pretty, wheelchair and oreos

So, I'm feeling much better, almost back to old myself. We tried school this week, only made 3 1/2 days because of wheelchair repairs and a funeral. But after 3 weeks away that's a start. Surprisingly Grace isn't too far behind. Has some tests to make up, some reading to finish and that's about it. She didn't miss any huge projects.
Not sure if you remember, but she works in a kindergarten class, and those little ones probably gave up on her ever returning. On the day she went back we had the appointment for the wheelchair repair, so instead of driving in the opposite direction to attend 1/2 a class at the high school, she just spent the extra time in the k class. As we got to the school the kindergartners were lining up to return to their class after recess. They were sssssooooooo excited to see Grace !! They call her Miss Gracie, and I think they were all yelling "Miss Gracie's back!!!"  She worked with them in their writing journals and several wrote about her. I think her favorite was written by a little guy who wrote. " I love Miss Gracie, because she's pretty, rides a wheelchair and loves oreos."  Nothing like a little kindergarten love to make you glad you're back at it again !!

When Moms Sick

Home Again!!!



partners in crime



Poor Grace, She finally seemed to be caught up and getting back to attending school on a better basis when Mom got sick. I have been out of commission for a few weeks, still on the mend, but feeling a bit better.

When your mom goes to school with you, takes your notes,  and is your scribe, you're kind of up a creek without a paddle!

My husband has been home the past week, but not much schoolwork got done. I think one study guide for history might be finished. There isn't much aside from reading that Grace can manage on her own. She can still write for herself, if she can get up to the table just right and get the paper positioned perfectly. If she needs to look at a book or notes while she writes everything has to be repositioned.

I think the worse part of this is probably social. The main reason that we attend school instead of homeschooling is because Grace is a social butterfly. She gets along well with most everyone, likes to give a few teachers a rough time and in return they give it right back to her. She mostly has missed her best friend, Kayla. There are some weeks they're inseparable. When school is out for a long weekend or break they're usually together. Kayla was here when I first got sick, but not since. Thankfully my husband has taken Grace a couple of times to visit with Kayla, but it's just not the same. Praying for a speedier recovery for me, plenty of energy for all that schoolwork, and best friend time for Grace.

caught up? Hope SO

Haven't updated in a while, I think Grace is finally caught up in all her classes. It's crazy we went on vacation and she was supposed to have been given all her class work before we left, but of course there's more to school than the homework. She had a few chemistry tests to make up. Of course her most difficult class would be the one she had such a hard time catching up in. Almost feels like the vacation was more work than not having one at all. That is until I remember how relaxing it was.
I'm so thankful to the woman that gave us the week in her time share. We hadn't had a full week away from home since Grace was turned 10 and we went on her Make-A-Wish trip. need to save up for another good vacation, no need for them to only be when someone gives us one.

Runty

OK this has nothing to do with school, but I just have to share. When Grace was about 6 she spent a month in ICU at Shriner's hospital. When we came home our landlord told us that some friends of his had kittens and he thought Grace needed a kitty. I know a lot of landlords don't even allow pets but ours is the best when it comes to pets if we found an elephant he'd be OK with it living here. Anyway I'll get back to the cat. We took her to the people's property and into the barn where their cat had a litter of adorable kittens. Grace was immediately in love with the runt of the litter. I took one look at this little kitten and just knew he wouldn't survive the weekend and chose a second kitten as the back-up. This little Runty ( yes silly name but it stuck)  wasn't very healthy as he was 1/2 the size of the others and didn't even seem developed right. Anyway Runty lived and became a big healthy cat. He was the king of the house. So there we were with 2 cats for years.
Jump foreword about 10 years and we still have the cats. But for some reason Runty started taking little breaks from us, it started as just a couple of days then a week or two. He must have found a second home as he always came home fat and sassy. Well, about a year ago Runty didn't come home we kept looking for him and  calling for him, but no Runty he was definitely gone. After about 6 months I took Grace to the shelter and she picked out a cute little orange cat that has been her baby ever since. The new cat even rides around on the armrest of her wheelchair he just loves her.
Last night I saw a shadow on our front porch, I knew our female cat ( Runty's sister) wasn't outside and the new cat is an indoor cat. I was a little concerned that someone was on our porch and snuck to the window and peeked out. I didn't see anyone so I pulled back the curtain more and there he was, Runty!!! After a year he came home again. He's not really fat this time, and has a sore on one foot, but there he was home again. He walked in, meowed a "hello" and went straight to the food dish. He loved on all of us, my sister lives next door and when I called to tell her she even came over to see him. It amazes me that after all this time he came back. I don't know if he has another home or what happened. The new cat isn't too happy about Runty being here, but they'll work things out. And Grace? She is so happy to have Runty home again. Never would have believed he'd return but so happy he did.

Craziness

Gonna have to drag over my soap box again.........this school year the winter break was a late one. It was from a couple of days before Christmas till Jan 9th. Seems this has just messed up some teachers' schedules. They have one less week to teach required material before the big review time for state testing. I think it's crazy that those state tests have become so important. I realize it all comes down to the mighty dollar. the schools with the best scores will have more people interested in having their children attend those schools which means more money for cash strapped schools blah blah blah.
Don't know when school became something other than teaching. Everyone feels pressure to "perform" better than the year before. Pressure on teachers and administrators just trickles down to students. Then the teaching is almost gone. It's come down to memorizing. Not actual learning why something happens the way it does, or making any sense out of what they're doing. Not fair to the students or the teachers. I'm sure they'd rather skip the entire waste of time testing and reviews as much as the students.
Ok, I'm done ranting.........well until the state testing begins. That's a whole other craziness in itself!

Lover's Lane

Warning: This is all about a rant from Grace.......
Yesterday on the drive home, Grace was a "bit" grumpy. She has decided that there needs to be a special area for high school couples to bid each other farewell. Apparently she's sick and tired of having to either wait for the lovers to finish their "business" or shove people aside with her chair to get to her classes.
She said something to the effect of.......... 'it's not like these boys are leaving after each class to be sent of to war! NO! you'll see him again in 45 minutes! Besides you will be texting him before he even walks in late to his next class, because it's always the guys that have to hang outside the girls' room for that last lingering kiss.'
I think she may be onto something here. If only Grace ruled the world we'd all be put in our places and everything would be perfect :)

Home Again

Home from our time at the coast. Still have schoolwork to finish, books to read, movie to watch papers to write yikes!!!!
Thought I'd share a few pics and then crack the whip  HA! we'll do homework tomorrow.


Grace & Kayla at the lighthouse




The girls checking out the aquarium





Loved the jellies  we could just sit and watch them for hours



Wow thats a ton of work!!

Last spring one of the long term substitute teachers at Grace's school, very generously offered our family a vacation at the ocean using her time-share facility. When she called to reserve the handicap accessible room she was shocked to discover that the earliest available time was this January. So we are ready for a vacation. It's been 7 years since we've been able to have one.
Grace's BFF gets to join us as the room has 2 bedrooms. The girls are on independent study for 2 weeks and they sure have a ton of work to do! Their plan was to do as much as they could ahead of time, but they didn't get their assignments until Friday afternoon.
Kayla (BFF) came over today and they've been fast at the homework. I think they finished history except for movie notes on a movie we don't have yet. Kayla has a math class and is getting that out of the way. in English they have several stories to read, some grammar work to do and a paper to write!
Have no idea what chemistry has in store for them as the teacher posts his assignments online, but his site is down until Tuesday. Guess they'll be doing chem as they listen to the waves, could be worse.
Now for all my work, it takes a great deal of planning to take someone with special equipment on vacation. You have to have every tube, wire canister  and connector with you, along with backups in case something breaks, you also have to take chargers for the equipment. Thankfully, Grace is a great planner and always makes our lists for trips. She's very thorough, and almost never forgets anything. Plus there's all the regular changes of clothes for us all, school books, computers, ipads, phones, chargers etc. So glad we don't have medication to worry about.
I'm not sure how we'll fit all this in our van!!! But it's a nice problem to figure out. Updates when we return. 

How Does She Keep Up?

UGGGHHh.........almost time to return for the second have of this school year. It is hard to return after a long break. The good thing is that finals and benchmarks are finished. Grades should be out anytime ( OK maybe the grades part isn't always the good thing).
Heard an interesting comment from Grace's English teacher before the break. If the students had 90% in the class they could use a finals pass to skip the final. When he was passing out the review packet for the final test, Grace asked if it was going to be graded, did they have to take one if they were using their finals pass. When he asked who in the class wasn't taking the final it was only Grace.
He was amazed that someone that misses so many days of school is able to keep up and get a good grade. Said he'd never met anyone that could do it. Usually grades and attendance go together.
I've been thinking about his comments and granted English is Grace's best subject, I think her ability to keep up with her classes relies on several factors.
First, she has to be on top of her assignments, as soon as she comes back to school after an absence, she finds out what she has missed and prioritizes what she has to start on first.
Second, she has teachers that don't mind a student popping in after school or after class to ask a quick question. I think most teachers are there for their students and want to see them succeed.
Lastly, I think this is just "normal" for Grace. She's had a trach since 4th grade, she's missed a great deal of school since having back surgery in 7th grade. She had been on independent study a few times in middle school, but this isn't unusual for her. She is bright, and hard on herself. There have been a couple of classes she had to drop because of absences, but on the whole she's done fairly well. Having a medical condition that takes you out of the  'norm' doesn't have to mean you can't find your own norm and be successful. I guess I should remind her how proud of her I am.

What I did

Thought I'd show what I did with all those inchies from 2011. I was given a gift in a random candle box that seemed too nice to toss. I painted it my favorite color and just glued the the inchies on. I plan on using it to keep 2012 inchies in as I complete them. I have decided to try another year, but will post on my craft blog ..... www.tipistinkerings@blogspot.com

Inchie's 2011

My year started with inchies. Little one inch pieces of art. They were loads of fun most weeks, quite a challenge other weeks. Made me think of some abstract words in a new light.
Here are my last four inchies for the year. The challenges were all colors, blue,red, yellow,and green. Still deciding what to do with the inchies now that I'm done. And deciding if I will do 2012 inchies, I probably will since they were fun :)


when I was a kid I must have been a little bit of a hippie, I used to beg my mom to get a blue Christmas tree. As an adult I know why  she never would.





Here's the red one, not sure what I was doing, but It's finished




Yellow, couldn't get the pic to load right-side-up



So, this green inchie looked so nice when I finished, unfortunately, Grace's cat is a wild thing that stole it off the table while it was wet, I would say he smeared it, but I'm going to go with he "personalized" it



Christmas Break

Christmas is just a few days away!! Grace is finished with finals and the semester. Grades will be out soon. Good or bad I know Grace did her best, that's all I can ask for.
Thankfully there weren't any projects to work on, books or chapters to read over the break. Just relaxing and enjoying the holidays.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!