Big Al's First Small Plane Ride!

A great birthday gift from his Uncle, Big Al got the thrill of small craft flight! He had a blast!!

Happy #14

Happy Birthday Big Al!!!!

Welcome to March.... Welcome to Wrestling Season!

Around our house.... March signals wind, cold, the potential start of spring, and of course WRESTLING season!! Today was our first match in Royal City - a really really small town about an hour east of us (aka - the toolies!!).

Both boys won their first matches, which meant that they would be wrestling at least two more times. Little J lost his second match, so he qualified for the consoluation round (3rd and 4th place). In that round, he lost 1-0... he was a little bummed - but thrilled that he ended the first meet with a 4th place finish and one pin!

Big Al won his first, then was working really hard on his second match... while taking the other wrestler to the mat, the other child landed wrong - and broke his arm! It was awful to watch and just as awful to sit there while the kid is in horrendous pain! Ugh - not fun! Big Al then went on the wrestle in the championship round. His heart was not in it (understandably) and he lost by 3 points. He had a tough day and decided it was just time to leave after that match. I was a bit surprised that he didn't even want his medal... but its understandable...
Now... to see if they still want to do this NEXT Saturday (and every ((UGH)) Saturday in March)


Big Al in the Championship match


Little J getting ready to start his match

More Big Al Wrestling

Just a few photos from the Cle Elum and Ellensburg Matches for Big Al. Big Al is in all black. I don't take too many action shots, due to my crappy camera - and I record the matches for him to watch later!!

Big Al - wrestling

We got to head down to Yakima to watch one of Big Al's middle school wrestling meets. I can honestly say I do not like middle school wrestling!! I find it really unfair that some kids get to wrestle 3 times, and others just one... so as you can tell by that statement, my kids was one of the kids that only wrestled once!! haha! So we watched him for the almost 5 minutes - and then he was done. He did not win the match, but worked really hard! Luckily - their season only lasts another month -then back to club wrestling!! whooo hoooo!

Tis the season for Wrestling.....

Well - the New Year begins, as does a new season on Wrestling! Big Al decided that he wanted to do Middle School wrestling (yet again)... so he started practice this last week. Unfortunately for him (and a big bonus for me!) is that the school put a new policy into place regarding the bad grades issues. If a student is not passing a class (that would be an F) they cannot compete (though they can practice) until the grade is passing AND they have to complete four days of afterschool study help before practice !! I totally LOVE that part!!! Since Big Al is not passing math, he gets to spend the next four days of school in afterschool homework help!!! Yippeee!!! That means that he better be having that math done AND having someone else looking at it to see what help he needs! Cool! I am not sure if he will be able to get his F up before the first meet... his grade is far below the F level... so it will take alot of work on his part to redo homework AND retake and pass a couple of tests!! But I am thankfully that it is the school finally kicking in and being the bad guy - rather than me!!! :)

The boy's favorite thing

What boy does not have the dream of tearing around on motorcycles all day long?? Ok, I know more than a few that DON'T think that would be fun... but my two... well... they really dig it!

Right before New Years, some good friends of ours, their sons, and the hubby and the boys went about an hour south of here and enjoyed riding in the "desert"! It is a great place - wide open with some hills to climb, room to whip around, and of course some jumps!

The really GREAT thing about motorcycles is the fact that if the boys are both on the bikes - they leave each other alone (for the most part)... no fighting, very little bickering - and it makes it alot harder for them to get in trouble! Since I usually do not go on these events, the hubby gets the more fun activity (while I get a much quieter house and alot of Princess time!) of having to keep those boys in line!

While it CAN be dangerous (Big Al came home with a shiner and a little roughed up).. it is a great thing for these two to be able to burn off some energy - while both getting to spend some time with old friends.

Hopefully, they both can keep their behavior in line for the next trip!!

Making a really tough decision...

It has been a really tough few weeks.. probably the main reason that I have not blogged. We have had some major issues with Big Al, and the sub-par choices that he has been making. There comes a point along the journey where you have to stop, evaluate and decide what is going to work best for your family. For those folks that never reach that point - you are LUCKY!

FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) is something that Big Al has and he will struggle with it far into adulthood. In the last few months, the combo of FAS and puberty hormones (which, by the way - are both awful, but combine them and WHOA NELLY!)has been pushing Big Al to the limit of his decision making and behavior. As parents with two other younger kiddos, we had to make a tough choice to protect ALL our kids. Big Al was/is basically out of control and nothing we can do will slow him down. Nothing - we have tried.

So, we did some research and soul searching and decided to send him to The Ranch for Kids in Eureka, Montana. This is a therapeutic respite facility that caters to FAS kids that have been adopted internationally.

Last week, the three of us made the trip - a very long nine hour drive each way. Big Al showed very little emotion or anxiety about being left there. And sadly, neither did we when we left him there. There was a major sense of relief that he was in the right place and would be supervised 24/7 x 365.. which is something that had been bringing our whole family down and exhausting all of us emotionally and physically.

While not the easiest of choices - it was one of the only ones we can make for him....

Still on HGH

Big Al had his check up at Children's Hospital last week... good news.... he has grown... bad news... he has not grown much! He has grown about 7/8 of an inch in 12 months. Not a bunch... sadly we were really hoping for a whole lot more. We did manage to hold a whole 5 pounds on him in six months! That is itself is a huge task for a kid that hardly eats - and then proceeds to burn calories like crazy! So, we will be continuing the HGH shots for another 6 months to see what happens. It would be sooo nice if he just shot right up there a few inches..... sigh - wishful thinking!

Wrestle Mania!

We got thru the entire wrestling season! Whooo hooooo! Both boys did really well! Little J is finally able to really use what he has learned and does a whole lot less crying! haha! Big Al is getting better and better - but he needs to gain weight to be able to have someone else to wrestle! Here are both boys at the Ellensburg Wrestling Club end of year match! Way to go boys!

Happy Birthday Big Al

Somehow, we survived to reach Happy Birthday #13!

Wow - we have a certifiable "teen" in the house! Happy Birthday Big Al!

The continued lack of joy of special ed....

I do not like the word "DISABILITY"

I think that word gives people a pre-determined mind set that a person is unable to do certain things.
So, Big Al was given detention, in a nutshell, for being pencil-less! So, I called the school and spoke with the head-disciplinarian and asked him WHY was Big Al being given the same punishment for a lessor "crime" than other previous violations. Of course I got the silent "..........." nothing. No response. Then when I asked why he was being punished and embarassed for his disability... still got the "......" nothing. The only response I got was that I needed to talk to the Special Ed teacher.... And guess what???? That teacher NEVER contacted me back on the issue!

Enough is ENOUGH! I finally reached down, grabbed my ca-honas... and filed a complaint with the State Dept of Education. I printed off every email from the last year (and killed lots of trees and lots of ink!), every copy of detentions, notes from doctors, IEP's, State and Federal Laws and sent a two inch packet off to the State. Flipped the school the bird and moved on! haha!

Sadly, though... the last few months have really shown us how in many areas, Big Al is truly incapable of certain skills and functions. And these skills are ones that are pretty essential to daily life. We have tried so hard over the years to help him attain some of them, but they are just either not there or he chooses to not do them! (probably a bit of both)

So, now we move on to mediating with the school. Which basically means that the school will take all Big Al's info, and put together their response to the State... ie, what parts of the IEP they feel they complied with and the areas they did not (like his reading level has dropped, yet again). The State will ask us to work with the school to come to some agreement on what to do. In a nutshell, it will be re-writing an entirely new IEP, probably changing his schedule up... and adding things in there that should have never been taken out, like extended school year!

The whole situation has been mentally and physically exhausting. But, you can never stop advocating... ever.... until they are out of school!!! (that would be 5 years, 3 months!)

School wrestling is OVER!

Today I am so thankful to shout it allll out!! "WRESTLING IS OVER!!!!!! WRESTLING IS OVER!!!!!"
The last two months have been pure HELL trying to get Big Al to qualify each WEEK for wrestling. Grades - oh my Gosh!! He missed three out of the eight matches due to that "Darn Fairy"... aka D's and F's on the report cards.

His last match was last night. For the first time in the season, he got pinned - twice!

But I am more than happy that it is over! No more daily pick ups and checking to make sure that he is making the right choices on homework, etc...... I can breathe a bit easier now when the DARN FAIRIES show up!!

Weight news

Big Al hit the 70 pound mark! Very exciting! His last appointment at Childrens went pretty well, though they are a bit concerned because his bone age is catching up to his physical age faster than they would like...before he was a bit over 3 years delayed growth, now it is only 2 years.
Hopefully, the HGH shots will start to really kick in... since last April, he has grown about .75 of an inch.....grrrrrrrr!

Things they do for fun.....

This totally cracked me up! Big Al really wanted to fly a kite today... the wind was blowing out of the south, instead of the west, so we made him move out to the top field to avoid the power line!

Apparently, the cows find kites VERY entertaining! They just hung out the whole time and watched him! Too funny!

Big Al will wrestle (for now!)

Well... so far, Big Al is managing to keep just above a "D"... I know that it is going to be a major struggle for him (and us!) to maintain it.. but we have to be hopeful!
He got his official Middle School warm ups and singlets today... so here he is striking a pose!

How did our weekend go? - part one

I know the picture is hard to read... but basically, in a nutshell, it states that our septic system is NOT a toy, and someone has caused the family lots of grief!

Thursday morning, BRIGHT AND COLD AND EARLY, all three toilets in the house backed up... we had just put the pumpkin pie in the oven to cook.... Turkey Day was on the agenda! Until... the final flush!
So, being as cold as it was (5 degrees) the hubby geared up and went outside to take a look. Thankfully, I was not there to see the initial disaster! Our septic system access tube was removed and laying in a frozen pile in the back corner of our yard. Our system was CLOGGED and FROZEN. Grrrrrr.... thinking that our destroy everything Black Lab - Phebe was the problem, the hubby went to work trying to thaw and pump up some of the mess so we could get it fixed.
Welll.... he was having Big Al help him out... Big Al was apparently MISTIFIED about the problem and acting like it was a real concern.
Shortly after the pumping started, and the hubbys blood pressure and patience level was to the top, he informed me of the problem. I asked both Miss O and Little J if they had played with it, both denied... and then Little J informed me that he had seen Big Al twisting the lid open and dropping ROCKS and other things into the line.... just wonderful! That little tidbit would have been nice to know a few days ago!
So... we went without toilets, and water and washing our hands for a few hours... the hubby managed to get most the clog out... but still not a complete fix....
Big Al, on the other hand... landed himself in a pile of deeepppppp Sh*t! That is putting it mildly! He was sentenced with some sentences... 150 of them... and he is most likely on restriction until....... well... whenever I decide - probably close to Christmas! Ugh! Not a good day... A.T. A.L.L.

Will these things ever work?

Little J took this picture for me the other day at Big Al's soccer game.... obviously, he is the one in white!

We have been chuggin away at the HGH shots now for almost two months. We have actually seen no weight gained - but weight LOST!! UGH! We have to hold tight until next month to see if there is actually any HEIGHT gained.. which is the hope! The picture of the kiddo next to Big Al is "normal" sized for a 7th grader!

Keep your fingers crossed!

The joys of middle school

I had to title this post that! Just because I really have not seen any yet! Call it some mild sarcasm!

Big Al is now is 7th grade. While he has three classes a day in the resource room, he is still mainstreamed for the other 4 classes. We are almost a month into the school year and already we have had 2 F's and a D! The hardest part is dealing with a school that currently is changing how they post their grading system. In the past, it has been online and parents (students too) can log in daily to check their grades. The "new" system is not up and running yet! This creates a real challenge for a kiddo that has to have daily tracking to see if he is turning things in and how things are going in general.

Big Al also wants to play soccer on the middle school team this year... so he MUST have passing grades! Ugh!

I so wish I had more patience and skill.... Big Al would truly benefit from a positive home school experience! But, he truly needs social interaction and a daily contact with this type of atmosphere. It is truly a double edge sword!

Big Al's Soccer Team

Today we watched Big Al's 7th grade soccer team play their first home game! I have a hard time saying they played well!! Actually, for a group of kids that have all played alot of soccer together over the years, it was pretty sad!

Little J was in charge of taking pictures... yep - I actually trusted him with my camera, a bit scary that was!

We have another home game on Wednesday... keeping my fingers crossed that they will pull things together for a better game!