A few moments

Moment #1

I have Whitney signed up for a tumbling class once a week for the summer. This class is held in someone's basement. The lady has a cute little innocent dog. Well, if you know Whitney at all, she is terrified of dogs. I don't think terrified is even a strong enough word to describe Whitney's feelings towards pretty much all animals.

We have been going to tumbling for a month now. I have had to literally drag Whitney from the car to get her to go inside. Once inside, the lady says, "Hi, Whitney, I'll go put the dog away." She then promptly puts the dog away. This doesn't really matter to Whitney because she knows it is there. By the time she is done with class she has had a good time and seems to get over the dog factor.

This past Wednesday I made a very big mistake. I was trying to gear her up for the fact that the dog was nice, he won't hurt you, you'll be fine. Well this pretty much sent her into a panic attack. She has very high anxiety about stuff. I was trying the best I could to reassure her that everything was going to be ok, that dogs were nice. I would say things like : "If dogs weren't nice, do you think people would let them in their houses? You don't see people with alligators in their houses. Why is that? Did you know that a lot of people let their dogs sleep in their beds with them. Do you think they would let something dangerous sleep in their beds? Are all the people that crazy who have dogs?" I sat her down looked her in the eye and said "Whitney, I would not let you go to tumbling if I thought you were in danger. I will protect you and I will do everything in my power to keep you safe. You are not in danger by being at tumbling with a dog." None of this worked. I told her she didn't need to pet the dog. She didn't need to go over to the dog. But she did need to not scream and cry and be so afraid of the dog.

Whitney was insisting that she was not going to go. Tears streaming down her face saying "I won't go, I'm not going." After about 30 minutes of this I finally said, "Whitney, how about we say a prayer." I then offered a pleading prayer to our Heavenly Father to help my daughter to be able to relax and not have such great fear. I gave her lots of hugs and then we went outside to wait for my neighbor who was driving to pick her up. Nothing seemed to change, she was still in tears as I loaded her in the car and I said to my friend, if you need to bring her back, it's ok. I walked back into the house feeling like the worst mother in the world. How could I force my daughter to go when I knew that she would be scared. Was it that important of a lesson for her to learn? Could she learn this on her own some other way. Should I just let her quit like she wanted?

My friend called me after she dropped her off to reassure me that she was ok, and that she calmed down on the way to class. She had talked about other things and seemed to distract her.

When I picked her up I expected her to be mad at me. I expected the worst, that she cried the whole time or something. But instead, she came bouncing out of class with a grin from ear to ear. She excitedly exclaimed that she wasn't afraid of Norman (the dog) anymore. She had actually petted him, twice. Once while the teacher was holding him and once while it was on the floor. At home I sat down with her and helped her see that this was an answer to our prayers. That Heavenly Father gave her the strength she needed to not be afraid, that he loves her and wants her to be happy. Whitney told everyone that she saw that she had petted the dog. I don't think anyone really understood what that meant.

Moment #2

My girls like to have a glass of water with them when they go to bed at night. It is a constant battle to get them to bring the cups back into the kitchen the next day. Cassidy has been fabulous lately. Every morning she has it with her when she comes upstairs. Lindsey will sometimes bring it later on, but Whitney seldom does. So, my new rule is that they can't have a new water if their old water is still in their room. When I brought down their waters last night, Lindsey and Whitney both had theirs still. I gave them a chance to run it upstairs before I took the new ones away. Whit wasn't happy to do it, but she took it upstairs anyway, shaking it all over the stairs on the way pouring water all over the carpet. I realize this later as I am heading back upstairs after tucking them into bed. I turn around go into Whitney's room and take the new water away and tell her that if she can't respect our house, she can't have water in her room anymore. (You can safely assume I didn't calmly or quietly say this.) She bursts into tears and can't imagine going to sleep without water. Cassidy asks why Whitney is screaming and I explain that Whitney poured water all over the stairs so I took her water away. I then go upstairs. Aaron and Cassidy come up a few minutes later to tell me that Cassidy, without any promptings, got her water, went into Whitney's room and said, "Here Whitney, you can have my water, I don't drink it much at night anyway."

The Cable Guy

KRAMER: You remember what they did to me ten years ago? "Oh, we'll be there in the morning between nine and one", or "We'll be there between two and six"! (quiet anger) And I sat there, hour after hour, without so much as a phone call. Finally, they show up, no apology, tracking mud all over my nice clean floors. (malice) Now, they want me to accommodate them. Well, looks like the shoe's on the other foot, doesn't it?



Friday: I receive a phone call from Aspen Countertops. Them: "Hi, I'm calling to confirm your installation on Monday" Me: "Confirm? I was unaware that we had anything scheduled, did you talk with my husband?" Them: "No, we have you on the schedule for Monday and we are calling to confirm it." (Thinking in my mind: Perphaps you are unaware of what the word confirm means) Me: "Ok, but I am only available after 11:30am." Them: "I will put a note and someone will call you on Monday."



Monday: I have to leave to pick up Whit at 11:00 and I also have to buy lunch since I have no kitchen. I haven't received any phone calls, so I am assuming I have to be back here by 11:30 just in case they just show up. I don't know why I told them 11:30 I usually don't get home until 11:40. I leave early to get Whit, go buy the lunch and then go pick Whitney up. As we get our food from Artic Circle, Cassidy annouces that she desperately has to pee. Of course when I asked her before we left if she needs to go, she says no. I am scheming a plan on the way to Whitney's school. I will pick Whitney up, circle around and have her take Cassidy into the school to pee. Then as I arrive I realize that Cassidy doesn't have any shoes on. Neither does Lindsey. (I have a real problem with taking someone into the bathroom without shoes). I am already running behind because Artic Circle was incredible slow. I think it is safe to assume that our food was made fresh. So, I am on the later side of picking Whitney up, and I have about 6 minutes to make it home by 11:30am. It is about a 12 minutes drive. I can't really come up with a plan of how to get her to a bathroom, I would have to carry three kids. I couldn't think of anywhere that I could go that I could leave some of my kids in the car. So, being the mean mom that I am, I make Cassidy wait. There were many tears on the way home, but bless her heart she made it. It was one of those moments when we pull into the garage, she bolts out the door and runs as fast as a little girl who has to pee can run and you hear and audible "Ahhhhhhhh."



Still no word from Aspen, so we have our lunch. Cassidy doesn't touch her lunch. She had been complaining all morning that she didn't feel good, but I now suddenly believe her. (Cassidy doesn't pass up food that she likes). I take her temp and realize that she has a fever once again. I drug her and send them all downstairs to watch something. We receive a phone call right as I got Grant to sleep, from one of Whitney's friends who wants her to come play. The girl lives two streets over. Not to far, but far enough that I usually drive her. So, what to do. Grant is asleep and I still haven't received my phone call. I could just hurry quick and drive her, leaving Grant alone asleep, or wake him and take her. Cassidy doesn't want to budge from her couch. So I decide to be brave and let Whitney ride her bike to her friends house. She is of course almost 7. She wasn't quite sure which house to go to so I told her the house number, called the friend and had her stand outside and wait for her. I stood on the corner and watch her as much as I can until she has to turn. Seems like a good plan. Until it was time to come home. I had told the mom to call me when she left so that I could watch for her. (I know I am an overprotective parent, but it is really hard to let go of those apron strings). The mom calls but by the time I walked outside and got to the corner, Whitney had crashed. Her helmet strap kept coming off so she had taken Cassidy's helmet. Apparently the strap on Cassidy's fell off at her friends and they couldn't get it back on. So Whitney just had the helmet on her head unstrapped. I'm not sure how she went down. I just saw her in tears as she rode up with scraps all over her hands, arms, legs and saying that she hit her head. Her helmet of course had fallen off. Thank goodness the damage was fixable with a few bandaids, but Whitney says she will never ride her bike there again. This is what I get for trying to be brave.



Aaron calls around 1:30 to see if they have shown up. I still had not heard from them so he calls them. He is told that we are still on the schedule for today and that we had requested a PM install which means that they would come between 12:00 and 5:00pm. Quite the broad range, but at least I have some info.

Ahhhhhhhhhh! Ok, this just tops things off. I just tried to publish my post and I had to log in again and lost everything. I had several paragraphs that were lost. Up to this point was all that was saved in a draft.

I don't want to type it all again, so to summarize the rest of the afternoon was just as bad. Aaron called at 4:20pm to find a very angry, frustrated, ticked off wife. He called Aspen back and finds out that the installer was running behind and that they wouldn't be able to come out today. They will be at our house first thing in the morning. So, all the pain my children and I suffered was for nothing and we get to do it again tomorrow!