Mondays have so few redeeming qualities

Ack!  I am not a fan of Mondays on a good Monday.  Then there are Mondays like this one that make me want to curl up in bed with some good tea and a few good books.  I'm on day 3 of a whooper of a headache.  I probably should take my migraine meds but I really don't feel like not being part of the world for between 12 and 24 hours.  First thing this morning I called the school and asked to talk to Princess Bear's (PB) teacher.  Over the weekend my parents and I were very vigilant about not having the news on so she wouldn't hear anything about the shooting incident in CT.  The child has anxiety issues and I just didn't think it would help.  I wanted to touch base with the teacher though to see if they were planning on mentioning it.  If so I felt like PB should hear it from me first.  All the teachers and the principal had a meeting this morning on how to address the issue.  They observed a moment of silence for those in CT and didn't offer any details.  That worked.  I babysat my nephews this morning and G-d knows I love those little boys but it was rough today.  Tyler was in a mood and I wasn't in a place to make it a fun day for them.  Tyler wanted me to read but Aunt Sarah on 3 hours of sleep, a mega headache and her glasses no where to be found is just not conducive to reading time.  I got home around 1pm and tried to some housework and then just veg until it was time to pick up PB. The child does not know how not to leave a trail in her wake or how to not argue constantly.  She wound up being grounded from both TV & music today.  I think it was more of a punishment for me. 

I'm just hoping to get more than 3 hours of sleep and that this headache decides it doesn't need to stick around anymore.  Until then there is lots and lots of Excedrin in my future.  Have a good one!

There just aren't the right words

I was almost glad when Princess Bear (PB) came home from school and I turned off the coverage of the school shooting in Newtown CT.  What a horrible tragedy.  I think every parents worst nightmare is burying their child.  I can't even begin to imagine the angst of waiting to find out if my child is alive or dead in a situation like todays.  I can't begin to understand how mentally ill someone has to be to do something like this.  It is truly the definition of evil.  Regardless of it being based in mental illness or not it is most definitely evil.   My prayers go out to all the families that lost a love oned today.  My prayers go out to the first responders who will never ever forget the horrors that they saw today.  My prayers go out to the surviving children who will be so impacted by this most likely for the rest of their lives. 

Of course in the aftermath of the tragedy today many people are calling for stricter gun control.  Really?  Last time I checked anyone who had truly evil intentions was going to do exactly what they want.  They might have to change the method or do some illegal moves but they would probably obtain the weapons they want.  I won't even go into the Constitutional aspect of it.  Although that should be the beginning and end of it. I will go into the fact that disarming good people who might possibly have been able to diffuse a situation like todays if they were there would have been the best outcome.  I live in IL and was very glad when the conceal carry laws were overturned this week.  How many times lately have we heard of a homeowner protecting themselves from intruders because they were also weapon owners?  That is a perfect example of why we don't need stricter gun control laws. As cliche as it sounds guns don't kill people, people kill people.  The amount of leftist, liberal Hollywood types that are calling out for more gun control makes me sick.  First of all I believe there is a time and place and this isn't it.  It's time to come together as a country and support those in Newtown.  It's time to come together as a country and find the goodness and love in one another.  I really believe in many ways we've become an isolated society.  Neighbors don't know each other any more.  They don't look out for each other anymore.  People don't want to get involved in case things go south.  This should be a call for communities all over to bond with one another.  So tonight why don't we all say a prayer for those precious little angels that never got a chance to live their lives and for our country as well? 

Life is.....FANTASTIC!!!!

Yes, once again I disappeared.  I have signed up for Jen's Holiday home tour and need to start my 21 days over.  Yesterday was such an incredible day that I absolutely must blog about it!!!  We had our annual appointment at Shriner's hospital for Princess Bear (PB) yesterday.  My parents both decided that they wanted to come along.  It's a pretty rare thing for my dad to join us on these trips.  We had to be in Chicago at 8am.  That meant getting up around 3:45am and hitting the road by 4:30am.  My mom drove the first part of it so PB and I crashed out in the back seat.  She feels like the world is hers since I'm no longer stuffing her in a car seat.  I'm not loving it but she's 5'1 and 92 pounds (at 9.5 months!).  I have no idea where we stopped to grab some breakfast around 5:45am.  After that my mom decided she was done driving and my dad opted for the back seat.  Another one of those "this never happens" things.  I drove the rest of the way into the city.  All it took was 1 day of driving into Chicago during morning rush hour to remind me how much I don't like it.  I really don't like it when I don't have complete control of the radio and my navigator's skills are seriously lacking.  It reminded me that this girl is ready for some country living.  So we got to Shriner's 4 minutes before PB's appointment and she was still in what she slept in (sweats) and crazy hair.  After checking in and the LPN getting PB's vitals we had a few minutes to get PB changed.  Any visit to Shriner's makes for a long day because you're seeing an entire team of professionals.  A speech and language path, a psychologist, getting x-rays, having medical photographs taken, a pediatric dentist, an orthodontist, an audiologist and the surgeon.  It's usually an 8 hour day.  The psychologist and I were talking about PB's attitude in general and towards her physical anomalies.  The psychologist was the first person to mention that PB is a very happy, very bubbly, outgoing little girl who seems to have no issue with her appearance.  Her recommendation was to not have any further surgery unless medically needed.  Ok with me!!!  Then we discussed the possibility of PB having ADHD.  At first she was very much leaning that way and talking about how much Ritalin PB would need.  After spending some more time with PB she realized that while PB is a very fast moving, all over the place kid that she isn't ADHD.  Her issues in school might very well be sensory and the fact that she can't retain the information and use it in different settings.  This would explain why PB needs to hear things over and over and over again before it becomes a skill she can acquire.  She had PB reading from a chapter book and was very impressed with PB's reading skills.  She did say it would be a good idea if I could get a tutor to work with PB twice a week during the school year.  She was pretty disgusted when she heard how bad the school district here is and how much they have cut services to kids. After that the next relevant meeting was with the speech path who once again recommended way more speech than PB is getting at school.  She is contacting the school to see if they will increase PB's speech time.  She said if that isn't possible that I should look into some other sources.  There is a HUGE lack of speech paths around here but I'll see what I can get figured out. 

The entire time we were there the kids were getting showered with toys and things to play with.  I can't even list everything that PB received when she was there.  I know that a new stuffed teddy bear, a Polly Pocket, at least 4 books, 2 coloring books and a new DVD were part of the haul.  I honestly can't say enough about how wonderful the staff at Shriners is with the kids.  It's just amazing. 

Then we met with the surgeon.  He indicated that if we wanted to go ahead with the surgery to bring PB's eyes closing together and build up the bridge of her nose that it would be good to do in sooner rather than later.  I asked a few questions as far as whether it would help with her chronic sinus infections and it wouldn't.  So, since the surgery would not help with anything medically and it is incredibly risky coupled with the fact that PB is very ok with her appearance we decided not to pursue surgery.  If things change and PB starts to get teased and things change drastically then we can reevaluate the decision then.  I was so incredibly excited, grateful and relieved that I walked around randomly saying "no more surgery" for the next 6 hours or so.  That also isn't completely true because now we need to plan the surgery with the opthamologist to straighten PB's eyes.  After that she will hopefully be surgery free forever. 

The orthodontist also agreed that the surgery he previously thought PB would need to break her jaw and realign it would not be necessary.  She's going to need a whole heck of a lot of orthodontic work but again NO SURGERY!!!!

So I'm an incredibly grateful mommy that feels like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders.  I can't think of a better thing to blog about!