call that their child has been injured and needs to go to the hospital.

Another one would be getting a call from your significant other telling you that they are on the way to pick up your child, because YOU didn't answer your phone when someone was trying to contact you to tell you that your child has been injured and needs to go to the hospital.

Both of which happened to me yesterday afternoon.

It just so happened to be my one and only evening this week that didn't involve any games, traveling, or late nights home.  I was busy working in my classroom preparing for a substitute I'm having today because I'm going to a training workshop.  The kids were going to ride the activity bus back to the school when they were finished with practice.

I was all over my classroom cleaning and organizing, when I hear my phone vibrating.  I take a look and notice that I've missed 5 calls before this call coming in from a number I don't know...and the call coming in is from Hubby.  He's calling to tell me that he's on his way to pick up Butter, because SOMEBODY didn't answer their phone....and he'd been hurt at football practice.

I tell him not to drive all that way, I'll go and pick him up.  Just as I finish up with the call from Hubby, another call comes in from the number that had shown up on my phone five times prior.  It's Butter.  Calling to tell me that the athletic trainer thinks he's broken his wrist, and needs to go to the hospital.

I, in my best I WILL NOT PANIC attitude, grab up Jelly and we head to the high school to pick up Butter.  When we get there, we're met by his coach and the trainer.  Butter is all splinted up, and looks pretty miserable.  I decide to drive the girls home and then head straight to the hospital to have the wrist checked out.

Because of the trek from the high school in Missouri to the hospital in the insurance network in Arkansas, we don't arrive at the hospital until a little after 7:30PM.  Thankfully, there was only one other person in the ER.  We get checked in and are called back immediately.  The nurse checks him out, and gets all the details and vitals, and we are shown back to a room.  X-rays are requested, and it's not long before a technician and a traveling X-ray machine show up at the room.

I was quite impressed.  Every other hospital I've ever had to go to had someone come and take a person back to X-ray.  Now, it's all done in the same triage room.  

The X-ray is taken, and then we sit and wait.  And wait.  Poor Butter is so tired, he can barely keep his eyes open...

                              

Around 8:30PM, the doctor walks in the room, takes one look at the splint on Butter's arm, and walks out of the room.  I hear him say something to the nurse about him not having time to "deal" with taking off a splint, and someone needs to take care of it.  Thanks to the splint still being on his arm, and the whole 30 seconds it takes for the nurse to remove it, we are bumped to the bottom of the line...and there are several more people that have made their way in to the hospital.  We don't see the doctor again until after 10PM.

I was not a happy camper.  The nurse had left the splint on Butter because he didn't know how long it would take for the doctor to come, and he didn't want Butter to be in too much pain.  Once the splint was off, my poor boy had to sit for over an hour without anything on his wrist...and that caused a lot of discomfort.

                             

When the doctor did finally arrive, for the second time, he came in, wiggled a few fingers around, told me he was going to go and take a look at the X-rays, and disappeared again.  Butter and I, AGAIN, waited and waited.  Finally, the doctor came back about 30 minutes later and asked for me to step out of the room.

I will say right now, that no mother ever wants a doctor to pull them out of a room to discuss their child's injury.  You just know that the minute they ask you to step out that it's not good.  If it was going to be OK, they'd tell you right there in front of your child...never out in the hallway.

He takes me over to his computer so that he can show me the X-rays.  On his way there, he says "It's not good".  Urm...OK.  Thanks for that.  Now I get to be all panicked and decide to freak out a little.  I had been just comforting Butter telling him that it didn't look so bad, and that there was still a possibility that it wasn't broken.  Now, I'm being dragged off by the doctor who tells me something is not good.

He directs me to the computer and begins to show me the damage.  Butter had fractured his wrist, but he'd also dislodged his growth plate located in the wrist joint.  The doctor explains that it is very serious, because if not properly taken care of could lead to no further growth in the wrist or any function in the wrist.  He tells me it won't be as simple as casting him up and sending him on his way, and that he was waiting for an orthopedic specialist to call him for a consult.

In my dazed and panicked mode, I just ask him what that means.  He tells me there's a strong possibility that the specialist will want to repair the damage that night.  Surgery or placement setting are both options.  I have no idea what placement setting is, but I already feel like that's the option I want.  He tells me that as soon as he hears back from the specialist, he'll let me know.

I go back to the room to lock eyes with my very scared little boy.  He's not stupid.  He also knew that me being dragged out of the room could not be good for him.  I tell him what the doctor had told me, and he immediately begins to cry.

He's scared.  And I don't blame him.

Not just that, but he was worried about his football career.  His biggest fear was upsetting and disappointing his coach.  I try my best to calm him down, and then call my mom to fill her in on what's going on.  She immediately decides to drive up to be with us.

Right after I get off the phone with my mom, two nurses come in to the room.  They inform Butter and I that he needs to be moved in to another room.  The nurse tells him that they are going to fix his wrist.  Of course, he starts panicking again.  How are they going to fix it?  Is he going for surgery, or the other option?  Did the specialist call back, and what did he say?

When we get to the new room, I start firing off questions.  I'm told that the specialist did call back, looked at the X-rays, and decided that he needed to come in to perform an emergency placement setting immediately.  With the growth plate being out of place, and the pooling of blood that was occurring around the fracture, there was no time to waste in getting the plate back to where it should be.

Butter found out he was going to be put under for the procedure...and he starts having a panic attack. Butter is TERRIFIED of needles, and the nurse had just told him that he'd need an IV.  

Looking in to the eyes of my scared little boy was heartbreaking.  I tried to comfort him.  I tried to tell him that everything was going to be OK.  All the while, trying to keep my own panic and fear contained.  This was supposed to just be a simple break.  A quick cast, and back to school the next day kinda thing.  Now, I'm hearing terms I don't know, and people are rushing around as if major surgery is going to be performed.  

Another nurse comes in to explain everything that's going to happen.  The doctor is going to attempt to "pop" the growth plate back in to place.  It required Butter being put out, because the pain would be too immense for him to be awake for the procedure.  The doctor would put the plate back in to place, and a temporary splint would be placed on his arm for a few days.  He would then require a hard cast be put on for about 6 weeks.  

The doctor arrived, and so did my mom and brother.  My mom had enough time to say "hi" and "bye" before they were ushering her out of the room to perform the procedure.  Butter was given the medicine to knock him out, and we waited for him to go under.

The procedure took all of 10 minutes.  The doctor did a quick pop of Butter's wrist, and then sat and manipulated and pulled on his arm.  The nurse then wrapped Butter's arm in a splint, and another X-ray was taken.  The doctor told me he was all finished, and my mom was allowed to come back in to the room.  

I was told it would be about 15 minutes before the medicine keeping Butter knocked out would start to wear off...and that it was imperative that the first person's voice he heard was mine.  The anesthesia was known to cause paranoia and panic attacks in children, and the only way of avoiding that was to be by Butter's ear the minute he started to come to...reassuring him that everything was OK.

While we were waiting, the doctor came back to let me know the procedure had been a success...and the X-ray had shown that the plate was back in place.  With the hard cast, and about 6 weeks of healing, he should make a full recovery.  He'll require some physical therapy after the six weeks to get the function back in to his arm... but other than that, he'd be fine.  Football was done for the season.  He wouldn't be fit to return to any activity for at least 8-10 weeks.  

Butter slowly started to come out of his anesthesia, and I was there to assure him everything was OK.  Despite all the nervousness and fear and anxiety I'd been through in the past 30 minutes, it was HILARIOUS going through him coming out of anesthesia.  He was totally out of it.  He recognized who I was, and my mom, and my brother.  He told us about a dream he'd had about playing football, scoring a touchdown that earned him 46 points, and being tackled by a giant.  An actual giant...not a big player.  Who just happened to be a girl.

We had to wait another 15 minutes or so, just to make sure he was coming out OK before being allowed to go home.

Due to the demands of work, and getting the girls to school, my mom volunteered to take Butter home for a couple of days so that she could take care of him.  I was very thankful.  As much as I wanted to stay home with my baby boy, I still had to drive the girls to school.  It was nice knowing that my mom would be able to nurse Butter while I was taking care of the other two children.

I didn't make it home until around 1AM.  Knowing that I had only a couple of hours to sleep, I went swiftly to bed.  And that leads me to right now.  

I got about 3 hours of sleep.  I'm exhausted.  But, I'm OK.  I feel good knowing that Butter is in good hands, and I will be calling him several times today to check in on him.  

It was such a nerve wracking, long night.  I will be honest and say that going to a day long training is NOT how I want to spend my day.  But, I do what I gotta do.  It doesn't help that Peanut has a volleyball game tonight, so it's going to be another very late night for me.

But, I'll sleep this weekend.

Maybe.

Everyone have a terrific day!!