November 6, 2012
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Election Day In The U.S.A. Plus New Things For Chewlee
TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM
I hope all eligible Americans got out and voted today. Of course, only those in Eastern and Central time zones are closed now so we won’t know the real winner until very late tonight (hopefully). If you didn’t get out and vote, shame, shame.
The Princess had her meeting with Chewlee’s teacher yesterday to try to come up with a plan to help Chewlee behave. I think they might have and I am included in the whole deal. Chewlee now has a chart. Every day that she behaves both in school, at home AND at Grandma’s, she gets a sticker in one of the spaces. Each line has 10 spaces. Only good days are given a sticker. At the end of 10 times that she has a sticker, she gets a special prize or gift. It might be a new toy, a new book, lunch at McDonald’s (or her new favorite place she tells me is Red Lobster…LOL) or something else the Princess hasn’t figured out yet. But it WILL be special.
The Princess said I might want to start something similar and have my own kind of special prize for her. She can spend the night, have a special picnic or other treat she might specify. I have to think about that and if it would work with what I could offer her as an incentive that also works for me. My sister, Bee, offered her grandson these special train toys when they were trying to potty train him. This is just as serious so I would like to find something that she wants as much as HE wanted those trains. I could have one or two here to let her know I mean it and that might just get her more serious about earning those stickers (or stars, I was thinking).
A piece of news that took everyone, including her teacher by surprise. Chewlee has been desperate to learn to read. I’ve worked with her here on sounding out words, mostly those she mispronounces. BUT…her mother told me that Chewlee read a story book all by herself (no one helped) and she even sounded out words she didn’t know but she did know how the beginning letters sounded. It was a simple story and sounded much like some of the early Dr. Seuss books but SHE READ IT ALL BY HERSELF! We were all so proud of her when we were told. She was funny when she got here today because she only mentioned it offhand and was so casual about it that it was funny. She was more interested in showing me she got her second happy face from her teacher so far this week. That meant she got a sticker from her mom IF she was good for Grandma (and she was).
I feel bad for Bratfink who isn’t feeling very good but she DID manage to get out and vote today. (Another reason to say *shame, shame* for those of you who weren’t sick but didn’t get your butts out to vote today! Even I got up early and to my voting place before the Beast even woke up!) I DID lay down (mostly to warm up) when I got home and took a short catnap.
The Beast decided that I needed some exercise so he said he was going to buy a bike for me….and, by the way, you can ride your bike around the circle and exercise Baron, too. I told him he was out of his mind. It was too damn cold out now AND was only going to get colder. I told him if it was too cold for him to take his mooter scooter (chewlee’s name for it) out for a run when he even has a ski mask he can use and he expects ME to ride a slower *vehicle* to run Baron? I told him NO NO NO…it isn’t gonna happen in this lifetime. He went out and bought a bike anyway. After putting it together, he took Baron for a run. We have a slight incline in our driveway and he barely made it up and into the garage when he got done.
Now the circle isn’t all that big….maybe a total of 2-1/2 blocks?….and our driveway is big enough to park 4 vehicles, one behind the other without squashing them together. But, even after taking a bath and soaking his legs, he is still complaining about how much that took out of him. We knew his left leg was weak since his strokes and I knew his right one was starting to get weak because he was showing an inclination to drag it, too, at times. When he started to complain about his back hurting him, I was pretty sure it had to do with how his legs were weakening and the way he was walking. Now he knows it’s true that he needs to exercise.
Me? I get exercise with Chewlee and I work on my upper body with my weights a couple times a week. It’s starting to help on the *wings* on my arms but will take more work and more water, too. The water helps the skin to shrink without showing any stretch marks. Of course, I keep looking for some but my arms never did seem to gain a whole lot of weight even when I was heavier than I am now. What I find interesting is that the exercises I AM doing is helping my abdominal muscles also. Not a bad deal, huh?
Okay, time to get this posted. Love you all and I hope you are having a decent week. Tomorrow is Hump Day (mid-week for the M-F workers). Be careful driving. Life is short enough without taking risks.
