That's right. That girl o' mine has . . . a driver's license. It's real! It didn't come out of a bubble gum machine or anything. Since she is now a newly licensed driver of just one week, when people find out, they ask her about driving all over and her car and . . .
She does not have her own car. You see even prior to the replacement of both adult vehicles in the house in all of 8 months, we discussed having her drive with us for a year before helping her to get her own car. She understood and agreed. We told her that we wanted to have her experience all of the seasons prior to setting her off all on her own in her own car.
It's not to say that she hasn't taken trips in my vehicle. It's not to say that the reality and gravity of the responsibility freaked her out so badly that she decided that she did not like driving by herself. Period.
The local library saw her three days in a row last week. It was important to set her off on her own and not to let her continue to hang out and be stressed out. I sent her a few miles away with Life360 powered up to monitor, she still checked in, took care of business and came back. Our agreement (at her suggestion which seems completely reasonable) is to have Life360 running on trips out on her own, but to shut it down when she gets home because we know where she is and when she is at school, she is at school. It's a freaky thing to run with a GPS continually monitoring your moves, so I get completely where she is at.
I phoned our lovely local insurance agency. Goodbye good insurance rates. Oh yes, they went up $1000 per year because my sweets is driving our fully insured vehicles rather than a mobile heap with liability only. :insert stressed out mama face and budget crunching calculator: As a good consumer (who hates to do it after how well they handled this past year) we will be just shopping around for some new insurance rates.
But . . . kiddo is driving. She won't be driving friends around. Before reality hit, she wanted to make a solo drive to Cleveland. She's got it in her. She could do it easily. We did it with her several times. Still . . . K needs to still hang a bit more local. She's got it, but mama ain't good with letting go all the way just yet.
Showing posts with label K. Show all posts
Showing posts with label K. Show all posts
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Monday, October 21, 2019
State Farm: You suck and your claims process is wearing at the core of our souls.
This might be a long one. No tl;dr. Details are important, y'all.
Saturday, 10/12/19- K and I are two minutes from walking out the door for the funeral of a dear wonderful woman from our church. Poised to put my eyeliner on, my cellphone rings. It doesn't ring that often, so I look and notice it is my love. I answer.
"I am okay. I was just in an accident. The car is totaled."
I found out where M was, took 3 seconds, threw the eyeliner on, threw out a few texts to the parishioners who were expecting us and off and away we went.
Sweet love, the drive to California would have been shorter. I reach the hill where my love says he was hit and I don't see him. K spotted the Yaris first. She gasped. He neglected to tell me that it was off the road and had gone into the woods.
I parked in a woman's front yard, threatened K not to get out because I didn't need her all up in whatever was going on and I didn't want her hit by a car. I crossed the road, inspected my sweets for breakage and leakage. Both were negative. Once I found out I wouldn't injure him with a hug, I squeezed him tight for a long time. Then he dropped the bomb-- the guy who hit him was on his phone.
There were no skid marks. That is why initially I couldn't find the car.
It is now I will admit that I am not proud of the fact that indeed there were some hefty words that fell from my lips. Not at the guy. Not at Mark. At the situation. I was peeved. Dude seriously had total disregard for my husband by cresting a hill and probably driving the equivalent of a football field down a hill and only knew my husband was there when he struck his car with his vehicle. What was he doing? He was changing a podcast. He told M that as well as the troopers.
He launched M over the roadway. The Yaris touched down on the passenger side (turfed the lawn) went through a split rail fence, through the woods, over some saplings and one of the larger ones stopped his continuation forward.
The man hit him so hard that his glasses flew off his face.
Insurance information is passed on. Since his car is was an obvious total that had to be flat bedded out of the woods, I phoned our insurance -- Allstate -- to let them know of the situation. They were all over it. Phoning us daily to see if he was okay. Do they need to handle the claim? . . . Very attentive.
It gets to Tuesday, 10/15/19 and we have yet to hear from State Farm. Again, we have heard from our insurance several times. Since we purchased a new-to-him 2013 Subaru Forester (later referred to as F2 since I have one we purchased in February) I needed to formalize insurance for our new buy. I explained to our agent office that we have not heard from State Farm and the accident was several days prior.
"I don't think he phoned the claim in. Certainly they would have called at this point." She looked the claim phone number up for me, I passed it on to M so that he could phone. I thanked her profusely. We seriously love Allstate and our Allstate agency.
M phoned and they said they hadn't phoned us because they didn't have our contact information. We had the information from the guy who hit my husband. We had his name, insurance and policy number. We could have very easily done an internet search and picked it up. M ended up talking to 5 different people that day who all asked the VERY SAME QUESTIONS. My husband's stock question to State Farm has become, "DO YOU PEOPLE EVEN WRITE ANYTHING DOWN?" I ended up being involved in the last call. When I noticed M's head starting to smoke and he was looking like he was about to have a Sheldon Cooper lunch table explosion, I stepped in.
"How is it that you didn't have his contact information? Don't you have a crash report?"
The guy said no, but different people say something different every time we phone.
I explained that no one phoned to check to see how he was. I explained that no one offered a rental. I explained that there was no attempt to advance the claim on. He kept insisting that the car be brought closer. (It was 45 minutes away and in a tow yard.) After the third time with M telling him he gave the tow yard permission for it to be released to State Farm and that he got all belongings out of it, the guy wanted it closer so that it could be fixed. M blew a gasket. "IT CAN'T BE FIXED! IT IS TOTALED! DO YOU PEOPLE NOT WRITE ANYTHING DOWN?!"
I continued, "It was your guy who was on the phone, hit my husband probably driving 60 MPH, launched him over a roadway, through a fence, into the woods where he finally was stopped by some small trees. It's not okay. The car is totaled. It can't be fixed. We need to get this claim handled."
He told us and I quote, "You guys need to calm down."
Oh. no. he. didn't.
He told us that they needed to get the car moved because they were having to pay storage on it. Kind of not our fault because they never contacted us. So glad he was more concerned about storage fees than my husband's welfare. I believe that I told him that.
I told him that I was so very glad that I didn't have State Farm because the way this claim has been handled has been appalling. If he needed the title, let us know, we will get everything signed and dropped off or mailed.
The personal injury guy has not contacted M back. M's initial call was on 10/15. He has another appointment for adjustment this week. He has suffered from whiplash and it sure would be great to get payment to Cleveland Clinic rolling along.
We finally got a total loss amount back. M was so mad that he told the guy we were going through our insurance and hung up on them. Then I asked my sweets what Allstate said because they could offer us $2000 and not the $4400 State Farm did and then we would be royally screwed.
Silence.
He phoned back, apologized profusely and they are keeping the claim open. We are now waiting to speak to the Allstate rep so that we can have them review it for a total loss claim amount.
We received a copy of the crash report. The distraction coding seems to have been changed to "distraction outside of the vehicle" rather than the admitted "phone use." Yes, well, either he paid the OSHPatrol off or they ended up giving him a break for insurance purposes. We have phoned them to have that amended and, as with everything else, we have heard nothing.
Sunday, 10/20/19- After an enjoyable day to Cleveland where K drove up and around, she handed driving back over to her dad. I had forgotten my purse at home, didn't have either my license or my Epi Pen (yellow jacket allergy and they have been bad) so M drove. We got off the expressway and were waiting to yield just like the two giant yield signs asked us to and WHAM! Oh yes, F2 got rear ended. No, I am not kidding. The replacement car we just financed less than a week before was now damaged.
(She hit us at probably 10 MPH, so it is here that I tell you that we are all okay.)
Once again, I was not at the height of humor or love for humanity. I jumped out of the car and started knocking on the woman's window with my pointer finger screaming at her about now this is twice in one week, a car we haven't owned for a week and what does she say? "You weren't supposed to stop. I looked back, you stopped and you shouldn't have stopped." At this point, my love was at my side. "There was traffic coming. I had to stop." She went on, "This is your fault."
Step back for two seconds. She rear ended us on an exit ramp as we were yielding to oncoming traffic at a yield. It was not continuous turn with caution. It said yield!
I phoned the police. They were all concerned about which direction I was pointed. Y'all, I don't know what direction I am pointed on any given day much less a day where my husband has encountered being hit twice in 8 days. After asking me for the 4th time, I believe she gave up. The police came. We were on a ramp. That was highway patrol territory. Highway Patrol came out. We explained to the trooper what went on. We explained that the woman insisted we were at fault.
He laughed.
He spoke with her. She insisted it was our fault. He explained that we could stop anywhere we wanted on the roadway and it didn't give her the right to hit us. He confirmed his decision by giving her a ticket. He gave us her insurance information. Who is it? You guessed it! State FREAKING Farm.
I tell my love that I can phone this one in since I was in the car with him. I do, I get Kevin from Washington State (he is an ex-cop, super guy and you need to give him a serious raise) who I explain the situation of now a second claim. He finds that the State Farm driver hadn't called the claim in yet, so he processes it with me as far as he can. He will phone her and if successful, they will back to me in about a half hour or so. In 45 minutes, Pam from Dallas TX (who is delightful and also deserves a big fat raise) gave me the claim number, rental car information and was a delight to speak with.
The State Farm delightfulness stopped there.
F2 went to the State Farm approved estimate shop that appears to be run by some nasticious troll who has an attitude worse than anything my husband has seen. (It is here that I remind the gentle readers that my husband is a very kind soul.) He phoned me during the estimate. "I don't feel good about this shop. I don't get a good feeling. This guy isn't nice. This is a production shop. He has no attention to detail and this is terrible."
"You don't have to go there. They told us that we can go to the shop of our choice. The shop that repaired for us before is wonderful and you spoke of going there."
M talked with the awful shop guy who was trying to hard sell to him and in the end, contacted State Farm with an appointment to get the car repaired that M never scheduled. Can I tell you how much fun that has been because State Farm was so insistent that we were going to Backyard Bully Bob's Collision Center that my husband just started chanting on repeat the name and address of the shop we will be having repair F2. He said that the woman lost her patience with him.
Oh, and fun to add that this State Farm representative is confusing the two claims and thinks she is fixing the Yaris. "IT IS TOTALED. DO YOU PEOPLE NOT WRITE ANYTHING DOWN?" was M's response.
BBBCCenter guy never sent the estimate as he said he would. M said he phoned the shop to tell him had never scheduled an appointment and has chosen to go to a different place. We believe the guy is withholding the estimate out of spite because, well, that is how this fine trip with State Farm has been.
So, State Farm-- you are the worst insurance company we have ever encountered. Never have we ever had to phone any insurance company to give our contact information. Just February, my vehicle was totaled at the shop by our mechanic and their insurance was on with me within hours. Everything was sorted within a week. Hooray for Erie Insurance!
Ohio State Waterproofing hit me and K, spun us through an intersection and totaled our vehicle about 12 years ago. Their insurance was all over it. Thank you, Cincinnati Insurance!
My vehicle was damaged at a friend's house by a husband, a strong weed eater and over zealous trimming before a party. Hooray for Westfield Insurance as they had it handled and easily taken care of!
We have already said, but just to confirm, thank you Allstate for your kindness and caring in regard to questions we have had and advice you have been able to give.
State Farm, Step up and redeem yourself! Get these two unfortunate claims sorted in a swift manner, please! You have been absolutely terrible to deal with!
Saturday, 10/12/19- K and I are two minutes from walking out the door for the funeral of a dear wonderful woman from our church. Poised to put my eyeliner on, my cellphone rings. It doesn't ring that often, so I look and notice it is my love. I answer.
"I am okay. I was just in an accident. The car is totaled."
I found out where M was, took 3 seconds, threw the eyeliner on, threw out a few texts to the parishioners who were expecting us and off and away we went.
Sweet love, the drive to California would have been shorter. I reach the hill where my love says he was hit and I don't see him. K spotted the Yaris first. She gasped. He neglected to tell me that it was off the road and had gone into the woods.
I parked in a woman's front yard, threatened K not to get out because I didn't need her all up in whatever was going on and I didn't want her hit by a car. I crossed the road, inspected my sweets for breakage and leakage. Both were negative. Once I found out I wouldn't injure him with a hug, I squeezed him tight for a long time. Then he dropped the bomb-- the guy who hit him was on his phone.
There were no skid marks. That is why initially I couldn't find the car.
It is now I will admit that I am not proud of the fact that indeed there were some hefty words that fell from my lips. Not at the guy. Not at Mark. At the situation. I was peeved. Dude seriously had total disregard for my husband by cresting a hill and probably driving the equivalent of a football field down a hill and only knew my husband was there when he struck his car with his vehicle. What was he doing? He was changing a podcast. He told M that as well as the troopers.
He launched M over the roadway. The Yaris touched down on the passenger side (turfed the lawn) went through a split rail fence, through the woods, over some saplings and one of the larger ones stopped his continuation forward.
The man hit him so hard that his glasses flew off his face.
Insurance information is passed on. Since his car is was an obvious total that had to be flat bedded out of the woods, I phoned our insurance -- Allstate -- to let them know of the situation. They were all over it. Phoning us daily to see if he was okay. Do they need to handle the claim? . . . Very attentive.
It gets to Tuesday, 10/15/19 and we have yet to hear from State Farm. Again, we have heard from our insurance several times. Since we purchased a new-to-him 2013 Subaru Forester (later referred to as F2 since I have one we purchased in February) I needed to formalize insurance for our new buy. I explained to our agent office that we have not heard from State Farm and the accident was several days prior.
"I don't think he phoned the claim in. Certainly they would have called at this point." She looked the claim phone number up for me, I passed it on to M so that he could phone. I thanked her profusely. We seriously love Allstate and our Allstate agency.
M phoned and they said they hadn't phoned us because they didn't have our contact information. We had the information from the guy who hit my husband. We had his name, insurance and policy number. We could have very easily done an internet search and picked it up. M ended up talking to 5 different people that day who all asked the VERY SAME QUESTIONS. My husband's stock question to State Farm has become, "DO YOU PEOPLE EVEN WRITE ANYTHING DOWN?" I ended up being involved in the last call. When I noticed M's head starting to smoke and he was looking like he was about to have a Sheldon Cooper lunch table explosion, I stepped in.
"How is it that you didn't have his contact information? Don't you have a crash report?"
The guy said no, but different people say something different every time we phone.
I explained that no one phoned to check to see how he was. I explained that no one offered a rental. I explained that there was no attempt to advance the claim on. He kept insisting that the car be brought closer. (It was 45 minutes away and in a tow yard.) After the third time with M telling him he gave the tow yard permission for it to be released to State Farm and that he got all belongings out of it, the guy wanted it closer so that it could be fixed. M blew a gasket. "IT CAN'T BE FIXED! IT IS TOTALED! DO YOU PEOPLE NOT WRITE ANYTHING DOWN?!"
I continued, "It was your guy who was on the phone, hit my husband probably driving 60 MPH, launched him over a roadway, through a fence, into the woods where he finally was stopped by some small trees. It's not okay. The car is totaled. It can't be fixed. We need to get this claim handled."
He told us and I quote, "You guys need to calm down."
Oh. no. he. didn't.
He told us that they needed to get the car moved because they were having to pay storage on it. Kind of not our fault because they never contacted us. So glad he was more concerned about storage fees than my husband's welfare. I believe that I told him that.
I told him that I was so very glad that I didn't have State Farm because the way this claim has been handled has been appalling. If he needed the title, let us know, we will get everything signed and dropped off or mailed.
The personal injury guy has not contacted M back. M's initial call was on 10/15. He has another appointment for adjustment this week. He has suffered from whiplash and it sure would be great to get payment to Cleveland Clinic rolling along.
We finally got a total loss amount back. M was so mad that he told the guy we were going through our insurance and hung up on them. Then I asked my sweets what Allstate said because they could offer us $2000 and not the $4400 State Farm did and then we would be royally screwed.
Silence.
He phoned back, apologized profusely and they are keeping the claim open. We are now waiting to speak to the Allstate rep so that we can have them review it for a total loss claim amount.
We received a copy of the crash report. The distraction coding seems to have been changed to "distraction outside of the vehicle" rather than the admitted "phone use." Yes, well, either he paid the OSHPatrol off or they ended up giving him a break for insurance purposes. We have phoned them to have that amended and, as with everything else, we have heard nothing.
Sunday, 10/20/19- After an enjoyable day to Cleveland where K drove up and around, she handed driving back over to her dad. I had forgotten my purse at home, didn't have either my license or my Epi Pen (yellow jacket allergy and they have been bad) so M drove. We got off the expressway and were waiting to yield just like the two giant yield signs asked us to and WHAM! Oh yes, F2 got rear ended. No, I am not kidding. The replacement car we just financed less than a week before was now damaged.
(She hit us at probably 10 MPH, so it is here that I tell you that we are all okay.)
Once again, I was not at the height of humor or love for humanity. I jumped out of the car and started knocking on the woman's window with my pointer finger screaming at her about now this is twice in one week, a car we haven't owned for a week and what does she say? "You weren't supposed to stop. I looked back, you stopped and you shouldn't have stopped." At this point, my love was at my side. "There was traffic coming. I had to stop." She went on, "This is your fault."
Step back for two seconds. She rear ended us on an exit ramp as we were yielding to oncoming traffic at a yield. It was not continuous turn with caution. It said yield!
I phoned the police. They were all concerned about which direction I was pointed. Y'all, I don't know what direction I am pointed on any given day much less a day where my husband has encountered being hit twice in 8 days. After asking me for the 4th time, I believe she gave up. The police came. We were on a ramp. That was highway patrol territory. Highway Patrol came out. We explained to the trooper what went on. We explained that the woman insisted we were at fault.
He laughed.
He spoke with her. She insisted it was our fault. He explained that we could stop anywhere we wanted on the roadway and it didn't give her the right to hit us. He confirmed his decision by giving her a ticket. He gave us her insurance information. Who is it? You guessed it! State FREAKING Farm.
I tell my love that I can phone this one in since I was in the car with him. I do, I get Kevin from Washington State (he is an ex-cop, super guy and you need to give him a serious raise) who I explain the situation of now a second claim. He finds that the State Farm driver hadn't called the claim in yet, so he processes it with me as far as he can. He will phone her and if successful, they will back to me in about a half hour or so. In 45 minutes, Pam from Dallas TX (who is delightful and also deserves a big fat raise) gave me the claim number, rental car information and was a delight to speak with.
The State Farm delightfulness stopped there.
F2 went to the State Farm approved estimate shop that appears to be run by some nasticious troll who has an attitude worse than anything my husband has seen. (It is here that I remind the gentle readers that my husband is a very kind soul.) He phoned me during the estimate. "I don't feel good about this shop. I don't get a good feeling. This guy isn't nice. This is a production shop. He has no attention to detail and this is terrible."
"You don't have to go there. They told us that we can go to the shop of our choice. The shop that repaired for us before is wonderful and you spoke of going there."
M talked with the awful shop guy who was trying to hard sell to him and in the end, contacted State Farm with an appointment to get the car repaired that M never scheduled. Can I tell you how much fun that has been because State Farm was so insistent that we were going to Backyard Bully Bob's Collision Center that my husband just started chanting on repeat the name and address of the shop we will be having repair F2. He said that the woman lost her patience with him.
Oh, and fun to add that this State Farm representative is confusing the two claims and thinks she is fixing the Yaris. "IT IS TOTALED. DO YOU PEOPLE NOT WRITE ANYTHING DOWN?" was M's response.
BBBCCenter guy never sent the estimate as he said he would. M said he phoned the shop to tell him had never scheduled an appointment and has chosen to go to a different place. We believe the guy is withholding the estimate out of spite because, well, that is how this fine trip with State Farm has been.
So, State Farm-- you are the worst insurance company we have ever encountered. Never have we ever had to phone any insurance company to give our contact information. Just February, my vehicle was totaled at the shop by our mechanic and their insurance was on with me within hours. Everything was sorted within a week. Hooray for Erie Insurance!
Ohio State Waterproofing hit me and K, spun us through an intersection and totaled our vehicle about 12 years ago. Their insurance was all over it. Thank you, Cincinnati Insurance!
My vehicle was damaged at a friend's house by a husband, a strong weed eater and over zealous trimming before a party. Hooray for Westfield Insurance as they had it handled and easily taken care of!
We have already said, but just to confirm, thank you Allstate for your kindness and caring in regard to questions we have had and advice you have been able to give.
State Farm, Step up and redeem yourself! Get these two unfortunate claims sorted in a swift manner, please! You have been absolutely terrible to deal with!
Friday, May 4, 2018
For the love that is all good and right, please stop all of this testing.
For those wondering how all of this standardized testing affects our kids, my child is in therapy for test taking anxiety and the anxiety from all of this testing has caused the kids to fall apart, causing one class to be so very disruptive that my child cannot even concentrate anymore. She has grades suffering because of worry, lack of sleep, general ill feeling . . . Just when she thought that the AIR testing was all done, now MAP testing is coming down the pike. Fabulous! :scowling mama face:
Her therapist talked with her yesterday about the illing class that she has. All year she has gotten A's and B's. This seems to be the class that the wheels fell off the bus. The train is no longer on the track, but she is turning everything in on time and the in class work is just sinking her. She is trying but she cannot concentrate in this one particular class-- the class she has generally done the best in all year long. We are dragging her through these last few weeks, hoping that this class can pull around and give her a good feeling before the end of the year. We want to end the year on a positive note.
If the administrators who put these tests in place could just experience what the kids are feeling. Teachers stressed to the max because their performance evaluations are riding on these test results, telling the students that they could fail the grade if they do not perform well. (Incidentally, this is untrue. These tests are placement tests for next years coursework.) These are statements that further damage those amongst us with test taking anxiety. Kids are falling apart. Teachers are falling apart. The educational system is teaching to test.
Please stop the madness.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Calamity Day 8: It's all of my fault.
Yesterday, I knew that there was a big, fat storm coming. I decided that if I placed my spring wreath on the front door, it would take notice and dissipate.
Just in case you wondered, it didn't. In fact, I think that it made it worse.
It could be worse. My driveway has walls, but I'm certain that up north scored more.
Today I decided to put out my "Welcome Spring!" flag. I mean, maybe the spring wreath wasn't hint enough. You can blame me when the epic storm of the century rolls through.
In other news, K had an optional volcano to build for extra credit. "She's doing great in science," says Hubs. "It's extra credit and those opportunities don't come by often. We'll be building a volcano." We did!
We didn't have brown paint and it was Sunday and we were being snowed upon with about 4" then. None of us wanted to go out, so Hubs suggested some gray house paint. I mean, if it's good enough for the house . . . I had some leftover Modge Podge from when Aunt Donna decided that she was going to save all of the puzzles that the puzzler ladies built downstairs. It took once and she decided that once was enough. K sealed it. It sat on the floor near the heat vent for a day. It was time for lava. Well, since it was extra credit, I asked K if she wanted it to be rainbowy with glitter. SURE! Rainbow and glitter it is. It has to work and frankly, I think her teacher cares none about the colors.
An update to K's recent illness is that despite having a negative rapid strep in office, today I was phoned by the nurse to say that it was positive and she needs antibiotics. Huh. We were all surprised.
I end with, my your snows be small, your warmth be much and may we not float away by the end of the week when all of this melts. If Noah comes rounding the bend, I'll let y'all know.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Two sides to everything and it doesn't always end up with a prize in the end.
My daughter loves to read. I've shared that with y'all multiple times. They had a summer reading program for our local library system. It paired up with the local and national park nearby and were promoting exercise for the mind and body. That's all good.
K read for the entire 108 day run of this program. She read at least 1/2 hour every day. I didn't have to ask. She just does it. Books are friends. You should see the tears when we have to make room for more!
Knowing that she was the only child in our subsection of the city to complete the 108 days of the reading challenge, we thought her odds might be decent at winning a prize. She won a prize. She was delighted!
Besides winning the local library prize, she had received an invitation to go to the grand prize drawing held at the marathon health expo. Being that it was downtown, parking and all, I asked Hubs to attend with us. It was the health expo anyhow, so he was thrilled to take a look. He had just gone to the Arnold Classic this past spring, so he thought it would be along those lines.
The library was giving free parking in their deck two blocks away. Wonderful! We'll take it!
We went on in and navigated the blue line course through the vendors and found the library booth. What I found there kind of made me sad. The giveaways that they were giving to the visitors were the very prizes that the kids had to work so hard to get through the summer reading program. It was great that they were giving things. Wonderful, in fact. But, when your child reads for 14 or 26 days in a row and gets prizes, then goes and every single child in attendance gets 3 and 4 of each on their pass by the library area, the specialness goes south a bit.
Time came for the Prize Drawing and Celebration. K chose a seat up front. They had door prizes, but they were drawing from the library slips that were amassed from the entire library system from the whole summer. That came up to over 1800 entries. I whispered to K and told her that my feeling was that each one of those slips were going to be pulled for people who weren't there. I said that the percentage of people (maybe 30) vs the number of slips in the box just didn't suggest the people being there.
None were.
It came time for the door prizes. All of the adults in the audience won and none of the small handful of children did. That's okay. They don't always have to win. When it came to one child thinking he won and he didn't and the lady who won kind of climbed over top of him to get her $10 Barnes and Noble gift card that I was stunned. I would have given that card to the kid. Not my kid. I would have given it to the child who honestly thought he won. (The lady, not the prize guy.)
Hubs walked away stunned. All of the slips for everyone who completed the library summer reading program were tossed into the same box. Hubs stated that he thought that since most of the people in attendance were retired and had time to read, the library should have separated the slips of kids vs. adults and given prizes accordingly.
Again, it isn't that we are chaffed that our child didn't win. We just look at it and know that for kids to do all of that reading, it is generally a bit more difficult than for adults to do it.
As for K, we stopped by on the way home from the health expo and bought sundaes. Yes, I realize the health expo would have suggested otherwise, but we were celebrating 108 days of reading. Optional summer reading. Reading that she loves to do and requires no bribery for, but we just didn't understand why the library handled their celebration and whatnot the way they did. Reading is its own reward, I agree. Still, why so much press for something that was so very lame?
What are your thoughts?
K read for the entire 108 day run of this program. She read at least 1/2 hour every day. I didn't have to ask. She just does it. Books are friends. You should see the tears when we have to make room for more!
Knowing that she was the only child in our subsection of the city to complete the 108 days of the reading challenge, we thought her odds might be decent at winning a prize. She won a prize. She was delighted!
Besides winning the local library prize, she had received an invitation to go to the grand prize drawing held at the marathon health expo. Being that it was downtown, parking and all, I asked Hubs to attend with us. It was the health expo anyhow, so he was thrilled to take a look. He had just gone to the Arnold Classic this past spring, so he thought it would be along those lines.
The library was giving free parking in their deck two blocks away. Wonderful! We'll take it!
We went on in and navigated the blue line course through the vendors and found the library booth. What I found there kind of made me sad. The giveaways that they were giving to the visitors were the very prizes that the kids had to work so hard to get through the summer reading program. It was great that they were giving things. Wonderful, in fact. But, when your child reads for 14 or 26 days in a row and gets prizes, then goes and every single child in attendance gets 3 and 4 of each on their pass by the library area, the specialness goes south a bit.
Time came for the Prize Drawing and Celebration. K chose a seat up front. They had door prizes, but they were drawing from the library slips that were amassed from the entire library system from the whole summer. That came up to over 1800 entries. I whispered to K and told her that my feeling was that each one of those slips were going to be pulled for people who weren't there. I said that the percentage of people (maybe 30) vs the number of slips in the box just didn't suggest the people being there.
None were.
It came time for the door prizes. All of the adults in the audience won and none of the small handful of children did. That's okay. They don't always have to win. When it came to one child thinking he won and he didn't and the lady who won kind of climbed over top of him to get her $10 Barnes and Noble gift card that I was stunned. I would have given that card to the kid. Not my kid. I would have given it to the child who honestly thought he won. (The lady, not the prize guy.)
Hubs walked away stunned. All of the slips for everyone who completed the library summer reading program were tossed into the same box. Hubs stated that he thought that since most of the people in attendance were retired and had time to read, the library should have separated the slips of kids vs. adults and given prizes accordingly.
Again, it isn't that we are chaffed that our child didn't win. We just look at it and know that for kids to do all of that reading, it is generally a bit more difficult than for adults to do it.
As for K, we stopped by on the way home from the health expo and bought sundaes. Yes, I realize the health expo would have suggested otherwise, but we were celebrating 108 days of reading. Optional summer reading. Reading that she loves to do and requires no bribery for, but we just didn't understand why the library handled their celebration and whatnot the way they did. Reading is its own reward, I agree. Still, why so much press for something that was so very lame?
What are your thoughts?
Sunday, June 9, 2013
We passed the third grade!
Thursday was the last day of third grade. Can I tell you that Hubs and I have been counting down to that day for a while?
I should add that we never actually questioned our daughter passing 3rd grade. The year was just so danged long! She held her grades pretty well, being on merit or honor roll all year. We had the D+ in math on the first report card. We praised K for her D+ because she really did do her very best. (It was a grade that I never thought I would praise, much less on a report card.) I admit, it was hard for me to swallow that my daughter, despite doing her absolute best, ran into an otherwise unacceptable grade. She didn't get in trouble for it. We did slog with her through the entire year of math. Sweet love.
Then came grading period 2 where her social studies dropped from an A to a C because she was being pulled out of SS for math tutoring and as such, the teacher was giving a "quick review" to the children who missed it, but obviously the "quick review" wasn't working for K. No bother. I told her that I would home school her in social studies and we pulled that C back up to an A.
We've had some difficulty with K's teacher this past year. At one point at the beginning of May, K came to me and said, "Mom, I think that Mrs. H hates me." My only response was, "You know, we can't wait for 3rd grade to end, either." While I'm sure that Mrs. H didn't hate K, she knew that she had several papers that were misgraded or mislogged onto the online grade system, she knew that despite how hard she was working, the teacher wasn't always willing to work with her. It is a growing-up thing. Just the jump from 2nd grade to 3rd grade in the area of teacher helping students was a bit sink-or-swim and K wasn't a big fan of the sinking feeling.
They started pulling K (without consulting me or Hubs) for literacy intervention where they were pulling her out of science. They were pulling her because her OAA score was 7 points shy of the end of year points goal (they took the reading OAA in October) and I declined. They were shocked. If K truly needed the help, we would sign up. Science was hands on with a lot of experiments. How exactly am I supposed to home school that at home with a fairly non-communicative teacher? The tutor called and apologized for telling the children that quite frankly, they had failed the OAA reading portion when we specifically told K that she had passed the 3rd grade guarantee (the reading score required to move on to 4th grade) but that she was a few points shy of the end of year goal. K was an absolute pile and I told the tutor that she had undone 2 1/2 months worth of self-esteem work we did in one fell swoop. She felt horrible.
Because of the OAA fall score, K was invited to reading pre-fall and she wanted to do it. They are doing a bit of reading intervention and while K reads several books a week, I think that help with slowing down (they were so much about speed that I think that they had her skimming things), comprehension, and prefix and suffix concentration would be great for her. K is a good average reader. Kiddo does read herself to death. Her comprehension is generally pretty good. If they want to teach her more tricks, have at it.
In October, there was a bit of a shake-up with the art department. The public schools that we are in reserves the right to do a bit of a teacher shuffle after 3 weeks of school. The population settles a bit more and occasionally teachers need to be moved. Mr. B was moved and the kids were crushed. All of our 531 children had their schedules shuffled in order to accommodate the replacement staff of 3 part time art teachers. As it turns out, Mrs. J was a superb replacement. K loved her and came home having learned things in art. Mrs. J doesn't expect the kids to be Matisse, but as long as they take in the information that she teaches and tries to apply what they've learned, she'll rock it out with them. Mr. B was almost like a glorified craft teacher. K never really did anything of worth with him, so it is okay that he moved on. Later in the year, K agreed that Mrs. J was a better choice for her.
Mrs. C was the math tutor that helped pull K out of the math depths. She is a wonderful Christian woman who takes her job as seriously as these children are HER children. She e-mailed me on weekends and met with me in hallways. She was as excited by K's progress as we were. Yes, I gave her teacher goodies as well as Mrs. H (K's teacher) and Mrs. D, the speech intervention specialist.
Speaking of Mrs. D, though K's IEP expired last year, she kept her on twice a month for some continued help. K has been seeing Mrs. D since her 3rd week in Kindergarten. When K started, she was going to see Mrs. D 3 times a week. She has worked wonders with K's speech. We're still battling the "r," but that is pretty common and the LAST correctable sound. K and I were talking about it today. We talked about the neighbor girl and I told K that I noticed E's "r" a bit more lately. "You know, Mom, I've noticed that B (another girl at school) really needs help with her 'r', too." I continue to compliment her on her hard work and stop her occasionally to get her to work her "r" a bit more. K's sister was an "r" kiddo, so we weren't surprised. J has since ditched her "r" and I'm certain that K will, too. Mrs. D has worked so hard with her.
Mrs. H, the librarian, I credit for helping K a lot this last year. She knows us from years of 100 Book Challenge Book Pass that K used to help me with. It was when K was in 1st grade that Mrs. H put her reservations on K for 3rd grade library helper. Mrs. H also attends church with us. She helped me through those tough math moments and was there to give K an extra hug in the AM when she had her doing her library duties. Mrs. H made sure to tell me that K will be the only library helper that she is keeping. The rest of the girls seriously did not want to do their jobs and she is not continuing with them in the library. In fact, she allowed K to make her choice on what she will be re-shelving this next year. Apparently, that's a pretty big deal in the library volunteer world. K is thrilled to be a library volunteer.
Kiddo loves books so much that to be surrounded by them is a dream for her!
As I said, 3rd grade is a huge jump. K moved from 2nd grade (as a honor roll student) to 3rd grade having to be happy with a D+ at one point and a few C's on her report card at different times (merit roll and honor roll once) and had to be happy with that. We had hours long study sessions where we went running (despite having a mama that does not run) down to the end of the block and back. We drilled spelling words. We reviewed reading stories. I don't think that she'll ever forget the social studies test that we studied a week for that she got a 100% on. Just ask my kiddo who invented the first sky scraper. She'll tell you! ;)
Grades had been pretty easy for K up to this point. She found this year that she is a kiddo that requires studying in order to get the good grades that she gets. At the beginning of the year, I had to ask for the teacher to allow her to bring her books home. None of the other kids ever do. In fact, they even asked her at the bus stop why she brings home so many books. God bless the kiddo.
We're looking forward to 4th grade. We're hoping for a better year. Until then, we will enjoy our summer. We have bridge work to do, but that isn't every moment of every day. I bought K a beautiful diary (on clearance at Target for way cheap) and she is excited to write in it. Every other day, she'll write in cursive. We worked on diary writing rules the other day. We'd like to improve her writing skills (she gets tangential and misses some connective words) and frankly, her handwriting can get pretty awful when she is rushing. (It can be delightful otherwise.) She's blessed with the opportunity to go to some camps with Hubs at work. K and her dad get on very well, so it's good for her to hang with him and to be a big help.
We're enjoying the start of our summer. Our first day of summer? We had a Brady Bunch Marathon! I love that K loves a show that I loved when I was her age! :)
Saturday, March 23, 2013
My archery kid.
They are talking about having additional league play and starting youth archery competitions. You know what? K is good and she really wants to do it. :)
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Hello 15 F and the allergy meds are a nice addition!
K has had an ear ache for a few days. I decided to be that mom and take her in since I don't personally own an Otoscope. You'd be glad to learn that she only has "a little fluid" on her ear, but that they both look fine.
"So, would Claritin dry that up?"
Dr. P (but now Dr. L and great with child) said that it would and that as silly as it sounds, I need to start her back on the Claritin and keep her on that run through June. "It is the coldest spring on record here and last year was the hottest. As cold as it is, there are still some things in bloom and the allergies are starting to kick in."
So there we have it. Allergy meds for outdoor allergies for my child. I am to the point where I have to stay on them all year long. Hubs has started taking mine (OTC Rx strength Allegra). He saw my doctor who prescribed it for him, he loves it and he's sticking with it. He started taking it a few weeks ago in prep for allergy season.
Allergy meds up! Away we go into the season of yellow pollen!
"So, would Claritin dry that up?"
Dr. P (but now Dr. L and great with child) said that it would and that as silly as it sounds, I need to start her back on the Claritin and keep her on that run through June. "It is the coldest spring on record here and last year was the hottest. As cold as it is, there are still some things in bloom and the allergies are starting to kick in."
So there we have it. Allergy meds for outdoor allergies for my child. I am to the point where I have to stay on them all year long. Hubs has started taking mine (OTC Rx strength Allegra). He saw my doctor who prescribed it for him, he loves it and he's sticking with it. He started taking it a few weeks ago in prep for allergy season.
Allergy meds up! Away we go into the season of yellow pollen!
Thursday, March 14, 2013
My daughter won a living thing.
She doesn't know it yet. It is a surprise. What did she win? Let me first tell you HOW she qualified.
We had a fundraiser through K's school. The children peddled pastry and the more items that they sold, the more drawings they would be qualified for.
K sold 15 items. That 15 items qualified her for . . . a hamster.
A living thing.
So today when I was at work, my neighbor gave me a call. She is the one in charge of fundraising. She explained that they were doing the drawings for the prizes and mumbled something about K.
"M, don't tell me that K won the hamster."
:giggle:
"She did. I am calling you to see if that is okay."
I tried to call Hubs at work, but had more success with texting. His logic went like this, "I will ASSIST but I will not be the PRIMARY CAREGIVER."
"Okay, so go with it?"
"It will be a good test for her to get a dog next spring."
So there we have it. K will soon find out when they announce it at school that she will be a mama to a small, furry creature.
She will love it, even when it smells.
It's that smell part that makes me crunch up my nose.
And that it isn't a Zhu-Zhu pet. That would be so much easier. The only risk with that is tangling it into her hair.
She is a kid and has to be allowed to be so. I wish her much success with her critter. We'll probably get it sometime next week. This weekend, we're in 10 different directions and she is staying over at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It would be unkind to abandon a new family member. Grandma didn't sign up for a caged pet for this visit. I wouldn't even ask. Bless her. She's nice enough to have K as often as she does. :)
If it is helpful, M told me how thrilled she is that the hamster is going to a good home and about how she feels so much better knowing that it will be loved and not microwaved or something awful like that.
No microwaving the pets at our house. I promise.
We had a fundraiser through K's school. The children peddled pastry and the more items that they sold, the more drawings they would be qualified for.
K sold 15 items. That 15 items qualified her for . . . a hamster.
A living thing.
So today when I was at work, my neighbor gave me a call. She is the one in charge of fundraising. She explained that they were doing the drawings for the prizes and mumbled something about K.
"M, don't tell me that K won the hamster."
:giggle:
"She did. I am calling you to see if that is okay."
I tried to call Hubs at work, but had more success with texting. His logic went like this, "I will ASSIST but I will not be the PRIMARY CAREGIVER."
"Okay, so go with it?"
"It will be a good test for her to get a dog next spring."
So there we have it. K will soon find out when they announce it at school that she will be a mama to a small, furry creature.
She will love it, even when it smells.
It's that smell part that makes me crunch up my nose.
And that it isn't a Zhu-Zhu pet. That would be so much easier. The only risk with that is tangling it into her hair.
She is a kid and has to be allowed to be so. I wish her much success with her critter. We'll probably get it sometime next week. This weekend, we're in 10 different directions and she is staying over at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It would be unkind to abandon a new family member. Grandma didn't sign up for a caged pet for this visit. I wouldn't even ask. Bless her. She's nice enough to have K as often as she does. :)
If it is helpful, M told me how thrilled she is that the hamster is going to a good home and about how she feels so much better knowing that it will be loved and not microwaved or something awful like that.
No microwaving the pets at our house. I promise.
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