Marked Woman

I need a less conspicuous vehicle, my Jeep is too easily identified.  Also, the drop off and pick up procedure at Master J's school completely sucks.  Big time.

On day one at the new school, I did what I have done for the past five years on school mornings, I tried to drop my child off at school.  For five years I have driven up, kicked my child at the curb and then continued on through to the exit.  For five years I have never had an issue with this.   The new school does not allow this.  The new school insists that you drive all the way to the end of the parking lot and ONLY drop your child in an area about ten feet long.  I did not know this.  So I pull up in line, kick my child out at the curb and try to continue driving only to see a lady running towards me frantically.  I roll down my window and she explains that I'm not allowed to drop my child off there, that I must instead drive way the eff down to the other end.  Okay, whatever, I'll do my best to follow the rules.  That's strike one.

On day one after school, I park in the parking zone and get out to wait for my child.  No problems.  On day two, I drop him off in the proper place in the morning and don't get in trouble.  After school I park in the parking zone and get out to go wait for my child.  No problem.  On day three, which was Friday, I drop him off with no issues.  After school, I park in the parking zone to wait for my child.  I see him coming towards me and then he disappears.  My thermometer is registering 118 degrees so I opt to wait in my car until I see him at the curb, with the intention of getting out of my vehicle to get him as soon as I see him.  I don't see him.  Ten minutes goes by and I'm still waiting.  Where the hell is my kid?  Another five minutes pass.  And then I see the principal making her way over to my car.  Uh oh, now what did Master J do?  Turns out, nothing.  One of the teachers saw him and sent him to wait at the end of the parking lot.  Why?  Because they assumed (incorrectly) that my intention was to wait in my car and allow my child to cross three lanes of cars to get into mine.  Um, no.  I was waiting until I saw him to get out of my car because it's miserable degrees out right now.  So now my child has been waiting at the end of the parking lot in the sun and heat for fifteen minutes.  Awesome.  That's strike two.

This morning I dropped Master J off at the end of the parking lot just like I was supposed to.  I had told him on Friday that if he didn't see my car parked, he was to go to the end of the parking lot so I could pick him up.  After school today I pulled into the lot about a minute after the bell rang.  I saw him standing on the curb but knew I would not be able to pick him up there so I rolled down my window and told him to go to the end and I would pick him up.  When I looked up from telling him this, I could see both of the parking demons at the end of the lot staring at me.  Obviously they were waiting to pounce on me should I make the tragic error of picking up my child from the wrong location.  I drove on through, under surveillance. 

At the end of the lot there was a traffic jam with about five cars parked along the "correct" curb and another two in front of me waiting to get there.  Master J was standing next to another child at the end.  The parents in the two cars ahead of me waved their children to them.  One of them was the kid standing next to Master J, so I also waved Master J over.  As the children were getting into the cars in front of me, and Master J was getting into my car, the parking police ran over and opened my front door to tell me that he couldn't get into my car there.  The reason?  Because there was a garbage can nearby and that was "gross".  I'm not even kidding.  And that's strike three.

I'm officially going to be a marked woman for the rest of the year.  You know damn well that every time I pull into that lot they're going to be watching me and waiting for me to make one wrong move.  And then they will pounce.  Folks, I am nothing if not a law abiding citizen.  I don't go out of my way to break the rules or cause problems, especially at my child's school.  But seriously, if you're going to let kids get into two cars in front of me, but get after me because my child is five feet closer to the garbage can, I'm going to have an issue.  And I'm going to start pushing the limits of rules to the very edge.  See ya tomorrow!

First Day of Sixth Grade

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Probably won't have entitlement issues later

After I finished volunteering at Master J's school today, his teacher pulled me aside to tell me the following...

Mrs. S was talking about how great it is to be an American as part of a discussion for their social studies lesson. She was talking about freedom and the wonderful opportunities we have available to us.

Mrs. S: So all American children have the opportunity to have a free education provided to them from kindergarten all the way through high school.

MJ: Excuse me but there's nothing that's really free.

Mrs. S: Well, do your parents write a check every month so you can go to school?

MJ: No. But they pay taxes.

Mrs. S: Okay, that's true, they do pay taxes.

At this point the student teacher chimed in and said "Yeah, that was when I looked around the room and realized all the other kids were completely clueless about what taxes are!"

So, yeah, maybe there's hope for him yet. Evidently he can actually hear us when we talk.

Turkey Trot 2010

Pre-race excitement



At the starting line doing some stretching



Running up to high five Mister C at the end



He didn't win, but just like with everything else he does, he did it with gusto.

Conference

Mister C & I had Master J's parent/teacher conference today after school. It went really well. Academically he's doing great, as expected. Behavior wise, he's continuing to improve. In fact, he's doing much better, which is awesome. He's started slacking off on raising his hand this past week, but that is really pretty minor when we look back to previous behavior. So again I'd like to give a shout out to the school system here in the valley of the sun. We may not rate very high on those stupid polls (which is a whole 'nuther post), but I can tell you from first hand experience that they rock. I am grateful every day that we moved out of the Midwest and back to our beloved sunshine and happiness state. And as for you,Loser Elementary, just because Master J didn't fit your mold and his rotten mother wouldn't back down from your closed minded bs, does not mean you had to right to try and pigeonhole my kid into special education. He didn't need special ed, he needed to be challenged intellectually. And honestly, you can kiss my sun-warmed behind.

Change will do you good

Do you recall back to October? When we were living in the Midwest and Master J was going to Midwest Loser Elementary? Things weren't going so well for Master J then. He spent the better part of his days in trouble, in isolation or in the principals office. Things changed for the better when we got back to the Southwest. It's amazing what a good teacher and a good support system can do for a kid. Things changed a lot.

WOOT! WOOT!

State exam passed. I had a scheduled test time of 8:00 this morning. I got there at 7:30 (of course) and signed in. The lady at the front desk was pretty brusque with everyone. Not rude or anything like that, just all business. I'm sure after repeating myself 500 times a day with "everything must go into the locker" I'd be pretty businesslike too. They give you two hours to finish the national part and 1.5 hours to get through the state part. I started testing at 7:38. I finished the national portion at 8:44, well, actually closer to 8:40 since I had to wait for three other people to sign in before I could sign out. I have to tell you that I was pretty nervous at that point, but the nice gentleman in charge of letting us in and out let me know pretty quickly that I had passed. I signed out, put my 1st certificate in my locker, used the restroom and went back in for the state portion. Which I finished in 20 minutes flat. Oh my goodness. I probably don't have to tell you I was sweating that one. I figured I either really knew it, or had failed miserably. But, I was relieved even before he told me I passed because I saw him push the "certificate" paper into the printer. And I knew it was all good. After getting my things out of my locker, I stopped at the desk to see if there was anything I needed to sign in order to leave. The brusque lady running the front desk told me no, and then asked "What took you so long?" and started laughing. Ahh, so she isn't all business all the time!

Master J - poor baby has his mama's eyebrows.

Pass

I got an 87.5% on my school exam. Not perfect like I would have preferred, but passing nonetheless. Now on to the state. I'm really hopeful that I can get this stuff behind me find a broker I can work with. I'm guessing the biggest problem I'm going to have is finding one that is willing to take me on as a newbie. I've never sold anybody anything (unless you count garage sales & Craigslist!). What I really need is someone who's willing to put me in a mentoring situation so I can learn by doing and seeing it done. I want to learn from someone who I can respect. Someone who isn't just doing the job because it's their job but because they love doing it. I've even considered offering to come in as someone's assistant just to learn more. The only thing I worry about there is getting stuck at that position. I'm still sorting it out. I'll let you know as I'm going along.

Mamoo & I went to Master J's "Tea at the White House" thing this morning. It was very cute with all the kids dressed in their costumes. Master J did stupendously. It was amazing to watch him up there, completely focused and calm. It was such a difference from the last time he was on stage in 1st grade. For that one, he had somehow managed to take a pocketful of pretzel goldfish with him. Which he proceeded to eat throughout the performance. Dipping his hand in his pocket, popping one in his mouth and chewing away while lip-synching. And gyrating. And bumping into the kids around him. Twenty minutes of this. Until he got a piece of pocket lint instead of a goldfish. And then, oh then, the theatrics. The look of horror that crossed his face, the gagging, the spitting out into the hand and trying to figure out what it was. If it weren't so tragic it would have been comical. But not this time. I'm always proud of him but now I think he feels pretty good too.

Master J as Benjamin Franklin



Reciting his line



Being interviewed by a parent

One more day

I take my school exam tomorrow evening. I thought I was going to take it last Friday but evidently the world does not revolve around me and they didn't hold a seat for me. Guess I should have tried to get registered more than 48 hours in advance. Oh, well. I guess at least I've had the past four days to study instead of just going in cold. I hope I have a grip on this information. I think I do. But then, I also thought it would be "just a review" from my previous attempt and we see how well that's worked out. I did five chapters of the math this afternoon and only missed two problems so that wasn't too bad. I intend to read through some questions again tonight and then tomorrow morning as well. I'll head out to my exam around 4:00, stopping only long enough to pick up a kit-kat candy bar. That's only because I read some thing about the Japanese school kids doing it. It's supposed to be good luck. Something about the name. I have no idea. I just know if it's good enough for Japanese school children, it's good enough for me.

On another note, I picked up Master J from school today and he'd had a great day. His teacher came out smiling and relaxed looking and he was walking about 20 feet behind her talking with another little boy. She said he was great. I asked specifically about the morning and she said "Great! Actually, really good all day." So I told her that we had started the caffeine test. I also told her about the Mountain Dew debacle and she laughed. Because she knew. It probably helped that I did my impression of him with arms aflailin' and crazy "meth-head" actions. Yeah, no story of mine should be told within distance of breakables. I can't help it. I was raised on the east coast. Whatever the word is for "physical verbosity", I am. Anyway, the main point here being that day 3 of the caffeine test which was also day one of it at school, went pretty well. We'll keep tweaking it until we get it right or prove it doesn't work, whichever.

Also, totally as a side note, Mister C mentioned to his mom that we were doing this whole caffeine test and here is the conversation. I could hear his side, her side is per him:

Mister C: So, we're trying this thing with Master J where we are giving him caffeine and it really seems to calm him down.

Minion: What?!? You're giving him caffeine?!? That's not good for kids!!! I can't imagine how bad that is for him.

Mister C: Well, what would you suggest we do?

Minion: Give him Ritalin!

Mister C: Really? I shouldn't give him a natural substance with no real side effects because it's bad for him but I should give him some man made drug with known side effects? Really?

Minion: Caffeine is bad for kids.

Mister C: How's your hip doing?

And now it begins in earnest

The studying that is. I took my last class today and am scheduled to take the school exam next Tuesday evening. I've been having Mamoo quiz me the past two days on the questions in the practice books and I have improved. I think between my walk with Mister C tomorrow morning and Master J getting out of school in the afternoon, I should be able to get a few hours of studying in. I may have to bury myself in my bedroom this weekend for hours at a time to get anything done while he's home though.

On a cool note, my new camera arrived today while I was at school. Yay!

Of course, I haven't taken it out of the box yet. Why you ask? Was I studying my eyes out? No. No I was not. I was scraping the old grout out of the shower in our bathroom. Why would I do that? Well, about a week and a half ago I spoke with the guy that we've used previously as our handyman. He does great work at reasonable prices and he always shows up when he says he's going to. At least he used to. He was supposed to show up last Saturday to give us a quote on caulking the shower and running some wire for Mister C. On the day I spoke with him, I had started scraping the grout out because I thought I or Mister C could re-caulk it ourselves. Thinking that Handyman would be showing up, I decided to stop the project mid-way. And we commenced to taking showers in Master J's bathroom. But now, it's been over a week and a half since I spoke with him and almost a week since he was supposed to show up. I'm giving up the dream of having someone else do my work and am just going to do it myself. It's a pain to remember and take everything I need from one end of the house to the other just to shower. I cannot tell you how many times I have been forced to run like hell past the open front door either topless or in a shirt but sans pants. Apparently I need a checklist of items just to shower because I get distracted and need reminders on what is required to dress myself. Besides, I'm sick of having to sort through legoes and matchbox cars just to shave my legs.

It's all in the brain

Mister C & I met with our son's teacher and vice principal today after school to discuss where Master J is at, behavior wise. According to his teacher he is "maintaining, but not getting better", which kind of sucks. Here's the thing, I honestly think we did him such a disservice by moving him up to the Midwest before the start of first grade. He improved in kindergarten down here from the beginning of the school year to the end. He started first grade up there on a good note, and then went downhill. It got substantially worse at the beginning of second grade until we finally moved back down here. It sounds like we are back to where we started. I don't think he's worse than when he started kindergarten. And I do think he's better than when he was up there. In fact, the one thing that his teacher said that I thought was really interesting was that the kid his previous school described in all their copious files and reports, and the kid she met and knows aren't even the same kid. She would never even connect the reports with Master J, that's how harshly they described him. So I know we're in a better place for him, for sure. And she has patience beyond belief. She always mentions how much she likes him and how brilliant (her word, not mine) he is. But his behavior is getting in the way of his learning. So now we're going to look into a few different options.

If you know me, you know where I stand on medicating kids. If you want to medicate your child, that's fine for you. I think way too many parents and teachers reach for the drugs first because it's the fastest and easiest method to make their day easier. And yes, I am judging. I've seen it too many times. Kids living in homes with no consistency, watching way too much tv and fed a steady diet of processed crap. Gee, wonder why he acts like a maniac? Guess he needs meds. I also do believe that some small percentage of kids actually benefit greatly from medication. I believe that some kids lives are literally saved by being medicated. Honestly, kids like Master J have the potential to drive parents insane and if I were the beatin' kind he probably would have been abused by now. So yes, medication is sometimes the best thing for everyone involved. But it isn't my first choice.

My first choice has been watching his diet, having rules and not allowing excessive tv viewing. In fact, he has to "pay" for what television he does watch with poker chips he earns for doing the right things (his chores) and making good choices (offering help without being asked, for instance). And, at almost eight years old, he can tell you what would make a good meal. He knows that he needs proteins, good carbs, fruits, vegetables and healthy beverages like milk or water. He rarely drinks juice, even when offered.

My second choice is to take him to a "brain center" and have them give us a plan for some sort of neurofeedback training to re train his brain. There's a place nearby that's been recommended that I'm going to contact after this week is over. I believe this could make a huge difference. But I have to see what they say first.

My next choice would be natural medication. There is evidence abounding about the connection between caffeine and kids with ADHD. Given in proper doses, caffeine has an effect similar to Ritalin. There are naysayers out there regarding the connection. Mostly pharmaceutical companies. For what that's worth. There are also people who believe strongly in the vitamin/mineral therapy. We used to have next door neighbors that used this with their son. They described the way he was before and it sounded like a different kid from the one we saw.

My last choice is the man-made medications. My own belief, is that a whole lot of these aren't much better than a medical lobotomy. The results are similar in the change of personality of the child, and I believe the long-term results are still unknown. I don't want to dope my kid up. He's too smart, too sweet and with a personality that is bigger than life. I don't want to medicate the good with the bad. But that's usually what happens. It's kind of like trying to "spot reduce" your body. As much as I'd love to lose my stomach fat by running on a treadmill, we all know it's my breasts that will go away first. Which in turn will put more attention on my problem area. It just never works out the way you want it do.

Barely squeaking by

Included in my curriculum for real estate school were two pre-test practice exams. Each one is 320 questions and each covers half of the topics. The halves are broken down in to A1-A9 and B1-B9 where each number represents a chapter. So effectively, each practice test covers nine chapters of information. As of Monday, I have gone to school long enough to have covered all of the 'B' chapters. I decided to take the 'B' practice exam. Now, keeping in mind that I have actually gotten through real estate school previously, you would think I would ace these exams. But, alas, I did not. I did manage to pass the practice exam. With the minimum acceptable score. woo. hoo. When I went back over the questions I missed (which btw took a looooong time), there were three chapters that I failed miserably. The rest I passed with totally acceptable numbers. But those three. Those three dragged me down almost 20 points. I guess on the bright side at least I know which chapters to focus on. For that half of the exam.

Did you know...

There are over 107,000 licensed real estate agents in Arizona? The estimated population in 2006 (the latest I could find) was 6,166,318. Which means that for every agent, there are about 57 possible clients/customers. I couldn't tell you how many of those people rent their homes, but just based on the economics of owning a home, I would say at least half. Probably more. So let's just cut that number by slightly more than half to a round number of 28. Now, add to that information the fact that 10% of the agents sell 90% of the houses. So, of those 28 possible clients, approximately 25 of them are going to be sold by each of the top producing agents. Leaving 3 clients for each of the bottom producers. Assuming the median price of a home in Phoenix is currently just under $200,000 (and falling), and that there is a negotiated commission of 6%, that gives us a starting commission of $12,000. Sounds good, no? Now cut that in half. Because they need to pay the other broker's agent. So down to $6,000. Still, not so bad. Except, now they need to hand the money over to their broker. Their broker might be one that takes 50% and doesn't charge them any fees for working there. Or they may charge them less of a percentage, but take a bunch of fees. But let's assume, for easy math, that they do a 50/50 split with no fees. That leaves our agent with $3,000, per house. For the three houses they're going to sell. Which means they just made $9,000. For the year. And by the way, this also assumes that all the potential clients actually want to sell or buy a house, which of course is highly unlikely. But guess what? I'm not getting licensed to make big bucks. I'm getting licensed because I love real estate and I wanted to be a part of a community that has the ability to make a difference in people's lives. I'm not the best salesperson out there, far from it. But I love real estate and I'm pretty good with people so I'm thinking if I put those two things together, I'll be successful in life. And maybe, just maybe, the money will follow.

School

After tomorrow's class, I will be half way through my real estate school. So far, I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I do need to re test myself again this weekend on what I've learned so far to make sure I'm learning all I need to for the exam. But mostly, I'm enjoying it. I've sat with the same three people since I started the class. One of them is on a three week plan and the other two are on the six week plan, but they started in January. Tomorrow is the last day for all of them and I'm actually going to miss them. I've really had fun getting to know them. They're all interesting people, from different walks of life. I hope that we can work together at some future date. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do once I'm in there by myself next week. Obviously there are other people in there, but if Monday's "horse" response is any indication, most of them aren't going to be nearly as interesting as these three have been.

Debt Diet: 2 coffees & M&Ms at school - $1.95

Lesson in Geography

I almost forgot the best thing that happened yesterday. You might want to set your coffee down for this one.

In school yesterday we were discussing the concept of meridian lines & baselines, as established by Thomas Jefferson. It's kind of a long discussion, there are a lot of new people in the class, and it's not the most invigorating subject. So, I kind of get why this gal must not have been paying as much attention as perhaps she should have. However, sometimes it's just better to sit quietly and observe.

Teacher: So, in the 1770s what mode of transportation would Jefferson have used if he wanted to travel from the colonies to London?
Gal in the back, loudly: Horse!
Raucous laughter erupts.
Gal in the back, less loudly: Wagon?
More raucous laughter.

Yeah, sometimes it's better to just sit back and take notes.

A little of this, a little of that

Today's blog will be about playing catch up on what's going on. So here we go...

Today was my sixth real estate class, which makes me one third of the way through the entire course. Today's class was all about the relationship between the agent, the broker, the seller and the buyer. Bet you never thought that could take four and a half hours to sort out. You'll notice the extra coffee purchase in my debt diet summary at the bottom.

Master J did not get sent home from school today for being sick. He might have gotten close for his crappy attitude. Today was a tough day for him, and his teacher got the brunt of it unfortunately. His Mamoo (my mom) picked him up from school and got the remainder of his attitude. He was quite loving towards me by the time I got home so I guess I lucked out. His cough is no better and I figured out tonight just before putting him to bed that his humidifier has stopped working. I think we bought it when he was a baby, but since we've hardly ever used it I was kind of surprised at it's demise. I guess I'll be going out tomorrow and getting a new one.

The Hooligan needs to go back to the vet. The dissolving stitches they used don't seem to be dissolving. I checked the post op instructions again to see if I had screwed up by not bringing him back sooner and they very clearly say that there is no need to return for removal of stitches. It says that these stitches will dissolve on their own. Umm,no. No they won't. We're a week beyond the time frame where they should be gone and they are still hanging in there. At least there won't be a charge.

Debt Diet.

I forgot to put in yesterday's debt diet info. It was two cups of coffee at class: $1.30

Today:
Gas - $26.27
Coffee (x3) - $1.95
M&Ms - $.65

Total - $28.27 (today) + 1.30 (yest) = $30.17

Testing, testing...

I tested myself today on the four chapters that have been covered in my real estate class. The school hands out a self quiz every class for us to use. So, without studying or looking at any of my notes beforehand, I took all four quizzes in one sitting. It was about 150 questions total. I scored an 83% overall. The chapter on contract law for commercial property dragged me down. Lucky for me I know that isn't a huge part of the exam but still a bummer that I basically didn't retain much from that chapter. Because that means I have to re read it. And it wasn't the most intriguing of chapters to begin with. Maybe if I could make it into a real bedtime story wherein the SBA is the kindly grandmother to little borrowers with higher than normal loan to value ratios. We could have the HUD department dancing through the woods with baskets of UDAGs & CDBGs and the Secretary of State would be searching for their UCC-1 and UCC-3 forms that were supposed to be filed, like, yesterday. Yeah, if I put some effort into this I might be able to retain it long enough to get through the exam. After that though, all bets are off.


Debt diet - $0 spent today

Bedtime stories

Yesterday in my class, our teacher asked for a show of hands of people who were landlords. About a third of us raised our hands. And then he asked how many of us had read the Landlord/Tenant Act and my hand drifted down. As did all of the other students in class. Our teacher was appalled. And he highly suggested that we locate and read it. So I did. Oh. My. Goodness. This stuff is so dry it makes your tongue swell.

First of all, I need to read the laws for two states since we currently own a rental in our previous state of residence and I hope to own more in my current state. I did get through my previous state's laws earlier today. Despite the lawyers attempts to make that impossible. Let me give you an example:

A person knows or has knowledge of a fact if he has actual knowledge of it.

That is an actual sentence pulled from the Nebraska Landlord/Tenant Law. I mean really. This is not some glaring oddball sentence either. The whole thing is like that. All 49 pages of the section that I needed to read.

So now I've moved on to my new states laws and it has not gotten any easier. Which is why I'm writing this blog entry now. It's also why I've been over on Facebook a few times (okay, more than a few). And I may or may not have played a few games of minesweeper. Because if I have to sit still and only read this stuff, I'm going to be passed out from confused boredom before I untangle one page of lawyerese.

My first day back in school

I started real estate school today. I had to do the orientation class for 20 minutes before they let us start the real school. It's pretty basic, they just tell you what you need and in what order you need to do it. There was only five of us in the orientation and as a side note, two of them came in late. One by 5 minutes, one by 15. I only mention that because that is one of the things that drives me absolutely insane about agents. Someone once told me that if I did two things right, I would be better than most agents out there. Those two things were simple, return phone calls in a timely manner, and show up on time when we're supposed to be meeting. That's it. I know from talking with all the people in class in Nebraska that most of them had the same issue. They wanted to buy a house. They had the means to make a down payment. They had the financing in place. But they couldn't get an agent to return their calls or show up on time to show them a house. That's pretty pathetic if you ask me. Now, I'm not naive enough to think I'm going to be able to make a business out of returning phone calls and showing up on time. I know that agents, the good ones anyway, offer a vast amount of knowledge that most people don't know. They help people with what is probably one of the biggest decisions they will probably make in their life. One of the most expensive too. At the end of the day, if they do their job correctly, everybody leaves the table satisfied. I just hope that I don't lose business because of something so simple as common courtesy.

Welcome home, it's good to be back.

If you've been around me for a little while, or have read any of the past posts regarding Master J's schooling in his previous school, you will like this. This past Monday was his first day at his new school in Sunshineville. Prior to him starting school here, I did the same thing I did in the past when he first started school here in Sunshineville and again when he started at Midwest Loser Elementary, which is that I gave them a "head's up" regarding Master J's personality. I believe Master J is a bright child, with a big personality and that he is an awesome judge of character. I also get that he can be a challenge sometimes.

I gave the "heads up" prior to him going into kindergarten here in Sunshineville. They took me seriously and put into place things that would help him learn in the best way he could. His teacher always referred to him as "Gigantic Master J" because, as she said, his personality was just so large. She adored him. And he behaved.

I gave the "heads up" to the management at Midwest Loser Elementary prior to him starting first grade. They nodded knowingly and proceeded to do the exact opposite of what I said. They hyper focused on which hand he wrote with (he's ambidextrous) to the point that he would cry in frustration because he was always in trouble if he switched hands in the middle of writing. Once they had drilled into him only using one hand, he started getting in trouble because he wouldn't follow directions in P.E. by switching hands when dribbling a basketball. His behavior went downhill. I asked them to test him for the gifted class. They finally relented, but then sent a note home saying he didn't qualify. They didn't send me his test scores. By the end of the year, they were trying to bully Mister C & I into putting our beautiful child in special education because he had such behavior issues at school.

I gave the "heads up" to the idiots at Midwest Loser Elementary prior to him starting second grade. They said thanks so much, but they would rather do what they always did. And if I would just agree to put him into special education or maybe consider some medication, then maybe they would be forced into doing as I asked. I asked if maybe they thought his behavior would improve if he wasn't so bored in class and they acted as though that were as preposterous as if I were suggesting they all set their hair on fire and run naked through the halls during lunch. His behavior went further downhill.

I gave the "heads up" to his new school in Sunshineville and they thanked me for taking the time to put something together for them. And they read it. And they said they were glad because "nobody knows your child as well as you do and we really appreciate when parents can give us ideas about what works with their child." And they started testing my child to see how bright he is. And he's reading at a 7th grade level. He's seven. And they're going to test him to see if he qualifies for the gifted classes, but they're pretty sure he does. And they like him. And he knows it. And so far, he hasn't acted out. I know it's only been four days, but at his old school, he hadn't gone four days in a row without visiting the principal's office in the entire time he was there. For most of this year, he was in there at least once a day and usually multiple times.

It's good to be back in Sunshineville.