Sunday, October 31, 2010

everyday is Halloween

[ministry]
[this post is only like 2.78 weeks late, sorry, i have no excuse other than i'm a much better blogger when i'm getting paid to sit at a computer, when i'm at home i have too many distractions & i hardly get a chance to sit.]


while we started all the halloween plans early, it still snuck up on me...completely. initially Z wanted to be Dumbledore & that scared me, it's a whole lot of pretty & like skilled sewing, i'm all about messed up off kilter frankenstein, but if something is supposed to match up or meet, um, there's probably gonna be issues.

so i caved & showed the boy an ad from a costume store, he wanted a black robe & either scary mask from star wars or the scream mask. [hell to the no on the scream mask, the nightmares i would have from that, from the mask being in my house, no way jose!] i figured i would make the robe, but it was only $15 & i figured the material & time it would take to sew, it was a deal. i later found some blue material to drape around the front of the robe & a big medallion thing [& bc we're super classy, we hung it from some copper speaker wire].

on friday we went to the school carnival; it was even lamer [is that a word? seems weird] than last year's. the school has gotten even more strict about sweets & candy, so they didn't have classroom trick-or-treating. they had someone selling some food, a few other vendors & the haunted house. it was $3 & we let Z go by himself, he didn't even want to go a 2nd time, then he went to the playground.

he met up with his friend out there who asked if Z could stay the night but we had plans [not to mention the fact that a parent wasn't in sight]. the kid asked if Z could stay next weekend then & went on to tell me that they wanted to go to vegas...for a week.[!]

on sunday, halloween day, i was still fixing, hemming, hanging the blue material. we didn't even carve pumpkins this year, i didn't even think about them until halloween DAY.

Z had spent the night at grammie's so i figured after i picked him up, we'd go pick up a couple, but that was the day my mom psychoanalyzed Z, so pumpkins were out. [no, i'm not going further into that one]

at dark thirty we went over to one of the neighbors, another singleton, & asked if he wanted to go trick-or-treating with Z. it worked out, they were both star wars characters to boot. we just went up & down the block below us & our's. then i realized a few people saying "wow you have a lot of candy" sounding like "you're being really greedy" so i told the boys it was time to stop.

they both had quite a bit of candy, but it's more about going all around, who cares if your bag is full!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

results

yeah, this is backdated, i, um lost, like almost a month....don't know exactly how that happened...

nana's appt went well - Dr F said her cancer is progressing slowly; the big swollen belly isn't fluid retention, it's good living; couldn't ask for anything more.

the only bad part was my uncle's persistence regarding a timeline, like he had money riding on it. he had to, HAD to know, how long does she have left. he didn't even have the decency to wait for her to be out of the room or even question the doctor in a low voice.

nana's doing fine, so chemo isn't an option at this time & that's a good thing. however, the timeline for no chemo was 6 months, 3 of which have past

& nana heard that.

to add insult to injury my uncle has to state "so she'll make it through the holidays, then about jan/feb or so"

THANK YOU SO MUCH
uncle

Monday, October 25, 2010

how's your nana?

mine is well, well, i mean, you know, for having stage 4 cancer....she's great actually!
she still has no clue, other than occasional indigestion that she's sick. her belly has gotten bigger, swollen some, other than that all good.

we went to a dr appt 2 weeks ago with the cancer peoples [moore's cancer center], they're so nice. my uncle (B) went this time, which is good bc apparently he didn't believe a dang thing his daughter & i told him about the last meeting, so this meeting was basically a repeat of the last one. yah for wasting people's time who are trying to cure cancer patients!

Dr. F kinda said everything he said last time, then decided beings 2+ months passed to check where nana was at in the evolution of things. they sent her over to the lab for blood samples & scheduled her for an abdominal x-ray.

i planned, no really i did, plan on going with her to the x-ray downtown. i made sure i had gas, i set the alarm, had snacks & waters in a bag, all kinds of togetherness happening over here people!
except i set the alarm an HOUR late....
& it didn't click, at all, not in getting ready, not when i pulled out of the driveway, or on the freeway, or walking into the building, but when i walked down the hall
BLAM
i think i screwed up...

yep, i did.
i went & asked the nurse's station & yeah, i was an hour late. i considered driving down there, but knew bc of the time & the light rain it would probably take 2 hours. i didn't even know exactly where to go so it would take some time to find her & even if i did by then it would be time to turn around & drive home.
gah, so i failed nana. i felt really bad about it, i know going out scares her & she doesn't understand 1/2 the shit people tell her [hearing not language issue].
but i did go see her later that day when she was back & she was fine. i think it may have even boosted her confidence a bit that she did do it all by herself.

ok, so back to ugly reality....
thursday is results day & i don't wanna go. i know enough about her timeline as far as i'm concerned, i don't need or want anymore details, my uncle wants to know though.
i will go to be there for her...
& to not afford my uncle the opportunity to misunderstand, misinterpret or down right lie about what the doc says.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

popcorn sales

Z's still doing the cub scout thing, we missed one meeting, bc of the restriction & all around being a little shit while on restriction....

i didn't even blog about his 1st popcorn sale; it was kinda a big deal bc not only was it his 1st & only time doing anything like that, but he was alone. i know, wth people? he got a 15 minute primer by the previous shift [3 boys] then was left to his own devices. he did well though, brought in over $200.

this weekend was round 2 of sales. he had help, which was actually more of a pain in the a** [well for me at least] than i expected it to be. the "help" was 9 almost 10 & thought he was so grown up & such a cub scout star & was a complete little s*** when his dad walked off. together the boys brought in about $200 again.

Z was hilarious though, his confidence went through the roof & as each person walked out of the store he would swing out his arm, full reach display with a bag of popcorn in hand & say:

"would you like some.........unbelievably tasty popcorn?"

seriously, he totally made that up the sales pitch all by himself.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

geez

what the heck? how did that happen? where did the time go?

let's start off with Z of course....
well, that was the 1st week of trouble [fyi, that's alluding to a 2nd week of it bc one isn't fun enough!] i don't remember what the first tad of trouble was the following week, but the 2nd one was a dandy. hit bit a girl!!!!

yeah...
8 YEARS old & still biting
& it was his friend...
but he said it wasn't a big deal bc he didn't do it hard.
[lucky her huh?]

so the story goes they were doing math with the rubber blocks [remember that he colored previously?] yeah, those blocks & one fell & both kids grabbed for it & she got it first, so he bit her leg. it's not like he had any other options or anything....

so beatings were had & restriction was on for 2 weeks & it was a grand ole time over here in these parts.

we had signed Z up for guitar lessons, but after all that we unsigned him. surprisingly they [the guitar teacher people] were supportive; we told Z he would only go if he continued his good behavior. the day i turned in payment for the guitar class was the day principal called. the class will be offered again in a few months, hopefully the boy can get back on tract.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Z antics - 5 weeks

(aka call your bookie)

yeah, i know, we were all waiting, counting the days, the weeks, oh a month - woohoo!

then, yah....

bam!

a call from the principal
[doesn't this woman have anything better to do than call me?]

so during emergency preparedness practice stuff Z was disruptive [hello, 8 yo boy], but like a lot i guess & you know 3rd graders are practically adults there, so he's supposed to be responsible for his own actions & set a good example for the young ones.

that's not Z's m.o. people...

not only was he being disruptive & it took her many attempts to get his attn, make him behave, yadayada, while all the kids had their heads down on the tables to calm down he [along with others] took the opportunity to throw lunch foods around the room.

that was thursday's call, but then i got another one on friday about shit he pulled earlier in the week which he chose not to tell me about so the first i hear of it is from her....

on tuesday he defaced school property [colored & poked holes in some rubber blocks], then when he was supposed to turn his color card [to reflect his bad behavior] he flipped it the wrong way [ie better instead of worse] on purpose, then, THEN he was supposed to go to the "bad kid" room during lunch & HE TOTALLY BLEW IT OFF

TWICE!!!

Monday, October 4, 2010

sold the car

remember the note? so i took the car in to a shop to get it checked out & they quoted $700+ of work to get it to pass smog, but they were also interested in buying the car. i almost sold it to them but decided to call around & get a few more quotes & sure enough, they totally inflated the estimate to get the car for less.

so i called the guy back from the note & after a few days, we worked it out. on sunday he came by & i gave him the car. B thinks we could have gotten more for it, but i didn't want to deal with it anymore.

on one hand it was hard to let it go [& i had a few emotional breakdowns in the process of it] but on the other it was also a constant reminder & something else i needed to deal with.

he wasn't able to take the car that day, although i was hoping he could; then on tuesday late morning i noticed it was gone & it made me sad. what was once normal was now a void.