300

Can you believe it? 300 blog posts? I must have a lot to say (with not a lot of material folks!). Andy is taking a break with his friends in Las Vegas this weekend, so the boys and I are flying solo. There is typically some sort of mishap that occurs during these time periods, mainly a furnace failing, nail in a tire, or satellite malfunction (the WORST to me!), but somehow we've made it through without any of these . . . or barf/fever/squirts either. Thank you.

Fall harvest is upon us and my family members (of the male gender) are pretty much gone most of the time hauling corn and soybeans to the grain elevators during the day and night. Luckily, with two boys, I can join in on the fun. I always find it interesting that they can sit and watch tractors, trucks and farm equipment without boredom! They are fortunate to have these experiences, and I am thankful that my uncles, grandpa, brother and dad are welcoming Ben and Kellan to tag along. Maybe farming is in their future :)

I attended Ben's IEP meeting for his qualification of Deaf/Hard of Hearing for school this week. He did end up qualifying under "speech perception" for some services. Ben (with his one good ear) hears well in a quiet environment, but once the volume increases, he finds it difficult. I notice this in several different situations ~ the main ones being when he is in our house playing hide-and-seek when he has difficulty locating my voice with our hardwood floors, at swim lessons he finds it hard to hear over the echos in the pool area (and over 50 kids in the pool at one time) and he does not always properly locate the directionality of cars (which makes him riding his bike far away from me a "not-so-carefree" time). I knew this was coming ~ we've prepared for it since he failed his newborn hearing screening in May, 2007 ~ but it is another thing to go to a meeting to hear that your child finds something difficult in life. I hated it. We are closely monitoring him to see if he needs an FM system (which is a mic on the teacher piped into a tiny hearing aid for one ear). It is one thing to listen closely for 3 hours, but it is another thing to listen for 7.5 hours next year in a classroom with double the amount of children. Thankfully, I know he is in good hands!

My back is BACK :) It was a bitch of a week, but I am in a better place! I think that my feet problems pretty much made my body scream STOP! but I continued to push my normal 25 miles on them. It wasn't pretty. I am trying to rest a bit and let things heal before starting again. I'm also going to get some custom orthotics, so hopefully they will help. I don't ever want to be in that position ever again.

Ben, of course, wondered why my hands were "broken" and I couldn't use them. He asked if my "bender-downer" was broken and if we could buy a new one at Tar*get.

Because there isn't much in my world that can't be purchased at Tar*get these days.