School Daze

Last Friday - we had a meeting with Kitty's old school district to discuss her special needs with her new school district. They gave us the assessment results, but honestly, since they discussed it I didn't bother to read it in depth. Stupid me! Everyone at the meeting heard them say that Kitty is operating on about a second grade level (actually half of them heard 7th grade, but luckily we clarified that before the meeting ended). We were also told that she needed to be in a small group setting to be successful and if she had to be mainstreamed then she would need support from a behavior specialist for most if not all of class. Apparently NONE of this was actually in the stupid report. Even though 2 of the three people who were at that meeting were present for the IEP (in Texas it's called an ARD) meeting, and both agreed that that was what we heard - they went by the recomendations outlined in the assessment.

Saturday - I didn't feel good and slept most of the day.

Sunday - I missed church to spend some time with Hubby, and then took Hubby and whiny kids shopping at Sam's Club (warehouse store).

Monday - Biomom visit.

Tuesday - Spent 3 hours with Kitty (ADHD and emotionally disturbed) sitting around waiting to see if we could get her enrolled, while Bob took placement tests for Texas History - which she had completed at the private school. Hubby and the private school teachers were outraged that she was being forced to take the tests when she had documented proof of completion from an accredited school. It was hard to argue with them, and then she failed the tests. *sigh*

Discovered that they planned to put Kitty in several regular classes with inclusion help (15 minutes of assistance once a week!). Totally unacceptable. They wanted her to start that afternoon or the next day, but I insisted on an IEP meeting (ARD) before she started. So she came to work with us again.

Wednesday - Emergency meeting at the school to discuss their plans for Kitty's schedule. They started with the completely unacceptable schedule and we argued from there. They have Kitty in a regular ed Science class, with inclusion help (the inclusion teacher is in there all day, but doesn't only work with Kitty - she's more like a class aide). We also insisted that Kitty have a behavior assistant sit with her in every class that wasn't in the resource room - for most of the period, if not all. We'll see how that goes. She has several electives because we insisted she not be put in PE this year (way too many kids in each class for her to handle). She is taking theatre arts and choir. She has study hall during one period (they are not set up for this, so her schedule says teacher aide). The good news is that this means she will have little to no homework. The only choir that fit in her schedule turned out to be a beginning class for 6th graders (we asked her if she was OK with that and she was). She has absolutely no sense of rythym or pitch, but luckily that is not required! It's her last period of the day so she ends on a good note! (pun intended!)

Thursday - apparently they turned off the gas last night, and Kitty wet the bed so Kitty and Hubby had to take cold showers. This put them both in charming moods. This also means no dryer (so no laundry) and no cooking on our gas stove tonight. Luckily it's fairly warm today (yea Texas!). Hubby talked to the gas company and they will come out tomorrow and turn it back on. Which means I have to stay home until it's done, and since we only have one car - I'll be stuck home all day.

Kitty has had another growth spurt (she is now 5'3" and weighs 150lbs!). We argued and dealt with meltdowns for most of the morning about the fact that her "favorite" t-shirt was too form-fitting (other than the fact that she is now at least a 34C, you can't tell where all the extra weight is going). When she finally changed shirts, she discovered that most of her clothes were no longer acceptable. She spent so much time arguing that she didn't make lunch or have breakfast. She kept knocking things over and yelling at Hubby. I ended up giving her a plain t-shirt from my closet and plan to take both girls looking for t-shirts today. I'm hoping Grandma will help pay.

Bob is now super confident and has lots of friends (mostly boys who want her phone number! *eek*) -pretty cool for my introverted daughter who complained all through elementary that she had no friends. Totally bad news for my jealous Kitty, who can't stand others having what she wants.

Ironically after talking about it at work yesterday, one of the staff thought she might have it, I discovered I have shingles... again!! This will be the second time in 3 years. Maybe I'm under just a wee bit of stress?! Good news is I got a nice nap while waiting at the doctor's office, and my wonderful Mom (who had to drive me - no car) took me out to lunch afterward.

Hubby didn't feel well but went to work anyway and discovered that the electricity has been turned off. When he calls the electric company they tell him our tax id number doesn't match theirs (probably have the former owners). They won't turn our electricity back on until tomorrow unless we fax them a W9 form with the correct tax id number. Luckily I'd printed out a W9 form a couple of days before for a client so we had one. The problem is, how do you fax without electricity! So Hubby had to find a place to send a fax. Somedays it just doesn't pay to get out of bed.

It's been a long week, month, YEAR!