22 Days of Thanks

I completely missed the blogging call for the days of thanks this month.  So today I am doing the 22 days of thanks.  Here goes in no particular order...

22  I am thankful for the smell of turkey and gingerbread in my house today
21  I am thankful for the weather in Cali this November, we finally have rain!!
20  I am thankful for the public schools in our town who have gone above and beyond with my kids
19  I am thankful for my new hospital bed that supports my medical needs at this time
18  I am thankful for my sons tennis racket because it makes him happy
17  I am thankful for my Broadway Twin who loves the shows as much as I do (I will miss her when she goes to college
16  I am thankful for my husband who has become a wonderful house husband during my time of need
15  I am thankful for our cat Astra who keeps my neck warm and often wet from happy cat drool
14  I am thankful for our cat Abra who sings when he wants to get picked up and cuddled
13  I am thankful for our cat Kiefer who takes time out of his busy sleep schedule to come and help me eat my supper every night
12  I am thankful for our cat Hobbit for having the cutest cat I have ever seen
11  I am thankful for my electric wheelchair that will hopefully be here before Christmas
10  I am thankful for my house that my husband and I thought we would never be able to buy
9    I am thankful for my education even though I am not using the knowledge now I still have it
8    I am thankful for music all kinds (except for some of the stuff that is questionably musical)
7    I am thankful for James's happy days and the harder ones that make the happy ones that much more special
6    I am thankful for doctors who work tirelessly to solve medical mysteries everyday even though my condition is still as mysterious as it was on 5/23/11
5    I am thankful for Prednisone!  I know it is an evil drug because of the side effects (many I have suffered from) It is the only medication that has given me hope for a life close to what I had before my disability started.
4    I am thankful for my whole family back East, who on this Thanksgiving Day, I miss more than any other time of year!
3    I am thankful for my family in the southern region of Cali who we were not able to visit this Thanksgiving holiday.  Again, this is the day that I miss them the most!
2    I am thankful for my husband who after 18 years of marriage is still willing to live with me no matter how much he would rather not have the insanity all around him
1    I am thankful for my kids who made me a mum the only job I have ever really wanted!

                                                                            

911... I Need a New Babysitter

Oh heavens... where do I begin?  This was Charlotte's day.  She was to sing in the Regional Honor Choir which is quite a wonderful experience.  I had the babysitter all set up for James and when we left, they were happy decorating a large box.  Half an hour before concert was to begin, I received a call from the frantic babysitter.
James had be making a music video and at one point pulled down his pants.  She told him that he couldn't do that and he needed to erase it.  He got upset and then she said that until he did, he couldn't use his 3DS.  James disappeared upstairs and apparently grabbed the house phone and dialed the one number he knew 911.  James has been working on 911 for several years and has never gotten it correct.  As recent as 10/1/12 he still couldn't get the number correct >>click here<<  This time, he got it correct and when asked by the dispatcher what his emergency was he told her that he needed a new babysitter because this one was mean.
The police showed up an hour or so later at our house and the babysitter let them in.  James was really freaked out and ran screaming upstairs.  Eventually everything got figured out and the police left and James was able to get on with his time with his babysitter.  So what actually is considered an emergency?  Basically an emergency is something that must be stopped immediately because it may threaten physical well-being or property.  Well according to this definition, James may have felt that he was reporting an emergency.  He needed to stop his babysitter immediately from  taking away his property.  I guess there is still some refining we need to do on the concept of emergencies and when to call 911 for help.

Happy Birthday Little Man!! Happy???

So today is Jamesie's 9th birthday and we have been celebrating all weekend!  I had spent last week coming up with great ideas to slow down present opening because in the past it has been a flurry of paper and no one got to see anything.  James adores the show "Minute to Win It" so I planned several games that I knew he would be able to do with a little help.  Enter his sister... Charlotte was excited about these games and was willing to do it all to see James's face light up as he opened his gifts.  So game one was done and James go to pick a gift....

Gift #1: Mario pajama pants just like the Ninjago ones he found a week before and loved to pieces.  The gift was opened and once he discovered what they were, they were whipped across the room with the exclamation, "That is a HORRIBLE gift!! I didn't ask for that!!!" Okay, I give him that clothing isn't the most exciting gift but they are terrifically soft and I knew they would be needed soon!!  (Sure enough, that night he specifically chose those pajama pants to wear because they were so soft!)    And so it went... down the line of unwanted gifts until Charlotte was left playing the games alone and we would call James down to get another unwanted gift that he would throw at us!

One of the happier moments opening his Ninjago
pens.  Until he couldn't open the box by himself,
and he tossed them down from the loft to the first
floor screaming, "Another HORRIBLE gift!"

I guess we should have stuck more closely to his birthday list that he had given us with hugely expensive games and things that won't be out until closer to Christmas.  What he doesn't know is that the more expensive gifts come from grandparents who send me money to appease the little hooligan for another year.
Anyway, today is the actual day of birth celebration and we are going to go and see "Wreck it Ralph".  Hope James sits through the movie!!  Love my Little Man but I am so happy that I have time before the next celebration on 12/22 for the much-wanted Archery Party.  Give me strength!!!! Oh, I forgot, James fired me from his birthday so maybe that will allow me be an outsider and someone else can take the reigns!
 Happy Birthday James!!!! See ya next year when the date will be 11/12/13 Awesome day for a 10th birthday.

James Who is the President

 

It is voting day and as Americans, we all have the privilege to vote and have our voices heard.  I try to keep my kids informed about their impending rights and responsibilities as they hit different ages.  It occurred to  me as I placed my ballot in the ballot box, that the next presidential race will have a new eager voter... Charlotte!  Anyway, I digress...
I asked James who the president is now.  That little man thought about it for a minute and simply said, "Doesn't ring a bell!"  I really hope it is the Liberty Bell because then I at least have a starting place to help him understand why we vote and why the president is so important to our country.
James won't be able to vote until 2024 so I still have time.  It would be so much easier if I still lived on the East Coast with all of the history around every corner.  But at least I still have time.  If it were up to James today, Mario (from Super Mario Bros) would be the president.  Wouldn't that be fun!!

Why'd He Take It? 'Cause he is James!

Things periodically go missing in our house and after turning the whole house upside down, we finally decide to look in the most unlikely place... James's room.  James is a collector!  He collects so many things that his room is kind of messy!!  He generally has a process to his collections, they make sense if you know him.  Tonight he surprised us all.... It just didn't make sense.... until we found out why.
Charlotte is quite a bit older than James and is in the eleventh grade.  She is taking very difficult classes.  She takes very good notes so she is able to do the mounds of homework that is assigned.  Her physics notebook went missing overnight and it made sense that the cats likely knocked it off a pile and under something in her room.  She looked everywhere, my husband looked everywhere, both to no avail.  Finally James was questioned and he fessed up.... it was in his closet.  I asked my husband why he said he did it.  My husband just said, "'Cause he is James!"  Later when Charlotte went upstairs and talked to her brother, she got the real answer.  James took it because "he has a LOT to learn!"
I am so thrilled that James may be learning the big lesson of education... learning for the sake of learning, not just because someone tells him he needs to learn it!!

I certainly hope that when he does physics, his sister will be home from college, writing her second best seller and will have time to help him with this gobbledygook!!!!