Speech Decisions

During the summer we took J to an ear doctor and then he referred us to a center which specializes in speech help. Both the doctor and the center told us when school started to get a different speech teacher. I assured them that we would. It didn't happen. The teacher we wanted had gotten another job in W town and we were "stuck" with the teacher we have had since J was in pre-school.

So we made a decision since his speech problems are basically the same we decided we would end school intervention the end of December.

I know that the speech teacher is against this as is probably J's teachers. We didn't come to this decision in a quick way. We had been advised to do this for over 6 months. We know that J is still in error when he talks. So who's fault is it why he talks the way he does? Is it the speech teacher's methods? Does he need a new approach? Does he need a second opinion? Has he improved since she has had him for seven years? How many parents would put up with it this long if the speech teacher isn't making any improvements?

The speech teacher was incredulous when I informed her of our decision. Don't you just hate to deal with people like that? She kept saying "well do they think I am stupid?" No, " but they don't think that your methods are doing him any good."

I sent the information that they gave me and some different approaches for his speech problems. She did methods (from the sheet) that I didn't think would help him. In fact, it hasn't helped him at all.

Now we have to find someone else to help J. That's the problem currently. There is no one in this town to help. We could go to W town and ask the center to help him, but at what cost and what time of day? I wish there was a place that would help him on the weekends. I've been reading ways in which I can help him. I am praying that once his braces are off that he will get better at speech. I won't be able to secure a new person until at least the spring, I figure. But staying with this current teacher is not an option. Enough is enough. We need to move on and try a different approach.

Does anyone know of speech teacher/center to recommend to us? Would you stay with a teacher who hasn't made much progress in seven years? We did what we had to do, right or wrong.

KU Wins/Announcers

KU Jayhawks won again this time over Eastern Washington University 85-47. Darnell Jackson, who is now starting in place of Sasha Kaun, was the leading scorer with 17 points, followed by Darrell Arthur with 15 points and a beautiful 3-pointer. Doing great defensively was freshman Cole Aldrich. Fan favorite, Connor Teahan came off the bench to score 5 points. Tyrel Reed, rolled his ankle during the game, but game back into play. He's one tough kid!

I get spoiled listening to the Jayhawk TV announcers of Paul Splittorff (former major league baseball pitcher for the KC Royals) and Dave Armstrong (a former KSNW sports director). I never hear them saying anything derogatory against the 'Hawks. They talk about how many songs Aldrich has on his Ipod (5,000) and curious to what songs they could be. (Come to think of it, I'm curious too!). Sometimes on the KU Message Board they get down on Armstrong. He used to call Darrell Arthur, "Shady Arthur." His nickname was "Shady" or "Slim Shady," not how Armstrong puts it. Last year he was ALWAYS saying it. Armstrong also overuses the exclamation of "WOW!" when there is a great play. But I think that's characteristic of Dave Armstrong. Now he has a new freshman favorite, Connor Teahan. He has nicknamed him "Cool Hand Teahan," cute, it rhymes. I'm not sure what the Message board thinks though. "Split" on the hand, calls Mar--reo, Mare re0 most of the time. That gets on my nerves! Apparently they don't read the KU Media Guide, complete with pronunciations of Mario's name, and it isn't how he does it.

I love listening to the guys on the radio, Bob Davis and Chris Piper. They make things come alive!! If you are not near a TV or if you have to put up with the national announcers I tune to them. Of course, radio and TV are not in sync. So you either put up with the national announcers or if you REALLY can't stand them, I just go ahead and listen to Bob and Chris and turn off the sound of the TV.

Working at Home

Last night I decided to put together a flyer for my Church's cookbook. I found some interesting vintage cookbook cover and was just about to put the above picture on the flyer. But then I saw the woman holding a wooden spoon in one hand and holding a cigarette in the other hand. I thought, "No WAY can I do that!" But I did find some acceptable images that I added on. L enlarged the images and it looks pretty good. I like collecting cookbooks and I do not have very many old ones. The covers on these old cookbooks are vintage! One featured a brand new Kenmore grill and I would say that was probably a 1950's cover; another cover featured a woman in an apron cooking with her daughter (in a smaller version apron) baking cookies. If you take a look at the hairstyle then I would say this was a circa 1940's or maybe 1950's. Then there is another cover with a woman all dressed up (June Cleaver like) showing a cake she made with her new Hamilton Beach mixer.

If anyone from my church is reading this blog...I need your recipes! :) Nothing like a shameless plug! LOL!

Energy savings/bills

While I was at my job today cleaning, I was thinking about changing light bulbs. Why not go green? I would get the new bulbs in place and the church could be saving energy. See link: http://www.gelighting.com/na/home_lighting/products/energy_smart.htm#benefits

So I went downstairs into one of the bathrooms. I had already changed one room and liked the result. So I replaced the 150 wt. bulb downstairs with a 100 wt. new fluorescent one. Then I went back upstairs to one of the bathrooms noticing there was only one bulb in a fixture. That's because whoever changed the bulb before, broke one off in the socket. (don't you just hate it when that happens?). Then the other light fixture only had 25 wt. bulb in another area. No wonder it was dark in that room. I think that whoever uses that room will be pleased now as they will be able to see a little more. I started formulating a list to see how many energy savings bulbs I would get at our "what's it for store." I go into the WIFS and there is the old bulbs and then there are the energy savings ones. One in a package, that is. At Wally World I had purchased some of these bulbs. We got six for like $9.00. Well one, at the WIFS, was $6.99!!
(Are they out of their minds?) Needless to say I skipped buying those bulbs. I guess I won't be buying "green" at the WIFS! Maybe another time the church will go green. But not now.
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I got my hospital bill today for my operation. Of course, this was my second notice what the charges are. They told me to contact my insurance company as they hadn't paid the hospital yet. Wonderful. :( So we call our insurance company and they just "happened to pay for it TODAY!" I wonder if we would have called them earlier would they have paid for it before THIS time? I asked L sheepishly, "Okay, so what do we have to pay?" Preparing for the worst possible senario on what we owed them and if we needed to go for a second or third mortgage on the house.
He answers me, "Eighty-eight dollars."
Flabbergasted I answer: "WHAT?! Are you sure?"
He assured me that was the quote that the insurance company gave him.
I'll never say another bad word about the insurance anymore if this is true. I'll believe it until I see it in writing. Now all I have left is my bill for my specialist and the local hospital for a simple blood test. I really felt like I REALLY got ripped off over there and the next time I need a test like that I'll just go up to W town for a cheaper price.
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Hope everyone else is not bogged down in bills. Say a prayer for my friend Flute's operation and my pastor as he is having back pain.

Orange Bowl Bound!

Well it seems as if instead of KU getting to play in the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona, that they will be playing down at Dolphin Stadium, in Miami Florida in the Orange Bowl. The last time that KU was at the Orange Bowl was 39 years ago...1969! I remember that game, I do. I was as old as S at the time and Bobby Douglass was the quarterback. There was 12 men on the field for KU (1 too many) and they lost the game. Hopefully the Hawks will do much better. They will be facing Virginia Tech.
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Talking about bowl games, how about the names of the many bowl games? Of course, we are all aware of the Rose, Sugar, Orange Bowl, Cotton, and Fiesta. But when I was younger that was about it on the bowl games. Now they call these basic bowls as: All-State Sugar bowl, formerly called the Nokia Sugar Bowl, the SBC Cotton Bowl (I'm sure it's now called the AT &T Cotton Bowl), the Orange Bowl (called the Fed-ex Orange Bowl), and the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.

There are even MORE bowl games: Poinsettia Bowl, Motor City Bowl, the Emerald Bowl, the New Mexico Bowl, the Las Vegas Bowl, the New Orleans Bowl (wait a minute, isn't that where the Sugar bowl is?), the Music City Bowl, The Champs Sports Bowl, the PapaJohns.com bowl, the Car Care Bowl, the Hawaii Bowl, the Humanitarian Bowl, the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, the Capital One Bowl, the Insight Bowl, the GMAC Bowl, the International Bowl (played in Toronto, thus the name!), the Texas Bowl (wait, isn't this the Cotton Bowl), the Alamo Bowl (naturally played in San Antonio), the Armed Forces Bowl, the Outback Bowl, the Sun Bowl, the Independence Bowl, and the Gator Bowl.

I suggest that they would actually have EVEN more bowl games. They could have the Pizza Hut Bowl, the Cracker Barrel Bowl, the Target Bowl, the Nike Bowl, the Addias Bowl, the Old Navy Bowl, the Gap Bowl, the Dunder Mifflin Bowl, or the Vanish Toliet Bowl. They could have countless more of bowl games enabling other teams with so-so records throughout the season to be able to go into a game. You never know they might create some of these in the near future. :)

KU Basketball wins against USC/KU Football

This was definitely a heart attack game! It looked pretty bad in the first half when all the announcers talked about the greatness of OJ Mayo. KU did look pretty tired in the first half and I thought a couple of calls were wrong. Our shooting percentage for the 1st half was only 34% but USC's percentage wasn't much better at 37% from the field. There were some shots that KU tried to make and they ended up being air balls. The team just didn't look sharp in their shots like they usually are. USC lead KU at the half 27-25.

But after the half KU came back to take charge. Mario (pronounced Mar--reo, not Mare reo, as the announcers kept saying) Chalmers had scored only 3 points in the first half. But by the end of the game he had scored 17 more points the second half. He had a clutch 3 point shot towards the end of the game. It was an NBA 3-pointer! It was great!! Great for KU! That quieted the crowd of 10,000 at the Galen Center (this is my brother's name!). Sasha Kaun surprisingly hit 3 free throw shots (he must have been practicing and it showed) from the line. OJ Mayo played the entire game without a rest on the bench. Russell Robinson guarded him well and OJ ran out of steam by the end of the game. KU beat USC 59-55 with Mario Chalmers leading the 'Hawks with 20 points, followed by Darrell Arthur with 10, Darnell Jackson, 9, Brandon Rush with 6, Sasha Kaun and Russell Robinson with 5 a piece, and Roddrick Stewart with 4.
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KU Football--The latest rankings came out today and since KU didn't play a game yesterday, they DROPPED in the polls. Last week they were rated 5th and this week they went down to 8th!! Ohio State, who didn't play yesterday either, came up in the polls to be in the top three. Now how is that fair??? Why did KU drop and they didn't play? Is it because of their one and only loss to Missouri? Is it because KU isn't known for their football teams? Is it because we played "cupcake" teams earlier on. Oklahoma's only loss was at the hands of Colorado, a team in which KU beat at Boulder. Yet, because OU beat number1 they go higher than KU and MU. Where is the reasoning behind this madness? It will be interesting tonight to find out which bowl game KU will be playing in. KU was hoping they would play in the Fiesta Bowl. Now they are hoping it is at least the Cotton Bowl.

I'm still shaking my head over this injustice!

Expensive Christmas toys for kids

Now there's an expensive pony!! Butternut can ALMOST do it all! He eats a "carrot" and he whinnies, you can brush his mane and tail. He responds to your voice when you talk to him. And if you are tiny enough you can ride him! My friend "Flute's" daughter K3 wants one. This one was a Christmas sale item at $225. Now, the price of the pony is $250!! This is such a horrible price!! The pony runs on 6 "D" Batteries. The advertisers of this toy are shameless. Any little girl might want this but, at such a price. NO WAY!

So I suggested to "Flute" how about a real life kitty? This cat is made by the same company. When you call the kitty he meows at you. You pat him, he purs. You put your hand over the kitty's eyes and he will meow. The only thing different between this mechanical cat and a real one is that he doesn't try to bite you, scratch you, no shedding, no kitty-litter box, and no food is required. If my child (was young enough) and wanted a cat I would get her this one for under $40 just to try it out.

Gone are the days when your little girl wanted a baby doll. No batteries required and plenty of imagination. Or how about "Barbie" dolls? Now, of course these dolls have grown up and are not their mom's "Barbies." Not only are there Barbie dolls, but there are Bratz dolls too. Cabbage Patch dolls of the 80's were pretty popular toys.

Gone are the days for simple toys for boys. Like buying sports equipment for your boys. A simple football, baseball, soccer ball, or baseball isn't good enough. You have to have electronic games for you PlayStation's, Wii, Gameboys, and your personal playstation, and of course your computer.

No one wants to get socks or shirts for Christmas. Nor would any child want a book for Christmas.

I used to be thrilled to get a record album for Christmas or some other simple surprise. But now things aren't simple and some things cost too much.

Now my age is showing!