My Single Mom Life

Ever since like last Thursday, not yesterday, but like Thursday the 20th, I've been sick and battling health issues again.
I'm not going into it all over again, you can read about it at KatScan if you want to, but I'm sorta starting to finally mend from that, but now tonight it's raining and so my back is killing me and my ankles are swelling up from blood clots again.
When they said, 'when it rains, it pours', they really must have meant that saying for me, because it's just been 1 thing after another since last week.
I'm like beyond fed up with my body at this point.

So anyway, I've been home all week now, mostly laying on the couch watching tv and movies, resting as much as I could stand to do like all of my doctors have all told me to do, and then my tv started acting all funky.
First, while watching a movie on Tuesday evening, Empire Records, the colors started fading in and out, black and white, then all funky and stripey during the brownie Gwar scene, so I checked a few other channels and they seemed to be ok, so I just chalked it up to being either the movie being old, or an error with the movie channel.
Then later that same day on another channel, it happened again.
And it kept happening until my tv set was showing absolutely nothing at all but black and white on every single channel.
*sigh*
I do have another tv set, it's the one that I was using before my sister had brought over this one that is now faded, and so I knew that I was going to need to go get it from my bedroom, haul it out here, and make the switch, but I physically just couldn't do it, so I just decided to deal with the black and white until I could do it later on when I felt like I could do it.

Here it is now Friday evening, and I still hadn't done it, I had just gotten to the point of I don't really care anymore because it has just been 1 of those weeks in my life where when I dared the made-up gods to just go ahead and send me just 1 more damn thing that they felt like throwing at me, and *poof*, my big 26inch tv went *poof*. ha ha

I decided to go and take a long, hot shower, hoping that it would at least calm me down, soothe me if it did absolutely nothing else at all, and so I went in there to stand in the hottest water that I could possibly stand, even allowing the tub to fill up over my ankles because they've started to swell up now too this evening, and I just stayed in there for oh, maybe 20 minutes or so.
I stayed in there until no matter how hot I turned the water, it was no longer getting hotter, but colder.
When I came out, I went to other other room, threw on some comfy clothes, and came back to sit in my chair.
That's when I looked up and noticed that my now all black and white 26inch tv was gone, and now in it's place, was Mark's Vizio 26inch widescreen LCD HDTV that he got for graduating last year.
I asked the teens, who were sitting here smiling, why they did that, it was their tv for playing their video games on, I have another tv in the other room.
They said they knew, and they went and got that one and hooked it up in their room to play video games on.
I asked them again why they did that, why didn't they just put my old tv out here and keep theirs, and Mark said that it was his tv to do with what he wanted, and he felt wicked bad for me because of the really super crappy week that I had, because all of my docs yelled at me and told me that I need to stay laying down as much as possible, and because I never sleep, because all I can do when I have insomnia and I'm being forced to lay down and behave myself, is to lay on the couch and watch tv and movies, so he decided that he wanted me to be able to watch tv and movies on a wicked nice tv for a change, that I deserved to have at least 1 nice thing this week, so he and Sebastian swapped out the tvs while I was in the shower.
I do have to admit, it is a really super nice tv to watch movies on.
My old tv worked really good for like the last 10 years, great picture and color quality, I never complained once about a movie looking bad on it, but yeah, this is a really super nice tv.

Mark told me that he'd rather I just keep it out here from now on too, as this is the room where we all watch movies together, and the other tv set is actually much better for playing video games on, he says.
I don't buy that at all.
Not for a single second.
I've seen him play Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, on the Vizio, and there's a big, massive, HUGE difference when playing video games on an old standard television set, and on one of the new LCD HDTV flat panel sets.
BIG DIFFERENCE.
I tried talking to him about it, tried talking him into swapping it back, it's his tv that he got as a present for graduating high school last May, it was given to him specifically so that when he played his video games, that they would look so super cool on it, and he said that he knows and agrees, games do look really super cool on it, but he said that he wanted me to have a really wicked nice tv to watch movies on for the next week or however long the doctors tell me to stay laying down and resting because I had such a really bad, totally sucky week.
He said I deserved to see all of the super gory details of a fave horror movie if one comes on that I liked, in the most awesome picture quality, that I should at least be able to enjoy myself a little bit while my docs force me to rest 24-7 even though they still haven't got a single clue as to why I should be being forced to rest.
He said that even though his back totally sucks too, he's going to see if the owner of the corner store up the street needs to hire anyone, and he'll get a job to try and help out financially around here, and if the owner says yes, he'll work his butt off for the guy.
He said that he's old enough to work any of the shifts alone too, because you only have to be 18 to legally ring up cig and alcohol sales.
He really wants to start pitching in financially around here, to help make it easier on me because he knows how difficult it is for me sometimes to do the work that I have to do, and because he sees just how hard I work to not just make sure that the bills are paid, but so that I can pay for all of the things that make them happy.
He said that he really wants to get a job, start helping to pay the bills, and then return all of the love and generosity that I give to them when I pay for their video games, game subscriptions, and all of the little tiny stuff like bottles of soda and bags of hot fries whenever I go to the corner store, and so he wants to be able to buy me my own LCD HD flat panel tv on sale some one of the days he earns enough pay.

You know, sometimes, teenagers can be real jerks, they can say things that really hurt your heart, they can shoot you the most painful looks, and they can say 90 million times that they will clean the cat's litter boxes and not do it, and then watch you do it like you should have been doing it yourself all along.
They can do and say a lot of things that make you wish they would age from toddler to adult in less than a year because the teen years are the hardest years that you'll ever face when you decide to have a kid, but then sometimes, they do something as simple as swapping out your old crappy box tv set for their nice one that they rightfully don't have to share with you at all, and it can be the nicest thing that's been done for you all month long.
And then they can just say that they want to get a job and pitch in on paying the bills, and that they want to help pay for all of the hundreds of dollars worth of food that they inhale every week, and that they want to buy you your own really nice tv set, and even if it doesn't ever happen, even if they do get a job but never buy that tv set, it's the fact that they said they wanted to do it, and because they said that you deserve it, that makes you feel like you got the best damn kids in the world.

Yeah, I know, this is all stupid and mushy sounding, and it's like wicked way long, but really, just swapping out the tv sets to surprise me while I was taking a shower, really made me happy after the week that I've had.
It's just like, wicked nice to know that they've been paying attention, they saw how hurt and upset I am, and they were at least trying to understand how this week has made me feel and they wanted to do something nice for me to try and make me feel better, and it did, it has.
It's been a very lonely and scary week, and they did one of the nicest and coolest things for me.

Posted by Kat at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Sebastian came home from school today, went straight to his room, and on his way through, he asked for his migraine meds.
I met him in his room, gave him his meds, something to wash it down with, and then tucked him in.
He's been in bed ever since, just sleeping off his migraine.
Well, he did get up for about 2 hours or so, ate something, got another dose, and headed back to bed about 20 minutes ago.
I know it's really bad for him when he gets like that, tears in his eyes because it hurts so bad, and all he wants to do is lay in bed and sleep it off.

I've had a headache myself for the last hour or so, it's because I didn't get any sleep at all last night, and now I've been up all day and night, I'm totally wiped out and need to try and get some sleep soon before my headache turns into a migraine.
I've just got a couple more things to take care of around the house, and then make sure that Mark is ok, and then I can try to get some sleep.
I hope that when I do try, that I do actually get some sleep, it's impossible to keep functioning normally for days on end without any sleep.
Plus, I'd like to look somewhat rested, I have a doc appointment in the morning, and I know that if I go in with huge bags under my eyes, he's gonna make me go to the lab for blood tests to check my white cell counts again.
The last time I had a battle with insomnia like this and went to see him, even though I explained why I was so tired and looked so crappy, he made me go to the lab anyway, he called ahead and told them to expect me so I didn't even have a choice.
I hate going to the lab like that because it's the middle of the day, and there's usually a half dozen or more people in there waiting, and the techs go so so slow.
It's a big pain in the butt.
I don't even want to get into the hassle it becomes when my blood tests come back.
Ugh.

Posted by Kat at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This EdgeStar Portable Countertop dishwasher.

I've once again been awake all night long, insomnia, it's just 1 of the things that I have to deal with, but I sometimes feel like I'm going crazy because of it.
I actually caught myself talking to myself in great detail late last night over the dishes.
So, I was up all night, and every time I walked into the kitchen to get a drink or something to snack on to help me get through the super long night time hours of total quiet in the house, I saw the sink.
Both sides of my kitchen sink are once again full of dishes.
Cups, silverware, bowls.
We use paper plates because I hate doing the dishes, so we use paper plates for all meals that need to be plated, but that still leaves all of the cups, silverware, and bowls, that need to be washed by hand.
I'm sick of doing the dishes.
I do the damn dishes every single day, and there are always more.
It seems like I just get them all done, and there's already more piled up in the sink again.
So in between all of my trips to get drinks, use the bathroom, and yell at myself about the dishes, I decided that this year I'm getting myself a dishwasher at some point during the remainder of 2010.

I need one of these portable countertop dishwashers because our kitchen is really small and there's really no room for 1 of the bigger models on wheels to be moved in and out of the kitchen, so I started hunting online around 2 or 3am and doing comparison shopping, and I found this 1 on Buy.com, and even though it's not on sale, it's regular price is totally doable.
At some point this year.
$268.00 which includes the shipping price, is really totally doable.
I could just put all of the cups, silverware, and bowls, into it and run it instead of me standing at the sink for 20-30 minutes and ending up with my back hurting from leaning over the sink washing them all by hand.

The teens do their part, they do the dishes when I ask, but after all of these years of washing the dishes by hand, I just can't take it anymore!!
I do not want to have to keep washing dishes by hand, ever again!
I will have this dishwasher before the end of the year, I will.
It will be mine and I will never wash a dish by hand again!

Posted by Kat at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Jenn at Blogging Girl is asking bloggers to help spread the word about what a bunch of scammers Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post are.

You can read Jenn's post for all of the details, but basically, Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post, get bloggers to do work and then they don't pay for it.
Basically, Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post are a bunch of scammers.
To quote some of Jenn's post,

Well over a year ago I signed up for Blog Advertising Store, though at that time they were calling themselves Paying Post. Between then and this past February I have written $109.00 worth of opportunities. I followed the instructions on each opportunity, included the required links, wrote relevant, high quality content, and submitted each opportunity on time. Every opportunity that I did was approved, and as of April 2010 I was eligible to receive payment, as my balance had rolled over $100 (that is Blog Advertising Store's / Paying Post's minimum payout amount).

Only...I didn't receive a payment in April. I didn't receive one in May, either, despite Blog Advertising Store's / Paying Post's dashboard stating that I would be paid $109 on May 1st, 2010.

I have been a bit wary completing posts for your company, as in the past I have read some unsavory things about your business practices and the handling of payouts. Please ease my anxieties and compensate me with the money I am rightfully owed. Again, the balance due is $109.00, and my PayPal account is x@jenn.nu.

I forwarded the May 11th email to them on May 12th, May 13th, May 14th, May 15th, May 16th, and May 17th.

Seriously, y'all need to go read Jenn's post about how Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post are scammers, and help spread the word.
If you are a blogger who is working for them, you may want to seriously reconsider that, and if you have a blogging friend who said they were thinking about signing up to work for them, send them the link to Jenn's post.
Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post are scammers, plain and simple.
DO NOT work for them.
Blog about this, post about this to Twitter, (to make it simple, you can use this to Twitter it; Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post is a scam! http://bit.ly/basppscam #paidblogging #scam) and post it to Facebook, everywhere.
Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post are scammers and they need to pay bloggers for the work completed.

They need to pay Jenn the $109.00 she rightfully earned and was approved to be paid.
They are being totally unprofessional by blocking her emails, banning her ip address, and refusing to acknowledge that they owe her this money.
Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post are scammers and they need to pay Jenn and all of the bloggers who work for them, the money they have earned.

Cross posted to KatScan

Posted by Kat at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

On Friday evening, my sister and I went to BJ's Wholesale Club as part of a promotion to help increase people's awareness of BJ's and help to increase memberships.
I was given two $25 gift cards to use, 1 for myself and 1 for my sister, to use to purchase anything that we wanted.

When we arrived, I went straight to the service desk to explain why we were there and to be able to use our free 60-day memberships so that we could use our gift cards.
The customer service agent called over a manager because part of what I was asked to do while there, was to take some pictures of the store, the items, and prices of the items.
The manager took my letter that explained what I was doing there, and went and spoke to another manager.
She came back and said that they had no problem with what I was doing which is a review of BJ's, but because they had not been notified that this sort of thing was going to be happening, they could not allow me to take any pictures.
She said that if they had been notified, she would have gladly allowed me to take pictures.
I said that it wasn't a problem, I didn't want to be in any trouble, and I didn't want to cause any trouble.
The manager asked me to further explain to her what I was doing, going to be doing, the whole purpose of my trip to BJ's that day.
I explained to them that this was a promotion that BJ's was doing on some blogs to help gain interest in membership, and it worked right away, because my sister bought her membership (she had a membership years ago but it expired) while I was at the desk talking to the manager about why I was there, what I was doing, and that I would be posting my experience to my blog to help promote BJ's and get new memberships, and the kinds of things that I would be posting, such as all the forms of payment that BJ's accepts including EBT (food stamps), and all of the promotions when memberships are bought.
If you purchase a membership, they offer an immediate $10 coupon to use on that days purchase or a future purchase, and instead of a 12-month year long membership for $45, it's a 14-month long membership that is fully refundable if at any time during those 14 months the customer wants to cancel their membership.

My sister had no idea all the good changes that had been made to BJ's since her membership expired quite a few years ago, so she decided to buy another membership right on the spot for $45 with the $10 coupon available to use right that day.
Getting her membership was super easy too, it took less time for her to get it than it did for me to talk to the manager about what I was doing there, like less than 7 minutes!

We spent about an hour browsing up and down the aisles, both of us finding several things that we could really use.
I bought the teens a case of Gatorade Powerade, $10.99
I bought a package of 660 paper plates, (I hate doing dishes, no dishwasher) for just $6.99.
Paper plates at the local grocery store are 300 of them for $6.99, so I got 360 more for the same price as the grocery store, same exact brand of plates too.
I bought a HUGE, like half gallon bottle size, of the most awesome hair conditioner for just $4.99
My sister bought a 3 piece Oneida frying pan set for just $19.99
My sister also bought a package of 460 Glad sandwich bags (she packs all of the girls lunches every single day) for $7.99, and a package of 20 Oral B replacement heads for their families electric toothbrushes for just $14.99
I think that was all we got, and it came to $65.94, then subtract the additional $10.00 instant coupon they gave her for buying a membership, so our total out of pocket was around $5.94+tax.

We got some really great deals on what we bought, and had we had more time, I'm sure that we would have found a million more things that we wanted to get, but she had to be back home to pick up her daughters from the sitters house by no later than 7:30pm.
But we browsed up and down every aisle, we saw a million things that we want and will be back to get, especially the food items!
BJ's accepts every major credit card, they also take debit cards, EBT cards, (food stamps) and EBT cash benefits can be used to purchase a membership.

They also take ALL manufacturer coupons which help you save even more money on grocery items, PLUS they have their own coupons, PLUS you can use both at the same time!
That's right!
If you find an item that you want and you have a BJ's coupon for it and a manufacturer coupon for the same item, you can use BOTH coupons to help save you double the money!

* Savings of MORE than 30%** off supermarket prices
* MORE products in family-friendly supermarket sizes
* Even MORE savings with manufacturers' coupons -- BJ's is the only
major wholesale club that accepts them all
* MORE ways to pay: cash, checks, major credit and debit cards -- plus EBT

In these tough economic times, you have to find all sorts of ways to be creative and save money but still keep your family fed and dressed, (Yes! they even sell clothes and shoes, tires, home improvement items, all kinds of stuff!) so why not go check out BJ's Wholesale Club using the free 60-day membership, (the free membership offer expires on 7/5/2010, so hurry!) and bring your coupons with you, I guarantee that you will find all of the same stuff that you buy at your fave grocery store for way less money and be able to save even more money on them using BJ's coupons and your manufacturer coupons, and then consider buying a membership.
Memberships cost just $45, they give you a $10 coupon right on the spot to use that day or a future purchase, and I know that I will be back myself to get a membership so that I don't always have to go shopping with my sister, I can get a friend to bring me and my friend will be able to shop with me that day as well.
I really can't wait to be able to go back and do some serious grocery shopping.
I always use coupons, so being able to double up on my savings on groceries will be totally awesome.

We had a really good time at BJ's, and Sebastian went with us and saw a million things that he wants to get too.
He spent some time browsing their electronics department, they sell tvs, ipods, computers, laptops, DVDs and Blu Ray, and video games, so yeah, he had a good time looking at everything they sell too.
We will definitely be back to BJ's Wholesale Club, and I would highly recommend that you print out that free 60-day membership and go check them out for yourself.
We all have to find ways to save money, and because of all the payment forms they accept and the fact that they double coupons, it's definitely a great way to get everything that you need and save money doing it.

Posted by Kat at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Yup, it's bug season here in Florida, for all kinds of bugs.
We have cats, so we have to deal with flea season which is really bad so far this year.
I've had to treat all 4 cats every single month with the strongest flea killer that I could find, Carmine had to be bathed and treated twice it was so bad for him.
It's also spider season, and worst of all, roach season.
Specifically, German roaches.
These guys.

Once summer hits, these little suckers come out in force and you have to get forceful right back at them to keep them from overtaking your house.
See, they will increase their activity as the temperature increases, and decrease it as the temperature decreases, so once it gets hot outside and inside, the more active they get.
And they love to feed.
Foods that have high levels of sugar, starch or grease seem to be preferred.
They love pet food too, so it's highly recommended that you remove your pets food dishes as soon as your pets are done eating.
These nasty critters are big eaters and will gorge themselves routinely every 24 hours.

I've already had to buy a huge pack of Raid roach baits because I spotted one, and where there's one, there's many, many more.
I will be stocking up on them every chance I get to get us through the whole summer.
I've checked out the prices in stores and online, and even though Buy.com doesn't have a lot of roach killer products yet, I even checked to see if they had any on sale, and while they don't, I'll keep checking over the summer months to see if I can get any good deals.

I'm going shopping at one of those big warehouse stores later today with my sister, and I'm going to see if they have any roach killer there, and what the prices are, and if the prices are good, I'll be picking some up.
Like I said, if you see one, it means that there are many more that you haven't seen, so you have to take action quickly or they will breed and multiply, and before you know it, your entire house is totally overrun with them.

Posted by Kat at 5:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I've been up all night again, insomnia is just sooo much fun, I totally recommend that everyone try it at least once. /sarcasm>

The only good thing about having insomnia is that I'm wide awake when Sebastian gets up for school, I'm not all tired and wanting to go back to bed after waking him up, which makes him feel lonely and stuff.
It gives the 2 of us some mommy/Sebastian time even if it is only about 35-45 minutes, it's really nice to spend the time with him and talking about whatever is on his mind.
I promised him a few days ago that I would go through all of the emails that he's sent me from school, from his digital design class, save all of the pictures, art, that he's made, and then post my favorite ones to my blog to show everyone.
I'm going to try and do that today, no guarantees that I will get that post done because I've got a wicked lot to do, but I will try.
But here's one of my faves that he made this year, and the painting that he did in the 4th grade that I still have framed and hanging in my dining room.
Both of these are clickable for bigger.

I LOVE that painting!
To think, if I hadn't gone to school that afternoon to pick him up, it would have ended up in the trash.
The teacher was throwing away all of the stuff that the students hadn't taken home, and he didn't bring it home because he didn't think that I would like it.
I loved it the second that I saw it, it's huge too, poster size, so I brought it home and put it in an awesome frame, and it's been hanging in my dining room ever since.

Anyway, he's off to school and not too happy about it.
He and I had to do some homework last night for one of his classes, I can't even recall the name of it, some theory of living, or economics of living, something something of living, and we had to get together a list of all a person's expenses when they first move out on their own.
They had to be realistic about it, base it on their life and what they think they will be earning, how much they will be able to afford for everything, and so we had to make lists of apartments that he could afford, how much his utilities would be, and get a list of car insurance companies, pick the kind of car he wants to be able to drive, figure out how much his car payments will be, and then figure out how much his insurance might be, and which company to go with, all kinds of stuff.
We worked on it for quite awhile, like 2 and half hours, just making the lists, budgeting, it drove him absolutely nuts, and that's when he said he wasn't moving out until he graduated college and had a really, really god job and could afford everything, because looking at how much everything was going to cost, was just way too much so he was gonna stay with me.
Maybe even forever. Hahaha

I think we did a really good job on his homework, I can't wait to find out what grade he (we) got.
We worked hard on it looking everything up, having to figure out the price of utilities and everything based on apartment size, amount of water used, all that stuff, all the stuff I do every month when I budget the bills, and so he should get a good grade, I based a lot of it on what we actually use.
The only stuff I was guessing at was car payments and insurance costs because I don't have either of those.

Title taken from the song "Cars" by Gary Numan

Posted by Kat at 7:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The meeting with the truancy officer and the social worker that is.

Before they got here, I vac'd the rugs like I said I was going to, and I straightened out all of the stuff on my coffee table, the place-mats, magazines, some candles, and I also placed my camera on top of the small picture printer that I have, it prints 4x6 pictures, it's about the same size as one of these epson tm-t88iv receipt printers, so it just looked like my camera was docked on it's printer/charging station.
I checked it's positioning before they got here by setting it up and having it on the self-timer to snap a picture every 5 seconds.
Then I checked the pictures to see if I had it positioned perfectly to video capture both my sofa and love seat no matter where they sat.
It did.
I had the blinds open so that I could see when they pulled in, and once they did, I pressed the button to start recording the entire meeting, and then I answered the door and invited them to sit down.

The social worker sat on the love seat near me, and the truancy officer sat on the sofa.
The social worker started off by asking me how she could help me, and I was totally confused by this, I had absolutely no idea why there was even a social worker involved, why she was in my house.
The truancy worker I could sorta see, although like I said, a little late in the year to be talking to me about truancy issues with just 15 days left of school for the year.
So I asked her why she was here, why was she asking me how she could help me, I totally didn't understand why she was here.
She said that they know that I'm a disabled parent, struggling, and so they wanted to know if I would like help getting back and forth to the Senior Friendship Center so that I could have some social interaction, not be so alone, take advantage of the services that they offer, get meals on wheels, that kind of thing, ad I asked her, quite offended I might add, "Just how old do you think I am?!"
She said, "Well you're disabled and receiving SSDI, and so you're in your mid-to-late 50s, and we think that..."
I stopped her and said really offended now, "50's?! You think JUST because I'm disabled and receiving SSDI, that I must be in my 50s?! Do I LOOK like I'm in my 50s?! Seriously?! Seriously. Enough, just stop. Now."

I asked her if there was any other reason that she was here, told her that I do not need any services that the Senior Friendship Center has to offer, what other reason is she here.
She said that she's a social worker and because of Sebastian's truancy, that obviously, there are problems at home, perhaps there's not enough food to eat, that the bills are struggling to be paid, that there are organizations which can help me cover the cost of my medications, bring meals on wheels, and free counseling services for the family so that we can deal with our family issues, and also, most importantly, free counseling for me, because being a disabled and single parent can be extremely difficult and stressful, and so rather than take out my issues on my sons and jeopardizing Sebastian's education, I could talk to someone about it, all free of course.

Mark was sitting on the arm of the sofa near the door end of it, and he had started to laugh, he could see the look on my face, he knew that I was about to lose it.
I told her that I did not need any of those services, that my sons did not need any of those services, we did not need counseling, meals on wheels, that I have insurance to pay for my medications, it's always a struggle to pay the bills but they do get paid every month, and that Sebastian's truancy issues are mostly due to the school seriously messing up his record, and just since Monday, the vice principal has found 47 instances of where he was marked absent incorrectly, and she was still working on it, so no, no, I did not want or need any of the services that she was offering.
She sat there, mouth sort of agape, and then turned to Mark and asked him if he felt that he needed or wanted counseling to deal with our family issues, and did he feel "safe" living at home with me.
Mark started laughing, loudly, and then he said to her, "Seriously?!"
Man, he's so my kid. haha
He told her, "No, I do not need or want any counseling, and yes, I feel very safe living at home with my disabled and single mother who has been raising me and my brother by herself for the last 17 years. She does struggle from time to time, like EVERYBODY DOES, but the lights, phone, water, and internet are all on, there's plenty of food in the fridge, we have clean clothes, and she takes really good care of us. And by the way, for your records, seeing as you're writing things down. She's 40, just turned 40 in March."

She then said that she had nothing else to discuss with me, she guessed, so she asked the truancy worker to talk to me about what he needed to.
He started in about Sebastian's absences, and I asked him if the school had notified him of those 47 instances of where he was marked absent incorrectly and still looking at all of the rest of the dates.
He said that he hadn't, so I said well maybe you should catch up on what page we're on, and then you can come back and talk to me about it.
He said that even though things are being found, Sebastian still needs to not miss a single day for the rest of the year, and I said that I knew that, anything else?
He said no, he guessed not, and so I said, well then, thanks for coming by, and he said to me that I really should take advantage of the services being offered by the social worker, that it sounds like I have some issues that need to be dealt with.
I told him that of course it sounds like I have issues.
The school said that he was absent 80 out of the 156 days passed in the school year, they threatened him with expulsion, people, including him, had called me a liar when I told them that those numbers were absolutely incorrect, and the school has now found that 47 of those absences were incorrect, about all of the trouble we've had in trying to get the school to allow Sebastian to take his medication for his migraines, and that right now, there's a social worker sitting in my house telling me that I'm a mid-50s-aged woman who is depressed, disabled, and a single mother, who needs counseling because I'm taking my problems out on my sons, and a truancy officer with incorrect information about my son's absences from school. Wouldn't HE be upset if this was happening to him in his living room?!?

He said yes, he could totally see my point, sorry for not having updated information, sorry to have insulted me, she apologized for insulting me, and then they said that they would be leaving now.
I said good, thank you, Sebastian will be there for the remainder of the year, migraine or not, and if he does have one, the nurse will be excusing him for home for the rest of the day, a legal and valid excuse that will NOT be held against him, I have the principals word on that, thanks for coming, good-bye, and I escorted them out the door.

Mark busted out laughing before I even finished closing the door.
It did go better than expected, but seriously?!
I mean, come on!
That was just absolutely, just wow.

Posted by Kat at 2:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I have updated my contact page with new and important information regarding my contact information, since learning of fraudulent activity taking place with another blogger who also does product reviews on her blog.

Emily at Busy Mom, and her blog, were used to obtain free products from a  popular baby store and website.
Emily was able to track down the person(s) responsible for this thanks to the baby store and some of her friends, but this story has shown us all the lengths that people will go to to try and get something for free by any means necessary, including fraud and impersonation.

My contact page has been updated to inform everyone of the ways that I can be contacted, and how I would contact you.
I, Kat Cooper, am the ONLY person who writes on My Single Mom Life and KatScan.
I will ONLY ever contact you, or reply to you, from the email address mysinglemomlife-AT-gmail.com

If you should ever receive any type of advertising request, product request, or a PayPal invoice, from ANY OTHER email address, it is NOT me.

If you should receive any of those types of emails, or any email, from someone claiming to be me, or someone claiming to work for/with me, please forward the email to me at
mysinglemomlife-AT-gmail.com so that I may investigate and prosecute the impersonation and fraud attempt.


Thank you.

Posted by Kat at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The truancy worker and a social worker are coming to my house today at 1pm.
There are 15 days of school left for the year, and the truancy worker is just now coming to my house to discuss Sebastian's absences.
This is the same guy who on the phone, was extremely rude to me and called me a liar on the phone on Thursday May 6th.
If he starts talking to me like that in my own home, he will be escorted out by the police.

I'm going to go vac the rugs, they need it.
I'll let you know how it goes.

Posted by Kat at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just got spammed by a gaming website, they left a spam comment here, and so I went to their site to try and contact them about it.
I know, futile, but I always like to give it a try.
I clicked on the link to their contact form and saw this.

Contact form

We`re working on a contact form right now as we got tons of spam before.

Please be patient.

I love irony.

Posted by Kat at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I didn't blog on Monday, I was tired, and not just tired, but exhausted tired.
I'm not sleeping well again, insomnia, restless sleep when I do sleep, gray hairs are sprouting up every single time that I look, and I'm finally starting to look as old as my body feels.
I actually sat here on Monday afternoon reading up on sybervision wrinkle cream reviews.
I read about 7 reviews on that page, I read a bunch on another page, I read about products on their own actual websites, just tons and tons of reading about wrinkle creams because I am not enjoying all these new wrinkles around my eyes and the ones on my forehead.
I must have stared at my face for an hour or so in the bathroom in the early morning hours yesterday, from every angle, scrunching and un-scrunching my face, thinking how much I've physically aged in the last few months.
I'm not liking it.

I spent close to an hour on the phone with the vice principal this morning, didn't really get that far but some of the absences were looked at and investigated, and found to have been marked wrong, incorrectly, just as I had stated they were over and over.
Just knowing that I felt better, but there is still so much they have to fix in these last 17 or so days of school left for the year.
I still don't have answer what I'm supposed to do when he has a severe migraine attack, they are still trying to figure out what to do.
I told them to hurry up, there's not too many days of school left, and if gets one soon, there needs to be an answer.
They said they know and are trying to figure that out.

Posted by Kat at 1:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ever since my feet and ankles have been swelling up as bad as they do from the blood clots, my feet are a total mess.
When the swelling starts, the skin gets all stretched out, red, tight, and the more they swell, the worse it gets, and then the skin starts cracking.
Once the swelling goes down, my feet are in even worse shape if you can imagine.
The skin is totally dried out, cracked, and peeling, it's so gross.
I've tried to prevent this by using different lotions which are supposed to retain the moisture in the skin, I do this at the very first sign of the swelling, and even though it hurts like crazy to even touch my feet, I continue to put lotion on during the whole terrible time.
None of the lotions that I've tried have worked, and I've used quite a few.
Cocoa butter, shea butter, lotions with aloe vera, vitamin E, all kinds of stuff, and nothing at all has worked.
My feet are totally disgusting.

So next time I get a few extra bucks to spare, I'm going to see if Buy.com puts the as-seen-on-tv stuff, Heel Tastic, on sale.

Heel Tastic is supposed to really heal the dry cracked skin on heels and feet.
It's supposed to totally fix this dry, cracked-skin problem on people with chronic dry, cracked-skin, and have had the problem for a long time, and nothing else has ever worked.
People like me.

So after I get some extra money and I buy it, I'll use it and review it.
I really hope that it works.
I cannot stand my feet anymore, I cannot stand looking at them, feeling them, it's so so gross!
_______________________________

**Note. NOT a recent picture of Kali.

Does anyone know if old kitty cats can go blind?
I'm really starting to think that Kali is going blind.
Her eyes look kind of cloudy, sorta foggy looking, and she's been over-the-top starving for affection and attention.
She is following all of us around 24-7, trying to sit and lay on us, on our keyboards, she is never more than 2 feet away from these days.
And for a cat that never made a single sound during her first 10 years of life, (she's 13 now) and then when she did, it was this tiny little barely audible mew, she is now meowing all of the time, loudly.
I love her and am very concerned for her health and well being, and I'm afraid that she's going blind, maybe even a combination of blind and deaf, because of how loudly she's meowing these days.
I have felt her all over, there's no lumps indicating any type of noticeable tumors or anything, so I really think this whole starving for attention and affection thing is because she's losing her sight and maybe even her hearing.
Right now, she is on the arm of the couch after I refused to let her lay on my lap while i sit here and try to type, and she keeps rubbing her head on my arm, and meowing at me.

Does anyone have any experience with a blind, possibly blind and deaf, cat or other pet?

Posted by Kat at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

As I've said, my life has been in a state of 'what the hell' for about a week and a half now, give or take a few days, probably give rather than take.
I have so much to do, so much to take care of, and I need to be very careful as I have some health issues that could be affected by too much stress, and I need to watch what I eat, and I know that I definitely won't need to take any fat burners because I've barely been eating anything at all during this whole mess of stuff going on in my life, but I do need to eat, and eat a little better.
I'm trying here and that's all that I can do at the moment.

I had a a missing friend/suicide scare, and I'm dealing with Mark's ever progressing genetic spine deformities which may be getting resolved, because Mark's friend Jeff's Grandparents are very close personal friends with Congressman Vern Buchanan, and they've personally spoken with him regarding the situation with Mark, Medicaid, the doctors, all of the problems, and he asked for my phone number, they gave it to him, and he's going to call me directly and speak with me about it and what I need to have happen to help my son.
Not getting my hopes up, but taking a deep breath. *inhale/exhale deeply*

And then all of the school crap with Sebastian, which will be resolved on Monday, hopefully.
As I said, I called and spoke to the vice principal, she threatened Sebastian with expulsion, me with court for failure to provide him an education, and she said that she was going to call me back, but she did not call me back.
That was on Thursday morning when we spoke, 11:34am to be exact, so when I didn't get a call back, I emailed her later on that night at 5:26pm.
I figured that she'd get my email on Friday morning, and either email me back or call me back.
She did neither, so I decided to step it up a bit and I emailed her again, and this time, I CC'd the principal and the superintendent.
I included the principal, because I'm pretty damn sure that the vice principal cannot decide completely on her own to expel a student and take a parent to court.
I'm pretty sure that the principal has to be involved in the decision, and even though I know that the principal already hates me because of all of the problems that we had with Mark being able to graduate with his class last year, I'm feeling pretty positive that she has absolutely no idea what's going on in regards to Sebastian and this threat of expulsion.
And I included the superintendent because of the way that the truancy worker spoke to me, she's his boss, they both work out of the school board building up at The Landings, she really needed to be made aware of how the truancy worker speaks with parents, and also, she needed to be made aware of what was happening with the vice principal and the threats made against Sebastian and myself.

I sent off that very detailed email last night, Friday, May 7, 2010 at 11:43 PM, and I explained every single thing that I know about Sebastian's absences, about the teacher who kept marking him as absent/skipping a class he was no longer even registered in since December, about the dates that we were in Maine where the principal herself had verbally told me in a call that I made to her a week before we left, that she would personally excuse those dates as long as I sent in a detailed letter explaining when we were leaving, returning, and the reason for our trip, which I wrote that same night that I had called and spoke with her and Sebastian took it in the very next day and personally handed it to her, and I wrote out in great detail, the situation with the zero tolerance policy and Sebastian's migraine medications, and everything that I had done to try and get the school to allow him to take his medications at school and was denied every single time.
I wrote out in great detail what happens when Sebastian suffers from 1 of his severe migraine attacks, what happens when he takes his medications on schedule, and what happens to him if he doesn't.
I ended my email by repeating the vice principal's words to me, "If Sebastian misses even 1 more day this year, he will be expelled immediately and you will be taken to court for failure to make sure that your child gets an education", and again, I asked for someone, now 1 of the 3 of them, to tell me exactly what I am supposed to do if Sebastian gets a severe migraine attack on 1 of the last days of school because of the threat of expulsion.

The vice principal couldn't be bothered to call me back on Thursday, and she couldn't be bothered to answer my first email that I sent on Thursday at 5:26pm, but she is obviously very upset about the email that I sent on Friday night to her, the principal, and the superintendent, because at 7:02am today, she finally replied to me, to the email to the 3 of them, with this very upset and almost threatening sounding statement,
"This information regarding my involvement is not entirely accurate! I will make contact on Monday.
Please be aware that all mail sent to and from Sarasota County Schools is subject to the public records law of Florida."
She sent that reply to all of us, and I sent back the following reply to all,
"I am fully aware that all emails sent to and from Sarasota County Schools are subject to the public records law of Florida.
When I did not receive a call back, as promised by you, I felt that I needed to get in contact with you again, and include others, as this is a very important issue that needs to be addressed immediately as school ends on June 4, 2010, and if he suffers another severe migraine attack, I need to know what I am supposed to do."

I'm not afraid of the public records law of Florida, but obviously she is.
I'm going to make sure that on Monday, I have a way to record or document the entire conversation when she calls, and I'm going to let her know that I'm recording or documenting it.
I can put the phone on speaker, and I'm a hella fast typer, I'll just type out everything she says to me word for word so that she can't say that she never said something.
I mean, she's trying to say that her involvement in this is "not entirely accurate!", but what she doesn't know is that as soon as she threatened Sebastian with expulsion the 1st time, I began typing out everything that she said after that, I knew that I needed to document what she saying, so I did.
I had my email open and I just began composing a new email, and when the call was over, I emailed it to myself.
What I posted, is exactly what she said because I had copied it from the email that I composed while on the phone with her.

I don't type in shorthand, but I can type 80 to 95 words per minute, and maybe some of you have guessed that at the sometimes long entries that I type. (like this one, sorry)
I just get going sometimes and just keep going, plus, I've worked in a customer service position for Georgia Power and Gas, (yup, GP&G customer service is located in Sarasota, Florida) where we had to be able to type 35 wpm minimum in order to even get hired for the job.
I filled out the application and was taken over to a computer to take the typing test where several others were also taking it.
Each person was given just 2 tries to meet the 35 wpm minimum.
I heard a few people start cussing, someone slam their chair and and then storm out, and then I sat down to take my test.
We had a piece of paper with about 3 paragraphs of something typed on it, (can't recall after all these years) and we had to type out the entire thing as fast as we could with a minimum of 4 typos and spelling mistakes.
I got myself into a good seating position, got my hands and arms comfy, (knuckles cracked) and I clicked the start button.
I typed out the 3 paragraphs in just under 1.5 minutes, only 2 spelling mistakes, and my speed was clocked at 84 wpm.
I was hired on the spot, so yeah, typing what someone is saying word for word, is something I can easily do and will always do if I feel that I may need to have proof of something said at a later date.

"Not entirely accurate!"
Yeah, that ain't gonna fly with me.
You said it, you meant it, now deal with the consequences of what you so courageously yelled at me.

Posted by Kat at 8:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've had quite a really bad time for the last week, week and a half, I still have 2 posts in draft that honestly, I don't even know if I'm going to publish now.
They are things that I wanted to say, but after some thought, I'm just not so sure now that I want to say them anymore.
Anyway.

I am always entering contests on a lot of my friends blogs that I read, and I won a few of those contests sometime last week.

First, Jenn, aka Five Dollar Shake, had a contest to win a t-shirt from Crazy Dog t-shirts.
I won, and then chose a shirt that, well, just really does suit me.
I think you'll agree. *wink*
I received the shirt and absolutely love it, so thank you Jenn and Crazy Dog T-shirts!
Click here to follow Crazy Dog T-shirts on Twitter, and click here to follow Five Dollar Shake on Twitter.

Then Jenn at In My Bag, had a giveaway for a Tungsten ring from Tungsten Rings Online, valued at $120, and I won that too!
I chose this Womens Tungsten 6mm Dome Wedding Ring, yeah yeah, wedding ring, blah blah, I just like the way that ring looks.
It's very clean, simple, and it's both catch and scratch resistant, meaning it will never snag on a sweater or any kind of fabric, and it will never get scratched during all of the sometimes really crazy things that I do with my hands.
It also comes with a Lifetime Warranty which is fantastic because of all of the sometimes really crazy things that I do with my hands. Hahahaha!
Thank you to both Jenn and Tungsten Rings Online so much for this giveaway, and once I get the ring, I will happily post a pic and a review of it!
Click here to follow Jenn on Twitter.
Tungsten Rings Online does not have a Twitter account, yet.

Sebastian was surfing around the net on their computer one day last week, and he found a contest to win some pull up bars like this one, the contest is now closed, but because you had to be 18 to enter it, he asked me and I entered on his behalf.
He's hoping that my good luck at winning contests will rub off and he'll win it, he really wants to start building up his upper body strength after what happened.

Posted by Kat at 3:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was writing up my post last night, I kept getting interrupted, it's in draft, it's ok, trust me, a post in draft is probably the best damn thing going at the minute.

Because of Sarasota County's Zero Tolerance Policy against drugs, what you see above which includes OTC drugs of any kind including Tylenol, Advil, and oh heaven forbid, a prescription medication for migraines.
Sebastian has missed some school, but I have sent him with a note the very next day, as the school tells us to do, every single time he has a migraine and has had to miss a day here and there for it.
We went through this last year, and seriously debated doing the ol' cough and swallow so he wouldn't miss any days of school at all.

In yesterday's mail, I received a letter from the truancy officer for Sarasota County.
The letter states that Sebastian has missed 87 days of school this year.
He has not.
From the first day back in January after Christmas break, until about 3-4 weeks ago, a certain teacher was intentionally marking him as skipping her 7th period class.
He wasn't skipping her class, he transferred out of it before Christmas break, but apparently, no one notified the teacher, so she marked him as absent from her class every single day, and those missed classes got marked as unexcused, and those absences now count against his absences for the year, so for a total of 87 FULL DAYS MISSED, out of 156 full-time class days.

I called the school, spoke to Dr. Moore, the vice principal in charge of attendance, and she said if Sebastian misses even 1 more day, she's expelling him and making sure that I go to court for failure to make my child get an education.
I asked her what I am supposed to do if he has a severe migraine and because of the zero tolerance policy, he cannot take his prescription meds every 4 hours as prescribed, nor can he have any Tylenol or Advil to even try to fight the migraine off so he doesn't miss school, what am I supposed to do Dr. Moore? Tell me what I'm supposed to do? Send him to school suffering with a migraine that blinds him and every sound makes him feel as though his head is going to explode, please tell me what I'm supposed to do, what would you like me to do Dr. Moore?
Her answer to me was "I have other important things to deal with, but if he misses even 1 more day, he's expelled, and you will be going to court."
Click.
She hung up.

I am so so upset right now, I can barely breathe.
I've been crying non-stop since this morning being called a liar, (the liar thing has to do with this as well, but it's a long story, and I am so fucking upset I just don't even want to type anymore right now) and my blood pressure is through the roof.
My friend showed up here when she called just to say hi, and I could barely even speak, so she brought over her cuff and my BP is 162 over 101, probably the highest it's been in months, and I'm so fucking upset, I can't get myself calmed down, this situation is a huge mess, they won't correct the wrong amount of days absent, they are making threats, and last night, my ankles and feet started to swell up bad, but now they are like swollen to super size and are extremely painful because they are blood clots, and because my BP is up racing, the blood clots are just building up even more rapidly than normal.
I'm so lost on what the fucking hell I'm supposed to do!
What the fuck am I supposed to do!!!

Posted by Kat at 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Mark sent me an email around 4am this morning when he couldn't sleep.
I asked if I could post his email, he shrugged his shoulders, said yeah.

"Hey Mom, we don't talk much about things that bother us. It's just the way we are.
I'm worried about you and me.
For every passing day I get further scared of what is coming and what is not.
I am scared that even If I did college, even if I did find some sort of employment, and whatever else, it would be for nothing. The doctor refuses to respond to us and with my back in pain the way it is, it's a constant reminder of what my life is, and watching you, what my life forever will be.
I'm really sorry if this email upsets you, but I just wanted to get this off of my chest.
I love you Mom.
I love how much you are fighting for me.
I love that no matter how much pain you are in, you are fighting for me anyway, and then I worry about you and how much you're hurting.
This whole thing scares me Mom, all of it.
I just needed to tell you this.
I just needed to tell you that I love you and I'm so proud of you for all of it, for all that you do and try to do.
I so wish that I could make it easier for you, for me, for all of us, I hate seeing how hard you work at this, at fighting for me to get a doctor to help me, and they don't, and then I hear you cry, and I know that I can't do anything at all to help you.
I just need you to know that it matters to me, it matters so much Mom.
I don't always say thank you or I love you, but I do, I love you and I just wanted you to know that, to know I love you and thank you for all of it."

I think I cried for about an hour reading that this morning.
I went in Sebastian's room after he left for school, buried my head in his pillows, and just cried.
I wish I could fix Mark, I wish I could take it all away from him, his pain, his fear, his worries.
I wish so much that I could make it all better.
He thanks me?
He thanks me??
I'm the one who thanks him, I'm the one who has every ounce of pride the world over to have him as my son, he's far too awesome for me to even put into words.

Posted by Kat at 12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)