the tie

so there’s this little tradition in my husband’s family that involves all people marrying into the family getting a nickname based on the letters H and R. it started when my father-in-law married my mother-in-law and her sister married her husband. they are the original H and R. and it all revolves around this wacky tie.

my mother-in-law’s mother, nana, bought it at an estate sale & wanted her sons-in-law to share the tie. it is actually a nice tie, save the kitschy pink screenprinted ‘ralph’ that is all over it. it’s chic, fashionable, skinny, has a fun ‘H’ on it, and is a beautiful charcoal silk. it would look great with a very nicely tailored suit, actually. it’s very madmen.

so it was all very silly & they played along. my father-in-law became ralph and my uncle-in-law became herb (silent ‘H’ thankyouverymuch. many years later (like, 20 years,) when their baby brother got married his new wife, aunt lou became ruby. i was next, 10 years later and chose hermione.

i got married in 2000 and found the name in my great-big-humongous-everything-by-and-about-shakespeare-ever book. i didn’t get it from harry potter fame, as i had no idea that harry potter existed then. hermione was the wife of leontes in the winter’s tale. she suffers as a result of his mistaken belief in her infidelity and at the end of the play she appears to return from the dead, having appeared as a statue. (from wikipedia) after reading that, i may want to change my H name to hippolyta, a leader of the amazons (i am tall,) who is the bride of theseus in a midsummer night’s dream and the two noble kinsmen. i like her story better.

anyhoo, we have this tie:

the guys started wearing it to all the holidays, trading off every year. they added aunt lou to the mix & then me.

(not the best picture, but here i am wearing it at passover 2004)

it’s my turn to pass it on. my sister-in-law needs to don it for a bit before she passes it on to uncle alice. in all honesty, i can’t remember the name she picked, but i have a feeling it was a town in massachussetts that starts with ‘R.’ maybe rehoboth.

uncle alice is nameless, but we’ll cut him some slack. he’s only been married a month.

anyone got any suggestions for him?

we need an ‘H.’

i know i wasn’t the best teacher in the world, but this is ridiculous

so i used to be a special education teacher. my last year, i taught 8th grade resource, which was reading, writing & math to kids with varied learning disabilities. a lot of my kids also used the speech and language pathologist (slp,) so i also worked with her on a regular basis. i know what it takes to get these kids the services they need. i also know how much paperwork is involved with being a special ed. teacher or slp.

BUT

this process for my jilly to get speech services is getting ridiculous.

2 months ago i asked for the slp to see jillianne because she can’t say /R/ correctly.

mark = mowk
dark = dowk
park = powk

age 7 is the time to finally start working on this phoneme since it is one of the last sounds that can be self-corrected, so we waited until now to do anything about it. i almost wish i would have paid the money to have a private slp help her 2 years ago so i didn’t have to deal with the sssslllloooowww response time of the public school slp.

here’s my timeline:

mid-spetember: initial call to slp

9/18: she observed her in class as well as her sister, since her sister has been stuttering just a bit lately.*

9/23: i sent the slp an email about a new way to administer speech therapy that my aunt told me about. (it’s articulation therapy that is for kids who only have ieps for speech and no other educational/behavior needs.)

9/28: i sent an email to the teacher that the slp had observed and would be getting back to me soon. (heh.)

10/23: i sent an email to the slp asking for some follow-up since she never did get back to me.

10/30: it took her a week to get back to me and let me know that she would be sending home the initialization paperwork to sign for permission to test jilly the following monday.

11/2 (the following monday): no paperwork.

11/4: i sent another email to the teacher and slp to ask if had been given to jillianne.

11/6: the teacher emailed me to say she’d check up with the slp. 15 minutes later i got an email from the slp that said to look for it that day. i got it and sent it back signed the following day.

fast-forward to today. i have asked jillianne if she’d been taken out of class to work with the slp at all and she said no, until yesterday. mind you, i gave the signed permission for back 11 days before. it’s been an extremely slow process and it’s frustrating for me as the parent.

as a teacher, i was constantly disappointed by my student’s parents and i try really hard not to be that parent that isn’t involved, doesn’t help out, doesn’t return paperwork, doesn’t do anything for my child to succeed. i’m now on the other side and i’ve become frustrated with the lack of communication from the school in the teacher and slp. i was expected to return emails and phone calls within 24 hours. daddyjay does the same thing at work. it’s common courtesy, i think. make your phone calls/write a quick email as soon as class gets out. i know they have to stay a bit after the last bell, so it makes sense to get as much done then as you can. i’m not sure if the teacher and slp are overwhelmed or lazy or forgetful or whatever, but it’s starting to bother me more than i’d like.

would this bother you?

has this happened to any of you?

should i say something to them?

what else should i do?

* scout’s stutter has been around for since summer. it seems like her mind is working faster than her mouth. it’s not the stuttering where one repeats a consonant over and over, but she gets caught in the middle of a thought & tries to breathlessly get to the next thought. she doesn’t do it all the time, but it is noticeable enough that her teacher mentioned it to the slp who agrees that we can wait on her since it may be due to the huge changes in her life recently with the move.

it’s been a loooooong day

and the boy just came out of his room to pee in the middle of the hallway.

and he wasn’t even drunk.

i can’t even imagine what college will be like for him.

poor guy.

of giveaways and such

i’ve done a few giveaways on my blog. someone contacted me, gave me something & asked me to give one away. easy as pie. if pie were, well, easy.

but i wonder a couple of things about giveaways.

i saw a giveaway last week on a reputable photography blog about a gift card to 2 certain stores. apparently, people who wouldn’t shop at those stores complained (possibly jokingly) and the parameters were changed to include a gift card anywhere. maybe it’s just the blogger being really nice, which i have no doubt is the case, but this rubbed me the wrong way. if you don’t want to win the prize? DON’T ENTER! click that little ‘x’ up in the corner and move on, but don’t complain about something that someone is giving away FOR FREE! in their own personal space. i mean, people really do this? i’ve been reading sew mama sew for a couple of years and every day in november they do a giveaway. do i enter? yes, when it’s something i like or would use. they give away things i wouldn’t want, like knitting books and party books, so i don’t enter. i’m not that greedy, but to call someone out & tell them you wouldn’t like their prize? a bit much, folks. a bit much.

in one of my giveaways, the winner hadn’t receive her prize 3 months after the giveaway and contacted me about it. i felt horrible. she won, sent me her address & i passed it on to the correct people. i just contacted the pr group that handled the giveaway & they felt badly, too. it was no fault of mine or theirs, but when we are the ones doing the giveaway, we feel it reflects on us because we chose to work with the company giving something away.

twice i’ve won giveaways and never received anything. in one case, i contacted the giver/blogger and in another case i didn’t. it wasn’t a big deal really, some patterns and fabric, but i was a tidge bummed since i was looking forward to getting them. i’m not out any money or time, though, so i’ve since dropped it and will move on.

but should i keep contacting them? or contact them at all? i feel like a greedy little pig if i do, so i haven’t, but would you?

new music monday: jungle edition

when justice grabs my phone, this is his go-to song. i suppose it’s because he likes the cover art from appetite for destruction. you know, skulls & all?

i lived and breathed this album back in the day. you wouldn’t know it from the way i have to look at the words, though. i have a horrible problem with remembering lyrics when it matters. that why i always ALWAYS have lyric sheets with me when i sing in public. even my own songs.

yes, i realize that the guitar sounds the same on every. single. song. i really suck at this guitar thing, btw. it’s not getting any easier. i can’t play any bar chords & i have big hands. you’d think it would be easy, but it’s not. the bridge-y guitar solo-y section sucks, but i’m not doing it again. dude’s trying to watch “killer ants” on the discovery channel & i’m breaking his concentration.

enjoy. or don’t.

here it is:

pick up the phone

’cause i’m calling it in tonight.

i’ve got a lack-of-caffeine headache & hope to go to bed by 9pm. (woot woot!)

before i do, though, look at what the boys left on the computer for me.

i love my boys.

all 6

wow. the last 24 hours has been interesting, indeed. our aunt & uncle have left town, leaving us in charge of their house (no problem,) dogs (again, no problem,) and 2 kids (no problem, really, it’sjustreallyhardtokeepafter6kids’schedules)

friday

1:45 pm drive to cousin, marshall’s school to pick him up.

2:05 pm school is out, no marshall in sight

2:10 pm the line (of only 7 cars, mind you) moves forward one space

2:18 pm i have finally acquired the boy cousin & rush home to meet my girls from bus drop off

2:26 pm meet the girls, grab their stuff for swim team, drive 6 blocks to pay for the diagnosis of daddyjay’s car to the tune of way too much, go to bob & lou’s house for a snack, make pizza dough

3:20 pm pack up for swim team for the girls/diving practice for marshall. it’s at the same place, so there’s that

3:35 pm arrive at the pool and try to keep the baby occupies for the next 40 minutes while she tries to go head-first into the pool.

4:15 pm back to our house to clean up, get clothes for the weekend, unload the dishwasher, feed the baby another snack, clean up my sewing mess, get a touch of bad news, and keep the baby happy

5:45 pm leave to pick up daddyjay at work since his car is in the shop

6:20 pm leave his office for the girl cousin, eva, who is being inducted into the international thespian society

wait

wait

wait

6:50 pm she’s finally done. we leave school to go back to the house to make the roll out the dough, make the sauce, bake the dough, make & bake the pizza, get all 6 (6!!) kids to bed & pass out, ourselves.

the littlest ones ended up in bed by 9 pm & the big 4 read for a few more minutes. we were pretty beat. i can’t imagine how anyone with more kids than me can manage their day. i felt like i was all over the place from 2 – 10 pm.

remind me about this if i start telling you i want more babies? k?

by the numbers

10: number of loads of laundry i do a week
2: times i unloaded the dishwasher yesterday
0: number of dirty dished currently in my house (whee!!)
7: number of carseats/boosters we own
4: number of carseats/boosters we currently use
1: number of boosters i’ll buy this year for the boy who will be 4 on his next birthday
4: number of strollers we have owned
2: number of strollers we currently use
53: months i’ve breastfed in my life
7: number of quilts i need to make for holidays/baby presents
4: number of presents i need to make for the holidays, besides those that are for my kids
10: number of presents i don’t have to make because we’re not exchanging gifts with adults
infinity: amount of happiness i get from the fact that we’re only exchanging gifts with kids this year
7: months late i am with my brother’s wedding present (but it’s going in the mail today!)
0: number of books i have finished in the last two years (sad. i know.)
3-4: weeks i can drive on one tank of gas (this is epic.)
28: minutes to get the boy to preschool
2.5: miles i hope to run before we get there (2.6 according to gmap-pedometer)

please to be removed from your list?

i received an email today. my blood is boiling from the content. this is from a high school friend’s mother, who is a staunch republican. i’ve been dealing with these since she got an email address a few short years ago. this one has put me over the edge.

Listen to this video of the President asking
us to respect Muslims. Wasn’t it a Muslim
who shot 43 soldiers on American soil
last week ? An American born
Muslim with ties to the 9/ 11 hijackers….

WACO, TEXAS

13 dead – 2 women and 11 men
leaving 19 children without a Mom or Dad.

29 additional were shot, some very serious

—–Original Message—–
Click on the link. Watch the whole video if you want, but it doesn’t take much of it to draw a contrast with the chief executive who treated National Day of Prayer with only an offhand mention and no attendance at the traditional service at the National Cathedral. Don’t it make ya wanna (fill in the blank)?

The message is ready to be sent with the following file or link attachments:
Shortcut to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Ramadan-Kareem/

here’s my response:

was timothy mcveigh a muslim?
was ted kaczynski a muslim?
john wilkes booth?
james earl ray?
lee harvey oswald?
adolf hitler?
were muslims slave holders in our country’s infancy?
how many muslims are in the kkk?
did the pilgrims flee muslims?
how about those crusades? were they muslim driven?
is jim crow a muslim?
were muslims in charge of the japanese interment camps in ww2?
was jesus killed by a muslim?

this story isn’t about him being a muslim. it’s about him being a zealot, not a muslim.

please don’t send me anymore of these type of emails.

what gets me is that it’s attack on the president who is simply trying to restore diplomacy to much of the world that we so desperately need to understand better. wasn’t it 8 years that i heard about how we shouldn’t attack the president NO MATTER WHAT!? he’s the president, you respect him and do what he says. remember that? i guess it only applies when it’s your guy.

do i think all muslims are nice? no. do i think all jews are nice? no. do i think all christians are nice? no. i could go on and on about every religion. there are zealots in every religion & those are the people miss thang should be worried about.

and whether you are a republican, independent, or democrat, etc., etc. i think you can agree that jumping to conclusions about people and not hearing them out can lead to misunderstanding and conflict. president obama seems to want to create ties to parts of the world that we have not been friends with. do i think this means he is a muslim? no, of course not. do i think he likes these world leaders? not necessarily, but i do think this means he wants our future to be prosperous with these countries. he’s paving the road for us to forge ahead of the animosity that much of the world feels toward us and i think that’s a good thing. those leaders won’t be leaders forever. much the same way that we only have 8 years with our leaders, at the most.whether they have term limits, someone dies, or there’s a coup, the tides always change.

disagree if you will, but i hope i got my point across to my friend’s mom. i don’t want to hear about how the president is having secret basketball games with bin laden and the black panthers. in the white house! right under our noses!! (and yes, i get crap like this from her.)

i really hope i don’t get any more of her emails.

happy birthday

i woke to see heather’s post about maddies’ birthday when jilly came over to me & sighed, “she’s cute!”

indeed she is, my dear.

i remember the first time i saw her glorious face, i was struck dumb by her beauty.

and that beauty will remain forever.

in the hearts and minds of those who love and miss her, she will remain, for she is no longer here.

she’ll miss this birthday with her mama & daddy. she only had one with them and it was spectacular. full of cream puffs and love.

heather and mike love her with such fierceness, longing, and grace. i wish contented peace for them today while the celebrate such a beauty.

happy birthday, baby girl.

(click over to heather’s page to see pics of maddie. i couldn’t find one that i had permission to use.)