Anger

Dane has been very agitated the past several days.  Nothing seems to please him.  All he wants to do is pick fights and talk back to us.  We need to keep him and his sister, Allyson, away from each other or things get ugly.

The kids love the splash pad at the park.  It's a 25 minute drive and cost 50 cents a person to get in.  It's cheap entertainment for them.  Its fun and relaxing watching them play in the water.  Summer is finally here and now we are starting to get some hot weather.  The only problem now is that it rains all the time.  A lot of farmers are having trouble with their crops because everything is flooded.  Most the fields are being re planted.

I've finally got Ally some training wheels for a bike we had around.  She's doing pretty good for her first day riding a big girl bike.

After visiting my parents for awhile I decided to take a bike ride with Dane down to the neighbors farm and let him see the cows.  Its was chore time and he got to feed some calves with the bottle and give an I.V. to a sick cow.

After arriving home I decided to mow the lawn.  Dad stopped in with Danes shoes that he washed off cause they were covered with cow crap.  Just then my lawn mower ran out of gas and wouldn't start again after I filled it.  I had to push mow the rest of the lawn.

During that time Grandpa and the kids went for a walk and made a new friend with one of the neighbor boys.  I also uprooted a maple tree and transplanted it in the front yard.

Back to work tomorrow.  In 3 weeks I finally get a weeks vacation.  I want to take the kids to the zoo and maybe the lake.  I hope the weather is nice that week.  

1st Grade Teacher

To get right down to the topic, Danes doesn't like his teacher.  I wish I would have knew more throughout the school year of what his teacher was doing.  With only 12 days left in the school year he is not liking school very much.  He likes his Special Education teacher and his Speech Therapist.  They are very nice.  His teacher for this year is not very nice to him I am thinking.

One day my wife was coming back to his class to tell him something.  She noticed that the desk police gave Dane a ticket for not having a clean desk.  The teacher kept him in from recess for that.  He has been asking for help.  I think that he is thinking that the top of his desk is clean and he doesn't understand how it can get any cleaner.  Needless to say that he has been missing out on classroom movies and other recesses for "catch up" on his homework. 

At parent teacher conference I told her how he can not concentrate and totally hates his homework.  She crossed off half of the work hoping that would make it easier for him.  It has some days.  Other days I did the homework for him just to make sure he gets to go outside at school.  But now I am finding out hes staying in for catching up?  WTH!  Is she making him do the homework she crossed out or what?  Recess is one of the biggest parts of his sensory needs.

I almost am thinking that his teacher belittles him in front of class and uses him as a scapegoat.  In thinking, what if she is telling her class something like, "Now class.  Dane didn't do his homework so Dane doesn't get to watch the move."  Or, "Dane didn't clean his desk so Dane isn't going outside for recess."  If she is doing that to my boy I'd have a field day with her and the principal.  It is so hard getting answers out of the little man.

Last night I gave him a haircut.  Ugh, I totally loathe cutting his hair.  He screams and doesn't sit still.  He squinches and jumps out of the chair even before the clippers touch him.  I had to hold his head with my hand and tell him how good he's doing.  It gets nerve racking but he's done and looks much better.  I told him how much cooler he will be now that it's getting so hot out.

Dane is still pretty observant.  He notices anything that is out of the ordinary and hears everything.  He still loves pinwheels and things that spin.  He will spend lots of time bending and taping broken off fins to make them all work again.  He's not happy till they all spin.

My wife is working as a CNA and she had to go out of state for a seminar on treating Dementia patients.  She says that some of the stuff they said to do can help with cases of autism.  How a person needs to get to their level and ask what's bothering them.  I'll have to get more input from her on what she all learned.

So much to do. So little time.

Allyson is sick.  She has a clinic appointment at 1:30.  Dane gets out of school at 3:25 and I am at work.  I get a page to come to the front desk.  Phonecall for me?  I receive the info on what's going on with Allyson.  She missed her clinic appointment by 5 minutes and they said she couldn't get treatment.  The receptionist tells my wife that we will have to take her to Urgent Care 25 minutes away.  Instead she got scheduled with the Mennonite doctor at 3:30.

I arrive home at 2:20 and decide I better get the oil changed in the truck.  I have time.  Afterwords I can pick up Dane, come home and get Allyson and take her to the Doc.

After the oil change at the Quick Lube station I pulled onto the highway.  Something wasn't right.  The oil light was on.  I had no power.  I pulled into the nearest gas station and checked the dip stick.  It's dry!  WTF!  Isn't the part of having an oil change to have oil in the vehicle when leaving?!  Oh sh*t.  Now what do I do?

I call the guy who just did the oil change and he said he put oil in it.  He came and towed me back to the center to look at it.  He said he seen a oil vapor on the highway as if something came loose.  I didn't see anything.  It would have been a big spill of oil and noticeable.  Anyway..I seen him tighten something under the vehicle.  The plug maybe?  Then 5 quarts of oil got dumped in and my truck seems to run fine.

I get home and call the wife who is on her way to the doctor with Allyson and Dane.  I have to now drive there to pay for the checkup.  Turns out Allyson was okay and not getting strep throat.  She sounds a little croupy and whatever she has is starting to loosen up a bit.

I take the kids to my dads who's last day of work was today.  I let my wife to home to get some rest from working  a 12 hour shift the night before.  Before she leaves she tells me about the snow build up on the house.

A couple hours later I get home and it's getting dark.  I take a shovel and a rake and try to lighten up the piles of snow and ice build up on my roof.  We got 5 more inches last night and their calling for another 13 by Monday!   This time last year it was in the upper 60's.  I am so sick of winter.

8:00 I get into the house and my wife takes the kids to the store to buy some cough syrup.  I get to take a shower and get out of my work clothes at last.  That was a long day.  I'm basically learning 4 different jobs at once at my job and to have vehicle problems and a sick kid.  It all worked out and thankful everything worked out.

New Job

I started training for a different position at work.  Today was day 4.  The first part of the day is hard but as the day goes on it gets easier.  It's a pretty fast paced forklift job and I'm always moving.  The good thing is that I am not so physically exhausted after working all day like I am on my usual job.  The bad thing is having a sore bum because of sitting all day doing circles around the plant.

It's nice to come home now and have energy left to do things around the house and play with the kids.  I tried to play Candyland with them the other night.  That was a lot of drama.  Allyson was way ahead of Dane and I.  Then she got a card that sent her way back to the beginning.  She cried that she hated this game and wanted to start over.  Dane wasn't taking the game too seriously and kept messing around not paying attention.  It got kind of nerve racking because they started fighting.  Dane likes to push Ally's buttons and make her cry.  He's been biting and hitting her lately over nothing.  I'm sick of it.  Time out's don't work with Dane.  When he's bad he gets disciplined.  Usually he gets something taken away or he doesn't go with to the store.  That's the only thing that seems to work making him understand that there are consequences for not listening and being naughty.

I'm tired of the disrespect from my kids.  I don't know where they learn to talk and act the way they do when they can't get what they want.  Dane has been a handful since he was an infant.  I am thankful he is high functioning but his attitude sucks some days.  I try to tell him something and he says he hates me.  One day he kept saying, "Hate you.  Hate you. Hate you."  WTF!  What did I do to deserve this kind of treatment from my 7 year old?  I guess it's better then him physically having meltdown's and uncontrollably thrashing my house and throwing things.  It still makes me feel bad.  I could have a great day and something like my kids disrespecting me can really jinx it.

This snow needs to go!  March 12 and we got another 10" last night.  I am getting cabin fever really bad.  Being couped up all winter with noting to do but watch my kids fight and not listen to me.  Things have gotten a lot better since the wife went to part time.  The family has been happier and we got a handle on our lives a bit.  She's happier with her job and we spend more time as a family. My new job that has been working out for me has me feeling better.  The factory situation still blows but it pays good and its benefits of working there.  Someday I will be free and have a good job that I truly love...I just have to figure that part out.