These are Not my Children

Both Taylor and Mandy received awards at school last week. However, I believe the awards were actually meant for someone else's children, not mine, because of the awards that they received.  

Exhibit A:

Mandy received the Random Acts of Kindness award for, "Making sure her teacher never has to clean a messy science lab alone and for gladly looking for ways to help out in the classroom."

Wait!! The child who, at home, will NEVER help clean?? The one who can't be bothered to help out at all and she gets an award at school for cleaning and for helping??

Very eerily weird.

Exhibit 2:

Taylor received an award for, "Always on task, respectful, and follows rules."

Wow! So the child who starts fights, can't remember the rules of our house, and rolls her eyes at me is awesome at school.  What the hell?!

Well, in the big scheme of life, I guess that it's great my children are wonderful in public. Ok, ok, it's awesome that my children are so amazing in public and that they are making great choices in life. 

Mandy also received her medal for the Science Fair - Second Place!! Whoo-hoo!! She did her board all by herself, which made Ken and I cringe because it was not aesthetically pleasing. However, the teachers loved her idea and her data and she was the one that you could tell did her work herself.  Haha!!

The Nutcracker

Ken and I had taken the girls to see a high school production of The Nutcracker a few years ago, but I really wanted them to see a good production of it. So, I did a search a few months ago and found that we have a local ballet company down in Claremont:

Inland Pacific Ballet

I purchased tickets for the family, and it was finally time to go see the play yesterday. The girls did not really remember the ballet they saw before so they weren't sure they were going to like it or not. Ken was quite the trooper and enjoyed the ballet with us even though it isn't really his style, however,  he really enjoyed himself once I purchased a program and he could read about what was going on in the ballet.

Taylor's most "favorite" memory of the ballet was the tights on the men. She felt that they were too tight and it was rather disgusting. HA!! Jordan, of course, now believes that she is a prima ballerina and is practicing her moves all the time. Mandy, sadly, wants to return to ballet lessons. I so wish we could afford to put her in ballet, but Ken and I just can't afford it with everything else we have to take care of. Even more sadly, is her father won't pay for them either (nasty statements coming.....yeah, and it's not like he sends any support ever......6 years and still waiting).

After the ballet, the girls picked one ornament for our Christmas tree so they will always have a reminder of their visit to the ballet for Christmas. I was told that I got one heck of a snowglobe from the girls and Ken is grateful that he doesn't have to take them shopping for me now.  HeeHee.

Jordan went around and got some autographs from the characters and she loved taking pictures with everyone. Mandy and Taylor were selective in their choices - they wanted pictures with Clara and The Nutcracker. Sadly, the Nutcracker was already gone by the time we were done in line for Clara. Jordan managed to get a picture with The Sugarplum Fairy even though she was supposed to be done as well.  Good for her!

We got home later than planned, but Taylor and Mandy were dropped off at home (they were both coughing too much) and off we went to Martin and Kathy's for their annual Christmas party. Martin kept giving me shit because we failed to show up last year after Sheryl refused to leave our house, and he said that since she's in Texas, we have no good excuse to miss it this year. 

The party was a ton of fun!! I enjoyed meeting Joey Lies and his wife, Maryann.  They both teach at Encore and were hired after my departure. Joey was Brian's teacher at one time, and he could not get over the difference between Ken and Brian. He kept joking around that he cannot see why Brian is as dull as he is with Ken as a father - "are all of your traits recessive?" HAHA!

Ken and I had a great time, and it was tough, but I made Ken leave the party early (after 10 pm) since he has been sick as well. Ken was still going on and on about how HE won the game for us by randomly screaming out Finding Nemo, but everyone knows it was all about me.  

Ken complained all the way home that he wasn't tired and didn't want to leave the party, but he was asleep the second his head hit the pillow. 

Braces...Off!

Taylor is one very happy girl today - her braces came off and she is officially DONE!! Now, she will just have to have the retainers forever, but the orthodontist gave her clear ones to help facilitate actually wearing them.

As soon as she got home with Ken, she was all smiles. She immediately took out the retainers and finished eating all of the goodies in the bag from the orthodontist. Seriously?! How cool is it that the orthodontist gave her a bag of everything she hasn't been allowed to eat for so long?? Skittles, chips, popcorn, nuts and gum.

My personal favorite part was the notecard that the orthodontist sent home with Taylor. I didn't think it was anything major as it came in a blue envelope and it was rather plain on the outside.

But then I opened it up and looked. My mommy heart melted because they thought to do this!!

Wow!! Look at how little my Taylor was when she started braces!! I know that she had 9 months in the middle without them, but it's still so amazing to see the change in her. I only wish I could see her teeth in the Before picture, but it's all good! What a great gift! I know that Ken and I paid an arm and a leg for these braces, but it's still a wonderful gift for us to have after everything.

Happy Halloween!!

 And the Holiday Season has officially started. We have kicked it off with Halloween, and Happy Samhain or All Hallow's Eve to all!

Taylor did not dress up for school today since she was helping out at the Haunted House at school, but Jordan was ready before I was out of bed with Mandy right behind her.

After we picked up the girls from school, we enjoyed some Spider Hotdogs for supper. It's spaghetti noodles stuck through hot dogs and then boiled. I use alfredo sauce and dye it orange, and the girls love it!

Once we were done with supper, the girls did their final touches for their outfits. We were even graced with Justin's presence since he wanted to borrow some of Ken's items for his costume.

Ken brought in the girls' buckets, and they moaned as they read the back - they totally forgot that I had added the disclaimer!

We got to the local church for their Trunk or Treat and we were in and out in 45 minutes! The girls did not get very much candy, but they had fun AND they were home and in bed on time. 

 It really made me happy to see Ken and his son together.

 Jordan and one of her friends from school.

 This is a young man that the girls go to school with. They couldn't believe he dressed up as a girl.

Never Boring

Yeah, our life is never boring. Some of my much-needed humor for the week was very appropriate:

Work has not lightened up. I was trying to figure out why I had the April burn-out when it's only October. Then I took a look at my caseload. I knew that my numbers were too high - my caseload is at 368 and climbing, but then I looked at the number of reports that I had written already this school year - 186. What.The.Hell???? No wonder I'm losing my mind! That is a LOT of reports for me to have written and meetings that were held. Sadly, most of those are 30-Day Interim Placements meaning it was just to transfer the student to our school, so I'm going to have to write another report for that student sometime during the year. 

I don't think that I have actually talked about what it is that I do, so here it is: I'm a Transition Specialist. I have a Special Education credential and have spent years teaching mild to moderately disabled children over the years, but I landed in a role that I really love. I get to smash the dreams of children and smack them in the face with reality. It's actually really fun. Most Special Ed students are working so hard for a Diploma that they forget to plan for the "after" part, and it's my job to be sure to have them go through the steps and decide on a Plan A and a Plan B. The Plan A is usually something stupid. I have seen Music Producer, NFL/NBA Player and other decidedly "cool" jobs as the hot list of jobs for these kids to have. This year, it's "Video Game Designer or Tester." Yep, you have to love it. So, I get the students to look at what it takes to gain that employment and the educational/vocational requirements. They usually learn quickly that there's no way it will work for them, so then we buckle down and look at what they may actually do well in. I also help them to realize how to gain part-time employment during high school, how to look at getting that first apartment, etc. 

It never fails - the first impression of me is that I'm a "Bitch" who is trying to kill their dreams, but eventually, the students realize that I'm a total wealth of information, and they usually still contact me a couple of years after they graduate for additional help. 

My reports are a collection of assessments, the assessment result data, interviews with the student and parent or guardian, and sometimes a probation officer or court liaison to best serve each student. Yes, this is a mandated part of the IEP forms, and it's my job to be sure that it is complete for each and every student. So, with our school trying to enroll as many kids as possible, I have been kept very, very busy!! 

In order to manage the other role I have as Wife and Mother, I make sure to stop working after my hours are done each day, and then somehow transition quickly back into the other roles.  Despite the non-stop headache, we went to Ken's ex's house on Friday night for an 18th birthday party for Justin. 

Yes, that's right, Sheryl was in town and she hosted a party for Justin - we attended and somehow, I managed to stay totally polite. Her friend, Sandy, is completely snotty and has no problem bitching in the presence of the one who is pissing her off, but I managed to keep a smile on my face anyway and not verbally rip the bitch to shreds. Seriously, if you're going to ignore my presence and pretend to not hear me, then do not complain that I wasn't helping out with the preparations. Lady, I asked 4 times if you and Sheryl needed help, but you played like you were 5 and that I didn't exist. I quit offering after that, so complaining later that I was "rude" and "didn't even offer to help out" was completely childish and stupid. The fact you whined about it specifically so I could hear you was utterly pathetic. Oh, and bitching about my daughters was seriously the wrong thing to do. You are SO very lucky that I promised to behave! 

OK, rant over.

I had a ton of fun watching Justin open his gift from us. Of course, we supplied him with an iTunes gift card, but the Maybe You Touched Your Genitals Hand Sanitizer was an awesome gift, and the fun was not lost on Justin. Everyone laughed about it, and it was the hit gift because of its craziness.

Sheryl went out of her way, and we thanked her for being a good hostess. She thought ahead and had activities and gift bags for the girls which was very thoughtful. The girls were able to carve pumpkins for the first time - we had them paint them before but never carve, so she found it cool to be able to do this for them. I know she was frazzled having us over there, and she and I  are still tip-toeing around each other, but we managed to pull it together for Justin. Having her over last Christmas to our house was really a great way to start this process, and Ken and I discussed that it was pretty cool that she was making the effort this time.

So, the supper went well with Justin and his friends and family, and then the girls were able to carve after supper was over. I thought it very ironic that Mandy was the one who loved scooping out the guts more than any of the girls. Taylor didn't finish carving because she was helping out to clean up - what a great girl!!

I relieved to learn that the silly string in the girls' gift bags was to be used at her house. She wanted the girls to spray Justin, and it took Sean AND Ken to literally pull Justin out of the house so he could be sprayed.

Saturday was spent with me doing some stitching, and the girls pretending to clean their room. 

 I just realized that November was going to be here within a week, and I hadn't started the November project!

Taylor did the most work, so I rewarded her with heading to Victorville to use her Kohl's gift certificate and the money she had earned from helping Linda next door. Because of the huge sale going on, Taylor was able to purchase one full outfit for herself. I was happy to help her learn how to use the sales, and she was totally stoaked that she could buy herself ONE FULL OUTFIT and she purchased exactly what she wanted. Taylor has managed to lose one full size, so I was happy to help her out with some added shopping especially because of the sale. It's tough keeping her in clothes, but she seems to have stopped growing, it will get easier from here. She loved a sweater but couldn't afford it, so Mama and Dad bought it along with another pair of jeans.

After shopping, we stopped at Mimi's Cafe for supper. She chose a Bleu Cheese and Walnut salad for supper so she could "splurge" on the pumpkin spice cheesecake for dessert. You have to love how she's growing up and thinking clearly. (So far and fingers crossed!!)

Today, Ken was up early to go to the Apple Valley Defensive Pistol shoot. He hasn't played in over a month because of all his travels and hunting, so he was very much looking forward to this morning.