Monday Madness

Yes, I know it's Thursday, not Monday. I've been meaning to write this since Monday, just haven't really had time. Anyways, Monday's I now have a 3 1/2 month old AND the 6 1/2 year old. They're cousins. The 6 1/2 yr. old is, obviously, my Charge. Monday is also the night that my Charge has ballet. So, Monday's are now hectic. Here's how the afternoon went:

3:45pm - Pick up Charge from school

4:00pm - We get home, give her a snack, take the dog for a walk

4:30pm - Do homework with Charge

5:00pm - Start dinner

5:20pm - Get dinner on the table

5:30pm - Baby dropped off

5:45pm - Charge finishes eating. Wash the dishes quickly while Charge entertains baby in the living room. Heat up bottle for the baby to eat at dance class. Change baby.

6:00pm - Get Charge ready for ballet

6:05pm - Get both bundled up

6:10pm - Get them both in the car

6:20pm - Get to dance studio

6:30pm - Dance class starts

6:35pm - Feed baby

7:00pm - Baby finishes eating

7:15pm - Charge gets done with dance class. Bundle both of them up again and get them into the car

7:30pm - Get home. Get Charge into her pj's. Get Charge set up with a snack. Change baby.

8:00pm - Baby's mom gets there

8:30pm - Charge's mom gets there

Yeah, can we say STRESS? It isn't so much the business of it, Charge does okay with that. But the baby is usually hungry, wet, and screaming. He's okay if I take him out of the carseat right away when he gets there but as soon as I put him in it he screams all the way to dance class. I'm torn, I know I should be holding him but Charge needs help with her ballet stuff and also she needs help when we get to dance class before she goes in. And no, I don't leave him in his carseat the whole time I'm with him. He comes out of his carseat as soon as he gets to the house and he's in it only in the car and the 10 minutes before dance class while I'm helping Charge.

Anyways, I just needed to vent a little. It was stressful and I was trying to get everything done and I had a screaming baby along with a dawdling Charge. How do you parents of multiple kids do it?

And the Final Score is...

What I did today:

Showered

Cleaned the bathroom

Went to the bank

Went to the post office

Did the dishes

Cleaned the kitchen

Took out the garbage

Cleaned the rabbit's cage

Dried the Valentine's Day flowers

Created a webpage for a school assignment

Went to work-(and worked late)

Ate a decent meal

Left to do until tomorrow:

Go grocery shopping

Clean my bedroom

Change the sheets

Do laundry-(I need a solid 2-3 hours to do this because I don't have laundry facilities at my apartment building)

Finish experiment

Outline a grant

I guess on the positive side, I did over half of the stuff on my to do list today!

To Do

I hate having a bunch of stuff to do. I hate it even more when my list is crazy long and it just keeps getting longer. So, in an effort to actually get something done today...I'm going to post my to do list on my blog this morning and then come back later tonight and write about what I've done. Something about accountability is crossing my mind today. So, without further procrastination, here is my lovely to do list for Tuesday:

Shower

Clean the living room

Clean the bathroom

Go to the bank to cash 2 checks and get $20 worth of quarters so that I can do laundry

Go to the laundromat and do laundry

Clean my bedroom

Do the dishes

Clean the kitchen

Take out the garbage

Clean the rabbit cage

Dry the Valentine's Day flowers

Change the sheets on the bed

Create a webpage for a class assignment

Outline a grant for grantwriting class

Create 2 graphs for use in my experiment

Put finishing touches on experiment

Go to work

Eat something decent at least once today

Go grocery shopping because there's not much food in the house

Organize the living room a bit better

Okay, wish me luck. I might even post pictures of my progress. We'll see if I can find batteries for the camera....I think they're somewhere in the living room. Hmmm...

Tis that Time Again

To start thinking of activities to fill up the summer. Last year was like pulling teeth trying to get Charge to do anything. This year, though I'll be with a different family, I'm not counting on it being any easier. The kid is roughly the same age as Charge is now. So, what activities interest a 6 or 7 year old? I've already talked to future Charge about what she wants to do this summer. The answer? "Not go anywhere, just sit at home and play."

So, I'm handing it over to you guys. What plans do YOU have for this summer to keep your kids occupied? And please don't tell me you're just gonna sit and home and play. I don't think I can handle that ALL summer.

Olivia's Story

This is what we all knew before Olivia was born:

Heart:
Had a hole in her heart, and had 2 arteries coming from the same chamber of her heart. This means that the one going to her lungs is too small and not enough blood will travel to her lungs to be reoxygenated.

Digestion:
Her stomach did not connect to the esophagus.

Brain:
Had too much fluid on her brain throughout the pregnancy.

Outcome:
The doctors gave 2 very different outcomes. The first was that Olivia would die shortly after birth. The second was that she would pull through. Nobody was 100% sure because the ultrasounds didn't give them the details they needed to put together a plan.

This is what has happened since Olivia was born full term on Feb. 11th weighing 6 lbs. 4 oz.:

Heart:
She's on a vent because she cannot reoxygenate the blood correctly. They're saying she shouldn't need open heart surgery until she's 6 months old. Minor surgery is a definate to correct some of the problem but they're not sure when it's going to happen.

Digestive:
Her esophogus and wind pipe fused together and the one tube went to her lungs. Her stomach did not connect to the esophogus. They did surgery 2 days after she was born to correct the fused windpipe and esophogus as well as connect the stomach to the esophogus.

Other:
The doctors are saying that she can probably be released in 1 month.

She's down to only 4 IV's now, a stomach tube, vent, and EKG tags.

On February 17th she opened her eyes for the first time!

Please continue to pray for Baby Olivia. She and her family need all the prayers and comfort they can get right now. Her mom and dad are both 21 and she's the first baby for both of them. It's hard being 1st time parents anyways, but to have all of this on top of it is making this a very trying time for them.

Pray for Olivia

This is Olivia. Born to my friends Kayla and Doug on February 11th weighing 6lbs 4 oz. She is currently in the NICU due to problems with her heart & belly. She's having multiple tests run on her to see what else is going on. Her mom and dad are doing okay, but this is a hard time for everyone. Olivia will be in the hospital for at least a month and has already had 1 surgery and will need multiple others.

Please keep Olivia, Kayla, and Doug in your prayers. I will try to keep you all updated as things progress.

The Plow Saga

So this morning, at crazy-early am, the guy who plows the driveway came. The bright and early phone call from my landlord set my phone a ringing to that catchy Mozart tune. I groaned. Down the stairs I went. Into the winter wonder land. Trudged through calf deep snow to my car, forced the door open, and grabbed my snow wiper thingie out of my car. Wipe off my car while ploy guy plows the end of my driveway so I can get out. I jump into the freezing cold car and back onto the street. Amazingly I didn't get stuck. YAY for plow guy. Then comes the fun part.

MY ROAD WAS NOT PLOWED!!!!!!!

I got stuck 4 times on the road, not my driveway, but the ROAD. I live on a city street, not out in the boonies somewhere. On a city street. Apparently the city plows don't like plowing dead end streets. At least that's my theory. Yes, I know there are other roads to be plowed. But they started plowing in my area around 10pm last night. I figured by 7am they'd have plowed my road at least once. But no, no plow, just lots of snow drifts and fun times convinving my car that it could get through them. It didn't want to, it almost quit on me. Just gave up. Wimpy car I tell ya.

I guess all I can say is, Happy Monday people.

Speechless

I was woken up this morning to a knock on my door. It wasn't early, around 10am. I was sleeping in and enjoying it :) I heard the knock, grumbled because I thought it was going to be my landlord telling me to move my car. I opened the door and there stood a lady from the flower shop. She was holding the MOST beautiful boquet of flowers. They were for me. From Jason. Jason who is 12 hrs away. Jason who is coming up tomorrow. He wanted me to have flowers for Valentine's Day, he didn't want to give them to me tomorrow because "That's the 15th, not the 14th."

I'm still in shock. It's a happy shock though. :) I will post a picture later tonight, I have to go get batteries for my camera.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Stretched too Thin

About 1/2 way through each semester I feel like I'm stretched too thin. Maybe it's cause I take on too much, or maybe I just don't have a good way to relax. Either day, I'm hitting that "stretched" point a bit early this semester. The run down of my life:

Work: 2 official babysitting jobs, and many unofficial babysitting jobs.

Official Job 1: 20.5 hours a week with a 6 year old. The general schedule is pick her up from school, take her home, give her a snack, take the dog for a walk, practice her spelling words, do a math worksheet, play, feed her dinner, give her a bath, give her a snack, then mom gets home.

Official Job 2: 4 hours a week with a 10 month old. Pretty easy schedule with her. Nap, food, play.

Unofficial jobs: 3 year old, 5 year old, 3 month old, 8 year old, 6 year old, and 2 year old.

School: I spend 8 hrs a week in actual class. 8 hrs a week outside of class for Senior Research, and roughly 4 hrs. a week on other homework. Total = 20 hrs a week.

Chauffer: A lady who lives around the corner from me has 2 boys who go to the same school as my Charge. I give her a ride up to the school each day because her van is broken and it's too far to walk.

Painting: I'm painting a picture for my friend's birthday in May.

Cross-stitching: I'm cross-stitching a hanging for my mom's birthday in 2 weeks.

Laundry: I spend about 3 hrs. a week-(and $15) at the laundromat doing my laundry.

Cleaning: I try to pick up every day and spend about 4 hrs. on Sunday thoroughly cleaning my house.

Shopping: I hate doing this. Which is why I only spend about 1.5 hrs a week shopping for food and necessities.

Other: Bills, talking to people, e-mailing, chatting, just general everyday stuff.

Now that I look at it, it doesn't seem like too much. I just feel overwhelmed and stressed out all the time!

Taking Her Sweet Time

So I now have a 6 year old dawdler/lallygagger. 3 times today I asked her to get ready to go and she went and did something else first. By something else I don't mean put away her toys/art supplies, go to the bathroom, etc. I mean something entirely different. Like, playing with the dog, changing her clothes, getting a book and sitting down to read it. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I always give her reminder 5 minutes before she has to get ready. It always worked in the past. Not so much anymore. So now I turn to you, my few faithful readers. Any tips, tricks, threats, etc. that have worked for you with your precious dawdlers? I need all the help I can get right now. This is new territory to me.

Reasons

So I talked to my former summer boss the other day. Turns out she quit her job for some reason-(actually I know the reason but it's quite erm, stupid)-and that's why she doesn't need me anymore. We chatted for awhile and all was going well until she told me this:

"I'll call you if it changes and it turns out we actually need you."

Okay, at that point, I snapped. I spent the week finding somewhere to live this summer, finding a job, and basically freaking out about being homeless/jobless for 3 months. I did find a place to live-(K-Zoo with my Aunt)-and a job-(friend of my Aunt's who runs a home daycare)-and had everything in place. I told my former summer boss this by saying:

"Well I already have another job for the summer so you're going to have to find someone else if you need childcare this summer."

At which point she got mad at ME. Can you believe that? She got ticked at ME because I wasn't available "if the situation changes." She asked me what she was supposed to do if she goes back to work. I told her to put her kids in daycare. She told me that it was too expensive. So I told her that she shouldn't have fired me by e-mail. Then she told me to go to hell and hung up on me. Nice huh?

Oh well, such is life I guess.

On another note, I'm looking at buying a new laptop. Mine is about to kick the bucket. Any recommendations?

Another Chapter

For the book.

That job this summer, in Milwaukee, that I signed a contract for over my Christmas break. The contract that they INSISTED I sign in December. The one that they INSISTED I come to Milwaukee to sign, instead of sending it to me. The contract that we went back and forth over for 4 months to get it right so everybody was semi-happy. The contract that they said needed to be signed ASAP so they would know I wasn't going to back out of the deal.

Well, that contract is crap. The job is no more. How did I find this out, you may ask? Well...it wasn't by phone, no, that would be to respectful and mature. It was by e-mail. Yeah, you read that right. I was fired by E-MAIL!

So this week has been a mess of trying to find somewhere to live for 3 months, trying to find a job for this summer, and trying not to call the self-centered parents who sent me the e-mail to chew them out for their lack of respect and integrity. Oh yeah, and their lack of telling me WHY I no longer have a job.

Yeah, I'm ticked. I hate it when my best laid plans go to crap through no fault of my own. I guess I should be glad that this didn't happen on a Monday.

Lent...And More

So Lent starts today. For Lent I'm giving up fast food. I've become somewhat of a fast food junkie in the past few months. Laziness, lack of time, whatever you want to attribute it to...I eat a lot of fast food.

Now onto the more part.

That message I posted about in my last entry? Well, turns out that call waiting was turned off on my phone. So she had called me numerous times and I never knew. However, she didn't leave a voicemail until 45 minutes AFTER she started trying to call me. Now I kinda understand her frustration.

Anywho, Happy Lent!

Another one for my book...

Yeah, the book that I'll probably never write called "101 ways to piss off your babysitter." Read on for details of last night's fiasco.

7:20 - Phone call asking me if I can babysit later on that night. I say yes. She says she'll call me when she needs me.

10:55 - Go to bathroom

10:56 - She calls while I'm in the bathroom

10:57 - Get phone and see she left a voicemail. Listen to it *read on for transcript of message*

"Hi Jen. You said you'd babysit for me and now you're not answering your phone. I guess call me if you're still gonna do it."

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Yeah, sorry I'm not at your beck and call. I don't carry my cell phone EVERYWHERE with me like *some* people do. Get over yourself lady. You're not THAT important.

And yes, I did babysit for her.

Me & My Soapbox

So here we go. It's Friday and it's been a helluvaweek. The main problem? My charge and her bloody school. She is so B-O-R-E-D and it's coming out in behavioral problems at home. I've got stuff for her to do, stuff that is challenging, stuff that motivates her, stuff that makes her want to learn. But at school, no such luck. I know there's 24 other kids in her class. I know her teacher tries. But honestly, is it THAT hard to give her something challenging to do?

Case in point:

Reading: She just recently reached a 3rd grade reading level. She's reading chapter books. She's not into the "little kid" books-(picture books, non-chapter books, etc.) but she's required to read them at school. The kids, starting in 1st grade, take reading comprehension tests online. They're 5 questions each and the teacher won't let her read or take any tests above a 1st grade level. I, personally, think this is ridiculous. She's consistently getting 100% on these and she absolutely despises reading these books. Her teacher's explanation? "Well it looks bad on her report card if she reads at a higher level and misses the questions. That will bring her grade down." Okay, maybe it's a valid point. But I really don't think it's a "grade" thing. I think it's a "I want to look like a good teacher by having my students ace tests all the time" thing with the teacher. Why not let her TRY a higher level and have her TRY a test at a higher level before making the "She won't get the questions right" statement. Give her a chance. It's just insulting to assume that she won't do well.

Spelling: I stopped quizzing her on her spelling words everyday because it's pointless. She can spell well above a 1st grade level. She got excited this week because they FINALLY started doing 4 letter words. They JUST started working on the "sh, ch, th" words.

Writing: Her writing needs work. It's legible, sure. Spacing and correct capitalization need work. We're working on it. This is honestly one of the few areas that she's not way ahead in.

Math: 2nd grade level here. She knows some of the times tables and very rarely gets an addition or subtraction question wrong on her papers. I'm working with her on word problems right now. Extracting the correct information, etc. At school, they just learned how to count by 5's. I taught that to my preschoolers for crying out loud.

Art: She likes this. Probably because she's not forced to dumb it down.

Gym: She likes this for the most part. She's getting a little bored with learning how to jump rope, skip, hop, and hoola-hoop. All things she could do back in preschool when I had her in my class.

Library Time: She hates this. This suprised me at first until I found out the reason. The library at her school is divided into grades. 1st grade books over here, 2nd grade books on this shelf, etc. Her class, being 1st grade, is only allowed to pick from the 1st grade shelf. No wonder she hates it. It's too bloody easy. As a side note, when I take her to the library I let her read whatever she wants. If it's too hard for her to read alone, I read it with her or to her.

Computer Time: Same issue as the library. They only let the 1st graders play the 1st grade educational games--Even on the hard settings she gets 100%. I've started teaching her how to type--which they don't start doing at her school until 3rd grade.

So, what do I do? Do I keep moving her forward and challenging her, thus putting her that much ahead of her grade...or do I back off and not challenge her? I know the answer here, obviously. I'm not going to give up. But it's really frustrating because it feels like she's not getting anything from school--other than seeing her friends and killing a small forest with all the paperwork she brings home. The school won't listen. They don't believe it's in any child's best interest to move them up a grade. And if that's the case, I can accept that. But then that means that the teachers in the classrooms need to challenge EVERY child and meet them where they are. Just because she's in 1st grade doesn't mean she only has to do 1st grade work.