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Saturday was a good day. We started by Picking up our new Toyota Highlander. We celebrated by all piling into ONE car and going to Perkins for lunch. Then, I cleaned the kitchen with M10’s help (technically it’s his weekly chore, but it was pretty bad so I helped). Afterwards, Aaron and I watched Supernatural while I sorted a month’s worth of laundry for five, which had piled up because I had been exhausted by pain from my tailbone injury.

Sunday was strangly productive despite sleeping very poorly. I got up at 4am and made some gumbo to stew in the crock pot. Then took a nap. I got up again and did my physical therapy. Then took a nap.  My client had a pot luck for her PCAs in the afternoon. Some people found the gumbo too spicy, and others too bland. Lol. One person liked it. So I have lots of leftovers, but that’s cool. I love my gumbo, and so does Aaron. I then ran some errands. I crashed hard at 6pm, and pretty much slept through till 7am.

Tuesday was stressful. I was trying to play catch-up from yesterday’s to-do list, prepare for Wednesday’s duct cleaning, and prepare for IL3’s birthday by making gift baggies for his friends at school. I also went to work for half the day. D13 is the one who reminded me that I was supposed to take IL3 to swim lessons, which were harder than normal because Aaron usually comes to help, but he was taking M10 to Cub Scouts. IL3 desperately wanted to go in the men’s room to change, and my hands were full so I literally had to drag him kicking and screaming into the family room. All this on 2.5 hours’ sleep since IL3_ refused to go to sleep till midnight saying he was scared, then had a really dramatic nightmare at 2:15.

Wednesday was so crazy busy that writing about it two days later is a blur. It was IL4’s birthday, and I had attempted to make goodie bags for his school friends, but the kit I bought was abysmal. I was committed though, so I made an order from Target for better stuff on Tuesday night. At 7:00am sharp Wednesday, I was there picking up my order.

D13’s zoom IEP meeting happened at 7:30, and IL4 needed to go to daycare at 8, so I talked about the IEP while stuffing Goodie bags. Aaron then took IL4 and the daycare goodie bags away, and I immediately started prepping for the duct cleaners to come at 8:30 (we needed to create a path to the vents in the nursery, among other things). D13 helped – she’s such a wonderful kid.

When the duct cleaners were situated, D13 had a zoom therapy session starting at 9am. At 10, I took her to school and took IL4’s goodie bags to his special education, which starts at 10:15 and has a whole different set of kids than daycare. Then I came home and paid the duct cleaners, whom I had left with dad.

After that, I ran to Burnsville to drop off a health summary form at the doctor that the preschool has lost twice, and is threatening to kick IL4 out by Friday over. I drove the opposite direction to Farmington to pick up IL4’s cake. Then an entirely new direction to take dad to his 1:30pm appointment. I ate for the first time while he was attending his appointment. THEN we went on a massive Christmas shopping trip at the Mall of America. I ended up carrying the most gigantic bag imaginable of LEGOs around the mall a couple of times, because dad insisted that LEGO Land had to be first.

Returning home, D13 had already started cutting cheese for the mac and cheese we were cooking. But I needed to wrap some presents we had bought for IL4’s birthday. D14 began cooking (under my direction) and decorating for the celebration while I wrapped and fended off M10’s begging over and over and over and over to blow up balloons despite not knowing how to tie them, dad’s hands being too shaky, and D13 and me both multitasking.

But the mac and cheese turned out wonderful, IL4 was thrilled with the cake and decorations, and M10 managed to convince us to tie off a couple of balloons. Aaron forgot IL4’s age and put 3 candles on the cake.

Thursday started out at my client’s house. I went immediately from there to the Children’s hospital in Minneapolis because D13 had a procedure. There, we discovered that the procedure was actually at the Children’s Hospital in Saint Paul. So we went there. D13 fainted and went into convulsions when they put in her IV. (The anesthesiologist informed me that they weren’t convulsions – they were a vasovagal response – but I told him it depends on your definition of “convulsion.” He then informed me it wasn’t a seizure; which I knew – because obviously it was a vasovagal response to get blood to her brain. 🙄🙄🙄)

The procedure went fine, and D13 and I came home and watched Mean Girls and Bring it On. When M10 came home from school, we all watched Brain on Fire.

Friday, I started out helping my client with a doctor’s appointment. I went from that to speech therapy for IL4, and then picked up the form from the doctor that the daycare claimed to have lost. I was so pissed at them having lost it a second time, that I had a whole speech prepared about how precious my time is and if they threatened to kick him out in another 2 months because they’ve lost the form again, bring it on. However, when I got there, the director was giving a tour to a couple. I couldn’t give my speech, but I handed her the form and sternly told her not to lose it. Afterwards, I felt bad for embarrassing her in front of her tour, so I sent her an email to apologize and explain where I was coming from. She asked me to call her, and when I did, she pointed out that my behavior was inappropriate, and I should have given her time to figure out what was going on after being gone on vacation. I felt annoyed that she didn’t admit any fault of her staff in this situation, so when I picked up IL4, I had another chat with her. I tried to tell her that I was still upset because I had admitted my fault and she had admitted no fault. She cheerfully and politely told me that she supported the cautiousness of her staff in telling me to get another form. So I still feel pissed. I owned up to my mistake, but she thinks she’s totally in the right, and that I had no reason to be angry, let alone make my anger obvious in front of that couple. It really makes me NOT regret my behavior. My time is valuable, and I really went out of my way to get that form signed again. Oh, and I forgot to mention – they DID have the form I’d given them two months ago, so the whole trip was useless. I really want to send her an email reaming her out, but it would be kicking a dead horse. She’s not going to admit fault.

Wrote

• 1 letter Virginia Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Texas
• 1 letter Maryland
• 1 letter Maine Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Virginia

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• Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, by Eric Litwin and James Dean

New Books

Yet another awesome Pete the Cat book. In this one, Pete goes to school and stays brave because he’s rocking in his school shoes. I really want to read all of these, my kid loves them.

I love Pete the Cat. He’s so groovy. In this installment, Pete goes walking around in his shoes, stepping in stuff, messing up the color, and loving every minute of it. He’s such a happy cat, and my 4 year old just adores this book.

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Saturday’s D&D one-shot was nearing 6 hours long. 95% battle scene. I managed to strike the killing blow against the blue dragon. When we finished, Aaron, dad, and I watched the first 3 episodes of Wednesday, despite Aaron’s protestations that the actress can’t hold a candle to Christina Ricci, who (I found out) is his celebrity crush. Sleepy Hallow Christina Ricci, he says….he doesn’t crush on 14yo Ricci.

Anyway, Sunday was a bust, as was Monday. I just felt SO low motivation on Sunday. I watched Loki and TV. I had had very little sleep. Then Sunday night I got very little sleep, too, so I was super unwell Tuesday. I had to triage my to-do list and just do what absolutely HAD to be done. Like appointments and a couple of phone calls.

Tuesday, we had a snow storm. We got about 4 inches. It made the roads pretty messy. But I had already moved M10’s appointment to virtual, so there wasn’t a lot of driving. I had IL10 home for the second half of the day (due to storm), on top of being unmotivated, so I wasn’t very productive. In the evening, D12, M10, and I watched Les Miserables. We all cried. I was trying to convince D12 into going to the theater instead of getting cash for her 13th birthday. She was convinced.

Wednesday M10 tried eating pineapple upside-down cake and maraschino cherries as his palate-expanding foods in therapy. He spat out both after the first bite. Next time is kale, cabbage, and mashed potatoes. D12 and I worked on her book report. Then I went to work.

First on Thursday, I went directly from one job to another job, at which I was supposed to find an assisted living for someone. I found a place on my fourth call that would be able to get her in immediately. And not a bad place, either.

Then, I came home and wrapped presents for D13’s birthday. IL3’s is a few days later, so we had him open presents too. He would otherwise have been upset that he hadn’t gotten any. D13 got a dress and some books. IL3 got some dinosaurs, dinosaur books, and snowshoes (which he wore excitedly in the front yard for all of 3 steps, fell down, and wanted to go inside).

Then we went out to eat at a nearby restaurant. Because we had a 6 person family and one car that seats 4, we had to make two trips each way.

But something weird happened Thursday – I called the insurance adjuster about our claim on the other car, and she said that the people who turned in front of us were claiming the car was stolen. We’re like “but it obviously wasn’t stolen based on the behavior of the other people.” I was in shock, because it seemed a foolish thing to claim when there was a police report. But then the insurance adjuster for the other people called and told us that our insurance adjuster had been mistaken, and she didn’t know where that rumor came from. 🤷‍♀️

Friday was a busy day. After IL3’s speech therapy, I ran some errands and then spent the rest of the day making phone calls that I’d been procrastinating on.

I have a friend who has a tooth ache, and I had a list of places that his insurance covered, but none of them had an endodontist for a root canal. (I called about 12 places.) Finally, I found one that both took his insurance and had an endodontist, but now we’re needing to get the paperwork signed to let them see the x-rays. Meanwhile, my friend is in so much pain he’s nonfunctional.

Wrote

• 1 letter Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Virginia Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Maine Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Djibouti (Any Marine)

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Review Halt’s Peril, by John Flannagan

Review I Like This Color, by Liz Goulet Dubois

In this adorable and colorful book, Duck and Cluck have an argument about whether orange or pink is the bestest color. The argument accelerates until they hit a “disaster” which turns out to be a blessing. This is a story about listening to people even when they have a different opinion.

This is a wonderful little story, and my 3yo loved it too.

In the 9th book of the Ranger’s Apprentice series Will, Horace and Halt are hunting down a murdering “prophet.” This is a great continuation of the series, which has been very entertaining. However, I’m happy to see the end of the original series is near. The overarching plot has ceased to progress, and I’m ready to move on to the 10th and final book.

News

Saturday, we decided to buy a Highlander to replace the totaled Outback. It is a 7-seater, so we can fit our whole family in one car now. Then we watched a couple episodes of Psych and She-Hulk.

Sunday was a relaxing day in which not much happened.

Monday I ramped up to about 75% of my usual productivity goal. I wasn’t able to exercise due to still being tired from my injury, but I started my physical therapy stretches. Additionally, IL3 got his COVID and flu shots.

Tuesday was excellent. My tailbone seems to be improving, and it didn’t exhaust me like it had been – I managed the whole day without a nap. I credit the physical therapy exercises with the improvement. I had an interview to replace the hours I lost recently, and I should find out next week if I got it.

Wednesday was uneventful. I tried taking IL3 to Occupational Therapy, but my tailbone hurt too much for the 45 minutes each way. IL3 had a parent-teacher conference at the daycare, which went really well. His social skills and coloring skills have really improved, and the teacher said he’s right where he should be. D12 and M10 left with biomom to see their grandpa for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was great. With IL3’s help, I cooked corn casserole, green bean casserole, stuffing, turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. I was pretty exhausted by the end of all that cooking, but we all enjoyed the feast.

Friday was fun. I created my character for Saturday’s D&D one-shot with a group of friends – a 12th level Owlin Warlock. Then I had another interview for a potential job. Finally, I went shopping with Aaron and IL3 before going to work. I almost made my 10k step goal without going for a separate exercise!

Wrote

• 1 letter Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Pennsylvania
• 1 letter Any Marine Djibouti
• 1 letter Maine Department of Corrections
• 1 letter California Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Michigan Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Virginia Department of Corrections
• 1 letter France

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Well, Friday was a mess. We started by getting up early to drop pink car off at the mechanic. On the way back in red car, some teenager turned left RIGHT in front of us. There was just enough time for Aaron to say “okay…” and hit the break before we slammed into them. Red car is almost certainly totalled and we are waiting for cerification of it’s death certificate before buying a nice big car that we can fit our whole household into. I wish pink car had bitten the dust, and the red car were in the mechanic, since we haven’t even paid off red car. 😱

I ended up with a banged up knee and for some unknown reason a painful tailbone. My head slapped hard into the side airbag, which almost certainly saved me from being brained. Aaron scraped his thumb. The doctor says that my knee would probably be ok in a couple of weeks, but not to be surprised if I were butt-hurt for a couple of months. It hurts to sit, and REALLY hurts during the act of standing up.

We were SO lucky…we had been going to take IL3 with us but D12 agreed to watch him while we went, because we’d get back before she went to school. So none of the kids were in the car. We called up dad, who relieved D12 of babysitting duties, so she went to school all worried about the accident, despite being told we were ok. The sad part, is Aaron was supposed to chaparone a field trip to the zoo for D12, and she had really been looking forward to it. But we decided not to have Aaron go because we didn’t know if he’d start feeling pain when the adrenaline wore off.

We couldn’t take IL3 to daycare without a car, so he stayed home for the day. Pink car was fine, though, and we got a new air filter. 🤷‍♀️

M10 left with his mom in the evening, and Aaron and I watched X-files with D12 after I cooked salmon for dinner.

…

Well, it’s been one week from the accident, and my first diary entry since then. My knee (which hit the dash when we crashed) is bruised, but fine. My tailbone (which is inexplicably hurt), is causing a lot of pain. Especially while driving.

Friday and Saturday night, I called out of work because I didn’t know if my knee could handle some of the tasks. However, I was able to return to work on Wednesday, and my tailbone didn’t impact it. Insurance is reimbursing 85% of the lost wages.

Tuesday, we had a minor snow storm, which our trucks were unprepared for, so the roads were horrendous. I had been supposed to drive M10 30 minutes to get a flu shot, because for some reason it is inexplicably hard to get a flu shot for someone under 12 this year. I decided not to do it, because it seemed dangerous, and now I don’t know where to get the shot. The clinic is booked out till mid-January, and none of the pharmacies close by will schedule it for someone under 12. 🤷‍♀️

On Wednesday, I had a virtual meeting with my doctor following up about my kidneys and pre-diabetes. Both are doing great. After that, I took M10 on a 30 minute drive to an appointment, and much to my horror it was horrendously painful to sit in the car that long. I subsequently cancelled all appointments for the rest of the week except the ones that were short distances. Then I broke down and bought an expensive donut pillow for my bum.

Wednesday, we had a talk with the doctor about IL3’s autism assessment. The conclusion was unsurprising: he does not have autism, but he does have a speech delay and seems to be well on his way to attention deficit with hyperactivity, though they can’t accurately diagnose that till he’s 5.

Also on Wednesday, I called up the rehab center to make a physical therapy appointment for my tailbone. I specifically asked for a pelvic floor specialist, but the referral from the day of the accident said “knee and tailbone,” so they put me in with a knee specialist. I was horrified on Thursday when I drove a painful 20 minutes for a waste-of-time appointment. The therapist told me I needed a pelvic floor specialist, which I knew, and I had to start all over with scheduling.

Also on Thursday, Aaron and I went to Toyota to test drive a Sienna. Despite calling in advance, they informed us upon arrival that we couldn’t test drive a Sienna but we could go on a 12-18 month waitlist to buy one, or buy used for an extra $15k above new price. Instead, we test drove their 7 seater SUV (I can’t remember which one, as I was distracted by my pain). That one only had a 2-month waitlist to buy at the new price, or we could buy used for a pretty penny. We left without making a decision.

Friday was a busy day, I worked till 8am, and of course Aaron had to pick me up because we have only one car. I took IL3 to speech therapy, then went shopping after dropping him off, followed by Thanksgiving lunch at his daycare (he asked me to snap a picture of him, said “cheese,” and looked away from the camera.) I then took D12 to an appointment, followed by a followup orthopedic appointment about my tailbone. I was in the car all day, and was exhausted by the pain by the end of the day.

The other major thing to happen had to do with D&D. Aaron has been feeling bullied by the DM, who is a guy I met on the internet. The guy also bullies M10, who cries every time we play. I asked the DM if he could be kinder to Aaron and M10, and he essentially answered that they deserve it. So I’m searching for a new DM. M10 needn’t be bullied by a grown-ass man.

Finally, I had a job I was looking into where they are going to pay me a week in advance as soon as I provide them with my bank account number. No interview necessary. Woo-hoo!

Wrote

• 1 letter Nevada Department of Corrections

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Saturday, Aaron and I played D&D with my adult group. Then, I went to the mall with IL3 to meet J18. We talked about the armed forces, and he decided he wanted to be an electrician in the Air Force or Navy. IL3 and I drove around on an angry bird motorcycle at the mall. He actually drove it himself, and got the hang of it pretty quickly.

Sunday was really productive! I got lots of cleaning, reading, and writing done. I also cooked a roast and some stuffing.

Monday, I took M10 in to the doctor to check his weight. He’s maintaining!

I totally rocked Tuesday. I even worked out for an hour on the treadmill! I would like to add weight lifting to that eventually – 1 day a week for each lower body, core, and upper body. But for now, I’ll start with the treadmill. D12 had an appointment in the morning, and M10 an appointment in the afternoon, and of course I voted. I am hoping things come out ok. 😱

Wednesday was another great day, with a few hitches. 45 minutes into my treadmill exercise, the daycare called me to say IL3 had missed his bus to special education. I had to drop everything and take him. I don’t know what they said to him, but he apologized over and over for missing the bus. ☹️ I told him it wasn’t his fault. When I picked him up, I took him to occupational therapy, which he loved.

In the evening M10 had his last baseball lesson, so I signed him up for a baseball clinic since he liked it so much. Go figure. He’s always hated sports. 🤷‍♀️ I wanted to sign IL3 up for T-ball, but, alas, there’s no T-ball league around here. Instead, I signed him up for wrestling, which he’ll start tomorrow. Hopefully he likes it.

Thursday was a low motivation day. My client had had a tough night, so I hadn’t gotten enough sleep and was coming up with excuses not to exercise. At first, I told myself that dad needed out of the house, so I took him on a bunch of errands. They were definitely things that needed to be done, but they were not in my plan for the day. Then I ran out of excuses, so I went on the treadmill for an hour. Then, I sat through a 2 hour appointment with D12 while Aaron and M10 took IL3 to wrestling. Which IL3 decided he didn’t like. ☹️

Wrote

• 2 letters Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
• 2 letters Virginia Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Pennsylvania
• 1 letter Tennessee
• 1 letter Mississippi Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Florida
• 1 letter Texas
• 1 letter Washington
• 1 letter Massachusetts
• 1 letter Virginia

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Tuesday I was busy with appointments and IL3’s swim lessons.

Wednesday, I had 6 appointments! IL3 started his occupational therapy, and we had 3 parent teacher conferences for two kids. M10 was grounded for the first time ever – he keeps taking his school iPad downstairs and staying up all night, and we’re having trouble remembering to confiscate it before bed. So Wednesday, he was grounded. He’s SO angry. On top of that, he slapped a kid at school Tuesday, and lied about it when he got home. I told him I wouldn’t punish him for the slap, but if I came home from conferences convinced he did it, his punishment would be worse. I am now convinced. 🤷‍♀️ He’s grounded until a week from Friday.

Thursday, I took IL3 in for his autism assessment. I was more worried about him at the time I made the appointment 6 months ago, now it was just a formality as his speech and social skills have exploded recently. Later, I took M10 to meet our state representative. M10 needed to meet with a government official and discuss an issue of community importance in order to meet a requirement for the Arrow of Light award in Cub Scouts. They had a good long talk about many things, most notably the representative told M10 that although he is a Democrat, he finds it important to consider the wellbeing and needs of Republicans whenever he votes.   Another important issue discussed was that (the representative said) in the US, he could grow up to be President, but that wasn’t true of many countries.

Totally bombed Friday. I had a crazy anxiety attack starting 10pm on Thursday and lasted till about 5pm Friday, when I was able to get hold of my psychiatrist who gave me excellent advice that calmed me down within 30 minutes.

On top of that, I had the Wordle down to the last 4 letters, which were incredibly distinctive, and still couldn’t get it because of my anxiety.

Also, I told M10 if he finished the book that he hadn’t started yet I would unground him for the day. He read for five and a half hours and finished the entire book in one day. He’s super motivated to not be grounded.

On top of that, I did some research trying to get my homeless nephew J18 a recruited to the military. He wants to be a sniper and “in on the action,” or “make bank” by being an electrician or mechanic. So far, I have contacted the Marines and the Air Force.

Wrote

• 1 letter Canada
• 1 letter North Dakota
• 1 letter Michigan
• 1 letter Maryland Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Djibouti (Any Marine)

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