
I think I'm getting old, since I find myself getting more and more agitated over the weather--or does that make me British? Whatever it makes me, it's getting on my tits since Daventrry can't decide what it wants to do. This morning it was perfectly fine, if you like cloudy. Now it's pissing down snow and everything's covered in it--the BBC said something about 5-10 cm today (or so Steve told me) so maybe that's it, but it better go away. Normally I don't get all cabin fever-ish, *except* when it snows, then I feel like I'm trapped if only because it gets a bit slick once it sits in the car park overnight.
(With this said, I did take pictures--only a few. I'm sure they'll show up on FB whenever I can be arsed to upload them).
So, what am I up to lately? Not much, as per normal. Since I've been hormonal and PMS-y this week, I've been trying to clean the house a bit since it desperately needs it. Steve himself isn't particularly slobby, but having a 13 year old around doesn't help things since they generally leave paths of filth wherever they go. Tuesday I managed the kitchen since that was the worst offender, and we decided we really need to sort out the cooker when we get back from the States and have sorted out the washer/dryer combo. It's getting harder to get the grill to light, and since we're sometimes cooking for 5 people the cooker is really just too small, so we'll upgrade to something a bit bigger. I hate getting all nesty and being in bebeh mode, but I'm slowly coming to accept these feelings as normal, since really they are--why should I be different to any other adult who's finally starting to live their own, adult lives? I swing between thinking I'd be the most mental mom in the world to thinking I'd do an okay job, especially since I'd have an experienced parent with me from the get-go. But, while I have these moments (pretty much like clock work every month), I just try to push them on the back burner since it's not something I can persue right this moment anyway, so I'd just drive myself around in circles thinking about it. Like Steve said, when I'm ready I just need to let him know, and we can see what we can do, and if it happens, great--if we run into problems with it, we can get them sorted.
I just hope whatever I do, I raise my child to be a bit tidier than my stepchildren are. But, considering their mother lives in a perpetual state of filth, I'm not really surprised. One would think if you had an empty ketchup bottle sitting in your front room, you'd pick it up and throw it in the trash, but that sort of shit sits in her front room while she's sat in the chair watching telly. Bloody cow.
We finally sorted out Ella's issues (kinda). She told Steve and her mom and the school that three kids were the main ones bugging her--two mentally, and one was being a physical bully. But, the two who were mentally abusing her were only doing it when the third bully was around, otherwise they were friendly to Ella. It also came to light that the physical bully had beat up those two other girls in the past, so I reckon they were terrified of the physical bully and fell into line just to keep from getting even more abuse. So, the school has removed the physical bully from Ella's classes, and the teachers will keep an eye on things to make sure nothing more comes from it, but it's still something to keep an eye out on for Ella's mental wellbeing.
Iain has been seeing a therapist off and on for a year, and they wrote up one of their regular reports and copied it over to Steve to read. We read it over last week and most of it wasn't in anything resembling English, but they did say they were going to look for a diagnosis of ADHD since 'Iain can't concentrate well' and 'doodles in class'. What the fuck do they think kids do in school sometimes, Iain definitely isn't the type of kid that actually enjoys going to school or anything. They also said he was pretty smart in some areas (i.e. math) and average in others (i.e. English)--if I learned anything in school, I learned that when you know the material well and you're not being challenged by the work, you have a tendency to lose your concentration and goof off. If he's really good at math, and the class is too easy for him, sure he's going to doodle because he's not being challenged and his interest isn't being kept. But, wouldn't it be convenient for his mom to put him on a pill for ADHD, just like his brother, so they can both not eat, have headaches, and take downers in the afternoon to avoid insomnia. Yes, because that's so much better than just dealing with typical 13 year old bullshit. They really should be looking more at things like anxiety, depression, self-image, etc, but heaven forbid that.
And, I've just been told by my mom that they're putting my cat down tonight since he's gotten sick the past few days. Fail :( He's been around for 16 years, it's hard to think of him being gone for good, but my mom said she'll ask for his ashes at least--he deserves better than to be cremated with all the other animals who don't have owners or who don't care about them.
~Tams