Busy Week

Wow, where has the week gone? I had intentions of actually posting three different times this past week but never made it to the computer to do so. This past week was pretty eventful and hopefully life-changing too. Thursday was ear tube day for Andrew. The loving husband had to be there by 6:40 that morning so we were up and moving around pretty early that day. Andrew was not too happy about being awakened from his nice warm bed and plopped in a cold car with only a blanket to comfort him (no food or drink allowed 6 hours before the procedure). I had dressed him in a comfy outfit the night before so we did not have to a clothes change right away. They also wanted him dressed in a 2-piece outfit to make things easier for them when prepping him for the surgery. After those two left I had about 40 minutes before Matthew needed to be up for school so I decided to bake brownies. Our MOPS table was supposed to provide the food for Friday's meeting so I had decided to do chocolate chip cookie brownies and coffee cake as my offering. I figured that it wasn't worth it to go back to bed and it's a lot easier to bake without "helpers" underfoot. Matthew actually got up on his own a few minutes before 7 so my job was a lot easier. After getting him dressed and off I started on the coffee cake. I've never made one before so it took a little longer than usual to get everything put together and in the oven. By the time the guys arrived back home around 9:30 the house smelled great. I did feel a little bad telling hubby that no, the still warm just taken out of the oven really tasty looking coffee cake was for my MOPS group not him. I did offer to make another one if he really really wanted to eat this one but thankfully he used willpower and walked away(he got one Sunday morning). Surgery-wise, Andrew did great. He calmed down on the ride over and did pretty good in the waiting area. Everything went well and both tubes were replaced. The was some issues with the left side and he did have excess fluid that needed to be drained but the right side was OK. He was a little groggy and crabby first thing out of anesthesia but unlike many of the little ones who have this done, he did not spend an hour crying uncontrollably. Shortly after arriving home he was bouncing around like nothing happened at all. Later that afternoon I left to take my baked items over to the church and drop them off. Trying to arrive early to the meeting and taking two small children along with two pans of baked goods is a little out of my comfort zone so I usually drop my stuff off the day before with a note attached. I also wasn't sure if Andrew was going to be feeling OK Friday morning and I did not want to make early morning phone calls to find someone to stop by the house and take my stuff with them to the meeting. After I finished that errand I had to go to the school for Carolyn's IEP meeting. For those who don't know an IEP is short for Individual Educational Plan. All special education students are required to have one and they must be updated yearly. The original meeting date was Friday but since Jim was taking Thursday off for Andrew's surgery I changed the meeting date so the poor guy wasn't trying to take time off two days in a row. Funny Matthew story--Matt comes home from his Speech time all excited telling me he played a new game called "test" on the computer. You hit the keys and then it tells you "good job". No, I didn't bust his bubble. I told him that sounded like a fun game. Anyway, back to Carolyn's meeting. She is doing pretty good overall but there are still some weird behaviors and a few other problems that she needs to work on. Right now she likes to imitate a cat and do the things cats do like lick herself and meow and hiss and scratch. When she is upset or angry she most often reverts to the meowing and hissing. She does this at home too so it isn't a big surprise she does it at school. The teacher taped her one day during class time so they could analyze the behaviors and come up with a behavior plan to hopefully get her to express her thoughts and emotions in words instead of sounds and actions. At this point everyone is recommending that Carolyn do Jr. Kindergarten next year instead of Kindergarten so she has another year to work on her ongoing social issues. She turns 5 in June so she would be one of the younger ones in her Kindergarten class so I would have been tempted to do the JR. K thing even if she didn't have the other problems going on. I was hoping that once Andrew got his ears fixed he would give me a complete night's sleep--no such luck. We were up for a while that night but he woke up in a good mood Friday morning so we went to MOPS. I'm glad I dropped my stuff off the day before because I did not even come close to making it early for set up. Hubby took my set of car keys with him to work and I had to search like crazy to find the extra set. Of importance here is the fact the key he took with him that morning was the one I had the day before and used to start the car that night when we went to Tae Kwan Do class so he was the one who misplaced the spare not me. Later that day the kids and I met Daddy for lunch at HuHot Mongolian Grill. Friday was the last day for employees to donate to the charity the company had selected and he forgot to take the checkbook so I used that as an excuse to meet him instead of just dropping it off at the front desk. Every year the company selects an organization and then they match whatever amount the employees donate. After lunch it was back home to get naps done and supper planned because it was going to be a big night for the kids. The first Friday of the month is $5 Friday at the Science Center. Hubby decided to take Matthew and Carolyn and do the movie and exhibits. The movie was about Mummies and the there was a physics theme to the exhibits this month. I had made arrangements with my friends Tobi and Shawna to meet for drinks and dessert at 7:30 so I took Andrew as my "date" and off we went. This was supposed to be a girls only thing but I didn't have the heart to tell hubby he had to take all three kids with him. Andrew is a bit too young to sit though a movie and do the interactive stations so it would have been a bit difficult for everyone to have fun with him tagging along. As it was he enjoyed himself with me. We shared a nice chocolate cake and he got his own balloon. Afterward we stopped by Wal-Mart on the way home and picked up a few necessary supplies. By the way I drank Mountain Dew. Saturday morning found hubby and I working off future food sins in our cardio kickboxing class. It was also open gym and special kids activities in the nursery so the kids had fun. Later that evening Jim and I attended the company Christmas party. It was held at the Minnehaha Country Club. They've had it there before but we still got lost trying to find the place. I guess that is what happens when you only go to the place once a year. It was pretty fun. There are a lot of employees so I don't know too many people. This year we sat at a table with people I knew. One of the ladies at my MOPS table is also the spouse of an employee in a different department so we ended up at the same table. One of hubby's counterparts in his department was at our table too and I know his wife so I was able to have some fun conversations. This is a semi-formal/formal event so I got to dress up and wear make-up. The food was pretty good. Last year they had this baked potato thing that was totally terrible but this year they must have learned form that mistake because we had garlic mashed potatoes instead. The highlight of the meal was definitely dessert. I got what I can only call a chocolate orgasm--yes it was that good. It was a small dense cake made of rich bittersweet chocolate with a molten chocolate center. There was some whipped cream on the side. It was one of those things that can only be savored slowly. Hubby got some cappachino cheesecake creation so I was able to alternate bites of mine with bites of his. There is no ordering of dessert, they just bring it out and set it in front of you so I totally lucked out. After stuffing ourselves and enjoying two very nice glasses of White Zinfandel wine we headed back home. Today hubby tried to re-create our dessert. He didn't do that bad of a job. He found a recipe on the TLC website and modified that. He still has some more tweaking to do but I don't mind eating the mistakes.