Bluestem

More apraxia news

2012-02-07T19:55:00.001-06:00

Here's a school essay Nea did recently. Starting sentence ... "The other night I saw a twinkling star. I closed my eyes to make a wish. I wished that …"

(Nea's writing, as written)

Mom had a baby brutr for me. Baby are cute. I want hem to play with me. I will halp hem got the toys. I like baby bos to slep in my rom. I wile want to haf a baby bruthr.

(Nea's writing, translated)

Mom had a baby brother for me. Babies are cute. I want him to play with me. I will help him get the toys. I like baby boys to sleep in my room. I really want to have a baby brother.

In completely unrelated news, Nea lost three teeth in the last week. She looks like a hillbilly. Photo evidence provided. For a child that didn't get her first tooth until she was 14 months old, she's catching up pretty well.

Ugh. Book club.

2012-02-06T18:52:00.001-06:00

Unwind by Neal Shusterman. Lord, I hated this book. Not only does it remind me of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, which I hated, but I just finished The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta, which also reminds me of Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk (aka Fight Club's author).

I'm over this genre. Which genre, you might ask? I don't even know what to call it. It's sci fi, with cold characters, religious cults, and general bullshit.

Edited to add: I just realized how nicely the recent controversy regarding denying transplants to children with developmental delays fits in with these books. Why make up this shit when the real shit is just as bad?

Winter

2012-01-16T14:10:00.000-06:00

"One-match Bluestem" they call me. Well, I call me.

My mommy made the socks. They are toasty and warm.

Boo's book recommendations

2012-01-06T08:57:00.003-06:00

Boo is in third grade and is a voracious reader. Half of my life's ambition is realized. One kid down; one to go. We go to the library weekly, and I often reserve books online and pick them up when we go -- a service I LOVE. Nothing brings me greater joy than hearing about a good book and surprising Boo with it. Please share your recommendations!

Disclaimer: I have only read a few of these books. I'm not a fan of censorship. Shocker, I know. Boo is allowed to read whatever she likes.

Here are the top two books she gushes about:

Rules by Cynthia Lord
The Big Book of Girl Stuff by Bart King (she read the Boy one, too. Just to be sure they weren't getting away with anything.)

Books in a Series

What is it with kids in this age group and series books? Most of these are well-known, but maybe the list has an idea or two for parents of kids who like similar books:

Judy Moody by Megan McDonald and Peter H. Reynolds (also their Stink books)
Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows and Sophie Blackall
Just Grace by Charise Mericle Harper
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell
The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler and Sarah Gibb
Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel
Big Nate by Lincoln Peirce
Sophie the Great by Lara Bergen
Clementine by Sara Pennypacker and Marla Frazee
Non-fiction American Girl books (like Friends: Making Them & Keeping Them)
Klutz books (like Me and My Friends: The Book of Us)

Graphic Novels

Boo is seriously into this genre. Yesterday she asked me the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel. I said length. I just looked it up and apparently that's as good an answer as any. Binding is a side effect of length, right?

Owly by Andy Runton ("sad")
Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi ("lots of action. Like Star Wars. Don't read them at night when no one is around.")
Fashion Kitty by Charise Mericle Harper
And a shout-out from me: The Arrival by Shaun Tan (Wordless. Beautiful. Recommended for all ages.)

Boo does photography

2012-01-03T09:51:00.000-06:00

Boo took this photo with the iPad, edited it with Snapseed (cool free app) and emailed it to me. What a crazy world we live in. Remember when all we had was canvas, paint, and a stick with some horsehair?

She said something about Blue Bear being a girl, and I said, "What? Blue Bear is a girl now?" and she answered, "Of course! He's always been a girl." So that clears that up.

Happy Holidays

2011-12-24T12:30:00.001-06:00

From our house to yours ...

And from the house down the road ...

I know this looks bad, but I swear we came by ours honestly. Family hand-me-down.

Book club!

2011-12-23T11:55:00.000-06:00

Fear not, little blog. I will be posting again more soon. I feel inspired. Finally.

But first, our next book club pick is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I've already read it, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys a bit of science. I found an interesting interview with the author regarding the structure of the book and having herself in the book as a character.

Now if you'll excuse me, N finished building (mostly) my beautiful new bookshelves, and I have a couple thousand books to sort and organize.

Book book bookie!

2011-11-23T11:29:00.000-06:00

I ended up selecting Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. A quick read for the holiday season. A nice blog to accompany it is Black and WTF. More old and odd photos for your enjoyment.

What I look like

2011-10-30T10:56:00.000-05:00

As previously stated, Nea (age 7) has limb apraxia as well as apraxia of speech. She has worked very hard on her handwriting, which is pretty good now, although still larger than it should be. Work in progress, like much of her life. But she can zip up her jacket. We have no intention of teaching her how to tie her shoelaces any time soon. Hey, if Daniel Radcliff is still struggling with it at his advanced age, why tortune her?

Anyway, here's a picture she drew on her iPad yesterday. It's me. Her people have had a robotesque look for quite awhile. I like them. Check out my biceps! Whooo! I do wonder whether I should have my ears pinned back, though.

Rule one of book club

2011-10-19T14:13:00.000-05:00

Rule 1: Do not post information about the new book until members of book club had a chance to get a copy.

We are reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I'm enjoying it, but the German is odd. Must be a dialect. Or something. He translated Zufriedenheit as happiness. That's just wrong. It's satisfaction.

I need to pick out my book for December. You'd think I'd have a bunch of ideas, but I dunno. I've been reading all these crazy books lately. I liked Little Bee by Chris Cleave so much, and then I read another one of his books, Incendiary. Loved that even more. Then I read Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. Apparently I've got a terrorism/end of the world theme going.

And they took away my Visual Bookshelf (It was free! It was online!) and didn't even warn me, so there went a giant list of books I loved. GRRRR.

Maybe I'll pick The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Or The Arrival by Shaun Tan. Or Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk. Thoughts?

Ugly Christmas Ornament Party: A Retrospective

2011-10-17T20:16:00.000-05:00

A long time ago, we used to be fun. That was before we had kids. Back in those idyllic days, we would host amusing parties. I would say the most popular themed party we had was the Ugly Christmas Ornament Party. Which was a nice break from all the serious holiday parties. It started out fairly casual and became pretty competitive by the end, with rules and stuff. Actually, a lot of my parties seem to have rules. It's because I'm German. I can't help it.

The rules were:

One entry per person.
Enter into one of the categories: store-bought or homemade/altered.
One vote per person. Yadda yadda, can't quite remember all the voting rules for having two categories.
You must be willing to give up your entry. Everyone will go home with a different ornament.
The winning ornament stays with us.

Luckily we are organized (snort!) and have all the winners still carefully stored all together in a box. I present them to you for your enjoyment.

1998 Red D*ldo -- Joanne Harrison

1999 Paschke -- Perrigo family

2000 Santabird -- Darin and Olga

2001 It Just Screams Christmas -- N

2002 Holiday Time in Afghanistan -- Tish

2003 Cowpie Snowman -- Kris Ward

And this little bonus item that was robbed of winning. I think John brought it the first year we had the party. His grandma made it or something. I'm pretty sure I voted for it. It's top-notch.

And this. This monstrosity.

This started it all. N and I found it in an antique store in Hebron, IL. It was $7. I took off the little plaques N made with the winners' names on them. And ain't she a beaut.

Book Club

2011-09-14T09:50:00.001-05:00

Last month was Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, which lead to quite a discussion. As far as I'm concerned, as long as we discuss the book for more than 10 minutes, it's a hit. We all really enjoyed this one: always a plus.

Next month: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. I finally talked someone into picking this one! I think it's going to be a lively talk. Last time we did one of Lionel's books, I was shocked to learn it's a girl. Who names a girl Lionel? Bizarre. Oh, wait, it's not her given name. See? Learn something new every day.

Not in the original job description: SN version

2011-09-08T08:38:00.000-05:00

As Robert Rummel-Hudson said in a tweet this week, "I resent the people who can't get to sleep because of all the hookers and blow, rather than parenting anxiety. Dicks."

How true that is.

Our wonderful SLP wanted to write a progress report for the school, especially since we have a new school SLP. She wanted me to answer the following questions/requests.

What is Nea's average sentence length?
What is her intelligibility rate when speaking with people who don't know her? Also, was her intelligibility really 10% a year ago? (Yes.)
Provide some sample sentences she has produced recently.

My gut reaction for sentence length was "approaching 5." Did a little analysis during dinner (as parents do, ha ha!), and Mama's intuition was correct. 4.63 words per sentence on average.

Reflecting awhile, I went with 50% intelligibility. With the caveat of "context helps!" which it always does. If you know what the topic is, you will have much greater success of understanding her. I do think we have done a good job of teaching her circumlocution, and she uses other words or gestures to help her audience along.

We have also decided to leave her talker at school permanently. It's heavy, and she reached for it once all summer, when she wanted to discuss Earth as a ball. I have to say, Camp Invention (science camp) seems to have sparked her interest in science. Below are the sample sentences I collected at dinner. The science ones were all in a row.

Me go home morrow way? (I stay home tomorrow)
Me playdate with Bella?
Why Elmo drive? Too little!
Me hold it one more time.*

Astronomy:
Why people no feel turn around? (about the earth's rotation)
Wind in space now?
Why people in space on moon?
Why flag in space?
Flag in space right now?

Biology:
What is life?
What does plant make cotton?
Plant alive in fridge. Die in tummy?

And this is the child they pulled completely out of mainstream class for science and social studies last year. Sure, they wanted to spend more time on literacy and math, but come on! Anyway, she'll be joining the rest of class for those subjects this year. Which just happen to be units on astronomy and biology.

*Note: We are very much working on the "begin sentences with I" thing. Ugh!

Part 3: How Nea is doing, vis-à-vis apraxia and literacy

2011-07-25T13:19:00.000-05:00

Nea is seven and will be starting second grade next month.

Looking back at May, there were many memorable lines from the IEP meeting. From the school psychologist: "Her IQ and other scores were normal! That's good news!" Wow. No shit, Sherlock. Did you manage to find those results in the massive, detailed, financed-by-us neuropsych report we gave you? Or did you come up with that yourself? She has excellent logic skills and does well on standardized tests as long as there is no language component.

From our mainstream teacher: "Oh, no, she's nowhere NEAR reaching the bottom of the class!" (Trust me, it was very clear in context that she didn't mean she's in the middle. She meant there was no prayer of Nea ever catching up.) A hearty middle finger salute to you, Mrs. M. Oh, and this gem: "She's not very good at non-fiction, is she?"

That was when I decided that we needed to focus on academics this summer. Because I know my special special snowflake is smart. She just needs a little more effort than your average kid. Not every mainstream teacher is talented enough to teach to multiple levels. I understand that. But it sure would be nice if they tried. On the other hand, I don't think she should be in the special education classroom as much as she is. It's not a good fit.

Anyway. Enough of the venting. On to more positive things.

The good news is that Nea is advancing at reading! And just as our wonderful SLP said, it's improving her speech. She's using more of the "little words" ("the" and "of" and so forth) than ever before, more full sentences, all that. People comment all the time on how much clearer her speech is. I'll post some examples soon. I haven't been able to transcribe any lately. I mean *blush* she says, "You're the best mommy in the whole wide world" but it doesn't come out exactly like that.

And it's not just the reading. Check out this great drawing she did recently.

Lightning McQueen

She's started with inventive spelling, which is a big milestone. On May 26th (I know the date because I tweeted about it) Nea wrote her first unscripted sentence. "I like you." All spelled right, too! Sure, she's behind, but this is more progress than we've seen before.

In her workbook, she and I counted out loud from 1 to 100 while pointing at each number. I actually wanted to quit twice, but she wouldn't let me.

So. My house is a disaster. My garden is a weedy mess. But it doesn't matter, because Nea is only about a full grade behind her peers, which is better than where we were in June.

Part 2: Our insurance saga - Winning!

2011-07-22T15:45:00.000-05:00

My last insurance update was here.

Several months ago I heard from Blue Cross Blue Shield. In a chirpy voice, the nice lady told me that they were not only going to stop paying for speech, they had changed their minds and were TAKING BACK all the money they paid our SLP this calendar year. Under the very weak argument that they do not cover developmental delays after age 6. Nea is 7 now. She does not have a developmental delay. She has apraxia.

I'll be honest. I was a little pissed off.

So we lawyered up. Which was a great decision. Also, turns out ASHA* (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) has a very helpful form letter that argues persuasively (using that insurance-speak language that the insurance companies love) that apraxia is not a developmental delay. Please contact them if you need help fighting your insurance company.

Here's the money shot from their letter:

Verbal apraxia is not a developmental delay and a child will not outgrow this disorder. It is not an educational issue, but rather an issue of health and normal physiological function. Developmental delay describes a slower than normal rate of development, but verbal apraxia is a disorder.

The lawyer (who, I'll be honest, is ruining my deep suspicion and disregard for the profession) recommended we get nice, fresh letters of medical necessity from our SLP and pediatrician. These letters said the same thing as the letters we had previously submitted, but they were, you know, new. Plus she has fancy letters behind her name when she signs official documents. People respect that.

And then the clouds parted. The sun shone.

And therefore, ta da. BCBS is covering our ST again. With no visit maximum for the calendar year! (Let's go every day!) I'd frankly feel even more excited if I didn't think we'll have to go through it all again next year. Still, a victory for now. I'll take it.

Thanks to some help from my friends on Facebook (shout out to Steve and Lex! Smoochies!), we have a rewritten I Fought the Law by The Clash (from the point of view of BCBS)

Denying claims in the hot sun,
I fought Bluestem and...she won.
I fought the completely rational and justified MamaBear and...she won.

*Next time perhaps I'll share my thoughts on the American Saddlebred Horse Association and the American School Health Association.

C'mon! Everybody sing!

Part 1: Summer homeschool curriculum - trying to catch up

2011-07-20T10:33:00.000-05:00

I know y'all thought I was crazy when I told you our summer plans for getting Nea closer to grade level reading and math. I am proud to say she has made significant gains! In reading, anyway. I don't think the math has changed much, but given a choice between the two, reading would be my pick.

1. Hooked on Phonics has a giant gap between level 1 and level 2, so we are using the Scholastic Hello Kitty phonics readers, which have an emphasis on vowel sounds, which Nea really needs. We are also borrowing books from our SLP. They are The Learning Company's Reader Rabbits Interactive Reading Journey books, which don't seem to be available anymore, but there's always eBay.

Sample page from book 34: Sam hit the ball. It was a bad hit. See Nan with the ball.

Like most early readers, it's a snorefest, but them's the breaks.

2. Educational iPhone and iPad apps we like are: math bingo, word bingo, rocket math, sight words, stack the states (for Boo)

3. Summer Bridge Activities workbooks -- just discovered all the online games and iPad apps, so we'll be using those soon.

4. Earobics

5. Working on calendar (days of the week, months of the year), time, and money

6. And the usual focused activities assigned to us by our wonderful SLP.

Apraxia update

2011-07-20T10:21:00.000-05:00

This is it, people. This is the huge blog post that I've been putting off all summer. It's turning into such a monster that I'll be covering recent news in three parts, in the next few days.

Part 1: Summer homeschool curriculum - trying to catch up

Part 2: Our insurance saga - Winning!

Part 3: How Nea is doing, vis-à-vis apraxia and literacy

Salad that my kids will actually eat

2011-07-18T13:41:00.002-05:00

A while ago we all went to Stacia's house for dinner. Among other delicious items, she made this salad, and at one point I glanced over at the kiddie table, and the kids were fighting to the death over what was left in the serving bowl. They were fighting to get more salad. No, I swear.

So, not being stupid, I asked for the recipe. Boo said it wasn't nearly as good without the anchovy paste, so we (meaning my husband) went to four stores and finally found it. Also, the big white bag of croutons they sell at Costco are apparently crack.

Caesar Salad Dressing

¼ cup light mayo
Scant ¼ cup skim milk
½ T lemon juice
½ tsp anchovy paste
½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
¼ tsp pepper
pinch ground mustard
1 garlic clove, minced (or ½ heaping tsp crushed garlic)

Put the above ingredients in a jar and shake vigorously. In a bowl, combine Romaine lettuce and croutons in the correct quantities to satisfy the number of people you expect for dinner. Toss. Then add:

¼ cup parmesan cheese (heaping)*

In other news, this baked marinated tofu was a big hit around the house, too. Give it a whirl. I left out the smoke flavoring, though.

*Buy the good stuff. You deserve it.

Temple Farms Organics CSA review

2011-06-28T08:49:00.000-05:00

our half, week one

Despite growing our own veggies and fruits, we decided to try out a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share this season. We are doing a half share of veggies and a full fruit share. We are actually splitting the full share veggies with a coworker, which gives us some flexibility. For instance, I don't need more dill. At all. Or asparagus, really.

our fruit, week one

The good points of joining a CSA: try new vegetables, forced to eat healthy foods, fun to be surprised with a big box of produce every week, organic

The bad points of joining a CSA: figuring out what to do with new vegetables, forcing healthy foods into the family, keeping up with big box of produce every week, expensive

So far we've had two weeks' worth, as follows.

Week 1: Spinach, Green Swiss Chard, Asparagus, Hakurei Turnips, Red and Green Head of Lettuce, Pak Choi and Garlic Scapes! Fruit Share: 2 quarts of Strawberries and 1 pound of Rhubarb!

Week 2: Green Scallions, Romaine Head Lettuce, Crispino Iceberg Lettuce, Asparagus, Fresh Cut Dill, Dandelion Greens, Zucchini, Chinese Cabbage, Purple Kohlrabi, Garlic Scapes! Fruit Share: lots and lots of Strawberries! (And hey, turns out Nea is allergic to strawberries. At least in vast quantities.)

From the Tempel Farm website:

Vegetable Share CSA:

Full shares: offered every week for 20 Weeks of the farm’s harvest from June 9th through October 20th. Your share is a 5/9 bushel box filled with 7-12 delicious items. $585.00

Half shares: same amount as a Full Share but offered every other week for a total of 10 weeks from June 9th through October 20th. $345.00 (We are doing half the full box every week instead.)

Fresh Fruit Share CSA: is offered every week for 16 weeks from mid June to late September. A variety of blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherries, melons, peaches and much more will fill your summer with "in season" sensations! Fruit will be harvested from our farm and fruit grown by Mick Klug Farms who treats his crops with little to no pesticides and always practices sustainable farming methods. Once apple season begins we will augment your box with contemporary and heirloom apples grown by our farm, Mick Klug Farms, Seedling Fruit and other local growers. $275.00

Proof I am a cephalophile!

2011-06-20T13:42:00.000-05:00

At great length and with much enthusiasm have I spoken of my cephalophile ways. But ne'er was there proof in my abode. Hark! This oversight has been rectified.

I know y'all are filled with the envy. Methinks my coolness rating has ballooned.

Especially as I found this in a second-hand shop in Door County. Where we all go for our stained glass octopus needs, right?

My sprint triathlon, in 5 very short acts

2011-06-13T11:15:00.001-05:00

Our protagonist, the night before the race, googles "what to wear for a triathlon when it's 50 degrees" while fretting and worrying. She cuts the toes off some socks to wear for arm warmers, and packs long biking tights. And fleece gloves.

Act 1: The Swim

Wow, am I really doing this? I guess so. OK, starting now!

Blub, glub, panic panic, flail, get kicked, kick others, repeat for half a mile. Leave water exhausted from the wasted effort of panicking.

Act 2: The Bike

La la la, I'm a biker. I bike. Shiny new bike. La la la!

Act 3: The Run, Mile 1

Ow! Shin splints! Jelly legs! Oy!

Act 4: The Run, Mile 2

OK. This is going pretty well. I can finish this. It's a lot harder to drink out of a paper cup while running than you would think, though.

Act 5: The Run, Mile 3

At 1 hour, 44 minutes after I started, I ask a bystander what time it is. It's the first indication I have of my time. I realize that I am well within my goal of finishing in less than two hours. I speed up, feeling great! I see my family cheering me on! I start wondering where the finish line actually is!

Excuse me, where is the finish line? No, seriously, how far is it? I can't see it. Oh, hurrah, it's over, and I never have to do that again! I wonder what my time is?

Several hours later, I check my results online. One hour, 49 minutes. Yeah, baby!

Note: the arm warmers, long biking tights, and fleece gloves were not used. Plenty warm in just a shirt and biking shorts. You know what everyone says, "If you are cold, you aren't working hard enough."

Books, books, books

2011-06-08T12:01:00.001-05:00

It's official. I'm only telling you the book club picks every other month. No reason. Don't really know why I still blog it anyway. Now that Amazon refuses to play nice and share 4% of the purchase price. Which I gave to charity. Whatever.

Anyway, I already mentioned that April was Dan Chaon's Await Your Reply, but I want to add that it reminded me of the movie Momento, both of which really need more than one reading/viewing. They are Complex and Make my Brain Ache. But in a good way.

May was Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. Other people liked it.

July/August is Welcome to Utopia by Karen Valby which I have no opinion on yet, as I'm on page, um, 8 or something.

And as a bonus book recommendation, I'm halfway through In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent. Super fun for language geeks like me! Thumbs up. Geek quiz: How many invented languages can you name? There are at least 500.

How we plan to survive this summer

2011-05-25T14:31:00.000-05:00

I'm sure this is probably normal for plenty of families. Right? At least, for families in which one parent works full-time and one who works part-time at home. Here's the current summer schedule for the kids.

June:

One week at home (Monday-Wednesday) with a young babysitter from down the block.
Thursdays with Oma.
Two weeks at a park district camp near us, but not our actual resident one (which we didn't like last summer). This includes four visits to pools in neighboring suburbs.
Two sessions weekly with a tutor for Nea, working on literacy and math.
One session weekly with our private speech and language pathologist.
Fridays, hang out with me.

July:

One week at home (Monday-Wednesday) with a young babysitter from down the block.
One week full-time at a YMCA. This includes at least one pool visit. I won a buy-one-week-get-one-free deal, so this is a good price.
One week full-time at Camp Invention, a science camp the girls attended last year, too.
Thursdays with Oma. Except when she is at knitting camp.
Two sessions weekly with a tutor for Nea, working on literacy and math.
One session weekly with our private speech and language pathologist.
As time allows, Nea will go to Extended School Year classes, which are a joke, but she gets an additional 45 minutes of speech weekly there. Assuming they can work with our schedule. Right now I think she'll go 12 days out of a possible 20.
Fridays, hang out with me.

August:

I'm taking some time off, which I'll need after trying to figure out who I'm driving where in July.
One week at home (Monday-Wednesday) with a young babysitter from down the block.
Possibly some gymnastics camp and swim lessons.
Thursdays with Oma, plus a couple extra days just before school starts.
Two sessions weekly with a tutor for Nea, working on literacy and math.
One session weekly with our private speech and language pathologist.
Fridays, hang out with me.

I hope someday this will just be some confusing weird memory of how ridiculous our summers used to be.

Fourth Annual Trash Pick

2011-05-14T20:19:00.001-05:00

This year was a little sparse in comparison to some other years, but I can't complain. It's free, after all.

Booster seat, lemon twist type toy. Papa Skateboard, Mama Skateboard, and Baby Skateboard. Old-timey playpen that I will use with some chickenwire for our hypothetical guinea pig, should we ever acquire one. We keep talking about it, but nothing ever happens. Three pretty china plates, a "suction cup it to your window" bird feeder, and Keen shoes, new with price tag ($29.90 at Nordstrom Rack).

Seven sample upholstery fabric books (for crafts), magazines (also for crafts), a bag of board books (will give to our old preschool).

Double jogging stroller (lending to a friend), tile address sign (will take apart for trivets), plastic flamingo (score!).

Basket with decorative grapevine balls, 12 new-in-box wire baskets (probably will give to Girl Scout troop), planter, cool old three-drawer thingie, plant stand, old toolbox (cool!), three square plastic planters (maybe for Garden Club), concrete planter (already being used).

Cute wee bunny, games, toy microphone for speech therapist, snorkel gear, find-the-Santa book. In background, large glass container for terrarium I hope to make.

Candlesticks, very nice plastic storage box, another stack of magazines, frame, little silver heart-shaped boxes (with lucky pennies and a little note from Grandma. A bit sad, really.), and a treasure trove of keepsakes from my high school Alma Mater, including keychains, cheerleading trophies, etc.

Garden news thus far

2011-05-04T13:57:00.001-05:00

This Spring has been crap. Cold and very rainy. We haven't even mowed the lawn since it hasn't grown, although it is nice and green.

Here in Zone 5, it's still at least 2 weeks until the average last frost date. I should have started a lot of seeds earlier (I finally did the pole beans, brussel sprouts, cantaloupe, and cucumbers yesterday!), but the weather didn't exactly motivate me.

I did put in the potatoes (Katahdin) and onions almost a month ago. The onions look good, but nothing is showing in the potato bed. They may have rotted from all the rain. I need to dig one up and look.

In the cold frames, the carrots, radish, and beets look really good. Almost time to eat some radishes, even. And the carrots came up! That never happens for me.

My garden guy recommended not putting out the zucchini and winter squash until the end of June. That way you miss the entire vine stem borer life cycle. I don't know if I can wait that long, but I will start them indoors soon in bigger pots and wait as long as I can.

In window boxes, the bok choi and lettuce mix look good. The Red Mountain Spinach (Orache) self-seeded and is doing well. I have peas coming up in a pot. I hope we get a good crop this year, as the kids really love eating them right off the plant.

I'll be buying tomato plants, since only 3 of my heirlooms sprouted. Sigh. My seeds are old.

Basil -- one tiny spring coming up. Pathetic. The parsley came back.

New this year: salsify. I started it outside today. I was supposed to start it with the radishes, but I couldn't find any seed locally. Luckily my brother got me some for my birthday! Hurrah!

Almost ready to harvest: rhubarb and asparagus! Very late this year, but thems the breaks. As always, the chives, oregano, and sage all look good.

In other garden news, we found another old well! We filled in one when we moved in. The idiots we bought the house from had just put a piece of plywood over the top. Can you imagine? Total morons. It was 30 feet deep, with maybe 8 feet of water at the bottom. Sure, that's safe! Anyway, we've always wondered why we have this little sinkhole in the lawn. Every year we throw a little extra dirt on it and scratch our heads. The other week Boo tripped on it, and it's two feet deep, and you can see the bricks along the sides. Yup. She's lucky she didn't break a fetlock and have to be put down.

Lastly, I know I've posted this before, but if you missed it, use this planting guide! It's so helpful.

Apraxia stories

2011-04-16T12:13:00.000-05:00

Part 1: This never gets easier
Nea (coming up on 7 years old) has made a lot of progress in the last 7 months with our new SLP. You would think this would mean that she's easier to understand, but as she improves, the number of possibilities for what she's talking about also increases, so it's actually harder to follow her in conversation at times.

We were hanging out in bed the other morning and she said, "Keemo weet." I thought she said. "Three more weeks" so I said, "Three more weeks of what?" Finally figured out she was talking about Cream of Wheat. As her breakfast choice.

Trust me. Her "Three more weeks" and "Cream of Wheat" sound exactly the same. However, she can say "oatmeal" very well.

Part 2: You'd think I'd be better at this by now

Setting: birthday party at a park, chatting with two moms I don't know. They are very nice, and we are enjoying the crazy warm sunny day.

Nea comes up and tells a story in her usual blabber. She sounds like a slightly delayed two-year-old. "Me … go … dere … bad guy … up!" etc. Her words and phrases are improving, but when she tells a longer story it all falls apart. I don't concentrate fully on what she's saying, as I feel very self-conscious on her behalf, which is distracting. I repeat back some of it ("Oh, you ran fast? To the tree?") to help the other listeners, who I know can understand nothing.

One of the moms: Oh, is she speaking German?

Me: No, she has apraxia.

Other mom: What's that?

Me: It's an oral motor coordination … thing.

Long silence.

Me: But she's making a lot of progress!

Nea doesn't say anything. Then she runs off to play.

Book club picks

2011-04-11T10:08:00.003-05:00

Apparently I did it again, with the forgetting. April was Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. The evening ended very late, with my pregnant friend dropping me off around 2 am. Her water broke an hour later, and she had her bouncing baby boy at 8 am! Exciting! May's pick is Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon. No babies are expected to arrive that evening. Although I am expecting a new niece in a few months. It's baby season!

Fun with thrifting

2011-04-08T18:47:00.011-05:00

Well, it's not trashpicking, but going to thrift stores is also a lot of fun while waiting for garage sales to start up again. I hit two today: one that benefits the local hospital, and a new Goodwill. I've had some success at the Goodwill before, including a great stained glass lamp for $5, but had only longingly looked at the other store every time the train goes by it when I'm coming home from my Big Important Corporate Job that I rarely leave home for. Some of these will be Easter gifts (like the purse) and some will be Rainy Day prezzies. So don't tell my kids, please, ok?

4 Kids Discovery magazines, 25 cents each and 11 Model Railroader magazines, 25 cents each. You can tell that model railroads are not a geeky hobby after all, because Rod Stewart is on the cover of the one on top. I don't know why. Ask N next time you see him.

2 games, Slide 5 and Mancala, $1 each

Stationery, $3

Metal sign, $2. Children's Place purse, $3, pretending to be made out of some corduroy pants with extra pockets, which Boo will love for the (fake) recycling aspect. Bonus: just found a pair of cute tiny tweezers in a pocket. Free!

Circo brand supersoft hoodie for Nea ($3), LA Conduct skirt ($4) for whichever of my kids is COOL enough to ROCK IT, and Gap brand jeans ($3) with embellishments for Boo.

Nordic Track brand yoga pants for me, $4.

New home improvements, part 1

2011-04-06T19:48:00.003-05:00

I bought this leaded glass window at a garage sale two years ago. It was $10. Finally N hung it up in the downstairs bathroom window for privacy. I drew on the glass around it with a window marker to make it extra fancy. Isn't it? Isn't it fancy?

Fruit and vegetable tasting program at the grade school

2011-03-25T18:54:00.004-05:00

Wow, what a day! As part of the school lunch improvement plan, the PTA Wellness Committee decided to offer samples of fruits and veggies to the kids once a month for the rest of the school year. We didn't want to scare off anyone with anything too exotic for the first go-around, so today we served up cucumber and cantaloupe. Next month we are doing jicama and grapes. In May we'll do watermelon and zucchini.

You would not believe how much work it was getting this approved and running! You need sign-off from the principal, food vendor, county health inspector, and who knows who else. And everyone was really great and agreeable, but it's still a lot of coordination.

So, three of us cut up all the cucumber and cantaloupe that was donated by a local grocer. We had the use of the kitchen from 9-10 am, before the Lunch Ladies start getting the delivered lunch trays ready. (Ready = Take pre-made lunches from the middle school out of the heater boxes. Put on table.) Turns out our grade school has a compost bin, which I can't believe I didn't know. We put all the peels in there. Saved some of the seeds to clean up and give to the garden club (grades 3 and 4), which has no money left for seed purchasing. Went for a walk and checked out the new school speed limit sign, which I helped agitate for. Toured the still empty (zone 5!) community garden. Gave a little unsolicited advice on how to organize one of the sizable plots.

Returned to the school to prepare for the onslaught. There are three lunch periods, and they run for almost an hour and a half total. We served the samples on toothpicks. We have 400 students. Which means that we served about 2000 kids, because some of them just kept getting back in line. And back in line. And back in line. Turns out kids really like cucumbers and cantaloupe! Even kids who had never tried them before, hurrah!

The superintendent dropped by. He had some cucumber. Not a melon fan, apparently.

The leftover produce went to the fire station. In the future we hope to drop it off at the food pantry or homeless shelter, but that didn't come up as an idea until today, so we'll have to call them and arrange drop-off.

Every family received an informational flyer about how to enjoy cucumbers and cantaloupe at home, with a coupon from our grocer-sponsor stapled to it. Guess who did the copying and stapling? Yep, two of us Wednesday night.

I'm exhausted. But exhilarated, too.

The questions on the chart, from left to right, are: Have you ever tried cucumbers before? How does it taste? Should we include it in school lunches? And then the same questions for canteloupe.

Granola and granola bars

2011-03-09T09:24:00.001-06:00

There's certain items at the grocery store that irk me. Too expensive for what they are. Top of the list? Granola bars. If you want ones without HFCS, you'll be paying a lot. Cereal is also something I stock up on only when it's on sale. To combat these budget-busters I've started making my own. In fact, I have the bars in the oven right now. And I made the granola on Monday.

This chewy walnut granola bar recipe is especially nice as it is peanut-free. A nice break from the usual, and helpful for people allergic to peanuts but not tree nuts.

And this granola recipe is fabulous, but I must remember to double or triple it next time I make it, or my family will burn right through it in a matter of days. As you can see, it's from my favorite bread book. I'm still making bread regularly, since it's so easy and delicious.

Good news on the school lunch program

2011-03-05T20:15:00.007-06:00

Here's the update we sent out to the school parents this week:
----------------------------

The district has chosen our school for a pilot program in the HealthierUS School Challenge (HUSSC). We are applying at the bronze level. District-wide, we are already meeting several requirements at this level, including nutrition education, PE classes, and our wellness policy. The lunch menus for March, April, and May will be changed to make them align with the HUSSC guidelines.

If the pilot is successful (meaning that the number of lunches sold is equal or higher than in previous months), this program will be rolled out to the other elementary schools in the district.

The menu changes include:

White milk choices will change from skim or 2%, to skim or 1%. Chocolate milk will remain at 1%.
Whole grains must be served three times a week. Examples include brown rice or whole wheat hamburger buns.
Dark green or orange vegetables will be added every week. For example, romaine salad or sweet potatoes.
Beans will be served at least once a week.
Fresh fruit will be offered at least once a week.

----------------------------------------------

So. Progress is good. I'm happy that we are making these changes without an impact on the budget. However, I have to say, there are a few menu items that perhaps need tweaking. My favorite day is next week. It is "Cheese pizza, romaine garden salad with dressing, mixed fruit, brown rice." Oh, those little kids will just be gobbling up their brown rice that day! Obviously a whole wheat pizza crust would be a better fit, but either it's too expensive or not available from our supplier right now.

There's also a side dish called "Toasted Oatsies." Yeah, essentially Cheerios. A bit odd. My ~~daughter~~ spy tells me that they are fairly popular, though, so that's cool.

Catching up on book club picks

2011-03-04T14:11:00.005-06:00

Whoopsie. Apparently I've been negligent in my duties.

February was The Best American Short Stories 2010 (The Best American Series) which was a lot of fun. Quite a bit of discussion.

March is The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall

My old buddy Tish wrote up her favorite books of 2010 for your viewing pleasure. Check it out.

Happy happy

2011-02-14T16:25:00.001-06:00

Apocalypse Snow

2011-02-01T14:19:00.001-06:00

I love the smell of salt trucks in the morning.

Triathlon, revisited

2011-01-24T17:25:00.003-06:00

I've been meaning to write this post since missing last June's triathlon. I'm making it up this June! Who is with me?! Women's sprint distance, Naperville, June 12th. It's the old .75K (.5 mile) swim, 22.8K (14.2 mile) bike, 5K (3.1 mile) run thing.

You still have 5 months to train, so no excuses. Unless you are planning on having a baby between now and then. That's an excellent excuse. Also, if you are a boy. Sorry, find your own event.

I'm expecting the following tri-buddies thus far: Erin, for her fourth tri, Carrie for her second, Buffi who has been meaning to do one for awhile but then had another baby, Kate from Atlanta for her first. Anyone else? Who's in?

I think this means I have to start training again. Can I just say that Jillian Michaels' exercise routines (available on Comcast's On Demand for free, or cheap at Target or Amazon) are amazing? 30 Shred, Shred-It With Weights (Kettlebell!), Toning, even her Yoga Meltdown, it's gonna kick your booty even if you give up in a sweaty pile 20 minutes into it.

But eventually I'll have to start swimming, biking, and oh yeah, running again. I should probably pencil all that in.

Certain values of Easy Street

2011-01-05T20:51:00.001-06:00

Six months ago when Nea turned 6, I called Blue Cross Blue Shield. I knew that insurance companies often use a little BS move, in which they stop covering speech therapy at that age, claiming that apraxia is a developmental delay. Which it is NOT. More here. They said everything was fine then. Great, I said to myself.

Then we made a mistake. In my 2010 health insurance plan, BCBS covered speech therapy up to $2000 per year. We were going to be over that by just a little bit. (Should have just coughed up the difference. Who knew? Hindsight.) So our SLP wrote a letter of medical necessity (it's a thing of beauty with lots of big words), included a bunch of medical records, and BCBS denied it. Which, it turns out, means that they were denying any ST for Nea forever and ever, amen. Not. Cool. I got the news a day or two before Christmas, and frankly, I was in no mood to deal with it. I called BCBS once before the end of the year and did a little half-hearted protesty thing, but you gotta be in the mood, y'know?

So I called yesterday. Forty minutes later, our file was going for re-review. The nice lady said, "We'll call you within 30 days with the results." I rolled my eyes and took notes in my binder. At 3:00 THAT SAME DAY I got a call back from her. It wasn't overturned, but she gave me the key phrases we should use in the next letter. Apparently our SLP didn't call it verbal apraxia in her session notes, and didn't mention specifically that Nea's gap between receptive and expressive language is huge. Whatever. I'm not worried about it at this point. We have to jump through a couple hoops, and we'll be back on Easy Street. For values of Easy Street that include having a 6.5 year old who can't pronounce her last name.

A joke Dagi would have loved

2010-12-20T21:47:00.004-06:00

In memory of my aunt, who died last April. This joke is so very much her style. Jokes are big in my family. I tend to only remember one at a time. This will be my standard joke for the next few months.

A mama and daughter are sitting at the seashore. A big wave comes crashing in and carries the daughter away. Mama is beside herself and beats her chest and screams, "God, how could you do that? My only daughter! I was always good, and so was she. Ai-ai-ai-ai-ai!"

Soon thereafter, a second wave comes in and brings the daughter back. The mama cries, "Oh, my God, I knew you were good, I am so happy you returned her, I will be ever grateful to you, and I am going to pray to you all the time!"

Then mama starts looking around everywhere, under the bench and in the bushes. She turns to the ocean and yells, "God? There was also a hat?"

I love a good white elephant gift exchange

2010-12-12T11:44:00.004-06:00

As previously mentioned, book club had the annual white elephant gift exchange (WEGE) and a toy/book/clothing swap (very successful -- only 3 little items left over that no one wanted).

The WEGE requires some back story, as, sadly, so many good practical jokes do. I wrote a note on Facebook recently entitled "Books you hated. Really loathed." Here it is:

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Book written by a total hack. Contains plot holes you could drive a truck through.
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Just hated the damn narrator. Repeatedly used all the words I hate, like "munch" and "toothsome." How I finished this piece of crap is beyond me.
The Firm by John Grisham. GAH. Drivel.
Bridges of Madison County by some damn fool who I'm not even going to look up. Worst grammar ever in a best seller. The clichés are thick on the ground.
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Of all the damn narcissistic, shallow, useless idiots, this one decides to write a book.

This lead to some very lively literary discussion, in which the word "crap" was, perhaps, over-used. In the comments, people added:

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda
Twilight
Loving Frank
Vanity Fair
Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead
All the Berenstein Bears books
The Catcher in the Rye
The Life of Pi
Everything ever written by Debbie Macomber, Virginia Wolf, and Emily Dickinson
And ALL contemporary realist American fiction

So. Back to the WEGE. We gathered and drew numbers. When it was my turn, I picked a present and unwrapped it. It was a table-top fountain that I said I'd like to keep if possible. The next person stole it from me, as is allowed under the rules. I picked another present. The wrapped box contained 3 wrapped items. The first one turned out to be the same ugly stuffed scarecrow I got in this exchange last year. Groan! The other two looked like books, so I happily turned to them. First one? A Confederacy of Dunces! Ugh! The second one? The Da Vinci Code! Argh!

So hat's off to Margaret! Well played, friend. Well played.

The next book for book club will be The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty.

Progress on improving the school lunch program

2010-12-01T13:22:00.008-06:00

So, a few weeks ago I presented the school board with the petitions that I and my many helpers canvassed around, collecting 428 signatures. Our district has about 3200 students in 7 schools, so I feel like that was a respectable amount.

Despite having my partner-in-change (Laura) with me and our friend and ally (Dana the village trustee) and one other mom who came to support the cause, I was nervous. Hate the public speaking. There were lots of other people there, though! If you've never been to a board of education meeting, I have to say there's a lot you can learn there. It was "The State of the District" presentation night, so there were teachers, the middle school principal (who I didn't know and didn't recognize, which is just as well, which you will see if you read my speech, below), some AAUW people asking for a grant, the local newspaper reporter who was there to do an article on LAURA AND ME, WOOOO, WE ARE FAMOUS, MAN - front page article! Lots of people.

So as always when I'm nervous, I had to read straight off the page. Sigh. Oh well, I am proud of the positive tone, which did not go unnoticed by the superintendent, who remarked on it and on the fact that this was the first grassroots initiative brought to him in his seven years at the district.

This evening I meet with the Asst. Superintendent for Finance and Operations to discuss who will be on the committee. I can't believe this is really moving forward!

Here's my speech:

[introductions]

We believe the district's wellness policy has done a great job of eliminating junk food as a teacher reward, in fundraising, and at school functions. In the latest [district newsletter] it states that the district is prioritizing wellness. It seems like the next logical step is to address the inadequacies of the lunch program.

As you are perhaps have heard, we put together a petition to show you that our community is interested in improving the quality of the lunches served at our schools. PRESENT PETITIONS and DECLARE NUMBER (428 signatures). [Read text of petition]

During discussions that were sparked by this effort, we have learned that we have a community filled with people who want to volunteer their time to improve various aspects of the school nutrition program.

We have an executive chef who wants to partner with the schools (chefs move to school program that Michelle Obama started).
We also have parents at several schools who would love to start a school vegetable garden, which would enable students to try truly fresh and local foods.

Have a committee to oversee applying for grants and other programs that would benefit the nutritional and physical well-being of the students. We propose that the committee should consist of

the middle school principal
one of the elementary school principals
parents from each school
the Food Service Director
and a Board of Education representative

The first set of goals includes:

Increase the amount of whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables
Decrease the amount of HFCS and hydrogenated oils
Give input when the new lunch contract is under discussion
Enforce the Wellness Policy during lunch at the middle school

We are also interested in expanding the role of the school district in promoting fitness, including walk and bike to school initiatives and a district-level wellness fair to showcase ideas for healthier families.

We know that solving this problem will entail creativity and flexibility to meet the nutritional guidelines and not overshoot the budget, but we are confident that large improvements can be made without straining the district's finances.

Thank you.

Holiday "to do" list

2010-11-27T13:39:00.001-06:00

Finish shopping. (Click through my link if you need a little something from Amazon! Thank you!)
Help the kids make some presents.
Bake cookies with Tish.
Make some Christmas cards. Use store-bought when we run out of steam.
Choose photo to put in cards. Have them printed.
Purchase the holiday stamps and mail the cards.
Put together family photo calendar. Less fun this year, as two of the five recipients have died since last Christmas.
Make gingerbread houses. We went with the multiple mini-houses this time. I was hoping to get it over with by having the cousins make them with our kids during Thanksgiving, but the nieces were working and the nephews aren't into that sort of thing, apparently. It was a good idea, though. I thought.
Wrap presents.

I think I'm running behind schedule.

Book club! Wooooo! Book club!

2010-11-22T16:05:00.002-06:00

Our selection for next month is The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I've already read it, but I want to read it again. There's a lot going on in this book.

Plus we'll be having our third annual (or is it fourth?) White Elephant gift exchange. I love those. Plus we bring toys and books and clothing to swap with each other. It's tons of fun, and I can't wait. I've already been weeding out some kiddie books and toys.

Yeeeah. That's not a good fit for us.

2010-11-10T19:42:00.002-06:00

Ever feel like the world conspires against you? I've thought for awhile that Nea has something else going on other than her apraxia. Apraxia doesn't explain why it first took her forever to learn her shapes and colors (to the point where I had her tested for color blindness) and then forever and a day to learn her letters and numbers. And she is very inconsistent from day to day on what she remembers.

I'm guessing she has at least ADD (it runs in the family), maybe also a memory problem or an executive function problem. Who knows, except that she is very clearly too smart to be having this much trouble learning. And she is falling further and further behind her peers.

So I decided it was time to have her tested. Schools don't generally do this kind of testing. ADD falls in the medical realm, and schools test for dyslexia, etc. but it's not as exhaustive.

I started by asking a friend whose child just had some neuropsych testing done. Turns out their doctor is going into active military duty, so she's not taking new pediatric patients. Her office recommended another place. I called them. They gave us two appointments, but clearly didn't think one of their doctors was better suited than another other. Really? I have a 6-year-old child with a severe speech disorder and that doesn't call for a little specialization for neuropysch testing? Huh. On a whim, I googled that office. I looked at the extremely Christian mission statement and the different doctors' descriptions. One of the biographies said, "Sees adults for Biblical Conflict Resolution, etc." and "learned how to address interpersonal conflicts in a Biblically faithful manner." Yeeeah. That's not a good fit for us.

After school I saw another friend whose child was recently diagnosed with ADHD. So I asked her for a recommendation. She gave me a business card. I called them up. Turns out for only a few thousand dollars (mostly not covered by insurance) I can get my kid some very questionable woo-woo therapy! Yeeeah. No.

Who knew this was going to be so hard? Anyway, I got some recommendations from our pediatrician. I haven't called them yet, though. They'll probably end up being batshit crazy in some other unique way. I'm sort of looking forward to it.

Book talk

2010-10-31T13:18:00.009-05:00

Five books I've recently read, in the order that I would recommend them:

Little Bee by Chris Cleave (must read the other book he wrote)
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (want to do for book club)
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (what Her Fearful Symmetry was trying to be)
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk (just don't read his newest, Tell-All. It's godawful. I made it to page 18.)

Books I plan to read next, in no particular order:

Dangerous Liaisons (Les Liaisons Dangereuses) by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (loved the movie. Want to read the book, then watch the movie again)

Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It by Maile Meloy (I don't remember where I heard about this one.)

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (recommended by Tish, my librarian friend, who has very similar taste to me and rarely steers me wrong, although she has a weird thing for Pete Hamill that I don't get.)

One Day by David Nicholls (Tish, I'm reading it now)

This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper (Tish)

The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst (Tish)

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (Tish)

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (Tish)

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall (Tish)

What have y'all been reading that's good?

World domination and subversive activity

2010-10-15T14:28:00.004-05:00

Sometimes there is a quote that you hear too often, yet it resonates so deeply that it never really gets old.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. -- Margaret Mead

As I mentioned, I'm heading up the PTA Wellness Committee this year. I had two big goals (Start a walking to school program and do something to improve the lunch program), and one not-so-secret goal (start a school vegetable garden).

Our district has a wellness policy that has met with a lot of parental resistance. In part: No chips, cookies, candy, soda for daily snack items or class parties. No food of any kind for teacher rewards. No candy or bake sale fundraisers. (Although we still have a "cake walk" once a year. Go figure how that gets approved.) I have no issues with any of that.

And yet, despite the wellness policy, the lunch program, as in many schools, is repulsive. No fresh fruit or vegetables. At all. I read in USA Today recently (I know. It was an accident.) that only schools and pet food use that grade of meat. Gross. There is a breakfast item called the SuperDonut that gets a lot of negative parental comments. "It's fortified," says the food vendor. Umm. Yeah.

So, I met one of our village trustees, Dana, who just happened to stop me to chat after a school board meeting. I attended that meeting to ask whether there were plans for any lunch program revamping. While talking with her, I realized that nothing would ever happen unless all the schools start working together. I mentioned this to our school's PTA president as well. Next thing I know I'm heading up a meeting next Thursday night, and we are inviting all the parents from all seven schools in the district to attend. I hope the news is spreading well. It seems to be. All hail the God of Email.

On top of that, Dana told me of an eco-grant program the village has. I plan to apply for a grant to start our school vegetable garden, but I probably should get the principal on board first. Also, she and I are both interested in getting foreign language instruction in the grade schools. I think I'll need to hang out with her more!

All this world domination and subversive activity is taking away from my exercising/reading/blogging/lounging time, which frankly wasn't such a large line item to begin with.

Next selection

2010-10-15T11:13:00.001-05:00

The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich. I'm half through it and loving it!

Update

2010-10-07T11:45:00.003-05:00

I'm not dead. Just crazy busy. New speech therapist for Nea, new progress towards a school veggie garden, etc. etc.

Did I tell you about my first-ever attempt at peach jam? It's so lovely. Five pumpkins this year! We ate our one Red Rome apple. It was crisp.

Will update more next week. Really!

Why aren't you growing fruit trees?

2010-09-14T18:23:00.002-05:00

As you may remember, I predicted a good year for our peach tree. And lo, well into September, it has come to pass that 30ish peaches were saved before losing more to the varmints. And they are so damn tasty.

The story starts nearly 30 years ago, when I first ate a peach off a tree. I fell in love. I bought peaches from the store several times after that but eventually learned that there was no point. Then I learned that peaches rank second only to celery for worst pesticide offender. Here, kids, have some chemically coated fruit! It's good for you. I mean, how can a parent hand that crap over without worrying what the ramifications are?

So at some point I said, Hey, how about we grow our own? We bought it at a nursery. It's not very old. I have never sprayed it with anything. And the fruit is gorgeous. I think that's one thing holding people back -- thinking that if you don't spray, you won't get any useable fruit. And space. Dwarf trees are small and convenient!

I bought two apple trees and a pear tree at Stark Bro's, and they are growing very well. Good prices, too.

Zone 5 here! You can grow peaches, apricots, plums, pears, apples, cherries, etc. Apricots go down to Zone 4! Shame about mango trees being Zone 9B.

Book group selection

2010-09-12T13:38:00.001-05:00

Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya, which is not available at our local library. Whatever shall I do.

Today's Botany Public Service Announcement

2010-09-10T17:54:00.002-05:00

Do not plant a Goldenrain tree (Koelreuteria paniculata). Do not encourage others to grow one. Do not buy one for a friend. If your next door neighbor talks about getting one, do whatever it takes to dissuade them. Offer to buy them something else if need be. It would be well worth your investment.

If I never have to pull up another damn 10,000 seedlings, that would be ok. If only my neighbor didn't love the stupid thing so much. I've already pruned the hell out of it on my side of the fence. And the damn tree is technically on our property, which just pisses me off more. God, I hate that tree.

The word "invasive" should always preface the name of the damn tree. I'm outside CHICAGO in ZONE FIVE. Winters apparently don't slow this devil spawn plant.

If you would like to view the Goldenrain tree in a safe virtual environment, that is probably ok. Probably. Check your shoes when you're done, though. Don't carry any seedpods out with you.

I sense a trend

2010-08-31T21:38:00.002-05:00

Do I do this every year? Is it possible that I'm this dumb? Let's just keep a record, and we can check back next year at this time.

The very first day of school I heard of a different SLP who actually knows something about apraxia. This would be a welcome change from Easter Seals, so I immediately call to schedule something. And she wants a copy of the IEP and other stuff. Which is reasonable, of course, but means I have to put that together. Luckily (?) she can't see us until Sept 21st.
I haven't done any freelancing since I was pregnant with Nea (I remember specifically since that client wanted me to come meet him downtown for no good reason, and I thought to myself, "Well, won't this massive belly be a bit of a surprise for the yahoo."), but now I've finished one job and have another lined up.
It's the end of the fiscal year at my regular job, and what a quarter it's been! With the extreme meltdown in mental health of my team in India. What joy.
Plus I just qualified for a focus group thing, so that's nice. Except I'm supposed to cook three meals in a week with SECRET NEW THING and then report back. Sounds like work.
And I'm the head of the PTA Wellness Committee now, with my personal agenda of revamping the lunch vendor, if possible, and the start of a "walking school bus" program. Oh yeah, and it turns out that I'm supposed to have something in the monthly school newsletter, oh boy. As in, regularly.
Boo says she's "bored" at school. On Day Four of School she says this. Oof.
Luckily, Nea has two very very nice Girl Scout friends in her class this year. They bonded at the worst ever GS thing two weeks ago. Imagine the worst hot/humid/mosquito hell. Then add a trashy mom getting a vodka bottle passed through the fence so she can endure spending time with her daughter. And some other mind-bogglingly ridiculous parental antics. I mean, seriously. Please seek help if you can't go 24 hours without a drink, ok? There's help out there for you. Really.
Plus we have abandoned Saturday German school, so I'm homeschooling German this year! I'M INSANE. SOMEONE HELP ME.

Update on killer tomatoes

2010-08-28T12:58:00.004-05:00

I normally don't use a chainsaw when harvesting my tomatoes, but it takes all kinds to make a world.

Veggie gardening in small spaces

2010-08-20T15:59:00.002-05:00

La la la. Tum tee tum tee tum. Walking to the public pool. Hmm. What's this?

Hmm. Looks interesting.

Ooooh. They look like they are almost ripe! No need to start a raised bed or do that awkward mowing-around-the-plants thing.

To think some of you claim not to have enough space to grow your own food! I hope you see new possibilities opening up for you. Grow your tomatoes in an elevated garden, I say.

Next book

2010-08-14T08:48:00.003-05:00

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard. I read part of this book while visiting our former book club member Kate last year. So really, Kate, I think your influence continues, despite your exile in Georgia.

And JM has missed three meetings in a row, so we should really just talk smack about her in the comments, don't you think?

Literacy. I'm a fan.

2010-08-12T15:31:00.002-05:00

Nea will learn to read if it kills me. And it might. TBD. I said to N recently that I want her to love to read, and then I burst into tears. If there's one thing I want my kids to have it's a love of reading. Empathy? Whatever. Athletic ability? Like I care. A fulfilling happy existence? Well. That would be nice, but who's all fulfilled and happy if they aren't voracious readers? I mean, really. As if.

Anyway. My point is. Oh, right, my newest theory on how to get this kid to read. The problems are A) kids with apraxia generally have more trouble learning to read, since they can't sound out the words. B) I think she has dyslexia, based mostly on the fact that she works so hard but retains so little. Shapes and colors took forever to stick. Letters, too.

In case you don't have a kid who has been in kindergarten recently, the fairly new thing is "sight words." The words you should know essentially by rote repetition. Memorizing the shape of the letters forming the word.

So, let's just hammer home the 100 most commonly used words in the English language, yes? Yes! What a great idea! Before you read any further, take this little quiz. Can you name the top 100? It's fun! C'mon, take a break! Oh, right, you already were!

I haven't done the blow by blow to compare their answers to the Wikipedia entry. Feel free to do an analysis and report back. If you really need another reason to procrastinate something.

Profound apraxia at age 6

2010-08-04T13:22:00.001-05:00

Nea turned 6 this summer. I've been putting off writing this post for quite awhile. Looks like the last update I gave on her speech disorder was in the spring.

Many times I have read "My apraxic child improved dramatically the year of kindergarten! Or at age 5!" It's a real trend. That's nice for those families, isn't it?

Things got really hairy for a few months. I struggled to understand her as her speech attempts became much longer and complicated. Some days I was exhausted by the time she went to bed. Those of you who have traveled to countries where you don't speak the language well know what that feels like.

But then a few things improved. One thing that helped more than you would think was that she started saying "A long time 'go". It doesn't seem like much, but CONTEXT is everything when you are trying to understand Nea. And knowing that we aren't talking about the here and now, or events of the day, helps so much.

I don't know. She has improved so much, but she has so far to go. If you ask her where she's going later today she says, "Eat-det Deah" (Easter Seals). Spongebob is Pon-Pon. If you heard her talk without seeing her you'd think she was maybe two years old. Talking on the phone with her is very difficult, as you can imagine.

Her handwriting is shaky. The pressure on the paper is very light. We spell things out and show her what letter to write and crawl through writing thank-you cards.

But then, the other day she told us that no boys were allowed in her room. And she does have a green belt in karate now. Maybe she'll be ok after all.

The best three soundtracks of all time

2010-07-30T11:15:00.002-05:00

A little discussion point for y'all. I'm sure we can all agree these are excellent soundtracks.

What are your top three? Or perhaps you are too snooty for soundtracks. Perhaps you were a music major and only listen to avant garde something something.

Suburban Version of OFF THE GRID

2010-07-19T19:05:00.004-05:00

N is once again taking classes, so it was just me and the kids for dinner. I made zucchini pancakes using a stupid pathetic onion from the garden. Wait, I mean, don't you wish you had tiny onions whenever a recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of diced onion? Ha ha! No cut open leftover stinky onion in my fridge! No. I use my single-serving size PERSONAL onions that I grow myself! How clever!

They were served with applesauce (made from my friend's apple tree last September and frozen) and homemade yogurt (because we were out of sour cream).

And the kids, as always, loved them. Starving the poor tykes by having them in swimming classes at the normal dinner hour had only a small influence on their hunger, I'm sure.

I plan to bask in the glow of my self-sufficiency for the rest of the day. At least.

Book club

2010-07-19T14:28:00.001-05:00

Stitches: A Memoir by David Small. A very quick read, and our first graphic novel since Fun Home, a very long time ago.

Photo evidence

2010-07-04T12:56:00.006-05:00

You know, in case you don't really believe me when I talk about this "garden" I "work" on and "enjoy" so "much."

The main garden, overview. In the forefront, what's left of the Three Sisters, namely the hubbard squash. Under them, strawberry plants.

Now panning in sections from right to left...

On the left is the red orache, at full height of four feet. In the foreground one giant massive plant, aka yellow summer squash, with zucchini next to it. Behind them, 5 tomato plants. Behind them, very successful raspberry bushes (barely visible).

Some overlap with previous photo, but here we see the small brussel sprout plants in the left coldframe, asparagus plants (which look like wispy ferns) in the background. Insane oregano and chives in the front of photo.

Left front, tiny basil and swiss chard. Then giant peas, with the out of control cukes behind. Another 8 tomato plants. Parsley going to seed in front right. What a wall of green.

Container with a tomato plants and two eggplants. Behind are the windowboxes with lettuce.

Part of compost bin on left. Potatoes and winter squash growing on the ground. Pole beans growing up side of garage. Nea ate about 15 green beans yesterday! Hurrah!

Veggie Garden 2010: a mixed bag

2010-06-30T17:01:00.001-05:00

The spring foods went well. We ate asparagus, rhubarb, and two whole strawberries that the chipmunk didn't get to before us. The lettuce is still going. The herbs are out of control, as usual. I wish I'd known oregano would spread aggressively. Treat it as you would a mint, people! There's an actual Red Rome apple on our new tree. We'll have to split it four ways when it's ripe, I suppose. Peaches looking good. Quince didn't set fruit despite blooming for the first time. Maybe next year.

Almost two months since the last frost date, and things are really getting started now! We ate our first pole beans. I didn't get as many plants established as I wanted, though I started a lot of them. They didn't like all the wet weather either. Every day we have a few peapods, and the plants are six feet tall. The kids like those. The zukes and cukes should be producing by the weekend, since they are all finally setting fruit. The plants themselves are huge. I have high hopes for FRIDGE PICKLES this year, as last year we barely had any cukes. Stupid cold wet summer it was.

This has been the best year for raspberries we've ever had. They were free, too, as they came over the fence from the neighbors. Boo is a fan and will now go out and pick her own. Success!

I'm a big fan of orache (red mountain spinach) now and will no longer bother with normal spinach which bolts much too early. The orache is nearing four feet tall, and I use the leaves in salads.

Managed to get two swiss chard plants going and one cantaloupe.

The traditional Three Sisters of corn, pole beans, and squash has been a total bust. It's just the hubbard squash now. Some animal ate the corn plants. The beans sprouted and then disappeared. Pumpkins are coming up all over the yard, and I'm just letting them go. Maybe some are butternuts. I did plant a few butternuts, but I haven't seen them lately under the massive potato plants. They've been digging all the rain. I expect to get more than the 50 pounds I harvested last year.

The onions are hiding under the asparagus, but seem to be happy. Earwigs are eating the Bok choi again. Radishes went to seed much too early.

Tomatoes are growing well, esp. considering the cool wet weather. Well, I guess we had some heat, too. Along with the regular raised bed tomato plants, I did two containers of one tomato plant with two eggplants. Since they love the heat, I thought the containers might help them, and they seem very happy.

There's five beets, after putting seeds down twice. One carrot. Pathetic. Boo (who doesn't want to be called Boo in real life anymore. That's … impossible. But I'm trying.) thought that the carrot plants would come back next year, and would produce more than one carrot per plant.

The brussel sprouts are coming along slowly, but you don't harvest those until around the frost, so no rush.

My gardening mentor, my aunt, died on my birthday this past April. I miss her advice already. It was the corn seeds she gave me (Royal Red corn) that were destroyed by pests. Sigh. But the orache seeds were from her, and that's going well, so I guess it's win some lose some, right?

Photos to follow soon.

What do shingles scars look like one month after they erupt?

2010-06-25T16:31:00.004-05:00

So, a little health update on my shingles. The pain is gone, the itching is much better (which means I can sleep again), and my skin is less numb on my forehead. Got the bill from the hospital. In case you were wondering, the full price (pre-insurance) of a 24-hour stay in the isolation ward, where everyone has to wear a fresh face mask and a full paper gown EVERY SINGLE TIME they enter your room, is only $7100. What a deal! Of course, the infectious diseases doctor bills separately.

If you want to know what it looked like when I was in the hospital you can go ahead and Google "shingles on face". I don't recommend it, but knock yourself out. Granted, I didn't look nearly as bad as many of those poor people.

Doctors keep telling me that the scars generally fade entirely, but it could take up to one year. Frankly, the prospect of losing my eyesight in that eye worried me a hell of a lot more than my appearance, and I have confirmation that the shingles affected my tear duct's ability to work.

"Look at that sad lady, Mommy. Why is she crying out of one eye?" Actually, I have this gritty feeling in my eye, whether I'm wearing my contacts or not. It's annoying. I haven't cried lately, so I don't know if it's noticeably different from both eyes. I'll get back to you on that. Maybe I can get a sad movie soon.

Anyway, the ophthalmologist* says that other eye complications are "rare" this late in the game, so I'm starting to think about the scars a bit more. Especially that big divot-like one in the middle of my stupid forehead. Might be time for a new haircut.

Additionally, I seem to have lost much of my sense of smell. I hope that's temporary.

See? See how shingles doesn't cross the midline? It's like magic, except not really so fun.

*Some other words with the "phth" sequence include phthalein, phthisis, Phthirus, and phthisiology. In case you were wondering.

Walk through my garden

2010-06-19T21:12:00.005-05:00

Our house, circa quite awhile back

2010-06-11T10:34:00.007-05:00

Two years ago we found this photo in our mailbox. Someone was closing up a realty company, and they gave a whole lot of time to the project of returning historical photos to the houses' current owners. I called the local historical museum and whoooo whee. Were they pissed. Anyway, I finally took this photo over there and had them scan it, as I had already researched our house, and the oldest photo in their files was from the 1970s.

We ripped off the so-called second floor (two truly awful bedrooms with low ceilings and no insulation) in January of 2001 when I was pregnant with Boo. We put on a full second floor, with three bedrooms and a bath and lots of closet space. In doing so, we converted two bedrooms downstairs into one long room, where I'm sitting right now. We used part of one of those rooms to put in a real staircase. The old stairs looked like a ship's, and were very much Not Up to Code: Not Even Close.

House, you've come a long way, baby. Looking good for a hundred-year-old broad.

Craptastic!

2010-06-04T09:38:00.006-05:00

So, never mind about the triathlon. Luckily, I can get a medical rollover to participate in next year's event. Shouldn't be too hard to get a letter from my doctor, seeing as he admitted me to the hospital a week ago when my eye swelled shut. I stayed for about 24 hours on an IV with antiviral medication. I have shingles on my forehead, but they are now healing, and I'm not blind in that eye. Yep, that about covers what's been going on around here. Whee.

A fact you might know. Shingles come from chicken pox virus that sit on your nerves for a few decades and then flare up. You can't catch shingles, but you can catch chicken pox from someone with shingles.

A fact you probably don't know. If they shingles rash spreads to the tip of your nose, it's probably in your optic nerve.

Triathlon dress rehearsal

2010-05-24T18:43:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I did the full-length triathlon. Two also-competing friends, Beth and Carrie, joined me, although Beth had to run along to the airport instead of running the 5K. So, two of us did the whole thing. And I lived to tell the tale, although not on the day I did it. Yesterday I was busy putting a Bluestem-shaped sweaty mark on my floor.

So it was supposed to hit 87 degrees. The plan was "get it over before the heat really gets going." Uh. Not entirely successful on that front. We started at 7 am (as my Sunday paper waited, sadly yet patiently, on the driveway) by biking to the gym (3 miles). We used the one lock one of us (hint: not me) managed to remember to lock up our bikes. Swam half a mile. Got out, biked another 11 miles, ending at our houses. Ran the 5K. I started running with Carrie but couldn't keep up, and finished the rest at my pace.

The whole thing, er, took, um, *cough* three hours. But! There were very long transition times. So that's my excuse. Plus it was hot. Oh, and Carrie had to nurse her baby before the run. So, actually, seriously, it was a pretty decent time, considering all that. I'm not entirely sure, but the swim was roughly 24 minutes, the bike a little over an hour, and the run 40 minutes. Had I been doing it alone I think I could have biked it in 55 minutes. I'm thinking my previous guess of two hours is not going to happen.

So. The other important component of this dry run was figuring out What to Wear, which sounds girly but is dead serious. I've elected not to buy a trisuit (hint: $$$), so this is a big deal.

Here's what I wore:

Land's End tankini, as it must be a two piece (I don't have that exact one, but I'm sure someone out there doesn't know what a tankini is. And he's German and knows a lot about crystals.)
Champion sports bra
Biking shorts bought at Performance at least 12 years ago
Dri-Fit tanktop

This is how it works. Start off with tankini, with jog bra on under it. Add biking shorts and tanktop, since we were biking to the pool. At pool, remove shorts and tank. Wear tankini and jog bra for the swim. After swim, take off tankini top, add tank and shorts back on over wet jog bra and swimsuit bottom. Do rest of race with that combo of items. Notice that at no point does one need a changing room for public decency! Clever, no?

Everything worked out great, except I wanted pockets, so on future training runs I'll wear a biking top, since they always have pockets in the back. For the actual race I probably don't need to carry my phone and Kleenex and such, so it won't matter.

Three weeks until we do it for real.

My life, illustrated

2010-05-20T11:57:00.001-05:00

From http://www.gocomics.com/bliss/2010/05/12/

Next up: a book

2010-05-15T16:00:00.002-05:00

A 304 page book entitled: Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish

I'm hoping this one will explain all those Iowians I know. A stoic bunch, those Iowians. Quick to cook up a storm and such. Salt of the earth types. Whatever that means. Not like us flighty Illinoisians.

Best Mother's Day Evah

2010-05-09T20:53:00.005-05:00

Sure, sure, there were cute homemade presents and cards and a family bike ride. And yummy dinner at Oma and Opa's. Kohlrouladen, mmmm. Whatever, blah blah blah.

No, the real highlight was the trashpick of a minivan full of hostas. Big hostas. Fancy hostas. Free hostas. We filled the back. Filled it. Then after dinner we borrowed a tarp and filled the second row floor, beneath the kids' feet. We piled them in the backyard, and there is easily a 8x6 foot bonanza of hostas. A plethora.

Note: this photo shows much, but by no means all, of today's haul.

And now the week is pretty much planned out, I'd say.

Triathlon report

2010-05-07T12:30:00.001-05:00

With just over five weeks left before the big event (Sprint Competition = .75k swim - 22.8k bike - 5k run), training is going pretty well. I wish I could say that every week I run three days, bike three days, and swim one day, but that's really hard to fit into one's schedule. But I've been doing a lot.

Sunday I biked to the health club, swam the half mile, biked home the long way, so it was about 12 miles. Ran a 5K Monday. Biked 12 miles Tuesday. Ran a 5K Wednesday (35 minutes! For me, a good time), and then took BodyPump that evening. Thursday I was tired. I did nothing. Today is rainy, so we'll see. But tomorrow I'll take a one-hour spin class, and hopefully run the full 5K after. Sunday I'm doing the same thing as last Sunday (bike, swim, bike).

I'm training with three friends who are also doing the triathlon. None of them are in my age division, however, so they'll just have to pass me when they can. I believe us old people start before the youngsters still in their prime, with ages that start with a "3."

Prediction: it's stupid to make a guess, since this is my first triathlon. If I'm doing each event alone, I would expect around 22 min swim, 45 min bike (?), 32 min run. But since I'm hoping to, you know, complete the race and do all three events in succession … ummm. I guess anything under 2 hours would mean I had a good race. A little over 2 hours would still be a decent result. But that's assuming great weather, not too hot. As long as I finish it, I'll be happy.

Third Annual Giant Trashpick

2010-05-02T20:37:00.013-05:00

Perhaps you remember the happy items I got in 2008 and 2009. Well, it was another great year, made even better by nice weather for once.

Here's the haul:

Really heavy limestone blocks I loaded by myself, and some pavers

Ice skates, metal buckets, retro Easter platter, 2 pillows for the playhouse, nice runner rug, beginner rollerblades, candles, pots, Halloween bag and decoration, rusty old pitcher that would be cute as a vase or planter, jump rope, books

Totally cool dragon kite, clock radio and adding machine (both to be taken apart at Science Camp in June), Playmobile covered wagon, moon shoes, jumpy ball, duffle bag

Bike basket, ball, bubble solution, game and craft, decorative buckets, Richard Scarry floor puzzle, Thomas counting game, wooden coatrack (to be used as garden accent piece) new-in-box pampered chef loaf pan, new-in-box gingerbread house mold, Lincoln Logs, 25 superballs, vase, decorative plate, nice wooden box for storing items, new napkin holders

Sidewalk chalk, 10-lb weight, DVDs, ugly denim tablecloth that we'll use as a dropcloth, Gap hoodie, basket with more craft supplies, 3 sleds, paper airplane kit, more books

Not shown: Electric Razor scooter, 3 jump ropes, a regular kite (new in package), football, giant ball of twine, new kid magazines and books.

We also took photos of my friend's haul, but apparently stealing her photos from Flickr is harder than I thought. Sorry the photos are small. Here's her list of what she brought home: 2 hose reels, 7.5 ft prelit xmas tree (in box with directions, warranty card and extension cords), light-up santa and snowman, 2 adorondack chairs w/ footstool, little tykes kitchen, little tykes slide, small big wheel and push car, fire pit, 36" tv, a bronco rider, kite, box o awesome trucks, bag chair, white table and chair, wooden santa decor, skateboard, melissa and doug pizza game, box o dolls, a shop vac, the "spider of doom", little tykes shopping cart, decor xmas trees (2), another electric razor scooter, sleds, tall wooden chair, plant stand, baskets, new-in-box slip n slide, bedazzler, (4) baby gates, bird feeder and squirrel baffle, light brite, wine rack, small plastic wheeled cart, gap purse, bells, funky crayons, etc.

Odds and ends

2010-04-28T10:30:00.003-05:00

I'm working on my next big post (the annual amazing trashpick!), but in the meantime, you'll have to make do with a few small items.

Nea read the word "look" in a new book yesterday. HURRAH.
She managed to get 19 books on her "would like to purchase" book fair list, despite an inability to talk or write. That, my friends, is talent. Getting some poor older child to write down 19 book titles for you.
I'm having a rocky start to the gardening season. The bad news: apparently sprouting beets and carrots is too hard for me. The good news: the Russian quince tree is blooming for the first time, and the planted-last-year Red Rome apple tree is, too. No action on the stupid HoneyCrisp apple, also planted last year. Peach tree, as previous reported, is going gangbusters.

Should be a good year for peaches

2010-04-16T09:33:00.002-05:00

Translation

2010-04-16T09:32:00.000-05:00

IEP = individualized education plan
ESY = extended school year
POS = piece of shit
SLP = speech and language pathologist
ST = speech therapy
OT = occupational therapy
MIP = modified instructional program
SID = sensory integration disorder
SPD = sensory processing disorder

IEP

2010-04-15T08:28:00.002-05:00

The IEP was Tuesday. Nea was OKed for ESY, which I think we can agree is a POS, but it's free ST for 45 min/week for the 4 weeks, plus some OT.

She was upped in OT to 40 min/week (from 30), her SLP said ST was going well. Her MIP and mainstream teachers agreed that she's a hard worker who always puts forth 100%.

But. The really interesting part was that the OT thinks she has a touch of SPD (or SID). Now, I read the Out of Sync Child ages ago, and just didn't see where it applied to Nea, but putting together a few things (serious love of swinging, total lack of dizziness, extremely high pain threshold, and the real kicker, a profound deficit in writing), this is starting to make sense. Her letters are still made with very light pressure, are wobbly, and she's not progressing at the rate we would expect. The OT thinks it's due to her lack of sensory input with her hands. That she has to learn visually how to form the lines and curves that make up letter formation. Which is hard.

The good news is that she's rocking out on letter sounds. I think maybe we'll spend some time with Hooked on Phonics this summer. I have a pretty aggressive homework plan for the summer. Stupid ESY (extended school year) is supposed to keep SpEd kids from regressing over the summer, but it's only 2 hours a day for 4 weeks, and all therapies are half the regular minutes. So, although Nea receives 90 min/week ST and currently 30 min/week OT, she will only get 45/15 for those 4 weeks. And have you noticed how the summer isn't just 4 weeks long? No. It's not. It's 11. Yeah, verily, ESY is a joke. Last year I only sent her 2 days a week for her therapy days. We'll probably do the same again this year. I'd rather have her in camp with her sister. At least this summer it's closer to home again, only one town over.

One of my favorite books - next up

2010-04-11T17:16:00.001-05:00

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut is the next book club selection!

Tonsils, adenoids, and turbinates (or how we spent our spring break)

2010-04-07T17:24:00.004-05:00

Nea had her tonsils, adenoids, and turbinates taken out last Thursday. She's been amazing. Didn't like the taste of the Vicodin stuff, so she went with Tylenol for all her pain management needs. She's pretty much done with that, too. Didn't take a single nap, even the day of surgery, when we were at the hospital at 6 am. Went to school for a half day on Monday. Full days since. No Phys Ed until next week, though. Don't want to jar anything lose.

So, you know that little joke I made about tonsil removal curing apraxia? Well, it didn't work. But no one told me her voice was going to change so dramatically. And I'm sure it'll change more when the swelling completely clears up. And I received an email today from her modified instructional program (MIP) teacher that said, "She has been doing extremely well in class. I just assessed her letters and sounds and she made great leaps in progress! YAY! I know we are meeting next week for her IEP, but I just wanted to give you that good news. She still remains inconsistent in some areas, but she is progressing much faster than a few weeks ago." Huh, how 'bout them apples. I did some homework with her yesterday where I said the word, and she circled whether the sound it started with was a B,M, or T. And she aced it. You know what that means, right? She's practically reading. Nearly. Soonish!

Oh, and the hospital was great. They made Pink Bear a little ID bracelet. They let Nea ride on the gurney to the surgery holding area … on my lap. Yep. Didn't think they allowed that. Pink Bear went into surgery with her. She was so brave! N complimented me on how well I held it together, but that's just because it was the first time he was there for a sedation. Nea's had three other anesthesia experiences (BAER test, sedated MRI, rust ring), so I'm a pro.

So, anyway, we're all glad that's over. I haven't even mentioned the scarlet fever she had a week earlier. That's probably what Helen Keller had, which took her sight and hearing. And blinded Mary Ingalls. And killed people, back in the day. Now you just take some antibiotics, and it's no big thing. How science changes our lives, no? I like science.

Spring seed starting

2010-03-25T20:14:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago I started the first seeds in my window boxes on the patio: lettuce mix, spinach, and bok choi. I started some parsley and basil, too. The bok choi is coming up all cute and tiny. I can't help but look at the soil each day, even when I know there's no hope of anything coming up yet.

Then on Monday I started some things in the cold frames: carrots, radishes, and beets. Turns out the orache (red mountain spinach) self-seeded out, which is great because I didn't have much seed left. And I started the peas by their trellis.

Tuesday I started seeds in little pots, which are currently also in the cold frames. I did hubbard and butternut squash, three kinds of tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, and eggplants.

I have a calendar in which I keep track of what I planted and when. Last year I counted out days and wrote down what the seed packet said for when to harvest. They all say "Harvest in 60/90/110/whatever days." But last summer was so cool that everything took longer. Anyway, knowing when each vegetable was started is useful. If it says the seeds will sprout in 10 days, and 20 days later nothing is happening, it's time to buy a fresh packet. I use old seeds all the time. Turns out carrots and onions are the only seeds I've found that don't hold up well.

Still to be planted: swiss chard, cantaloupe, brussel sprouts, cilantro, and magic pole beans. And more tomato varieties.

In terms of the perennials, the strawberry plants are nice and green, the rhubarb is coming up, and I've been eating chives, oregano, and sage already. No sign yet of the asparagus or arugula.We are doing a few new things this year, including the traditional Three Sisters of corn, pole beans, and squash. I can't wait until it warmed up again.

Dinner in the playhouse

2010-03-19T13:11:00.002-05:00

First chiminea event of the season

2010-03-16T20:49:00.001-05:00

Aaaah. Spring.

Book club pick

2010-03-15T13:51:00.001-05:00

Next month: Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

It was picked before the movie came out, so you can just keep your High and Mighty comments to yourself, ok? Not everyone worships at the alter of Leo, you know. No, we don't. We're more into Johnny Depp, all right?!

Creativity

2010-03-08T19:21:00.005-06:00

Lots o' creativity around Chez Bluestem lately. I have photographic proof! First up, Nea's snowman. A fine fine snowman it is, too. Boo reports that no one else's in the kindergarten class looked like Nea's! I bet. You can even see the eyes, smile, scarf, and buttons if you look closely. I want to frame this one. She's not much into arts and crafts, unlike her big sister, so when you find a piece like this one in the backpack, it's time to celebrate.

Next up: Mittens by Oma. I know what you're thinking right now! Jealous, aren't you. Are they not gorgeous? And warm! Believe you me.

Lastly, N, as is typical, is working on a project that has immediately snowballed into a larger affair. Project entitled "Enlarge closet door opening to make wide closet more useable" (ECDOTMWCMU) is now "Enlarge closet door opening to make wide closet more useable after removing some other drywall and setting up some venting for the bathroom that will eventually be put in the basement" (ECDOTMWCMUARSODASUSVFTBTWEBPITB). He wanted me to see how it was coming, and so we were standing in the closet regarding this hole in the wall. As married couples are wont to do. He said, "I can't believe the crap plumbing job I was doing back then." I know you were thinking the same thing. Look at that pipe on the right. I mean, it's embarrassing. I can't believe I have to live in a house where that sort of ridiculous higglety pigglety is going on inside the walls. What must the neighbors be saying about us behind our backs.

But if you call it "creative plumbing" it's suddenly all ok again, isn't it. I'm guessing Project ECDOTMWCMUARSODASUSVFTBTWEBPITB will take us well into May at the current rate of progress.

Namaste, Kiai!

2010-02-28T14:28:00.001-06:00

So, as you may have heard, having workout buddies is the bomb. Beth and Erin and I (all from book group) are training for this triathlon, so we have been meeting up every Sunday morning for our swim. It makes such a difference, having someone count on you to be there. This week, however, Beth and I swam Saturday, and then ran 3 miles. She and Erin wanted to swim this morning, and I wanted to do something new and exciting, so I opted for the exercise classes.

Last Tuesday I took what they called "Body Combat." It's a cardio-kickboxing class, mostly, except the instructors were scaring me. It was all "Take your imaginary assailant and SMASH SMASH SMASH his head on your knee! Now use your elbow to break his nose, BAM BAM BAM!" I mean, I'm all for self-defense, but I think we killed our assailants a number of times. I felt a little bad about it.

So today I took a Body Pump class, which is you, a small pile of different weights and a weight bar, a yoga mat, and a step … thingie. It was fantastic! I'm getting me some Michelle Obama arms now! The nice lady in the front says, now squats, slow squats, fast squats, and hold for 4 counts, etc. And bicep work, 2, 3, 4. And so on. The hour flew by, believe it or not, and I was pretty shot. But I decided to stick around for the next class, which was supposed to be Yoga/Pilates but really was just yoga. I knew it was time to throw in the towel when I started translating all her yoga-speak into the errands I wanted to run after class. She said, "Release your head and let it hang down. Lower your spine into the floor." And I heard, "Release all your cash at Costco. Lower your expectations at Aldi." So I went upstairs and ran a mile instead.

Then I showered and started running my errands. Perhaps you have already noticed where I went wrong. I'll run it by you again. Lifting weights in class for an hour. Then going to Costco. The trip took a lot of internal monologue. Engage the core and pick up the case of beer. And turn and lower, lower, lower. OK, good, 10 pounds of oats. I can … do … this. Ow.

We here at Bluestem encourage you to work out safely.

Oh, it's the Ennui, is it?

2010-02-16T20:15:00.003-06:00

I posted faithfully for over two years before my first big onset of Blog Ennui. I think that's pretty good. Frankly, I also have Work Ennui and Parent Ennui, so if I'm still missing at the end of the week, check behind the garage. I'll probably be facedown in the snow, whimpering quietly about the lack of growing potential in Zone 5.

Damn winter. It'll be the death of us all.

Oatmeal Pumpkin Cookies

2010-02-05T09:29:00.001-06:00

At our house, these are called Mama cookies and are a well-received treat. Heh heh. My kids are so snowed. Costco has a new flour they call Ultragrain, which is a whole wheat flour that pretty much resembles white flour in recipes. Try it out.

1.5 sticks butter, softened
2/3 cup white sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin puree (or butternut squash)
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
A little fresh ginger, a little ground clove or nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins (or other dried fruit - apricots are wonderful in this)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or Ultragrain)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cream together butter, white sugar and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla and pumpkin. 3. In a separate bowl, mix together the oats, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, raisins and flour. Stir into pumpkin mixture.
4. Drop cookies by the heaping teaspoonful onto greased cookie sheets. Flatten slightly and bake 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned around edges. They remain fairly pale even when baked correctly.
5. Remove from oven and place on cooling racks. Dust with powdered sugar or leave plain.

Warning: geek book talk ahead

2010-02-01T17:41:00.002-06:00

It's funny, I used to almost exclusively read fiction. Is it common in middle age to turn to more non-fiction? Maybe during our educational years there are just too many facts and too little immersing oneself in alternate worlds. I have every copy of the Best American Short Stories from 1985 to the present. But more and more I'm enjoying the non-fiction side of this series, such as The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009. This one was fantastic! The 26 selections came from 16 magazines including Harper's, National Geographic, Discover, and New Yorker.

Here's a short description of my favorites.

Andrew Curry - the Stasi, the East German secret police, and how they tried to destroy a staggeringly enormous amount of paper as the Wall was beginning to fall.

Frederick Kaufman - the story of POOP and how it is dealt with daily in New York City. Processing, decontaminating, and profiting from human waste. An amazing story, although I'm sure you wouldn't necessarily agree until you read this. I bet you didn't know that NYC has the world's 4th largest navy. For moving around human waste.

Virginia Morell - Understanding animal intelligence. I always love a good Alex the Parrot story, and this article contains so much more.

David Quammen - All about an infectious cancer in Tasmanian devils. And what it means when a cancer evolves like this.

Oliver Sacks - Covers what Darwin did other than write "Origin of the Species". A great guy, that Darwin.

Mark A. Smith - A beautiful piece on the wonders of little animalcules in pond water as seen under a microscope. My favorite bit is: "When Arcella divides, it first makes a second shell, into which the daughter cell is born. These are single cells making snug little homes for themselves and providing the same for their offspring. I smile at how utterly ingrained and universal these domestic activities turn out to be."

Michael Specter - A thought-provoking article on Tesco's attempt to label all the foods they sell with a carbon label, explaining the carbon footprint to get that food from seed to production to the supermarket shelf. It's a lot more difficult to define than you'd think.

Need an otorhinolaryngologist?

2010-01-31T13:20:00.005-06:00

Nea's main doctor is an Ear, Nose, Throat doctor. You could call him an otorhinolaryngologist, but then you'd have to go lie down awhile with a cool compress to recover. So we mostly call him Dr. Schubkegel, because that's easier. We say it the German way, because we are unable to say it any other way. I should ask him sometime how he says it, and whether he speaks German. And what exactly is a Schubkegel? A push-bowling pin, sort of, it seems. I don't know what that is, either.

So. Back to what I was saying. There's several reasons why he is her main doctor. One of them is that she's had a lot of ear infections. Another reason is that we went to our main pediatrician's office three years ago when Nea was very sick, and the idiot (whose name may or may not be Dr. Jentel, for legal purposes) we saw missed her pneumonia. That doctor said she had an ear infection. Which she did, actually. We went to Schubkegel that same day and luckily he was paying attention. She was a very very sick girl.

I'm ashamed to say, the first time I took Nea to see Dr Schubkegel, I told him that I'd help hold Nea's hands down, so he could look into her ears. He pshawed at me and gained her trust instead. He's been our Main Guy ever since. If we bring in a teddy bear he offers to check the bear first. We don't even have to ask. The only thing he could do to be more perfect would be to quote a Sesame Street book we have (Farley Goes to the Doctor) and say, "Fuzzy. Normal for a bear." after checking Pink Bear, but, you know, he's a busy man. I'll let it slide.

We are currently on the fence about getting Nea's tonsils out. I'm not particularly looking forward to it, but I hear it'll cure her apraxia. Just kidding. But she has had multiple tonsil infections that have been slow to respond to antibiotics, she's missing quite a bit of school, and she's generally under the weather much too often. Also, it would help with the ear infections. On the other hand, um, surgery.

So, in summary, five stars: Dr Andrew Schubkegel: (630) 495-6000, Oakbrook Terrace, IL

BONUS
Handy diet tip, in case you need one.
Step 1: Do a Google image search for "infected tonsils."
Step 2: Never feel hungry again.

Assistive technology for all ages

2010-01-23T11:01:00.002-06:00

Apraxia occurs possibly more frequently with older people, as a result of a stroke or other neurological impairment. You'd think more communication devices would be used in those situations, but I'm not getting the feeling that they are. Wouldn't losing the ability to speak be even worse than not being able to speak in the first place?

Roger Ebert, the film critic, lost the ability to speak due to his surgeries. He says, "I would like a computer to provide me with my own voice." You'd think that would be possible these days.
Actually, part of what I enjoyed about this article is the sense of frustration he expresses. How much he misses being able to take part in conversations. A talker wouldn't help with that much, since they are labor-intensive. But many people can type faster than they can hand-write, so the lag would be smaller.

ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) has a fascinating article about how augmentative communication can support kids facing the end of life, as they lose more of their ability to speak: Last Words, Last Connections.

On a brighter note, here's an interesting Reading Rockets article about including assistive technologies in your child's IEP.

Has anyone ever told you ...

2010-01-13T18:28:00.001-06:00

Silence of the Lambs came out in 1991. In 1991, at least one person a day said to me, "Has anyone ever told you that you look like Jodie Foster?" and I would say, "Ha ha, I hear that a lot. Thank you." Because honestly, I could do worse, right? Anyway, since then I've been able to chart her successful movie releases just by tracking how often I was asked that question.

So, I ran across this photo the other day.

Hmm, I said to myself, I just don't spend enough time making up stories for my kids. At dinner I said, "Did I ever tell you about the time I met Oscar the Grouch?" They were surprised and asked several questions. ("Was Oscar mean to you? Did you meet Ernie and Bert, too?") I said, "Later I'll show you a picture!" I was convinced they would immediately call it a fraud. But no. Hook, line, and sinker. I guess my kids think I look like Jodie Foster, too.

Training after 40

2010-01-11T13:30:00.000-06:00

What could possibly go wrong with my plan? I would go swimming after not doing so for 4 months. I would swim more than half a mile (750 meters), in a combination of breaststroke and freestyle, which would entail swimming for 35 minutes with only tiny short breaks to catch my breath.

Yeah. And then my back would go out. Who could have seen that coming?

I'm such an idiot.

Next book

2010-01-06T11:39:00.001-06:00

Looks like a good one: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Free! Free! Free!

2010-01-03T16:09:00.004-06:00

2010 is really shaping up to be a great freebie year. On January 1st a friend said, "My sister's boyfriend trashpicked these seeds. Would you like some?" And 20 seed packages marked "for 2009" were mine, bwah ha ha! Including cukes and carrots, which I needed. And some things I didn't need, but will use, like Golden Hubbard Squash ("up to 10 pounds each!"). And four kinds of lettuce, now that I'm a big lettuce-growing convert.

Then yesterday the in-laws said we could have their treadmill. We have been putting together a home gym on the cheap for awhile now, and this will complete our set-up. We have a recumbent bike from a friend (thanks again, Kate!) and a fancy weight bench with a bunch of big weights from Craigslist for fairly cheap ($150). N bought a couple of kettlebells because he's insane. Meaning he has never thrown out his back and is willing to use those things.

And this is exciting because, well, I'm gearing up for a sprint triathlon this summer. "What?!", you say. Yeah, me too. The one I'm eyeing most seriously is a 750m swim - 22.8k bike - 5k run course. Oy, I'm sure I've never swum so far ever. The run and bike should be fine. Right now I'm running outside as weather permits (it was 6 degrees this morning. That's a no-go.), using the recumbent bike in the basement, and finding a pool locally that I can pay-per-use starting in March.

I will not be updating weekly (as I did last summer) as it is boring for all of us. However, if I fall off my training plan and/or don't actually do the race, I will certainly come here and confess. Here's to a healthy 2010! Not like those last few months of 2009! Which were sucky, health-wise.

Today? Nothing free so far. But there's a few hours left. And in a little bit another friend is handing off 3 yogurts they don't like. That probably counts. Free food, hurrah!

Golden Buddha Frog

2010-01-02T18:53:00.008-06:00

Here's our New Year's Eve in photos.

Our family went and hung out with a family down the street with two girls the ages of ours. We called 9 p.m. the countdown, and had a wonderful time. The star of the party was definitely Golden Buddha Frog.

Note how he starts all laid back, but gets wilder and wilder as the night continues.

Yeah, baby! Shake it!

Then there's the other highlight: the updated Christmas tree revamped as a New Year's tree. Now that's entertainment.

Two out of three ain't bad

2009-12-22T19:50:00.006-06:00

I can tell it's important to you and all....

But Chist on a stick, if you're going to be all high and mighty about it, can you please make an effort on spelling?

The magic of Christmas

2009-12-13T19:29:00.013-06:00

N on left, me on right

Boo has been making Christmas cards for a few years now. I'd say three, maybe four. She has always enjoyed doing crafts, so it seemed like a good way to channel her energy for the weeks leading up to the holidays. I always had extra store-bought cards for if/when her creativity dried up. I certainly didn't want to be some horrible mom, forcing the poor kid to make card after card, the tears and the glitter mingling.

It's supposed to be a happy memory.

Which is why I only make Nea do one or two cards a year, since she hates crafts.

Anyway. One step in our creative process is cutting up the more useable cards from the previous year. I give you one such repurposed card, surrounded by more innocent efforts.

I wish you could see the glitter in the fartcloud better.

N and I really egged her on, among our peals of laughter. Her comment was "Are you sure this is appropriate?" Great. Outdone in maturity by a seven-year-old. Ouch.

My best effort for what the inside of the card should say was, "Wow, even his farts smell like Christmas!" I think N's was, "The magic of Christmas lies in your farts," but I could be misremembering. I was laughing pretty hard.

Holiday downsizing ideas

2009-12-04T09:10:00.002-06:00

I enjoy reading about other people's perspectives on holiday gift-giving. An idea we are not implementing, but that I like in principle, is the 4-gift Christmas: something to wear, something to read, something you want, something you need. Perhaps you can suggest this to the grandparents, if they tend toward the Giant Pile of Plastic every year.

Another idea that I am using comes from Bitch Ph.D. A booklet of certificates for activities, instead of things. Makes a great stocking stuffer!

good for one trip to the playground
good for one trip to [local pizza joint]
good for one trip to the park
good for one trip to the library
good for one playdate with a friend
good for one trip to the pool
good for one trip to the zoo
good for one trip to the Morton Arboretum
good for one hour of cuddle time in bed
good for one movie with popcorn
good for one bike ride
good for one obstacle course challenge
good for one session of cookie baking
good for one picnic

I'm going print them out on fancy paper, cut them out and staple them into a book. I'll probably draw pictures to explain them for Nea.

Because, as we all know deep down inside, our kids really want to hang out and have fun with us more than they want another Littlest Pet Shop toy or video game. At least that's what I believe.

Speech therapy games and ideas

2009-12-03T09:33:00.003-06:00

Need some new ideas for speech practice at home? Here's a CASANA list that might be useful.

One of my favorites

2009-11-30T09:52:00.002-06:00

i carry your heart by e e cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Yeah, yeah, it goes to 11

2009-11-27T08:15:00.004-06:00

I've had my doubts about the pain rating scale that doctors use for quite awhile. If you've seen a doctor in the past 8 years or so for anything pain-related, you've seen it.

Image 1: Happy smiling face at 1, crying sad face at 10.

NPR even had a story a week ago about what a breakthrough this was on helping people manage their pain. Um, ok. If I'm discussing pain with a doctor, it's at least a 5, or I'd be at home, drinking tea on the couch. Anyone who says 10 is either addicted to painkillers (and hoping to score more) or lacking in imagination.

Let's take that old standard, childbirth, as a ten. Well, what if you were giving birth and someone started stabbing you repeatedly in the foot? While splashing boiling water on you? And pulling out chunks of your hair? You'd feel silly then, wouldn't you. You'd already self-reported your pain at the top of the scale.

So, under the premise that "It could always be worse" (my personal rallying cry), let's just save 9 and 10 for wartime and torture. So we've now shrunk the useable part of the pain scale from 5-8. That's not much of a range.

All this to say I have pleurisy. After my usual hemming and hawing, I gave it a 6.

Did I mention that UnitedHealthcare sucks?

2009-11-22T18:32:00.006-06:00

Yeah, the problem with giving free tote bags to people when you give crap service is that they might, I dunno, change them. And carry them all over town. A lot. (previous post on UHC saga with advice)

So, UHC lied and said they paid those 3 speech therapy sessions from November 2008. As in, a year ago. The last several times I talked to them they said, "You no longer have coverage with us." And I said, "No shit. I'm still trying to get you to pay for something that every person I've spoken with at UHC says we should be covered for under our gap exception FROM LAST YEAR."

So I heard a rumor that the insurance companies hate it when you file a complaint with the state's Department of Insurance (Illinois). I hear there's loads of paperwork. So tomorrow is my last call to UHC.

Thanks to the power of Twitter, here's just a few of the dates when I've tried to get these claims fixed:

I'm on hold with United F'ing HealthCare.
9:43 AM Jul 27th
Can NOT believe that UHC still hasn't paid 3 Easter Seals bills from November. Q: Could they possibly suck more? A: No.
7:10 AM Jul 27th
UHC rejected our 3 claims from November 2008 *again*. They once again assured me that they will be corrected this time! No, really!
9:28 AM Jul 30th
On phone with UHC about those 3 November charges AGAIN. Do NOT use UHC if you have a choice! #UHC sucks
11:59 AM Sep 4th
Look at me! On phone with United Health"Care"! Again! Person telling me how it's probably my fault November dates not processing. #UHC sucks
10:05 AM Sep 14th
Just wrapped up a call with United Health"Care" regarding those same! 3 November! dates. Feel strangely optimistic that they might fix them.
9:52 AM Sep 21st

We've had BCBS for a year now. It's been fantastic.