The DDA Trouble Free Zone Part 29

[bethbuchall]

My ME tags came today!

I told the kids today about the trip today over lunch.

Sophie was o.k. with it.

Daniel gave me a hug & said I deserved a break & a treat. He is such a sweetie.

Katie cried her eyes out & said I couldn't go to Disney since it was a "family" place. She cried for a while but we chatted & she is fine now.

I'll just have to bring home a nice gift for the 3 of them.

I'm glad that they took it so well, and that Katie is feeling better about it. I don't even want to think about what my dd's reaction would be. Matthew would be fine, I'm sure. Miles would be grumpy, but Laura would definitely be a force to be reckoned with about it.

 

[bethbuchall]

Sounds like they handled it pretty well. I still haven't told Joe or Emma about Lizzy's November trip. Joe is going to be very upset even though he went last Dec and will go in Jan. He'll complain that he only gets to go once in 2007. He'll have to get over it!

I would ask the kids what they want. When I did that in May Lizzy wanted a small Piglet, Emma wanted a medium Tigger because medium is her favorite and Joe wanted an "S" keychain-we had purchased the "J" in Dec. I did also buy each of them a Tshirt (just what they need....).

This is great!

 

[bethbuchall]

Ok, this is what Katie & I came up with from Costco. I like the Cinderella picture alot but it doesn't look good with the cards they have. (same thing with the close up of the kids). This picture seems to go well with the background. What do you all think?

I am going to order them online & then pick them up at the store..so convinient! (I didn't know about ordering online last year)

That looks terrific! I always want to use one of the photos from when we go out to cut our Christmas tree. Which means that I am always in a mad rush to get my cards out. Maybe I could make a break with tradition this year...though that doesn't go over well in this house.

 

[lovesdumbo]

Hi, all! I haven't gone back to catch up yet. I should have a few minutes to do that, though.

I had my second meeting with the principal today. She was nice enough, but she is not bending on this route home. She did come out today to look at my hill, and she said that it looked too steep to her and that it had tree roots on it. My neighbor told her that the tree roots made great steps. She made me feel like I was either stupid or neglectful for letting my kids on that hill. She didn't actually say that; it was the feeling that I had. It is steep, but I walked up and down that hill when I was 9 months pregnant. We have been on the hill in all kinds of weather. I could see something happening, but certainly no more so than the "approved path" home. There are some steep concrete steps on that path, but they are town property, not school property, and I think that makes all the difference. She told me that she couldn't do anything about the cars that congregate at the bottom of the "approved" path.

I am still thinking about what to do. I may go take some pictures of the groups of cars and the two pathways in case I want to take this any further. Also, I want to keep times on this one bus that flies down our street and around the corner at the same time Miles rounds the corner.
Beth

Continued as you work this out.

 

[bethbuchall]

If you ever have a problem that you want help with, I'd love to help. Post it and I'll show you how it would be solved. As I've told you before I LOVE math. Any opportunity I have a chance to practice, I really enjoy.

I know what you mean about starting them younger & younger before they are ready for it. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be making any difference in the level the average person knows by the time they graduate. Instead I think it burns them out faster.

I love math, too! Laura always tells me that I'm the only person other than math teachers who think word problems are fun. Now I can tell her that I "know" someone else who thinks math is fun.

I definitely agree with you on the last part, too.

 

[bethbuchall]

Whoa, great deal! I wouldn't be able to figure out what I wanted that early on!

I am halfway done shopping though...

I haven't even started!!!!!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Oh Deb, try to rest today. Leave the housework for 1 day & take care of yourself.

Yep. Housework never goes away, so might as well take it easy!

Hi, all! I haven't gone back to catch up yet. I should have a few minutes to do that, though.

I had my second meeting with the principal today. She was nice enough, but she is not bending on this route home. She did come out today to look at my hill, and she said that it looked too steep to her and that it had tree roots on it. My neighbor told her that the tree roots made great steps. She made me feel like I was either stupid or neglectful for letting my kids on that hill. She didn't actually say that; it was the feeling that I had. It is steep, but I walked up and down that hill when I was 9 months pregnant. We have been on the hill in all kinds of weather. I could see something happening, but certainly no more so than the "approved path" home. There are some steep concrete steps on that path, but they are town property, not school property, and I think that makes all the difference. She told me that she couldn't do anything about the cars that congregate at the bottom of the "approved" path.

I am still thinking about what to do. I may go take some pictures of the groups of cars and the two pathways in case I want to take this any further. Also, I want to keep times on this one bus that flies down our street and around the corner at the same time Miles rounds the corner.

Beth

Good luck! Falling down a hill is better than being hit by a bus any day! Is there a sidewalk the entire length of the "approved path"? That would make a difference to me.

What is it with these schools! I hope that your teachers start putting those modifications in place quickly.

The Reading teacher (who I have NO problems with) looked shocked that he has a 504 that they weren't made aware of. She is another "older" teacher (translation: older than me) so I bet she is more aware of the ramifications of not following the 504. Since the band director mentioned that he got DS's modifications in his box I KNOW the counselor followed through with what she said she would do. I guess I could send an e-mail and CC all the teachers, the counselor, and the principal just to make sure that nobody can say "I didn't know" when it comes up again.

What I really want to do is go around with a form that says "I have read these modifications, understand that it is the law to comply with them, and I solemnly swear to comply." and make all of the teachers sign it in blood. Maybe with a copy of the 504 they will see that I am not just making excuses for my child. Which is what I think a couple of them thought.

Princess fell asleep in the car on the way to the zoo this morning. She slept for MAYBE 30 minutes. She should be exhausted, but she is having a gigantic party in her crib. This is not good, because she needs a nap! I have errands we could go do, but then she will fall asleep in the car and that would be bad.

 

[bethbuchall]

Before I forget there were some great Disney Christmas cards at the Dollar Store the other day. They even had Tinkerbell. I didn't have enough money at the time to buy what I wanted and I forgot to go back the next day. I still hope they have some of the ones I want when I finally get a chance to get back there.

I noticed some at our Dollar Store, too, though I didn't look that closely. If you don't find them when you go back, let me know, and I'll take a look to see if there are any Tink ones at ours.

Also, I found these great stickers at Dollar Tree. They come in little bags of 100 individual stickers. They had Pooh, Princesses, Mickey, Thomas the Tank Engine, Dora, Little Ponies, Scooby Doo, Spiderman (and probably others). I bought several bags for preschool and a couple for home, too.

 

[bethbuchall]

so somebody in my house (front runner is "not me") refilled the salt shaker with sugar and didn't replace the lid well so we sugared our popcorn.

So Abi is making some more.

That "Not Me" causes even more problems that "Ida Know" in our house.

 

[bethbuchall]

Anne Marie and I have agreed that if you have a sucky trip you get a "do over". My February trip was sucky from flight delays, bad weather at WDW, and DS getting sick. And it was only a 72 hour trip to begin with!! I hope you won't need a do over!



Beth, I hope your meeting goes well! I love 3's, too. I am taking Brother out on Saturday to celebrate his 4th birthday. He had a really good year being 3.



Never mind. Everybody else answered you and you decided not to get the costume!



I didn't realize your kids didn't know! Yet another thing DS & Katie have in common. He did NOT want me to go without him.



Send Lizzy to me for a couple of days - I can show her illegal immigration in all it's glory.



Tons of good wishes for your grandpa!





Yep. Heidi's fault.



Thanks, Vicki!! We asked the math teacher to show us how to solve it tonight at Open House. I think DH and I need to be in the class, too. It is an Honors math class, designed to feed into pre-AP. It is 7th grade curriculum, which is why I recall learning it in 7th grade. I asked the teacher what determined DS's placement in that class and he said ITBS and TAKS scores. Well, DS has never met a standardized test he can't whip. He has AMAZING test scores. The problem is math is his weakest subject. So we'll see how it goes. The math teacher is a neat guy and he has 35 years as a teacher/administrator so maybe he can get DS to rise to the challenge. I like teachers with a little experience under their belts.

So. I went to Open House with every intention of withdrawing DS from public school tomorrow. He got a REFERRAL today for telling another kid to stop drumming on his chair. It was BAND class and there was a substitute. The bizarre thing was that the guy didn't actually send DS to an administrator for it, just wrote out the slip. Dumba$$. So DS went to Social Studies in tears. That teacher asked him why he was upset, helped him calm down, and then told him he can't print his homework on the computer and told him he had to do it AGAIN (which would be the 3rd time). Hello? 504 modifications are NOT subject to teacher approval! I was FURIOUS. DH was FURIOUS. I started making plans to just pull DS out of school entirely and do a little homeschooling, then put him in private school (with financial aid) next year. The one school I drive by every day (Winston) is almost $20,000 for 6th grade and all of the aid has already been allocated because the school year is underway. Momboss even said we could put him in 6th grade NEXT year and just take this year off. There is no regulation of homeschooling so whatever we did would be fine. But...

We went to Open House, met all of the teachers (except the Art guy, who I am not worried about) and now I feel better. The band director was there and he said DS shouldn't worry about the referral - he would take care of everything. Good. He also said I don't have to pay a fee for DS to use the drums at school. Good.
Talked with the Social Studies teacher. She is VERY nice and DS just completely misunderstood the assignment. He never showed her the definitions he wrote by hand so she thought he ONLY printed them on the computer. Got that worked out. Good.
Talked to the math teacher. He thinks DS will succeed if we expect him to succeed. We'll see. He said if DS just can't handle it he can go back to 6th grade math. Good.
No issues at all with the Reading/Language Arts teacher.
I told each and every teacher that DS has 504 modifications being placed in their boxes by the counselor, so they know I am not playing when it comes to adhering to them. I would imagine complaints about non-compliance get the teachers in trouble, so perhaps now they will comply.
If DS tolerates his new meds OK over the weekend then he will be on them next week at school. HOPEFULLY now we will make some progress.

I'm sorry that your ds had such a rough day. I'm glad that you are getting it worked out, though.

 

[bethbuchall]

That other post was really long but I'm not finished yet.

We got home from Open House and I had a voice mail from my sister. I haven't spoken to her in over a year because she tried to keep all of the assets from our father's estate for herself. I threw a fit and threatened to have criminal charges brought against her. The estate is sitting in probate now, and I imagine it will be there for another year or longer.

She was calling to invite me to a birthday party for her DD on Saturday. I am SURE our mother made her call me. Mother refuses to be upset that my sister tried to cheat her. But whatever.

I called her back to tell her we can't make it on Saturday. We talked for awhile. Kind of odd. She has had another DD in the time that we haven't been speaking to each other. I knew about the baby, it was just weird. So I told her maybe we can get together some other time since Saturday won't work for me. I don't think what she did was right, but maybe I can get past it. We'll see.

I hope that things can work out with your sister.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I love math, too! Laura always tells me that I'm the only person other than math teachers who think word problems are fun. Now I can tell her that I "know" someone else who thinks math is fun.

I definitely agree with you on the last part, too.

The thing about math is that it builds on itself. If DS doesn't grasp pre-algebra then he won't have a strong foundation for what lies ahead. That was my problem. I didn't understand in 7th grade - I just barely passed. Same thing in 8th grade, and by 9th grade I flat out failed Geometry. I had to go to summer school to get credit for the course, and even then I only managed to get a "C". I took "Liberal Arts" math in 10th grade (which was kind of fun), then they had me re-take Algebra I in 11th grade because I couldn't handle Algebra II. Taking Algebra in 8th grade meant it wasn't counted as a high school credit so taking it over in high school gave me the credits I needed to graduate. In college I had to take "remedial" math for 2 semesters, but I dropped the second semester because I was lost the first week. No point in sticking around! I still don't have any college level math credit, which is part of why I don't have my degree!

Now it is coming around AGAIN that I never grasped these concepts because I can't solve DS's homeowrk problems.

 

[bethbuchall]

I'm ten pages behind and tired, but I am wide awake because I am hopping mad.

Went to the drug store to get my Zyrtec allergy pills refilled. Instead, I have 30 antipsychotic drugs with really wicked side effects.

The last time they did this (dispensed the wrong drug,) I brought them in, she apologized, made sure I hadn't taken any, replaced them with the right pills and I was on my way.

Not this time. I looked up these big honking pills on the web. These are dangerous. One side effect is "increased morbidity" hmmmmmm I seem to have gotten a clue. Morbity means oh my gravy [/death!!U][/B

It really doesn't like my other pill. So if this was my first time filling this RX, I might be swallowing a really dangerous pill with really horrid side effects that would not play nice with the pills I already take. This is the second time!!! Only thing this one is way more powerful with worse side effects. Had I swallowed this pill, I'd be in a world of hurt...

What is the best way of handling this?

I know I kid about being old, but morbidity was just not on my radar... I'm not ready. And I just don't want to go that way.

That is extremely scary, Steffy! You should be hopping mad. That is something that definitely needs to be dealt with, and I think you need to change pharmacies.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I'm sorry that your ds had such a rough day. I'm glad that you are getting it worked out, though.

Thanks! We should know in about 10 minutes how today went.

I hope that things can work out with your sister.

DH said "I guess it is good that you talked to her." And I guess it is. I don't think we will ever be close because we are so vastly different, but maybe we can have a tolerant relationship.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Stephanie - If you go to www.fda.gov you might be able to find some info. I just looked and there was WAY too much info for me, but they do have "contact us" links.

 

[bethbuchall]

I swear my luck sucks. I've been looking forward to this camping trip for weeks and I woke up this morning with vertigo. Ugh. I really feel fine other than my head spinning. I couldn't even close my eyes as I had bed spins. It was like a ride on Mission Space in my own home My Dad is going to come down and drive me to pick up my nephew at school since I don't want to endanger myself or the kids. I suspect that I have a nasty little virus rearing it's little head though I still think that I passed a kidney stone on Tuesday. I guess this just isn't my week healthwise.

I ended up going to bed straight after work last night since we got our butts kicked and I was exhausted between all the camping prep and work. Chris and the boys did a good job getting the house picked up so I don't have to do too much today and if the housework doesn't get done it won't be the end of the world.

Vertigo is horrible! that you are better soon!

 

[bethbuchall]

Continued as you work this out.

Thank you.

 

[bethbuchall]

The thing about math is that it builds on itself. If DS doesn't grasp pre-algebra then he won't have a strong foundation for what lies ahead. That was my problem. I didn't understand in 7th grade - I just barely passed. Same thing in 8th grade, and by 9th grade I flat out failed Geometry. I had to go to summer school to get credit for the course, and even then I only managed to get a "C". I took "Liberal Arts" math in 10th grade (which was kind of fun), then they had me re-take Algebra I in 11th grade because I couldn't handle Algebra II. Taking Algebra in 8th grade meant it wasn't counted as a high school credit so taking it over in high school gave me the credits I needed to graduate. In college I had to take "remedial" math for 2 semesters, but I dropped the second semester because I was lost the first week. No point in sticking around! I still don't have any college level math credit, which is part of why I don't have my degree!

Now it is coming around AGAIN that I never grasped these concepts because I can't solve DS's homeowrk problems.

I have a friend that feels the same way. She sends her dd to me or my dh occasionally. I know that I will need Matthew when Laura takes chemistry next year.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I have a friend that feels the same way. She sends her dd to me or my dh occasionally. I know that I will need Matthew when Laura takes chemistry next year.

I failed high school chemistry, too. I even had a tutor and I still couldn't get it. The guidance counselor moved me out of chemistry after the first grading period so I wouldn't end up with no credit for the whole semester. I can do Biology and Anatomy just fine, but not chemistry.

 

[bethbuchall]

I failed high school chemistry, too. I even had a tutor and I still couldn't get it. The guidance counselor moved me out of chemistry after the first grading period so I wouldn't end up with no credit for the whole semester. I can do Biology and Anatomy just fine, but not chemistry.

I did well in high school chemistry (though I can't remember a bit of it). Chemistry is the main reason that I am not a doctor today, though.