WELCOME TO THURSDAY YA'LL!

Good am,

How are ya'll doing? Great I hope. How was your Wednesday? Ours was jam packed once again. Started off good with everything coming together smoothly. Got several To Do List items taken care of, chores started and semi-completed, phone calls were going along great until my phone started having issues and I'm mad at it until it apologizes for dying during an important conversation! LOL! Its seems to be in working order this am. In the pm, the buggas & I went to get haircuts. LONG overdue. While out we talked about the holidays and saw some Cmas lights and decorations and they really enjoyed that. We came back home and set up another carpet party and they enjoyed Cars while I cleaned and got things settled for the pm. Dad got a call that Mom needed to go to the ER. She's been admitted and I don't have any details to share at this point. So, the rest of the pm was scrambling to get things accomplished for this am as Kayla has her next treatment so I have to take Nora with me this am. I would like to ask for prayers please. Thanks in advance.

What's on the books for your Thursday? The buggas & I are headed for Kayla's treatment this am and will be down there this time for most of the am. Sigh. I have packed a bag of play things and books and such so that I can keep Nora occupied and help Kayla at the same time. God I get it I know I'm stronger than I think huh?!!? Once we get back home I'm am hoping to have heard from or hear from Mom and figure out what's going on there then make sure Kayla is comfortable and get busy with my To Do List. Otherwise, I'll be around. Just asking again for prayers!

Hope everyone has the BEST Thursday! Remember to smile you could be making someone else's day. Say "hi" to a stranger. Help someone pick something up, hold open a door, offer your seat. Random acts of kindness truly melt the heart.

Good morning.

I can not believe how fast this week is going by and tomorrow I am off from school! I did a bit of Christmas shopping last night but it hard to shop for the child when the child is with you! Sheesh, lol.

For me today... Hopefully a quick day at school and a good grade on my test today. Forgot to study earlier so will have to quickly do that this morning. We are also going on a class lunch to the Olive Garden. We will see how that works out. Haven't been there since surgery so not sure what to try. Maybe soups and salad! Any suggestions? lol. After school, it is home for nothing but cleaning & laundry. Tomorrow will be a day of shopping!

I hope and pray that things go smooth for Kayla and everyone involved today. My thoughts and prayers are with her. Have a great Thursday!!

Hey Theresa :)

This week certainly has gone by fast. Hope you did well on your test today. As for the Olive Garden I do suggest salads. The soups depending (for me) are NOT the best choices. Be selective. Hope you get chores accomplished. My focus are my buggas and Mom at this point. Thanks for the thoughts & prayers sincerely.

Good AM beautiful!  Prayers are coming your way and your moms for sure!  I am here for anything...just call!  Steve can help with Nora if you need.  His day is flexible.  Give Kayla an extra big hug for me and let her know we are praying for her today, too.

Yesterday was pretty good.  It was a hectic day at work with some problems that were caused by someone sending in an update for 2009 benefits and CANCELLING the folks for the ramainder of 2008!  Boy...were we busy and scrambling!  We have a system that takes 48 hours to update these kinds of things (which is why it cancelled yesterday instead of the 1st!).  Not sure what is coming of that...I will find out when I get to work but it was a mess!  GOt home and grabbed Kara, Adam and Steve and off we went to run an errand and go to Costoc for dog food, milk and gas in Steve's truck.  We all went out to dinner on the way home and had a great time.  Lots of laughs and smiles which was exactly what I needed.  We came home and I got some laundry done and we all settled in to watch Rudolph.  I heart the classics!

On the books for today is mapping out my to-do list.  It needs updating badly!  I am also completing my prayer chain and passing on to the folks that will share so we can get them on the list at church as well.  I have two more loads of laundry for the week and need to get to the grocery store, too.  I may be visiting a friend later this PM and certaintly will be visiting Pat if she is still in the hospital and feels like company! 

I also plan to let loose a few random acts of kindness!  Love you much and you know where we are if we can help in ANY way!

Hi Tammy :)

Thanks for the prayers. I didn't see this until after we'd left EARLY this am. Thanks for offering to help. We managed and had some really wonderful staff at the Children's Pavillion to help me with Nora while I was with Kayla. I was reluctant as you know I don't ask for or accept help as the norm. (Don't get me started) I'm so thankful/grateful to them. I'll message you in a bit.

Sigh. The benefits thing is horrible. This I know. I'm glad you got things accomplished last pm and had lots of laughs and smiles. We watched Santa Claus Is Coming to Town last pm as well. Prayers IS help!

Good morning ladies. Kat I will surely be praying for your family. I am sorry you are going through so much.

Wednesday was super busy with work, then went and saw my little sister. After that picked up Alex from school and got horrible news. He stabbed a little boy with a pencil until the little boy cried. So for that he will be in school detention all day Friday. I worry about him. His adhd seems to be getting worse. We called the dr office and going back in to see if we need to switch his medication. I feel so bad for the little boy that he hurt. But I also feel bad for him. He can not control his anger and it scares me. Oh. I guess he needs prayers to.
We finished the evening by going to my little sisters chorus concert last night. Then off to home for showers and bedtime stories.

Today we are going on a field trip to the Swift Creek Playhouse to see a Christmas play. Then home to clean and try to come up with a good punishment for an adhd child. Here is what we have already told him. No soda for a week(always drinks diet, but this is a huge punishment to him) and no tv for a week. I don't want to take away his outside time because that calms him down. Lets him get the steam off. Can anyone think of any other punishment? He has already wrote an apology letter to the little boy and his teacher for misbehaving.

WOW Brooke...I am sorry you are going thru this!  I think the punnishments you have chosen are perfect for an adhd child.  I have adhd myself but thankfully a mild case.  I have had to stop all medications right now so it is difficult at times.  Prayers will be coming your way and Alex's for sure and the other boy as well.  You may also want to add going to bed earlier.  Just a thought!

thanks Tammy. Yeah we are having a rough patch. I have the adhd too, so I totally understand where he is coming from as well. I am no longer medicated, but probably should be. Ugh. Going to bed earlier is a good idea too. I think we will add that. Thanks

Hey Brooke, sorry to hear about your son hurting the other little boy.  I think the punishments you've chosen are good.  I understand why you don't want to take away his unwinding play time.

Has your doctor ever tried Concerta on him?  It's a time release and I did really well on that drug for ADHD.  About my only commplaint was a tapering off feeling during the 8pm-10pm time frame, but that might be okay depending on his bed time.  I like you don't medicate anymore, because another drug I am would have counteracted it, so we took the lesser evil path and for the last year I've just been dealing with the attention problem and doing so so at it.

GOOD LUCK!

Hey Brooke.  I raised an ADHD kid too & it certainly had it's trials.  One thing I was told, when needing to dole out punishments, is to not heap too many on top of each other.  Kids with ADHD usually have low self esteem to begin with.  By receiving so much negative attention, that can then become the norm for them & they will act out in order to get the negative attention.  It helps to feed their low self esteem.  In other words, they will seek out negative attention to feed their lack of self worth.  Over time, that becomes a nasty habit to break & only turns them into professional victims as adults.  So rather than add to the list of ways to punish him for what he did, pick the top one that would stand out most in his mind.  For my son, it was no TV for 2 days.  That just KILLED him.  As he got older, he lost bike priveledges, or gaming time on his Nintendo (it was a loooong time ago...lol).  If you've already let him know what his punishments will be, then you'll have to follow through.  Taking them back or lessening them now would just undermine your parenting & send the wrong message to your son.  As you already know, consistency is a key tool in helping these special kids.

At least you found out quickly about his misbehavior.  My son once pulled a pair of scissors on his teacher & in that same week attempted to jump out a 2nd story window.  I did not find out about all this until WEEKS later at a Parent/Teacher conference!  I was furious, to say the least.  Obviously his medications needed to be adjusted & that would have happened immediately had I known.  I hope the Special Ed Teachers of today are more savvy than the ones I had to deal with because most of the time it was a struggle to get them to realize that we HAD to be a team & work together.  I couldn't back them up at home, if I didn't know what was going on in the classroom.  I had a Principal tell me that my son was a problem child.  I corrected him on the spot...he was NOT a problem child...he was a child with problems...HUGE difference.  Oh the stories I could tell.

Good luck with all that you are doing to help your boy...you're a good Mom & I applaud you.