Autumn's Eyes

Alex's 12th Grade Project...

2011-02-04T21:04:00.001-05:00

Here is the website he just built, on his own, for his 12th grade project... enjoy and keep checking back. Our son, the artist!

http://www.wix.com/ale261/volsung-saga

Junior Internship...nothing like last minute!

2010-11-03T13:42:00.003-04:00

The Junior class at Emerson Waldorf School have to do one week of an internship every year. Last year Alex did his week internship with an art therapy school learning about art therapy. It has helped bolster his desire to seriously continue on that career path and is now looking into colleges that would help support him.

Jared mentioned last year that he was interested in becoming a police officer and wondered whether they took on interns. At the time I advised him that we would check into it but that he should consider a second option just in case that was not possible. Well, time got away and before we knew it school started up this year.

We eventually got in contact with the Hillsborough Police Department - and though they did do internships in the administrative side, they did not do internships with the actual police. And, because of some event that was happening in October the particular week Jared needed was not possible. They did have a program called The Explorer Post which was a year commitment for two Saturday's a month learning about becoming a police officer. We had nixed the idea in the beginning because it did not fit the criteria the school wanted.

So, we moved on to the Chapel Hill Police - who had an internship but it was for 17 and 18 year olds and it was a year commitment - not old enough. So back to the drawing board.

We attempted to contact his back-up choice of Architect but we were having no luck on any local places being available that week either.

So we asked to see if the Explorer Post would work in lieu of the one week - as I felt a whole year had to be much more worthy and education than just a week. At first we were advised yes, then we were advised no, that he still needed something for the week of internships. And now it's the Thursday before the internship is supposed to start!

Luckily for me I happened to complain to just the right parent at our school about the whole thing and she said, "How about the sheriff's office? I happen to know the sheriff and his daughter. Let me check on that!" And off she went.

Well, it was incredibly last minute, Sunday as a matter of fact but she called back and said that Jared was all set to start on Monday at the Orange County Sheriff's Office in downtown Hillsborough.... Yipee!!!!

Jared had an awesome week and really seemed to enjoy himself! He went out a couple of times cruising a rougher neighborhood with some of the inspectors, learned about finger prints and how to lift them off objects with different devices, he saw an interview, went to the court, went to the jail, and also saw many old weapons from old cases that had not yet been destroyed. He also did a lot of filing for them and got to see lots of graphic photos of some of the cases the different inspectors had worked on over the years. All-in-all I think he had a great experience and that this has strengthened his desire to become a law enforcement agent of some kind.

He is still going to start the Explorer Post as well and see how where that takes him over the next year. I can't wait! I'm very happy to see him so happy, engaged and interested in something so noble!

Heartbreak and Heartache...

2010-10-11T09:17:00.002-04:00

There's always something new to experience as a parent but, even though I knew this might happen eventually, I was saddened that it happened so soon. This is one of those things that you cannot truly fix and make better as a parent - you have to watch your son or daughter from the sidelines, giving love when you can, but really, just watching them work through it (hopefully) and eventually moving on.

Jared's girlfriend Ashley broke up with him after about 6 months of dating. Her reasons were not truly understood and a bit confusing which only hurts more. I think it would be better to say the hard things then to say "I need space. I think we've grown as much as we can. I still want to be your friend." sigh.

But at 16 it's hard to truly say what it was about the other person you didn't like anymore - or maybe never liked - so they try to break up "nicely" and try not to hurt the other's feelings. I get that, but it's hard to grasp from the other side.

It breaks my heart to know that Jared had opened up so much from meeting Ashley - playing games that he would normally not have played, read books he would have NEVER read, seen movies he would have never seen, for his girlfriend because it made her happy and he cared enough for her to want to make her happy. To see him hold her hand and make her laugh; to see him go to the hospital, if only for an hour or two to keep her company and make her feel loved and cared for to be told the above. They had never even fought, not once in the 6 months they were together. She seemed to constantly want to get together with him and then not want to leave when it was time to go home. So this is a difficult switch - as if someone just turned her off - and it's hurting my son.

There's nothing I can do but offer my love and listen if he wants to talk - there's no words of wisdom to impart on this one as I don't understand why Ashley did it. If she had said "You are to pushy about wanting to have sex." or "We never do what I want but only what you want." I can give him words of wisdom of how to grow and change. But to say, "Maybe you cared too much for her?" just doesn't seem right. So it's, "You didn't do anything wrong. There's something wrong with her." Which doesn't make it any better or any easier.

This one's tough for me because I've always loved my role of "fix it and make it better" with boo-boo's and the such. But, this is one boo-boo that I can't truly fix... and it breaks my heart.

Welcome to senior year in a waldorf school!

2010-09-23T10:53:00.002-04:00

So the year has started off with a bang! Alex's class went to Maine for a zoology block trip to a place called Hermit Island! It sounded like it was a blast and I think Alex really enjoyed himself and learned a lot. The best part about this trip is that they spent it with 7 other waldorf high schools and about 100 senior waldorf students. So they know they aren't the only "weird waldorf" students out there! Alex made friends with a few students from the Toronto Waldorf School and had them on his facebook shortly after he got back, as well as the Atlanta Waldorf School. I'll post a link to the photos later.

Then we have the college visits starting up in which Alex is now looking at Guilford (Greensboro, NC) and possibly Brevard (Asheville, NC - Kim, the mountains, where we were when I was in white water rafting hell!). So we shall see how the year progresses. For now it's starting to work on scholarships - which will be a learning curve for all of us. Jared doesn't know how lucky he is that we'll be skilled for next year! HA!

We are still only a one car family so the guys have not had their practice to finish up their licensing sadly. I keep hoping it will be soon to get a 2nd used vehicle...sigh. So it's lots of driving them around for their dates and outings.

I stepped up to be the class parent for 12th grade - for those of you who know Waldorf you know that's a big job... and even bigger for 12th grade as we still have their end of year trip we need to earn money for and their graduation... wheee. So, fundraising here we come!

Jared will be starting up his internship next month for his Junior year. At this point he is still interested in being a police officer so he need to contact them this week to see if that's possible. If it is not then he next choice is Architect - don't see the correlation but at least he has a second option and either of them sound interesting to me! I think he would be great at both but we'll see what comes of it all!

Alex has his senior project as well - which is a big deal at our school. They use most of the year working on it and then in the spring they will have a presentation night to talk about their project to the community (parents, other students, etc). His project is creating a Graphic Novel - from the story creation, art work, lettering and inking - truly a huge project! He is hoping that it is worthy enough for publishing at the end. And he has found a alum parent who used to do that for a living as his mentor and we are very excited about it! It fits Alex perfectly! He was so excited about it that he started this summer with working out his idea and starting on the story line - so he's off to a great start!

I completely skipped over summer but I will get back to it at a later post and talk about my great week vacation at the beach with my sister - but for now I wanted to get all of that out there before time slipped by and we were on to the next thing in life!

Kelley

Money Anyone??

2010-04-18T15:19:00.001-04:00

So after reading the sob story below does anyone have about $4,000 they would like to donate to the Wiley Clan??

Vehicle Headaches....

2010-04-17T19:18:00.003-04:00

I think everyone knows that we bought a brand new car on new years eve day. And when doing so we let our poor 4runner, as he was aptly named "Beast" have a nice respite - waiting to save up enough money to take him in for some highly needed work - and for us to be a 2 car family again.

Well, we did that over our spring break - giving Toyota our truck and telling them we were not in a hurry. They found that it really needed a tune-up and that it definitely needed the O2 sensors replaced (which we were already aware of). But, Beast dumbfounded the service people -after they took care of all those things it was still not running right and it took them about 3 more days to figure it out.

The sad news is we had to pay $500 for the above items to find out that one of the cylinders is bad and though the Beast is running, roughly, that eventually he will die and that it is not worth fixing it or replacing the engine. So, today we went and picked up the dear Beast and left our new Corolla there for it's 5000 mile check up and its gas pedal recall - drove home and waited for them to call us back to go back and get our car.

Beast was running rough but seemed to be just fine and got us home - and 3 hours later got us back to the Toyota dealership for us to get our car back. But it was almost out of gas so Shannon dropped me off to get the car and he took Beast away to gas up and meet me at home.

I got back home - pulled out the vacuum cleaner and was cleaning the inside of the car - making her all shiny clean for my hubby when he got home - but, alas, he never came home. He called from a payphone from the gas station stating that after gassing up the Beast it would not start again. After trying to jump it with the help of a kind citizen, it still wouldn't start. It seems that the fuel pump fuse had shorted or exploded. So I drove back past the Toyota dealership, which was now closed, and hung out with the truck while Shannon went to see if he could buy a new fuse from an Auto Zone or wherever. Sadly, the truck is old enough they don't carry the proper fuses but Shannon bought one that might work.... it didn't.

Another $80 later we have had the Beast towed home - with no hope in sight for us ever using it again. Now all we can hope is that someone will want to buy it off us and come tow it away for parts...

Goodbye Beast...

Hello one car family... AGAIN! Maybe some day we'll have two vehicles working at the same time!

First snow of the winter

2009-12-23T06:42:00.002-05:00

Believe it or not we actually had our first snow of the winter, and before Christmas! I was totally shocked that it happened, but there you have it. And there's no such thing as global warming...riiiiight!

I think we only have a couple of photos and I haven't d/l'd them yet off the camera so I'll share those later. But what I wanted to share is how much fun it was to watch our teenage sons, 15 & 17, along with their good friend Sasha who is either 16 or 17 go romping out to PLAY in the snow. They were having snowball fights, rolling around and tackling each other in the snow and then running through the neighborhood chasing each other and yelling and throwing snow balls at the street light.

Shannon and I were out in the hot tub hearing them in the distance and they were the only sound in the neighborhood oddly enough. Otherwise it was that peacefulness that seems to occur when it snows. No animals making any noise or moving around, and it was the kind of snow that just was coming straight down in big fluffy flakes, with no wind. It was quite peaceful and beautiful! Thank you mother nature!

I Can't Decide...

2009-11-07T11:26:00.005-05:00

...whether to write by person or by time line...and I never know who may still be looking at this since it's been forever since I last posted - but I'm feeling the need to write again so here goes...by time line...

So school kicked off at the end of August and went right into cross country for Jared and Alex. It has been a lot of fun attending the meets and cheering them on and watching them both improve incredibly over the last 2 months. I think doing the individual competitions has been more exciting for them than the team ones, since our team is very small. But considering that this is the first official year for having a varsity high school cross country team 6 young men is not so bad of a start. Jared has really pushed himself and even impressed his coach. Last week when it was cold and started raining on them while practicing - the coach told the students they could turn around and head back to the school if it was too cold or continue on and finish the full run (which I think may have been a 5 mile run). And just when the coach thought Jared was going to turn around at the crosswalk and head back he pushed on and completed the full run! Jared came into my office soaked to the bone and shivering - the poor guy, but he did great! They have one last meet tomorrow that is an individual run as well - should be fun!

We then had our first week vacation in October in which the 5 of us went to Kill Devil Hills, NC. It was an amazing week full of beauty and relaxation with a little tourism and fun thrown in. For those who are not familiar with this area it is right on the coast, the Outer Banks, which is a long strip of sand that we humans have been crazy enough to build homes, businesses, condo's and hotels along. The condo's we stayed in were facing the Atlantic ocean and so the view was incredible every day. We swam in the ocean almost every day except for 1 day in the middle of the week because it was very cold and the ocean was pretty turbulent, and then the last day we did not swim either. Kill Devil Hills is also the location where the Wright Brother's took their first flight - so we went to the monument and got to see a replica of that first plane along with a couple of buildings - one they lived in and one the worked on the plane in. Then there was the hang gliding - which I think the video's can kind of speak for themselves. I'll post them on here later. It was a wonderful time and we hope we can go back again next year!

We had to leave our vacation a day early as the boys had their PSATs that Saturday and then Jared had to get packed up for this 10th grade curriculum week long trip. While Alex was finalizing his internship with the Art Therapy Institute.

So here I'm going to go into a proud momma moment with Alex. Out of all the students in his class he was the only one who completely cold called for his internship. The other students either did their internships with current or alumni parents or they interned at a place of business that their parents have friends or contacts in. So to me that first step was HUGE as some grown-ups cannot even do that - and he did it on his own. We googled Art Therapy and found the Art Therapy Institute in Durham and he grabbed the phone, called the number and left a detailed message. When he didn't hear back the next day he did it again and left his email that time, and sure enough he received an email and everything went forward from there. The other great thing is that instead of just a week internship, which is what our school requires, he is going to intern for the whole school year. He was originally supposed to work with some refugees children from Burma but because he would have had to leave class one day week that didn't quite work out - but he will be doing one-on-one work with a young girl named McKayla who has some issues (not sure what yet) but would benefit from art therapy. Alex will be starting the week after this one - as soon as his TB tests come back and we get a background check done - then he's all set! I'm very proud of him!

Alex also had his 17th birthday during that intern week - and though it was low-key I think he's enjoying his new birthday present (no, not a car) but a mini-laptop. It's pretty sweet!

Jared came back from a week of hanging out with his classmates and friends having learned about textiles. I think he was happy to be home and sleeping in his bed once again. :)

The boys also hosted a Halloween party at our house on Halloween. I think it was a success. We had 20 teenagers at our house from 6 until midnight and then the girls had to go home. We ended up with a total of 8 guys staying the night and boy, they were up late, until about 4am I think! There was loud music (boy those Bose speakers can really play loudly), lots of pizza and junk food and the hot tub - all was good!

We've received their interim grades so far this year and they are both doing awesome! Mostly A's with a couple of B's - so all-in-all they are doing great! Jared is in the midst of learning his lines for the 10th grade play, "You Can't Take It With You" and Alex is reading and discussing Parsival. And starting next week we move right into basketball season... yippee! It was so much fun last year that I cannot wait for this year. We have been allowed back on the league so there are many more games than last year and these games will be real ones - go Fighting Gnomes!!

So, as you can see, every day we are home very late, and now that we have fallen back in time it's pitch black by the time we get home. It's homework (prepping for Shannon), dinner, hot tub, and then one of our many netflix tv show addictions before going to bed to start all over again.

Shannon is doing well in his class - he just accepted a new student - Michelle Nelson. So he is at 24 students for this year. It sounds like there may be one more coming for a visit after our holiday break, but they won't be joining until 4th grade. He is knee deep in farming and dirt with his class - which is all fun!

I'm constantly kept busy in the office at school - besides my normal daily work stuff we are in the middle of an audit and trying to become accredited so I have taken on many other tasks that would not normally be mine to help things flow smoothly and get completed. I have given myself the nickname "Xena"! :) And just around the corner is re-enrollment - so it's never ending! I can honestly say that I am never bored at work - ever!

The guys are still practicing driving with their permits - but I don't think they are driving enough. We need to step that up some and Shannon and I need to become lazy and say we "just can't drive" and see how that goes?? I still think a defensive driving course would be the best thing for both of them so I need to take the time to research that and find out how much it will cost us...ugh!

I think that's all the news for now. I'm sure I missed some things along the way - but at least this is something.

Happy Martinmas everyone!

Asphalt Driveway

2009-07-08T15:50:00.002-04:00

Okay, this one is much newer... just happened today! We really wanted to do cement on our driveway but the cost was outrageous! It would have been 3 times as much as what we just paid for the asphalt. So, sorry all you "Save the Chip Seals" out there in AZ! ;)

New Living Room Furniture!

2009-07-08T15:46:00.001-04:00

Okay, so it's been 3 months since my last post and nothing has changed... NOT! Here are a few photos of our new living room furniture we got back on Mother's Day. It's awesome, comfortable and can seat 6 comfortably (not counting the old rocking chair). Enjoy!

What Does One Do in a Waldorf High School???

2009-03-13T17:58:00.007-04:00

Jared and Charlie standing next to their drawings of each other with pastels.

Jared's Fairy House!

Jared's Fairy house and Bennet's Fairy house!

Jared's, Bennet's and I don't know who's on the right...fairy homes in the fairyfield at school!

Can't you just see the fairies living there?! I can!

Eleven Days...

2009-03-13T17:32:00.002-04:00

So it's been eleven days since my last, very quick post of the picture of dot kitty and I'm not really sure what I should or need to write about. So this is going to be one of those ramblings of many different things about life... I guess.

Shannon's health is doing very well. Ever since he started the beta blockers his BP has been the most normal it's probably ever been his whole life. He has been hitting about 135/80 every day! So yipeeee!!!! He is getting weaned off the HCTZ as the Dr. doesn't think it's really doing anything for him. So that's good in the whole drug taking event.

I am hoping to finally finish up my training for the animal shelter tomorrow which will be nice to start doing. Alex, at this point, is still going through with it as well. I'm sure as time goes on that may change, but for now he is still interested in taking care of and helping animals in need. They are building their new animal shelter about 1.5 miles up the road from school so we'll be able to volunteer there and walk or bike to it on the days we do it which will be awesome!

Alex and Jared are doing well in school. It seems to be that they are enjoying high school very much and have a great experience with the classes they have and with their friends. We still have a few of the kids over every other weekend for xbox, basketball and just plain goofiness. Having 4 teenage boys every other weekend means going through a lot of food and drink! All-in-all everything is going very well!

The weather here is insane. New England has nothing on North Carolina - trust me on that. I honestly do not look forward more than 24 hours in the weather predictions online. Consistantly the weather cannot stay the same for more than 3 days. I know, I know, we haven't been trapped in snow, ice, snow, ice and more snow for the last 5 months but I know if I were living in NH or Cape Cod right now that I would expect, snow, ice, snow, ice... not 70's, 30's, 80's, 30's, 70's, 30's, 60's, 20's, within 3 days or less! HA!

The forcythia has bloomed, daffodills, crocus, and about 3 trees have bloomed and then freeze then back to blooming again?! And it's only March 13th! The bee's are incredibly confused the poor things! So be happy with your more consistent, albeit boring weather.

I'm sure I'll find my topic of venting or frustration soon but until then that's about it.

Our Dot Kitty

2009-03-02T08:42:00.002-05:00

Here is the last photo we took of our Dot kitty. It was on Christmas Day. Enjoy!

Xbox Dilemma

2009-02-22T09:51:00.003-05:00

So for many years I have been a huge proponent against the Xbox. I'm sure you're thinking, "Well of course you are since you are a Waldorf family." but that is actually not it. I think it started when I saw the movie "Bowling for Columbine" back when we lived on Cape Cod - and even though our boys are nothing like those two young men it just made this impression that there really is nothing good or redeeming about having an Xbox (or any of the other myriad of game consoles that one can sink their money into). Besides, we have our PC and a million games that the boys can play - some of them the same games that you get for Xbox.

Speaking of money, that is the other huge reason for never owning one. I cringe every time I look at how much a new game costs for one of those devices. They are as costly, or even more so, than a new game for our PC. So it just never seemed like a smart investment of our money, our time and our children's braincells.

Fastforward to our new life here in NC.

Ahh, high school! Even at a Waldorf school high school it is still full of hormones and laziness and strange desires for stupid and annoying things...like Xbox's. So for the first time one started coming into our life. Only on the weekends, and usually only every other weekend. One of the other boys that is good friends of both our sons owns an Xbox and also has 4 controllers.

So at some point last year as this "fun" continued to ooze into our house Jared really wanted an Xbox - and for the first time ever I actually started to consider purchasing one for him. Both Jared and Alex seemed to enjoy playing it with their friends. And though the one game that they played over and over (Halo) seemed pretty intense and violent they were mostly laughing and having fun. There was the occasional grumble or argument about someone "cheating" but they overcame their issues. So, because things seemed to be going well I decided to start looking into getting a used one (Ebay or Craigslist) as I was not about to pay full price for one.

Then the day happened - and thank goodness it did before I had purchased something.

Jared started getting stressed and angry and both Alex and Sasha. They must have been ganging up on him and it pushed him over the edge. He started yelling at Alex, I mean really yelling. He was shaking and incredibly angry. Of course, Alex and Sasha just didn't get the fact that he was upset and just continued laughing, which only made things worse. Luckily things never got physical - but I think they were close. He continued screaming at Alex and wouldn't stop. It took a threat from me to finally get him to listen. And that was it! No more thoughts of Xbox...no more Xbox in our house for awhile either.

Weeks went by with no Xbox coming over. Then, slowly it started coming back - with promises that the outburst and anger wouldn't happen again. All 3 boys tried to slowly convince me to give in and let the boys get their own Xbox and I was adamant that there was no way that we would have one of our own. I think my exact words were, "Jared can buy one with his own money if he wants to but it's never coming into our house." So Jared and Alex gave up asking, but Sasha continued for a short time - and then, eventually he even stopped asking.

They continued playing with Sasha's when he came over and one of the other boys, Kimani, also would play with them - so it was always the 4 of them having fun and never really getting angry or upset. They would stop and go out for a walk with the dog or bounce on the trampoline, any physical ways to blow off any stress and get moving. Things were going amazingly well.

Fast forward 5 months to just past this Christmas.

Alex had been having lots of opportunities for socializing with his classmates and having parties or going to the movies - things like that. Jared had a few offerings from one of his old classmates to go do things but unfortunately it was the one boy that we can't trust as he had gotten into some trouble in 8th grade and Jared had followed along - so there was no trust with this boy.

So, as time went by Alex was always getting "Yes" and Jared was constantly getting "No". As a parent I was truly starting to feel guilty and it was eating at me. I kept hoping that Jared would want to start inviting some of his classmates over to our house like Alex did or make plans to go see a movie - anything that didn't involve that one boy. But, Jared isn't as into the social scene as Alex. Jared knows that we would be happy to have the whole 9th grade over for a party if he wants (all 19 of them) and we would make it work - but he is not interested in it.

So the boys had been given money as a gift from their grandma and they were trying to decide what to do with it. So, after many months of silence and fair play with the occasional Xbox Jared came to me very grown up and kind and asked, "Could we please use our money to get an Xbox 360 that we can get online and play with Sasha and Kimani without them always having to come over?" I just couldn't say no this time.

And that was how the Xbox invaded our lives though they have very specific rules and understand that if they fight, argue or are not doing their homework then the Xbox is gone.

For My Atheist Friends

2009-02-11T18:54:00.000-05:00

Here is a good read about myths on atheists... it's worth reading!

http://www.alternet.org/story/126118/10_myths_and_truths_about_atheists_/

Last Week's Work Craziness....

2009-02-03T18:37:00.003-05:00

...on top of the health & tooth stress of poor Shannon, last week itself was just weird at school.

We had two subject teachers already out for the whole week that were needing to be covered and then all of the following happened...

So Monday was Shannon going from being at the dentist to the emergency room and me having to call into the office to say, "Shannon has a class to cover but he can't as he's at the ER." and the office staff stepped up to go find someone to fill in for Shannon for the rest of the afternoon. Yay office!!

Tuesday one of our teacher's was heading into work when she was in a head on car collision. Fortunately she came out fine, though sore, but her car was totaled!

Wednesday we had a 4th grader pass out in class first thing in the morning and hit his chin smack on the floor. He was fine but we had to call 911 and then our administrative assistant had to travel with the child to the emergency room. The boy was fine, though he needed 10 stitches on his split chin.

Thursday was another injury, though not quite as drastic, though possibly stitches needed in the mouth - I'm honestly not sure how that one ended up. The poor Admin. Assistant was left alone when that one happened.

Then Friday, fortunately no accidents or injuries, but it was the last day for re-enrollment contract to be turned it so it was just very crazy all day in the office.

Man was the weekend a welcome respite!!!!

Shannon Update

2009-01-30T17:32:00.002-05:00

So Shannon went into work Tuesday though he was still having a lot of tooth pain. He would take the perkocet later in the day, after main lesson, to alleviate the pain and not be fuzzy through main lesson. His blood pressure was still high, but it's "normal" high, which was bothering me because he was now taking blood pressure medication but it still seemed to not be helping much.

Wednesday after school he went back to his Naturopath and caught her caught up on Monday's event, hoping she could help us figure out how to get his blood pressure down enough for his Endodontist appointment for Thursday at noon. She had him double his blood pressure medication for that night and again in the morning along with taking his perkocet in hopes that would bring it down enough (safely) that he could finally get the work done that he needed on his tooth. We also asked her to go ahead and refer him to the Md. at the same business to start working on what blood pressure medications will get all of this under control. So he had an appointment with a new Dr. on Friday after school.

Thursday at noon was Shannon's much needed and very stressful dentist appointment. He felt as if his blood pressure had to be incredibly low with all the drugs he had taken in under 12 hours. Alas, it was still high, but not as high as Monday, and with a little coaxing the dentist was willing to get the work started. So an hour later he had his tooth drilled and filled with antiobiotics to start killing the nasty infection he has deep inside. (WHEW!) He has to go back to the dentist in two weeks for them to take a peek and then two more weeks (if the infection is gone) to finish fixing up the tooth (root canal we think).

That afternoon, when we got home from school early and his novicaine had worn off but the antiobiotics were obviously starting to take affect as his nose wasn't draining 1/3 as much he checked his blood pressure again and it was at a new all time low! Though, the next morning it was back up, but still not as high as it had been all this past couple of weeks.

So today we just got back from his Dr. appointment, and the Dr. was not only nice, kind and intelligent, but he was willing to say that he wasn't sure which blood pressure medication he should be on so he wanted to refer him to the other Dr. in this same place, who has a lot more experience to help us make the right decision. So, he has yet one more Dr.'s appointment next Thursday to help us decide whether a beta blocker or an ACE inhibitor is the right path to go.

Yipee, we are on our way to a safe recovery and a happier healthier Shannon who will be around for another 50 years!

There was much craziness in the office at school every day this week since Monday but I'll write about all of that later this weekend. Just know that Shannon is doing much better today! He's back to his happy-go-lucky self! Yipeeee!

Emotionally Exhausting Day

2009-01-26T20:56:00.003-05:00

Well, from last nights end of Dot kitty passing away to today I think I've squeezed the whole week into less than 24 hours!

Shannon has been having a tooth problem and I finally got him to see an Endodontist today, during school to start having the tooth worked on. After being sick almost all last week with a fever and cough, and then this tooth problem and then Dot dying last night it's no wonder what happened next...

The dentist decided that he needed to do some immediate drilling on his tooth to put some kind of antibiotic "fill" inside to get rid of the infection, and after announcing that he then needed to take Shannon's blood pressure.

It was so high that they thought their machine was broken so went and got another machine and took it a 2nd time, to no avail. They decided that not only were they NOT going to work on his tooth but that he needed to either see his Dr. or call his Dr. to see what they wanted to do. So they call his Dr.'s office, but she wasn't in, but they checked with another Dr. who said that he needed to go to a hospital right away.

Sigh

So, after getting a prescription for amoxicillan and driving directions to UNC Hospital and calling back to the school to say that Shannon would not be back for his next class because his blood pressure was so high....off to the hospital we went.

5 hours later with a 2 week high blood pressure medication and some sort of pain pill for his tooth we are now safely back at home.

Faculty and class parents were all very concerned...giving us quiche, soup and a casserole for dinner tonight and offerings of more food to come and even driving our boys to school tomorrow if we couldn't...all just an amazing community when emergencies are abound!

I had my first huge glimpse or flash of possibly loosing my husband...the man of my life...my soulmate...being gone...and it wasn't a lovely glimpse at all.

We will be resetting that dentist appointment tomorrow along with his Dr. and moving onto a regular Md. to get this high blood pressure undercontrol. I want Shannon around for another 50 years at least!

In exhaustion...Me

Audieu to our Dot Kitty

2009-01-25T20:36:00.003-05:00

It is with great sadness that I make this post tonight. Our most favorite, sweet, kind, loving, soft, happy, purr-fect companion, Dot Kitty has passed away tonight.

No traumatic car accident, no injury, no illness as far as we can tell, just her time to go. We thought she might have a cold as the past 24 hours she has not really been eating, which is completely not normal for Dot. But about 15 minutes ago Mary came into the living room with a frantic, "Come here now!" to Shannon. Dot was just outside her door and she was laying on her side, not moving. Shannon picked her up and as we talked about whether we should call an emergency vet Dot made one last kind of cough sound and stopped breathing...in Shannon's warm arms.

I don't have a photo of her on the PC but will put one on this blog later (probably tomorrow) in honor of the little kitten that Jared so badly wanted us to keep.

She was our boys first pet that has been with us for 10 years, from her birth until death. She will be greatly missed by all of us. We love you very much Dot!

Bragging Rights

2009-01-20T09:44:00.002-05:00

Okay, Alex just did a babysitting stint for a parent at our school and we received the following email:

Hi Kelley and Shannon-

I just wanted to let you know that I was quite impressed with Alex last night. I hesitated when he asked for $10/hr because we usually have a neighbor babysit for us who is the same age as Alex and has 6 siblings. I paid him $8/hr. He got the job done, but not much more. Alex, on the other hand, made dinner from scratch, had the kids in bed before we came home, emptied the dishwasher and cleaned up after dinner, and when Brian asked me how much to give Alex, Alex expected us to pay him less for the time after the kids were in bed. Wow! He was polite, the kids enjoyed his company, they listened to him (at least by Alex's report) and there was only one plastic spoon caught on fire (I haven't gotten the full story on this one yet). You did good!! Alex did, too.

So, I am wondering if there is a chance to set up a regularly scheduled "date night", once a month. And I will happily pay $10/hr.

'Nuff said.

Update on Ankle's and Volunteering!

2009-01-19T17:39:00.002-05:00

So we went back to the Dr.'s on Wednesday this past week after school and were advised that Jared was lucky. No fracture, no salter fracture, just a bad sprain. There has been no damage to his growth plate either. So he is supposed to wear his "boot" for 2 more weeks, then high tops tied for 2 weeks, then regular tennis shoes tied for 2 weeks and will be all set! Unfortunately that means no more basketball for the season, but he can go to practices and just practice shooting and go to any more games to cheer on his teammates - GO EAGLES! Fortunately we use arnica - which is a homeopathic miracle as far as I'm concerned and it's helping heal his foot up quicker than just ice and ibuprofen. So he may get a last chance to play in early February if he takes care of his ankles!

The boys had an SAC meeting two weekends ago but I'm not quite sure what's new. I am glad that they are a part of this event as I think it will be a great educational piece for themselves personally, for social issues, but also for any college entrances they may want to make in the future! I'll let you guys know more when I do.

The last piece is the volunteer time at the Orange County Animal Shelter. Alex and I went to our orientation last week and will be going to our training tomorrow night and then after that we can start volunteering 2 or 4 hours a week. The best news is that they are having a new building built less than 1 mile from our school. This should be done and open by the end of March and then we can walk from school to the shelter, and, eventually Jared can start volunteering if he wants too.

I have a piece of parent proudness but I wanted to copy and paste the email into the blog so that will have to wait! So for now, we hope everyone has had a good week. Happy MLK Jr. birthday! Tomorrow is another historic event - Hope and Change!!!!

Lazy or Just Busy?

2009-01-11T11:49:00.002-05:00

It feels like I just posted something on my blog but it tells me that it's been since January 2nd - 9 days ago?!?!

I wish I could say we have just been lazy but as I reflect back on this past week it seems that is not the case! This is not going to be one of my story posts about one particular event or happening this time. It's just about this past week in general which really isn't all that exciting, except the end of the week. So you can always scroll down if it's too mundane! :)

School started back up for all of us on Monday and it started off with a bang for me. We were without internet and email and we also have a very important letter that needed to go out to the parent community by the end of dismissal that day. On top of that there was projectile barfing from a 1st grader on our office carpet (she managed to miss BOTH trash bins that were next to her). So, needless to say it was a very long hectic day for me.

Of course, basketball continued so we were back to the late evenings again. We also found out that there were 2 new games added to the week on top of the one that had been planned for awhile. So Tuesday, Thursday and Friday were game days for Jared.

On Tuesday not only did we still not have internet and email at work but the database - which I use constantly - was not working. Talk about the week looking like it was going to last forever! There were also three different students coming in to share their sore throat germs with us...sigh. Luckily I had our wonderful parent volunteer get the database back up and running at some point during the day. But because of the wait I had work to do that went past my 4pm end time. Shannon had an even more interesting day as we he was supposed to be at a meeting after school, he now had Jared's basketball game that he should attend, and the one he ended up having to do which was help someone pack up all their stuff and load it up in their vehicle to take away.

So, sadly, we all missed Jared's Tuesday basketball game but Alex and I went and picked him up and went home, leaving Shannon behind because it was still going to be a couple more hours before he was ready to go home. Needless to say it was an incredibly long Tuesday.

Wednesday seemed to just build on the last two crappy days, at least in the office for me, with things only piling up and people around me seeming to be using software and technology that just shouldn't be allowed too! So, by 12:30 I was so incredibly frustrated at everyone's "stupidity" and the fact that the internet and email still weren't working that I had to just go for a very long walk. It was the best 2 mile walk and relieved all of my stress (thank goodness because I really was feeling the desire to just go postal)! And finally our high school Spanish teacher, who is also our IT tech support came in and fixed the internet and email, or at least we hoped. I also did my 2 mile walk again - and boy, what a difference it makes!

So I was able to finish out that day with patience and calmness until Shannon was done with the weekly faculty meeting and Jared's basketball practice was done. Yet another late evening home again.

(Mind you, the weather here for these past 3 days have been incredibly fun ((sarcasm here)) almost cloudy all the time with tons of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday it was cloudy with a lot of wind and in the low 60's!)

Thursday was mostly uneventful. I went around and helped administrative staff with using software. While doing this I have decided I need to find a way to make time to give classes this summer for both Excel and CRM (our database) - I just have to find the time.

Jared's basketball game was back in Bahama, which is almost an hour from our school. So by the time Shannon's weekly College meeting was done and we drove up there we missed the first half of the game. This is the team of hairy large thick young men that they played before the holiday break (my first basketball post). I found out that this team is all seniors, so varsity, not junior varsity like ours, and that they have been playing together for 4 years. So I actually felt proud that our team could even score points at all, let alone 25, which is what they did this time. Go Eagles! Home late again.

Finally Friday! It should have come much faster but, at least it got here! And with it no database and then no internet and email before 9am at work. Our IT guy was back and needed to use my computer so that left me, at first, twiddling my thumbs, and then eventually helping our Admissions with stuffing folders for enrollment - stuff, stuff, stuff.

By noon everything was back to normal and work went on as usual. The sun was finally out that day as well, so it just felt better in general. I also did my 2 mile walk yet again and then it was another basketball game to attend after school was out. Luckily this one was just up the road at Carolina Friends School.

So Alex, Shannon and I get over there just in time for the start of game and we are cheering on our team. A few more parents from both schools slowly started trickling in as the game continued. The Eagle's started off well but as time went on it seemed their stamina was wearing down quickly. They were not used to 3 games in one week.

Shortly after half time Jared is back out on the court and we were all following the ball action, which did not include Jared and when we looked back to where the ball action was heading there was Jared on the ground, trying to reach his left ankle and making an excruciating face and we were all trying to figure out what exactly happened?

After a few moments, when it was obvious he wasn't getting up the refs stopped the game and one of the coaches came over and helped him off the court. They put him on the bench for a few moments with some ice, but we could tell from the faces he was making that something was not right. The coach moved him into the room behind them where they can use a whiteboard to work on plays and closed the door. Alex asked if he should go check, and trying not to be a mother hen and go run and find out what was going on, I said that would be a good idea.

So, after a few minutes of Alex being gone and not returning I asked Kimani if he could go find out what was going on and report back to me. Kimani came back out and said that the couch thought Jared needed x-rays!

At this point I went over to the room and took a peek. Jared's left ankle was already completely swollen and starting to turn a light blue shade and he was really in a lot of pain - coming from my tough boy (high tolerance for pain). The coach said that he was concerned because of how quickly it swelled and also that Jared said he heard a popping sound that something just might be broken.

So we gathered up his things and Alex helped him out to the truck. I asked around to the parents where the best place to take him would be as this was our first emergency and luckily one of the parents said there was an urgent care just up the road that did x-rays. So I called to make sure they were open and then we headed on our way.

An hour later, of mostly waiting, it seems that there is something between a sprain and a fracture, called a "salter fracture". You can google it if you'd like. It seems that this is a very common injury for kids this age, especially when they plays sports (like basketball). But because the Dr. on duty was not an orthepedic Dr., only a general practician, he wanted Jared to come back later in the week during the normal operating hours of the place (which is an Orthepedic office) and have another x-ray done and the orthepedic Dr. to take a look.

So for now Jared is hobbling around with a "boot" (looks kind of like a ski boot) and is taking ibuprofin for when it hurts and we are using arnica and ice when needed. He will get to go back in on Wednesday after school and see what is really going on. In the mean time he has to wear the boot when he's going to be up and moving around (which is most of the time) and take it off for showers and bed.

To top it off we had Sasha and Kimani over that night after the game for a sleepover and then on Saturday they had to go to their S.A.C. training at the high school from noon to 3pm (this is part of that Social Inclusion program I wrote about a couple of months ago).

So, today is Sunday and now that I'm done writing about the past week I still wish I could say I was just lazy and didn't feel like writing but that wasn't the case.

New Year and Life Happenings

2009-01-02T09:50:00.002-05:00

So the big hit in the Wiley household is a computer game called Spore. For those who are not into computers or computer games you can go to Spores website here to learn more if you want. This is a mixture of a few different types of games that the guys love all put into one. We got the fancy space one so you can start out as an amoeba and evolve to the point where space travel is possible. It really is quite a fun and funny game - though not one that will be sucking my life or brain cells away any time soon. This is yet another game of multi-tasking, which I can't stand! I guess I do enough multi-tasking in my work life, and home life, that escaping into a multi-tasking game just isn't for me. But the guys all seem to be enjoying it so I think it was the number 1 gift from Christmas!

Alex is Mr. Socialite. We had a goodbye party for one of his classmates who was only in the class for a few months and is now returning to Austria. That was a couple days before Christmas. Then they had another goodbye party for her because two of the classmates were not here when we had our party. Then it was ice skating with K.T. for 3 hours (my ankles shudder in fear of that thought).

Then New Year's Eve both Alex and Jared went to a party to ring in the new year's with some of their classmates and friends - it was a party for families so we were invited as well. But, because our boys have to hang out with us so much of their lives - at school and when we are running and chaperoning the dances - we felt it was best to give them some social space.

So resolutions are always a big thing for New Years for a lot of people. I used to be one of those people but over the years have realized that a lot of the resolutions were to lofty or maybe I just did too many? Then I would be disappointed in myself when I didn't do them all or keep them. This time around I think instead of hitting myself with a lot of resolutions all at once I will just work on one thing at a time - baby step resolutions - to help myself grow and change. I'll let you know how that goes.

My first baby step is to try some volunteering OUTSIDE of our school. Because animals have been a long time passion of mine that is where I'm going to start. The Orange County Animal Shelter is near the school and because basketball is keeping me at school late every night I figured I could be using my time more wisely. Alex says he is interested in doing that as well so we are going to put in our applications and hopefully go to their next training session and go from there.

Only 3 more days and then it's back to the rat race. This has been the first time in 7 years that I have been able to spend the whole holiday vacation with my family and it has been the best! No having to take vacation time to do so or, worse, having to work while they are all home relaxing. I could get used to this! :)

Happy New Years to everyone. More to come later.

Some Fun Christmas Photos

2008-12-25T13:35:00.006-05:00

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas to All!

2008-12-24T19:25:00.004-05:00

So here it is, Christmas Eve. We have watched "It's A Wonderful Life" and are currently watching "A Christmas Story", which the guys are currently laughing it up, with the pink bunny outfit. If you haven't seen this movie then you have no idea what I am talking about - but it's quite funny!

To everyone who is even reading this tonight. Merry Christmas. We just finished up sugar cookies and icing (thank goodness the boys have much more patience than I ever did, even as a child). Wishing I had some of Grandpa's fudge at this very moment.

We will be having a Mexican Christmas tomorrow - food wise that is. Homemade tortillas, homemade enchiladas, homemade salsa... yum!

"Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings!"

Love all of you!

Proud Mom

2008-12-20T07:58:00.004-05:00

For those parents out there that have teenagers - for as much as you want them to talk to you, and tell you everything - there is somewhere deep down inside, that maybe you really don't want to know, just a smidge of you thinks that, at some point. That some how being oblivious is almost comforting?? Come on... admit it!

Well, there is nothing scarier than your 16 year old son saying the following words, "Mom...Dad...can I talk to you?" with all seriousness in his voice.

But, before anyone gets worried, like we did - there is NOTHING to worry about. Alex is just fine and this had nothing to do with him directly. Just want to get those fears out of your head now so that you aren't skipping to the end of my writing to find out. :)

Me, on the other hand... my heart sank into my stomach and all I could do was repeat in my head, "Whatever it is we'll figure it out. We'll get through it. Don't get angry."

He tells us that his girlfriend has been receiving some text messages from a 15 or 16 year old boy (who is NOT a part of our school ) saying that he had nothing to live for if he couldn't have her and that he was going to kill himself - and then sent an actual image on her phone with his hand holding shotgun bullets. *sigh*

This was last Sunday evening. Shannon and I stood there thinking while Alex continues, "This boy needs help and I want to help him." He also says he's worried for his girlfriends safety, that if the boy is willing to hurt himself who's to say he won't hurt her. Even though he's made no mention of actually hurting her.

This is serious. Not what I expected and not something that either of us are capable of dealing with ourselves. Then a light bulb comes on... we hired a new admissions director at our school, Mary, and I remember on her resume that she did a lot of volunteer work with suicide hot lines!

So we decide to call Mary and see if we can meet with her Monday morning before school starts to figure out what we can do to help this young man. I'm not going to use the boys real name, as it is not important to the story, but I'll call him T.J. so that I don't confuse the "he's and him's" in my writing.

I made it clear to Alex that Mary has a lot of experience in this and that she'll help us figure this out and we will do our best to help T.J. So he was able to relax a little and go about his evening business.

On Monday Alex and I met with Mary in her office and Alex told her what he knew and all his concerns. Mary said the first thing we needed to do was see if we could get his last name. So Alex was going to ask his girlfriend later that morning at school to see if she knew and I was going to go up to the high school at lunch to get it and see if I could find him online.

So at lunch time I went up and Alex got T.J.'s last name and which local public high school he went too. Luckily it wasn't a common name like Smith or Jones - so I got hopeful. I went back down to my office and start googling him.

He popped up as a student at the high school I was told so I decided to do a white pages look up of the last name in the town Chapel Hill to see how many adults I could find. Luckily I only found one set! But there was still no way to be sure that these were T.J.'s parents. So I googled the dad's name, but didn't get any good hits. Then I tried mom and the 2nd hit down was an obituary. I went to it and read all the living relatives - the mom and dad were listed and then, T.J. was listed as a grandchild. Score! I was 100% sure that these were T.J.'s parents.

So I wrote down their names and phone number and I also wrote down the main phone number to the high school not knowing what Mary would want to do. Mary returned from a tour and saw my notes and phone numbers. I quickly went through the process of why I was sure these were T.J.'s parents and then she closed her door to make some phone calls.

Some time later she had me come into her office and said that she first tried the school, but had to leave a message and that just didn't sit well with her since T.J. took an actual photo of him holding onto bullets that he was more serious than if they had just been thoughts. So Mary decided to call the home phone number I found and a man answered. She asked for the mom but she wasn't there so Mary asked if he was "Tom" (the father tho not his real name). He confirmed that he was so and that he had a son T.J. So Mary told him, who she was and what a student from our school had come to her with this morning.

Before I tell you the dad's response can I just say that there could have been so many possible reactions here. He could have been angry, called her a liar, say it was a hoax, deny it...anything. But, there is hope for humanity... the dad's reaction was, "My wife and I have been having this sinking feeling that something was wrong with T.J. He hasn't been acting normal at all these last few months."

WHEW!

So the dad took Mary's information seriously. He asked many questions which Mary answered as best she could. The dad thanked Mary for being willing to make that phone call and also thanked the two concerned students for being willing to speak up, even though they didn't really know T.J. very well, and look for help.

The dad called Mary back about an hour later and told her that he spoke with his wife and that they had removed all the guns they had in the house, and bullets. They have found a counselor for their son to start seeing and that they were seriously considering stopping internet service in their house (which they had just started up a few months ago and thought it might be having some affect on him).

I told Alex all of this and said that the chances of T.J. living were very high because of him and the fact that his parents accepted the information and are being incredibly pro-active (kudos to the parents)!!!!

The dad called back to Mary again the next morning and said that they confiscated his phone, found all the text messages he had sent and the photo - which were live shotgun shells he was holding and that they were going to make sure that the counselor had this information so they know how serious he was. And he once again thanked Mary and our students for having a community that cares - even as extended as it is.

Kudos Alex!!!! This is one very proud mom here!

Basketball Mom

2008-12-19T19:24:00.017-05:00

I wish I had written shortly after the first basketball game - but alas, time has passed so my enthusiasm has gone down... a smidge. What I have found is that I have this love-hate relationship with basketball.

So when Jared announced that he wanted to join the basketball team for the high school I was happy to hear it. For a long time I know Jared has wanted to do organized sports but we felt he was either too young or, when he was a bit older we tried to find some opportunities but the few we found he decided he didn't want to try them (mostly because he either didn't know anyone, or because he did not feel comfortable because he hadn't practiced enough).

So this was his first opportunity to play a game he was interested in, had had some practice but was no where truly skilled and had some good friends who would be playing along side him.

So love... happily gung ho for my son to start engaging in something he's always wanted to do.

And the practices started. Every day after school off he goes to learn and practice and chum it up with his friends...every day. By the time he was done and was dropped back off at the school it was 5:45 or 5:50 pm...every day. Oh, except Thursdays! Thursdays he is done at around 4:30 or 4:40pm. Woo hoo! One car family, stuck at school until he's back. By the time we get home it's usually 6:10 to 6:30pm. Much later than we are used too. Plus, with it being winter and all and the nights getting shorter and shorter it's pretty much pitch black before we are home.

So hate...I want our old routine back!

Then comes the first game! We drive to a place called Bahama, NC (50 minutes away from the school, about 25 minutes from home). Jokingly I say we are heading to the Bahamas, trying to find something positive in the long drive. Though, the town itself is not called Bahama (as in the islands) but Baa-hay-ma... go figure... those wacky southerners!

We go inside the gym, settle down and the game is just about to begin (they left right after school ended to have some time for warm up, while we left later so barely got there in time for the game to start).

The other team is massive in size - junior and seniors, facial hair and all! One of them, #44, was built like a brick house - I'm sure he plays football. And here are our freshman and two sophomores ready to start the game - jump for the ball.

So quickly into the game it's obvious that the home team has done this for quite some time. They are organized and aggressive, while our team is still trying to remember the rules and are shocked every time one of the other team members pushes or shoves (when they don't have the ball) or takes the ball from them.

We did quite a few fouls in the first quarter but Jared did get fouled once and had a t wo chance free throw (as you can tell I don't know the technical terms). He missed the first sh ot but got the second - go south paw! Here he is...#1!

For the first quarter the home team was around 20 points with our team only having 3. I realized that being their first game ever that this was really just a good lesson for how this game is played - and for the coaches to see where more work was needed. But I was incredibly proud of Jared as he became more and more confident through his first game.

At some point during the 3rd quarter they started getting more organized and a little bit more aggresive and started scoring more and more. The score ended up being 61 to 20, but those 20 points were well deserved!

As I sat in the audience, cheering on my son and the rest of the team - a team of boys which, at least half of them had never played basketball before, were doing an amazing job! By the end of the game I was pumped up, proud and ready for more!

Love basketball! Go Eagles!

Do Unicorns exist?

2008-12-14T11:59:00.001-05:00

This is hilarious!

2008-12-08T19:21:00.001-05:00

I just stumbled upon this on my liberal website, www.alternet.org. It is incredibly funny! Enjoy!

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Highs, lows, thanks and reflection...

2008-11-29T14:53:00.003-05:00

Funny how it some times takes a holiday to remind you to sit and reflect on life - your family, friends, work mates, pets. For a long time I was doing really well on stopping for a few moments every day and thanking and appreciating everything around me that I could. But it seems that I have slowly moved away from that and, after Thanksgiving the other day, it was a reminder that I need to get back into the swing again!

One of my most favorite ways to reflect on the good things that happen each day is when our family shares "Highs and lows". We've been doing this for years now, typically at the dining room table during dinner - but some times the following morning on the way to school or after school is out - just depending on when it seems right. You don't have to have lows, and hopefully you don't have them very often...but if you do we try and say whatever our lows are first and then move on to the high, or hopefully many highs. At the very least, no matter how boring or mundane your day may be, you have to find at least one high! Some days there are funnies to add on to the highs and lows - and those are always a blast.

So, if you ever want to get a glimpse of your families day life, since you aren't always with them, "Highs and Lows" works really well!

Things have been very stressful at work these past few weeks. It's odd, since we celebrated Michaelmas and "slayed" the dragon you would think that things would be getting calmer and easier - but, maybe we missed slaying the beast this time and it's still creeping around out there or maybe we slayed the wrong beast? Either way I need to start reflecting on whether it's something in me that's causing the stress or if it truly is something out there that I need to battle. These past few weeks I've been doing more behind the scenes work to make a change but in reflection I think I need to take on the straight on, no bull shit work to get through the stress.

We were hoping to go up to the cape for part of our holiday break - but it seems that will have to wait. Money is tight, as I'm sure most everyone out there is painfully experiencing, so we will wait until Mr. Curtin's 8th grade graduation. Then Alex, Jared and myself will be heading up there to cheer those graduates on and say high to all our old friends! I wish I could bring Shannon along, but school will actually still be going on down here.

On the plus side we'll be staying put for two whole weeks. We get to open our gifts and then get to stay here the whole time and play with them! Now, if we could only have some snow too. But I know that's asking for too much! HA!

On Thanksgiving day, as we were sitting around the table stuffing our faces and having great conversation I looked up and saw our screen saver working hard on the computer. And there they were, Devin, Shannon and Sierra from our last Thanksgiving we had together and I really wished they had been here with us - or us there. Miss you guys lots!

Wonderful Music Video

2008-11-11T09:04:00.005-05:00

Check it out

First High School Dance

2008-11-02T14:15:00.016-05:00

Without further adieu here are some photos of last nights high school dance!

Of course, we couldn't have a dance at a Waldorf school without fairies!

Gangstah's and witches........................

Some dancing... though not as much as one would think at an actual dance..... and I'm not really sure what dance they were doing at this point...

This one was the Macarena .....

And we all know what this one is.....

So far I've heard that it was a fun dance. I'm sure I'll find out more as the week progresses at school. But from my perspective it really was an amazing dance. The kids were very well behaved and had lots of fun, though they did more socializing than dancing... and ate lots and lots of junk food!

I'm hoping we'll have another one in April or May and this time we'll go until 11:oopm instead of 10:30.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Sadness and scary

2008-11-02T08:47:00.005-05:00

I will write about the dance later today - once I get the photos off the camera. But I wanted to write about something that was a very sad ending to our fun night that turned into a relief this morning.

Because of all the stuff and boys we had we took both our truck and Mary's car to the school for the dance. So, as we were coming home last night, I was in front with Mary's car and Jared was with me. We were just chatting a bit about the dance, how Jared said it was fun, and also listening to the music on the radio.

I turned onto our street and as we were getting close to our house there was something small in the road on our side but not too small. So I started to swerve around it to the left, and as I did the headlights went over it enough that I saw what it looked like.

I pulled over and quickly put the car in park - on the left side of the road - and said out loud to Jared, "My god! That's Dot!" And so we both quickly jumped out of the car to go look. At this point Shannon was driving up and he slowed down right on the road behind the dead cat.

I went right down and started petting it - to see if it was still alive and to try and confirm if it was Dot. It was a brown tabby, about Dots size and it was dead and had been for a few hours at least. I went to the end of the tail and felt the tip - looking for her break, but I couldn't really find it. So for a fleeting moment I felt relief that it wasn't her.

Shannon picked it up. The only injury was on the right side of the skull, by the temple where it had been hit. There was blood there. The eyes were still open, so it must have been a quick death. In the meanwhile Alex had run down to our house to see if he could find Dot to know whether it was her or not.

Shannon took the cat and walked to the house and I left Kimani and Jared next to Mary's car while I drove the truck the rest of the way home and then walked back to get the car and the two boys. I passed Shannon near our driveway and he said that he thought it was Dot, but that Alex was looking in and around the house - calling out for her, to try and find her.

I got back to the car and the boys and we hopped in, in silence and sadness as we drove home. We were in shock and I was saying, "Dot never goes this far, she's too lazy. When she's outside she always just hangs out near the house."

We got to the house and Shannon was sitting on the steps near grandmas door with the cat in his arms. I asked if they found Dot and he said no, they had not. So, we knew this had to be Dot kitty. I went and got a trash bag to put the body in, as it was way too dark to bury her since it was just around midnight. I helped Shannon get her into the bag and we put her in Mary's covered porch to keep any animals for getting at her.

Then I gave Jared a very long hug as we cried. Dot kitty is his baby. He wanted us to keep her so badly when he was only 5 years old and so she's been a part of our life for 10 years.

Eventually we all went to bed with a great sadness in our heart.

Then this morning Shannon is startled awake and says, "Cat? What the? Dot!" and I roll over and see that Dot kitty has hopped up into our bed this morning!!!! She is very alive and wanting to get some love and be fed. We pet her tons and tons talking to her and then I asked Shannon if he would take Dot kitty up to Jared's bedroom and put her on him so he can see she is okay.

So the boys are all happy and back to normal - and Dot kitty is enjoying all the extra attention!

We are going to check with some of the neighbors to see if anyone knows who this other tabby cat belongs too. We had never seen it before. We had no idea there was a Dot kitty look alike. If we can't find the owners we'll bury it ourselves - but I want to make sure that some poor family isn't missing their cat like we were last night.

Update: Alex and I went to a few different houses around our neighborhood and finally found the owners. The cats name was Pookums and the oldest son, who must have been around 18-22 drove over to our house and identified that it was their cat and took it home. We are very sad for them and Pookums.

Survived last night!

2008-11-01T13:23:00.003-04:00

A quick update to say that we survived last night. Didn't even stay up as late as I thought we would. We were all tucked into bed just after midnight.

Lots of grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and some x-box while waiting for the girls to start showing up - along with a huge sugar rush of Halloween candy and soda!

Once the girls started to arrive they started with the movie Scream. Then they watched The Ring - which was very funny for me - as two of the girls reminded me so much of Kim! (Ewww, ahhh, no no, can't watch this - covering their eyes and squeamish>) It just made me laugh!

The night wound down when the last two girls left at just before midnight. Then the guys went up to bed and probably talked for a good hour before it quieted down. All-in-all a good night was had by all!

I've just finished making 120 mini-cupcakes (icing and all). Shannon finally has all the music in order for the dance. All the guys are showed up and soon they will be having some spaghetti for lunch. Soon we will be off to start setting up for the dance. Wish us luck!

(yawn) and all I want to do is sleep! :)

Update to this crazy weekend...

2008-10-30T18:55:00.003-04:00

Let me set up the scene. Because Alex's birthday was a day before they went on their week long curriculum trip to Virginia we made plans for the guys in his class, which is now 3, come over this Friday straight after school and trick-or-treat and then stay up watching scary horror movies until late into the night. In return they were going to stay with us Saturday and come to the school with us early to get everything set up for the dance.

So yesterday evening, Alex, who had been socializing both on the phone and via facebook with his classmates/friends, comes up to me and asks, "Mom, could we invite the girls over on Friday night?" with this cute cheesy smile (bat bat with the eyelashes too).

I'm sure some - or possibly most of you are sniggering at this point as I had to seriously consider all the angles on this one. And with some serious ground rules laid down it will be happening - tomorrow night - 9 teenagers in our house. 5 boys (2 of them ours) and 4 girls. Though the girls will be coming over later, around 7:00pm and will be trickling back out of the house starting at 9:00pm up to 11:00pm - but at least 2 - 4 hours of lots of raging hormones with lots of raging horror and gore!

Who needs sleep. By Sunday I think we'll be praying for a freak snowstorm so we can have Monday off to finish recuperating from this weekend. HA!

A Huge, but hopefully Fun, undertaking!

2008-10-29T17:18:00.003-04:00

So yes, the Wiley's are at it again! I think masochism is in our genes, or blood...well, at least I know it's in mine!

We have decided to organize, put together, decorate, chaperone, and supply the loudness for a Halloween High School dance.

Yes - that's right - this time with a bunch of teenagers! Forget the middle schoolers...we've moved to the next level! So we will be bringing our camera and I hope to get lots of photos of the night. It will be happening this Saturday, the day after Halloween. It is a required costume dance (including the chaperon's) and, of course, there will be incredibly loud music, and lots of dim or low lighting to set the mood right!

Everyone in the high school community seems to be very excited and happy that we are having this event. Plus, we invited the alum that would be in our 9th - 12th grades, if they dare! And, to make our school feel more open and welcome we extended and invitation to two other private schools that some of our alum are now attending, in hopes to have a larger social mix.

So, we have absolutely NO clue as to how many teenagers will show up - we could have only 20 or possibly 50 or more - but no matter what, it will be an adventure, and hopefully some worth talking about for weeks to come! (in a good way I hope)

Wish us luck. And if I find the energy I'll be posting again on Sunday - with some photos - and all the buzz of what it was truly like!

I don't even know who the "Wassup Guys" are..

2008-10-28T10:12:00.003-04:00

But this is too funny!

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/104782/wassup_2008/

My 2 Cents

2008-10-24T06:39:00.002-04:00

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

Birthdays and curriculum trips

2008-10-19T07:54:00.003-04:00

Today is Alex's 16th birthday! Happy Birthday Alex!

Who knows what exciting things we will do today - but all of it will be family involvement. Some gifts, some cake (or maybe pudding oh or an ice cream cake ), possibly going out to see a movie - or maybe renting a few good ones and staying home with the comfy fire, and, I think, going out to Bandido's for dinner (unless he'd rather us make homemade tortilla's?). We shall see. But he is going to wait until after his week long curriculum trip to have a party with his friends. Which, will be on Halloween night. I wonder if they've made a list of possible scary movies to rent after collecting some candy that night?? (I know I can give them a few good suggestions if they want!)

Before I go on with what the boys will be doing this coming week I realized that I did not touch on one interesting and great thing that both Alex and Jared have decided to take on at their school! They are training to become "Social Inclusion Helpers". So, from what I understand, they will be going down to the lower school play ground (I don't know how often), to be aware of and help work through, any bullying or teasing with the younger students. This training is a 3 year process and is something new. If you want to read more about it you can go to http://www.thechildtoday.com/SocialInclusion/ to learn more. Their first step is to start listening and noting how many put-downs they hear amongst themselves in the high school - so honing their listening skills. Overall I think this will not only look good on a college application, but will be an important skill for themselves out in the real world! I'll keep you posted on what exciting things they are doing.

Yesterday (Saturday) Alex was back at school from 8am until almost 12noon taking the PSATs. He says it was boring but he thinks he did okay. He made a great comment about how silly it was to put judgement on someone's memory retention as to how smart they are - but he was willing to play along. I have no idea when they find out their scores but I'm sure they'll be another post later on that. :)

So, even though it's Alex's birthday today and we'll be doing some stuff together both Alex and Jared have to completely pack up for the week long curriculum trips - which is the other thing I was going to write about this morning.

Jared's class will be traveling to a place called Sustenance Farm in Bear Creek, NC. The 9th grade trip is an agriculutural intensive for the 9th grade and students will engage in farm work and chores, gardening, and working in nature. This is the same location they take the 9th grade every year - so Alex's class went last year and they seemed to have a blast! (For those of you who I sent the youtube videos of them singing together - that was a piece of it!)

Alex's class will be traveling to the Paradise Campground in Danville, VA. The trip is craft intensive for the 10th grade and students will engage in hands-on experiences with fiber and craft.

So we will be child-free for 5 whole days. 'Nuff said!

Ramblings and musings...

2008-10-10T18:14:00.005-04:00

Well, I think it's been a couple of weeks since my last post. I keep thinking that something exciting will happen worth writing about, and then, I realize that every day is exciting, as I'm alive and enjoying life. So even though much of this may seem mundane to some - it is my life and for those who are reading this (mostly family and a few good friends) - they'll appreciate getting any kind of an update. :)

So no snazzy pictures and no video's for this one.

I guess I could have taken photos of the house, in the midst of this weeks chaos of "bombing" or fogging, for our lovely flea infestation. But, for those who have had to experience that in their own life, I think that's really all that needs to be said....well...that and I'm STILL doing laundry (day 3 of laundry hell!). Hehehehehe

So this past week has been our first vacation week at our school - Emerson Waldorf School - where both of our boys are attending high school now and where both my husband, who is teaching 2nd grade this year, and myself (administrative specialist) are working full time.

This will be our 4th, and final, Waldorf school in our lives. Which gives many mixed feelings as I have been reflecting, a lot lately, on all of our experiences over the years. Amazingly, each school is different and unique, but at the same time has many similarities as well. What I think I love most about Waldorf is how the education lets children be children for as long as possible - to hang on to that innocence and joy - because the world can be so harsh and cynical when you become an adult. Having Waldorf education helps not only the parents, but even more so, the students remember to see the beauty and joy in life - which I think everyone needs, but doesn't always get.

Okay, so beyond my reflection on our choice of Waldorf over these past 12 years the other fiddly bits of life over the past couple of weeks....

Well, there was the phone problem we were having. For 5 whole days of our vacation, even though we were disparaging over the flea problem and getting through it, I was enjoying the peace and serenity of our phone not working! Mind you, with 54 parents in Shannon's class, the phone doesn't really ring that often, which is quite amazing - I think our teenage son's get more phone calls than their dad. HA! But, after emailing the phone company of our problem. Having them come out and say that the phone line coming into the house was fine - dial tone and all. We had a kind parent who used to work in the tel-com business come to check out our phone lines on Thursday (5 or was that really 6 days later) to have Shannon finally stumble across a HIDDEN 4th phone in Mary's room that was in a drawer and knocked off the handset. Oh the irony and funniness of it all! I would have been happy to continue paying the phone company $50 a month to keep the phone from ringing - but alas - Alex had gone through withdrawls and managed to call everyone he knew (both here in NC and back at Cape Cod) to get his fix between Thursday and today!

Let's see... Shannon still has grand plans to build a hot tub. Not sure where he is with that plan but I know all of us are all for it if he can figure it out!

I've decided to NOT have chickens as I've realized with our teenage sons quickly growing up and possibly, maybe, moving on some day, that beyond our wonderulf basset hound, Tobey, I don't really think I want to be responsible for any other pets (well, there are the 2 cats, which are technically Mary's but, well....) AND I had someone who HAS chickens say, "With chickens comes both the rats and the snakes." Mind you, I love snakes - they don't bother me at all - bring them on! But rats... shudder.. unless I choose to get one as a pet - the wild ones, well, forget that! They bring mites and grossness. Ugh! No thanks! Plus we have a few families in Shannon's class that have plenty of chickens and, at the moment, we are purchase a dozen eggs each week from one who has a real running farm - with happy, healthy, drug free, free-ranging, local chickens. What more can you ask for? $3.00 for a dozen per week for them to deal with feeding and housing AND rats and snakes. Yep! Worth every penny!!!!

Well, I guess that's it for now. I'm hoping to make this a better habit than it is now. I still have grand dreams of becoming a writer which means I need to continue writing ALL the time - 1,000,000 words before you become "good". And, I've realized, with most of my friends moving on and not responding much to emails, and my nanny passing away a couple of years ago, that I've stopped writing as much as I used to. I had the professional "Kelley letters" as some of my friends feared years and years ago (pre-children to be exact) and I should have continued - though not those types of letters. Ah well, I just need to sit here thinking that I'm writing to my nanny and just let it all pour out. Someone out there will enjoy it - I'm sure!

Good night to all and have a good week. Happy Columbus Day (can you believe that we STILL celebrate this day???)

Kelley

40

2008-09-23T18:32:00.007-04:00

So turning forty is one of those moments in life where, I have learned from having a few very good women friends, you either happily look it in the eye and appreciate this new phase OR you fear it and feel it means it's all down hill from here.

If I had only had the experience from my mother and my sister then 40 meant it was all down hill from here. But luckily I have had a few great experiences with some very close friends that this age meant I was finally acknowledged in the world as wise and no longer being held to the ideals of the immature and sexist people in the world.

I think, now that I'm more than 3 months into my 40th year, that life is messy and wonderful. I am shocked daily at how many people come to me for advice on raising children. It humbles me, and also makes me proud, that our two incredible boys are a small reflection of the love that both Shannon and I give to them daily.

Prior to turning 40 I truly felt that I did not, could not, possibly know anything in life. And now I have realized how much I have grown as a human being - and how much farther I have to go before my time is up.

All of this said I have to say, my 40th birthday celebration was one of those moments in life where I questioned my sanity. My sister, the wise "older" sister assured me that our family get-together would be a blast and a great celebration of my moving into the 40 realm. And with that, the initiation was nothing short of transforming for me in many aspects.

We rented a beautiful cabin in the Appalachian mountains here in North Carolina and for 4 short days we were going to do some white water rafting, some walking around the mountains and maybe even some touristy/sight-seeing.

The cabin was absolutely gorgeous, as you can see here:

So the next part was the part that was eye opening, transforming, a reminder...whatever you would like to call it... the white water rafting!

Now, this is one of those moments where, after-the-fact you realize you should have put more time into researching - but it's your sister, right?! You are sure that she read all the details and knew what she was getting you into. Especially knowing that her "little" sister was fat and out of shape and knew how hard this could possibly be, right??

Well she gave me every opportunity to go and read it myself. But I did not! So shame on me.

We had all the grand plans of white water rafting, which would have been fun and cool. What we ended up doing was fun-yaking or duckying because the water level was too low from the drought we were having. So, what that meant was we had "blow up" kayaks that we went down a river on.

Now, normally that would be fun and cool but the part I missed was that this was an 11 mile trek! Yes, an 11 mile trek. That means an 8 hour day. Yes, 8 hours of paddling, keeping your legs, hands, arms and face exposed to the sun (I'm hoping that you are getting the picture here.)

So, my sons, who are healthy and in shape and my nephew who is also healthy and in shape... and, oh, let's not forget my sister who is healthy and in shape are all having a blast. My husband had a near death experience (for another time) and my brother in-law who is much healthier and in shape than me was almost as grumpy as me were all "suffering".

This suffering actually put me in a space, alone (thank goodness) on the calm river...with blisters, sunburn, dehydration, exhaustion, and charlie-horses in my calves, TEARS of "My god, please just shoot me and put me out my misery. Could someone please just come drive me home? Why can't I just stay the night right here, in this f-ing funyak (where there was NO FUN in it), etc."

Here is a photo of the start of the day....

Notice the happy smiles of Shannon and myself. Please don't let this fool you!

I have realized that I managed to not take any photos of my massive sunburn - which I think was the most painful part of this whole excursion. Everything else, the fatigue, the blisters, the frustration - well they have all passed now. Actually, they passed by the next day, except for the pain on my legs which kept reminding me of the stupidity (for 3 weeks).

I love my sister - more than I can ever impart. This was not her fault. I jokingly point my finger her way, but I know I am grown up to have taken responsibility to check it out. So please, sis, if you read this - know that I truly don't blame you as I know different!

The most amazing part was - when we were on the bus, heading back to their building where we started that morning - that I truly enjoyed the whole experience. How lucky am I that I had a day of beautiful weather, incredible family, and getting to a place where I knew that I had to finish, no matter how melancholic I got, and that I can always remember this experience as something fun, happy and exciting, though exhausting and painful, was mine, and mine alone!

Sisters - always and forever!

Family - always and forever!

Whether the Weather...

2008-09-08T18:05:00.003-04:00

This one will be short but I wanted to post the 2 photos that I took from the "H" named hurricane that blew up the coast from Friday afternoon through Saturday morning. So, as you can see, our creek that runs under our driveway and through our front yard was over flowing over our driveway and into our front yard and back into the creek again. Thank goodness there is a slight hill that goes back down toward the creek.

The Perfect Day

2008-08-09T07:26:00.000-04:00

Our family has enjoyed exciting roller coasters for quite some time now. Our boys first experience of this adrenaline excitement was when they were 4 and 5 years old. We were still living in north Phoenix, AZ and their dad had just moved to Massachusetts to start his new job. There was a shopping mall we passed almost every day to head to their school which had a double loop roller coaster. I think this is the following park but our good friends who still live there could confirm that for me. At any rate, I gave in to their pleas and we stopped there one day and gave it a shot. They just barely made the height requirement and as we were strapped in, and I could only choose to sit with one of them, I realized how stupid this was as they were skinny and small enough they could fall out. And "whoosh", off we went! When the short ride was over and we were all still alive the boys exclaimed, "That was FUN!" and in turn I asked, "Great, do you want to do it again?" and with a petrified look in their eyes they shook their heads no. And so I thought I scared them enough that they would not want to do it again. :)

10 years later and in a different state...

On Monday this past week we went to the following roller coaster park, Kings Dominion.

Our original plan had been to hit the Six Flags in D.C. for Jared's graduation gift, but the drive to it would have been at least 6 hours. So in order to make it a decent trip we would have had to stay the night in a hotel. Then we learned that there were two, much closer roller coaster parks! One is in Charlotte, which is about 2 1/2 hours away, which ended up being our new choice as it had more and MUCH better rides than Six Flags. I mentioned it to one of my work mates who also has a son and husband who are roller coaster addicts and she said though Carowinds was good, that her 15 year old son has proclaimed Kings Dominion to be the best.

So we looked that one up - and it won! It had two more coaster than the one in Charlotte and two of the rides hit 72mph!!!! This park was just under 3 hours away, in Richmond, VA and thanks to Jared's nanny and grandpa - their graduation money gift to pay for this event - made it a very awesome day! Actually a Perfect Day!

It was not crowded so we were able to hit all the rides on our list that day, without rushing, and then go right back around and get on them almost immediately a 2nd or 3rd time! Plus, since we all have the same interests in the crazy intense rides we were able to go to exactly what we wanted!

Here are a few of our favorites:

The Dominator - This innovative 4,210-foot steel coaster is the longest floorless coaster in the world. Fly through gut-wrenching loops, rolls and corkscrews at speeds up to 65 mph!

Volcano, The Blast Coaster -It's the only coaster in the world to shoot you straight out of a raging volcano! Suspended from a steel track, you'll fly in and out of the rumbling mountain at speeds over 70 mph, then rocket 155 feet out of the top of the crater into a series of heart stopping inversions before a final 80-foot plummet. This is one of the world's fastest suspended coasters!

The following was was incredibly scary the first time but just insanely fun the second. Shannon went on it the first time but decided to watch us go back a 2nd time and film it. This is called the Drop Tower and they describe it as follows: The largest drop ride in North America, a 305-foot tower of thrills that promises daring riders a 272-foot descent at 72 miles-per-hour! This adrenaline-pumping adventure simulates the sensation of skydiving.

There was one small one, not really a "coaster" but it was awesome as it spun you around so fast your stomach did flip-flops! It was called The Crypt and it made me laugh so hard I was crying!
Through all the thrills and adrenaline we had that day the only truly scary moment was when the boys decided they were going to do the Xtreme Flyer. As many of you know, if you've been in ANY roller coaster park, that this is the ride that you have to pay extra for, where they strap you to a harness attached to a cord that pulls you up incredibly high. In this case it was 153 feet, and then you have to pull the cord attached to your harness to DROP you, as if you were skydiving, and then you swing out like superman! Shannon and I watched petrified as we realized if anything happened that we were out our only two children! Once again... what were we thinking!!! Well, here it is...

We had an awesome day that was no stress and all fun! The perfect day with our teenage sons!