When it rains, it pours or at least snows real hard

Last night was pure hell. I finally spoke to Naomi's art teacher to figure out what was going on. This class is an advanced class for serious art students who are highly motivated. For Naomi, it was like taking calculus with only a year of algebra under her belt. Actually she would have done better in calculus-she does have some math abilities. Naomi's story was that she did the assignments though turned them late and they weren't yet graded. I was hoping all would be well if this teacher would just get around to grading them and wondered to her by e-mail, why wouldn't she just do that. Because nothing was done that fit the requirements of the assignments. Naomi didn't understand these requirements and spent much of the time staring into space. So I got a long lecture on Naomi's many deficiencies and what Naomi needs to do to survive in life. Meanwhile Naomi is eavesdropping ( I tried to no avail to get Steve to help keep her away so we'd have some privacy) She is furious with me for not believing her and not taking her side. It is very difficult to listen to someone go on and on about your 'defective' child with the underlying message that you are a crappy parent. Nevermind that I grew up in an extremely dysfunctional family but still managed to be responsible and do well in school. It is sometimes just too much-dealing with this cancer and having to deal with Naomi, largely by myself. I finally manage to settle Naomi down and plan our next steps. If a child doesn't feel that at least someone isn't on their side, really bad things can happen. She so far has managed to steer clear of lots of dangerous sidelines. Keeping her occupied in sports has helped. Telling her how awful she is really won't help. I spent most of the night up dwelling on what do I need to do to set her right.

She is injured again. This time her knee. She usually recovers quickly but probably couldn't play tonight. The game tonight has been cancelled due to another (ANOTHER) storm. Good, as this game was 50 miles away in Temperance on the Ohio border.

Josh is not too optimistic about his job though he has a back-up plan here in town. He usually is quite cheerful but he is down.

I really wanted to see Patrick Swayze's interview the other night about his battle with pancreatic cancer but I fell asleep. Should have taped it.

Some positives:

It was very pretty out yesterday and I went for 3-4 mile walk. It was very calming.

There's a woman from MA (another TNBC warrior) Lesa who got on my site. She has a small homemade card company that sends cards to breast cancer warriors in treatment to improve their spirits. I got mine today. It was very nice. (LittleLifePreservers.com)

I went to a breast cancer support group today at the Wellness Center that Whole Foods seems to support. Only two others in the group but they were interesting ladies. (usually there are more but the snow storm kept them away maybe).The facilitator looked like a 6 foot Kirsten Dunst with a baby bump-twins. One woman had the exact same experience I had at Fran Coy but she just walked out. Afterwards, they gave us a catered lunch by Paesano's and I picked up a new hat. Everyone was very nice and chatty.

And I've read the above and realize that I am making Steve sound awful because he doesn't know how to handle Naomi. He has been by my side for the past 3 months waiting on me hand and foot and trying to protect me from all kinds of headaches. One couldn't ask for a better husband.