~Whats Happening Friday for Jan (August 1st already???)~

Hi MO/OH Peeps~

Its Friday!!! Im not sure where Jan is......maybe she isnt able to get her wi-fi to work where she is.... so I thought I would post for her...I hope someone else isnt thinking the same thing right now. I fear by the time I get this posted-someone else will have it done as well. I have slow dial up, so sometimes it takes quite a long time to get it all posted and situated. LOL......

What does everyone have planned for this weekend? I am going to clerk for my mom today and then the rest of the weekend, I am going to finish going through my youngest daughters bedroom and get it all packed up. Then, the chore of moving ALL of Mikes "stuff"-which I would call crap, except that it all costs too much-LOL....crap is stuff you cannot even sell at a garage sale, just toss it in the burn barrel. His hobbys cost too much. Thank goodness they do a lot of bartering. He trades a lot-or fixes motors or such and gets stuff for free or exchange. Anyhow-we are moving HIS hobby ROOMS into Stephs old bedroom and then one room will be our home office/guest room and the other will be MY hobby room. I get a room, I get a room~!!!! YAY! I can FINALLY get my sewing machine a permanent home-AND keep it out when I have a project started!!! I bought it brand new like 15 yrs ago-and its got less than 20 hours of sewing time on it!!

Mikes bday is in a few days and the boys and I are having some picture projects made for him for his b-day. I am making him a coffee mug with one of the Grand Canyon pictures we had taken-when Darrel went to snap the pic-I leaned over and kissed Mike on the cheek-and its so cute! Then, the boys and Mike took a good picture, with the Grand Canyon in the background and we are putting that on a t-shirt that either says Best Buddies OR Me, Mini-Me and Micro-Me....we havent decided yet. We are leaving early today to go get our order in and pray that its here in time!!!

I have decided to home school Jonathan this year. He has a pretty bad speech impairment-and a couple of weeks ago-after Mikes mom (adopted mom) was correcting him in front of everyone-he got so embaressed and self conscience-and later that week, when we were driving to town, he said-Mommy, am I tupid? (he cant pronounce any of his S's) and I said no-why? He was just wondering and he had BIG crocodile tears rolling down his cheeks. I couldnt handle that-and when we were in AZ, several people, who havent been around him-had a very hard time understanding him, at times-they would look at Mike, Darrel and I to tell them what Jon had said. There are times I have a hard time understanding what he is saying. I have a ton of leap year books that we got-and I have been working with him and HE IS improving-but I make it fun for him....AND I dont think he will get that one on one in school AND I think they will put him in Special Ed-which, dont get me wrong, I know he will need it-BUT....I also know those kids go through hell with the teasing. No matter what you are being teased about-the outcome is the same and since I was teased ALL through my school years-If I can help him not have to go through that by home schooling this year-I WILL!!!! A couple of people suggested getting ahold of parents as teachers and see what programs that maybe they offer that will help out as well-so I will call them later today. I want to do whats best for Jonathan and I know his heart is SO big and he wears it on his sleeve-and believe me-IF he starts getting teased-it WILL break his little spirit and I sure dont want that to happen!!!

Well, I am going to wrap this up and get it posted. Still have to do the weekly weigh in and then get outside to the garden before its too hot to do it. I have to water my flowers, then fill the dogs pool up-and then get the vaccum out of the pool-and get ready to go to town to get mikes stuff ordered and go to work. I hope to see Megan today. I miss her a lot.

I hope you all have a good weekend-you are ALL in my prayers. If your on the liquid diet and pre-op, I pray you have strength and peace of mind-the outcome IS SO WORTH IT!!!! To everyone else-if you have a prayer request, Im all over it-as always, your in my thoughts and prayers-have a good weekend. Love, Janet

Dear Deb,

Thanks-good to see you too!! About our school district-we live literally in the middle of nowhere. The school in Diamond is the biggest building there. There are 2 gas stations, one dollar general store, a post office, bank and a restaurant-thats the extent of Diamond-oh, and the police station/city hall. They share an office. They do not even offer scholarship programs-like the bigger school districts will offer A-plus, which helps with college courses-they dont have that-and they dont offer choir-until you get to High School-they dont have the funding. They do not offer speech therapy, thats why I am contacting parents as teachers. In fact, myself and my family members have walked into the schools at different times in the year-and walked around-to test their security and guess what? The teachers NEVER have questioned us while we are walking around in the halls-and they didnt know ANY of us. Mike doesnt count-since he has worked on their copiers for 12 yrs, they all know him pretty much-but my daughter Megan, her husband, Aaron, my mom and myself have all walked into the middle and high schools and have never been questioned!!! That is so scary to me. They had a bomb threat last year at homecoming and they did have the Joplin bomb squad and task force out there-but thats an exception to how they usually do things. There are so many kids that come from the city and do drugs on the bus or drink etc-and I know that it happens a lot more in the inner city schools or where the population is much larger, but the security at the school really bothers me-a lot-and then with it being such a small school-they dont offer the benefits that the larger schools do. Kind of stinks.

Jon has the same speech problems as you had. Its very hard for him to say anything with those sounds. We have worked with him-and he is making improvement-BUT-If someone says something to him OR corrects him in front of others-he just shuts down. He has such a wonderful, loving, giving spirit and he LOVES everyone-I KNOW it will break his heart IF kids make fun of him. I KNOW that my home schooling him for this year isnt going to stop any teasing he may endure-but It really has been laid on my heart to do it. I would have never thought of myself as the home schooling type-but I do believe this is best. I do hope that Parents as Teachers can either help us or refer us to someone who can. I was teased ALL through ALL my years at school and I know it broke my spirit. It made me numb and every day I had my feelings hurt and I just cant seem to get passed that and I dont want ANY of my kids to go through what I went through, and IF I can do ANYTHING to help him-I WILL do it...I hope this is it. He cant even say Steph...Stephanie-he has always called her tashush. Fish are Tish.... School is cool, lets see-ANYTHING that starts with any of the same things you described. He is learning from Leapster books I got. We also got some of the Phonic books. I like that most of them have erasable pages-so I can wipe them and he uses his special marker/pen and I can erase them again and again IF he needs to. They are working out well. When I went to K-They taught you everything (ok-so it was 35 yrs ago-LOL) but now-WHEN they go to K-they are to know not only their full name-but they are to be able to write their FULL name, their FULL address AND phone number. They are to know the WHOLE alphabet AND how to write it all-AND count to 10 and write it. They also have to know ALL their colors....thats everything that I learned IN K.....Now they HAVE to know PRE-K......AND.....they go ALL day-when I was little, they went 1/2 day.

Well, I have rambled enough...LOL....I cant wait to see you again...if not at the reunion, when I come to KC....Thanks for making me feel better about my decision. I just want him to feel good about himself and I know in the little tiny school district he is in, IF he starts out his K years in Special Ed, the kids WILL make fun of him-AND they make fun of you here IF you are different in any way, shape or form-heck-Stephanie, my youngest daughter, got sent to the principals office because a lot of kids were making fun of a new kid that was in a wheelchair and she stuck up for him-and they got in a huge fight, 8 girls against Stephanie and 2 of her friends. It broke her heart that they were making fun of someone who had MS and was in a wheelchair. It broke my heart too-AND when I went to the school to pick her up-I didnt punish her-I was more upset that the girls who started the whole thing, got away with it all, because their parents are rich and ones daddy is the police dept in Diamond!!! How scary is that? I believe thats an extension of what they are taught at home OR what is tolerated at their home-it would NEVER be tolerated at my home-thats for sure!

Have a good day, Deb and talk to you soon-and THANKS AGAIN!!! :) Love, Janet