An Apple a Day Doesn’t Stop the Bills

Grumble…grumble…grouch…

Gotta rant.

YoungerDaughter came home yesterday after school, bringing the mail into the house with her.

Doctor bill?

What the heck for?

Last time any of us was at the doctor’s office was YoungerDaughter and I stopped in to have a form signed by a physician for her trip to Spain, explaining how she treats her own migraines, and doesn’t require physician intervention.

Just getting a form signed…

When we finished the appointment, I went out to the main desk to ask how much the bill would be, and did they need me to put something on down on it, since we don’t have regular insurance, but a “secondary” policy… that wouldn’t cover this type of visit anyway?

“No, we’ll just bill you” was the response I got… odd, since usually they require a $50 co-pay on office visits at the time you go in… But… ok *shrug*

That was in November.  We didn’t hear anything in December, so I thought maybe the doc’s office had simply decided to write off the visit as non-billed, since all we wanted was a signature, anyway.  Stupid.

Got the bill yesterday.  A month and a half after service.

$95.00 for an autograph seems like a bit much, don’tcha think?

Grumble…grumble…grouch…

FREAKIN’ A!

Four~ Guest Post

   EldestDaughter here as Mom is out sick today. I guess I’m kind of taking over the blog, so here goes nothing.

   Little wonders are what she’s been talking about, and I suppose being pregnant would be one of those. It’s absolutely amazing to wake up in the morning and watch my abdomen move and shift knowing that the cause is another life.

   I always wanted to be a mommy, and as soon as I found out I was pregnant I was ecstatic. Later down the road, I bitched and moaned a little because I wasn’t getting to drink and party with friends anymore. It didn’t take long after that though for me to realize that it really isn’t so bad. Not being “allowed” to get drunk every weekend and most weekdays was probably better for me in the long run.

   Secretly, I would much rather plop down on the couch and watch Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives all night than go out anyway.  

   I’m just so glad that I have such a great support system to help me through the tough times and be there to enjoy the fun stuff right along with me.

Three

Pretty sure this will be his face later

OnlySon claimed this morning that he was up all night last night. 

Due to sleeping in extremely late yesterday, and “napping” later in the afternoon… *sigh* after I told him that he needed to get up…

I was a little shocked, but I guess upon looking back, not really all that surprised.

He was wide-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning when I opened his door.

And I’m almost positive that he’ll conk out at some time during the school day today. 

 

*bigger sigh*

I have been having small shocks delivered to me by this youngest child of mine lately.

Shocks that hit me and show me that he is growing up, becoming a teenager.

Signs that I’m pretty sure I’m not ready for yet, but will have to deal with anyway, because after the first 2 kids… I know that they don’t wait for you to be ready for them to grow up.  They just do it, and drag you, kicking and screaming, along for the ride.

But there are also signs that tell me that he’s going to be a pretty cool grown-up.  Quirky, yes.  Different, definitely.  Compassionate, caring, loving and respectful?  Yeah, I see it.  Under that crusty, I-don’t-give-a-crap, teenager shell, there’s still my soft-hearted, loving and laughing little boy.  I may not be ready for him to get taller than me, which he’s zooming in on pretty quickly…

But watching him become a man is going to be something.

If I can get him to go to bed on time, that is!

 

 

PT Conferences – Or- Why Teaching Children Spanish is Bad

Yesterday, I had my nose rubbed in the fact that YoungerDaughter is going to be leaving me soon. 

Parent-Teacher conferences. 

I normally don’t go to these for YD, because the conversations are always the same, teacher to teacher, year to year:

“Your daughter is a joy to have in class.”

“YoungerDaughter is very bright and is a great kid.”

“YoungerDaughter has 100% in class.”

“She’s respectful, on-task, imaginative, funny, smart, always knows the answers, is always on time, and is My favorite student EV-ERRR.”

Ok, so that last bit was maybe a little exaggeration… but not by much!  I know just how smart YD is, how funny, how imaginative, and how much she loves being “Teacher’s Pet”.  And it’s not about being the “Pet”, it’s about getting along well with the teacher, because she honestly wants to be liked, and has a deep need for doing well in class.  She pushes herself far harder than any of her teachers do, honestly, and I’ve had them tell me that.  I’ve had to rein her in a couple of times in the past couple years, force her to go to bed when the homework piled up too high, and she worried about getting it all done.  But there comes a point where you have to sleep, and worry about it tomorrow, get a teacher’s help, something – or you crash and burn.

Anyway, So, I went last night, knowing that this is the last year for it, and we had some paperwork to sign off on for her upcoming Spanish club trip overseas, for heaven’ssake!  Yeah, YD is headed for Spain, next summer, after graduation.

Eek.

I’m not ready for my little girl, my baby daughter, my YD, to be going away to college, just yet, much less flying halfway around the world, and over a whole ocean!

But, I suppose I don’t have much choice at this point.  Her dad is helping her pay for the trip, and most of the paperwork is in order.  We still need to get her a passport, and some medical paperwork done, but that’s about it.

And meeting with the teachers in charge of the trip, last night, including one of the ladies who will be accompanying the kids to this foreign country, *sob*, I was torn between shaking her hand, begging on my knees not to take my baby so far away, and smashing her face, so she wouldn’t want my genetically dangerous child along on her trip overseas.

I shook her hand, and pouted through the rest of the interview.

I know, I know, you have to let them grow up, it’s a great learning experience, you want your children to have experiences and opportunities you never had… BLAH, frickity blah.

Whatever.  I’ll be in my corner…. sulking and listening to flamenco music.

If YD comes home in one of these, I'm blaming the school system!

I should never have let her take Spanish.

Stupid bi-lingual opportunities.

Just A Smattering

Time to catch up on the little stuff.

*We had our first snowfall this weekend.  Actually, it was early Sunday morning, with much bluster and blowing.  But there really isn’t much left on the ground right now.  Normally we get snow right around Halloween, so this is just a few days late.  Guess the time-change screwed it up, hunh?

I’m not a huge fan of the cold, which is ironic, considering where I live, but I do like how clean and pretty things look when the snow first falls.  I could really handle a nice Thanksgiving to New Years’ snow… then poof!  All gone! 

Corner of Broadway & Burdick - Minot

*Now we have to deal with the insanity of that “First Snowfall Driving Experience”.  Every year it’s the same thing, with people forgetting what it’s like to drive on snow and ice.  Or, like this year, with the massive influx of new people we have from out of state, you get those who have no idea what it’s like to drive in this type of weather.  For about the next 2 months, it’s going to be smash-up derby. 

*Update on EldestDaughter – ED is now past the half-way point in her pregnancy, and is ready to be allathewaydone.  I chuckle, because I remember my mom saying some of the same things to me, that I’ve been saying to her lately.  I will get random texts and phone calls now, wondering if she can “eat this?” “take that?” and WHATtheHELLis GOINGonWITHthisALIENCHILDINVADER?  She has gotten into a new 2-bedroom apartment with her fiance’, after my prodding her with my “get a move on before the snow hits” speech.  Now that we know it’s a Y-gendered child living in there, we can start getting the decorations for the baby’s room.  She’s got tons of family down there who all have clothes for the up-and-coming little mensch, so I’m focusing more on other practicalities, like bottles, baby sling, wall hangings, etc. 

*YoungerDaughter has been going through some emotional ups-and-downs as well lately.  Swimming is now over for her, and it was a rough go for a few days.  I think it finally hit her that this is her last year of high school, when she realized that she’d never swim for the high school team again.  Ooof.  Right to the gut.

There are going to be a lot of “last times” this year, and as soft-hearted as YD is… this is gonna be a bumpy ride, I think.  But, I reminded her that this means there are so many new “firsts” to watch for – first place away from home, first day of college, first psycho college dorm roommate… she didn’t find these things amusing.

*OnlySon has been absent much of the time lately.  He has been spending a lot of time with his dad, which, while I want him to maintain that relationship… it gets a little hard sometimes, for me.  I don’t get to do a lot of the things with him that I’d like to.  I think he and I are going to have to come to an understanding – Mom gets time too.  I get it, though, 13-year old boys want dudes to hang out with, not chicks.  Especially Mom-type chicks.  yikes.

Well, that’s just a smattering of the local news.  There will be no “film at 11”.  I’ve been too busy to run the camera!  Up soon, however, will be some of YD’s senior pics, as soon as I finish editing!

 

Teaching Teenagers

OnlySon, my baby. 

And in 6 more days, he will be a teenager.

My youngest child.

A teenager.

Gah.

In a little less than a week, I will again have 2 teenagers in my house.  Not that it’ll be all that different, simply because of a birthday, because I’ve been seeing the “teen attitude” blossoming in my son for months now.

And in a way, it makes me proud of him.

OnlySon has always been a little hesitant, a little shy.  With family and close friends, he’s funny, quirky, sarcastic and talkative.  But with outsiders, he’s very tentative.  This is partly just who he is, who he’s always been.  But it is also partly because of the way he was raised.

You see, my ex, OnlySon’s father, has always been extremely protective and sheltering when it comes to our son.  If our child could have been wrapped in bubble wrap to prevent anything “bad” from happening, he would have done it.  And the lectures that my ex used to give him about “stranger danger” were long and windy and full of horror stories about kids being kidnapped or harmed.

I would try to temper these stories, by saying how seldom they actually happened, and that kids need to be shown how to be independent, or they never learn how to be adults. 

And there are times when I feel that I should’ve put my foot down harder, forced the issue.  But you can’t change someone’s mind when they know they’re right.  No matter what you say, it’s never going to switch their thinking. 

But, it’s quickly becoming a moot point, as OnlySon has begun to stretch his wings out, and take those first fledgling steps toward becoming less dependent on others to watch out for him all the time. 

Every time I hear my son say “I can do it myself” – I grin.

When I see him readily doing the things I ask of him, even if it means going all the way across the store, out of my sight, I am reassured. 

The first time I told him he could go to the toy area in a store without me, he looked at me with a gleam in his eyes, and a smile on his face, as he asked “Really? You’ll let me go by myself?”  I told him yes, as long as he stayed in that area, I would be there in a minute, and he could pick out a small thing (a reward for a job well-done on another day) on his own.  The utter joy on his face was beautiful as he took off towards the toys, and he was exactly where I told him to be, when I got there 5 minutes after he left.

And, even when OnlySon rebels, I am still – in a way – comforted.  Because rebellion in teenagers is their way of asserting their own opinions, their own ideas, and their own choices, into their lives.  They are learning that they can make choices of their own for their lives.  And that, to me, is a sure sign that he’s growing up.

So, when he argues with me, even if I’m irritated, I stop, and explain why I want him to do something.  Not just because I want him to do it, or just because “I’m the grown-up and I say so”.  Because those arguments are weak.  They’re about power, not about teaching your kids why they should do what you ask of them. 

And I want my son to grow up, knowing that he can think for himself.  That he can make his own choices, influence outcomes, and change his world.

OnlySon’s a brilliant, funny, compassionate child.  And I know that he’ll be a brilliant, funny, compassionate, independent man, someday.

And in 6 more days, he’ll be another step closer to that goal.

Go, OnlySon!  And yes, you still have to do what I say.

Just Another Day In The Life

I know it’s been a while since I posted, and the few I’ve put up have been farther between than normal.  But life’s been rather hectic here this summer, and I’ve been either too down, or too busy to really keep up here.  Hence, a small blog-cation.

And boy, has there been a lot going on!

Of course, the longest-lasting story, is, of course, the flooding in my city.  It’s still going on, but the water levels have begun to drop slightly.  People are being allowed back in their homes, to assess damage, try to begin cleanups, or… salvage anything they can before the demolition begins.  There are a lot of homes here that will have to be torn down, as the local government is going to have to “mitigate” a portion of the lands in town to offset the possibility of future flooding, and build new, or larger dikes.  I’m lucky in that my house is on top of one of the 2 hills of Minot, so my house is safe.  OnlySon will be attending next year’s school at the local auditorium, as his school was completely inundated, but he still has his home.  YoungerDaughter’s school is up high enough on the southern hill that it wasn’t affected, so she will graduate next spring from her own school.  We are blessed.

I’ve been… *gasp*… dating someone for a little over a month now.  I’m taking my time.  He’s funny, sarcastic, and makes me feel good about myself.   I’m not sure, though, if we’re really right together, so I’m keeping my options open.  Time will tell.

BUT, the biggest news of the summer…… is concerning EldestDaughter.

Yep.

Due in March, EldestDaughter is now baking up my first GRANDCHILD.

Ack.

Eek.

This means I’m gonna be a…..

*GASP*

 

Wow.  I’m still rather processing this fact.

EldestDaughter is also going to be getting MARRIED next summer, and she and her fiance’ have started telling everyone their news.  I had to wait till now to be able to share our news, since she wanted to tell all the family members in our area herself.  It almost killed me to keep my mouth shut about this, but I did it.  Phew.

I’ll be blogging more about this later, but I wanted to fill everyone in out there in the blogosphere on the major news of the summer so far.  It’s been pretty wild!

Hopefully, this will be the last of the major life-changing events for a while, and I can get back to just laughing about some of the little things.  Like OnlySon’s and my conversation about monkeys, kittens, and opposable thumbs.

But that’s a story for another day.

 

The Ebb

My city has been inundated with water for the last few days, due to excessive snow melt this spring, as well as some pretty fierce storms blasting through our area lately.

Rather disconcerting to come home… and find this waiting for you when you go downstairs to do laundry….

 

And this, facing the other direction:

Yeah, we tried the “towel against the tide” trick.  It didn’t work, obviously.

My kids and I have been using ShopVacs for 4 days now, almost every 2 hours, to keep the water from taking over the basement.  It’s been fresh water, seeping in from either the storm sewers overflowing due to running over their capacity – or simply ground water with no place to go because the land is so saturated that there have literally been mudslides happening on the prairie here! 

North Dakota is not known for mudslides.   Dust storms?  Yeah.  Tornados?  Un-hunh.  Blizzards, well, of course.  But not mudslides and floods.

And yet, that’s exactly what we’ve been getting for the last few days. 

Our city made national news, as well as some of the other towns here in North Dakota who’ve been fighting the rising waters, and, in some cases, losing the battle.

Many people have been displaced, evacuated from their homes, even lost their homes due to the overwhelming waters. 

And the local populace here, and elsewhere in the state haven’t been very happy with the responses we’ve gotten from the Corps of Engineers.  Many people feel that we’ve been lied to, talked down to, or simply gotten the run-around, because the CoE doesn’t want to “panic” the people.  Well, if they’d simply look around… they’d realize that no one’s really been panicking.

The communities here have banded together, working hard to help their friends, families, and neighbors, hauling furniture and possessions for those who had to evacuate; opening their homes to those in need of a place to sleep; donating their time to sand-bag, and not just for themselves, but for others as well; hauling water out of basements and taking in not just the people, but their animals. 

If the CoE would take a look around at how all of our people have worked to save our own city, and the towns around us?  They’d realize that we’re “Big People”, capable of handling the bad news, pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, and getting the necessary jobs done to save what we can from the chaos.

And to rebuild – after the tragedy.

As for my house?  Well, the waters are receding – finally.  There was very little in my basement this evening when I got home from work, and it only took about 10-20 minutes to clean it up, where yesterday it took almost an hour and a half of ShopVaccing and dumping just to see bare floor. 

My kids have worked their tails off for the last 4 days, helping me haul furniture, irreplaceable items like photograph books and baby things of theirs, pulling up the few pieces of carpeting that were at the bottom of the steps, and hauling garbage to the boulevard for disposal.  They’ve also run the ShopVacs when I had to go back to work, keeping on top of the stream that was running through our basement.  It hasn’t been an easy week for us.

So, I promised YoungerDaughter and OnlySon that when the waters have ebbed for good, and our basement is dry once more?  We’re going to go do something, just the 3 of us……… something that has nothing to do with water. 

Cause I think we’ve all had enough of that to last us for a good long time.

At the Bottom of the Sea

So, some time ago, I promised that I’d post some pictures of OnlySon’s room.  About 3 years ago, I painted his room how he wanted it.  With the theme of “Under the Ocean”.

Here’s what we got!

 

Seaweed by the door, complete with bubbles.  Behind his bed?  Is an underwater volcano that EldestDaughter painted. 

 Directly above his bed, is some of my favorite seaweed.  This was so much fun to paint!  And right under the window, is an angler fish, who’s “lure” is the crank handle for the window.  It even glows in the dark. (Glow in the dark paint!)

Turning to my right, we have a coral hill, with various inhabitants and some different style of seaweed.  The white fish have glow in the dark paint, too, as do the jellyfish.

Directly behind the dresser, is a Great White Shark, and some more jellyfish.  What you can’t see, is near the floor, there’s a Greek Ruin with statuary that glows in the dark.  But… the furniture had to go somewhere, so that’s covered up now.

And, on the last wall, we have another coral hill, with different types of seaweed and more fish, including the rays that YoungerDaughter painted.  My favorite, though?  The robber fish that swims near the ceiling, right in the center.  That one I did free-hand, from a small picture, and I’m still completely tickled that it turned out as well as it did! 

One of the best things about this room, is that the ceiling was done with a texturing technique that mimics water ripples, so when I painted it blue, it actually ended up looking as though you were looking up from the bottom of the ocean, to a watery scene above as well. 

When I was a kid, I always wanted to paint my room with pictures, scenes and murals.  I was never able to.  So, when I finally got into a house of my own, I decided that if my kids wanted “theme rooms”, I was going to make sure they got them.

And I still love their rooms.

They were so much fun to do, and the kids were thrilled, each of them, with their various themes.  Someday, they may want something different, but I haven’t heard that from any of them yet.  And, I’m happy to leave them just the way they are.

~Simplicity~

This weekend was a lesson in simplicity.

I pretty much didn’t leave the house for most of the weekend, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Maybe a little too much.

Friday after work, I hustled home, to find that I was on my own for a while.  YoungerDaughter went to a friend’s house for the night, and I had 3 hours till OnlySon came home from his dad’s, so I sat down and worked on the novel.  I’m going to make myself work on it a little every night, because I want to finish it before my birthday, in mid-June.  This is going to be my birthday present to myself.  I WILL do this.

Once OnlySon got home, it was just him and me at home, watching movies, with the kid comandeering my new phone to play Angry Birds.  He is now completely addicted to the game, and grabs my phone every chance I let him.  He also brought home some “Flubber” they made in school, and was blowing bubbles as large as his head with it.  I kept waiting for it to explode all over his head, knowing that I’d finally have a chance to cut his hair – then… it didn’t happen.

Saturday, OnlySon got invited to a friend’s birthday party, and spent the whole afternoon swimming.  YoungerDaughter worked, so I was on my own.  Did I take a moment for myself, to go indulge in something fun?  Uh…

No.  I went shopping for groceries, so I could fulfill my latest urge to be a domestic diva.  Yeesh.  When I got home?  I rearranged some furniture, hung up a shelf in my room, and put my dad’s wooden train that he had as a kid on it.  This little train has been a prized possession of mine for as long as I can remember, and it’s survived multiple moves.  I know someday I’ll pass it on to one of my kids… but I just can’t let go of it yet! 

I also got a picture hung that I’ve been trying to get up on the wall for a couple of years, but was afraid that the frame would be too heavy for my plaster walls.  YoungerDaughter drew this for an art class, it’s a reproduction of a picture of  her, from when she was 2.  This kid is an amazing artist.

It’s done in pencil.

I’ve asked her to do portraits of Eldest and Only… I’m still waiting!

These things might not seem like much, but they gave me a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, in that I did them myself, decided where they’d go on my own, and…. simply did it. 

I didn’t have to argue with anyone about whether they were going up or not.  That in itself is worth it. 

Saturday night also saw OnlySon getting his bi-yearly haircut.  His hair was such a tangled, awful mess after swimming all afternoon, I told him it was getting chopped.  He, reluctantly, agreed.    He went from “Surfer Dude” to “Yuppie” in about 45 minutes, and left enough hair on the kitchen floor to assemble himself a small cat, or maybe a large chinchilla.

(Personally, I actually like it better when his hair’s a little longer, but it’s just so impossible to take care of it when it gets that long, so – off it comes for the summer!)

We also, took on the task of cleaning OnlySon’s room, on Sunday, and got it re-organized and scrubbed in just a few short hours.  In compensation, OnlySon and I baked a double batch of Nestle’ Toll House Cookies.  He was loving being able to help put the recipe together… oh, and getting to lick the beaters wasn’t a bad thing, either!

All in all, it may not seem like much of a weekend.  But, I got to do a few simple things, like hanging up shelves and pictures, making cookies, and cleaning… and I got to spend time with my children, in a relaxed, happy space of time.

We just kind of chilled out… all weekend.

And it was – simply wonderful.

Oh, and the cookies aren’t half-bad, either.  Ok, so that’s an understatement.

They’re delicious.

And now, my cookie jar is full of cookies, and my heart is full of wonderful, happy memories.

Simplicity at its best.