a momentary lapse in judgement

o.k. so i forgot for a split second why i don't have pets. when i was little, i begged and begged for a puppy. my dad said no, no, and no. finally, when i was 7 and my brother was 4, he caved. we got schotzie. i had her until i was a freshman in college and we had to have her put to sleep because she was in heart failure. i won't go in to those details because it involves me, on the ground in the parking lot of the vet clinic, crying hysterically and seemingly at the end of my rope. after i moved away to college, my brother got a cocker puppy named fozzy bear. he had her for years and she went to college with him and experienced all his little escapades first hand. once, she jumped out of the back of his truck and broke her leg along with sustaining several other serious injuries. she finally had to be put to sleep because of old age. then, i got atticus (a cocker puppy) and my brother got snaggle (a pit bull). atticus moved with me from place to place and was there for my marriage to chad and my graduate school graduation and the birth of my first born and my pregnancy with chase. he died suddenly when i was in texas and my friend called and told chad and he called and told me. this was terribly difficult. i was in shock and didn't get to say goodbye. that was it. i told myself no more pets. ever. i'm still not over losing him. well, my brother's sweet snaggle who has moved to and from austin, san marcos, houston, and finally to alaska died last monday morning. she had tumors that eventually took her lilfe. kevin had her for 11 years and she had been by his side for all of his adult life. it was extremely difficult for him. i think in a past blog, i have mentioned the 2 mommy cats that 2 friends of mine and i rescued from this run down farm. they each had 4 kittens. we kept one of the mommy cats and her 4 kittens for a good while. keri decided to keep the mommy and scout...one of her kittens. we also decided that she should keep boo radley...one of the kittens from the other litter. she may or may not be questioning why she listens to me about now. i loved boo radley. the kids loved boo radley. keri...does not love boo radley. keri loves my children...and could not tell them no. he is black and white and so cute. aiden and i asked if boo radley could come over for a visit about a week and a half ago. he was only supposed to stay the day. but the day turned into 2...turned into 4...and so on. the kids were sharing responsibility for him and we were all trying to convince chad that boo radley should be for keeps. chad was actually thinking about it. until...friday. we took him to his first vet appointment on friday morning for him to get his shots, etc. colton was at school, chase stayed home with chad in case his allergy to dogs acted up at the vet clinic, and aiden came with me and boo radley. the vet informs us that boo radley has worms. o.k. not uncommon for kittens. we just need to have him de-wormed...right? wrong. these worms are on the CDC list. does anyone know what that means? IT MEANS THEY ARE TRANSFERABLE TO HUMANS. alright. no problem. we will treat him and it's not like the kids have been dealing with the litter. i have. and i wash my hands more than a nurse. so we should be o.k. then, the sweet little vet tells me that he also has a parasite. one that he got from his mother through sharing litter, evidently. giardia. contracted by drinking contaminated water. causes extreme diarrhea. also tranferable to humans. um...excuse me? are you telling me that this sweet, harmless, little boo radley kitten may have not only given us a weird worm rash, but giardia as well? that is what he was telling me. well, not exactly. it would be unlikely that we would have picked up anything due to my ocd and obsessive cleanliness. (can we all thank Jesus for obsessive-compulsive disorder?) he was more telling me how to treat and handle the kitten while he is getting his parasite medicine and all healed up. i'll tell you how i'm gonna handle it. in my oppinion, he was really missing keri's apartment and the animal kingdom over there. he actually told me that he wanted to go back to live there. so...he did.

PLAYGROUND PHILOSOPHIES

having a school aged boy has taught me some things. one, of which is that any guy...no matter their age...when asked how their day was, will answer, "fine." i used this tactic all last year while colton attended kindergarten. i always got the same generic answer. "fine". everything was always..."fine". i would ask about what he was learning; how his relationships at school were; who he was eating lunch with; and how he felt about the things that had happened that day. it was like pulling teeth...that weren't even loose. so, this year...i had a lightbulb moment that has changed our painful, generic afterschool conversations into ones that tell me everything i need to know about my oldest son and his school experiences. i started thinking...i already know what he is learning because the work comes home in his folder. i already know that he is a terrific reader because i know that he is in a special reading group for the students who are above grade level. i know what he is learning in math because i see him counting money and telling time and telling chase about subtraction. i see the story problems and the way the teacher is teaching them to make charts to figure them out. science experiments come home and we have so many art projects that we may have to buy a bigger house so that we can have an extra room for art projects alone. i hear him talking about martin luther king and can see that he no longer calls his black friends "brown". i have figured out that i can find out everything i need to know about colton's day at school and most importantly, how he treats his friends, who he is spending his time with, and how he feels about himself with just one question...

..."what happened on the playground today?"

post holiday blues

i think we all have the post holiday blues. it has been hard to get back into the swing of things...including writing on a regular basis. i could not believe that my last post was before christmas and about my big television debut. speaking of, chad gave me an "oscar" for christmas. it was presented in front of our families for best supporting actress in a holiday special. it looks like a real oscar trophy and everything. i was sooooooo excited!! finally...my ship has come in! another favorite gift of the season was the wii that my parents got for the boys. oh my gosh!! everyone loves that thing. i think that i had to kick chad and my brothers in law off several times so the little ones could play. it was on all day for the first few days. colton thought he had a promising future as a professional bowler until we took him and all his cousins bowling for real and tested their newly developed skills. colton and his competetive personality was none too thrilled with actual bowling. he got so mad that we had to pull the "never quit" speech out of the parenting handbook repituar. i have no idea if i spelled repituar right, and to be quite honest...i don't care. then, surprising everyone, chad's family got together and gave us a "theater" room. we turned what used to be the office upstairs into a home theater and we love it. they got us a big flat screen that hangs on the wall and a dvd player with surround sound. davey hooked it all up for us while he was here because, lets face it, if he didn't...it would still be in the box. not that chad's not handy. ummmm...what he lacks in "do it yourself home repairs technique" he makes up for in style. and the ability to do complex math problems in his head. it really comes in handy. it does. really. so...my oscar sits on a shelf in the theater...displayed proudly. and we are really enjoying our theater. we love it. the kids are coming down off of christmas too and are having the occational squabble. well...maybe i down play their sibling rivalry a bit. this week, chase came to me and told me to call santa and tell him to put colton on the naughty list. i'm not recalling exactly what colton's offence was. today, they were playing football in the yard and colton decided that tripping chase was an acceptable form of tackling. aiden screams like she's being tortured if colton even attempts to touch her toys. colton has lost wii and playstation 8 out of the 11 days of the year. chase has lost computer privilages too many times to count. and aiden has sat in time out more than her little mind can comprehend. i think she's beginning to feel at home there. well, that's about all i got for now. hopefully, the next time i write, i can spread a little more cheer.