I posted a few weeks ago about taking my son on a tour of a local vocational education school. They had a program there that he loves...Interactive Media. He has been home schooled (cyberschool) for the past 4 years becuz of General Anxiety Disorder. He had debilitating panic attacks. He now has meds and the doctor has them adjusted for him. And the doctor said that TJ needs to get out and interact more. I have always wanted this for him but he has become afraid of how he WILL get along in the big wide world. He has lost his motivation. So, I got to looking things over around here (we have only lived in this location for not quite 3 years now). I found that VoEd school with that particular program. Since it is not in our school district...yet closer than the VoEd school that the kids in our school district would go to...we had to wait and go through and Open Enrollment. I have been praying day and night about this.

I opened up our family e-mail account today and there was an e-mail from the one in charge of enrollment at that VoEd...congratulating TJ about becoming one of their students in that program for this fall!!! Tears sprang to my eyes. YES! Finally...something that he can be happy to do...something he loves! I told him and at first a look of sheer excitement spread across his face...then, I saw a look of terror flit across it too. I knew what he was thinking. He wants to do this program in the worst way. Yet, he is worried about getting back out there with everyone. He has mixed feelings...but I know once he gets there...he will settle in.

AND my baby girl..not so baby anymore...will be re-registering in the Middle School for this coming Fall. I will be alone...but...not really. I have my own school to finish. Will we begin to have a 'normal' family life, again? You know, the kind of family life I was used to growing up? Hard for me to fathom.

I know, I know...you all get tired of hearing about Scrawny.

This is my view from the swing on my back porch. Scrawny is in the corner by the drain pipe...you can see the evergreen trees in the background that shield us from the car wash on the other side.


I zoomed in on Scrawny eating the breakfast of walnuts I left for him.



This morning I sat out on the porch drinking my coffee...I remembered the walnuts. I also noticed the baby bunny had eaten the baby carrots I left. She didn't eat the parsley however.

Scrawny, it seems, has made a friend. A rather large robin. As Scrawny came scampering across the yard and ducking under bushes, I noticed that everytime the grackels came to swoop in to peck at him, the Robin would swoop in after them and peck them...clearing them from the yard for a time. And then the Robin would sit on the wire above being rather noisy...as if to tell them, "Yeah...you fly away...who owns this yard now?" I laughed and laughed! How great!

Scrawny ate up the pile of nuts and left. Wasn't but a half hour and he was back, peeking over the edge of the porch and looking at me. "Where's the nuts?" "You ate the nuts." He'd disappear. Then peek again, "Where's the nuts?" "You already ate the nuts...remember?" He disappeared. Peeked again, "Where's the nuts?" "Are you really hungry today? Cuz you ate the nuts!" Then he just climbed up and sat there looking around the porch and then looked at me as if to say, "Yeah, I could eat! Don't you have ANY thing around here for me?" sigh..."okay, I'll get you some more." So he dived under the bush and watched as I went in the kitchen and got some more nuts...I'm a push over. I put them down there and he climbed back up and sat there inhaling them. I have a feeling that if I held my hand out full of nuts he would have taken them from me...but I'm not ready to get that friendly, yet. And he is still watching me. When he was done, he put his lower jaw on the carpet, and opened his mouth and moved it around the carpet like he was vacuuming up the crumbs. He sat up, looked at me, blinked then turned and scampered off across the yard. Very neat squirrel!

I was really sick yesterday. I woke up feeling awful...but it got continually worse throughout the day. Each joint in my body began to hurt, I was bone weary tired...then it crept up my spine. By night time, I was too much in pain to finish watching the movie with my family. My stomach got into the act. I took some sleep aide and plopped. I feel much better today but all I can remember is 14 years ago, when the tiredness and pain were a constant...my doctor took some blood tests and told me I had Epstein-Barr syndrome. For those of you that don't know it has been dubbed the "Yuppie Disease', only becuz it had just been 'discovered' by researchers and given a name. It has also been referred to, mostly, as 'Chronic Fatigue Syndrome'. I am sure it is mostly what I have been feeling the past few months. When she told me I felt like I had been gut punched. I had read stories about ppl with that disease. Some of them had it so bad they were in constant pain and too exhausted to even get out of bed...EVER! My first reaction was to cry...then, I told myself that was NOT going to be my life! I had a little boy and an absent husband. My son deserved better than that. So, I have tried to make adjustments to my diet and it has mostly worked. Every now and then, tho, it gets me...and I can't work through it. Evidently yesterday was one of those days. But...today is all good!

Hope everyone has a fun, relaxing weekend! My plans for today include stocking up on my plants for tomorrow. Tomorrow me and the shovel and gardening tools are going to work on my gardens. Flowers! I am so excited becuz the daddy brought home a bucket full of Red Hot Pokers from my mom's garden for me to plant! They are SO AWESOME! LOTS OF THEM!

It seems the daddy made it as far as Cleveland on his way home this morning. He got a call from his boss who told him to stop off at the airport and get himself on a flight to D.C. They had a customer who wanted/needed some personal attention and everyone else was on vacation (translation: he was the only one that answered his phone). He was supposed to catch a flight back out of D.C. and land back in Cleveland tonight. He had planned on sleeping on the plane then driving the other 3 1/2 hours home. But...the best laid plans of mice and men...they couldn't get him on a flight until Saturday a.m.

I took the kids to our favorite little Italian place for dinner. I let Jr. drive my van. He wasn't too bad but I found out something...he didn't quite get the concept of 'right turn on red'. He got to the intersection and wasn't stopping. I 'said'...HEY! RED LIGHT!

He stomped on the brakes (I would like to be VERY friendly to the inventor of the disc brakes AND harness seat belts right now) and gave me a dirty look. "You said you can turn right on red!"

"YEAH...after you STOP first!" He started to turn the corner.

"HEY! Do you SEE those other people who HAVE the right of way going?"

Again, with the stomping on the brakes.

"You SAID turn right on red!"

"Forget the right on red!"

"But those people behind me are gonna get mad!"

"Screw them! I don't give a S**T about the people behind you! I'm more concerned with the ones that are moving!"

"NOW can I go?"

"Do you see anyone else approaching that lane from any other direction?"

"No." "Then go. Sheesh."

We got to the restaurant...where he spent his time with his head on a swivel looking over the girls. He made sure they saw HIM with the keys when we left. He did better on the way home. But before we left the parking lot, I made sure he got the concept of 'turn right on red'.

Feeding Scrawny Squirrel...my daughter sat right there and took his picture. She was thrilled!

Speaking of daughter...just when did my little girl grow up?

Over night...the transformation.


I am getting quite nervous. My daughter's GS troop will be heading off to Washington D.C. in less than two weeks for a GS Troop sing along on the mall. My baby...going on such a long trip without me. I have to trust someone else to take care of her! And I have to trust her to pay attention!

Her troop leader is a most excellent and capable woman...and so are her assistants. Really terrific women! She sent out a list of things they will need for the days they will be gone. I was talking about it with a friend today who started to give me some helpful hints...and I didn't mean to be rude...but I interrupted with, "hey, who are you talkin' to here?" The friend's response was, "Oh, I'm sorry...I forgot!"

I am the kind of person that will think through every possible scenario and TRY really hard to make sure the bases are covered.

For instance...alot of parents remember 'bottle bags', right? From the time my kids were potty trained, the bottle bag was the entertainment bag. It saved me SO many headaches. My kids loved goldfish crackers and juice boxes. When I bought a bag of gold fish crackers I would instantly divvy it all up into individual ziploc baggies...so they would be able to grab and run. Before I went anywhere with my little ones I made sure to have a baggy or two of the goldfish, a juice box and non-drip cup of water, their favorite little toy figures, pencils/crayons, paper/coloring book stuffed into that bag. It would keep them amused while I was doing whatever I had to do when we were away from home.

I remember my parents taking me and the kids to the Pittsburgh airport to catch a flight to Minnesota (I was going to help the daddy pack up and come home). When we got there, our flight was delayed by almost two hours. I assured my parents we would be fine. They accompanied us to the waiting area (that obviously was when you could still do that) and there was a McDonald's right there. I bought the kids some Happy Meals and we got settled in. I handed the kids their bags...and they settled right in with their food and their books and whatever I had packed to amuse them. My parents decided I had things all under control and off they went. The kids didn't even seem to notice the long wait.

I also remember my daughter's dance recital. I had packed a bag for that too. When the other mom's little rugrats were getting restless and bored waiting in the hallway for their sibling's turn on stage, I pulled out crayons, pencils, paper and books and gathered them all around. I even had little cars for them to play with. Then a mom came hurrying in with her little princess...with a hole in her tights from falling in the parking lot. I pulled out bandaids and first aid cream, an extra pair of tights and gave her...and the next little girl too. When one of the girls was losing the feather strip from her costume, I gave her mom safety pins...when another girl's head decoration wouldn't stay in place I have her mom some hair pins...and I handed out hair ties. I also had lip rouge and mascara. Finally one of hte moms looked at me real disgusted and said, "What are you? Super Mom?" I'm sorry...I am just trying to avoid last minute surprise anxiety. Is that so wrong?

My mother used to laugh at me when I had this 'case' that I carried that she called my mobile pharmacy. Bandaids, tums, something for motion sickness, barf bags, antiseptic, something for diarrhea, something for constipation, the hand wipes, toilet seat covers, etc. You know...essentials IN CASE! I also kept in the back, always packed in the warm weather, swimsuits, towels, floatation devices and snorkel masks. fold up scooters. In winter it was the snowboards. Hey...you never know!