One Blogging Shelton

Teacher Tales

Kindergarten is almost over.  I had so many trepidations about my little baby entering the public school system at the beginning of the year.

Is he ready for school?

What if he gets bullied?

What if he doesn't do well?

How am I supposed to let go of my baby?

And boy did I ever let the tears flow. He's my only baby...and I'm letting go of him little by little to become this little, mini-man.

Wow...I look back at the fears I had....and I just laugh.  And laugh...and laugh some more. Big, fat, belly laughs

The instant we left Clayton's first Kindergarten parent-teacher conferences, the knot in my stomache unraveled. He was doing OK.  Better than OK.  He was excelling.

About a month ago, we had his second parent-teacher conference of the year.  I guess it's always a good sign when the teacher starts the conference out laughing about this or that, referring to the times Clayton has made her laugh. 

Mrs. Gilroy has always been great about relaying messages home in the form of a quick note jotted down in Clayton's assignment book.  Last week she made a note about how there would be a substitute teacher on Thursday and Friday.  I asked Clayton about it, and he said that her mom had passed away.

Instantly saddened, after having gone through the loss of my dad only months prior, I made a mental note to pick up a card over the weekend for her. 

Clayton and I picked out the perfect card. It had no religious fluff, and it had a pretty butterfly on it.  Perfect, considering their class had just finished studying butterflies.  Clayton and I jotted a heartfelt note, telling her how sorry we all were, and that cherishing the memories helps. Clayton even signed it with a heart following his name.

Today when he got home from school, he walked in and threw his bookbag on his bed.  I asked him how his day went. Fine.  What did you learn today? I don't remember. Did Mrs. Gilroy like her card?  Uh...mommy?

Just as I started to read his assignment book note:

"Hi guys. Just wanted to thank you for the beautiful card and thoughtful words.  However, THANKFULLY, my mother has NOT passed away.  I think Clayton may have been a little confused...etc."

The note went on and I could feel the heat moving up my neck into my face.  Wow...maybe next time I should consult other moms in the class first.  Wow...that is all I could think.  Wow.

Embarassed as I felt, I realized that I needed to get over it.  My little baby boy is turning 6 on Saturday.  I'm guessing that this little mix-up is NOTHING in the scheme of what I have in store for me in the years to come!

2010

I cannot believe it has been almost a year since I last updated!  There is just so much I have not posted about! Many times I have wanted to post, but didn't feel like depressing everyone.  But, realizing that a.) this is what blogs are for - an electronic journal of sorts, and b) in the past year, I've probably lost one half to two-thirds of my audience anyhow. 

I'm not going to start where I left off.  It's just too much of a mental jam as of late.  But, what I do promise to my remaining followers is that I'm going to put on my big girl panties and move on, often times blow by blow, with life.

Let me just end by saying how extremely fortunate I am to have Nathan and Clayton in my life.  They make it possible for me to keep my head up, when often I'd like to just curl up in a ball and never come out from my bedroom.

You're Grounded!

Last Tuesday we had a disciplinary "first" with Clayton. I was trying to sneak in a nap before work that night, so Nathan and Clayton went outside for a while.  Just as I started to doze off, Clayton came storming in, crying. In between sobs he told me he was in big trouble.  I asked why, and he informed me that he and our little neighbor girl Riley decided to throw rocks at cars as they drove by... ;o(

Not only were they throwing rocks at cars, but they were also on the shoulder of the road, which is not a big shoulder. We live along a road that is 35mph, but nobody follows it.  They fly up and down the road. Clayton knows he's not supposed to go past a certain point in our driveway, so I was pretty shocked to hear what he did!

Knowing neither one of the kids would have done this on their own (kids are suddenly alot braver when they have friends with them!!!), I handed down his punishment.  He was grounded for 1 week from friends. He seemed OK with that, so I added..."and no Nickelodeon!"  You would have thought I grounded him for life! 

Clayton is such a kid of habit.  Every morning his ritual is to get his bowl of cereal and take it to the tray on the ottoman in the living room. He turns on cartoons and eats his breakfast until it's time to leave for school.  Well, Wednesday morning he tried to do this.  I'm not sure if he forgot or if he was testing me.  I saw him reach for the remote, so I asked him what he was doing. I told him he was still grounded from cartoons. As I'm telling him this, his lower lip starts sticking out further and further and the tears in his eyes started a waterfall down his cheeks.

Apparently I wasn't clear as to how many days 1 week was, so I showed him on the calendar.  He was so sad! I almost felt bad for him...until I kept replaying images of him throwing more rocks at cars or worse, getting hit by a car!

By Friday night, he couldn't have cared less about cartoons anymore and was anxious to get outside to play.  I think the worse part of everything was that Nathan and I made him tell our parents what he did. He had MAJOR puppy dogs eyes when he told them!

I would imagine after this, he'll think twice about making bad decisions!

Clayton's Big Birthday #5 Surprise!

Clayton turns 5 today at 6am!  I can hardly believe how fast the time went!  Tara, a friend of mine from IDT (where I used to work) reminded me of how there were a whole bunch of us pregnant at once...7 of us!  Patty and I were just a couple of weeks apart and Tara was only a couple of months behind us.  The other girls went before us.  It was great to go through the pregnancy with them to compare stories and bellies! Some of us had morning sickness around the clock (never want to go through that again!!!!) and some of the girls hardly knew they were pregnant other than a minor physical change in their tummy!

Patty and I worked side by side in the same lab, so we had great experiences to share. I remember one night at work that was particularly funny...well, a bunch - but we'll stick to this one...I had just come back from taking a couple of vacation days over the week of Christmas/New Year's.  The first night back, Patty sought me out.  She said "did your belly change?"  This struck me as funny because I was actually looking for her to ask her the same.  In one week, both of our bellies just seemed to pop out.  We went from looking like we were just gaining weight to, "oh cute, there's a baby in there!"

So what did we do?  We opened our lab coats and hiked up our shirts over our bellies...right there in the lab.  I was amazed at how two different pregnancies were carried so differently.  I carried Clayton high in my ribs and my belly was hard as a rock the whole time.  Patty's was soft to where you could actaully feel the baby and she carried him very low.  We were pressing each othere's belly's when a guy we worked with walked in.  He looked at us funny, but smiled.  His wife had just had a baby two months before.

Along with comparing bellies, Tara joined us in comparing morning sickness (who named it that, anyway?????) horror stories and various other experiences along the way.  It was great to be able to go through that with those girls!

So Clayton's 5 today....

Being a shorter little boy, we have been able to put off getting him a bigger bed until now.  He'd been sleeping in the same toddler bed since he was 2, but only recently have his feet been touching the bottom footboard.  So Wednesday Nathan and I went out and bought him a full size bed.  We weren't able to hide it anywhere, so we told him it was for our neighbor Myron and that we had to keep it in the basement so Myron could come over and get it.  It seemed to fly with Clayton, so hey, whatever works!

Last night, we had Clayton fall asleep in our bed.  Nathan and I put together his new bed.  Nathan found it to be so comfortable that he slept in it while I stayed up (until 2 am!) washing and drying his new sheets.  We then made up his new bed and without waking him up, carried him in and slid him into his nice new warm bedding.  He never even knew!

This morning when I checked on him, he was all snuggled up, lost a sock somehow up by his head, and had already drooled on his new pillowcase!  Now that is comfort! 

When we woke him up, he kind of glanced around and laid his head back down...then he bolted his head back up to see his new pillows and blankets.  I was able to catch it on video!  He was amazed and started naming off all of the different airplanes on the comforter right away.

He was excited to go to school this morning so he could take his birthday treats...SpongeBob cupcakes!  Tonight, we're going to Shogun where they cook your food around a hibachi table.  We went to a similar place in Minneapolis and he had a blast, so tonight will be interesting!

Happy Birthday, Buddy!  We love you!

Oh Really?

Have you ever tried to say something to someone and had it come out so completely wrong that you just wanted to crawl under a rock to never come out?  That would be me...10 minutes ago.

It's been an exceptionally slow day at work, which just seems to amplify how tired I am tonight. Clayton had his T-Ball opening ceremony and pictures today, which was fun to see all of the cute little kids, but tiring all the same since it was right smack in the middle of when I sleep.

I came in to work a few hours early so it's a little disorienting to look out the window to see daylight!  Who knew the trees here were so pretty in bloom?

The Mother/Baby Unit seems to be abuzz with new moms, which makes me reminisce to almost exactly 5 years ago when we had Clayton (May 1st!!!)

Some of the unit techs were having a hard time ordering some cultures and we had been phoning back and forth. The funny thing about this place is that we talk to these units all the time and recognize everyone by voice, but rarely do we see them.

So one of the techs brought some cultures to the lab and when she was done entering them in the log, I asked if she was the one I had been speaking to on the phone earlier. She said yes and that she was the one who had placed the lab orders.  I was a little startled by her tone which was more in defense mode than friendly. Noticing this made my next sentence come spilling out before I could put on the brakes.

I said "because I hear the voices all of the time..." In which I had meant to say that I hear their voice on the phone but never see them in person. The look on her face...I cannot even begin to describe. I thought her left eyebrow was going to pop off of her face because she raised it so high.

So of course I start back-peddling... "What I meant was I hear your voice." Right eyebrow...prepare for lift-off...

"I mean I never see you guys, I just talk to you on the phone...". You would think I could force myself to just shutup at this point, but I must have left my white flag at home because I just kept on stumbling, trying to get her to crack a smile or show some sign of acknowledgement that she didn't think I was a complete moron.

Finally, defeated, I managed to tell her it was nice to meet her.  I noticed she didn't say the same.  But she did manage a smile. I'd like to think it wasn't a "get this crazy lady away from me" smile.

Oh well...I guess there's something to be said for phone anonimity after all!

All Taxed Out...

For the past week, we had been frantically trying to get everything ready to have our taxes filed.  Yes, I know, we procrastinated in a huge way this year.  Clayton must have gotten used to us talking about taxes this, taxes that.

Tonight he called me at work at 11:45 to tell me he was going to bed and that he wanted to say "goodnight".  I told him he was up awfully late and that he needed to get to bed.  I asked him why he was up so late and his reply:  "I was doing my taxes, mommy."

:o)

Update on Dad

Hey everyone-

I just thought I'd post an update on what's going on with Dad.  Forgive me, but I'm actually just cutting and pasting his Carepage update, for the most part:

First, we all want to thank you all for the phone calls, text messages, emails, thoughts...etc....we are all very appreciative.

I just thought I'd post an update for you all. Mom has been at the hospital since Thursday and hasn't had much of a chance to update everyone.

On Thursday, Dad went in for his hip replacement at the University of Iowa Hospital. The duration of the surgery was expected to take anywhere from 3 to 6 hours. It ended up taking around 4 and a half and an additional 3 hours in recovery. The surgery went well. Dr. Marsh said they had minor issues with scar tissue from the previous surgery as well as heavy bleeding. They gave him a few units of blood as a result.

It was a little after 7pm by the time they got him to his room, where he spent the majority of the night in and out of sleep. He had a morphine pump (Dad's Happy Pump) to help with the pain. Poor Mom slept on pillows on the floor :o(

Friday, Dad was still a little loopy from the medication. They were able to get him up and in a chair for a short time. He appreciated all the well-wishes from everyone and the visitors who came to see him. Later in the evening a nurse came in to do an ultrasound on Dad's bladder, because they were concerned about his renal function. He hadn't produced any urine up to this point. They figured his kidneys were just slow to "wake" from the surgery.

Saturday, Dad was still unable to produce any urine. By later that afternoon they confirmed that he may have damage to one of his kidneys. As a result, they moved him to the ICU just before 4pm. They gave him another 2 units of blood and were monitoring his kidneys, liver, and pancreas. An ultrasound of the site of his surgery shows a hematoma, which they're following closely to make sure it dissipates.

By Saturday evening, the doctors decided that they are going to keep Dad in the ICU for another day. All the nurse could really say was that the renal doctors want to run some tests on Dad.

They have two bags of IV fluid going in him simultaneously. He has managed to produce a little urine since. I never thought I'd be so happy to hear that my dad produced a little pee!

Somehow he also has managed to get a little "bug" in his system, so they gave him some antibiotics. He was extremely sleepy and incoherent, and strangely very cold all the time.

There isn't much of a change in Dad this morning. He's sleeping all the time now, opening his eyes only for a short amount of time. They just started another unit of blood and are still monitoring his ability to produce urine. Without the IV fluids, he's just not producing any.

The kidney doctors will be in to see him this afternoon. While visitors are very much appreciated, at this point today is not a very good day with doctors coming and going as well as the tighter visiting hours.

As I hear more throughout the day, I'll keep posting updates.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. It really means a lot to all of us!

Angie

P.S.  Here's how to get new updates sent to you from Dad's CarePage:

1. http://www.carepages.com/carepages/meandad

2.  If you're not already a member, follow the link to register directly below the sign in button.

3.  Follow the sign up process.  You should then be directed to dad's page.  If not, then at the top of the screen is a search box.  Type in : meandad

4.  This should take you right to the page.

5.  On the right side of the screen is a message that says Welcome, (name).  Below it is a link that says Dashboard.  Click on it.

6.  You should see meandad listed.  There is a box you will have to click on in order to receive email updates.

 

Let me know if anyone needs help...it can be tricky.  I'm happy to walk you through it.

 

Take Care,

Angie

Who needs those?

The other night we were hanging out on the couch, watching TV and eating ice cream.  There was a commercial on about a male enhancement pill.  We weren't really paying much attention to it...correction...Nathan and I weren't paying much attention to it. 

When the commercial was almost over, Clayton turned to Nathan and said, "You need those, Daddy?"

Not sure how to react, neither of us said anything for 2 seconds...total silence except for the commercial in the background. 

Just as we started laughing, Clayton added "you need those for your headaches, Daddy?"

March Madness...er...sickness?

March Madness has absoluely NOTHING to do with basketball and EVERYTHING to do with the Shelton household these days.

#1. This place has become a germ cesspool. 

We can't break the seemingly continuous sickness cycle.  This week was my week.  Did you know that if you're nose is packed full of snot and you are trying too hard to blow your nose, it IS possible for snot to come flying out of the corner of your eye?  Oh yes, it happened. And...Did you know that it is possible to sleep 14 hours and not feel rested?

#2.  Kindergarten Round-Up

Clayton had kindergarten round-up last Friday.  We got to meet the 2 kindergarten teachers, the principal, and the kids took a trip on the school bus...without parents!  I half-expected Clayton to be a little clingy, but he wanted nothing to do with us once they announced to have the kids line up.  Some kids started sniffling and crying, but Clayton and our neighbor Riley both took off like bullets.  They didn't even look back...not once.  I think it was harder on us!  We're super excited for Clayton.  I think he'll really enjoy getting to attend the Big Kids's School this fall after so many years of just driving by it.

#3.   Work, work, work...

...enough said

#4.  Dad's Surgery

Dad is scheduled to have a hip replacement at the University of Iowa Hospital March 26th.  This is his second attempt, as the first attempt 17 years ago resulted in an infection and the hip had to be removed.  I'm guessing that in 17 years there have been plenty of surgical advancements that will allow this surgery to go smoothly.  We all wish him good luck!!!!!

Snow...

Am I alone in saying that I'm ready for Spring? 

Anyone?

A "Clayton" Moment

Yesterday Clayton and I went to my dad's appointment at the pain clinic.  We opted to hang out in the waiting area so I could entertain Clayton.  He did great and sucked up all the attention from the nurses and waiting patients. 

An older woman and her middle aged daughter sat down a couple of seats away from us.  When they called this woman's name, she stood up with the help of her daughter.  On her way up, she unfortunately passed a little gas.  Actually, she passed a LOT of gas, very loudly at an unusually quiet moment when Clayton was watching her stand up.

This is where life's time clock goes into slow-mo.  I heard him suck in his breath as he looked at me.  I threw him a "don't even think about saying a THING or so help me..." look.  But this back-fired because I think he thought that my expression was one of blame, so he blurted out for everyone...and I mean EVERYONE, "What...it wasn't ME!"

Oh the humiliation.....