Happy Halloween

Jake, Trey and I are off to Trey's school Fall Festival (w/ costumes). We will be leaving there to drive Jake back here for his school's Fall Carnival (without costume), and then later tonight we will all (well, probably not Rob and I ) be donning costumes for a neighborhood Halloween get-together. Trey has on costume 1 of the day- I'll be keeping a running tally of how many costume changes we make. He's currently Spiderman, which was not his purchased costume, but whatever ;)

Ready to dive back in.....

maybe. I'm contemplating 'going back to school' in an online kind of way, to get a Masters in Education (specifically Special Education, or Deaf education). What started as a passing thought has kind of grown, to the point where I am days away from starting the application process. Just to make this prospect more interesting, I've also been contacted about a potential part-time job opportunity working with other parents of HOH/Deaf children. Of course I'm sure there are many parents who are interested, so we'll see if it works out, but isn't it funny how when you start opening yourself to new possibilities, opportunities began appearing.

I'm also still working on Trey's school situation, which if we end up in the due process court, I may not be welcomed with open arms to our home school district as a Special Ed. (or any other type) teacher. But, it is what it is.....gotta do the right thing for Trey.

12 year old daughter= no peace

If I survive this it will be amazing.....she goes from sweet as pie (maybe a 'slight' embellishment) to a spiteful little brat (putting it mildly)- hormones???? I don't know. I only know she doesn't do it do her dad- sigh. I love you mom (from the spiteful brat that I'm sure I was)

Just checking in ...

We had "Teacher Swap 2" yesterday, and I joined them for the first hour. It was fairly interesting to hear the views from the private school team. I was also asked to construct a timeline of events (regarding Trey and the school district's response). It was pretty interesting. This whole 'journey' started a year ago August (well, actually June, if you counting when they were definitely aware that Trey was of school age). That translates to over 30 email chains (and I'm missing email messages from August '07 until March '08 due to a hard drive crash), and many, many phone calls. And we've only had one IEP that has never been revised.

Anyway - I'm going to try to shower this morning so I better get off the computer :)

And then there's.....

MONDAY.

But, it's inevitable, it just keeps coming back :)

My Favorite Day of the Week: FRIDAY!

Why, you ask? (although I suspect many of you out there are also Friday lovers) I love waking up on Friday morning, to the realization that it is the last day you have to wake up at 6:00 am in order to prod your sleeping daughter awake before school. Of couse, that thought is quickly tempered by, "Shoot, I have to get up tomorrow even *earlier* in order to drive the same daughter (and whoever else chooses to tag along) up to Seattle for her darn soccer game, grumble, grumble, grumble". But, that's o.k., because I truly love watching my children play soccer....just preferably here at home.

Then as I'm quickly packing lunches into backpacks, and waking the other three kids, I'm so thankful that it's the last time I have to go through the process for the week. I have nothing but the calm (HA!), relaxing (double HA!) weekend to look forward to. I drive Delaney up to her bus stop (halfway up our hill), hoping the other three will behave for five minutes, drive back down, and then quickly feed them, brush hair and teeth, dress them, *try* (and fail) to get Trey's hair to lay flat, before loading them in a loving manner (a.k.a. throwing the kids and their backpacks into car), driving back up the hill to drop Emily at the same bus stop (although usually missing the bus, so driving to second, or third stop to catch bus), and then heading into the big city to get Trey to school. By this point, all I really want to do is crawl back into bed for another hour or two of sleep, but instead we drop Trey off, and usually head back home and go to the gym (babysitting- it's a good thing).

I typically have an hour to get Jake home, hair re-brushed, lunch made and laid out for the big Kindergarten boy, and then another trip to the bus stop, where I watch Jake walk onto the bus, and breathe a sigh of relief. Four kids, off to school- CHECK. I get a whole hour to get everything done that is on my to do list before trekking back into town to get Trey.

Friday- the anticipation of NOT having to do all of the above for two whole days makes for such a wonderful day!

From the oldest to the youngest- gross habit. NOT TAUGHT...

This afternoon, Trey came downstairs in his bathing suit. He was missing a few key components, like his hearing aid and cochlear implant. So, I asked him (MADE him), put them back on. And, what do I observe as he proudly shows off his hearing aid and CI. He took his hearing aid from me, put his two fingers in his mouth, and 'wet' his ear mold so it would go easily into his ear. Gross!!! But, Delaney did the same thing up until a year or so ago.....

Adaptation at its best....or worst.