by Sarah | Nov 16, 2013 | All About Kennedy, Anger Issues, Special Needs
*Side note – to date this is my absolute favorite picture of Kennedy. 😀
When you first meet Kennedy, and often for many meetings after, you see the sunshine.
We once pegged her as the ‘smilingist’ baby ever.
She has it all.
The eyes that melt your heart with their bigness, their brightness, their expressiveness.
The cheeks that run in the family – from birth until teens just adorable, chubby, and pinchable.
The silly grin. It lights up her face, or quirks just a bit to make you forget the anger and lean to laughter.
Don’t get me started on the baby-doll voice. Cupie doll, sweet and tiny.
No one can believe it.
Not unless they ever see it.
No one understands it.
The completely opposite.
Desperately different.
Achingly painful.
Underbelly of that sunshine.
When we mention the way she can burst your eardrums we get the “You’re kidding, right?” look.
When we mention the temper tantrum she threw – they think we’re being silly. We don’t know what a real tantrum is like, what real anger is like.
But they weren’t there to watch her slam her head into the corners of walls, into the hardwood floor, into our faces.
They aren’t here to see her intentionally dig at her nose until it bleeds so often she’s building scar tissue.
Some days I feel like people look at me like I’m making it all up.
Some days I wonder if maybe I’m overreacting to the anger.
That on top of everything else this one thing is unbelievable.
Because she is sunshine.
With every heart-wrenching smile – she is sunshine.
When I am at my angriest she can make me lose hold of it and smile.
But she gets angry.
Mind-numbingly, ear-splittingly, heart-wrenchingly angry.
Things are better these days.
A little.
At least she isn’t trying to break our noses on a regular basis.
But her teachers notice.
It’s out of line with “normal” temper tantrums.
And for this – for this I don’t know how to help her.
Everything else has a solution.
A therapy.
A doctor.
A…something.
This?
Most of the time, I don’t know how to handle this.
I let the flame burn out.
And wait for next time.
by Sarah | Nov 15, 2013 | All About Me, All of Us, Crap, NaBloPoMo, Random, Story of Me
Back at the start of NaBlo I spoke  of a coon tale with a happy ending. I also foretold of a second story minus such an ending. Today I give you that story.
I was young, probably 6 or 7 when this happened.
Back in New York we had a place we called “The Farm”. Â It was my dad’s hunting lodge, Â acres of trees and a small plot of land with a two story run-down old farm house.
Often my dad and uncle would take us kids out and we’d climb trees, play in the woods, ignore the scurrying of mice when we slept in the attic.
My dad and uncle would make repairs as they went. The stairs one year, the roof another. We had a fancy outhouse (not designed for girls, modifications were necessary for me). Â No electricity, a wood stove. We played outdoors 95% of the time we were there. Â There was a beehive in the walls that buzzed, and everything was old and drafty and I loved every visit.
The year the roof was redone my dad was up working hard peeling off tiles and taking off rotting decking.
He peeled back a panel of decking and happened upon a coon’s nest. Â A momma and her five babies.
Keeping in mind at this time Rabid Racoons were a major issue at the time – and the momma was PISSED, my dad did what was necessary to defend himself.
He grabbed the nearest weapon, his hammer, and took care of momma. Â He would have moved the babies, but they were way too young to fend for themselves, and so he also took care of them.
For years we tormented my poor dad with this tale of bopping the baby coons on the head…
But it was necessary (unlike in the earlier story I told).
A sad tale, true…but also a fitting descriptor of survival of the fittest.
Because if dad hadn’t taken action…that momma coon sure would have.
by Sarah | Nov 14, 2013 | All About Indiana, All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, Indiana State Museum, Indy Geek Girls, NaBloPoMo, The Reluctant Hoosier
Did you know that Mammoths and Mastodons probably walked the very ground you’re walking on? Â That it’s possible when you’re walking through a park or driving past a field of corn, underneath those layers of soil could be the bones of Ice Age giants?
I had NO idea of this myself – or I was just blissfully ignorant of the fact.
Either way, I was totally privileged to get a sneak peek of a new IMAX movie and the ensuing exhibit at the Indiana State Museum yesterday.
The IMAX movie is in 3D and let me just tell you – the last 3D movie I went to was the Muppets show at Disney World in 1994…and holy shnikies, 3D today is NOT your Momma’s 3D! Â The imagery and cinematography was amazing. The CGI – incredible! Â I was in awe and wonder throughout the whole movie, even though I think Erik got a little vertigo at the sweeping landscape shots, he was impressed too.
Then we were able to step into the exhibit itself which is both big in scope and detail, and easily geared toward kids – including a dig site and a bone they can touch!!
Throughout the exhibit you get to see how Mammoth and Mastodon skulls could well have been the inspiration behind the Cyclops of legend and myth, how the animals had growth plates just like humans and animals today, and see teeth as big as your head.
I mean, how awesome is that? Â I could have spent hours in there, and I know my kids will spend hours in there this weekend.
At the very end you get to see two full size skeletons and just awe over how there were tons of flesh and fur over them.
It’s an exhibit totally worth seeing (even if it did replace the Star Wars exhibit ~pout~)…and I can’t wait to let my girls “dig” in!
This exhibit opens to the public on Saturday, November 16th at 11AM. Â Get more information at the Indiana State Museum’s website!
Now…onto what I know you’re waiting for – the pictures!!..
The Mammoth’s greatest threat – Man:
Porous bones look like ancient caverns:
The Inspiration for Cyclops”
Growth plates:
TEETH:
I loved this one. You set your hands down, and not just hear the sound, but FEEL the vibrations:
Tiny Bones:
Dig:
by Sarah | Nov 13, 2013 | All About Denver, All About Learning, All of Us
We all remember those reading lists from school. I always enjoyed getting it – except the year The Iliad was on it.
This year the teen has a list. I wasn’t given the list, he just comes home and asks if we can pick up a book for him…because the school issues the books on their iPads. Denver doesn’t like reading on electronic devices. He wants paper and pages.
The last book was To Kill a Mockingbird. A great classic novel I read in school myself. I was happy to run up to Half Price books and pick him up a copy.
Then last night he came to me again and asked if I could pick him up another book at Half Price. He said it was from his reading list…and that it had replaced another.
I said, of course I would and what book did he need.
“A Painted House.”
I wracked my brain attempting to remember this great, classic novel.
Nothing. I asked him to repeat himself.
“A Painted House by John Graham or something like that.”
Erik and I both said, “John Grisham?” At Denver’s agreement I stared at him flabbergasted.
“The school is having you read a Grisham novel? Seriously?”
It was at this point that he informed me that the original story was Huckleberry Finn…”But a bunch of kids complained so they changed it.”
I’m sorry, but WHAT? What has this world come to that a school will change a reading list because kids are complaining? What happened to the set reading list and you either read or you failed (You should see my grade for the test on The Iliad…eesh)?
I’m beyond disgusted by this turn of events. I can’t imagine replacing a long-standing, time-tested classic novel like Huckleberry Finn. Certainly not because KIDS were complaining.
I have a feeling my kid will be reading Huckleberry Finn too…because I don’t want him robbed of that opportunity because a school backed down to children.
Why do we give our kids this much power? Aren’t we the ones that are supposed to be in charge?
by Sarah | Nov 12, 2013 | All About Denver, Cystic Fibrosis, Hospital, Special Needs
The teen was in the hospital recently.
A brief (in our book) stay at the hospital kept him out of school for approximately a week.
That was, unbelievably in some ways, almost 2 months ago.
Since then his struggle to get back into his previous stellar grades has been immense.
Whether a genuine struggled to get “Back on the horse”
or just general rebellion
the grades have remained low,
assignments unfinished,
and general malaise has centered around school.
I’m sort of ashamed to admit I broke out the story.
The age-old old-farts beginning sentence of “When I was your age”.
Because I once had an 8 week bout of  mono.
Out of school for 8 weeks and my grades were BETTER than they’d ever been with me in school.
So I broke out that story.
And ended it with the general rule of thumb in this house.
We don’t let our labels define us.
We don’t let them lead our lives.
No.
Illness isn’t an excuse.
It never will be.
So buck up.
Suck it up.
Do your homework.
And don’t let CF or hospital stays win.
by Sarah | Nov 11, 2013 | All About Me, Crap, Random
* My brain is still a pile of mush, and sometimes I can barely focus.
* In the span of four months I’ve gone from not working outside the home, to a part time job, to a full time job I started today.
* I’m still not sure how I feel about that (pretty sure I don’t like it).
* We’ve been having kleptomania issues again.
* I have a book coming out in just a couple weeks and I’m totally unplanned for it.
* My series “completed” back in September and I haven’t had time to crow about it.
* I’ve got a to-do list a mile long and absolutely no time to do any of it.
* The game obsession in my house has reached critical mass. Uno is the big winner, but the kids have been going bonkers.
* It started snowing – and sticking…today. I’m both elated and a little upset by the end of the fall.
* I have a ton of posts planned and just haven’t been able to write them.
* I’m barely hanging on by my nails on this NaBloPoMo thing. This was supposed to help me better my blogging activity…but I’m failing.
But she gets angry.
