I Confess - I Turned The Alarm Off And Went Back To Bed (And Other Important Things)

What a week! I don't even know where to begin. The Murph's job offer in St. Pete? The Boy's eviction notice from his college apartment? Phantom, the cat's, bad, good, trying to get him to eat, drink and take his pills and supplement days? My half ironman training (that's not) days?

The 15 hours of continuing education real estate license classes I have to take so I can activate my Alabama license, so I can then get a reciprocal Florida real estate license without having to take the 60 hour pre-license class again. Searching online for a place to live in the Tampa/St. Pete area before we head back down there in a couple of weeks so we can see them in person.

That doesn't include all that's coming up next week. We are going back to Birmingham to clean out and pack up the house and then turn it over to a Birmingham realtor to sell for us. Hopefully, she will sell it quicker than we were able too. Being there to show it is key. That's hard to do when you're 4 hours away like we are. We weren't all that concerned about it until we discovered we were moving several more hours away. Any way, that's all next week.

This past week the Boy, who has Asperger's, called me from college while we were still in St. Pete saying he got an eviction notice from his apartment. This is after the fact that the Boy had gone down to the office several times to get this vendor form filled out for Alabama Rehab. AL Rehab has to have the form before they can pay the apartment complex. The Boy is eligible for a part of his rent to be paid by Alabama Rehab. Without their help, the Boy can't afford to live there. There have been a series of phone calls, emails from the Boy, me and Alabama Rehab to the apartment complex, but nothing has been done. I even called the corporate office and the Boy has been to the apartment office several times. Despite all of this, since rent is past due because the form hasn't been filled out, the Boy got an eviction notice.

This has FINALLY been straightened out (I think) so the Boy's okay for now. His classes were dropped also, when his financial aid wasn't applied to his account because of me. That was back a few weeks ago when I didn't know the difference between an income tax return and a transcript. This was taken care of as well so he's okay there too. Finally!

The Murph accepted the job offer and we are still waiting for everything to be finalized. We should know something this week. We already have a realtor trying to help us find a place to rent in Tampa/St.  Pete and I've been looking online. What a headache!

Me and Miss Mary

Phantom is doing pretty well. We had dinner with Miss Mary, an energy healer, who has been helping Phantom, last night. She's been sending Phantom healing energy and giving me other suggestions for him. She thinks he might be dehydrated. He was drinking tons of water when we were in St. Pete and not so much now that we are back in Pensacola. If you want to keep up with how he's doing he has his own facebook page here and blog here.

The Murph and Miss Mary

I had to upgrade my computer system so I could take the online CE Real Estate classes. That was a pain since I thought I could do it myself and wasted several hours attempting it. Who knows what all I've downloaded on this thing now. I have a dinosaur of a computer! I've only gotten halfway through the first risk management class and have 5 classes (15 hours) total that I have to take. Boring!

Half Ironman training? Well, uh, yes, I'm sucking at it! I haven't swam in a couple of weeks or been on my tri bike. I've been indoor cycling, weights and lots of running, but shorter runs of between 3 - 9 miles. Okay, mostly just 3 miles.

Sunday was the Trigulfcoast's club members only practice triathlon for the Santa Rosa Island Sprint that is coming up in a couple of weeks. I was signed up to do the practice race which was going to be officially timed with a chip and everything. It would have been a great practice race and good overall brick workout. The night before I pumped up my bike tires, set my tri clothing out and packed all my gear into my transition bag. I set the alarm on my IPhone for 5:30 a.m and was all set to go!

My alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. just as scheduled. It was still dark outside at 5:30 a.m. That totally sucks because I terribly dislike getting up when it's still dark outside knowing that I have to swim. In the ocean!!

I got up, turned my alarm off, fed a snack to two of our curious, demanding cats, who were probably wondering what the crap I was doing, then I crawled back into my nice warm bed between my sexy husband (he has incredible body heat at 5:30 a.m) and our other four legged furry kitty, Ed, who likes sleeping on my side of the bed.

A few hours later, the Murph woke up, looked over at my sorry sleeping ass, laughed and asked me how I did on the race.

I told him it was an incredibly tough race! I had to stumble 10 feet to turn my alarm off, followed by a couple of hours of some marathon sleeping. It was grueling, just grueling! I even shortened my Sunday long run because of how exhausted It was from getting up at 5:30 a.m.

And did I feel guilty about being a no show?

Heck no!

Accommodations, Appointments And An Open House

This week has been a bit hectic. Since the Boy is away at school most of the time, I'm just not use to it anymore. I can barely remember those crazy days when I was a single mom trying to get the Boy to school on time and me to work on time.

Rarely happened! I still patted myself on the back every single day that we made it to where we were suppose to go. It didn't matter if we were a little late, a little wrinkled and more than a little stressed out.

My bar was set low. How else could I be successful! A bar too set to high back in those days and I would have failed miserably.

It all started Saturday. We made our biweekly trip to Birmingham with the sick cat. Our mission this time was:

1.  To do an Open House on Sunday in hopes to find a buyer for our Birmingham house.

2.  Meet with AL Rehab with the Boy regarding his accommodations for Fall semester.

3.  Appointment with the Boy's doctor to go over ADD med and anxiety meds before Fall semester.

4.  Take Phantom to Auburn University on the way back to Pensacola for another round of blood testing to make sure the chemo was doing what it is suppose to and not doing anything it's not suppose too.

The open house went well. Lots of people came by, including coincidentally, the AL Rehab counselor that we were meeting with the very next day. She had no idea it was our house until she came inside and the Murph recognized her name. I overheard from the office/man cave and came out. She's downsizing too so our house was a little too much. It's a family house. It's too much for us now that the "kids" are grown. Her kids are grown too.

It's strange, but we get several empty nesters who want to "downsize" come look at our house. I guess downsizing is relative.

Phantom was very happy to be back. I started Phantom on the Advanced Immunity Protocol and it worked wonders overnight. It's a three part system that has so many different immunity building things in it that it blows my mind. All I know is after one dose, I got my Phantom back. Purring and happy and spending time with us instead of under the bed.

The meeting with AL Rehab went well. They provide some of the Boy's college financing and make sure he gets the accommodations he needs, such as extended test taking time, taking his tests in another room or at the Special Student Services building if needed. He can have a recorder, his laptop, etc. The Special Student Svcs Counselor provides a letter for him to give to all of his professors every semester. I have to get the letter or the list of accommodations to AL Rehab so they will continue to provide support. They will also transition him from college to the work force if needed.

The only snag came because the apartment the Boy lives in will no longer be billed through the university so the only way AL Rehab will provide a portion of the rent is if the management fills out a vendor application. That way AL Rehab will pay them directly. They never give the money directly to the students. Unfortunately it's almost impossible to get in touch with the apartment management!

I think it was finally taken care of after many phone calls, emails and faxing and refaxing, but I really don't know yet because they never answer the phone. Now that the Boy is back, he can go by the office in person and make sure it's done.

The doctor appointment was fast and basically we just got another 1/2 years worth of prescriptions. I'm hoping the Boy weans off the anxiety meds and starts something more holistic. The doctor said there isn't anything as good as the conventional meds. It has made a tremendous difference on the Boy's entire attitude so I'm good with him taking them for now.

The Boy didn't stress me out one single time. He has matured so much! No more meowing, biting me, poking me, getting all in my personal space until I just want to scream! We actually had adult like conversations and I really enjoyed being around him. He got a new car and his dad taught him how to drive a stick shift in one day. I rode with him most of the way back to school because he was nervous about driving with the manual transmission. Also, he hasn't driven in almost a year!

My job was to keep him relaxed, he said. He also warned me that it was going to be a bumpy ride.

He did great! We all made it safely home and the Boy is ready to start another school year. This Fall he actually has a paid internship. This is one reason why he needed a car.

Because of all the things going on with the Boy, we had to reschedule the trip to Auburn for Phantom. Instead I made an appointment with a local vet in Pensacola to do the blood work. They will fax it to Auburn. I have conflicted feelings about giving Phantom the chemo type drug, Palladia. He seems to be doing great on it, but I have concerns about long term use. His appointment with the local vet is tomorrow so I will decide then if I am keeping him on it or going entirely holistic.

It's a tough call. I hope I do the right thing!

I'm Going To Brag Now

This is the Boy when he was one.  It is NOT a little girl and that is Not a dress (it's a one piece jumper thingy and has snaps up the legs) despite what some certain people may say..  

I've been bragging all over Facebook and Twitter about The Boy's grades this semester.  Now it seems only proper that I do a blog post in honor of him.  For the first time in his life, he has made all A's and B's.  Not only that, he made the dean's list this semester with a 3.5 GPA which brought his overall GPA up over 3.0.  I can only hope this upward trend continues!  He has a really tough schedule for Spring with a Business Statistics class, a Technical Writing class, a History class as well as a computer/IT class.  Whew!  He will probably need a note taker for his History class and this is one accommodation that the college refused to give him but it is on the list of needs from Alabama Rehab.  I hope it's not going to be too much of a battle to get them to add this one accommodation.  The Boy does have a recorder that he can record the class lecture and one of those pens that records as he takes notes as well.  He didn't need it fall semester, but he will for spring semester.

He now has enough hours officially to be considered a sophomore and one of his classes was a 300 level (Junior) class and he did great!  Three of his classes were Computer or Information Technology related and one was a Speech -group communications class.  I can tell you I was worried about that one, but he pulled through with a B!  I am so proud!  He's called me three times from his dad's to tell me he made the dean's list.  He's really proud too.

I saw him briefly this past Monday when his dad dropped him off because we had a phone interview with SSI and I couldn't do it for him without him being here since he is now considered an adult.  I had also received a questionnaire from his high school.  They were doing a survey of all the recent graduates and wanted to know what the students were doing now and how they felt about their days at the high school.  Questions like do they feel the school prepared them in writing, math, etc.  Also drug related questions.  I read the questions to the Boy and he had to choose how he felt on a scale from A to D.  He was extremely negative about the school on the first few questions to the point where I felt it was a little too negative.  I told him that the high school must have prepared him at least a little if he's doing this good in college.  He thought for a moment and lightened up a little on the school, but he still didn't feel they did that good a job.  

One of the questions on the survey was "do you feel the guidance office was helpful?".  The Boy looked at me puzzled and said "what guidance office?  I didn't even know there was a guidance office!"  I know he must have known at some point where the guidance office was, but I have to admit there was at least one guidance counselor at the school that I didn't really like.  She always seemed too busy for us and wasn't really helpful at all.  Unfortunately, this particular counselor started off with the freshmen when the Boy was a freshman and moved right along with him for most of the years.  I didn't have much to do with her.  Like I said, she wasn't helpful.  Just bothered and impatient.  (I'm being nice because what I REALLY mean is she was a Bitch!) 

 It probably wouldn't have made much of a difference if the Boy had known where the guidance office was located.

I've known that the Boy was capable of far better grades than he got in high school.  To me this proves it.  Not just this semester but last year he did really well in his English comp classes.  The school was not set up to teach the way the Boy needed it to be so he could learn and excel.  He had far too many classes going on at once.  It would have been better for him to have just 3 or 4 concentrated classes for one semester and then the other 3 or 4 the next semester instead of dragging out  English, Math, Science, History or Electives all year long giving him 6 or 7 classes to deal with all at the same time.  He had to go to summer school three or four summers and he actually liked it better because he only had 1 or 2 classes.   I think he's the only kid in the world who liked summer school!  I would have died if I had to go to summer school while I was in high school or middle school.

He loved it!!

Anyway he's out of that high school now, thank you, God!  Yes, I did pray about it a lot and I still do.  I'm praying for college success now.  Prayers work!