Out of My Mind

Just thought I’d pop onto the old blog today.  I didn’t realize that I hadn’t posted since OCTOBER!  Yeah, I have the typical excuses, holidays, school, family stuff, blah blah blah.  They’re all true, but basically, I’m just lazy.  And tired.  And today has been an extremely craptacular specimen of a day.  I’m ready to go back to bed.

It’s been a while again.  Too much stuff going on, most days I feel like I’m losing my mind.  Here’s what’s been happening in our household.

I almost hate to say it for the fear of jinxing myself, but Sebastian is doing really well in school so far.  Granted, this is about the time he started flipping out in both first and second grade, so I know we’re not out of the woods yet, but I’m feeling cautiously optimistic.  We keep heaping on the positive praise and reinforcement.  I was worried about him being separated from his best friend this year, but I think it has actually helped.  He’s making new friends.  Every day, he tells me what he and this person or that person did out at recess.  No more days where he spends recess by himself swinging on the swings because his friend is playing with somebody else and he can’t figure out how to get the social interaction going with someone else all on his own.  It seems small and silly when I type it out, but it really is a big deal for him.  It makes my heart happy to see him growing and maturing.

Seb and I are now yellow belts.  I tested this past Saturday and Seb tested the weekend before.  Holy crap, the test was hard.  Over two hours of just constantly kicking, punching, blocking, sparring, etc.  I was worried that they might have to call EMS for me, but I survived.  And there were others breathing just as hard as I was, too.  But I do need to start doing more (any) cardio to get my stamina up there. Whew.

School is frustating.  Actually, only one class is frustrating, the other two are fine.  But my Admin and Mgmt. class sucks big time.  We are six weeks into the class and we’ve had one lecture, the prof. never has things posted when she says she is going to and doesn’t offer any kindof explination as to why she’s not doing what needs to be done.  If I had signed up for an independent study, that would be fine, but that’s not how this class is supposed to be and I’m getting tired of it.  I’ll definitely be filling out the evaluation form at the end of the semester because this class is quickly getting ridiculous.

The hubby is in his last semester, is not loving his job and is stressed out to the max.  Yeah, he’s loads of fun to be around.  ‘Nuff said on that matter.

I’m still trying to crochet when I can, but haven’t had as much of an opportunity lately.  I’m sure I’ll be crocheting like a crazy lady once my semester is over mid-december in order to finish everything I want to do for Christmas.

There’s more, but I need to get  a move on with all the homework that I should have started yesterday, but was too lazy to do.  I’m really unmotivated this semester, which stinks.

On Saturday, Seb and I went over to my parent’s house because it was Octoberfest (in the middle of September?) in the little town where I grew up and there were to be fireworks that evening.  It was…interesting.  My dad ended up walking back home with my nephew Lucas because he was tired and crabby and not behaving well, but left the stroller so that my mom could push it home.  She likes having something to hold herself up. 

So, on the way home, she was lagging behind with my other nephew and Seb, my brother Joe, my niece and I were walking and Seb and I had the following conversation:

Seb: I thought the reason Grandma walks so slow is because she is pushing Lucas in the stroller and he makes it heavy.

Me: No, Grandma just walks slow because she is a slow walker.

Seb: Huh, I thought it was because she has kankles.

My brother and I both just stopped, looked at each other and started cracking up.  Where in the world my son heard about kankles, I don’t know.  And to be fair, my mom doesn’t even have kankles.  The first thing my brother did when we got home was relate the newest "Bubba Story" to my sister.  We were kind, though, and didn’t tell my mom that her grandson thinks she has kankles.

Today is picture day at Seb’s school.  So last night when we were picking out clothes for today, I told him I thought he should wear his red polo shirt because he looks so handsome in it.  I may have also made a few more handsome comments, because he just looks so darn cute in that shirt.  Then, this morning I told him he looked handsome.  And when I dropped him off, I told him to smile nicely so that he looks good in his pictures.  He turns to me and says, "why do you keep trying to make me look handsome.  I already have enough problems with girls staring at me!"  I couldn’t help it.  I busted out laughing.  Apparently, my son quite popular with the ladies.  Oh, boy!

I finished the blanket I was making for Lucas the other night.  I don’t even remember how many times I had to rip out stiches and start over.  It was the first time crocheting from a grid pattern.  I have to say, I much prefer having all the directions spelled out for me, instead of having to go through and count little boxes and figure everything out on my own.  But it turned out quite well in the end.

I have a baby shower coming up soon for my cousin’s wife and I think I might try and make it again, in different colors.  I also want to tweak the pattern a little bit.  I think I can improve some things.  Boy, that sounds full of myself, doesn’t it?  I was able to finish Lucas’ blanket in less than a month, but now that school is starting up again, I don’t know if I’ll have a lot of time to devote to making another blanket.  This one is actually not that hard, it’s all half-double-crochet stitches.  I guess I’ll have to wait and see what the workload is going to be like for this semester.

Sebastian had a good first day of school.  He said he even made a new friend.  About 2/3 of the kids in his class are kids he was with in either 1st or 2nd grade or that he knew from Prime Time, so that is nice for him.  He was a bit sad because his best bud Shin isn’t in his class this year, but the hubby and I think that might actually be a good thing.  It kind of forces him to use his socialization skills and befriend other kids instead of always relying in Shin. 

I didn’t walk him into school this morning, either.  Just left him at the front door when the bell rang.  I know that doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I’m trying to be less of a helicopter parent who has to be in control of everything, and that’s a start for me.  A small start, but everybody has to start somewhere.

I have my first on-campus class tonight.  Thankfully, it’s at the Oakland Center in Farmington, so it’s only about 15-20 minutes from here.  Unfortunately, the hubby got stock with a phone meeting this afternoon.  The plan for this semester (because hopefully, I can get all online classes again next semester!) is that he will leave work early on Thursdays, giving me time to get to campus, park and get into my classroom.  He’ll leave between 4-4:30.  Since today is the first class, he was going ot leave at 4, just to give me time to get there early and find my way around a bit.  On Tuesday, he came home from work and said he had a phone meeting scheduled at 4 for today, one he couldn’t really get out of.  Well, he was told he could leave early if he absolutely had to, but it was implied that he really needed to stay.  Ugh.  So now I’m going to be taking Seb with me to campus and the hubby will meet us there in front of the main building and hopefully, he’ll make it there before 5:30 when my class starts.  This is one of those times where I really wish we had family living closer.

Also, I did end up getting my hair cut last week.  I’m not totally in love with it.  She asked if I wanted bangs and I said yes.  I’m thinking I should have said no.  But oh, well.  It’s just hair and will grow out.  here are some pictures.

Front view:

and the back view:

She cut a ton of hair off.  It was probably about 4 inches past my shoulders in the back.  It’s still a little weird when I go to wash my hair.  I expect to grab big handfulls of hair to scrub, and there’s nothing there.

So, today Sebastian started the third grade.  Please.  Please, please, please let this year go well.  I really don’t think we as a family can take another year like last year.  I was talking with the hubby last night and told him that if the problems start up again this year, we’re going to have to take Seb to see a psychiatrist or something.  His pediatrician does not think he has ADD/ADHD, and I agree.  But socially, he’s still pretty immature.  We’ve had lots of talks about having good self-control, not letting himself get too frustrated and then throwing a fit and making good choices.

He was scared this morning, didn’t want me to leave his classroom.  I told him it’s okay to be nervous on your first day, and that I’ll be nervous tomorrow when I go to class.  His desk is right in front of his teacher’s desk.  Don’t know if that was a coincidence or if Mrs. Z. told Mrs. K. to put him there. 

I hope he does well today.  My stomach is a mess right now.

I dropped Bub off at my parent’s house yesterday.  It is so weird to not have him here.  Who would’ve thunk I’d actually miss the endless prattle about some detail about a dinosaur’s anatomy and what it can do, or the sound of bionocles engaged in battle or endless questions about going to the pool.  And he’s not even coming home until Saturday!

I’m not the only one missing Sebastian.  Poor Mike the cat.  He is just lost.  For as much as he likes to terrorize Seb, he is obviously missing him.  That will make Seb happy to hear that.  I’m sure the hubby misses him, too, but being a man and all, it’s not macho to talk about stuff like that.

I don’t have too much planned for while my baby is gone.  Read, work on my current crochet project (which is currently giving me fits!  I think there may be some flaws with the pattern.  Or else I just suck.), maybe try and go out to eat with the hubby at some point.  I’m actually planning on cooking a nice meal for dinner tonight.  Roasted pork tenderloin and new potatoes, probably some corn and salad, maybe some nice crusy bread.  Yum!

I’ll call Seb tonight and see how his day went.  I know they are planning to take him to the beach and to the movies while he’s there.  My brother’s kids were supposed to come this weekend, so Bub would be able to have fun with them on Friday night, but there was a change in plans and now they’re not coming.  Oh, well.  He’ll still have fun with Lucas.  I just hope he’s being good.  I’m sure he’s probably glued to the television right now.  My parents have Dish and we don’t have cable, yet.  He must be in cartoon heaven.

For fear that I might jinx things and it won’t happen.  My mom wants to take Sebastian for a few days before the summer is over.  I’m supposed to drop him off on Wednesday (and get my hair done, yay!  I’m whacking it off again.) and pick him up on Saturday.  I’ve never just shipped Bub off for a few days for no reason before.  Weddings, funerals, moving, yes, but never just because.  He’s also never been away from me for more than a night before.  And he’ll be gone for three.  He’s excited to go, though.  Plus, my brother’s three kids will be there Friday night, too, so he’s pretty geeked about that.

I’m excited to have a couple childfree days, but it will definitely be weird.  Don’t get me wrong, Seb and I really need a break from each other, so this will be good for the both of us, but I know I’m really going to miss the little monkeybutt.  Too bad we are pretty much broke from our little trip to Cedar Point last week and then to the zoo and dinner yesterday.  The hubby and I won’t even have extra money to do something fun, just the two of us. 

I realize that’s a weird thing to say about your own kid, but hell, it’s the truth.  We spent the day at Cedar Point yesterday.  All Seb could talk about was that he was going to ride the Maverick.  Had to do it right away, first thing.  I don’t know where in the world he got the idea that he just had to ride this monster, but he did.  And he insisted on riding in the first car.  What he was trying to prove, I have no idea.  I certainly didn’t go on the ride.  No way, Jose.  But Seb went on with the hubby. And how did he like it?  He didn’t.  Not. At. All.  Said he hated it and will never do it again.  But, damn, I’m proud of the kid for doing it in the first place!

To be fair, his two cousins who are both a year older than Seb went on as well and it scared the bejesus out of them, too.  They just weren’t as vocal about it.  Even the hubby said it was one of the worst (meaning scariest) rides he’s been on and he didn’t care to ever go back on it again, either. 

We had a pretty good time at Cedar Point.  We left Sunday afternoon, checked into the hotel and hung out at the pool/hot tub for most of the afternoon/evening.  Got up early Monday morning and headed over to the park, spent the entire day and headed home around 10:30.  It was around 1 am when we finally made it back here.  I have decided that the next time we go back, I want to plan for two days at the park and would like to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge.  It looks like fun!