HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! well, almost....

Happy Thanksgiving!!!  to all of you who come to visit me, once in awhile.

I decided to do this early, since tomorrow I will be helping the elderly lady across the street get ready to go visit relatives for an overnight visit, and cooking, cooking, cooking, because we are having another school family come over for turkey dinner!! They are from TX and had to stay in town this week because of bball tournaments/games.

I also wanted to take a moment to say what I'm thankful for.....
        - a loving husband
        - a sweet, lovable little boy
        - a wonderful sister and brother
        - the ability to teach and tutor and touch the lives of other kids
        - a home that is warm and food on the table
        - pretty good health
        - a car to drive every day
        - that I live in this wonderful, free country
        - the men/women who fight for our country to stay free
but most of all, I'm thankful that GOD loved me enough to send HIS only SON, JESUS, to die for my sins on the cross.  I love you LORD, with all of my heart, my mind, and my soul.

a visit to the dentist.....

FINALLY!!  We finally found a dentist who would do JEB's dental work in the office!

Ok, back the horse up a bit.......we had visited the recommended pediatric dentist in town, but his only recommendation was to do the work in his hospital suite, which we didn't have the money for and weren't too excited about.  Went to another new pediatric dentist in town, like her, but he was non-cooperative, so it was hospital choice again.  We were going to go thru this, but changed our minds at the last minute.  Went to a dental office, that goes to visit the schools in an RV and does dental work with kids who are unable to come to the office and they will take the Medicaid waiver that JEB gets. 

We had an appt this morning.  Weren't too sure what they were going to do, but we waited for a room to open.  JEB sat and watched the other kids come in and get their xrays and go  to the dental chairs for a cleaning.  We finally were able to go back to one of the rooms, where they could use the papoose board for him.  Now I know, some of you think this is not very pleasant for the child, but let me tell you......he has fast, strong hands and won't be still to get any work done if he is not restrained.  Did he scream/yell?  Yes, he did.....LOUDLY.  Did he thrash about?  YES, A LOT!  Did we get his xrays done?  YES!!!! We did!!!  Did he actually get his teeth cleaned??  YES!!!  HE DID!!!

He cried quite a bit, spit at the technicians, pinched one of them, yelled, continued to try and get unrestrained.......but there was also several times that he just stopped and let them do the work they needed to do!  He actually got his teeth cleaned!!!  I was so surprised!!!  Now we know what needs to be done to his mouth and he has nice, clean teeth!!!  WOO-HOO!!! 

He was so excited too, because he got to get a toy from the treasure box!!!

Here's to a Holiday look!!!

I know it's been FOREVER since I've posted anything, but I've been busy!!! 

Thanks to my bff's older daughter for updating my blog!!  She does such a great job and she is so creative!  One of these days, I really have to learn how to do it myself, but for now, she can do it for me!!  Thanks Mackenzie!!!

I'll write more later, but we are still kicking and looking forward to our week out of school for Thanksgiving!!!

A new school tool!

Hey everyone!  Thought I'd drop in and write a few lines, you know, just to let everyone know we're still here.  Things have been going well.  School started with a bang and is moving right along.

I've been busy.  Subbed several times already this year, which is good.  Seems the substitute pool is very limited, so it looks like they will call me often.  And I'm ok with that. 

I recently ordered this new educational thing for JEB from Lakeshore Learning.  Pretty cool.  His teacher was showing me one day how she uses it at school.  It's a Build-A-Word Magnetic Board.  It comes with magnetic tiles with pictures and letter of the alphabet. I will post a pic of it so you can see it.  Anyway, she chooses which picture tile to use, writes the letters with a dry-erase marker and then lets JEB match the letters she has written.  Then she sounds out the word and he will do the same.

I tried it with him this morning and he did great!!  Only instead of writing the letters with a marker, I simply places about 6/7 tiles for his viewing that included the correct ones, and said the sound of the letters.  He then would pick which letter made that sound, and he did pretty good.  Missed a couple of sounds, but for the most part, got the correct letter.  So, I will use this with him and see if it will help his reading skills pick up a bit.  I can also use it with my tutoring students that I work with in 1st grade and my 2nd graders with spelling words!!

It was a little more than I would've thought, $29.99 but I think it's going to be worth it!

I can't believe he can do this!!

Guess what JEB can do????

This evening, I was reading thru JEB's IEP and looking at stuff we needed to work on for this school year.  One of the things, was that he would be able to say his birthday, when asked.  So I asked him when his birthday was and proceeded to tell him, June 12.  I said it over and over, several times, and then one time he started saying....."june, july, august,.....sember (september)........otober......skipped November and then Dember!!  I said, "what?"  start again!  So, I started with January and he proceeded to go thru the months of the year.....sort of skipping thru a couple of them, but said them all nonetheless!!!  WOW!!

I immediately called his teacher and was screaming in the phone and jumping up and down, and she simply said, ask him what the days of the week are......so I did!!  I said, "JEB, what are the days of the week?".....he says.....Sunday, Monday, and so on!!!  AMAZING!!! 

I am soooooo proud of him!!!  Guess we'll be working on some other stuff too!!!  WOO-HOO!!!

School has officially begun!!

Well, it's started!  School is now officially on! 

I had been talking to him for a couple of days about going to see his teachers and his friends and he would very proudly say, "NO POCKET!" (his teacher, Ms Pollock).  "NO SCHOOL"  "GO to MAMA's school", which is what he calls the elementary school where I taught before last year.  I think he enjoyed coming with me while I tutored.  I would take his movies/DVD player, puzzles, his gameboy thing, and whatever else he could squeeze into his backpack and set him up in a classroom across from where I was working and he would play, or I would have one of his babysitters come and sit with him.  It worked out quite well, except for the fact that I had to pay the babysitters a portion of my hourly wage.  BUT well worth it, for sure.

BUT we got him up and dressed and he very quickly settled back into his normal school routine, which is a good thing.  The only damper on this school year would be the fact that they are NOT having after-school-care at his school this year.  INSTEAD, they are bussing the few children a few blocks away to another elementary school.  This freaked me out a bit, at first. 

The other school, which happens to be one of the better ones in our county is across the street from our church, so not so bad.  BUT they are the largest aftercare in the county.  NOT a good thing.

I was stewing about this all weekend, looking into what my other options might be.  So after school yesterday, I went over to his school, and watched him get on the bus.  I was able to talk with the bus driver and she seemed to understand my nervousness about the whole situation.  He did great!  They led him to the bus and someone was right there to lead him to the gym, where aftercare is held.  Even though they had about 60 kids in there, they divide them into smaller groups with a leader, and they stay with them the entire afternoon, or the whole time they are there.  They also have specific activities they do for a specific time slot, so that is good too.  I was able to talk with his group leader and the director there, and I think he'll be just fine.

So other than that, all is well!!

only 1 more week.....

WOW!  Where oh where did the summer go???  JEB starts school 1 week from Monday.  August 1st. 

Seriously???  School is starting AUGUST 1st????  Yep.  Seriously. 

Now, JEB will be happy about this.  His mamma will be happy about this.  But, seriously, I think starting school August 1st is a bit ridiculous.  I grew up going from after Labor Day till Memorial Day and I learned enough to make it thru my Masters Degree.  Going to school for an extra month is NOT going to make these children learn any more information.  They should be outside swimming in the pool, or just playing outside and enjoying the summer.....because AUGUST is still considered summertime!

Oh well, I guess they didn't ask me what I thought.  Sad.  I could help them figure out a lot of solutions to their problems.  But.....they didn't ask me.