Home-Schooling...the New Frontier!

I posted this on my other blog "Angelswithdisabilities@blogspot.com".

You would think that after 17 years of being my daughter's mother I would have learned by now that the rules of life change on a annual or a semi-annual or even on a daily basis.  This is the case with my daughter. Since she has been home from the proctor-foster care experience, her anxiety has gotten worse.  Come to find out that for many, many years she has suffered with sensory integration.  This would definitely explain the need to always wear a pair of panty hose or two pairs of pants everyday.

Anyway, trying to help her transition back into full time high school has been impossible.  She can not handle the large crowds and confusion that comes with all the kids walking to classes and all the conversations, she has sensory overload to where she has panic attacks. For over a week I could not get her up to go to school and her school psychologist suggested I keep her home and ask for hospital services.  That is where a teacher would come to our home to teach her the core classes.  Hence begins my battle with our school district.  Instead of them spending money for what my daughter needs and we were so close to the end of the semester, I picked up work from her teachers that Dani could complete at home, at her own pace and return to be graded.  And it was agreed upon to grade her only on the work she completed.  That worked out pretty good.  Dani was more relaxed, less anxiety attacks, but being home brought on a new set of problems...getting use to being home all the time with the realization that the TV would not be on all the time.  That part is still being worked on...anyway...during this time I discovered that the wrong IQ test was administered to her last year, which brought her IQ up in the mid 80's when her IQ for years and years have been in the low-mid 70's.  And the reason this was of major importance is that I was trying to get Dani into the LifeSkills class, less number of kids, less stress, etc.  But because of the results of the wrong test, my request had been denied.  Then after all the years of working closely with the special education department heads and teachers, I get this comment from one of the coordinators at the school district saying "What makes Dani so special now?"  After that comment I saw "RED"! Our school psychologist re administered the correct test to Dani which brought her IQ where it has been, and I could have taken this case further up the school board but by this time I am totally frazzled and exhausted.  So, here is what we decided to do...

I have officially taken Dani out of school for her core classes, she does to go high school for two classes and they are to be fun classes.  Right now it's peer tutoring and art.  Then I am home-schooling her for the remainder of the year.  Ask me if I know what I am doing...oh heck no!  But it's mainly to decompress, step back from all the stress and focus on those things that are important to a kid like Dani.  My main focus will be in her reading skills and life skills.  Years ago, my husband and I had our own trucking company and we drove all over the United States while home-schooling Dani in our big-rig.  During that time her IQ was up in the 80's.  We had decided to have me stay home so Dani could go to school for the socialization but what I didn't know then that I know now is that her lack of social skills/ques is from the FASD not because of potential sheltering.   But the funny thing is that when she went back into the public school system, her IQ dropped down to the low-mid 70's.  I guess that would show that there is something wrong in the public school systems.  Go figure!

So now since the rules have changed, my husband and I have our work cut out for us, but not so bad...this will be fun!  Danielle is one of those kids that learns from her environment not  books or lectures so we are excited to watch her blossom.

There Is Life At the End of the Rainbow...WARNING...LOTS OF PICTURES!

I can't remember the last time I wrote a post, seems like forever...but there were several times that I did sit down, in front of my computer, my hands ready to start typing...when...instant fatigue would hit...BAM!  I am going to try to catch up as much as possible. First, to recap, Dani has been living at a proctor-foster home for the past 5 months. She is not in State's custody, we are still her parents.  It was mainly so that we as her parents could have a break, get more education under our belts because of her new diagnosis (FASD) and prepare for her to come home.  As a matter of fact, she is coming home November 23rd, the day before Thanksgiving!!!

Our Dani-Girl!  Took her to 31 Flavors for a special treat!

Grandpa and Kamryn playing "Angry Birds" on Grandpa's phone! Who do you think is enjoying it more?

Ashley and Manuel right after I picked them up from the airport!

Ready for that ride!  Let's Go!

Life though has kept us pretty busy, with the classes, family therapy sessions, taking Dani to her appointments.  Other than that,  Mike and I have lead pretty boring life's.  But we have managed to have plenty of alone time, we've taken a few ATV rides, not as many as we would have liked this year (thank you Mother Nature).  We have just been exhausted.  We did manage to get a couple of  camping trips in and...that's about it.  One hard event happened a week ago...I was laid-off work, after close to four years.  The economy is hitting so hard to so many companies, mine was one of them.  But I am looking for something that I will be home for Dani more.  Keep us in your prayers.

One highlight of the season was the visit we had from my daughter Ashley and her boyfriend Manuel.  They were here for a week and we enjoyed every minute they were with us.  We were able to carve out a day to show them some beautiful Utah mountains, went to Park City, of course the tour of Salt Lake.  But as always, their trip seemed so short.  Oh yea, after our ATV ride, we stopped into one of the dairy's Mike picks up milk from, the farmer was the one who gave us permission to ride on his property, we stopped to thank him but also got a lesson on milking the cows!

One of the most beautiful paths we had been on this year!

Me and my eternal honey...oh yea and Grizzly!

This was at one of the dairy farms that Mike picks up from.  This gentleman was very kind to allow us to ride in his mountains!

And while Ashley and Manuel were here, we had a big family breakfast at one of our favorite "eatery's", The Stagecoach.  After breakfast, all us girls with our self-designed witch's hats took the Frontrunner then Traks down to Gardner Village to roam around with all the witch's.  We had a great day, my granddaughters and daughter Danielle had their faces painted, nails painted...let's just say we were all tired by the end of the day.  The guys?  Mike, Manuel and Jason (they also had little Kamryn) went out to Corrine to do some manly stuff...shooting.  Go figure!

We had a big BBQ with pumpkin carving in the backyard!

Just getting ready to leave for our date with the "Witch's"

Kamryn wasn't sure what was going on...

Danielle had a dragon painted on her face...it looked great!

Kaitlyn and Kyla...too cute!

On the Sunday before Ashley and Manuel went home, we spent the day down in Salt Lake.  We were able to take a wonderful tour of the Conference Center, learned a lot, and spent a while over at Temple Square.

Ashley and Manuel on top of the Conference Center!

Ashley and ...mom!

My iphone takes pretty good pictures!

Next thing I knew it was time for them to go back home to California...bummer!  They made it home safely and life returned to normal.  Now Mike and I are getting ready for Dani to come home. We are excited about the transition though.  We know there will be lots of bumpy roads ahead but we're ready for them. Mike and I consider ourselves extremely blessed to have the family that we do and that includes our extended family members.  I just wish we could get together more so I could have a better opportunity to get to know everyone, especially my niece Emily and nephews Jake and Chris along with Dacia...can't wait to meet your sweet baby girl and to see Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Randy beam!

Love to you all!

A Few Words...

Can we all say the word we all dread? TERRIBLE! That is how our vacation turned out this week! Mike and I had been planning this camping trip for sometime, rest, relaxation, take many rides on the ATV, etc. Didn't happen, the bugs were the worse this year than any other year, we couldn't really come out of the camper, bug repellent didn't help, it was terrible. Brenna, Jason and daughters came up for a day and night, my poor granddaughters were eaten alive. But with the kids we still had a good time. Did find out that my youngest granddaughter, Kamryn, loved riding on the ATV, if it wasn't going a little faster, she wasn't happy. She would throw up her arms and laugh as we were driving. Really cute! We had made a couple of extra small purchases to make our camping a little more safer for the kids. A fire pit with a protective screen on it so that no one could fall into an open pit, best purchase of the year, then because the bugs were so bad, I took a little trip down to Sportman's Wharehouse and bought one of those screened tents so we could eat, play games, etc without being bugged a lot. After the family left, Mike and I took Dani's TV into that tent and relaxed, slept and I read my book. That was real nice.

Then the best part of the trip, and I say this with all seriousness was, we had major rain storms, one right after another, we got at least 3 inches. We had decided to leave a day early because of the rain. So we put on our ponchos, ran around the camp site, throwing things, literally, throwing things into our car/truck/camper. I was able to get out with the ATV but because of the rain and Utah clay group, the camper and Mike's truck got stuck real bad. We came down the hill an
d thankfully we were able to get a hold of Mike's brother, Don to go up with his diesel and pull us out. But Mike and I were soaked, slipping and sliding in the mud, rain...that was fun to me. Then the rest of the week we just piddled around the house, nothing too exciting.Saturday Mike went back to work and tomorrow (Monday) is my turn to return to the daily grind. Can we say "Yahoo". That was a sarcastic "Yahoo".

Oh...My...Goodness!

I thought I should put a word in or two about what has been going on in our family. This has been a very turbulent first six months of 2011. So many things have happened, good things, not so good things and definitely not good things.

But the main things within our family circle...we somehow have survived! But right now we are dealing with many challenges with our daughter Danielle. I don't want to get into great details on this blog but if you are interested check out angelswithdisabilities.blogspot.com. That will give all the details our little family unit is dealing with. Mike and I have always known what a special spirit Dani is and what challenges she will face as she gets older.

On the brighter side, my granddaughters are growing...like weeds! And those three are always making me laugh one way or another. Let's see, Kaitlyn is 7, Kyla 3 and Kamryn is close to 18months. See how they've grown...to fast for grandma.

And my wonderful husband has lost a total of 100lbs!!! He is looking good and feeling good. The picture on this post was taken about 3 weeks ago right before he reached the 100lb mark. I am so proud of him!

MAJOR Catch-Up!

I have been so busy these past couple of weeks-months, work is stressful, getting home late, etc. So I will try to tell as much as possible.

Lets see, Mike is doing wonderfully with his lap-band. As of yesterday he has loss 70lbs. Wow, I am so proud of him. We had to go get him another suit because all his suits hung on him so bad, he looked like...well you get the picture. He has learned real fast what he can and can not eat, had a couple of times that he over did it and suffered the consequences. I am so proud of him. But the most exciting news is...he got a new job!!!! He left JBS Carriers today and starting tomorrow he will be working in Salt Lake and home EVERY NIGHT!!!. Do you know how long I've been waiting for that? We have both said we definitely need to learn how to live with each other since he has been gone so much for about 9 years.

Dani is doing great. The girl who has been a bully to her has been transferred to another school (thank goodness). She has been busy with school and church activities. Her school studies, she has been doing so good. But in high school the peer pressures are worse today than when Mike and I went to school.

This past Monday was our littlest granddaughter (Kamryn) one year birthday. Where did that time go. I can't believe a year has come and gone already. She is now walking. I just love watching little babies walk, reminds m
e of baby deers walking for the first time. Of course she really enjoyed her cake, and she ate it too. I felt bad because the parents were going to deal with a major sugar rush. I had to also include a picture of Kamryn eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, reminds me when her sisters also ate their first sandwiches. Kamryn is a happy baby, but like all babies she can be cranky. I love the roll of "grandma" I am blessed to be able to spend a lot of time with all three granddaughters. I love the fact that when I come through the door, all three of them run to me screaming "Grandma" including Kamryn...well she doesn't scream but she walks very fast.

Next blog I will update on the other two granddaughters. This one was dedicated to Kamryn because of her birthday.

Cheerz to all!

I am SO PROUD of my husband!

I just have to brag and show some pictures of my husband's transformation: One of them was taken back last summer of 2010. The other photos were just taken this past weekend because I wanted him to try on those same overalls for comparison.

Then for the fun of it he put on what we call his "skinny jeans" I think there are a size 48 from a 52-54. WOW! Now can you see why I am so proud of him. As of last week he has lost a total of 50lbs. And of course I had to throw this picture in of us and our granddaughters. We have one other granddaughter, her name is Ami but she wasn't able to be with us that night, this was after Christmas because my daughter was in California with her dad. But here is a picture of my husband and our granddaughter Ami. We consider ourselves pretty blessed to have the family that we do and they are all granddaughters. The only boy is our immediately family is our dog...Grizzly, which you see is on Grandpa's lap. This picture was taken on Christmas day when all the relatives on Mike's side came over for a wonderful luncheon (soup and rolls) along with Aunt Irene's home made Cheese Cake. Which Mike couldn't have any...bummer. We did find out one other thing, on my husbands birthday, in January, I had made a cake for him and he thought, no problem, he will just chew the heck out of it. Well, cake does not go down very easily for him so from now on...no more cake. I'll have to eat it for him. NOT!

And of course I have to throw in this picture of the two of us. I am getting back the man I married close to 10 years ago. I have to look at that smile and say to myself...that lap-band surgery was well worth every penny!

A Very Merry Christmas It Was!

Christmas found us together as a family. Just two weeks ago, Mike is now the proud new owner of a lap-band, and he is doing so well. Very proud of him. So he had two weeks to recover from surgery and luckily that took us into Christmas. And as of Sunday when he left, he had lost 35lbs.

This was definitely a different Christmas, normally we as grandparents would have been over at our grandchildren's watching them open their gifts and having breakfast with our family, but this year they got the opportunity to travel to California so they could spend Christmas with their other grandpa. I understand they are having a great time, but I sure did miss them and still do. This picture was taken on Christmas Eve before they left for California, the girls were watching a movie so intently but I had Kamryn's attention the whole time.

But we spent Christmas day opening gifts and then I made homemade potato/cheese/broccoli soup, there were rolls and who ever wanted to, they could bring anything they want. Uncle Don and Aunt Irene along with Sean came over and then there was Kyle and then Jared and Stephany (I hope I spelled her name right this time). And the most important part was spending time with our newest granddaughter Ami. She is a doll and just so easy to love. I hope in the new year we can spend more time with her. Oh I can't forget my sweet mother in law coming over also.

Christmas day came and went so fast for me because Mike had to go back to work by 5am Sunday morning. It was wonderful having him home with me, he helped me in so many ways and took so much stress off of me, words can't express my appreciation to him. But with him back on the road again, the loneliness settles in again but we are working on getting him home. We are actively looking for a new job so he is home every night, so keep us in your prayers.

Well, as the New Year approaches, I would like to wish everyone a great New Year and that all your dreams and endeavors come to life. Just know I love you all!