No more sleeping late for us! It's back to school time!
Today the Daisy girl scouts toured the Coral Gables Fire Station. They learned about fire safety, they saw where the firefighters sleep and eat, they saw the pole, they got to pile inside a fire truck and actually go for a ride...sirens and everything, and the biggest thrill of the day.....they got to hold the fire hose. 
Taylor can't stop talking about it. She had a blast!
T has successfully squirmed her way out of trouble and acheived redemption. I had to go to a meeting after work at a local irish pub, which meant T had to come along too. We talked about how she had to sit quietly and not interrupt. She was such a good girl I can't tell you. We were there about 2 hours and she was such a big girl. The only interruption she made, was when she asked if I could announce that she had learned how to snap her fingers. Both hands.
T is a champion snapper, and can usually be heard snapping her fingers every few minutes. The whole table was very impressed.
Since she was such a good girl, I announced that she was no longer in trouble. She's happily watching TV now.
No, not with my parents. T is the one who is in it. What was I doing last night between 11:00 p.m. and midnight?
I was in T's room on the rug, searching for stick pins.
T got ahold of some sewing items and was playing with them in her room. Probably since I was sewing this past weekend on the vest. anyway, when I realize she's still up, I go in to make her go to bed, and she's laying in bed playing nintendo. Strike #1. I walk around the room picking up misc. things and she continues to play. Strike #2. Only after I find a bunch of stick pins in her shag carpet, does she mention that I should watch out b/c there were some more behind me. Strike #3. SHE'S OUT.
She is unplugged til friday. No computer, no nintendo, no phone games, and no TV. she's in trouble not for dropping them, but for failing to come and get me and report it. She knows how dangerous pins are in the carpet, but said nothing. Purposely. Just ignored me as she played nintendo, while I walked around the room.
Has anyone ever tried to find stick pins in a shag carpet? Its like trying to find them in grass. I pick up like 20 and thought I was done. then I had the bright idea to use a hairbrush to brush the carpet. That worked like a charm. About 30 more pins were found.
I now think that we've gotten them all However, I'm in search of a strong magnet to use, just to make sure.
gotta go, I have a date with Glee!
If anyone is still even tuning in to this dumb blog anymore, I'd be surprised. With everything going on here, I just haven't been in a mood to blog. My mother is being kicked out of the hospice program, as her medical decline has plateau'ed. That's the good news. The bad news, now, is that its a logistical nightmare. It also means that the hospice doctors and nurses will no longer come to the house to care for her. It all began, of course, during my never-ending trial and continues even through today.
The bad part about it all, is that we are no longer able to take my mom out to the dr. She would have to be taken by ambulance. Because her old treating physician's office is inaccessible to a patient on a bed accompanied by 2 EMT's, we had to find a new doctor. Luckily, we found one that will make house calls and treat her in the home. That's the plus side. Unfortunately, all of the medical equipment in the house: hospital bed, oxygen machine, nebulizer, etc. has to be switched out. Depsite the fact that medicare is paying for it either way, hospice medicare is a different program so therefore the change is required.
I had been hoping to take T on a getaway weekend to disney at the end of my trial, but that blew up as I had to be at my parent's house to oversee the switch last monday. I was afraid my father would get mad and throw them all out if someone wasn't there. Now, due to my work schedule, its impossible to go to disney before a big black out period for our passes for the summer. Next opportunity will not be until fall. I don't have high hopes for that. With my luck, I've just wasted our annual passes.
Good thing I was there, as the equipment co. tried to deliver the wrong equipment. Even as of today, there hasn't been a switch due to back-ordered equipment. The new ETA is this week. Maybe. Due to issues at work, its just so much harder now and more stressful, as it will be really hard to get coverage so I can go over there, and I'm absolutely booked solid all day long through the end of the month.
You wonder what more could go wrong? In the midst of all of this, my father is causing huge problems. Our aide is ready to quit on us, as he's just nasty to her, and screams at her to get out of the house. On monday 5/2, I get a call at 730 a.m. that he was throwing her out. Despite the fact that I was in the middle of trial and had a jury coming back at 10:30, I went charging over there to maintain the peace. I was successful, was able to make it back to court, but was so stressed the rest of the day that I was near-useless. Luckily, my defendant took a plea. I have no idea what would have happened had she not.
We still have our aide for now, but I know its just a matter of time. I doubt my dad will get better and stop. Our aide is getting at the end of her rope. One can only take that type of environment for so long. I have no idea how this will all end up. She'll probably quit, and we'll have to find a new aide...which will require me to go over there and meet them, interview them, probably stay there a night or two. I could go on and on about these problems, but I'm just so sick of it all, I don't even blog about it much anymore. Even that stresses me out. So instead I escape with D@ncing with the stars, @merican idol, Glee, etc. Mindless entertainment is all I can do at the moment. That plus hanging with T.
So...on to better news:
Hope you all have a great week.
Did I ever mention how we celebrated? It was really sweet. T woke me up, and made me wear a sparkling pink cardboard crown (similar to the old burger king crowns from when I was young). I then had breakfast in bed consisting of a diet coke, and an eggo waffle. Of course, T wanted to horn in on this action, and made dotty bring her breakfast in bed with me. This was a HUGE thrill for T b/c while we don't have many rules in this house, a big one is no syrup in bed...for obvious reasons.
T has been trying to squirm her way around that rule for a long time, and finally seized the opportunity. So, there we both sat, propped up on pillows, eating our waffles and syrup. With Phineas and Ferb (a cartoon) playing the whole time. T then reminded me that cartoon network was having a Scooby Doo mother's day marathon on all day, and we could just stay in bed and watch it.
So add to that her homemade card and a keychain made at school (that's already broke), my day was complete.
What a great day!
We are officially back in business. Last weekend we made an encore appearance at the skating rink. T has gotten so good that she actually braved the big kid rink, and didn't stay in the middle section. She's really getting good!
She was itching to go b/c an acquaintance gave her a pair of roller skates. They are way big for her, but that doesn't seem to matter. We took them over to Grandma's house, and she was busy skating around the neighborhood. 
She also constantly wears them in the house. Now that she's gotten so good, I don't worry about her falling in the house as much, and breaking her head open on furniture. The kid knows no fear.
You think news of the long form birth certificate and a certain terrorist's death were big news? I beg to differ!
I bring you news even bigger! After 6 long LONG years, my defendant finally took a plea late Monday. 28 days jail followed by 1 yr of house arrest follow by 4 years probation. Special conditions of it all is that she pay back the damn $$, pay costs of investigation and prosecution, and never apply for or work for an entity that receives grants.
DONE!
Of course, it was not without its drama and the plea was PAINFULLY slow in coming, but at the end of the day, I gave a little and she gave a little. Neither of us were 100% satisfied with the plea, which usually means its a good one. It also helped that I pulled an old prosecutor's trick and had most of my witnesses, (10 of them) lined up sitting outside ready to testify. The defendant's sister came out a few times to see who was in the hit parade of witnesses, and was reporting back to her.
Hasta la vista, baby!
Seemingly overnight, all of T's shoes are too small. Her sandals are all OK, but the real shoes? too small. I first realized the problem at Easter, when all her dress up shoes (size 11) wouldn't go on her foot. We finally shoved on a pair that I had purchased in Dillards 3 years ago in Tampa. They fit, but just barely.
Today, T went to work with me in the morning. Again, we searched her closet for shoes and even her school shoes (size 11.5) were small on her. 8 days off of school, and suddenly her shoes don't fit. We went rushing out to the outlet mall this afternoon, only to discover...
The frickin striderite outlet doesn't have ANY patent black schoolshoes for girls. None. Zip. Nada. I can't tell you how annoyed I am. Lesson for the future: buy two pairs at teh beginning of the school year, one 1/2 size too big. Luckily, zappos has free shipping and free return shipping, so I'll probably get them from there...if I can find her size. So far, most are sold out.
I wonder if she's about to grow?
