Thriving on Thursday

[Lady Maverick]

Another full and blessed day.

This morning I worked my cards for the first 7 hours of the day. I am very pleased at the progress I am making.

At noon the car repair place called and said our pickup was ready. We picked it up and was planning to stop on the way home to eat lunch. However, the pickup didn't make it 10 miles before messing up. REALLY! AGAIN!!! A deputy sheriff friend happened to see DH pull over on the road and stayed with DH (following him). We were able to get the pickup back to the repair shop by pulling off the road every couple of miles and letting the oil pressure build back up. Drive a couple miles...repeat. REALLY. >>>>groan<<<< really.

This is the FOURTH time we have taken vehicle to the shop in the last month. I am so ready to get newer vehicles, but am adamant about paying cash. I am trying to hold off buying anything until I turn 59 1/2 years old so I don't have to pay early withdrawal penalty on the funds. I am almost there! Just a few more months! Will these vehicles make it? Reminding myself....Yes, I am frustrated with these continual vehicle owies but at the same time I smile to think .....THIS is our problem?? HA! This is not a problem, it is an inconvenience. It is frustrating. It is nothing in the overall scheme of life so I just need to chill out and put it into perspective.

I took LO to his counselor appointment and was able to get him set up for a full psych evaluation on Feb 17th. The place LO counselor selected for us is in another state but only about 1.5 hour drive (one way). I have been told this appointment will take hours to complete, but will be well worth the time and effort. They are suppose to call tomorrow and let me know how much the insurance will cover and what our part will be. There is so much of this that I don't any knowledge of what they are talking about or looking for. I just trust they are the professionals and will guide us hopefully in the right direction that will get LO the help he needs. LO counselor said to ask for them to -
** rule out processing disorder
** do a full scale IQ
** Diagnostic impression - ADHD?
** Full Psych eval

Stopped on the way home and bought 2 pairs of shoes for LO. He keeps outgrowing his shoes before I can blink. His foot is only 1" smaller than my foot!!......and he is only 6 years old.

I'm tired and ready to go to sleep.

Sweet Dreams

p.s. DD lost her job today. The job she started last Tuesday. Apparently bar tending is an easy job to find. She starts a new job tomorrow.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Home again.

So sleepy.

Had a good visit with ds who desperately needed a hug from his daddy after being spooked last night by a 56 year old male arriving by ambulance and no vitals. Prognosis is not good for that man. We'd unlikely end up at ds' hospital because the main hospital for our city is just 10 minutes from here driving slowly, 25 minutes biking.

Also visited with another of ds's friends who we really like and didn't expect to be there (he had rsvp'd unavailable.) And met in person another of ds's FB friends. She sounds really nice on FB and dh is really hopeful that she might be interested in ds (body language could be read that way.) She is very, very, easy on the eyes.

I still can't believe dfs is leaving. If all goes according to plan he won't be living in this city again. I hugged him really tight. Both his mom and step-mom were very nice to me, his mom recognizing that he lived with me too so I might be upset along with her. Which I thought was really decent of her. But, I still don't like any of these people and dfs is best to be as far away from them as possible.

We took a 'family' shot of us all together, in the same order as the boys' prom photo. That will be nice to have. They've grown up a lot in the past 9 years. I can't believe it was nine years ago that he lived with me.

Off to bed now. I'm exhausted. I finished the first draft of the sermon before we left this morning and worked on it in the car so the edits are ready for me to enter into the word doc except there's one more point to add and I can't find a place to segue to it. Without it, I think the sermon is too lightweight so I'll take another look at it in the morning.

[Ramblinrose]

LadyM... I am very surprised you must go out of state for LO evaluation. Those are standard types of tests for a student such as LO. In many states this type of testing is free to the parents and students and done by my school psychologist all the time... Mine is quite amazing btw.

The testing should take 2-3 hours and many are in game form. Usually the student is taken into a testing area with the person who is administering the test. You will remain in a waiting area. There will be rating sheets and questionnaire for you to answer concerning types of behaviors you have observed in LO's daily behaviors.

The people who administer these types of evaluations are very experienced with testing young kids and know how to make them feel comfortable so usually the tests are pretty valid.

My son went through the same tests at the age of 4. I was not a teacher at the time and was made aware of a "special" pre-school for students who qualified. What I didn't understand at the time was The testing was to see if my so. Qualified for the "gifted" pre-school program in New Orleans. Years later after becoming a sped teacher I realized what the testing was and what I had been given was really the results of my sons evaluation and iq testing.

And in order to get my masters in learning disabilities I was taught to administer these tests as well. I had to use my son as my "student". It was an eye opener and a very interesting experience. The paper is the only one I kept from my student years and I made a 99/100. A point was taken off because I used my sons name instead of "student" in one part of my 20 page paper.

Later as a sped teacher it was required that I be certified as an administrator of the the types of test LO will be taking. Part of my job was to analyze the results of every student's test results who I worked with so needless to say I am very familiar with these tests from many angles.

[BookSaver]

Well, today did not go at all as planned. Not bad, just different.

In fact, 3 very good things --

1) I have my car back, and it was not as expensive as I had begun to fear. He ended up replacing all the brake lines and the gas line. He even came to pick me up when the car was done because he said it was too cold for me to walk there.

2) Tonight was my 2nd time working behind the desk at the library, and I remembered everything I was told last week. The coworker who is training me is very patient.

3) I was able to catch a friend online and make a lunch date for tomorrow. She recently decided to go back to college, so her schedule is even crazier than before. The chance to get together face-to-face will be a rare opportunity.

Tomorrow morning I need to finish the month-end reports for the sewing group. I want to send them out and get that file off my desk.

After lunch with Z, I will go buy a bunch of groceries.

[Harriet]

You will be so happy you got that photo, Kathryn.

BookSaver, thank goodness you didn't have to walk but had a delivery!

Today was Desk Day. Only one dreaded phone call, which turned out pleasantly.

Dd had her engineering club meeting after school but had not heard about the agenda, whether long or short. So I felt "on call" and didn't get much done in the afternoon. She actually ended up so late calling that although we made it to the P.O. we didn't make it to my second errand before they closed at 5. Third errand was school supplies so that was done. By the time we got home, she had spent another day of not seeing her house in daylight.

She said she was so late because they were supposed to be brainstorming and the sponsors provided pizza while they all kept working. (nice, but I can see why other clubs get frustrated with them - how can you compete with that). She sketched her own idea out on the board and then others kept asking her to sketch theirs and she ended up with a line of them. She was quite tired, but I'm sure many appreciated that she would do that.

Another Ta-Da was decluttering a table. HRH was with me part of the day and we talked out quite a bit.

As weather warms (I hope!) a next-up needs to be cleaning passenger side mat in car, where we had a spill. Grateful for these fitting mats.

[Ramblinrose]

LadyM.. In re-reading your post I realized I forgot to add the following...

My guess is the testing will answer whether LO has any learning disabilities. It would go hand in hand with his speech difficulties. Processing is a buzz word... They are trying to determine if the information LO is given though a learning skill... Say like math or reading is processed in his brain in the correct way and to see if he can respond correctly either through written or oral form.

If there are concerns in the way LO is learning then he can be taught strategies to over come them. ADHD can and does interfere with learning and the way a student processes information. I myself have ADD which is attention deck as disorder without the hpyerness.

One thing I would recommend is that you ask if LO will be tested to have his learning style identified. There are four types...some people learn from hearing information. Some people by seeing information... Meaning you need your directions to some ones home drawn like a map not words like turn left at the first street and then right at the red light. Some people need to "do" a skill to learn it while others need all of the above mentioned to learn.

Remember the "show me" part of LO learning math??? That was a great clue to his learning... He had to see it and touch it to understand. Most teaching in a classroom expects kids to learn just by hearing and LO may have problems "processing" this information....

Know this is long but I wanted to ease your mind a bit if I could