Dean Thomas is KIngsley Shacklebolt's son

I just go back from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2 and this is the only good thing that I carried away from the movie.  Now we just have to wait for JK Rowling to confirm it!

Depression

Little known fact about me, I suffered hugely from post partum depression with Alex for approximately a year.  It was so bad that it continued for about 6 months of my pregnancy with Daniel.  And we're not talking baby blues here.  I was literally crying for every hour that I was awake and Pat wasn't here.  I would count the minutes until Pat got home so I could get a break and I'd call him at work, begging him to come home.

Alex was a difficult baby with non-stop colic for 4 months and he couldn't sleep unless he was being held upright which meant no sleep for me because when you tell a mom to sleep when the baby sleeps, you count on the baby sleeping alone.  In desperation, we finally did the biggest parental no no, put him to sleep on his stomach, despite his frail health.  Miraculously he slept through the night, but I still couldn't stop freaking out about SIDS because of the sleeping position.

Daniel's pregnancy was unplanned and took me by surprise.  I was so horrified over it, and scared about having another baby like Alex that I sunk even deeper into depression.  I would come home after dropping RIck off at school, put Alex in his crib, then start crying from deep within my gut until I'd vomit, then start again.  All I wanted to do was to sleep, but you can't do that with a toddler.  I would wrap myself around the heater on the floor in Alex's room and sleep when he napped and cry when he was awake.  I went to therapy, where the therapist tried to convince me that leaving Pat would be in my best interests. 

I finally snapped out of it, but I was never able to bounce back to where I was before the kids.  I miss the old me, but I'd never give up my kids.  They are what keep me moving from step to step during the day, and they are what define me as the new me.  And my life wouldn't be right without them.

Computers

Pat fixed up 3 new computers for Railroad Junction school, which Alex will quit attending on Friday.  He gave the newest one to Alex's kindergarten teacher, and 2 to the preschool area.  I'm taking the old preschool computer to the e-waste facility today.  There was no way it could be saved and Alex's school is better off with the new ones.I'm looking forward to getting it out of the living room.  I held onto it until Pat was able to get the refurbished ones in place.  Now that they're there, I can move on with my life and regain the ability to open the entry closet door again.

Contingency Plans

Alex has had speech issues for his entire life.  He had hearing problems in infancy, and he was severly tongue tied, something that had to be surgically corrected when he was almost 3 years old.  Right now, our theory about his speech problems is that he had a stroke due to his premature birth causing nerve damage.  We already know that he has weak muscles in the right side of his face based on tests that his ENT did.  Today Alex told me that he has a plan for when kids don't understand him.  He's going to carry around a piece of paper and write to them when they don't understand him because, as he puts it, everyone can understand letters.  I think I'll go and cry now.

Alone

Tomorrow I get to host a play date for Alex, with his good friend Nathan, and, for the first time, I won't have another mom present.  Part of me is looking forward to this, that way there's no struggle to keep conversation going while watching the kids, or needing to justify Daniel's odd behavior.  Still, I miss being able to talk to other mommies. 

And this also reminds me of how alone I feel lately.  Pat will be coming home early tomorrow and spending his time with Rick.  I have to force him to spend time with Alex and Daniel and I hate it.  He never volunteers to spend time with them.  Of course, he'll be with Rick tomorrow out of necessity.  Rick needs to go to Concord to get a form signed, but I offered him a ride there today and he declined.  Tomorrow Rick will tell Pat that I didn't offer him the ride, and that I'm interfering with him becoming an Eagle Scout.  Then, as Pat's greatest hope in life is for Rick to become an Eagle Scout, it will turn into Pat and Rick against me.  I'll be asked, "Why don't you want Rick to be an Eagle Scout.  Why do you hate him so much?  Why don't you ever do anything for him?"  I offered to drive him today.  Tomorrow I'll be busy with a playdate I scheduled Sunday night which is WHY I offered to drive him today, since I would be busy tomorrow.  But, nope, it'll be me trying to make trouble, not me holding to a commitment I already made.  It'll be me hating Rick and favoring Alex again.  oh well.

Uncle Ray

My uncle had heart valve replacement surgery, so cousins, this ones for you.

According to my grandmother, both sides of the family wanted Ray and Katherine to get together.  Finally, in my grandmother's opinion, God intervened.  Katherine's family's cabin was hit by a falling tree and someone was needed to repair the porch.  Naturally, Ray was called in.  He was already related through his brother's marriage to Norma, and he was a journeyman carpenter.

In Fresno, it's so hot in the summer that having a cabin in the mountains makes life almost bearable, being able to get out of the heat.  But the family wanted Ray and Katherine to get together so badly, that they toughed it out in sweltering Fresno just to let them be alone as Ray fixed the porch. 

They got to know each other, and were finally engaged during Thanksgiving week of 1959.  They were married between Christmas and New Years of that year.

Busy Days

Let's see, we started off today with a trip to the Walmart for diapers.  Then we went to the Home Depot to build picket fence planters at their kid clinics.  Finishing this, we headed to Lowes for their Build and Grow clinics, but, unbeknownst to me, we had left a leg of Daniel's planter in the Home Depot parking lot.  Daniel soon discovered this and got upset so I told him we'd go back and get a new one after the Lowes clinic.  At Lowes we build school house boxes.  Then we went back to Home Depot and found the leg in the parking lot.  We headed for the farmer's market in downtown Pittsburg.  Parking in front of Steel town coffee, we proceeded to the market to make head bands, get balloons, eat samples, and to buy two cauliflower.  I took the kids to the coffee place to get a pick me up for me, but then Alex's talking Alien balloon popped so we went back to the market for a new one.  We headed home by way of Jack in the Box.  Once home Pat said he wanted to go fishing tomorrow and needed some new castmasters.  Back we went to Wal Mart.  Then we came home to find my books had come into the library, hence a library trip.  Then Rick needed a ride back to jhis friend Jesse's house.  Then home again.  Thank goodness for my crock pot.  Dinner was mostly cooked.  In the evening, we took the kids to How To Train a Dragon at the Drive In, where Daniel fell asleep in the car and the rest of us, Pat, Alex, and Me watched the movie.  Then to home and soon, some sleep.