Long Day!

Dropped Anna of at my cousin Jennifer's at 7:45, and set off with my son to his appointment. Got stuck in some very shallow snow. Still can't see why. Finally got out of that. Got lost in my hometown trying to find the highway. Finally got out of that. Then I was going slow because the roads were icy. I was going west, which is good, because eastbound had serious issues. Within about 15 miles, I saw 6 slideoffs, one of which had the car on its side, one of which had the car on its top. Super scary. I saw one guy lying in the snow against a car and I only hope he was conscious, though I can't see how he'd have been there by accident since the car itself had no visible damage. It was weird.

We were late. But they took us in anyway.

Matthias was so sweet and cooperative at first, but he quickly got bored with all the testing. And then he threw a fit or two. And then he refused to cooperate. We were thus there forever. The testing lady told me she often sees behavior like his from daycare kids, and that's why it's important to have a parent at home. Good thing I agree; otherwise that would have been insulting. I explained that I want more than anything to be a stay at home mom but his father left us a year and a half ago and so I have no choice, and I try my best at home to compensate for my kids' loss, to be both mommy and daddy, and that Matthias particularly had a very hard time with his dad's leaving. She became sympathetic and told me I was probably doing a better job than I realize. That was nice to hear.

The testing consisted of questions and directions, some of which Matthias answered and few of which Matthias followed. I think they determined that he simply lacks the ability to stand still for any period of time. I could have told them that. He was very sweet, and the testing lady said he's really cute. I could have told her that too. But sometimes he was defiant and a little rude, which is embarrassing. He'd say "NO!" when the tester asked a question sometimes. Then he'd pause a little and say, more quietly, "no thank you." So cute!

The questions were things like "point to this picture," "point to that body part," "tell me what that story was about," "where is the big blue bunny," "where is the little sad bunny," and such. For four hours.

He really liked the doctor. So did I. We met with her for a little while and she had Matthias run down the hall, which was his favorite part of the day.

The drive home was safer, and all slideoffs had been taken care of.

Then I picked Anna up, who was very very scared because she had her first ever bloody nose without me. Jennifer said it didn't bleed long at all, but she was still shaken about it when I got there. Silly girl. I held her and told her I used to get nosebleeds all the time when I was a little girl.

Then I took the kids to school. Oh my goodness. I needed to buy books. Yesterday, I tried to buy books, and I wanted to know how to buy them with my financial aid money, so I asked the gal at the info desk. She told me I had to go to the cashier's office and ask for my money. Cashiers were closed. She said come back tomorrow. I came back, stood in a forever line for the cahsiers with my kids, the lady looked at me unsmiling and told me I had to have an ICard. A what? She told me where to go.

So we went to the next building, it was windy and cold but the kids were such troopers. I went upstairs to the I-Card (which is a student ID/student cash card) and the big sign said "Must have I Number." Dangit! So now I had to find a computer so I could get my I Number. No computers in the Manwaring Center. So I called Jennifer to see if she'd look it up for me on her computer. Didn't answer. So I called Melanie. Didn't answer. So I called Chris. Answered, but was in a car. So I called home and finally Casey helped me! Yay! I also had him read me the books I needed. He's so great.

So, I-Number in hand, I went to get me an ICard. The girls there were the first poeple behind a counter at the college who didn't look at me funny for bringin two kids with me. That's what I felt like anyway. In fact, they played with the kids while I filled everything out and got my picture taken. BTW, it's a pretty great photo for an ID. :D The girls told me I could buy my books just by using my card and I wouldn't have to go back to the supercilious cashier. Yay!

Bookstore. NIGHTMARE. I'm not the only one who waited till the last minute to get my books. All the used books were out, so I had to get everything new. Still, my total was less than $200 for all my books. Astounding, if you ask me. I was happy, I gave the cashier my brand new ICard, told her to "put it on my account" (how special am I), got my books and finally left. I still had to go to the print shop to buy a syllabus. I'm serious. I had to purchase a syllabus for my religion class. What?

Finally we were done with errands and I took the kids to McDonalds because Anna had a free kids meal from her daycare and she really wanted to use it. And they were so great to just follow me around school from building to building without throwing huge fits about being tired or bored. Then we came home. And I'm ready for bed. :)

And there's my End of Day report.