Harper in training

Just getting on long enough to say that my son made honors for the third quarter in a row, and his second high honors quarter.

I am so proud of him, and yes, I told him that multiple times yesterday. He works so hard and tries so hard, and it's wonderful to give him that sort of praise and recognition.

And, of course, the fact that we buy him a video game pretty much whenever he makes honors helps. ;)

I think the most valuable thing that I've learned in my life has been that you need to encourage kids in the direction THEY want to go in, not the direction YOU want them to go. Liam consistently strives for excellence in everything he does, and I think it's because he knows that we support him in his interests and dreams.

I'm so excited for him.

I refuse.

I refuse to let you make me feel like a bad parent. I refuse to allow you to bully us. I refuse to sit by and let my son coast through the school system.

I refuse to let you treat my son like an imbecile. I refuse to let you treat us like morons.

That IEP meeting you guys decided on FRIDAY to let us know would be attended by a LAWYER? Yeah, not happening unless you call her off.

You cocksucking bastards. You motherfucking idiots.

You lulled me into a false sense of security by going along with what we suggested this year. You gave us what we wanted.

And now you pull this shit?

Fuck you.

And I'm the NICE one.

Quick rundown, things happening:

My son had a lot of fun at his first ever school dance! The teacher for his autism class went with him and his friend Matthew to keep an eye on them and she said they had a blast.

His birthday party is this weekend and he will be 12 on the 29th. Uuuugh, time goes too fast!

I auditioned for a musical last week! I think I did ok for it being my first audition for ANYTHING since college, but damn, my voice shakes so much when I'm nervous. I wish I could afford to take voice lessons. I feel good about the audition even though I did not get a callback. It won't be my last one, and I'm simply going to have to find more opportunities to sing in front of people. ...and practice acting. I have no idea how to go about that but I'm sure I can find out!

I am writing my blessed fingers off and having the best time ever with Homestuck. It's just...it's the most amazing fount of creative inspiration for fanwork ever, at least for me. It shoved Hunger Games fanfic right off my brainspace, but I'm still picking away at those fics too. They're both fun but in different ways and for very different reasons.

Homestuck, right now, is the thing that is keeping me from begging more anti-anxiety meds off of my doctor. I look at fan art and fanfic and re-read canon and I cackle like Terezi, I swear.

It's not that I'm not stressed, but man, Homestuck does take the edge off. So...thanks, Hussie. You're awesome.

I don't even want to write about the bad shit--because there is some of that--because it's just...not that bad, right now.

My voyage of self-discovery is going well, I think. And also my new philosophy of "I will not tell myself I can't do things" seems to be working out. At 42, it's about time.

Apparently it is OK to do stuff online now at work. This is a tremendous relief to me.

Not much is happening in my life. We came back last week from a nice little vacation to Knoebels Amusement Park in Elysburg, PA. This is the only amusement park I like...and really, I love it. It's everything an amusement park should be.

I've just downloaded a bunch of stuff from my camera and am in the process of re-naming all the pictures and stuff. When I finish them, I will upload them, and then show them off. ;)

I've been writing a great deal, mostly Hunger Games fanfic, all revolving around Wiress and Beetee. I'm having a wonderful time and I actually finished a lengthy (for me)fic...which I never do. Right now it's all on ff.net, but I'll be updating AO3 with it soon. I find the interface with AO3 sort of annoying with all the html tags and such.

I'm having more fun with this than I had with HP fanfic...which is ironic considering how much PAIN AND SUFFERING is encompassed in these novels... anyway.

I'm also getting more ideas for original fiction too...which always happens shortly before I go to Maine (in five weeks!). But this time, the novel idea takes place *in* Maine proper, on Mount Desert Island. So hooray for a research trip!

Liam is going to turn 12 in October. He's going into 6th grade. MIDDLE SCHOOL. I'm not sure how that happened. Also, he is now terribly concerned with looking 'cool'. How did this happen? *sigh*

All told, I'm doing pretty well, feeling pretty good. Go figure. I hope it lasts a while. :)

The month of May has pretty much been a bust for anything except stress and tired. But today is my 16th wedding anniversary and we'll be going out to dinner tomorrow night. I'm really looking forward to that. I feel like I haven't seen my husband for weeks.

I'm back to focusing on my health. I know, I know, like you haven't all heard that before. But there are things I have to take care of and they'll be taken care of better if I'm as well physically as I can be.

Another thing that I'll be doing is trying to get my novel written. I just *can't* seem to finish it. Perhaps it's fear of failure...or of success. Who knows, I'm a strange duck.

I can tell that I'm worn out, though. I've got to get my imagination back in gear. I need to start playing the "what if" game and getting out for walks. I need to read books, as well.

To everyone I RP with, sorry for the flakiness. I'ma gonna do better. :)

My son's IEP meeting was yesterday. We made sure they UNDERSTOOD that Liam is not neurotypical and you can't MAKE him be neurotypical, so stop punishing him for stimming. Since he stims with sound, yes, it can be annoying but he HAS TO DO IT.

Man, sometimes people just don't get it but the woman in charge of the special education dept. was receptive to our concerns and we've got a couple of options we will be exploring for next year. Anything has to be better than this year. Liam has made himself physically ill with stress and now he HATES school. Oy.

I've rarely been more glad to see a school year end. Hallelujah.

-Car making weird noise. Car fixed. Yay!

-Liam was complaining of pressure building up in his ear (needing to 'pop')last night. He said he was feeling better this morning and was dead set on going to school today (and the after-school program's water party), so we let him go. Me, I'm nervous as all hell, though. I don't want him having another ear infection and going on antibiotics once AGAIN. We put a couple of drops of castor oil in his ears each night, and it usually helps. We've prevented or cured at least one ear infection with diligent application of oil, so let's pray it works. ETA: my son has seasonal allergies and was very stuffy last night. Which is why his ears built the pressure up.

-Liam has an appointment with a new pediatrician on the 23rd, right before we go to Knoebels, which is our end-of-school celebration for him advancing another year.

-We had Liam's IEP meeting on the 31st of May. He's going to be advancing into the second grade. His reading and math levels are in the early-to-mid second grade level, and everything else is on par with his classmates, so he's doing really level. Also, instead of a "substantially seperate" classroom, they'll be integrating him more fully into the typical second grade classroom. We're so very proud of Liam and I'm very happy with the teachers at his school.

-Ryan (my brother) called me to let me know that Dad went to the hospital on Saturday with pneumonia--but it looks like Dad has asthma now, and also they're talking about sleep apnea as well. He's still in the hospital and I'm going to go visit tomorrow if he's not out by then. They're still deciding on a course of treatment.

-I've been unemployed since June 1st. We're ok at the moment, but I don't want to lose the decent lead we've had on our bills, so I hope I get something soon.

And...that's about it. Which is enough.