I FUDGIN' WON!!!!!!!!

I Won! That is all I can say! I Frickin' Won! After fighting for almost an entire year, calling the BOE, and turning in our intent to homeschool papers...I won!

The kids and I have strep throat so we are all sleeping late. The phone ringing woke me up, but I can NEVER find my phone! Well, whoever called left a message. Usually, I would just roll over and go back to sleep, but I was afraid it was my grandmother. I finally found my phone and checked the #. It was the School.... I thought we were in trouble. The girls have missed an entire week of school due to the strep. Yuck. I really didn't think it would matter due to our last day being Monday, but you never know.

I decide to check the messages. 14 messages! What the crap! I really have to quit losing my phone! After sitting through 7 old messages and 14 new messages I get to the NEW one.... The one from the School!!!!

It was the SUPERINTENDENT!!!! I guess he finally got back to me.. an entire week later..... He said "Mrs. A---- This is Mr. Grumpy Pants (my nick name for him), We have decided to give your daughter the help you are wanting for her. I would love to schedule a meeting to discuss it. Please call me back at 555- I- can't -beat- you!! LOL!!! HAHAHAHA!!!

FINALLY!! I WON!! Does it matter? No! I am still withdrawing them to homeschool. After a fight like this, certain teachers and school officials will treat the kids differently. Some may not do it on purpose... some may, but it is not an environment that I want my children learning in.

What scares me the most is that someone else will have to fight like this. Some other child will fall between the cracks because their parents will stop at NO..

NEVER STOP AT NO! Never take No for an answer. Your child deserves the best education possible, and if the school won't give it to them.... you can. Some of you out there think ... "I could NEVER do that." Well... Rather you think you can or can't.. You are right.

You do not have to have a college degree in education to teach your children. Our Family does because that is my hubbys area's of interest. He also teaches grappling, which is cool! He won 1st place at the Dixie what ever its called in Louisiana last year. Sorry.. I'm not into all that jazz. I digress...

Don't ever give up because what your child sees you do is what they learn and repeat.

Halloween is ruined... Lesson learned.

#1. If you do something stupid... for the love of Mike, DON'T TELL YOUR HUBBY!!

The girls and I carved our pumpkins for Halloween yesterday. It was great. We have already dried out the seeds for next years garden. We were going to roast them, but we are going to carve my g'mas for her tomorrow, and I decided to roast those. Yay!

It took forever, but was so fun! My children might grow up to be serial killers because they really enjoyed ripping the "guts" out of the pumpkin and slinging it everywhere. It was slightly disturbing. Finally it was finished and looked great! We picked out the perfect candle for our jack-o-lantern and set off for home.

As soon as we walked through the door the kids just had to put it on the porch and light it. It looked fantastic, if I do say so myself... (i did the carving). The kids sat there and watched it forever. Awesome for me huh!

NEWS FLASH: Goats love pumpkins!!! I thought we would be okay since it had a lit candle in it. Apparently, that just makes it a warm pumpkin pie to a goat. Stupid goats! They ate the whole pumpkin before we went to bed!

I guess we got a few moments with our awesome jack-o -lantern and that was cool. I told my hubby. He told all of the guys at work, and they laughed at me... Nice guys huh!

#2 Goats love pumpkins.

Lesson Learned.

she ended up riding the goat... backwards...against her will

I apologize... I really do. I know the past few posts have been mostly rants about the public school my children are currently in (until Monday). I promise no more of those. We are back on subject.

I honestly can't explain what happened yesterday. It all happened sooooo fast. In the blink of an eye it was over. I guess it was almost magical. I don't even know how to start this post. That is how unsure I am of what happened!!!

The girls and I had just returned from the grocery store. Hormel chili and tamales were on sale super cheap and, of course, we had coupons making them next to nothing....wait, I am getting off subject again. You don't care that I got over 30 cans of each for $7.30.

At some point, Tater was giving Bina a piggy back ride. All of a sudden, Huck ran up to them, hooked Tater in between the legs and threw her up on his back. Bina was still on her back!!!! I have no idea how Huck did it!! It was AWESOME!!! Bina is on Tater's back, Tater is on the male goat's back backwards, and he is trotting!!! Hilarious!!! I am laughing so hard I almost pee my pants!

Tater is laugh yelling for Bina to jump off her back. Bina is just yelling and freaking out in general, and I am now laughing so hard I can't stand up. Worst Mom Ever right! lol I already know. I have made peace with it. Bina finally made it down and has run inside the house while Tater is riding the goat, against her will, all over the yard backwards. I am relatively certain that the goat is enjoying it a lot... A LOT..... A LOT!!!!! Good times...

I so entirely wish I had a pic of that, but I was totally unprepared and paralyzed by laughter. I am a horrible human being. I am sorry.

So are the days of my life.... an update

Honestly, I am not sure what happened. All I can tell you is that, when you poke the bear, be ready for it wake up cranky. Fortunately, I am not the run for cover kind. When it comes to my children, I am the get in your face yelling and screaming kind. Of course, this is NOT the best way to handle things, but I have issues and not nearly enough medication!

Friday, I was the lucky recipient of an angry phone call from the Superintendent of the girls' current school. You know, the one I am withdrawing them from.

He was cranky. In his defense, in the beginning, I could tell that he was trying to be polite but firm. I think that he was trying to "strong arm" me. It seems that everyone is. They think that I am uneducated because I am a stay at home mom. What they don't realize is that is have my LPN and that I am currently going back to school for my B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry. Yep... I'm a Science Geek.. I LOVE SCIENCE!! They also don't realize that my hubby has his B.A. in History and his Masters in Adult Education. He works for the Federal Government because he Makes Literally 2 1/2 x's what Arkansas teachers are paid, and the insurance is 10 x's better. I digress...

It may have been because he finally received the Intent to Home School forms. The Board of Education may have called him to let him I lodged a complaint. What I can tell you for sure it that he was not happy, and called to tell me about it. He could not believe that his staff had offered my daughter NO help in an entire year, of course neither could I, this is why we were at this point! I pointed out that he could check her files. He said he would and he would get back to me.

I haven't heard back from him yet. I am guessing that he saw some things that he didn't want to see. If not, I am sure I would have heard back from him immediately. HA!HA!HA! I did however, receive a letter from the school on Saturday offering my daughter after school tutoring. They are "starting" a new after school tutoring program. It hasn't started yet... how helpful. There is nothing like going to school all day, then going to after school tutoring, and then coming home to work on the homework you didn't finish previously. Yeah.. that wouldn't make a child with mental and learning disabilities stressed, depressed, and suicidal.

This is one of the better schools in the area, by the way. If a superintendent says to you, "Well even though she barely passed the Benchmark (standardized test) she still passed it." "Don't say, "Sir, I realize she "still passed it", but barely passing is unacceptable. You have to remember that she wasn't in your school until January and she took the test in April. That is how much damage your school did to her education. She went from A's and B's and thriving on her standardized testing to straight D's and barely passing. In Texas, she was a few points away from commended, which is a BIG deal! Way to go. What does that say about your school system?" They get really mad if you have facts to back up your claims.. LOL!

Okay, I need to clean some house... You know.... This stupid housewife!!! LOL! I wanted to make some breakfast for my girls...but I might burn it HA!HA!!

What the F**** Board of Education....

The guy at the Department of Education totally just bad mouthed me for wanting to homeschool my kids, and implied that since I am not "trained" as an educator, I could possibly not educate my children correctly. Really? Well Charleston, you know, the school full of trained educators are doing so great. They are doing so well in fact that I had to call the Board of Education and request an investigation due to the fact the school is violating federal law, and not honoring my daughters 504 plan. They are allowing her to fail because they are lazy.

P.s. My hubby has his Bachelors in History and a Masters in Adult education. SUCK IT! He works for the federal government because teachers don't get paid worth a crap!

Exactly!

And that is why home school rocks!

Go out fighting tooth and Nail...

A few years ago, if you have followed my blog, you were with me as my oldest daughter was diagnosed with AD/HD and Dyslexia. You were also there a few months later when I was, as well. The outpouring from our Texas school was amazing. They worked tirelessly to get her the help she needed to be successful. It was Wonderful.

Then we moved to Arkansas....

At the beginning of last school year, We made a big decision to Home school and it was great. Then in December, we moved to Arkansas to be closer to my aging grandmother. Her heart is failing and I have to be here. She is my everything. I gave my children the option of continuing to home school, or going back to public school to make friends here. While they wanted to home school, they also wanted to make new friends so I enrolled them. No big deal.....

Boy was I wrong. I got the copies of my daughter's Dr., Psychologist, previous 504 plan, and teachers notes together, and took them to the school to get her on a 504 plan. She has got to have the help to succeed. I was granted a meeting with the 504 coordinator and she flat out looked me in the face and said, "Arkansas state law says I don't have to honor this and I won't."

We were left high and dry without help. My daughter grades went from A's B's and 1 C to D's in matters of a few weeks. I emailed the Principal, counselor, and superintendent to no avail.

The big deal is that according to Federal IDEA Law it is against the law for the school to refuse her help. So the fight began.

School ended and I began to get all of my ducks in a row over the summer. I got all of the same papers together, and this time I contacted the Arkansas Disabilities Coalition. I got some great info from them, and was ready for action.

This time I requested a meeting for an IEP because I knew that I would have no luck getting a 504 plan like she is supposed to have. She was denied only 4 months earlier. Once again SHE WAS REFUSED!!!!!!

I have been fighting with the middle school since this school year began, and I am just so exhausted. I broke down yesterday and turned in the Intent to Home school forms to the superintendent.

School, for my daughter, had gotten to the point where the teachers were keeping her from her art and p.e. classes to redo and homework and test. She was forced to miss recess and lunches. T began to have panic attacks and was spending 7 hours a night doing homework for 2 subjects.

One of her teachers was constantly yelling and screaming at the class. She did have 2 very wonderful and understanding teachers, but 2 out of 7 is really sad.

I just couldn't watch my daughter suffer anymore. Today, I called the Arkansas Board of Education and literally cried and cried to a complete stranger because of a note I got from the principal.

It said... I'm sorry you feel like you have to pull your child out of our wonderful school system. Have you contacted Mrs-------.

Mrs.-----. is the one who refused me the first time around!

Tomorrow, I will call the BOE again. I am not finished talking to them. I will go out fighting tooth and nail!

This is why I choose to home school!

after 12+ hours of labor... I wake up to..

My beautiful Lily, whom is in desperate need of grooming, spent a 6 hours in labor yesterday. This is her 2nd litter. Her first litter she gave us 4 beautiful puppies, so that is what I expected again. Oh, and she was as big as the house that fell on the wicked witch of some direction...

Poor girl, she just looked so miserable. She had finally popped out 3 adorable pups by 9pm. I could have sworn that I felt a forth in that belly, but her labored breathing calmed, and she finally laid down to rest. She was exhausted, and so was I. It is very tiresome being a doggie midwife, but she is a wonderful mom, and has great instincts.

I checked on her until 2 am, which is when I usually when I "hit the hay", and she was fine. I fed and watered her, and boy was she thirsty. My other female shih tzu Lulabelle made the mistake of going in there twice to see what was going on. She won't be going back in there. LOL!

Everything went great, and it was a great lesson for the kids.


Every morning at 6 am I wake the girls up to get ready to catch the bus for school. Angel T got up this morning, turned on the light, and yelled, "MOM! THERE'S A FOURTH PUPPY!!!!".
ell my hubs this, but that is a post of a different color! So, we have 4 beautiful pups, a very exhausted momma dog, and very excited girls.