Anissa

This community, sometimes called the Blogosphere, never ceases to amaze me. When a fellow blogger is in need, this Internet Family, joins together at record speed to offer support.

Quite honestly, it blows my mind.

I've only been blogging for less than two years. That's not a long time. I haven't been lucky enough to meet any bloggers in real life. Though I hope to some day. I have however, witnessed the outpouring of love that is forever being extended in so many ways.

Many read, in horror, when Nie Nie and her husband were in a life altering airplane crash during August of 2008. Then hearts were broken with the loss of a little girl named Maddie. And then again when Thalon was taken too soon.

Each time, this Internet Family, sprang into action. No questions asked.

Truly incredible.

Today, I signed onto Facebook. I saw status updates that Anissa of #FreeAnissa had suffered a massive stroke on Tuesday. I couldn't believe it.

Anissa?

The always funny, upbeat Anissa? That strong woman who has already endured rehabilition for a previous stroke. The unbelievable mom who recently posted about her youngest child, Peyton, being one year, cancer free?

Yes. That Anissa.

Again, this Internet Family is doing what it does best. It's taking care of it's own.

Please send prayers, happy thoughts, good vibes, whatever you can to Anissa and her family. And if you can help out in other ways, please visit Aiming Low to find out how.

Studying Woes

It's only one week into the new school year and I'm frazzled. W. has now entered the 6th grade. He's playing with the big kids now.

W. is naturally smart. He received 4 A's and 1 B as his average grades, in his primary subjects, last year. He didn't put in a whole lot of effort. I did...but he, unfortunately isn't one to go above and beyond. If it's not fun, he doesn't want to do it.

Studying and homework can be a battle.

It's frustrating because with even the slightest bit of elbow grease, he'd really do exceptionally well. But his philosophy has been, "Why bother? I do well enough this way."

And yes, he does. I'm not a stickler for grades. I, of course, want my children to do well. This world requires that if you want to live comfortably in adulthood. But I am not one to insist on straight A's or face my wrath. I just want you to do the best that you can.

And I know he CAN do better. He CAN break a sweat once in a while. Because everything comes to him so easily, he's gotten lazy. I try to explain to him that he needs to improve his work ethic because though he has done well in the past, as he progresses through middle school, things are going to get harder. Things may not come as easily to him. He may actually have to....shall I say the word....STUDY!

Gasp!

The work load has increased tremendously. He already has four quizzes on the schedule. FOUR! I spent last night making up mock tests (on www.easytestmaker.com - great site!). I don't mind helping him prepare but how much is too much? I already went through school and I feel like I'm doing it again.

Do any of you have middle school or older kids? I'm going through this for the first time. Does anyone have any studying advice?

I have to figure something out....I've got to do this two more times!!! I'm not sure my heart can take it.

Make Me The Dark Horse

It's A Schmitty Life is one of the nominees for a BlogLuxe Award at the Socialluxelounge. Can you believe it? (I can, considering I nominated myself. Heh.)

I am listed in the Funniest Blog category. Can you believe THAT? (Once again, I can.)

But nominating myself isn't enough. I can only VOTE for myself once a day. Me thinks that won't be enough votes to get me to win. I've already fallen behind such dream crushers greats as; Cake Wrecks, Attack of the Redneck Mommy, and the almighty Bloggess, Amalah, and Dooce.

Wouldn't it be killer to beat Dooce? Right now at 19 votes, I'm only 13 votes from pummeling clobbering whomping overtaking her. What a rush THAT would be!

Now, I am a realist, I think it's fair to say I won't win. Barefoot Foodie is already at about a 1,000,001 229 votes. I don't even have that many readers. Not by a long shot. But I would like to feel like a contender. Stroke my ego and let this realist live in a fantasy world for a few weeks.

So, help a girl out. You can vote daily by clicking on the nominee button. It's A Schmitty Life is listed in The Funniest Blog category.

FYI: The more votes I get, the higher up on the list I will go, it would make it so much EASIER for you to find me that way. Just saying.

Thank you, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!

I'll Pick Up The Pieces, If I Have To

Have you ever wanted to vent on your blog and couldn't? Was there ever a situation that got so deep under your skin, that you needed to just let loose on your keyboard, but you couldn't? You couldn't because you were unsure if the parties involved read your blog?

Well, that is my current plight.

The frustration and disgust I am feeling is beyond words. In the grand scheme of things, "it" is truly none of my business. I have no say in the matter, however, I feel scared and worried of the possible consequences from, what I feel, is poor judgment of one individual and denial from another. Unfortunately, this lack of common sense won't fall back on these individuals but that of someone else. Someone I deeply care about.

I feel the need to distance myself from those involved because I can not tolerate what I see and hear. I have offered my advice and have gently stated my opinions. All this falls on deaf ears.

I honestly wish I could elaborate. I wish I could find some answers to my dilemma from you, my faithful readers.

But sadly, I can not.

I must respect the privacy of the one who is close to my heart. The other two? I could care less about their "feelings". As far as I'm concerned, one has none; for to feel, you would need a soul.

All I can do is sit by and watch. As I do, I will be hoping for a happy ending.

What Is A Mom To Do?

No matter what happens in the Schmitty house, I try to find a little humor in most situations. If not for my own sanity, it at least makes for decent blog fodder.

But yesterday, as hard as I tried, I couldn't find an ounce of amusement anywhere. Not one stinking speck.

So my friends, if you are looking for a laugh today, please move on because you aren't going to find it here.

Here goes:

I won't talk about the first half of the day, as that would take a REALLY long time. I'll save that for another time as it is totally irrelevant to this post anyway.

Instead, I will begin at about 3:00 pm.

W. got off the bus. I could tell from his obnoxious behavior that he was in a less than cooperative mood. He can have a tendency to not know when to stop. He thinks he's being funny, but in reality he's being highly annoying and when in public, quite embarrassing. And to make a long story short, because I really don't want to rehash the entire night, he then proceeded to take a five hour long meltdown.

FIVE.HOURS.LONG!

He couldn't focus on his homework. He was all over the place. He was defiant, nasty, and out of control. I got so pissed I had to leave the house and go for a ten minute drive to cool off. It was either do that or throw him in the bath, clothes and all, to cool him off in an ice cold shower. Which at one point, I came quite close to doing.

The night finally ended with Mr. Schmitty shipping him off to bed at 9:00 pm and telling him that he better get sleep because he would be getting up at 5:00 am to finish his homework.

W. has been in this frame of mind A LOT lately. Unfortunately, since he's been small, it's been a way of life with him. He'll have bouts of this behavior from time to time. As a matter of fact, I went back through my archives to see if I had touched on this subject before. March is apparently "the month". I could basically copy and paste that post here.

Could his behavior stem from his health history and his heart defect? The frustrating thing is, no one knows. It could. He does not have A.D.H.D. according to everyone we have spoken to. He does, however, at times, have those symptoms. They just seem to crop up out of nowhere.

I used to think that he just had an attitude problem and that, combined with his immaturity, caused him to act out. But we noticed about a year ago, that when he is going through these periods, his eyes dilate. It's clearly evident and the first thing we look for now. Of course, the doctors have no clue as to why this happens. All we know is that the behavior and the eyes go hand in hand. So seeing a physical manifestation makes me think it's more than just his demeanor.

So, can he help himself? Is this something he and the rest of us have to live with? I don't know. The doctors don't know. It's frustrating as hell. My nerves are shot and I'm emotionally drained today.

Is 8:00 am too early for a drink?