Mt. Pleasant Classical Academy

Thank God It’s The End Of The Week.   We had a nice evening at a friend’s Octoberfest.  Good brats, good German Potato Salad, Dark Beer, Warm Fire and lots of friends to talk to.  We were the only hs’ing family there once again but that’s ok, I don’t have to ‘pass the bean dip’ with this group.

Last evening after listening to Mark complain for the 5′th-day about stomach pains I asked if it hurt when he pushed on his stomach.  “Yes!” and he demonstrated how little pressure caused pain at the 6-level  (on a 1 t0 10 scale with 10 being the worst pain imagineable).   It hurt more when he moved around, he had a headache, he felt like he was going to vomit, he wanted to keep his legs bent, and please don’t ask me again to cough mom cause that makes my stomach really hurt.

I’m sure you know where this is headed.  Yea, I called the Dr, shared his symptoms and she advised we run him into ER.  There wasn’t any ‘we’ to this other than it was me driving, and the sicky asking why he couldn’t just go to bed.   Six hours later, that’s 3AM, we were back home knowing little more than before.

So after the pantry moths, Brutus’ ear infections,  my pc crashing(no, couldn’t write about that one since I had no connection),  the skate-mishap, a run to the ER, I was ready for a few beers tonight and ready to say so long to this week.  TGITEOTW!

This week we have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Mark’s FIRST & BRAND-NEW inline speed skate boots.  For the past 6 months he skated on borrowed speed skates and we were very thankful that the one coach had some that fit him.  We wanted to make sure that he did want to do this sport before we sunk $$$$ into speed skates.  Think expensive and a zero, or two.  The boots were ordered back in mid-July when we were in Lincoln, NE at the Inline-Speed Skating Nationals.  That was over 3-months ago.  Finally we were given a tracking number last Friday evening and told the boots were being shipped from CA — ground.  Not the way I would have shipped product to a customer that had been waiting that long.

So we took it in stride using this as a nice lesson in geography too.  When we learned where the boots were being shipped from we brought up MS Streets & Trips, plotted the trucks course, and gauged where the promised boots were every night.  This morning we checked the UPS site again and found that they left MD at 1:36AM, and then shortly after 8am we checked again and learned that they were put on the truck for delivery this morning at 8:06am.

As homeschoolers we know our UPS driver very well, and he us.  He carries big dog biscuits for our two and they can tell us when his truck pulls into our development.  We can set our clock at 10:03am, always goes by at that time and today was no exception. Today we saw the truck speed by…..Mark’s face dropped and we assured him that he would stop on his return path by our home.  He speed by again.   Mark fought back the tears, just like being told Santa would come and then someone messed with the day.

At 12:15pm the UPS truck came back—is this someone’s idea of a cruel joke?—-and brought the package for Mark.  Mark whipped out his Leatherman, opened up the box and found that it only contained the boots.  The two skate bags were not shipped.  Then he exclaimed–THEY ARE SIZE 10.5!!!!!! not the size 10 as stated on our original purchase order.  His feet swim in them, size 10 was pushing it as it was.

I’ve sent the email to cancel the order, to have our $$$$$ returned.  Three month backordered, shipped ground, sent wrong-size, incomplete delivery—-all the wrong things to do for this patient and understanding customer.   The boys are now trying to decide what to order instead.  Oh, and Mark has said that this inline speed skate company should practice mass production, that works and they should try it.  What a lesson in how to not treat a customer, and how to deal with disappointment and dissatisfaction as the customer.

Brutus has been crying when Mark’s hands come near his ears.  Not like him.   And yesterday he was crying, wimpering quite a bit.  I could hear fluid like sounds when I rubbed Brutus ears but he didn’t flinch or cry or do anything other than request, as a dog will request, for me to rub more.

I called the vet late yesterday afternoon and we took him in today.  This vet is so nice.  When he came into the room he spoke to Brutus, explaining to him that he must be enjoying the smells on his clothes since he had just spent time with the horses and cattle.  Yes, this vet sees large animals, servicing the area farmers.  He let Brutus take in all the smells, petted him, peeked in the ears, and then took out the scope asking me to hold Brutus head slightly to the side so he could get a look in.  By this time the vet’s knees were on the ground, kneeling so he was eye-level with Brutus.  It sure looked and felt like he was enjoying this giant of a dog.  He looked and found both ears infected.   The vet administered a shot of antibotics, and Brutus didn’t flinch or respond in anyway to the shot.  Next the vet instructed us on what to do with his ears for the next two weeks, and told us to come back for an ear-recheck.

Geez, I feel like I’ve been down this path before.  With both boys.  Many times when they were 2 & 3 & 4, we were at the Dr’s finding out they had ear infections, and they too were unable to tell me that their ears hurt.  Michael at age 6, when told he had two ear infections and asked by the Dr if his ears HURT, replied, aren’t ears supposed to hurt.  OUCH.    Thankfully that is one thing he says he does not remember from his childhood.

Surprisingly Brutus is the same weight, 128#, as he was 6 weeks ago.  Tonight though he could not get enough food.   The vet said it would take little time for his ears to feel better and it looks like that is the case.

Mark saw some maggots on the ceiling outside our pantry this morning.  This certainly got my attention.  Pantry moths.   It is fly season here, and moth season, so over the last few days when I’ve seen a moth I’ve ignored it.   First mistake. 

But this maggot got my attention and so I pulled out my pantry shelves and started investigating.  There on the shelf was a container of dog treats covered with maggots.    And the nut container, in a Rubbermaid pitcher but without the pour spout in place made a fine nesting ground for these things. Thanks DH!

On the plus side Michael took this opportunity to do a little research on the web to learn that they are edible—how wonderful, that all the food not in a glass jar or in a canned jar should be trashed, and that these little things are very difficult to get rid of. The freezer will be a helpful storage spot between now and when I feel comfortable putting dry goods back into the pantry.

I did not want to clean today.  I wanted to look through the new writing program that just arrived for Mark.  I wanted to prepare a bit for this week, and sit and read books to Mark, and go shopping.  Well, I still do need to go shopping for some glass containers to put our food stuff into once these things are gone from here.  And sorry dogs but no more dog treats for you two.

I’m tired.  No, beyond tired, exhausted.  Guess that’s what happens when the dogs wake DH up at 5am, then he discovers poop in the hallway, which results in him getting Mark up to 5:03am to clean up the poop,….with the rug cleaner.  Do you know how much noise a rug cleaner makes?  Allot.   So I got up, had some decaf—caf coffee sends my BP through the roof so I avoid it—and started grading papers.   I’m teaching an online class this year which consumes a bit of my time but I thoroughly am enjoying it.

Five hours later I finally finish and switch over to painting trimwork.  Geez, we have lots of trimwork in the kitchen, family room and foyer.  This is the second day I’ve worked on painting all of it and by 5pm I still had more trimwork to paint.  At least the family room is finished now.  I had to stop cause my shoulders are so sore.  Man, I hate getting older and having all these aches and pains.  Tomorrow, after the boys inline speed skating practice (it starts at 8am so there’s NO sleeping late on that day), I’ll try to knock out the rest of the trimwork painting. 

Mark’s speed skates are due to arrive on Wednesday.  Finally.  We ordered them back in July when we were at Nationals and he got to try them on.  Unfortunately they only had one pair and Michael took that one so Mark’s were backordered.  No problem, I thought, he can wait a few weeks.  Yea.  Right.  If I had known then what I know now we would have gone with a different company.  The boots finally made it through customs this last week, and then the company shipped them GROUND to us.  What were they thinking?   Oh, yea, how to make a customer really unhappy is what they were thinking.  Me, If I were the salesman on this one I would have shipped next-day-air from California.  No, they chose to ship UPS Ground.  UGH!!!  But stuff like this, writing emails, making phone calls, thinking about how Mark is feeling about all this really tires me out too.  Stress, can’t stand it.  But the boots are coming and Mark will have a couple practices to get used to them before his first race.  

On the 9th I posted about how I felt like I was pushing a rope trying to teach Mark to add and subtract negative numbers and that it was a Sore Subject.

Today Mark went through his math problems, adding and subtracting negative and positive numbers and got them all correct!   He even admitted that once he started thinking about the negative sign as him owing money it made so much more sense, (and he said he was saying that as he was doing the problem) .  We’ve continuously worked on this concept and finally it has come together.  Mark ran into this math concept in Key To Algebra, I switched him over to Mary Dolciani’s Pre-Algebra book hoping that this concept might be presented differently in there and he would understand it then.  Not quite what happened.  I also went through the New Elementary Mathematics 1 book (Singapore math program for 7th - 10th grade) I had on the shelf.   In the end what we did was use worksheets that I wrote out and worked through them.  Sometimes we used number lines, sometimes I had him face to the left when he saw a negative sign and then pretend to be walking on the number line, or face right when he saw a positive sign, and we used the word ‘owe money’ for negative signs.  Mark understands money and this is what finally did the trick for him.

My next question though is what to have Mark use for math now.  He finished book 2 of Key to Algebra and I don’t want him moving into book 3 for a little while.  The question is whether to have him continue with Mary Dolciani Pre-Algebra book or switch over into NEM 1.   Mark says either is fine for him.  I’m leaning toward the Pre-Algebra book simple cause Mark is not a math wiz and has a really tough time understanding math concepts quickly.  NEM tends to throw allot at the kids quickly, and I can see him being overwhelmed by it all.  But I love NEM and its challenging word problems.  ugh, what to do?  what to do?   Debates are not very fun when you are having them with just me, myself, and I, so if you’d like to chim in and give your 2-cents worth please do!

Between taking the boys to skating meets we’ve been working diligently on the kitchen.  Our cup runneth over though and we really want this job finished.   In the last month we have:

wood floors installed in kitchen-eating-area, family room, foyer.  All the furniture from these rooms is still located in the living room and school room giving the place that open-airy feel.  Well, not really.  It has a ‘this place is a MESS!’ or ‘we are under construction’ feel.  I don’t care for either feel but the wood floors do look great.

Half-bath painted (2 gallons+1/2 can for ceiling), Kitchen painted(4 gallons), family room and foyer painted(8 gallons plus 2 gallons for a small closet and I painted the ceiling where it is a 9′ ceiling.  I didn’t paint the 17′ ceiling though.)  Two story walls made for tough painting!

We are stilllllll without a first-floor bathroom.  The floor tile was laid on a diagonal like I requested but one Sunday morning when DH looked at the wall tile that will go half-way up the walls, 1/2 of one box was broken.  We had to wait a week for that color to come in before we could proceed, and, well, DH got sidetracked on other parts of this job.

The new kitchen table ceiling light was installed.  We ordered the island pendants but the wrong length stems were ordered.  This meant that I spent a week calling the company before we finally got a quote for the correct length stem.  No idea how many weeks we will have to wait for that to come in.  Oh, it only took us 4 trips to the lightening store and many cruises around the web before we decided upon our fixtures.  Time, everything takes so much of it.

The kitchen and family room shades were picked out, and after three trips to the store finally ordered.  Why can’t things every get done the first time?

The trimwork around the windows, doorways, baseboards is installed.  Now you might think that was a breeze but no.  DH had to go to the lumberyard about 2hrs away, pick out the rough-cut wood, bring it home (that trip took a day), plane it, cut it, router the form onto the wood, sand it, prime it, let it dry, paint it and finally install it.  Mark filled all the nail holes with putty too.  Now half of it has received its final paint coat by me and hopefully the rest will be painted this weekend.

DH installed the new recessed ceiling lights in the family room hallway area.  Of course the holes were not large enough so he had to cut into the ceiling area, install the lights, repair the ceiling and the painter (me) has to go back and repaint the ceiling.  Did I ask before why things take two or three tries before something gets done?

All the shelves and drawers and pull-out cabinet shelves are now installed!  The space is great.  Cabinet doors are to be made from the rough-cut cherry after all the other partially completed jobs listed above are finished. 

The 4 new shelves for the family room closet were installed using shelving material the previous owner left behind.  Guess it was good that we didn’t throw it away after all.

I don’t even want to name all the things left to do but to give you an idea of the three biggies:  install undercounter lightening, take the rough-cut cherry and turn it into cabinet doors, half-bath tilework and installing its fixtures, building the bookshelves and wine rack for the front side of the island, painting all the white 6-panel doors, framing and then hanging photos.  Oh, wait, I did say three didn’t I!