Friday, June 27, 2008

One word meme

So here's a different type of meme; you can only answer with one word (believe me, it was tough!)


1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Your significant other? Sparky
3. Your hair? frizzy
4. Your mother? quiet
5. Your father? gone
6. Your favorite thing? hugs
7. Your dream last night? forgotten
8. Your favorite drink? Riesling
9. Your dream/goal? serenity
10. The room you're in? computer
11. Your ex? frustrating
12. Your fear? death
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
14. Where were you last night? here
15. What you're not? stupid
16. Muffins? occasionally
17. One of your wish list items? contentment
18. Where you grew up? Pennsylvania
19. The last thing you did? errands
20. What are you wearing? capris
21. Your TV? DVRing
22. Your pets? children
23. Your computer? laptop
24. Your life? busy
25. Your mood? anxious
26. Missing someone? grandpa
29. Favorite Store? wine
30. Your summer? hot
31. Like someone? teens
32. Your favorite color? green
33. When is the last time you laughed? breakfast
34. Last time you cried? breakfast

more tests...

So the happy news first: O's girlfriend Diane and her mom & sister arrived safely last night. It took them nearly 12 hours to get here and Diane's car started to overheat around Pittsburgh, but all is good now. They got mostly unloaded last night and moved into the new apartment. Her box spring won't fit up the steps to the 3rd floor where they are living, so they are going to be sleeping on a mattress on the floor, which is ironic, because when Sparky & I were dating, I had a mattress on the floor of the 3rd floor for the exact same reason.

Leaving in just a bit to go out to Breakfast with them all to celebrate O's birthday and to meet Diane's mom & sister for the first time. I can't imagine what her mom is going through. I'm a wreck and my baby only moved 8 miles away. Diane is moving closer to 800 miles away to be with O. Ah, young love.

So the not so good news... The neurologist appointment didn't go exactly swimmingly. We are doing an MRI under sedation on July 15th. I'm not going to talk about all the maybes. Just suffice it to say there are a lot of possibilities about what is going on in that little Beastie brain and most of them aren't very good. As I learn more, I will share, but for right now the bottom line is there is something wrong with his left eye where it connects to his brain (optic nerve/optic disc). The problem might be just in the optic disc, but it might be in his brain also. There is also a possibility that this is something degenerative. The MRI will give us a better idea and so until we get those results, I am not going to think about it too much. If you pray, prayers are deeply appreciated.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Five words you don't want to hear...

Monday night we had a fierce thunderstorm. Shake the house, rattle the windows, make you cringe kinda fierce. I looked at the clock and it was 10pm on the dot. This is the time that my oldest, O, was to get off work. I thought about sending him a text message telling him to drive safe & to maybe take the long way home. The way home that is main roads instead of windy back roads. But of course, I was afraid he had already left work and I didn't want him to try to read a text in the bad weather, so I just let it go.

At 10:20 the phone rang and I heard those words that every mother dreads, "Mom! (sniff, sniff) I wrecked my car. (sniff, sniff, sob)" Now of course it could have been a million times worse. It could have been, "Ma'am, I'm sorry to tell you..." or "This is Dr. So-and-So..." but instead it was my sweet little baby calling me to tell me he wrecked his car but miracles, he was okay. The car, not so much. It would have flipped over except for the convenient tree that was in the way. The tree may have saved his life. The tree that caused $2300 worth of damage to a $4000 car.

So my yesterday was spent getting repair estimates & making contingency plans. Because the timing of this was really, really bad. Not that there is ever a good time to smack into a life-saving tree before running your car down a scary-steep embankment, but this timing was exceptionally bad. See, tomorrow O becomes a man. Not in the Jewish way, but in the way where he is moving in with his girl friend and starting to pay rent & leaving his mommy-nest. And Friday he turns 19.

So this isn't a boo-boo that I can put a band-aid on and kiss it and make it better. This is a big deal thing.

We have a plan in place where he takes dad's car (the PT cruiser), dad takes my car (my 2 month old Rondo), I drive the monster SUV until dad can buy a new car this weekend (probably an Optima). When dad gets a new car, we will sell the monster SUV (a Ford Excursion) to pay off most of my Rondo. Meanwhile, we will save up the money to do the repairs to O's car (a cute little convertible Chevy Tracker). When it is fixed, we will unwind the process and sell the PT Cruiser to pay off the balance of my Rondo and take whatever money is leftover to buy A, the 16 year old brother, his first car.

Yeah, it took me about 2 hours to figure that all out. You think you're confused, all you had to do was read it! Imagine how much brain power that took from my stressed, sleep deprived brain.


In happier news, today I am going to go pick up thirty computers that York College is donating to our Autism Society of America Chapter. Twenty-five desktops and 5 laptops. We will distribute them to families in the area who need a new computer (these are two years old, we have families using computers that are over 10 years old). Yay York College!

Tomorrow Beastie goes to the neurologist. I'll update after we get home.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Beastie's new glasses

Sparky went scuba diving today, so I had a fun filled day of cleaning, knitting, watching a myriad of different sports and Beastie chasing. Beastie was a handful, with no daddy or brothers anywhere to be found. He did however do the best thing ever today. He wore his glasses for 45 minutes straight! That's the good news. I'll show you a pic before I tell you the bad news, so you can see just how cute he really is...




So after 45 minutes of wearing the glasses, playing, doing the things a Beastie does, he quietly slips to the back half of the living room. The part of the room where I can't see him without becoming a contortionist. By the time I think to check on him, the glasses are off and he is chewing on them. I start yelling, "NO". He flings the glasses and comes running at warp speed to climb up on the sofa. He starts yelling back at me in Beastieese. I have no idea what he was yelling, but he was pissed at me for yelling at him, that's for sure. I found the glasses (just a scratch on the 2 day old lens, no big deal) and then cuddled him and explained how proud I was that he wore them for so long and that I wasn't mad at him, but that he was not allowed to taste his glasses. And before you ask, yes, the glasses are the toughest substance known to man and the frames are the kind you can literally tie into a knot without damage. Lord knows if there has ever been a child who will test that tolerance, it's our Beastie.

We go to see the pediatric neurologist on Thursday to figure out more of what's wrong behind his left eye. The pediatriac opthamologist saw some stuff she didn't like when she had him under anesthesia last week, so it's another round of specialists and probably MRIs and possibly more surgery.

But for now, let's all just focus on how cute he is now that he can finally see better.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Yay Summer!

School's out & Beastie is now in a full day summer program. So with that life change, I suddenly have more time to knit & clean & blog & do all those things I haven't had time for in oh, I don't know, FIVE YEARS!

So I've been having fun on Plurk and Ravelry and Twitter and all sorts of other social things, but have neglected my blog duties. I think it's because I have blog envy. I want to be able to add buttons and badges and progress bars and links and all that other cool stuff that you just can't do on livejournal. So my solution has been to not blog at all -- yeah, I know, real mature of me.

We just got back from a week at the Outer Banks. It was hot, as usual, but we mostly had a nice time. My best friend came along, but she is in the midst of a marriage meltdown, so that was a cloud that we all had to contend with throughout the week. My heart hurts so much for her. She doesn't deserve this at all. We all thought he was a good guy and now he is basically been turning into a wanker. It sucks.

In knitting news, I actually spent most of May crocheting market bags for Beastie's 7 teachers and therapists as end of the year thank you gifts. They all loved them and seemed to appreciate them.

OTN right now are about a billion things, but foremost among them are a pinwheel blanket, a baby hoodie, a pair of rag wool socks and a stunning crocheted baby blanket.

My upcoming nephew will be warm, if nothing else.