The New Boss

So a couple of weeks ago my department got a new boss. Our old boss is still there, he was just given a new position. He was not really boss material. He was more of a friend and never wanted to deal with any "real" problems. All in all a great guy!

There is nothing bad to say about the new boss, as of yet. Friday was the first time he and I actually interacted together. He was asking me what computer programs I knew how to use. I thought it was a little strange and at the end of the day he gave me a flow chart he wanted to add to the Quality Manual and "At my old job I had someone who did all this kind of stuff for me. I will need you to do this and this with the chart. I will need it for Wednesday."

Huh, can we say secretary? One thing I am not, is an administrative assistant. I was never trained as one, I never wanted to be one and the plain truth, I have no desire to become one. If the guy is looking for a secretary to do his dirty work, he had better let Human Resources know so they can hire him one. Another thing I don't do is fetch coffee, go make copies, don't answer emails for anybody else and I most certainly don't clean up after anybody. So if the track lighting in his office is dirty, well he'd best bust out his Swiffer and do it himself! Don't get me wrong, I don't mind helping out but there is a fine line.

So this week is a new week, I will continue to keep myself positive about this, but I will also keep a close eye on what is going on.

New Lights

My mom was telling me yesterday that she is in the middle of redecorating her house. I don’t know why, her house is very beautiful the way it is. However, we all get bored with the way a room can look and want to freshen it up. So I gave her the name of a website where she could get Seagull Lighting . I found some things I liked, I hope she will too.

I Love Sparkles

So I have been trying to convince my husband to let me get another ring!! LOL...not working out to well. I have 2 diamond rings and want to add another to them. My wedding band is diamonds, small compared to my engagement ring. Even at that, my engagement ring is very modest. Largest diamond just over 1/2 carat but it has smaller ones on each side of it. Anywho, I wanted to add another band just like my wedding band to the other side of the ring. My husband thinks I am nuts, Maybe I am ..who knows. But I think I should be able to get another one!!

His reasoning....He thinks it is a waste of money..I don't really agree with that. I didn't tell him he couldn't get faux wood blinds for the basement. I have to agree that it looks better down there but geez..he got what he wanted!! I guess I had better start working overtime and save up my pennies!!

A Not So Quick Explanation!!

Some of you may wonder why I may post about my son and school. May seem kinda pointless but Z had the roughest year last year and I vented a whole lot on this blog. Some of you may know this and others will not, unless you have gone to the archives. My readers who have been with me the longest only know of last year and not when it started.

If I make a big deal of the smallest things it is because I am very proud of the small accomplishments Z makes. No matter how small they are to others, in this family they are HUGE and here is why....

My son was diagnosed with ADHD in the 2nd grade. He was put on Ritalin and in the school eyes he was better. He had some reading problems and received extra help but more or less fell through the cracks.

We made it though 3rd grade with more reading help and none the less he was still behind.

4th grade came and with the reading problems came some behavior issues. We worked really hard with the school and tried to help Z. He was given more Ritalin to get through the school day. His father walked out of his life and on the outside he looked like any other kid, but on the inside he was being ripped apart. To this day his father still has not been around

Any of you who have been with me since I started this blog know of what he went through last year with mental health issues. When I look back it all really started in 4th grade. The very first problem that started was "hair pulling" or "Trichotillomania". Basically, when he was feeling anxious he would pull out his hair from the back of his head.

We really don't know how long this was going on for. I noticed it on accident. He was standing in front of me and I looked at the back of his head near his neck and thought how strange his hair looked. So I took my hand and ran it through his hair, opposite of the way it grows, only to find 2 HUGE bald spots. To be honest with you all, my heart dropped and I was scared to death. He had a doctors appointment coming up about a week later and I waited till then before I made any moves.

When we went to his appointment I showed the doctor and he immediately referred him for counseling. I took him to the counselor and she explained to me that he had Trichotillomania. I asked what I could do and she said keep his hair short and watch for hair pulling from eye brows or eye lashes and continue counseling.

So that is what we did. Got out the clippers and buzzed it all off..practically bald. He had that hair cut for as long as I can remember. I constantly watched for pulling out the eyebrows. He continued counseling and it seemed to slow down but has never really stopped. In really stressful situations he still tries to pull his hair but with cues he can stop himself.

In the 5th grade things got worse. Behavior problems escalated, he started making noises and keeping things. He kept things like clothing tags, rocks, paper cups and pictures of things that seemed to be meaningless, paper clips, broken toys and the list goes on. He down right REFUSED to throw things away. He would get very upset at even the suggestion of getting rid of anything. I used to go in his room, find things I hoped he wouldn't notice and throw them away. Even to this day, it is a struggle to get his to get rid of stuff. When asked why he wants to keep stuff so bad, all he could say is "I don't know". It was determined that he was hoarding and had a form of OCD and he also was diagnose with vocal tics. They didn't call it Tourettes at the time because Ritalin could have been the cause. The only way to know for sure was to take him off the medication and see what happened. So that is what I did.

6th grade came and all hell broke loose!! The vocal tics continued and they changed to different ones. He was not on any medication for ADHD, behavior problems went through the roof. He was very impulsive, lied, stole, fought with kids, was angry all the time. He HATED school. He was failing every class and the school labeled him as lazy. He was still behind on reading and now needed extra help with math. His reading level was at a high 3rd grade. Homework would take HOURS and yet the school would say he was up to grade level. He was given a 504 plan to help him. His grades came up and he worked really hard. But was still a bomb waiting to explode.

At the end of the school year he had an undetermined amount of detentions and had been suspended 13 times. The school decided to do a bunch of testing on him. The tests were for learning, social, emotional, impulsivity and ADHD. In one of the computer tests it asked if he ever heard voices. He answered "Yes". He was immediately taken to a child psychologist and he was diagnosed with Auditory Hallucinations and ADHD with severe impulsivity, ODD,(Oppositional Defiance Disorder) Tourettes and mild OCD. (That's a mouth full) So he was put on Risperdal and Strattera.

I also contacted an advocate for children with learning disabilities That is when things changed. When the school found out an advocate would be coming with me to the last PPT of the school year, they were singing a different song. They bumped up the PPT date and decided that he truly had LD and some major mental heath disabilities and he was going to be put into a Special ED program starting in 7th grade.

Over the summer Z went to an intensive out patient counseling program at a mental health facility. We had a lot of great results and a lot of hardship at the same time. I can say he is a much happier boy. Good news is........he was discharged yesterday!!!

So here were are today. A new school year, a new school program, which I won't get into on this already looonnggg post. But I will explain what it is about another day. Thanks for reading and I am really sorry for the super long post.

Start Of Football Season

Apparently football season started last night. I really am not a fan of football but my husband always tries to force me to like it. Baseball is a sport I can watch,just not football.

My husband has this crazy thought that everyone in this house should love football as much as he does. I am not quite sure who gave him that idea, but that is the impression he gives off. I have to remind his 15 year old brain that not everybody is going to like the same things and that it is ridiculous to think that. But, there is no convincing him of that. He even thinks that Z should be a die-hard fan of football. Come on, the kid is 12 years old, he is just beginning to find out what he likes. I would much rather have him watching the Animal Planet, better yet the Discovery Channel and actually learning something(both channels have become very popular with him lately).

Who knows where he gets his thinking from!! Sometimes I am dumbfounded when it comes to his opinions on things. Well, if you see an increase in post's do not be surprised, I have a looong season ahead of me!

With all that said, I am off to order dead sea salt! My sister in law wanted to try it, she has Psoriasis and heard that they worked for that.