Picture day..

It's picture day at Jr. High... I have to tell you, I hate picture day, because, although I have very handsome young boys.. I do not very often get good pictures from school. It's not really the photographer's fault. I have children that have taken in into their heads that professional photographers are not to be smiled at. Because of this unfortunate mindset, I get pictures like this...








and like this...



Really these guys are so adorable... when they are not in front of school photographers they look like this...



Or like this..

So this morning, before Sam left for school, I started this conversation...

"Sam, I'm paying for these pictures, and every year.. really they are just crap"

"So."

"Why don't you picture the Photo guy in his underwear?"

"That really doesn't do it for me mom."

"How about a cartoon anvil on his head" *

No response from Sam so I say...

"Umm.. How about a bird landing on his head."

"How about a bird pooping on his head" (small grin escaping from his face... quickly drawn back in)

"Whatever works... You know, Sam, when I was in the 7th grade, I was trying to look all sexy for my photo, and it was the worst picture I ever had taken, it was like this."

(View mom bugging out her eyes, sucking in her cheeks, and ducking her head) **

"REALLY DUDE, every time your Amuma (Basque for grandmother) pulls that thing out I cringe.. I'm trying to save you that pain later in life..."

This gets an actual laugh.... I am hoping that he will think of that face when the Photography guy whips out his camera... failing that, I told the story to his amazing aides at school when I dropped him off this morning, I hope it works..

I get to have a similar conversation with Ben next week. Sigh.

* No actual School Photographers were harmed in the writing of this blog

**This picture is not available for public viewing...ever.

New yarn..

So I called my friend Amy.. and said.. I hate you being in Texas and not just four blocks away, because, if you were four blocks away, I would drive over to your house, right this very minute and show you the new, self-striping yarn that I dyed.

All by myself.

It is so beautiful that I was tempted to drive over to Amy's old house to introduce myself to the complete stranger that lives there to show off the yarn. (Old habits, you know...)

Amy said.. put it on your blog. Then I can look at it tomorrow. Well Amy, here it is, and it is a thing of beauty. Hard to see, but there is a dark and light brown, then a dark and light pink.

Pretty, Pretty, Pretty, Pretty, Pretty, Pretty, Pretty, Pretty, Pretty... you get it.




One of the many cool things about Amy, is that before she ever saw this yarn, when I told her that I had finally made self-striping yarn in my very own dye pot, she started, like, jumping up and down with excitement (of course you can tell over the phone!) like if she had been just four blocks away, she would have jumped into her minivan and would have been to my house before I could have gotten out of my driveway...

Finally... the painted house.

Lots of pictures.. not much text... The colors are not quite exact.. it's hard to see the true colors here.. like the yellow was really a deep, dirty Winnie-the-poo.

The cream color on the bottom is dirty, and in flat paint.. so, impossible to clean. Really great for a home with kids... The painting was done by my father.. neat huh? the canvas has texture on it, so like a surface of a cave.. and the pigments in the paint are mostly sands and earth... I'll do a close up of his work sometime..

This is a better picture of the blue.

Same nasty cream.. see the grease spots.. that was caused by those sticky hands/feet/dinosaurs that you get for a quarter at the grocery store, when all you really want to do is scurry home like the tired rat you are..

On the right, may I present the ugliest mid-night blue ever.. and the color my husband still calls "Purple" ~right. This was flat paint too... sigh. AND please take note of the horrible border that has a very closely repeating picture that was designed to, but never once made me feel calm. These were never my choice, they came with the house.

This is really a good shot of the color too.

Now.. this is the big BIG success... on the top, 1970's horrible, rough, cheap wood paneling, on the bottom, very beautiful knotty pine that lightens up the whole area!

This one was just fun!

Check List

Mop the floor... check
Bake the cookies... check
Feed the children after they get home from the first day of school...check
Feed them again...check
Play "How long will the stupid human hold the door open for me" with Cloud...check
Get new glasses...check and check again!
Write a new post... ahhh..

Well, yes it is the first day back at school, and time to check in again here at the Kafooster household. Both boys are ready to sleep already (I'm so happy!) Ben is actually crying tired, if I can only keep him up for a few more hours, there is the possibility of a real nights sleep for me. Third grade has started out just fine for him, he is back with some of his friends from last year, and other than the need to sleep, he seems happy enough.

Sam started Jr. High this year and is very happy with his class. Sam is less happy with the ride home, his bus ride is over an hour because they go from his Jr. High, pick up high school students, and then he is the last to be dropped off. I don't really understand why yet, it is only the first day and I will have to watch and see how that goes.

Simple things in a simple life, (Simply crazy! Work full time, two kids in school~ A husband starting at the end of this month.. first time back in school for him since high school. 1979 is the last time he has walked into a classroom. Dear Good Lord, why am I still sane, Oh Dear Lord.. am I still sane?)

On to a subject switch. I wanted you all to get an update on Charlie. He is doing much better. You see, when you have children that are on medications for chemical imbalances, it is very, very important for everyone to watch them as they reach puberty. The hormones that start to course through their little bodies interact with medications differently, even if they have been on the same medications for years. When Charlie was hospitalized they took him off of all medications and he evened out. He just needed one. He was on more than one before. It happens so quickly in some children, this teenage change.

There were signs though, he sold his PlayStation, offered to give away his favorite video games, his mother and I spoke about these things the week before he tried to overdose. His mother took him to see his counselor just a few days before. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

I try to get the word out to other parents that have their children medicated. By all means, medicate if that is what is best for your child, no judgement behind that statement at all. Each child is different, and no one knows them better than their parents. With that in mind, never let a doctor tell you that you should stay on course with the meds if you start to get that really bad feeling in the back of your head.. the one that wakes you up at 3:00 am. Really monitor closely the changes in behavior as your child enters into puberty.

I hope others read this, I hope teachers read this and pass it on, I hope parents pass this on to their friends. It's really easy to say "Well, duh, there is a higher rate of suicide for teens on anti- whatevers" but when you have Life happening around you, and you are around your own child everyday, the idea that they are "teenager-ing" at all passes you by.

geessh, I should have posted two different posts.. day and night.. say you still love me for all of my topsy-turvy ways!

Book recommendation..

I haven't been ignoring you all.. really, I'm just half blind, and I have been avoiding all things computer until I get new glasses... I don't have them yet, but I wanted to tell you all about a book that I read, well, listened to, about a month ago. It is called "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher, this is his debut book, and I tell ya.. I will be watching this guy. This book should be required reading for all Jr. High and High School students. It tells the story of a girl who commits suicide from the point of view of herself, and one of the persons she leaves behind. Stop... don't roll your eyes at me.. really, this is unpretentious, powerfully written, and really deals with high school culture head on. It opens a discussion that is very much needed.

I say this because one of my elder son's classmates and friends. Charlie, just tried to commit suicide this month. Yep, a 12 year old boy. He was hospitalized in the Psych ward for two weeks, but insurance only covers so much. His mother, a wonderful woman, is watching him very closely. Now, Sam and I have been having this on going conversation about listening to other people and what they say about hurting themselves or other people. The fact is that my children, because they are autistic, are usually placed with students who are defined as "ED" in the school district..this is "Emotionally Disturbed"

Of course, autistic people are not generally emotionally disturbed... at least mine are not... My boys are funny, quirky, well adjusted Vulcans. However the school district has no nice, neat defined place for Vulcans, so they lump them together with all of the other quirky children that they cannot define...

These children are wonderful, but I realized early on that they will be more prone to hurting themselves or others because of the individual issues that they have, ergo, Sam and I talk a lot about signs to listen for. Paranoid you say? Well, obviously not.

Back to the book, it held me spellbound, it really addressed the feelings of the girl and why she made the decision she did, how seemingly little things effected her life in a big way. It also give the reader, and frankly the person considering suicide as the answer, the feelings of the boy who was alive and listening to the tapes she left for him and his reactions to her honesty after it was too late for him to help her, or to get help for her.

Do yourself a favor, if you have the time, jump into this very well written book. If you have kids you love, read this book with them, open the discussion, talk about other options, make them aware of other people around them, and what they can do if they think that someone is needing help. Not everyone will be as lucky as Charlie, and still be around after his first attempt.

Painting on vacation

This is a really quick post to let you all know that I'm on VACATION! Also that I am using it to repaint the interior of our home. Mind you, we are going to the coast tomorrow, and we will be seeing the new Harry Potter flick this week. We are going to the park (in about 40 minutes) with friends, and I'll be doing laundry.. but mostly, we are finally repainting the inside of the house.

We moved into the house in 2001 and have never painted, this is a ranch style home that was build in 1960 and is all angles, and the last person painted the home in Winnie the Poo yellow (the Winnie the Poo that has been loved and cried on for years, yellow ) Midnight blue, grayish cream colored, and white... oh and there is an old 1970ish cedar wood panelled wall that will have to be removed before painting (the wood, not the wall... geesh) I took before pictures, I will post them when we're done.

I saw the shoulder doctor today, and was "fired" I no longer have to go back there. It was a year on 7-5-09 since the "shoulder incident" as it is known in my house. (I love living with Vulcans, they are highly amusing in their descriptions.. much more than understated, or over the top drama... never in between) I was also fired from the Physical Therapist. Kim said that I have all the tools I need to continue on my own.. frankly that means that I know how to do the laundry and scrub the counters like I've been doing.. wax on, wax off physical therapy... Kim thinks that's funny.

I'll post when I get pictures on the finished wall project. The problem with painting in the home is that the rest of the house needs to be done too, and you can see how badly. I'm quite sure that my kitchen is next, and because Sam is going all Asperger's over the fact that we are changing his decor, I do believe that the kitchen is going to be a yellow (of my choosing) and the horrible light, bright green cupboard doors that came with the home will be changed to a pretty country blue.... hummm Pictures to show you what I mean will follow..

Movin' to Texas..

No, not me.

One of my best friends, Amy, is heading to Texas to be closer to her side of the family on July 11th.

I am not ready for this. I don't have a lot of close girl friends. The ones that you can talk to two days, or two months later and pick up the conversation where you left off. As a matter of fact, when you meet it is like picking up the conversation where you left off from the last life that you knew each other in. Amy and I are like this. We call each other when our wonderfully strange family members do something funny. Normally these actions would not be funny to other people, but we live with Vulcans, so we have a twisted sense of humor.

I know that we have the Internet now, and the telephone, and cell phones where there aren't even long distance charges. I am secure in the knowledge that we will not lose touch with each other. BUT it is simply not the same as driving 2 blocks down, taking a left hand turn, driving 3 blocks down and 1 right turn and 1 block later I'm in her drive way.

Amy is also one of my knitting buddies. She took to it like a fish to water, she understands the amazing mathematics of it all, the pure logic of stitches per inch equals whatever you want to make it.

Amy also gets my lack of organization, she is the one who led me to the fly lady and her system of recapturing your house. I'm still working towards this, Amy is my inspiration.

Amy is moving for all the right reasons, she really is needed in Texas, way more than I need her here, there are better job opportunities for the family there. All of the things that we pull up roots for. Blah, blah, blah.

There is no one way to define a friendship. There is no one way to use words to describe the love and overwhelming dependence that we have on one person to be in our lives daily. I won't even try.

Moving Sucks.