ifyourstomachoffendsyou

Hi peeps, Busy! Haven't read for a few days. Realized I'd run out of Vitamin D and hadn't been taking it. Bad mistake. We haven't seen much sun this week and its cold. Haven't been getting in my exercise. Too busy at work and personal life. Too cold and rainy outside. Gotta get going again. Get back on track with food, too. Vitamin D makes a huge difference. Lot more energy today. Lot less crabby. Concentrated better. Food better. Gonna go walk now. I think. Cheri

Wow! Nobodies been on today hardly. You all must be busy with Mother's Day. I'm goin in a couple of hours to my mother's house and bringing food. My sister is bringing food. She and her husband and 3 kids are all going to be there and my three kids, their spouses, and children are going to be there. My sister and I also took my mom out for Indian food and then to a play. My 12 yr. old neice also went with. It was "The Little Princess" done by a Christian youth organization. Nice evening. I really like Indian food. Love curry. Not much else to report. Hope your Mother's Day went well. Cheri

Exercise: You're all correct. Faster is more intense than slower when it comes to walking, walking on an incline is more intense than slower and depending on how much of an incline and how fast you're walking it, the incline is more intense than fast walking. But once you're used to it, like I'm used to climbing stairs at work, my heart rate doesn't go up that much and I can talk and not breathe fast. So it keeps me in shape but doesn't give me an intense workout anymore. It is also true that you can walk longer and slower and eventually burn as many calories as walking fast for a shorter time. I was having too much hip pain so I slowed down my walk but walked just as far. Took longer but burned about as many calories. Eventually, with all exercise, you're in such good shape that the exercise helps you maintain your weight and health but doesn't help you lose. You still just have to eat right and eat less. In addition, as you lose, you're carrying less weight so your muscles don't have to work as hard. With exercise you have to remember there's a law of diminishing returns. I have no intension of stressing myself or my poor arthritic body by trying to do more than 1 hr. a day 4 or 5X a week, nor do I wish to increase the intensity of my exercise. A lot of arthritis and joint problems are made worse by repetitive motion. I do what hurts least. My blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, stamina, and outlook are all improved by moderate exercise, but stressing over exercise is a big downer. People can end up subsituting exercise addiction for food addiction and actually become bulimic. Exercise addiction is considered a form of bulimia. Exercise, like life, is about balance and moderation. Eva, love the photos and the Ocotillo. Janet, great job on handling Andrew. Panhandle. Love it. You made him solve his own problem. Bet he never gets caught without his credit card or enough gas for a long time. He knows you won't bail him out. Good for you. Laura, Nelson and friends are just adorable and so are you. You light up your photos with your smile. Laura K. You're handling your daughter exactly right. It's always a fine line between making mild suggestions and nagging. She'll figure it out. I was and always will be a procrastinator. I need the pressure of the last minute in order to be able to focus and get things done. However, my last minute is not as "last" as it used to be. Julie, all my life, whenever someone has major physical problems that nobody seems to be able to diagnose or treat, people have gone to the Mayo Clinic. Can you get yourself referred to a place like that? Linda, all my life I've heard about the tulip festival in Pella, Iowa. They have similar festivals in Holland, MI. Both, of course, were mainly settled by Dutch people and I'm totally Dutch. I was raised Christian Reformed, and now attend a Reformed church and I have relatives in the Protestan Reformed church, all of which are mostly Dutch denominations. I went to the Holland, MI parade once. That's about a 3 hr drive for me. I've always wanted to do the Pella, Iowa thing. Maybe someday. I live next to a town called South Holland, IL., also settled by a majority of Dutch people,and they used to do more with tulip festivals. Now, they're about 65 percent mostly black and some Latino. But a lot of people still have a lot of tulips. But no more parades and Klompen dancing (traditional dance done in wooden shoes). We can still get Dutch treats around here though. Dutch almond pastries (banket, Ollie Bollen, Ollie Kooken) and Cookies and peppermints and chocolates. Dutch peasoup is very good, especially when its made with metwurst, a Dutch sausage. Well, need to do laundry and shop for appetizers to bring to my mom's tomorrow for Mother's Day. Enjoy your day ladies.

Hi everyone, Been busy with one project after the other at work and have stayed late at school last Friday and this Monday and at my daughter's Tues. night. Comliance Analyst from Chicago Public Schools was in my room for an hour or so today. All my records are in good shape, so that's a relief to get behind me. Food is quite good. Working on staying under 165. My husband is starting to work full-time hours. I'll have to see what kind of changes that makes in scheduling and chores. He's actually possessive about the things he does around here, like grocery shopping and errands. He'd probably give up the cleaning but that's actually one of the things I need the most help with because of my neck. Don't have choir tonight so had time for a brief post. Took me forever to catch up reading. You all hang in there. Cheri

Saggy underwear and saggy skin. Got rid of the underwear, still got the skin. LOL. But 58 year old women in general shouldn't run aroun exposing too much skin anyway. Saw a woman I grew up with last week, always thin, very attractive. I swear she looked older than me. She looked rode hard and put away wet. Julie, I really feel bad for you. I remember thinking no one was ever going to be able to help me and I was just going to keep going on a downward curve. I cried frequently. Neck, shoulders, knees, hips, lower back. I've been blessed that I've found medical solutions and accommodations in my lifestyle that have allowed me to keep going. But the neck was the worst. It still is. Hope you get another shot ASAP. Just remember to do nothing to yourself after the shot, and to do absolutely nothing after the shot. Give it all time to heal and settle down. That takes weeks and even months. Have they checked you for other things like auto-immune stuff? Fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, etc.? Are you still taking your anti-depressant? I frequently had to go on one when my arthritis was really bad. It really helps you deal with the pain and with the anger and despair. The Lord bless you and keep you and cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and grant you peace. In other news, I went to my doc after more tests and I still have high calcium but my parathyroid is fine. So, I'm collecting my urine all today and first urination tomorrow morning. Hope the container they gave me to keep in the fridge is big enough. I drink a lot of fluid and pee a lot. What a pain. I'm going to my daughter's this afternoon and will have to try to collect over there, too. Laura, maybe you know more about this. I might have something where calcium stays circulating in my blood and doesn't exit. Don't know what the implications of that are. I talked to my Dr. about changing my anti-inflammatory and maybe supplementing it. My muscles in my shoulders, neck and upper back are in continual knots from my neck. Swinging my arms while walking makes them even worse. She prescribed a muscle relaxer to be used sparingly. I had told her I couldn't take vicodin or Tylenol 3 because they make me hyper and keep me awake at night. They also don't seem to make much difference in the pain. Well, the muscle relaxer keeps me awake at night also. Wierd. I find if I take it early in the evening like 6 or 7 p.m. then I can fall asleep and I don't seem to wake up as frequently needing to shift positions because of pain in my hips or shoulder. Plus it does make my neck hurt less in the evenings. She told me it was addictive and might make me drowsy. Don't think so. But now I know its safe for me to take in the afternoons at school which is when my neck starts to hurt. That will allow me to more easily go for a walk when I get home without triggering the muscle knots. Hopefully, it'll still carry over when I go to bed. Getting old sure ain't for sissies. Cheri

You are an inspiration to all. As are all you hard working women. I, too, did babysitting for others and helped at home. My baby sister was born when I was just turning 15, but my mom was mostly a stay-at-home mom. My parents didn't really believe in moms going out to work. My dad never made much money but my mom made it stretch. We never felt deprived. My best teen-age job was being a lifeguard. Loved it. I loved being outdoors, I loved to swim, and we all had a great time together. Music blasting through loud-speakers, horse-play in the pool, dancing around the decks, blowing our whistle and sitting kids down on the drains along the decks as a punishment for getting too rough or running too much. I'm still yelling "Walk!" to kids running down the halls at school. I came early every morning to voluntarily teach swimming lessons. Discovered I was very good at breaking down each motion separately, describing and demonstrating it. Kept on doing it into my 30's. All my kids came with me and learned how to swim. My daughter became a lifeguard there as well as did my babysister who came along with me. I took visiting neices and nephews with me during the summer and taught many of them to swim as well. Fun in the sun. Cheri

Apples, I stand in awe. How much of all that was your idea and how much was just demanded from you?

I had kids ask me to tutor them in high school. Unpaid. My dad kept getting me awful jobs in high school. Clerk at a drycleaners--only 14 yrs old. Had to get a permit to work and to work after 6 p.m. Trained by girls a couple years older than me, didn't tell me about some things, got left on my own one evening, couldn't find something for a customer who complained, girls had been ditching me when we all went out for a treat after school before starting work, my mom called the owner, I got fired. Man, that was a blast from the past. My dad also made me waitress for my uncle, clerk in a drugstore, and waitress at a drive-in. Awful awful jobs that I was not at all cut out for. Owner of the drive-in was incredibly abusive. My uncle was a sarcastic pri**, and I couldn't remember all the details at the drugstore. I got fired. I had a great summer job every year as a lifeguard that I loved but it wasn't enough for my dad. I had to work during the school year, too. All he did was make me afraid of getting a job and being able to keep it. I felt so incompetent. Man, these are very old, very bad memories. Thankfully, on my own I learned I was a very good teacher. I also volunteer taught swimming lessons through my teens right into my 30's. Then I got into teaching part-time and, with a 5 yr hiatus doing public relations/publicity/development, I got back into teaching full-time at RCS and have been there for 10 years now. If anyone ever asks me to clerk for anything I wil run screaming for the door. The same thing with anything administrative or desk-bound in nature. Gives me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it. Cheri

Jodi, my e-mail is cherifl@comcast.net. I'd love to talk to you about some of the frustrations of teaching where I teach. Cultural differences are incredibly frustrating to deal with and few understand. The problems are so complex in their origins and so systemic that sometimes I feel hopeless. But I keep working one child at a time to empower them to beat the system, sometimes their own culture, sometimes white racism, sometimes government inadequacy or over-regulation, etc. But I appreciate your support. Cheri

I discovered the laying down thing by accident. I seldom lay down during the day, but during spring break I was doing a lot of reading and I like to lay in the tub and read or curl up on the couch sometimes. I had sf decaf lattes with me and could not drink them reclining or sitting up. I was that tight. I also find that wearing a snug belt around my waist under the port also increases restriction. I discovered FB has groups for the various Myers-Briggs personality types. Interesting. They throw around initials like crazy and seem to have memorized all 16 personality types. But they're all just people trying to figure out who they are and what makes themselves and others tick. Cheri

Jewel, the more I hear about your past, the more impressed I am with you for taking charge of your life. I think you're an up and coming Apples. Hey Everyone, has anyone else found this to be true? If I lay down during the day, the stoma closes up just like when I get up in the morning and I have a lot of restriction. I've been thinking of taking advantage of this phenomenon if I'm having a wide open day or evening as a way of preventing or stopping a slider-slip. Nothing like a good pb or that too tight feeling to stop your cravings and give your body time to feel satiety. I don't want to pb all the time but I have come to see pbing as my friend. It definitely creates mindfullness about eating rather than the old mindless eating. Love my band. Cheri

Great, Those were actually two stories some of the white teachers at my school tell on themselves. We are black and white teachers together and we've learned to gently poke fun of ourselves. Sorry if I didn't make that clear. The whole point, like Jodi said, is that there is no standardized test that can accurately measure what our capabilities and knowledge are because our environments and background are so different. Take us out of our familiar territory and we can appear pretty stupid no matter what our race or education level. What's genuinely stupid are the standardized tests that don't take those things into account and assume that African-American children who don't know the word tan are less smart than the white children who do. Didn't mean to offend you. Cheri

I don't know if you remember me telling you that since I couldn't exercise the way I was before that bad fall I took at school, I wanted to lose some more weight to make up for less exercise? Anyway, my goal weight was 167 so once I reached it I lost a couple more pounds and then went up and down. Everytime I'd get close to 167 I'd take off the weight. I got so I was pretty stable at 165, but I was still really restricted, especially in the morning and especially with meat, which, in the evening, combined with vegetables, would frequently make me pb. I love meat, and it really helps keep my cravings down if I get enough of it. So, I wanted to loosen my band without getting an unfill, and went back for a few days to what I ate when first banded--protein drinks, Kashi bar, small container no sugar added applesauce, sm. V-8, meat and some veggies and still had one treat a day. Lost 2 more lbs. I'm at 163 this morning. Hopefully, my band will be a little looser now and I'll be a little more comfortable eating the meat and veggies. I'm still exercising 4 or 5 days a week. Most school days I get in 20 minutes of stair climbing at work first thing. I also frequently run up to the teacher's lounge or the office or other classrooms throughout the day. Then most days after school and/or weekends I go outside and walk 35-45 minutes. I have to watch how much I swing my arms so I don't irritate my neck. I frequently hang from my inversion table, put my hands under my chin and adjust my neck that way then hang a minute to let it stabilize. I do as little paperwork as possible, use a laptop sitting with my neck and arms supported rather than sitting at a desk with my arms raised to type, never run a vacuum cleaner and avoid scrubbing motions because they really irritate my neck. I have started gardening, but because I have my butt up in the air while my arms hang down and my head is down, I seem to be able to pull weeds, which is mostly what I do, without irritating my neck. I first loosen the soil with a small shovel but that involves using my legs and feet, not my neck. As long as I limit that, and do a little a few times a week, I don't seem to irritate my neck. I'm amazed at how much I can eat and maintain this weight. Seems like once your blood sugar goes down from the weight loss, your insulin resistance goes down, and your metabolism picks up. You're also just naturally more active. I don't trudge up the steps, I run up them. I'm much quicker to get to my feet to help a child at work rather than making them get up to come to me. I've noticed that my ADHD seems worse however. I have no doubt that I medicated my ADHD with food. It helped me to stay still and concentrate. Also, the weight helped hold me down. Now I have a much harder time sticking to projects. Especially paper projects. Got my walk in this morning. Ground is too wet to garden. My husband worked midnights so will sleep all day. Think I'll call my daughter and see if I can come over to see my grandkids. Saturday is usually my grandkids day. I frequently pick up my granddaughter Skylar and take her to visit David and Josh. Cheri

Standardized testing-not. My African-American students don't know what the word tan means. LOL. It's a white thing. Also, poor prenatal care, single mothers forced to work and putting their kids in crappy daycare, lead in paint and water pipes in old city houses, non-standard English at home or with caretaker and a large street vocabulary but small standard English vocabulary, little experiential exposure outside the "hood", whoopin's as the first line of discipline rather than reasoning and logical consequences, frequent fight or flight hormones pumping through the brain taking precedence over training the brain for academics: how the heck can you create a standardized test for these children? Test them on street smarts? Watch them hit the ground when they hear a gunshot while the dumb white teacher stays standing? (Wasn't me.)Test them on how fast they can react to a dangerous situation? Test them on how cleverly they can "treat" (insult) someone else? Test them on how well they can rap using non-standard English? Test them on how well they can use strategy to bring a ball down a basketball court? I could go on and on. My whole job is paid for by the federal government in order to help bring up these kids scores on standardized tests. Whose standards? Our young white RCS science teacher from Arizona recently went to a nearby forest preserve that's had a bad reputation since I was a young person. She went to collect pond water. White girls go where angels fear to tread. Survival skills-0. Janet, is part of the problem with work that you're trying to cram 5 days of work into 4 days? Maybe that's the point you need to make with your bosses. Julie, glad you're trying to be "good." We're all worried about you. As much as I hate keeping logs or diaries, I was thinking that maybe you need to do that with your activities so you can see patterns and find which activities make your neck and shoulder flare up either immediately or within the next few days. Or it could be a combination of activities. Cheri

Julie, My husband's job is going quite well. He works three or four midnights a week. Being currently still in his introvert stage the job is perfect for him. Apart from hearing coyotes and an occassional dog being killed by them, his nights are pretty boring. He is a security guard in a very exclusive residential/golf community. No fences allowed between or behind homes, hence the coyote population and dog attacks. Most people have transponders that lift the gates for them. Only a few come to the window. He never leaves the huge, comfortable guard house. His temperament has improved considerably since going back to work. By the way, Julie, the Dr. told my husband after my surgery that I should never do housework. So he does almost all of it. I don't look into corners too closely. I do light dusting of furniture and floors when company is coming. Very little scrubbing. Anything that involves pushing or pulling things or repetitive stirring motions aggravates my neck. I can't do anything I have to bend my neck over. Making the turkey for Thanksgiving just about kills me. I can't hold up my arms for long periods. The work you did wrapping glasses would have put me in severe pain. I have a lap top so my arms are resting and supported while I type and my head rests back on the back of my chair. I go walking and climb stairs for exercise since that aggravates my neck the least. I have to say that when my first epidural made no difference and actually increased my pain the Drs. basically knew that I was going to need surgery and did not recommend more injections. However, the time I had epidurals a few years after surgery, I had two injections with no problems. The first took care of the pain immediately and the second a month later took care of the residual pain. I'm going to talk to my Dr. about getting another one because I want to function a little better than I am right now. You and your husband need to decide what quality of life you want. If he doesn't want to do the housework himself then he definitely should pay someone to do it. You probably need to reduce your paperwork and cooking as well. I know you love doing it, but its killing you, just like the food. You don't need to be a human doing. You are a human being and you have plenty of worth if you never lift a finger again. Think of work as a food allergy. You have to isolate which allergies are causing you the most misery. Stop doing everything and let your neck heal. That may include massages and chiro. If it doesn't heal, then you probably need surgery. If it does heal, then add back the lightest activities one at a time and see how you do. Remember, you won't always know that night. It may take a week or two of an activity to know if its going to affect you. This may mean you actually have to tell people "No!" You may have to delegate many of your current committments and supervise them only. No hands on. You may find that the most liberating thing you've ever done. Learning to say "No!" can have a huge impact on your emotional health as long as you also say "No!" to guilt and shame. I have rewritten my life to accommodate my disability and that's exactly what I realize it is. I do no volunteer work anymore. I focus on my job and my grandchildren. I do only what's most important to me. I do my gardening in bursts. For some reason being totally bent over while gardening doesn't hurt my neck. My butt is totally stuck up in the air because squatting with fake knees is not possible. My husband and my assistant at work do the things that aggravate my arthritis and they also take care of the details that aggravate my ADHD. I'm left doing what I'm exceptionally good at: generating ideas, conveying the big picture with my co-workers, inspiring through enthusiasm, and teaching with empathy but pushing each student to become the best they can be and finding the little tricks and creative teaching techniques to help them become that. I am reduced to using my mind, emotions, passion, and spirituality. It feels like I'm pouring all the pent up love that's never been allowed or that I've never allowed to pour out of me just gush and overflow into the children I teach and the grandchildren around me. Feels more like a truer use of my talents than all the other stuff I've done with my life. By the way, cute pics of Mimi. My son, Tim, was 5 when he was bitten by a neighbor's dog above and below his eye. They had to do plastic surgery and put him out to check if muscle had also been cut. It had. After surgery his eye was completely swollen shut and all colors. I took him and my 2 yr old to a big parade the next day. We were right at the start of the parade sitting on the curb. Every lady that went by with candy took one look at his cute little face with the pitiful swollen eye (no visible stitches, just spray on skin glue over the neatly trimmed and held together cuts) and poured candy in his lap. He made out like a bandit. Great, Exciting time in your life. Glad you and your husband have such a great life together. Jewel, Great going! All the Lauras and Lories and Ladies and latecomers, the Julies, Janets, Jodies and Jewels, you're all doing so well. Arlene/Charlene I'm astonished at your determination. All of you, your love for each other pours out in this thread. I'm sure there are many who get inspiration from this thread even though they don't post. Don't mean to leave anyone out who's posting regularly. Apples, Melissa, and everyone else, you are all my heroes. I've found out a little more about myself over the past week. As an Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceptive (according to Myers-Briggs), I've found out more about why people can react so strongly to something I say in all innocence, intending no malice. ENFP's are big picture not-so-much detail people who like being around people and can be very perceptive about what makes people tick, but they can be overwhelming and misinterpreted because they think out loud. Ideas start to flow as they start to talk and initially come out half-baked. If people wait long enough and give good feedback the ENFP will pull their thoughts together and come up with some amazingly creative solutions and inspirational ideas. However, on the way out their mouth, there can be abrasive, and what the easily offended find offensive, comments. Combine that with ADHD, which I also have, and the filter between the thought that comes in my mind and its instantaneous transmission through my mouth is non-existant. I'll think to myself "I better not say that" and its already out of my mouth. When the people you see outside of work and your family are "church" people, who can be more judgemental of others than all the "unsaved" out there, the possibilities for offending people is limitless. A couple of Sundays ago the choir was sitting down between sets and I said, "I'd gladly hand over my mike if someone better than me comes along." We don't have that many altos and the director has given me the mike for various reasons, not all of which have to do with my voice. I know there are better qualified people in the congregation and it was to them I was referring, particularly a strong gospel-style alto. However, it sure didn't come out that way and one person took immediate offense. I was horrified and said that wasn't what I meant. But I was so flummoxed I had trouble saying what I meant until the choir director rescued me and stated that we could use a good gospel style alto. I relaxed and said, "That's what I meant." However, two of the women didn't leave it there. They went and talked to the choir director who pulled me aside last Thursday before choir practice to tell me they'd come to him and that I needed to watch some of the things I said. I've not been that hurt in a long time. I've dropped out of so many things at church because I'm so afraid of offending people. I made the mistake of feeling safe with my "friends" from choir. I cried through the whole practice. Sunday, I talked to hardly anyone unless directly spoken to. So, I was at Barnes and Nobles on Friday night and saw the book on using Myers-Briggs to help guide you on career choices. When I read about my communication style I started crying again. But it was more about knowing that I am who I am and there are others like me. My ADHD makes it a little worse and I found it terribly ironic that a people-loving gregarious person finds it necessary to stay away from people. I wondered how I could fulfill that need to be around people, and I realized that I do it with children--because they're safe. They just love me. And they see that I love them. And even if I sometimes say things I don't want to say, they give me space to staighten it out. It's no wonder Jesus said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Cheri

Jodi, I work in the Roseland community. It has one of the top three murder rates in the city of Chicago. Last fall a young man was killed with a two by four a few blocks from the school. The video made the news all over the world. A few years ago, a graduate of our school jumped in front of a girl about to be shot by her gangbanger boyfriend on a city bus. He was killed. Also made the news all over the world. We are a private Christian school that struggles financially on a daily basis. But somehow God always pulls us through. Across the street from us there are six vacant lots(torn down homes), three boarded up houses, and 8 occupied residences. Over 60% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Our school building is over 80 yrs old and is falling apart. We have no money to fix it. Parents and guardians use their Childcare Initiative funding to help pay for tuition. There are some other programs that help them send their kids. Illinois has proposed a voucher system that would allow parents to take that money and pull their kids out of the failing public schools and send them to us. That would be a miracle if it passes. And the best hope for some of these children. I see 58 children currently. I have about 75 contacts a day. I start seeing the kids at 7:30 am and go to 4:30 p.m. It's the only way I can fit them all in. I see half our student body from grades 1-8. They come in groups. Grades 1-4 I can see about 10X per week, 5 for reading, 5 for math. The older kids I can only squeeze in 4-5x per week. I'm the Title I NCLB instructor and I do supplemental math and reading instruction but many of my kids are actually special ed level. We can't afford special ed at the school but parents and guardians pull their kids from public school and send them to us because between me and their classroom teachers, they get a better education than they were getting in the public school special ed programs and a much better and safer atmosphere. I have an assistant 2 days a week. Sometimes I think I'm out of my mind, but I really do love this school and these kids. Many of them I see for almost all their years at the school. I know you're doing important work as well. God's work. "Let the children come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Sometime I'll have to compare notes with you on being raised Dutch Christian Reformed vs. your Judaic background. I really related to the books by Chaim Potek. Such closed religious communities with such an emphasis on tradition (and food). I enjoy reading about your various traditions and celebrations. Cheri

Jodi, THanks for the support. My daughter lives in NW Indiana in the Crown Point School District. I was extremely surprised that only offer full-day kindergarten to the lowest testing kids. I would think David's special ed and autistic status would guarantee full day, too. I was concerned a few years ago with his older step-sisters that they'd never had phonics, only whole language, and I could see the impact on their ability to decode multisyllabic words. They're both pretty bright, but I felt like their were gaps in their education. They had a principal who didn't believe in phonics even though a total whole language approach had been pretty much discredited by then. I put almost all the kids who struggle with reading on Fast Forword, my computer program that works on auditory processing. It works on memory, attention, processing and sequencing and I've seen amazing results from most kids. Even if auditory processing is a strength for the kids, it strengthens the strength. I know what will help David, its just the logistics of getting it to him. I have Fast Forward at work but I work 25 minutes North of my home on the South side of Chicago--bad neighborhood. My daughter lives 40 minutes South of me. We have one IM set-up so far that has to be shared between several Christian schools. One of those schools is close to David but he doesn't attend it. His brain is very plastic at his age so brain-re-training can really do a lot. Hopefully, I can work out the logistics over the next couple years. I just want to get him as much intensive help as soon as possible for the greatest impact but I'm going to have to be patient. Just a question. Has anybody taken the Meyer-Briggs personality test? I'm an ENFP, extrovert, intuition, feeling, perception. And I'm ADHD. I'll maybe talk more about that tomorrow. If some of you know a little about it, I'd like to hear from you. By the way, went to a Joan Baiez (sp?) concert when first married at 19. Didn't know why I was so sleepy. Remember very little of the concert. Lots of haze. LOL. My one departure from the straight and narrow and didn't even know it. Cheri

I couldn't function without NSAIDS. I couldn't wait to get back on them after surgery. I don't remember how long I had to wait but it wasn't long. They fixed my hiatal hernia when they did the band and I have not had more stomach problems, even on the NSAIDS. I am at goal and still can't function without the meds. I have severe osteoarthritis. Some of it was exacerbated by the extra weight, but it actually started when I was a skinny 16 yr old and my knees went out of joint from overly loose tendons and my shoulders started giving me trouble for the same reason. Swimming was the thing that did in my shoulders. I've had double knee replacement and major neck surgery and shoulder surgery all due to arthritis. For me getting a little R&R means going in the hospital for repairs and replacements. I supplement my NSAIDS with extra-strength, long lasting Tylenol. I am able now to swallow pills. The liquid Tylenol made my stomach burn. The IEP meeting went very well for my grandson. I like the people, and the special ed teacher and I think they'll try to provide their best for my GS. Didn't have time to question them about their materials and techniques. I know he's going to need a good multisensory phonics program and I know of no better multisensory math program than Touchmath. The intensive sensory and auditory training of Interactive Metronome and intensive brain and auditory processing brain re-training of Fast Forword are probably not available but, hopefully, I can do that or find a way. I can also provide the phonics and math materials that my daughter can use at home with him. The school David is in is also a Title I school and as a special ed student he will automatically qualify for any supplementary programs provided by Title I. They diagnosed him with autism and Speech and Language Delays (think that was the secondary diagnosis. It was either SDL or SDI.) So he'll get half day kindergarted with two hours of special ed help a week as a minimum. If it becomes apparant that he needs more that time can be increased. He also had to take a kindergarten admission test that will determine if he qualifies for all day kindergarten. The lowest testing kids get the whole day. Not quite sure what to hope for there. Anyway. Gotta go to bed. Gardened today. Played with grandkids yesterday. Read a couple of books over the weekend. Hopefully, I've recuperated enough to make it through another week of teaching. Cheri

Gotta watch Idol. Hope Krystal and Big Mike are safe.

Hi guys, I just wanted to kick some a$$ and take names with my frustration over not being able to do more to help my daughter get my grandson what he needs. Needed to vent. I very seldom am kept awake anymore by anything, but I really couldn't sleep over not being able to help my grandson and my neice more. I was looking over children's test scores today at school and had the same reaction. 2/3rds of the kids in grades 1-7 need my help next year. Too many are testing below the 10th percentile, especially in the lowest grades. We are getting so many kids whose parents/guardians are removing them from Chicago Public Schools and sending them to us because CPS is not providing the special services they need. I understand why people dream of having themselves cloned. Cheri

IEP meeting this Friday on my grandson David who is entering K-garten next fall. His testing put him in the bordeline to mildly mentally impaired category for both ability and performance. However, autistic children are notoriously difficult to test, especially when young because they don't respond well or focus in on oral questions. His preschool thought he would test much higher. To them he appears to know a lot more and be much higher level than what he tested at. The school seems intent on providing him with a minimum of services no matter what his tests show. Special education has headed in a direction that seems to mean provide as few services as possible and let the kids sink or swim in the regular classroom. I went for all day training in something called interactive metronome last Saturday. It's supposed to be very effective for autistic children as well as all kinds of other disabilites. The equipment is very expensive and I've been beating my brains out trying to think how I can use it to help David. We have to share the equipment amongst several private schools. Unfortunately, David won't be attending one of these schools, too expensive, so he won't be able to get it free unless I can take it to him, maybe this summer. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to teach summer school the month of June because funding came in for it. I have a number of parents who inquired about private tutoring with me this summer also. Plus I promised my sister that this summer I'd try to work with her daughter who has seizure disorder and accompanying learning problems. The IM training would also help her. She does go to one of our group of schools and would qualify for free training but nobody at her school has yet been trained in it. Anyway, the logistics of it all kept me awake most of the night last night. I'm going to the IEP meeting with my daughter. My daughter also works for a law firm part time and is not afraid to threaten the school system with a law suit. In addition, the preschool teacher has been secretly working with her to pre-explain the test results and to put together her requests (demands) for maximum support for David. Unfortunately, they're simply unable to provide the kind of intensive intervention that's most effective, especially at David's age. The younger the child, the more plastic the brain, the easier the remediation. If school systems poured more dollars into pre-school and early grammar school remediation, especially brain re-training like IM, followed by intensive multi-sensory phonics and math instruction, the cost later on would be so much less--to the educational system and to society as a whole. That's why so many parents end up home-schooling these children. Our public school system is broken. It's sad that a collection of private Christian schools, where the teacher's are paid way less and the costs are way less per student than the public schools, is purchasing and providing the most research based proven technology and training currently available and is willing to provide it free of charge to its students, while the public schools spend money to find ways to refuse services to their kids. Hopefully I'll sleep well tonight. Needed to get this off my chest. Cheri

[ Eva, Isn't Ibuprofin an anti-inflammatory? That's what makes it such an effective pain killer. It's still one of the best, most effective anti-inflammatories on the market. I also don't wear perfume. I think my shampoo must have a scent because people comment on my perfume. Either that or the Downy in my clothes. I don't like to add more smells than what toiletries already have. Frankly, most perfumes make me sneeze. Deb, I read in my Idiot's guide to the Glycemic Index that people may eat more on vacation but they also relax more and may lose weight because they're not producing cortisol from stress. Wierd, huh? Julie, glad Mimi's all right and back to herself. Hope you will be too. Epidurals are like magic if they can place them right. They didn't work before my surgery 10 years ago because they could not get the needle to squeeze between the bones. About 4 or 5 years I needed the epidurals after a bad fall. That time they worked because they removed so much bone when they did my surgery. The pain relief was immediate and long lasting. I was afraid I'd need them again after this last fall but I think my neck is starting to heal from my fall and from my insane attempt to scrub tables. Well, I was in a seminar all day today. Left the house at 6:30 a.m. and got home 12 hours later. So, time for bed. Cheri

Julie, Terrible recall. Praying for tomorrow. We sure do love our grandkids. Cheri

Any weight loss is a success. Especially if maintained. I'm sure you look better, feel better, and are healthier. Whoo whoo! Maybe someday you'll lose more and maybe you won't. But you don't have to go back to where you were. Yeah. Go girl! Cheri