New Band & Stuff

Last night we met, again, with JG and another gentleman to work on forming ANOTHER band, to supplement what we're doing with Code West. We're looking to play a LOT and a similar, yet different form of music. Hoping a lot of good will come out of this. Tonight, we're going to start recording one or two things and get them sent out and ready to be put up on North Country's myspace. We'll be doing some bluesy rock, a little bit of jazz-ish kinda stuff, and, well, having a grand old time doing it. What I really like is that everyone is willing to do what we have to in order to get moving and start out from the gate running! It seems that everyone has the same ideas on how and what we want to do, and three of our 5 already have some originals written!!!

Oh, I should plug: If you're around on December 23, Code West will be playing at the Pioneer Tap in Forest Park. Click on our myspace for more info. I know, I know, it's the night before The Night Before Christmas. Hopefully by then, you'll have everything done and will be ready to go out and relax before the holiday chaos. Or, if you're like me, you'll need a break from the fact that you're STILL not done. SO, if you're around, come on out! It'll be a blast.

Kids - yes, kids! I'm feeling particularly old today. Girl went to school with LargeBoy today for a shadow day. For those of you not familiar (and I certainly wasn't until very recently), the shadowing day is a day when 8th graders can visit the high school and follow a student around to get a feel for the school, the classes, the structure, the enormity of the school compared to the school they came from. She is shadowing her step-sister, not LargeBoy, because neither of them thought that would be "cool."

I think this is a wonderful process. I have no idea if this was around when I was going into high school, oh so many years ago. If it was, it certainly wasn't something that was brought to everyone's attention as it is now. So, this morning, on our runs, we dropped of TWO children at the high school. THAT was our "shadowing" - getting a feel for how it's going to be with two high school children. EEEEEK!

SmallBoy will be the last one at his school - from our family, that is. I thought he might be worried about not having his sister there anymore, but he was totally gung-ho about the idea. I believe he said something along the lines of, "Yes! Girl won't be there anymore!" It was kind of funny.

What's nice about that, though, is that it's giving us a good feel for how HE feels about his independence. This year began the walking home alone in preparation for next year. I didn't think he's be ready to be on his own next year, but apparently, that's not going to be an issue.

He IS having difficulty, though, with the revelation about Santa. I got a note yesterday in his communication book from his teacher saying that he had had a great day overall, but that he's having a very hard time not sharing his "Santa Secret," and could we please discuss this with him. I was surprised, yet not surprised. I thought that, being in 4th grade, he would be one of the last kids to know. I found out in 1st grade. So I was very surprised when the teacher's note came in. I'm not nearly as surprised, however, that he feels this need to share his new found knowledge with everyone he can. It gives him a feeling of confidence that he knows something that not necessarily everyone else does.

We expressed to him how incredibly important it was to keep this secret to himself, because there are many kids older, his age, and younger, who don't know yet. We told him that it was up to their parents to determine when was the right time to let them in on the secret. To help remind him, and deter him from blurting it out, we gave him a little something from our dishwasher project (something else he's fascinated with) to keep in his pocket during the school day. We told him that whenever he felt like telling someone about Santa, that he could reach in his pocket and hold this bolt-y thing or that he could take out the bolt-y thing and talk to the kids about THAT instead of about Santa. He laughed. He thought we were totally silly, but at least this way, he won't be perseverating on the fact that, "I can't tell I can't tell I can't...oh I GOTTA TELL!"

If anyone has any other wonderful ideas on how to dissuade the sharing of the secret identity of the Jolly Red One, I'd LOVE to hear them!

Ok - Switching Now

Somehow, I managed to make the switch to beta. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get all of my cool stuff back - you know my slide shows, my links, all that jazz. In the meantime, bear with me. The kids are at their dad's this weekend, so I only have to work around everything else we're doing today in order to get computer time.

Stick around. I'll figure it all out soon!

'Tis the Season for Dispelling THE Myth

I finally had THE talk with SmallBoy. You know, the one about the jolly old guy with the white beard. The guy who wears a red suit and stays out all night flying high as a kite, going into people's homes and eating all of their cookies, and then leaving gifts in return. Yeah, that's the guy. The big S.C. I wasn't too certain how the conversation was going to go or be understood. Granted, he's 10years old and in 4th grade, and I'm surprised he hasn't found out from peers or from spoil sports wanting to ruin the fun, but it was the Asperger's reaction that I was concerned with. I wasn't certain how knowing this reality was going to affect his trust in us.

Let me start at the beginning, though, and tell you how all of this came into play. On Monday, I had put up several posts, which, for me, is unusual, but I was having fun. In one of the posts, I had put up a funny "music" video that I had seen on Bloggg's site. It was the cast of the Christmas Charlie Brown video doing the dance that they do, only it was set to the song, "Heya". The whole family watched this video and rolled on the floor in hysterics (go check it out, you'll pee in your pants). As I was addressing Christmas cards last night, SmallBoy hopped onto the computer and checked into my site to watch the video again. I don't usually let him read my site without my knowledge, because I don't always say very nice things about how his father treats him or his other two children or me, for that matter. This time, though, SmallBoy was sitting right next to me. and I knew what he would be looking at. Perfectly harmless, or so I thought.

All of a sudden, I hear him say,

"You got me MOON BOOTS?"

OOPS! I knew exactly what had happened. When he was watching the video, he had scrolled far enough that the beginning of the previous post was showing. Guess what that one was about. God! You're smart! Yep, I had posted about what would be great Christmas gifts for SmallBoy - things that would help his sensory issues, his spatial awareness issues, and would also give him a way to use up a lot of his energy to help when his engine is too high or when he's feeling particularly upset or stressed. At the VERY beginning of the post, though, I mentioned that I had bought him some moon boots for Christmas. There's a story behind that for another post, but for now the door was open for the Santa conversation. How to begin?

I took a moment to argue with myself about whether or not I should just leave well enough alone. Certainly I could say that, yes, indeed, the moon boots were from PC and me. We give gifts from Santa and gifts from us anyway, so it wouldn't have been an issue. I could have simply let the proverbial sleeping dragon lie. Nope. I knew that if I did not seize the moment, it would be lost for another year or, at least, until someone spilled the beans. I inhaled to prepare my words and, moreso, to prepare myself for the fact that my youngest child, my baby, was about to lose the last shred of childhood innocence - the fantasy that we've been playing out for the last 16 years, since LargeBoy was a small boy was about to come to its fruition. And within the long 5 second inhale, I readied myself for that reality also.

I exhaled and said to him,

"Hey, SmallBoy - how do you think I knew that you were getting moon boots for Christmas? Remember that conversation we had about my secret identity (tooth fair myth disepelled), well, I've got another one. Can you guess who?"

"No way! You're Santa, too?"

"Yep." (LONG pause to gauge reaction) "So, what do you think about that?"

"Sooooooo, you're Santa?"

"Yep. Is that ok with you?"

"Yeah. Soooooo can I still believe in Santa?"

Ahhhh, the Christmas spirit is not broken, nor lost. Face it, we all still have that Santa thing, right? I went on to explain how it's wonderful, he can still believe as long as he knows that it is the grown ups who bring the presents. He can still believe, but knowing this new secret, it's his responsibility to play along with those who don't yet know their parents' secrect identities. He was cool with that. I'm so happy. It could have been MUCH MUCH worse. Now, my biggest problem is finding him something DIFFERENT for Christmas. Anyone have any more ideas?

Unpacking begins

Following, or previously, I should say, will be some of my favorite articles from our previous site.

by mommyguilt on April 25, 2005 03:20PM (CDT)

SmallBoy is making his First Holy Communion this Saturday. LargeBoy is graduating from 8th grade this June. To keep from driving myself, and my family, crazy I've decided to combine the two celebrations into one party. Woo-hoo! Less cleaning! Oh. No. Wait. There's still going to be a party....

...and it's going to be
......THIS SATURDAY !!!!!!

Ok - first things first: STOP PANICKING. This shouldn't be too difficult of a task. The front porch project is, for the most part, done and successful. All we need for that, now, is for the weather to cooperate, so that our guests can enjoy our front porch. The kitchen cabinet project is complete. The back porch project is underway. Mom helped tremendously with that this weekend. There are flowers in a couple of the pots on the front stairs and some coming up in the garden in back. What's left?

OH YES! The scary scary projects - cleaning up all the CRAP that's IN the house! That Crap encompasses mail, homework papers I can't bear to throw out, LargeBoy's graduation pictures, report cards, sports schedules, hot lunch menus, books, shoes that do not have a home, stray socks, sports equipment....ok, so the sports equipment's on the back porch. I suppose I could put all of this crap in the laundry chute and just hide it for the day!

Perhaps when I leave the office today I should have a cold, frothy beverage to help me decide. It may sway me to throw most of the crap in the garbage!

BY GEORGE, I THINK I'VE DONE IT!!!!

With the exceptions that I don't have any fun fonts or colors or sizes when using my computer here at work as opposed to my laptop at home, I think I have managed to figure out how to use this site. I've managed to put in links - which is more than I could on the other. My next attempt is photos. The computer system here is too ridiculous and I can't sneak enough "work" time to upload all my photos to the site that helps you with photos when working on a mac. I will try them from home tonight, though.

Attempt from Work

Through my computer here at work, I can only type in whatever font the computer wants, no colors, no links, the size is predetermined by the computer, etc...so I'm back to boring. I still cannot seem to find a way to link to other sites, but I will not give up. I'm going to attempt a few photo loads today too and see what happens. Wish me luck!

Address Change!

Mommy Guilt has moved. We love our new home. We won't be able to publish as frequently, because our computer at work is ridiculous and won't support blogger, but I can do this at home. We moved from our previous site to this site just tonight. I hope you will spread the word. The topics won't change. Until I get the hang of this new site, I may very well be importing articles from my previous site. Right now, I'm having some major mommy guilt as I sit here next to SmallBoy as he tries to do a Spanish Word Search. I have only my Sesame Street Spanish to rely on and cannot help him with much. I should really close this up so that he can focus on finding abrigo on the word search instead of reading over my shoulder, BUT I'm enjoying what I'm doing. PC is upstairs reading this wonderful book now because I'm working on the computer. Do I feel guilty? YES! But you know, as Girl said to us once,

"You guys really need your own space and your own time every once in a while. We'll be fine."