Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Prayer request for a friend

One of the ladies I work with has a daughter Primo's age who was diagnosed with cancerous tumors on one of her kidneys at the age of one. She went through Chemo at the time and had been in remission for 2 years. They went back to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia 2 weeks ago for her checkup and they found new spots on the same kidney since she was there 3 months ago. She is going to go back soon for a biopsy, but they think the cancer could be back. Please pray for this sweet little girl and her family during this difficult time that it's not a cancerous growth. St. Peregrine, please pray for her!

Quite frankly, I've just been too tired

to blog. We have had some technical difficulties at home with the monitor getting tempermental. I've been too busy to do it from work, and now that the computer is back up and running at home, I am just too sleepy to do it when I get home from work. I have been going to be at 8:00 every night. I am tired and nauseous. I didn't feel like this with the 2 boys, so I'm thinking this one must be a girl.

But I have been lurking around my friends' blogs (see sidebar) so I'm still around. Sweet Barb sent me an email last week to make sure I wasn't dead. Nope, not dead. Just dead tired. You guys understand. Thanks for your prayers.

Primo has his doctor's appointment on Friday, in which I am pretty sure I'll be told he's totally fine. Keep us in your prayers.

SSPX News?

HT to Amy Welborn

Rocco has an interesting post about a meeting which may be happening in France which will bring the Society of St. Pius X back into full communion with Holy Mother Church. I hope it's true. It hurts the Church as a whole when any of her members are outside of her. Didn't Jesus pray that all of us may be one? That should be our prayer too.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Speaking of Primo,

He's had headaches for a week. I took him to the doctor on Monday and he thinks (as did I before we got there) that they are stress-related. The boy is 5!

We're backing off the school stuff. What he gets done in class is fine and whatever he doesn't get done, we'll finish at home. No big deal.

He has an appointment with a pediatric neurologist in 3 weeks. He'll do testing for learning disabilities and stuff like that then too. So, we'll know something in a little while.

We're trying to discern God's will for us and we'd appreciate it (Dear Husband and I) if you'd pray for us.

Happy Birthday!!!

Primo Turns 5 today!!!

I am so glad we have him. He's a delightful guy. Pray for my older boy on his birthday.

Quartet Meme

Apparently, memes are the only things which will drag me out of my hole every day to post.

Barb tagged me. Here we go:

Four Jobs I've Had in My Life:
1. Supermarket Cashier
2. College Admissions Counselor
3. Starbucks Barista
4. donut shop waitress

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over, and Have
1. The Quiet Man
2. Sleepless in Seattle
3. The Dirty Dozen (really. I love that movie)
4. Clueless

Four Places I Have Lived(not including the one I live in now!)
1. Center Valley, PA
2. Basking Ridge, NJ
3. Ambler, PA
4. Philadelphia, PA

Four TV Shows I Love To Watch
1. House
2. The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire
3. What Not to Wear
4. This Old House

Four Places I Have Been On Vacation
1. Key West, Florida
2. Ocean City, NJ
3. San Diego, CA
4. Falmouth, MA

Four Websites I Visit Daily
1. Archdiocese of Newark email
2. Comcast.net homepage for my home email
3. Most of the blogs on my roll
4. St. John's Parish website

Four Favorite Foods
1. Chocolate
2. Pizza
3. Stouffer's Vegetable Lasagne
4. Tostitos Tortilla chips and Salsa Con Queso

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now
1. At home getting ready for hot dog dinner for Primo's 5th birthday
2. Lounging on the beach in Hawaii
3. Wandering the streets of Rome
4. At home (Can you tell I'm at work right now?)

Thursday, January 12, 2006

5 Random Facts meme

Tomissar has tagged me with the 5 random facts meme. You should stop by and read his. He's a really good storyteller. But read mine first so you're not woefully disappointed in my storytelling because you read his stories first.

1. I am friends with 2 other pregnant Amy's. My best friend is named Aimee (note the different spelling) she is due in July and I just met a great gal named Amy at a wedding this past weekend and she is due in April. Also of note in my relationship with Aimee is that we went to college together, we were in the same major and both of our maiden names can be used as men's first names. One of our English professors said he was going to write a story about it. He was actually the one who had called our attention to that fact. We hadn't thought about it before.

2. I at one point seriously considered applying to the Air Force Academy, but when I saw that you were required to participate in a varsity sport, I decided not to bother. I am not athletic. At all.

3. I drink a lot of seltzer water. At least a liter a day. We buy Vintage Wild Cherry by the case, and it has doubled in price in the last 2 years. And the grocery store we frequent NEVER has it in stock. It's a happy day when mama gets her case of Seltzer.

4. The first concert I ever attended was Harry Connick, Jr. at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. My dad took me for my 14th birthday and I think that Harry Connick Jr. was standing outside of the venue when we left. It was early in his career (right after "When Harry Met Sally" came out-he did the soundtrack) and I think he wanted to know if anyone would recognize him. I, being a very dorky 14 year old, was too nervous to go talk to him, all I could do was stare. I have obviously overcome the shyness (see "I turned into a real dork when..." post).

5. I used to do a good bit of theatre in high school and if there was a German housekeeper or landlady, that was my part. I was the housekeeper in "The Sound of Music" junior year and I was the landlady in "I Am a Camera" the summer before I went to college. That gives you a clue about my appearance: red hair and freckles ;) Oddly, I am not of German extraction at all.

I tag: Arthur and Mark

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Here comes Debbie Downer...

I feel like a wrung-out dishrag inside.

Shortly after I completed the previous post, I went to pick up Primo from school today and his teacher asked me if I can come inside for a minute. Usually this is indicative of a behavior problem such as, "Primo spilled his juice on another boy at snack time."

This time it was, "I think Primo might have a learning problem. You should make an appointment with his pedicatrician to see where you can get him evaluated. If you catch it now, you could probably work through it before he gets to first grade." He'll be in Kindergarten next year. She outlined for me all of the things that he's been having trouble with pretty much all year. He alternately has no problems for a week or two, then all of a sudden she has to stand right next to him to get him to do his schoolwork.

I'm not going to go into all of his symptoms here. I don't think he has a serious difficulty like autism, and I don't think he's ADD either. Our insurance will pay for an evaluation and we'll figure out what if anything is up with him.

But when she told me this, having been through the wringer with the woman last night and the pregnancy hormones raging, I just started crying a little. Poor ol' Primo was right in the room playing. I tried really hard to keep it together and I couldn't. So, I got it together enough to walk him out of the building but without talking since I ddin't want him to witness a shaky mommy and he looks up at me and says, "Mommy, I'm sorry I didn't get all of my tables done today. I didn't mean it. I'm really really sorry." I tried to reassure him that I wasn't upset because he didn't get his tables done, but I don't think I was particularly convincing.

He's really a bright kid. He's reading on a first grade level and he's not 5 yet. He's very interested in science and lots of things, but he won't pay attention long enough to do simple things he is more than capable of finishing.

So, off I go to bed at 8:00 p.m. I can't stay up much longer. If I weren't pregnant, I'd be polishing off the Bailey's in my fridge right now. Tomorrow will be a better day, for sure. right?

not everyone likes me

Amazing, I know! Obviously, if they really KNEW me, they couldn't help but like me. Alas, not everyone knows me as well as you do, gentle reader.

I messed up clerically here in the office and the mother of the child affected by the clerical error was most displeased when she was in my office last night. And she was most displeased with the catechist who teaches her son. I won't get into the details here in case I get "googled," but the clerical error should not have happened. I apologized, gave the the phone number at the Catechetical Office at the Archdiocese and she left not as angry as she was when we first met, though still pretty steamed. I think, however, that she may have blown the entire incident slightly out of proportion. I think I surprised her by not trying to make excuses and by giving her phone numbers of high up people she could call.

I don't know why I'm still so rattled. I slept well. But I can't stop thinking about her. I guess it's not easy to shake it off when someone has been screaming at you for 45 minutes straight. I guess what is bothering me is mostly the charge she leveled at me: "Why should we care if you don't? Why should my kid take this seriously if you don't?" I neglected to change one thing in the computer. She made it personal. And now I'm sitting back at the desk where all the ugliness came out. No wonder I can't stop pondering it.

I have resigned myself to the fact that in this ministry I am going to get screamed at like this at least once a year. Once every year for the last 3 years, some parent has gotten really ticked off at me for something-usually something stupid. As long as I don't get another one this year, I'll be OK. No, even if I do get another one this year, I'll be OK.

Pray for me. Pray for her. If she takes her kid out of our program-fine. If she leaves him here and gets all apathetic-fine. All I can do is my best and resolve to try not to make stupid mistakes anymore.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

St. John Neumann

Today is St. John Neumann's feast day and I thought I'd share a story.

When I was in grade school at St. Martin of Tours in Philadelphia, I had a classmate named Chuckie McGivern. When Chuckie was pretty small, he developed hyrdocephalus (water on the brain). His condition was very serious and the doctors had installed a shunt in his head. Chuckie went into a coma. His grandmother came and pinned a relic of St. John Neumann (Pronounced NOY-man) to his pillow. They kept a novena and by the end of the novena, Chuckie woke up and his condition dramatically improved. He said that a little boy had come to visit him. His parents thought this was strange, but didn't think much of it.

After Chuckie was released from the hospital he and his family went to the shrine of St. john Neumann to say thank you. They were looking around and Chuckie said, "There's the boy who came to see me!" and he pointed to a picture of the saint as a child on the wall.

St. John Neumann was a bishop of Philadelphia. He organized the first Catholic School system (regional with a board of education) in the USA right in Philly. He's an amazing saint, one about whom we learned a lot growing up in Philadelphia. Pray for us, St. John Neumann!

Waiting for the peanut

I told Primo (who will be 5 in 2 weeks) that we were expecting another baby. He said, "We should call the baby Peanut." As a nickname. Bubba opined that we should call him "Snoopy," but I think that's because he was looking at a little Snoopy figurine on their dresser at the time.

Primo feels that he would like a baby brother. Born RIGHT NOW! He has told me he will be a big help wuith the baby and just this morning he said, "Mommy, I will be gentle with Peanut."

I know you will, Primo.