by noon, it had already been a very, very long day. not necessarily an all bad day, but definitely long. and, even with the good mixed in, it seems to get hours longer by the second. and most of it seems to relate to the kids, not all of it, but definitely a good chunk.

it started bright and early with taz and froggy bickering. this really isn't so unusual, actually. taz wants to get up and look around, froggy tells him to get in bed, he doesn't, it escalates, and eventually someone is awakened and deals with it. physical injury usually doesn't occur, but one of those child gates is looking damn good right now. this morning's bicker-fest started earlier than usual and escalated faster than usual and woke up both me and miss thang. and it continued after breakfast because froggy has decided to be miss bossy today.

ug.

which is not to say taz hasn't participated in the behavior issues today. he's been really cranky for a couple of days now, demanding he gets what he wants, getting into things he shouldn't, and generally being disagreeable. as his last teacher said, "the autism stuff i can handle, it's the normal teenager stuff i'm having problems with." the biggest issue is how to deal with the changes he's going through. discipline is tough. he's also starting to use language and respond inappropriately in other ways, particularly verbally. i'm thankful that he's not shown any sign of physical violence, but we're definitely entering a challenging time all around. so, he's been pushing boundaries today with everyone. i suspect the heat is also a factor for him, especially since a bath seems to have calmed him down quite a bit.

then miss thang comes up to me and asks if she would still be grounded if she "came back into the family." personally i don't mind giving her a clean slate, but i am more than a bit suspicious of this turn of opinion. just a few days ago, she was posting about how happy she was to be on her own, and now she wants to go back to being the teen again? however, it seem the limits of her finances is finally kicking in. at any rate, i told her that, if we do this, this is it. she changes her mind again, no more coming back for anything. and i reminded her that the whole mess was about obeying rules, not her whole idea that it was about who was right or wrong. she has to obey the rules. she has to do what she's told to do and not do what she's told not to. period.

she seems to have accepted this so far. we may have to do some negotiation on her helping with taz when she goes back to school, but that was her only real request -- that she be able to go after school stuff. i told her the issue was timing -- she does after school stuff, then saxy has to come home early and that affects our finances. at any rate, she and froggy split up the chores and she was doing the weekend chore thing until it was time to get ready for work. she even gave taz a bath to help cool him off and get through his mane (which needs to be buzzed again).

most of the really good news has been non-kid related. like, my dragon*con pass confirmation came in today. not huge news, but i was wondering about it.

i also finally called direct loans to find out about our consolidation. every time i've tried to see the status of our application, i've gotten a blank page. and it hasn't mattered what browser i've used. since i hadn't heard anything at all and citibank is getting rather demanding, i finally gave in and called. they've sent the paperwork so they can pay off the loans. wooo! i can go back to school and get help with the financing -- grants and loans. so, now we have to decide if we're going to go that route.

but now i need to make 5 appointments -- 1 for each kid in behavioral health, 1 for miss thang in dermatology, and 1 for me in general medicine. why? because all our meds are running out -- out of actual pills we have and out of any refills any of they may have. i've been off my heart meds for 3 or 4 days now. fortunately, taz still has a bit of his prozac left. we may end up with larger kid behavior issues when the concerta and risperdal are gone, but that should last him.

so, yea, a really weird day so far - most of it involving the kids. there's no balance good or bad, just a weird kid mix, with a little extra thrown in.

word of the moment: creativity imaginative ability: the ability to use the imagination to develop new and original ideas or things, especially in an artistic context