Category Archives: PATH

just another manic monday

Well, David and I met with the respite care providers.  Nice family.  Mom and Dad seem to think a lot like us.  Neat this is that they have adopted a couple of kids as well.  So we are excited.  This should enhance David’s life by giving us a break from each other.  I made sure to let David know that he is still our son, but that this is just a place for him to take a break from our family.

The case worker told him to think of it as his vacation home.

We spent almost two hours in their home just talking. We talked about our challenges from the past year, about fighting the school district to ensure that David has access to an education in accordance with state and federal law.  The mom is studying for a degree in early childhood education.

On the way home, David talked about the rabbits.  (the respite home is in the country, which means lots of room for David to run) They have snowmobiles that they ride around on, and asked if he could do that.  Plus in the summer they go camping.  Because I am sensitive to light, that hasn’t been an option for us.  Maybe once we get a camper that will change, but have to wait and see.

For now though, things are looking up. 🙂

this isn’t a picture of the actual house, but I thought it was neat and shows the outdoors in a way that will remind David of the respite home.

English: Farm house.

Image via Wikipedia

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Dad, I killed the car!

Another day done. For the most part, I would call this day a success.

My girls, who have both been licensed to drive for less than 6 months killed the car tonight. They thought that they were in trouble, because it wouldn’t start… They walked home, then we went and got it after mom got home. A simple jump start cured it. Probably a weak alternator belt isn’t allowing enough juice to be generated, coupled with someone not shutting the door all the way and an interior light blinking occasionally. No big deal. And even so, if they had wrecked it or something, a car can be replaced.

Lined up another IEP meeting for our oldest boy. Next week unless something shakes loose in the schedule this week. Tomorrow, our youngest son and I are going into the city for a psych consult. Hopefully he can get back on the med that they took him off, clorazil.

Overall, the few times that our youngest was misbehaving aren’t worth noting. There has to be a point where some of his beavior is just because he is the baby in the family and acting as a 10 year old boy. Life is good.

That reminds me, I need to follow-up with the people regarding Respite care for our youngest. That will help alleviate some stresses in our family.

This weekend I am in Bismarck for a class, and he will get to spend a couple of hours with his mentor, and then his Aunt.

Waiting on a call from Department of Public Instruction regarding the facilitated IEP request that we made.  More tomorrow. 🙂 Cheers!

Day 8 ~ Facilitated what? and new friends !Success!

Since coming online with the new blog and website on January 3rd, I have made an incredible number of new friends.  Some really fantastic people are connecting with me.  How lucky am I?

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Back to the topic for the night.  Have you ever experienced a Facilitated IEP? According to the website http://www.directionservice.org, a facilitated IEP is:

“A facilitated IEP meeting is an IEP meeting that includes an impartial facilitator who promotes effective communication and who assists the IEP team in developing an acceptable IEP. The facilitator keeps the team focused on the proper development of the IEP while addressing conflicts that arise. IEP Facilitation is not used to resolve disputes unrelated to the IEP.”

In the state of North Dakota, the facilitator is paid by the state, which in turn enforces the impartiality of the facilitator because they can’t be influenced by either the school district or the parent.  This makes sense to me.

So tomorrow I will make application for a facilitated IEP.  Hopefully that will get my our back into the public school.

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On another note, We had a fairly good day today.  Ah heck, let me rephrase that, everything considered, today was FANTASTIC!!!  We had some minor incidents that had to be mediated between the youngest two boys, but hey, ya know what?  give you a little hint… sometimes brothers argue and fight… I should know, my brother and I fought like cats and dogs.   We are both still alive and value our relationship.  So I consider this largely normal behavior.

What we didn’t have today.  We didn’t have any melt downs.  We had some pouting, but pouting isn’t the end of the world.  When something necessitated the need for a time out, the time out was handled without complaint.  Overall, this day was a huge success!

Tomorrow looks to be shaping up to be a good day as well.  Why? or how can I know that?  Easy! Everyday is a good day!  If you wake up each day, isn’t that a good day?  If nothing else happened, at least you woke up. 🙂  Cheers. Carl @whynotfathers