A re-cap of the past week:
****MONDAY: Dennis stayed home from work. He's been so sick lately and one part or another of his face has been swelling. It's hard to keep a good man down, and even harder to witness it when it does happen. This was the day that Dennis was to give his notice at work that he was moving on to another employer.
The boys and I waited for a phone call at 9am from the Guidance Counselor, but never received it. I called the school and the woman I spoke to offered to give us a tour of the building my boys were to attend. I wasn't all that excited, but I wanted to get it over with. Still gritting my teeth at the idea of them going to Shull David and in a 2-year kindergarten. We went, we saw, we played on the playground. That is, until Collin decided he had to go to the bathroom! Since the hospital is in plain view of this playground, we decided to run over there real quick and we hoped to sneak a peek of Trevor or Aunt Chrissy working. Lucky us, we saw both of them and the boys each got a little snack pack of Oreos, too! After our little visit, it was back to the playground for a quick slide and then to the car and to head home.
I had an appointment at the dr, but ended up not being able to see him. The insurance that we have wasn't one that he accepts. UGH! I'll have to call when Dennis gets insurance again, and just pray that it's something the dr accepts.
After supper, I took my bike out for a ride. (When I say bike, I don't mean motorcycle. There's a lot of pedalling to do!) It was nice to get away just for a few minutes. It's been sooooo long since I rode my bike. I was very close to getting off and pushing on the first hill (ok, tiny incline) but I saw some people out and was too embarassed. I swear, if it would've been dark outside, you could've seen the flames shooting from my knees. OUCH!
****TUESDAY: Nothing too exciting, other than Dennis made it to work and gave his notice. It went well and there were no hard feelings on either side. It's just something Dennis had to do. It was getting too costly to work there.
****WEDNESDAY: Scouts night. Took Brad to scouts and then went over to Weissport. Aunt Linda wasn't home and I didn't want to pest Chrissy again. I pested her last week. I stopped in at Dad's. I haven't been there in a while. When I got there, Dad just came home from work, had a bath and was ready to eat supper. He'd be going to bed after eating because he was going back out at 11pm. I didn't want to stay long and keep him from his supper and slumber, but we did get to talk for just a bit. He gave me shirts for the boy that he and Marilyn picked up when they went to Washington, D.C. recently. I thought Corey and Collin's were cute, "Born to be wild". LOL
I had more time to kill before picking Brad up from scouts. It would've been foolish to drive all the way home and have to turn around and leave, so I just decided to wait in the parking lot. I went through a few things in my purse and read the book to my camera to kill the time. As I waited, some other parents came for their boys. I'm not one for starting conversations, so I sat there trying to coax myself to get out of the van and at least go and say hello. Finally, I got up the nerve and went over to say hello to *Sally* (not her actual name). We got to talking and I told her about my boys and the whole Prep-K thing. She then filled my ears with some very important information. It seems as though *Sally* had been through the same thing! She gave me some very useful information and told me to put up a fight and not to give up! She knew, too, that my boys didn't need the 2 year program. She pointed me in the right direction for my "ammo" and told me to call the principal in the morning. Another mom that was standing there told me not to even bother with the Guidance Counselor. If only I had known this sooner!
When I got home that night, I did some research and prepared myself for the next day. I had plenty of notes and gave a lot of thought to what I'd say. I had to make the call the next day because time was running out! Orientation was coming up at the beginning of next week!
****THURSDAY: I made my call, only to find out that the principal wouldn't be available until TUESDAY! Tuesday would be too late! So, I called *Sally* and she recommended the Superintendent. I called the Superintendent at 9:30am and spoke to his secretary. She told me he was in a meeting and would call me back. So I waited. And waited. At 1:10pm, I called again. I left another message. I called again at 1:50pm because I thought they were only in until 2pm. I wanted to know what was going on, since I was running out of time, I needed this taken care of ASAP (today!). The secretary told me he was looking over my boys' scores, etc. and she couldn't guarantee that he'd be calling me back today! GRRRR!! I was not at all happy. I did find out that they'd be in until 2:30pm. I asked her to please call me back and at least let me know that he needed more time and to give me a rough idea as to what time he'd be calling me on Friday. She said she'd do that. At 2:25pm, I called back, and this time I wasn't so nice. I didn't even get to speak to the Super or his secretary. The woman I spoke to didn't know what to tell me. I was furious!! 2:30pm came and went and I heard nothing.
Finally, around 4:45pm, I got a call from the Superintendent. He did apologize for taking so long to get back to me. He didn't really have anything more for me. He told me that he was having an Asst. Principal and the Guidance Counselor (grrr!) go over my boys' scores and they'd call me in the morning to discuss this with me.
At 8pm, I had to take Brad to the park in town for the "Concert under the stars". As part of a merit badge requirement, he was to attend a concert. He had to leave there knowing what the encore performance was, to prove that he had been there. When we got there, I thought the rest of the scouts weren't coming. Then, *Sally* and her scout came. They sat with us and we all were enjoying the concert. In between pieces, *Sally* and I got to do some talking. It was the second to last piece when something "clicked" to *Sally*. She had more "ammo" for me, and it was going to be easy to attain. It was published in the newspaper and I could get it online!
We got home and I hopped onto the computer. (Well, you know what I mean). Found the info and printed it out. I was sooooo ready for the call in the morning!!
****FRIDAY: (Today! :) ) I got the call! It was the Asst. Principal. She was all nice at first, and as the conversation went on, I could sense that she was going to try to talk me into keeping the boys in Prep-K. I shot down just about everything she said. Then, I pulled out my "ammo". She was a bit surprised, and even told me that! She told me my boys' actual scores from the Kindergarten screening. They needed 85 points (out of 118) to "pass" and be enrolled in K. Corey got an 85 and Collin a 78. Not too far away! The boys scored very high, academically, but they felt they needed the Prep program for their fine motor skills. They didn't cut along a dotted line. The Asst. P's story was just a tad different than the conversation I had with the GC.
Towards the end of our conversation, she told me that the GC just walked in and he felt comfortable with putting them in Kindergarten. We are to go to the orientation at Mahoning, and we should get there a little early to fill out some paperwork. We'd have to do this so we couldn't hold them responsible down the road. I was also asked to not spread the word about this because they didn't want a bunch of parents calling them to do this for their children. HUH??? Unreal, and kind of sad. I wonder how many more are being held back so they can keep the Prep-K program going? Ugh.
Anyway, we are all happy as clams. Normally quite and weak, I stood up to them and didn't take no for an answer. I won this one for my boys, and I'm sure they will do great in Kindergarten, where they belong! WOOHOO!
*******
Yikes! I had to scroll back to make sure that I didn't say that I'd make this brief. I have to learn to log in earlier at night so I have time to post each day in it's own post! LOL There's even a lot that I didn't mention. (imagine that!)
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