#5

After months of fighting with the school district, the IEP was finally approved. The psychologist says his refusal to go to school is due to the long term bullying he has endured, which has caused a lot of anxiety. The school district is paying for a private school for him, he is the only 8th grader, out of the 14 students, in the school. The school district supplies the private school with the books and pays tuition. #5 has to bring his own lunch, but they have a kitchen where he can heat stuff up. He is not saying he loves it, but he does not hate it. Progress is good.

I love/hate my new schedule!

I work 4 days a week at home and only have to drive in on Saturday. I save 150 miles a day by working at home. However, hubby and the kids do not believe I am working, as they can see me/know where I am. I have gotten almost all the laundry done. At least I thought it was all clean, until I went into the boys room again. I think I will just pull out the dirty towels and Hubby's socks they borrowed and leave their clothes on the floor. Eventually they will run out of clean things and wash their own?

Christmas was weird.

It was really quiet with just 11 of us here. My parents van has developed major problems. They can not afford to fix it now, and we can not afford to help them, so they stayed at their house in NY for Christmas. We did see everyone except for 1 brother at my parent's 50th anniversary party in September, but it would have been nice to see them again. Maybe next year? Spring or summer is a much better time to travel between NY and VA. The roads can be interesting on I 81 in PA during the winter.

We ate too much, spent too much money and enjoyed spending time with the kids on our days off. #5's assessment by the psychologist was surprising. She does not think he has aspergers. She thinks he has severe anxiety, brought on by years of teasing/bullying at school. She suggests we home school him or have him study for the GED and go to college next fall. He is almost 14. I think he is too young. The school wants to do a complete child study, or so they told me at the meeting in late December, yet they had cancelled it when I talked to the truancy officer on Wednesday. I am trying to plan our next action. I think the school wants me to pull him out and home school or have him go to another school. Then they don't have to deal with him or us.

Thanksgiving, how I love thee.

My stove died tuesday, the repair part that came wednesday was only part of the solution. I still need the temperature sensor from the oven replaced, as just the control panel/clock did not solve the problem, I still get the same error code from the stove, but the clock is not making crackling noises now.

So wednesday evening, I am trying to figure out how we will get everything cooked by thanksgiving afternoon. I could have taken everything to a friends house to cook, then carted it back to our house to eat. However, I remembered that Shelli, AKA Pyxiwulf on live journal, told me on facebook tuesday night, that she had an older electric stove in her basement I could have. They had not carted it away yet after replacing all the kitchen appliances. No problem, a call to her and 90 minutes later, we were at her house to pick it up. The stove works well, I'm still getting used to the flat top, as my old electric stove has the coil shaped exposed burners. After 7 hours of cooking Thanksgiving day, we were ready to sit down for dinner with a few friends and our 9 still at home. I did not make enough pies, though I made 10, as they were all gone by Friday afternoon, BOO! Of course, lunch Thanksgiving day was pies, rolls, whatever was already done or forage for leftovers. LOL

It's been a crazy month. #4 we diagnosed with depression and spent some time in the hospital. Also, the repairs, renovations and painting on the house are taking too much time and money. The dishwasher died again and we need to find the receipt so the extended Costco warrantee will cover it. ARGH! At least my house and life are never boring. :)

Our high school

I was surprises when I talked to the guidance counselor this am. She will start a child study and would like me to track down his previous diagnosis, if possible. Otherwise, we may have to take him to the child development center and pay out of pocket, if neither insurance will cover it. But she took me seriously. YAY!

Boys

#5 (13) is driving me crazy.
He does not want to go to school. Eigth grade is in the high school, which is very loud, big and confusing. He was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome a few years ago and does not get along well with other people. He does not pick up facial expressions or body language, which does not help. It says something about last school year that the only day he enjoyed at school was the day he had in school suspension for hitting a kid who had been bothering him all year. He thought it was great to be in a room with only a few other kids and 1 teacher, where he could work on classwork/homework and no one bothered him.

I think a meeting with the school is in order. The middle school last year said that unless the aspergers was affecting his grades, they would not do anything to accomodate him. I have a feeling they will not accept a counselors diagnosis and will insist we take him to be diagnosesd at our own expense. I do not know if our insurance will pay for it. Hubby's company insurance did pay for #2's assessment for autism at Childrens National medical center in DC when she was 4, but we had different insurance then and a DR who knew what to say to the insurance company to get results.