I'm ready...I'm ready...I'm ready.

Whoops..not that ready. I submitted too soon.

Here's the cake I made for my step-great-niece. (How's that for a family relationship.) She wanted a Spongebob cake. I couldn't find the Wilton pan, so I just had to wing it.

Here's how it turned out.

I was pretty impressed with myself.
I free handed the whole thing with a bamboo skewer and a print out from Nickelodeon.

"A" has already requested a Gary cake for his birthday party in July. "S" wanted Spongebob or Squidward.
I'm going to push for Spongebob because I can't imagine how to make a squid.

People of the SouthEast

I hope I didn't disturb anyone with my hooting and stomping this morning.
We got a bit of good news.

First, I'm sorry that I've dropped off the blogging Earth. We've been busy with deployment preparations.
ZooDad was due to leave us on the 3rd and not return until October 2007. Today, we get word that he will have another 2 week class here at the post in town.

YAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
He has to report on the 18th instead...unless we can get that week of leave approved. (cross your fingers, pray, and hope for us.)

We spent the weekend building.
Zoodad tore down and rebuilt the dog fence. (We had to move it to make way for the new play fort/swing that we are building.) The dogs' fence had to be done before we started repairs on the big fence between our's and the neighbor's yards.

I spent the time building what S called, "A little house just for me" that sits on top of a new play fort/swingset. Pictures will come later, once the whole structure is finished and the yard is tidied up. Some people have orderly sites with no trash, debris, with tools all neatened up and all that.
We aren't those people.
I also micro-managed ZooDad's fence building and pointed out branches that needed to be cut. (It was a very important job. ZooDad has a tendency to whittle full grown trees down to a single stick and leaf.)

Laundry is still behind but we have clean clothes. The house isn't quite what I wanted for clean but it will keep the health department away.
We're in the middle of summer reading programs and that's helping our weary brains a bit.
I'm even have my own twaddle reading to enjoy.
We just rejoined the pool that has a great children's area and wading pools.

And two more weeks of ZooDad.
I couldn't ask for more...except that week of leave. That would be the icing on my cupcake.

Total lack of motivation

Today is shot.

Totally shot.
I don't feel like doing anything. at. all.

school kids are out, so the boys are playing in the front yard. They'll have plenty of time for school once ZooDad is gone.

I really need to do housework, but I have no real desire too. The kitchen is trashed from yesterday's cake making. (Spongebob cake for my step-great-niece.) laundry is reaching Everest proportions. There are three boxes of school books in my dining room and more on the table. And my to-do list is getting scarily long.

So what am I doing? Absolutely nothing. I'm not even knitting ZooDad's boot socks.
I had to scrap up motivation to post this.

I think this must be time for my monthly crash. It happens. It just is happening at a bad time. I have way to much to do.

Run Forest!

Is this not the cutest thing!

Here's A running home. Notice...He's levitating.
Actually, he runs in a gazelle type fashion and tends to leap.

I was so amazed. A didn't cry, pout, or hide. He willingly lined up, batted, ran the bases, and chased just about every ball hit.
At only his second time at t-ball.

That's not the norm for A. He's usually slow to warm up to new things.

Not that I'm complaining. It was wonderful experience. It was nice to see him as just a plain old kid. He wasn't any less coordinated than the others out there.

On a funny note, the coach put him up front and the traditional "line up and high-five" the other team.

Well, A's team lined up behind him, but A didn't walk forward so neither did the team. Instead the other team walked past them all.
Hee, hee.
The other parent's laughed about it. But A did high-five everyone with great enthusiasm.



On a completely unrelated note:
I got two packages today. One a replacement USB cord for my Ipod. I can now update my ipod and add some new music.

Second was a Mario Mix Dance Dance Revolution and two dance pads for the boys. This is the second release of this game. I pre-ordered it a month ago to make sure I didn't miss getting it.
It's a big hit. Even ZooDad jumped on the mat to try it out. (In fact, we had to kick him off so the kids could play.)

It's like the DDR for PS2 except the music is dance beat classical music or traditional Mario tunes. (Right now the boys are dancing to a techno version of Pomp and Circumstance earlier it was Carmen. ) And it has the normal quest type game like a Mario game.
The boys are breaking a sweat even on the easy level.

The foot work has to be right on the beat. It let's you know if you are perfect, close, early or late.
Besides the exercise component, the timing and footwork mimic the interactive metronome therapy that M is doing.

I could sell tickets to watch little S play it. He studies the screen so intently and them stomps like a madman on random arrows.
Hysterical and totally worth the money.

Antici...........pation

Tonight A has his very first t-ball game. Well, actually it's t-ball school for 4 and 5 year olds and the "game" is only called that because it involves another team.

It's 1:08 and the game begins at 5pm.

A is already dressed.

First, thing this morning he came downstairs wearing his team hat. After breakfast, he put on his team shirt. I rounded up black sport shorts, black striped baseball socks and a pair of cleats to fit. (I keep a box of sports clothes and paraphenalia. With 4 boys, everything gets reused and passed down. I don't have cleats to fit M since J seems to have skipped that size, so he'll get new cleats this season. However I do have pants, shorts and socks in various sizes and colors to "shop" from.)

Once A spied the pile of sport clothes, he immediately got dressed.
So here it is 3 hours and 52 minutes before game time and the boy is set to go.
He even has his bat and glove beside the front door.

One more boy out on the grass and clay; chasing balls and running bases.
Three down and just one more to go.

Take me out to the ball game...

It's baseball season part two here in the zoo. 3 out of 4 boys are playing this season. J is in machine pitch II, J is in T-ball, and A is in t-ball school.

You want entertainment, watch a group of 4 and 5 year-olds playing t-ball. They leap over the bases, the entire outfield chases every long ball and then wrestles over them and they have no aim, which doesn't really matter since they can't catch.
It's crazy. They should charge for tickets but instead we get to watch the hilarity for free.

Not much really going on except baseball. Lots and lots and lots of baseball. Every darn day.

unfortunately this makes poor blog fodder. So until I get some motivation, y'all get to read about my baseball venting.
Lucky y'all.

Hey, you could be at the field with me every night.

What in the heck?

It looks like the Army exploded all over my house.

That can only mean one thing....
ZooDad is home.
Yep, he's home for 3 weeks. Well, he's not officially home. He just happens to be temporally assigned to our local base for the next three weeks.

Guess what he brought me for Mother's Day? Dirty laundry.
I don't mind though. I'll happily take his dirty laundry. I might even grow to miss it.

The boys gave me two new charms for my mega-charm bracelet. I got a frog with green inlay and a "We Heart our Mom" charm. Now, I just have to get them soldered on this week.

We'll, I'm off for our busy day. I won't be around much this week due to baseball season part two cranking up. Tonight 3 out of 4 boys have practice.
I totally did not think this baseball thing through at all. Way too much baseball. Way. Too. Much.

Like David Against the Mighty Goliath

Yep just when I was getting geared up to lob rocks at Tricare for months if needed, the hospital commander approved my request to keep our current civilian primary care managers instead of going to the Post hospital.
Yep, that right..we get "free" (only cost me my hubby's life) civilian healthcare.

I prevail!!!!!
HA!!! I laugh in your general direction.

Actually it's a shallow victory because I still have to have everything reapproved and reassessed but at least it's with my same old doctor and not some CPT whose going to PCS as soon as we get our appointment. I don't have to trek out to base for every episode of croup, or ear infection, or what-ever-odd-and-nasty bug my kids pick up.

So I faxed my ID card to my oh-so-wonderful (she really is) pediatrician. Then she called to remake the referrals I needed. J to the urologist. M and A for OT and Speech therapy. Oh, and also to the developmental pediatrician.
yep...developmental ped.
That "A" word came up again. Thankfully, it was the Asperger's "A" word and not Autism. What surprised me was that it was for both M and A. Non-verbal learning disorder was also mentioned.

Of course reading the descriptions of symptoms, I see a good bit of both of them there. They don't fit the mold in all areas, but they both are very verbal, have poor social skills, and have some serious motor-planning problems. The appointment is not until late October*** so it's way too soon for me to even think about.

All these labels. I know lots of people in the homeschooling community are anti-label and anti-assessment But for me, it's nice to know what the monster's name is. It takes away some of the fear and apprehension. I like to know my enemy.
"So that's what you are. How can I combat you? What size rock do I need in my tiny sling?"

Goliath comes in many forms.

*** ZooDad quite snarkily responded,"Expletive, are there any needs we need to anticipate for their 65th birthdays? We need to make those appointments now." He doesn't use a slingshot. He flings boulders.

I know it's wrong...

But I do actually laugh at my special needs child.

I can't help it. The boy is funny.
In the van today on the way to speech he was attempting to tell me about some superhero that he made up.

A has apraxia of speech and dysfluency. Dysfluency is a form of stuttering. But A doesn't repeat first sounds like c-c-c-c-c-car. Nope. He repeats whole words. Sometimes, entire phrases, as he tries to figure out how to form the next sound he wants to make.
It tends to get in the way conversationally but he is never embarrassed.

Today in the Van.

A: "Hey Momma. Hey, hey, hey Momma. I think, I think, I think..Hey Momma, I think....I think......"
(We are all waiting patiently to find out what he thinks.)
A: "What was I talking about?"
The van explodes with laughter.
Me: "I don't know buddy. What were you thinking about?"
A: '"I don't know. I'll just think about something else."

This was before the dreaded speech therapy at which he spent the whole hour on the floor refusing to do anything. I don't know what set him off. I'm sure school ST will have a letter for me on Monday. Well, scratch that. She'll probably have a discussion ready on Thursday when I go to discuss M's services for next year.
(sigh)

In her defense, she doesn't get to hear our fun in the van.

Zoo Academy of Art and Design

A couple of weeks ago, I bought J one of Mark Kistler's art instruction book: Draw Squad.
It has 30 self driven lessons for basic drawing instruction, each consisting of sub lessons and work sheets.

For the past few days, J has been conducting his own art school for younger brothers. Today's lesson was shading to form 3-D objects. J made a worksheet (instead of having me copy it) for each of his three brothers, complete with grading line and a place for them to write their name.

M apparently decided to skip this morning's lesson and J is a harsh grader. He gave M an 'F' and stated M couldn't attend any more lesson until he completed the unfinished work. The boy is one tought teacher.

A got an 'A+' on shading even though he did more shadowing than shading. J gave him points for trying and following instructions.

Here's J's latest cartoon.
He informed me that this drawing uses foreshortening, shading, surface, size, contour lines, overlapping, density, and shadows.
And since he's learning to draw, everyone else is too.

Right now there is a discussion on super heroes. We watched Sky High this weekend which only added more fuel to our obsession. A makes them up, M adds details and clarification and then J draws the comic books.

Oh...and since I haven't posted

Zoodad passed all the medical. He's back to being an official Army Dude.
One more week at the training camp then he'll be back here for refresher training for 3 weeks.
Then it's off to Mississippi for a month or two, then Kuwait for 12 months. Once he's done there, he'll hang out in Atlanta for a bit. All in all....it's 18 months away from home.

This week won't be as bad as the next three weeks will be. I remember the last time ZooDad deployed. In the weeks before he left, we wanted to spend every moment we could with him. We wanted to cram as much family time in as possible.

I feel the same thing coming on this time. I want to horde his attention and I'm feeling resentful at the thought of sharing him with anyone.

Right now, we're in wait mode. We're waiting for the real stuff to begin. I almost feel like yelling...."JUST GO ALREADY! GO! Go, so can get back home."

I can even imagine how we are going to handle the next year.
A whole freaking year!

Dang.

Jumping on the bandwagon

Where I'm from

I am from iron skillets black from years of use, from glass bottled Coca-Cola and Magnolias blooming sweet and thick.

I am from a house with a window fan with chicken frying in the kitchen and a dish towel calendar hanging on the wall and a dirt swept path from the backdoor.

I am from flower-covered Azaleas, tall Southern Pines, and old Hydrangeas dug up and moved from one house to the other.

I am from Easter Egg Trees and big rabbit cakes and stoic, hard-working women who never complain, from Esther and Uncle Earl and Aunt Ora laughing even though it wasn't proper. I'm from yes ma'am and yes, sir and not touching the shot gun behind the door because Daddy said not to and not because the gun might hurt you.

I am from big family Sunday dinners, tending to cemetery plots, stepping up to help out family without ever being asked, and knowing that nothing ... nothing can ever mean more than family.

From the man who could wish away your warts if you just believed and growing a watermelon in your stomach from the seed you swallowed.

I am from every church in town: Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal Holiness, and occasionally Methodist. And knowing that God didn't care how you worshipped or where.

I'm from the Olde South, from the place the family has just always been. From grits with salt and butter. From fried bologna and hot boiled peanuts.

From a Southern Matriarch grandmother who claimed “I’ve whipped all my grandchildren.” and a father who taught me to love “The Man in Black”, I’m from folks who pick up stray animals and give them a proper home.

I am from ‘forgetting’ the bad times, embellishing the good times, and knowing that I whole slew of people have my back if I need them. I’m from knowing that no matter what I do…no matter how bad or good…I will always be loved.

A Series of Interesting Events

Wednesday my Mom said cryptically, "Bill*** wants to talk to you about something" Bill is my nephew-in-law if there is such a thing. He's married to my oldest niece who..Thanks to Southern peculiarlarities...is only 4 years younger than me. Her children are actually older than my children.
Anyway, I had a feeling about what the "something" was.

Last summer, their middle child, was trying to recover from a particularly bad year in public school. He had a bad teacher. He got left behind. He fell through the cracks and nothing Niece and NIL did made that any better. NIL had mentioned me possibly tutoring him during the summer but baseball took precedence and I tore up my ankle and had therapy and kid therapy.

Yesterday, my niece called instead of NIL. She's a tender-hearted thing and loves her children. She struggled in school, pitifully. Barely graduating after 2 summer school sessions and five years in school. She wants so much more for her kids.

Her oldest is a star. I mean really. Straight A's, beautiful, great athlete, polite, and gracious. Her second is struggling and it breaks his mother's heart. The school had contacted her. He was in danger of failing. (Yes, first school meeting...with 2 weeks left in school. Draw your own conclusions but I know NIL and Niece are good parents so it isn't them.)

So we talked.

She brought up private school but I know they can't afford the 5K+ a year the a mediocre private school in this area, which, as niece put it, might end up the same for T (her son) as public school. Too many kids, no time for him.

I knew where she was going but she couldn't get the words out.
So I said them for her.

"What do you think about T joining us next year and homeschooling with the boys?"
She started crying.

So we talked and we planned. She's going to talk with NIL. (who has also been called up for Active Duty and ships out for sandbox Duty in early June) I talked with ZooDad last night. (Who is still at the God-forsaken "Camp" doing training so he can also do Sandbox duty though not in the same unit/area as NIL.)
ZooDad is fine with the idea, just as long as it is legal; (I think that part is easily taken care of.)we're not liable for accidents; (I think that's a moot point but I'll humor him.) and they pay for curriculum. (I'm with him on that one. I'm skimping with my own.)
I also can't be responsible for transportation to and from my house and T has to be subject to my rules during his school day. He's just going to be part of the family school.
thankfully, T is a real sweetie. He's a grade ahead of J officially but I'm sure he's not working on that level. He and the boys are tight cousins and play great together. Plus he's blonde and blue eyed so he matches the rest. Most people confuse him with J anyway. No one would believe he wasn't one of the brothers.

So at least for the summer, the Zoo will have a new boy. If things go well, he'll join our little kitchen table school and hopefully flourish with the rest of the Zoo children.
Just wait until he finds out he has to diagram sentences. He's never had Grammar before. Shocking huh? Finishing 5th grade and no actual grammar. (sigh)


***Names changed to protect us from all the internet creeps and freaks.

Another day bites the dust

Today was pretty much a repeat of yesterday. School, therapy, baseball.
School work was finished early. We finished listening to Ginger Pye on CD and started Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. No one made any math mistakes and there was much sentence diagramming. M started a new A to Z Mystery and extolled the wonders of audible books.

M and A got the results from their OT assessments. (sigh) Not as much progress as I expected and some regression. A has gone from 3% on the Peabody preschool test to 1%. It's hard to accept that. He's so smart and clever and funny. But he just isn't catching up in motor skills. He may "fail to make progress." That's the first step to a PDD label (Pervasive Developmental Disorder) and will mean a lot of intrusive tests that I really don't want to do. It also brings up the big "A" word which like a bullet through the heart for me.
M is making progress in some areas but not in others. He even went down in a few areas. Gross motor and writing skills. His speech therapist says that she doesn't know what to do for him. That's nice to hear.
What a downer! At least they are brilliant.

From there we went to the commissary to buy food. The prices are so good. At least we will eat well while ZooDad is gone. The little zoo kids kept parroting the que prompt. "Next please...Next please...Next please." They thought it was hysterical.

From there was baseball for J. To keep s busy this year we have two sessions of baseball. Upward ball ends this Saturday and Y-ball started tonight. J is on a machine pitch team for 10 to 12 year olds. We have a good team in the making. We also have three very involved dads coaching. J will need that this summer.

ZooDad called. Tomorrow is his birthday. He's getting ACU's and some cool Army stuff. M created a picture book for him. It is hysterical. It's called Army Dad and ZooDad has apparently been promoted to General. On one page, ZooDad is commanding an army (all in green) who have slain an entire enemy army (all in red.) Both armies are stick figures except for General ZooDad who is decked out in camo and a battle helmet, smiling over the carnage.
M has no issues with war at all. As long as no one is shooting at his Daddy.

Tomorrow is pretty much a repeat of today except with no baseball. The school therapist comes to the house, so I have to tidy up. Instead of baseball, I have a co-op organizational meeting.

SSDD here in the Zoo.

I guess they are motivated

All year, the boys have been...well...reluctant to do school stuff. Well, that's not right. They are happy to do the work, it just takes them a fair amount of time to do it. Some of it was dawdling. Some of it was ease of distraction.

Whatever it was, now it is over.

The boys are doing work that used to take them four hours....in about 2 and half hours.
Not only to they finish everything, but they start suggesting assignments that are normally done on other days.

Odd huh?

Another unusual thing to note is M's math. Normally, he pouts through his math, missing a few but getting most correct, with his normal terrible handwriting. (He has motor skill issues.)
That is until I started assigning just the odd numbered with the treat of doing all the problems if he got one wrong.
Guess how many problems he's missed since the new way assigning math. Guess. Yep...none. Perfect score.
And his handwriting is no nice and neat too.

Today he even voluntarily read a book. For M...that is massive news.
For J, not so much. He's finished both Ginger Pye and a Time Warp Trio book since Sunday night. That boy goes through books like water.
J has also been extraordinarily motivated. He did a week's worth of geography today because he'd "just have to do it eventually and might as well do it all today."
Not only that...he did an extra lesson in English because...get this..."diagramming sentences is kind of fun."

If it weren't for their continued forgetfulness to unload and load the dishwasher, I would swear they had been replaced by podpeople kids.

Mild Support, Moderate Support, Full Panel Very Firm Support

I wish being a wife was as easy as picking out pantyhose.

The being a supporting wife is tougher than it seems. Last night I told ZooDad to just be truthful when filling out his medical stuff. I then informed him that there were three kinds of truthful, Unbiased truth, positive spin truth, and whinny truth and told him to pick which truth would help him achieve his end goal. (Whatever that might be.)

Well, that's positive spin truth.
I do know what his end goal is. He wants back in. He doesn't want to be rejected. So I'm here trying to be supportive and unbiased. I'm trying to be encouraging and not freaking out at the fact that if ZooDad does get this goal that he will leave us for quite a bit of time.

I find myself being uber-wife and positive spinning everything in my head thinking..."My God WOMAN!!!! If he gets this, he's going to leave the freakin' country and spend two months in a "Camp Crystal Lake" in Mississippi." (How odd that I find the Mississippi camp as frightening as the Kuwait option. But I was less than impressed with the place I dropped him off at yesterday. The other camp can't be much of an improvement.)"How in the world could he do this to us. 12 months BOG! 12 months not even counting the time in SC and Mississippi. What the heck is he doing? Is this some midlife crisis!!"

But then the next moment, I am beaming with proud that he's back to being a soldier again. That we are back to that ridiculous life that is the military family. Look at my darling ZooDad. Isn't he so majestic in his ACU's. Who wouldn't be proud to be a an Army wife?

You see. Crazy like Sybil.

Some of it might be denial. Some of it is just blind patriotism. Most of it is just trying to support this man I married who above all else loves God and country.

I think I need the Full body, uber-firm support with steel rod inserts. Does Hanes have that option?