Water Park Weekend

Our weekend water park get away was great.

The drive into Idaho took me into new territory – I’d never been past Spokane. The hills and Coeur d’Alene lake were really beautiful.

Since I started the weekend on the verge of a nervous breakdown, we got on the road about 1pm after a nice and slow morning and arrived around 4pm. Silver Mountain is everything a ski resort should be – fireplaces, dark wood trims, picturesque setting… very nice.

We checked into our room and headed to the indoor water park where we met up with the other two families. The water park was a huge hit for AJ who would have kept going down the waterslides all night if I had left her in there!

The water slides were really great and I even went down the family tube “Moose Sluice” a couple times. Turns out a water slide is really a lot like an amusement ride – a couple of turns is about the max for this mom!

AJ loved every attraction and even mastered the very cool Flow Rider surf wave. We went back Saturday morning and spent another few hours playing in the water and hanging out with our friends.

I had not slept well so I cancelled our room for the second night and the hotel comped us two gondola ride tickets! Very nice! So we took a ride in North America’s longest gondola – almost 20 minutes to get to the top of the mountain. Unfortunately for us a blizzard blew in that afternoon and it was almost whiteout conditions at the top of the mountain (being blown around in a gondola – very fun!). But we had fun eating lunch in the lodge before heading back down.

Even though we only stayed 1 day at Silver Mountain, we had planned to be gone the whole weekend. So I decided to head back to Hayden, ID and go to Raptor Reef water park the next day.

The 45 minute trip between Kellogg and Hayden was some of the worst winter driving I’ve ever had to do. The blizzard at the top of the gondola ride – ran into that driving out of town. Hit the pass in the 4^th of July rec area and was all-of-a-sudden driving on ice that quickly became ice with water running over it. It was bumper to bumper traffic going 2 miles an hour past sliding semi’s, flares and ID State Troopers. I was sooooo thankful to reach the hotel!

The next day was the water park at Triple Play – Raptor Reef. It had this amazing water slide that swirled you around in a vortex before sending you down again. I think we were about water parked out as we only lasted a few hours before hitting the road for home. I’d definitely like to go back and visit as we never got to bowl and AJ really wanted to spend hours playing the myriad of video games available.

All in all – a great weekend. And I’m no longer on the verge of a nervous breakdown! =-)

Like I never was

My fabulous friends Jennie and Lisa hosted an 80's themed murder mystery party. I was "Lindy Lauper"...

I present the girl I never was in the '80's (but maybe should have tried!)

Absorbing Pain

So AJ had her braces adjusted today. Well, for the first time, she's also feeling the wire poke at the back of her cheeks a bit. The orthodontist office gave us two care kits that included wax for just such an occasion when the braces were first put on. Needless to say, AJ can't find the kits or the wax.

I'm giving the dog an emergency bath (don't know what she got into but it reeked!), I come out of the bathroom hoping my child is ready for bed. Instead she looks me in the eye and says -

"You know mom, I couldn't find the wax stuff. So I was thinking about what I could put on there. And I was thinking - you know how tampons are cotton and stuff? So I cut one in half and put it up there... It was bleechh!"

OMG - you have no idea how hard it was to keep a straight face and praise her for trying to find a solution to her problem.

ROTFL!

Obligatory January Post

Happy New Year oh faithful readers! Having broken my post-twice-in-a-month streak, I've made it my New Year's resolution to post at least once a year. Typing this post fulfills my resolution and my 2009 is off to a positive start! =-)

I was going to post cute Christmas and sledding pictures but AJ had an interesting melt down last night I thought I'd share. So here's the anatomy of a disturbed child's anger...

Message Number 1:
Note the use of my name instead of "mom". Sure sign that she's angry! I'm not quite sure what a fake person is...

And the flip side of Message 1:

Note that the "say sorry" and "give attention" are her demands to me, not instructions to herself.

Message 2:

Note the thinking process. I love this! She's really trying to figure out a way through her anger but doesn't quite make it.

Message 3:

Ahh, sweet moments of sorrow and understanding.

So the situation that triggered all of this was we were baby sitting a 7 month old infant. He was still here at 8:30pm and not at all ready to go to sleep and his parents were due in the next 30 minutes.

I tell my sweet daughter to get ready for bed because her bedtime is 8:30pm. She gets mad because she is older and should not have to go to bed before a tiny little baby. I refuse to change my mind or argue with her - she gets mad, begins to throw a fit and eventually chooses to not go to bed and sit in the door way of her room.

At this point I really need to brag on how far AJ has come and how good she really is doing. Even just a few months ago, AJ would have been thrilled to bring me the first two notes and demonstrate just how horrible she thought I was as a mother.

This time, she only brought me the third message! She wrote the first two in her room, worked through the feelings, figured out what was really bothering her, then brought me the apology letter. Yeah for AJ! She cried, we hugged, talked, snuggled and she was ready to go to sleep.

She brought me the first two messages this morning and explained that she had wanted to give them to me but she heard God tell her not to do it and she listened. Whooo hoo!

She had consequences this afternoon (when you throw a fit it takes energy out of the house so you need to do cleaning chores to help put energy back into the house) and did a very good job and had an excellent attitude the whole time.

She really has come so far - easy to forget when she pulls old stunts or I find ourselves going over the same ground. What a kid!

And because I can't resist... cute sledding pictures...

Just a general post

OK - so the amazing thought of posting twice a month didn't quite happen... not like my faithful readers were surprised! =-)

On the home front we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My parents came over and I did the whole dinner at my house. It turned out very well and we had a nice afternoon together. It actually seemed like a small gathering since we usually find someone who doesn't have a place to go joining our table but I guess there were no strays in our circle this year!

Christmas deco is up and the house is looking quite festive! I keep trying to get gifts bought, wrapped and distributed early but... yeah... still working on that. 'Course I could blame my friends the Owens who had the audacity to buy a new house, renovate and move - effectively tying up my Saturdays for the last three weeks. Then again, I volunteered (building serious brownie points for a future move of my own!) and got to meet their great extended family including Lisa!

AJ is doing well at the moment. She seems to have backed off from the stealing and is actually doing really well with the restrictions at home and school. I'm enjoying the lack of drama but also holding my breath waiting for the next event. Her psych doc is considering new meds for her and they are looking at some scary diagnosis. It's so hard to diagnose kids - is their behavior indicative of PTSD? RAD? FASD? Personality disorder? Bi-polar? Just being a kid? Preteen hormones? Sad as it is, a diagnosis is important to us for two reasons - 1 to get the school to acknowledge and provide the need for services and 2 parenting help! Parenting techniques for a PTSD kid is different than parenting for brain damage with FASD or a lifetime situation like bi-polar. The overall goal is the same - love and attention to help them mature into responsible adults but techniques to use on the way vary greatly!

simple Woman

My dear friend Jenn keeps gently reminded I have not posted in a long while. I am so completely overwhelmed with life at the moment I don't even know what to share. So I thought I'd do the Simple Woman meme that Jenn's started doing.

Who knows? I might even post twice in a month! =-)

Outside My Window...

It's dark. it's not Alaska but the change to winter is noticable. It was a very pretty fall day. I love bright red fall leaves!

I am thinking...

I want a nap!

I am thankful for...

Friends, family, connections. Some friends just adopted their third son today - National Adoption Day!

From the kitchen...

Adoption celebration means I don't have to cook. Whoo hoo!

I am wearing...

Jeans and a long sleeved shirt. A brand new shirt I should point out, that I promptly spilled egg onto as I was driving to work. Grrrr.

I am creating...

Wire and bead creations for friends for Christmas.

I am going...

To an adoption celebration! And then to bed 'cause the family that just adopted is having a huge work party on the new house tomorrow!

I am reading...

Books on adoption, the blue collar worker and a lovely fantasy series.

I am hoping...

AJ gets out of her funky snit and decides to listen.

I am hearing...

AJ bouncing a ball and reading in her room.

Around the house...

Hmmm, just things to do.

One of my favorite things...

Creative quiet time to myself.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week:

Saturday: Help friends. Sunday: Church, clean the car, relax. Monday: back to school and work!

A picture to share...

AJ attended a special board breaking class for her Tae Kwon Do school and this is what she learned!

Real Estate - funny post

So I'm thinking about buying a house sometime in the future. I'm checking out websites and came across this post.

I thought it was hysterical! Since I live in the area of these underground silos maybe I should check it out!