Another Weekend Report

Another weekend has gone by so there must be something to blog about.  Dode left Wednesday morning for a 4 day surveying conference in Tacoma.  He is required to take continuing education to maintain his land surveyor's license.  His employer, the Tulalip Tribe, gives each employee $1200 each year for education to use as they please.  He was able to attend the conference and still be paid for a 40 hour work week.  He was lucky enough to stay with his cousin Jennifer and her family so he saved a lot of drive time driving between Tacoma and home or the expense of a hotel.  While he was gone, Isaac also left by going to my mom's.  He left Wednesday evening and Dode picked him up on his way home Saturday.  She took him skiing and he learned one of the hard truths of spring skiing, streams!

I decided, what the heck, I might be single parenting but it's time to tackle a sewing project.  (I HATE sewing.  I make Dode take care of it whenever I can.  I have to sew with a seam ripper in one hand because I am forever sewing things together that shouldn't be).  Disney, a creative lady not the company, at Ruffles and Stuff is having a contest that I decided  I'd enter.  When I talked with Dode on the phone and told him what I was doing, he said... "A what kind of contest?  You've got to stop blogging."  Disney is great at taking clothes and "upcycling" them.  Following her example, I went to the Stillaguamish Senior Center on Thursday when they have a $5 bag sale.  You can purchase 15 garments for $5.  I found a couple swim suits for Miriam, an brand new looking American Girl brand shirt for Elizabeth (who loves American Girl), and a summer blouse for me.  I filled out the rest of my 15 items with patterns I liked.  I ended up getting enough to make four aprons and add a ruffle to my white t-shirt.  I'll give more details of my sewing project in another post in case you're interested.  Here are three of the aprons.  I'm still working on the last one.

Friday was teacher inservice and the girls went to my dad's school and then spent the night with him.  Jacob went to a friend's house, Isaac was still gone, so it was just William, me and a sewing machine.  When he took his nap, it was so quite in the house that I considered turning on music (there's so much going on here that music just adds to the chaos), but I decided to enjoy the peace and quiet.  

Saturday we did 61 baskets at the produce co-op.  William  has a terrible time with rules that aren't consistently enforced.  It's not safe for him to be outside by himself because he gets into things  he shouldn't and wanders places that aren't safe.  During the co-op, there were lots of kids running around, going in and out of the house, and William was playing with them.  Once the co-op was over, he continued to think it was ok to go in and out so I spent the day with William suddenly missing, and then sitting in time out.  I wish he was able to understand that it was ok to go in and out because there were other children playing with him and mom was outside watching, but that it's not ok to suddenly decide to leave.  Life is very difficult when you don't understand conditional rules.

We are in the process of having William evaluated at one of the clinics at the University of Washington.  They specialize in developmental delay.  We went in for two hours to talk about his history/abilities, then William went in on two separate days for two hours at a time for testing.  We also filled out several forms and his teacher at school did as well.  On the 15th, we get to go in and hear if they have any new information for us.  The reason I'm hopeful and willing to do all this driving to Seattle is that this clinic doesn't just give a diagnosis. (the one we have now is PDD-NOS (aka Pervasive Developmental Delay, Not Otherwise Specified or in layman terms, your kid is behind and we don't know why)), they take the diagnosis and tell you what to do now.  They offer parenting classes, sibling classes, counseling for the children effected, and hook you up with community resources.

Saturday afternoon, when William took his nap, I went for a walk over around the airport.  As I walked down the street from our house, I couldn't believe I live in such a beautiful area.  The sky was bright blue.  I could see airplanes taking off from the airport, small planes towing gliders (how I would love to ride in one, the thought of being up there, seeing everything below without the noise of an engine is so appealing).  There was a slight breeze and petals were floating down around me like pink snow.  I know Washington DC is famed for their cherry blossom festival and while the monuments are more picturesque than the manuafactoring buildings we have as a backdrop, I don't have to walk shoulder to shoulder with a crowd while I enjoy the beauty.  One of the businesses has a large American flag that was flowing in the wind and combined with the many pink trees, it was amazing.  I timed my walk perfectly.  I was just a few feet from the mailbox on my way back home when I heard the friendly toot of Dode's horn as he and Isaac prepared to turn in to the driveway.