Fired

I think moms all over the US will agree that whoever designed the packaging for Apples to Apples is FIRED.  If the kids even shift the package, every single card falls out, and that gives me a lovely 20-minute session of putting all the cards right in the back slot.  I'd throw it away, but it's a good game.

And know who else is fired?  Whoever designs packaging for tents and stuff.  I never can squish any of it small enough to go back in the bag without plenty of grunting and struggling.

And Jill is also fired.  Know why?  Today I took her and Timmy with me to go to the Post Office to mail a package to Jeremy.  I put Timmy in his stroller, and Jill was all excited to push him around.  She loves looking at all the things for sale in the store side of the Post Office.  But usually she just pulls the reusable shopping bags off the wall and puts stuffed animals in them.  No biggy.  Well, today as I was filling out the customs ticket and getting everything all set with the package, Jill disappeared with the sleeping Timmy in his stroller.  I hurried and finished up and then went looking for her.  I found her over by the wall of greeting cards.  I noticed that she'd taken one of those shopping bags and put it on the handle of the stroller.  Then I noticed there was something in it.  And I'm sure you guessed it - she'd taken entire stacks of cards out of the display and dumped them all together in the bag.  Silly girl!  I tried and tried to figure out which envelopes went with which cards and where each stack went, but I finally ended up giving up.  But I did get a good laugh out of it.  Oh, Jill!

Little Stripper

After church today, Timmy wandered around the house for a while and then ended up without one of his shoes after a while.  He came to be held, and I took off the other one.  Then he made it very clear that he wanted his socks off as well.  Before five minutes had passed he had stepped out of his pants.  A few hours later I took off his shirt so he could eat beans without staining it.  And then as I was putting dinner away he wandered nonchalantly into the kitchen with absolutely nothing on.  I'm not sure where he left his diaper, but he seemed pleased to be free of it, and he just kind of went about his business as usual.  I laughed about it, but continued to put dinner away, figuring I'd just hurry and then get a diaper on him as quickly as I could.  It doesn't hurt to allow a little baby nudity, right?  Well, before I finished he squatted down and pooped right on the kitchen floor!  Argh!  I got him cleaned up and put a diaper on him, and not five minutes after that he had stripped that diaper off too.  Heaven help us!

Poor Fella

My poor baby woke up repeatedly last night.  Looooooong night!  This morning at 5:30 I was fed up.  I marched us both downstairs (after stubling over the boys who were sleeping on my floor - who will NOT be there tonight!) and tried rocking him.  That usually helps.  It didn't really do the job this time, though, and then he threw up all over himself.  I gave him a bath and tried to get us some more sleep, but I was awake and he kept fussing every five minutes before falling asleep again.  And he's still throwing up.  So sad!  I'm thankful that at least he doesn't have a fever!  And I'm praying that this does not spread to everyone else!

We were supposed to go camping this evening to celebrate the last day of school, but we're not going to make it.  It is really, really windy today and I'm not sure how long this sickness will last.  These are not good camping conditions.  I felt bad telling Joshua that we couldn't go. He's really been looking forward to it.  But Hyrum reminded me that we could go on Monday if we want.  Hooray!  Maybe we'll try that.

In the meantime, the declaration, "Timmy's sick," reminds me of The Secret of Nimh, and my arms are gettin very tired.  Timmy keeps falling asleep, but he does not want to be put down.  That boy is getting heavy!

Look at This

This picture is from July of last year.  Becca, Austin, and Rachel came to visit, and Rachel took this picture of us.  I love it!  And just look how much littler all my kiddos look.  Crazy!

Thank Heavens, He's There!

Jeremy's dorm room

I'm so thankful all that flying is over and he's there.  We just got done Skyping him.  We couldn't see him because he doesn't have a camera or even a place to plug one in, but we could see him. :) It made me cry.  It's 1:30 there - too late for him to be up skyping, but thank heavens for the technology of today!  It sure makes this a lot better.  I've actually been sitting by the computer for way too long, dying for any news from him.  I'm just so thankful!  Jill loved hearing her Papa and was sad to hang up and let him sleep.

He's Gone

Jill has been talking for the last 2 days about going to see the airplane. She kept saying things like, "A miss you a airplane." And she kept asking if she could come on the airplane. Then she found the toy airplane Hyrum bought with his own money when he was about Jill's age, and she kept asking if she could go on that airplane.  Then Papa showed her some airplanes taking off.  And she also kept asking if she could go with Papa.  And then she'd start the process over.  And over.  And over.  It was a bit maddening and sad.

At 5:30 this morning we all left home and hurried out to the airport.  Jeremy quickly kissed us goodbye and ran inside to check in.  I intended for us to stay outside to watch the plane take off, but it was really loud just idling, so we went into the waiting room.  We could see Jeremy on the other side of the window in the passenger waiting room.  Joshua had his camera, so he and I were both taking pictures and video.  Jill stood on the windowsill and told the airplane to go up over and over again.  After Jeremy turned in his boarding pass he came ot the window and waved goodbye to Jill and the rest of us again.  Finally, the plane taxied away, and then after a little wait we saw it zoom down the runway and fly away.  All this time I was trying hard not to just bawl.  It was fun to show the plane to the kiddos and have them watch it go, but Hyrum and I had a hard time watching Papa go.  It was just so sad. 

And then I came home with 6 wide-awake children and 2 hours to go before we had to get to school.  I made pancakes and just tried to stay busy.  All morning I just had such a sickening feeling.  It was not fun.  And I kept breaking down and crying.  But I made breakfast, and we watched Cinderella, and then we took the boys to school.  I took Jill and Timmy shopping, and by the time I was done shopping things felt better.  Life goes on.  I miss Jeremy, and it pains me to think he's headed to the other side of the continent.  He'll be on the other side of the world tomorrow, with an 8-hour time difference.  But I'm very excited for him, and I think that if I just focus on one hurdle at a time I can do this.  It will be all right.  Still, I can't wait to welcome him home 2 a little over 2 months!

Joshua

Today we had a meeting about Joshua.  It included a special ed. teacher, the school psychologist, the principal, and Joshua's teacher.  Jeremy and I were there with the 2 little ones (who turned out to do very well through the whole thing), and we brought Joshua with us too.  They tried to persuade us to leave him out of it because they would be discussing test scores and things, but we insisted that we wanted him in there.  We want him to know what's going on, and we want him involved in the process.  This is about his future, and he should have some say.  I was thankful that Jeremy was there to be with me.  They seemed a little disgusted when we insisted that Joshua stay there, but really, we left it up to Joshua and he wanted to stay.  It did feel a little uncomfortable for a bit, but overall the meeting went well.

The psychologist led the group and talked about the tests he did with Joshua.  To make a very long story short, he pointed out that Joshua has the skills he needs to do the tasks and that he's a smart boy.  He knows how to do things.  He just takes a long time to process it.  That's what we have seen too.  And that's what his teacher has noticed.  After hearing her talk about her experiences with Joshua, I feel so thankful for her, and I honestly feel like we were brought here so that Joshua could have her as a teacher.  She said that she was the one who allowed Joshua all the time he needed for the end-of-level tests.  She said there was no rush.  She knows he has the skills and that he could do the tests, but she knew he needed extra time to do it.  Other teachers would probably have just thought he doesn't know the material.  She knew the truth, though, and I'm thankful.

Anyway, the psychologist went through all the tests and the questionaires we and Mrs. Smith filled out.  The information definitely nothing new.  We sat there nodding our heads the whole time.  He showed us the math tests and the IQ tests where he had to code things and match weird shapes.  All the work he did was very precise, and it was mostly correct.  He just didn't have enough time to finish because he takes so long to process.

In the end, the psychologist didn't give a definite diagnosis or anything, but he said that he definitely would classify Joshua as having an autism spectrum disorder.  And he explained to us that he feels too many people are being classified as having autism nowadays (kind of like the ADHD craze before), so he really, really hesitates to even bring the idea up.  But he said that in Joshua's case it definitely fits.

So they gave us 2 different routes we could take.  One would be an IEP where Joshua would be placed in special ed. to recieve specialized everything.  I can't remember the name of the other route, but it sounds way better for Joshua.  I think everyone in the room agreed that it would be best to leave him in the regular classroom, but to just make accommodations for him.  Maybe they can give him less busy work, and they can probably give him more time to work on his schoolwork at school so that he won't have to bring it home.  They expressed concern over the middle school years that are coming up because he'll have all those different subjects with homework in each one, and that will be just too much.  But in middle school he could also do study hall, and that would help.  On the other hand, I know that, at least here, if he does study hall he won't be able to do the other options, and that would be sad.  I think they have band, choir, and orchestra as the other options.  I know Hyrum had to pick one, and he picked orchestra.  Joshua really would like to do orchestra, though.  We may have to finagle to work things out because I know music would be so good for him.  I guess we will see. 

I can't begin to explain to you what this means, though!  It really can mean that he can succeed and that middle and high schools do not have to be a nightmare for him.  I am so, so thankful!  This means that so much the advantage over so many people who before him have been undiagnosed who needed to be.  While I feel very sad for their suffering, I feel incredibly grateful for these opportunities that Joshua has.

And now all we have left to do is discuss the decision with Joshua and then sign papers for it.  I'm sure he will choose to stay in a regular classroom.  It's been so beneficial for him so far.

One thing that was really funny to us about the meeting was when they were talking about how serious Joshua is.  Yes, that is how he is at school.  They can't get him to smile or laugh.  He's finally starting to open up to his teacher and process things with her like he does with me during homework time and at bedtime.  But he's still very serious.  We kind of laughed about the thought that they don't think he has a sense of humor.  We explained to them that Joshua was probably the first of our children to make up a joke and that he is not nearly so serious or quiet at home.  Joshua heard us tell them, and, boy, are we going to hear it from him when he gets home!  That is his one deep, dark secret that he has repeatedly told us that he doesn't want out.  But this group kind of needed to know that, and I am sure they won't tell his fellow students, which is probably what Joshua is really worried about.

In other news, Timmy has learned to say, "No-no-no-no-no-no," when he does something he knows I told him not to do.  Silly boy!  And sometimes when he pulls my hair he says, "Ow."

And in other other news, Jeremy flies out tomorrow morning.  /sob.

5 days

We've got only 5 days left until Jeremy leaves for Paris.  Yesterday I was thinking back on the last 2 months and kind of comparing that to the two months we have ahead.  Two months may go by fast, but it's a long time!  It's just plain unsettling to think about.

Today Jeremy is presenting his project that he did to make up the one credit he needs.  He did an analysis on the advertising that the aquatic center has done and what effect their advertising has had.  It was kind of frustrating for him because they haven't been consistent with their advertising and they haven't kept great records of what they've done.  But the project is done.  I read over it yesterday, and I think he did a great job.  I'm so proud of all he's accomplished.  He's worked hard and done so well.  And I'm relieved to think that he can be done with school for a few days after today. 

The other night Jeremy and I were up late, and he was looking around Paris on Google Earth.  He found his dorm, his school, and his church.  His dorm is such a beautiful old brick building.  It sounds like he'll have a room to himself, and they provide sheets, blankets, and pillows.  We're not sure how the food situation works, but I'm sure he'll figure it out.  He promised he would. :) And he found that Notre Dame is on the way to church.  Isn't that interesting?

We've been trying to help Jill understand that Papa is going away on a plane and he will be gone long.  She understands as much as she can.  She doesn't like her Papa to leave.  I think Timmy knows something is going on too.  He just acts like he knows his world is about to change.  Yesterday as Jeremy was leaving to put some finishing touches on his project Jill hugged him tight and said, "A miss you a plane."  Sweet girly.  Whose face is she going to kick and lay on in the middle of the night?

And speaking of which, both babies have wanted me to rock them to sleep lately.  The last two nights I came downstairs and sat with them in my rocking recliner until they were asleep.  Then I had the challenge of getting them both upstairs to bed.  I left Jill on the recliner while I took Timmy, and then I took Jill.  It was a bittersweet moment because I realized that I could do this on my own, but at the same time, I didn't want to do it on my own.  I tell ya, the day Jeremy comes home will be a happy day indeed.  I believe that banners and balloons will be in order. :)

We have an appointment next Tuesday morning (the day before Jeremy leaves) to talk with people at the boys' school about Joshua.  I am so incredibly thankful!  We'll have Joshua's teacher along with 2 special ed people, the counselor, and the principal.  I hope it all works out good.  I'm trying to have faith that it will and that they won't do or say anything off the wall crazy.  I'm planning on having Joshua in there.  I don't think he needs to be shielded from this. AS doesn't mean something's wrong with him.  It's just a difference.  I like the idea of having tools to help him succeed.  Isn't that an amazing thought?  And speaking of which, yesterday he had a math section for his end-of-level tests to do, and they let him go in a lot earlier than his class to work on it.  I think it's a result of those AS tests, and I'm so thankful they would accommodate him in that way.  That is just so nice.

Blast It

I just removed the old nail polish from Jill's nails so Jeremy could put new nail polish on.  I just realized this may be the last time this happens in a couple of months.  I feel like bawling.  I love that she was giggling as he started, like she was absolutely thrilled to be getting pretty nails again.

They got talking as he was painting, about how Papa's going away on an airplane, but today he needs to go to school and get his project done.  So Jill asked him to take her both places, and just about made him bawl.

Speaking of the girly - she woke up early this morning, just as I was about to go out the door to take the boys to school.  She hung out with me while I cleaned up.  I made her some eggs and found her a movie that she wanted to watch.  It was so nice just spending a little time with just the two of us.  I was running around, but I was also taking care of her at the same time.  Her presence is lovely.  I love that girly.

In other non-blast-it news, it's our 13th anniversary today!  Happy anniversary, Jeremy!  I love you!

Good News

I talked with Jeremy yesterday, and he says his housing is indeed paid for and his registration is working out.  Hooray!  He's been working hard on his project to cover his extra 1 credit.  He may be done soon, I hope.

My book was on my doorstep yesterday!  I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this one.  I quit editing earlier than I have with the other 2 books.  I just wasn't feeling it.  It felt fake.  Well, having it in my hands is quite a different experience.  I fell in love with it again. :)  I made it kind of yellow this time, and the text pages have a flower in the background.  I love it how it came out.  And it has a ton of pictures, which is even more fun.


Another thing that happened yesterday was that we finally heard something from the school about Joshua's tests for Asperger's Syndrome.  The guy apologized up and down about how long it's taken.  It's funny because the last time I asked the school about the tests turned out to be like the day before the tests happened.  And this call I got yesterday came right after Jeremy contacted the school asking if they knew anything about the test results.  Anyway, the guy asked when we're available to come and have a conference with the school psychologist and the special ed teacher.  I want to be sure that Joshua's included in that conference, but I think they said he will be.  And he said something about getting him classified in autism or something.  That meant to me that they've definitely figured something out.  I just hope that they don't just put him in special ed. or something.  He needs to be in regular classes.  He's a smart guy.  I'm not sure how it will all work out, but I'm sure praying!


And the last bit of news for now - I just wanted to record that the other day Timmy was in the kitchen with me, and he started fussing like he does when he wants water.  I put the cup up to the fridge to get water and said, "Oh, do you want more?"  He responded by saying, "Mo, mo, mo, mo," and trying to sign it too.  His sign ended up being just his little fists bonking together, but it was so cute!  Yea, Timmy!

And in not-so-happy news, last night the boys begged and begged to go play with their friends outside when all their assignments were done.  We finally let them out, and not 5 minutes later Hyrum came in crying.  He'd fallen down and landed on his arm.  His wrist was hurting pretty badly.  I'm not sure what to think of that.  I've been letting Jeremy kind of take care of it because that's his department.  Hopefully it's not broken!  I suppose we'll see.

Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Worse

Timmy loves outside.  He can't get enough.  Every now and then when his brothers come home from school he tries to slip out the door too.  Today a few minutes after the boys got home I realized I didn't know where Timmy was.  Hyrum and I frantically searched all over in the house and one the back patio.  I looked out the front door and didn't see him.  I was scared to death.  Then I looked way down at the end of the town home complex and finally spied his little red shirt.  I sprinted over there to see him crying at the last door in the complex, hoping somebody would rescue him.  He was gripping the pencil he'd escaped with and was just so sad.  It broke my heart.  I scooped him up and held him close, so thankful that he hadn't run into the road.  I think that he ran out as his brothers trooped in, and then when they shut the door he didn't know what to do.  Poor fella.  I sat and held him tight and he fell asleep.  I'd better watch extra close.

Jill has been so hard to deal with lately.  One of her favorite things to do lately is to run into my bedroom and lock the door.  She gets into so many random things that she knows she shouldn't.  And then when she gets scolded she gets so sad and says, "Sowy, Mommy."  How am I supposed to stay mad? ;)

Well, this evening we were watching something together when Joshua suddenly came downstairs to report that Jill was doing something she shouldn't.  I ran upstairs to our bathroom where she was and found probably the most expensive mess any of our children have ever made.  Jeremy has lots of vitamins and minerals that he keeps in the bathroom.  Well, he doesn't have any anymore.  Every single thing from every single one of those bottles had been dumped in the sink.  She must have tried to wash it all down because some of the pills were already dissolved.  And not only that, but she took the box of finger bandaids and stuffed it full of wet pills, and then she gave the whole mess a good coating of that pretty lotion that people like to give me that I never use. (Sorry, guys.  I'm a gal who needs serious moisturizers.)

And, blast it all, one of these days I will be that mother who grabs the camera instead of crying.  There goes one more moment that we will only relive in our memories.  But it will still make for good blackmail someday. ;)

A Few Orders of Business

Yesterday we had a busy evening.  There was a chess tournament for Hyrum and Joshua, 2 separate scout meetings for Joshua and Benji, and on top of it Jeremy was gone all day working on his project and studying for his final. I dropped Benji off at scouts at 5:00 and went to the school to catch the last of the tournament.  Then we went home for a few minutes before I had to take Joshua to scouts.  I didn't get dinner done until after Joshua was home, but we made it!  Phew!  It doesn't sound like much, but I am no soccer mom.  Days like that make my head swim.

The good news is that Jeremy thinks he did well on his final.  He won't find out for sure until next week, but hooray for Jeremy!  And check out this other good news:

That's right!  Hyrum won a trophy from the chess tournament!  He didn't place in his grade, but he placed 2nd overall.  Don't aske me how that works, but hooray for Hyrum! :D  The trophy says, "Fiddlersburg Invitational Chess Tournament - 2012, 2nd Place Over All."

Joshua won the round that I watched, but I don't think he won any others.  He's learning, though!  The tournament included 2 other schools, but they didn't have very many players.  In all there were about 24 participants, and more than half were from our school, so, of course, our school kept the traveling trophy.

And in other news, on Saturday afternoon I had Benji make me some toast.  What we didn't realize was that somebody had made a puddle of dish soap on the counter, right where he set my toast down to butter it.  Oh, my goodness.  I about died.  I felt grossed out for a good 20 minutes until I could get the taste out of my mouth and the gagginess out of my body.  And the next day, look what Jill did (yes, I do think she was the one who made the mess on the counter too):

Yes, she did dump the dish soap all over the kitchen floor.  Argh!  I was without dish soap until yesterday when I finally got to the store, and, yes, my kitchen is a disaster.  I'll be tackling that again today with a vengeance.

And just for fun, here's a story that Michael wrote for a school assignment.  I gave him a sheet of copy paper folded in half so he could have 4 pages to write on, and this is what he came up with. (I added words with Paint just for clarity.)

Not bad, not bad. :) I love this age where they're just learning to read and write. :)

Oh, and one other bit of fun that happened the day before yesterday: Jeremy brought home a pile of Euros.  He got enough to cover his expenses.  Glad to have that taken care of!  It looks like play money, and each bill is a different size.  The less money it's worth, the smaller the bill is.  It was kind of fun to look at. :) Things are working out.  He's had some trouble getting registered, but it sounds like that's clearing up.  He's found a place to live, and I believe the payment for that is already sent.  I'm excited for him and I hope he'll have a great experience.  I'm scared to death, but I think it will be a good experience and I'm excited for all of us as well.  I do think that Jill is going to miss her Papa terribly.  Poor girly.  We're trying to prepare her for it, but how do you prepare a 2-year-old for this?  She cannot understand.  Still, we both know this is what we are supposed to do, so we are doing it.

Time is Short

Jeremy is leaving for Paris 2 weeks from today.  That is coming up fast.  I'm sure going to feel short-handed without him.  What do you do when you lose a pair of hands, especially when they belong to your best friend, the one you cannot do without?  You pray, that's what!  That's a good thing to do anyway.

In other news, this morning as we drove past the high school Joshua said, "Mommy, I want to go to high school so I can run away from jerks."  What?  Where did that come from?  Ha, ha!  I asked him why he said that and he said, "I don't know I just feel like I'd like to do that."