Kids and work and dogs

I keep waiting and expecting something in Logan's brain to snap with the same "duh" response he had when he learned to tie shoes. The problem is, it isn't happening. The kid is horrible at spelling. We practice and practice his 12 words. One moment, he'll repeatedly spell "warm" correctly. An hour later, he'll spell it w-e-i-h-m. It's so frustrating for all of us. I made him an embarrassingly huge Lego bribe. If he gets 100% on his next two spelling tests, I'll buy him a large Lego set he's been eyeing for months. He really wants the Lego set! He's practicing like crazy. He has spelled every word right dozens of times. I won't be at all surprised if he fails the spelling test today. Ugh. I don't know what to do. We've tried having him write the words, we've tried the phonics approach, we've tried rote memorization. Nope, nope and nope. The correct spelling doesn't stick in his head no matter what!

I'm a bit disgusted at Kaylin's drama club teacher. First semester's show was cancelled for no apparent reason. It was scheduled but then just kind of swept under the rug with no explanation of why there wasn't one. This semester's show is scheduled for the book fair family night next week. I asked what she's doing? Singing 3 songs- one with the whole group, one only girls and one only boys. WHAT? Did I get it wrong? Is music club performing at family night? Nope. Drama club. Um, what do you guys do at drama club? Have fun. Ok, as long as it's fun... Oh, and one of the songs she's singing contains the lyrics "Happiness is finding a pencil." They could at least sing something that's not ridiculously stupid!

The kids' school is accepting stuff for their annual garage sale starting Monday. I'm going to go crazy and try to donate as much stuff as possible and clear some junk out of this house! That is my big plan for the weekend. Wooooooooo!

I finished my second full week of wearing the cast at work. I guess I'm getting used to it, but it's pretty awful. I finally got the guts to call the podiatrist's office and find out how long I have to wear the thing. At least 6 weeks! I don't even have a check-up appointment until March 21st. I still haven't figured out how to keep it dry at work. I bust through garbage bags in no time. Gene brought me some waterproof shoe covers he uses at work but they break through quickly as well. By the end of the day I have a sopping wet foot securely wrapped in a knee-high plastic tube. I'm also completely exhausted from dragging the extra weight around.

My coworkers have been great about helping me out with certain things. I'm already short, but in the cast I can't stand on tip-toes to reach things. Climbing a ladder or step-stool is tough, so I've been getting help with that kind of stuff. I also am normally the person who picks up truckloads of hay for the Africa animals, but I can't climb the stacks in the hay barn or really even climb into the back of the pickup truck to stack the hay so others are going to have to do that for a while. Otherwise, I've been doing pretty much everything I normally do. Yesterday I was cleaning in the lion yard and looked down at the muddy cliff that is part of their dry moat containment system. Until 2 days ago it had been covered in snow. Now that the snow was gone I could see piles and piles of poop. It's one thing to ask someone who's standing next to you to help reach something from a cupboard. It's quite another to call someone over to climb down a steep, muddy hill to pick up poop. I decided to go for it. I triple bagged my cast and slowly made my way down the cliff, scooping up piles as I went. Fortunately, most of the poop was on the upper half of the hillside so I did not go all the way to the bottom. I scooped up one last pile and tried to make my way up the steep hill. I slipped further down. Crap! I was having horrible images of the fire department having to come save me from the hillside. I finally made my way back over to where I came down in the first place and somehow climbed out. I'll credit my childhood experience with Dead Man's Cliff at Oakwood Park and that cliff behind Jackie's house with my awesome escape. Next time maybe I'll rig myself a rope. Or not. What would be the adventure and challenge in that? Maybe my stupidity will make the paper. Lesson not learned.

Despite my discomfort and general hatred toward the cast, it does seem to be working. I really do think I'll avoid surgery if I keep it up. If I end up needing surgery after all this, I think I'll just quit work and get me a Hovaround electric wheelchair/scooter thingy. I'll drive it to the Grand Canyon. Yeah, that's what I'll do.

One last thing. The kids and I went to the shelter to look at dogs last weekend. I can't stop thinking about getting another dog. The kids talk about it nonstop. I know how much easier life will be without a dog! The cats provide tons of entertainment and are soooo much easier overall to care for. Still, they are not dogs. They do not tear up shoes and toys and clothes and require constant care. They don't need to be boarded when we go out of town. They are fine with having a "neverending" food bowl and don't need to be let outside to potty. They don't need constant attention and exercise and games of fetch with a nasty, slimy ball. They don't track mud all over the house and the kids don't step in their poop. (Vomit maybe, but never poop.) Cats are soooo much easier! But they are not dogs...

Side note: The dog we absolutely loved at the shelter was adopted by one of Kaylin's classmates! We will for sure not be getting a dog until after spring break, so we were thrilled that "Billy" the sweet, chubby beagle mix found a new home!