Friday, October 29, 2010

Freaky Friday


Hey All,
Today I'm home with a pukey kid.  Yup.  Got a nudge at 4am.  "Mom", he whispers, "I threw up in my bed."  So we take the bed clothes off and put down a blanket on the mattress and another to cover up with. No, I didn't remake his bed.  It's a pain-in-the-ass bunk bed.  I hate making that bed and I'm not about to make it at 4am! [note to anyone whose kid is begging for a bunk bed or a loft bed: don't give in!  They are such a pain.  Especially the loft bed, but the bunk bed is almost as bad.]

I go back to bed.  Just an hour and a half later (and a full half hour before the alarm is supposed to go off, "Mom, it happened again.  Can I just get in bed with you?"  "No" I reply (thinking I don't want him to puke in my bed too).  "Let's just go downstairs."

I got him an empty plastic wastebasket (because this comes so suddenly he doesn't have time to make it to the bathroom) and listened to him puke to SpongeBob in the background.  It was cool.  I especially enjoyed his big brother, the teenager, get grossed out and have to leave the room.  "It's just puke." I tell him.  "Just wait til you have kids."

So.  Wanna know what else is freaky?  I've got a beautiful bearded iris in bloom in my yard.  Here are some pics I took the other day.  Now this particular bloom is fading, but there are two more in full beautiful bloom.

In case you didn't know, the end of October is not the time you usually see iris in bloom.  It's a very confused flower.  I asked a friend, who is knowledgeable about this kind of thing being the director of a fancy botanical garden and all, and he said sometimes the soil temperature can make this happen.  I just hope it will bloom again in the spring.  Anyone had this happen?

Gave an exam in my class this week.  Range in grades 40 to 104 (there were 4 points extra credit on the test).  Hmmmm.  But the average is over 80, so most of the students did well.

No foster dogs lately.  We are concentrating on getting Chili, the angelic face at the top of this post, to stop pooping in the house.  Don't you just want to kiss that smooshy face?  Lucky for her she's so cute.  

We are also concentrating on Ginger.  She has the bad habit of barking and chasing people as they walk or run by our house.  She even nipped at a neighbor and made a hole in his shorts.  Luckily she didn't bite him and break the skin.  But she can't be doing that.  She nips at my legs when I run too.  And the kids.  She's part border collie, so it's in her genes.  But if you don't know there's an invisible fence, she can look pretty scary.  So we are taking her out on a leash.  It's a pain.  Anyone have a suggestion?  
Wanna know what she did after nipping at the neighbor kid?  He's 15, by the way.  He stopped and said "Ginger!  What are you doing?"  So she sat down, wagged her tail and waited for him to pet her.  Stupid dog.  

K.  That's it for me today.  Hope you're having a great day.


1 comment:

tori said...

Ace was doing the same thing and the way we fixed it was kinda crazy but it worked. A trainer told me about this method.
I had a couple neighbors help. One to hold Ace on his leach at the edge of the yard, one to walk (or bike -in our case) by. I had to throw water filled ziplock bags at him and scream as angry as I could when he acted up. (sound crazy?)
The guy went by on a bike and Ace started barking and spinning on his leach. I threw the water bag at his feet and screamed. Ace stopped immediately.
The next time the guy went by Ace growled but didn't bark. I threw it again and screamed.
It took 5 water bags and he sat perfectly still with no reaction.
For the next few weeks I would just give him the "leave it" command when I saw someone coming.
Now I don't need to do anything. He just sits and watches everyone go by.
I don't like to use the scare tactic with the dog unless it's something that can be dangerous to the dog or another human...
You kid throwing up brought back memories...we saved our crib matress just for this reason. Once one of our kids threw up during the night time they automatically earned a "camp out" in the bathroom on the old crib matress. I had pics of my kids sleeping there next to the toilet!! :)