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Friday, March 10, 2006

Belated Birthday Tribute to Elcie

I came home at the end of a very long day, the girls' mom was here and I was in bed at 6:00 p.m. for an hour which would have given me time to get to the hospital. I woke up at 4:00 a.m. He's very understanding but I feel awful that I didn't get there. There was nothing I could have cancelled to make more time and by night I was done in. End of whine.

Ray had left me a voice mail on the cell. Sounded groggy but that would be the meds. I'll get over there after I have the girls off to school. Nothing else scheduled for today. He did have a doctor's appointment and tests scheduled for today but of course that's gone by the boards.

It's around 6:30 now, Elcie is ready to go, and I have about 30 minutes before R & R get up.

I took Carol to her chemo session - short - the third day they remove the bag she brings home and she gets to skip the next week except for blood tests. Her white count was down again so they gave her a shot for that. I think she has six weeks to go and then they will evaluate her once again.

Elcie's birthday and her IEP coincided yesterday. I took my son Tim along and the whole world showed up to talk about Elcie. We've decided to try mainstreaming her in Social Studies for the last three months of this year and see how it goes. She's leading her Special Day class, helps in another one for more severely affected kids, and is now reading at 7th grade level. Her math is still at 5th grade but many of her biggest problems have left. She is learning to solve word problems which had been next to impossible.

All this is an experiment to see if we can mainstream her next year in 8th grade with lots and lots of resource help. She's always been borderline and she's learned so much that it's worth a try. They are saying now that they're sure as hard as she works, she will pass the high school exit exam. Our teenager has come a long way in just a couple of years.

Special ed has its faults when it's not used correctly but it saved Elcie and Rochelle. They needed the slower pace and the repetition, as well as the much smaller classes.

For any of you who remember my battle with the school about her attendance, we now have an exemption written into her IEP as well as an exemption for bathroom use. It shouldn't have been necessary but there seems to be at least one bureaucrat in each school and she found us. She lost but I don't want to go through that again. Now I can wave the IEP in their faces.

They adore her at Rivera and she has an entire team of professionals working together. Go, Elcie, go.

She's mainstreamed for p.e. and can outdo her entire group in push-ups. The p.e. teacher is using her as an example. Of course she can do push-ups. Between handling crutches and a wheelchair for years, she has very strong arms. It is nice to see her lead in something though - makes up for what she can't do.

Tim and I took her to dinner at Home Town Buffet which she loves. She filled up on salad, chicken, and fish. They brought her a piece of chocolate cake with a candle and sang Happy Birthday. She's still young enough to enjoy the attention. Probably by this time next year, she'll crawl under the table.

She's agreeable to having her cake and ice cream here delayed until Ray comes home which I hope will be soon. I'll know more later. Once again, everyone is sure something's wrong; they just don't know what.

Anyhow, that was my day. The IEP ran two hours and by the time I got home, I couldn't move.

Ten hours sleep helped.

Rebecca is dressed, Rochelle was taking a bath with Fidget, the kitten, sitting on the side of the tub helping. They'll be out of here in about twenty minutes.

Nancy explained what was happening with Blogger and spell-check. For anyone else who may not know, Firefox blocks it with its pop-up blocker. Once I disabled that, it works fine except it doesn't recognize the word blog. I wish there were a way to tell it once that a word is okay and have it remember the next time but at least I can use it. It isn't much help with my errors which usually involve skipping a word or typing one word while thinking about another. I need a checker that rings a bell and tells me the sentence doesn't make sense.

Welcome to Alissa, a mom from Kentucky with an adorable little boy. Poor guy managed to trip over a rake (bad rake) and bruise up his face. Good thing kids are tough. She and I both read Rude Cactus which is where she found me. (Tried to include a link to Rude Cactus but it took me right back to this post). He's easy enough to find though and I may try it again later.

Big oops. I just went back to Alissa's blog. She has two adorable little boys. I got fixated on the poor kid who fell over the rake and totally missed the photos beneath.

Girls just went out the door, I transferred laundry from washer to dryer, and I should try to accomplish something. We have thunderstorms with possible hail forecast for today with additional rain and cold to follow. I may find myself picking kids up at the school. I think I'll have one more cup of de-caf (at least it's warm) and then try to plan this day.

Take care everyone.

17 comments:

Alice said...

Hi Ann. Glad everything seems to be ok. Do you know anything more about Ray yet?
You obviously needed to sleep, so don't beat yourself up about it, ok? You've had a lot of stress to cope with (more stress than normal that is) for an extended period and your body obviously needed you to zone out.

I'm really, really sorry about my email. Did the one this morning get to you? My colleague is trying to sort it right now. Our origial business insights group address is now inactive, which means we can't email out properly, either, if at all.

I'm thrilled about Elcie's progress, and would like you to say "Happy Birthday" from me and give her a big hug, ok? Thanks.

I've posted a few times today (although that played up something rotten as well) if you want to disconect and read something unimportant for a while, but I understand completely if you don't. You do what your body and mind needs you to do, but if it involves banging your head against a wall, I might suggest you use a pillow as an accessory to aid prevention of unconsciousness.
Although, thinking about it, that might be what you need...

Anyway, I'm here in spirit, and for the next 45 minutes here in the comments if you need me.

*smile* x

Alice said...

Disconnect. Disconnect. NOT disconect.

Ah to hell with it. Cut n Pasting between Microsoft Word & Blogs here I come...

VMC said...

Happy Birthday to Elcie! It is just great that she's made such progress. But with all you have going on it is a wonder you are not falling asleep in your food at the buffet ...

I hope Ray feels better soon, Ann. The illnesses of loved ones are harder to take than illness in ourselves, I think.

Yondalla said...

I'm glad you got the sleep -- and bit jealous.

Hubby is a special education teacher and you know, we have trouble getting services we need for our youngest at another school in the same district! I think one of the teachers is ADD -- which seems to make it impossible for her to be organized enough to give appropriate accomodations to students with ADD.

Sigh.

Still thinking about Ray!

JBlue said...

Congrats to Elcie. She sounds like an incredibly hard worker. Best wishes to Ray, too.

the stefanie formerly known as stefanierj said...

Happy Birthday, Elcie. You are a beautiful young lady, and you make your granny proud. We love hearing about you!

My SIL was in special ed all through school and it was the best thing--she was able to be prom queen, which I hate to admit probably wouldn't have happened if she'd been mainstreamed. But she's got much more profound delays than Elie, I think. I figure where ever you've got folks who care so much about your kid, they are going to do well.

Our prayers are with Ray and the rest of you guys as you act as his earthbound angels! Happy weekend, Granny!

ipodmomma said...

wish Elcie a very happy b-day, and I'll try and write more later or tomorrow...

Andrea said...

Happy Birthday to Elcie!!

Thank you for finally posting I have been very worried. I really hope that Ray is ok and comes home soon. Thinking of you often!!!!

hugs to the family and good luck with EVERYTHING!!

-A said...

Happy Birthday to Elcie! I really hope that the mainstreaming goes well, it seems like she should have the opportunity to experience a "normal" school year.

I hope that Ray gets better soon.

Turtle Guy said...

Happy birthday, Elcie, as well from Turtle!!

Checking in just to let you know I haven't forgotten about everyone in blog-land!

My best to you and Ray.

Be well.

Janice Seagraves said...

Happy Birthday dear Elcie Happy Birthday to Y-O-U!

And a big GET WELL to Ray too!

Janice~

Anonymous said...

i wish your granddaughter a very happy birthday.

DA said...

Happy birthday to Elcie and all the best to Ray..

lindsaylobe said...

Hi Ann
I hope by the time you read this your feeling better, I trust Ray's also on the mend and they have sorted out some ongoing treatment for him.

Congratulations to Elcie and wish her a belated very Happy Birthday from me.

Best wishes

Mother Sharon Damnable said...

Happy birthday, Elcie, many happy returns :>)

All the best to Ray

Madcap said...

You take care, too. I'm sorry to hear that Ray's having problems again, but I'm thrilled to hear how well things are going for Elcie. Nothing unmixed, huh? You're in my thoughts often.

Anonymous said...

email me about your iep, i have some questions for you. i recently went to a training about new changes.

i'm glad special ed has helped her. i'm actually anti mainstreaming for younger kids, i don't know where i stand on older, i'll have to think about it, be knowing YOU, i trust you like a mother, i'm betting you will always do what is best for your girls. and it doesn't hurt that your smart as a whip.

here in our town Home town buffet used to be called Granny's. we still cal it that, and the bumper stickers still say Granny's so did you make a lot of money at that?