Homework supervision

I've been sitting here, quietly, listening to S completing his homework.
He has been at it for well over an hour now, and there has not be one single iota of complaints coming from a (normally) vocal boy. I think he realizes that he crossed that line last night.

I was very upset with him this morning when I realized the homework had not be completed. Then, to top it off, after he left for school, I found the bag that holds his laptop - he had forgotten to take it to school with him.
I dropped the bag off at school for S on my way to work. As I handed the bag to his EA, she said to me, "Good morning, how are you?" I told her that I was NOT very pleased with my son and she agreed that she was also upset with him. I gather he had already told her that the homework did not get done.
After I got to work, I started thinking and wondered if S had actually taken the time to get his house key from where ever it is that he stores it. I highly doubted it. I have noticed more and more that he just does not seem to be thinking things through lately. It is drving me crazy.

Guess what? I was right. When I got home from work, S was standing outside the house and very glad to see me. I'm still not sure why he wasn't wearing his winter jacket; I've given up asking about the "logic" that runs through his head.
Normally on the days that S doesn't take his key to school, the A-man is able to 'rescue' S by letting him in to the house. Today, however, the A-man didn't come home from school. The A-man had planned to remain in town because he wanted to go to the school dance tonight. (He is going to stay overnight at my parents to save me the hour-long round trip.) S wasn't paying attention to the conversation this morning, obviously, or he would have known all of this.

Anyway, the homework is now all done and S has been VERY good to do anything/everything that I have requested tonight.

My final decision regarding the television and other electronic devices - no longer permitted on a school night. Period. Some time on some of the games will be granted on occassion, but for the most part, there will be none from Sunday night to Thursday night.
I told S that this would be the case until he started to improve on his ability to help around the house and do the jobs/tasks that are required of a boy his age. Once I see a marked improvement I will readdress the question. Until then, nadda.

~~~

Here is a really good Math Website that will help kids of all ages with many types of math issues. S was very pleased to introduce me to it. Apparently they use this website every morning to limber up their minds. Since it is for JK to Grade 12, I figure all can benefit from it. Enjoy.

So annoyed

I am greatly annoyed with S this morning. Last night I had an ADHD session and then ended up talking with the board members for a while. When I got home, I noticed that S had not finished emptying his portion of the dishwasher.
S was in bed when I got home, but was awake. He told me that he didn't have time because he had been doing his homework.
This morning I asked to see his completed homework - none of it was done. I discovered that he had a Science test today; so I used the sheets he was to study from and quizzed him on "all the studying" he had done. He knew nothing from those sheets.
I am so angry at him right now. I can't even put rational thoughts together at the moment.

I am also annoyed about the amount of unassisted reading he was expected to do for the studying of this test. It should have been scanned on to the laptop, I think. I'm going to have to think about this for a bit and then I will contact the SERT.

Oh, and for the record, all electronic devices have been suspended for S for tonight, at the least. I was so upset with him that I figured it best to give myself time to think before I reacted.

Never ending chores

I sure hope Hubby appreciates what I do for him.

Tonight I took the boys to find their costumes for Halloween. I thought we didn't have to 'do' Halloween anymore, but apparently I was mistaken. The A-man is planning on going to the school dance on Thursday night, but prior to the dance, the town hall is hosting a "night of the living dead" walk. The A-man wants to be a "Zombie Elvis" so we had to find something that would resemble that.
Of course, while we were looking for the A-man's costume, S started to get in to the items that were there. Now I will have two zombies in residence on Friday. One an Elvis zombie, the other a pajama-wearing zombie with "a really cool mask that totally looks like a real zombie". (Yeah, I didn't go there...)

After picking up the costume items, I stopped by the store to pick up a few items that would allow me to make the food requested by Hubby for his week away. Nothing like starting to make a couple of lasagnas and a pot of chili at 8:30 at night after working all day...

But, it is done. I have two lovely lasagna pans in the freezer, and a pot of chili in the slow cooker. I will leave a note for Hubby to turn off the slow cooker and put the chili in the container on the table, and he can stick that in the freezer so that it is ready to go with him on Saturday.
I had been planning on making all of this on Friday night but was informed that they have no freezers, so I had to make these items earlier in the week so that they had time to freeze solid and not thaw in the coolers too quickly.

Sheesh, the things I do for this man!! You'd think I loved him or something, wouldn't you??

Number 300

This is post number 300 on my blog. I've been blogging for about a year and a half now, and I'm amazed at how therapeutic I find it.

Maybe therapeutic isn't the right word...

I like having a way of recording the day to day happenings of our lives. It becomes especially helpful when trying to track a possible pattern with respect to S. Life with an Auspie (aka Auspergers) child is never predictable, but when you really keep track of things, it is incredible how patterns will emerge.

I started writing this blog on Saturday, and here it is Monday night as I am finishing it. I have written the whole thing once, and then when I went to publish the post, I got an error and lost it all! Arrggh.
I know what I will write now will probably be totally different from that of just a few minutes ago. It's amazing how I will just sit down at the computer, thinking I will blog about subject A, and the next thing I know, I've gone off to talk about B and C and just lightly touched on A. Kind of like how I have a conversation with a close friend - I'm just everywhere at one time.

On Saturday morning, as I was starting to type this post, we had some people stop by. Shortly after they left, Hubby and I got ready to head to the city for Cuz's Halloween/Birthday party for G. We left the city in pretty good time on Sunday, but on the way home we stopped by the pool place for some final close up details, etc. We got to my parent's (where the boys were staying) around mid-afternoon, and Mom and I went grocery shopping together. She invited us to stay for dinner, so that meant I went a whole weekend without having to prepare a single meal.
I couldn't have done better if I had tried!!

I always find it interesting to see which friends of mine will comment on things I have mentioned on this blog. I have a link to it on my Facebook page and yet I don't think very many people actually come over from there to see what I blog about.
I wish more of my friends blogged; it's a great way to keep current on their lives.

Sometimes I wish I had more people leave comments on my blog. I'm not really sure WHY I want to know when people are reading this; maybe I just want to know if it's only friends/family that are reading, or if someone looking for information about tourettes, aspergers or ADHD have actually found some information that is useful. Guess it doesn't really matter one way or the other.

Here is to Post #300. Thanks to all that read it; regardless of it you ever leave a comment or not. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy lives to read about our lives.

Is it over?

Apparently when you don't turn in assignments, your final mark suffers. Huh - what a concept.

I was able to get a little face time with the A-man's Science teacher yesterday and discovered that an assignment hasn't been turned in, and many of the assignments that HAVE been turned in haven't been in the best conditions. It would appear the A-man has fallen back in to the old habits of rushing and not taking care of the finished product.
The assignment he didn't turn in? Yeah, he's completed it, he just doesn't know where it is. (!!) I've asked him to bring home all of his binders this weekend and we are going to do a big of organization with them. He knows that he isn't supposed to have loose papers everywhere, but apparently he doesn't "like to organize." I showed him his current marks in Science and explained to him that "THIS" is what happens when you don't take the time to organize stuff.

The A-man is supposed to be dam-busting today with the outdoors club, but he told me he was going to take time before leaving the school to find his teacher and talk about what he can do to bring up his mark. It may be too late for the missed assignment, but the teacher has assured me that he can do a replacement assignment. Funny enough - the test scores were all really good. This shows that he knows what he is doing; he just doesn't take the necessary time when doing his homework. The A-man is going to start using the computer again for assignments; that forces him to slow down and take his time, plus it also ensures that the writing is neat and legible.

S wasn't allowed to remain at school yesterday afternoon for the volleyball game. He wasn't behaving as he should, and was given a warning by his EA. He continued to misbehave and the privilege of staying for the game was removed. He didn't seem too upset by it all by the time I got home from work, but he certainly was upset about it when he had to call me from school.
I guess the honeymoon phase is over...

Dirty, rotten, nasty.....

ssss---sss---snow!!!! Yes, it is on the ground this morning! Ahhhhhh..... it is WAY to soon for snow!

Didn't do too bad in getting myself moving for work yesterday, and I think I even funtioned as was necessary, which is always a good thing. Took it fairly easy again last night; played on the computer and watched TV with the boys. Today I am back feeling totally normal - well, except for the nasty white stuff that is looking back at me every time I look out the window.

The A-man was a little upset this morning to see that we had received a letter of concern from his Science teacher. The sheet had "assignment completion" and "organization" and "work habits" checked off as concerns he would like to discuss at our parent-teacher interviews. None of the other teachers indicated any concern for discussion. The A-man was 'sick' yesterday and didn't go in to school, so I am hoping I am still able to get a fairly good interview time with this teacher.
After I saw that letter, I also realized that I have not yet received the A-man's IEP in the mail; I've asked him to follow up with his guidance councillor about that today, too.

Actually, I haven't even read S's IEP yet - it arrived in my hands on Thursday morning just as S was getting ready to head off to school. I sent the SERT a quick email in the morning telling her that I would review it when I got back home. Hmm.... guess I'd better try and find that, huh? lol - oh look, here it is!!

The A-man is going to set up an appointment for me with his teacher. Hopefully all of the 'good' times haven't been taken and I'm stuck with something dreadful like 8:30 at night.

Back to reality

Thursday's meeting with Boss went well. Pay structure that was offered was right within the amounts I was hoping it would be, plus there was an added bonus structure that I hadn't expected. Always nice.
I was also given a promotion with respect to the shows we run. Again, very cool; but not surprising. Flattering for sure, though.

Las Vegas was a total blast. I took so many pictures, and I can't wait to go through them on a bigger screen to find the best ones. I might even get Hubby to show me how to put together a little running video stream with the photos, subtitles and sound effects. (Hubby has the most interesting programs...)

Apparently S didn't do as well with my leaving as he had indicated at home; in S's agenda on Thursday afternoon was a note indicating that he had been acting up in school, and the EA asked if my trip was coming up. I couldn't answer because I was on my trip. He had a Science worksheet assigned on Thursday night and it was due today. S lied (or rather didn't offer) about having homework and didn't get it completed. I have had work on some it when he first got home and then he will finish the balance of it after supper tonight.
The A-man fared much better with respect to my going away, but he has never had the same concerns about my trips as S does.

Poor Hubby got a grouchy, tired wife coming in the door this afternoon. Our garbage and green bins didn't get picked up on Thursday as they were supposed to be, and when I pulled in to the driveway this afternoon and saw the bins and the garbage STILL sitting there, well, I was annoyed with both Hubby and the garbage man for not dealing with it. I'm pretty sure the person at the county office didn't like my phone call this afternoon. (It will be really bad if they don't pick it up tomorrow as they indicated they would.)

I did have a pretty good, solid sleep for the afternoon - red-eye flights are never good - and I'm happy to say that I think the boys will have a somewhat coherent, pleasant Mom for the evening. Dinner is baking in the oven and I'm going to just take it easy for the night.

Off again...

Boss and I have a lunch 'date' today. Review time... I sure hope I am able to get the raise amount that I have calculated. He knows I've been very patient with this, so hopefully he will make it worthy, you know?

The boys had a PA day last Friday, which gave them a four day weekend. The A-man was greatly annoyed that he had been assigned both History and Science homework "over a holiday." I told him to get used to it - that's life. I also suggested that he consider the Friday as a special work day, and if he got the homework all done that day, technically he wouldn't have homework on the holiday weekend. He didn't buy that.
By supper time on Monday, though, the A-man was finished all of him homework. I did ask him about it once over the weekend, but after that, I decided it was time to just let him schedule himself, and see where the chips fell. I'm proud of him - he did it.
Actually, it would appear he did it pretty well. Got an 84% on the History report, and hasn't yet received the Science back. I would think he did okay; he's a natural at Science.

S has become the General Manager of the boys' volleyball team at school. I guess his EA is a team coach, and in order to still coach the team during lunch and still do her job with S, she had to give him something to do to justify him being there. He's thrilled. The other day I gave him his money for a team shirt, and was so proud to come home and show it to all of us. It even has "GM" on the back where others would have a number. He'll be traveling to away games with the team, and I have reminded him that proper behaviour is a must at ALL events.
The first game is next Tuesday - a home game. I can tell that for S, having a 'special' job is such an esteem booster. He's such a great kid... I just wish other kids his age would be able to accept his quirkiness. Perhaps in time the Aspergers would be quite so pronounced and he will be better accepted by peers. Maturity - of both S and his peers - should also help...

I am all packed a ready to go on my birthday get-away with friends. My bags are packed and Sammy will be here around 4 this afternoon to head to the airport. The others will be meeting us there. Just checked the weather in Vegas, and it is supposed to be in the high 80's every day we are there. Nights a bit cooler (high 50's, low 60's), but I think we will be able to handle that. Certainly no frost to contend with!

Hubby and the boys will be participating in a trout derby this weekend. It's the big fund-raiser for the Fishing Club we belong to; the A-man will also be earning some volunteer hours over the weekend.

Holiday Weekend/Work stuff

This morning I feel like Captain Prickard of Starspace command. I knew the change was coming, and I thought I was prepared for it, but it turns out I am still quite adverse to change. (Gee, I wonder where the boys get it from….)

My work station has been changed all around. I can live with the actual desk-layout change – it was changed at my suggestion, actually, to accommodate the other changes.
What I am finding most difficult to adjust to are the two screens – large, 20” flat screens – on my desk. Two screens! Why on earth does a person need two screens at their work station?!?
Then, to throw more chaos in to the mix, my telephones (yes, I have two of those, but that isn’t new) have been switched from the right hand side to the left hand side of my work area. I keep reaching in to the wrong direction every time one of the blasted lines beeps at me!
I had to poke around the front of my computer to even figure out how to turn the thing on. Felt like a total novice…

New assistant is working out well. It has been SO nice to be able to get so many of the little things done and taken care of. None of the tasks are difficult - they just take up time. It’s almost strange to have this little extra breathing space in my day now. I’m unnerved by this – I haven’t felt this is such a long time in the office. It sort of freaks me out.
She is a very serious girl… Boss and I are not quite sure how to take her. I guess it will take working at a trade show with her at the end of November to really be able to get a true feeling for her. It’s amazing how much a person can change/adjust their personalities when on display at a trade show; her first one will be at the end of November. She is a nice enough girl – and yes, she is still a girl in my opinion – she is just so darn quiet. We are not used to quiet…

We had a great holiday weekend. With weather like that, it would have been hard to not have one; sunny, warm days… not something we often experience in the middle of October. Saturday was a day of grocery shopping and cleaning up. We had Jazzy’s folks over for our wine-tasting event. It turns out California really isn’t all that great at making Savignion Blanc, but they do make a yummy Cabernet Savignion! I served all goat’s cheese with the white wine and then all sheep’s-milk cheese with the reds. Found some pretty good cheeses that way, too. Also learned that just because it’s called an ‘artisan’ cheese, and costs WAY more than all the others, doesn’t necessarily mean it will be the best tasting.
Sunday was ‘turkey’ day. I woke up bright and early and started getting things ready for baking. I’d made the dough the night before, so I just had to warm them enough for rolling. Then I was chopping, slicing, dicing, and preparing for a dinner for 10 people. I had the table all set, the kitchen all cleaned, the serving dishes and utensils all ready and the turkey was in the oven with lots of time to spare. Hubby and I even got a chance to sit and talk for about half an hour before our guest arrived. Dinner was great – but not enough turkey left over for my liking.
Yesterday was beautiful weather, and Dar called me and invited me out on her sail boat for the afternoon. I had planned on doing laundry and cleaning up my bedroom area, but the lure of the wind, sun and time on the water was far too strong for me… off I went. What a perfect way to end the busy weekend. I was so relaxed when I drove home yesterday afternoon; my neck and shoulders aren’t used to being so relaxed! Hubby took advantage of the sunshine and got the grass cut and then he and boys did all the yard-work preparation for winter. All deck items are stored, planters are away, etc.
I am so glad I was sailing instead of doing that!!

Today is Election Day here in Canada – make sure you get out and vote! I brought my election form with me this morning and will be voting on my way home tonight.

Pre-holiday and holiday bakes

Here is my little man starting his first batch of muffins...

All done!

Mini zucchini loaves at the back, banana chocolate chip muffins on the left and carrot spice on the right...

And the biggest seller of the bake sale...

COOKIE PIZZA!!

~~~~~~~~~

My Thanksgiving baking consisted of an apple tart...

A cherry pie...

And a pumpkin pie!

The Bake-a-thon

The A-man 'forgot' about our baking date on Tuesday evening, so we had a major marathon last night. He actually did most of the work himself, and I think he did very well, too.
He started by making mini-zucchini loafs and while they were in the oven, moved on to making banana-chocolate chip muffins. After that, he made up the batter for carrot-spice muffins (which is when I realized we were missing a couple of ingredients and I had to run to the store.) Hate it when that happens!

Once we finally got the carrot muffins in to the oven, it was on to the cookie pizza. Now, I have made this cookie pizza for about 8 years or so. As a rule, I only make this once or twice a year, and only for special occasions at the school - when the boys ask me to make it. This thing is a butter-based cookie dough, topped with sweetened condensed milk, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips and smarties. It is NOT the type of item you would give to your ADHD child very often, let me tell you. (I'm sure the teachers would curse me when I sent this concoction to the school...)
The A-man was positive it would do well at the school bake sale. In the elementary school, slices of this pizza was always sold out very quickly when taken in for a bake sale. I sure hope for the A-man's sake that it was as popular in highschool as in elementary...

By the time we finished baking, I was beat. Actually, I didn't even do the majority of the work, either. I did the grating/chopping/mashing and added a few ingredients along the way, but for the most part, the A-man did it all. S was very pleased that he was able to be the A-man's sous chef. He had even brough his apron and chef's hat home from school for the event.

The thing that made me laugh the most, though, was when the A-man was giving S a very serious lecture on the proper procedure for hand-washing prior to cooking/baking. The lesson was complete with, "You need to lather for a full 20-seconds" and then when S used his hand to turn off the tap, the A-man told him he just contaminted his hands and made S do it again. While S was re-washing his hands, the A-man explained that a paper towel needed to be used when turning off the tap, etc. What surprised me the most, though, was that S actually did what the A-man requested, and never once, argued or gave a hard time. (This is huge, trust me.)

My babies are growing up. I took some pictures last night and will post them when I have a chance.

Upcoming events...

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. Hubby has been on the afternoon shift, and I have been busy every single night of the week and each weekend. The next couple of weeks, with events planned only for weekends is going to be a nice change of pace.

Last weekend I was in Montreal. Although it is a very long drive (about 7 hours with breaks), it was a great weekend, and a lot of fun. Always good to have fun when you are working, I think; makes the job easier.

This week I have only fitness classes on my calendar. Well, that and a baking night tonight with The A-man. He has joined the Green Club at the school and they are having a fund-raising bake sale on Thursday, so tonight we are going to make apple muffins and cookie pizza. I might try and squeeze in a couple of pies for Thanksgiving weekend, too.

This coming weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving; both boys have yet another PA day on the Friday.

Saturday night we are hosting a blind wine-tasting event. Jazzy’s parents and another couple will be coming over. Each couple is responsible for bringing a bottle of white and a bottle of red from a certain region. We will cover the bottles so that no one know which wine we are tasting, then we will make our tasting notes and decide which wine is the winner. My choice for this event is wine from California – the white will be a Sauvignon Blanc and the red will be Cabernet Sauvignon.
Now, none of us are particularly wine-savvy, but it should be a fun night. I’m going to visit the local cheese monger on Friday and put together some nice cheese plates to accompany the wines.

Sunday afternoon will be the day we celebrate Thanksgiving with Hubby’s family. My brother in law’s family will be attending, as will Hubby’s parents. I don’t think we will get to see my sister in law this time around, but I am sure we will see her soon. My brother (obviously) isn’t able to attend Thanksgiving this year, and I think his wife and kids are going to visit her family for the weekend. I’m not sure if my parents will be around or not; they had talked of closing the cottage this weekend.

Next weekend; Vegas! The four ladies from the “40 & Fabulous” post are going to be leaving for Vegas on Thursday night. We are scheduled to arrive around 11pm Vegas-time on Thursday. For the Friday evening we have booked tickets to see Le Cage au Folle. The Saturday will be a bit busier – we are going to The Price is Right – Live on Saturday afternoon then in the evening, Mr. Las Vegas himself; Wayne Newton! I also have requested that we have either dessert or high tea at the Bellagio, and I want to take a gondola ride and see the dolphins. I don’t think we are going to have enough time to do all that I want to do. Either that or I won’t be sleeping much. We leave Vegas on the Sunday night at 11pm and have a brief stopover in Winnipeg. I won’t be working on the Monday.

Another reason to be nice

Today I learned that it is very beneficial to be friendly with all people. (Well, I’ve always known this, and I am usually very friendly to all, but today it really did pay off.)

We live about half an hour from where I work. From work to where S goes to school is just over 10 minutes away. From home to the school is just over 15 minutes… This morning I was about 3 minutes from the office when I got a phone call from Boss telling me that S had called and he had forgotten to take his medication this morning and I needed to bring it to him. Again, I am now about 30 minutes’ drive from home.

When I got to the office, I called the school and asked the secretary to let S know that he would have to try and manage the day without his medication. I asked that she reassure him that it wasn’t a problem to miss a day because I didn’t want him stressing over having not taken it.
Shortly before 10:30 I got a phone call from the new Principal. For other reasons, she had been observing in S’s French class this morning and noticed that S was acting quite agitated. Apparently she even commented about his actions to the teacher and this is when she discovered that S hadn’t taken his meds. The principal then called me to let me know that she felt it was important that he take his pills just to ensure that he continues to have successful days.

Great.

So, here is where I get to the point in the story where I explain my opening statement. The idea of driving half an hour to go home and get a pill, then drive to the school and then BACK to work was not high on my list of things to do today. (Now, don’t get me wrong, I would have done it if I had no other option - which I thought it might come to – but I wanted to find a way to get him the medication in the fastest way possible and still not be out of the office for almost an hour and a half.)

I don’t know what made me think of it, but I called the pharmacist to see if there was a possibility of getting just one of each medication. Since this lady knows me, she was willing to do me this big favour! In fact, she even offered to have someone deliver the medication to the school for me. I told her that would be great, but there was a time constraint, so I went and got the ‘emergency supply’ for S.

When I got to the school, I asked S how his day was going. Asked him if he’d been having a good one, etc., etc. From the way he answered me, I really don’t think that he realized he was acting any different than normal. He has told me that he feels different when he has his meds – it just surprises me when others can see the difference.

So, moral of the story – be nice to everyone you meet. Someday you may just need them to help you out with something and if you aren’t nice, they aren’t going to be as willing to do so.

October 1

HOW can it already be October? In my heart of hearts, I still feel like it should still be August. Where has the time gone?

Hubby is currently on the afternoon shift, and was on the afternoon shift last week as well. Last week, I had stuff going on every single night except Friday. The A-man made the comment that he had to cook dinner every night and he didn't like that responsibility. This statement was not quite true, but I am sure he felt like he was doing a lot more than usual. I was in bed on Friday night at 10 pm - the earliest of all week long.

Saturday was a friend's daughter's wedding. Sunday I went grocery shopping for the week and has asked the A-man if he could clean out the fridge while I was out. (I just meant go through and get rid of mostly-empty containers, that sort of thing.) He did clean out the fridge, but he also took the job one step further. He reorganized each shelf to make it "Proton Friendly" (or something to that effect.)
The A-man is taking a Hospitality and Tourism course, and they are required to learn all about safe kitchen standards, etc. He was very serious while explaining the theory behind my revamped fridge. He even wipe down all of the shelves and then mopped the floor afterward. (I know - I'm still wondering where my child is...)

Monday morning was not a good one for me. Quite simply, I think I was beat. I had gone in to work on Sunday afternoon, then Boss made dinner for Hubby and I - was another late night. I was very tired on Monday and the "cleaning of the fridge" left much mess/garbage in the kitchen that hadn't been cleaned up. I didn't take the messy kitchen very well.
Monday night - fitness class.
Tuesday, work in the morning, then off to the city for a wine event for work.
Wednesday, back from city to home to quickly put something in the slow cooker for dinner. Work, then dinner, then off to a board meeting.
Thursday night - dinner with "the girls."
Friday - off to Montreal for the weekend.

No wonder I am beat. I was actually very grateful that the event finished early(ish) last night and I was able to just have some downtime in my hotel room. I even watched more than one half-hour television show. (wild child, huh?)

My poor babies - they are missing me, too. I will make it up to them when I get home tonight and again tomorrow night.