Recap

I am not feeling entirely creative this morning, so I thought today would be a good day for a another update. A "Where Are They Now?" retrospective. Time to let everyone know how things are going with some of the items I have written about recently. So....here goes.

I am still searching for a new dentist for my kids. Yesterday, I received a phone call from their current dental clinic saying that they had received a denial from our insurance company for Lucas' recent visit. Apparently, our insurance policy has a clause whereby children can only see a pediatric dentist until they turn seven years old. Then they have to begin seeing a general dentist. I worked for years in the insurance industry and have never heard of this in my life! Who decided that a seven year old is no longer a child? Nicholas, I would feel entirely confident moving to a general dentist. As a matter of fact, I could take Nicky to Joe Schmo doing dental work on the side out of his garage, and he would happily hop up in the chair and chatter away. Not a fear in the world. Lucas and Sophie, however, are a different story. They are terrified of the dentist. That is not to say that a General Dentist is not as good as a Pediatric Dentist, but I really wanted them to continue to see someone with experience working on terrified children. Oh well....such is life. I wonder if I can make Lucas get a job and start contributing to the household now that he is an adult?

Sophie has managed to beg, borrow, and steal enough candy to sicken a horse. Somehow, she is still upright and functional. As I said before, Halloween is her holiday and she apparently has a stomach of steel to go along with it.

I received The Sound of Music from Netflix and watched it yesterday afternoon/evening. I somehow forgot that it was three hours long. I expected Sophie to fall in love with it. In actuality, she couldn't have cared less about it. Not interested in the least. However, my seven year old son loved it....a completely unexpected development. He was totally enraptured, asking me over and over when they were going to sing again. During the scene when Maria and the Captain were dancing on the patio, he looked at me and said, "Mom, they dance really beautiful." Frankly, he was creeping me out. What power does this movie hold that it can turn my burping, belching, butt-scratching, crotch-grabbing son into a lover of music and dance? Where did my real son go for those brief moments?

Sophie is doing splendidly at ballet now. She is even happily holding hands with the other children in the class. While the other girls flit around and act silly and chatter away, Sophie is complete seriousness...eyes on the teacher trying to mimic her every move. It is cute to see her so focused. Her favorite part of the class is when she gets to don her tap shoes. There is nothing that child likes more than making noise. And man, can she ever make noise with those things! I am still the only mom who can't leave the room. However, my perch on the dirty cafeteria floor has moved closer to the door.

Ruanita and I have pretty much completed our Christmas shopping. Yes, it IS sick and wrong. However, in our defense, the holidays get so crammed full with activities and people to see that it is nice to have the gift-buying out of the way, for the most part. I am sure there will be more to buy. We have yet to draw names with my family and I am sure we will find things we want to get the kids that we hadn't thought of before. However, for the most part, we are done. Let the festivities begin.

Lucas' Parent/Teacher conference is on Thursday evening. I had to fill out a pre-conference form last night indicating what I thought Lucas' strengths and weaknesses are and what concerns I would like to discuss at our conference. I am hoping his teacher can allay my fears a bit. For the first time, I am hoping someone tells me that my son is just lazy. I can deal with lazy. I can tell him to get his ass up and get to work. Anything more serious than that, I am afraid I am not sure how to handle. I guess we'll have to wait and see how it goes.

Remember way back when Lucas decided to sign up for the 100 Club at school? Remember when he committed to reading 100 books this school year? Well...to date, we have written the names of exactly TWO books on his list. I readily admit that I am to blame. By the end of the day, I am so exhausted that I simply do not have the energy to beg Lucas to read. We read his homework pages. We read portions of books. We read other things. But to get him to sit down and read an entire book is hell...pure and simple. Yes, I need to work harder at it. Yes, I need to commit to it because it is in my son's best interest. Yes, I need to suck it up and just do it, regardless of its hellishness. My mind says yes to all of these things. However, at the same time, my spirit is cowering in the corner crying, "Please, no. Don't make me do it." I realize that I may sound a bit overly dramatic. However, until you sit in my living room chair with Lucas begging him to actually look at the page and saying for the umpteeth time to "sound it out" while he stares vacantly off into space reciting every word he can think of that begins with the letter D EXCEPT the actual word on the page, don't judge me. There are certain things that could test the patience of Gandhi...or the pope....or Mother Teresa. Reading with Lucas is one of those things.

Our ugly luck from this summer seems to be spilling over into the winter months. I don't really see an end in sight. As I explained in previous posts, a tree fell on our house at the beginning of the summer. Then we found out our house was wrapped in lead and asbestos that had to be removed when the contractor re-sided our house. Then our washing machine broke and had to be replaced. Then Ruanita wrecked the new car. Then we got a ticket for not have up-to-date tabs on our car (a ticket we will be appealing since we had, indeed, paid our tabs but never received them in the mail). Then I lost count of how many times we had strep in our house...during the summer, even! Then just last weekend, our treadmill broke. Right as Ruanita was getting back into the swing of walking on it daily, it pooped out. I was in the kitchen and Ruanita was downstairs walking on the treadmill, singing along to Katie Perry at a decibel that would have been painful had we not had a floor separating us. As she sang along, I suddenly heard an odd, extremely loud, grinding noise. Ruanita's singing stopped. I heard a litany of cursing, then a quieter, "Shannon. Shannon! Come here, please!" I went downstairs to find the treadmill not moving. When I tried turning it on, the motor whined, make an eery grinding noise, and nothing moved. I suspect we burned out the motor on it. I can guarantee this not occur due to overuse. As a matter of fact, the only conclusion I can come up with is that perhaps the dust covering the treadmill on a daily basis somehow dislodged and got sucked into the motor, causing it to seize. I tried, with completely misplaced optimism, to take the treadmill apart...hoping to dislodge the motor. I managed to get some screws loose, but couldn't figure out how to get the cover off the thing. As I said, I am optimistic, but completely lacking in mechanical skills. So I also cursed the wretched machine. Can treadmills be repaired? Are there treadmill repair companies out there? Or do we need to replace it instead? And honestly, can we justify spending hundreds of dollars on a glorified drying rack? And it happened just as I was beginning to possibly, maybe mentally prepare myself to one day start thinking about walking on the treadmill again. See...God wants me to be fat. And apparently poor, as well.