Thanksgiving

I guess the one great thing I can say about Thanksgiving, is that I am thankful it is OVER! While our Turkey day was great, and the day after was pretty good - the weekend portion was just flat awful.

We did have a tiny amount of snow right before the big day - and the kids made this cute little snowperson!

2 steps forward, 6 steps back

This last week plus has been longer than I can imagine! I was doing so well with more frequent posts! Unfortunately, I have had to spend alot of time online to look for help with the oldie-but goodies behavior challenges! The rest of this post is a bit rant-y and probably grammatically bad... read ahead if you dare!

The last week has been alot of communication going on regarding Big Al and his IEP. If you have been following along, you will have already known that Big Al is not quite one of those people who compete in "all you can eat" type contests!
We have still not finished his final IEP. I found out today that his reading score actually DROPPED this year. That means that he had ZERO progress in reading in the last six months. These test scores were just made available to me in an email. Needless to say - I am very disenchanted with his "program" right now.
That test shows that his level and comprehension of reading has actually decreased since he was tested in the spring. In the real world, it means that somewhere along the line, some of the things he had "learned" have actually disappeared.
So, that was the first kicker!
The other kicker stems from Friday. I found out that Big Al was NOT taking his required snack to his teacher and eating it in class. Of course, his teacher did not let me know this... I had to ask her! This coming from a teacher who has been spouting off that "nutrition is so vital to learning"! HA - not funny haha, just a very sarcastic HA to that!

I thought things were going well... I guess I "wanted to believe" that for once, things were going well. Again, I was truly disappointed in not only the "system", but also my son, who has continued to lie to me and others about tossing his lunch versus eating. I know that I "should" say that I am disappointed in Big Al's choice and behavior, but quite frankly I am just disappointed in HIM. This is a really important time in his life, and though he has had all the information, the motivation, the consequences and the benefits put in front of him, he has chosen to do things "his" way! I know that about 80% of this is his own way of "in your face, Mom!" kinda thing that he is doing passively... but it just chaps my hide knowing that in the end, the person who will be hurt the most from his actions and choices is him!
There have been about five major challenges we have had with him in the last week. All of which stem from his "crappy choices". One was lying about getting detention, two was not coming home after school, lying about why and then being difficult, three was trying to (yet again) give away money to "friends for hire" at school, four for lying about his PE clothes and to a few different teachers in one day, five for getting in trouble for trying to flush some other kid down the toilet, six for lying about his snacks and lunches to me and his teacher... whoops... guess that is more than five, and the list is so much longer.
So, has this week been any different than previous weeks? Nope... I think that he is just getting caught more! I can only say that it is mentally exhausting, physically stressful and socially embarassing to have all this go on within a very short period of time.
Seriously, I am doing alot of searches for boarding schools online! If you have a good suggestion... PLEASE share!

Friendly Friday

I took a few pictures outside this week while the sun was out... a rarity lately! I wanted to make sure to blog a bit about Miss O and her special talent!

We call her the "cow whisperer"! Miss O has always loved the cows! She is the only one who will run out the field and just hang out with them and talk to them. They will follow her around and are amazingly gentle with her, unlike me, whom they like to use as a scratching post and try to knock down! She does have a favorite, who is Bambi. Here she is above with her "dest diend Bambi". She loves to talk about her best friend! Bambi was the one little calf we thought was going to die on us in the spring... he has recovered nicely, but has not grown quite like the others! He is very gentle and loving, will walk to Miss O when he sees her anywhere in the field, and tolerates ALOT of brushing and talking to!

I'm sure in a few months, she'll lose interest, or Bambi will.. so for now, I'll just savor their sweet little friendship!

A great school conference!

I am slowly catching up with some of the events that have gone on this week.... long sigh... as it has been busy!
Today (Friday) Little J and I went to his school conference. I was thrilled to hear and see how well he was doing! His school does a rating system of 1-4 .. 4 being the best. For the first time in his elementary career, he earned a 4 in music! What is so shocking about it is that for years, he and the music teacher have rarely seen eye to eye!
His math scores were in the top 15%, which was surprising good too! His teacher said he thought Little J had intentionally botched a computer based reading test.. which brought his reading level down considerably. I had to agree, as the score was insanely low!

It made for a great couple of hours!

The other IEP meeting

Monday, we had the annual IEP meeting for Miss O... it went well! I was actually really concerned that she had exceeded her goals by so much that she would no longer qualify for her preschool!
Luckily. she gets to receive services until the end of the school year! She is now testing on the moderately low range of the speech charts.. where as before, she was not on the speech chart for her age. THAT is good news! She still has a few minor developmental things to overcome, but those should be pretty easy! Her teachers REALLY love her (who wouldn't!) and I truly think they wanted to keep her until the end of the school year in June, that is why they rated her a little low! haha - but of course "I" am biased!
I was thankful to hear that she will still qualify for some services when she starts Kindergarten in (oh my God!) 10 months! She will be getting a full 3 year evaluation in the spring to check her speech again and they will go from there.

What a relief! At least one out of two is on track!

Here I was... doing so well!

I have badly failed the daily post in the month of November... got to 12 in a row! HA!
A lot has happened in the last week or so, so I can use the excuse that I have been busy! I have been trying to think of something "useful" or purpose driven to post about, and it's been such a toss-up!

Never fear, more posts, while not so great are soon coming!

The dreaded IEP meeting

Tuesday afternoon was the 3 year re-evaluation meeting for Big Al's IEP. It went ok... yet it was hard seeing how little progress has been made!
While there has been enough growth in certain areas to keep him in the grade he is at, there are areas that show how really behind he is.
I was shown his math assesment, and it was like a punch to the gut.. he could not complete addition or subtraction correctly, and he did not attempt basic multiplication or division. While his science teacher had alot of good things to say, his math teacher did not.
Somedays I wonder if we made a mistake putting him in special ed.... it almost seems like he is not learning ANYTHING!
UGH!

I found a clue....

Miss O has really been into Scooby Doo for the last few months! She will watch it over and over and over! She decided to make up her own detective outfit... I just managed to get her to slow down for a minute so I could get a pic!

Big Al's art projects

Big Al is in Middle School now, 6th grade to be exact! He got to take an "elective"... well... more like he had to choose the lesser of the following evils..... band, choir, orchestra or "expressive" arts! The first three are pretty much self explanatory. "Expressive" arts consists of (you guessed it) art, computers, something and something... I can't remember the other two! Each quarter they take something else! I would not call Big Al an artsy person... he draws a mean stick figure... but that is pretty much it! Here were the projects he had to do for his final exam.

This little beauty is his "clay house"... I guess an ashtray or bowl was asking too much! It is colorful and well... I guess maybe a good place for a hamster to hide out - and NO we are not getting one!

This was his plaster bear... he named it Billy Bob Joe. I'm not sure what we are going to do with these treasures.. I took a picture because I just KNEW that they would be broken and bound for the landfill before not too long! Long live Big Al's art projects! They will forever live on the blog!

Early Release Monday

I guess I loaded the "after" and "before" picture! haha!

Wow! Boys that actually are working together... don't worry - it didn't last long!

Someone is armed and dangerous with the rake! The boys left her alone as she was swinging it pretty wildly!

Today, the boys had early release at school... seems like a waste of time to send kids home 1 hour 45 minutes early... oh well! We spent a little time at Nana and Grandpa's raking some of the leaves that came down... since it was dry and not too cold!

Ahhhhhhh Sunday!

Today was a really laid back kinda day! We all did pretty much nothing!
We watched a little bit of the Seahawks game, and then the hubby and I had a great babysitter come over and watch the kids for a few hours while we ran to Yakima. It was sooooo nice to sit in the car in SILENCE! Just that was enough! haha! We managed to get some errands run at places where the kids usually get cranky and out of control, ie Costco and Home Depot! Then we had a nice gorge-ourselves dinner at Olive Garden!

This week should be interesting as the kids have a shorter week with a half day Monday and no school Wednesday!

Saturday Stuff

Today was, thankfully, the last soccer game for both boys this season!

I managed to get a few pictures, not many.. but a few! When they get to this age - it's more running and less standing around!

Thoughts for today....

Tomorrow is our very last day of soccer for this season! Usually, we really enjoy soccer season.. unfortunately, this year has been far from fun! Big Al has had a great year... despite being the smallest kid in the age division... see picture below... Big Al is in navy! The other two kids are of average - maybe a little smaller than average and the same age! Big Al has had to work even harder this year to keep up with those with longer legs... haha! Regardless.. he works hard and has enjoyed this year! Hopefully, he can play soccer in middle school next year!
Above is Little J... unfortunately, this picture shows what has happened most this season... he is not on the field. He is warming up here before the game.... This season will most likely be his last (keeping fingers crossed!). Little J is a great player and is fffffaaaassstttt... he really hustles on the field and plays hard. Unfortunately, he has a coach that feels Little J should spend more than half the season on the sidelines. It has been really discouraging to him and it has decreased his confidence when he does get to play - as the coach is not what I would call.... encouraging! We had hoped that he would get his team pictures last weekend, and we would have just called the season over... but, apparently, he will get them tomorrow.... For those who know me... this has been really hard on me to watch Little J be treated un-equally. And of course, I have managed to write a "constructive criticism" letter to the league and also an email to the coach regarding things... of course both have gone unanswered... oh well....
In my mind - I'm just reminding myself that somewhere along the way - the treatment will be returned to the coach..... I am soooooo not trying to be vengeful! haha!

Last minute post!

I almost went to bed and realized - whoops! Gotta get my post in today! :)
Today, Miss O and I stayed around the house the whole day.. the horses needed their hooves trimmed, and it was cold and blah.. so we just hung out! We made some banana bread, which of course did not last long, and had made some really yummy chicken tetrazinni for dinner!

Little J came home with a notice that the Pubic Health Department is doing a free H1N1 shot clinic for students at his school.. actually, it is the mist they are doing for most kids. I signed him up... he can be our guinea pig, so to speak!

See- almost 5 days in a row... so proud of myself!

Halloween - just a few days late!

I forgot to unload the pictures off the camera! We kept Halloween really simple this year... as it is one of those "you regret it" later if you don't kinda things!

Big Al was an Army Ranger... he didn't get to pick out a costume this year - I pushed the date and then forgot about it! He was happy about it...

Flash, aka "Little J" and Dora, aka "Miss O" were busy frosting and decorating cookies at Boo Central at the campus... they had alot of fun there... we only stayed about an hour - which was about 2 minutes shy of perfect timing!

Had to get the back of Miss O... you really can't tell that she is "Dora" from the front... so here is the backpack! She was a little put off that I did not buy the matching black Dora wig... oh well!

We had a fun time trick or treating downtown in the afternoon.... being a Saturday, most the businesses were closed - so that meant less candy (yay!).... It was ok though - as I made a deal with the kids to sell me all their candy minus 15 pieces of their favorites... they really liked that!

I hope everyone else had a tremendous time!

Time to bring on the Turkey!!

Have you been affected by H1N1?

I am probably going to jinx us by sharing that we have NOT had the piggy flu (despite having our boys hug and love their pigs for 5 months) in our house "yet".

I've been following the virus news in Ukraine, where many friends are and are heading in the coming months - or were heading. The SDA (National Center for Adoptions) in Ukraine has closed down for 3 weeks. A few families I know have had to wait until they get a new appointment - that has gotta be tough, as some have waited so long! A friend, Michelle, is in Ukraine right now adopting two children and is concerned about getting them out of the country while still healthy! In Ukraine, they don't have the luxury of hand sanitizer everywhere they go, as well as face masks to prevent others from hacking up a lung all over you. Cold and flu medicine has been snatched up - to the point of none left for someone else! Many schools and offices have quarantined folks and closed down.
When we traveled to Ukraine, we did take hand sanitizer, little trial sizes for each of us. We used it every time after we visited Miss O in the orphanage, as there was no clean bathroom close enough for us to use. We chuckled a bit each time, as we probably dealt with more germs at home! Of course I stopped using it when we got to Kyiv, and came home with some nasty weird strain of Influenza, most likely off the plane that kicked my butt for almost a month! Live and learn!

We are very lucky that our kids are rarely sick... very few colds or bugs. We don't shelter our kids, but we do make sure they wash their hands often, cough into their arm, etc.... I also use a whole lotta Lysol products! haha

The rest of our family, not as fortunate as we right now, as they have been hit hard with H1N1.. their 5 month old baby has been at Childrens Hospital, and two of my older nephews are still carrying some fevers and coughs... most likely the same virus - but not certain. We have been keeping them in our thoughts and prayers for fast and speedy healing... let's hope that happens!

So - has the swine flu changed anything you do - or has it affected you?

The word for Wednesday

Today... my word will be..... un-necessary!

Try not to use an unnecessary energy to redirect kids, try not to use any unnecessary screaming to redirect kids, try not to use an unnecessary muttering under my breath to redirect kids!

We'll give it a try....

Our visit to Children's today went.....

not so well!

We found out that Big Al weighs the same (on their scale) as he did 6 months ago. That was not as concerning as the fact that he only grew 1mm over 6 months. His endo doctor there is really good - I really like her! So, we now have to do the growth hormone simulation test. Basically, Big Al and I get to spend a day at Children's, him hooked up with an IV, and me bored out of my gord! Looks like that might be done right after Thanksgiving. Depending on the test results, will depend on which route we will have to take.

The doc was not too happy with Big Al and his "lack of caring" about his health. We can tell too, that "growing" is not really a priority for him.... even though we have told him, as have others, the importance of being healthy and having a healthy reserve in his body. It has been exhausting with him so far... but the doc at Children's is ready to start the full gamet of testing everything if this hormone test comes back fine..... looks like a New Year of medical bills!

I still am offering my fat transplant!!!

Welcome to November!

Hard to believe that November has come so quick! Supposedly, it is National Blogging Month or something - where the challenge is to blog each and every day! I'll give it a try and see if I can find something note worthy to blog about each and EVERY day this month!

One down - 30 to go!