Juggling Kids

I have been planning on writing this post for several days.  Parents of multiple kids in activities often find things scheduled for the same day, usually at different locations, AT THE SAME TIME.   With three kids, I can't remember how many times this has happened to us. Lately it has been happening a lot.  

The World Keeps on Spinning..

February has traditionally not been a good month health wise for my youngest daughter.  

Three years ago she was diagnosed with mono. We had taken her to the ER with severe stomach pains that we thought could have been appendicitis. We were all surprised we the test results came back that she had mono instead.  To this day, we still have no idea where she would have caught it.   She ended up having complications, and was pretty much out of commission most of the month.

The Day I Needed a Clone

I really did not mean to take a three month hiatus from this blog. Things just kind of got crazy the last few months, and I have been busy literally just trying to Survive the Crazy Life. 

During my last post, I shared about our kitty dilemna. I thought you might like a little update. Its been three months, and guess who is still here. We never heard another word from her previous owners.  She has grown quite a bit, and has thrived by eating well and staying warm inside. She spends half her time upstairs, and half downstairs. The other cats are still not sure what to think of her.  Tootsie does not mind her a bit. Reeses,who is usually our most easy going cat still hisses at her at times.  Milo, our male,  has a complicated relationship with her. At times he does not mind her being in the room, and other times he tries to hit her in the face.  When he does that, she goes to the basement door and asks to go downstairs for some alone time.  While she is not fully integrated with the other cats all the time, there has been significant progress. 

Back to Normal

I am sorry to have been quite for so long. We have had a few quiet weeks.  It is the lull before the back to school craziness that will be happening in the next few weeks.  After 16 days without my car, I finally got it back today! In addition to the popped tire, there had been some under damage which we did not know about  until the car was towed. It is as good as new now. I have been driving not one, but two loaners in the last few weeks. We were originally told that our car would be finished last Thursday.  On Friday morning we found out that they needed just a little more time. We were also told that they would give us a free loaner car, since our insurance paid loaner needed to be turned in.  We dropped off one car, and went straight to the other car rental place for the other.  This past weekend, I had a high school reunion in another state.  I had not decided for sure if I was going to go, but when I did not get my car back I did not think it was a good idea to put 350 miles on the loaner car.  Thankfully with the magic of Facebook,  I have seen so many pictures that I feel like I was there.   

My daughter has gone out in public in cosplay a few more times. I have been trying to take  her picture, but every time she sees my phone she turns away.   I admit,  I had to laugh when she wore the wig when we went out to eat a new restaurant in town and she saw several people she knew.  One of those people used to be her reading teacher from elementary school.  She was shocked when she saw how my kids were  now.  She was so relieved to find out that  my daughter  was wearing  wig, and did not cut off her gorgeous hair. The other people we saw were our neighbors.  I am sure they were confused by the wig as well.  

Now that we are heading into August, we are starting back to school mode. We have bought a few clothes and school supplies.  Registration days are coming up fast and school will be here before we know it.  I am in no hurry though, summer is my favorite time of the year. 

It Is Only A Phase

It is only a phase...  Those words are said a lot when you have teenagers.  We are going through what I hope is a short phase right now.  My newly minted teenager is giving me a lot more gray hairs lately.  My daughter and her best friend have become fans of a web series that has quite the fandom. This web series has many characters that have become quite popular at anime conventions where kids (and adults) cosplay. While I understand dressing in character for special occasions,  my daughter and her friend pretty much dress in cosplay almost all the time.   Did I mention that these characters are alien trolls?!  My daughter's favorite character loves cats, and likes to dress like a cat.  She has  troll horns that are cat like, and has a blue tail. She also has short black hair.  My daughter has very long, gorgeous reddish brown hair, which she has been covering up with a short black wig.  She has been dressing all in black with a blue boa hanging behind her.  We get quite a few looks when we are out in public.  I have seen several little kids pointing out that she is wearing a tail.  I know she is just expressing herself, even though I think she looks crazy. Nothing she is doing is permanent.  I try not to say too much, because the more I would fight it  the more she would want to do it.   I am hoping that she will get tired of people giving her strange looks, and decides to be a human girl again.  Then I can say..  whew.. we survived that phase! 

The Week of Mishaps

This week is the reason why I named my blog Surviving the Crazy Life.  It was a week of mishaps, which has made life a little extra crazy..   This week I have been  trying to finish planning a party for my daughter's birthday.   As a party blogger on my other blog Pams Party & Practical Tips, I knew how much time I would need to get everything on my to do list done.   I also know that living with three teenagers, things rarely go as planned.   On Thursday, we went grocery shopping to get the food we needed for the party.  In the check out lane, a 2 liter of pop was accidentally  dropped.  It hit the ground so hard that the lid popped off, and we got a sticky shower.  A few minutes before there had been several people in line behind us.  Luckily they had just opened another lane, and there was only one person left in line and she was out of shower range.  Someone from customer service closed the land behind us so it could be cleaned up, and offered to ring the lady behind us up in another lane.  My flip flops are still sticky from the pop shower.  I think I need to take them outside,  and hose them off.  

As you know, I have two newly permitted drivers.   We have "survived" our first, and hopefully last accident.  I promised when taking pictures of the car, not to "share" who the person driving was.  It was an honest, but expensive mistake.    We were near our home picking up subs for dinner.  I  mentioned that since we were only a mile from home, maybe they would like to drive.   Since they are not really experienced in backing up, I parked in the  part of the parking lot where there was not a lot of traffic.   As they were backing up, I could tell they were nervous.  It did not help that another car had pulled into the parking lot and was impatiently waiting for us.  I told my driver to pull back into the spot to let the car get out of the way.  They did, but instead of hitting the brake, they  got flustered and hit the gas instead.  We hit the curb very hard, which popped the front left tire. We also went several feet into the grass.  Several people saw what happened, and came over to make sure we were okay.  We were, but we could not move the car.  A lot of phone calls had to be made, and it sat like this for several hours.   It had to be towed to a nearby collision shop, and hopefully I will get it back in a couple of days.,  

The party has been going on without any major mishaps, just a few minor ones..  A forgotten cell phone charger, and me missing a step and bruising my arm. One thing nice about having older kids is the parties we have are a lot less structured.   My daughter even told me that she did not want "planned" activities.  She said she just wanted to hang out with her friends, and maybe do activities if they felt like it.  While it is kind of a bummer not to plan any themed games etc,  it does take a lot of the pressure off.   We do have a few craft ideas if the girls feel like making them.  They did do one so far, but the party is not over yet so we will see what happens.     

What a Week!

We had another quite eventful week at our house.  On Monday we celebrated this girl's birthday dinner  a couple of days early. It would end up to be a wise decision. She is now officially a teenager! This may be the last picture you see of her for awhile.  

On the Road

Well the big day is here.  The day two of my kids have actually started driving.  They have almost completed the book course.  Now they have started driving in an actual car.  I took this picture right before Kyle's first drive ever.  Kristina had her first one a few days earlier. They will be driving several times in July with an instructor. Once they have completed the book class and six drives, they will be able to get their permit. Then they will be driving with mom.  At first I was nervous, now I am kind of excited.  Kyle has not been a lot of fun while taking the class. He now thinks he is the "driving police", and likes to correct every little thing I do in the car.  It started on the very first day of class.  As you can imagine, it is very annoying!  I am hoping he stops once he is behind the wheel, and no longer a back seat driver.  

Another  reason why I think I am now excited is how my day went a few days ago.  This was my view most of the day.   My older two had to go to Drivers Ed in the morning.  I ran them to class. passing a girl in a dancing hot dog suit at a nearby business.   My youngest had a yoga class with girls from her scout troop thirty minutes after Drivers Ed started. Since she was not ready when we had to leave, I had to go all the way back home and pick her up.  I drove her to another part of town for her class.  Since my mom friends could not stay that day, and I did not feel like waiting an hour, I ran home again  I got a few things done at home, but then just 40 minutes later had to go back and pick up Kara.  I passed the dancing hot dog for the fifth time in two hours.   I picked up Kara, and talked to one of the other moms for a few minutes.  It was then  time to go over to the school and pick up my other two kids who were now done with class.   During the afternoon I had to run out and run a quick errand at the store. I passed the dancing hot dog (who was now a different girl in the hot dog suit) for the 7th and 8th time. A few hours later, I had to run Kristina back to Driver's Ed for a make up class, because she had been too sick to go the day before.  This time I did not see the dancing hot dog. The business was closed for the day.  I got in and out of the car TEN TIMES that day. Having a kid or two with a drivers license would have it's advantages! 

Now to survive the next few weeks! 

School's Out For the Summer!!

Friday was the last day of school.   While some parents may be sad to see that day arrive, I am not one of them.  Life is much easier when we are out for the summer.  We are all night owls who have a hard time with the super early mornings during the school year. Also as you know from my last few posts, homework is definitely not one of my favorite things in our house.Even with all the stress he caused, Mr.Homework  Avoider finished strong, and got As on all of his finals. We should be finding out his semester grades soon.   Kristina still has this week to finish up her online classes, while her classes at school are over.  Her vacation officially begins on June 13 at midnight.    Kara did very well in all of her classes, and then ended up not feeling well on her last day of school.   

We have a tradition on the last day of school. We go downtown to our local Dairy Queen and get ice cream.  We started this tradition when Kristina had finished the 1st grade, Kyle was in preschool, and Kara was not quite 3.   They sure have grown up!  Kristina is now going to be a Senior is in high school, Kyle a sophomore, and Kara an 8th grader. 

This summer they are not going to just lay around all day, and then wonder where summer went. Since all three would like to earn money, I came up with a job board, where they can make money doing projects around the house.   The more they help, the more money they can make. We are also going to do another Summer Fun Challenge since they do not have many more childhood summers left.  The "plan" is to work a few hours a day, and then do something fun.  Hopefully this will be a summer to remember.   

Super Smart or Totally Crazy?!

Here in our state you can start taking Driver's Ed when you are 14 years 9 months. I personally think that is a bit too young.  For the last few months, we knew that our oldest was going to take her class this June.  She is 17.   She was one of those kids who just was not in any hurry.  She did not feel ready, and that was fine with us.  For insurance and other reasons, you really should take phase 1 (book class with 6 hours of driving) before you turn 18.  Until this weekend, the plan was Kyle would wait a few more months or so, and then take it when it  was his turn.   He turned 15 in April.  

On Friday while we were at his Robotics Awards banquet, Kyle told us that he wanted to learn how to drive as soon as possible. Over the  last few months he would say he didn't care, so this news  kind of came as a surprise.   After talking it over, we decided maybe he should take the class with his sister if there was an opening for him.  On the plus side, they would be able to be each others driving partner during their driving time.   Another plus to them learning to drive  at the same time, is we would only have to worry about one session of driver's ed during summer break instead of two. (Book class is two hours a day, 4 days a week, over 3 weeks)  I guess the only down side would be I will have double the worry as they both drive me around for the next several months.   I called this morning, and they had an opening.  I guess it is was meant to be. This decision is either super smart or totally crazy!   By the time I will recover from this, it will be time for child number three to take her turn. 

I truly think this is one of the scariest things about raising teenagers! 

Kyle gives his approval while sitting in the driver's seat for the first time. I was actually surprised at how natural he looked behind the wheel.  Today was not quite so scary as the car was sitting in the driveway. We will see how I feel in a few weeks, when he is actually driving! 

Is it Summer Vacation Yet?

I can see the end of the tunnel, but  we are just not quite there yet. The last week has been spent making sure Mr. Homework Avoider, caught up on his work.  Memorial Day weekend was not the kick off to summer for us, it was instead being spent trying to get him to finish his Independent Reading Project.  He had a packet of 3 pages front and back filled with questions and short answers.  There was a ton of writing involved, and it  looked a bit overwhelming.  The assignment was to be done as he was reading the novel of his choice. Each worksheet  was supposed to be for about a third of the book.   He chose a 462 page fantasy book called The Amulet of  Samarkand.  He did not quite do the assignment in the way he was supposed to.  Since he loves reading  and writing not so much, he read the entire book in a short time and ignored the reading log. The entire quarter, I tried to get him to work on his packet.   Finally, he no longer had a choice. The assignment was due, and it was a BIG part of the quarter grade. I kept telling him to just get it over with, and then he would have lots of free time.   He didn't listen.  He tried to avoid doing it the entire weekend.   He finally finished at 8 p.m. on Monday night. All I could do was smack my forehead when he admitted to me that I was right when he finished. It really was a big relief to have it done.  If only he had listened to me a few days earlier!   Last night I helped him with his 2+ page Reflection Letter about how much he has grown as a student this year.   I had to laugh to myself at his answer to the question about what  habits do you need to change.  In his letter to his teacher he said, he really needs to just do his homework right away, and not let it pile up to the point that it is overwhelming. Now if only he will listen to is own advice!!   As of right now English is all caught up, and most likely done except the quarter final. Whew!  We have just one assignment left  for Biology, and about four left for History. As he sees the pile dwindle, he is becoming more excited.  He finally realizes that the sooner he is done, the sooner his free time can begin.   The goal is to be done with it all by this weekend.  I can only hope!! 

Our Shining Star

This last month of school is flying by.  As it is every school year, May is packed with end of the year concerts, events, and awards.  This week Kyle and his Robotics team were recognized by the school board and given a Shining Star award.  They brought in the robot, and gave a short presentation about the team and how they did this year.  We were glad that they give out the awards first thing, so we did not have to sit through a long meeting.  I was a little worried when each of the team members went up and shook the hands of the board.   Kyle does not like to shake hands with anyone. He did okay though.  He shook everyone's hand with his left hand, so he did not have to look at them straight on.  He was in the middle of the line, so he just followed everyone else.  I gave a sigh of relief when he shook the last hand, I am sure he was too.  

Here is a close up picture of the robot.  It was able to open it's arms to pick up the ball and then shoot it through a goal that was several feet above the ground.   It did have some technical problems from time to time, but when it was working well it was a lot of fun to watch.  I think it reminds me for Gary the snail from Spongebob Squarepants. 

Besides receiving awards, we had a lot of other things going on this week too.  Kyle got new lenses for his glasses.  Kara had an Ortho appointment, and now has to start wearing bands on her braces.   Today we had a new family member join the family.  I will be posting about her soon.     

The Week of Birthdays

It was Kyle's birthday this week.  We had a nice day, but I have very little proof of it.  He absolutely refused to smile in every picture that I took.  This one was at Fridays where we went to dinner. He was so excited that he got to have the steak with lobster, since it was a special occasion.  Normally he would not have been able to order it, since it costs almost $20.  

This is the face that I got when he posed with his Portal Birthday Cake. He would not even give me even a teeny little smile.  I saw him smile a lot that day, just not when the camera or phone was out.  He better watch out though..  I AM going to get a smile out of him again.   

Someone else had a birthday this week too.  Do you remember this guy?  Lucky turned 4 months old today.  He is considered to be a full grown mouse.  He is still super sweet and loves to be held by Kara.  He likes it when she sits him on her shoulder. He will play in her hair and sometimes hide in her shirt.  He normally does not sit still very long, so I really lucked out with this shot.  

Isn't this picture the sweetest.  She had given him a seed, and he was snuggling and eating it at the same time. If mice could look happy, I think this is what it would it would look like. 

Kyle's birthday means that we are now in the final stretch of school.  Only a little over 20 days are left.  Even though it doesn't seem right that summer is right around the corner, when it feels like winter just ended, we are looking forward to summer break.  I hope that I can get Kyle to do the homework he has been ignoring the last few weeks.   We will be having banquets, concerts, dance recitals  and all the other end of the school year events in the upcoming weeks.  In just a little over 20 days, Kristina will be a Senior.  I am not really ready for that.  When did she grow up?  I still remember that sweet little girl who was so excited about going to school.  I have a lead on a photographer for Senior pictures.  She is also  finally going to take drivers ed, so she can take the classes before she turns 18.  There is just so much more we need to worry about now, and a lot of things that cost money.   We will get through it though, we always do!  

   

The Runaway Son

I did not mean to disappear for over a week.   Last week was Spring Break.  It was nice having a break from school and all of our activities for awhile.  It gave us a little reminder of why we love summer vacation.   

I have been debating on if I should write this post.  We have been dealing with something the last couple of months with our son that has been kind of frustrating.  I decided to share about it, because there might be others out there dealing with the same thing.   When he was much younger, he would inappropriately run  when he would get upset, anxious or angry.  He was not always aware of his surroundings, and would occasionally do something that affected his safety like run in the road.   For many years running was no longer a problem.   A couple of years ago we had a couple of instances, but they stopped as suddenly as they started.  A few months ago, though, he started up again.  This time it is a big different.  Now he only wants to leave when it is time to do homework.  He has always hated doing homework, but now that he is in high school it is not something he can get out of. 

This latest phase starting in February, early March.  It started out of nowhere.  We just got back from the store, and he took off while I was bringing the bags.  When he did not come in after several minutes, I went out to look for him.  I did not see him near the house, so I got in the car to go look for him. It has been long enough that he had enough time to leave the neighborhood. I found him running down a busy street near our house.   Luckily he was coming up to our road which turns off the busy street.  I was able to get him back in the neighborhood, and made sure he went back home.  I asked him where he thought he was going.. He said he had no idea. he just wanted to go.  I don't think he would have gone very far.  He had no money on him, and he is hungry quite frequently. It was also cold outside, and he only had a sweatshirt.   A couple of days later he tired to do it again.  This time though it was 10 p.m. at night, and very dark outside.  I was able to block the door, and talk him out of it.  He has tried a couple of other times at night, but so far we have stopped him from leaving.  For awhile his sister was hiding his shoes and coat at night, so he could not leave when no one was watching.    A month ago, when he was trying to leave, I got a hold of his shoes before he did.   I put them in the dirty clothes hamper, a place where I knew he would never look.  He put on one of old shoes. A shoe that is now 2 sizes too small.  His sister had hidden the other shoe. He told me he was going to leave anyway.  I put on my own shoes and followed him.  It was actually kind of comical watching him limp down the street in one shoe that did not fit.  He did not make it very far.  By the time he had gone about 5 houses, his feet were cold and he realized why it was not a good idea to run away in one shoe.  

The other day, Kara and I came home and realized he was not in the house.  He knew that he was going to have to do his homework when I got back home, so he took off before I got there.   Kara and I jumped in the car, to go look for him.   I found him a few minutes later at the end of a cul de sac looking at the busy street.  This time he was far from the traffic, and was  just looking at it.  I am pretty sure he knew we would see him where he was standing, which is why he picked the location that he did.    Kara got out of the car to go talk to him.  I stayed in the car just in case he would take off if he saw me coming.  When they started walking back towards the car, I thought maybe she had talked him into riding back to the house with us.  He walked right past the car.   He decided he wanted to run home instead.   I followed behind to make sure he actually did go home.   There is a neighbor who doesn't know us very well.  I guess my driving slow behind my son, made him nervous.  When he saw Kyle running by the house, he opened his back door asking Kyle if he is alright..  I tried to assure the neighbor  that everything was fine, that I was just making sure my son was actually going home.  I don't think he believed me though. He continued to stand there watching.   About this time Kyle became winded.  He stood there bent over trying to catch his breath.  I waited for him to start walking again, before I moved the car.   When Kyle  did it again  in front of the neighbor's  house, I could see the neighbor watching now out the front window.   While I am grateful to know there are neighbors out there that are keeping an eye out, I am also a bit annoyed that he thought I was trying to abduct my own runaway son.    Once we got back home, I told Kyle about the neighbor watching him to make sure he was safe.  He had no idea that it even happened. He did not hear or see the neighbor Then he said..  maybe we should go over and apologize for worrying him.  At this point we were both cold and tired, so I suggested we tell him the next time we see him.  I also told Kyle the best thing to do.. Is NOT TO DO IT AGAIN! 

Hopefully he will take my advice.  I also told him if he really feels like running, how about doing it safely but running laps around the outside of the house.  He likes that idea, we will see what happens from here. 

End of the Seasons

Wow, I did not mean to be away from this blog for so long.  It has been a busy few weeks, with a lot  going on in many areas.   I chose the Ends of the Seasons as the title of this post because in the past week or so we had the end of the Robotics season,  the end of the third quarter at school, and finally the end of the winter weather. 

Last week it was the end of the quarter.  Kyle who does not like to do his homework, had a ton of work to finish up.  It got to the point that he was overwhelmed, and refused to do it.  Many kids are stubborn, but Kyle's Aspergers makes him extremely stubborn.  At times he goes into stubborn mode, when he really shouldn't, like when it comes to homework that will affect your grade point.  It is frustrating when he want to do things the hard way, instead of just doing it as soon as he gets it. He could easily have all As and Bs, but doesn't when  he doesn't want to turn in his homework.  On Friday and Saturday of last weekend,  we had our second Robotics meet. This time it was in a town  about 45 minutes away, and we had to do some fancy scheduling since I could not be at two places at one time.    We fared much better this time around.. After the first day we were in in the top 24, which meant we would have  a great chance to make it to the elimination rounds the next day.  

This time I was able to get to the pits and take a close up picture of our robot.  It kind of looks like Gary from the SpongeBob cartoon.  The circles that look like eyes are the tops of the antennae like arms that would pick up and throw the ball.   We did well during the last three prelim rounds Saturday morning.   Kara had a special dance class that day, so I was not able to get to the meet until after the alliance selections.  I was happy to find out that we were picked to be one of the teams in the final rounds.    We were on Team 8.  Later we would find out that Team 2, lead by one of the teams we are friends with, were planning on picking us for their team. Had we been on that team we may have lasted longer because of how the matches are seeded.   It probably worked out okay though.  During our first elimination round, our robot got hit hard when another robot was trying to block us.  It hit us hard enough that our battery was knocked lose.   The pit crew fixed the problem, but during the second match  there were more technical issues and our antennae arms could not pick up the ball. To make matters worse, one of our teammates also had technically issues, and could not move.  As you might have guessed, we lost that round.   Since we lost matches in a row, we were eliminated.  We are done for the season.  This year was a good learning experience, and we now have a better idea of what we can do next year. Most of the kids on the team are Freshman, we will be a force to be reckoned with  in another year or two.  

This week we had "quarterly" finals at our high school.  This is a new thing that our school is trying, and I think it will really help.  Instead of having one big final at the end of the semester which is  20% of the final grade,  there will now be a smaller test at the end of each  quarter worth 10% of the grade. It takes some of the pressure off of kids who have trouble testing, and each tests is over less material.  I know my oldest daughter aced one of her quarterly finals, so it will definitely be good for her.      

Our snow finally melted this week, after a very cold,  brutal winter.. We are less than 2 inches from breaking the record as the snowiest winters ever for our area. We got double the usual amount of snow.  When the giant snow banks at the end of my driveway finally melted this week, look what turned up!  That is my neighbor's Christmas tree that had been buried in our shared snow bank  for THREE MONTHS! It actually looked pretty good for being out there that long. The garbage men picked it up this week on April 2nd.  There are even some houses in our neighborhood with their Christmas lights still on their house.  This is the longest that has ever happened.  I think ours came down about a month ago.  There was just too much snow, and the temps were just too cold.    It is so nice to look out the window and see brown grass.. It will be green soon enough, and I can't wait.  

Hamster, Allergies, Homework, and More

It looks like we may be saying good bye to another one of Kara's furry friends.  Last Wednesday, Kara realized that Sunny had somehow slipped out of her cage. We are still not sure how she did it.   How we got her in the first place was because she was a bit of an escape artist.  When one of the girls at our favorite pet store was trying to clean her cage, she jumped out of her hands, and into a shelving unit.  Kara, being a hamster whisperer, was able to successfully get her out.  Since Sunny looked just like her first hamster Sonic who had died about six weeks before, Kara begged to get her.  Sunny was a great little hamster, but it has now been almost a week without any sightings.  I also looked back on the blog and she was 7 or 8 months when we got her back in Dec 2012.. That would make her very close to 2 years oldl, which is the life expectancy of a drawf hamster. We do have some hope though, hamsters are known to reappear after being missing a few days.    

Another thing we have been dealing with the last few weeks is Kara has developed quite a severe perfume allergy in the last few months.  It got so bad that she was having allergic reactions pretty much every single day, pretty much everywhere she went.  People wear scent everywhere! .  Her doctor had a really good suggestion.  She said that if Kara was wearing a fashion scarf, she could discreetly cover her nose and mouth whenever she was starting to have problems breathing.  It is definitely better than wearing a face mask to middle school.  We found several colors of light flannel that would make great scarves on sale at JoAnn Fabrics. We had planned on getting right to work making them, but then her older sister gave her all of the scarves she no longer wears.  Some days are better than others, but the scarves definitely do help a lot. 

Adding to the chaos  this week is it is the last week of the quarter.  My son is not found of doing homework.  Because of his Aspergers, he really does not like to write.  He tends to put off homework as long as possible, so this week he is overloaded with work he needs to get finished.  I am getting a refresher coarse in Biology, American History and Algebra 2, to make sure he gets everything done.  One thing our school is doing different this semester is they are now having quarterly midterms, instead on only at the end of the semester.   He does test very well, so that should help his grade if he does not get everything done. 

If the lost hamster, allergies, and last minute homework was not enough, this week is also our 2nd Robotics meet.  Depending on how we do, this could mean the end of the season, or a trip to States. We have one of the most competitive states for Robotics with the more teams than any other state.  Since we did not do so well at our last meet, we might not have a chance to move on.  I guess we will find out this weekend. 

Well I better get back to it.. I know Kyle  is in the other room trying to avoid doing his English assignment.   Sigh...  Only one more quarter until summer break! 

Our First Robotics Competition

This past week was a busy one.  Kyle is on the Robotics team, and this weekend was his team's  first meet.  The meet lasted over a couple of days.  The team worked really hard the last couple of months building the robot, and preparing it for competition.  Unfortunately the first day, there were a few issues that were beyond our control that hurt our standings the first day. 

If you have never been to a robotic meet before, they are actually quite exciting.  At the beginning of the  building season each team finds out the what their robot has to do.  This year it had to be able to pick up a ball, and throw it through a goal.  In addition to being able to throw a ball, it also has to compete against other robots trying to do the same thing at the same time.  Each match up has two teams of three robots.  Depending on what color you are assigned for that match,  you could be an ally  or a competitor of another team. The more points your robot earns, the higher it is ranked. After all the preliminary matches, the top 8 teams each pick two more teams to be their allies during elimination rounds.   Our team is friends with the team that was ranked in 1st, so we were hoping we might be picked for an alliance. They decided to pick another team.  While we were disappointed, we totally understood.  We will have another chance to compete again in a few weeks. 

Here is a closer view of the robots.  In this match we were on the blue team, and holding the ball.  The red robots were blocking us, trying  to keep us from turning around and scoring.   Kyle had tried out for the drive team, who are the students who man the controls during each match. We know he did well during try outs, but the coaches decided to go with  team members with experience. I think that was a very wise decision.  There was so much involved, that it was much better to watch and learn especially for his first meet.   I have no doubt though, that he will be driving the robot some day.. All those hours of playing video games, have definitely come in handy.   

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A Mouse in the House

Late Sunday afternoon, our ordeal began. Kara thought it might be a fun idea to make a maze for the mice.  She first took Oreo out, and he did the maze and got his treat with no problem. Then it was Frappe's  turn. (A.K.A mama mouse)   She went through the maze, and got her treat. When it was time to get in her cage though, she had other plans.  She jumped out of Kara's hands, and ran to Oreo's cage.  She took cover underneath the chairs in the family  room.  Kara thought quickly, and barricaded her in with various items that were in the family room. This was about the time I walked in the room, and I saw the look of panic on Kara's face.  I have several foam boards that we used to block off the entire room.  The family room is right off the kitchen, so it only took four boards.  We were very worried that if she was able to escape the room, one of our cats might find her.  We had several close calls where we almost caught Frappe, but she would slip away at the last second. She also climbed Oreo's cage quite a few times, like she was trying to get inside.  He was climbing it too, but on the inside.  Luckily they were not near each other long enough that she could get pregnant again.. (at least I hope not!!!)  As long as we could see where she was, we were hopeful that we would catch her.. Then around 7 p.m. she disappeared, and we did not see her again. 

About that time, we brought in the live trap we had in the garage. We thought that if we could not catch her before bed, maybe we could catch her if  she tried to get something to eat during the night.   We locked up the cats for the night, and set the trap.  Early in the morning Kara was devastated to find the trap empty. It looked like the food had been moved, but there was no mouse.   Kara was so upset, that I allowed her to stay home from school for  the day. She had a headache, and an upset stomach.  I knew she would not have a good day at school, worrying about her mouse at home. Around 11 a.m., I heard a happy yell from the family room.  She had spotted Frappe as she ran behind the TV table.  That was the first sighting of her in 15 hours! We were confused though, we knew where she went, but there was no sign of her anywhere.   Kara did not see her again for several hours, and began to doubt that she actually saw her.. Then around 7 p.m., she appeared once more.  This time we were able to find out where she was going.  There was a small hole in the cardboard backing of our old entertainment center that we are using as shelving.  She was hiding out underneath the entertainment center!  She had been right under our noses the entire time, only we did not know it.  This was a good news, bad news situation. Good that we knew where she was hiding, and that she was definitely still in the family room.  It was also bad,  due to the size of the entertainment center there was no way we could reach her to get her out. We had to wait until she came to us.  We were in luck though.. For about an hour she was very active.  She kept going into the trap, so we thought we had her.   There was just one problem, she was too light to trigger the trap.  Kara tied a string to the trigger hoping to manually set it off if needed.   Then around 11 p.m., I heard the words I was waiting to hear..    

"Mom! I caught her!" 

The funny thing is how she caught her.  We had her cage open nearby where she was hiding out, just in case she decided to she wanted to go home.   After multiple misses with the live trap, she was caught when she climbed into her cage.  Kara was close enough to the cage that she was able to close the door in time.  Frappe seemed happy to be home. She went up to her nest, and within a few minutes took a nap.   We were happy she was no longer on the loose, and  the cats were happy they were no longer confined to the bedroom.   We all slept a little bit easier last night, including Frappe.  Hopefully no more adventures for her! 

Somebody is 3! (3 weeks old that is)

Look who is getting so big.  Lucky is 3 weeks old today.  She is still small, but is looking more grown up every day. 

 

Last weekend, she opened her eyes which meant it was time to start weaning.  We found a great site that gives great tips on how to take care of a baby mouse.  She is still getting kitten formula, but instead of us hand feeding her, she is getting it from nibbling on crisp bread.soaked in it.  It takes a little while for mice to learn how to lap liquid, so it will be a little bit longer for her to get her own water bottle.  A great thing about her eating solid food on her own, it means we can get some sleep again.   No more middle of the night feedings!.  

Hello world! 

Somebody else had a birthday this week as well, except she is a lot older than 3 weeks. :)  My oldest daughter turned 17!  Eeek!!  I can't believe how fast time as flown.  I surprised her with a soup and salad lunch at Olive Garden. 

We then had a family dinner at her favorite sushi restaurant.. Yum!  I still need to make her a birthday cake. We have been quite busy with it being the end of the semester.   Kyle finished all of his exams today, and she will be done with all of her work tomorrow at midnight.   This weekend I will finally be able to catch up all on all the things I had to put off doing because of the baby mouse and school work, like finish putting away the Christmas decorations.  (yes some of them are still up!) 

This weekend it is looking to be  quite the hectic schedule, with  a possible sleepover, robotics, ballet rehearsal, and a birthday slumber party all while dealing with more snow and frigid temps.  I am sure it will make for some good stories for next week. 

The Week Before Mid-Terms

I did not mean to go almost an entire week without posting.  It has just been a very busy week. Our little one, who Kara has named Lucky, has been doing well.   She opened her eyes on Friday, and is growing quite a bit.  She has had to been fed every 2-3 hours around the clock, so Kara and I have been very tired.  She is worth the missed sleep though!  Now that she has opened her eyes, she is ready to start the weaning process.  Soon, hopefully I will be able to get a lot more sleep. 

We are just a few days from the  time of the year, that parents of high schoolers dread.. Mid- term week! Kyle has had to catch up on a lot of homework.   With his Aspergers, homework has always been a struggle for him.  It's not that he can't do it, he can, he just hates to do it.   It can be difficult for someone with Aspergers to be made to do something they don't want to do. Writing is very tiring for him, so he tries to avoid it as much as possible.  He has been getting better as he gets older, but is still not quite there yet.   Kristina, my oldest, is taking her core classes online through the high school.  This has been a definite blessing, except for the end of the semester. Let's just say that she is not that  strong in time management. Even after five semesters of taking classes this way, she always has a lot to finish the last few weeks.  She always finishes, but swears she will pace herself better the next time..  This semester she was probably the farthest behind in all five semesters.  She does have an extra class this year, and is taking her hard junior classes.  She will get it all done by the deadline, but it will be a full week of work.  

We are also in a bit of a busy period with the kids extra activities.  Kara has been in dance for many years.  In December she tried out for the ballet production, that will be presented at the dance recital at the end of the year.  Rehearsals for the productions will be starting soon.   Kyle is on the high school robotics team, and  they are in the middle of build season.  Each team only has approximately six weeks to build their robots for competition.  They are currently meeting a few times a week now.   Tonight he also had a Link party to go to. He used to have a parapro help keep him on track during the school day. Now that he is in high school, he has an upper classman, come to one of his classes with him, to assist him if needed.  Once during the semester, the student is supposed to attend a social event with their link.  The event he wanted to attend was scheduled at the same time as robotics, so he was unable to go.   Instead he went to movie night that was being held at one of the link's homes.   He was unsure about going, but he was looking forward to the pizza, and was hoping they would be showing a good movie.   Once I got back home, I forgot to take my phone out of my purse.  Big mistake!   About halfway through the party, he started texting me that he wanted to go home.  They were showing the movie Grease, and he can not stand musicals.  He was also one of only two boys there, and did not know anyone.  His link did not make it.   When Kara came to tell me that Kyle had been trying to reach me and to check my phone.  I was shocked to see several texts, including one saying if I did not text back to him soon he was walking home!  He  was seven miles away, after dark,  18 degrees,  and he had no idea how to get home. When he could not handle the movie anymore,  he walked out of the party, and stood outside.  While he was standing in the driveway,  the mom came out to stay to him.  He was annoyed, but I was grateful. If she hadn't, he might have gone missing again.   She was very nice, and understanding why he wanted to leave.  When I pulled up, she walked him to the car so she could say hi to me.   On the way home, he said had it been a movie he liked he might have stayed for the whole party, but he just could not take all the singing. He also said next time he is going to the get together it will be the one  at the arcade. 

Whew..  I think I need to get a bit of sleep while I can.. The next feeding will be coming up pretty soon.