Long weekend - long blog

Well, I survived my son's first field trip on Friday. He woke up in a really good mood that morning, and he was actually really excited about going. That was a relief for me, I thought he'd have a meltdown. I didn't even cry when John took him to school. I went back to sleep for awhile, and then we went to St. Joe - partly to sell some stuff at Once Upon a Child and partly to keep me busy instead of sitting at home wondering how Dakota was doing. The buses got back to the school a little after 5:00. Things went well, no potty accidents, no crying or anything. When John asked him what his favorite part of the zoo was, Dakota said his sandwich. Anyway, Dakota seems to be doing a little better at school. I think the one -on-one is really helping, but with being pulled out of class a lot, he's not able to get that schoolwork done. So, he is bring home more homework than we can keep up with. Working with him on his homework usually gives me a headache. We probably spend about an hour every evening on it, which is a lot for a Kindergartner. I usually have to break it up, otherwise he gets frustrated and distracted and I can't get him to focus. I feel sorry for his teachers, lol... But sometimes he doesn't complain, he does it, and things just seem to click. With Dakota, you never know which ice cream flavor you're gonna get, if that makes sense. For example, yesterday morning when John's mom picked him up for school, Dakota was bawling. He said he bawled a few times at school, but when I asked him why he just said he didn't know. When he got home from school he looked like he had been crying, and he looked exhausted. He laid down on the couch and went to sleep. This morning, he was in a good mood and when John's mom honked her horn, he almost hurried out the door before giving me a hug. He came home from school and he was still in a great mood. Some days he's happy and full of energy, some days he is just grumpy and doesn't want to do anything, and sometimes he is just really sensitive and cries about anything.

On Saturday, we went to a wedding in Iowa. It was 2 1/2 hours up there and back. I thought the kids did pretty well at the wedding considering it was a long Catholic wedding. We had a little time to kill between the wedding and reception, so we went to the nearest town that had a store. We found a K-mart and just walked around. We let the kids look at the toys. Dakota found a Godzilla figurine. It was pretty good sized and in a nice box - and it was the only one. There was no price on it, so John did a price scan and it rang up for only $4. We let him get it and he was thrilled (you just don't find Godzilla stuff anywhere). It gave Dakota something to do at the reception. Most of the time, he just sat at the table and played with his new toy. Mikayla enjoyed dancing around. I danced one slow dance with Dakota. While we were dancing, he just looked up at me and said "I love ya". It was really sweet.

Sunday was my brother Michael's high school graduation. It's crazy that's he's done with school. It makes me feel really old. I used to take care of him when he was a baby. I don't have a lot of memories from my past but I have a vague memory of putting a bra on my face so it looked like a surgical mask, and then changing Michael's poopy diaper. Shortly after John and I started dating, Michael was saying that he would turn 7 on the 7th (of August). And now he will be 19 this summer. Man, John and I have been together a long time...

Yesterday, Michael had surgery on his tailbone. Same kind of surgery that I had to have. My mom and my uncle had it done too, and my other brother Ryan needs it done. It runs in the family I guess. Hopefully my kids won't have problems with their tailbones. Anyway, that's about the worst place to have surgery. I don't mean that it hurts the worst (I'm positive that a c-section is worse because of the stomach muscles being cut through), but it still sucks pain-wise. After surgery, it's probably the most akward place. It hurts to sit or lay on your back. And it's sort of a humiliating place to have to have surgery. Between doctors visits, the surgery, and the aftercare - I felt like a hundred people saw my butt. After I went back to work, I had to use a pillow in my chair for a long time, and everyone knew I had surgery there. And having a scar at the top of your butt crack isn't cool. Scars on the arms, legs, back, etc.. are cool. Not the butt. We'll just be a big happy family of butt crack scars. But I don't think we will hang out and compare scars. Michael has to stay in the hospital for a couple of days. They left his wound open so it can heal from the inside out (that's the normal procedure so it doesn't develop an air pocket). Mine was sewn up, and I left the hospital the same day. I was told that they didn't leave mine open because the cyst went all the way down to the bone (that's what you get for having it for years before you finally muster up the courage to go to a doctor). I had a little bit of a problem afterwards with a hole developing on it's own but I won't go into all the gross details. I think Michael's was just as deep so I don't know why they had mine closed and left his open. It was the same doctor. I had severe pain for several months whenever I would stand after sitting for awhile. And my tailbone still bothers me (it's probably been 8 years since mine was done). But I'm too stubborn to show my butt to a doctor again.