Homebound

Looks like we'll be staying home the rest of this week. Our wheelchair van is in need of a new fuel pump. Thankfully my hubby can do the work himself, just waiting on the part.
Working from home is always a whole different animal than working at school is. We never have a schedule, just fall into the work and do all we can till we're ready to kill each other. You wouldn't think it'd make any difference since we're together most of the day at school, but somehow doing it at school in the school environment helps us.
Mostly I think it helps for Grace to have her friends near. She's always up to something with someone. Just sitting here at home with me is never as much fun. But thanks to modern technology she's NEVER too far from a friend with her cell phone. So hard to think back to before the internet. When I was in high school there were phone cars that were as big as an ice chest that actually had a cord attached to it. how funny, a time before the internet, texting, social networking, blogs!! We actually had to stay in the same room as the phone and even talk on the phone. I can still hear my dad complaining about me using the phone. Those teen years meant monopolizing the phone for hours. Times have changed, but theres still school work to do, better get to it.

Twilight Zone?

Don't know if it's the unusual early fall heat wave or just teen hormones, but I've witnessed some strange things this week. It started with a boy dressed in a shirt and tie, bragging to a teacher about his  court ordered ankle bracelet, and the comment that jail wasn't so bad since he could just relax all day.
Sitting in biology Grace and her friends broke into the Barney song, I think the conversation ended with maybe they could ask Blue to use her notebook to figure out how to write an essay on photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Funny how those kid shows never leave you. They probably don't even know who my beloved Mr Rogers or Mr Greenjeans were.
I have to say the top strangeness I saw was in Drama, I was helping Grace with something, when she suddenly is blowing kisses to someone. I was pretty sure who it would be since she and her senior guy friend have been bantering about how gorgeous each other is, sure enough as they're both cracking up she's giving him a kissy face and he's shaking his booty and slapping it. I am wondering if this is what the Twilight Zone feels like???   Nah, just high school kids  gotta love 'em!

Teachers

Just have to say that I think teachers often get a bad wrap. I am sure I've been guilty of complaining too much myself. I am thankful for all the teachers that Grace has. She has severe physical limitations, they all are very understanding and make whatever changes that need to be made so she can do her best work for them. Since she writes very slowly I do most of her physical writing for her, I'm thankful they none of them have ever questioned if the ideas are hers.
Friday she took a geometry ( yay I didn't say geography) test and got a poor grade, it was shocking since she felt like she did well. She usually knows when she's bombed a test. Well, it turns out that the larger printed portions of the test were just the shapes, and graphs, I quickly read the instructions to her and she looked at the large graphs to do the work. Guess I was the one that over looked part of the directions for a portion of the test. Her teacher thought something must have been wrong and after talking w/ her she let her redo that portion of the test. Of course that jumped her grade up 2 letters, and Grace didn't have the stress of having to retake the entire test.
I'm sure I could give examples from most of her teachers, she has some great classmates as well, that think up new ways for her to experience all aspects of classes. Her two biology friends actually have taken a microscope off the table and positioned it in their hands up to her eyes so she can see what they see. Doesn't seem like much to most of us, but that kind of inclusion is what makes her world a little nicer.

Red

I've got some bad news for some of you. I was informed today that my phone is the same color red that "you know old ladies cars are."
Wow, was I shocked that my favorite color was the old lady color and that little red sports cars were old lady cars.
Guess that proves it; as far as teen boys are concerned I'm an old lady, I don't even get the red car, just the phone is enough to qualify me.
Guess I pretty much new I was an oldster a few years ago..............but RED ?  Come on.
Oh well, Have a great weekend!

6 Weeks

Six weeks of school has flown by. The kids have accomplished more than they probably realize. Progress reports will be mailed home any day now. Grades don't have to be a huge surprise anymore, as most school systems have programs that allow parents to check progress online. But for some reason, getting that piece of paper in the mail makes things worse or better depending on your grades.
Grace has done well, not sure I'd do as well if I had to be testsed and graded. I can barely tell you if her math class is geometry or geography so I know that'd be a bust. Guess I've learned some about the French Revolution that I didn't  know before, had never read Great Expectations , so that's something I can add to my list of  "done that, don't know why I bothered". Now don't get me wrong the story itself is intriguing, just not used to reading in that old English/Dickens style. He'd have been a great blogger that man could use way too many words to say somnething as simple as 'he opened the door'. 
As for Biology, theres' no way I could tell you very many parts of an animal cell, ATP, cellular respiration etc. Just glad God knew what he was doing when he designed all this. Not much to learn in yearbook, photography is somewhat of a repeat from last year, and drama is always entertaining, I know most of the songs to Suessical the Musical.
So greatfull nobody gets to take a red pencil to this blog I can just imagine all the mistakes I make. Here's to another 6 weeks, aside from learning who's dating who ( or is it whom?), which substitute the kids love and hate the most we'll see if I learn something academic.

An Old Dog

So, who thinks you can teach an old dog new tricks? I have always been more of an optimist about things, but I just have to explain how frustrated I get with technology. It just makes me feel so stupid, doesn't even have to be a hard concept. Here's my example; while writing an answer for Grace on today's English homework, neither of us knew how to spell "unnecessarily", well being too lazy to get the dictionary she suggested I use the T9 function on my phone. She usually has her phone with her , but for some reason it wasn't with her or she could have done the looking up herself. Well, I tried & tried to get the dangfangled contraption to do what she was telling me to do with it and I just wasn't understanding what to do, i was really getting frustrated. She finally asked for my phone and within 3 seconds had the word!!!! AARRGGGHHHHH  How the heck did she do it? Actually very easily, she showed me step-by-step and it made much more sense. Just not sure I should touch anything computerized or even electronic. This old dog is just a mess.

Happy Birthday to.....ME/xico

September 16th. Mexico's Independence Day. Also my birthday.My first wish for today came from an Alabama friend that sent me a text @ 4:43, nice wake up call . Hubby & Grace had gifts in hand as we all woke up this morning. At school today I got a text wishing me a Happy Birthday and asking me to come out to the parking lot. There were my friends, Aileen, Sharon & Bambi; with cake, gifts and decorated windows on the van. Poor Sharon had to wade through 7 inches of dirt to find the windows ( sorry Sharon, I never wash the car during harvest season). When I stopped for the mail I had a package from the Alabama buddy, & cards from an online art group I'm involved with. My sister brought me goodies when she came over, & my FaceBook page runneth over w/ well wishes. Thanks everyone. All in All a pretty good day. oh yeah.....Happy Birthday Mexico.

old folks

Today was senior citizen day at school, there were some very creative kids, lots of grannies in curlers, nightgowns, slippers, grey hair, even saw a girl with a walker. These two girls are in Grace;s drama class. They had the old person walk down perfect. Grace's school is having their centennial celebration this weekend, should be a fun time for everyone.

Super

      Today was  superhero day, first guy I saw was this brave hero. Any guy wearing a silky pink cape MUST be a tough guy! There were several favorites, they varied from the regular Superman, Spiderman, & Batman to the more imaginary types; there was a super poohbear, a super Fatcat, a super taco, to a very well thought out boyscout ( well, out of all of then they're the true heroes). I of course went as supermom, faster than a speeding snail, more powerful than a .........well, heck I don't know. I'm afraid of tomorrow  it's senior citizen day, I'm afraid I'll get lost in the crowd.

what a bunch of nerds

Finally after a week out of school, we're back at it. Didn't take me long to wonder why so many kids were dressed so badly. Kids really looked ridiculous, and most of them had tape on their glasses: Wait!! these are kids that don't even wear glasses, I saw plenty of pocket protectors, bright suspenders, and yes even a granny fanny pack! It's homecoming week and today was "nerd" day. I couldn't help myself from wondering what someone would think if it was their first day of school here. They'd certainly think they'd fallen into the pit of nerdum.  Tomorrow is Superhero day, now that would be another day to begin attending this school, just the thought of burly football players in superman tights could give anyone nightmares.

sick sick sick

Our long weekend has turned into a long week, turns out Grace has a horrible ear infection/burst ear drum and all. So she's on a mega dose of antibiotics. Thankfully her lungs are nice and clear.
Took her to school for a little while today to take a couple of tests she'd missed and pick up some work she can catch up on. Mostly, in her eyes, to hang out during lunch. She has the best friends and just can't go too many days without them. It takes a special kid to be Grace's friend, not that Grace is hard to be friends with, she's got a very quick wit. It's just that she can't do all the "regular" teen things, she has gotten closer to a friend she made last year and I've noticed things about this gal that others probably would never notice. aside from opening doors, helping her when something falls and yelling at people that stare at Grace. She  actually sits when she carries on a conversation/ which warms my heart;most people don't consider what a person in a chair has to look at if you're standing in front of them when you talk to them. Grace has a fused back and can't look up high very easily, she usually has a nice view of your crotch or stomach, so of course if you're in a line in front of her she knows what kind of undies you're wearing . Now I know how self conscious you'll be next time you're around a person in a wheelchair. It's a whole different world down there in the chair. Weekend is almost here again enjoy!!!

Long weekend

Labor Day weekend was a long one, only fun thing we did was have dinner here with my sister for her birthday.  My daughter was sick all weekend and stayed home from school again today. She had homework in most classes over the long weekend. Had to read about 150 pages of Great Expectations  and  q&a packet to go with it, had a letter to write for history, a cell model to make for biology, and some math. Although she felt horrible she managed to get it all done. Did today's math this evening and worked ahead on the next part of English. It's always hard to miss school and get behind, especially in math class. Over the years she has endured so much with some very long hospital stays, a couple minor surgeries, a major back surgery, and her yearly 3 months of bone pain. We live in an agricultural area, harvest is just starting, keeping her lungs clear of pneumonia is always near the top of my prayer list. People with medical issues work so much harder just to get through their days than the rest of us. I know I'm biased, but would just like to say what a proud mama I am. Grace has managed to maintain a great grade point average and  keep up with her class through all of her trials.

ARRGGGHH!!!

OK just a warning this is going to be a BIG gripe session. I apologize.

If you know us or read this long enough, you know my daughter has some physical limitations. She is very weak and can't hold heavy objects. At the end of last year we requested large print math books for her, since she can't hold the book and her eyesight isn't perfect it's a bit hard to read graphs and smaller text book print. She also has rods in her back and can't bend toward the book to get a better view. Seems like an easy fix, just find a large print book. Seems there aren't any large print geometry books in the edition they're using. The librarian has searched & searched,, she's gotten the publisher to agree to a digital version that can just be enlarged on the computer. Easy enough?  NOPE. She had the higher ups sign the contract & sent it back only to have the people that sent the said contract tell her "oops that version isn't available in digital." Is this crazy or what? My kid can't be the only student that uses the book that might need it large. I'll admit it's not a brand new book, but I do believe it has been printed since the ADA was put in place. Crazy crazy crazy................so far the solution is the publisher has given permission for the book to be copied by the school on the copy machine for her to use..... so her inclusion specialist's assistant will be busily copying graphs/angles/etc for the next few days to make Grace a binder she can use. Thankfully a solution has been found, but it's just crazy the hoops that get jumped through for nothing.   Thanks for letting me vent... I think I'm done now.

Oh the trouble with fashion

So, today in the drama class I noticed how much trouble it is to wear pants. The kids were rehearsing for the musical they're doing this semester. It required a great deal of jumping/dancing/bending/ etc. I think there was more tugging of pants than anything else. If you're a girl the trouble seems to lie in the fact that pants don't cover your backside. It's not easy bending over to dance like an elephant if you're worried about your hind end falling out. They guys might have appreciated the girls' problem more if the weren't tugging on their breeches trying to keep them up, or shall I say keep them on.
 Now I'm a large woman and I must say that these little 100pound guys are wearing pants that would fit me! It's so funny how ridiculous we ( yes, we've all worn something absurd in the name of fashion) are willing to look, just to look like everyone else. Just wondering what do you think the silliest fashion was that  you wore as a teen?