Ugh...two for the price of one...I have the stomach flu and an upper respiratory thing. Yucky for me.

All of my kids have been sick this week...there hasn't been a day that one of them wasn't home from school. The illness was split. Amanda and Andrew had the stomach stuff and Alex, Aidan and Zoe have had an upper respiratory thing. Now Alex is home again with the stomach thing and I seem to have both....

Hopefully, our sickness is coming to an end.

I'm feeling irritable this week. Yesterday, I took some of Zoe's clothes to Once Upon a Child. I couldn't stomach taking any of her preemie stuff...I have decided to hold onto the clothes and make a quilt for her out of them. I just can't let go. I'm very meticulous about how I prepare things to take to the second hand shops. I go as far as to iron things, put them on hangers, etc. I never bring in anything soiled or with flaws.

They only took 1/2 of my stuff and told me that the reason that they didn't take it was that it was soiled. I actually got into an argument with the woman. They didn't take a single onesie. I asked if they had too many or what the issue was. Again, the woman said "we couldn't take yours because they were soiled...we have fluorescent lights and we see things that you don't at home".

The real irony is that most of the onesies that I brought in had never been worn by Zoe...not one single time. I had even unrolled and untaped many of them before brining them in. My mom bought a ton of onesies for us and she just never wore them.

I pointed to the pile of onesies and said "they never touched my daughter's skin".

"They are soiled". She pulled out a onesie and said "see, there is stuff here around the collar". I squinted. "where? my daughter NEVER even wore that. It is brand new".

I was so angry...not for the fact that I didn't get the .25 for the onesie, but because she kept insisting that I brought in soiled garments...Finally, the store manager intervened (I had already gotten my money, btw...I just couldn't stop arguing about this because I felt my...second-hand integrity was at stake ) She told me that they had too many girls onesies and other things right now and to just bring them back at another time...then she gave me a schedule of when to bring them back.

wankers.

I'm so grouchy How dare they tell me that my never-been worn before onesies are soiled.


Andrew got his science fair project back. He got a B. Why? There were 2 comments. One was that it wasn't decorative enough. (WHAT?????? It was plenty decorative) and the other was "I question your results" He questions the results? Obviously, the science teacher is a total retard. He questioned the results? Could he have been more specific? Apparently, the big issue was that he felt the report could have been decorated better on the poster board. I'll have to take a pic and post it...it was decorative enough....red science fair project board, all sections were pasted onto paper with musical notes on them, musical notes stickers were on the board....

The winner? The best project? A kid who did "what time of day can I make the most free-throws". I'm serious here. Do I play basketball better in the morning, noon or night. The kid did some freethrows, decided what time he got the most and decorated his board with a pop-out basketball hoop and mini basketball so kids could come by and try out their own free-throws etc. I'm not KIDDING.

Seriously...I'm so floored that I am beside myself. I'd call the teacher, but...I don't want to be one of 'those' parents and I'm so angry that I might say something unfortunate. Andrew took it all in stride. It's a good thing he's more mature than me :>

Since I let it all hang out about the kids problems etc though, I'm going to offer a shameless brag here. Andrew visited a private prep school here a couple of months back and they told us that they were already full, but that he could apply (including sending in transcripts, a letter of recommendation and writing an essay ) and would be placed on the waiting list. We sent in his transcripts and his Iowa Test scores and MN comprehensive scores. He also had a teacher recommendation. We never finished the application though...Andrew never filled out the application or wrote the essay and we haven't pushed it because the school costs $5800/year and we don't really know if we want to get into that. Beyond that, I already knew he would be pretty far down on the waitlist.

The school director called me yesterday...she reviewed Andrew's Iowa and MN comprehensive scores and said "if you will have Andrew send in his essay, he will gain immediate acceptance to our institution. We....really...want him to come here". I asked about the waitlist....in Andrew's case...they would make an exception and admit him straight away.

Well....go, Andrew, go! That is my shameless brag. I think that if I can post the truth about the tough stuff that the good stuff should be fair game too.

Amanda...well...it finally hit her that her clothes are gone and she has only nice, neutral, girly things to wear. She cried all morning getting dressed yesterday (it was her first day to school all week what with being sick) and.....finally went in a light pink sweater. :> I took a pic...I'll have to post it later! I called her teacher and asked her to support us by commenting on how nice Amanda looked. The teacher passed that message on to the other teachers and Amanda came home feeling good about what she was wearing....there were no meltdowns or temper tantrums this morning and I have to say that Amanda was an absolute angel yesterday in terms of her behavior.

Alex has been sick and miserable most of the week....He's only gone to school one day, I think. Yesterday, I thought he was finally on the mend. This morning he woke up crying with a stomach ache.....so he's home again. It's just the yuck running through our house.

Aidan has been going through an "I hate you you stupid mommy" phase.
:| Finally, yesterday, he started cuddling back up to me. The last two months or so has been all about thomas. "NO, I want papa to make me my cereal" coupled with meltdowns when thomas went to work. I feel so rejected

Zoe is the queen of scooch. She has adapted from trying to crawl to mastering the one-armed scooch that is in the videos of her that I posted. She is so fast now...but it is the funniest crawl I've ever seen. None of my other kids did the skooch before. She is eating table foods now for the most part and is so busy. She has bumps and bruises all over her forehead now from bumping into things. It's embarassing. I wonder what people think when they see her!

My final news in my grouch saga is...Andrew spilled diet pop on my laptop and...fried the motherboard. I'm relegated to my kid's super-slow computer. I am so grateful that I was able to get my pictures off of it before it died completely...and I guess ultimately it's my opportunity to upgrade. It just won't be happening anytime soon. I did find an Aspire on sale her for $500...but that would completely deplete my vacation savings fund...and...I just don't feel right about doing that. Waaah.

Kris[/quote]