02/28/06

WOW it's been a crazy last couple of days. My kids all got a nasty cold last week, last weekend the kids & I met my mom in Omaha, NE for a fun filled kid weekend. We had soo much fun! Despite the kids still feeling kinda icky they had a blast, we went to the Omaha zoo, went to Chuck E. Cheese 3x and went swimming everyday at the
hotel. Yesterday (Monday) Troy had surgery on both his elbows. So he's been pretty out of it regarding parenting help. It was only an in/out surgery and he should be back to normal soon.

Now on to the school update. Last week I emailed Nebraska Department of Education Special Services and I got a very interesting phone call yesterday afternoon from a woman named Jan Thelen. She said that she had also gotten an email from Staci (boys
therapist and teacher) and she (Jan) called Mardell (the woman who Im starting to really hate) and left her a message to call her and also emailed Staci and she was waiting for a phone call from her also. Staci has really started to become not only my boys therapist but our advocate. She is really pulling for my kids to attend another year of preschool. On to the interesting news..Mardell has been telling me this whole time that it was the "state law" that kids who are 5 before 10/15
can not attend public preschool. I found out from Jan that it's NOT a state law..it's a state regulation. Jan said that unless our school district made their own law saying this (which Staci told me today is NOT the case). Jan also said unless there is a waiting list to join the school (which Staci told me today is also NOT the case) there is no reason why the boys can't attend another year of
preschool. Jan said the as long as the IEP team agrees that another year of preschool would benefit the boys then they can go (Mardell is the ONLY one on our team who does not agree with this). Why is Mardell doing this??? Because IF my boys attend preschool next year the state may/may not provide funding for the boys. Jan said there are ways to get around this, especially if the IEP team agrees the
boys need another year, but it's not a guarantee that the state will provide funding to the school. Jan said she was going to talk to her colleagues about funding after talking to Mardell & Staci and get back to me. Mardell also told me that the IEP team is scheduled to meet in May and Troy & I had until then to make up my mind
regarding which private preschool all 3 of my kids will be attending (she told me this last Wednesday). Jan asked when the IEP team was meeting to discuss this, I told her "May". She said "Oh NOOOO..that's wayyy to long. I will be talking to Mardell about that."

Abby on the other hand is pretty much SOL. Since she did not qualify for services, she will be 5 by 10/15, Jan pretty much told me that she didn't see how Abby could qualify to attend a public preschool. So it's a definate possibility that we will be enrolling her in another school next fall. Unless we can find a way to prove
that the boys need Abby at their school to strive.

So we continue to wait and pray. I have a good feeling though that this will work out in our favor.

02/20-More school crap

Thanks so much everyone for your support regarding our school problem. Things just keep getting worse. I *thought* I had our preschool situation straighted out. I talked to the ESU (Educational Service Unit) here in town, they have a preschool that is NOT connected to the school district and their prices were reasonable ($50.00 per month, per child for 4 days per week, 3 hours a day). BUT..this afternoon I got a call from Staci (thearapist & teacher now) and she told me some pretty bad things about that school (I don't know how she heard I had contacted them). So now Im clueless again. Staci wasn't just saying that because it's another school, she is 100% behind me and agrees that our kids should not be going to kindergarden, she told it to me friend to friend. Mardell (the woman who broke the news to me about the kids having to go to kindergarden..and she is 100% FOR this idea..so her & I are not seeing eye to eye) is suppose to call me any minute. I don't know what she's going to tell me, but Stacie told me to expect her phone call around 3pm, it's 3:05 now. I asked Stacie how many kids this BS is affecting and she said only your kids. GRR!! Troy & I are seriously considering NO school this coming year. Heaven help me if that happens, I've enjoyed my 2 day a week little break. I've been going out to the YMCA and working out and running errands..it's been nice, but if I need to give that up so be it.

02/19

This weekend was pretty low key, considering what we have been dealing with I welcomed it! On friday night Blaine started coughing and complaining of a headache. I didn't really give it much thought, but it seems to have gotten worse, especially the coughing and kept me up almost all night last night. So tonight I took him the ER..I know, I know..it definately didn't require an ER visit, but with our upcoming trip this week to see my mom the LAST thing I wanted was having to cancel because of sick kids, so I thought I'd better take Blaine in, get him on some meds if needed and keep an eye on the other 2 kids if it was indeed something that would make us cancel our trip.

So Blaine & I bundled up at 7pm (when dh got home from work) and headed to the ER. This is our 2nd trip there within the last year. It turned out to be pretty much nothing. The dr. said it *could* be the beginning of something, so he put him on antibotics just incase and gave him some cough meds with codine..ahh..he's been cough free since 8pm. He was literally coughing from the moment we walked into the ER until we left..non-stop!!

02/17/06

Got some figures from private preschools in the area..holy shit it is preschool robbery!!

Option 1-$15.00 registration + $75.00 per child, per month for 2 days a week, 2 1/2 hours a day.
Option 2-$15.00 registration + $70.00 per child, per month for 2 days a week, 2 1/2 hours a day.

Still waiting for 2 other options.

Right now we pay $37.50 (for only Abby, boys are free) a month, 2 days a week, 3 hours a day and that includes busing! The other schools don't provide that.

02/16/06

My kids preschool teacher (also my boys therapist) called me this am and told me to NOT put my kids in kindergarden, even 1/2 days this fall. She said it's to stressful for the kids. She said she's trying to set up a meeting with the teachers in our district to talk about this situation. She told me the kindergarden teachers are in an uproar because of this, having little 4 year olds coming to kindergarden who are obviously not ready.

So now I don't know what we're going to do. For my own benefit I started contacting the private preschools in town today to get some $$ figures.

She also told me today that she can't legally tell me (from a teachers point of view) if my kids are ready to go to kindergarden or not. She said it's out of her control and since their b-day is before the cut off date there is nothing she can do to say if they are ready or not. I guess they just HAVE to be ready. They are not allowing any school age kids (turn 5 before 10/15) to attend the preschool. She told me friend to friend, not to send them to K this fall. So I got the impression that was her suttle way of telling me from a teachers point of view not to send them.

We do still have an IEP and I asked early childhood today about them funding preschool for the boys, and I was told "We will not fund private preschool, but will provide the necessary aids for your boys if needed." I was also told if we (Troy & I) were not happy with this, then we may have to get an adovate involved, but she quickly said "no one has ever done that before." and I said "and I hope we're not the first, because I don't feel what Im requesting is unreasonable." The more I think about putting them in K this fall (even for 1/2 days) the more I don't like it. My kids will constantly be behind the class and suffering to keep up because they will only be there for 1/2 days.

I will try to contact the school district tomorrow and ask them if they'll pay for the boys preschool, but Im sure that'll be a no since they are offering school, even though it's kindergarden.

Troy & I are now wondering if we should just say screw it to school completely next fall??

School districts suck!! 02/15/06

This should of been posted on 02/15

The school called today with very upsetting news. They have changed the requirements for school and the new cut off date for kindergarden is Oct. 15th (it was Oct. 1st), so we no longer qualify for public preschool, and we made the cut off..by 6 days. GRR!! Now it looks like we're going to have a little battle on our hands with the school. There is no way my kids are ready for all day, everyday kindergarden. And it just cringes my stomach to think if they do go to all day everyday kindergarden this fall that they'll be going to 1st grade in 2007 at the age of...5!!! Rather then retype everything Im going to copy/paste an email I just sent to another online friend of mine who is in the same situation with her school. Her triplets are also 4 and the school wants to send them to all day everyday kindergarden too..with 1st grade in 2007. Here's the email I typed to her..

____________________________________________________________________

The woman who called me today to tell me this *wonderful* news (hahaha..she actually thought I'd be pleased!!) told me "I think you're underestimating your kids." I said "You know what..you could be right..but there is still no way Im going to send my 5 year olds to first grade in 2007 if they go all day everyday kindergarden this fall." She then recommended to me that I go to the kindergarden class and observe the class then decide (if we should go all day) next school year. Regardless my kids WILL be going 1/2 day this fall, all day everyday next fall. They're only in school 2 days a week now, (3 hours per day). Wyatt especially will never, ever, ever in a million years no matter what happens in the next 6 months beable to handle going from 2 days a week (3 hours a day) to 5 days a week (7 hours a day). She said "I think you'll be suprised with how close acedmically (sp?) your kids are from the kindergardners". Then she said something that really raised my eyebrows..."We only have 238 kids between k-12, so it isn't like your son (Wyatt) wouldn't have the extra attention to help him." Sooo..to me that statement said "We need to get as many kids as we can in kindergarden to meet a quota." Im not pushing my kids just so the school district can get the funding they need if that is indeed the case.

The woman today also told me that I could move my kids from 1/2 day kindergarden to full day anytime next school year. There is no way, even if my kids do show readiness, that Im doing that. I don't want the school to have any leverage of being able to say my kids are ready for 1st grade in 2007. We had this same option this school year for preschool, we were told (by the same woman) that we could move our kids from 2 days to 4 days (1/2 days) anytime during the school year, but both Troy & I decided to just keep them at 2 days and next year we'd move them to 4 days. I am sooooooooo glad we decided to do that, because if we would have moved them to 4, I don't think we'd have an option for this coming school year. They'd go in all day everyday kindergarden.

She also said we could put them in all day everyday kindergarden next school year, and just repeat kindergarden next year. Nope, we're not going to do that either, 1/2 day next school year, all day everyday in 2007. I've got my feet dug in and Im not movin'.

Nebraska the cut off is Oct. 15, and they start school middle of August. Crazy..simply crazy IMHO.

I sleep at Red Lights

I have been searching online for a decent price for this book and finally got it FOR FREE from paperbackswap.com. I picked it up today waiting for the kids to get home from school and started laughing immediately! I can't wait to get done with my CR and my upcoming book (that's a ring) and read it!! I know it's going to be a very quick read for me!!

Kids had their preschool Valentines day party today. They came home full of sugar and wound up tighter then a drum!!

W surgery day

A quick post then Im off to take a shower and get my butt to bed!!

Today Wyatt has tubes put in his ears and his adenoids removed. The
surgery went really well, no suprises. But him waking up was a
different story. He went in at 7:30am, and I didn't see him again
until almost 11:30, surgery was only 30 minutes. Even after I saw
him he was still sleeping and still on oxygen. Then after he
finally started waking up enough to comprend what was going on, he
couldn't keep anything down. We tried everything, and everything
kept coming right back up. What a extremely tiring day. He finally
went 20 minutes w/o throwing up and I literally signed the release
papers and ran out of there with him, he did throw up 2x when he got
home, but was obviously more comfortable (both of us were) with
dealing it at home. He's fine now, hasn't thrown up in over 4 hours
and is sleeping.

Originally I figured I'd be home no later then noon, instead it was
almost 4:30pm. Sitting in a hospital from 6am-4pm was horrible!!
For what was suppose to be a simple in/out procedure.

While at the hospital I did finish "When Joy Came to Stay". Im going to start "The First Mistake" by Merline Lovelace in bed.

Snow/upcoming vacation/blah, blah, blah

Yesterday late afternoon it started to snow, big pretty flakes coming down. The kids went crazy and demanded to go outside at 5pm, so out they went. This morning they saw all the snow (less then 1", it'll be gone this afternoon and leave behind a muddy mess)and once again they all 3 demanded to go outside, so all 3 kids were outside by 8am this morning and played until 9:30ish. Nice little morning break, I got my grocery list done, made the beds, put away the clothes.

Last night I was up wayyy to late getting driving directions for our upcoming vacation. The kids & I are going to meet my mom in Omaha end of the month for a fun-filled kids weekend. Im kinda sick of always going to the same places, so I got some directions to some new places, the Children's Museum, Aquarium and another museum. Who knows if we'll actually go there, but at least it'll be a couple more options. Weather permitting I really want to go to the zoo this time, this is the last year the kids will get in for free.

I did get a couple more chapters of "When Joy Came to Stay" read last night. Im well over 1/2 way now. Im still enjoying it, but the plot is starting to drag some.

Let's see..what else. The kids have school today, so I'll be going to the Y to work out. I'm sure I'll just walk on the treadmill again. Jane might be there so hopefully the time will go by fast while we chat. I wish I could think of a way to beable to read while I walk (lol..kill 2 birds w/ 1 stone..lol), but when I was there last week I couldn't think of how I could do it. They do have a TV there, but don't get a lot of channels, most of them are FOX news, CNN, MSNBC, etc.

Gotta go take a shower and give the kids a bath before preschool, Im cutting it close it's almost 10:30 already! And I gotta get lunch going. YIKES! Where did the morning go??!!??!!

I hate dr's!!

W has his adenoids & tubes surgery on Tuesday. I was on the phone non-stop from 9:30am-noon on friday with the hospital, dr.'s, insurance, hospital, dr., insurance, dr. insurance. In that order. He had his pre-op on friday, got a clean bill of health, and we toured the surgery center.

T also had a dr. appointment on friday for his elbow, he has tennis elbow in one elbow, golfers elbow in the other one. And he doesn't even play these sports!!

Yesterday Jane, Visa (foreign exchange student from Germany), kids & I went to K. Got the adaptor for the kids v-smile (Walmart), picked up swimming trunks for the boys (Old Navy), went to Goodwill and bought 4 new (to me) books.

Today is the Superbowl. T is working at the farm now, and going to come home probably soon. I'll make homemade pizza burgers tonight.

Im still reading "When Joy Came to Stay". I finally got over 1/2 way last night. It's a good book. I was hoping to get it done by this weekend, but that isn't going to happen..unless I have about 3-4 hours of uninterrupted reading time today (haha).

Kindergym

Today I took the kids to kindergym. It started at 9am which is very early for us to be up and about. Had A up at 7:30am (the boys were already up at 6am like usual). They LOVED it! No I take that back they LOOOOOOOOVED IT!! They had soo much fun. The instructor Jeff was wonderful with the kids and considering there were 12 kids in the class and only 1 minor fall with a crying spell (and it wasn't one of my kids) that was fantastic IMHO! lol I didn't bring the kids up to the play area, Im not sure if I ever will. I know once they see all the toys and videos up there I'll never get them out. :)

Now that I know they love it, I'll beable to work out Mon-Thurs. Today I didn't bring any work out clothes with me, because I wasn't sure how W would do. He had sooo much fun and was laughing and playing the whole time. That put a BIG grin on this momma's face!! :))

I don't know what we're going to do with the rest of our day, it's kinda chilly outside now but hopefully it'll warm up and we can go outside or something.

I started my CR read yesterday "When Joy Came to Stay" and I know Im going to really enjoy this book. Im on chapter 3 and it's really good so far.

Today's the first day of the rest of my life.

Today our YMCA membership went into affect. I went there today after the kids left for school and got my card, and walked the treadmill for 20 minutes (1 mile). I feel fantastic!! I remember now how good this felt last year when I was working out at home! The guy behind me (late 50's) was practically running on his treadmill..I could hear that ol' flywheel just a spinning. I didn't let it bother me, I just kept the speed at 3.5 (not sure if that's mph or what) and did a mile in just under 20 minutes. Good for a first day. Tomorrow the kids & I are going again, they have kindergym at 9am..heaven help us that I can get them all up, fed & dressed by then. I know B & A will love it.

The worst way to wake up..

Dh wakes me up Monday morning and says "Abby peed our bed." Shocked and disoriented I said "Huh?" He said "Abby just peed all over me." I don't even want to try to explain our sleeping arrangements, so just know that I wasn't in the bed.

Sure enough..4:30am, I walk into our bedroom (well dh's bedroom lately) and there is pee..all over! Now what to do? Do you wake up a sleeping child at 4:30am, change sheets, etc and risk her not going back to sleep? It's 4:30 for crying out loud!! NOOO..you don't.

She's been day/night trained since August, I don't know why this backsliding happened, but it happened again this morning.