stupidity | The Angel Forever

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Mistake of driveway proportions

Posted on September 1, 2008 10:28 pm by TheAngelForever

A little over a week ago the boys and I were visiting my grandmother for lunch and an afternoon together. Mimi made fresh chicken soup with giant matzoh balls for them to gobble up. For a treat after she had gone to the local farmers market and bought fresh ears of corn. The boys LOVED this part as you will see.

Toward the end of our visit my father called my cell phone. He wanted to tell me something interesting that had happened. He arrived home to find that the end of the driveway was blocked off so nobody could drive on it. When he got out of the car he saw that it had been sealed.

You are probably thinking to yourself . . . "So what? People have that done all the time."

True, but the difference here is that my parents were not supposed to have this done!

When my father got to his front door there was an envelope with a bill inside. He looked at it closely. It was for 43 Grover Street and they live at 43 Big Bird Lane (obviously made up names – since we do not live on Sesame Street).

Ooops! Yes, someone clearly made a rather large mistake. The street signs are quite clear, so that was not an excuse. Plus when we went by the other house it is a shared driveway, so quite different actually.

My father put in a call to the company letting him know that they had made the mistake and that he was not paying for this since he did not have a contract. Sure, my parents were thinking of having it done soon, but it would have been done AFTER major repairs to their house were done so as not to be ruined by that.

The company must have been quite embarassed since they never called my parents back. For their sake it will hopefully serve as a lesson.

Oh well, thank goodness they did a decent job and did not ruin my parent’s driveway.

Categories:
family interesting jsl nhl photos stupidity

Nursery school problem – what do you think?

Posted on March 15, 2008 6:53 am by TheAngelForever

Please read about what happened yesterday afternoon at NHL’s school and tell me what you think I should have done – and should do now. Thanks in advance since this is a little long to give the background on it.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Yesterday at 11:30 I took my grandmother and JSL to the Purim parade at NHL’s nursery school. The kids were too cute as they marched around and later had a show on stage where they performed some songs for the holiday. NHL looked so comfortable up there. At the end of each song, we noticed that he would take a bow. We did not notice any of the other children doing this, so not sure where it came from. Photos of this will come later.

Flash forward to Mommy, Mimi, and JSL going back to head out. We were going to leave NHL for the rest of the time to eat and play. There was about an hour left in the day. As we went by Mimi looked into the room and noticed NHL was in his underwear. Not just that, he was the ONLY child in the room only in his underwear. To say that I was alarmed would be an understatement. I immediately told Mimi that I was going into the room to see what was going on.

I went in and asked his teachers why he was like that. They explained that since his monkey costume was so warm (it is polar fleece from Old Navy) they thought he would be too warm in it. Not too thrilled with this, but fine it made sense at least. NHL was starting to get upset that he did not know where his clothing was. I asked his one teacher, she was not the one that helped him to put them away. She asked the other teacher. No clue. Next teacher said they were over by his backpack. I went over there with NHL in his underwear following me.

You guess it – NADA!

At this point I think steam was starting to come out of my ears. The worst was going through my head and I was trying to keep my 4 year old calm about no clothing. Meanwhile I notice that the teachers have STOPPED looking to pose for a photo (yes – four of the five teachers in the room) with one child who is laughing away.

I stuck my head out to tell Mimi what was going on and then went back in. At this point they were all following the laughing child to the back of the room. I was floored with what happened from this point on. My thought was right – the child that we have had numerous problems with in the last few weeks (no less since the start of this school) took NHL’s clothing. Not only did he take them, but he brought them to the opposite side and corner of the classroom. There he then managed to dig a spot and put them under things to hide them.

I quickly said rather loudly: "You have to be kidding me? HE took them and hid them? "

I just stood and watched as his mother, grandmother and the teachers said and did NOTHING!

My child stood for over 15 minutes in nothing but his underwear for everyone that passed by to see and they said NOTHING!

I tried to remain calm. I repeated what I said and added to the teacher: "I am done. This is the last straw. I am calling ______ (the assistant director) something needs to be done."

Again, the mother said NOTHING to me, NOTHING to her child and the teachers hardly said squat to the kid either. After quite a while he was told to say he was sorry to NHL. I actually had to wait to leave until the mother and grandmother left with the child so I did not say more to her face. After all this is the child that has not only done things to my child before, has taught my child inappropriate things, but has also done things to be outside of school while at a party.

I was ticked off! NHL decided he wanted to leave with me and not stay for the last hour. As we left the mother of the child went back in. I think she may have gone back to talk to the teachers since she heard me say something about calling the director.

After a few very quick errands I made my way home. I talked with my mother and she told me that I best call the director since this really was above and beyond in the way it happened and my child was embarrassed. So I left her a message at 1:00. Here is is Saturday morning and no return call from her. I told her on the machine the following:

"Hi _____, this is _______. I really need you to call me back. I need to discuss something that happened today at school. My child was embarrassed by another child and the teachers were put into an awkward position by another parent that they should not have been in. This is not the first incident with this child, but in my mind is the last straw and the reason I am calling. Something has to be done to stop things from continuing."

I was calm and nice – which was hard to accomplish. Perhaps she did not call me back because she had to get information from the teachers. They should not be surprised that I called since I said I was going to. Heck last time I told them I wanted to, but I left it to classroom management. This time it went above and beyond and I think they need back up to have someone else talk to this parent about the child that is WAY out of control.

Background on previous incident from exactly two weeks ago:

NHL was sitting in the classroom waiting for me to come in to get him. He had on a pair of sunglasses that he had received as a prize for being good and filling his chart at school. He stood up and started to walk to me. As I was standing right there the child in question stood up from a chair where he was sitting waiting to go to swim lessons. He grabbed NHL, pulled him around (nearly knocking him off balance)and grabbed the sunglasses off his face. He continues to take them and break them in half – right in front of me. Thank goodness I responded quickly and grabbed NHL who was close to decking the kid (who could blame the kid). I took the sunglasses from the kid, looked around and saw NO teacher watching (the head teacher of NHL’s program was home sick that day – yet 3 other teachers were still in the room and one down the hall). NHL was screaming at this point for a teacher – NADA. He was starting to cry about his prize being broken. As the steam started to come out my ears I told him to come with me and I would take care of the glasses and making sure a teacher knew what happened. I told two of the other teachers what happened and mentioned that this had to stop. This other child was out of control and needed consequences. One of the teachers told me that I was not the only parent that had made a complaint. In the past my mother and I had seen this child hit a child with blocks in the classroom and get a back rub to calm him down rather than more. WHAT?!?! This was teaching my child that doing something wrong would be rewarded with hugs and things. I went in after the weekend and talked to the head teacher who said she was going to talk to the assistant director about my concerns. My bet – she was probably never told about anything.

So, if you made it all the way to this point thanks for reading. What do you think about this? There are still three more months of school left and simply letting it go is not an option (that has not worked to this point). Something needs to be done so my child and others in the room do not learn the inappropriate actions – no less someone gets hurt physically not just emotionally.

Categories:
decisions nhl school stupidity vent

They used what with 3-5 year olds?

Posted on January 27, 2008 7:57 pm by TheAngelForever

Last Sunday it was bitter cold here. We’re talking teens (if that) for high temperature without the wind chill factored in. We had signed NHL up that morning at 10:00 for a monthly free craft and story time at our temple for 3-5 year olds. Each time they focus on a holiday and read a book and do a craft related to it. Thanks to the cold I opted to stay home with JSL and let NHL and Daddy have a morning out together.

This month they did things about Tu B’Shvat. They listened to the Lorax by Dr. Seuss. After this it was time to decorate pots to plant some seeds in.

When they arrived home JL was telling me about the craft. I was floored with what they brought for the 3-5 year olds to use. I have no issue with markers (even regular non-washable ones), glue, paint. . . they can be messy, but are appropriate for children. They used Sharpie markers for the kids. What the heck were they thinking? Sure, they thought ahead and brought shirts for the kids to put on to protect clothing, but HELLO? I teach my child that those are not for him to use. I was pretty ~~pissed~~ annoyed.

I understand that only certain items will work on clay pots, but still there are more kid friendly art supplies. When NHL came home he was upset that his hands were colored with the Sharpie. He said his one finger hurt because they were . . . (ready for my literal child) sharp!

LOL – I was trying very hard not to laugh right in his face. I was good. I told him to meet me in the bathroom and I would remove the sharpie with some magical stuff that Mommy had. I put some non-acetone nailpolish remover on q-tips and went to work. He was very protective of one finger that was hurt from the sharp spot. When I went to that finger the thin line did not budge. In fact what I received was screams of bloody murder in my ear. So what did I do? I tried it again.

Hmmmm. . . . something was wrong here and I needed light to check it out. We went into the other room and got a flashlight. Time for Mommy to see what the deal was. Sure enough it was not Sharpie – it was a splinter. Flashbacks of the HUGE splinter in his buttocks haunted me. JL was home to help me wrangle the kid and I got it with a struggle. That thing was in there more than the one last time. Thank goodness since digging into his butt would have been tricky at school.

JL took his camera with him (of course) to show what the kids were doing during craft time. Here they are. Please note my captions if you hoover over them.

Here is NHL using a Sharpie for the first time:

He certainly had a fondness for one of the colors!

As you can see a lot of the things were fine for 3-5 year olds to use:

This yet again was not one of those acceptable items.

This is the inside of the pot when NHL was finished with his seeds to grow inside.

On the top rim NHL put his name and JSL’s – too cute! And of course he had a blast using the Sharpies.

We shall see what they do next month – most likely they will do something for Purim. . . I think.

Categories:
holidays nhl ouchie stupidity winter

H-E Double Hockey Stick evening

Posted on November 30, 2007 12:09 am by TheAngelForever

Can I please puke now?

Simply put it has been a LONG day.

Jacob is still dealing with a million and one diaper changes. He is keeping milk down for the most part, but his poor rear is red and raw. I took him out quickly (with a bottle of Pedialyte) and got him some Aveeno diaper rash cream. It seems to be helping a lot more than the A&D cream was. Hopefully things will continue to get better and we can go back to eating and drinking normally, but at least he’s nursing some.

Then all H-E Double Hockey Stick broke out this evening. Hubby got a credit card in the mail that he did NOT send for. We called the company and thanks to a zillion red alerts knew that his identity was indeed compromised. We called all of the credit bureaus to alert to fraud and then called the police. So an officer came this evening to take some notes and told us what to do tomorrow and call him back.

*sigh* Why is this world so complicated these days? Why is it SO darn easy to be a victim? Why so many questions tonight?

I am just getting started! My mind is going a million miles a minute.

I guess the real thing that bothers me is that our "lovely" government does not allow US as consumers to put freezes on OUR credit accounts for free? In other words we have to pay to have a freeze put on and taken off if we want to open a line of credit assuming we want to safety net ourselves.

OK I know why – but it is STUPID STUPID STUPID – greedy pigs complicating things which leave us the citizens exposed to all of this garbage. How nice that all of the big corporations can dictate what our government does, thus making all of us so susceptible to this crap!

Categories:
bad news losing my mind sarcasm stupidity

1st day & major immunization mess up

Posted on October 15, 2007 3:07 pm by TheAngelForever

So did you hear me screaming wherever you may be? If not count your blessings.

Let’s start with the good news. NHL had a wonderful first day at his new preschool. No crying, no fussing, followed directions, great report. It was so refreshing to hear positive things from a teacher. I NEVER heard that at the Montessori school. He liked it and seems excited to go back again tomorrrow.

After JL and I dropped NHL off this morning I ran some errands. First I stopped at the Montessori school and picked up the items we had there. I cut our loss on the supplies that we sent (annoys me though). The principal was there and took me to the classroom. I was hoping to avoid both of these things. The teacher was sugary sweet and asking where NHL was. . . then she recalled he started today. I told her I’m taking his lead on whether or not to come to say goodbye. If he asks I will contact her, if not we’re done. After that JSL and I quickly stopped at the pharmacy.

Then we went home. Once JSL was fed he fell asleep and I put him into the crib. No sooner had I done this the phone was ringing and it was the nurse from the Montessori school. She knew it was it first day at the other school, but wanted to point out a problem with NHL’s immunizations. Apparently in this state the chicken pox vaccine has a law where you must give the shot +/- 4 days from your 1st birthday.

Please sit down for the next part, I wasn’t and wish I had been.

NHL’s birthday is the 17th, his immunization was given on the 11th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So based on 3 measly days he was not considered immunized. CRAP I tell you. The nurse was condescending and honestly made no sense. I called Aunt M and asked her. She found a few things. Then JL talked with the ex-daycare director since he was there anyway – she had never heard of it. JL then called the State Health Department’s Immunization division. Sure enough the nurse was right, but wrong. JL took this information and called our doctor’s office. They had not heard of it, but were going to look into it. The nurse there called me back. Sure enough THEY messed up and are not sure how, but he needs it done again. They were all floored and upset – which they better be.

So Wednesday JL, NHL and I are having flu shots and NHL is getting what they are calling his first Varicella vaccination. They will look into when to do the second one that is normally done from 4-6 years . . . . and said they will write a note to the district explaining what happened should we need it for kindergarten.

Thank goodness JL will be there for that since the last shots were "fun" to do in August.

C’est Moi