And time keeps flyin'

Time keeps flying by.  Honestly not sure where it is going but it sure is flying by!  I've had more meetings than I care to discuss with Princess Bear's (PB's) teacher, coordinator and/or principal.  I finally had enough of playing nicely and hoping things would change.  We had a new IEP last Friday.  Now things are in a lovely legally bonding contract that the teacher has to follow.  I once again found out that she was only teacher 1 reading group.  This time she was dumb enough to say it in front of the principal and the coordinator.  This new principal doesn't play around.  That was on Friday.  As of yesterday afternoon PB had been testing by the reading intervention specialist and will be starting in her new reading group tomorrow.  I've also asked repeatedly for the teacher to let me know what they are working on so I can go over things with PB at home as well as relay the information to PB's tutor.  She did that for the first couple of weeks of school and it stopped.  It's now written in the IEP that I must have information on what PB has done at least 3 times per week.  I hate that the teacher is such a completely incompetent idiot and that I have to be a total witch just to get information or my child placed in the correct reading group but I guess that's where we're at for now.

PB is most definitely my child which means she's clumsy as all get out and tends to have some serious bad luck at times.  A couple of weeks ago she hit her nose on the pool wall.  She wound up separating the cartilage and bone.  So not a broken nose but damn painful for her nonetheless.  Fast forward 1 week and she was jumping on her mini trampoline.  When you have a kid with way to much energy and some sensory issues to boot a mini trampoline at home can be a real G-d send at times!  Then there are times when your child is not paying a bit of attention when getting off said mini trampoline and they roll their foot badly spraining the main ligament and ankle.  She just got off crutches today.  She also had an abscess in her ear and the pediatrician thought she was going to have to be put under general anesthesia so it could be opened and cleaned.  Can you imagine getting a kid just our of surgery on crutches home?  Especially when the kid in question is 3 inches taller than you?  Thankfully the antibiotics kicked in like a champ and she did not have to go through that.

Not that everything lately has been bad.

Tonight we spent time carving and painting her pumpkin.  I need to make a small bow to add since she's adamant that its a girl cat!



I've gotten to spend some great time with my nephews.  Yesterday Luke and I were playing with shaving cream.  I think he was having a good time, don't you? Gingers abound in this family!



PB has been talking about getting her ears pierced for quite awhile.  I wasn't allowed to do mine for the first time until I was 12.  My sister had to wait until she was 13.  Now you can count to 13 on my ears if I have all my earrings in.  I digress.  PB had been asking for awhile.  She'd made me sit and watch videos on youtube with her.  I finally decided since she doesn't have to have any more major surgeries that we could go for it.  She's been taking care of cleaning them and turning them.  I'm so proud of her!



My sister and I took the kids to a local farm for the morning and the kids had a ball.  They each got to bottle feed a calf, feed sheep, lambs, chickens and horses as well as collect eggs in the hen house.  They had some ponies that are going to be for sale right around the holidays.  PB doesn't understand why she can't keep a pony in the backyard.



So that's the recap here. 

Farm Kings Web series?

Ok since it seems like it would be easier to do a quick blog post than answer emails we'll go this route.  Last night was the last episode of Farm Kings on GAC.  I thought it was good but definitely not a season finale let alone a series finale.  I do wish that someone would come out with who and why the show was cancelled.  Was it a dumb error on GACs part?  Since the show had been doing well (read HERE) it doesn't make much sense that they would pull the plug.  Then again why would the King family end this?  It's kind of like biting the hand that feeds you.  Obviously the vast majority of their income comes from farming.  That said they were still being paid by GAC and the exposure from the show had to help economically in many ways.  How many people have done a road trip to go to the Market or Fall festival after they saw the show?  How many people subscribe to their magazine?  I think that without the show to keep the family in the forefront of peoples minds that things like magazine sales and t shirt sales will start dropping off.  So I can't say it makes much sense that the King family would ax the show.  Things that make you go hmmmm.

The King family is now trying to drum up donations to tape their own web series.They are trying to drum up $325000.00 dollars.  You can go to their donation page HERE.

For $hits and giggles lets so some math here based on the information on their donation page as of early Sunday October 5th. 

$2085.00  raised since Oct. 1.  That is 4 days worth of donations  so roughly $521.25 per day

If they stay at this rate they will raise $16,680 grand total.  That puts them at $308,320.00 short of their goals. 

So in the next 32 days they need to raise $322,915.00 to meet their goals. 

Or they need to raise $ 10,091.09 per day for the next 32 days.  Which means on average $ 9569.84 per day MORE than they’ve been averaging. 

 They are offering some lovely packages for those who donate.  I've also seen where Joe King said that if everyone who liked their Facebook page would donate just $10 each that they'd have this made in the shade.  I think this is the reason why I want to belt out Beautiful Dreamer to Joe.  First off there is a HUGE difference being hitting a non committal button on Facebook and coughing up $10 to the group that you've liked on Facebook.  Hitting Like is easy.  Just for kicks I went to my Facebook account to see how many pages I've liked....859.  I'm really hoping Joe wasn't betting the farm in this case on getting all their loyal follows to donate $10. I think the Kings have made some poor decisions on the cost of things in their store and I'm afraid that thinking they can raise $325k is right along the same lines of that poor thinking. 

 I think it's pretty clear by now that I like the Farm Kings.  It's a great show that I can watch with my daughter and not worry about the content.  I'm just not willing to donate money to keep the show alive in a new format. 

Busy busy busy

Thanks to everyone who dropped a line and asked how Princess Bear (PB) and I are doing.  I know I fell off the face of the earth for awhile.  I didn't even to my Farm Kings recaps.  Gasp!  It's just been crazy here for many reasons and I think that this was something I needed a break from.  I'm still going round and round with PB's teacher.  Actually today the woman completely lost her $hit.  We have a new IEP in the next 3 weeks.  She's still not getting the information I need to help PB to me and she's not making the appropriate accommodations.  I'm done.  I've also gotten the information on how to file a formal complaint.  She is not going to waste another year of my child's life due to complete laziness on her part. 

Last week my mom & I drove PB to her yearly appointment at Shriners hospital.  Usually her appointments are 1 long, very long day.  So we get up and leave Peoria around 3:30 so we're there to start the day at 8am.  Every couple of years though they do some more extensive testing so our stay is 2 days worth of Dr's appointments.  That's what we had this year.  We decided that in for a dime in for a dollar since we'd be staying in a hotel for 1 night how much more would it be to stay 2 nights.  So we drove up Tuesday night.  Oh that brings up the small fact that my folks decided to buy a new car a few weeks ago.  They've also decided that this is most likely the last car that they will purchase.  My mom keeps on reminding us that her parents both died at 72 years old and she's going to be 67 in December.  A bit morbid.  Back to the car.  My dad completely fell in love with the Nissan Murano.  They decided to go top of the line.  Something I've never seen them do with a car before.  Usually it's just the basics please.  Not this time.  I swear that we could probably live in this thing.  PB is enthralled with the seat warmers in the back seat and the fact that the back seat can recline a lot.  Enough for her to have a comfy little nap.  My brother in law & I are both in love with the Bose sound system.  We made my mom very crazy by listening to lots of Florida Georgia line and Luke Bryan.  It is a sweet car.  My dad is crazy about it and very very protective.  That said I was a bit worried about driving it in Chicago.  I'm one of those people that doesn't actually mind driving in the city.  I don't love it but I don't mind it.  My mom on the other hand straight up refuses to drive in the city.  Considering she grew up there and I didn't I find that curious.  I'm a pretty defense and aggressive driver and that works well for driving in the city.  Only problem is I was terrified of hurting my dad's baby.  PB told him that the car had smashed bugs all over it from the trip and it wanted us to go out and immediately get it washed.  Um...no!  Long trip and even longer day tomorrow and the day after.  Bug gets will come off later!  The good news is that nothing happened to the car.  Yah!  The Dr's appointments at Shriners went fairly well.  PB's plastic surgeon decided that he is not going to do surgery to bring PB's eye orbits closer together.  This is the second year he said that and we're treating it like gospel at this point.  He said that the risks are just too big in light of what the gains would be.  He did say that when PB is done growing that he is going to do some work on her nose.  She basically has no bridge to her nose.  Makes wearing glasses slightly difficult.  Since that isn't a "major" surgery I can get on board with that one rather easily without a sense of dread.  The orthodontist did say it's time to get braces on.  PB is actually excited about this.  Finding an orthodontist to work with her that has a history of working with kids with craniofacial anomalies is proving a bit difficult.  I'm still waiting for the complete report from Shriners but overall things went well. 

I thought that I was going to be released from OT for my hand.  I'm still having some discomfort but the OT taught me several exercises to help alleviate the pain.  My mom is also an Occupational therapy assistant so the OT felt pretty comfortable releasing me since I could always have my mom help.  There was just one small problem.  Ever since I got out of the cast I've had some numbness in my hand.  Considering my issues with carpel and cubital tunnel syndrome in both arms OT thought that he could help with all of those symptoms.  It has been a pretty rough road and of course life had to throw in a few complications along the way.  The general OT exercises were somewhat painful but such is life.  Then a week ago I somehow did something to injure my triceps tendon.  To the point that my arm swelled big time.  I'm so talented with $hit like this!  (for those who wonder why I'm joking about this it's simply because if I don't joke I'd be crying!).  So that has hampered things around here. 

PB is keeping me very busy chauffeuring her to Dr's appointments.  We go back to Chicago to Lurie Childrens hospital this coming week.  The week after that we go to Childrens Hospital in St. Louis.  I'm just glad we're getting these appointments in before the snow flies! 

So, in between not being able to type well because it just flat out hurts, PB having tons of Dr's appointments and me just needed to step back for a bit the blog took a vacation.  Hopefully things calm down here and I just get to concentrate on getting ready for our Disney vacation!  Crossing my fingers and saying a little prayer.