Mermaids and Power Rangers and mice....OH MY!!!

Mermaids and power rangers and mice OH MY!
Current mood: drained

Well, it's over. Abby's first Halloween was a blast. Uncle Faron stayed in town for the festivities and I bet he wouldn't have traded it for the world. Lexi finally wore her Ariel costume but we had to 86 the wig because it made her look like a homeless mermaid. She did, however, already have a crown so that worked out and she was happy. Abby was Minnie Mouse again. Here's a pic of the two together.



The ghouls' cousins joined us after a short while and Mikayla, Corey, and Lexi wore themselves out trick-or-treating through most of our neighborhood. At one point Lexi had to empty her bucket into the stroller basket to make room for more loot. Meanwhile, Abby slept.





We finally made it home and the kids were beat. Faron and I took Lexi to Wendy's for a quick bite to eat. Once home, she brushed her teeth and went straight to bed with no complaints. I would say that the best measure of success for a kid's Halloween is how beat they are at the end of the night and I would say that this is a 10!

Riverstone was a bust

Riverstone was a bust
Current mood: full

Well, the Riverstone festival was a bust and I hate that I promoted it to my friends. The only things there were pumpkin painting (which was over by the time we got there at 4), face painting (with a line that never moved), and a terrible DJ. Needless to say we won't be back for the festival. We will however, return for the trick-or-treating. Lexi had a great time and the merchants were so nice. She wore her Barbie costume again to save Ariel for the big night. And Abby wore her Minnie costume.



We went to Rack Room shoes and before we let Lexi get started, we got her some new shoes. Once they were paid for, she said "Trick or Tweat!". To which the cashier said, "Smell my feet! Get it? It's a shoe store?". That got a good chuckle out of us. No trick or treating for Abby. She just chilled in the stroller.



Faron did most of the trick-or-treating with Lexi which was fine because in her eyes he hung the moon. Here's a pic of the pals walking into the sunset.




Afterwards, Barbara and Dennis came to the house and we discussed Faron's house hunting among other things. Abby cooed and Lexi was quite the little performer. She performed her days of the week song to the tune of "The Addams Family" theme song as well as her Macarena months song. It was cute.

As I'm writing this, Stefan and Faron are loading the car for the race tomorrow. You would think that we were going camping for a whole week! Stay tuned for more pics of those festivities.

Random brain turds

Random brain turds
Current mood: sick

So, the kids are feeling better anyway. I, on the other hand, still have thick junk lurking in my sinuses and my energy is completely zapped. At night, I have a hard time going to sleep because I'm either coughing or so stopped up in the nose that I can't fall asleep when that is the only thing my body wants to do.

Stefan has been helping a lot. I've only taken Lexi to school once this week. He's such a champ.

While I've been off from school and layed up a bit, I've been working on blankets for people that I'm behind on. I have one for my neighbor whose son is a month older than Abby, one for the neighbor behind me due in February, and one for the neighbor that had theirs back in August. Well, I finished the first one today.



Today was "story book character dress up day" at Lexi's school. I didn't want her Ariel costume getting destroyed, so I bought another costume (Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses) on clearance so if it got snagged or torn, I wouldn't care so much and she still has something nice for the big night. She looked so cute. We did her hair in a bun and she wore a pink turtle neck and leggings underneath to make it warmer. I wish I had a picture, but I honestly felt like I was hit by a Mack truck this morning, so I missed the photo op.

Faron comes in tonight and Lexi is thrilled. She always gets so excited when she knows he's coming. I couldn't figure out why she didn't want to go to bed tonight, then at 10 o'clock it occurred to me that she was waiting up on him to get here. I explained that he was staying the night at Nana and Papaw's and, shoulders slumped, she conceded and marched her tiny butt to bed. Poor thing.

Nana, Papaw, and Faron will hopefully be joining us for the fall festival at Riverstone tomorrow. That's good because I didn't want them to miss out on the trick-or-treating this year and this is almost better! Everyone will have a good time. Lexi most of all.

Here are a couple of pics taken yesterday while messing around. Keep in mind I'm sick and have not a drop of make up on (not that I regularly do my make up anyway).

Up to here with sickos

Up to here with sickos

I haven't blogged in awhile. The reason being because things have been incredibly dull here in the Lewitt household with nothing substantial to report (except I survived midterms!) and the fact that the girls and I have been passing a cold back and forth since last week. I think I got the worst end of it. Thankfully, it has vacated my head, but unfortunately it took up residence in my throat and chest. Woe is me!

This weekend is stacked with plans. Saturday, we are going to take the girls up to Riverstone Pkwy for a fall festival and halloween festivities. Sunday, my dad, Faron (the bro-in-law), Stefan, and I will be attending the redneck fest in Hampton, Georgia where a bunch of not-knowing-any-better fellas partake in the juice and watch a bunch of overpaid rednecks drive fast and turn left. Yes, I am referring to the Nascar race. It should be fun. Then Tuesday, my sister, Faron, and my folks are coming over to do the trick or treating with the munchkins. It should be fun. This'll be the first time my mom has joined us. Lexi is going to be Ariel from the Little Mermaid and Abby is going as Minnie Mouse. They'll be soooo cute I can't wait.

My little trooper

My little trooper
Current mood: bored

Well, it seems everyone's prayers are helping. Cassi is showing signs of improvement. Thursday night she ventured out of her crate all on her own without too much stumbling. She came in the living room where she gave Kahlua and Brandi (her furry brother and sister) kisses as if to tell them that she is okay. She wagged her tail a bit and went back in her crate. She's still a bit lethargic and her head is still tilted (something that may never go away) but her attitude seems to be pepping up.

Last night we got some cute pictures of Abby in her Bumbo seat. She was in such a good mood.



Stefan had to work this morning so I took the girls to the playground so that Lexi could play. When Daddy came home, we had lunch, cleaned a little and the four of us went on a walk around the neighborhood with our neighbor, Susan, and her baby, Evan. It is such a nice day out. Cool enough for long sleeves, but not cold enough for a jacket.

Once we got home, Stefan decided to patch a hole in the garage wall to which Lexi was thrilled to help. She is actually a good little helper.



While inside, abby did some push ups.
UP!!!!


DOWN!!!


We hope you all have a good weekend.

A tough couple of days

A tough couple of days
Current mood: sad

Some of you have known me awhile, others I've just met, so let me first explain. When I was 19, my dog of 14 years passed away. He was my buddy and I missed him sorely. Along with other circumstances that I don't care to mention now, I decided that I wanted another dog because I need unconditional love that only a dog could give. So, I got Cassi. My sweet, beautiful, spunky, toy poodle. She was my joy and filled the void in my life. I took her with me everywhere I went. At first, she was just a handful (literally) so I took her with me in a shoe box. Everyone knew that if I was going somewhere, so was she.

She is now 9 1/2 and I am well aware that she is a "senior." Since she crossed that divide at age 8, I have begun to think about the end. My worst fear is finding her lifeless in a corner one day. Growing up, I was raised in a house that always had at least 2 dogs. Never did my worst fear occur growing up, because my parents were always able to tell when it was time.

Monday, Cassi fell down the stairs in our house. She hit the baby gate at the bottom with her back. The rest of the day and the first part of Tuesday you could tell that she was sore. About 4 o'clock I noticed that her head was tilted to one side. I thought that she was having a seizure and my heart jumped into my throat. I kept her in her crate the rest of the day so the other dogs and Lexi would not bother her. At 10 o'clock I went to take her out to do her business, and she could barely stand, her head was still tilted to one side and it looked like her back was twisted. I called Stefan to come home and a friend of mine who worked at a vet clinic for a couple of yearsI was hysterical. My friend came to take a look at Cassi and said we should take her to an emergency vet clinic. There, she was diagnosed with Vestibular disease and she had to stay the night on IV fluids and Valium. In the morning, I transferred her to our vet. They agreed that it is Vestibular disease.

Vestibular disease takes three forms ranging from not-so-serious to its cause being potentially life threatening. Some dogs are unnecessarily euthenized due to VD. As I write this, I am kind of numb. I feel for Cassi, but I know what I need to do to honor her and not be selfish should this continue. I will give it another week, and if there is no improvement, my vet and I agree that it should be time to give Cassi her eternal nap. Cassi has been a loving and faithful pet for 9 1/2 years (heck, she and I grew up together!) and I wouldn't be a good and loving Mommy if I let her suffer.

Please keep her in your prayers.

WANTED: Spanish speaking person to converse with

WANTED: Spanish speaking person to converse with
Current mood: stressed

Midterms are here and boy do I feel the heavy weight of burden upon my shoulders. I foolishly thought that by only taking half of the classes I'm used to that it would by half the stress. HAHAHAHA!!!! Silly Kaiti! Anyway, today was my Spanish midterm. I'm in a critical reading and applied writing class that is required for my minor (which by the way I only have to take this and two more classes and I will have completed). I had no idea how to study for this test. So, I read, re-read, re-re-read, and (for good measure) re-re-re-read the 7 essays we have covered just to make sure I could answer any question asked about them and I also reviewed the main grammar points the teacher has discussed. All of my studying was a waste. The test consisted of a fable and a one page essay by Rigoberto Minchu (or something like that) and I had to answer some questions.

The problem is this...all of my Spanish knowledge has been gained on a university level and my vocabulary is limited. What I have found is that once you complete the beginner and intermediate level courses and move onto the advance classes there is an invisible line that no one warns you that you are crossing. YOu are crossing from professors using specific vocabulary, speaking at a very clear/very slow speed, and most of the class is native English speakers to the professors speaking a mile a minute and the class is predominantly native Spanish speakers. I feel so lost and the main reason is that I don't have the vocabulary to understand half of what is being said.

There's only so much I can learn from a book. It almost makes me want to stop and talk to some of the latinos building houses in my neighborhood. Almost.

Lexi's birthday and more

Lexi's Birthday and it's after effects
Current mood: sympathetic

Well, my little miracle turned 5 on Monday. I can't believe how fast time flies. We had a party with friends from the neighborhood, school, and her cousins, Corey and Mikayla at a pottery studio called Earth, Paint and Fire. They had fun and the employees that worked there took on most of the responsibilities where all Stefan and I had to do was take pictures and socialize with parents. I would recommend this place to anyone who has an artistic child.

After the party, my ex-roomie and her husband and two girls, Madison (3) and Carolyn (almost 5 mos), came over for a visit since we don't get to do that too often. Abby and Carolyn are two days apart and boy did they have fun. That is, until Abby decided to have a taste of Carolyn for lunch.


Sunday, we had Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, Papaw, and the Gaglianos over for some lasagna and cake to celebrate. Lexi was so thrilled to once again have the focus on her. Then on Monday (her actual birthday) Stefan, Abby, and myself took cupcakes to school for her to share with her class. Needless to say, we are all birthdayed out her in the Lewitt household.

Yesterday/Tuesday, Lexi got in the car after school with a red mark on her forehead. In retrospect, I realize that it was getting worse and actually formed a welt on her head. This morning, when I woke her up for school, I sat on her right side and she was fussing as though she didn't want to wake up. She was refusing to open her eye and I got pretty angry with her until she said, "They are open!" I turned her so that I could see more than just the right side of her face and saw that her right eye was swollen shut! This was about an hour later when she was able to actually open her eye a bit.


Needless to say, we made an appointment and Stefan took her to the doc. Now she's on a steroid and Benadryl.

Is it His grace?

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Is it His grace? Current mood: pensive Category: Religion and Philosophy So my husband and I have been attending a church in the last couple of years. He's Jewish(or should I say Jew...ish) and I'm Methodist (supposedly) so we were guided to a nondenominational church by a new neighbor of ours at the time. At first when we were invited I wasn't sure how to approach the subject with my husband. Afterall, I had not attended church on a regular basis since I was 7 because my dad instilled in my mind that you don't need a building to be able to pray. Surprisingly, he wanted to check it out explaining that synagogues are so far away from where we live and their services are held in a language Lexi and I wouldn't understand and that he would rather Lexi be raised with SOME religious foundation rather than nothing. This place was awesome and we were really welcomed with open arms. So, getting to the point of all of this...I've been "finding my religion" for lack of a better way to put it. At first, I thought I believed that God existed, but I wasn't sure of anything else beyond that. I dusted off the trusty old Bible and began reading the Old Testament. I was amazed that although it was written hundreds of years ago, you could still find ways that it applied to the life we're living today. I mean, how many times do you think something your parents say is antiquated and they're only one generation ahead of you?! I was full in a way that I had never been before. Then something shook my faith. My husband and I had been trying to get pregnant for over a year and we were referred to a specialist. I started to question God and actually got angry with Him for putting us through that especially after Lexi was born 15 weeks early. Over and over it seemed that He was telling us that we shouldn't be having kids together and I couldn't understand why. I became what I call a praying pleader. I was pleading with God, cutting deals, doing anything I could to sway His mercy my way. Nothing worked and I struggled. Passover came which is a big deal for Jews and it was my husband's busy season at work. I became less motivated to go to church and I stopped mentioning it. My husband was too busy to notice and we eventually stopped going alltogether. Good news came about five months later that we were expecting but this was a mixed blessing because I was considered high risk for reasons related to my pregnancy with Lexi. The worry set in and I turned once again to the Bible. I would read it in secret while my husband was at work and one day (unprovoked) he said we should go back to church. We did and I poured my soul into it. I actually listened to the messages and was amazed at how my life was blessed. My high risk pregnancy actually turned out to be uneventful and our second daughter was born full-term and healthy (and my health was good too). I began to evaluate the way God has shown me that He loves me. He gave me my precious little girls which was the most obvious but there were more subtle ways too. For example, we hit some pretty hard times financially not too long ago and His grace is what pulled us through. My husband owns a lawn business on the side and has regular clients, but he somehow picked up some extra work from them and their neighbors and we were able to keep our heads above water. But the one way that He has shown that He's looking out for us and our church that would make a believer out of anyone was last Sunday when it was storming in the area and the set-up crew was setting up (it was my husband's off week so he wasn't there but he was thinking of the poor guys setting up in the rain). It was raining and storming to the North. It was raining and storming to the South. But according to the Worship Pastor, it didn't rain on the guys taking the stuff from the trailer. I personally do not feel that this was a coincidence and even my husband thought it was "cool." Cool? Maybe. But if it is, then God's grace is cool. Have a blessed day.

Little wet puppies

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Little wet puppies? Ever notice when kids come in from playing outside in the Fall that they smell like little wet puppies?

Parent-teacher conference

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Brain spillage Current mood: drained The past eight months I have been living a life that is unusual for me. I did not attend school Spring or Summer semesters last year because my pregnancy with Abby was high risk and I had to juggle a ton of appointments. I have since returned and just completed my second week of the Fall semester and I am in a funk. For some reason, I have started to question if teaching Math IS in fact what I want to do as a profession. Nice to think of this now that I'm classified as a junior and all. I wouldn't mind it so much if I had something else in mind, but I don't. I am at now the exact point I was when I was 18 and dropped out the first time. I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WANT TO BE WHEN I GROW UP. Why has this come up now of all times? My daughter is in Pre-K and struggling with getting adapted. I don't know how her teacher is handling it. I'll find out tomorrow at a conference. But in the anticipation of the impending rendez vous I am trying to think of questions I want to ask or issues I'm concerned about. Then I put the shoe on the other foot and try to think of what her response to my questions and concerns SHOULD be. The operative word is SHOULD. One more time just for emphasis....SHOULD. The reason I am so stuck on this dirty little six letter word is that often times (and I've found this out in my education program) teachers are armed with stock responses they are supposed to say in certain situations. As a teacher, you give up the right to think for yourself. You give up the right to speak from the cuff and actually say what you want to say (even if what you want to say is in the best interest of the child and what you should say is not). Often times you are encouraged to identify (and in my opinion misdiagnose) learning, social, or behavioral disabilities when you're are not qualified to do so and the reason is because the administrators feel that they need something to blame the fact that a child is not flourishing on and they're not willing to take the blame or admit fault in any way. Instead they are told to place the problem on the child so it is not a reflection on them. As teachers, you're at the mercy of the administration and are given politically correct stock responses to recite in situations that may affect future learning environment for a student for the rest of their education. In teachers' efforts to conform to what is expected of them based on certain criteria, they in turn are told to expect their students to fit into their criteria. Any children on the outskirts of such criteria are labeled as problem children or children with problems. This is not fair. No es justo. N'est pas just. If I knew more languages, I'd throw those in too. There is a mold (not admitted by educators or school boards) for teachers and students alike. Those that don't fit are often forced to quit. Being an individualist and an independent thinker, am I best suited for the bureaucracy that is education? I used to think so. Now I don't know. I used to think, "I can be the unique one. I can make a difference." Little did I realize that those are the people that are forced out because they are looked at by administrators as the squeaky wheel that must be oiled. All this spills out of my brain as I am prepairing for my first parent-teacher conference...go figure!

Children are so mean yet so sweet

This was my first week of school since last Fall semester. I bit the bullet and reduced my load from full-time (4 classes) to part-time (3 classes). I can't believe that I was thinking of adding another class! Linguistics and Spanish weren't the problem. Nope. The problem was Math - not that the subject matter is too difficult (I am going to teach it for crying out loud!) it's the teacher is unrealistic. Correct me if I'm wrong, but should an undergraduate/3 credit hour course require a 30 page single spaced term paper on top of the regular quizzes and exams AND require attendance at AT LEAST 3 - 4 two hour talks outside of class on Math? I think this teacher fell off his rocker! Needless to say, I dropped the class last night after spending six hours on a homework assignment that is due on Monday. That's six hours of my life that I can never get back.

Lexi has been exhausted this week. Two days already she has sneaked upstairs to play without telling me and when I find her she is in bed with her My Little Ponys by her side. She did it for the third time today only it was late enough that I just allowed her to stay asleep for the night. Poor kid!

Speaking of poor kid...I felt so bad for the little tyke the day before yesterday. Let me preface this tidbit with the fact that there are only 5 girls in Lexi's class including her. That said...during outdoor time on Tuesday Lexi wanted to play with a girl named Savannah. Lexi is in a boys are gross phase (that I hope lasts 20 years) and only wants to play with girls and only wants to pray for girls at bedtime. Well, evidently a little boy decided to tell Lexi to find another friend and that Savannah was his friend. With that he grabbed Savannah's hand and off they went leaving Lexi alone. Her feelings were sooooo hurt. When she told me the story, I wanted to rip that little boy's hair out of his head one-by-one. When I asked her why she didn't play with Katie (a little girl she mentions all the time) she said that Katie wasn't at school. Then I asked her about the other two girls and she said that they were already playing together. She seems to think that it is only possible to play in pairs. My heart went out for her at bedtime later that night. We said the normal prayer..."Now I lay me..." and then when I asked her if there was anyone she wanted to pray for (expecting her normal response of a long list of girls) she said something that surprised me.

She said, "Mommy, can we pray for DJ to become nice?" That's my girl! Such a sweet little heart she has.