Once again…not a shining start…

by | Aug 15, 2011 | All About Kennedy, All About Learning, Crap

[flickr id=”6047528569″ thumbnail=”small” overlay=”true” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”]Tonight was meet the Kindergarten teacher night.  I was really excited. Tomorrow I’ll have all kids in school.  This was supposed to be a night of relief and excitement for us all.

It became a night of frustration and tears.

First, the school was ill-prepared for teachers (as I learned on Friday) and ended up having to hire two more…ON.FRIDAY. School starts….tomorrow.  Soooo, we got Angel’s teachers name when we walked up to her door tonight.

THEN, thanks to poor communication both AM & PM kindergarten parents showed up to what was supposed to be just the AM KG meeting…leaving the room insanely over crowded and confusing.

After the teacher’s (exceptionally short) schpeal about the day’s schedule…I had to wait over 30 minutes to meet her face to face…

And when I told her about Angel’s #CF…I got “Did you talk to the nurse…because she gives me a list of all the kids w/ special medical needs and Angel wasn’t on it.”

I literally had to stop myself and tell the teacher I couldn’t say anything else without getting nasty.

I called in APRIL.

THREE departments to ask what I had to do.

All I got was “nothing. Nothing. No, there’s nothing you need to do.”

And now this?

Once again I’m underwhelmed.

Annoyed.

A lunch my kids will eat…(kid-friendly sushi)

by | Aug 11, 2011 | All About Denver, All About Family, All About Home, All About Kennedy, All About Molly, Random

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(L – top to bottom. Cheese cutouts, Peanut Butter w/ banana strips.  R – top to bottom. Peanut butter w/ orange marmalade folds, PB & grape jelly rolls, Nutella rolls.
Even my teen will make his own version of this for himself.  Riley, the pickiest eater of them all, cleans her plate when I make this kid-friendly sushi.  Since it was requested on twitter…I thought I’d post how I make them. And it’s super simple…and to be honest I got the idea from Pinterest and ran with it.

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First, the supplies. Bread (1 slice makes 4 mini-rolls), a rolling pin, whatever fillings/toppings you want.

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Cut off the crust (I keep mine to feed the birds) and roll the bread flat, or cut into strips.

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Get your toppings on your bread. For fun I used a mini cookie cutter to cut the banana for some of the strips, and for others I just cut it in half and length-wise. I used my leftovers for a bowl of cereal 😉

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Roll them. I rolled some in spirals.  I’ve read that you should roll these tight, but w/ the jelly I actually roll loose otherwise all of the jelly is squished out.  For the orange marmalade I rolled in both sides and then folded to the middle (securing with a small strip of peanut butter between the two edges).

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Last but not least for a little extra fun I used some little cutters I had lying around to cut out shapes in cheese (I nibbled on the scraps).

Usually I make less sushi and include some small strips of carrots for a well rounded meal.  My kids totally scarf these down faster than you can blink.

Some other ideas I have yet to try, but plan to…

  • Butter & cucumbers rolled
  • Jam w/ sweetened whipped cream cheese strips or folds
  • Herbed whipped cream cheese with cucumbers strips
  • Carrot peel & herbed whipped cream cheese rolls
  • Nutella and Strawberry strips or rolls
  • Whipped cream cheese (sweetened) w/ blueberries
These do not take me a ton of time (Well, this one did but I was taking pics and making more than I usually do)…and the kids love them. They are SO worth a shot!!  Try them!!

Tired

by | Aug 9, 2011 | All About Denver, All About Kennedy, All About Me, Crap, Cystic Fibrosis, Special Needs

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Tomorrow we have an appointment for CF Clinic.

I don’t want to go.

I don’t want to hear what she has decided for my kids this time.

After the ‘new’ and ‘definitive’ test.

After the genetics counselor.

After so much hell.

I’m tired.

Of doctors.

Of tests.

Of changing diagnoses.

After the last appointment (w/ genetics) I declared I was done. I never wanted to take any of them to a doctor again.

But I will.

I will find that strength again.

I will listen again.

And make sense of their decision.

And put trust in her because she is their doctor.

But I will still be tired.

 

Stress

by | Jul 30, 2011 | All About Kennedy, All About Molly, Autism, WTF?

[flickr id=”5885702740″ thumbnail=”medium” overlay=”true” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”]She poked her in the eye.

I know you’ve all heard the story in snippets on twitter, but oy.

Yesterday morning a LOUD scream echoed out from the girls room.  The one that said “True pain” not “drama queen” like Angel’s usual screams.

When I ran in she said that Riley had poked her in the eye.  I thought, at first, it was a typical brief poking, no real damage and she’d be fine.  Calmed down the situation and it seemed okay…but then it wasn’t.

Angel kept crying in pain every thirty minutes or so, moving up to ear splitting screams. So I took her to the pediatrician.

A large scratch (like a cm wide, 1/2 cm thick) right over her pupil.

It was intentional.

The poking, if not the depth of the result.

Angel spent the night in bed w/ me, Archie slept on the couch. I got to hear the heart melting words “Mama can I snuggle with you?” in my Angel’s darling cute little voice.

Today things are better…Angel isn’t shrieking in pain every 20-30 minutes…the ointment they gave her appears to be helping…and she’s rocking the eye patch. The girls are getting along again, even though Angel is telling her sister not to hurt her on a more frequent basis.

I don’t know where we go from here, but I know we need help.  Riley needs help. I’m certain she needs more than the school can provide, but the school is where we’ll start, while I schedule an appointment w/ the developmental pediatrician and wait until we can get in (likely to be a few months).

 

Silence

by | Jul 5, 2011 | All About Denver, All About Erik, All About Home, All About Kennedy, All About Me, All About Molly, Random

[flickr id=”5502918424″ thumbnail=”small” overlay=”true” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”] Brandon left on Sunday.

Boy Scout camp for a full week.

Riley & Angel left this afternoon.

Gone to their grandparents for 2 days.

Archie leaves in the morning.

Off to work. Then to Family Night at Scout camp. Then work the next day.

The house is empty, save for me.

I sit in silence.

I will most likely be cleaning – something I always do when left alone.

During the in-between I will sit and soak up the silence.

Stuck between content and disturbed.

Normally chaos and noise fill this house.

The silence is disconcerting.

But rare enough that I will take some time to enjoy it.

I have a stack of books to read. Trying to meet my 50 books read in 2011 goal (15 read, several partially read).

I have 6 rooms that all need cleaning – one that needs a splash of paint on the trim.

I will complete what I can.

And enjoy some time off.