Evil magic, mean teachers, and no sleep. Oh my!

So, I should be doing my 5+ hours of homework that I have to complete by 1 AM this evening when it is due, but instead I decided to write a blog entry. I've been thinking of my friends and family and missing everyone so much. And I figured I'd at least let you all know we are alive and well, in case you were wondering.

Nick is doing great in school and loves his teacher! He seems to be calming down a great deal (on most days) and is very excited for the big snowstorm hopefully coming our way this weekend! :)

Michael is my little trooper. He was moved into a new classroom in January and his teacher is, well, really mean. After 3 meetings with the director in a week, in which we agreed the things were happening were inappropriate and unacceptable, his teacher persists in being horrible, so I will probably be moving him. I am going to make a last ditch effort because coordinating drop offs and picks ups at 2 locations ever day sounds horrible, but it sounds a lot better than my 2 year old being hated on by a miserable human being.

Things have been hard. I mean, really hard. I started school in October. I took 2 classes and completed them and ended up doing very well. This quarter I am taking 3 classes. And 4 weeks into it I am wondering what I was thinking. Actually, I know what I was thinking. I was thinking....Can. Not. Lose. Job. Since we were all told to get our liscenses, I am doing it quickly because I really like being employed and able to feed us. So, here I am. Last Friday our car died in a terrible haze of white smoke. Chris (boyfriend) and his daughter came and rescued us and waited the 3 hours it took for roadside assistance to arrive. Then we picked it up on Monday. Monday was also the day they "reorganized" things at work, with disaterous effect. That's been a huge barrel of monkeys. Then on Tuesday, I received an e-mail from baby daddy cancelling a visit and saying he would call that night to talk to the boys. Again. After he promised that he could take them every other weekend at least until I was through school. So, I went to the bathroom at work and cried. Because I have been sleeping about 2-4 hours a night pretty much since school started and I am very, very tired. Then I came out of the bathroom and wrote an e-mail back saying that it was unacceptable for him to cancel and I was relying on him. Then I was wondering why I had bothered, because I know it makes no difference. Then my sweet girlfriends at work listened to me vent. And then Julie listened to me some more that night and I talked to Chris and a girlfriend at work left me some voice mail love. So by the end of the day I was feeling much better. And this morning, my friend Karen gave me chocolate covered pretzels at work and eating the entire bag of them made me feel tremendously better.

And for those wondering how to explain cancelled visits and phone calls that don't happen, I have discovered a new technique that seems to negate any negative impact on the kids. I just make something up that is so far fetched it distracts all of us from reality. This week, a group of evil fairies and gnomes unfortunately descended upon the FBI building and put a terrible curse on it. People tried to escape, but to no avail. So even though his daddy, who loves and adores he and Michael more than anything in the world would love to call and visit, he just can't. There is magic flying everywhere that cut the phone signals and a tornado sucked up the FBI car so that they are going to have to fly through the sky in an Army helicopter to find it again. My theory is that anyone who acts like that really may have an evil spell on them, so it is not entirely fabricated. And it is so much more fun when no one gets blamed or has to experience emotional pain. After all, no one can help being hit by evil magic!

So, here I am. The kids are finally asleep. I just finished reading some very boring information about group therapy leadership and I am ready to tackle the 4 essays due by 1 AM. But I just was thinking about how much I missed social interaction and people and having a social life and decided to write because I am afraid that some of you may think I am just being incredibly rude and non-responsive when the truth is I am just completely exhausted and overwhelmed and am barely finding time to eat at this point (except for those delicious chocolate covered pretzels). And things are going to get much worse before they become better.

During this sleep deprived haze I am experiencing I am struck by just how horrible and wonderful people can be. So for the horrible people, you are voted off of my island! Go be horrible to other people! And for the wonderful people who continue to be so patient, kind, non-judgmental and understanding....thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you again. Your many acts of kindness and plain old not hating on us is so very appreciated. :)

I hope you are all doing well and I will write again as soon as I can. It just may be awhile. Lots of love to you! :)