Saturday, March 31, 2007

With different things going on in life we decided it was time to put style and class aside and trade it in for something more practical. Yes, last Tuesday night JD traded my pretty white Chevy for a Granny Vanny, we are not talking mini-van but a top of the line Granny Vanny. Something a Grandma would haul all her lady friends around in.
We got a lower then optimal trade in on the truck, "they are dime a dozen" "hard to sell", it broke my heart to see it go. The Vanny needed some work, so we kept the truck all week. Friday, when we were supposed to pick up the Vanny, the sales dude called and said it wasn't ready. But he needed a favor, he had a guy wanting my truck but the Vanny wasn't ready. So they brought us over a lunch box (my suggestion, do not purchase, I was not impressed). Anyway the Vanny was brought home today, but I have to wait for the check I am owed for the rental of my truck, it made up for the bad trade in deal.

While we had our lunch box, he went and played in Eagle River. Taylor had a Science Olympiad meet at the high school out there. She did great and aced her competition, in ecology, but did not get a medal. Her team though brought home bronze and 15 of them will be headed to nationals. The younger girls and I tried to find a place to eat, but gave up after we ended up at Central's Shop (Valette there are some great rust shot out there), so we ended up eating at Denny's in the big city. My meal was especially interesting, it must be a new menu item, Runny French Toast, it will be while before I go there again.

I needed to feel spring, so after Breakfast the two younger girls and I went to the Russian Jack Green House. There where so many interesting things to see. Like this, I think I finally figured out where Crunch Berries come from...... I will go back when I am alone and get a cutting.

The bears feel the urge to see spring, also, we met this one... ...I wish he would come home with me.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Proud Parent

As the proud parent I am, I have to announce the birth of our first son Stone. You can call him "Spike", just not around me. It was a quick labor of 7 hours, feeling some of contractions 24 hours earlier. It was a lot like my first birthing experience rushing to the ER not knowing what was going on, thinking "oh shit they better not give me an enema". After a CAT scan, I found that I would soon be birthing a 4mm Stone out of my petite 3mm Ureter. I was sent home with my buddy Morphine to birth this thing and I have survived. The good thing about this kind of birthing is, I don't have to feed it for 18 years.


Monday, March 19, 2007

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Public Service Anouncement

The Christmas Candy Administration (CCA) is warning the gifted not to eat JD Plummer’s Peanut Butter Balls due to risk of contamination with Salmonella Tennessee (a bacterium that causes foodborne illness). The affected JD Plummer’s PB Balls contained Great Value peanut butter that may have had a product code located on the lid of the jar that begins with the number "2111."

If consumers have any of JD Plummer’s PB Balls in their home that has been gifted to them since November 2006, they should discard it.

Symptoms of this food borne illness caused by Salmonella include fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps. In persons with poor underlying health or weakened immune systems, Salmonella can invade the bloodstream and cause life-threatening infections. Individuals who have recently eaten Peter Pan and Great Value brand peanut butter beginning with product code 2111 and have experienced any of these symptoms should contact their doctor or health care provider immediately. Any such illnesses should be reported to state or local health authorities .

No Really…no Prattleif it were the lotto we would be rich, I picked the winning numbers. I bought two jars of chunky and one creamy, right after thanksgiving. The JD’s peanut butter balls were made with the creamy and we ate one of the jars of chunky, today I pulled this out of the cupboard, unopened.

Someone had to have been sick around Christmas....Who had the diarrhea and do you think we have a case? If not we may have one late May early June.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

The Popester recommended a book, I am just now finishing it up, its The Callahan Chronicles by Spider Robinson, it is the first book in a series of three, it is a collection of short stories about a bar called Callahan’s. The stories were first published in a science fiction magazine Analog and Vertex, and then put together for interesting read. There were a few stories that really made me look at science fiction a little differently, if only a place like existed. I would put this book on my recommendation list.

On riddle night at Calahans the riddle master comes up with riddles, for every riddle you guess right he has to buy you a drink, for every wrong you buy, if you guess the topic it is worth two drinks or something like that. I couldn’t get one…I thought I would try it out on you… Example: penis; truck = Peter; lorry = Peter Lore


Here’s a few…

  1. profligate; cheat
  2. fish; Jamaican or Scottish male, caviar
  3. Certainly; Irish street
  4. handtruck; forgiveness

Date It

I have noticed a few commenter's have resorted to dating comments on posts that are weeks old. I would just like to let blog administrators know that you can change you options so that all comments are dated. Check under settings, comments, Time Stamp...just a helpful hint.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

You wanna to throw down?

Your right I forgot the motto “Be Prepared” I should have been better prepared by reminding my closing volunteers about taking down booth sale signs. And I will remind my girls that Minimal Impact does not just apply to the outdoors. I am as thankful to you, as the leaders that I have taken signs down for, were to me. Again thanks for being such a great Girl Scout by helping us out, and doing it so nicely.


A Careful Soul

By Ley Cash - San Gorgonio Girl Scout Council


A careful soul I have to be,

A little Girl Scout follows me.

To a narrow path I must stay,

For if I don't, she too, will stray.

I must choose my deeds with care.

For all I do, she too, will dare.

My words I guard and softly speak

And I must love the strong and the weak.

Oh, I must be fair, from the start.

And boldly lead with a steady heart.

In all I say and all I do.

I promise to strive to be true.

Because you know ...

Where're I go ...

A careful soul I have to be.

A little Girl Scout follows me!


Saturday, March 10, 2007

In terms of religion or your god...

"Do you really believe what you believe is really real?", there is some awesome conversation going on over at Tabitha's surrounding that question. I don't believe the question was meant to open debate between us about religions, but solely a question to ask your self, "Do you really believe what you believe is really real?". I am going to take the question one step further...in relation to the definition of Believe, which meaning defines your views about your god and why?

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Dismissed

Now that they dismissed me from my audition and I am allowed to, I Googled the case. It is totally a Cold Case situation. Totally Prime Time Stuff… sex, lies, betrayal, money, and murder. Part of me is disappointed, how exciting to see the process and to see the evidence, to be part of a case that is receiving national attention. Yet sending a man to jail is a big burden to bear, would I be able to form an opinion objectively? And not cave if my peers disagreed? In that aspect, I am relieved.

While sitting and waiting and getting to know the others, we all knew a little about the case, we found ourselves thinking from the attorneys point of view. We found we all had our ideas of who would be picked. A little too late for us to do it, so we didn’t, we came up the idea of getting some bets going. Everyone throws in a buck or two and pick their favorite twelve, the person with the most picks making it to the jury box gets the money. Out of 63 picks, no contact with half of those, I got 5 of the 12. My favorite for jury foreman, walked right at the end.

You know for the fist time in, to many years to count, I am NOT going to be filling my truck with cookies, I am not stressing about sales, I am totally confidant in the parents handling that situation, I am FREE of cookie anxiety!!!! Anyone want to buy some?

Its been a crazy week, my mind is frazzled, you would think it was still a full moon by the tears, laughter, bitching, picking, and the owiies that came home from school. ACK....I am looking forward to a day of catching up from the last week.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

American Idol

I feel like I am on American Idol. I sit around all morning and most of my afternoon waiting for my audition while they weed out all the wackos.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Jury Duty

A month ago John gets jury duty and doesn’t get called in, so I don’t make an excuse when I got my notice. Today I sat for 6 hours and didn’t even get a chance to get kicked out and now I get to go back tomorrow to try.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Bad Kids

I went to a School District training on Saturday to give me tips on how to deal with kids with severe behavior problems. I am not talking about the normal 80% of the population, who typically learn with punishments and rewards, kids who can accept blame for their actions the people who can “Play the Game”. We are not even talking about the 11% of population who tend to blame others for their behavior or who will not respond to authority. Some of their behavior may be taught in the environment they were raised in. These people can be dealt, mostly, without taking them out of the environment they are in. Most are able to live by society’s rules, but only by blaming authority or society for any negative actions they were “forced” into. Some of the people in this group will join the other 80% in leading productive lives some will join this next group that the training was focusing on.

We were talking about the 9% of population who will never stop their behavior because an authority says so. This group will not accept responsibility for their actions. Typically, this group of people, has to be removed from their environment to make changes to their behavior, but will return to their old ways as soon as they are back into their normal environment.

In many cases these people know what they are doing, know it is wrong, yet they will sneak and connive to do whatever they please, often you will not catch on with out being sneaky yourself.

  • For example - This boy is a fire starter, they knew it was him, but could never catch him because he would never be around when the fires were found. A teacher decided that she would follow him and watch him for a week, she had to hide, for if he knew she was there he would play by the rules. As she watched she found his triggers, then when the stress built up, he set a fire, then he was fine. He would seek out is opportune moment, he would wait until a classroom crises, when the focus was not on him. They are working with him today, to teach him, his friends, and family how to spot potential triggers and fix them before he blows. It is going slow but they are seeing progress.

It is said that, this 9% of the population, without help, will never be a productive person of society. They say this group will probably serve time in jail sometime in their lives, and will probably return. Many people with severe mental disabilities may fit into this group, when dealing with these issues they are considered "Roadblock" or "Traits" that you cannot change, just manage, unlike behavior which can be taught . The sad thing is they say that early intervention is the key to helping this 9%. They say that there are three key contributing factors in getting a person out of this group is, (1) Early intervention before the age 8, (2) Behavior Management plans and teaching proper behavior, and (3) a life partner who will help implement or manage the behavior plan through out their life. Most will not make it out of this group.

These are just statistics and can vary from area to area; many different factors come in to play…economics, family structure, social issues...and so much more. When dealing with children in this group, the new theory is to “teach” good behavior instead of stopping bad. How can we NOT stop the bad behavior? Remember this group does not respond to rules or authority. Telling them to STOP will not work. Instead we should ask …WHY? Why are they behaving this way? What are the gains to the behavior? Are they seeking attention? Are they seeking necessities of life? Are they avoiding a difficult situation? Then once you have those answers it easier to apply a behavior management plan and avoid the triggers causing the behavior. First step is to question, the second step is to teach them to avoid and manage their “Triggers”.

  • For example…3rd grader Bobby can’t read, whenever the teacher asks that he read out loud, he causes distractions in the classroom, outbursts, violence, disrespect. Solution of the past is to remove him from the classroom, but this does not fix his problems, he is getting exactly what he wants, out of an uncomfortable situation, a reward. After watching him for a while they found that his “trigger” is the thought of reading out loud in front of his peers, or the fear of failing. We now know the “why”, so how do we fix it? We pull him out of class at reading time and tutor him one on one with a lot of positive feed back. Once he is confidant enough he will be able to sit through reading with his class and might even participate. His “trigger”… is fear of failure so we need to teach self esteem, teach him to understand that his best is different then Miss Suzy straight A’s.

The older generation in the class on Saturday was stuck on changing society, removing sex and violence from TV, changing the system… they were saying that until society changes we cannot make changes. I think I heard “back in my day” more time then I needed. Yes the past was a pleasant place to live, but it is not a place we will ever see again. We must adapt and change to meet the new generations. As teachers the major changes in society is out of our hands, we all agree TV is no good, but how many of us turn it off? We are all still watching. Society will change and we must/will adapt. We cannot provide a stable home life for very child, we cannot change bad parenting, and we cannot remove sex and violence from the media. We can only adapt and change the way we teach and the way we show progress of a student and the way we manage our classrooms and schools.

To most at this training it sounded like the odds are against us, if the 9% can’t or won’t change, why try? With only six hours a day at school, we cannot out weigh the 18 hours they spend in the community. The reason why we continue to work with this 9% instead of locking them up….is because these are statistics and there is always an exception to the rule…if you make the difference with one kid, it is worth it!

Points to Ponder –

  • Alaska has over 700 students that were removed from their home environment to an out of state school to learn behavior management. Statistic show that once they return they will go back to old behavior.
  • One third of Alaskans students will drop out of High School.
  • 3% of students will drop out before the end of JR High.
  • 30% of the USA’s High School graduates cannot read.
  • Is it fair to Joey with an IQ of 58, to be graded on the same level as Cindy who has an IQ of 130? Joe will never get reach the standard A grade, so why should he keep trying?

The schools system is still meeting the needs of those who can “Play the Game”, 75% to 80% of the population. Where I would worry is if your child is in that other 20%, that 11% of teetering students or the 9%, that people have given up hope on, these children need IEP (Individual Education Plans) or they will be left behind with the No Child Left behind Act. Remember it is not SECIAL ED…its Individualized Education.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Tonight’s History Lesson

Rose- “Mom, has there ever been a black president?”

Me- “No, honey, the next election year….”

Byrd -“Na huh, Mom, Abraham Lincoln.”

Me- “He wasn’t black.”

Byrd – “Well, he was tan.”

Rose –“Well, duh that’s because he went to the tanning salon.”