Anyone want to buy a house 10 miles from Disney World?

It's real cheap compared to most of the country. I'm in the area with the biggest downturn in the market because it had the biggest upswing in the market when investors decided to buy up a ton of houses hoping to sell quick for a huge profit that never materialized. And it's the hardest hit from the bad mortgage deals. Fortunately, my development isn't getting the tons of foreclosures many are, but we still get hit with the devaluation.
On the upside, it really isn't breaking us since we bought this 10 years ago when the market was low so now we'll still make a profit and want to get something bigger--and we can get it for a steal!
Looks like we'll be putting in an offer in this neighborhood: stevensplantation.com. I won't post the listing because I don't want my future home searchable here. Needless to say, it's HUGE, and a cavernous fun time! People will love wandering around in it. And it's less than 2 years old!
How's that for an upbeat post for a change!

The bully most often overlooked

is the one who seeks to get someone else in trouble in order to make himself feel good.

I knew there would be another shoe to drop since Thing 1's behavior improved so greatly in school--making it harder for others to tattle on him for nothing. So apparently it's a huge sin that someone chose to stand too close to him and got lightly tapped with his outstretched belt as he re-fastened it. And standing next to the other kid who was off his medication today and decided to mock the assistant teacher's English accent suddenly made all the other kids accuse him of the same behavior. No, my child's far from sainthood--but his own speech issues make it nearly impossible for him to fake a foreign accent.

So my sensitive child cried as he was told that he would get a detention next time these things happened. By adults he trusted.

Sister

So my sister teaches dance classes, mainly the little 3-5 year olds, but a couple of adult "mom" groups. This one in particular can be a bossy pain in the rear end and she's had to put them in their place more than once. The owners don't want to teach this class!

So now she's showing at 14 weeks. One of them had to yell that to her. So she said, "No, I'm just fat." Goofy woman.

We haven't told my kids yet. I figure we'll let her handle that in a phone call before she comes down for Christmas. I think I'll have her handle the fact that she's not married yet with "well, God made it happen anyway!" I think my kids will buy that. The benefits of Catholic schools, LOL! Hopefully that won't backfire into an expecting the second coming of Jesus thing, LOL!

Flu shot follies

So the CDC wants all children, let alone the ones like mine with asthma, getting flu shots. Yet I can't get my kids in until mid-November, and me (also with asthma) around the same time! My doc has run out, and I'm not about to make a special appointment with him to pay an extra $15 copay just for that. I already played that game last month when getting my pneumovax. The kids' doc has them plenty but only does flu clinic at certain days and times--and all the afternoon after school times are booked until mid-November! So the kids who have always been on the must-have list even before this year's expanded list have to wait. GREEEEAAAAT. They'll surely get the fu waiting, especially since when we do go, I'll have a cast on my foot. Seems to me that the ped's office needs to hire some temps just to get flu shots plugged away.

Only other way to get the kids a shot before then is if one gets sick and I have to take him/her in for a sick appointment--as long as s/he doesn't have a fever at the time. I can get one anywhere offering it, but again I'm not about to pay another copay to do it, so it has to be under $15. I missed the local urgent care's free event. Maybe I'll have to find another one.

Anyone know how my kids can get flu shots under $15 and not at their ped's office?

Politics

So, this online group I'm in likes to discuss politics from time to time. They say they are open minded. Their posts about it, however, right from the title of their posts, don't leave a bit of room for dissenting opinion. Thankfully that's not why I'm there...

Update on drunk neighbor and her dogs: She came by sober today because a piece of my mail was left in her box by mistake. She also said that she has her dogs, herself and her friend (must have 1:1 dog to person ratio) in a sheriff's department obedience program. Sounds like potential progress!

I never mentioned this!

IT'S A MIRACLE!!!
My vertigo is gone! The audiologist had me do all this testing where she put a mask over my eyes and it measured the movements of my eyes when she had me move into certain positions. You see, vertigo shows up through the eyes even though it's an inner ear problem. Your eyes will involuntarily shake. So I found out that to the right, there was a problem but only minor in comparison to my problem on the left. She saw it starting before I felt it.

After the testing, she had me lay back with my arms above my head, then scootch to the head of the table until my elbows were just off the table, resulting in my head hittingi at a certain spot just off the table. Then she had me turn my head to the right for 3 minutes, then the left for 3 minutes then she helped me get up and told me that it might take a couple days to feel better. She was right. That day I had this low-level constant spin feeling but not too terrible. The next day I was spinning constantly and somewhat worse in intensity to the day it was done--then all of a sudden in the evening it was gone! Even when I moved into the positions that caused the vertigo, it was gone! I still had a day here or there of feeling lightheaded, but I think even that's gone now. Awesome, huh? I had never heard of this treatment before--expecting that I'd be told that there was nothing they could do as I'd heard so many people say before.

So, my BIL and new nephew will be home on Friday night from Vietnam! Everything went without a problem. And we have a name! It's all former last names that people have started using as first names. That's okay though. He has a nickname. It's amazing. There's just something about the way he looks that just looks like he BELONGS to my BIL's. I can't put my finger on it.

And in other news, am I crazy? While I'll still be in a foot cast, 3 weeks after my surgery, I've scheduled myself to volunteer full-time for 7 days in a row! Most of it is with the book fair. I'll do the cashier work since I won't be allowed to walk much, if at all, on my foot. Then I'll work at the Beckman Oral Motor Protocol course so that I can get 17 hours of continuing education for free. Since I've taken the course, it's a refresher for me. Debra Beckman owns the clinic where I take my daughter for feeding therapy and she suggested I do this. With that and finishing up my work to be certified in Handwriting Without Tears, I have all but 1 of the non-mandatory courses to renew my OT license. The rest will be EASY. And cheap. Yay me.

In more other news, Thing 2 was jumped by the labrador's next door, in our yard. Drunk neighbor just doesn't get it that her dogs need real training to not jump on people, let alone little kids. The first time Thing 2 was jumped she only weighed 23#. Now both my babies are petrified about going outside their own home without at least a hand being held! It's just not fair. And Thing 2 has a 6" scratch down her bottom that bruised, bled and swelled! It's getting better now, but I did warn the drunk that next time I'm calling animal control. Fortunately, there's a sale pending on her otherwise foreclosing house, so we'll be rid of them soon enough. She talked about buying somewhere else in the subdivision, but I highly doubt she can afford it or get a loan. Hopefully.

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