Just when I think that things are getting better they crash again. Matt was having a lot of trouble in September and October with anxiety. We were having meetings at school with his sert, talking with his teachers, appointments with his doctor to try and figure it out and get things better for him. The doctor increased his medication and things got better. I was finally starting to feel that he was starting to feel better and we would be in a good phase, at least for a while.

Well, he hit a wall again yesterday. He skipped his History class because he "fogot" about a unit test, and didn't study. When he showed up and realized that he was having a test, he left. He said he panicked. Then, last night, he had another panic attack because he's having trouble coming up with a thesis for a History essay on Peter the Great.

Poor kid. I feel for him. Looking back to my school career I see that I suffered from anxiety in a lot of the same ways as he does ... but I handled it differently.

Last night, however, I wasn't very understanding. I just couldn't deal with it. I yelled at him and started throwing all kinds of useless "advice" his way. (I say useless because I know that when he is in that kind of state, he just can't reason his way out of it.) I guess I started to panic too and there were two unreasonable people in the room. I would just like some smooth road for a while, for him, and for me.

Fortunately, this morning he was feeling much better and had an idea for his thesis statement on paper, ready to talk to his History teacher about it today. Oh, and that missed test? He was able to write it yesterday during 5th period. I'm so thankful for understanding teachers and a great school that is soooo accomodating for him.

On a more possitive note, here are three recently completed layouts.

Don't ya just love a teenager in the morning??


This was an inspired layout from a magazine. Pictures from St. Andrew's State Park in Florida.




And Cameron doing one of his favorite activities.

I'm still around

Life has been rather busy lately and I haven't had much time to blog. It seems that I should have more time on my hands than I do. So what has kept me from keeping up with things around here?
-we've been madly painting. With the Christmas season almost here we've been trying to get the rest of the painting done so that once December hits we can just focus on all the Christmas activitites. We're almost done. The walls are done. The trim is done. The ceilings are done, at least enough to our satisfaction. All that's left are the touch ups.
-A week ago was the latest Scrapping Cabin retreat. It was a total blast (as always). Too much talk, not enough work ... but very enjoyable. ...and a lot of work right before the retreat tim
-The boys activities. I don't need to say anymore. I know you all know how that is.
-John is still home. Enough said.
-unfortunately with all the painting that needed to be done, the housework has been neglected and so now I'm trying to play catch-up
-appointments and such
-exhaustion

A portrait of John

This makes me laugh everytime I look at it. This is what Matt does when he's trying to avoid doing his homework.

In case you can't read the print it says "Fe fi fo fum. I'm unemployed and a lazy bum. Hey, that rhymes."

When I first started hearing about Facebook and looked into how it worked, I thought it was very weird. Why do I need Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family ... isn't that what email is for? The whole thing just seemed a little bazarre. O.K. I could see why kids would like it because it's like a giant playground where you can hang out with your friends. Then, during the summer, I had so many people asking me if I was on Facebook. After saying "no", they would say, "you gotta go on. It's so much fun." Then one day I was chatting with Jeff, a guy that I had worked at camp with almost 30 years ago (hey, stop trying to do the math ... I was very young when I worked there,) tell me that he had contacted BJ, another staffer from those summers, and they had been chatting back and forth. Cool, I thought, that I could get into.

So I finally entered the Facebook world in September. For the first couple of weeks I was checking it all the time and searching for everyone that I could think of to see if I could add them to my "friends". I was getting gifts, giving gifts, throwing disgusting things at my brother, writing on people's walls and them writing on mine, and catching up with people that I hadn't talked to in years. The best part was continuing water fights that were started irl at Music Camp. (by the way ... for those on you involved in these water fights, I'm saving all my water so that I can dump a whole pool on you!) It was all very entertaining.

Since those weeks, my Facebook time has settled down. I got rather bored with some of the silly things (like throwing bird turd at someone), and now I'm just keeping up with people, and letting them know that I'm thinking of them by sending them a Christmas present, or a hatching gift. The most fun I have is playing Scrabble with different people on my Friends list.

It is really a weird phenomon.

Spencer is on Facebook too, but everytime I send him a Friend Request he takes great pleasure in denying me. Hmmmmph! I can see how he feels, though, because last week I got a friend request from my own father. That felt weird, but at least I accepted him as a friend.

This is a very funny video of an acapella male group singing about Facebook. By the way, if you're on Facebook, add me to your friends list.

Lest We Forget

Last night Matthew was watching this video over and over again on the internet. He asked me to come and watch it with him. He was so moved by it, as was I. I bookmarked it and said that I would post it on my blog. I hope that everyone remembers to take a couple of minutes tomorrow to remember. It really is just a pittance of time.

Pieces of my life right now

1. I have been neglecting my blog lately. I've been rather busy with different things and I'm not so sure that I like it.

2. I'm trying to get caught up on the house painting before the Christmas season hits. The last four days we've been doing the laundry room. It's finally finished (except the ceiling needs to be painted) and it is a huge improvement. I might actually want to spend some time in there.

3. Cameron seems to be blossoming as a young musician. He's in the school band (which is normally reserved for the grade 7 and 8s and then his music teacher asked him to join the Jazz band a couple of weeks ago. He was thrilled. He was also asked to play the last post for the school assembly tomorrow. He's so proud of himself. We're so proud of him.

4.The next scrapbooking retreat is coming up next week so I've been busy doing some last minute stuff for that.

5. We've already booked our next annual scrapping vacation for next September. We're going to Virginia Beach. We've got a huge beach house booked ... right on the beach!

6. Matt has been struggling lately but he's been working very hard in the last two or three weeks to get on top of the anxiety. That's not such an easy task for him so we're very proud of him and very encouraged. My baby's growing up.

7. We have a trip to the Ontario Science Centre planned for Saturday to help Cathy celebrate her birthday. We are all looking forward to it.

8. Today is Cathy's birthday. Happy birthday you old lady!

9. I haven't even started thinking about Christmas yet. It will be here before you know it. I don't know what I'm getting anyone ... except maybe John ... maybe.

10. I was at the doctor the other day to have my thyroid levels checked. (I have Graves Disease, which is a form of hyperthyroidism so I need to get my levels checked periodically to make sure I'm on the correct medication dose.) My levels are fine, but my Feretan levels are still low, very low. I'm supposed to be taking iron, but I don't like taking it. I guess I'd better smarten up. As my friend, Adriana would say "Put on your big girl panties and deal with it."

OK back to the painting, and then I have a ton off errands that I need to run.

Halloween

Several years ago I was chatting with a friend. Her children were a little older than mine were at the time and she was a teacher, and so she had done Halloween to death. I remember the feeling of shock when she confessed to me that she didn't like Halloween. In fact, she dreaded it. I understood why she felt like that but I told her how much I enjoyed Halloween, and always would.

So ... now I'm eating my words. I don't like Halloween. That's right ... I said it. I just don't like it. I enjoy seeing all the kids coming to the door in their costumes ... especially the littlest ones who can't believe that people are putting candy in their bags. ...but that's all I enjoy about it.

That being said, I try and put on a brave face for Cameron who loves the night as much as I used to. He wants to make a haunted garage, decorate the house, buy a fog machine, carve a million pumpkins, and wear the scariest costume. He's got the energy for the night that I don't have anymore.

He did a great job in carving the pumpkin. Apparantly there must have been something going around the neighbourhood because there were a few pumpkins who were vomitting that night.




He dragged to decoration box out and managed to get a few out. After coming back from trick-or-treating he was hiding in the garage behind the big skeleton face, and was jumping out at the bigger kids. I think he managed to scare a few.

Next year I really should try and muster up the energy to go all out and decorate with him!