Sunday Sweets Courtesy of Jaded Vixen

I have decided to join Jaded Vixen in her Sunday Sweets.  So here we go:

Six Sunday Sweets

1. What was your favourite childhood toy or comfort object? Where is it now?
2. What was your weirdest dating experience?
3. Which television or movie character would you love to play house with?
4. What was the most exciting thing that happened to you this week?
5. Can you remember the strangest dream you've ever had?
6. What's the signature drink that you order on a night out?

So here are my answers:

1. My Teddy Bear. I was given him for my first Christmas and I still have him.  He is currently on the floor beside my bed.
2. It would have to be the guy from work I went out with (thank goodness only the once) who kept telling me about things his ex girlfriend used to do to him, while we were eating dinner. I was young, naive and completely grossed out.
3. I wouldn't mind shacking up with…. um can I get back to you on that?
4. The most exciting thing that happened to me this week was: School going Back! 
5. I can remember the strangest dream I ever had.  It was awful and recurring.  Thankfully, I haven’t had it in a very long time.
6. I don’t get out much (if ever! LOL) but I would order a Strongbow Sweet.

3. Which television or movie character would you love to play house with?

Not sure, choices are currently:

Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer’s character) on House, M.D. He is good looking, loyal, intelligent, and a Toy Boy for me. But only now he is divorcing Cameron.

Angel (played David Boreanaz) from Angel.  Tall, dark, sexy. What more can I say?

But I think I will have to go with:

Aragorn aka Strider (Viggo Mortensen) from the Lord of the Rings Movies.

Do you want to play?  Come on, join the fun. 

The rules are over at Confessions of a Jaded Gym Junkie.

A rant. Mostly about Schools, STA’s and SN.

Feel free to ignore this post. I’m having a very anti school week.  First week back in Term 3 may be part of this.  Or maybe it’s just the fact that some  kids (SN or not) seem to get treated poorly by the system.

The school Boy and Girl go to is the local Public (government run for those not in Australia) school.  Boy child has never received assistance at school because at the time he functioned slightly above the cut off line and the school refused to send his paperwork in.  Okay, I’ve had a while (5 years in fact) to get over that and I have mostly.  If I felt he really needed assistance I would have fought harder but I didn't.

However, this week I have been told by a few different people that Children have been losing their Aide time.  For one child who has had an aide since Kindergarten or Year 1,  so at least 4 years, the powers that be decided the child depended on it too much.  WT? 

Today’s pearler was that the students in Girl Child’s class who go to the Learning Support Area for part of the day 4 days a week and have an STA (Special Teacher’s Assistant aka Aide) for that time on one day they don’t go, have now lost that aide.  This is a double WT? for me.  How can someone suddenly decide that this is a good idea?  It was probably the person who decided to put the Learning Support Unit / Centre in an open plan building with other classes, moving the class from the building that had closable doors and no other classes.  Now that had worked for years.  Why mess with something that works?  Oh I know, just to stamp your authority on it!

So why are they now giving aide time to kids without diagnoses, with exactly the same issues as at least two of the kids in Girl Child’s class?  It makes no sense. Unless it’s because that parent actually helps at school and the others don’t.  Is it possible someone could be that petty?  Maybe I’m wrong here but I am considered moving Girl Child next year.  Because for me this is the last straw.

Part of it is is attitude certain people show towards the children.  As an adult I wouldn't want to be spoken to the way I have heard some of the children being spoken too.  I would have hoped that being in education you  may have actually liked working with children.  Another part is the different rules for different people which may or may not be based on who the powers that be like most at the time. Yes I am very jaded this week.

So am I over reacting?  What would make you change schools?  At the moment the attitude of certain school staff is doing my head in.  That and the fact different rules seem to apply to different children and classes.  Obviously I’m not in the in crowd at school at the moment.

Note: I’m not debating whether aide time is beneficial or not, just the fact that suddenly taking it away can cause issues.

Today I went over to the dark side…

No, I haven’t converted over to Dark Chocolate.

I went to the Target Toy Sale.

ON THE FIRST DAY!  How scary is that?

I actually wasn't there to go to the Target Toy Sale.  I was there to pay for my Car Registration, and to do some other stuff.  But for some strange reason I choose to go today and it was the day the Target Sale started. I have heard Horror stories about these Mid Year Toy Sales.  Stories of frantic people taking things out of other peoples trolleys, lay-by queues wrapping around the entire store and shoppers ramming each other to get to the last item on the shelf first.  I have even heard of people (crazy, perhaps) going at 12.01 am when the sale starts just to get a particular item.

So I was at the shops and it suddenly hit me. The Toy Sale started today!  Despite giving Girl Child and Boy Child the brochures to look at and in Girl’s case to circle her dream items, I never really thought I would go in the first week that the Sale was on.  But as I was there this morning I went in.  And it was calm.  I don't know maybe I was there at the eye of the storm but there were no ramming shopping trolleys, people were polite and there was space to wander around.  Which is what I did for 90 minutes.

I picked up things, and carried them around for a while before finding a pull along basket.  Then I picked up some more things, added them to the basket and wandered around towing the red basket behind me.  Eventually I put some things back and bought some books and craft type items to be put away -  probably for Christmas.  I did not buy computer or console games as I figure by the time Christmas comes they will be cheaper and the kids may not even like them anymore.  I didn't not buy Littlest Pet Shop or My Little Pony things despite knowing how much Girl loves them and says “I need them, Mum.”

It was not quite the adventure I expected.  I actually didn't mind wandering around for the time I did.  I saw, I shopped and I conquered.  I didn't bring home a trolley full of stuff and I don’t have buyers remorse. Go Me!

To everyone else in Australia who went today or plans to go: Good Luck and I hope it is / was as calm for you as it was for me.

A culinary adventure…

Today while Girl Child went to a half day dance class, I did the groceries.  And I’m attempting something I have never attempted before:

Roast Chicken and vegetables. I hope it looks nice like this one:

 

Bet you all thought it would be much more exciting that.  Something more along the lines of PPMJ's delightful dishes.  Go on, check it out.  I’m more than happy to wait.

Back? Okay good. Yes, I choose that link because they were having roast Chicken one night too. But the Pork loin did it for me!

So you may be wondering how I have so artfully managed to get away with never having cooked a roast chicken before?  In part it is due to my complete lack of both cooking skill and enthusiasm for being in the kitchen. But it probably mostly comes down to the first time I cooked Mr E a roast (in fact I think it may have been the first meal I ever cooked him).  You see I was doing a rolled roast in the electric frypan and I think that’s because it’s what my mother advised me to do.  Unfortunately despite getting instructions I either didn’t get told to or completely missed the step about turning the meat over.

I can’t remember much about that meal and hindsight that may be a good thing.  But Mr E stuck around and has cooked pretty much every roast that we have ever had since that fateful day.  He also does the corned beef / corned lamb / pickled pork if we when have those too.

Now it’s sounds as though I am rarely feeding the family. Not True!  I do cook most nights.  We just tend to eat mostly curries, stir-fries, pastas and the very exciting  meat and 3 veg.   But I do bake, occasionally, as you know.  Remember these Blueberry Muffins? It’s not all bad though, Girl child and I made Chocolate Chip Cookies this afternoon and they are yummy. 

I’ll let you know how dinner turns out.

Cue Twilight Zone Music……

Dinner was nice if I do say so myself.  And Mr E said now two people in the family can do roasts.  It must have been all right. But I have to admit it didn't look as nice as the one in that picture.

Hello Lovelies! Miss Me?

I hope so, because I missed you all. 

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth,. Although it did seem like that. Not sure what happened with me.  I kind of just fell off the blogging train.  And in turn fell of the commenting train too.  I’m thinking it was the end of second term, end of Financial Year Build up, plus school holidays and going interstate for a few days as well.

So once again I need to apologise to everyone.  I’m thinking August would be a great month to do NABLOPOMO again just to keep me back in the swing of things.  That is if I actually get back into the swing of things before then which I really hope I do.

So in brief, a catch up:

School Reports: As Expected – Check. Both children can read and apparently talk quite a bit!  Boy Child’s was better than expected given the disruption to his class with his teacher being away frequently.

End Of Financial Year: Survived – Check.  It’s not actually that bad for me thankfully but there is always the few things which have hiccups like not having the correct tax tables in the programs etc

Holidays: 1 week down, 1 week to go.  - Check.  So fair

Operation Anniversary: A work in progress. – Check.  However sometimes that progress is in a backward direction. :(

101 in 1001: In Progress. – Check.  I still don’t have 101 things but hey I will make it eventually.

Sick Children: Yep.  Both.  - Check. Nothing major, thankfully.

On the super exciting side of things – Boy Child tried to eat Pizza at school and his teacher was so proud.  He even tried a sliver of Salami. He even tried carrot the other day while we were away and in front of people.  Hurray for Boy Child!

I am so happy that Boy Child’s teacher  is well at the moment and will be back full time next term.  And that she ‘gets’ him. 

So now I better go and try to read the 290 or so posts I have missed and actually read them instead of just marking them most of them as read like I did last time.

And I will try really hard to actually blog consistently again.  Honest!