Ryan

Ryan’s roster


Ryan’s roster

Originally uploaded by

criscollrj

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Ryan’s list of his class friends – he did this on his own and put on his wall (notice other artwork beneath – the chalkboard paint can’t come soon enough!)

Ryan H, Colin, Ryan R, Gryphen (i think?), Jack, and the last one I can’t make out….

He’s 6 and I think this is adorable writing! I’m so pleased.

I want us to start writing hand-over-hand with Chris too and see what he can do.

As always Colleen is making beautiful artwork – I’ll have to post more of her pics here too—

Just waiting on her homeschooling and have a ton more papers to do for the boys too and summer camps, etc…

children, health, sleep

Kiddo-update

CHRIS:

Chris has slept like 4/5 nights now and we’re so pleased! Dad took him to Home Depo the other day and he had a lot of fun with that, and he also took two walks around our neighborhood. He seems to be doing better after his med adjustment (Abilify went from 10mg to 15mg.)

But we are still pursuing applying for the National Deaf Academy for him. I will be doing that soon.

He is also going to be starting vocational training at a local school for half the day – I think he’ll like that a lot!! It will make his day more interesting – he’ll go to his regular school half day and the other half a day. He may start this year, yet.

His weight was going up but now seems to be stabilized at 200 pounds. I hope he doesn’t gain any more.

COLLEEN:

I filled out app. papers for www.ecotohio.org homeschooling today and plan to fedex to Columbus tonight. I’m pulling Colleen out of school.

The particular homeschool is a public school, not a traditional home school. I could not do a regular home school where it was all up to me. Even this is going to be hard for me, but I trust it will save Colleen. I hope. She’s currently failing 4 classes. She missed 40 days of school this year from illness. If she’s going to continue to be ill often, and continue to be as anxious and sickly (often caused by nerves, I believe) as she is now, I think she’ll thrive in this.

I hope.

“ECOT educates over six thousand students between the ages of five and twenty-one from every county in the state of Ohio.

Running an online school requires as many resources as a traditional public school. In addition to our teachers, a staff of counselors, school administrators, customer service specialists, computer programmers, database managers, school-funding experts, shipping handlers and consultants enable ECOT to work.

ECOT is a public school that relies solely on a fixed per-student state tax allocation, without the addition of property taxes, private funds or donations from special interests. ECOT, as a public school, charges no tuition.

ECOT provides a valuable service for all Ohio students and families seeking an alternative to traditional public education.”

“What sets ECOT apart from other public schools is its home-based online learning environment. ECOT’s ability to provide a statewide K-12 educational environment through its own secure Web-based network, or intranet, is unique. The intranet restricts access to non ECOT-approved Web sites while providing a wide range of teaching tools and educational sites that are appropriate for students of all ages.

Just like other public school students, ECOT students have teachers, counselors, class discussions, report cards and out-of-class trips. Unlike other public school students, however, ECOT students are required to use computer and Internet technology to access their lessons, may never meet their classmates face to face, and are not subject to a dress code!

ECOT parents do not need to educate their children alone: ECOT’s teachers provide quality instruction online and actively engage each student to offer assistance and guidance. Parents have the freedom to directly support their children’s education, while letting ECOT teachers do what they do best: teach.”

RYAN:

His IEP is today, in 2 1/2 hours. I think he’s done pretty well this year. I expect he’ll be at the same school next year for first grade. Can’t believe he’s almost done with kindergarten. He’s writing 3-letter words and is talking much better!

Both boys are getting new hearing aides soon.

That reminds me, Ryan’s lost the battery case off his hearing aide. I need to take it in to Jane to get it fixed…

children, Weather

Ryan’s new aide —


0419200804361

Originally uploaded by

criscollrj

.

8 hours today with Ryan – he is really enjoying her! They were coloring outside while Rog grilled us yummy chicken, burgers, and hot dogs. Chris enjoyed a lot of time outside too and had two walks and an outing to the playground. Ryan also played at the playground for about two hours with his aide.

I cleaned half of Ryan’s room today and D helped me do the dishes. She’ll be back tomorrow!

Chris’s aide should be back in 2-3 days… D likes to help Chris a lot too – she’s a sweet new friend!

health, weight

Thin within


me 86

Originally uploaded by

criscollrj

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I am planning to start this today: http://www.thinwithin.org/  (NOTE it is Christian-based, so you are warned before you click…)

I may order some of the materials when I can, but I know I can do this for a while even without that.

I followed the “Weigh Down” principles from 1999-2002 and managed to lose and pretty much keep off about 25-30 pounds and was pregnant with Ryan after and delivered him and then went back to my pre-pregnancy weight. The problems started when I abandoned the principles in late 2002 when I got bored with it and stressed out when I went back to work.

Then I discovered Weigh Down’s fundamental “religious” principles were flawed and the leader pretty much was put down in shame by all the churches and her program is now rare to find in a church.

But I had found this Thin Within program which I see has been around since the 70’s, that is very similar, but seems to have a much more sound Biblical based foundation that is not laid into a cult.

Anyway, I hope to have similar success to what I did in the late 90’s and am starting today — waiting for hunger and stopping before full!

(Brushing my teeth and drinking water between meals always helped me…)

(my old weigh down, etc. diary): http://weighdownagain.livejournal.com/

2020 these blog entries are now incorporated into this blog, but that blog is still viewable.

children, God, sleep, work at home

All things are possible

Things have been rough in a lot of ways lately – Chris has been staying up all night just about every 2-3 days lately, and there’s been continuous illness it seems with the kids.

But we have a new situation coming up where we will have 40 hours a week of help for the kids. A new aide already started last weekend for Ryan – Her name is Debbie, and her and our other aide Doreen made a good team with us to care for the boys and get a lot of cleaning done!! They will be here 7 days a week 40 hours a week (roughly) each starting next Monday (just 5 more days!). I feel things will greatly improve then – even though we may still be exhausted and sleep deprived.

Work is going fairly well though lately I hadn’t had time to do enough of it!! I have had about 15 hours of audio since early March that I’ve been working on for local clients. Rog is still doing court research and also helping me with transcription and doing some for Rapid Text as well.

We have a lot of plans for more house repairs with problems we’re having with the sewer system in the basement. It’s 95% better than it was three weeks ago though, but need more work.

I’m tired…

I am really hoping NOW we can get back to church – our helpers are coming Sunday mornings now so I can’t see why we can’t…

Now what is amazing that this song came into my head, and I instantly found after that in the list. God is that way for me – songs are my inspiration. Thank you Lord!

 

children, health, sleep, work at home

Spring and smoke are in the air!


0406200804360

Originally uploaded by

criscollrj

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Our first bonfire of ’08. We and the boys enjoyed the some hot dogs and a beautiful 60 degree day – Colleen and her friend came over later and had fun by the fire. Damp though – we didn’t keep the fire going as long as we will later in the summer, but got some papers burned and just did something different than run errands or sit inside the house.

Work is going slow – not because I don’t have it — I have A LOT — but kids have been sick and life is just so crazy. Probably by the time school’s out they’ll all be healthy and ready to all attend school – heh.