Monday
Well, this day did not go as planned.
I wonder how many days of my life I can put under that category? Probably a lot. I was supposed to take the kids to school, go
down to Knoxville and get our financials for the city done at the CPA’s (which
I did) and then spend rest of the day at City Hall getting ready for tomorrow
night’s meeting. Well, it started to
snow while I was in Knoxville. And
snow. And snow. I got home, was going to eat some lunch and
head over to City Hall when I happened to glance at my phone and saw that
school was dismissing at 1 pm and could elementary parents please be there by
12:45. Yikes. It was a nightmare getting there and back. There were quite a few times that I
experienced white out conditions while driving and I was praying the entire
way. My wipers kept freezing up. I was just thankful that I was driving my red
van today because it’s my not-nice vehicle and if I was going to get in a
crash, I’d rather wreck that one. But
I’d really prefer to not wreck anything.
I made it, but I almost didn’t make it into my driveway. I tried going up West St. which is an
incline, but it’s short. I could not
make it. So, my only option then was to
go up Orchard. But there was a garbage
truck on the street so I had to stop.
And then I had great difficulty getting up. I love that I live at the
top of a hill because we never, ever get any water in our basement, but it’s
not so great in the winter. I am pretty sure I burned off some tire tread. I didn’t know what else to do. I knew the snow plow would be coming around
soon and I sure couldn’t leave the van on the street. But we made it and I never did go to City
Hall. But I have gotten some school work
done today. And it could have been much
worse. There was a 70 car pile up on
I-35 today by Ames – a stretch of road I travel every so often. One person even died in it.
And, speaking of school work, I made
the Dean’s List last semester. I figured
I did, but BVU never lets me know that any more. But Friday when I walked into the school with
the kids to drop them off at their classrooms, the school psychologist was
standing at the door greeting the kids as she usually does. She saw me and said, “Sarah! Congratulations!” I looked at her questioningly and she
exclaimed, “I saw your name in the paper – you made the Dean’s List!” Huh.
It must have come out, then. That
made me feel good, though, particularly since I plan to make my living off the
school – now some of them know I’m not just eking through college. And then the next day a friend – who teaches
at the high school – posted a picture of the announcement in the paper to my
Facebook timeline. So then everyone saw
it and that was kind of nice, too. I
kept peeking at it in between taking my Drama mid-term.
So, I am in this Drama class this
term. It’s all about plays. We’re covering them really fast, but there is
a whole lot of work I have to do for each one. So far, we’ve done some Greek
plays, The Rover, Dulcitus from the
middle ages, Hamlet, A Doll’s House, Trifles (my favorite – inspired by a real,
turn of the century murder in Warren
county), Mother Courage and her Children, and probably some others I am not
remembering. This week is Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof (which is kind of a dirty play, I’m finding out) and Death of a
Salesman. We have a couple of
discussions every week and a list of questions over each play we have to answer
and turn in. These aren’t simple to do,
either. By the time I get done
researching and forming answers to the questions, I am turning in several pages
of work. Maybe I’m doing more than I
really have to – I don’t know. I’m not
trying to. But I do have a 99.73 in the
class, too. I really appreciate this
professor in that he grades very quickly and he sends very long responses to
any work you submit and he’s moderately effusive in his praise, which is always
nice! He has stated that he has never
quite had a class like ours with the level of responses he’s getting (in a good
way). But it’s a senior level class, so
I would assume that most seniors taking this fall to the literary side of
things, anyway. He and I have an
on-going disagreement over A Doll’s House.
This play was published in the late 1800s and it’s about a Victorian
housewife who suddenly realizes, after 8 years of marriage and 3 children, that
she is not valued for the person she is, and in fact, she really doesn’t know
who that person is. So – she leaves her
husband and children to figure that out.
I have a problem with that, but our professor is all about self
exploration, I guess. But he still
gives me a good grade for my thoughts!
I took the mid term this weekend and
when I saw that it only had 22 questions, I did not think that was too
bad. But half of them were essay
questions! And they required really,
really long answers! For one, I even had
to find a play that we had not studied in class and dissect it into four
different categories. Although, that one
was kind of fun. I did an analysis of
Our Town, which I have always loved.
Anyway, the test took me HOURS to finish. I am pretty convinced the professor has no
personal life and I know he’s not a
football fan because he had that test graded and sent back to me in a half hour
– during the Super Bowl. But he was
very kind in his remarks and in the end
I received 150/150 points.
Tuesday
My menopause stuff is getting
worse. I think that’s the way it’s
supposed to progress – ok, then worse, then horrible, then ok, then oh, I guess
I’m all done! I have been weepier than
normal lately, but I just chalked it up to stress. I have also felt like I’ve been more irritable,
too. And the last two times we’ve been
to therapy I have broken down in tears – how
embarrassing. This therapy isn’t
even supposed to be about ME – it’s about the girls. But I have been dealing with quite a few
behaviors from Lizzie, especially, lately.
And that morning she had just deliberately pushed my last button, so I
was not happy. I am beginning to think
that the therapist thinks I am this perfectionistic, type A person. I’m not.
Just look at my house. Look at my
office at City Hall (please don’t.).. I
think she must wonder how on earth I was ever allowed to adopt in the first
place. Anyway, last weekend I was
reading to Ellie from her Junie B. Jones, First Grader books. We do that every night. That’s how I have managed to get better behavior
out of her in recent weeks, actually.
Plus, her sister has been acting up and the dynamic tends to be that when
one is down the other is up – up, as in, “Notice me, Mom!
Look how wonderful I am compared to my rotten sister!” So, we’re reading a story about how Junie B.
accidentally cheated in her first grade classroom and gets caught. And the next thing I know I am sobbing all
over the place. Poor Ellie looked at me
wide-eyed and then started patting my back, “It’s ok, Mom, it’s ok.” Wow.
It was after that that it occurred to me that this could be all hormone
related. I may not be quite this
crazy. So, I dug out my menopause
essential oils and I’ve been applying them every single day. I may need to start carrying it around with
me, too. It’s helping. I haven’t cried anymore over Junie B, anyway.
On the other end of the hormone scale,
Lizzie had her appointment with the endocrinologist last week. That did not go well. They had to check her out. The nurse practitioner we saw was very sweet,
very gentle, and explained to Lizzie what she needed to do. Lizzie still curled up in a ball and sobbed
and sobbed right there on the table. I
am strongly suspicious now because of this and a few “triggers” she seems to have
that she may have experienced some sexual abuse before I got her. I doubt she remembers, but those kind of
wounds are imprinted on the soul even if the memory covers them over. Regardless, she has to be treated. The nurse practitioner said she is 90% sure
it’s basic precocious puberty but now they have to run 14 million tests to rule
out other things. So, they will call me
and we will have to go in for 2 days of testing – and MRI, bloodwork, and I don’t
know what else. And a friend was telling
me that now Medicaid will only pay for the Luperon inserts, rather than
injections. I am not crazy about Lizzie
having an implant in her body. But it
sounds like I may not have a choice. It
would only be for a couple of years, but still…
Oh, and the nurse said there is no way
Lizzie is going to reach 6’ in adulthood (what our regular dr has been telling
me for years when he plots L’s growth), which may make buying pants for her
more easy. She had her growth charts plotted
out and while she is tall for a 9 year old, she is only average height for a 12
year old, which is about the age her brain thinks she is. Apparently, if she was on track for hitting
the 6’ mark, she’d be taller now than she is.
And that makes sense. Children
get their height from their father and I have been told Lizzie’s bio father was
kind of short.
Sam had his first zit a week or so
ago. I do not remember his brothers
getting them this soon. Actually, all
the boys have been very fortunate that they inherited their dad’s and my good
skin. Some teenagers end up scarred
before their skin grows up. Ten seems
awfully young to be starting this, though.
********************
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Ben has become quite interested in the
10 Commandments lately. I’m not sure exactly
why. In fact, I had to laugh a few days
ago because he was watching, “Cops” which has become a favorite show of
his. I heard him say to the tv, “Oh, you
should have known better than to kill.
Now you’ve broken one of the 10 commandments!” Today he was telling me that it is hard
for him to remember all the
commandments. So, I pointed out the
verse in Luke 10 where Jesus says that the “greatest” commandment is to “love
the Lord your God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself (By the
way, did you know that a variation of this verse is found in all four gospels,
as well as in Deuteronomy? It must be
pretty important.). I wasn’t sure if Ben
would understand this, but I explained to him that if he focused on doing these
things – loving God with everything in us and our neighbor like we do
ourselves, then we aren’t going to break any of the commandments. His face lit up and he got so excited – so I think
he must have understood. He’s been vocalizing
a lot lately that he is worried about getting arrested sometime. My response has usually been something along
the lines of, “Well, if you do what you’re supposed to, it shouldn’t be a
problem…” It just occurred to me this
week that his watching of the Cops show may be contributing to this fear. But anyway, maybe he’ll feel better with this
New Testament verse which seems less burdensome than remembering 10 rules.
Well, I think this is all I know.
Lizzie just came downstairs asking for
a dollar. She has a tooth under her
pillow (her first molar, actually) and I guess she thought she’d bypass the tooth
fairy and come straight to me. Uh – I don’t
think so. For one, the rule is no
getting out of bed unless there is blood or fire. Asking for money definitely does not qualify
on either count. But mostly, the day
you start telling me that you don’t believe in the tooth fairy is the day she
doesn’t visit anymore. I like the Tooth Fairy. I don’t do Santa or the Easter Bunny, but I
think the Tooth Fairy is cute and I’m going to lie to my kids about her as long
as they will let me!
So, this week, here’s to snow (we have
about 6” on the ground now – seems like 6” anyway), the Tooth Fairy, spiritual
awakenings in children, and tuxedos (Night to Shine for Ben is this Friday). Oh, and As.
I got another one tonight, for a set of questions on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Again – took me more than hour to answer
these 4 questions and he graded it within the first hour of receiving it.
Gotta go.
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