a December to remember!

We started the month off with building a chicken coupe! Yay!!! I'm pretty excited for FREE cage free organic eggs. I usually pay at least $4 for 12 and now we will get an unlimited amount. The coupe is almost complete. Hopefully by next month it will be done. Only thing really left to do is put hinges on the house so we can pull out the eggs and clean it out. And cover the top, to keep cats from getting in the the chickens from getting out.

The boys have been out of school for the last two weeks! Last week I spent the week finishing last minute shopping, buying food, baking and CLEANING. I don't know why I bothered but we were going to have a houseful of people Christmas morning and a HUGE mess from presents that I thought it would make clean up easier. And initally it did but after toys were assembled and packaging tossed around it really made no difference.

My brother Zack and Katrina are home for the Christmas break. I've missed them both so much.

Every year I usually bake cookies and deliver them to friends as gifts, this year I decided no sweet treats! Instead, I made mini Christmas center pieces. They are really cute. I had Blake (the 6 year old) gather pine cones from around our property and I bought some ornaments and such from the dollar tree and the dollar section of Target and voila! Instant homemade Christmas gifts!

Back to Christmas, which was amazing! Spent the 23rd at my sisters for a pre-Christmas kick off. Wine and laughs with my family and friends. Then Christmas Eve at my madres. Usually she makes Tamales but this year she made Barbacoa. It was delish! Then EVERYONE came over to our house for Christmas morning. Brandon was up at the crack of dawn...literally he and I watched the sunrise =) He was feeding the fire and I was starting the coffee. I love our little moments, these days it's a struggle to get any attention from my 12 year old. Then Blake woke up as everyone arrived. My parents, Matts parents, My sister Giselle and her husband Jack, my brother Evan and his girlfriend Sarah, my brothers Zack and Robb spent the night and my sister Katrina! There were presents flowing throughout our living room. Matt guessed that there were at least 100 gifts under the tree =) Boston was the first to open a gift. He was a bit sleepy but was very interested in the noise the paper was making. I can't believe how many gift he got! Probably just as many as Blake and Brandon. It was by far my favorite Christmas since I was a kid. Later we went to Matt's cousins house for Christmas dinner and some Wii dance of - which Matt did participare in.

Some other exciting moments in December:
Boston started sitting up
Breakfast with Santa with the LDS Church
A visit with Annette
Baby gift exhcange
Checking out Christmas lights
Blake's Christmas program
and much much more ;)

I can't say how thankful I am for having had such a great year! My kids are all healthy. We have food on our table and a roof over our heads. We truly are blessed and I am grateful for all that we have.

Latest with the Hollister School District

It would probably be easier to start from the beginning. I once had a beginning but lost hope and deleted it but I am now bound and determine to keep hope! So for now I'll just start from the most recent and will fill in the blanks as we go along.

My son Brandon, has a 504 accommodation plan, to help him succeed in school. His 504 is for color blindness. Also know as color deficiency. He's red/green color blind. Now I didn't know much about his blindness before we discovered it, but I took the time to educate myself after he was diagnosed. There's not a lot of research on color blindness!!! And it's not as simple as, you go to the optometrist and get a prescription for a pair of lens'. Not everyone sees the same. Meaning even though he is diagnosed with red/green color blindness and so is my brother, doesn't mean they both see the same. And then on top of being color blind it can have different adverse effects on their daily life, emotionally, physically and mentally. For Brandon some of those are behavior issues, lack of sleep, moody, insomnia, headaches, stress, withdraw. It all just depends on the day. I can never tell or expect what his day will be like. I can just hope he made it through the day and is not in too terrible of a mood when he gets home and that he managed to get through the day at school without being sent to the office.

Okay, wells that's the background for today (keep following to learn more), now on to business.

I've been begging for a second 504 meeting (usually one happens when we need to review his accommodations, he gets new teachers or something changes). I've requested it from the school, and the district. I've failed to get a response. Brandon is currently enrolled in Art this year. Now honestly - does this make sense to you, with the little knowledge you already had of color blindness and now with some of the info I've shared with you? Absolutely not. I requested he be transferred from Art the 3rd day of school. I've been emailing the counselor for a couple months now trying to get him transferred out of Art and finally have had it. Last week I got a call from the Art teacher. She left a message saying Brandon is failing and that if he does not pass Art he may FAIL 7th grade! Are you KIDDING ME! Art is a freaking elective, one that a student that has a 504 for color blindness should have never had! The school has told me the only way to change this situation is to rearrange his entire schedule or put him in chorus...well not to be a pain but Brandon has no voice...he had throat surgery last year and with puberty has pretty much been screeching for the last year. I called the Super Intendant immediately after I received the Art teachers voicemail. He assured me we would have a 2nd 504 meeting, and that he would contact the Principle to get it all set up. WELL, it's been 8 school days since we talked and still no meeting. I've forward my thread of emails to the Super Intendant and the School Board President. Sent several more emails CCing everyone and still I've been left in the dark! Tomorrow I'm dropping a written formal request for a "referral for reevaluation" basically a due process meeting.

Wish us luck!

All in all I just want my kid to receive an education. One that he is entitled to. It drives me nuts, how defense the schools become. I'm not out to call out anyone. I'm here to protect my student and obviously teach the school about federal and education code. When I say school I'm pretty much saying Administrators. It's the Administrations job to assure their teachers are knowledgeable and such situations either before or when they arise.

On another note, Brandon is an incredibly smart kid. He spent the last three years in an Accelerated Achievement program. He was in GATE. He scores advance on his Benchmark and STAR tests. Yet we struggle everyday with school. I'm looking for a light at the end of the tunnel. And usually half way through the school year I can find it. But why do I have to search for it every year!

Feed back is welcome - negative criticism is not.

Until my next hurdle

starting over

So this is my newer and hopefully better blog. Goal: figure out if what we're doing is working? Maybe, or maybe not. Time will only tell.

I'm a mom or three beautiful boys! They are the light of my life - along with Matty, the love of my life. The newest addition to our family is Boston James Alexander Tavares. He was born July 31, 2011. Even though I had two babies already, being pregnant with Boston was a surprise all around and becoming a new mom again was a big shocker! But all that info and more will come later. Hope you enjoy some of our stories, adventures and craziness.