Headaches....Oh My!

So, I am on day 5 of my HORRIFIC (is that a word?) headache. I did happen to talk to my friend who is a doctor. I can't officially see him because he works at a hospital, not in an office. But he did suggest to me to wait until Friday before I see a doctor. And if I still had my headache then, well, I should definately be seen. He says I am probably right and it does have to do with my anemia. He says I have way too many other signs. I have been taking my multi-vitamin with Iron since sunday. And I even started doubling up on my doses each day. My headaches would probably be more bareable if I did not have kids that fight and scream so much.

So, yesterday, I woke up to no hot water in our house. This has happened one time before. We use oil here to heat our house. Well, something happened and we just had to start up the burner again. Our land lady came over and helped me get it going. Well, Yesterday when it happened again, I went into the basement and after 45 minutes, I got it going again. I was so excited. I had to wait 30 minutes before the water was hot, but then I got my nice warm shower. Well, by night time, it was out again. So I got it running again. By 2am when I got up to feed Ian, there was no hot water again for me to make him some cereal. And then, again this morning when Gardner got up for work, it was out. So I went into the basement and stood there. It would start up but within 20 seconds, it would turn off again. Guess what.....WE ARE OUT OF OIL! Actually says we have 10 percent left. But the dipstick does not reach to the bottom of the tank. So, I took a FREEZING shower today and Gardner called and got a truck to come out tomorrow to bring us 2000 liters. That will only put us at about 1/2 a tanks worth. We plan on buying another 2000 liters the end of August or something. We just can't afford to fill the whole thing at once. When we moved in, we had 1500 liters of oil and I believe it cost us around 2000 Euros. Gardner will correct me, I am sure. But for now, that sounds about right.

So, it is freezing again outside (and now inside since we have no oil). We have had rain for the past 3 days. And I just want to stay under a blanket. I would of made a fire already, as it is that cold in the house. But we *JUST* took all the extra wood out to our garage on Saturday and got it all cleaned up. I might send Gardner out to the Garage tonight when he gets home from work so we can try to have a bit of heat for the morning when it is time to get up. Sure, if my garage was attached to my house like it was in America, I would walk out there and get it. But it is not. Our garage is 2 houses away. And it is a one car garage and our car is parked in front of it. So it requires us to move our van to get into the garage. And then, I don't know which is the dry wood that has been in there for Months or the brand new wood Gardner put out there on Saturday for next winter.

On to kids news..... Emma is talking up a storm. She is so amazing to hear. I love this part of the kids growing up. And she has continued to surprise me on how well she has done without her bottle. The next thing will be her binky. But I think I will wait a good month before I go down that road. The thing is, I might have to take Ian's away at the same time. I remember doing this with Shantal and Spencer as well. I think it will be an easy transition for Ian, as he really does not use the binky anyway. He just likes to swing that thing around and hit me with it. If I don't take Ian's away, Emma will just take it and use it. She already does it now so I just know that won't work out too well unless we de-binkify both of them.

Shantal continues to fight me on a daily basis over her homework. I got to the point today I just said I did not care about her doing it or not anymore. She can repeat the second grade AGAIN. And then I started to walk out of her room. She screamed no to me. Well, I told her that her teacher could decide to do such a thing if she feels Shantal is not ready to move on to the third grade. And when one does not do homework, then the teacher can not know if someone is ready or not. She still did not complete her homework today. Part of it is because of her teacher though. I have to admit that. Shantal and Spencer are in the same class. And when Shantal moved into that class, they never gave her a reading book or math book like all the other kids. They copy the math page for her instead and then they expect Shantal and Spencer to share this reading book (which is actually there German studies). There is never enough time for both the kids to use it. Like today, they had to memorize stuff out of there that they have to recite in front of the class tomorrow. Well, Shantal and Spencer can not both use the book at the same time for such a homework assignment. And this has happened more times than not. I wish they would just give her a book.

Today, Spencer got into another fight with a boy from another class. One of the moms, Frau De Wendt was there at recess and only saw the ending where she saw Spencer re-act to what happened. Of course, Frau De Wendt called Spencer over and started to get mad at him. (this is usually the case!) Luckily, there were several kids there (including her own son) who told them Spencer did not start it. The other boy did. What more is, Frau De Wendt told me there was a teacher from the school there and did absolutely nothing. So she went up to this teacher and told her she needed to do something about it. She basically shrugged her shoulders and said she did not know the other boy. So Frau De Wendt told her to go get this other boys teacher, Frau Pohlman (which used to be Spencer's teacher). Anyway, I hope I have not lost you yet. Frai De Wendt told Frau Pohlman that she HAD to do something about the situation and could not just let it go like it has in the past. So, Frau Pohlman came out and got both boys together had them apologize to each other. Frau De Wendt couldn't believe that Spencer had an opportunity to say something about what happened and he was laughing and having a good time. Like nothing ever happened. That is what I actually want from him. That in the end, everything is good and he can move on. But I agree with Frau De Wendt that he FINALLY had a teacher on his side helping to resolve a situation and he did not say what happened in the first place. In a sense, this was a GREAT step in the right direction. But I am still very Frustrated that this first teacher did nothing even when she saw things happening. Oh and I heard this whole story from Frau De Wendt. Spencer said nothing to me about it today. That must mean it was not that terrible.

Oh, I have a Hannah story. Yesterday, Hannah had a friend over to play. The problem with Hannah having friends over is that Shantal always takes over and the friends from Hannah's Kindergarten end up running off with Shantal and leaving Hannah behind. I don't like it. Hannah needs that time with her friends. Well, this happened again yesterday. So Hannah was by herself upstairs. Next thing I know, she starts coming down the stairs crying hysterically. I run up to her and ask her what is wrong. She told me her tummy hurt. Well, I could smell fingernail polish. She bought make up with her own money a few months ago. Kids make up, but make up all the same. She had been in the bathroom and painted our sink with purple fingernail polish. Where do the kids come up with this stuff. Hannah is 6 years old! So, I don't think Hannah had a tummy ache. I think she knew she was in big deep doo-doo! I told her she was not old enough for make up and I took it all away. Threw it all away except for the nail polish which I put up WAY high where none of the kids can reach it, not even with step stools. She can have her nails polished, but only by mom. I have not yet been able to get it off the sink. Frau De Wendt (yes, same mom as in Spencer's Situation) sent some fingernail polish remover to school for me to try, but we left it at the Kindergarten. (Her daughter is in Hannah's Kindergarten class and was playing here yesterday. And her son is in Spencer and Shantal's class as well). I am a little worried about it taking the enamel off the sink as well as the nail polish. Any ideas would be FABULOUS.

Don't know that I have anything new to report besides that fun stuff. Remember, when it rains by the Wheeler's, it pours!