Under the Weather

Sometimes it feels like my blog leans heavy on the FrogBoy side, but Spanky has faded into the wallpaper since becoming a teenager (other than that little appendix thing). If I remember correctly, and I'm sure I do, because I'm just that good, when Spanky was 10 the blogs were mostly about him.

Anyway, FrogBoy is not fond of thunderstorms. Actually, that's an understatement. He HATES thunderstorms. It's always been this way, but recently he has taken his hatred to a new level. And since we've had thunderstorms 4 out of the last 5 nights, things have been interesting.

As soon as Froggie hears thunder, he runs into my bedroom (usually in some state of undress) with his hands over his ears (not because it's loud, because that's just what he does when something upsets him) and loudly asks, "IS THAT THUNDER?!?!" Upon receiving a positive reply, he immediately grabs a blanket and a pillow and heads for the bathroom.

He then wraps himself in the blanket and turns off the bathroom light and stays there. Sometimes for hours. The other day he was in there 4 HOURS.

The whole light thing made me wonder...what is he getting from this? I would think if you were scared, you'd want the light on. But later he tried out the closet. It's smaller. So I figured maybe he was cocooning himself in and that made him feel secure. Of course, there's no a/c vent in the closet, so when he came out a couple of hours later he was VERY sweaty. I told him if this is how it has to be (and apparently, it is), then he has to go to the bathroom when it starts raining. Sometimes we have the strangest conversations in our house.

So here's a picture of my little man. He's smiling only because I'm taking his picture. He's actually miserable inside.

Fun in Won by One

This is FrogBoy's class at church. This week they made party hats as part of their lesson. He's hanging out with Nathan, Mr. Roger and Miss Karen.

Friday Foto

You may recall that Spanky had his appendix out in January. January 21, 10 days after his 13th birthday, to be exact. At the time, I couldn't post pictures on my blog (operator error), but now I can, so I'm excited to share a shot of my precious little man, the day after his surgery. He was so brave, and really handled the whole thing so well (he's normally quite dramatic, so we knew he was really feeling bad when he didn't play it for all it was worth).

Anyway...here he is...thrilled beyond words to be having his picture taken.

Thong Injury

A woman in California is suing Victoria's Secret for injuries sustained due to a defective thong. (Okay, normally here you'd expect the punchline...but sadly, there isn't one.)

Seems the woman was trying on said thong (um, ewww) and a "decorative embellishment" (I don't want to know) FLEW OFF and smacked her in the eye. Her cornea is now supposedly permanently damaged.

First of all, if I get injured by my underwear, I'm not going to publicize it. Especially if I somehow manage to injure my EYE. How exactly does this woman try on underwear???

Anyway, she's suing Victoria's Secret - but I saw pictures of the lady - and I really think they should sue her. She's not one of the pretty people, and only the pretty people should wear VS undies. Now everytime someone thinks VS, they're going to think about her. Double ick.

Meanwhile, VS wants to see said defective undergarment, which Crazy Lady's attorney says "No way, Jose." Um, I've watched enough Law & Order to know that if they go to trial, she's going to have to show her panties. Could be the trial of the century.

Only in California.

My Friend's B-Day

Today is one of my best guy-friend's birthday. He's 38. For those keeping track at home, that means he's officially 1 year older than me. At least for the next 60 days. Fabulous.

We have been convinced for years that we are twins separated at birth. I rag him for being older than me; he harasses me because I MUST be older, I've been married longer and my kids are older (a lot older). Since he's on kid # 4 now, I think we can average things out and we're pretty even there.

Anyway, I know I'll get retaliation for this post, but I wanted to give a shout out to my MUCH OLDER friend. Happy birthday Mr. Scott!!!

It's Quiet...Too Quiet

This is one of my FrogMan's favorite sayings. He just pops out with it at the funniest times. But this week, it has been running through my brain more than I thought possible.

Last Friday, Spanky went over to my brother's...for a week at Bible camp. He loves to go with their family - and I'm really thankful that he gets an opportunity like this - but I'm ready for him to be home. This year he left the day after putting a hole in FrogBoy's wall, so I was ready for him to leave...but now I'm ready for him to be home again. He comes home tomorrow night.

On Sunday, FrogBoy was picked up and headed off to Camp Aunt Linda. My aunt has been doing this for him for several years now. It's his version of summer camp. There aren't a lot of opportunities out there for kids with autism, and especially not sleepover camps. That's a good thing; there's not a lot of people he'd want to sleepover with. But he LOVES Camp Aunt Linda, and he's been there all week. They run errands, buy Legos, get groceries, just basically hang out. He comes home tonight.

So all week my house has been totally, completely, 100% quiet. I cleaned Froggie's room the other night (1 million Legos under 1 bed, plus 25 stray socks...who knew?!). When I talked to him that night, he said, "I was planning on doing that upon my return." (seriously, those were his exact words). So far that's the only constructive thing I've done all week.

4:00 can't get here fast enough.

The Cupcake vs. the Cookie Cake

We have a semi-new store in Mt. Pleasant called Cupcake. Surprisingly, they sell cupcakes. Just cupcakes. Amazing concept. This is their second store, so they're doing pretty good. (At $2.75 per cupcake, they should be doing good).

The cupcakes at Cupcake are awesome. They somehow manage to get the cupcake top to be a little crunchy...much to my delight. Everyone I have talked to about the cupcakes say this is the best part. The cupcakes also have icing that outweighs the cake part of the cupcake...and it's supersweet...so you really can only eat one (or two, max) without barfing. Oh, but they're good.

Of course, in my family, we can't do the Cupcake run very often. At $2.75 a pop, and 4 people in the house, we're talking $13 to get 4 cupcakes. That's a bit steep. But they're GOOD.

Cupcake has day-of-the-week special flavors. For example, my fave, cookies-n-cream, is only available on Wednesdays. Ah, but good news: my second favorite, the black and white, is available daily.

So in the office I used to work in (they kicked me out - it was brutal), we used to get cupcakes frequently...which led to a discussion of how to eat the cupcakes (my way: eat off the bottom, then once you can get your mouth around it, attack from the side). However, the many cupcakes conversations led to the inevitible battle: Which is better: The cupcake or the cookie cake?

Hands down I'm voting for the cookie cake. Yes, it only has one flavor, and I'm not a fan of the icing at all. That just takes away from the cookie deliciousness. However, you can buy a whole huge cookie cake for $7, which only gets you 2 1/2 cupcakes. Also - Cupcake has odd hours (10-7), but you can buy a cookie cake at the grocery store, so they're available 24/7. And they're just more full of tasty goodness, frankly.

Now I'm all for a cupcake every now and then. They're really good. But in the grand scheme of things, I think the cookie cake wins.

10

Today is FrogBoy's birthday. He's 10. How is that possible? Just yesterday I had a newborn; as of today, I officially have a 5th grader and an 8th grader. Yikes.

Unlike most kids, Froggie wanted to go to school on his birthday. It was the last day of the year, but he loves school, and he was very excited, because school is usually over by the time his birthday roles around. We did the whole cupcakes-and-juice-box thing for the class. He was on cloud nine.

Ten years ago, I was there. After the problems I had with Spanky, the doctors weren't really excited for me to have another baby. SuperHubby and I decided God probably wanted us to have one, so we ignored the doctors and lo and behold, had a relatively uneventful pregnancy. This was in stark contrast to my first pregnancy, during which all sorts of weird things happened.

From the first doctor's appointment, I knew my baby would be born on June 5. The doctor didn't want me to go into labor, so he planned a C-section...and he scheduled it a week before my due date. The date would have been June 6. Unfortunately, that was my parents wedding anniversary...and they were divorced...so I quickly vetoed that date. It also helped that June 6 was a Saturday, and they don't schedule C-sections on the weekend. So June 5 it was.

We were the second on the list of C-sections that morning. We had to be at the hospital super-early. Amazingly enough, the couple in front of us was late. Late to have a baby. Honestly, some people are so stupid. So we waited around until they were kind enough to show up and have their baby. Meanwhile, my aunt had to go to work that day, and we were on a tight schedule (she was an airline attendant, so it wasn't like she could call in and say she'd be a little late).

Once they decided we could go ahead and have FrogBoy, things were pretty interesting. First, they took me to give me my spinal. It took affect super-fast. I fell to the floor - they actually had to catch me. Then they forgot to go get SuperHubby...so I had to remind them that I wanted my husband in the room for the delivery. He got there just in time to make comments and ask questions about my innards. ("Oh, what's that?" "That's her uterus." "COOL.") It was like the Discovery Channel.

I had a few moments of queasiness, which I guess is typical, but all I could say was "I feel funky." Not the best thing to say when you've previously had seizures that brought on childbirth. Those doctors can MOVE.

Anyway, it doesn't take long for a baby to come when they just rip him out of your stomach. Froggie was in our arms by 8:45.

He wasn't cute. He looked like a little old man. Actually, he looked exactly like my grandfather. He didn't remind me of Granddaddy; he actually looked like a little miniature Granddaddy. It was the oddest thing ever.

He was so small we had to put him in preemie diapers. Those weren't big then, so some friends scoured Charleston to find them for us. We had stocked up and had a closet full of diapers, but none of the tiny ones. We should have known then that no matter how much we prepared, he'd throw us curves every chance he got.

So today my baby turned 10. I can't believe it. He's such a little man, and such a little boy. He's a mama's boy and I hope that doesn't change. He's our FrogBoy.

Thank God for FrogBoy.

I hope this is the happiest birthday you've ever had.

Blessed...and Stressed

We are a very blessed family. We've had a very consistent year of non-healthy problems for SuperHubby. We have 2 great kids (with 1 appendix - now). And I have utterly fabulous hair.

Meanwhile, we have a bit of stress. A month ago, the van died. Yes, the van I loved dearly. Dead. Something about the engine. The mechanic said it would cost more to fix it than to replace it. So we figured we'd skip the summer trip to Myrtle Beach we had planned and scrimp and save every penny and get me something else to drive. No biggie. I would just drive SH's car until we could do that. Which we figured would be early September.

Now I've killed SH's car. Indeed. Something about the transmission. The mechanic repeated the words we have grown accustomed to: It'll cost more to fix it than to replace it. What?!?!

So now we need to buy 2 cars. That's great in theory, but we still haven't figured out how to replace 1. Guess I'll go eat worms.

The good news is that we have cars available to us to borrow until September. The bad news is, they are all manual transmissions....every stinking last one of them...and guess who can't drive a stick? It's not SH friends, that's for sure.

So this week has been a bit stinky. We're trying to remain positive and remember to count all our blessings (tomorrow is FrogBoy's birthday, so I'm focusing on that right now) - but honestly, sometimes it's a little difficult.

Can anyone say "bicycle"?