Catching up...

Hmmm, lets see...

Where did I leave off? Beginning of the school year?

It certainly didn't take long to get the first parent teacher conference. It never does. This one was a little different. 9 to 1. A bunch of teachers, several guidance personnel and myself. While Brandon has made some improvements since then, it probably won't be enough. I've been called in several times. It is readily apparent that they do not want him in the AVID program. It is not a program for children with challenges like my son. However, there are NO programs for children like my son. Most parents I know in this situation are home schooling their children for this very reason. That is not an option for me. While VA Beach TALKS quite a bit about twice exceptional students, they are not DOING anything to provide services for them. They have academies for gifted and advanced students, but very little to teach children at that level that may have behavioral, emotional, and neurological issues that cannot be addressed in the larger groups they teach those children in. If he cannot stay in the AVID program they likely will put him back in the middle school in his district which has even less services. They mentioned that he might be able to stay in the school he is in because of his SOL test scores. There is so much more to say here, but this is the gist of it. It just keeps repeating.

In the evenings there is so much to do with him and around the house. After he goes to bed I'm spending a lot of time catching up on my job.

On the weekends I'm pretty much just decompressing and not doing anything at all...hence why there have been so few posts.

I had a nail in three tires on my car. That pretty much sums up how every thing is going at the moment, punctured and deflating. There are bright moments here and there, but patching and re-inflating seems to be the theme.

This past weekend though...We went to DC. We were invited up by Liz at A Bright Future. On the way up Friday evening I very narrowly avoided being in the middle of a nasty accident near Woodbridge, VA on I-95 Northbound. We arrived safely and fortunately didn't have to drive again until we left Sunday evening. We had a splendid time talking, walking, riding the metro, and seeing museums and other sites while trying to keep three children smiling and entertained. Sunday Liz and I with two of the children met The Exception and her daughter the Diva for lunch and a show with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. The Kennedy Center is HUGE. I'm sure you could land a plane on the terrace. The kids raced around it. They also participated in the magnanimous cacophony they call the Musical Petting Zoo. The kids get to try their hand at all of the orchestra instruments. After the show we went to Chinatown for dinner. Spicy Thai is awesome. I ate way too much, kind of a them for the weekend. Reluctantly we left Sunday night and had an uneventful ride home.

Since then I've been in bed, sick, aching, and feverish...probably strep. The Doctor just looked at me, gave me an anti-biotic, and sent me on my way Monday evening. I've still have fevers off and on Tuesday, but the medicine has taken card of most of it. The hard part is the coughing. I ripped a muscle in my side Wednesday night a week ago. It hurts awfully bad every time I sneeze or cough.

Good news is that I have been working out six days a week for the last three weeks. It has been helping me deal with all the stress recently. Of course, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were out due to torn muscle and travel, but even feeling a bit sick today I managed to get on the elliptical this evening for a 20min aerobic. I figured, I'm sweating anyway...