Monday, January 30, 2006

Uncomfortable :(


I am so damn uncomfortable today. I can't sit still for anything. My legs hurt - they keep cramping. My back is bothering me. Blah Blah Blah. I don't feel like doing a damn thing and I haven't done much today at all. I need to find a comfy pillow to put behind me for this damn uncomfortable computer/office chair and one under my rump too! I want an brownie smothered in chocolate syrup and vanilla ice cream, a big comfy fleece blanket and a HUGE glass full of ice water. I want to be sitting on something resembling a cloud which better be comfy and take this annoying uncomfortable fidgety feeling away. Good God, I have 12 weeks left and listen to me whine already!


Posted By Melanie @ 5:14 PM (0) comments |
Friday, January 27, 2006

Pout, Rave and Rant


I am so annoyed at the school system here. as most of you know, my wonderful little 4 year old, Bam-Bam has Autism and is in a PreK class with 8 other children just like him that are in desperate need of routine and familiarity in their little world to function properly. They have an amazing teacher. Well today I found out she is apparently too amazing because this Tuesday will be her last day with Bam-Bam's class since they are moving her to another school to deal with a very low-functioning Autism Pre-K class!!!! Could they not have done this next year???? I understand she is more than capable of making a large difference for these children in this new class - but you are now robbing my child (and the others in his class ) of their wonderful teacher who has made strides with each of them! Where the hell is the sense in that????? For those who profess such knowledge about Autism their first concern should have been what all of these changes will do to the children in both of these classes. So the kids will have 2 days to adjust to the new teacher being brought in on Monday to work side by side with his current teacher until Tuesday. Did I mention they have only 2 days left with her???? And 2 days to deal with a new person??? I am so tempted to ask to have Bam-Bam switched to her new class at this other school! But I know that is not realistic. I'm just annoyed at it all. She is really going to be missed. Hard to find GREAT teachers these days so we like to hold on to them with both hands when we do....especially in ESE.


Posted By Melanie @ 6:14 PM (0) comments |
Thursday, January 26, 2006

Thursday Thriteen:


Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things about Melanie

13 Scents I Love

1. PartyLite Candles Amber Dream

2. Yankee Candle Christmas Eve

3. Lavendar Baby Bath

4. The Basement of my Grandparents' House

5. Snuggle Fabric Softener (Original scent)

6. Lilacs

7. Rose Oil

8. Wet laundry (after it is washed and before it hits the dryer)

9. Vanilla

10. Apple Pie while it is cooking

11. When snow first falls - there is a smell!

12. Saltwater breeze off the ocean at the Jersey Shore

13. My kids fresh out of the tub

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

  • Happy Momma
  • Radical Mama
  • Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

    The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!




    Posted By Melanie @ 11:57 AM (2) comments |
    Wednesday, January 25, 2006

    Oh My Gosh! The Baby!!!


    The Baby will be here in 13 weeks and counting!

    I don't even have a name for this child yet! There is so much to do!!! I am starting to panic more and more thinking about this.... King Papa Bear and I have always had names ready by now for the kids. But this child is still currently nameless and we are no where close to naming him. (*NOTE TO SELF: Buy new name books at Target today - maybe something new will pop out at us and be the one!)

    The I have to get my bedroom ready to add the baby to for the first few months. This means clearing out the one side of the room to add the bassinet (which I still have not bought!) and the changing table and all the little baby necessities (which are also still not bought).

    Next will be getting Bam-Bam and Lil' Michaelangelo's room organized and re-painted. Repainted since Lil' Mikey was off creating again recently with crayons and markers all over his walls. The baby, once old enough to move out of the bassinet, will move into the room with Lil' Mikey and Bam-Bam will move in with The Professor. Which then means both rooms need to have the closets re-done and organized to hold clothes, toys and stuff for two kids in each room. This means a trip to Lowes and a weekend project for King Papa Bear to set them up correctly for ample space. So that will lead to shopping for me - a new dresser for Bam-Bam, new toy storage for each room, new bunk bed/loft bed set for The Professor's room with desk space and some extra drawer space too. At that point that room will probably need repainting too.

    Thank goodness my MIL and SIL love these home improvement projects so I can get them to come help me. While I am at it I might as well finally paint the kitchen since I have been wanting to do that for quite some time as well!!!

    Think that nesting instinct has kicked in yet?????


    Posted By Melanie @ 9:44 AM (0) comments |
    Tuesday, January 24, 2006

    Bam Bam is going to Kindergarten!


    Yes, after all of the concern over all of it, we ultimately decided to agree with the comittee and have Bam-Bam start Kindergarten this August.
    At his IEP meeting yesterday, I had some time to talk with the district Autism specialist. She showed hubby and I some of Bam-Bam's recent test results that were surprising even to us compared to his previous results at the beginning of the year and the end of last year. He has come pretty far in a short period - he had drawn a house from a triangle and square with a stick figure man inside where last year he could not copy vertical and horizontal lines, etc. She was concerned that having him remain in the PreK class would hinder his current progress jolt since he would not be challenged on things that would be too much of a basic review for him. It would be possible that he would regress (which we had a major problem with him last year doing). So after considering that and discussing the class models for next year that were available to him, we decided to agree and have Bam-Bam slotted for a moderate level Autism Kindergarten classroom. As luck would have it, there is one at The Professor's school so he will be attending the same school as his brother in August. My only thing left to deal with now is the bus - Do I have him go to school on the bus (a special ed bus with an aide that will pick him up and drop him off at home) and move his brother on to this bus as well??? Or do I take them back and forth to school with two little ones also in tow??? I have no idea. The thought of having them on the bus is easier but then do I subject The Professor to teasing being on the little bus??? Or do I subject Bam-Bam to torment on the "normal" bus??? What about the fact that Bam-Bam does not say his name, know his address, or anything that can ID him if the bus driver is one of the idiots you hear about on the news???? AHHH!!! So much to be concerned about with this new set of issues!! lol - Oh well! It will all fall into place somehow.
    The good thing about his IEP meeting was the new goals that were written for him for now through the next year were perfect and exactly what we wanted added for him. We lucked out with his wonderful teacher this year. Wish I could take her with us to the new school! She really knows her students and how to reach each one. She is a rarity in the schools these days, especially in ESE.
    So that's all about that for now. Worse case senario and he does not handle kindergarten well then we will attempt homeschooling. So there is always an option for him and us.


    Posted By Melanie @ 9:57 AM (0) comments |
    Sunday, January 22, 2006

    Things Comin' Up


    Well the weekend is at a close. Friday night's dinner was hell. I should have just stayed home instead of going alone and subjecting myslef to open ridicule from an uncle who I hardly see and an aunt who has had so much plastic surgery to regain her youthful looks that she always looks like she is completely surprised. A picture would do that comment so much more justice but I would feel so guilty.
    Saturday was much nicer. My sister took my boys to a play day at a local park with apicnic for a few hours so King Papa Bear and I decided to forego the housework and regular work planned during their absence and took some alone time for us out to lunch at Applebes and a movie - Underworld 2. The movie was good. A little bloody and violent for my taste at times, but still good. So we had a nice afternoon alone and it was pleasantly unexpected as well which made it better.
    Today was catch up on work day. Work for my BIL got done finally. I also decided to scrub the kitchen floor, baseboards, dining room floor and baseboards, and all molding in the house. My back was KILLING me after that and the poor baby was doing some kind of dance inside of me trying to stop the madness and get the crazy baby carrier to take a break. I didn't have a choice but to stop cleaning and lay down for a while since my back was starting to spasm. King Papa Bear was not too happy with me when he returned from the store to find that I kept cleaning after I had promised to stop when through with the kitchen. I blamed it on the nesting instinct. :)
    Last night was the first night in over a week that I actually slept all night! I was so excited this morning when I woke up at 7:30am!!! Before last night I had probably slept a total of 7 hours in 3 or 4 days. So the dark circles under my eyes looked like they would continue to grow. I am hoping for another good night!!! Fingers crossed.....
    Tomorrow morning is Bam-Bam's IEP meeting. King Papa Bear and I will be going to it along with his teacher, Speech therapist, OT, ESE liasion, School psychologist, and Autism district specialist. They will be discussing his recent re-evaluations in speech and OT, the psych testing he was supposed to have done, his new IEP goals for the next year, and kindergarten placement and consideration. I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow afternoon sometime depending on when we get done. Our meeting is at 11am. Until tomorrow!


    Posted By Melanie @ 9:23 PM (0) comments |
    Friday, January 20, 2006

    Doesn't feel like Friday to me


    Maybe that is because the kids were off on Monday this week for MLK's birthday so it doesn't seem like they were in school long enough this week for it to be Friday??? I dunno. But it doesn't feel like Friday to me.

    I have a dreaded family function to attend tonight. My mother's eldest brother, my godfather, is coming to visit for a long weekend so I have to go meet Mom, her hubby, my uncle, Mom's sister, her hubby, and my sister for dinner tonight minus children. Although every function involving Mom's family is always minus children even though I am the only one who has children that are not adults. So they might as well just give me a "Your Kids Are Not Allowed" Note or something. I don't get along very well with these two siblings of my mother's. We have VERY different parenting ideas which always get us into a bit of a tiff when they offer up advice on how I should be dealing with Bam-Bam's 'problem' which for them means the fact that he has Autism. Drives me insane. There is also the fact that they say I am soooooo much like my father, who they by the way admittingly do not like and have not even before my parents divorced years ago so what does that say about our little lack of a relationship??? So I am flying solo tonight there since hubby had plans to go out with the group from work for drinks tonight. I will be there suffering alone with little support other than my single, childless sister's attempt at defending me and my decisions regarding Bam-Bam. Woo Hoo. And the bad thing is being pregnant I can't even have a drink or two to help ease the mood and get through it! :) Wish me luck.... I am gonna need it.

    The boys will be at a picnic and parkdate with my sister tomorrow while I get some work done that I have been putting off. Then sometime this weekend I have to finish my preparations for Bam-Bam's IEP meeting for Monday morning. This is always fun. Other than that, those are our current plans for this weekend. Hope you enjoy yours!!! :)


    Posted By Melanie @ 7:47 AM (0) comments |
    Thursday, January 19, 2006

    Thursday Thirteen


    I went to bed at 11pm last night and slept for 35 minutes. I am wide awake but completely exhausted. Since it is technically Thursday morning I am posting my list...not anything real creative, I know but you see my brain still thinks it is sleeping. So deal with it! ;)


    Thirteen of Melanie's Favorite Songs

    1. Its Your Love by Tim McGraw

    2. Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton

    3. Hotel California by The Eagles

    4. Best of You by the Foo Fighters

    5. Blood on Blood by Bon Jovi

    6. Photograph by Nickleback

    7. Layla by Eric Clapton

    8. Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison

    9. Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams

    10. In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel

    11. Always by Saliva

    12. Piano Man by Billy Joel

    13. There are too many I would want to end this with so you will get 12 and the 13th you can just wonder about! A Springsteen song maybe? Pearl Jam? Evanessence?? The Mamas and the Papas perhaps??? Hmmm..... the list could be endless.


    Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


    Posted By Melanie @ 1:07 AM (0) comments |
    Wednesday, January 18, 2006

    World Wednesday


    A friend of mine told me about this and I have no idea where she got it from so no credit to list, and since she no longer blogs I can't credit her either.... but I figured I would give it a go since I love to travel!!!

    World Wednesday.... a place in the world I have been or want to see to share with you all.


    Image hosted by Photobucket.com



    This is Guardia Sanframondi. A small town and comune located in Italy in the Province of Benevento in Campania Region.

    One of my loves is genealogy. I have been researching my family history and King Papa Bear's family history for years! My grandmother's family is from this small town - The Pizza Family (not pizza, but pronounced pie-za) and The DeBlasio Family. She used to tell stories of the mountainous town known as "The Guard" that she heard from her mother and father as a child. She never made it to see Italy before she died.

    I have never been there, and neither has anyone in my family that I am aware of, but I am awaiting the day I get to walk through the old town up stepped streets and see the Castle above the town that was used as a guard post during war. Or when I get to witness their penitential rite ceremony of the Madonna and Child statue found in a field hundreds of years ago. Or even visit and sample from the wineries! :) Most of all I want to view the family records kept in the town hall to learn more about my family.

    Do tell me... where in the world do you want to go????


    Posted By Melanie @ 9:41 AM (0) comments |
    Monday, January 16, 2006

    It's Just Another Manic Monday....


    Come on and sing along...you know you remember The Bangles if you were a child of the 80s..... "oh oh oh...Wish it were a Sunday...." LOL

    Kids are home from school today - destroying my house so now I am forced to play maid all day long and try to find something to keep them occupied. This means limited time on the computer today. Plus I am just not feeling well enough to sit still. Baby is in an akward position which means having to get up a ton of times instead of sitting to get him to move or switch position. Apparently poking myself in the stomach where he is at is no longer working to get him to shift his body.... LOL I understand he has limited room in there but I have to function so if he is pressing on my bladder all day long then I can't be running in and out of the bathroom thinking I have to pee. I know. That is most likely TMI for some. I apologize. Onto a better subject....

    I did get to read through two of my homeschool books I purchased which were both just awesome and I can't wait to use some of the things from both. The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas; 500+ Fun and Creative Learning Activities for Kids Ages 3-12 by Linda Dobson. I highly recommend this one! Excellent ideas. Yes, I am new to the whole subject of homeschooling but this is excellent compared to others I have read so far. And then there is the unschooling handbook; How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's Classroom by Mary Griffith. I think both of these books, even if we decide against homeschooling Bam-Bam, will definitely help aid us in working with him at home more.

    One other thing to mention... I talked to Bam-Bam's teacher Friday after school about Kindergarten for August and she has asked me to go and observe one of the Autism classes for Kindergarten sometime this week before his IEP meeting on Monday. So tomorrow I will schedule that and see what I think about their class model for him. Will let you know how that goes.

    Better go see what the little ones are up to. It is suddenly very quiet over there. Quiet is never a good thing unless they are sleeping....


    Posted By Melanie @ 9:53 AM (0) comments |
    Saturday, January 14, 2006

    Papa Bear really is King Sweetheart


    Hubby called me in the afternoon on Friday to tell me his mother would be stopping by that evening to see the kids and join us for dinner. No biggie..I love my MIL, so this is not an issue for me. Dinner was planned already so I just peeled a few more potatoes and took out a few hamburger meet patties to add to my hamburger meat for the meatloaf we were going to have. MORE than enough food to feed 3 adults and 3 kids. When hubby walked in the door from work with his mother behind him, he giggled at all of the food I made saying that I made so much for only 4 people. I figured he was practicing fuzzy math of some sort. But then he gave me a little surprise that his mama was there to watch the kids so we could go to dinner and a movie! What a sweetie!!!! :) We got to see Memoirs of a Geisha which I really wanted to see being that I loved the book. Hubby also read the book recently so he also wanted to see it. It was excellent! So we had a wonderful time on a night out I really needed after the long week with all of the stuff going on with the boys.

    But then I wonder.....This morning at breakfast he mentioned how he hasn't made me breakfast in bed in a long time and should be sure to surprise me with that by next weekend. So now I am asking myself - What does he want to buy??????? ;)


    Posted By Melanie @ 10:57 AM (0) comments |
    Friday, January 13, 2006

    The System Sucks


    Plain and Simple. It sucks.

    We had Bam-Bam's Transition Meeting last night for going into ESE Kindergarten from ESE PreK. Well it looks like after his upcoming IEP meeting on January 23rd, we will know if the committee decides whether or not Bam-Bam will be eligible for kindergarten August 2006 and what reccomendation they have for him whether that be general kindergarten, co-teach class, autism class, behavioral class, etc. And based on that reccomendation will give us the schools he will have to choose from (if he is asigned to a program that can be chosen that is!) If he is assigned to let's say the Autism class which is a district class and only has a few in the COUNTY - he will have to go to whatever school they assign him to. Even if that school is a 40 minute drive from his home, as long as it is still in the county they can send him there. Like that??? Yeah, me neither.

    So we are going to hope and pray that his upcomig IEP meeting will go over smoothly and that we can convince them to see our point of view that Bam-Bam would greatly benefit from one more year in his current ESE PreK Class. We are hoping that with FL Law being that he will only be 5 at the end of May and does not HAVE to be enrolled in Kindergarten this year (unless he turns 6 by Feb 1st which he does not) that they will agree with us on this and allow him to stay one more year. He has made such strides in this class this year but he is no where near a kindergarten level in anything except his gross motor skills (all physical). His speech and language level is still equivalent to his 2 year old brother's and is even lagging behind him. He has just learned to put some words together to make 2 word commands like "shoe off" or "open juice". His self help skills are still very behind - potty training is still not complete, he will still only finger feed, etc. That is not a child ready for kindergarten in my eyes. So I am hoping they will see things my way.

    If they do press the issue and reccomend him for Kindergarten for August, then he loses his ESE PreK spot and I have the choice whether to enroll him or not, at which point King Papa Bear and I will most likely attempt to homeschool him for a year and pay for various therapy that he will need in addition to instruction. And then let him enroll in August 2007. Not sure about all of this of course yet, but we at least have a base plan to work from. I'll keep you updated.


    Posted By Melanie @ 7:48 AM (0) comments |
    Thursday, January 12, 2006




    Thirteen Things about Melanie
    13 Things Lil' Michaelangelo Does as a TERRIBLE TWO to Drive Me Insane!



    1. Tries to shave his face with Daddy's razor

    2. Grabs a water bottle from the fridge and proceeds to drink and spit-spray it all over my glass sliders

    3. Makes me take trips to the ER - Jan. 2005 for 2nd degree burns after pulling a tea mug onto his face and chest and then just yesterday after falling head first into the glass table in the living room and getting stitches above his right eye (NOTE TO SELF - wrap him in bubble wrap in January each year!)

    4. Chases poor Dozer Dog around the house with a Light Saber yelling "Hi-yah!" at him

    5. Decides how fun it would be to be like Mama and colors his face with my eyeliner, lipstick, eyeshadow, and other makeup right before I have to go out to get his brothers from school

    6. When taking a bath, likes to see just how far over the tub wall he can get the waves of water he likes to create

    7. Yells at the top of his lungs during a PUBLIC tantrum - "Help Me!" as I try to pick him up kicking and screaming with everyone looking on

    8. Takes all of the clean laundry out of the dressers in my room to try on both Daddy's and Mama's shirts. After he is done playing "dress-up" he leaves them in crumpled piles on the floor

    9. Tries to clean the toilet bowl with the toilet brush but winds up playing in the toilet water (nasty child) and dumping it all over the floor to slide in back and forth to the doorway

    10. Thinks he is an alchemist of some sort and likes to mix numerous liquids i numerous cups pouring them back and forth into each while spilling most of the liquid all over my rug

    11. Climbs onto the living room table and jumps - with plenty of air - to the couch. Then after a few times of doing this will push the table back further to see if he can still jump far enough! AHHHHHH!!!!!

    12. Colors his masterpieces all over my walls (Thank god for Mr. Clean Eraser). There is yet another "Face!" in my hallway with eyes, nose, mouth, and hair mama!

    13. When asked "who made this mess!?!" will sit up/stand up/ come and look at mess with incriminating evidence in hand and hold out both hands, shrug, and say "I dunno Mama. I jus' dunno."



    Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!






    Posted By Melanie @ 9:38 AM (0) comments |
    Wednesday, January 11, 2006

    The Guilt


    The guilt is overwhelming even though there is nothing I can do about it. Today is The Professor's Parent luncheon. I have gone to each one every year since he was in Kindergarten, one of the perks of being a WAHM is I can be involved in his daytime school functions. Well Bam-Bam is home sick again which means I can't go this year. His little face when I told him this morning that I wasn't going to be able to go was heartbreaking. I feel so awful about missing it. I remember being the kid whose mother was never able to make it to the day time school functions. The terrible feeling of being one of the only kids without their mom or dad there and feeling like you were the absolute only one. Then being paired up with another kid and their parent sometimes so you wouldn't be "left out" but instead you got to be completely uncomfortable. My poor Professor.... I wanted to cry when I saw the expression on his face this morning. He went from absolute glee when I reminded him that today was Parent Lunch to absolute despair when I said I was going to be unable to go since his brother was sick. Granted, there are not tons of parents here who attend these each year so he will probably be in the majority of kids not having a parent there today, but I feel absolutely awful like I let him down somehow. So I am going to go wallow in my guilt for awhile. :(


    Posted By Melanie @ 8:22 AM (0) comments |
    Monday, January 09, 2006

    Whew! What a Weekend!!!


    Well this weekend was busy and very tiring but we had a good time. One of my oldest and dearest friends came to see us on Saturday with her hubby and daughter. Her hubby and King Papa Bear had "business" to discuss with work-related stuff so Allison and I got some time to just chat and visit while her duaghter got to see what playing with three little rough-house boysa was like. We had a nice lunch and a nice time visiting! (Thanks again for coming!!! ;) ) After our visit, King Papa Bear and I headed out to the Bucs game while my neice stayed with the boys for a few hours until my sister got off of work. We left later than we wanted to since I was gabbing away with my SIL, but Papa Bear decided to haul butt up to the stadium. We got there about 30 minutes before kickoff and found our seats literally right under the pirate ship with the blasting cannons. It wasn't too cold yet, but as the time went on it got quite chilly. The game was a really great one with some really bad calls and we lost, but we had a good time anyway! It took forever to get out of there with all of the traffic ( I am talking 45 minutes just to get out of the parking lot!) and the cold had us both so sleepy that we stayed overnight on St Pete beach and came home first thing Sunday morning. We had promised the boys a trip to Toys R Us to use their gift cards from Christmas so after straightening up a bit from their pow wow with their aunt the night before, we had lunch and then headed over to the store. The boys made out like bandits with the clearances and sales there. My frugal little shoppers!!! lol

    So as of this morning I have a sore throat and cough from the cold night at the stadium and all I wanna do is sleep. But I have work to do today so I am going to run and go get it done so I can veg for the rest of the day. Later!!! :)


    Posted By Melanie @ 9:32 AM (0) comments |
    Thursday, January 05, 2006

    What a pain in the you know where!


    Well I posted my Thursday Thirteen this morning and managed to somehow screw up my blog by having things all over the screen - print for the date and title in the middle of my blog title, columns off, postings out of their columns - it was chaos!!! Magically I managed to get it fixed somehow - no idea how but I did it!! So you will not see Thursday Thirteen today. I will give it another go next week instead.

    But on the homefront - Bam-Bam is being considered for transition into kindergarten for August which we are not happy about so I will have more news on that soon. King Papa Bear made a miastake thinking our playoff tickets this weekend were for Sunday but actually are for Saturday - which we have out of town visitors on! Pain in the butt he is!!! So I was very lucky that my darling friend (Allison), was kind enough to let me change times on our get together to a little earlier in the moring and a little earlier to end our visit. We are very lucky how understanding she and family were about hubby's panic and excitement over finding affordable tickets to see his team. :) (((HUGS)))

    So tomorrow I will be preparing my house for our guests and attempting to make it presentable - that is make oit look like three semi-neat children live here which will be quite a stretch. LOL But she will deal since I am sure she remembers what a mess my bedroom was back in the day when we were growing up!!! LOL


    Posted By Melanie @ 8:56 PM (0) comments |
    Tuesday, January 03, 2006

    Happy New Year All!


    Wow! 2006!!! Can you believe it????? The time flies these days. Wishing everyone a VERY happy New Year!!!

    I wanted to share my current research venture with all of you. We are looking into possibly homeschooling Bam-Bam. I am absolutely terrified and excited at the same time. The amount of information out there on homeschooling is overwhelming but my main concern of course is homeschooling a child with Autism. That presents very new and real differences from regualr homeschooling ventures - especially in regards to reporting to the school district each year. Following his IEP, therapies, etc will all be something VERY new and VERY different to tackle. I am mainly concerned about not being able to do what is best for him to help with his development. I am more concerned though about him being in a general special ed class in kindergarten. So for now he is going to remain in his second year of ESE PreK in his Autism language based class and then probably do a third year in PreK before going into kindergarten. SO I have some time to really look into all of this. Any suggestions for reading, websites, whatever would be greatly appreciated from anyone.

    On another note, hubby just called to tell me he got the playoff tickets for Sunday to go see the Bucs!!! Ticketmaster had them onsale this morning at actual decent prices. So we got 2 tickets in the first tier in a decent enough area for the cheap price for Sunday and will go see the game against Washington this weekend!!! Woo HOO!!!!!! So excited!!!! :) Look for us near the Pirate Ship when the cannons blast!!! :)


    Posted By Melanie @ 10:54 AM (0) comments |

    Happy New Year All!


    Wow! 2006!!! Can you believe it????? The time flies these days. Wishing everyone a VERY happy New Year!!!

    I wanted to share my current research venture with all of you. We are looking into possibly homeschooling Bam-Bam. I am absolutely terrified and excited at the same time. The amount of information out there on homeschooling is overwhelming but my main concern of course is homeschooling a child with Autism. That presents very new and real differences from regualr homeschooling ventures - especially in regards to reporting to the school district each year. Following his IEP, therapies, etc will all be something VERY new and VERY different to tackle. I am mainly concerned about not being able to do what is best for him to help with his development. I am more concerned though about him being in a general special ed class in kindergarten. So for now he is going to remain in his second year of ESE PreK in his Autism language based class and then probably do a third year in PreK before going into kindergarten. SO I have some time to really look into all of this. Any suggestions for reading, websites, whatever would be greatly appreciated from anyone.

    On another note, hubby just called to tell me he got the playoff tickets for Sunday to go see the Bucs!!! Ticketmaster had them onsale this morning at actual decent prices. So we got 2 tickets in the first tier in a decent enough area for the cheap price for Sunday and will go see the game against Washington this weekend!!! Woo HOO!!!!!! So excited!!!! :) Look for us near the Pirate Ship when the cannons blast!!! :)


    Posted By Melanie @ 10:54 AM (0) comments |
  • My Photo
    Name:
    Location: New Jersey, United States

    Mom of 4 - Nick, Jake, Alex, and Matt, Married to my best friend and other half that makes me whole, Adam. Liberal. Jersey Girl always....

    1. Adam, The Hubby, My Best Friend & True Love
    2. Nicholas, aka The Professor: tenured 9/97
    3. Jacob, aka Bam-Bam: debuted 5/01
    4. Alexander, aka Lil' Michaelangelo: creating since 8/03
    5. Matthew, aka Bun in the Oven: arrived 5/06
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  • Michele Agnew
  • Amy's Random Thoughts
  • For The Love of Peas and Monkeys
  • Valtool's Box
  • Especially Heather
  • And Miles To Go Before We Sleep
  • Our Happy Happenings
  • My Home Sweet Home
  • The Goat Rodeo
  • Not Enough Hours...
  • Sarge Charlie
  • It Coulda' Been Worse
  • My Home Sweet Home
  • braincancerbutton.png
    We're Watching You
    1. Some of my all time favorites:
    2. The DaVinci Code
    3. Angels and Demons
    4. The Lovely Bones
    5. The Five People You Meet In Heaven
    6. The Tales of the Otori
    7. All Harry Potter Books
    8. Julius Caesar
    9. Cell
    10. Misery
  • Disney
  • All Ears Net


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    1. July 2005
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    5. November 2005
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    7. January 2006
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    9. March 2006
    10. April 2006
    11. May 2006
    12. June 2006
    13. July 2006
    14. August 2006
    15. September 2006
    16. October 2006
    17. November 2006
    18. December 2006
    19. March 2007
    20. July 2007
    21. August 2007
    22. September 2007
    23. October 2007
    24. March 2009
    25. April 2009


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