Our monsoon

Everyone has heard the expression "It never rains, but it pours."  Last week, we had a figurative monsoon.

Monday (St. Patrick's Day) was the day we started ripping out our kitchen.  Yay!  We've been looking forward to this for months -- or in my case, years!

So the weekend before was supposed to be a double camp weekend for the boyz.  This was going to be perfect.  We could move the kitchen table, etc. into the dining room and buy some last minute kitchen things we've been wanting to shop for together (new chairs, dishes, faucet, etc.) while we had the house to ourselves.  We were also going to go over to my parents for a belated birthday celebration (remember it snowed then) as well as St. Pat's dinner.  My mom loves to host things and it just doesn't work at her house with Alan so this was going to be a wonderful relaxing, ADULT weekend.

Friday afternoon

Friday morning Alan gets up to go to school and five minutes before the bus is scheduled to come has explosive diarrhea.  Now with Alan, this could mean he is sick or it could mean he got too much dairy in the previous few days (he's lactose intolerant).  I kept him home to be safe and he seemed a little sluggish at first but by early afternoon he was back to his typical self.  I told myself we had just finished off some Cookies & Cream Pop-tarts and went ahead and packed for camp.

When I dropped him off, I told his buddy what had happened (I don't believe in trying to sneak something like that by them).  I knew that Alan technically should not be at camp (it had been less than 24 hours since he had diarrhea) but he didn't SEEM sick.  In fact, he heard me say "camp" earlier in the day and repeated it several times which is usually a positive thing.  He doesn't say "yes", he just repeats the words if that is what he wants.

DH and I grabbed a late dinner Friday night and watched a movie.  I talked to the nurse at camp Saturday morning (about something different) and she said Alan was doing fine -- eating breakfast, etc.  It seemed like the crisis had been averted.  We ran errands, had some beer to celebrate St. Pat's and went over to my parents' house.  About a half hour after we got there, I got a call from the director of camp to say that Alan was just lying around and he hadn't eaten any lunch or dinner.  Great.

So we went to pick him up early.  He still didn't seem "sick", but he wasn't exactly "right" either.  Shortly after we got home, I got sick.  I didn't have any of the really nasty stuff, I was just weak, shaky and NOT hungry (all I ate all day Sunday was a granola bar).  Then Sunday night on the way home from camp, Joe puked all over his car while driving.  My sainted hubby cleaned that up while Joe and I slept.  Luckily by then Alan seemed back to normal.

Monday morning I struggled to vertical long enough to let the contractor in and drive Alan to day camp (it was his spring break but I had signed him up for a day camp knowing this was close to kitchen time) and then came home and slept some more. 

By Monday afternoon I felt better.  When I picked Alan up, one of the staff stopped me to tell me about the college option for Joe.  We got the paperwork on Tuesday, had the tour on Wednesday, filled out the paperwork on Thursday and submitted it on Friday.

Joe was FANTASTIC about filling out most of the paperwork himself.

Meanwhile, the kitchen went from this ...

to this ...

to this ...

I'm exhausted just writing all this, so hopefully you have a sense of our monsoon from last week.  At least this week is calling for calmer weather ... and the installation of new cabinets!

Our college option

I found out about a new option for Joe for college this week.  Up until now, I had pretty much written off college.  I had hoped to maybe get him to take some basic classes at a community college, but full-time, dorm life college I had figured was never going to happen. 

Then this week I found out about a local college that has a program for 18-25 year olds with intellectual or developmental disabilities.  It is a two year program with internships, peer mentors, etc. for 20 students where the kids live on campus in a supervised dorm.  Several of the kids from his past activities are also applying.  Reading over the requirements, I was over the moon -- he met all of the criteria easily.  This was THE program I wanted for Joe and it was in town. 

It is expensive, but we had put aside money in a 529 account and that can only be used for post secondary education.  Except ... that neither of our children were likely to ever go to college.  So now we had this money that was going to be penalized heavily if we were to ever access it again.

Overall this seemed like a match made in heaven.

Until I brought it up to Joe.

The very first words out of his mouth were "I don't want to live in a dorm."

Crap.

Finally after talking to him at length, I figured out the reason was that he was worried there would be fire drills in college.  Nope, no fire drills.  A secondary (but more minor) concern was uniforms.  Nope, no uniforms. 

So now he is excited.  Now we just have to see if he can get in.

Say some prayers, peeps!

I don't feel inspirational

Today is my birthday (Happy Birthday, Me!) and as I read through all the birthday wishes on my Facebook timeline, I got to wondering if any of these people really understand me.

Several people made some reference to how I "inspire" them.  Seriously?  I feel like such a complete and utter failure as a parent.  Some days (like today) I feel like the worst parent ever.

Today is yet another snow day for Alan.  Other parents (although fewer with each subsequent snow fall) post about how they "get" a day off with their children but all I do is think about how having the boyz home will "ruin" my birthday.

DH texted me this morning about 10:30 and asked me if I was hiding from Alan.  Yep, pretty much!  Alan ALWAYS goes to lunch at 11 when he is home.  Note:  I said "goes" to lunch.  We cannot stay home unless we want a meltdown.  This kid has fast food at least two days a week (and usually more).  I'm a failure as a nutritionist.

We make a stop on the way home to get a few things.  Alan asks for a soda at Target and I ask Joe to go get it.  He tells Alan to "Wait here" even though Alan likes to come with his big brother.  Alan yells his battle cry and Joe gets frustrated.  I'm a failure as a referee.

We get home and Alan wants to go play in the snow.  I distract him with a video because I am sick to death of sitting outside while he sleds.  I'm a failure as a companion.

Alan wants to snuggle with me in bed.  I read and he watches his iPad.  OK, maybe not the best mother/son bonding time, but we both like it.  I guess I'm not the worst parent ever, but I still don't think I'm inspirational.

Then my sister sent me a birthday card that said "Birthdays are about celebrating life, love and longevity ... so the more you have, the happier you are!"  I think that might be the point of today.  Maybe I should just let my friends think I'm a better person/parent than I think I am.  After all, only you know your worst flaws, right?