Tuesday
Not quite sure how the entire month has spend by since I last
wrote. Oh, yes I can…Where to start?
Let’s see…
Lizzie had a tube put in her right ear last Friday. This was the first time I’ve ever sat in a
surgery waiting area all by myself.
Pastor and Marcia used to go with me.
I guess I should get used to it, now.
Besides, ear tubes are pretty minor.
She did fine.
But, earlier in the week when I took Lizzie in for her pre-op physical,
I got a shock. The dr was horrified at
her physical development and thinks she may have something called, “Precocious
Puberty.” It kind of makes me mad
because 5 years ago I had the girls in this clinic. We saw a PA then. I noticed that at age 4, Lizzie already had
the beginnings of a chest so I asked the PA about that. She laughed and said, “Don’t you know that
all black girls are curvy?” Well, no, I
didn’t. How was I supposed to know? So all this time I’ve thought Lizzie’s early
development was normal because of her race.
The dr examined her and Lizzie was beyond mortified. He left the room and she cried in
embarrassment. She is a highly modest person, anyway, but I think I would
have cried, too. She wasn’t expecting to
be examined like that and then, hearing the dr’s concerns, now felt that there
was something wrong with her. Sigh…
The repurcussions for PP are quite high
- lots of health problems, mainly.
The biggie is that it stunts growth, because, apparently, girls
typically stop growing 2 years after the onset of their first period. I did not know that, either. So, if Lizzie starts soon, that means she’ll
quit growing at age 11, which will make her far too short for her body type. I could see obesity being a real issue down
the road. She needs the extra height her
growth charts are predicting to carry the solidness of her body weight. So, Thursday, I took her to another dr where
we had a bone scan done. Apparently,
this is used to diagnosis the condition.
I am still waiting for those results.
If and when they come back positive, then we go to an endocrinologist
who will put her on Luperon shots to slow down puberty. Tomorrow, Ellie goes to the same dr to see if
she is on track for the same condition.
She’s awfully curvy already, too, and I guess this tends to run in
families.
The dr. told me this is found most often in Hispanic women. The Mayo website said it’s actually highest
in the black community. I asked the
school nurse what she knew about it and she said not a whole lot, but , “Oh,
there’s nothing that can be done to treat it.”
Um, well, actually there is. I hope the endocrinologist has his/her head
in the game because I feel like I’m running into a number of people here who
don’t know a whole lot. Even at the xray
clinic I was told I would be called by that afternoon with results and 5 days
later, I am still waiting!
So, anyway, this has been a source of great concern to me for the past
week.
*****************************
Sunday, Will, David, and Sam got together with some friends and did some
shooting, making sure their guns are ready for hunting season. David has a new one. And now, thanks to it, he also has a broken
nose. He came home Sunday afternoon and
I thought he had dirt all over his nose.
My second thought was that his nose didn’t look like it was in the right
spot, but sometimes my eyes play tricks on me, too, so I didn’t say anything. But, he had fired his new gun and the
kickback got him right in the nose.
Fortunately, I just happened to have a small gel ice pack. He wrapped that in a towel and kept it on his
nose all night long.
I did some googling of “broken nose” and figured out that this probably
wasn’t an emergency but he should be seen by someone soon. So, I figured we’d go to Urgent Care on
Monday. I was already going to be in
town with Ben doing grocery shopping and I thought David could drive up and
meet us somewhere. I was at the Jordan
Creek Hy-Vee that morning and they have a walk-in clinic in the store. I popped my head in and asked the PA on duty
if they could examine David if I brought him later that day. She said she thought all facial injuries had to
be seen in the ER and even made a phone call double checking. Yep.
So, he met us at Methodist and we were there 2 hours. We left with confirmation of a broken nose
(and yes, it IS shoved off to the side – my eyes weren’t being crazy) and a
referral to an ENT. I called them today
and we see them in a week. They want to
give the swelling time to go down. The
receptionist was talking to me about David’s insurance and made the casual
comment, “If he has surgery…”
What?! I was just thinking they’d
pop the nose back in place or give him a nose cast (is there such a thing? David would die…). So I don’t know what we’re going to find out next week.
*********************
We have a kitten in the house – that’s new since I last wrote. I wasn’t planning to get another cat. But, my neighbor, Kate, had two mama cats who
gave birth in late Sept/early Oct. and both quit feeding their litters. So she was bottlefeeding quite a few
kittens. A number of them didn’t make
it. She has kittens fairly often at her
place and my kids like to go over and play with them. They were so excited on Halloween night to
discover all the new kitties at Kate’s and I had to pry them away to go finish
trick or treating. The entreaties began
and continued into the next day. I
wasn’t seriously considering another cat, but those kittens were awfully cute. Growing up, I had a
cat who would sneak under the covers with me and I loved the feel of sleeping
next to a purring animal. Bella never
did that. The most she’ll ever do is
sleep at the foot of my bed. Besides,
David is her favorite person. He has
spent plenty of nights sleeping on the couch or recliner because Bella fell
asleep in his lap and he didn’t have the heart to move her.And then he falls
asleep!
So, I ended up taking a teeny, tiny white kitten. She was maybe 4 weeks old at the most. I wanted to name her Augusta or Beatrice but
the kids turned their noses up at that.
So we went with Amelia. Oh, my
goodness, she was tiny. Her eyes were a
mess, too. But I figured the vet could
clean that up. I was bottlefeeding her
and she got lots of loving for a day and a half.
Then she died. I figured
something had happened when she didn’t wake me up at 4 in the morning with her
pitiful little mewling. I immediately
texted Kate and asked if we could try one of the slightly older kittens she
had. She had another white one that had
caught my eye before. So, we brought
home Olivia. I tried to name her Augusta
or Beatrice again, but the kids were having none of it. She was about 5 or 6 weeks when we brought her
home.
And she’s still alive! Oh, she is
adorable. She is white, but has a gray
tail, ears, feet, and face. She is so
playful! I took her to the vet and she
has been de-flead, de-wormed, de-earmited, and is slowly getting her shots. We are having a lot of fun. She loves to jump on people (and those claws
are sharp!) and when she purrs, it is
so loud. I have trained her to sleep in
my bed most nights. She’s such a social
little thing.
Bella is not amused, however. But
I think Olivia is growing on her. At
first, Bella seemed almost scared of Olivia.
But that soon turned to disdain.
Now, I’m noticing Bella is a little more aggressive. For example, David built a cat scratcher some
time ago. Bella was never too interested
in it. But Olivia loves it. Today, Olivia was playing with it. So, Bella walks over to the thing, wraps her
long body around the pole, and swipes at Oliva every time she tries to get in
to play with it! As soon as Olivia gave
up and scampered away, Bella lazily got up and sauntered off. I do think it’s funny when Oliva grabs
Bella’s tail with her paws or even attempts to jump on her back. One of these days, Bella will have to make
the choice to live with her new companion.
At least she’s not hissing at her anymore. However, she does a lot of glaring at the
rest of us. She only returned to David’s
lap this last week. She was so mad that
she wouldn’t even sit on him and normally, every time David sits or lays down,
Bella is right there on top of him.
Wednesday
Ok, time for a rant. Or a
mini-rant. The first year the kids were
in public school they had a really nice Christmas program. The children all wore dressy clothing, sang
songs about Santa, and that was that – nothing too much required out of the
parents. Well, then the school went and
hired a new, fresh-out-of-college music teacher. Last year, Sam’s class had to dress up like
rabbits, which I thought was kind of dumb.
But I found him some rabbit ears at the party store. The girls still wore their nice dresses. But yesterday I get this note from the music
teacher, telling me what my kids have to wear.
I am NOT happy.
Sam’s class has to dress up in a Mexican theme. We’re told oh, don’t buy anything new, but
seriously, how many people have a sombrero just hanging in their coat
closet? Ellie’s class is all polar bears
so they have to dress head to toe in white.
“Face paint would be awesome!” the teacher added. Uh, huh.
And then Lizzie’s class actually has options. They can either dress in a Kawanzaa theme or
a Hanukkah one. Seriously? And is it a coincidence that two of the school’s
four black children are in that class and this class just happens to be singing about Kawanzaa?
Maybe. But I have my suspicions.
And so, apparently, parents are supposed to just pull these costumes
together two weeks before the program during the busiest time of the year…grrr.
I climbed on Amazon today to look at Kwanzaa items. But the more I did, the heavier-hearted I
felt about it. Kwanzaa isn’t even a real
holiday! It was made up by a professor
at Berkley in the late 1960s as a nod to the Black Panther movement. The Black Panthers who liked to kill people!
So finally I decided – forget it.
I don’t care if Lizzie is black.
She is NOT dressing for Kawanzaa.
She has a blue dress that she wore in Will and Arien’s wedding. I’ll buy her a nice white cardigan that she
can use in the spring and voila – Hanukkah colors. I ordered Sam a red dress shirt because red
is one of the colors of Mexico. He can
use it for church. I’m looking for a
longer white shirt for Ellie that she could wear over leggings. I’ll put her hair in two puffs with 2 white bows
and there you have it – a little brown polar bear.
Of course, you always know there will be at least one kid in every class
who, despite the instructions, will show up for the program in a pair of baggy
jeans and a Sponge Bob t-shirt. So,
there are options. But you don’t want
your kid to be that kid, either.
****************************
That horrific shooting took place a few weeks ago at that church in
Texas. Once again, you realize that
there is just NO place that you can ever be completely safe. It was just horrifying. But what really irritated me the next day
when the dead were being publicly identified, the news repeatedly referred to
the pastor’s slain daughter as his “adopted” daughter. What does the fact of her adoption have to do
with anything? She was his daughter –
nothing else. I think saying, “adopted”
makes her sound “less than.”
*************************
One thing the teacher does – and I have never understood her reasoning
or the benefit of this – is that nearly every class period one child gets to be
a “rock star,” I think it’s called, They
have a special sticker they get to wear and they can perform a solo dance act
or choose a couple friends. They pick
the song they want. I think it’s dumb,
but whatever. It’s probably not harming
my kids, anyway. So, the other day I was
subbing with the 2nd graders and it was this little girl’s
turn. She picked the song, “Poker Face”
by Lady Gaga, which is not an
appropriate song for children. I’ve
always sensed that, but the teacher displayed youtube video with the lyrics
while this little girl and her friend danced.
Yeah – really not an appropriate choice.
However, I had to laugh at this little girl’s innocence. She’s dancing and all of a sudden she starts
jabbing her face. Her audience looked a
little puzzled until she explained, “Um, poke her face, you know – that’s what
it says – poke her face!”
Thursday
It’s Thanksgiving Day. This year
it’s just the 5 kids and me. Will and
Arien are off to her side of the family.
I am not sighing – this is the way it goes when you have married
children. But still…I’d be happier with
all my kiddos around.
However, a couple of the Littles are sneezing and hacking so it’s
probably just as well to minimize their
people exposure right now. We’re going
to have a traditional meal. And then
last night I went to Hobby Lobby and
bought $70 worth of stuff for my Christmas tree (that adds up fast). But I suddenly decided that it is time for something different. All my life I have used white garland on the
tree because when I was growing up, that’s what we had. And it suddenly occurred to me that I might
like something other than white garland.
So I bought some plaid ribbon – it’s soft, like a blanket, too. And then, for the first time ever, I bought a
tree topper.
When we were younger, I didn’t feel like we could afford a tree topper
so we didn’t have one for the first few years.
And when Will was around kindergarten age he decided we needed one so he
made a paper turquoise star for the top of our tree.
Long after we could have afforded to buy a tree topper, I kept using
his, for the sake of sentimentality. But
I decided last night that it is time for something different. I bought a canvas frame and I’m going to decorate
it and display his turquoise star during the season. But, he’s gone now and so his star (boy, do I
sound ruthless or what?).
So, we’ll eat our Thanksgiving meal and then it’s time to bring on
Christmas – decorating, addressing the cards, downloading Christmas music off the
computer to my phone, and starting my on-line shopping.
I honestly don’t have any place I need to be until Sunday. I think tomorrow evening I will take the kids
to see the new movie, “Wonder” about the child with facial deformities. Everyone keeps telling me we need to read the
book, too. It must be a true story. But anything I can do to increase the kids’
compassion levels is a good thing.
******************************
I took Ellie in to the dr. yesterday to have her checked out. Right now, our dr is not alarmed, but he says
he wants to keep a close eye on her. He’ll
see her in a year unless I notice any changes and then I need to bring her in
sooner. He asked if the girls had the
same “sperm donor” which caught me off-guard.
I had never thought of their bio father in terms like that, but, from
what I’ve heard, it might be an apt description.
The dr had Lizzie’s bone scan results and her bones are showing her to
be 11 ½ years old – which, of course, she is not. But her body is. She definitely has the
Precocious Puberty. The dr. said that it
is also known as the “Lolita Syndrome.”
I hate that. Lizzie is still a
little girl, mentally, even if her body has already changed into that of a young
teenager. So, now we wait to hear from
the endocrinologist, so we can get this slowed down through drugs.
**********************
David was elected to the city council a few weeks ago. His term will start in January. He said he’d be more excited if the total
turn-out for Swan voters had not been only 5!
He didn’t even get to vote for himself.
That week, David was up at camp working.
They were hosting a national camp directors’ retreat. I completely forgot about doing absentee
ballots until it was too late, so Ben did not get to vote, either.
****************************
Last week, Ellie took a bobby pin out of her hair while we were driving
at night. The next thing I knew, I heard Lizzie complaining that Ellie was scratching
her. Seriously offended, Ellie hotly
returned, “I did not scratch her!” And then in a softer voice I heard her add, “I
stabbed her.”
*************************
Sam mentioned one day recently that there is a boy at school who keeps
saying, “ain’t” in his presence. He
said, “So, I just gave him that look you always give us when we use bad
grammar.” Of course, I had to ask him
what that look was and he immediately pursed his lips and raised one
eyebrow. Ha, ha, ha! I think there’s a verse about that in
Proverbs – Train them up in the way they
should go and when they are old they shall not depart from it. I’m
pretty sure that applies to good grammar usage, too!
Oh, speaking of grammar…my grammar class this term is kicking my you-know-what. You would think that being naturally able to
speak it would translate into acing a class on it . Not so much.
I have figured out that I speak it well because I have spent my entire
life reading, so I understand grammar instinctively in context of sentence
structure. But, this class is going way
deeper. It is SO hard! I took my first test (open book, no less) and
quickly decided that this whole I-must-get-an-A in every class is really overrated! C’s can be really nice, too! I thought I failed my first test, but I guess
did ok on the written portion of the test because when I checked my grade this
week, it’s still sitting at an A-. But
there’s two more tests to go yet!
My other class is Stress Management.
I’m doing fine in there, as I expected.
Every week we have to turn in a paper worth 25 points addressing some
area of stress management. I’ve gotten
full scores on all them. This last week,
my professor wrote a note that said, “Sarah – I hope that whatever career you
decide to go into will involve writing!”
Hah! Maybe I’ll think about that…
I did end up receiving perfect scores in my last term’s classes – both of them. I’ve never done that before. I couldn’t believe it – I never lost a single
point in either class! Of course, it
helped that I really got into my British Lit class. Even after I turned in my final research
women (on the first women writers) I re-read that paper a couple of times just
because it pleased me so much!
**************************
A week ago I drove out to Council Bluffs to attend the funeral of a
gentleman from our former church. I got
two calls to work that day, but I was glad I chose the funeral instead. This man was special to me. He and his wife drove out to our wedding, in the
middle of winter, 4 hours away. I
remember eating a meal of sweet corn with he and his wife in the tiny little
kitchen of our rental house. And once, at
church, Paul and I were on the steps leading up to the balcony having a discussion. We weren’t fighting, but it was one of those
intense, how-are-we-going-to-work-through-this kind of thing. We didn’t know Richard was right around the
corner and had heard everything! At first I was mortified when he stepped around
the corner but then he talked to us and I don’t even remember what he said, but
it was sweet and helpful and I was thankful.
I remember another time when I was sitting alone in church because Paul
was up in the sound room and I had both Ben and David with me. David started fussing, so I had to get him out of
church. I thought I was just slip out
and take him to the nursery. Well, Ben
saw me leaving and began to shriek, grabbing my legs. So I was trying to walk up the aisle with two
screaming little ones, neither of whom could
walk at that point. Richard saw my
predicament and scooped up one of the boys for me so we could get of there
quickly. When Paul died he was sick and
couldn’t make the funeral but his daughters came and they made sure I was given
money from the family. A couple of weeks
ago Richard fell and hit his head and died shortly thereafter.
So, anyway, the funeral was good.
I loved seeing people, some of whom I had not seen in 13 years since we
moved. It was also socially nerve
wracking. I have figured out that I have
what is now termed, “social anxiety” which I think is just a fancy way of stating
that unfamiliar people and situations make a person nervous. But I did it anyway and was glad I did. I even managed to make it through the entire
day without being spied by Paul’s dad who was also in attendance. It was a good day!
********************************
On the way there I stopped off at a Taco Johns for lunch. It’s located in a travel center so there is
no drive though. I was cracking up
though because the way TJ does their orders is that they take first names when
you place the order. Then, once the food
is ready, they call out your name and you retrieve your food. So, they had an order ready and this young
employee gets up to the front and calls out, “Jesus?” “Jesus?”
I’m just staring at him, not believing what I am hearing. I am pretty sure that nobody has named their kid Jesus for centuries! Then, an older employee whispered in the
younger guy’s ear and he immediately calls out, “Hay-sus? Hay-sus?” and a hispanic guy comes up and
gets his food. Ha, ha, ha!
**********************
I got a massage the other day. It
was one for pain. I’ve been doing these
every few months for almost a year now.
Along with chiropractic care, they do help. At some point, I may have to do see an actual
doctor for this hip/sciatic stuff I have going on, but I’m trying to put that
off. This time, I had a different
masseuse and I realized that the one I’ve had in the past has been really
rough. Those massages hurt, but I would feel
good later. But this one was a lot more
gentle. Now, she told me repeatedly that
every night I need to get boiling hot
towels and put them on my hips so I can feel “a lot better” but I’m thinking
logistically, that’s just not going to work.
How am I supposed to get my own towels and position them on the back of
my legs and hips when I’m supposed to be lying face down? And it would get my bed all wet. And by the time I got them wet in the tub,
wrung out, me positioned into place, and the wet towels sort of shrugged into
position on my legs – they’d be cold. So,
it’s one of those things that ideal in theory, but would not work in practice.
************************
Lizzie has been picked for the Talented and Gifted program at
school. It kind of surprised me because
I don’t think she’s anything beyond average.
She doesn’t seem overly motivated
to excel at much of anything right now.
But, she does test well. When the
TAG teacher spoke to me last week I told her I honestly thought Ellie was more
naturally gifted and she said she had almost picked Ellie, too, but she could
only pick a couple of kids from each class and I guess there are a set of twins
in Ellie’s class who are wild little guys, but apparently, very, very
smart. I don’t care. I’m not making a big deal out of this. Being picked for TAG in the elementary years
does NOT mean a child has a superior brain or guaranteed adult success!
****************************
I was asked this week to be one of three speakers at an upcoming single
mom’s Christmas dinner. There’s going to
be between 500-600 people there. But, I
can do this. It isn’t like I have to
bring a 30 minute presentation. I’m
simply going to be sharing a little bit of my story and answering some
questions from the hostess of the night.
So, I am trying to come up with thoughtful answers to the questions I
was given. I imagine I will be a bit
nervous that night, though! One of my
prayers over the years has been that God will use what has happened with Paul’s
death – obviously, in our lives, but also for the benefit of others. Perhaps this is one of those ways. If I don’t fall flat on my face, that is!
**************************
Happy Thanksgiving. I’ve seen
signs that read, “There is always, always something to be thankful for.” That’s true, even in the worst of circumstances. There’s the Apostle Paul who was able to sing
in prison despite being in pain and shackles in a damp, filthy cell, unjustly
imprisoned. I’ll never forget reading
Corrie Ten Boom’s writings. She talked
about how she and some of the other death camp prisoners had a nightly time of
praise and worship – which was forbidden by the guards. However, the section of their barracks were
terribly flea infested so the guards and a lot of prisoners didn’t want to be
over there, which left them free to worship and pray in peace. Even in the worst of times – there is much praise
to be had. And likewise, even though
this Thanksgiving isn’t “perfect” in my estimation, I sure have a lot for which
to be thankful.
And I am.
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