Big Wheels Turning -and other things

Last week, my son was only home for roughly 24 hours before he had to go back out on the road so I didn't have a chance to see him then. It was almost looking like this week might be the same thing as when he got in yesterday afternoon, he didn't know if he'd have to go right back out this morning or not.

He wasn't all that happy with his "time at home" because now that he has a girlfriend, he'd like to have maybe two nights at home anyway.

Last week, he left here about 7 a.m. to go to Hagerstown, MD where their terminal is located and where he and his co-driver would get their bills, find out where they were heading. They sent them first to Fort Worth, from there to Phoenix and after Phoenix, on west to California. On their way back east though Saturday afternoon, they were able to take a little bit of a break and stopped at Laughlin, NV -or someplace near there -where they were able to connect with my ex-husband, had dinner with him and even got to watch some type of race there too. Cars are one thing my son and his dad definitely have in common - both love 'em!

And of course, Saturday night, once they got back on the road, "favorite son" HAD to call his sister here and rub her nose in the fact he'd not only seen Dad, but had dinner and went to see a small race event with him too. The air here was a bit blue for a while after she hung up the phone from that call. The kids each love to rag the others any time they have contact with Dad -whether it just be a phone call or, in Clate's instance, the opportunity to actually spend some "Quality" time with him.

And all of that action and interaction each has with their Dad, even though they try to play "heavy-heavy, hangs over head" with the other siblings over these things, (it's really all in good fun), it does make me feel good for them that they are finally engaging in some type of relationship with their father. There were so many years that were really painful for all three of them where he was concerned. Years when he rarely called them, even rarer were the times he actually remembered a birthday and Christmas, if they were lucky, he might send a check to the older girl for her to get presents for herself and her brother and sister, from him.

Today, he's very pleased to be able to talk to them on the phone, see Clate every now and again when he's passing through that area and he makes sure now that he remembers birthdays, calls the grandkids even from time to time although Alex, the 10-year-old, is really the only one who will talk to him on the phone. A couple times, Maya has come through and said a couple words and I think maybe on two occasions we even got her to sing some little song she has learned but usually, when you try to get her to talk on the phone, she immediately averts her head and starts saying "Oh no, no, no! No talk, no talk!" But yet, she carries around an old cellphone that had been her Dad's and will carry on imaginary conversations on it with "someone" -not sure who it might be she pretends to be talking to there. Kurtis isn't quite up to conversing with anyone just yet - in person or on the phone. His vocabulary right now consists of saying "Uh oh" and once in a while, if we are admonishing him by saying "uh, uh, uh, uh" (in place of saying "no no" to him, he will respond by imitating those sounds but other than that, he's not an orator -no of intelligent, understandable words -as yet.

Because when I had last talked to Clate, he figured he might be going back on the road this morning, when I woke up today around 6 a.m. and realized we had had some freezing rain over night, I was a bit concerned about him and his partner having to drive down over the mountains to Hagerstown early this morning. But around noon, to my surprise, my son pulled in the parking area out front so I knew then they hadn't gotten a work call this morning. We had a cup of coffee together, kind of got caught up a bit on what had been going on here over the past week and I had invited him and his girlfriend to come down for supper tonight -if they wanted to do that. He wasn't sure what their plans were when he left but said he would let me know.

However, when Mandy came home from work, she asked if I'd seen him today and I told her yes, around noon. And she said she'd talked to him on the cellphone when she was leaving work as she saw him drive past her over in Clearfield. He had told her then he didn't know if he and Teresa would be down tonight because her daughter, who works at a bank in Harrisburg, had been robbed at work this today!

Wow! Talk a bout a shocker there! He said Teresa was, obviously, quite worked up over this chain of events. Thankfully, her daughter was unharmed but boy, I can just imagine how I would feel if something like that ever happened to one of my kids! I'm sure it would take me a good bit of doing to calm myself down after learning of something like that -even if it happened just to a friend, much less a family member.

He just called me shortly before I sat down to write this post though to tell me they weren't coming down tonight but will be down tomorrow for supper as he found out they won't be going out tomorrow morning now either.

That's fine and dandy - I can handle having them here for supper tomorrow although he's not going to get ravioli then. Since I know he loves ravioli, I had decided beforehand I would make the sauce for either spaghetti or ravioli and then, depending on if they were coming for supper or not, we would have one or the other type of pasta tonight. So, since they won't be here, looks like it will be spaghetti for us then!

When I got up this morning though, the first thing I noticed was that the tv was not on. This is unusual because I always sleep with the tv playing and I knew I hadn't turned it off. Katie was in the bathroom getting ready for school but I knew she wouldn't have turned it off either so I clicked it on only to find --nothing! No reception! THe cable was out. Rats! If the tv cable was out, that would mean I had no internet connectivity then either ya know. I clicked on a game program I'd left open last night though and it worked so I was a bit confused then. But, when I tried to actually log into my blog -nothing - I knew something was awry. Also, the lights on the modem -normally 4 green lights are on solid and the fifth light -sort of an orangy-yellow -is flashing and all I had was one solid green, one flashing green and the orangy-yellow light was flashing. I called the help desk and that's when I learned we'd had an ice storm during the night.

When Kate was ready to leave to go next door and get ready to catch her ride to school with our neighbor and her daughter (the neighbor teaches special ed there), since the cable was still out, I told Kate she'd best call over and find out if maybe the school was on delay today. With no cable tv, we had no way of knowing if school was on delay or canceled or what. Good thing I had her do that too as they were on a two-hour delay!

This also meant then that Maya would not have school at all today because if the regular school is on a two-hour delay, they automatically cancel the preschool program then for the day.

Now Tuesday morning is the day Kurtis has therapy with Roberta, the occupational therapist, who works with him to try to help tune his fine motor skills and does some exercises with him too that will help him with some of his sensory issues too. That also meant that I would have Maya to contend with while Roberta was trying to work with Kurtis - a deal that sometimes works ok and other times - well, not so good. Today, for the most part, it went fairly smoothly.

Kurtis was eating breakfast when Roberta arrived so she took over feeding him and when that was finished, the first thing she got out was a new item. It's a ballpoint type pen but it has a battery in it and when you turn it on, it vibrates. Considering some of his sensory issues, this is a good implement to get him accustomed to trying to use it. He didn't appear to be afraid of the vibrations or anything, but instead, he just wanted to try to figure out a way to take it apart. Why is it at his tender age, already he wants to take everything apart? Maya was the same way with many of her toys and so was my son! It must have something to do with maybe an inner aptitude for mechanical stuff or something since my son-in-law is a mechanic, my ex-husband is also a mechanic and my son - well he still loves to take things apart too.

Maya was seated at the table too, finishing up her breakfast when Roberta whipped out this pen and a pad and gave them to Kurtis to mess with -and to try to get him to hold the pen and scribble on the pad with it too. After he played around with it a bit, Roberta handed it to Maya to let her draw with it on the pad. Maya had been bouncing back and forth a bit from the table to the living room and back though and hadn't been paying attention initially when Roberta had first given the pen to Kurtis so she'd not seen -or heard - it vibrating until Roberta handed it to her and turned it on.

Boy, wish you all could have seen the look on her face over that! She quickly backed away at first and her eyes got about as big as saucers. You could see that at first glance -and hearing too - she was a bit frightened by it until Roberta showed her that it really was just a pen. And Maya loves - really LOVES pens, pencils, crayons, markers - all kinds of stuff like that, so she adapted very quickly to it and really enjoyed playing with it, trying to scribble while the pen was vibrating under her fingertips.

By the time Roberta was ready to leave though, both kids were chasing about the house - back and forth from the kitchen to the sunporch to the living room - round and round -and Maya, having a new person to show off for, was also starting to get a bit rough with Kurtis too. (She most likely has a touch of jealousy here and there and does frequently enjoy giving him a little nudge - just enough to topple him over and totally tick the poor little guy off then. As Roberta left, her parting words to me were to the effect that she would say prayers for me that the two of them didn't drive me bonkers!

By 1 p.m. though, after Uncle Clate had been here and gone, Maya started to get ornery and tempermental with me - pitching a mini-meltdown which involved slapping me. Now, this has become a recent problem with her and we've been trying to discipline her that behavior like that is unacceptable. I asked her if slapping Grammy was something nice girls do and she said "No." So I know she's aware then that this is wrong for her to do that. I asked her if she knew what happened to little girls who slap grammies and she said "No" again though. Hmmm. So I told her well, they get sent to the couch in a "time out." And apparently the teacher at school has been using "time outs" because as soon as I said that, Maya started saying "No, no - no time outs, no time outs."

But Grammy reigns supreme here - once in a while - and I got her over to the couch, situated there and then told her she had to stay there - do not move. She started to yell and fuss with me and I put my finger up to my lips and said, very calmly, very quietly, "Not another word." At first when she saw me and heard me do/say that, she gave me a little grin until she saw by my eyes, that this was not a game, not funny and this time, Grammy meant business! I think I had to repeat myself three, maybe four times, lowering my voice each time and then, she got very quiet. I walked over to the computer and sat down, fully expecting her to be up and running around but she stayed there, quiet.

Within about 5 minutes time, she was sound asleep -as was Kurtis then - and Grammy had a very quiet, very peaceful afternoon then!

Roberta must have a special connection with her prayers is about all I can say about that little miracle here today!