goldfish in a frying pan

First day back to school is tomorrow. (It's also Gus's 5th birthday if anyone is interested. Jacob wants to stay home and have a party with him.) Jacob's in 8th at his fabulous school, so no worries there. Other than he will now go to my school with me where a bus will pick him up and take him to his school, and of course the opposite in the afternoon. He isn't worried... how amazingly wonderful is that??

Luke starts 6th grade at his same school, and will also be bused back and forth from my school to his. He's not worried either, in fact, he won't admit it, but I think he's looking forward to going back so he can see his friends. Also, he and Ryan are bicker bickersons since they've spent so much time together this summer.... 

Ryan has transferred to my school for 3rd grade, and is VERY excited to come with mom. He also got to meet his sweet teacher, and she's so bubbly sweet he doesn't seem to be worried either! We did have a longer summer than usual because 1) I purposefully tried to not spend money on things like Main Event & Urban Air (those things add up quickly!) & 2) we went to the doctor and found out that Ryan had inflamed growth plates in both of his heels. He is flat footed (like no arch whatsoever), he rolls in, and he is slightly 'turned in' (or pigeon toed). On top of that, he has 'hypermobility' which means that his tendons and ligaments are very stretchy and bendy. This is good from an athletic standpoint as far as being very limber, but this also means there are too stretchy tendons that don't work against the flat feet and rolling in. All of these things combined mean that the pressure on his heels is greater, and as active as he is, we are going to have to really be proactive. So, I had to keep him off of his feet as much as possible (almost impossible with him), and get him to always wear some type of shoes (also difficult with him). I finally bought him some Crocs and he really liked them so he wore them. That, combined with icing & some stretching, plus no waterparks or sports few several weeks (booorrrring) and the pain finally went away. We got the chronic inflammation down, so now we keep him in shoes at all times, and make sure they have some kind of support for those arches. Apparently, Crocs have some arch support, and we have different orthotics for his tennis shoes and his cleats. Now, if he has some pain, it is just a 'flare up' so we make sure to rest and ice and it goes away within 24hrs. If not, back to the doctor we go! 

I start my first day with students tomorrow. I'm excited and somewhat nervous at the same time. Only because I have such special babies, and I know that has extra demands in teaching. I'm not sure how many people realize what being a SPED teacher is like. I mean, most people just want to bitch and moan about teachers and schools these days, but that's another blog post I'm working on. ;-) I'm sure I will have plenty of posts to go into that as the year goes on, but for now I'm just looking forward to getting the ball rolling. 

So on totally unrelated note, I had the anguish of going bra shopping today. Now, I know this doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you are a big chested gal, it can be stressful and embarrassing. So let me just put this out there..... and I share not to be TMI, but because it is so utterly ridiculous, that I just have to share... I am a 36G. Yes... G. Seriously. It was hell, and I tried on 10-15 bras, most of which either squished by boobs into sections, made them come out of my armpits, or created torpedoes like an Austin Powers FemBot. I only wish I could shoot lasers out of them! In the end, I did find two bras that work and got a free pair of panties and 25% off, so I guess not a total loss. Maybe now I will buy new bras more often than every 2-3 years..... 

Lastly, I asked Luke to clean up Mr. Goldman's fishbowl. This is the fish that Luke brought home from Science class last year and Jacob named after his Psychiatrist (get it? goldfish... Goldman? Btw, Jacob now calls his Psych- Dr. Silverman.) Anyway, I'm standing next to Luke in the kitchen while he is scooping water out of the bowl with a plastic cup. All of a sudden, he looks in the bowl and says, "Wait, where did he go?" Luckily for Mr. Goldman, there was a frying pan in the sink from the breakfast eggs this morning, and he was happily swimming around in there. So Luke caught him and put him back in his bowl with clean water. Don't worry, Mr. Goldman is just fine. How's that for 'egg on your face'..... ? (Ok, that was bad, but I just couldn't help myself...)