Spencer was sooo jealous when Skyler lost her first tooth. And then Skyler lost another tooth. It was so unfair. He didn’t have any loose teeth. Let alone teeth that were falling out. The tooth fairy kept coming to visit Skyler. She was getting rich and Spencer’s pockets were empty.

But then, FINALLY one of his teeth started to wiggle. He was so excited. He wiggled that little tooth for days. He used his finger. He used his tongue. He talked about it daily. But that little tooth was hanging on for dear life.

Until yesterday!

Spencer finally lost his first tooth; the bottom left center tooth [which I'm sure has a much more technical name, but I'm no dentist].

He was so happy. He has told everybody. All of the kids at Sunday School got to hear all about it. He asked me if I knew his teacher’s home phone number. I said, “no.” So he said, “Well do you know Mrs. Armstrong’s [Skyler's teacher's] number?” I asked him why he wanted to know. He said, “So she can tell Ms. Howe that I lost my tooth.” Instead I emailed Ms. Howe to give her the news. Spencer can’t wait to go to school on Monday to tell her all about his lost tooth and the dollar the tooth fairy brought him.

As Skyler was heading off to bed last night I told her we should sleep in tomorrow. She gave me a raised eyebrow look that said “yeah right, Mom.”

See Skyler is sooo not a late sleeper. I don’t know where she got that from. It certainly wasn’t from me. It must be from her father.

I have tried and tried to get the kids to enjoy the morning in bed, but they just do not love sleeping in like I do. So imagine my surpise when I went up to bed and saw this sign on Skyler’s door:

» Continue reading “Sleeping In”

Excuse me for a moment!

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!

Ok, I feel a little better now.

It has been an extremely stressful week. There’s been lots to blog about, but I’ve had little time or energy to blog about it. I’m exhausted.

Lee is gone until Monday so I’m playing single mom for these five days. I wasn’t too worried about it. I’m Super Mom. I can handle it.

Yeah right!

First, I had my big team presentation at school on Tuesday night. That means I had to give my last speech in front of my class. And this time it wasn’t just my grade I was affecting. This time the presentation (1) counted for a grade [our previous speeches were not graded unless you didn't do them] and (2) my performance could affect my teammates grades. Talk about anxiety. I was so worried I was going to blow it for those kids. I was in panic mode. But I think it went fairly well.

So then we moved on to Wednesday. Lee left at 2pm so I had to pick the kids up from the school bus. I expected this to be a quick little twenty minute trip up to the bus stop and back. I was working after all and I was just using this as an afternoon break.

However, the bus driver had other plans.

Skyler was still home with me recovering from her surgery. And, of course, Caleb was with me too. Spencer’s bus got to the bus stop with no problems and all four of us waited for Keaton & Justis’ bus.

After a few minutes it pulled up…coming from the wrong direction. I thought that was odd since almost all of the kids would then have to cross the fairly busy street to get to their homes. Apparently it is a fairly new bus driver.

Then the bus just sat there. The bus driver didn’t pop out the stop sign or anything. The bus was just parked on the side of the road with all the kids standing up.

After about five minutes I got all of the little kids in to the van, buckled their seatbelts, grabbed my keys and began to head across the street with my best attitude. I so didn’t have time to wait for some freaking bus driver to hold my kids hostage on the damn bus.

As I was crossing the street a cop car pulled up. Wholly cow they get their fast when you jay walk. Only they weren’t there for me.

A minute later another cop car showed up. Two cops then walked over to the bus and one of them went in the bus. After a few seconds he emerged with two boys. I couldn’t really hear exactly what was going on, but I did hear the cops ask for the boy’s names and addresses. Then they told them the school would be calling their parents and they better be good.

Finally the bus driver let the kids off the bus. I asked Keaton and Justis what was up. Apparently the two boys had gotten in to a fight. It was a small kid and a really tall kid. According to Justis the boys were yelling at each other and then the small kid hit the big kid a couple of times. When the bus driver threatened to write them up, one of the boys said “Fuck off bus driver.” So that’s when the bus driver called the cops.

If what Keaton and Justis say is true then the bus driver needs to grow a set of balls and be a man. He can’t handle some middle school kid tell him to “fuck off?” Please. I think writing them up and contacting their parents would have been sufficient. But noooo. Instead he turns my twenty minute break in to 45 minutes. Plus I about had a heart attack when I saw two cop cars coming up and a cop boarding the bus where my babies were sitting.

Then Thursday came. Surely Thursday would be better. But no….no it wasn’t.

Have I mentioned that I have not had a full nights sleep in over a week. Not since the night before the night before Skyler’s surgery. The night before her surgery I couldn’t sleep because I was so worried about her. Would she be ok? Would there be some freak accident? I am really good at freaking myself out. Then since her surgery she has had very restless nights. Since her throat is still very tender she’s been breathing through her mouth which then makes her throat dry and itchy and sore. It’s really just a vicious, no sleeping cycle.

So Thursday morning I was tired after having gotten up with Skyler in the middle of the night to get her some cold water and rub her back as she drifted back to sleep. Plus Lee is normally the one who gets up with the kids and gets them to school. I am usually sleeping through all of that. But since he’s gone, it’s my butt that’s up at 6:40am. 6:40am! I am so not a 6:40am kind of girl.

I got the kids to the bus, returned home and crawled back in bed for another hour of sleep. Skyler crawled in bed with me and took a nice long nap. So things were starting to look up.

When it was time to pick the kids up from the bus later that afternoon, I got Caleb and Skyler in to the van and I sat down in the driver’s seat. Only something was a miss. Hmmm….what is it?

Oh yeah, my rearview mirror was missing. WTF?!? I looked around, but I couldn’t find it. Then I saw the cherries [the air fresheners that used to be hanging from the missing mirror] on the floor. But still no sign of the mirror. What the hell happened to my mirror? For a minute there I thought somebody stole it. Why would somebody get in to my van, right in front of my house, in the middle of the day to steal my rearview mirror. Just as I was starting to curse this hoodlum I found the mirror under the backseat. It must have bounced back there. But that still didn’t solve my problem. How do I get my mirror back on the window?

I didn’t have time to worry about it. I had to get the boys. So I headed off to get them. When we returned home I tried to brainstorm some ideas for my mirror. The best thing I could come up with was duct tape. How ghetto is that? Duct taping your mirror to your window.

But before I attempted the duct tape solution I talked to my dad. He informed me that there are actually problems that duct tape cannot solve. And this situation is one of them. He said the mirror is too heavy for duct tape [how many times can I say duct tape in one paragraph?]. He suggested that I run up to the auto store and get some kit with special glue that will be strong enough for my mirror. I have yet to run up to the auto store [which is practically within walking distance], but that’s my goal before the weekend ends.

And then it was Friday. Oh glorious Friday. How I love you so….usually, but not today!

Earlier in the day I joked to my mom that I wasn’t going to pick the kids up from the bus today because bad things just keep happening when I pick them up. Ha ha. I’m so funny. Little did I know I almost wasn’t joking.

Keaton’s heel has been bothering him for a couple of weeks. I didn’t really think it was that big deal. He’s still been running around on it, going to soccer practice and baseball practice. I thought he was just grumbling because he’s doing some much running at sports practices. He has soccer practice from 3:30 to 5:30 and baseball practice from 6 to 7:30pm every Tuesday and Thursday. So I thought he was just getting tired of that. But I went ahead and made him an appointment with the doctor anyway.

Keaton’s appointment was at 3pm. That gave us a half hour at the doctor’s appointment before we had to pick up everybody else from the bus. I thought that was plenty of time. I think we all know where this is going….

We were about five minutes late. Then we had to wait in the waiting room for another five to ten minutes. I know that not a very long wait, but when you’re in a hurry ten minutes feels like four days. By the time we saw the doctor we only had about ten minutes before we had to leave.

And then the doctor wanted x-rays. X-rays?!? We don’t have x-rays. I started to panic. I wanted to cry. What do I do?

I tried to call a few people, but nobody answered the phone. Even more panic.

When the x-ray tech came in I said, “How long is this going to take?” I know she thought I was being a bitch. But really I wasn’t trying to be. I was just in full panic mode. I told her I had to pick my other kids up. She told me to go ahead and go, that Keaton would be ok. As I was rushing out I stopped and told Debbie I was running to get the kids and would be right back.

I cannot tell you how big of a loser I felt. I really felt like they should just go ahead and call DHS right then so the could meet me at the door when I got back. What kind of freaking mother leaves her kid at the doctor’s office?

Of course I hit EVERY SINGLE FREAKING red light on the way to the bus stop. By the time I got there to get the kids, the bus was long gone and all but two of the other kids were already at home. But Justis had Skyler and Spencer and they were patiently waiting for their neglectful mother who just abandoned them at the bus stop.

On my frantic trip back to the doctor’s office, I was taking deep breaths…because I tend to work myself in to a tizzy. Justis goes, “It’s going to be ok. He’s at the doctor’s office.” He’s such a good kid.

We finally made it back to the doctor’s office and Keaton was all calm and collected waiting for us in the procedure room. He couldn’t have cared less that I just abandoned him at the doctor’s office. Kids tend to handle this kind of thing way better than adults. Well at least way better than me.

So the doctor came in and went over the x-ray with me. And guess what? Yep, it’s fractured.

I cannot believe we have another fractured foot. What is the deal? Justis just got out of his boot less than a month ago. And now Keaton has one. Justis’ boot was completely destroyed by the time he was done with it. Plus it would have been too big for Keaton anyway. So I took Keaton to the medical supply store for his very own. We are starting to become regulars there.

I have never needed a vacation like I need a vacation right now. Thank God I’m not a big drinker because I’m sure I’d be slamming them back by this point if I was. I don’t think I’ll even get out of bed tomorrow. When I get out of bed bad things happen.

I was reading an article on ClubMom regarding giving kids rewards for good grades. I think I’ve mentioned before that we pay Keaton and Justis for good grades. And they owe us for bad grades. An A gets them $10, a B gets them $5, Cs are neutral, they owe us $5 for a D and they owe us $10 for an F. I’m not thrilled to be paying them for grades, but at this point I’m willing to try anything to motivate them to get the best grades they can. So I decided to read the article.

In the article the author, Stacy DeBroff, says:

Bribing your child to do schoolwork by offering money for each good grade translates their effort into getting the extrinsic reward instead of developing a sense of accomplishment and self-confidence in the work itself.

My response to that is “SO?” How is this any different then me going to work for a paycheck? Cause I’ve got to tell you, if they stopped giving me a paycheck I’d stop coming to work. I don’t work for the sense of accomplishment and self-confidence of the work itself. I work for the paycheck. I work for the reward. As much as I wish I worked because I loved it, I don’t. And I don’t think there are a lot of people who do. Even actors and athletes demand big paychecks for their work. That’s part of life.

Heck, I may pay to go to college, but I do it because of the payoff in the end. I expect that with a college degree I can get a better job with more money. Or at least I will have a better bargaining chip when seeking promotions and new positions within my current company.

We are a society of people doing things for something. You may not like it, but it is so.

I do wish my kids enjoyed school. I wish the learning and experience they get from school was all the motiviation they needed. But it’s not. So sometimes rewards are necessary.

I have seen spots on the national news about this too. Some high school gave kids with four years of perfect attendance a new car. Some people were upset by this. I guess they didn’t think giving them a car was a good way to encourage a kid to come to school everyday. I guess these people want the kids to come to school for the sense of accomplishment and self-confidence. I think those people are living in a dream world.

Do you remember school? It sucked. It was eight hours of boring. Other kids picking on you. Tests you thought you were prepared for, but still failed. Teachers teaching you things you were just sure you would never actually use after graduation. [And, honestly, as cool as it was to see the blue dye climb up the celery stalk, I have never actually used that in my day-to-day life. Nor do I remember why the blue dye crept up the celery stalk.] These are not the best years of your life. This is teenager-hood and pimples and mean girls and boys who won’t ask you out even when you beg God every single night.

School is the last place I think I would have ever found self-confidence. Poor body image? Yes. Low self-esteem? Yep, got that in high school too.

I don’t mean to sound so negative about school. Obviously school is a necessary evil. Obviously I want kids to go to school. And obviously I want kids to succeed in school. I absolutely believe in the importance of a good education. If for nothing else, I believe every single person should get a good education so I don’t have stupid people annoying me everywhere I go.

But in all seriousness, I don’t think a few extra bucks hurt anybody. However, I do agree with one thing; if you start paying the bucks and then stop, the motivation may stop too. So if you decide to fork over the dough you need to be prepared to do it forever. This is the risk I’m willing to take to get my kids to put forth a little more effort. Preaching about accomplishments and self-confidence has gotten me nowhere.