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Monday, November 07, 2005

As if we don't have enough curtain climbers already

My Army son Jim (the druid) just stopped by to tell me he and his wife are expecting a baby in June (around his birthday). She's thrilled; he's beginning to be. She has three teenaged daughters and one almost 2 year old grandchild. Jim has three kids, all teens. The new baby will be the aunt of the 2 year old and they'll have built-in babysitters.

That will make ten grandkids for me altogether, not counting the "steps". Wow. If I didn't have a good reason to want him home before, I do now.

He also told me total losses from his Company now stands at nine. According to Google, a Company is between 60 and 200; I think his is about 120. My God, will it never end?

Hi Dutch. Don't those brownies sound great? I checked my pantry and think I have everything except the caramels. I've been talking about Baby Juniper here. I want everyone to read about the doings of Juniper through her day care provider's pen.

I may have overreacted on the prowler a little. It's a prowler type of neighborhood especially with our unprotected access. Drunks and junkies banging around are not that unusual. We were still scared.

L. I'll try to put some kind of update on but I haven't had any luck making changes and "Anonymous" is covered up with work. If I can get an hour without distraction, I may be able to figure it out for the side panel. Everyone else has them.

Elcie and truancy

The school sent me a letter when she had missed five days. When it jumped to seven, they instructed me to come in for a meeting and threatened me with loss of state benefits. Elcie doesn't receive them; hers are federal. I called her advocate; he agreed that the rules don't apply to Elcie and he'd fix it.

It wasn't fixed and I spent 30 minutes arguing over the phone with some woman who heard only the sound of her own voice. Elcie has more doctor visits than most kids; she's had some female problems that most girls could deal with at school. Without going into graphic detail, she can't, not without an aide. We're working on it but I don't want to put a 12 year old on hormones without giving her body a chance to work itself out. And, she had the flu, along with half the town.

Her advocate is going back over to the school. He said they could either cooperate and fix the situation or he will fix it for them.

The woman ran down a "contract" of things we were supposed to be doing and I forced her to agree we were doing them all except for the absences (all excused). They want the kids there at the beginning of the school day so they will get credit with the state. It has nothing to do with education and everything to do with money. They think I can switch her appointments - no I can't. Children's Hospital 60 miles away doesn't run on my schedule and neither do her local clinics.

She told me we needed the approval of the school nurse to change her IEP. Huh? No, and with a little understanding from the school it wouldn't need to be changed. She's an honor student, her work is always completed, she's first in her class (special ed but still first), her citizenship grades are all outstanding, I make all the conferences and stay in touch with her teachers. What more do they want. Oh a clean, well lighted place for homework. At least it's well lighted if a little cluttered.

California is working with a broken educational system. This won't help. No Child Left Behind and teaching the tests is ridiculous. Testing special ed kids at grade level is just plain stupid. Penalizing single parents on AFDC by taking money away is both discriminatory and profiling but that's what they threaten. Unless they can also garnishee wages, it shouldn't happen. Refusing to allow for a disabled child's special needs makes me furious. Elcie needs very little extra help but she's probably never going to make it through a year under the absence quota so we might as well get it settled now.

They need to deal with truancy and healthy kids should be in school. However, they also need to get a grip and start trusting parents (or greatgrandparents). I'm not willing (although I did it today) to put a sick child into a wheelchair, onto a school bus and into class to have the school call an hour later to tell me she's sick. I knew she was sick yesterday. She should have spent most of the day resting. This way, I got to drive across town, gather up Elcie, load the wheelchair and bring her home. But that's okay, she made the roll call. I quote "if they're not dying, they have to be here".

Sorry, I'm ranting. I'll stop now. Don't forget the bail money.

Frick and frack just came in a few minutes ago. I told Elcie about her expected new cousin but not the little girls yet. Elcie thinks it's wonderful - she thinks all small creatures are wonderful. My husband said "more diapers" but he was smiling as he said it.

I haven't even thought about dinner but that's why I keep boxes of things handy. Tomorrow they eat at the church and Wednesday I'll actually cook. This will be a busy week - glad the cold or whatever it was (flu, probably) has left. I still ache but at least I'm up and moving.

Later - if I missed a comment, I'll catch it next time.

7 comments:

Jessie Speer said...

congrats on the new addition to the family... is it true that being a grandparent gives you all the joys of parenthood without so much of the responsibility? sounds like a bit of an overstatement to me... I would love to be a mom and grandmom in the future, but as your blog pointed out, it's worrisom bringing new lives into a world that's not prepared to properly educate them. I'm sure you'll do a wonderful job though, to make up for the failure of the school system.

Granny said...

Hi Jessie, yes it's true unless you're one of the far too many grand or great-grandparents raising the kids.

At least I get to send the grandchildren home. I'm pleased about the baby if they are; a little one is always fun to have around. There will be about 14 years between this child and the youngest sibling on either side. Interesting and surprising.

Unknown said...

Congratulations. I have two fairly new great grands, both girls. Dusty had 3 boys (1 bio. and 2 step)and when the ultra sound showed the in utero was a girl, he literally wept for joy.Mikey had a girl and since the new pregnancy was all they planned, he wanted a boy. When the test showed it was a girl, he was so disappointed he went out back and chopped down a tree. Now that Abigail is here, he's devoted, ofcourse.New babies are precious.

Andrea said...

The new grandkid sounds great but the son in the army sounds more scary than most horror movies I have seen.
Your school battles make me shake my head with total missunderstanding- I dont understand the entire system you are dealing with. Totally confused.

ipodmomma said...

alll kinds if activity going on there... Jim and family are in my prayers for a healthy new baby...

as for Elcie, that just sounds nightmarish... I can't imagine people losing focus of the worth and fragility of human beings so thoroughly... if this is what schools are turning into, wow...

glad you're feeling better though...

the ingredients for the 9X13 are as follows...

4 squares unsweet choc (but I'd increase to 5, if you really like choc)
1 1/2 sticks butter
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 c. flour
1 c. chopped nuts
maybe 30-40 caramels or 1 14 oz. bag
2 TBS milk
12 oz bag choc chunks...

again, I wasn't thinking but yeah, you might need a good sized pan... :)))

and I loved your word verification quote!

no call from surgeon last night... we'll go to hospital today, and see what they say. but he slept well all night flat. Miracles do occur... we just have to keep our eyes open to catch them... :)))

love, mollie

Jen said...

Congrats on the grandbaby, and don't worry about Elcie-- what can they really do to you? You could yank her out and home school her if you wanted to. Beh. Empty threats.

Gawdessness said...

Oh my.
The funding is that tight at schools? Hope the advocate gets some where. It is so awful when common sense is swept aside in the face of insane policies.

Sometimes I forget how wonderful it is to now deal with the buraucracy of schools. You have made me remember it all very clearly. I love homeschooling, I love homeschooling.

Hope the aches fade soon.
Love the caramel chocolate brownie recipe. Want to make it for my hub.