Choosing to be a Gremlin, a liar, and a target

Highlights for today...

Made it to school by 8:30 this morning. It was a close call. Do you know how hard it is to do Annie's hair one handed? She has scarecrow hair and it takes several different products to tame it but she's learned to scream, "Ow! That hurts," before you ever even touch her with the brush! Ugh!

In less than an hour, one of my old students and her sister who babysits for us had my classroom in working order again. Grant put all of the desks out. Dasha helped re-shelve the books. The older girls put up the new bulletin board and helped finish stacking books. Wow! Thanks to everyone's help, if kids walked in tomorrow, I could survive! I can't imagine how long that would have taken me one handed!

After a quick lunch, Annie and Dasha went down for a nap and I decided to test my luck and leave Grant with the sleeping beauties. The appointment was just a couple of miles down the road so I had faith that if anything happened, I could be home in minutes.

After meeting the doctor and realizing that he didn't have a gentle bone in his body (and wanting to break all of HIS bones), I realized that this nut had obviously lost his mind. He kept pushing on my hand and squeezing my wrist as if I hadn't already told him that they hurt like heck! In fact, from my forearm down to the first knuckle of most of my fingers, I have nasty yellow and purple bruises. Maybe this doctor was blind and couldn't see the bruises OR see my flinching as he asked how bad it would hurt if he pushed my hand back to a 90 degree angle. At that point, my mind started racing. I wanted to answer him with a retort like, "How bad would it hurt if I tied your arms behind your head using your fingers?" Duh! Anyway, after an MRI, he decided that I have a UCL tear (the ligament that holds your thumb on). He said it wasn't a complete tear so I wouldn't need surgery unless I planned on being a hockey player or tennis player. Um, NO, again! This guy wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer! My choices were to get a real cast that wouldn't allow me to take a normal shower or get wet (think Gremlins) for about six weeks OR use a splint with a special hook to hold my thumb at a 20 degree angle. Gee. Tough decision! Be a Gremlin and fear getting wet for six weeks (think about bathing Annie) or have something that I can remove and still have a semi-normal life. I went with the splint. Then, he asked if I wanted a prescription for some stronger pain meds. I said, "No," but I'm rethinking my answer at this point tonight. Maybe I should have used the "phone a friend" option and someone would have reminded me that those pills will numb the pain of just about anything! :)

So, I did manage to make it home before Annie woke up. That was nice. About the time I stretched out on my bed to read, a huge clap of thunder shook the house. I mentally started counting. I got to about five before I heard her squeal, "Mama! I scared! Come get me to your room!" So, I obeyed. Before the storm was over, all four of us were piled in my bed watching Dora. It was a nice sentimental moment for a few seconds. Then, kids started squabbling over who was sitting where or who was sitting on what. The Kodak moment dissolved like Alka-Seltzer in water. Fizz.

We all went downstairs at that point for an afternoon snack. Annie and Grant decided to reconstruct the PVC house again. As the construction was going on, Annie kept asking for marshmallows. She finally said that she wanted, "Marshmallows for my stick and fire!" Ah! She was pretending the house was a tent and she was going to have a campfire. Well, of course! If she was being imaginative, I'd be more than happy to reward her with marshmallows.

Yeah. Big FAIL on my part!

Grant taught Annie to load a piece of their PVC house with marshmallows and use it like a blow dart gun! Let's think about this for a minute. The girl still has a major issue with back wash. The same spit that goes into her drink also goes into the air when she blows on anything - candles, balloons, pinwheels - ANYTHING! So, instead of shooting rather stale little balls of sugar, she was shooting spit laden sticky wads of goo. I admit that I didn't think she had the lungs to be able to even get the marshmallow out of the pipe so I didn't get too worked up about the scheme. Wrong! The girl can shoot and aim! After the second or third mushy sugar wad hit me, I called the game off to everyone's dismay!

Grant and Annie went back to work on the house. They decided to go with a different design.

The design didn't work out for them, though. They finally decided to rework things and got a much more stable structure that the big bad wolf (Annie) couldn't blow down!

Annie "blowing" like the wolf.

While all of this was going on, Dasha was sitting at the table coloring. She refused to come and join us. Once again, her mood swings are sudden and seem almost constant. (Is it still called a swing if it's constant? Maybe it becomes a mood pendulum)?

Thank goodness, the kids finally gave up the rough housing with the house and marshmallows and opted for something a bit more tame like using other people as a jungle gym! Annie finally had enough of Grant smushing her and got her hat and purse and said that she was going to the grocery store to get some more marshmallows and some chicken for dinner. I started to hand her the keys and breathe a sigh of relief since she already had a plan for dinner!

Thankfully, my parents dropped by with some chicken (they must have talked with Annie) for dinner and the natives finally all convened in one place to act like carnivores! (My parents were distraught to see Annie actually use her fork to scratch her arm pit during dinner. Geez! What do they expect)?

When mom came in, she had a box that a family friend had given her to pass on to me. There were three pairs of pants, two beautiful shirts, and three, well, um, bras. I admit that the last item made my heart race a wee bit with anxiety. Seriously? Eric gave up even trying to buy me clothes because I always complain that things just don't fit right and then when I do find something that I like, I just buy it in a zillion different colors. None of these things were the same style or color and, believe it or not, they all fit perfectly. Wow. Once again, my waning wardrobe has been weighing on my mind but I knew that I couldn't go on a shopping spree and replenish it. The unspoken need was met before I even acknowledged it. (We have a new principal at school this year and he has raised the bar a bit for dress code. Not that I dressed like a slob before but I had strayed a bit from straight business attire. That coupled with weight loss has left my closet pretty lean). Anyway, I just had to breathe a prayer when I tried everything on.

During a lull after dinner, my counselor called and wanted to "check in" with me and find out how things were progressing with the workbook. I lied. It wasn't even a little white lie. It was a lie. The book is actually still laying in the floor because I stepped on it when I made everyone evacuate my bed after the storm. I told her that it was all just fine and I was almost done. But, her next words were what floored me. "Oh, I'm in the area. I just left the gym. Why don't I swing by and pick up what you've finished and go ahead and give you the next chapter?" Crap! Crap! Crap! First of all, I know better than to tell even a white lie. I always get caught! Now, I can either tell another lie to cover the first one (like, I'm in the Bahamas right now and not home) or just fess up like a good little girl. I replied to her, "Oh. Ok." What else was I supposed to say? I went upstairs to grab the book thinking I could just fill out those stupid questions with one word answers. Nope. Not the kind of homework you can do in between classes or on the bus. DOOR BELL. Seriously? She must have been in the drive way when she called me! The only thing I could do was fess up. I told her the drama I kept encountering with filling out the answers. To my face, she was the picture of grace. She seemed to accept my apology and my excuse. She didn't hand over the next lesson, though. I wonder what she thought as she pulled out of the drive way. I know I'm still embarrassed. I did move the book from the floor to my bed, though. Hey! Isn't that forward momentum? At least I didn't throw it into the garbage (yet)! So, my plan is to go upstairs and answer at least the first three questions in the lesson. I'm sure that I'll get the urge to clean the toilets before I do that, though! (As I side note, I did proudly give her the three other sheets from the pack that needed to be signed! She asked if I had any questions about the "no dating" paper and I just laughed. I'm sure she made a note of that when she got to her car. I can bet that I'll hear about it again)!

Tomorrow, I get to take Grant to get three freaking immunizations! I'm really looking forward to that! Somehow, we missed a shot along the way and he has to have one updated for middle school and was due one anyway! Have I mentioned that I really struggle with dealing with anything medical with the kids? Just the smells and demeanor of the doctors conjure up feelings and memories that are much better left alone these days! Maybe I'll bribe him with something so he doesn't force me to sit on him while they give the shots! The boy is taller than I am and probably stronger so it wouldn't be much of a battle! Beyond tomorrow's drama, I'm looking forward to Friday. A friend prepaid a sitter for me as a gift and I'm taking advantage of that on Friday! I'm going to get my hair fixed (thanks to gift cards from my students) and have some time alone. I don't know what I'll do but I know I won't be letting the time go to waste! Come on Friday!