Finally!!!! (Maybe)

Got an email from the guy at Columbia Virtual Academy last Friday that he would be in touch this week about Elliots IEP needs and moving forward with the home schooling thing.  I'm not in hold my breath mode yet, but its progress...right?

Elliots school

Well, still in limbo waiting on his IEP to be approved. 

Met a new dad at school today and talked to him about door security.  We felt safe conducting my experiment of walking around the cafeteria to try and gain entry.  Imagine my surprise when we went unchecked, around the building and waltzed right in the boys bathroom.

I emailed the principal and called his joke of a secure school into question. Will see what he responds with.  I doubt it will be anything good.

Thank a Vet, Go on a rant!

11/11/11, its Veterans day!  Thank a vet for the freedoms you have and continue to have.

We are STILL in limbo with Elliot and our potential switch to home schooling.  I just realized I didn't get into specifics as to why we decided to do this, so...

The first day of school for Elliot this year was a Friday...great!  Send them to school for 1 day, give them 2 days off, then expect them to come back Monday ready to go!  Morons.  Who plans these things?  Idiotic administrators  that's who!  I've come to learn that being an administrator at a school does not require you to have any actual educational experience.  All you have to do is read some books, attend some classes and presto!  You get a job with a huge salary all while doing nothing beneficial for the children you are supposed to over see and guide.  

Every day of the week at Elliot's school, first thing in the morning they do a thing called "Breakfast club".  Elliot's classes turn is Monday mornings.  Four Kindergarten classes and four first grade classes all gather in the Cafeteria so the Principal Mr. Evans (Administrator) can read them a book and build a relationship with the kids and allowing all these teachers to have "meetings".  Trying to teach them that just because he's the Principal, he's not a bad guy.  It doesn't however mean he isn't an idiot.

So, day one, or rather day 2 of school, but first day of Breakfast club...Elliot needs to go to the bathroom. Not uncommon.  There is a bathroom right there in the Cafeteria, great!   Elliot goes off to the bathroom, leaving his "friends" behind, its day 2 of school, he knows NO ONE in school yet.  After going in and doing his business, he emerges from a stall to find not 1, but 2 exit doors from the bathroom.  Now let me interject right here and let you know that Crystal and I had no idea this "breakfast club" business was even going on. We thought he was in school, with his teacher, learning...in a class room, safe, watched over, protected. Back to the bathroom,  Elliot isn't sure which door he came in, he's 5 remember, the bathroom is a mirrored image of itself, doors on the south wall, doors on the north wall, stalls and sinks on the east and west wall, confusing for some adults no doubt.  Elliot takes a stab at the right door and finds a door that leads him outside...unlocked.  This is the bathroom that the kids are able to use while on recess. Elliot walks out expecting to find people, door closes behind him...locked.  He's now 5 years old, trapped outside a building he's been too twice in his entire life.  No one around, school is already in session.  Elliot realizes he can't get back in and starts to cry, scarred out of his mind no doubt, he's never been anywhere by himself, ever...HE'S 5!  He ends up wandering around the building for 10 minutes.  The idiot principal and his staff of 1 helper in the cafeteria oblivious that he has been in the bathroom for going on 15 minutes now, clueless.  Elliot wanders half way around the building, nearing the main road now, when finally a teacher from another class looks out and see's an out of place small boy wandering around the school crying.  Thankfully she realized something didn't look right and brought him back in.

We end up having a meeting with the Principal in the following weeks and I express my concern that he almost let my child become a statistic.  Kyron Horman ring any bells?  It does for me!  His response during the meeting was "gee, I've been doing this for 8 years now and I've never had any child do this, we will have to look into this".  Really?  that's all you've got?  "its never happened before" is your go to response?  Time to pull Elliot from their clutches and give him a much better education.  One that focuses on him and not making sure the other 22 kids in his class are following along.

I sent an email a couple weeks after the meeting to the Principal:

Mr. Evans, 

It's been a few weeks now since we had sat down to discuss my son Elliot's issues in class.  

During the meeting we had brought up our concern about Elliot (or any other child for that matter) being able to get outside during breakfast club and wandering half way around the school.  I was hoping you might be able to share what steps you've taken to ensure this never happens again with my son or any other child whose care and protection you are intrusted with while they are in school there.  

I look forward to hearing back from you.


3 Days later I got: 

Good morning Mike,

We are doing two things that I think is helping with security.  We are closely monitoring who uses the restrooms and see that they return to the gym and the outside doors to the restrooms will be unlocked during breakfast club – If a child were to go out the wrong door they can still get back in the building.

We appreciate your concerns in regards to security.

Ken Evans

Principal

Yacolt Primary

So, what you are telling me is you are doing what you should have been doing all together by watching the children whose safety you've been entrusted with, but now you've gone and unlocked an exterior door allowing any predator to walk in and have their way with kids in the bathroom, unseen by anyone????  Where do you get one of these Administration degree's, I'm willing to bet I could challenge the final exams in all the classes and get me a degree in a matter of weeks!   

Great, now I'm going to be mad all day thinking about this crap again.  

2!

Happy 2nd birthday little Leland!  You are getting so big so fast and learning so much.  Mommy and Daddy love you very much!

And so it begins...

After some horrifying experiences with Elliots school, we finally decided to pull the trigger and do home schooling.  Registered with Columbia Virtual Academy tonight.  Now have to gather some paperwork and wait for one of their enrollment people to get back to us.   One big adventure after another around here! Stay tuned!

Sickness

Sickness has hit the house...hard.

Elliot stayed home sick from school Monday cause he had vomited Sunday afternoon.  Poor guy has had it coming out the backside now for the last 3 days :(

Clella is now running a temperature of just over 100.  Leland is too.  Leland had some bouts of vomiting this morning that seem to have subsided now, but ugh, how awful.  I hate the look on his face that he can't understand why he is doing what he is doing.  No fun.  Clella is just like her mother, when she doesnt feel good, she wants to sleep.  Sleep she has!  She went in to bed at 11:30, up at 1:30 for about 15 minutes and then said she wanted to go back to bed.  So she did for another hour and a half.   

So, we have all just played it low key around here today.  Nothing productive getting done.  Lots of movie watching and game playing.  

It could be worse, I could be at work.  

Its Monday!

Lame!  I sure didnt miss my 24 hour shift last week.  Im sure as hell not looking forward to it tomorrow either!   Crystal just asked me,  "how do you stay awake the entire 24 hours".  Years of Ninja training, duh. 

Thankfully I'm working only 2 days a week for the next 11 weeks,  thats going to be great for the family.  Clella is going to be less than thrilled that im not home,  but such is life til i can hit that lottery!  Id be happy with a regular 9 to 5 job too,  but that isn't going to happen any time soon.   Maybe honey bees can turn into a full time gig?  That would bee awesome! 

Off to bed. 

Corbin Todd Domke Grimm

Middle name finally decided.   Looks like the mobile blogger isnt playing nice for photos.  So ill have to sit down at the desktop computer and get some pictures up.  How 2010! 

Corbin

Hoping it allows a picture this time.

Corbin!

Yesterday I became a poppa again! What we plan on being our last baby. Little Corbin came into the world at 6:59am, Momma started labor at 02:00 am...sheesh. It went super fast!

Crystal sent me a message at 4:04am telling me to come home, that it was time. I took this as an excuse to do one of the things that got me kicked out of my PPB background....drive fast!!!! My normal 50 minute drive was trimmed down to 37, not to shabby!

Once again, Crystal made it look easy...I can say that cause I'll never have to do it. Everytime I've watched her give birth, has been nothing short of a miracle. She is just amazing. I couldn't have custom built a better momma for my kiddos.

Little Corbin weighed in at 6lbs 10oz, and 19 1/2" long. Blogger is being dumb and wont upload a picture, so I'll get some up soon.

Waiting...

No new baby news!  We are patiently awaiting the arrival of our new little one.  Boy or Girl,  I don't care,  so long as it's healthy.   Sure am getting excited about it though!  

It has to get better... Right?

Elliot is having a hard time finding his groove in kindergarten.  We get phone calls from either his teacher or the vice principal about every other day.  He's already been in the principal office 3 times now.   For the record, the vice principal is an idiot. I gave her the what for on the phone the other day. She kept interrupting me while I was talking so I said "do you interrupt everyone you talk to or are you just doing that special for me? ".  After a brief silence and shitty apologies,  we finished our chat on the phone. 

Crystal and I had to then go in for a meeting with Elliots teacher,  school psychologist, the principal and his vice troll.  An hour later no real solution or plan was really in place other than "let's see how it goes".  Home schooling never left the table,  but it's looking more and more like that's going to be the route we go. 

We got a call today that overall he did much better.  But,  time will tell. 

Bee's....lets get it on!

This summer on an outing to the county fair, we went into the "bee room". It was a small, out of the way building tucked back into the far corner of the fair gardens. To bee (teehee) honest, I'm not sure how we even got back there. We've been going to the fair for years as a family, but never saw it before.

While inside, I chatted with a guy for a few minutes about my desire to get a bee hive. We have 5 acres of land at our disposal, and for the most part, its just sitting there. We will be getting some cows this spring to go in the pasture and eventually butcher to fill our freezer with, but I want to do more. I feel like I have a responsibility to do more. Both to my own family, and our bigger extended family, Mankind.

Someday, I want solar panels on the roof. Geothermal heating/cooling system installed. Rain barrels. I don't know why I feel this way, it just all seems like the right thing to do. We have the room for things, why not utilize that space and "get off the grid" somewhat?

Anyway, beekeeping has been on the back burner for me for months now, slowly building momentum. So tonight at work (I know, I should be working, and I was but...) I found a movie on Netflix called "The vanishing bees". It's a documentary about an epidemic that swept the bee population here in the States back in 2008, and continues to this day. Bee's are dying. Our government is doing jack shit about it, even though they've been told why. Systemic pesticides. The shit that is supposed to be keeping us all healthy by keeping bugs out of our fruits and veggies. It's killing the bees. And not just one or 2 here and there. Millions are dying in the course of 3 weeks in some cases. I'm not going to quote the movie, but if you have the chance to see it, do it. It's an hour and a half long and might teach you a thing or two. If nothing else maybe it will get you charged up and eating organic produce.

I'm signed up for a beekeeping class in January and I'm pretty excited for it. I even put a book on hold at the library to start educating myself. I figure if I go into the class with some read knowledge, I'll be better equipped to ask some good questions.

You can read more about the movie here.

Just to prove a point....

I said I'd be boggling more, and dammit if I won't keep my word!

Today was the last day of the weekend. Ugh, and where do they go? I working yesterday doing a big furniture gig didn't help me relax, but the extra paycheck will be nice. Tomorrow is my Monday, so that means another 20+ hour day... I can already feel the ice cold energy drink streaking through my blood!

Time to put the monsters to bed.

Mike

Resurecting the dead....

I'm sick of Facebook and their shitty updates that limit the usability of that site.  So, I'm bring back the BLOG!!!!

I'm also considering another blog, a public blog that would be available to the masses.  I'm still trying to come up with a name for it, but its coming for sure.  Ill keep this blog updated with family stuff, and the new one will be R rated most days for sure.

I enjoy writing so I might as well be in a forum that allows the creative juices to flow through these fingers. 

So, start coming back regularly, I promise the updates will be coming more often.

Mike