Is the week over yet?

This week has been... *sighs* long. My husband had surgery on his right wrist for carpal tunnel, two days ago. He's recovering well from that. Poor thing, they gave him Vicodin for the pain. It makes him feel so drugged, he hates it but the pain is too still too much without it.

Tristen seems to be having some more issues in school again, I'm probably going to have another meeting about that soon. This time his teacher says he's been being disrespectful, hmm.. he says he just had to go to the bathroom and when he got back his teacher gave him a look, so he responded with "you know where I went". I guess that ticked her off. When ya gotta go, ya gotta go. *shrugs*

I've been talking to my 7yr. old for the past few weeks now about an upcoming surgery he's scheduled to have. It's tomorrow now, and he's very nervous.

He's going to have an umbilical hernia fixed. His doctors, dad and I had been watching it for changes since he was about 4 yrs old. When he was born it was a lot bigger than it is now, so his drs. had hoped it would repair itself by the time he was 5. Obviously it didn't. We took him in when he was 5, and the surgeon at that time said lets wait another year.

His regular dr. took a position in Africa, so we wound up getting a new dr. We didnt' really think much of it for that whole next year, and when this school year started I decided to get it checked out again since I hadn't seen a change, and well... we go in tomorrow at 7:45. I'm keeping him up late tonight, and feeding him lotsa filling foods... well until midnight at least.

We've had a lot of good questions through teary eyes, and lots of big hugs.
I know he's gonna do great, I'm just not so sure about myself. It's so hard to see your baby like that.

*Daddy's doing great, and stopped taking his meds as soon as he felt he was able.
**Our 7yr old made it through his surgery with remarkable bravery. I was a wreck, he did wonderful. We went home the same day, boy he's one tough kid. He recovered well, and is back to his normal self. :D

Some People!

I was without a ride the other day, and desperate to go shopping. (I'm a shoppaholic)

I just really wanted to head to the mall. My husband was working and I don't drive myself....that's a whole 'nother story. I decided to take the city bus. Yeah, mass transit...a little freaky, but it gets ya to where you want to go.

So I'm standing at the bus shelter, and this man walks up and we struck up a conversation. Just the usual small talk to begin with. Looking at my daughter he asked is she was my only, and I told him no, I have 3 boys too. Turns out he had a son who was in school right then. I said yep, my boys too...it's a girls day out. He asked if I was from here, and I told him yes I was born here.

Two years ago he had been living in the Twin Cities, where he said it is horrible. (I have heard stories, but having never lived there myself, I can't really say whether it is or not). Before that he had been living somewhere in the south. Looking for a better place for his son, he wound up moving here and he says this is the worst place he's ever been as far as prejudice goes. (He was black) He also said he's moving back to the south with his son and never coming back this way again.

Very sadly I do see what he's talking about. I myself am Hispanic, and very dark skinned. My kids are half hispanic, their daddy is white. Race has always been an issue, people do see my kids differently I see it at school, and in public places and it makes me so angry.

I live here...I was born here, I've always been here and I'll probably always be here. During the summer months, we have migrant workers who come up from the south to work here for the farmers, and so often these workers of whom the majority are hispanic, are looked down upon by other nationalities. This in itself is so wrong, but also the fact that these same judgemental people lump me into this category, and treat me worse than usual during the summer months as if I'm some kind of second class citizen.

I see the disgust in their faces as they watch me walk my 4 kids to the park. Yes, I have 4 kids... and yes we like to walk to the park... where does it say that's a crime...? Or is my crime just that I'm not white? Pretty sad.

Anyway, back to my story. I eventually made it to the mall, where I met up with my cousin and her little daughter. She and I were in the women's restroom helping our daughters out of their winter gear and I was tellling her about this conversation I'd had.

I told her that it sometimes makes me feel ashamed to say that I am even from here. About this time a lady comes out of the stall and stands there near us. When I paused in my story, she said...can I just say something? I just wanted to say that my husband and I just moved here from Florida. We had to move, because it was just getting to the point that we couldn't communicate with anyone anymore. We had become the minority. You two speak so well. I have to tell you we appreciate the english language. That's all I wanted to say...and she said it like.... like she was trying to support what I was saying and I couldn't believe what had just come out of her mouth, I was completely blown away as she walked out the door I just stared at my cousin (who was returning the look).

Some people are just so friggin ignorant it's unbelieveable.

kids are crazy...

I'm always trying to stress the importance of wearing all available winter gear to my kids, because the winters here are just insane.

I was telling them about how easily fingers and ears can get frostbite without winter gloves and hats. I know it's awful, but I wanted them to have more motivation to get that stuff on.. because more days than not as they're walking home from school, I see them hatless, and gloveless again.

I wound up telling them that their skin where the freezing air hits it can die...and that motivation I was talking about... that those parts could even fall off. (yeah horrible I know, but it worked!) So the other day my 8yr old walked into my room having just gotten home from school, and asked me if it was possible to get frostbite on your neck. I said, "well yeah I suppose, that's why you need to wear your scarf". Then poor little thing stared at me with huge wide eyes for a second before he said anything ..then asked "Can your head fall off"? Had to grab him and hug him and tell him no baby that can't happen... and I said "who told you that"? He said "no one... I was just thinking". Hehe... made me feel bad, I need to watch what I say, but still, it gave me a giggle.