Update On Brandon

My, my, my! We have been busy! I'll tell you about all that stuff later. Right now I need to update you on Brandon.

Last Tuesday we had another meeting at the school. The Psychologist(Mr. Robertson), or whatever he was, had finished his testing on Brandon and we went for the results. They weren't great. Actually the guy said that Brandon is the worst he has ever seen in his many years of doing this testing. He came to the conclusion that Brandon has visual perception fine motor integration problems. Huh? What? This means that he is having a communication problem either between his eyes and his brain or his brain and his hand. Here are some of the pictures they asked Brandon to draw: On the left is the picture they showed him and on the right is what he drew. (I redid it)

Now seeing that, can you imagine how difficult handwriting must be? My heart broke! I felt bad for all the times I have yelled at him for his handwriting or got so frustrated with him during homework. I felt bad because yes he got frustrated but he has maintained a great attitude even though something as basic as writing his name was so hard!

Along with this he also has some kind of visual organization problem. He was given 8 drawings to do and started in the middle of the page. Then he proceeded to put 2 at the top left, 3 at the bottom left, 4 in the bottom right and so on. He scattered them all over the page. This organization thing is really affecting his math. Along with having difficulty writing his numbers he is also having trouble placing the numbers in order during addition, multiplication, division and whatever else. He knows how to get the answer and he knows the answer he just can't organize it on paper.

Mr. Robertson said that he can tell by Brandon's grades that he is smart. He has an A in Social Studies and in Science but he has a D in all the subjects that require extensive writing or math. For now they are trying to get the occupational therapist to evaluate him. She told us back in 2nd grade that there was nothing wrong with him. After she does her evaluation hopefully they will allow him to have occupational therapy. They are also going to allow him to be an IEP student for Math. I know some of you have made comments about IEP in the past but he needs this. This will allow him to have individual attention with his Math instead of being in a class with 30 other kids. Yes his class is that big. Thank open enrollment for that!

This is where we are for now. We go back in January for another meeting to find out the results from the occupational therapist. Hopefully she will accept to help him!

Am I Normal?

Ok, I guess I really know the answer to that so you don't have to comment about that part. I was just thinking about all my little quirks. Does anyone else never finish a bottle of shampoo? I always want to try new scents so I go and buy new bottles when my other one is almost empty. Being the girl that I am, I have to use the new shampoo as soon as I get it. Then I like it better and the old one sits in the shower until the bottle looks so gross i just have to throw it out! Does anyone else do this? Anyone?
Here's something else that has been bothering me lately. I work with mostly females. Let's say one of my besties doesn't like another one of the girls. Ok usually it's me that doesn't like someone but for the sake of the story just go with it. So like I said one of my friends doesn't like this other girl. Let's say supposedly this other girl has been mean to my friend and started some rumors. I never witnessed any of this. Is it "Woman's Law" that I also not like this girl? I didn't think so but that seems to be the alarming trend these days. That other girl never did anything to me so I should still be polite and friendly with her. That doesn't mean that I have to "hang" with her but I shouldn't be nasty to her either.
Does "Woman's Law" also say that I should unfriend her on Facebook just to show my solidarity to my friend? Just wondering?

Pumpkin and Twinkies

So my little issue at work was kinda resolved today. Basically here's what happened....I was threatened by someone that wanted to kick my ass. I walked away and told my supervisors. I know you are totally shocked, right? Me not fight? Well that's what happened. This started a whole tornado of crap. Gossip, meetings and frustration. Today that person was disciplined. End of story. Whatever! If I wrote what I really wanted to say I would probably get fired so I'll leave it at that.
Other than all that mess work is going really well right now. We are very busy and somethings are starting to come into play that will make the day better. Things are up but as usual I'm waiting for them to come crashing down. I thought it might come with the evaluations but it seems that everyone else's went just as well as mine. At least I didn't hear anyone complaining. Well except about cell phones. There has been a lot of complaining about people texting and some people even making calls on the line. To that I say whatever!
Maybe all this exercising has caused me to chili out. I've been working really hard and trying new exercises. Some of them hurt! It's OK though. I need to burn the extra calories so I can eat the yummy pumpkin twinkie dessert that Mike was talking about. I thought I blogged about it before but I was too busy to look it up. So this is for you Kristy! Pumpkin Twinkie dessert

Can I Get Off The Ride Now?

I am embarrassed to say this.....I love this song!
Those of you that are my friends on facebook probably saw that I wrote "This week has been one wild roller coaster ride". Oh has it ever! Most of the ups and downs have come from work. There are things that happened this week that I can't talk about yet because they aren't resolved. It's all crazy. My job is not in jeopardy or anything like that but it could have been. I hope it all gets straightened out because I'm tired.
To add to that stress we also got our yearly evaluations. Do you remember last years? They went much better this year. They addressed good things that I am still trying to analyze. Everyone knows that I over-think everything. This just added to the stress of what had already happened the day before.
My new exercising goals really helped with all that stress! I exercised everyday this week except Saturday. I feel great! I hurt just about everywhere but "No Pain No Gain" Right?
All that exercise will help with the yummy Thanksgiving dinner that's coming up! This year we will not be having it at my house. I think it will be at either Mom's or Stacy's. Not sure yet. Dinner will also be earlier. We always eat at 5 but Jason's brother and his family are in from North Carolina so we will be going to his Mom's house to spend time with them. I need to go see my little princesses. Abbie was born in August and we've hardly spent any time with her. I'm sure Miss Becka will have plenty of stories to tell me about Hannah Montana! LOL
I'll let you all know once the dinner plans are finalized!

Here We Go Again!

Almost every year my place of employment has some kind of get healthy contest. This year the prize is up to $600! Of course this is a weight-loss contest and a physical fitness contest. The whole point is to get people to live healthier so our insurance doesn't cost so much.
Those of you that are long time readers know that I am always looking to loose weight. I am not happy with what I weigh but I love food! I don't mind exercising but sometimes there is no time and most of the time I fail to make time.
So anyway.... here's what I have to do. I have to do some form of physical activity at least 24 times in 1 month for the next 12 months. I have to have 1 preventative exam, dentist will do. Lower my waist measurement, lower my blood pressure, lower everything else! No vehicle moving violations for 1 year and I am not allowed to miss more than 3 days of work in 1 year. I also have to lower my BMI, loose 8% of my body weight or do something with body fat percentage. That sounds like a lot but the payout is $600. Who doesn't need $600?
Today was the starting day. I went and weighed in.....YIKES! I guess I have to adjust the numbers on my weight tracker. Stupid scale! I did walk down town to get the boys from school and got on my long lost friend the treadmill. My butt hurts!
I'll try not to bore you with the everyday details but I will be writing about it once in a while.
A few other unrelated tidbits..... Jarrett is selling Market Day Cookie Dough for his 6th grade camp fundraiser. If anyone would like to order let me know. The dough will be in before Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas, I started my shopping. I really am not going to do all that much this year. We've severely cut our gift giving list. I know a lot of people that have had to do that. I just wish some others would do the same. Oh well. As hard as I try I can't control everything! Ha, ha, ha!

I Lied!

I guess I lied about that posting more thing. Facebook is taking all my time. I'm nosey so that feeds my need for info. (Dumb and repetitive as some of the comments are!)
We are getting a little break from sports right now. Jarrett doesn't start basketball until November 23. I worked some overtime today and Jason has been picking up some too. Christmas is approaching fast! We have a Christmas Club account but all the extra money is helpful. I need new breaks and 2 new tires. Anyone want to do my breaks for some extra cash????
I need to start Christmas shopping. I think I'll start today. I have major cash off at Old Navy. My boys are pretty easy to buy for and Jason is too. Deciding on what to do about the nieces and nephews is the hard part. I would love to buy for them all but 4 little fellas and 4 little ladies is just too much. Maybe we should have a little party or something. Any ideas?? They are all spoiled, including the 2 of my own, anyway! I just need to win the lottery! I don't need to win it all just $10,000 would be nice!
Speaking of money....I decided to bite the bullet(ha, ha, ha) and try some deer meat.(get it now?) I'm not a big meat eater in the first place. It all grosses me out. I can't even smell it when I cook it or look at it when I'm eating it. No bones, no skin, and none of the fatty hard stuff! Yuck! So anyway, Jason got a deer and I asked him to have most of it made into hamburger(mixed with sausage). First Jason made spaghetti. Not a big spaghetti fan so I didn't eat it. Then we had deer tacos. Not bad. Since then we have had deer chili and deer sloppy joes. Couldn't really tell the difference. I still had to hold my nose when I cooked it though. Anyone have other deer recipes?
We are really busy at work. Ford is kicking ass and that keeps my line hot. Too bad that people are so stupid! Enough said!
I really will try to post more! If you just can't stand the time between waits, look me up on Facebook. I know you are all dying to join!