Musings, just musings

I do feel a political post coming up.  How can you blame with especially after the elections last week and the AG appointment getting interesting.  That said it's not happening tonight.  I'm just too tired to really get everything out that I want to rant I mean talk about.  It's been a VERY long week.  My sister, brother in law and nephews left for California last Saturday.    The big focus of the trip was it was the first Disney trip for the boys.  They'd originally been planning on Disney World but decided that 1) at 4 and 6 that was a whopper of a vacation for the boys and 2) there is the Cars attractions in California but not Florida.  My nephews are Cars obsessed so California won out. They'd had a dog sitter for Bailey lined up several months ahead of time but that fell through.  We're not big into boarding our animals so my parents offered to stay at their house and take care of Bailey.  That meant that it was my job to go over there during the day to let her out of her kennel so she could stretch, play and generally not go crazy.  The plan was that I would drop  Princess Bear (PB) off at school and take our dog Saint (we didn't pick the name she came with it) to Morton to hang with me and Bailey.  We were getting the roof redone and the noise was scaring the crud out of Saint.  She's an old girl and just wants to sleep and be let out every once in awhile.  Having stuff dropped overhead and banging for hours on end didn't sit well with her.  SO, the only hitch in this plan was that Bailey and Saint had never met.  Last Sunday PB and I were hanging with Bailey because my folks had something to do that was lasting several hours and Bailey is still a pup and has to go out fairly regularly.  On their way back to Morton my folks picked up Saint so we could introduce the dogs and I could take Saint home with me.  Well the introduction did not go well.  Bailey was great.  She gets along with other dogs very well but is still a bouncy puppy.  Saint went after her a couple of times so there was no way these two were going to be hanging out together.  That put a wrench in things.  So all last week I would take PB to school.  Come home and do whatever I needed to do for a few hours and then head to my sisters to hang with Bailey for an hour or so.  Then go back home for awhile and onward to pick up PB.  After that it was back to Morton for awhile. That 20 minute drive isn't bad until your doing it 2 or 3 times a day.  I feel like I just spent a week driving from house to house and letting out dogs.  I'm so done with driving for the moment!

Then PB and I spent the weekend doing a TON of picking up.  It seems like when the regular schedule goes out the window that the mess is amplified.  I can now say that the house looks very spiffy.  Well except for my room.  Next is gutting that so I can then get on with getting ready for vacation.  I spent time today ordering kid safety tattoos and a pendant for PB with her name on one side and my cell number engraved on the other.  I know I probably worry too much but I'm not likely to change. 

Now I do believe my bed is calling me!  Night John boy!

Halloween 2014

Halloween was a smashing success for Princess Bear (PB) and my nephews.  PB was planning on going as  Elsa kind of like every other little girl in the world.  There was just one problem.  When we go to Disney we're going to a Frozen sing a long.  The cape on PB's Elsa dress is a bit long.  Since we didn't want to chance hurting the cape before Disney she opted to go with her Snow White costume instead.  My nephews were bummed that she didn't keep up the theme and go as Princess Leia.  She just wasn't buying into it.  In all actuality it would have been pretty appropriate for PB to rock Elsa since there was a good chance for snow.  What the bloody heck?!!!?  It's not completely out of the question for snow in Illinois near the end of October but it sure isn't the norm.  Thankfully it was just freaking cold with a biting wind.  No slipping and sliding. 

The kids usually go trick or treating in my sisters neighborhood.  My sister and brother in law take the kids while I answer the door at their house.  This year there was a slight change.  My brother in law had to wrangle the kids himself.  They were leaving for California the next morning and my sister was still trying to pack.  After that PB went to the Fall Festival at her BFFs church.  It was a lovely event with tons of activities for kids.  Unfortunately PB is having some severe auditory sensory issues lately.  She made it for an hour before she couldn't take anymore.  I was very proud of her for hanging in there so long.  Here is a slide show of the kids.  My youngest nephew was Darth and reminds me of the Volkswagen Super Bowl Commercial! 

Create your own photo slideshow

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.

End of the Farm Kings?

By know I'm sure most of the die hard Farm Kings fans have heard that tonights episode will most likely be the last episode.  If you haven't heard about it you can go to the Freedom Farms website and catch up.  Now I can't say this is a surprise.  Friday night death slot.  Mama bear talking about the fact that they only get paid a nominal amount....yada yada yada.  That said this is still a great show with great values that I can watch with my daughter.  SO if you feel the same way feel free to call Scribbs Network (the parent company of GAC) and let them know that you aren't happy that it looks like this is the end of the road for the Farm Kings.  Let them know that you will no longer be watching GAC.  Let them know that you will contact the companies that advertise on GAC and explain why you can't buy products from a company that doesn't support the kind of viewing you want to see on TV.   The number to call Scribbs is (865) 694-2700

 Update:  I was mistaken.  There will be one more new Farm Kings this coming Friday night October 3. I'm kind of hoping that that isn't all you took from this post but rather picked up your phone to voice your displeasure!

I'm so over playing nicely

It seems as though the teachers at my daughters school are bound and determined to make me crazy.  Unfortunately for them I don't play nicely when pushed too far and as everyone knows when Mama ain't happy ain't nobody happy!  I had a conversation with Princess Bears (PB) principal the first week of school and shared some of my concerns from last year that weren't resolved to my satisfaction.  We came up with a game plan.  She asked me to email all of PBs teachers and ask them to share with me the lesson plans they had so I would have an idea of what is going on in the classroom.  That way I can work on things with PB as well as her tutor.  That lasted for 1-2 weeks per teacher.  I've had 1 of PBs 4 teachers send me her plans every week.  I'm sure it's super tough to send an email.  I explained that PB needs lots and lots of repetition and that it would help her if I could go over the work at home to supplement what they are doing.  I explained that it leads to nothing other than a lot of frustration when they send home what is going to be covered on a test 2 days before the test.  I'm very sure that every teacher had an idea about each chapter before they cover it and what will be included on the tests.  I'm not sure why it is so difficult to get this information to me.  The principal was very sure that the teachers would play nicely and get the info to me in a timely fashion. PB came home and told me today that she had a Social Studies test on Friday.  She had the information in her binder about what would be covered.  It had been written in the planner yesterday that there would be a test but no info sent home.  I was beyond pissed. 

That was the beginning of the flying emails.  I am still CCing the principal on everything.  It has become one big game of "Lets see who I can throw under the bus while saving my own a$$".  I really hate that.  I've also requested a meeting with the principal and PBs homeroom teacher for Monday.  PBs tutor will be at this meeting as well.  I'm done.  Its time for my inner bitch to come out and play.  This teacher wasted a year of my childs life last year and it's not going to happen this year.  The woman has short timers and is counting the days until retirement.  That is also not my problem.  My problem is that my daughter gets the most out of her school year with people that will educate her to the best of their abilities.  If they need me riding them to make sure this will happen so be it.  I wish they had the gumption to do it themselves but if they don't I will make sure they do it. 

Poor PB knows mommy wasn't happy today.  She came home and let her grandparents know that "Momma is listening to her really mad music".  Yep.  Once Rammstein is on a continuous loop know that it's best not to mess with me for awhile.  Some emails have already trickled in from some of the teachers.  It's almost comical if you can detach yourself.  That isn't a luxury I have right now.  So I'll keep on playing Rammstein and kick a$$ and take names.  Mess with my child or her well being you won't know what hit you.  That I can promise.