It's already the end of Q1 for Nathan's freshman year. He ended up with an A in AP Biology, an A in Art, an A in Marketing, a B in Honors Algebra 2, a B in German and a D in Pre-AP English. We're not sure what is going on with English. He has always had As and Bs in English and performed above average on the state tests. He doesn't like his teacher and says that she is biased against some students, including him it seems. Ironically, her comments on his report card are Participates and Highly Motivated. He says he is doing everything that she says to do on the assignments, but she continues to give him bad grades. Hopefully, he gets this grade up next quarter. He still doesn't like school, but we are trying to make him understand how important grades are in high school. He wants to go to college. He talks about going to MIT and going into rocket science or something similar where he can design/build military equipment.
Nathan joined E-Sports at his school which is a club that meets after school on Thursdays.
We're not going anywhere for Fall Break. It upsets me because Fall is my favorite time of the year and I love to see the Fall colors. It has still been hot here and there won't really be a good cool down until the end of the week. Paul said he couldn't do a vacation this week because he is too busy with work. He recently had to let go of an employee. I thought about doing some day trips this week, but I am doubting I will do much. So, I am trying to get things done at home, but that doesn't seem to go very well either. With my husband and son here I can't concentrate. The day just flies by, too.
It probably is just as well that we don't go on a vacation because we should save the money. We have had so many unexpected expenses this year including multiple roof repairs due to the monsoons, A/C repairs, high medical expenses for all 3 of us, etc... A couple of days ago our washing machine stopped working and showed a LE code. LE code means a problem with the motor and it can't spin. Clothes and water were locked in the machine for over a day until we were finally able to get it open (unplugging, plugging back in 5 minutes later and then pushing the start button for 5 seconds to reset). We had Sears Home Services come look at it, but they said repairs would be expensive and it would probably be best to replace it. We bought our washer and dryer when we moved in back in 2008 so they lasted almost 16 years. We had a few issues over that time and had to have a couple of repairs, but it's time to replace. There are no more Sears stores in the Tucson area and the Sears repairmen advised getting another LG product. Paul ended up buying a Maytag set from Home Depot. The washer is supposed to arrive Thursday of this week and the dryer is on back order. Guess I can't do laundry this week until the new washer is installed!
On 8/9, I went to the Pima County Cooperative Extension Gardens and the Reid Park Rose Garden.
I went to the Desert Museum and Saguaro National Park on 8/20.
Paul had cataract surgery on one of his eyes on 8/21. Looks like it was successful without any problems. He says he probably won't need the other eye done for a couple of years yet.
Nathan had his esophagram at Banner on 8/23. He had to miss school that day because we had to be there at 9:15 for his 9:45 appointment and it was across town. They didn't see anything wrong during the esophagram, but they were going to send the images to his gastroenterologist.
My First Light bloomed on 8/25.
On 8/29, My Apricot Glow bloomed. I went to the Pima County Cooperative Extension Gardens, Green Things Nursery and Tucson Botanical Gardens.
We went to Nathan's open house at Mountain View High School on 8/29. That is where we got to see his classrooms and meet with his teachers. We weren't able to meet one on one with any of the teachers, but we did talk to all of them.
Nathan didn't have school on 8/30 so we went to OdySea. Paul and Nathan both got impatient with me because I was taking a long time taking pictures. OdySea is expensive and we only go 1-3 times a year so I want to get my money's worth. Nathan likes to go to see the pufferfish, but both he and Paul quickly walk through the aquarium and then they are done. We ate at Grimaldi's afterward.
On 9/13, I went to Lowe's to photograph their flowers, Pima County Cooperative Extension Gardens, Green Things Nursery and Pima Prickly Park.
We met with Nathan's dermatologist on 9/17. She said that his current treatment wasn't really working and encouraged us to try Accutane. With this treatment, he takes 1 or 2 pills a day for 5 months. We have to meet with her once a month. We had to sign a pledge that we would take as directed and meet with the dermatologist once a month to monitor his progress. The reason for the strict requirements is because this drug can have serious side effects. Females could have birth defects if they get pregnant while taking it. Depression, suicidal thoughts or severe anger could occur. Nathan agreed to this treatment, but I have had to make sure that he takes all of his medication when he is supposed to. Just to make it more complicated, she has him taking 2 pills on even days and 1 on odd days. This is because his height and weight fall in the middle of taking 1 or 2 pills a day. He is supposed to wear sunscreen and chapstick during this process, but of course he rarely he does. Luckily, he doesn't have PE this year so he isn't outside much. He hasn't got that sunburned, but he is getting chapped lips. We have our one month check up this Friday, 10/18. It's hard to tell if the medicine is having an effect on his mood/personality. He was already moody before taking it because he is a teenager! In fact, on 9/10, my son told me that he hated me...right out of the blue. Paul went to a revival service at his church that night and so Nathan and I were at home. After Paul got home and it was getting close to bedtime for Nathan, Nathan complained that he had a headache. I asked if he wanted Tylenol and he said yes. So as I was getting the Tylenol I heard Nathan behind me saying that he hated me. I couldn't believe what I heard so I asked him if he just said that he hated me. He said yes because I was singing all night (implying I gave him the headache). So he hates me because I was singing?! It really hurt me and made me angry at the same time. I told him to get his own Tylenol. I took him to school the next morning and picked him up and not one word was said between us. So that night I told Paul that I was not going to take him to school the next day. I told him that Nathan could take the bus or that he could take him. Paul ended up taking him to and from school that day. However, he knew that he couldn't keep doing that with his work schedule. God forbid that Nathan rides the bus. I have been taking him back and forth to school for a decade, but now that there is a bus system (since he is no longer going to a charter school), he nor Paul wants him to take the bus. They don't care about what an inconvenience it is for me because it is all about making Nathan happy. Paul is afraid he could get bullied on the bus and that he isn't as safe on the bus as he is riding with me. So that night in front of Nathan he asked if I would be taking him to school the next day. I said that depended on if Nathan ever apologizes to me for telling me that he hated me. He apologized. I'm still not happy about having to take him back and forth to school when he can easily take the bus with the bus stop right in front of our house. The fact that I desperately need a break and that I am having a miserable time with perimenopause doesn't seem to matter to my family.
We met with Nathan's gastroenterologist on 9/19. He had to miss another partial day of school because his appointment was at 2:15 across town again. We met with her to discuss the results of his endoscopy on 8/1 and his esophagram on 8/23. She said both were normal, but she did do some additional tests during the endoscopy. There is an enzyme that breaks down sugar and his is low. What does this mean? Pretty much that he is lactose intolerant which we already knew. He had problems with lactose as a baby. He had acid reflux so we had to use sensitive formula. Over the years, he seemed to tolerate lactose better, but we continued to buy lactose free milk and ice cream. She suggested eating a lower sugar diet and reducing his lactose. I asked what this had to do with him having trouble swallowing steak, though. The answer is really nothing. She just said to marinate the steak well, eat smaller bites and make sure to chew the steak well. I kind of feel like all of the trouble and expense we went through to find the cause of his swallowing problem was all for nothing. However, we did rule out a problem with his esophagus or anything more serious. As it stands right now, the medical claim for his endoscopy was denied by our insurance because we didn't get pre-certification. We weren't aware that we needed pre-certification. We have been working with Accolade who is supposed to be a liaison between our insurance and the medical providers. They essentially have been useless. They were looking into this claim as well as another claim we had with Northwest Medical Center when Nathan went to the ER. That visit we paid about $500 too much so we are trying to get our money back. It was finally revealed that the hospital never applied the insurance check because there were questions about what we really owed at the time. With so many medical claims being processed this year, our deductible/copay/coinsurance amounts were being changed rapidly. They said they were going to submit a new claim so we are waiting to see what happens with that. For the endoscopy claim, it was denied showing that we owe the entire $6500. Banner has yet to bill us for that so we are assuming that they are trying to work it out with our insurance. We brought the issue up with Accolade and they are also supposed to be working on it, too. Trying to manage all of the medical expenses this year has been a nightmare for me! We met all of our deductibles for the year so that shows how much we have been at medical facilities this year.
Paul turned 54 on 9/20. We didn't celebrate his birthday until 9/27. We went to Vivace for dinner per his request.
My June Noon bloomed on 9/24. My potted cacti have not done well this year because of the extended heat.
I went up to Mount Lemmon on 9/26 too see if there was any Fall color yet. There wasn't.
On 10/10, the northern lights were visible in Arizona. Of course I was not prepared. I didn't know that they were going to be visible that night. I happened to see a news post on Facebook that night with a picture that was taken just a short time prior of the northern lights in Tucson. I went out on our back balcony with my phone and shot some pictures to the north. Sure enough, the phone picked up the colors. I couldn't really see them with my naked eyes, but the iPhone picks them up with long exposure (I set it to 3 seconds). I took a drive to see if I could get better pictures with a desert background, but the colors were no longer visible by then.
