The Charlie Schultz Philosophy

I received this as an email from my uncle. I enjoyed it... Hope you will, too!

The Charlie Schulz Philosophy
(This is marvelous! Scroll thru slowly and read carefully to receive and enjoy full effect)



The following is the philosophy of Charles Schulz, the creator of the 'Peanuts' comic strip.

You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just ponder on them.
Just read the e-mail straight through, and you'll get the point.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America pageant.
4 Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.
6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.



How did you do?

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday.
These are no second-rate achievers.
They are the best in their fields.
But the applause dies..
Awards tarnish.
Achievements are forgotten.
Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.



Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special!!
5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.



Easier?



The lesson:
The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials..
the most money...or the most awards.
They simply are the ones who care the most

Pass this on to those people who have made a difference in your life, like I did.
'Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia !'

''Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Taken!"

I'm So Proud

M came home from school today with a special note from his Art Teacher. I was excessively proud of him!!! It just put his accomplishments into perspective.

The note (although not verbatim) expressed the teacher's pride M and how well he is paying attention. She states that she has noticed a huge difference in M during these past few weeks in both his behavior and his work. She also said how much of a joy he has been and how thrilled she is that she has been able to be a witness to this magnificent change!

What makes this incident even more spectacular is that this particular teacher was not informed of M's ADHD diagnosis and subsequent medication. To me, this makes it far more clear that the medication is actually helping M in ways that are both profound and highly appreciated.

Oh Crap!!!

Have you ever done something that was utterly stupid? Well, I did...

Last night, after I put M and C to bed, I went into my bedroom to check my email. In walks M and, passing me by without uttering a single word, walked straight into my bathroom.

"Son, what are you doing?"

"I forgot something, Mommy," M replied softly.

"What did you forget?" I questioned.

"I forgot wash my face."

Ah. The poor guy has horrible skin that seems to be filled with little white heads. He's going to have acne problems as a teenager, I just know it. So, I went on blissfully typing away, letting M do his nightly ritual of cleaning his face, though generally he does it in the downstairs bathroom. That is, until I heard...

"AH!!! Mom, come quick... SANTA CAME ALREADY!!!"

Oh Crap! I forgot I had put all the Santa gifts in my bathroom closet... It's the one place the kids rarely, if ever, get into. DAMN!!! So, of course, I had to go in and play it really cool...

"WOW, Son... Check that out. That's pretty cool. You know, sometimes Santa gets super busy and needs to drop off presents early. He must have left those for Mom to put out later."

"Yeah, can we open them now?"

"No, Buddy. And if you try to open them, then Santa will know about it and might come take them back. We don't want that to happen, now do we?"

Right about this time there is a scream and a definite, "NO!!!"

"Okay, then... Stay out of Mommy's closet, cuz Santa will know if you get into it."

"Yeah, cuz Santa knows everything!!!"

"That's right... Santa knows everything, so stay out of my closet, okay?!?"

So here I sit, telling you all about my terrible error, hoping the entire time that M doesn't show his sister and that he actually follows the directions to stay out of my closet. There are still several things that aren't wrapped, though, thankfully, those were in non-transparent plastic bags. Being the weekend, both kids are still at home so I haven't had an opportunity to move them, yet. I'll be sure to get that done tomorrow. Needless to say, I feel like a complete idot because I should have understood that M was going to get into my bathroom closet to find a washcloth to use on his face. Well, lesson learned!

Hugs to all... And to all a good night! Merry Christmas!

Some People

Matt and I woke up around 6:00 this morning and had a few minutes alone. It was nice to have some peace and quiet with him so early in the day. We chatted about nothing in particular, but just knowing that we had a few minutes to ourselves was great.

Then, the kids got up and the hectic morning began. Both kids were dressed, had eaten breakfast, gotten their teeth brushed, went potty, had their medications and were ready to get on the bus by 7:25. Matt had left for work by 7:00 and I was relishing the moment of peace I would have once both kids were out the door for school. That is, until I checked my calendar and realized C had a doctor's appointment this morning.

So, I held her back from the bus. And, with tears streaming down her face, she watched Matthew head to school. Poor C was simply crushed! But, she got to go with me this morning to have some blood drawn. She was very empathetic, I can tell you. All the ladies in the lab were watching her reactions rather than dealing with their patients. It was cute!

As we were leaving, though, I had to listen to a man berate and belittle his wife for leaving the area in which he had placed her. He called her stupid and told her (in a ver obnoxious and rude manner) that she was told to wait where he put her. And every time she tried to tell him sorry, he'd tell her how stupid she had been to leave. It got so nasty that I actually turned around and glared at them, not that "Dan" noticed (and, yes, that is his real name... At least, that's what the wife called him). I wanted to knock that man flat on his face! I couldn't believe he was talking to his wife like that in public. I could only imagine what he did to her in the privacy of their own home. Scary. But what was really scary was the thought that they might have had children who were witness to this treatment. Thank God my daughter is deaf because I would not have wanted her to hear this abusive man. I actually pushed C to the side of the hall so that we didn't have to walk near this couple anymore. I was seriously afraid that that man was going to haul off and hit his wife. It reminded me clearly of someone else I know (and I'm not talking about my beloved hubby, just in case anyone was wondering. My guy is an amazingly patient man with me. I have a temper from Hades and Matt is my calming entity).

In any case, my day ended on a fabulous note: Mr. M came home from school with a "CONGRATULATIONS, You passed Chapter 11" note from his reading teacher!!! We were thrilled because it has been several months since he's brought home a passing grade from his reading class! It was fabulous. Plus, M has earned another day at Chuck E Cheese!

Also, I've gotten some great advice regarding M's sleeping pattern due to the Adderall XR... Thank you so much for the thoughts. M has been sleeping much better these last few days and I think he's finally getting used to the meds. Hopefully this pattern will continue and we won't need additional help through further medications. But, I've saved all the emails I've received (and will continue to save them) for future reference... You never know when you need the advice, which is always helpful! ;) Thank you!!!

November Kid Photos

Since I finally downloaded the photos off my camera I thought I would take a moment to share some of the pictures we took this past month, although they were pretty much all taken on the same day... November 7th for their school pictures. Both kiddos took adorable photos (I'm not pasting them here since they are copyrighted). C ended up falling down and tearing up her panyhose and her fanny while M was sent home with a step 4, yet again. In all actuality, though, he wasn't nearly as poorly behaved as pervious incidents. In this case he and another little boy were running in the cafeteria (a big no-no). When the other little boy saw the teacher he stopped running and turned around to tell M to stop running, also. He ended up putting his hand into M's chest. M thought he was being attacked so turned around and slugged this other child in the head giving him a nice egged sized knot on his temple. M sucker-punched this other kid! Ugh... But, at least both M and C had their photos taken prior to either of their incidents!!! Here's what they looked like before school:




M's Self Portrait:

Christmas Lights

Here are just a few photos of our Christmas decorating and lights, though the photos don't do it justice...

Shopping! Shopping! Shopping!

Matt is still on leave from Thanksgiving but our lovely children had to go back to school yesterday. Our trip to California was fabulous (as I stated in my previous post) but wearing on their little minds and bodies. Hopefully they can continue to recover from our vacation. C had a pretty decent day at school, but she crashed the moment her little head lay down on her pillow last night. I know she was exhausted because she pottied the bed sometime between her midnight potty run and waking up for school at 6:30 this morning. This is a rarity anymore. And poor M had a bit of a difficult day at school yesterday. He did fairly well with his behavior but got a step 1 for "shubbing" (shoving) while he was trying to find a book to read. The long break and then the sudden return to the school routine has always been a trial. To make matters worse, we didn't give him his ADHD medication for more than a week. So, last night was a trial, too, since he has to get back into the routine of learning how to fall asleep with the medication (since it seems to delay his sleep by hours). Hopefully tonight he will fall asleep well before midnight. Last night he fell asleep well after midnight! Yikes!!!

Anyway, since Matt was still off of work and the kids were at school we decided to do the last bit of our Christmas shopping... I think it went very well! We got it all done today, so I can't ask for more!

A few of the things we picked up were:
Storm Trooper voice changing helmet
Easy Bake Oven
Drawing Station that actually prints the pictures the kids draw
3 Jammies for each of the kids
A brush and hair bows for C
Starwars action figures for M

The list goes on but they were smaller things that we can easily take with us when we move into my parents' guest house. Matt and I had loads of fun shopping for the kids. The best thing is that we had a list of things that we wanted to get for them and we actually stuck to it rather than window shopped. Honestly, we only bought the kids each 1 additional item that we did not initially have on our list. And, each of the kids only got 5 main gifts (not including their jammies) and several smaller stocking stuffer type gifts (including the action figures and hair accessories). I'm so proud of myself for not going overboard!!! ;)