November 2, 2012

  • From Worse To Better?

    TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

    The Beast is slowly but surely getting better.  Now he looks like he was in a bar fight but is healing.  Most of the stitches are now gone except in the outside corners of both eyes.  The swelling is gone except under his eyes, almost in the cheek area, where the worst of the black and blue is right now.  Hell, it's mostly black to be truthful.  He still looks bad but definitely has gone from looking like he was in the worst accident to much better.  Chewlee told me he was looking almost like her papa again....LOL.

    Chewlee got a squiggly face again and, when her mother told her that meant she didn't get to do anything fun with her mommy on Saturday, she was crying hysterically.  She was in a weird mood even earlier and seemed more prone to tears than she usually is.  The Princess thinks she was overtired from all the excitement yesterday.  She loved going trick or treating and, of course, they had the party at school.  She was exhausted and fell asleep early but she was obviously tired this morning.  The Princess said it was all she could do to get her out to catch her bus on time this morning.

    Chewlee, like her mother, is one of those people who need their sleep and plenty of it.  The Princess and I discussed Chewlee's behavior at school and decided that she is bored.  She's not learning anything like the other kids are.  She already knows the things these kids are just trying to learn.  Even her printing has improved because that catches her interest when they have those exercises to do.  She is so anxious to learn to read (and she can read more words than I expected).  We decided that on her *happy face* days, both her mother and I will help her learn to read and write a new (short) word.  I will pick a word that is likely to be used in one of the story books her mother reads to her at bedtime.  I will help her by having her write the word several times.  I will have her spell it several times over the hours she is with me.  I will have her find the word on a page I print out that is from the Nick Jr. website.  In that way, she has an incentive to be good and not disrupt the class just because she already knows what the teacher is trying to teach the other kids. 

    I also will be working with her on learning her home address and phone number.  She knows the STREET she lives on (and my street, too) but not the address.  Her phone number is something even *I* don't know.  I'm just as bad as the next person.  You plug it into your cell phone and there's no need to memorize it.    They are doing that Identification program at her school.  They will be taking the kids fingerprints and I don't know what else.....just in case.  You hate to think about it but there IS evil in this world and some very bad people.

    I'm feeling really good and doing a lot more.  The Beast is finally accepting his limitations and we've developed a kind of system that works for us both when it comes to bringing in and putting away the groceries.  We even have a system for loading and unloading the dishwasher and for doing the wash.  He hangs up his shirts and pants as they come out of the dryer (I do the same for MY hanging clothes) and I fold all the folding clothes.  I don't mind the folding since it's just the two of us.  He puts away his piles of underwear, socks and t-shirts.  I put away my jammies, undies, etc.  He's doing better on helping me to make the bed (when we need fresh linens on it, not the daily stuff).  He doesn't see the need for making up the bed since he takes naps on it every day.  Especially now with winter on it's way.  He gets UNDER the covers or comforter so why bother?  But...I've noticed if I make up the bed, he will sleep on top of it and use one of the nap blankets I have here. 

    Chewlee was cute today and the Princess won't like some of what I learned.  Chewlee was helping me straighten up various areas of my computer room and I made the statement, *I can't figure out what happened to my mirror I had on this table, Chewlee.  Do you know where it went?*  It's been missing on me for several months but I never thought to say anything in front of Chewlee about it, although I complained to the Beast because I really thought he had something to do with it.  He's always throwing out MY stuff just because he thinks I don't use it often.  Chewlee popped up and said, *Oh, Mommy has it.  I'm not supposed to tell you.  Are you mad at her?* 

    She said it like she was sorry that she told me but she apparently wasn't happy that her mommy took it home with her.  I told her, *No, I'm not mad but I guess I'm going to have to beat her now.*  Chewlee actually said to me...*Are you really going to beat her?  Can I watch?*  That damn near made me laugh but I managed to keep a straight face.  It's only a $10 mirror I bought at Walgreen's a couple years back but I really need it for when I pluck my eyebrows and other stray hairs so I WILL bring it up to her....eventually.  I just have to remember it when she's here.  ROFLMAO!  Old timers strikes again.

    Time for me to get this posted.  The Beast just limped to bed but the heel bruise seems to be healing.  His biggest problem is that he's compensated by putting more weight on his bad left leg (it never really recovered from his strokes).  Now THAT leg is aching from his hip down to the back of his knee and his lower back is just killing him.  It's always something.

    Love you all.  Pray for those people trying to figure out how to pull their lives back together after being hit by H. Sandy.