Numb toes

Yes, that was the temperature in the house Friday Morning. Our heat broke.

Really, our heat broke Thursday night. We were sitting around, waiting for Bri to FINALLY fall asleep, when James commented it was cold. James is NEVER cold, so this was odd coming from him. I agreed so he went downstairs to play with the furnance. He got it working, but when we got up in the morning, it was COLD in the house. James got the furnance running, but our pipes had froze during the night. So, no water to take a shower, use the upstairs sink or flush the toilet. Since he had meetings that morning, I got to stay home.
So, I tried to bake to get the temperature up in the house, but that did not work. I also learned that if it is too cold in your house, your fridge will not run. And coffee goes cold very quickly when the temp is in the 50's inside. And there are people, sane people, who choose to live without heat for many reasons. I will not be joining them.
I stayed bundled in blankets waiting for the water to run and James to get home with the new ignitor. I played on Facebook and e-mailed my co-worker.
The water started running about 10, but the drains were frozen. So I had to wait for the drains to thaw.
Then the drains were thawed so I managed to take a shower since we had hot water. Ever have your toes cold for a long time and then pour hot water on them? Its not a comfortable feeling.
By afternoon, I had gone to my parent's house to thaw my toes and James got the heat working. By evening, the temp in the house was back to normal.
Like going scrapbooking Saturday and getting ready for camping in March.
Yeah, I'm giving up scrapbooking weekend to go camping with a group of 2nd grade Brownies. I think I'm now prepared for what it will be like.

A wrench thrown in the plans

So remember when I said we had made the decision to keep Jimmy at the public school next year, and I said the decision was done?

It's not.

After I posted that, I realized we will HAVE TO sign him up for Religious Ed, or he will be hopelessly lost in 1st grade. They are expect to know things like Adam and Eve, Noah, birth and death of Jesus, how to behave at mass and so forth. It would have to be the classroom one since I am not good at keeping up with at-home work. So, there goes one night a week for me.
Anyhow. After realizing this problem, I went to a meeting for the cookie moms at our school. It is rather sad when it was me, one other cookie mom, and the two leaders from our troop when at least 10 people should have been there. After we got done talking cookies and money, the other cookie mom left and the leaders and I sat talking and drinking more beer.
And one leader dropped the news that our school will have all day kindergarten as an option next year.
This is HUGE for us! We had been told in the past there was no room, no interest in such a program. And they found there WAS an interest and they are going to try it out.
But therein lies the problem. Jimmy still needs his services. So, that means his IEP would be transferred to the other school district and we would get drop-in services. Someone has to pick him up and take him at the time and school we are told whever in the district. My dad has volunteered to help with this so we don't have to take time off work and Jimmy can be at the school we all want for him.

Sigh. Do you know how HARD this decision is to make?

Him going to private school is what we wanted from the start of this process. Both kids would be on the same schedule and it would not be so much juggling since the start/end of year and days off are the SAME. He would be learning his faith while at school and I would not have to worry about carting him off when he may not want to go.
On the other hand, if he stays at public, he will get services at school so he won't lose out on learning. But then I have to take him to RE.
So, there is an open house this weekend and a parents meeting in two weeks. We are going to go and see what the options (and cost) are. We may also take him for a private evaluation for speech to see what is really going on.
And rip our hair out in the meantime.

Another birthday in the bag

Jimmy's birthday and party are done with. And I couldn't be happier.
I love my family and friends, but its EXHAUSTING having them over. Not them being here. That part is fine. Just getting ready for it.
The cleaning is so fun because I am such and organized neat freak. Then the getting the kids to clean. Then getting the cake and figuring out food.
I am so mad about the cake. We usually get our cakes from the same place every time. We usually get the same kind of cake: 1/2 sheet, marble cake, whipped cream, decorated for whatever character my kids want. I like the cake and its one place your can get whipped cream cakes. I hate buttercream frosting with the only exception being my wedding.
And trust me, I BEGGED them for a whipped cream cake. Something about storage and refrigeration and space and it wasn't happening.
So, I got the cake from the same place as every other event we have. I asked for a Cars cake, without the figures due to I was going to put Hot Wheels on the car as they did not have a Hot Wheels cake.
Ok, they DID have a Hot Wheels cake, but it was the photo graphic ones, and no one likes them. They taste gross and don't cut well.
So I got the cake and went to check out. No label on the cake. Go back to the bakery for a label.
The woman I talked to hoped that she would have gotten my cake for me so she could ask me if I wanted the Cars figures on the cake. Keep in mind that the woman who took my order wrote a LONG note that I did not want the figures, just decorate the cake like it.
Wonderful. I get the price tag and pay for my purchases.
As I'm carrying the cake in, I notice you can see the cake throught the frosting on the one side. I hate that. It's a pet peeve of mine. One side you can see throught and the other side has 2" of frosting on it. At least this time the top of the cake was not cracked.
I showed James and he goes, oh well. For what I pay for a cake, I expect it to be really neat and well done and not see cake throught the frosting. I could have done it and I never took the Wilton classes.
So, we stashed it in the fridge and went on our way. Cake time comes and I get the cake and go to put the Hot Wheels on it. Brand new Hot Wheels in packages. Someone starts giving me grief about the cars on the cake. No, these are not recalled and if its a big deal DON'T EAT THE CAKE. It was for Jimmy, not you. There is always some sort of toy on the cake. This is nothing new, we're dealing with children here.
So the cake went over well. No leftovers. I'm happy.
Jimmy got clothes and toys. Hot Wheels sets to be exact. I stepped on one toy Monday and now have a puncture hole in my foot. He's happy which is good.
So, all done until April for birthdays.

If its birthday time, that means Jennifer has been doing home remodeling

Its like a disease with me.
Right before any major holiday that my family will be at my house, I have to tackle a major home improvement project. I don't know why. I shouldn't care about impressing them. They are my family and they have seen this house at its worst.a
One Saturday before Easter, a few years back, I decided to paint two walls of my living room a beige color. They had been white for I am not sure how long. I spent all day painting and moving and cleaning and moving stuff back to have my family claim I did not paint the walls. Last Easter, I painted my bathroom robins egg blue. My mom noticed three weeks later, no one else did. Or they did and didn't want to say how bad they thought it looked. I'm not sure. And that bathroom was white before.
So, what major project did I tackle this year? Ripping out the stained, gross grass green carpet. Yes, I finally ripped out the living room to match the dining room we did, oh, a couple years ago. The living room and dining room is one big room so it looked odd, but it was to be a temporary change. There are wood floors under the carpet in most of this house. We've taken care of the bedrooms a long time ago. Actually, the previous owners took care of the master bedroom, we had to do the other two.
Anyhow. I spent three evenings cutting and ripping carpet and taking more staples out the floor that I have ever seen. I made James take out the tack strips after I scraped up the top of my hand on one I tried to take out.
And the floors look pretty good for having carpet over it for the past 20 years and the previous owners had multiple cats. Yes, we need to have it professionally refinished, but that is something we will get to down the road.
And, the second day, while I was taking out carpet, Bri sat on the stairs and said, I like watching you rip up the carpet. I cannot wait for the day they are old enought to do this kind of thing. I'll sit on the stairs and have a Blue Glowtini while they do the manual labor.
That will not be for a while as Bri has not learned knife safety in Girl Scouts and Jimmy isn't old enought for Cub Scouts and his whittling chip.
Oh well, something for me to look forward to.

Why am I paying for Catholic school again?

I have complained so many times about Bri and her homework. It's not getting ANY easier.
Today, Bri came home from Girl Scouts and played with Jimmy for a while. Then, we heard Jimmy complaining that Bri was in his room.
She decided to sit in his room to do his homework. We kicked her out.
Then she decided to sit at the table and do her homework. She has a desk in her room, you know. She was getting fustrated about doing 6 sentences and 6 vocab words.
What grade is she in? 2nd? Ok, just checking....
Anyway, when we were getting ready for dinner, we noticed she had written so hard on her worksheet that she engraved words on the table. With her pencil.
Yes, now we get to sand the table. And refinish it.
So, we had a little talk with Bri (AGAIN) that she needs to calm down when she does her homework. It's not a race, its homework. If she complains, she gets one warning and then the homework goes into her folder, incomplete. She can deal with the fall out from it.
I am seriously considering taking her out of Catholic school. I put her there to give her the best opportunity and she could care less how she does. I could use the money for other things. I am not going to fight and argue if its not worth it.
She has had homework in school since preschool. So this is nothing new to her.
I am tired of it. I don't know how to get it thought to her that this is important and that she needs to do it.
I hope things are easier when Jimmy gets to school. If James and I make it to that point.

Hard decisions to make

So, we had Jimmy's IEP today.

We made the decision and (as hard as this sentence seems to be to write) we are keeping him at public school for kindergarten. We decided that he needs another year of help, he will be going to a larger classroom and they will be giving him the tools to cope with transitions and such. He has done so well since we began this process two years ago. I had seriously wondered back then if we would ever see they day we could talk about sending him to Catholic school. He needs help with the L sound and some behavioral issues that have come up, but we have seen so much progress in him. As of now, he will go to 1st grade at our church. As hard as this was, I think this is what he needs right now. He also will be retested in September for next year's IEP to see where his skills are.
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I am blessed and lucky to have met someone who accepts me for who I am and could care less about tattoos, the way I dress, the way I talk, and so on. James had cried, laughed and prayed with me on the decisions we have made for Jimmy. James has hunkered down in the trenches with me, and fought the battle for what is best for my little guy. And he still is fighting the battle with me for what is the best for Jimmy.
Which isn't to say it isn't work in our marriage. Yes, we have been working on it. Is it easy? NO. Is anything worth holding onto easy? It never is.
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My health right now totally sucks. I am on a gluten free diet for two weeks. It is hard to do. Having to give up bread, pancakes and soy sauce has all sucked. I ate salmon and rice for breakfast yesterday morning. That was fun. I still have a headache. It gets better and worse. I think pain is just goint to be the constant in my life.
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So that about sums it all up for now. I gotta get ready for Jimmy's bday tomorrow, so back to Walmart to try and find his gift.

IEP day is just a (few) day(s) away

So the rescheduled IEP is now on Friday, the day before Jimmy's 5th birthday. What a way to be legal and really lame at the same time. We kinda get forced to accept what they throw at us without time to look at other options since they DID not give us time to do so.
So, I know I haven't dedicated much writing to Jimmy's issues of late. I don't know what to say anymore. His speech has improved, but the sensory is a mess and his attitude sucks as of late. He likes the word NO a little too much and he says things that can only be described as mean. When you call him out on it, he says oops sorry and laughs. I don't know how much is age related, how much is repeating television and how much is from his issues.
We're still debating about if Jimmy should go to the same school as Bri for Kindergarten or just wait until first grade. I've gotten a lot of different opinions and when I try to talk to James about it, he just wants to wait until we see what the district has to tell us. I'd rather have some ideas what we'd like to see and what we could do, but now we have to wait. No one like having a battle plan I'm learning.
So, not much I can even say now. I got his medicine for his stomach so maybe he'll eat again. He really has not been eating. He'll eat the junk, but not the healthy stuff.
And I'm up to my eyeballs in cookie stuff right now for the Brownie troop. Who decided the product managers should collect the permission slips was defintely not thinking clearly. So I'm still chasing down people with our leader's help. Hopefully, getting the forms is much easier than this.
Or I'm going to be entering orders while drinking a martini again this year.