Pet Care and Dead Fish

I started blogging regularly just over a year ago, mostly for my Mum. I wanted her to have access to our lives, and my thoughts. Her eyesight wasn't that great, but it was good enough for her to enjoy the pictures and stories. Once she passed away, I let go of my goal to post every week. Before long, I noticed I missed organizing my thoughts and putting them "out there" for the 20 people who read my blog. I'm not sure I'll write weekly, like I had, but I do plan to write more often than I have been.


DBSA
I wish, more than anything, I had saved the source of this comment. I was reading an article about mental illness and could really relate to what was said. I look forward to a time when our society and the medical world will have a greater awareness and understanding of what it is like to have a mental illness. I think effective treatment will increase and there will be a lot less needless suffering.

"Cancer vs. Mental Illness? I read this in a ListServ email. It was written by a woman who has experienced both:

"People tell me how brave I am for fighting cancer. Cancer has great PR, but the hardest thing I’ve done is overcome mental illness.

"When you have cancer, mostly all you do is show up: the doctor’s tell you what to do and where to be and you go and they manage the rigors of treatment. Meanwhile, you are surrounded by the support of those around you, labeled a fighter or a warrior or a survivor, and you fight the battle with those you love around you.

"When you have mental illness, you have guidance – which is often limited – from your doctors, you manage most of the rigors of your treatment – including figuring out what is going to save your own life – on your own. Meanwhile, you can’t tell anyone about your disease – and, if you do, you risk being yelled at, ostracized, judged, beaten, spat upon, abused, and raped. (Many of those have happened to me.) Your treatment, if you end up in the hospital, may include practices that the UN calls torture."

I LOVE my DBSA group. I look forward to our meetings because I am with people who know what it's like to have a mental illness, because they have one too. 

Quotes

"I've seen commercials of family members holding dog tags reminiscing of their loved ones. I wonder if my kids will think "Branch Davidian" as religious preference was as funny as I thought it was? You really should have seen the face of the guy typing it in when I deadpan told him it wasn't funny, I was serious."  Eric Forrest, Veteran

Work
We had PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Reading for College and Careers) testing this week and it was..... a challenge. First of all, I don't know anything about this test or its importance, but during the training, it sounded like a life and death test, FOR THE TEACHERS, not necessarily the students. We had a lot of computer issues; students unable to login, students being kicked out of the test, computers unable to load the pages. One of my teachers was the most stressed I have ever seen. Then again, knowing some of her students inability to follow simple directions like, "don't press this button until I tell you to." AND, then the student says, "this button?" and presses it, I can understand her anxiety. However, we made it through the three days of testing. 

Here is the one thing that made me laugh out loud. The timing really couldn't have been any worse. A fish died. Now, I realize that may not sound like a big deal, but some of the girls next to the tank noticed it, just before the test started. There wasn't time to take care if it before the test, so I told them to do their best to ignore it and we'd take care of it afterwards. Well, I didn't know fish were CANNIBALS!! During the test, the other fish in the tank were pecking away at their poor, dead buddy. It was DISGUSTING! Thank goodness the students near the tank were capable of ignoring it. 

That's Just Embarrassing
So, I have a pair of pants that have developed an unreliable zipper. So sad. One day, I walked around school for.... I don't know how long, with my zipper down. Sigh.... 

O Speaks

My Dad is coming to visit before long and we are going to vacation with him. We have 2 hotel rooms reserved for our trip.

M - "O, you can sleep in Grandpa's room if you want."

O, who had spent a week with him this summer, - "I kind of have to tell you, Grandpa SNORES..... I couldn't sleep. I was the worst day of my life."

O - "Mom, can I play with C?"
M - "No, it's time to get in the shower?"
O - "What?"
M - "Ya, it's 6:30."
O - "Daylight savings SUCKS!"

We've been living in our house for 2, close to 3 years, and we haven't painted or done anything "fun" with it. One of my things to do this year is to paint a room, so, when we had some snow days, I decided to paint O's room, and set her up with matching decor and bedding. I started my project while she was on a playdate. So, she was surprised when she came home. AND, she let me know, she HATED the color I had chosen and was very obvious about it. (Oh, to be an only child.) It wasn't until another day, when she was away and I finished it, that she came home to the grand reveal. THEN, she told me it was the kind of pretty she liked. She came with me to pick out the rug and the piggy bank and now she feels like she's decorated the room.

Speaking of snow days, we've had a lot of them, and when it snows, we are stuck at home. Fortunately, our snowblower is working this season so we we're not stuck for long. O had so much fun getting sprayed. 

We also spent some fun on the sledding hill. She was pretty daring and went off a jump twice. 

The other day I swept under the sofa and found these treasures. 

Traces of O.

O has been trying to get customers for her pet business. She will petsit them and/or groom them. She has created a blueprint of the shop she hopes to open at the top of our property. I love the blueprint. If I could find it, I'd take a picture and post it, it's really well thought out. My favorite part of her building is the "time out" room for the animals. 

No one really takes her seriously, which makes me sad because she is very serious about it. 

I joke with her perhaps it has something to do with her marketing brochure. She doesn't think I'm funny.