Concrete

I am really tired. When I ordered the clothesline off the internet (they don’t sell any in stores around here) it all sounded pretty simple. Dig a hole, pour cement in, stick in pole. Hang up laundry on new clothesline and save lots of money on gas bill. So I started digging the hole today, I used my pick ax because I wanted the hole to be small but deep and our dirt is really dry and hard. I got about a foot down before I took my Bonnema’s advice and poured some water in the hole and took a break. When I came back it was SO much easier. The lady is a genius. I put some gravel in the hole and then tackled the mystery of concrete. I have never used concrete before so I called my dad for advice and so armed bought some concrete and mixed some and filled the hole about a third full as per the instructions. Now I am tired and don’t really want to finish.

Also, not related to concrete, Des’ company released its data this week and it was really, really bad. They only have that one drug so in about a couple weeks he is going to be unemployed. We always knew it was a real possibility but it still sucks.

What are you people in other parts of the country paying for gas? I paid $4.12/gallon for the cheep stuff this morning and was so shocked at the price that I only put twenty bucks in. It is time to sell the van; I only have two kids so it is really a waste.

Enough stalling. I am going to finish putting cement in that dumb hole.

Bike Day

Every year Peter's preschool has bike day. All the kids bring bikes (or scooters or whatever) and helmets and the ride around the parking lot. It is lots of fun and the kids love it. The only problem was that they had it on a Wednesday which happens to be the only day that Collin doesn't have preschool. We also only have the one helmet. So when we went and all the other kids were riding bikes Collin went ballistic. Fortunately it is an excellent school with flexible caring staff and they let Collin use a school tricycles and helmets. He had a great time trying to get has little brother to "go faster!".

Updates and a bit of random stuff.

Last night I had my last test for my Anatomy class. My professor emailed me this morning telling me that I got a 94% on the exam which means that my A is secure and she will mail my reference (the one she wrote over the weekend because she is so on top of everything-I am amazed). This is great news and I am really relieved to have that finished and to have a little break from studying. For the record the I listed my last paid employment as my most recent job on my resume. When I have time I am going to put in a "volunteer" section to cover some of the stuff I have done while I have been "unemployed".

On Monday I had Collin’s IEP meeting. For those who are not familiar with the process it is the meeting that is used to draw up the legal document that outlines a child’s special education services. This meeting was the yearly review as well as the time to decide where he will go to kindergarten next year. I would prefer he went to his neighborhood school – right around the corner from our house. I have heard that our district is bad at integration so I suspected that they might suggest that he go to a special day class (segregated special ed kindergarten). The thing is, the closest non-severe (diploma bound) class is about a 45 minute bus ride away from us in a different zip code. This would mean that Collin would leave around 8am and get home around 4:30pm. Apart from my kindergartener being at school for a very long day we usually have therapy or doctor’s appointments about twice a week, not to mention when he has friends over after school. With that schedule when would we be able to do those? There is also the issue of exposure to the general ed curriculum and to his typical peers but I could go on all day. To make a long story shorter I did my best to educate myself and prepare for the meeting. When I arrived at the meeting I was handed a copy of the new IEP with “special day class for 100% of day” on the front page. We went over the goals that his teachers and therapists had decided on and then talked about his academic evaluation which was actually ten times better than I had expected (he is at or above grade level academically). Then we moved to discussing his placement, I said that I wanted him at his neighborhood school and asked what we could do to make it accessible to him, they said that he was more likely to be successful in a special day class and that we were out of time so I signed the part that said that I agreed to his current new goals and his current preschool placement but not to the kindergarten placement. We agreed to further testing (this is a more involved story) and to meet again to discuss placement. So there it is: another day, another crappy IEP meeting. I am not very happy.

I want to clear up something: it appears from the comments my recent posts that I might have given the impression that I am some sort of woodworking genius. This is not so. We painted the birdhouse that I bought from the pet shop. As for the t-stool and the scooter board I bought the top of the stool at Michael's and the leg at Home Depot along with the bracket to attach them. I bought a piece of wood for the scooter board and had the nice guys at Home Depot cut it down for me (they do one cut for free). I also bought the casters and some screws. I drilled some little holes and then used the nifty electric screwdriver I got for Christmas (thanks Dad!) to put on the screws. The t-stool took about five minutes and the scooter board a bit longer because there were a lot of screws. I then took some extra batting and a piece of fabric and attached them with a staple gun. See, very little woodworking required and even less genius.

Here is a picture of Peter waiting for his speech class to start. Isn’t he adorable?

Resume help!

I need asked my professor if she could write me a recommendation for nursing school and she agreed and asked me to bring her the forms, my resume and a letter with more information about me on Friday at lab. That is TOMORROW!! As is happens I haven’t updated my resume in seven years! Does anyone have any experience with how I should or should not address my current job (stay at home mom) in my resume? Or should I just let the employment gap speak for itself?

Oh, and we didn't have strep, just some weird little virus that was pretty much gone by the time we got to our GP yesterday!

Fever

Last week Collin had a fever, it lasted one day and then he seemed fine. I asked him if his throat hurt but he said no. There was a case of strep throat in his school but I didn’t think anything of it because his throat looked fine. Then over the weekend Peter got a fever for a day and then was fine. Yesterday I started feeling bad after lunch, chills and body aches but no fever. I went to class and made it through the lecture and left. Last night I did get a fever for about 5 hours. I woke up this morning feeling much better. Then I noticed my throat hurt and I looked in the mirror and there is white gunk all over my tonsils! I looked in Peter’s mouth and he has it too! Crap. I think we all have strep throat. Collin has an ENT appointment this afternoon. Do you think the doctor can just write us one huge prescription? I hope so.

Birdhouse

Collin really loves cats. He keeps asking me for a cat. Unfortunately we are not pet people, I have a hard enough time keeping little boys alive, let alone animals (our fish lasted four days). However I do like wild animals so I thought it might be fun to put out a birdhouse and a birdfeeder for our local birds. Collin decided to paint it blue so he and Peter painted it (I did the extra decorations). I did a little research and found out that the best time to put out a birdhouse is fall or winter (since they have already made nests this year). Oh, well. Maybe the birds will use it next year.

Therapy Toys

Let’s see. It has been a while since I posted last. Same boring life I guess.
Last week I decided to build some therapy tools/toys for Collin. I made a T-stool for him to use at primary to help him sit still. It is a one legged stool so he has to concentrate to balance and it keeps his feet grounded. My little boy is so smart that he immediately wedged it between two little chairs and doesn’t actually have to balance it. It actually still helps and he has been doing better.

I also built this funny board on wheels thing. It is for doing “heavy jobs”. When he gets too worked up he can lie on it on his belly and push himself with his arms. I saw both of these things in Collin’s Occupational Therapists office and we thought they might be helpful. Honestly though the board has been less of a success. The boys just use it the way one would expect boys to use a board on wheels – they zoom around the house on it and run into the walls!