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 |  My journal. Rated GC for an occaisonal four-letter word or two. |
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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Hmm...one day I'll write a newer introduction. Maybe I should make a static item of all my different introductions.  New Introduction, October 31, 2005 It's time to update this introduction. Since June 2005, I've packed up and moved from Armenia to the US, found a house, waited a month for settlement, moved in, found a preschool for my son, got settled in, and maybe found my sanity. Maybe. I'm just now getting back to writing. Read on for more about me and life in the US. Original Introduction: I live in the former Soviet Republic of Armenia nine months out of the year. The rest of the time you can find me living out of a suitcase in the US or on one of our travels somewhere. This journal started out as a description of my life in Armenia, but I've amended it since I've realized that life there is very similar to life everywhere. I don't have a car, clothes dryer, microwave, or dishwasher but I've learned one doesn't really need those things to have a fulfilling life. Some days I'm just estatic over a slow trickle of hot water which can mean the difference between being smelly for another twenty-four hours or being clean. By the way, DH=dear husband; DS=darling son; MIL=mother-in-law. You get the picture. |
| Yippee! I had the worst parenting day today. I so totally understand how people can get pushed to the edge. I didn't lose it, though it took tremendous self control for most of the day. I'm trashed now. It could have been so easy to slide into the abyss of screaming obsenities or spanking-just to release my frustrations. I didn't, but I was certainly pushed pretty far. Why? He had sugar for lunch. I was lying on the couch, still recovering from my cold, and he got into the marshmallows and some tootsie rolls I didn't know were there, after drinking 3 juicy juice juice boxes today after his soccer game. He's been a royal terror since Thursday and I think he was keyed up about his soccer game and about his daddy coming home after two weeks away and it all morphed into a kid who wouldn't listen or follow instructions. Very frustrating. The hearing aid evaluation went well yesterday. They put goop in his ears and made molds. They will come in in two weeks. The cost? About $1,300 each. I flipped out. I knew it would be expensive, just not how expensive. I need to check but I think my health insurance will kick in some. And the school needs to get his FM system too...don't know which one yet. Could be the best one and the most expensive, or the one that will work and is much cheaper. It also depends on if he keeps the hearing aids after the 30 day trial. Oh, too many unknowns. No wonder I don't sleep well. Thank goodness for Lunesta. That's the only thing keeping me sane right now. Well, kiddo has wandered downstairs. Hubby must be asleep. I'm going to take kiddo up and get him situated in bed then go to bed myself. I may not sleep for a while, but that's OK. The idea of lying horizontal in a dark room with nothing to do or no place to be or no one to be responsible for is very appealng. It'll give me some time to meditate and do some Reiki on myself. Take care, Susan |
I feel like that dude on the Dunkin Donuts commercial...."gotta make the donuts" though for me it's "gotta make the lunch".  I'm pooped, ready to crawl into bed (that alarm goes off early!) and yet, here I am, blogging again. Twice today! Miracles never cease. And I still need to make kiddo's lunch, prep the coffee pot, and pack up my laptop. Gotta do some emergency babysitting tomorrow-though I could have subbed for my friend's class at the preschool. I figured it would be easier to babysit for a few hours! Besides, it's her first day with the kids, so she really needs to be there. |
| "Mom, are we going to the Dr. tomorrow?" "No, Friday." "I wanna go to the Dr. tomorrow and get my hearing aids!!!!!" "Do you think they'll help you hear better?" "I want them now!" And extreme disappointment when he learned that it will take time to make them, that he won't be getting them on Friday. Yippee!!!! I thought this was going to be such a struggle. We've a book about an elephant getting some and there's a kid that interns in his class that has 'em too. He's totally into the idea right now! Now I need to make lunch for tomorrow and get kiddo to bed. At least the kitchen is clean! I'm tuckered. Kiddo took a 2 hour nap after school today. He was tired! He's also fighting some allergies. I don't think it was a cold. And he was down in the principal's office again today...second or third time since school started. Oh man, I'm the mama of one of "those" kids. |
| First day teaching preschool. It went pretty well. We had two one-hour sessions with half the class in each one. Fairly easy. Tomorrow is the whole class of 12 (maybe 10) for an hour. Then Monday is 1 1/2 hours...etc, all the way up to 3.5. Whew! Good kids. I knew most of them already from my association with the preschool. One little girl is a screamer-out of joy! We'll be reminding her alot that LOUD belongs on the playground. And I got my hair dyed! First time! It's a demi-permanent dye so it'll fade out in 6-8 weeks and my grey will show again. I like the fact that the LINE won't be there as my hair grows. And it just cost $10. Woo hoo! It's the same as my hair color, so I look like me before kiddo was born. (I had no grey hair until then!) I took a healthy lunch in with me to school but ate it at 10:30. Guess I need to eat a better breakfast! I ended up hitting McDonald's after getting my hair done and I'm sorry I did so. That crap, while it tasted good at the time, just sucked out all my energy. I could feel it oozing away. Got to take kiddo to soccer practice tonight and then we're both going to bed early. Major housecleaning this week. Hubby is back on Saturday and I'd like there to be some positive improvement since he'd left. He'll be fried and deserves a clean peacefull space. At least I need go fix the toilet in the master bathroom so he can pee in peace! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| My son is singing this over and over as he unrolls a half a roll of toilet paper in his toy room. I haven't seen it yet, but the first half of the roll was wound around himself, primarily around his neck, with streamers floating down. I couldn't get a picture because he was starting to panic since it got warm and itchy. Hmm...I asked him to put that pile in the recycling bin and it's not there. Dare I check out the playroom? I hear giggles and "it's awesome!" as well as "today's a toilet paper day" and "hooray!" *giggles from me* He took all the toilet paper from the first half of the roll and filled in some baskets and rubbermade storage containers and small toy bins and even a box. He's so pleased with himself! I must say, I'm pretty pleased with him too. Yikes, I hear him unrolling the rest of that roll! Off to the showers and bed! Our rest and relax day is over. |
| Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea. -Robert A. Heinlein |
| All is well, just super busy. Lots of mental excercise staying on top of all the logistics. Will check in soon with an update... |
| I ended up skipping Quaker Meeting this morning. Kiddo was resisting going (which hasn't stopped me in the past) and I got into a cleaning jag that has lasted most of the day so far. Things are getting put away and taken care of. No toilets have been scrubbed! LOL, it's supposed to be a day of rest, afterall. But now it's just after 2 pm and I'm tired! My head hurts, right between my eyes...the beginning of a tension headache. The clicker for the TV in my room has gone missing. Even after cleaning this morning, it's still AWOL. Not sure what to get into next..... ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| Uneventful afternoon. Kiddo played with Josh for a while. Found out Josh can't babysit on Wed, he misunderstood the times. He gave me the number of a girl up the street to call. We played basketball with her and Trey one evening when kiddo and I were out taking a walk. We lost power for about 90 minutes. Ironic since I was reading the paper--yes, the article about power outages. I turned off the power switch on the power cord for the electronic stuff but that doesn't turn off the TV, does it? The TV came on when the power came back when I thought I'd unplugged it. The cable box was turned off, as was the receiver, so I did something. All was fine when it restored. Kiddo was setting up to camp in our bedroom. Gathering blankets to make a pallet on the floor. He didn't want to sleep in his room without his little night light and I was laying claim to the whole bed. We managed to clean the kitchen, clean the fish tank, take showers, and then crash on the bed watching the light in the trees fade when the power came on. I was looking forward to a quiet night. I'll probably go upstairs and watch TV and go to bed soon. Or maybe I'll finish watching the night settle in. Kiddo's been quiet for too long, I'd better go check on him. The migraine medicine worked, so I'm hoping it's gone for good. Do you remember if it started Thurs? or Fri? It's all running together right now and I need to update my headache log. Love ya, Susan ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| Digital scrapbooking! I just printed out 4 copies of the 5 page scrapbook I just made and they are so fantastic. Hubby is taking them with him to Armenia when he goes. Three are presents and I've enclosed some original kiddo artwork and one is hubby's brag book. I'm so darn impressed with myself! |
| I just accepted a job offer to work at my son's old preschool 3 mornings a week. Preschool opens in 13 days. I've just 3 days to pull a huge digital scrapbooking project together for hubby to take to Armenia. I've only 3 more nights with company in my bed. I always sleep bad when hubby is away. Crap, there is a 3 day holiday while hubby is gone. I have to get up early tomorrow to take kiddo to his first staggered entry day at kindergarten. He'll be in school 3 days this week. (Mon for an hour, Thurs & Friday full day) I'm sure there is more.... |
| http://novelspot.net is looking for reviewers. Check out the FAQs for more information. I review and edit for this site. It's a good group of people. Check it out! |
| After some soul searching and several nasty trips to the bathroom, I've concluded that I need to change my eating habits. Sugar, caffeine, and lactose need to make their way out of my body and then I need to not put them into me. *sigh* I've already had cinnamon toast and half-decaf coffee this morning. And those brownies last night were oh so yummy. But my lactaid pills didn't help and I didn't enjoy those brownies this morning. So the cinnamon sugar and the brewed coffee went down the sink. I made some decaf tea since I like to drink hot stuff when I work. This is going to be hard. At least I have decaf espresso, so I can still make my afternoon latte!  |
| I seem to remember doing a blog entry last Sunday with that title! It's become Harry Homeowner day at the Thompson Inn. Today wasn't as strenous as last Sunday, thank goodness. I couldn't have handled anything else. We went to Quaker Meeting and then on to Home Depot, our new home away from home! We bought a new light fixture for the garage, a new stick vaccuum (yes, we vaccuum up sticks in our house ), and a bunch of other stuff. I won't bore you with the list. We went in for just the light fixture, but came out with much more!Then onto the new Ace Hardware near our house just to look. Yeah, right... Pantry shelves and other stuff later.... Then to the grocery store to pick up fried chicken for lunch (yes...and other stuff too...) We replaced the light fixture in the garage. That just took an hour and no additonal trips to the hardware store! Yes, we had all the stuff we needed! Then hubby got out the drill and installed the new wire shelving on the pantry door. Of course, then the pantry had to be reorganized. Off to bed.... |
| Second attempt: By "chance" I took my son to McDonald's one hot desperate August afternoon two years ago. He was three. We had just moved here less than a month earlier. By "chance" I happened to mention to another mom there that I liked her sling (she was carrying around a 6 month old in it.) She said something along the lines of: well, if you like slings, you would probably like my preschool. It's the "hippy" preschool. I was all over that since our previous preschool in Armenia was a cooperative. I called. Kiddo was enrolled. And my life changed. I met other Reiki & metaphysical moms & made some new friends. I learned how to communicate with my kid. I learned about educational philosophies. I became a better parent. Through one of the moms, I met my Reiki teacher and re-took my classes & got my master level. Through another mom, I found the most spectacular pediatrician. I love the whole practice. Through yet another mom, I found my grown up Dr. (who discovered my sleep apnea and is fixing my migraines.) Through lots of moms, I learned about the public educational system here (oh, so crappy) and about the magnet and charter school lotteries. Kiddo won two lotteries for two fantastic charter schools. I chose the one that focused on the "whole" kid rather than strict academics. I chose the one closest in philosphy to his preschool. I chose the one where one of the founder's of the preschool now taught. My son just got assigned to her kindergarten class. I cried. When the audiologist told me that hearing aids might be a possibility for my son and mentioned that sometimes the kids had issues at school, I said not at my school. And it was clear (not that I doubted it) that I had made the right choice. When I told the principal that (and kiddo's teacher-but I didn't know she was his teacher then), they both said: no teasing at our school. Our kids will want the same stuff he has. (meaning the FM loop system which he'll be using-still no prognosis about the hearing aids.) My son is going to the school he needs to for his personality, learning style, and that also meshes with my personal philosophy. He's going to school he needs to to get the best support with these hearing issues & the other students (and if you didn't know, you wouldn't). He's got the ONE teacher of the four available who is intimately familiar with his preschool and the educational philosophy, which she lives and breathes with her family and her students. The Universe is taking care of him, and by extension, me. Now I can concentrate on celebrating the milestone of kindergarten and not worry about teasing, being the odd man out, being a number, or the crappola of the public school system. I'm not crying because of empty nest syndrome. I'm crying because I'm so thankful. And all because I decided to get out of the house and go to McDonald's one day. Because I overcame my anxiety and spoke to a stranger. Because I allowed the Universe to lead me and guide me. Namaste. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** *edited to correct typos |
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