sethrak

::poing::

Upcoming PCS next month, lots of changes ahead. More as news arrives.

And yes. Still a Big Damn Nerd. Still a Big Damn Liberal.Still a God Damn Feminist.:D

The kind where, as I'm giving the Zodlings their baths and tucking them into bed, I could *swear* I'd just done this five minutes ago.

This despite having spent a moderately productive and interesting day baking and wrangling said Zodlings.

Mark's IEP got rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Tom is running the conn at home and retrieving Mark from the bus for me. I'm attending the IEP as Official Parental Unit. Sarah's communicating via teleconference as she can't make it down from Denver. Fingers crossed, and prayers requested from all sides.

Still no news from Misawa. We don't expect them to decide they can cope with our Zodlings, but I'd like firm confirmation of that so we can move on to the next part of the process for finding Tom's next assignment.

Stupid serotonin tricks are behaving themselves. Stupid gastro. tricks are only mildly annoying.

I need to catch up on my reading, on my efforts to learn knitting, and on my self-appointed 'Unfuck the habitat before our as-yet-to-be-scheduled PCS gorram it all" tasks.

Right now, heading to bed, as Tom has early duty requiring awakening at three am the rest of the week. Bleah.

The latest and greatest SNAFU we've been presented with?

Tom's been non-vol'ed to MISAWA.

The one base in Japan whose school does NOT have an autism program in their special ed dept.

We can fight it based on the boys' EFMP status, but Tom's been informed if we win, he'll get sent on the next remote that opens up - which won't be Korea, as they are full ass UP in his career field at present. Which means instead he'll get sent to Misawa ALONE, for TWO years.

Or, we may just decide 'bugger all this' and he won't re-enlist. His current tour of duty is up in December.


I have no words.

All I can do is find our copies of their IEPS and Jack's EFMP paperwork, so Tom can use them to fight this assignment.

"Abernathy, someone's soul is going to writhe for this" - The Lone Power, Diane Duane.

It's Tom's birthday; for the next few months we're both 34. ^_^ Later on the Zodling Duo and I are going out to pick up the red velvet cupcakes I ordered for him. Tonight's birthday feast will be provided by Smashburger, and tomorrow we're doing steaks and baked potatoes.

But not much else is going on.

Mark's still sick. Getting fever meds and antibiotics is still a chore. And he's still doing random screeching for no readily discernable reason WAY more often than usual. x_x

We're hanging out at the house, watching Backyardigans, while I do laundry and putter round online. Tonight, Zodlings permitting, I hope to *finally* get the last of the presents wrapped and the Christmas cards written and addressed.





Still time left for Tom to somehow bring about the apocalypse. ^_-

Saturday, I went Christmas shopping solo, while Tom watched the boys, who were being exceedingly goofy even for them. I got my watch clasp fixed, bought Tom's Christmas present, and ordered some awesome red velvet cupcakes for him and his office, to be ready on his birthday next week as a surprise. Wandered around the old historic shopping section of COS, and went home feeling quite pleased with myself.

Sunday was a bit less pleasant, as it was too damned cold to unleash the Zodling Duo on the backyard, and they were even goofier than they'd been the previous day, for reasons we could not determine. They've been cooped up in the house because of inclement weather before, and not been remotely this aggravating. :/ Tom made brownies. I made oatmeal raisin cookies, and my super-easy Mark-safe fried rice for dinner, since Tom was expecting to get called in to work if Things Happened requiring Public Affairs to respond. (Didn't, but better to be prepared.)

Monday started out well. Still cold, and Mark refused to wear gloves at the bus stop. But both boys kept their hats on, and Mark at least had the sense to keep his hands in his overlong sleeves most of the time. Jack kept his mittens on like a very good boy, and had a blast exploring the snow and listening to it crunch under his boots. :D

After they were off to school, I decided that since my stomach was mildly acting up and it was ridiculously cold, I would take a nice luxurious nap. I was caught up on laundry; Tom had recently deep-cleaned the bathrooms; and there wasn't anything I really *had* to do regarding housework or other domestic goddess tasks.

Everything seemed fine, aside from minor stupid gastro. tricks. I was looking forward to having a nice rest of the week too. Tomorrow Mark has an allergist appt. at the Academy's hospital, which I can actually drive to, unlike the Ft. Carson medical group. Tomorrow night D11 Special Ed Services is holding a Parents' Night Off for two hours, and Tom and I were planning to go to either HuHot Mongolian Grill or a Chinese buffet with our free time. :D Friday night one of Tom's superiors is hosting a holiday party to which children are welcome, and a white elephant gift exchange will be held. We were looking forward to that a lot. I was planning to make both Mark-safe cookies and the decidedly NOT Mark-safe butterscotch oatmeal cookies that Tom's coworkers rave about every time I send some with Tom.

And of course this weekend: The Hobbit. :D :D :D :D :D

Tom and I will have to take turns going, but it'll be WORTH it. :D :D :D :D :D



Then I decided to check my purse, late in the afternoon, to see if I had enough cash to take Jack to Culver's this afternoon before his occupational therapy.

And I found my wallet was gone. o_o

My mil. ID, driver's license, cell, keys ipod, checkbook, and oddly enough my Sam's Club membership card, had not been in the wallet, and were still present and accounted for.

My copy of our joint credit card, my personal account's debit card, and my JCP credit card, however..... x_x

Ransacked the purse, the laundry room, the card, my room, the library on a longshot, and even Mark's room in case he'd been digging in my purse and taken the wallet up there to play with.

To no avail. Tried calling Mya Bella Cupcakes, the last place I remembered having the wallet out, but they're closed Sundays and Mondays.

Explaining this to Tom, who got home shortly thereafter, was NOT PLEASANT.

The stress of trying a last-ditch effort to find the damn wallet nearly triggered a full-blown attack of stupid gastro. tricks, and definitely set off a bad enough reaction to give me an unpleasant night's sleep. :(

In the end, he reported our joint account card missing, which meant the bank locked out his card too - right before Christmas ::wince:: - and we'll get replacements sent in 7-10 business days. I reported my JCP card missing, got the acct. locked down, and will also get a new card sent in about that length of time. Neither account had had any unauthorized purchases, thank God.

My personal debit card is handled directly through the credit union, which is in Omaha, and they were closed for the day by the time I called. :( Called this morning as soon as they opened; got the card locked; will get the forms needed for ordering a new card via email, as they cannot do that directly over the phone when a credit union member hasn't used her account in so long she's forgotten the PIN. ::face-palm::

Still going to try calling Mya Bella to see if they happen to have the wallet behind the counter, as I had a small amount of cash and a large number of customer loyalty cards. Also my library card. :( They won't open til 11, but I'm hoping someone will be in the shop earlier for work.

God damn it. I thought I was being so careful. :(

Here's hoping a little self-care can salvage my health enough to keep the rest of the week from being torpedoed. I WANT to go out to dinner with my Tom tomorrow night. I WANT to go to that Christmas party. I REALLY REALLY WANT to see The Hobbit opening weekend, and to have Tom have to go too, even if we can't go together.

Tom came home from work while the boys and I were in the middle of dinner, looking sick and wan, and went straight to bed without eating anything. He spent most of the night throwing up. We think he caught the bug Mark had earlier.

The boys and I finished our dinners, then watched tv for a bit before sending them to bed. As I laid on the couch afterwards, watching the tail-end of Dancing with the Stars, much to my astonishment I got smacked with an attack of IBS. God damn it, I've been really careful with my diet and activity levels! ::wince::

As a result, I did not make Mark-safe donuts from scratch for his pre-Halloween-parade breakfast at school this morning, as intended. Instead, I broke out the emergency can of Mark-safe cinnamon rolls this morning, and made him those. He was thrilled. Pissed that I insisted they were for school, mind you. Heh.

Shoved the boys into their school clothes and Mark into his Optimus Prime costume on top of his school clothes. Tossed them on their buses. Went to lie down on the couch like a Victorian invalid. Too tired to even watch tv, so I put on the local classical station's internet stream.

Feeling marginally better now, enough to get online and sip apple juice. Haven't eaten anything yet; but I'd better soon lest I cross the line into being sick from lack of food. :/

Tom's currently at work, because between the readiness exercise and the stuff going on at various bases affected by Sandy, NORAD Public Affairs has entirely too much to do. He called a little bit ago to check on me, and sounded miserable. Our original plan for Halloween was for him to take Mark out trick-or-treating while I stayed home with Jack and passed out candy, and then we'd appropriate anything not Mark-safe (which would be just about everything, cough). Right now it's looking like that will not happen. Mark won't mind. He doesn't entirely grok trick-or-treat, and there's three cinnamon rolls left for him to nom.

I am going to lay back down after checking email. I got all the domestic goddess projects done that HAD TO be done within the last day or two; I can and absolutely need to take a break before Zodlings return.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be feeling well enough to work on my cross stitch some more. This project's so close to being done...

Around nine o'clock, on the way to the pharmacy to pick up my prozac refill, I get a call from Mark's school.

He bit one of the special ed teachers on the arm. >_< Apparently he was thrown off kil-ter by his primary teacher being out sick and replaced by a substitute, and when he tried to do a runner, the special ed aide tried to redirect him - and got chomped for her effort.

The poor woman was sent home for the day, and I was asked to please come collect my child. >_<

I saw the photo. He drew blood and broke skin in two near-perfect semicircles, as well as bruising between the top and bottom teeth marks.

Yeah, that was a FUN day. And me on the caffeine wagon because internet research suggests it tips IBS towards the diarrhea side of the condition.

He was able to go back to school today. We talked to the head of the ABA therapy service who works with Mark, and in future we plan to raise moderate hell at attempted suspensions - he has an IEP, and his severity of autism means that suspensions do not make the slightest beneficial impact on his behavior. We have legal avenues to protest if they do this again, and to work on ways and means to prevent further incidents.


The weekend went better. Did some shopping, got work done on my cross stitch, and only ordinary outbreaks of goofiness from the boys.


Then, last night happened.

Mark went to bed at his usual time, and fell asleep promptly.

He woke up around 12:30 am. x_x Had to be chased back into bed multiple times. At one point I noticed he'd turned on the seldom-used light under the kitchen cabinets. I went over to the switch - and stepped in a puddle of stickiness, which proved to be most of the contents of my vanilla and almond extract bottles. Those are going on the list of things to store in the closet or laundry room at night. If he hadn't already run upstairs, I'd have made him help me clean the goop up with paper towel.

Last time I chased him back into bed was around 3 am.

I went back upstairs shortly after Mark and Jack got on the bus, and while I couldn't quite fall asleep, I got some much needed rest. Going to bed early tonight.

He is approx. 40 lbs. and 42 inches tall, both measurements well into the upper percentiles for a four year old male. Not a surprise, my little Zodlings are both the size of baby moose. ^_^

Dr. Flather is putting in referrals for speech therapy, evals for occupational therapy and physical therapy just to cover the bases, and a second opinion request so we can see a different developmental pediatrician than Dr. Sayers. :D

The forms she is required to turn in are rather lengthy, so we need to come in next week to pick them up from the front desk. She said she normally would have been able to guarantee they'd be done by Monday, but her house suffered major smoke damage during the recent fires, and the cleanup company is scheduled to be at her house Monday. :(

Other than the PDD-NOS, he is perfectly healthy. :D No shots today, but there might be some when his school physical happens next month.

Snagged appointment slots for both the boys' school physicals for July 30th and August 1st. Well within the time frame needed to get them to D11 for this school year. :D The tricare rep suggested I bring along Jack's physical forms when we go to have the version for EFMP done Wednesday; I suspect Dr. Flather won't be allowed to do both at once for arcane military/government regs reasons, but it's worth a try.

Did not get an appt. for my followup regarding the pulmonologist results, but since I am getting up early tomorrow anyway to do some very very gentle exercising, I'll be awake when the appointment line opens for the day and the staff will have a fresh set of openings available in the computer.

Too tired for book squee; Mark and Jack both woke angry/unhappy/confused at a quarter to one last night, and I also got up early for gentle exercising.

On the upside, no stupid gastric tricks today. :D And this morning's stretching exercises only have the backs of my upper arms very very faintly sore, nowhere else and nothing severe.

Auntie Steph sent him a horse head on a stick, which has the capacity to make battery-operated whinnying noises, and which Mark kept trying to steal. We ended up hiding it in Jack's room. ^_^ He also got a small plushie horse and a pair of plastic horse figures from me and Tom. He adores all of them, but is particularly fond of the figures; Tom picked them out.

Cupcakes continue to be a failure. Mark was at least willing to pick up the cut chunks and press them to his lips - but not to taste them or even open his mouth. Jack completely ignored his cupcake in favor of playing with his new horsies.

I tried adding drops of food coloring to two of the cupcakes, just to play around with color. Two drops of red in one cupcake, and two drops of blue in another cupcake, stirred into the batter with a clean knife for each one. The color came out not nearly as saturated as I hoped, and while it covered the top, it didn't quite penetrate all the way out to the sides of the base, just filled the center. Steph suggested next time I should try a concentrated food color gel that's supposed to give really good saturation without the funky flavor excess amounts of regular food coloring can give. I hadn't been aware this gel existed, or that too much food coloring makes things taste odd; the last time I played around with food coloring was when I was a kid and colored Easter eggs.

Not that it matters, when my boys steadfastly refuse to EAT my efforts. ;p But it'll be fun to play with.

Had a very nasty bout of gastro. symptoms starting around dinner time Tuesday, which finally ebbed around midnight, and have spent the last two days recovering from the after effects. Sigh. At least it didn't kick in until after I got to the library with the boys to retrieve some of my holds.

Finally felt good enough this afternoon to make a short jaunt to the Citadel for window shopping. Assuming I don't have ANOTHER bout, I'm planning to go see Brave on Saturday, after Tom gets back from Dragonman and also makes sure the office doesn't need him to update the website again. He's planning to see either Prometheus or Avengers tomorrow night. I hope he picks the latter; I am dying to geek out at him over it. ^_^

Right now, he's at the store, and I'm wrangling Zodlings. Probably going to break out some of my library books while they watch Backyardigans; it is entirely too hot in the yard to let them loose.