Filled to the Brim

Wow! Let me say that again...Wow! This month has been just crazy here at the house. We have our granddaughter and her mommy visiting us for 20 days. It's been so much fun to snuggle and spoil that little girl. The family is trying its hardest to convince mom to move here, and I guess we will see in time if she likes us all enough. 

We are still in a holding pattern for the kiddies that we are trying to adopt. Waiting for the slow hands of government to move along, but that's ok because it is giving us time to get little odds and ends all ready for them. I managed to get them registered in the same school, and totally bi-passed the waiting list. Now that will be so nice having all six kids in the same school. 

Today we were adopted by another pet. It seems a Pekin duck wandered into our yard and decided it was a good place to call home. So I am scrambling to figure out just what a duck might need to make it a happy duck. So very out of my realm, I know nothing about ducks other than they quack. Yeppers, they quack. I just read how to figure out the sex, so tomorrow when it's light out I shall check out those tail feathers. Knowing me I will probably sex it wrong, cuz that's just my way. I guess I will be hunting around to find some free stuff to make a shelter for it. 

We spent a good chunk of the day trying to get the duck into my fenced in garden where it would be safer, but every time we got it close, it took off the other way. So we just left it alone, and when I got home from the store, I spotted it in the garden. Guess it's not so stupid, just stubborn. Now I hope it doesn't eat my garden all up. Well at least the watermelon, it can eat the rest of the garden if it wants to. Ya'll know what's going to happen now don't you? The little bugger is gonna just eat the watermelon and leave everything else.

A couple of funny things about the duck...One, it likes Princess. A lot. She was walking back to the house and it followed her. Three times this happened. Two, it seems to like Babygirl. Every time I have put BG out it has slowly waddled up the yard. It managed to get about 5 ft. away from BG, and then it saw me come out the door. Kinda a good thing, because BG was just lying there waiting for it to get close enough to get. She didn't budge an inch, during the whole time. I think BG likes the duck too...just on a different level. One I don't plan on seeing.

So things have been a bit crazy here. Gearing up for school which starts in a week...YEAH (big time happy dance from me)! Being claimed by a duck, and visiting peoples. Never a dull moment here, no sir, no ma'am. 

               Ducky

Catching Up

Well I suppose I should be writing more blogs lately but things have gotten a bit more crazy around here. With all the calls to Texas regarding the kids I'm trying to adopt. I find this very hard to deal with since I seem to lack patience. I want call backs right now, I want answers right now, I really don't like being jerked around, but here I am.

So on the home front here, the kids are getting restless as there are only about 2.5 weeks of school left. However there wont really be much of a break since Princess goes to college for two weeks, and Jokester goes to Reading and Writing summer camp. My running around will actually get a bit worse as I have to bring Princess to her classes and pick her up. 

Superman is in a opposites mood, I guess I can't really call it that because it's not really opposites. He just makes things up for what he wants them to be. The other day he said he hated someone, and I told him that it isn't nice to say that about someone. He tells me, " oh when I say that I really mean that I like them a lot." Here's another one, " when I say stop it means I like BG." I'm not sure where he is getting this from, but at first it was kinda cute, but now he seems to think he can apply it in all situations and make his own reality, and it's becoming irritating now. 

Henry did something the other day that just blew my mind...he came upstairs with the boys and I when it was time for bed. He walked around, turned and looked at me and popped a squat and peed. The little bastard peed in my house! He hasn't done that since he was 2 months old!
Then to make matters worse, DH notices a wet spot on the floor and finds out it was BG. The only dog who was behaving himself was Smokey and he's usually the one peeing all over. My house is revolting against me or something. Ha! They have a lesson to learn, and that is...I shall not let them win! It is war! Bring on the water balloons household get your squirt guns cuz here we go!

No seriously we probably will have ourselves a water war here soon, but in the mean time...the things that stray from the norm of our family life with continue to shock me, make me just stop and bust out laughing, make me cry, or just plain stump me. I wouldn't trade it for the world either.
Well maybe the dog pee would be a good thing to go, but you get my drift. This is who we are, we learn new things each day, face new trials, and over come hurdles, but through it all we are still here and not somewhere else. 

Speaking of trying days...tomorrow the entire street can not use their drains. Why? They are repairing the sewer line and plugging everyone's drains to the sewer. Use the drains and there just might be sewer backing up into the house. That would not be fun, nor would I be happy, and it would be about the same time as the lady from CPS in Texas called me.

Wish me luck getting through 12 hours of that, thankfully most of the family will be at school/work for the duration. Now I just have to figure out where to do my business all day. Yes, yes I went there. Everyone has to do it, there is no denying it.

Hell Yeah! My Boys Rock!

Well hmm, if I could ever get my butt off of Facebook I might actually get something written here. That and a whole bunch of other things that seem to become an obstacle, you know like me still under the weather, or Jokester having the flu, or conferences tonight, or dinner, or laundry. 


Holy crap! Conferences! 


Ok so I am totally writing this like an hour later. Why? Because I had just looked at the clock and guess what? The clock said 5:19. No biggie right? Wrong. Superman's conference was at 5:20. Good thing the school is only three minutes away if traffic is bad. 


So now I'm back from conferences. Who knew that if Superman stopped beating the crap outta the people in his class he would actually really kick some academic butt? Priorities my son, priorities. Let's just say his teacher is blown away by his intellect. (Oh yes, I blatantly  just strutted about how smart my kid is, oh yeah oh yeah.) He is so ready for Kindergarten.


Jokester continues to make progress in catching up to the rest of the class. I wish that I had been able to get him into this school last year and not had him with the most shittiest teacher ever. She did so much harm in his learning when she wrote him off twenty-three days into the school year. BITCH. Here's what the current school did for him. Not only did this school, NOT put him back in kindergarten per your recommendation, but put him in 1st grade and managed to teach him the crap you were supposed to teach him and get him just shy to being on target. We shall be visiting former school when he gets the papers to go onto 2nd grade so that Jokester I can shove it in said BITCHES face. 


So sorry about the rant, but hey what the hell. I'm proud of my kids, and I'm not afraid to show it. Nor am I afraid to get up in someone's face to kick some ass. Ya know, now that I write that...it doesn't even make sense, get up in your face and kick some ass? Two totally different area's of the body...naw seriously I'm just that good.


Of course once again I didn't write about what I was going to write about. I can't even remember what it was that I was going to write about, but this turned out so much better. Why? Because rather than tell you about the chaos that is my life, I get to tell you about just how damn smart and lovable my boys are.

Superman is itching his nose, seriously he is

Without them life sure would be easier, but who the hell wants easy when you can have The Crazy Life. And now I'm just sharing the Ramblings of a Mom.
Oh Lord I'm done, I promise ROFL.

The Bullshit Trials of a School System

Well I was just reading one of One Tired Mama's Posts about schools, and IEPs and all the crap we as parents have to deal with regarding our child's education. Now I have to write this, cuz apparently I'm still pissed at said school system. A lot. 


The first round began with Princess back in elementary school. Princess has Turner's Syndrome, and with it comes some special things.  Someday I'll devote a post just to TS, but not today. 


The main reason that Princess had an IEP was for her speech therapist. Part of TS is a high arched palette. It make pronouncing words correctly more difficult. Even now if she talks too fast I can't understand what she is saying. The other reason was for math and reading. She really had a tough time with both early on. 


Now I'm gonna begin the gritty nastiness of dealing with the schools. When Princess was in 4th grade we moved to Wisconsin. Once again she was given an IEP. No problems the first year, however the 5th grade turned out to be a nightmare for not only her, but her whole class.


Her teacher SUCKED! Big time. I called a conference with her because Princess's grade took a nose dive off a cliff. She didn't get great grades before, but she sure wasn't getting straight F's and D's. The teacher's response was, "Oh it's the whole class. All of them are really struggling." "Excuse me? Your telling me the whole class is having trouble, and flunking?" This is where it got really nasty, well I guess I got really nasty. Keep in mind this is a very small town school, I'm used to the big city schools.


I got up in her face and said, "I'm thinking it's not the students who are to blame. When you have eighteen kids flunking, something tells me it's the teacher. Your a crappy teacher!" Let me tell you that didn't go over so well.I ended up taking Princess out of school and home schooled her for the rest of the year and half of the next. The next year we had custody of our nephew and he ended up with the same teacher, and holy crap did she ever kiss my ass. Hope the new attitude stuck with her. I have never met a teacher who was so hated by so many students and parents. How sad.


When I started home schooling I found out that Princess didn't know her short and long vowels. How the hell did she get to 5th grade and not know her vowels!? I mean after all she had been in Title 1 reading for four years. Who the fuck missed the boat on this one? I had to start at the beginning with the phonics. She seriously would not have been able to read this post back back to me without 90% error. Within a year I had her caught up to her grade level and then some. This was done only teaching three to four hours a day. Something is very wrong with our school system.


Princess went from getting F's and D's to straight A's, and has continued doing this for six years. The next problem came when we moved back to Minnesota. Apparently these states do not use the same semester/trimester system. Because we had moved two weeks before the semester ended in Wisconsin, they refused to give Princess her ninth grade credits. Seriously?! The school I got her into is a Charter School, and their hands were tied on the credit thing, they couldn't just let her test out. They originally wanted to put her back in ninth grade to gain her credits. Oh yeah, not happening people. This kid worked her ass off and is not going back into ninth grade. Holy tantrum was happening here on our parts. We came up with a compromise...she would continue in the tenth grade and go to night school for her ninth grade credits. This girl went to school for eleven hours a day M-Th for an entire school year, and managed to get straight A's in both schools. Take that assholes. My girl rocks!!! She is almost caught up now, she has half a credit of math to do still, and we are not so worried she wont have the credits to graduate next year.


Now let's move on to Jokester's first year of school which was last year. He was in a different school since there were no openings at the school Princess goes to. I am kicking myself for putting him in this school. His teacher sucked ass too. Some back ground here. The boys have not really had the opportunity to socialize with other kids their age. Every where we move there are no kids their age. We don't know the people in our communities, so getting together with other parents and their kids wasn't happening. It's always been just the three of them. There was never any need to daycare or preschool. Jokester went to Kindergarten last year, and it was a nightmare. Twenty-three days into the school year his teacher wanted a conference. Ok, so I go. She tells me point blank that Jokester is NOT going to pass Kindergarten. Come again, what? She determined in twenty-three days that Jokester just wasn't ready for this. Umm, yeah it's going to take a bit for him to get the hang of this since this is completely new, but your writing him off already? Bitch. Basically in a nutshell we refused to take him out of school, she persisted with the shitty attitude towards him. If I had been able to get him in another Charter School I would have ASAP. I think Jokester is Dyslexic and when I brought it up to them they were like oh, maybe. They finally brought someone into school to test him but not for Dyslexia but rather for Autism/Aspburgers. Where did this come from? We waited and waited and waited for the test results...finally at the end of the year I found out he got into Princess's school and I went to get the records all together. Asked where the report on his testing was...they couldn't find the the results or the guy. I'm sorry You lost a whole guy, along with the test results on my son? So I called the new school and informed them of what was going on, and wasn't really sure what grade he would be going into. This was a actual concern since if he had to repeat Kindergarten they might not have an opening for him. They weren't too concern once they heard about the nightmare. Sometime during the summer I got a letter in the mail, stating he had flunked Kindergarten. Fuck you. 

He went into 1st grade this year, and didn't have to re-do Kindergarten. Yes he is struggling, which if the previous school had done their job right wouldn't be happening. Jokester's teacher says that he is making great progress, but he probably wont be up to the reading level he should be at the end of the year, but he wont be too far off, and the teacher is not too concerned. He is getting the extra help he needed so badly the year before, and is kicking butt in math which he struggled with so hard before. I continue to work hard with him here at home, and hopefully between the awesome school and myself we will get him where he is supposed to be, and make sure that he still likes school in the mean time. 

So for all you parents out there who are getting screwed over by the schools, your not alone. There are student advocates available...use them. If things are not going the way they should...become the biggest thorn in their side. If you don't fight for them they will just be swallowed in the bullshit of a school system. One other thing...schools and teachers don't expect you to give a crap. It is refreshing to have a parents support even if you make their life hell. There are so many parents out there who don't give a crap, so when you do step up and call the school out on something it takes them by surprise. They become hostile until they know your doing it for your kid, and not just blowing smoke up their ass. Keep at it and good luck.

Feeling Kinda Snargaly

I hate those days where you wake up with a head-ache already going full steam ahead. Today would be one of those days, and I'm feeling snargaly. Yes snargaly is a word, well at least today it is. If it weren't for the fact that my head feels like it's going blow at any moment and that for some reason I'm so tired my head is acting like a bobble head, I would be a bitch. Not just a regular one, but a super duper, over the top, I'm going to rip your face off and stomp on it, then shoot flames outta my mouth kinda bitch. Thank the Lord for being too tired to put forth the effort. You are saved my family. For today.

It would figure that the day I'm really struggling to function the boys are particularly mouthy. Especially Jokester. If I get a nap that boy had better watch out. I was stretching earlier today, and he asked me what I was doing. I replied, "stretching cuz I'm pretty sore today, and I'm getting old." To which this little devil angel, opens his mouth and oozing with sarcasm says, " Oohhh Nooo, guess your gonna die or something."  Little snot. I should have said something along the lines of, "Oh yes I am, then you cant drive me nuts anymore".

Now this driving me nuts thing has a story. You see Jokester had the word nut for one of his spelling words one week. Me being the awesome mom that I am, used his spelling words in sentences so he could get a better understanding. I found the perfect sentence for him...bad thing was it used a word that wasn't quite the word nut. The sentence I used was, "you and your  brother drive me nuts". Perfect sentence right? I thought so. Then the light bulb went on...damn that isn't really his word to spell, so I had to explain to him that his word was not nuts, but nut, and pray like hell he remembered that when it came time for the test. My boy made me proud, not only did he remember not to put an "s" at the end he also got a 100% on the test.

I totally have no idea where this post is going. At this point you are getting what just pops into my head. Sorry so discombobulated today. It's been a rough one.  Who am I kidding it's been a rough week. Why on earth would they give the weekend off after the kids have been off school for twelve days? I am not ready for the weekend, then again am I ever?

You guys must think that I don't like my kids the way I carry on about them. Well I do like them, in fact I love them. They can be, let's say be a bit overwhelming at times. Especially when I'm not feeling the best, and then like all kids they have that radar that lets them know mom's not all together so let's gang up on her. That's ok though, cuz on the days I do have it together, momma has some fun making them miserable. This is after all why we have kids, to provide entertainment for us. Na on second thought it's to rub it in from way back when we were kids and our parents always used to say, "just wait until you have kids". We can't be making liars out of our parents, that would just be wrong.

And now to end this post with some very irrelevant information. I can not make dumplings. Try as I might the making of a good dumpling eludes me.  

Jokester AKA Joe

     Introducing the Jokester AKA Joe. This kid just makes me shake my head sometimes. I wonder what is going on in his mind. Joe is the middle child and he grew up in our restaurant we ran while living on DH's Reservation. He would go around to people and mooch french fries from the customers. Needless to say he really likes the fries.

Joe likes to think he is funny and like to make people laugh. He tells really bad jokes, but usually will do something he thinks is funny. Like say, instead of giving you a kiss goodnight he will wait until the very last second and lick your nose instead. He finds this hilarious, I thought it was funny the first time, not any more. He likes to pull stunts, which Superman thinks is really cool (remember the story of the bed jumping, guess who's idea it was?). He likes to live vicariously through Superman. When I say this I mean he comes up with ideas that he knows are no-no's, and has Superman do it, and then comes and tells on him.

Joe thought having a peanut shell stuck in his hair was just the craziest thing.

     Now Joe and Robert are your typical brothers, and when I say this I mean they fight like there is no tomorrow. Someone is always picking on the other. When Robert was a baby Joe would beat up on him. I told Joe that one day Robert would be big enough to whoop his butt, and I would just say, "I told you so" when that day came. Well that day came and Joe was absolutely astounded that Robert knocked him on his butt. You know what I said don't you? These two can go from killing each other one second to falling down laughing the next. 

Now is this the face of a kid who would do anything wrong?

      Joe is my little helper, that is, only when he is in the helping mood. If he's in that mood, this kid will constantly ask me if there is anything he can help with. He likes to help Princess do the dishes, she's not so keen on the idea. Makes more work for her. I had a garden this summer, and of course he wanted to help. Unfortunately his version of helping ended up with him and his brother playing in the dirt. In all fairness he did actually learn something about the food we eat. I must have done something right. 

     Getting Joe outside to play this summer was hard. You see Joe likes to veg out in front of the TV watching cartoons or playing video games. When I told him to go outside his response to me was, "um, yeah I'm not really an outside kinda person". My response was, " um, yeah today you are so move your butt". I found the best way to get him outside is to give him learning lessons. Loves to gain knowledge this kid does. 

     Joe started Kindergarten last year, and had a very hard time of it. Not his fault at all the school he was in was, to say nicely...a HUGE disappointment. I still get in a rage when the subject is brought up. Anyhow, three days before pictures Joe fell off the monkey bars and came home with a very fat, black and blue lip. After making sure he was ok, the thought of there goes the perfect school picture down the tube, but it captures the essence of Joe just being a boy.  

       All in all Joe is a fun loving, snuggling, sport loving, goof ball. He is my goof ball. One of his spelling words was "nut", and when I gave him an example of the word used in a sentence it was this, " you are a nut, and your driving me nuts". He thought that was pretty funny, but he remembered the word. Mission accomplished.

Joe showing off his hair doo, he did by himself. 

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I Hate Mornings

     

     Oh boy, its a rough day for me. Just kinda lost my zing. I think I need a vacation. Yeah that's it. You see every weekday starts out with prying myself out of bed to get the boys ready for school. Now I'm supposed to be up at 6:30 am but I don't usually get out of bed until almost 7:00, and on most days only because Princess comes in and tells me it's 7:00. Why don't I use an alarm clock you ask? Well I do, but somewhere in between blindly reaching out to hit the snooze button I end up turning the dang thing off. Thank God for Princess!

     Next I have to pry the boys out of bed. Most days they will get up eventually, but on occasion I have to haul them out of bed. Jokester usually tries the, "pick me up" tactic, yeah right, that's not happening. Your six, get your own butt off the top bunk. While I'm doing this all three dogs enter room to "help". Go away dogs, it's too fricken early for this. They don't listen...what a surprise. Next, if I didn't have my act together the night before (which I usually don't) I get to scramble trying to find one school uniform, one matching outfit and socks and underwear for both boys. (mental note...check the laundry basket full of clothes I never put away). Then it's time for all six of us to go down the stairs all at the same time with three of us going blindly since our eyes aren't open yet. I am seriously surprised no one has died yet during this process. The boys are smart, they go down on their butts, me...not so smart.

     So once we are downstairs, the boys curl up into balls on the couch, and refuse to get dressed. Hopefully neither of them has managed to sneak a blanket down because then they really wont move. 

Meanwhile, as I'm telling the boys to get dressed, I start letting the dogs out. This in it's self is a project as we don't have a fenced yard, and they go out one at a time. Somewhere between dogs I actually get to go potty. I'm not afraid to say it, I am one of those people who must pee upon wakening, however it usually doesn't happen that way as you can see. So I hop on off to the bathroom with by now a much firmer, "get dressed" aimed at the boys who are now awake and tormenting each other and doing everything but getting dressed. It is now 7:10.

     Get out of the bathroom check on the boys, one has pants on now and is putting on socks, the other has one sock on. This is not going well, so I  get down in front of them, and make sure they are looking at me, and I tell them, YOU GUYS HAD BETTER MOVE YOUR BUTTS OR YOUR GOING TO MISS THE BUS!" It is now 7:18.

Now you might be thinking to yourself, why is it so important that they don't miss the bus, you are after all a stay at home mom and you could just drive them right? My answer to you is yes I am, and yes I could, but there are two reasons for them not missing their bus. Number one, I really don't feel like going out in my PJ's cuz I sure am not getting dressed, and two, if I, even just once, drive them to school they will think it's cool and will purposely miss the bus. They are evil that way, and I have absolutely no intentions of driving my kids to school. They are perfectly capable of taking the bus. In the off chance they do miss the bus, I will make sure we are all dressed according the this crazy Minnesota weather, and walk their butts to school, I will not be happy,and I will make sure they are not happy.

     So anyhow between yelling at the boys to get dressed, and yes I am yelling by now, I must feed the dogs. They all have separate bowls, but for some reason Smokey has decided that BG's bowl is his and has now for two days attacked Henry when he walked in the vicinity. Now I must break up the dog fight drag Smokey to the kennel, and yell some more at Superman who is still getting dressed.

I feel like crying.

     7:20 Jokester is now dressed, has his shoes on and is brushing his teeth, thank God. Superman is just finishing up getting dressed, I drag him to the bathroom to brush his teeth, send Jokester to get his jacket and backpack on. 7:23 tell Superman he's done with his teeth shove him into his jacket, slap on his boots, give hugs and kisses to all (yes Princess still like kisses and hugs from mom) and shove them all out the door to catch the bus at 7:25.

     7:26 I breathe. This is just my morning, (I'll cover the rest of the day some other time) and now you see why I need a vacation.

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