I thought I would post a picture of K's "Bald Spot".



This was taken after her bath tonight. Oh yeah, this is on the back of her head, she's looking down here.

So I took K to the doctor yesterday. He said that it's nothing to be worried about. Apparently she ladned so hard that the impact killed her hair follicles in that spot. Her hair should grow back, but it'll be AT LEAST a year before that starts happening. He's referring her to a dermatologist for further eval. He said that the dermatologist should have a procedure that will help her hair grow back sooner, but it'll still take 6-9 months with the help. And he's thinking that it's an injection that does this. So if that's the case I will be waiting to let it grow on its own.

Oh yeah and that goose egg, well it's bone and it's permanent. He said that the impact caused the bone to grow so she has a permanent goose egg on the back of her head.

I have never heard of this happening, it is so weird.

About 3.5 weeks ago, K was jumping on her bed and fell off, cracking the back ofher head on the hard tile floor. It was so horrible, instantly the spot that she hit swelled up to larger than my hand and it was all squishy. It was ANSTY. Anyway, she didn't have any other problems so I didn't bother taking her to urgent care. J and I just kept an eye on her to make sure she didn't show any other problems.

Okay so now fast forward to the past couple of days. Over the weekend, I was combing her hair and pulling it up into a ponytail. While I was combing it I noticed that she was losing a LOT of hair. I didn't think much of it though, I just figured she was shedding like I do from wearing my hair up so much. Then last night I was brushing her hair, after her bath, and I noticed something really disturbing.

Her goose egg is still there, only now it's rock solid and it's the size of a quarter (maybe a tad larger). AND she's completely BALD on that spot. She has NO HAIR!!!!! Her hair wasn't falling out from wearing it up, it was falling out for some other reason.

So I called the doctor this morning because I have NEVER heard of something losing their hair due to an injury like that. When I talked to the nuse she instantly became very concerned about the hair loss. So now I have an appointment to take her in to have her head examined.

So I called the HR lady back this morning and left her a message. I'm assuming she wasn't in the office yet. I said that the only way I would be able to even THINK about going over would be if she could offer me more than I'm currently making. And then I told her to call me back on my cell so that we're not playing phone tag anymore.

Well then I get to work. Right after I started this job this girl decided to quit. So I took on her responsibilities and I was told that I would be getting a raise shortly after. I'm think okay, cool, maybe 50 cents more. That's still a better than what I'm making now. So I get in and start working right away. Then our office manager here comes in to give me a bit more work. She sits down in my office and patiently waits until I'm done with what I had. I figured she needed to tell me what she wanted done with the papers she had in her hand. Well that's true, she did need to tell me, but she also wanted to give me some other info.

On my next paycheck I will be seeing a slight increase. She has given me my raise, and it's retro active!!! Even better is that it's a $1.50/hour increase. That's way more than I ever expected. I haven't made this much money since right after I moved to NM. So needless to say, I highly doubt the hospital will be willing to pay more than what I'm making now. So I'll just hold off on trying to work at a hospital until we move to Spokane and I start looking for work there.

I keep getting a phone call from a local hospital who I had sent a resume to back when I first started job hunting. They've called me every day for the past week. Today she (the HR lady) flat out said that she wants to offer me the position I initially applied for. Now here is my dilema....

- I've ALWAYS wanted to work in a hospital
- I like the job I currently have, as in I don't dread going to work every day.
- The people at my job are nice, but I have yet to really talk to them. They have their little clique and I'm not a part of it.
- The hospital is a LOT closer to my house.
- I'm hoping that if the hospital wants me bad enough, they'll be willing to pay a bit more than I'm currently making (but I won't be positive on this one until I talk to the HR lady)

So what would you do if you were in this type of situation?

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I've been at my current employer for just over a month, and I won't be working past February because we're moving out of state. That's one more reason I don't feel the NEED to stay in one place.

My mom and I took the kids to McCall's Pumpkin Patch this weekend. OMG it was so much fun. We started out walking through the corn maze. I'd never been in one before and I couldn't believe just how lost I felt. We had the choice to do a 2 mile maze or a 3 mile maze. I'm glad we chose the 2 mile one because K started getting bored with it and wanted to go ride the cow train. It took us almost an hour to find out way out. But it was fun.

After the maze the kids rode on the "cow train". It was so cute, it's basically a white barrel that has a chunk cut out so the kids can sit in it. Then There is a fake cow head attached and a black rope attached for the tail. These are then placed on wheels and pulled by a tractor. The kids loved it and I sat there in aw. I can't believe, with all of todays technology just how much the kids enjoyed the simple things.

From the cow train R went and played in the peddle car raceway and I took K and A to dig in this sandbox that was full of dried corn kernals. That looked like so much fun, I wanted to join in. But it was for the kids only.

Once the kids started getting tired, we rode on the hayride and went to the pumpkin patch. R picked a HUGE pumpkin and we were struggling to carry it. K and A both got smaller pumpkins. Not because I made them, but that is what they chose. I thought with Rs giant pumpkin we would be paying around $20 for all three. But, surprisingly, it only came to $9.

All in all, we had a wonderful time. My only regret is that we hadn't done this before. It was real family fun and didn't cost an arm and a leg to do.

Well this morning my kids and I came close to death by poison. I got up this morning and it was FREEZING in our house. So I turned up the heater a bit so the kids would stay warm. I got ready for work then got the kids up. We had just finished getting dressed and were about to head out the door when suddenly I heard an alarm going off. It sounded a lot like our fire alarm so I go into the hall to check it out. I figured out that it wasn't our fire alarm afterall, IT WAS OUR CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR!

I had no idea who I needed to call for this. So I called my mom so she could direct me to the right person. She said to get the kids out of the house and call maintenance. So that's what I did. I called maintenance and they never showed up by the time I had to leave to take R to school. I had all my windows and doors open and luckily the detector stopped beeping and went back to green by that time. I called maintenance back and let them know that it stopped but that I really thought it was because of everything being open. They said they would stop by later and check it out, but I had to go to work so I have yet to hear back from them.

It's just scary to think that had I not had that detector I would have never known that there were rising levels in my house. I really hope they come check it out soon, I don't want to go through this again anytime soon.

I'm taking R to the doctor today. I'm a bit nervous and I can't tell why. He's never been to this particular doctor before, but he's seen a different one for the same reason. Only problem is that the one he saw before is off for some sort of medical leave. We're trying to figure out what is going on with this boy, emotionally and mentally, to make him think it's okay to do some of the things he has been doing. I've made a list of each days events so the doctor can see what I'm dealing with. Hopefully we can get him figured out and set straight. I also have a feeling that he's gonna want to change Rs medication since this one seems to not be working anymore.

So Friday was my nephews annual fall festival at school. It's his first year there, so to support him my kids and I went to the festival too. Okay remember I have three kids here. So we get there and my kids right away say they are hungry. So we start walking around to check out the food prices. One slice off a medium pizza cost 4 tickets, and it was the cheapest food item there. So we go to get tickets and I find out that tickets are $.50 a piece. That makes it $2 per slice!!! Well I only had $10 with me so that would leave $4 for my kids to play games. Assuming my kids were ok eating only one slice of pizza. Which probably wouldn't happen because they each eat at least 4 pieces if it's a medium. So then each game ended up costing $2 bucks to play too. I felt so bad, I can't even afford to take my kids to a little school function. HOW CAN THESE PEOPLE AFFORD THIS???? It was so obvious that we come from completely different areas. At Rs fall festival, tickets were 5 for $1 AND nothing cost over 2 tickets. Needless to say we didn't stay at the school too long. AND we didn't spend any money there because I didn't have enough for all of them. So we left, with my kids upset that we couldn't afford any of that, and went to McDonald's where my $10 went to buying them dinner.

Today I officially take over B's job. She got a new job as an assistant events coordinator for one of our local museums, so today is her last day. Obviously she won't be doing any work. She's been trainging me to take over her position, for the last two weeks. I'm very excited about this opportunity and the fact that it'll give me a pay raise on my next check. What's sad is that in the time that we've been working together I've gotten to really like her as a co-worker. She's really nice and so talkative. I'm really gonna miss that. On Monday she was out and it was so quite and no one seemed to have anything to talk about. I guess that's how it's gonne be from now on.

Oh a happier note, to celebrate her last day of work here, our boss is taking everyone out for lunch to this newer restaurant in the area, Zea. I'm so excited, I've been wanting to try that place for a little while.

I've been on this "diet" since March. Actually, it's more like I've changed my eating habits and ended up losing quite a bit of weight from it. I've gotten lazy on the exercise part so the weight loss is slowing down. Anyway, since I started working I don't really have time to make myself breakfast so I eat a bagel with cream cheese every morning. Well this morning I was running late and forgot to get my bagel. I thought to myself, I can make it until snack time. So I go and drop the kids off at their daycare. As soon as I drop R off it hits me that I am STARVING. I decided there was NO WAY I would be able to wait another 2 hours to eat. So I stopped off at McDonalds and ordered a sausage mcmuffin and a coke. I ate it, slowly, while I was driving to work. And now...

OMG I feel like I'm gonna PUKE my brains out. I don't know if it was too much food, or the type of food, but MAN I FEEL SICK! I hope this feeling goes away soon so I can concentrate on what I need to do. Not on trying to keep it down. That'll teach me to eat McDonald's for breakfast again.

I dont' know what it is about this time of day. But for the last week or so I've been getting this MASSIVE headace around this time. Everyday!!! Today it is at it's worse though. I can barely think straight and don't even think about asking me to move my head. That would just make the pain worse. I wish I could figure out what is triggering this. The doctors have no clue so all they do is drug me up on valium. Now honestly, I don't mind the valium every once in a while. But NOT for an everyday problem. Afterall I DO have to function until the kids are in bed, asleep. KWIM?

Oh so I got a call from J last night and he made it safely. He's pretty excited because he gets his own suite. He was afraid he would have to either share a room or a bathroom. But not this time. I guess they figured that since he'll be staying there for so long, they'd better take care of him. My kids have already started counting down how long until he comes home. LOL Oh yeah and the dog seems to be taking it pretty hard too. Yesterday, he refused to eat or drink anything. I know it's just that he misses J, but I feel so bad for him. He's tiny enough as it is, he can't go without eating. Ah well, I guess he'll eat when he's hungry enough.

Oh yeah AND my mom already wants to me to make plans for the up comming holidays. She wants me to decide if I want to spend them with "the family" (if you've been reading this blog for any length of time you'll see I can't stand them cause they're so rude), or if I want to keep it to just me, my kids and her. Well I haven't really thought about it, but she's already making plans for just us. My struggle is, yeah they are rude and inconsiderate, however they ARE family AND this will be our last holiday with them for who knows how long. So in a way I do want to spend at least some of it with them. But mommy dearest already thinks she knows best. UGH this is gonna be a fun time.

Well he's gone. It feels so weird. I so don't understand. I've dealt with these separations before. In fact he spent most of the summer gone. But this one just seems different. I was missing him before he even left. And now there's this emptiness there. I hope this feeling goes away soon, otherwise it's gonne be a LONG winter.

On a happy note, as soon as he gets home we'll be starting our move to our new home in Washington. I guess that's something exciting to look forward to.

Okay so I've been working for 3 weeks now. I really like my job. And then last Monday I find out that this one girl, B, is leaving at the end of this week. So I've been asked to take on a lot of her responsibilities. Obviously I said yes because it means I'll be getting a nice pay raise a LOT sooner than expected. Okay so here is the problem. B spent most of last week training me. I picked up pretty quickly on what I was taught. Then Thursday she left some papers on my desk that I had no clue what to do with. So Friday morning I ask her about them. She says she'll get with me later in the day to show me what to do with them. Well she never got back with me. Now it's Monday again, and now she's not in. I'm really worried that something needs to be done with these and since they're sitting on my desk I'll be the one to get into trouble for not doing it. Oh man I hope she's coming in tomorrow. So we can get this taken care of.

Aside from this small problem I have to say MY JOB ROCKS!!! I'm really gonna miss it when we move to Washington next Spring.

Well today is the first time I'm missing work due to a sick child. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to miss so soon after I started. But you gotta do what you gotta do, right? Anyway, K was sent home from daycare yesterday because she had a fever. And this morning it wasn't any better. It was actually a bit worse. J took the morning off so he could stay with her, but he has to go in this afternoon so he can finish out processing for his trip to OK. So I'm leaving at lunch time to go take care of K. Then sometime this afternoon I have to make my way over to the CDC so I can pick up K and As school pictures.

OMG I feel so sorry for Rs teachers. He's not only been lying to me, but he's been lying to them too. So here's the low down from yesterdays meeting.

-R has been lying to me telling me that he has no homework or only 1 or 2 pages of homework. Then he says he turned it in and apparently Mrs. T lost it in the pile of papers on her desk. Therefore Mrs. G did not get it. Then at school he'll tell the teacher that he left his homework at home. So he ends up having to stay in during recess to do his work. He still looses points for no homework, but not as much as if he didn't turn anything in. I asked him last night if he was trying to avoid recess for some reason, but he just said "I don't know." I'm thinking we'll talk a bit more casually this evening.

-So R has been playing me like a fool. Here I was getting upset at the teachers feeling like maybe there was a personality clash and they didn't like R. BOY WAS I WRONG. So we've all decided R will have a planner that he takes to school each day and brings home to me each afternoon. In this planner the teacher will write how many pages of homework is given that night. Then when R turns it in, the teacher will initial it. So I know if R was lying or if teacher actually did lose the papers.

-Now for the worse news. R is still acting really impulsively. Earlier this week, his best friend was going potty and R thought it would be funny to climb up in the next stall over and peek over the top. Needless to say, this boy is not Rs bestfriend anymore. He actually told the teacher that R "violated his privacy". Then Tuesday in gifted class, they were broken up into groups so they could cook. Mrs. S told Rs group not to touch anything and to stay up against the wall so she could check on another group across the room. Instead of listening to what Mrs. S said, R decided to grab and start handling a knife. That kinda freaks me out seeing as he knows I don't even let him handle a knife at home unless he's under adult supervision. This kid has too many violent tendancies to trust him with a knife on his own.

So last night was Nemo on Ice and needless to say, R did not go. He was so upset about it. I'm hoping that it caused something to sink in that he needs to get his act together. Guess we'll find out soon. In the mean time he is grounded until his grades and homework improve. Oh yeah and his behavior.

J and I have a meeting today with Rs teachers about his work. For some strange reason, he has just been having a horrible school year. I don't know what is different this year from any other, aside from different teachers. But he is NOT doing well.

Keep us in your thoughts, I'm afraid I might say something I regret to the teacher.

J is getting ready to leave again for more training. I'm excited because he's that much closer to being done with all of this, however it also means that I'm going to be pretty much a single parent again. I know I can do this, because I've done it before. But I have never done this over the holidays. This will be a first.

I'm hoping this won't have too much of an effect on R since he's already having a major struggle in school this year. I'm dreading any more life changes. I don't think his teachers could handle anything else added to this boys list of problems. Guess we'll just have to wait and see how things go. I think I'll be calling the teachers soon and giving them a heads up.

Wow what a lucky past couple of days. It all started Thursday morning. I was at work, listening to the radio, when they announced that they were giving away Disney on Ice tickets for Finding Nemo. They were giving them to the 10th caller. So I figured "hey why not". I call in, the phone doesn't even have time to ring, when suddenly I hear "caller 10". I'm like what? And he says "you're caller 10." HOLY COW!!!! I NEVER win anything. So I drive over to the station at lunch time, and pick them up. I had to sign a paper saying I accepted them and that they are worth $75!!! OMG no wonder I haven't taken my kids to see this before, I can't afford $75+ for just a couple of hours. Anyway, so that was Thursday.

Friday morning I'm at work listening to the radio again, and I hear them say that they are giving away Equestrian cup tickets. I have been dying to get some of these tickets so J and I could enjoy the food and wine tasting. But I can't see us spending $35 each to do something like this. So I sent them an email, like they requested, and suddenly they announce that I have won the Equestrain cup tickets!!! WOOHOO!!!!! So I go, again at lunch, and pick up the tickets.

THEN....

I'm driving to pick up my kids, after work, and they say they are giving away Green Day tickets. This is a SOLD OUT show. I'm thinking to myself, what are the chances??? But I try anyway. I call in and it's busy. Then I call back and it's busy again. Then I call back and "Hello, you're caller 10." OMG I can't believe it. I was so excited, I was in my car screaming. J is gonna LOVE this!!!! Then there's a catch. Oh I see you won Disney on Ice tickets. You're not elegible for the Green Day tickets then. OMG talk about heart break. Then she says "well let me check on when you won those tickets and we'll see, you might still be elegible." Um nope, the Disney on Ice tickets were the day before. SHOOT!!! I could kick myself. But my kids would enjoy Disney on Ice so much more. And J and I are going to have some time out, with no kids, at the Equestrian cup. So I guess it's all good.

But really, what are the chances that the three times I actually try to win, I do?

Maybe now is the time to buy a lottery ticket or go to the casino. What do you think my chances of being lucky again are?