Thursday, December 30, 2004

Resolutions

With the new year fast approaching I have reflected on the old and what I want to change in the new. I have several things I would like to change like I would love to have a boob lift and liposuction, but somehow I don't think they will make the top of the list this year, unless I find some anonymous benefactor who wants to front the bill for my plastic surgery.

So in the coming year I am vowing to lose weight, I always make that one, and it goes good for about a month.

I am going to go to the Dr, and find out what is wrong with me, I have been fighting these god awful headaches and then I get these tired spells and I get so cold I feel like a dead person. I hate the Dr. but as a good friend said "wouldn't you rather know what is wrong and get treated?" I am not to sure I want to find out I have something incurable though so I have put it off for quite some time.

I am going to be a better blog friend and visit you all more often, part of that has been the headaches, and partly because I have just gotten lazy. I am going to do better.

I am going to be a better mother, I always make that one to, and always fail miserably at that too! I am just not Betty homemaker. I am really good at playing with them and loving them, but the other June Clever stuff just is so darn hard.

I am sure I will have a whole list of my inadequateness, but that is all I can think of right now!

Happy New Year everyone please have a safe New Years eve, and don't put those keys in the ignition if you have had to much to drink I would hate to start the new year with the lose of one of my dear computer friends!

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Christmas morning

The boys were all nestled snug in their beds, but they were restless. David was sure that if I didn't get in bed Santa would surly skip our house. Finally 2 hours later they were asleep, and the Jolly fat man did indeed stop at our house. I was made aware of his visit at promptly 3 am, when the light in my bedroom was flicked on and David began yelling "he brought me a digital camera! He really got it for me." and Steve saying "I told you he wouldn't last much past 3." I coaxed him back into bed and we dozed for another hour and a half and then I gave up and we got out of bed and rousted everyone else out too. Mom and dad were here and they showed up at our house just as we were getting out of bed. They stayed in a motel, because my house is tiny. One day we will finish the basement and it won't be so tiny. So we all are making our way into the living room and granny and grandpa were coming up the stairs when it happens. Colton see his stuff sitting on the couch, and the only thing he notices is that there is no damn singing elmo, the only thing he has asked Santa for. Well David has already gotten the singing elmo so Santa couldn't bring the stupid thing, so being the most wonderful big brother on earth David starts tearing through the packages under the tree until he finds the right one. He then takes it over to Colton who is now crying real tears in grandpas arms, and he says "here Colton open this one I got you the singing elmo Colton don't be sad." and all was right with the world again. I am not sure Colton will ever trust Santa again, but he has more faith in his brother now. They got so much junk I don't even have it all put together yet, and I need stock in batteries. They got Leap pad and books to go with it, they got a v tech smile and games to go with it, they got scooters, and roller blades, and games and trucks, they got more stuff than they will ever play with. The big hit was David got a boom box for his room and his digital camera. Cameron got his scooter, and Colton got a plug and play spongebob video game, I know I said my kids would never have them, but maybe I can get the computer back now! I am off to lay down I have a migrain again. I will try to blog hop tonight and check on you all. Hope your christmas was as great as the boy's had.

Thursday, December 23, 2004

We wish you a Merry Christmas

The boys are excited for the jolly fat man to arrive, they can hardly wait and I can hardly wait for all the work to be over. It is an awful lot of work for one day, but the boys are worth it.

Please keep Savannah and her family in your prays as they will be spending this Christmas in the hospital. Next one will be much better for them. Savannah will be able to enjoy all the holiday treats she has always had to miss out on.

and for anyone who wants to track Santa norad tracks him every year, and they have a great website my boys love to look at so they know when it is time to get into bed so he will come to our house.
Track Santa

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.

Sunday, December 19, 2004

It has been another crazy weekend.

Wow Friday I had the meeting with the school. I met with the teachers and the principal. They are getting David all kinds of tests done for learning disabilities, and they are getting him some extra help with his writing, because writing is really difficult for him. After the testing is done we will all review the findings and decide the best course of action. They better have a really good game plan, because if they don't we will have another sit down and include the super intentent of schools, and if that doesn't work grandpa said something about lawyering up and getting shit taken care of! I still didn't get what I wanted to hear from the teacher, she still won't come in and give him any extra help. They went from saying things like ADD to now David is always tired and lethargic, which is a load of crap I have never seen him act lethargic. So that is just baffling to me how they can all of a sudden say one thing and then change it all up when the Dr. says he wants a detailed letter of why they think that. So that is where I stand with the school right now. All I know is that I will be there so much now that they will think I am on the payroll. It is sad that you have to supervise your child's education, when I was younger that would never have happened. I don't know what parents who have to work do to make sure their children are getting the best education possible. After that meeting I got to go to Cam's Christmas party that was fun, they exchanged gifts and did some other fun stuff. Mom came to town to watch Colton for me and then we went shopping.

Steve, me and the boys went shopping last night. David reminded me that I told him I would give him some money for doing some thing around the house and he wanted it last night. I asked him why he needed it right now. He said "I want to get my brothers their Christmas presents." He is such a sweet baby! So I got him his money. I gave him 20 bucks, and him and I started looking at toys. He was looking at some of the things he wanted and I was waiting to see what he would pick. He grabs this one car thing, and I said you want to get them that?

D: "yeah"
Me: "ok"
D: "Well no mom I really want that not my brothers. I want to get them something they really want."
Me: "Ok honey you just get them whatever you want to get them."
We go around the comer and there is that singing elmo. David looks at me and says,
"mom Colton really wants this a lot. He even asked Santa for it, do I have enough?"
Well it was a little out of his price range, but he was putting his heart into this gift giving thing. He wanted to be sure he made his brothers very happy how could I tell him no? So that is what he got Colton, then we walked around looking and found rock em sock em robots. Cameron has asked for that several times, and David remembered so that is what he got Cam. He loves his brothers, sometimes I wonder if my boys even like each other and then one of them does something like that and I know that they really do love each other!
Today is hockey and then mom and dad are coming to get David so he can spend some time at their house with them over the break.

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Female

Jay and the recent events over at his house really got me thinking about women. No not like that get your mind out of the gutter.

I am no body builder, but I have always been tough. I have kicked the shit out of a number of guys in my time, and I have had the crap knocked out of me by a few, but I digress so back to the topic. When in life did we as women decide that men were the enemy and we had to prove that we are better than they are? I long for the days that men open the car doors for the ladies, or offered them their seat in a crowded room. I don't really think it is the men that have changed, but women. We have decided that we are capable of doing everything ourselves, we have decided that we will not be the weaker sex. A man tries to show a few manners and we back away like they are the plague. We have trained them that we don't want to be treated as anything other then equal at every turn, but what I ask is wrong with a little chilvery? I love it when Steve carries the heavy stuff in the house for me, and I love it when one of my boys holds the door open and say "Ladies first". I like the fact that my husband tells my boys, "get up and let your mom set there". I find it very attractive when a man can hold on to those values in a world where there are women who refuse those very values. I will continue to raise my boys to open doors for other people, and to offer their seat to a lady, and open and close the car doors for the women in their lives, and to treat a woman like a lady, even if she wants to be treated like a man. I am Steve's equal, I can do anything he can do, but I am also smart enough to know that it is just as good for his ego to let him take care of me as it is for mine that he wants to.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Oh what a weekend

David got a hat trick! Woohoo, well actually he scored like 5 goals in one of his games this weekend. I was such a proud mom! He did great. He had a total of 8 goals in 4 games, and got a trophy which he wants to put a picture of on the blog so my friends can see it. I told him I would get one of him tonight when he is in his gear. He is so proud of himself, and he was really excited because everyone came to watch him play. His Aunt Deb, Uncle John, Grandma Sherry, and Granny all made it to most of the games. He has decided that he could play for the AVS right now, and I told him he could play for them right now, because they are not even playing! I had planned on getting him tickets to an AVS game for christmas, damn NHL ruined that didn't they! Oh well there is always next year. I don't know what I will do next year I think all 3 of the boys are going to play. I will be busy busy busy.

I got an appt. to talk to just about everyone at the school on friday. They better be really nice to me or I am going to get really mad. I am off to the store I have to get bells for Cam's class. They are having a party on friday and will be doing the Polor Express, should be fun. I hope that the meeting is over by then!

Friday, December 10, 2004

Oh the joy of parenting

I am so pissed off. I did not receive word one from the school today! I spent half the day at the school, and not one word from anyone! So we went to the Dr, and again I was at the school in the office and not one word. I guess they think I am just going to go away.

Well I am not going away. I will be in the face of the school district for the next 13 years!

We went to the Dr. today and he said he just doesn't see ADD in my child, he said it may be a learning disabilities, but really the ADD is just not there. He wants a letter from the teachers that feel David has ADD stating why they feel he does have it, and he wants the school to do a psychological evaluation for learning disabilities. So that is were I am at with the David thing I am making a list of things I want to discuss at the meeting on Monday. Hope you all have a great weekend we have a hockey tournment this weekend so I will be camped out at the ice rink.

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Updates on the day

Well I am working an a special post for tomorrow so I wanted to get this in tonight!

I picked David up from school.

Me: "Did you give that letter to your teacher?"
D: "Yep"
Me: " Did you give the one to reading teacher?"
D: "Yep."
I check his backpack for some kind of acknowledgement, I am looking for something that will redeem her in my eyes you know a little note that says something like "Jenn I received you letter and would like to set up a time to discuss your concerns." you know nothing fancy, nothing even well thought out, just something. There was nothing which made me madder.
Me:" did they say anything to you?"
D: "No mom. They know they can't be mean to me because of anything you say to them, because if they are they will get fired."
What a bright child he is oh yeah they will and probably the crap beat out of them as well! Don't mess with my boys! The grandparents and my sister are all ready to come up and straighten things out, and they don't handle things nearly as diplomatic as I do. I hope for the school's sake that we can manage to get it all worked out before they have to come to town!

Oh momma is a little upset

David's teacher sent home progress reports. This is what she said about my child.

David has a lot of potential as a first grader. He tries hard when working one on one with an adult, but has not yet established the independent work habits we expet of first graders at this point in the year. He requires constant reminders to stay on tasks by himself. I believe the scores which have placed David at risk from the beginning of his school career, and his current aacademic rank placement at the bottom of my classroo are a direct result of his inattentive behavior and lack of focus.

I have not heard anything about how he is doing in class since Oct. when we had parent teacher conf. She has stopped sending homework home, I get nothing. I assumed he was doing better. He is doing much better reading at home. His reading teacher has got it in her head that he has ADD, and I think she has convienced his teacher that he has it. He doesn't have it, but that is beside the point. I sent this letter to school with David today and I am sending it to the reading teacher, the principal, and the super intendent of schools.

teacher(not her real name),

I mentioned to our Dr. that reading teacher thought David was ADD. He said he did not think so, but we were there for other reasons at the time, not for that. I think ADD is an excuse used when confronted with difficult children, “let’s put the blame on the child because it could not possible be us.” I understand that David is a difficult child to teach, he does not understand half the stuff you are asking him to do, and when he does not understand something or is not interested in doing it, he will become unfocused and inattentive. It is your job as his teacher to make him pay attention while he is in your class. It is your job as his teacher to make sure he does not fail, because his failure is indirectly your failure.

I have talked to him about some of the things going on in class and he always says two things: 1. there is too much noise. 2. I do not know what she wants me to do. I have encouraged him to ask when he does not understand something, but he is his mother’s child and does not want to look “stupid” when everyone else gets it and he does not. He will not even tell you when he is sick. Just before Thanksgiving break, when I picked him up from school he was running a fever. I asked him why he did not go to the nurse he said he did not want to interrupt class. I was the same way in school. I was lucky I had teachers that saw the potential and they took me in before school and after school to make sure that I was “getting it”.

I talked to my mom and she said I struggled through 1st and 2nd grade with reading and writing problems. I still cannot learn something if I do not have a quiet, structured environment, David is the same way, and I do not see that in the classroom. Children get up whenever they want, there are groups of children roaming about the room; they need to be in their own individual desks being taught not in groups at tables where they are easily distracted. They need structure, not a fun environment. I am frustrated, and please do not feel that I am telling you how to teach your class, I am sure that most of the children are getting it, but I know mine is not and to many people want to place the blame on him and his inabilities. He is very able to learn if he has the right setting to learn in.

It is the school’s responsibility to find the best possible way of teaching him, if that means me bringing him 30 minutes early in the mornings for extra help or picking him up 30 minutes later after school, if that means finding a different classroom more structured for his needs then that is what needs to be done. I feel that the school is not doing everything in their means to teach my child. I entrusted the public school system, which my tax dollars pay for, to teach my child and they are failing him miserably. Everyone wants to discuss learning disabilities and ADD, there seems to be a lot of knowledge about the problems, but I have yet to see any improvement so to me that means you people do not have any solutions.

The schools do not know what to do with a child like David so they label them and try to find fault with the child instead of finding accurate ways of teaching. You mentioned at the parent teacher conference about headphones. You mentioned “at risk” meetings also, and I have not heard anything else about that. I have offered to do extra work with him at home, but you say that what the children are learning in class is not stuff you can send home. I have left my phone number and my email address, I am at the school at least 3 times a day picking up and dropping off children, I am not very difficult to get in touch with especially when it is concerning my child. I think my next step is to come in to monitor the class for a week and see exactly what is going on and what I need to do next to ensure he gets the education that he is entitled too.

Thank you,

Jennifer Schall

Monday, December 06, 2004

Busy weekends

Man I am glad the weekend is over! Saturday the boys I can't drag out of bed on a school day, were up bright and early at a little before 7. They were excited because Granny and Grandpa were coming to town, and for them that is almost as good as Santa coming. We all got ready and met them at the mall. When we first got there Colton started yelling "GRANNY, where are you Granny? Grandpa." as loudly as he could. We found grandpa first and all the boys hugged him and then Colton looked around and said "Where's my granny?" I think he would move in with his granny if I would let him. So we shopped and shopped and ate lunch, and before I knew it the day was over, it was almost 3 and David had a birthday party to go to, and mom and dad wanted to get on the road before it got to dark and the deer got thick along the highway. We took D to the party and then we went over to Kmart to do a little shopping. Well we were strolling along and who to my wondering eyes should appear, yep good ole Saint Nick himself. Cam went over and talked to him and got some stickers and some candy canes, but Colton latched on to me and said, "That is not Santa that is some guy in a costume." Well I am rolling on the floor, because we had just been to the mall earlier and Santa lives at the mall. Colton waved to that mall Santa and was all gung ho to go talk to him, but the line was a mile and a half long, so I will take him during the week when no one else is there. Anyway back to the "fake Santa" he tried to give Colton some candy canes and that child backed away like he was being offered poison, he wouldn't even take the candy Cam got for him from the fake Santa, he didn't want anything to do with him at all. Then it was time to go get David and we picked him up hurried home, and had to go to Steve's Christmas party, which sucked, the food was good we had prime rib, but I could have found something a lot better to do for 5 hours! I think that comes from having separation issuses. I don't like leaving my kids, in fact I have left them with a babysitter maybe 5 times in their lives since I started staying home with them. I will leave them for a few hours with Steve and go to the store or something like that, but I don't enjoy leaving them with a sitter. Sunday David had a hockey game and then we came home and put up the Christmas lights outside and the snowman, then we watched some Christmas specials with the boys, had dinner and went to bed.

Saturday, December 04, 2004

I always liked this little story

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus
Editorial Page, New York Sun, 1897

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:
Dear Editor,

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlon


Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Christma Past

“You awake?”
“Yep.”
“You think their up yet?”
“Nope”
“Let’s get them up.”
“Not yet, it isn’t time yet.”
“Come on lets go see if he came.”
“Not yet let’s wait a little bit.”
“Well I am going!”
“Ok ok, but let’s get mom and dad first.”

This was always the same conversation every year between my sister and me, and then we would sneak past the living room peeking quickly to see if the jolly fat man had left us some much-anticipated loot and of course, every year he had. We would then make our way through the dark house to mom and dad’s room and stand outside the door. Daddy always knew we were there. We would stand there a few minutes listening to see if they said anything.
“Let’s get them up” my sister would say.
“You go first.” I would tell her.
Then daddy would cough or make some sort of noise and we would run in yelling “He came He came!” and daddy would say “lets go see what he brought” and we would all go and check out the loads of goodies. It is funny how I can clearly remember most every Christmas we shared, but I can remember very few of the gifts I actually received.

Through the years living at home, it never changed, even when we were long past the age of believing in Santa. My little sister would come into my room and get me up and then we would go get our parents, still to this day she is up long before the crack of dawn waiting to open gifts, but most of the time now it is through phone calls that we share the joy of the season with each other.

I miss her waking me up on Christmas morning, and I miss sneaking into mom and dad’s room waking them up. I miss sitting around the tree opening presents with them. I miss mom and Jo in the kitchen cooking all day, all the while telling me that they didn’t need my help they had everything under control, because they knew I only asked to be nice I still hate being in the kitchen. I miss watching my mom make million dollar fudge for me. I miss going Christmas shopping with mom and Jo, and I miss Arby’s beef and cheddar sandwiches after we were done. I don’t know why, but we always seemed to go there after Christmas shopping. The three of us use to have a great time meandering through the stores together sometimes we didn’t even buy anything at all. The one thing I really want for Christmas, the one thing I can’t have is for my mom and my sister to live in the same town I do, so we can enjoy all of the Christmas cheer together again.