While the kids were enjoying there time at the Buddy Break I took the opportunity to trim the trees in the back yard. I went through & took off the branches that were head height or lower to ensure that I could ride the mower around the edge of the yard without the trees competing at which one would be able to knock me off the mower.
I went to the trimming with gusto & ended up with a huge pile of branches.
Thankfully, I was able to get in touch with my dad - who has a truck - and get his agreement to do a run to the dump for me.
Drew, Cassie and I got the truck loaded up with the help of my dad. The he, Drew and Cassie took the load off to the dump. My understanding is dad did more to unload than the kids did, but this way I was able to stay home & handle the fussy little guy (not too thrilled that he was left behind). I managed to get him to take a brief nap while they were gone and that improved his behavior for a little while.
As a reward for their labor Drew and Cassie got to play the X-box till 8 pm. They were amazed when they asked that I said yes so easily - I told them, when you've done work to earn it, I don't have a problem saying yes. Maybe they'll take more initiative - okay, I doubt it, but a mom can hope!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Buddy Day
Our first experience with Buddy Day has been a success.
It appears as if all the kids had fun. Andrew was a Buddy Helper, Cassie and Terry both had buddies. No problems reported and a lot a exuberance about the time there.
It appears as if all the kids had fun. Andrew was a Buddy Helper, Cassie and Terry both had buddies. No problems reported and a lot a exuberance about the time there.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
What a day!
Wow. It has been a day. Things finally start to look as if they are going to settle and move in a positive direction when the car decides I don't have enough stress in my life.
On the way home today I started smelling something - off. I was sitting at the light to turn into my neighborhood & glanced down at the gauges. My display showed five bars on the temperature gauge. Normally there are only four. This got me a little concerned, but then as I drove down the street beside the stores at the front of the neighborhood the gauge went up to six bars. Now was nervous. Thankfully the house was two quick right turns away. I pulled in the driveway & cut off the car to a wave of steam pouring out from under the hood. - NOT GOOD.
I popped the hood and let the steam billow out & found not only was there steam, but the underside of the hood was dripping with water/anti-freeze. REALLY NOT GOOD.
I let the engine cool down a bit & went inside to tell the hubby and fix the kiddos some dinner.
The hubby stated that hopefully it was a hose. So, one I got dinner underway - out I went to check and see if I could find a leaking hose. With some suggestions from my brother - I found it. It wasn't a little leak it was a fully blown out hose. But thankfully just a hose.
Thinking I would have to make a trip to the local auto supply store, and not having a running vehicle, I called my dad to take me. While waiting I started to loosen the clamps on the hose - figured that it would be easier to replace if I had the original piece with me. My hubby came out to help me take it off & discovered that we already had a replacement hose in the shed.
About this time my dad showed up, and although no longer needed to take me to the auto parts store stayed around to oversee the hoses replacement. After a bit of sweat and frustration the hose went back on and was clamped in place. Added a bit of anti-freeze and water & started the car up & great joy - the temp never went above four bars - back to normal.
Frustrating, stressful, but thankfully all it ended up taking was a bit of time & elbow grease.
On the way home today I started smelling something - off. I was sitting at the light to turn into my neighborhood & glanced down at the gauges. My display showed five bars on the temperature gauge. Normally there are only four. This got me a little concerned, but then as I drove down the street beside the stores at the front of the neighborhood the gauge went up to six bars. Now was nervous. Thankfully the house was two quick right turns away. I pulled in the driveway & cut off the car to a wave of steam pouring out from under the hood. - NOT GOOD.
I popped the hood and let the steam billow out & found not only was there steam, but the underside of the hood was dripping with water/anti-freeze. REALLY NOT GOOD.
I let the engine cool down a bit & went inside to tell the hubby and fix the kiddos some dinner.
The hubby stated that hopefully it was a hose. So, one I got dinner underway - out I went to check and see if I could find a leaking hose. With some suggestions from my brother - I found it. It wasn't a little leak it was a fully blown out hose. But thankfully just a hose.
Thinking I would have to make a trip to the local auto supply store, and not having a running vehicle, I called my dad to take me. While waiting I started to loosen the clamps on the hose - figured that it would be easier to replace if I had the original piece with me. My hubby came out to help me take it off & discovered that we already had a replacement hose in the shed.
About this time my dad showed up, and although no longer needed to take me to the auto parts store stayed around to oversee the hoses replacement. After a bit of sweat and frustration the hose went back on and was clamped in place. Added a bit of anti-freeze and water & started the car up & great joy - the temp never went above four bars - back to normal.
Frustrating, stressful, but thankfully all it ended up taking was a bit of time & elbow grease.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Stressed
Life is a bit stressful at the moment. Too much going on that I should have been more active in preventing, but it's too late at this point for should haves and what ifs.
The kids are out for the summer and we had hoped to take them to Busch Gardens this year, but that plan has had to be placed on hold indefinitely. It's a huge disappointment all the way around. But we're just accepting what can't be and trying to move on and do the best that we can.
Work...well, I'm looking at another 100+ hours of map creation. This time it's a bit frustrating only in the scale of the maps to be created. It's covering an area about the size of Virginia and we're looking at 18 or so roads. The details of the road when it's multi-lane can be bad, but I'd rather be dealing with 20 miles of 8-lane roads than 100's of miles of 2-lane.
The kids and I got the back yard mowed today and Troy & I got the swing set trimmed up around the posts and under some of the swings where the lawn mower wouldn't fit.
Cassie found a box turtle while she was pushing Terry on the swing. It was under the two person swing he was sitting in... unfortunately, she found it when she stepped on the little guy, but thankfully she didn't cause any harm to him. She held back the swing and I moved the turtle over under the slide. He sat there for a couple of minutes and then started making his way to the back fence (we've assumed he's heading into the wild strawberry patch back there).
The birds are having a great time out in the back yard now... the grass had gotten up over a foot so now that it's been cut they are more easily able to find bugs and the yard has a number of them hopping and pecking before flying off again.
The front and side still need to be cut and trimmed up, but that may come tomorrow.
The kiddos and I headed out after getting the back yard mowed. We dropped Cassie off at the library. She's been begging to go since they closed the library at the school over a month ago. She spent two hours in library heaven while Andrew, Terry and I went to Costco. She's been thrilled since we got back home now that she's got eight books to read - and set up her online access and has requested two more. (You might think she likes to read ... hmm, wonder where she got that from.)
Andrew's finishing up his dinner (too busy playing xbox to eat when the rest of us did). Boy is he goofy. He's giving me such a hard time lately - he's finally reached the same height as mom and he's not letting me live down that he's taller than me. It's expected of course. I'm only 5'4 and his father is over 6'. I expect Drew to top 6' - just don't tell him that. I' keep threatening to put weights on him to shrink him.
Well, he's asking me to help him get his blog set up and linked into the family site so I'm going to ge. (I got his sister set up a little while ago so it's only fair.)
The kids are out for the summer and we had hoped to take them to Busch Gardens this year, but that plan has had to be placed on hold indefinitely. It's a huge disappointment all the way around. But we're just accepting what can't be and trying to move on and do the best that we can.
Work...well, I'm looking at another 100+ hours of map creation. This time it's a bit frustrating only in the scale of the maps to be created. It's covering an area about the size of Virginia and we're looking at 18 or so roads. The details of the road when it's multi-lane can be bad, but I'd rather be dealing with 20 miles of 8-lane roads than 100's of miles of 2-lane.
The kids and I got the back yard mowed today and Troy & I got the swing set trimmed up around the posts and under some of the swings where the lawn mower wouldn't fit.
Cassie found a box turtle while she was pushing Terry on the swing. It was under the two person swing he was sitting in... unfortunately, she found it when she stepped on the little guy, but thankfully she didn't cause any harm to him. She held back the swing and I moved the turtle over under the slide. He sat there for a couple of minutes and then started making his way to the back fence (we've assumed he's heading into the wild strawberry patch back there).
The birds are having a great time out in the back yard now... the grass had gotten up over a foot so now that it's been cut they are more easily able to find bugs and the yard has a number of them hopping and pecking before flying off again.
The front and side still need to be cut and trimmed up, but that may come tomorrow.
The kiddos and I headed out after getting the back yard mowed. We dropped Cassie off at the library. She's been begging to go since they closed the library at the school over a month ago. She spent two hours in library heaven while Andrew, Terry and I went to Costco. She's been thrilled since we got back home now that she's got eight books to read - and set up her online access and has requested two more. (You might think she likes to read ... hmm, wonder where she got that from.)
Andrew's finishing up his dinner (too busy playing xbox to eat when the rest of us did). Boy is he goofy. He's giving me such a hard time lately - he's finally reached the same height as mom and he's not letting me live down that he's taller than me. It's expected of course. I'm only 5'4 and his father is over 6'. I expect Drew to top 6' - just don't tell him that. I' keep threatening to put weights on him to shrink him.
Well, he's asking me to help him get his blog set up and linked into the family site so I'm going to ge. (I got his sister set up a little while ago so it's only fair.)
Friday, June 5, 2009
A Long Week
It has been a long week. Between work and home, sometime is seams as if time flies, and other times it drags along as slowly as possible.
This week has had a bit of both, but overall it has been a long and draining week. Home has been a bit more stressful than usual - but that's to be expected from time to time when you have a child with special needs and deal with the social security administration. They seam to have major issues over my bi-weekly pay schedule.
Twice a year I make too much money and my youngest looses benefits - the amount of paperwork that arrives during those two months generally results in a bit of stress. Notices stated he's no longer qualified for benefits, notices requiring repayment of funds (How we owe anything when they receive my paychecks every month & they calculate his payments is beyond me), and notifications stating a resumption of benefits. When you're not expecting it to arrive it can cause a bit of a panic.
Then my office has been changing over our benefits to no providers and we've all had to go through re-enrollment so that's given me a whole new set of things to try and figure out. This of course coincided with a proposal.
I do freelance design - so I've had a couple of other projects I've been working on, when I'm not "working" Oh what fun - okay - these have been fun. :)
Well it's all settled for the moment (I hope) and I intend to get a break this weekend. Okay, I still have a house to clean sometime in there, but I desperately need some sleep - so I'm off of here - Night.
This week has had a bit of both, but overall it has been a long and draining week. Home has been a bit more stressful than usual - but that's to be expected from time to time when you have a child with special needs and deal with the social security administration. They seam to have major issues over my bi-weekly pay schedule.
Twice a year I make too much money and my youngest looses benefits - the amount of paperwork that arrives during those two months generally results in a bit of stress. Notices stated he's no longer qualified for benefits, notices requiring repayment of funds (How we owe anything when they receive my paychecks every month & they calculate his payments is beyond me), and notifications stating a resumption of benefits. When you're not expecting it to arrive it can cause a bit of a panic.
Then my office has been changing over our benefits to no providers and we've all had to go through re-enrollment so that's given me a whole new set of things to try and figure out. This of course coincided with a proposal.
I do freelance design - so I've had a couple of other projects I've been working on, when I'm not "working" Oh what fun - okay - these have been fun. :)
Well it's all settled for the moment (I hope) and I intend to get a break this weekend. Okay, I still have a house to clean sometime in there, but I desperately need some sleep - so I'm off of here - Night.
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