Happy Birthday Dada!

Today is Clarky's 27th Birthday! Yeah! For a little while I'm only a year older than he is ;) Clark's fam came over and we had spaghetti & meatballs. I told him I would make him anything he wanted for dessert and he wanted funfetti cake. So as requested, I supplied a beautiful, double layered, yummy birthday cake. Clark has been wanting an over the seat organizer for his truck. When he has Izzy, he has nowhere to put toys, books, etc. for her. He thought the over the seat option would be perfect for him & her. So guess what the baby girl gave her Daddy for his birthday? I gave him a card and some money b/c he wants some parts for his car and I would never be able to buy those. Even though I hate giving money, I think it's impersonal, I know he's ultilmately going to get what he really wants. My Mama & Daddy got him a memory card reader for his computer and a paintball mask, which was also from Marshall. The bad part is Clark had also told his Dad he needed one. So guess what? Yep, Clark now has two masks. Pap said he would exchange his for something else; I suggested maybe paintballs. YaYa is out of town this weekend, so I'm sure he'll still be celebrating for the next week or so ;)

Izzy colored Dada's wrapping paper all by herself! Doesn't she have great handwriting?
Really could they look anymore alike? They've even got the same expression! Geez! I guess I'll give him a break though since it's his birthday.

I am Heartbroken...but NOT Defeated!

An article similar to this was on the front page of today's local paper (why the Courier-Tribune's article is not online I'm still not sure):

Cuts: Support Our Students program

After-school programs for middle-schoolers could lose funding.
Started in 1994, the Support Our Students program has provided grants to provide after-school programs to at-risk kids. It is currently administered by the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice.
The $5.9 million program is among 20 that Gov. Beverly Perdue proposed eliminating as part of her $21 billion budget.
During the 2007-08 fiscal year, the program served 14,333 youth in programs run in 92 counties by local schools and nonprofits. Programs include homework, conflict management skills and recreational activities such as basketball.
"We know the prime time for juvenile crime is between 3 and 6 o'clock, right after school," Juvenile Justice spokesman William Lassiter said.
An annual evaluation of the program conducted by an outside agency found that 86 percent of surveyed youths said it helped them do better in school and nearly half improved their math and language arts grades.
Only 1.3 percent were involved in the juvenile justice system at year's end.

My first thoughts were; "What are my kids going to go?", "Where are their parents going to do?" and then they moved to my staff, "What are they going to do", and finally my own family, "What if I lose my job?" Answer: We will lose everything. It is a very simple answer to a very complicated, not yet validated question, but a very real possibility. So yes I have shed some tears today, but to my great shock and probably to yours as well, not many. Instead, my protective-mothering instinct has taken the reigns and that very stubborn side of me (that my husband and family find most of the time to be very annoying) is in all-out attack mode (they don't think it's as annoying now)! I have already written a letter to the editor of the Courier Tribune (although I'm not sure if I can legally have it printed-maybe anonymously?) and a letter to SOS Parents, Students, Staff, Principals, Volunteers and Community Partners asking them for letters of support written to our Congressman. This is my letter (I don't know all the stats there in my info at the Y-that's why there are blanks):

March 24, 2009

Dear Editor,

In the front page article, “Programs for kids face cuts” on March 23rd, it was reported the Support Our Students program is one of 20 that has been proposed by Governor Bev Perdue to be cut from North Carolina’s budget. This program was nominated for deletion because according to Perdue, it is either “inefficient, too expensive or nonessential.” In Randolph County the Support Our Students (SOS) program is managed by the Randolph-Asheboro YMCA. The grant funding is allocated from the Department of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention (DJJDP). The YMCA uses the funds to operate an on-site after school program at South Asheboro Middle, Uwharrie Middle, Randleman Middle and Southeast Randolph Middle Schools and a portion of the SOS funds are used for the YMCA’s Xtreme Teens summer camp program.

In 2008 the YMCA SOS program served over _____ youth by providing them with a safe and supervised environment during those crucial after school hours from 3 to 6 pm when most juvenile crime, teen sex and drug usage occurs. These students are provided with positive alternatives such as; homework assistance, the NC Cooperative Extension Randolph Co. Center Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) program, community service projects and group activities to occupy this time. Also in 2008, 16 teens were granted scholarships with SOS funding to attend the Y’s Xtreme Teens summer camp where again they were in a safe and supervised environment, but they were there all day participating in community service projects for the Christians United Outreach Center, field trips, swimming & splash pad fun, team-building activities, sports, as well as, weekly programming provided by Randolph County 4-H, Partnership for a Drug Free NC and Healthy Minds, Healthy Children. Over the course of the eight years the Randolph-Asheboro YMCA has operated SOS over _______ Randolph County youth have been touched by this program, over ___% of those students raised their Reading/Language EOG scores and ___% raised their Math. While in the program, 100% said they would not be supervised after school if it wasn’t for SOS and that they felt safe & liked by their SOS peers and counselors.

This is just a sampling of how the Randolph-Asheboro YMCA SOS program has impacted the youth of Randolph County. When it comes to children, especially the middle school population that doesn’t have many alternatives after school or during the long days of summer; none of these details is “inefficient, too expensive or nonessential.” However; if Governor Perdue’s proposed budget is approved by the Legislature, the effects on the juvenile justice system for not having the SOS program available to prevent youth from being involved in dangerous and risky behavior, would be very inefficient and expensive due to the elimination of one very essential youth program.

Sincerely,

Celena R. Fleming
Randolph-Asheboro YMCA
Community Development & SOS Program Director

Pray for me, my family, my "kids & parents", my staff and my program! We're gonna need it!

Roid Rage :)

No, not really (I think that requires long-term usage). Let me explain; as many of you know, I've been having some serious pain, swelling, numbness, cramping, stiffness, bruising, etc. in both of my thumbs (it's worse in my right hand though). These problems have caused much sleeplessness, crankiness, aggravation, and the inability to perform daily tasks. The pain started out of the blue in early August. I was referred to an orthapedic specialist here in Asheboro in October. He did NOTHING, ZELCH, NADA, for me. Although everyone had told me I needed a shot of cortizone-including my mother who was a nurse for an orthapedic hand specialist for three years-he would NOT give me one. And even though my hands, the day I went to see him-were swollen and bruised down to my wrist. He gave me a splint for the right hand and a RX for naproxen sodium (Aleve) in 500mg. Guess what? I've never filled it; I just continued to buy regular Aleve and take two! *SHOCKER* Then I discovered Clark had Osteo Biflex for his carpel tunnel and I started taking it thinking, "what could it hurt?". The pain was gone within a couple of weeks and I've not had any more trouble...until two weeks ago. I've been taking the Biflex twice a day since Oct., but for some reason the pain came back only about 10 times worse. I sware if it hadn't been snowing that weekend I would have gone to the ER. It was awful I was icing them, wearing the splint (even on the left hand), taking way over the recommended dosage of Aleve and Biflex, soaking them in warm water, massaging them with oil; you name it, I did it. So my mom made an appt for me with the hand specialist she had worked for. Why I didn't do this in the first place I will never know! So I met my dad at their place and he drove me to Pinehurst Thur. AM (just in case he decided to do both hands-but again the right was worse). He took apprx 10 xrays, the Asheboro doc only took like 2 and did a physical exam. I have some early signs of arthritis (which I pretty much knew-based on my own research-not from the Asheboro Dr) , but that's not causing the pain, I have some major inflammation in the right hand-not as bad in the left. So he recommended a shot of cortizone in the right hand, a steroid pak, and anti-inflammatory to follow the steroid pak. He said the roids and the anti-inflammatory should take care of the left hand. Which is good. The nurse came in and numbed the right hand, which is very long slow process, then I waited about 20 minutes and the doc came in to give me the cortizone shot. So he says, "you're going to feel some pressure." Then he asks, "are you good and numb there." I reply, "oh yes, definately." He says, "the reason we numb is that's a very tiny joint we're trying to get into there and we don't want you feel any pain." Not really having enough time to process what he just said; he holds my thumb by the tip with his left hand and says, "ok gonna feel pressure" and administers the shot with his right. I QUICKLY realized what he meant by 1.) "pressure" and 2.) "tiny joint and we don't want you to feel any pain." To get into that "tiny joint" he has to maneuver your thumb with his left hand and feel around with the needle-in your hand-until he gets into the joint in order to shoot the cortizone in. It's the wierdest feeling...and I wouldn't exactly call it pressure, but on the positive side it's not the worst pain I've ever felt. In fact, I just tilted my head back and closed my eyes. I thought about the pain I was in two weeks before and how this was nothing compared to that. When he got in the joint-I knew it and then it was over. Both hands are doing much better and I've started my roids. I told Clark I was going to big & strong and kick his butt ;) Really, I'm just trying not to puke-you have to eat something with each dose (which the first day alone you take 6 pills in 4 different doses). Hopefully, this is the answer to my prayers. We will see how I'm doing in a month when I go back for a check-up!

Mommy the Brave!

This past Wednesday morning it was warm, sunny and beautiful when Pap came to get Izzy. I walked them out the truck, gave Izzy a kiss & hug and came back inside to finish getting ready for work. As I was closing the door behind me, the Lord told me to look up and I saw a spider hanging from my candelabra on my armoire. At first I was p.o'd because Clark and I had just cleaned our house from top to bottom last weekend, but then it hit me that it wasn't any old house spider. I turned on the overhead light and went to get some paper towels and a chair from the dining room. Standing in the chair, I stared at this spider trying to see if suspicions were true, and as it hung there suspended by a single thread of web I finally saw the red spot on her butt. She was a BLACK WIDOW, in my house, where my 18 mo. old baby had stood below her only minutes before! I was shaking so bad I could barely stand on the chair. A million thoughts were racing through my head; what if I hadn't seen her, what if she had bitten Izzy, what if she bites me, what if she gets away while I'm trying to kill her and is loose in my house? Finally, I thought I have got to pull myself together b/c if I don't-she will get away or bite me-I was shaking almost uncontrollably. I still had on flip flops from taking Izzy out and I took off the right one. Then, she started spinning some more of her web and I thought I better take off the other one too. I went at her with the right one first and she went CRAZY! She had to have been biting my flip flop-she was all over it like white on rice. Next, I knocked her off her web with my left flip flop, but she quickly climbed up on the toe. She couldn't have been more than 5 in from my hand. I took the right flop and mashed her into the left one! She was dead as a door nail, flat as a pancake, belly-up! *Shew* it was over, only I could NOT stop shaking. The thoughts of what could have happened were driving me crazy. How did she get in here in the first place? Where was she while we were cleaning Saturday? Why was she in the living room right out in the open and not outside in some weeds or a woodpile? Was she going to lay her egg sac? I had her in a paper towel after I had gotten her off my flip flop. I folded the paper towel over her and wrote on the outside what was on the inside. I knew that if I didn't keep her-Clark and Marshall would NEVER believe me. I could just hear them saying, oh you might have thought it was one, but it wasn't, it was probably a false widow. But I had proof, a DEAD black widow spider complete with a red butt and red spot on her belly-and I killed her all by myself!

Rainy Weekend Fun!

While Daddy has been very sick this weekend and the weather is nasty; Mommy has had the task of entertaining Izzy and keeping her away from Daddy and doing the chores. So while Izzy was napping yesterday afternoon I remembered the Disney Princess tent Ya Ya & Mike had given her for her birthday. When she woke up we set it up and added the essentials: play kitchen, Dora chair & babies-with bassinet and stroller. We played inside for the better part of the afternoon and then Marshall & Kaylee joined in the fun today...

Then, I put Izzy in Kaylee's rainboots. Too FUNNY!

Another hard day at the office...

So, lately I have very few nice things to say about my job, actually I don't think I've had anything good to say at all. Let's face it when you work in non-profit you are over-worked, under-paid, and under-appreciated, but those are all things you know going into this field (or you figure it out really quickly and get out while the gettin' is good). Needless to say, 6 years later I'm still there despite those drawbacks, and today was one of those days when I remembered why...

(See how hard I worked today?)

This is one of my little 4 year old babies and the Lincoln Log House that we built today. One of my other girls helped also, but she wouldn't let me take her pic! County schools were out today; it was just me and four girls for most of the day, so we did whatever their little hearts desired. Later, we played soccer...yea, guess who did most of the running, kicking, etc? I'll give you a hint, it wasn't the girls. After the city kids got there we played cards and I think they got one...or two over on me. I've never played rummy quite the way they played it and I've never even heard of a card game called "garbage" until today. Hmmm...anyway, the moral of the story is I left the "work" on my desk and enjoyed my job for the first time in a long time.

Brrrrrr...rabbit

This is the view from our front door today! Actually, some of it has melted since this morning. It is only supposed to be 14 degrees here tonight! Brrrr....