Okay, so I think I've gotten everything fixed as far as the look of the blog is concerned. Please leave me a comment if the sidebar isn't back where it's supposed to be.
On a different note, Christopher was indeed barred from playing football due to his grades. (Well, the F in particular.) I've been shooting emails and phone calls all week back and forth to the school counselor and his teachers. Things are bad. My usually chatty son is withdrawn and depressed in the classroom. They are all very worried about him and the School Counselor strongly urges us to get him some professional help. Yikes. That's something a mother never wants to hear. Football was his last joy in life and I'm extremely worried now that he can't play things are going to take a spiral dive downward.
He has been through a lot this year, and I suppose I like to put my blinders on and pretend none of it effected him. Alas, it's not working. I must face the reality. How do you get a 12 yr old to understand that it's not his fault that his biological father wanted nothing to do with him? Why the "father's" family pretends he doesn't exist. Why he'll never get a chance to ask his "father" these questions himself someday? Why he was left out of the Obituary when his "father" died over the summer? These things will forever scar my son. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I'd really like to kick that man's ass for what he's inexplicably done to my child's mental health. Is that wrong of me to want to kick a dead man's ass? lol
On a good note:
After a 14 week break due to a shoulder injury, my hubby will HOPEFULLY be released from restrictions today! He's doing very well and we're hoping and praying the surgeon releases him. YAY!!!!!!!!! I'm tired of money being tight and all the stress that comes along with that.
Gah- this has been the crappiest year.
And finally, I'll leave you with some Wise Wednesday wisdom:
"Always watch where you are going. Otherwise, you may step on a piece of the Forest that was left out by mistake."
~Pooh's Little Instruction Book, inspired by A.A. Milne
I'm having such a hard time understanding all this html STUFF! In the past, I've had complaints from individuals that could not access my blog. I had no clue why. Recently, I made the big switch from IE to Firefox (Wow, big improvement! I must have been under a rock all this time) I thought perhaps that was why some people couldn't access the blog so I tested it in both browsers.
What I saw was completely unexpected. The blog looked totally different!! It was downright UGLY. Colors and Fonts that I had not chosen. Anyway, I *thought* I fixed it. Then someone brought to my attention that some people cannot see my header correctly because the font I use ISN'T installed on everyone's computer.
That's odd. You mean not everyone likes the same fonts that I do?? WELL WHY THE HECK NOT! heeheehee
To make a long story short, this is what I see when I look at my blog....
What do YOU see?
Anyone care to help a girl out?
I think I need professional help. 
(No not THAT kind!)
I'm so tired.
Princess has suddenly decided that she doesn't need to sleep again. She seems to go through these episodes every few months.
It's not your typical (at least not for me) need less sleep episodes. I mean she does. not. sleep. At all! We're talking 2-3 hrs a night, and not all at once either.
Well, when she is going through these episodes we lock her door at night. We moved the lock on the outside of her door and lock it. I know, I know, it sounds awful. Please don't judge us! It's for her own safety. The child SIMPLY CAN NOT stay out of things. She climbs right over baby gates so that's no longer an option for ue. The Hubby and I have joked not to fall asleep when she's awake or she'll burn the house down. (And we both know, it's not really a joke)
So anyway, my problem is this:
She is now terrified we're going to lock her door at night. She FREAKS OUT. And I suppose she has every right. Its giving her a complex. So we've been trying really hard to wean her off of it. We let her go to sleep with the door cracked open and then close it (but not lock it) when she falls asleep. We talk with her on her level about staying in her room until mommy and daddy get up. She seems to understand, but NEVER does!
I'll get up and find that she's filled water bottles up and poured the water into her play kitchen sink. In the process pouring water all over the tile floor. And I'm not talking just a little bit of water either... TONS of water. Or she's torn paper up (books are her favorite things to tear) and strewn it ALL OVER THE HOUSE. Or she's gotten a pen or pencil and drawn me beautiful (NOT) pictures all over the walls or herself. She's gotten into the food, the cookie jar up on the counter with candy inside of it. The list goes on and on and on... And well, since she's not sleeping, I am up all night long making sure she's safe or fighting with her to stay in her room.
Last night after fighting with her for hours I finally locked her door. I needed some sleep!!! Of course that led to her screaming and kicking her door until I thought the house was going to fall down. I drug myself out of bed and once again had a chat with her. I agreed to leave the door unlocked if she PROMISED to stay in her room. That was about 2:30am. At 4am, The Hubby climbed into bed after arriving home from work and said he found Princess playing in the living room!
There has GOT to be another way. She's so different than my boys. We left baby gates on their doorways when they were toddlers. By the time they got big enough to climb over, they were trustworthy enough to come out of their rooms unattended. They never got into stuff like she does!!! Plus, they S.L.E.P.T at night!!!!!
Does anyone have any suggestions???
So, after hours of looking at code and having my eyes nearly turn inside out, I finally have a new look!
What do you think? Does everything look okay? Please let me know if something is broken or screwy looking!
Once again, I'm at a loss. Being gone for a month has really caused the rest of the family to suffer.
I come home to disarray, a pile of mail nearly the size of my 3 year old and a tween well on his way to failing the 7th grade. He's never been a straight "A" student, but he's always gotten decent grades.
Currently, Christopher is getting 2 D's and an F. Yeah, I don't even know if they'll let him continue to play football with those grades!
What the heck am I supposed to do?? It's getting to the point where he doesn't even care about the punishments that we deal out.
I've always thought of myself as a good parent. I read books, and parenting magazines and took the advice of others. I knew what I was doing. I knew the basics and followed them. Our children were well rounded, they had good manners and were respectful to others. Now, I'm treading unknown waters- and I'm failing miserably. In fact,
I'm DROWNING!!
Let me give you an example: The day I came home from Chicago we were going to go out to dinner. Christopher wanted to go to the Homecoming game with some of his friends instead. The hubby had every intention of making him come to dinner with the family. While I on the other hand knew this would cause him to be a little snot nosed monster and frankly after not seeing him for a month, I'd rather let him go to the game and avoid the attitude he would have dealt out while ruining our wonderful dinner. Isn't that awful!? I'm turning into a softie. Allowing him to get away with things I otherwise would not have just to avoid the crap.
I'd like to just bury my head in the sand and pretend that everything is fine with him. But then the sensible side of me says that it's just going to get worse if we don't get this under control now.
I need some new and fresh ideas. What do I do???
That's my boy! (Front row, 1st player on the left)
That's my 12 y/o. You know, the one causing my hair to gray!?
I know, I know I've been MIA. But for good reason. I've been in Chicago for the last month dealing with my son and his battle with PseudoTumor Cerebri. If you haven't been following along his Caringbridge page, you can find the link on the sidebar. ---->
That's right a MONTH in Chicago (well, nearly) 2 surgeries later and we're finally home. Hopefully to stay for at least the next 3 months. We'll return in December for a checkup.
Here's a slideshow of some of the pictures that I took while we were there...
Posts
