So, Luc is now going to weekly therapy sessions and still being evaluated by his school. On top of all of that drama last week, this is the week of drama for Todd (jr). Last Friday, we let both Todd and Luc spend the night at Grandma's house. They came home on Saturday afternoon. That evening, Todd went to the bathroom and kept yelling for me to come in there. The nice mom that I am, I kept saying "Why???" By the time I finally got in there, he was mad at me. He wanted to show me the blood in his urine. Eeew. But, seriously blood in his urine. Not like slightly pink, red.
So, I was unsure of what to do about it. Todd (sr) and I talked about it and decided to wait to see how it was the next time before racing to the ER. The next time, it was the same. He peed normally and then at the end bright red drops of blood. He wasn't in any pain, he hadn't been tackled or anything else that brought internal injury to mind, so we decided to wait until Monday and go to the pediatrician unless something else happened that seemed worse.
We took him in on Monday, but by then the blood had not been seen again since Sunday. He had a few urinalyses done and lab work. We went for a kidney/bladder ultrasound on Tuesday. The blood work came back normal, and the first urinalysis showed blood in his urine. The results of the second urinalysis haven't been called in yet. The ultrasound showed thickening of his bladder walls. So, now I am waiting for a return call to set us up with an appointment with a urologist. He will be 10 in two days. Isn't that a bit young to be seeing a urologist? I mean, I'll take him anywhere to find out what's wrong, but I did a google search just to see what the possibilities are and the only results are involving older men or women who had recent hysterectomies. WTF??

The latest

So, today I took Luc to the therapist. I haven't written about what's been going on with him, but he's been having lots of trouble at school (suspended once already within the first week of school) and the school asked me for permission to have a behavioral analysis on him to see if he qualifies for special education services. They said that they were concerned that he has ADD/ADHD and/or Asperger's Syndrome. My immediate reaction to Asperger's Syndrome was "no way, not Luc". I have seen other children with Asperger's and I seriously doubt that he has that. As far as ADD, I knew that was a serious possibility, but I didn't think he would have ADHD. So, I took him to an outside therapist on my own to see what another opinion would be. Today he was diagnosed with ADHD, dysthymia, and over-anxious disorder of childhood.
I feel sad. I also feel like a jerk that I have seen his sadness and his worry but put it all off as "that's just Luc". He's always been this way, so serious and sad. Always.
Now I feel like I should have known that it wasn't normal. Todd says he isn't surprised, but I am. I wish I didn't feel so guilty. I mean, he knows we love him, but I feel like I failed him.

I feel like I rarely have anything to say, but I guess I'm the only one who reads this anyways, so no real reason to hurry with updates.

Summer has been pretty good. Well, except Shirley getting sick and dying. The garden has been awesome, and I am already making plans for next year. I need a lot more space than I had this year. Everything is growing into everything else. I have two pepper plants that are completely in the darkness of looming tomato plants. I bought some teeny, tiny mums at WalMart on clearance for $.50 each. I built a flower bed just for them, and planted them a while ago. They were small, scrawny, and I just wasn't sure what would happen with them. They are doing great! They are getting bigger and bigger and I know they will have flowers this year. The peonies and hostas I planted may be a whole other situation. I am not holding out much hope for any of them. Which is sad, because I really was looking forward to having them.

We are preparing for back to school. I bought all of the school clothes a week ago. Luc still needs socks. Todd needs a backpack. They both need shoes. That's it. We even started new bedtimes last night, even though school doesn't start for another month. I was saying today that we should probably consider new bed times starting next week, but Todd told me he already started new bed times a few nights ago. I guess when I work evenings and then have homework the evenings that I am home, I just don't know what's going on.

I'm getting prepared for school again in the fall myself; even though I'm not yet done with the summer class I'm taking. It sure is going to be nice when I finally have the degree I'm working for and can be done with school. It's been so long now, though, that I don't know if I will be able to function without some type of learning. Seriously.

Lazy summertime, but getting a lot done at the same time.

How weird is that? I watched tv for about two hours today, yet I still cleaned out the junk drawer, the boys color book cupboard, the shelf above the kitchen sink, the canned goods cupboard, the kid dishes cupboard, the snack cupboard, the top of the refrigerator, and the bulletin board area of the kitchen. AND I cleaned up the garage, cleaned the cement with the push broom, and watered the mums, onions, and the peonies that I hope decide to grow next year. Whew! that was a lot to type! The junk drawer and the coloring book cupboard took the most time. There was so much stuff shoved under there that just didn't belong! I have another box full of stuff for our someday garage sale, and a whole pile of papers that went into the recycling bin.
I use a lot of coupons. I mean, A LOT. I will buy any condiment if it's on sale and I have a coupon that makes it $.50 or less. I should take a picture of the condiment shelf I made today in my garage. My cupboard was so full I couldn't tell what was in there. I have 13 bottles of bbq sauce. Seriously. 5 containers of Miracle Whip. 5 bottles of mustard.
I have a lot of boxed stuff, too, like macaroni and cheese, Hamburger Helper, stuffing, and boxes of noodles. I wanted to organize that stuff a little, but I couldn't make a shelf in the garage because we could get mice or squirrels or spiders or whatever in there. Our garage kinda sucks. So I moved all of the kid's little plastic plates and cups into the cupboard with all of the adult dishes, and moved the extra boxed stuff onto that shelf. I am really happy with how I can see what we have now.
I did a lot of organizing, too. The top of the refrigerator has been a place that everything is thrown. There were about 6 different chargers for various cell phones, camcorders, whatever just thrown in a pile up there, so I wrapped them all and put twisty-ties around them and put them all in a little box in the cabinet with batteries and extra stuff.
I have a 500 word article review due tonight at midnight and I haven't even found a topic much less an article yet. I really should, but I think I may be putting it off until tomorrow. I started my period today, and I feel awful. I never feel like this. I am crampy and grumpy, and all I want is to eat ice cream and chips and onion dip (separately of course) and sit in the recliner watching Clean House. NO KIDS ALLOWED! But of course, that isn't how it is. I'm sitting at the kitchen table with the breeze blowing in the kitchen window, typing on my laptop.
Hope you all have a good night, I think it's going to be an early one here.

I have veggies!!

My garden is exploding!

Here are the tomatoes.


See the green pepper in there?


My cucumbers are climbing right out of the garden! I had to dig out the chives and transfer them to the area under my living room window because the cucumber vines were strangling them. They have lots of flowers, too!



My single pumpkin plant has a flower! A few more are forming, but they aren't open yet.


The tomatoes are getting big!


Here is a side-view. I'm so glad we decided to do this this year! I'm excited about it!


I even decided to put in a flower bed next to our shitty old garage. We bought some perennial ivy plants because we want to have ivy climb up and cover the wall. (We have siding on the rest of the house and garage, just not this side wall.) After getting the ivy, I had to put in a bed because it's all cement there. Once I built the bed and added the dirt and the ivy, it needed more. Petunias are so pretty, so I bought a flat, and I LOVE IT!! (If you click on the picture, it will enlarge and you can see the ivy better.)


Benny got a new chair for outside, but decided to bring it inside and sit in it ALL the time.


And Todd got...
an EARRING!!!

My tomatoes!!



I've been working on this. I put patio blocks around the garden, and I planted the bean sprouts and banana peppers and a pumpkin.

Luc lost his first tooth!

Todd caught a fish.


Luc caught his first fish.

Todd enjoyed fishing so much, that he kept at it when everyone else was ready to go.

My tomatoes!!

So here is one of the cute little green tomatoes! I took a pic of the other one, but it was too close and blurry.


Here is my pepper plant that has the first flower.


Here are the cucumber plants in front of the peppers and tomatoes.


And this is a big stinky bush that I HATE, but Todd insists we keep. It is so big! I drive a Suburban. You can barely see it behind this monster.

So, I gave my speech. I am not a public speaker. I get so nervous, I feel like my heart is going to explode. So, I got through it (just barely) and got a 90%. Not great, but not bad.
I came home, and guess what I found? Two of my tomato plants each have one little perfect green tomato! Those little tomatoes made me so happy! I take a walk over to my garden whenever I come home; just to take a look. Today and last night, we've had a lot of rain, and I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. I noticed the flowers were on the tomato plants even before I planted them. Today, I looked closer, and saw two shiny green tomatoes!!! My pepper plants are getting tall and looking so healthy. The cucumbers are low and getting kind of spiky. The chive onions look good, too. So, I'm happy.

I need a topic

I have to give a speech on Wednesday. I have to introduce a (hypothetical) speaker. I can choose anyone; real, dead, fictional. Any thoughts on who I should pick? I hate having to narrow things down like this. It would be so much easier just to be assigned someone to introduce.

It's... Planting Day!!!

And we're done. Mostly. I've decided that I want to add some beans, so I bought the seeds, but I'm going to start them in small pots inside and plant them in a week or two. I have 1 Burpless Cucumber (just to see if they really are better), 5 Marketmore 76 cucumbers, 3 Health Kick tomatoes, 3 Cherry tomatoes, 4 onion chives, and 5 California Wonder Sweet Peppers.
It's amazing how much soil I needed! I used 8 40 lb. bags of topsoil, 3 40 lb. bags of Miracle Gro potting soil, and 1 40 lb. bag of Scott's garden soil. That's a lot of dirt! And the garden is pretty full, so by the time I'm ready to transplant the beans I'm getting ready to sprout, I'll need to dig another section to add next to the garden which will need garden soil, too!
Wanna see what we did? Sure you do...
I have two different angles, and one from far away because it looks small up close. (You can see larger pics if you click on the pic.)

Outside a lot!

I have been outside so much in the past few days! Benny is loving it! I have my garden dug, but I think I will be making it bigger either tonight or tomorrow. I have Miracle Gro soil to add with the regular soil. I'll mix it in together in the plot I dug out and then tomorrow is the big "Planting Day"!
We used to have two garages. We have an attached garage and when we bought the house there was a second one car garage about 2.5 feet away from the attached garage. It was a mess and the roof was falling in. Years ago, maybe 7? Todd and some friends tore it down. It had a cement floor, so we have a nice sized cement slab next to the garage where the boys can ride their scooters or skateboards. I decided to dig up the dirt between the garage and the cement slab and I wanted to plant some sunflower seeds in that strip. I went out with my shovel to pull out the weeds and the small rocks and just turn over the dirt. It's all cement! It had about 2-3 inches of dirt on top of cement! Crazy! We've lived here for 11 years and I didn't know that!
So, now I'm considering putting in a little garden box on top of the cement and still growing sunflowers in it with some mulch and a nice little wooden border. We'll see. I dug all of the dirt and weeds off the cement earlier.
Benny will be 2 in a little less than two weeks. Today I plan on starting the birthday shopping. I'm thinking outside toys like a little wheelbarrow.
The boys' school year is almost ending! June 8th is their last day. Todd is almost done with 4th grade and Luc is finishing Kindergarten. I feel old, and these white hairs aren't helping.
You know what I hate! I hate how Luc's name is always underlined in red when I type it as though it is spelled wrong!! It is SO ANNOYING!!

Dug up the garden

I made a garden today. Kinda. I think it will need to be bigger. All I really did was dig out the top part with the grass and chop up the earth underneath. It doesn't look very big, but I'd say it's almost 4 feet wide and at least 5 feet long. It's supposed to freeze tonight, so I'm glad I wasn't ready to plant my veggies yet. I'm going to go out and buy some good garden dirt in the next few days. Then I'll mix it all up and plant my stuff. I'm happy about this. It's going to be fun!


Here are my plants. They are spending the night in the kitchen since it's supposed to be low thirties tonight.

And Luc learned how to climb a tree! He only got about 3 feet off the ground, but he was so proud!

Spring time

So, it's spring. New classes (of course I have to mention school up front, right?), and new ways of life. This year anyway. I have really been thinking about the things I do in my life and how it might (or might not) affect others.
So, I've stopped using plastic grocery bags. I now have 12 reusable grocery bags made from recycled cloth. It was kind of hard at first to remember to take those bags into the store with me. Then, whenever I forgot them, I just told the cashier I didn't want a bag and had to to carry my things out. I quickly started to remember them. Also, Kroger gives you a 5 cent rebate on your purchase for every bag you bring in yourself! When I go grocery shopping, I buy a lot. I have three kids, a husband, and a dog to buy for; those 12 bags are handy.
I've also started recycling. I have considered it before, but where I live there is no pick up for recyclable items. So, I've looked into what is allowed and what isn't allowed. I have four bins in my garage and we put all of the recyclable things in those bins and once a week we drive to the recycling center to drop it all off. I went from having three full trash cans of trash a week, to one that isn't even full! Now, if Benny would just become fully potty-trained, we could cut down even less.
I've also started buying more recycled things. Specifically toilet paper, paper towel,, paper, and aluminum foil. It might cost a little more, but it makes me feel good.
I have been a coupon freak lately! I am saving so much money. Kroger doubles coupons up to $1, and for a while KMart was doubling up to $2. I won't have to buy shampoo or toothpaste for at least a year!
The final new thing that I've been doing to change our lives (haha, that sounds so silly, but it is at least partially true) is I'm starting a garden. This isn't like last year when I was like "I'm starting a garden". This is me going out yesterday and buying 24 3.5 inch potted plants to get it started. I had Todd and Jason out in our yard a few days ago. They cut down two trees and a bunch of branches that were in my way. I dug out two old stumps yesterday. This weekend, Todd and I are going to get an area ready, dig it up and put some topsoil in, plant our garden, and put a cute little edging fence around it. If that doesn't keep these monsters, I mean kids, out, I will buy razor wire. Or maybe just keep a better eye on them. We'll see.

Help??

I am looking for a book I need. I have looked on ebay and other sites like amazon, a1books, dualj, and half.com, but I'm not finding what I need at a price that I like. I did find what I wanted on ebay and I did bin, but when I got it, it was the wrong book. (I don't know all of the ebay rules, but I think it is wrong to list the ISBN number of a different book, and then farther down in the listing say it isn't that book.) Anyways, this is the book I'm looking for. I did find one auction on ebay that's at $40, and another copy on half.com that's $59.99. The biggest problem I'm finding is that a lot of the books are international copies, or instructor's editions. Does anyone else have any suggestions?

It's all come down to.....

this...
I have gray hair. Just a few minutes ago, I found the 6th gray hair on my head. SIXTH! I'm only 26. This is bull shit. I am going to have to start dying my hair if it keeps up like this. Todd says it's not a big deal, and I mean, yeah it could be worse. I don't want to get old. Even more, I don't want to look old. This sucks.

I swear all I ever post about online is school. Apparently that's all I have on my mind. Ever. So, I got an email about two weeks ago saying that my financial aid for the spring semester was denied. I resolved myself to trying to think positively about having the summer off even though I was pretty disappointed. This morning, I got a second email telling me how much my student loan was approved for. AFTER I canceled all of the classes I was signed up for. Nice.
Easter was nice. The boys got small Easter buckets instead of big baskets. They got some candy, but no toys this year. I think for not being religious people we should scale back on Easter.
Todd shaved his head again. He had been growing his hair out since January because I wanted him to. It was getting too crazy, so he shaved it off again. I'm getting used to it again, but I really liked it longer.
I have to leave for class in a few. I've been waiting around for the mail to get here, but I guess it'll come a few minutes after I'm gone.
I've been reading Fast Food Nation for my business ethics class. Pretty interesting.

P90X Day 4

Todd and I started P90X together this past Monday, so today is day 4. He already wussed out of today's workout because it was stupid yoga. I know it's kind of stupid, but it was a lot of work, and I sweat a lot, so that has to be good, right? I've already lost 2.5 pounds in these first few days. I'm a little sore and tired, but otherwise feel pretty great. I feel extra fat doing some of the yoga moves, though. It's a lot harder to do them when I have a lot of extra stuff in the way. I can't wait until I'm smaller and I'm able to do these things properly.
One of the weird things about this program, is that I'm not really very hungry. I follow the diet guidelines and I'm eating more food than I would have thought to eat on a diet. I eat every few ours and I'm hungry, but not hungry like I was before. Before I was REALLY hungry a lot more often. Now, I'm kinda hungry. It's more a feeling like I know I should eat, more than actual hunger.
Not a lot new going on besides the workout program. One of my classes ended and I passed with 99%. Another class ends in two weeks and I'm sure I'll get an A in that class as well. I have three more classes that run through the end of April. Two I know I'll pass with an A, well one might be a B, but I'm striving for the A. The third class, though, I am really worried about. I have to pass with a C and I just don't know if I can. I am seriously considering dropping it and taking it in the fall semester with a few easier classes. The sad thing is, if I do that, I will be postponing my graduation from May until December. I have been really looking forward to graduating in two months. Kinda sad about this whole thing, but I just can't get up the motivation to really get into this subject. It's tough.

Busy as ever...

Five classes to keep up with and all that... You know how it is... and... We got a bigger bed a few weeks ago, so I'll admit I've been spending a lot more time in bed. I've watched more movies lately than I have in a while. I finally got to see Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. I wanted to see it for so long. It was pretty good. I'm glad I finally got to see it.
I don't even have much to post about today, but I figure it's been long enough to warrant an update.
Valentine's Day was Todd and my 7 year wedding anniversary. It was a nice day. He surprised me with some Valentine's gifts that I didn't expect. I was supposed to work that day, so he left them in the truck to surprise me and give me a good start to my work day. I ended up calling in sick instead. In my defense, I was kind of sick to start with, but I felt better after a little while. We actually took the boys and went and visited with my mom. We never really go there since it is a bit of a drive. It was okay. The visit wasn't too bad and the drive was pretty nice. Then, Todd and I took another drive today. We drove about 40 miles away. Not a long drive, but it was kind of relaxing and nice.

197.5

I just tried to sign in to type a new post. It took me about five minutes, and I was getting pissed off. Apparently my email address that I know I use for this site, was not a registered username. It was to the point that I went to my email account in all of my old emails that confirm registrations and stuff and was looking for my username. I gave up and decided to give it one more try when I realized that two of the letters were mixed up... Nice.
So, I've lost a little more weight. I'm happy. I'm not putting a ton of effort into exercising at home right now. I do the workouts during my fitness class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Also, in the next week or so, my husband and I are staring an exercise program called P90X. I'm excited about it. A little nervous, too, though.
School is going well. Lots of stuff to do, of course. In about two weeks, I'm going to Accounting Day at Northwood University. Sounds like a dork-fest, huh? I am really looking forward to it, though. I will have my Associate's Degree from Delta in just a fw months. I am going to continue on another year at Delta and then transfer for my last year at Northwood to get my Bachelor's Degree. I have been back and forth the past few months on what I plan to do about my education. I eman, sure I could get the two-year degree adn take some time before coming back to do the remaining two years of the four-year degree. But in the meantime, I would have to get a job and start repaying my student loans. Also, anymore a two-year degree isn't considered much better than a high school diploma. So, I have finally made the decision to just keep at it and get teh four-year degree with no time off. It has both positive aspects and a few drawbacks. A big drawback is that I was really looking forward to having some time off from studying, but at the same time it is better to continue while it is all still so fresh in my mind. Another drawback is that I have made a few obligational promises to be fulfilled once I graduate which are now going to be postponed another two years. I'm sure it isn't going to be a big issue, but it is a little disappointing, especially to the people to whom I made these promises.
My Dad called me the other day. I was really surprised to get a call from him. He called about this postcard that Luc had sent to him about ordering magazine subscriptions from school. I talked to him for probably half an hour. It was nice that he called, but now he probably won't again for another few months. I just don't get it.

198.5!!!

Holy shit!! I can even see a difference!! I wanna cry I'm so happy!

202.5!!!!!

Before my class on Thursday (really, only Thursday??)... I weighed myself before I went to school for the physical assessment that day. I weighed 206. I weighed myself at the college wearing more clothes and my tennis shoes and after eating lunch, and it said 209. I have really been staying away from foods I shouldn't eat and excess food that I would normally eat just because it's good. Every day at school, I do TONS of walking beyond the actual fitness class, and work is constant movement, too. Three and a half pounds! I have a big smile that I just can't quit.

Another Friday...

School was canceled for the boys today because of how cold it is. That's kind of dumb. It didn't snow again, so I think it was a waste of a snow day. It didn't matter for Luc, though, he wasn't going to go today because he got suspended. From Kindergarten. Again. I just don't know what I'm going to do with that boy.
Classes are going well. Lots of work, but that was expected.
Benny is pulling all of the pots and pans out of the cupboard as I type this. He is getting so big and using so many words now. It's so amazing to think he was just a little tiny baby not so long ago. Now, he tells me when he wants to "nuh-nite" and goes and lays on my side of the bed. He is so incredibly sweet. I love when he's falling asleep and he rubs his soft little hands on my neck or my face. Love just radiates from my little man.
I have to work tonight and tomorrow night. I wasn't scheduled for tomorrow, but I'm covering for someone. The extra money will come in handy. Especially since my pay checks aren't even big enough to pay my energy bill unless I use two pay checks for one energy bill.
Not too much else going on right now. My Mom is laid off from work for a few months, so I can already see her drinking increasing. That isn't good since she already drinks every evening. This past week was her first week being laid off and she has called me trashed and lonely twice already. In four days!
I haven't heard from my Dad in quite a while. I don't think I will ever understand that man. That's about all I have to say about him.

How awesome is this??

11 years ago...

On this date, 11 years ago, life was so different. I lived in a foster home. I was with my mom for a weekend. Since I basically hated her, I was actually spending the weekend with my friend Jackie. She had convinced me to come over, telling me that there was this boy she knew who was cute, had long hair, and was in a band. That's all I needed to know! LOL! I was 15; those were the things I liked then. Jackie grew up in the same neighborhood as Todd, so they had known each other for years and their families knew each other, too. So, I was hanging out with Jackie and her cousin Marcie when I met my husband.
Marcie was an ugly, disgusting girl. Todd showed up with his friend Mario. Todd and I liked each other right away. Marcie liked Mario. So, when they left, Todd and I traded phone numbers, and so did Marcie and Mario. Mario gave Marcie the number 777-7777. Yeah. She was mad. I kind of was, too. I mean, he could have made up a number that was at least believable, right?
Knowing that the weekends I could go to my mom's meant that I could go to Jackie's and hang out with her and Todd really helped me get through the whole foster home situation. Within a few months, I moved back home with my mom, and then not long after that, I moved in with Todd. The rest is history...

Been feeling like shit today

I have a ton of sinus pressure and I feel like shit. It started a few days ago, and I have NEVER had sinus pressure before. It feels like there is something trying to rip it's way out of my forehead! So, yesterday I had made plans with a friend to bring the boys over to play with her kids and we could hang out. I had such a headache but I didn't want to cancel. So, I stopped at Walgreens on the way and bought some sinus pills and a drink. The idiot who rang me up put them in separate bags, but I didn't know that until I got to my friend's house and couldn't find the pills. I called Walgreens and she said they were still there at the register. So, Todd and Luc were whining that they wanted to stay. I left them there to play and took Benny with me to go back and get the sinus stuff. I got there, and there was this crack head walking through the parking lot. I took Benny out of his seat, and went in, grabbed my stuff, and walked out. As soon as I get out the door, I see that crack head shutting my drivers side door!!! That fucking loser! I yelled "What the fuck are you doing?!" and he ran off! I went to look inside and everything was fine. I had my cell phone in my pocket instead of in the cup holder like it usually is, so he didn't have anything to steal. I hooked Benny in his car seat, and got in and called Todd while I drove back to my friends house. He said there wasn't any point in calling the cops, but I should tell the manager. So, I called them and told them what happened. It was only a few minutes after I had left, and the girl I talked to said that she thought he was in the store and she would get a manager. I hope they had him on surveillance tape or something and had him arrested. Bastard!
Today, I thought I was over this sinus bullshit, but I was wrong. I have stuff to take care of today, and I still have all of this pressure. I took some more of those sinus pills, but they haven't helped yet...