Whew!

It has been a busy week!

On Sunday our brand new, stupidly expensive washer and dryer arrived. These things are pretty awesome. I can put a queen sized comforter and blanket in there and still have room. Max is overly excited about them. He likes to watch them spin.

Monday night the pet sitter came over to meet the critters in preparation for our vacation to Brown County Indiana in a few weeks. The kids were all having a melt down when she arrived and it was a bit rough having the evening routine messed with, but at least the pets will be all set.

Tuesday was the quarterly all day staff meeting. These things are rough on me, but I got through it. Flew to Max's school, flew home and tossed him into the house where Sheila and the babies were waiting for him. Then drove like a mad woman to the Franklin Park Conservatory where Beth was waiting for me and the CASA volunteer dinner. It was a good time with good food and cookies. Awards were given, and I got a couple of them. One for not missing any monthly reports (which seems a bit odd to me. We sign a document that we will do monthly reports, so do them already people!) and rookie of the year. It was nice to get the rookie award, there were about 6 or 8 of us who won the award out of 150 or so that were eligible.

Today was the other part of the staff meeting along with more domain administrator training (yuck)! Tomorrow I visit my CASA kids and then hopefully Friday will be easy!

Zoom!

Conflicting

It is possible for something to be great and totally suck at the same time. This is the idea that I was trying to impart to a group of potential CASA Guardian Ad Litems this morning. I think it was a message that caught them a bit off guard.

I think a lot of people go into this thinking how great it will be to help kids who need help. And that is true. But this is a job like no other. We don't get to just hang out with the kids and be their friends. In fact, we have to figure out a way to be their friends, but not actually be friendly. We need them to open up to us, but they also have to understand that there will come a time that we won't and can't see them anymore. It's important that they know this so they don't feel abandoned all over again when the case closes. But how do you explain this to very little kids? I try, but it doesn't really click.

These kids don't need us to be their friends or to feel sorry for them, they have enough of that already. They need us to advocate for them. They need us to make calls over and over to the caseworker who never returns them. They need us to try and hunt down their parents who are not wanting to be bothered, after all they have free babysitting right now. They need us to complain, and complain, and complain that they aren't getting the services they need. And they need us to deal with the disappointment that we aren't actually getting anything accomplished, get over it and try again.

The volunteers asked me how much time I really spend on the case every month. And I told them, it's true, I only document about 5-7 hours a month. This, however, does not take into account all the time I spend thinking about it. I spend time thinking about and trying to figure out a new game plan to get the caseworkers attention or to convince him that I'm right on the rare occassion that I actually communicate with him. I'm thinking about who at the CASA office might actually have a new idea to get what I need. And in general, I'm thinking about the kids. For the first couple of months, I couldn't sleep at night after I visited the kids because I couldn't get them out of my mind.

Another volunteer asked me if there was a lot of satisfaction in the job, I looked at her like she was a bit stupid. I told her that I often feel like I'm failing these kids. But then I remember, I am at least TRYING to get these kids through the system whole. Which is a whole hell of a lot better than what anybody else is doing. I might not make much progress, but I keep plodding along.

Funny thing is, this is how almost ALL of the CASA/GALs feel. As I'm saying these things the director is sitting next to me nodding her head in agreement. This is the job. It absolutely sucks. But every month I pull into a driveway and there are three faces staring out the picture window waiting for me, the only stable and consistent adult in their lives. And that is a great feeling.

Jellyfish

Max is kinda into jellyfish, and coincidentally they made jellyfishes today at school (out of paper plates and crepe paper). This spurred the evening's conversation on the way home. He asked questions about their mouths, what parts are stingy, and if they eat bad guys. I told him no, bad guys are too large for them to eat. So, he proceeds to explain to me, "Yeah, they probably only eat their heads, and then drop their bodies. That's very wasteful."

Creepy kid.

baby love

Max has a friend Peter whose birthday was today. To celebrate, Peter's mom picked Max, Peter and his brother Carter up from school early and took them to play. When the babies got home, they were a bit confused as to where their big brother was located. Wilson crawled into Max's room and sat down, very quietly saying, "buh" look around the room, "buh" repeated over and over. I picked him up and told him that Bubba would be home soon, but he crawled right back into his room and "buh" all over. It was just like a lost baby animal calling for its mom.

Wilson adores his big bubba. Max was on the floor the other day crying for some pouty reason. Wilson decides to march over to him and love on him by putting his head up against him and cooing. He will do this whenever he possibly can.

Pothole

This picture (which is super small for some reason) came from the archives at work. It is a horse car that operated in the city of Columbus during 1892. It was replaced by the electric trolley which was powered by Columbus Southern which became part of AEP. I'm amused at the really awful road conditions of West Broad, and especially the destinations (asylums and cemeteries).

Growing up

Max had his kindergarten screening today. He got to have his picture taken for his student ID. I'm amazed that a kindergartner needs a student ID but apparently it is used for everything including lunch. He got to go with the kindergarten teachers while us parent types sat around listening to the principle tell us about the school.

The Hilliard school district only offers half day (really 2.5 hours) of kindergarten in all the elementary schools but one. The one school is near us and is multi-age so the kindergartner are in with first graders. To transfer to that school is based on a lottery and there isn't much hope of actually getting in. I really hate the idea of half day kindergarten. The principle even mentioned how kindergarten today is what my first grade was. How are they suppose to learn all that in 2.5 hours? I read a study that showed kids who go to all day kindergarten are ahead of half day kids even in the third grade, some education union in Ohio states that Ohio teachers want full day kindergarten, so why don't we have it? The answer, the state of Ohio only considers kindergartners half a student for state funding, no matter how long they are in school. Stupid state. But, considering how much taxes I pay for this stupid school district, you'd think they might be able to spring for the other half. I feel that this is taking a step back from what he has now. They won't have time in the 2.5 hours to have music, art, gym or language lessons which he would get if we kept him at St. Joes. Sigh.

So, we get a letter sometime in the next couple of weeks that will tell us how he did. Sometime before the end of the school year, we get another letter informing us of our morning or afternoon assignment. I don't have a clue what we will do if we don't get the morning shift. The daycare will only transport to and from the am and we don't have a plan B.

Max is fairly excited about all of this. He was upset when I told him we had to leave and go to his school. He announced that he "wants to be 5 RIGHT NOW!" I've realized, that I don't want him to be 5 or go to kindergarten. I'm perfectly happy with him being 4 the rest of his life.

Vampire!

I have been joking that the kids are sucking the life out of me. It appears that Wilson has decided to grow the right equipment to actually get the job done. His teeth are coming in a different order than usual, and he skipped getting the two top front teeth and has moved on to the lateral incisors. Effectively growing fangs. The doctor said it happens and that he will probably, eventually get the central incisors, "He just might look like Dracula for awhile."

I just thought this picture was cute.

A much needed laugh

Max saw this sign on the way into school. We had a discussion about how that means you can't turn left. So, he pointed out everyone of these he saw on the drive and stated, "Can't turn left here."













Max saw this sign and announced, "That means no peeing here!" His logic is pretty good, I think.

It's not funny.

Thursday: Around midnight Wilson wakes up and refuses to go back to sleep. At some point after that, Mia barfed everywhere in her bed and didn't cry. So, in the morning she was covered in dried barf. I also started to not feel so well around midnight. Convinced myself to go to work, proceeded to get sick at work (automatic flushing toilets not your friend in this scenario), and came home to be miserable.

Friday: Around 3am, Mia barfed in bed again only this time she woke us up. Unfortunately, she also woke up Wilson who refused to go back to sleep. I had puky in bed with me and Beth had wide eyed on the couch. (We need a bigger bed so we can fit more kids in it). Later, Beth gets the babies from school and we find out Wilson has been pooping all day and Mia, "was not herself." Mia ate some pancakes and about an hour later exploded all over the place. And now Beth is in bed looking whiter than a ghost not knowing for sure which end something is going to come out of.

This has been the worst freakin' winter ever. My boss is upset that I'm always sick or a kid is always sick, but Beth can't take time off because her lovely work has come up with a no more than 3 days unexcused policy (and she can never get one excused, so there you are.) I feel like it's a race to see which one of us gets into big trouble at work first.

I have scrubbed and mopped everything tonight, even though I still don't feel all that great. I feel like I'm living in one big germ.

Ewwww.....

Monday:
Kid #1 has explosive poo.

Tuesday:
Kid #1 still pooing.

Wednesday:
Kid #2 barfs all over the place while eating dinner.
Kid #3 has pus coming out of his ears.
Kid #1 has a rash.

I can hardly WAIT to see what the rest of the week brings!

How Many

How many workplace services employees does it take to change a light bulb? None. It can't be done.

Here's an example of how absurd our world has become.

We have a fluorescent light bulb that is blinking in our office. We let the workplaces services guys know, and they have come to assess the situation, twice. They are concerned that part of the light fixture is over a section of cubical. Thereby prohibiting the safe use of a ladder. This means that they would need to build a scaffold to span over the 5' 5" tall cubicle wall. If they build a scaffolding to clear the cubical, they would be at 6' above the ground. Once you are 6' or higher, our safety policy states that you must be tied off in the event that you fall. If you tie off, it must be to something that can hold 4,000 pounds so you don't break whatever you've tied off to and plummet to your death. Since this is just a normal office, drop ceiling, nothing can be used for the tie off. Therefore, the light bulb cannot be changed or even removed to stop the flickering.

Our concern for safety has effectively made changing a light bulb a life risking procedure that is prohibited by the company. Next, I will be forced to roll around in a bubble to keep from hurting myself.

Barnaby

I had to go pick Max up from school sick today. He is currently laying on the couch, eating a graham cracker, drinking some sprite and watching Walle-E. Life is apparently good.

In the beginning of Wall-E, the song "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" from Hello, Dolly! is playing. It goes like this, "There's a world outside of yonkers. Way out there beyond this hick town, barnaby. There's a slick town, barnaby" Max hears and attempts to sing, "There's a sick town, Barbie." I don't know why, but I found that to be hilarious.

And he just got up to use the potty, looking over his shoulder at the movie and slammed right into the wall. He stopped, looked at me and started laughing. He doesn't have a fever, I checked.