Destiny Skywalker

Already there, my friend!

My family attended a church for awhile with some interesting members. One member, a U.S. Marshal, had a trailer buried underground on his property and filled with guns, ammo, and food so that his family would be able to survive the Muslim invasion that would happen during the Obama Presidency. They also had my mom convinced that Obama was the anti-Christ and my mom called me in a panic on election night 2008 because she had voted for him anyway and she was afraid she was going to hell. I told her not to worry, he wasn't going to win Nebraska anyway.

Yep, just presented her with another viewpoint of the situation. I can see Vader putting that one out there for her, knowing it would draw out her anger, and his hatred for the Jedi.

Another hint that Reva was the youngling in the opening scene was when she said everything was taken from her. She wasn't talking about the Empire. She was talking about the Jedi. Vader or the Inquisitiors turned her against the Jedi by telling her she was stolen from her family. That's why she's such a merciless Inquisitior.

I think its more that our organization is completely petty. It's such a big company that you get micro-cultures. I feel like the people closer to my age get it and are willing to collaborate. We've had some interesting meetings lately where I have asked questions that I think my peers are glad I asked but the more experienced folks were like no this is my dog bed and I'm going to pee on it so you know it's mine. Have fun sleeping in your own pee.

My promotion paperwork has revealed a big freaking gap where people have been taking credit for my work or not giving me credit for my work. I hate this place.

Some very interesting discussions this morning. It kind of comes down to the fact that he needs more support than a resource room and it's the behavior program or this program. Truly, it's the right program and has been the right one all along, but the adults blew it. I think the answer may be to just say E needs to be placed with the other teacher. They offered to have us talk with the principal and school psychologist about repairing the relationship, but this comes down to I cannot traumatize E any more than he was. This is the 2nd time this has happened and both times we've had to remove him from the environment. So asking me to put him back in that environment with the same people is asking a lot of me. I am honestly hoping that he has forgotten faces and names because he was only there for a week, but I'm worried he will remember the building. Looking back, he also did not have writing services because the previous district refused to provide them to anyone under 2nd grade, and his current teacher said this was absolutely his biggest area of struggle and recommended that he have a paraeducator assist for writing (encouragement, keeping on task, scribing as an absolute last resort). She said everything else he probably doesn't need a para for. She did warn them that he needs Day 1 support. Apparently standar procedure is to wait 2 weeks to determine what supports a kid needs. Wtf. That is absolutely not a recipe for success. I'm so annoyed because I have a friend whose son was in the same program. They need very similar supports and it's like, why did he get such great support and E floundered? I think it may have something to do with the 2 week waiting period. Her son came into the year with an incentive program in place. E had nothing. I'm glad his teacher spoke up because clearly that will not work. As I said to a friend, I am willing to agree to a cease fire. But they better know I have gasoline and a grenade ready for when someone lights a spark on that bridge.

That too.

The only thing I know is they're hiring another teacher for the program. I've heard they have too many kids but honestly, I suspect they might be doing it because they know I don't want this placement and I don't think the teacher wants him, either. There have been some weird things like Q getting placed on the same lacrosse team as thus teacher's daughter and then suddenly they were gone. Will it be ok if E is assigned to the other teacher? Maybe? Back in February they talked about hiring an extra shared paraeducator for whatever placement. They're having a hard time dropping the paraeducator because he's just so easily distracted and doesn't stay on task well without one. I'm hoping this is something that improves with age and therapy, but I think its clear that he will need to at least start the year with a paraeducator.

E's placement meeting for next year is tomorrow and his teacher informed me it's the same program and same school as he started last year. FML. This is not going to be a fun meeting.

I got summoned after I moved out of Florida, too. That's funny. Is that their primary jury pool, former residents?

I'm sorry, yes, these are so hard. I will tell you if it gets to that point you've done everything you can and there might not be much you or they can do for her. If it gets to that point and you have decided to let her go you have not failed her. Ventilator weaning is also hard and stressful for loved ones. I'll warn you it might be a bit of a Rollercoaster. I'm thinking about you and Tina and praying hard.

Well I got to put Miss Manager in her place in a technical meeting today. That was cathartic.

We had a PM conversation about ski gear and we thought it would be funny to talk about winter sports with all our friends who live in So Cal and Texas. Seriously, any of you do winter sports? My kid is keeping up with me, guys. I need to get better fast. Or put her back in lessons next year.

I feel like Cereese and I need a place to kvetch about kid stuff. The rest of you with kids or who like kids or just like us are welcome. So many of you may or may not know that we've been trying to figure out what on earth is going on with my youngest since, well, 2 days after he was born. The past year has been a pretty painful experience in going through the wringer trying to get answers. Finally, the last few weeks have felt like progress in getting my son help with medication, IEPs, etc. Today we went for our sleep study follow up and found out that he does indeed have mild sleep apnea, and they believe its something obstructive. I feel so bad! This could also impact his ADHD diagnosis (however, I'm pretty sure he does have it, but this is probably making it worse). I hate the idea that we are probably signing him up for another surgery, but I just want my little guy to be able to live his best life. The other thing I'm worried about is that it may just be reflux related, which brings us back full circle to when he was 2 days old and stopping breathing every time he spit up.

How long do you keep them for? Do you love a specific brand? Do you like tiny cars or big cars? I currently drive an 11-year old Toyota Highlander. It was the first car I ever bought myself. I loved the 2001-2007 Highlanders and was horrified with the 2008 body style. We were looking at a Honda Pilot originally, but I felt like there were a ton of blind spots and was not comfortable driving it. I decided to test drive the Highlander and loved it. I decided I liked it on the inside and that was where I was going to be most of the time, so I could deal with it being ugly on the outside. Its grown on me since. It's been reliable as heck (2 repairs in 11 years, but the most recent was a month ago) and has taken us on various road trips over the past 113,000 miles. That said, she's gotten a little slow in her old age and the gas mileage seems to get worse every year. I planned on driving it into the ground (200,000+ miles), but I don't put a lot of miles on my car compared to a lot of people. My husband has a Volvo S60 and its decidedly much more fun to drive. But I love not having a car payment, either. Last month my stability control suddenly went out and my dash lit up like a Christmas tree. I took it in and the air-fuel sensor had gone bad, and was a $1000+ repair. Not thrilled. It got me thinking that I need to be prepared to replace it if something goes really bad. Then, this week, my mother-in-law got in an accident while driving it and informed us that she does not carry collision insurance. We tried to file a claim with the other driver's insurance, and the other driver, realizing there was no witnesses or evidence, claimed she was not at fault (by the way, Safeco insurance is the shadiest company I've ever dealt with). Safeco said to go file with your own company. I decided to not repair it or do it out of our own pocket instead of filing with insurance because our rates have gone through the roof the last few years, and I'd rather not pay even more for something that is mostly a paint problem (no major structural damage). So the damage isn't that terrible, but I really hate driving a dinged-up car. I take really good care of my stuff, and it really bothers me when other people don't respect that (a whole nother thread about people breaking your stuff when you lend it to them). The biggest problem is there's a good scratch from the other person's side mirror where it gouged into the door. So I looked at new and new-ish cars today since my car is 11 years old and has lousy gas mileage. I have my eye on the Volvo V60 Cross Country, the BMW X1, or the Mazda CX-5. The BMW is obscenely overpriced when I start adding options, plus they do stupid stuff like I can't have this color leather with this color car (its PAINT). The Volvo is cute and we already have one. We rented a CX-5 once and really liked it, and it would be significantly cheaper. Ultimately, I need to go test drive these because that's always been the deciding factor, regardless of what I think is cute. My husband once convinced Volvo to give us a XC60 as a loaner when his car was in the shop instead of an S60 and I ended up hating it (felt cheap, way under powered). That said, not buying anything until my mother-in-law goes home in September when the kids start school. Or even fixing the damage if we keep the car, for that matter. I already knew she was a terrible driver, not letting her wreck another one! Also we have 2 soccer tournaments the next 2 weekends and I'm not sure I'm ready to give up the 3rd row seat, even though I really do want something smaller.