First Sign Down

Girl Scouts have been going pretty good this year. We ended up with 16 girls in our troop. More than we really wanted, but it's working out. Last night was our Investiture/Rededication ceremony. We only had one girl that was new to scouting, so there wasn't much for our troop to do but watch. The girls did get the 2 badges they earned along with their first Sign. For those that don't know, Junior scouts are a little different than Brownies. We just don't have badges to earn. You have 4 Signs, a Leadership Award, a Junior Aid Award and the Bronze Award. It really is a progressive thing. To get the Bronze you need a Sign and one of the other two awards. To get a sign you need some badges and other activities totaling 5 things to complete. At this point, if the girls were there for every meeting and went to the weekend camp, they have earned 3 badges and one sign. All in all, being one of the leaders has been fun, but hectic.

Dropping the Bomb

Last night was Lauren's parent/teacher conference. It went pretty well. She is doing pretty good. Reading is coming along well. Reading Comprehension is going a bit slower. Regular classes are going OK too. Some tests are good, some not so good. Both teachers say she works hard. After I heard what they had to say I dropped the bomb on them. I gave them the letter for the re-testing. It's been 2 years since the last testing. For any parents out there that don't know, these things must be in writing. I explained to them that I was requesting outside testing. You need to check the Procedural Safe Guards for your school, but ours will pay for outside testing if you have already received school testing. The special ed teacher seemed to know why. She admitted that the school districts rarely call a child dyslexic. They consider it a liability. She said we would turn it in to the school psychologist. I told her that I wanted the results for her March IEP meeting and this should give them their 60 school days. Please note that 60 SCHOOL days, not real days. It works out to about 4 months. They really don't need this much time, but they like to drag their feet. Anyway, they took it well and thought it was probably a good idea. Thank god they didn't argue with me about it. So now I wait and see what happens.

Who Would Have Thunk It

You know, you just never know. I was working with Lauren this morning on her clarinet. It was not going well. YES, TEARS. Big surprise. She just was having problems with the whole concept of some notes are held longer then others. I was trying to clap it out. Then I tried humming it. I just wasn't getting anywhere. Then I remembered the CD's and DVD's that came with the lesson book. I grabbed the CD and showed her how to put it into the stereo. We started playing the lessons and the light went on. She just had to hear another clarinet playing what she was supposed to play. Duh, I guess that's why they give you the CD's. She really is a auditory learner. Nothing like Brandon, he's is a visual learner.

Veteran's Day

Today I would like to honor two veterans. The first is my friend Shannon's husband. Hello Tim. Tim has been to Iraq twice and was also in Desert Storm all those years ago. The second person I would like to honor is my Great Grandfather, Samuel Ashton. Sam died in the First World War and is buried somewhere in Belgium. For these two and all the others that have worked real hard for us to keep the freedom we sometimes take for granted, Thanks guys.

The metal shown above was sent to Sam's family for him giving his life for his country. It is signed by King George.

Searching the Schools

Jim and I are once again looking at houses. This becomes so stressful because of the school systems in our area. We want a better school district for Lauren while finding one that will at least consider leaving Brandon in his private school. The responses have been mixed. The one said they had kids at Brandon's school, but would have to evaluate his case. Another said they wouldn't even consider it. They said it would be handled in house or he would be sent to the IU. He really wasn't very nice about it either. He seemed irritated that I would even bother him before I moved to his district. So they were taken off the list of possibilities. The third said that they would probably leave Brandon where he was unless they felt they could give him more. He seemed very positive about what they could provide and sounded upbeat about what it would be like for Lauren. Mostly it sounded like nothing would really change for her at all. Of course we could stay in the same school district. Overall the system is not rated very well, but they are willing to leave Brandon where he is and Lauren is now getting 4 days a week of after school help/tutoring. The middle school is really scary, but there are some charter schools in the area. So I'm not real sure what to do at this point. We did put in one offer, but it was in our present district. We'll see.

The Finisher

Why oh why do they think that because Brandon is small for his age that they can pick on him. Jim took Brandon to the park last weekend. Brandon really loves the big sand box. While they were there, another boy started hanging around Brandon. He had a large stick and was taunting Brandon with it. Brandon was ignoring him for the most part. Jim had tried to stop it but the boys Mother didn't seem to care. Finally, the boy attacked Brandon's tunnel that he had been working on and that did it. Brandon jumped up and decked the kid with two punches. Jim grabbed him and told him it was wrong, but at the same time really felt that the kid got was he deserved. For punishment, Brandon was told they would have to go home so he really got mad at Jim. The kicker was the kids Mother. She had the nerve to say to Jim that her kid was usually the bully. Jim's reply was that he was the bully and if he hadn't been taunting Brandon, it wouldn't have happened. You see, Brandon is used to wrestling with Arion. You know Arion. 5'10" tall and 240 pounds. Not a little person. So what these kids don't realize is, that to Brandon, size doesn't matter and they really can't intimidate him. The lesson here is you can start with Brandon, but he will finish it. Not sure we like this lesson.

Freaked Out At Cub Scouts

Last night Brandon had his cub scout meeting. Jim thought he was fine so I didn't go to help out. Well, I won't make that mistake again. At 8:20 pm Brandon came running in the house and disappeared. I waited for Jim so I would have a clue about what was going on. I knew something had gone wrong. Jim came in and told me he wasn't sure what happened. During one of the games being run by one of the parents, Brandon had disappeared and they found him 15 minutes later hiding in the girls bathroom, crying. I went upstairs and finally found him in my bedroom, sitting in the dark. I pulled him into my lap and started the long process of figuring out what had happened. You see, when Brandon get upset, he shuts down. No talking. I was able to get him to nod one way or the other and at one time he burst out, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. I started with the thought that someone had said something to him. Then I went though what I knew was supposed to be happening during the meeting and finally got to the balloon game. Before Jim left he had mentioned that they were going to have the boys sit on balloons and pop them. I then found out that this was what upset him. I think it was the noise. Sometimes we forget that certain noises are hard for Brandon to take. Mainly it's been music at church or concerts at school. He has earphones to help soften it, but neither of us thought the balloons would set them off. After I told him it was OK to not like the balloon popping and that he should have just told Daddy, he calmed down. Then I let Arion spend about 5-10 minutes of guy time and he was back to his old self. So today's lesson is no balloon popping around Brandon.

Good Ego Day

Yesterday was a good ego day. She doesn't get too many of them, but yesterday was a good one. She had a clarinet lesson. There are 3 other girls in her lesson that are taking the same instrument. Her teacher told her she was the best out of the class. I told her I was really proud of her for practicing so hard. She had practiced during the week. It's actually going much better than I remember it going with Arion and the violin. I remember having to fight with him all the time to get him to practice. She has been practicing each morning and it really shows. It's nice to have her being the best at something.