Well peeps, the past week or so has been pure hell. We received the evaluation results for the eval they did on Taz (did I tell you about that? I don't remember and am feeling too lazy to go back and look at previous blog posts). Oh well, short version:
With all that has happened this year, I wanted to make sure Taz was still on track academically and just "see" where he is at as far as the social/behavior stuff goes. Suffice to say, I was NOT pleased with the results of the evaluation. The crap school he's at currently....in their "attempt" to get his behavior in check and work on his social skills, etc (which they haven't done that great of a job on IMHO) they decided to "slide" on the academics....thus Taz is NOT where he needs to be going into high school. I found out some other stuff as well, but really can't get into all of that at the moment because part of it involves the crap school not following his IEP...suffice to say, I'm not really thrilled at the moment.
Based on all that we discovered, the evaluation results, etc there is pretty much no way that Taz can return to our home school district this Fall....thus our only option at this point would be to either: (1) home school, or (2) enroll him in the program at "Hell High" for a year in hopes that they can not only get him back where he needs to be academically, but also get his social/behavior stuff in check. Because of everything else that is going on, I just can't deal with another year full of non-stop battles with the school and "team", thus hubby & I agreed to enroll Taz in "Hell High" for a year. Yeah I know....it's definitely NOT my "school of choice".....but we did have one bonus at the IEP meeting. They somehow "forgot" (yeah right) to invite one of the key ISD people....so, I decided to invite her as our "guest"....tee hee, yep nothing the team could do about it since I REQUESTED that she be in attendance....so she was there in our corner. She actually does support us and wants what is best for Taz, and she's a "take no crap" type of gal -- someone the "team" doesn't want to mess with. So with her assistance, we were able to spell things out very clearly for the "team".....we were very specific with what we wanted written in the IEP, how we want things approached going into the fall, what we expect, etc along with a whole list of goals and stuff.
The other thing....a very dear friend lost her battle with cancer. She had been the principal at Taz's former Elementary school and was a huge advocate....she had been such a great help during the difficult years. There was no cure for the type of cancer she had, thus the doctors had just been "keeping in under control" for the last 2 years. I had to visit the school to take something in for son #3's class, and found out that she was in the hospital and they were preparing for her to go home with hospice. When I heard the news, it felt as if someone had hit me with a semi truck.....I knew this day would come, I knew it from the moment she first told me she had cancer....but I wasn't prepared for it, I wasn't ready to let her go. She has always been one of my "go to" people, and when Taz entered middle school I would often stop by and chat with her about things.....thus I wanted to talk to her about the crap school, Hell High, how the IEP went, etc.....just catch up and chat like we always did, but that didn't happen. They were limiting her visitors to just family....so I never got the chance to see her one last time.
I decided to make a quilt for her....Lord knows I've told her a million times over the years just how much she meant to us, etc but I wanted her to have something in her final days....something that would remind her just how much we loved her. So I decided to make a quilt. I did a patchwork ABC design on the one side (similar to the one I made for our teacher friend who retired), and on the other I had hand prints of students past & present....I painted each hand print with craft paint (they were the "border" of the other side of the quilt), then in the center I painted "You held our hands for a little while, but you'll hold our hearts always". All 4 kids helped with the quilt....the 2 older boys helped cut out the fabric, sew the squares together, etc and all 4 helped paint the hand prints....even hubby helped. When it was finished, I took it to her best friend and asked if she could deliver it. I included a heartfelt letter.....her friend took it to the house the day they brought her home from the hospital. She read the letter out loud to her and they put the quilt on her hospital/hospice bed. Her friend told me how touched "V" was, as well as her family and how much the quilt meant to them all. She died a few days later....they closed school for the day and held a memorial service in the gym. The 3 younger boys and I went to that....they had the quilt on display for all to see. I kept it together for the most part, at least until "V's" mom came up and hugged me and thanked me for the quilt. Then I cried.....and I cried the whole drive home. I will miss my friend and mentor....I'll miss our visits and chats....I'll miss her wisdom and advice.
Well if that wasn't enough to make it a super crummy week, hubby had to work on Mother's Day and because it was such a long work day for him, he didn't stop to get any gifts for me (from the kids). I knew he wouldn't be able to go shopping, and the kids were bugging me most of the day....so I took them out to lunch and then shopping so they could pick out a gift. I ended up cooking dinner since hubby didn't get out of work until late....so pretty much my Mother's Day sucked....it sucks to have to buy your own gifts, spend the day dealing with non-stop B.S. and then cook a meal that was suppose to be cooked for you.....oh well, whatever....such is life right? At least the kids tried to make it a good day as much as possible.
I had hoped that this week would get better after the past week we had....yeah right....no such luck. I had a ton of stuff to deal with as per usual, had to run out and do some last minute shopping for son #2's birthday, got some bad news that night as I was in the middle of trying to frost his cake (will share that news later). Then I found out that some punk kid took a gun into the crap school this week (the school that Taz attends) thankfully no one was hurt....but talk about something that would make a parent freak out -- damn and this is the school that the team claims is such a great choice for Taz?! Suffice to say I was not pleased at all to hear that news, especially since they made it sound like it wasn't that big of a deal when they robo-called about it....then I hear more details on the local news about it. At least no one was hurt....
Then the other day I got a call from the school to pick up son #4 cause he had gotten hurt on the playground. I found out once I got to the school that he had fallen and hit his head, but they didn't know "how" it happened or if he had knocked himself completely out or not....how can they not know that?! WTF?! Where were the damn recess aides, who was watching these kids? It's not that big of a playground for crying out loud! Anyhow, when I got there I saw he had a huge bruise on his forehead and he was complaining of a stomach ache....great probably a concussion. Sigh.....he's ok now, I kept him home yesterday just to make sure and contacted his doctor....he was fine today so I sent him back to school. Now at this point I should be yelling "TGIF" right? Yeah not gonna happen....we had one more bad thing hit this week, news that is NOT good at all....but I can't say anything about it just yet. Suffice to say it will mean some major changes for us.....stay tuned, I promise to share more details within the next few days.
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