Florilegium

Damn, damn, damn

Aaargh. Trying to sort out school holiday care for M. We can have a place at Autism Q but I think $300+ for 10 day's care is bloody expensive! The low functioning kids get to stay at the centre and the high functioning go on these expensive outings. And no freaking way is he doing the Underwaterworld overnight stay at $90!

The other option involves me doing a shitload of phonecalls and visits to centres and then I apply for Playcare funding and we may or may not get any hours. They might just go in and train the existing staff to work with M.

Another night's bad sleep. Crap. Did buggerall yesterday so really need to do things today. Ploughing through the washing as more weather is predicted tonight. Need to get it dry.

G's teaching tonight so I need to find some energy to function. M's going to Mi's birthday party at McDonalds so I guess we can listen to Sharon tell us some more lies. She rang me on Saturday and told me this long story about how Kristen had told her how much she admires Sharon. Only problem is that I walked into school with Sharon, we collected the kids and left together and at no point did we encounter Kristen.

She also told me how the new kid has been 'banned' from the unit for being violent. Ummmmm, no they're trying to keep him in the classroom because Sharon's kid is bullying the new kid and the dynamics in the unit are such that it seems like that might work.

I'm still in awe of the time she told me her next-door neighbour kid had an artificial stomach and was smaller than M and then she introduced me to him and he's taller than I am.

Gah. I woke up at 2am and never got back to sleep. Am not functional or happy fun ball today.

Another severe weather warning for tonight. Fun times.

M's in foul mood so I'm limiting his junk food intake. G said it looked like the unit had had a day with kids melting down and kids up trees and tired looking staff.

Cancelled M's IEP because I just couldn't function at 8am. Mel said she'd done the Noosa triathlon yesterday in the thunderstorms and driving rain and had a fantastic time! Just wonderful! Yeah swimming in the open sea in a thunderstorm sounds marvellous. Not.

Oh my that was one hell of a storm! We had several inches of rain -- over 10 if you go by the buckets in the yard. Our roof leaked in two interesting new places. Which sucks. There was a lot of water in the garden, probably more than I have seen before.

We watched our new DVD of Shrek 2. Puss in Boots is so cute! He's just like Jim the Cat!. Jim came and sat on our laps for most of the DVD.

A house full of junk food is a dangerous thing.

We're doing M's IEP tomorrow morning. I think it will be OK :;crosses fingers::

Missed posting yesterday but it was stormy and every time I thought of doing it, another wave of thunder would come over.

Went and collected my prize -- I had been hoping for vouchers but I had to spend the $200 all at once. So off we went and bought whatever we wanted. G got obsessed with buying bacon and coffee but I didn't let him as those are ordinary everyday purchases. This was supposed to be about buying stuff we don't normally buy. Bought a lot of fancy cheese, real maple syrup, the kids got lots of different chips... it all added up quite fast.

It's raining. It can stop now. We've had enough rain. The pool's nearly overflowing.

Hee! I just won a raffle! $200 grocery voucher! I always buy a ticket in the raffles they run each year for the Mater Children's but mostly I pray not to win the prizes. There's only so much interest I can raise in electric razors and aftershave FE.

I'm gonna spend it on luxuries for Christmas. Lindt chocolate here we come!

::sigh::

it's really fucking depressing that Howard has been PM for less than a month and already abortion rights are under attack. Abbott the Minister for Health has proposed that all women requesting a termination be forced to have an u/s before giving consent. I'm all about good counselling and informed consent when it comes to termination but holy shit, that's just evil.

And a total waste of the health budget. U/S costs money.

Can you imagine being the technician doing those scans? That would just be a hideous job. I honestly don't think that many women who have chosen termination would be moved to carry to term if they were forced to view a tiny foetus that doesn't even look like a baby.

Jim the Cat fell in the swimming pool and couldn't get out. G rescued him but he's feeling very fragile and poorly. Looks unbelievably tatty too. Poor old tattercat.

Worked at childcare today. V tired now and feet hurt.

Bullet points

* Went to camp for a day visit with the boys
* M is looking awfully immature against the other kids. Physically that is. Le sigh.
* Am going to be parent rep next year for the unit. Goes against my advocacy principles to accept a nomination from the teachers but need to guard against crazy loon parents.
* horribly hot today. Next time go bush, remember to wear REAL shoes as opposed to stupid sandals. Feet hurt.
* Am impressed with planning for next year
* Big storm arriving any minute now

K's doing OK today and back to school. G was complaining about cleaning K up, went upstairs to wash his hands and discovered that Jim the Cat had had vicious diarrhoea all over the bathtub. He cleaned that up too. I was impressed by the cat -- after all if you are going to have diarrhoea in the house, where better than the tub?

Talked to Mel this morning and it should be easy to subject accelerate M next year to high school. I've never been a fan of subject acceleration but I'm thinking a taste of high school science would do him good and he can just choose another subject the following year and not worry about credit. Or we might jump him to grade nine depending on how he goes. I was worried that the primary school gifted program would be sold to me as a total solution for him but it wasn't. Yay.

So today is November! I thought yesterday was November 1. When I realised it wasn't, I flew into a frenzy of complete my tax on time. I did it on-line and, yeesh. What a hideous interface. It appears I owe 27c for the medicare levy. WTF? I'm also supposed to be exempt because of low income. I should get my $1200 tax bribe OK and I don't think G will owe much if anything as he has been paying PAYG and has earned substantially less this year. I finally got my return lodged at 2am. The servers were on overload earlier in the evening.

K is home from school today as he is severely constipated and I don't want him leaking poos at school. Rare side effect of prozac so of course, he has to have it. He's also pulling his bandage off his chin and I don't want his wound open at school. It bled last night. The chemist said it was healed enough to justify not using steristrips but I don't think it is.

M is alarmingly cheerful and co-operative. 3 days of it now.