all messed up

Some things have changed in my schedule at work and for the first time in six years I am not working late nights on Thursdays, but on Wednesdays instead. There are some things I like about, but there is one thing in particular that I HATE about it. I cannot get used to the fact that when I go into work the day AFTER my late night it is NOT Friday. I am so accustomed to coming in to work just one more day after my late night shift and then having my weekend. I have been working this new schedule for almost a month already and it has messed me up completely. All day Thursday I think it is Friday and I am ridiculously sad to get up on Friday morning and realize I have to go into work because it is not the weekend. It also seems to "chop" my week into weird parts.... I don't get as much done in the week before my late shift and my two days afterwards feel like a hazy mess. It's a real mind f&^%.
When I walked out of the building tonight I said to two students "Have a good weekend" to which they responded "Oh - do you get the day off tomorrow?" I could have cried on the spot.
I am not a person who typically has any aversion to change at all, but this change has messed with my whole groove and I am struggling to get back into it.

swine flu

I am working tonight and my spouse just called to let me know she things the swine flu has hit our home.

I should not be surprised, our boys get sick with EVERY bug that passes. Max has had an upset stomach today which is apparently one of the symptoms. He also has a fever and body aches. Shel asked him if there was any part of his body which "DIDN'T" hurt and he said no.

ARG

shake my head

In my profession there are always things cropping up that are unexpected. Some are funny, some are annoying and some are sad. Then there are the ones that just leave me shaking my head because I am simply baffled.

Today for instance, two female students came to the front counter. They are living in an apartment together and one bedroom unit is unoccupied. They were concerned that "someone" today had entered the third bedroom and turned on a light and left it on. We have had maintenance in the unit working on the heating system and thought it was possible (though unlikely?) that maintenance had let themselves into the bedroom. Still, stranger things have happened and so the office administrator went to the apartment to unlock the door and turn off the light. It turns out there was no light on in the bedroom, it was....THE SUN! Yup. The sun was shining through the window and a stream of sunlight was shining under the door and it freaked them out. I suppose it's true, we don't see much of the sun WAYYYY up here in the north. Unfortunately we were unable to turn it off for them. I'll bet that shows up on our exit survey.
"Office administrator unable to turn off the sun when it shone under the door." We have had complaints about the darkness you know.

Then there's the guy who comes in to make a payment plan and so I ask him what funding he is getting and why he needs to be on a payment plan. He asks ME what funding he is getting. That meeting got confusing very quickly. I am starting to wonder if I live in an alternate reality.

Unfortunately for me it was just "one of those days". I had to do a requisition for some new fire panels. So I do the requisition (in triplicate) and print it off without saving it, because why would I save something I just printed off three copies of? Then I open my email and see a quote from another company for a lesser rate than the one I just made out the requisition for. So I tear up ALL THREE COPIES that I just printed off and start to work on the new requisition and THEN realize that the email is about INSTALLATION of the panels, and the original requisition is for the panels themselves. Nice.

I decide I'm not starting on that lengthy project again this afternoon, I will just make a quick call to a vendor about getting some key tags. My call went through to a salesperson at the company and I made my request. I know EXACTLY what it is that I want. I have a catalogue in front of me and all I need to do is ask if the product comes in more than one color. She asks me "Why?" I should have known then that the three minutes I planned to take on this phone call just blew right out of the window. I was on the phone for over 20 minutes. Instead of her helping me, I spent the entire call tried to explain what I was doing to someone who had NO conception of the project and who was becoming more confused by the minute. She had some interesting suggestions for the project though - WHICH MADE ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE WHATSOEVER - and she ended up directing me to the website (which I already had used!)

CAN THIS DAY END? Where is my office administrator when I need the sun turned off?

not expected

Somehow this is not the image I had in my mind of the end of October!

where the wild things are

I have always loved the book "Where the Wild Things Are". I haven't seen the movie yet but we plan on going and taking our little ones to it - their first movie in a theater. I suppose for them the theater will never play as big as role in their lives as it has in mine, just because we live so far from the theater.

My number one son is named Max. I'm thinking of getting a tattoo of the Max from Wild Things as my representation of my boy. Right now he is still not really interested in sitting in our laps and being read to - which makes sense if he can't hear us right? It bothered me a little that he would never sit in my lap and let me read to him because reading is SO much a part of our lives. Now that he is in the school program and they visit the library he seems a bit more interested in checking out books. I hope this book will be one of his favorites. I can't wait to read it to him.

If you haven't read the book yet - you must. I love it. I hope the movie does it justice (but do they ever?)

November already

Our beloved Tora is resting in peace now. She was a gentle soul and we all miss her desperately. October was a hard month for us all. With putting Tora to sleep and all the medical appointments for Max we were coming and going all month long.

I can't believe the month is already over. Maxie has been in school already for a month. He seems to be settling in - or he is just very excited every day to be picked up! The speech therapist said we should set a goal for him for the year of learning two words. His first word was "onion" which cracks me up. This week when I picked him up the teachers said he said "ball". We are super excited that he has already said two words because in one of his appointments this month the doctor said he was "profoundly" deaf and that the surgery in September for his ears didn't work.

Max has decided that he LOVES pumpkin carving. We carved a few together and he had a complete ball.

The farmer finished cutting down all the trees to the north of us leaving us completely exposed - and feeling it. It looks horrible and we can barely wait until spring to get new trees planted. I am sure it will make a difference, but it will never be the same.

things boys do

Watching television together. One of them will smile for the camera!

Playing bedtime. He likes to `pretend`` its bedtime, but hates going to bed!

Going for rides in the bins.

Sharing a comfy seat.

Sitting under the table together...

Painting with Nyx for company

Paint IN the paint container

Painting

The finished painting product.

First you finish it, then you drive a truck over it!

Eating paint

Is it better to paint or play fort or a little of both

365/13 "Kid"

From HERE

Try this: make a list of 365 people whose names you remember and who were interesting to you. Even if you don't want to write 40 about each, at least try making the list. And then, if you can, write down a few words about each of them before they're gone from your memory. If you can't do this, it might be wise to spend the next 365 days meeting more people in person who are interesting to you. Learn their names.


It has been a while since I blogged anything that I consider to have "content". This 365 idea is one I started a while ago and one I am interested in following through with. I think I am gearing up for NaBloPoMo and trying to post every day of the month.

So here is something about "Kid" and why he was interesting to me.

Kid came into a group home type setting when he was under the age of twelve. We didn't get many kids that young unless there was some reason they were sexually inappropriate with the kids in the kid shelters. So without knowing a bunch about his background we knew there was some sexual stuff. It turns out kid was removed from the care of his mother when he was under the age of four. His step father and a series of mothers boyfriends had physically abused him so severely that when he was under the age of one he had bones broken. MANY bones broken. Does it go without saying how horribly sexually abused he was? He lived at first with grandmother but she had mental health issues and became homeless and they lived together in her car until they were reported and he was taken from her. He went to other family members and was accused of being sexually inappropriate and placed temporarily with us. I'm not going to sugar coat anything - he acted out sexually in mind boggling ways. He completely annoyed the female staff and for good reason. I will not know until the day I die why I connected with this kid. Everything about his behaviors were (and are) a "turn off" to me. And somehow I liked him. A lot. I liked him enough that if we had been able to be foster parents I would have taken him into my home - and I can't say that about any other kid but ONE in all my years of working with teens.
He went from our place to a young sex offender home (please don't get me going on THAT topic). To my knowledge he was never "out" of group homes until he aged out of the system.
I have kept some track of him over the years although we were never in contact after he left the place I worked. The last I heard of him he was being incarcerated for sexual predation in a public park. I read an interview by the father of one of the kids he lured. The man was livid (understandably) and completely vilified this sexual predator (understandably). I don't blame him one bit, and yet in the back of my mind - or closer to the front of my mind - was the fact that I knew this kid. I knew him when he was a little boy. I am so very sad for him and for the life he has lived on this earth. I know there are people who will hate my opinion. I know there are people who don't agree with me, and yet I still shed a tear, yes a tear, for the tiny tiny baby who had his arms and legs and collar bone broken, and wonder what his life would have been like if someone had cared for him.

one day while we were driving with him and other kids to go sledding, we were pulled over in the youth corrections van for going to fast, He was in the seat right behind the driver, by friend Louie. The officer wanted her to giver her name and address and phone number but she didn't want Kid to hear her giving her personal information so she was trying to whisper to the officer out of the window. Every time she whispered the officer said"WHAT" and made her repeat what she had just said. Every time she repeated herself, Kid leaned closer to her to hear what she was saying. I know she was not amused but I found it very funny. Finally she said her phone number loud enough for the officer - and Kid - to hear it and as the officer wrote it down, kid started to chant it. "seven seven threee....." He kept it up all day. no matter what he was threatened with he could not even get himself to stop. Since it wasnt my number, I thought it was hilarious, but I can see how infuriating it was to her. I just don`t know what I liked so much about this kid!

happy birthday to me. What an awesome day

I had a great day. I worked, which I think should be banned, but other than that I couldn't have asked for a better day.My son picked out my balloon and my stickers (which he used). We all wore party hats - even the dog! and our bedazzled sunglasses. Maxie even went to bed with his sunglasses, cause you know, his futures so bright he has to wear shades.
My nieces and nephews sang to me. My office was decorated with balloons and streamers. What more could a person ask for?

My baby gets his first school photos

Today is the day my number one gets his first school photo. I don't think he is as excited as we are. Of course we purchased the most expensive photo pack, we are total suckers. We are going to have so many pictures we won't know what to do with - and don't forget the fridge magnet ones!
I am HOPING he looks at the camera, he doesn't really like to do anything by himself, so even sitting in the chair alone might be interesting. I will laugh if we get a picture of him and the teachers assistant!
When I picked him up they said he did fine. He even "kinda" smiled and they can retouch the pictures so his rash isn't so bad which is also nice.
We think he is beautiful no matter what, and even if he hadn't looked at the camera it's ok.