The horror of new schools...

So many of you know that my son, T, is bipolar with a side of adhd. I've talked about it a few times on this site, but mostly we just try to deal on a day by day basis. Anyway, T's issues are not the subject of today's torture with school, it's just to let you know that I believe our family has already been handed enough tricks.

So today I called the Fairy Princess's school because she has been having some issues with her school work. I am not what you could call a helicopter parent. I don't hover, I tend to try to let them work their own issues out. But, when I get a paper where my first grader got a c on her reading because her words per minute score is not fast enough, I get a little bent. According to the world wide web, the average words per minute for a first grader is 50 to 70. Fairy Princess got a c for a 49 word per minute average.

Why can't we all understand that all children learn at their own pace?? Why when I call the school, does the teacher tell me that I need to take my child to the pediatrician to ask why she isn't concentrating? I know you are all "Becca, just get past it, every child has issues", but I can't. I am listening to a teacher telling me that my youngest child is not concentrating, she loses her center time almost every day, and she does not ever complete her work.

I have not been told by Fairy Princess's teachers in the last two years that she has problems concentrating. I admit I was frustrated by the amount of homework she has brought home, but I didn't ever know there was a problem with her concentration. Now, she loses her center time daily because she doesn't finish her seat work. When I ask what to do I am told to take her to the doctor to see about meds that could help with concentration. WTF????? I don't want to do this with another child. I don't want her to have a problem, I don't want this life for her. It is so hard, and I am sooooo tired of having to deal with all of these issues everyday.

So, I ask, am I overreacting? Did we have this problem all along, and nobody told me? Have I failed my another one of my children by not noticing a problem fast enough? Sincerely, Becca the tired and frustrated!!

And....They WON!!!

So, yes the Indians won. They are AWESOME!!! I have to tell you, I never thought I could get so excited about middle school sports, but those boys rock!!

They were behind most of the game, but they never gave up. They just kept plugging away, and tied with 2.2 seconds left on the clock! Then it took two rounds of overtime and plenty of penalties, but they won by 5 points! I am not the mom to any of these boys, but my Diva (the cheerleader) she sure does make this mama proud!

And to top it all...she called me her step-mom tonight!! I don't know if anyone else has lived in a blended family, but I have waited almost three years to hear that word! Normally I am just 'my Rebecca', but tonight to one of her friends I became her step-mom. I actually teared up, she made me so happy!

So, I will go to bed and sleep like the exhausted mama I am, and hopefully I will have a voice in the morning! Y'all have a good night! :)

The independent voice of Massachusetts??

So now, there is a new senator in the place of Ted Kennedy. I was never an outspoken fan of Teddy, he was probably one of the Kennedy's I liked the least aside from Joe Sr.

But really??? We had an opportunity to pass healthcare legislation in this country, and the voters of Mass. took it upon themselves to take that away? I know that it isn't healthcare like I would like. I don't know about you all, but I work full time. I work a lot, and I still can't afford all of my children's healthcare coverage. I also make too much (according to Missouri) for the children to qualify for state healthcare coverage. I was really hoping that the public option would remain in effect. I know that it isn't going to happen, but we have to have some kind of change! It should be illegal that children and old people die every year because they are poor. Or, because their parents are the working poor.

People assume that if I am behind a public option then I must be living on state aid, food stamps, etc. Actually it is the exact opposite. I work really hard, I haven't taken a dime of state aid for 10 years, and yet for some reason I can't afford the Fairy Princess and the Diva's $200 a month in meds for their asthma. Oh, and the Diva has an ulcer because she is a worrier, like her mama. C and I don't take the meds we need, or go to the doctor because we have to pay for the kids monthly trips to the doc, and their monthly meds.

Do I sound whiny? I hope not. I hope you will read this and see it for what it is. Someone who is tired of constantly paying into a system that doesn't help me, or the other law enforcement people that I hang out with. Think about that...the people who protect everyone from the offenders, and the offenders from everyone else are the ones doing without. We are the ones without medicine and medical care, we are the ones giving our all to make sure our kids don't do without. I am tired people, tired of seeing no change. President Obama that goes for you too! Do more, argue more, I've done my part. Fight more for the people you profess to care so much about!

That is all...comments??

Epic FAIL and Happy Birthday!

So, the other day I posted a long post about how I can't leave my house for 5 minutes without my middle two children making a disaster. And, then right before I hit 'publish post', the phone rang.

For those of you who don't have Charter cable and dsl, I am happy for you. In our house Charter cable means that even with dsl, and my wireless motem, I can't be on the phone and the internet at the same time! How dumb is that?? So, then I got off the phone (thank you Citibank student loans) and tried to publish my new post and the damn internet wouldn't come back up. In order to turn it back on I have to go to my router and unplug and replug in the cables. We have had Charter out to fix it twice. They say nothing is wrong, I say they are lost in a sea of inadequacy and ignorance!!

Anyway, on to the Happy Birthday part! Happy birthday to the fairy princess!! She is a very big 6 year old girl, and I can't figure out how that happened!! She truly is my awe renewed!

Crazy Christmas Shopping for DOC

I ventured out into St. Louis last night for some Christmas shopping. Not for my family mind you, because I still don't know where that money is going to come from...

First, we went to Sam's Club. They do not suck, except that it is Christmas season and they should understand that everyone and their brother will want something from the locked cabinet at the Member's Services area. Hire more cashier's for crying out loud!! We spent about $650 dollars for the employee christmas party next Saturday. (I'll have better stories then, promise!)

Then we headed over to Borders and Best Buy, spent a whopping total of about 13 minutes in each store buying gift cards (paid for with a corporate check). No problem there, and the checkers were still actually cheerful (I don't know how.)

We headed off to Shnucks (THEY SUCK!!!!!) with the best of intentions, and hit what we thought was the motherload. You can buy any damn kind of gift card you want. We added up what was spent so far, and discovered we still had another $1700 to spend. Yippee!! Right? Nope! After gathering around $550 worth of gift cards, the cashier watches me right out a check, screw it up and start over. As I am starting over, he comes out of his comatose state to say "You can't do that!" What, I said? He says "You have to pay for those gift cards with cash!!" Seriously????? You watched me f*ck up the first check and now write the next one, and waited until I was almost done to say no??? What the hell is your problem?

Those were the thoughts running through my brain, what I actually said was "cancel it!" and walked out of the store.

Finally, we made our last stop at Wal-Mart (Telecheck sucks!!). We gather $1,242.00 worth of merchandise and head to the cashier. After the cashier almost dumped our digital picture frame in the floor, I was ready for a drink. We again write a check on the corporate account, only to have it declined. Then, the manager decides to get stupid with me. After I almost raised my voice at her, I called Telecheck to discover (as I thought) that there is nothing wrong with our checking account, telecheck just doesn't want us to spend any more money on Saturday night. So, we decided to split the bill and try to write another check. That worked, go figure! Then we tried to buy the second round of merchandise, again no joy. I could understand Telecheck being this nutty if the items were written on a personal check, but they were not!!! There is over $15,000.00 in that account. I haven't spent it all year, let me spend it for crying out loud!!!

So, friendly internets... anyone else have any crazy Christmas shopping stories? And, for those interested, no we don't have a damn credit card, this might have all been easier with that!

Nine working days left before I go back to a housing unit!

I am sooooo excited! I am going back to the unit I first started in as a caseworker, and I can't wait!! I am training my replacement, and boy does she have the deer in the headlights look right now. I always think it is funny when people realize exactly how much work goes into what I do. Plus, there is all the other stuff I do that she won't even have to worry about.

I teach staff about once a month, I teach a two hour program to the offenders weekly, I help with our adseg committee, and for the past three months I have been acting president on our personnel club. I really am one busy little chicky! I am going back to 5 8-hour days this week so that I can keep up with what the kiddos are now doing. The soldier is starting wrestling this week, and The Diva has cheerleading practice at least twice a week. Plus, the princess has joined the Drama club (perfect for her,really!) and they meet once a week after school.

I also have a really big project coming up at work that I am not allowed to talk about right now, but OMG if it succeeds it will be a major windfall for me! I think I have again found how to be content in wherever I find myself. Thank the Goddess for that, because I don't know what I would do if I remained as discontented as I was for about a month. How about you internets? Is everyone content where they are right now?

Back to school, yippee!

So today, after a whole week off due to upper respiratory illnesses, all 4 of my children will be heading back to school! Thank the Gods above for small miracles, because I really am very (VERY) tired of the bitter, angry, bitch at each other for 24 hours a day, children that have kidnapped their ickle little bodies.

Really... being trapped in a hourse with 4 children who are sickly, fever ridden critters makes you a much better woman than I. Woman, thy name is C! She is awesome, because I seriously would have been committed by now. I am ready to send them all packing to the nearest military school after just the weekend with them. So, to all of you who stay home, or spend an inordinate amount of time with your critters on a daily basis, I say thank you from all of us who would have probably left them somewhere rather than listen to the bitching! (I kid, but REALLY!!!)

I am soooo oooold!!

So today I was wandering through a part of the prison and found an offender...standing in the doorway smoking a cigarette! I couldn't believe it!! I'll be honest, I smoke. There are days I wish I didn't, but I still do. We are not allowed to smoke in our offices (duh!), so I follow all the pidly little rules they seem to add to daily.

However... I am not going to stand there and let an offender smoke in a doorway, when I can't smoke in my office. No way, not gonna happen! So, I took his ID and went to write the violation and discovered he was born in 1988. He is only 6 years older than the Diva. Isn't that just awful? Why am I re-raising an entire generation of society's forgotten children? Oh, I remember... sometimes some (not all) parents just don't give a rat's ass. That is my rant for the day!

**p.s. Does it say something about how old I really am that I can't watch the Diva and all her little cheerleading buddies do the booty shakin' cheers? I just can't do it...I know she's 14, but still she will always be a little one to me. :)

H1N1 is making me paranoid...

SO... I have been told that two or three children at my kiddos school have H1N1. I am seriously considering taking my smallest child out of school and putting her on lock down!

One of C's friends just lost her daughter last week. They believe that she had H1N1 and they also believe that her asthma made it harder for her to fight off. It scares the piss out of me, I'll be honest. There aren't many things that do it for me, but anything that threatens the life of my children ratchets up the fear factor a notch or two.

I honestly don't know what to do, the vaccine (injectable) won't be here for a few weeks, and then only at the health department. My eldest and smallest need it most because they both have asthma. The Diva wouldn't stay at home for anything, especially if she isn't sick yet. Oh, and according to everything I've read the eldest and smallest can't take the H1N1 mist (up the nose) because of the asthma. Ack!! What is an overly-paranoid mama to do at this point? Any ideas??

Come on Fall, and all the grouchy children!!!

It is no secret in my family, my favorite season is fall. The leaves are falling, the air is crisp, the bugs are almost dead... there really is nothing better!

However, being at home alone on a Monday morning with my smallest two has given me a new reason to be irritated with my favorite season. C is in training all week, which means she has to go to work in the morning instead of 4pm. I am apparently the only one who actually enjoys the cool, crisp mornings because I have spent the last 30 minutes listening to the fairy princess cry about being cold. Now, I am not the mean mommy that I portray in real life, I took her a heavier coat and made sure the light one is in her backpack for later. But, really... 57 degrees is cold??? What is she going to do when the midwest winter actually hits and it is -4 degrees outside?

I didn't realize this might be a problem until now. C probably doesn't put up with the same level of whining I am tolerating this morning. I normally don't see my kiddos, except to say goodbye at 6:30 every morning. So, on the mornings that I am here I try to be tolerant, and happy. However, happy normally means waving them off and going back to bed. Today I have to do all the running I do once a month for work, kids doctor's appointments, etc. And to top it off, I actually have to go to work and take C a different shirt. Seems she figured out half way there that she is not a firearms instructor any longer and probably shouldn't wear the red shirt. Oh well... yeah!!! Fall is almost here, and while my children are grouchy I will remain upbeat because I know it will only get colder.

Do you have a favorite season?

Blogger.com almost made me crazy!!!

Dear Blogger... Why is my password that I have used every day for the last three months, not the same password as my google password? Do you understand you have almost made me lose the last bit of sanity I had? I'm just sayin'!!!

It is a damn communist conspiracy!!!!

I was talking to the Princess on the way back from her new ecology club, when she informs me that now all the kids who have sack lunches have to sit in a whole different section of the lunchroom.

Apparently, this is to cut down on the amount of contamination from those dreaded children who are still bringing peanut products to school. Earlier this year we were told that if the children brought peanut products they would have to sit at a different table and use sani-wipes for their hands and faces when they were done eating.

Now I guess they don't have enough people to be on the lookout for the peanut product children, so they have lumped them all in the same group. WTF????? My smallest critter has not taken pb&j all year, even though she loves it, because I was unwilling for her to be segregated from her classmates. Now, because I cannot afford for all four of my kiddos to eat hot lunch every day, they are still being segregated.
Hot Lunch Kids vs. Sack Lunch Kids.... I think my kids could take them.

This makes me so irritated, I will probably have to make a phone call to the school on Monday. I don't communicate with the school unless I absolutely have to. I follow the rules of The Mother implicitly. But now? They have found one of my easiest buttons to push. Don't punish my kids because they don't have the same amount of money or qualify for the same government programs as everyone else. They didn't do anything wrong. Grrrrr!

So, what do you think? Do I call, or is one of those live and let live moments?

What pisses you off the most???

For me it is lying. It makes me crazy mad! I do not understand it. I know that most children lie from time to time, but really? WHY???

What is the point? Why do they not understand that they will get caught in the end? What all is considered lying? For instance, I consider forging my signature to be lying. It is the act of signing my name to something so that they (whichever child it is now) can receive full credit. Rather than just remind me that I have to sign the planner, they would rather attempt a sloppy RSA that doesn't look remotely like mine. It infuriates me, and I have now been through two almost teenage children who think it is perfectly ok. I guess all children do it, I know I did. But...I also remember that I couldn't sit down for a few days because my butt hurt that bad. My Daddy made sure it was a lesson I didn't forget.

S0... there is my rant for the day. What do people do that pisses you off the most, dear internets?

The City Museum of St.Louis, A Review...

In the interest of full disclosure, I suppose I should mention: nobody is paying me to review the City Museum. I just thought for those of you that don't live here, you might want to know what it is like if you ever visit.

A word of caution to all of you that do not like heights or tight spaces: Do NOT go there. Don't even let yourself be tempted by your wife who will likely say that it will be alright. Don't do it. It will not be ok, not even for a minute. You will have a panic attack the likes of which have not been seen 'round these parts for many years.

But...I digress. No one in our party of adventurers had a panic attack. I did have a moment of "Oh hell, w.t.f. did I get myself into here?" And then I realized that I couldn't very well leave the children, including the Diva, in the oh so capable hands of my ex-husband.

They do have a lot to do at the City Museum. There are places to climb and hide and slide in almost every area. Everything in the museum is recycled, according to the Diva, and that is pretty cool. The Princess had a lot of fun, while she scared me to death, climbing and hiding.

The Roof Top is also supposed to be pretty cool, they have a preying mantis, school bus, and a Ferris wheel that the children can ride. We couldn't go up there because of the heat advisory in St. Louis this weekend.

The aquarium is nice, they have a place for the children (no big people) to crawl through with sharks and turtles that swim overhead. They even have a ray tank, where you can feed and pet the various rays. The rays came right up to the edge and wait for you to pet them, which is awesome!

The Soldier and the Fairy Princess really enjoyed the skate park area. They don't allow boards in there, but you can run up and down all the curvy parts. You can even slide down the concrete areas. The Soldier gave us a scare when he fell down the 15 foot wall, but he didn't break anything so he kept on going.

The Circus School is the only one in St. Louis, and the kids really enjoyed that. The man running it made a handkerchief disappear and made a little girl levitate. The Soldier and The Diva thought that was pretty cool.

All in all, the kiddos had a lot of fun, and I only had a few moments of sheer terror. C did not go which turned out to be a good thing, as she is really not fond of thousands of screaming people and tight spaces and dark corners. If you enjoy any of these things, you should have a blast!

And now we're off to go bowling this morning, Yeah!!! I really do like bowling! :)

p.s. It cost's $12 per person, even for the little ones, and the aquarium is an exta $6 per person.

p.p.s. You cannot drop your children off and leave, unless they are 16 or over. And let's face it, they really aren't children in any sense of the word at that point are they?

Aaaah, Yes! The joys of children

Yippee! All the babies are home, happy, safe and healthy. We picked them up last Sunday, thus explaining my absence for the week. Did you miss me???

The Soldier and the Princess had doctor's appointments on Monday. The boy grew 2 inches and 14 pounds in the last year and a half. Yeah!!!!! We have done every kind of test (I mean ALL) imaginable, and I am so glad that he is finally growing. Of course he eats us out of house and home daily, but I will do whatever is necessary for him to be healthy in the end.

I know some of you read earlier when we were having such trouble with The Soldier so here is a little update. When we went to the doctor, C and I told him everything...Every.Thing. We have started him on a low dose of some medicine and we will see if this one thing will help. Otherwise, we will have to do a dual med and I don't know how I feel about that yet. I do know I will do whatever it takes.

The best thing ever happened at the dr's appointment. The doc looked at C and me and said "Who is the biological mom, again?" I love him for that! There is never any judgement there, they just act like we are regular parents which.is.awesome!

Anyway, just wanted to let you know I was still here and hadn't fallen off the planet. Oh and to The Mother, my work internet keepers won't let me comment on your site from work anymore and that sucks because you have had the funniest posts this week. I love your survival guide!

Everybody have a wonderful weekend, maybe I'll take pics or something this weekend. Wouldn't that be neat?

My God (Goddess?) what a day!!!

So, anybody who has spent time here knows that I work in a prison.

On Fridays we have administrative segregation committee, that is where the guys who are confined 23 hours a day for whatever reason will come to see a three member panel and we will decide what to do with them. Most of the time there are only about 7 or 8 scheduled, but we have had days of 20 or more. Those days are the LONG days.

I think I've explained that I'm the grievance officer where I work, so a lot of the time I am totally alone. Except for whiny offenders, of course. I rarely get to do adseg committee anymore, which explains why I get totally excited about something that promises to be irritating more often than not.

So, this morning started out perfectly normal and I was excited because I get to do committee. Yeah!!! Then the shit hit the fan... we had three guys who apparently were involved in a fight last weekend. We found the one who got hit, with blood all over him. Then the officers found another one (the one they thought did the hitting) and locked him up. Then one showed up at the shift commander's office and said he was actually doing the hitting.

Now, the weird thing here is guys don't normally tell on themselves. So, (I say that word a lot) we thought he was lying; but we locked him up anyway. Well, we went back and forth this morning and finally decided the one who admitted to hitting was telling the truth.

Then we had another guy who wanted to threaten some staff while on the phone with his wife (girlfriend?sister?), so we had to see him.

Fast forward a few hours and by 2:30 this afternoon I had written three violations, two for the fight and one for the threats over the phone.

Then my boss calls me back in and says "Why didn't you all cut the guy making the hooch loose?" I don't effin' know, I am not (NOT) in charge here. So, we convened an emergency committee at 3:30 this afternoon to let him out of our adseg unit. For the record, hooch is prison made alcohol. They gather all the fruit they can steal from food service and mix it with god knows what else and some bread and voila! You have hooch!! Except this guy's violation didn't get read in time and we can't hold him anymore. Woops! Our bad, we can't punish you anymore because we didn't follow the policy.

By the time I left my office at 5:15pm they still hadn't released the guy with the hooch from 5 house, but I was going home. With the assurance of the sgt that he would be released as soon as chow is over.

I am soooooo glad it is the weekend! And, in other good news, I get to pick up the babies on Sunday. Yeah!!!