O-H-I-O

It's that time of year again sports fans. The last week of August generally brings the start of a new school year. With that comes football friday night for most high schools. The CWHS Indians are off to a good start with a record of 2-0. But this weekend is special. It marks the beginning of the college football season. And with that another season of Buckeye Football. everyone has their favorite team. I root for my alma mater. But they don't even compare to The Ohio State Buckeyes. Anyone and everyone in the state of Ohio roots for the Scarlet and Grey. There is nothing like a Saturday afternoon watching an Ohio State game. This is the only sport I watch on tv. I am not really into the NFL. I'll watch an occasional baseball game or even a basketball game. But on Saturdays I am tuned in to my Buckeyes. Living in a suburb of Columbus makes it even better. I attended my first Ohio State Game last season with a friend of mine. It was awesome. I didn't even care that it was raining. I am hoping to sponge off of my friend's staff tickets again this year. I have also had the priviledge of meeting the head coach. He spoke at graduation a few years ago. Ohio state fans are unique. Whereever you go, if someone sees an ohio state shirt or hat and they hollar "O-H" you are generally going to hear someone else respond "I-O". It's just a Buckeye thing. Yes, I know that we have blown it the last 2 years in the championship game. But you know what they say. Third times the charm. We've got alot of football to play but I have faith in my boys. They are currently leading 19-0. It looks to be a great season of buckeye football.

First week back

Well, here it is Friday afternoon and we are just about finished with our first week back at school. I have 3 new students added to my 3 returning students. What a wonderful group it is. My new assistant is awesome. I think it is going to be a great year. My one concern is the new classroom in the other wing. It is what we call a "STACK" unit. Of course stack is an acronym and I can't remember what it all stands for. But in essence it is a structured classroom for students with Autism. Yesterday, my supervisor came in right after lunch and stated she needed me to go to another room for a little bit. A little bit turned into the rest of the afternoon. Thank god I have wonderful assistants and students that are not needy. I had to help de-escalate a situation between the students and the adults. This room is so unorganized. The teacher is floundering to come up with work and the students are having melt downs because there is no structured routine and they do not know what they are supposed to be doing. I at least got the room rearranged for them and got the students back on track with what work they did have. Now, my supervisor has asked me to take the teacher under my wings and help her out. I am all for checking in on her ocasionally but she wants me doing it daily. I am afraid that this is going to become more in depth than I thought. I have enough to do with running my classroom. But, I promised to help and help I will. For anyone that knows me, that is one of my biggest downfalls, I have a hard time saying no.

It's over already?

Well, tomorrow is officially my last day of summer vacation. I report back to the building on friday. I am looking forward to the start of the new year. Getting up at the butt-crack of dawn, not. I can definitely say this goes down as one off my more unusual summers. I've had surgery, babysat for my nephew, took him on a trip to Michigan, and dealt with bank fraud. My sister had surgery on Monday and is recovering slowly. The incision is at the base of her spine in her lower back. She says that hurts more than the electrical impulses that are being sent to her bladder. She says she has a fluttering in her butt. I just have to laugh. The doctor is very optimistic that this is going to help correct her bladder issues. We went to Walmart yesterday and generally she has to stop and go at least once while we are in there. That is even with going before we leave the house. I am happy to report that she made it through the store without having to go. The med corp rep said that with her young age she should do well with it. We will know more in 2 weeks. If there is an improvement, the doctor will permanently implant the device into her. I am trying to decide what i should do tomorrow since it is my last day of vacation. Probably do laundry and housework. Maybe I'll treat myself to the movies.

Trials and tribulations

My dad always says, "If it weren't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all." Of course I tend to agree to with that statement. However, I also always feel that just when things are going good, the bad is right around the corner. Case in point for me. Every time things start going my way, something always seems to go wrong. I have been battling with all of my health problems and I finally had surgery. I am so happy with the progress I am making and that I trullt believe that this was a big part of my pain issues. I have been feeling great and happy. But that fell to pieces yesterday. I don't know if I will ever get back to where I was emotionally. I feel that I have been violated and don't really know how to go on.
Let me explain. This week I have had various training seminars and meetings for the start of the new school year. Tuesday afternoon I had to go to one of the local high schools and get a physical in order to be eligible to drive one of our vans that we use to take my class on outings in the community each week. On my way home home I stopped at Aldi discount grocery to pick up some much needed toilet paper. As usual I ended up getting a few more things and was trying to juggle getting everything in the grocery bag and return my wallet to my purse. I went home and went about my evening. The next day my assistant picked me up at 7:45 am and we headed to our big opening day staff meeting. We left there early in the afternoon because I was scheduled to see the surgeon for a follow up. I soon discovered that I had missed a call on my cell and that my appointment had been canceled. I arrived home and checked my voice mail. The manager from Aldi's called to say they had my wallet in their office. I didn't even realize that it was missing. So I grabbed my purse and headed to pick it up. What ensued has been nothing but aa nightmare for me.
I got my wallet and as anyone would do opened it to check it. To my absolute dismay my check/debit card was missing. So my next stop was to the nearest branch of my banking institution. As the woman behind the counter accessed my account she quietly whispered, "Do you know your account is overdrawn?" I looked at her and asked how could that be. The next thing I know I am sitting in an office going over printouts and finding out what I needed to do to get my money back.
So, today I have done nothing but track down all of the spending someone did at my expense. Between overdraft charges and the fraudulant charges, I was looking at the majority of my paycheck that is too be deposited tomorrow will be gone. All though the woman helped me file disputes to the charges that have posted to my account, I was offended by how she had treated me the night before. That could be another entire blog. So I ended up calling an 800 number for the bank after they so graciously left me an automated message this morning that there was a problem with my account. After talking with 2 different services reps during the day, whom were both very nice and understanding, the secon one put me through to the fraud center. The woman I then spoke with was so helpful. By 7:30 tonight she had called me back and let me know that she had pushed through some bureaucratic red tape and is getting everything refunded to my acoount over the next few days. The people at the bank said it could take 10 business days to get a response. That meant the end of the month. How do they expect me to live for the next two weeks? I mentioned my disappointment with the banking center to Sharon. She was very upset and apologized profuely and said she would be looking into the matter.
I also have been calling the stores where the purchases were made. One was at the JC Penney;s in the mall. The store manager was very helpful. She called me back to let me know that she had found the transaction and had an electronic copy of the signature. She left it for me in the catalogue department and I picked it up. I have also filed two police reports with the local police department. The second being an addendum to the first. Walmart requires a police report before they will assist you in a matter like this. When I talked with my supervisor from work today she let me knoow that she had dealt with a similar situation. She was very surprised at the progress I had made today. I am proud of myself also but it still hurts. Someone was out there for a few hours pretending to be me. My sister is hoping that we will get the person on a camera from one of the stores. I hope the same thing but that doesn't mean that they will ever catch the person. How I dropped my wallet, I will never know. Being that I had been carrying it in my left hand and I was having problems with numbness in that hand at the time, it is no wonder I didn't feel that I had dropped it. Also, we all know how my memory is lately. I have said nothing of this experience to my parents. Part of me wants to have it resolved before I tell them. the other part of me is scared that they will be disappointed in me that I could have not realized I had dropped it.

at long last....

I can feel my fingertips again. Doctor said surgery went well. I have the thick bandages off from around my hand and elbow. I am able to do some things with my right hand. Gingerly wrote some info down. Can't quite use it to bring a spoon or fork to my mouth. However used a knife to butter an englih muffin this morning. As long as I do not move my thumb out too far I am ok. I have a small incision covered with steri stripsin the middle of my palm towrds the wrist. My incision at my elbow is much longer than I expected. Most of my pain is from that. I just can't tell you how wonderful it feels to actually have feeling back in my fingers. Each day I get a little bit more range of motion back. I think the only problem I had was in recovery. I don't remember much but I guess upon coming to and the breathing tube being removed I had an asthma attack and they had to give me a breathing treatment. I do remember coughing and them telling me to breathe in deep from a mask. It didn't seem like I was in the recovery area very long before they were moving me to a room where my parents could come in and stay with me. I am glad I had the surgery and can't wait to get my other arm done. Thanks to all of my friends for the well wishes.

the judicial system sucks!!!

I guess I should hold off saying that until my sister hears back from her attorney. The last 2 weeks have been pretty rough for her. Her ex has visitation with my nephew every Wednesday and every other weekend. The last 2 Wednesdays he has called her up and just laid into her verbally. Very belligerent and threatening. This is why she divorced him in the first place. I wanted her to file a report last week with the police but we didn't have any solid proof of what occurred. Well, last night he made a huge mistake. He called my sister to bitch her out for something stupid. The daycare had an outing and she didn't pack a lunch. They were going putt-putting and to an ice cream stand that also sold sandwhiches. We both assumed they were eating there. The teacher never called us. She decided to hang up on him because of the language he was using. He calls back and she opts not to answer. The moron left a voice mail and the police department has an audio copy of it. Her attorney is in the process of contacting the mediator they used to see about revoking visitation for the time being. One because his episodes are escalating. Two, he bounces from his brother's house to his girlfriend's house. Neither of which we have an address for. He is so unstable. At this time he is not fit to parent my nephew. The poor thing told me he heard everything Brian said to Laura on the phone last week and that the girlfriend stood there laughing. Brian also had the nerve to refer to his son as a bastard. That one I heard because Laura had put it on speaker phone. For those of you reading this I would like your opinion. Brian states that my sister is a bad mother and is going to loose him because a: she still wipes his bottom after going to the bathroom (checking to make sure he got himself clean) and b: she doesn't let him take his own bath. Now in my opinion I side with my sister. Hello, he's 5.
My family is down because we know we are following procedure but it probably isn't going to do any good. Brian will find some way to weasel out of this just like always. My sister also found out from a common acquaintance that he has been MIA from work for like 6 weeks. My heart is just breaking for my sister and her son. She said the poor thing has barely said two words to her since getting home. He has been in his room watching his shows on Noggin. Unfortunately his therapist is on vacation untill the end of next week.

all in good time

I have been staying at my parents recently. I will be here until the day before my surgery and then back here recuperating. I drove down to my place today to check on Clark, the class turtle, pay my rent for the month of August, and check my mail to see if my new contract had arrived. Indeed it had. I am getting ready to start my 6th year with the Educational Service center of Franklin County. I finally was offered a 2 year contract. It's about time. My supervisor could not understand why I was still having to be evaluated every year. I told her it was because I was still only receiving 1 year contracts. With this 2 year contract, I will not have to be evaluated this year. Not that I do a bad job. I have always gotten excellent reviews. But even after 11 years in the field I still hate being observed. It is the not knowing what is going to happen during a lesson. That and the fact that I am a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl. I do my lessons day by day instead of by the week. It has been my experience that anything can happen and I never seem to get through a week's worth of plans. I also hate being tied down by things. I have a general idea of how I want the week to go. It drove me crazy at my previous job that everything was so structured for the students. I realize our population needs routine but there comes a time when you have to teach them that routines may change. There are always things that are going to come up that we aren't expecting. There is also the fact that I just plain hate writing lessons plans. My assistant and I are so finely attuned to each other that she can pretty much run things when I am not there. My students know that we have a general schedule that we follow but they don't necessarily know what order we are going to proceed in. As I like to say "expect the unexpected". Therefore when I know I am being observed it makes me worry. My supervisors have never been on time for a lesson I am teaching. They always seem to come in midway. I also believe that every moment is a teachable moment and why waste paper if I know what I am doing. I know, I know. What if you get sick? How will the sub know what to do? I have "plans" in my sub folder. Also I call my assistant and let her know I am going to be out. I then e-mail her a copy of my days plans to print off. Like I said, she's good. There is also the fact that I rarely take a sick day. So needless to say I am ecstatic that I do not have to be observed this year.