And these memories lose their meaning...

Oh blogspot, how I wished I had time to write on you as much as I wanted to...

 

Well in case you're interested, life for me recently has included the following:

• More or Less giving my car to my mother. Her Ford Crown Victoria finally broke down. She was leaving our "projects" and the tire rod on her car went out. She said she was terrified and my brothers helped her get her car over to the side of the road where it still resides. I found out that she was walking to work, and one day she tripped in a hole in the ground and fell down. My mom is 46, I cannot have her falling down and getting hurt. If she cannot pay the bills my deadbeat brothers would not have a place to live, so I let her borrow my car until she can get something else. I will probably end up getting something else before she does...(us Droge's "ain't no count" when it comes to having money...)
• Relationship Counseling on Monday evenings directly after work. The sessions have focused on communication and trust. There is more than just nice words, gifts, and kissing to making a relationship work. In particular one headed down the road to marriage. Turns out I do all those other things poorly and it makes Lynette do those things poorly as well.
• Swamped by my two - count em, two - Master's Degree classes. I am taking Methods: Life Skills and Community Based Instruction and Advanced Methods and Assessment: Learning Strategies and Content Enhancement. Something that I discovered is really important to me is all the credentials that my two professors have. I may have said this before, but I am an intellectual snob. If you have a degree, I probably respect you more than somebody who does not. If you have a lot of life experience, I probably respect you more than somebody who does not. If you have a degree and a lot of life experience, then I respect you...a lot. My Methods professor is out of the country or out of the state several days a week He has went to countries like South Korea to speak in Special Education seminars. He is also the director of the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities. Both professors have written several textbooks on Special Education, which of course we have to buy and use for class. My Advanced professor is crazy. He is scatter-brained, and everybody in the class says they do not know what is going on. He has authored, co-written, and co-created several learning strategies and teacher routines that are used all around the nation. He is also a researcher for the Center for Research on Learning that was founded in the 1970s. So my professors are really smart, but I am getting swamped with the work on top of my teacher duties. I am just not organized enough to do so many things at one t/"cation Roulette, Funky Chicken, Space Monkey, Flat Liner, and Tingling. Even good kids like this one play it. And parents usually never know until it is too late - meaning their child has died or suffered irreversible brain damage (which Lynette heard happened to another student in the district recently who had to be placed in a nursing home facility because his parents could not take care of him). For a whole week students could be spotted around the halls crying. Discovering that it was not a suicide made it easier to swallow but then stirred up feelings of anger, but parents cannot know everything that their child does. It's like my best friend with a new baby girl said, that all a parent can do is raise their kid the best they can and trust that they will make the right decisions.
• The cops came to my room to arrest Headbanger. BAM!
• He punched my paraeducator in the head. Three quick punches with a bony fist to the head. I stepped in and took over working with him. He was sorting shapes, it was not rocket science. He just did not want to do it and she was close to him since she was working with him, so she suffered the consequences. She was standing by her desk holding her head, so I asked if she needed to go to the nurse, and she said no, she just needed to go to the bathroom and check her eyes. So me with 7 students, all with autism, all by myself trying to whip up something to teach. Then 20 minutes later the school security officer and 3 police officers walk into my room. I was like "What the hell is going on?"
• My para had never came back. Turns out she did go to the nurse and went into convulsions. The nurse called 911 for an ambulance. The police heard the ambulance call. So did the wolves at KCTV5, who were standing outside trying to get a story about the student who injured a school staff member. I had to call the head of the Special Education Department, my boss' boss and have her kill the story (if there ever was one) because it would have violated his student privacy rights. So I take Headbanger up with me and as soon as the cops see him, they realize they couldn't arrest him. It was ridiculous.
• So we had to have a Manifestation Hearing to determine he hit my para because of his special needs, which he did. So he has been suspended for 45 days and put on Homebound services. Those services began October 29th and he has never shown up. I do not mind his absence because he was a liability and a danger to my other students and paras. But I pray God would grant him mercy and take him away from his foster mother and any biological relatives so that he can be loved and receive the help he needs rather than just being a walking meal-ticket.
• Took engagement pictures courtesy of  Sionnie LaFollette. We went to the Plaza, the Nelson Art Gallery Courtyard & Parking Garage, Liberty Memorial, and a random place in downtown KCMO. My favorite is the Spiderman style kiss I did hanging from a tree outside the Nelson. I did use an arm to hold on to a branch. I did not trust my legs alone. It was awkward kissing in front of friends at first, but then it actually turned out to be fun.
• Found a new church, Haven Baptist Church. Lynette and I joined almost a month ago. Little hellfire, little cheese, good to have a church again.

Well that's all for now. Good night and Good luck.