Where do I live...

Max and Sarah on their first day of school.

Here it is the last day of the first full week of school and we are finally *starting* to get into a routine. The kids are happy as clams. Max is triving and Sarah is in her element. I've made out "schedules" for everyone (and they are soooo excited about those--NOT).Transportation is still a little bit of a challenge. Now when anyone asks where I live, I tell them "In a green Ford Winstar".

It's amazing how your vehicle becomes another room, an extention of your home. In the mornings I bring my coffee, a breakfast bar and some water for the ride back. On the passenger seat are a selection of cds, a klennex box, my blackberry and my to do lists. Suprisingly this van has no decorative elements, which got me thinking: This is probably the only thing I own that doesn't have that distinctive "Rhonda" stamp. That's right, not one frog element is present (other than the fact that it is green).

I'll be thinking of a way to make this van "my own" over the next while. If you have any ideas, please feel free to share...

UPDATE

Here is the scoop. Max is indeed at school today. His new school. Pictured here to your left.

We last left off with me dropping the kids off at Pam's and going to the SPED office. I get there and am *cheerfully* greeted by a sped secretary with "Can I help you?" I tell my story again, and again get that well this is the first I've heard about it look. Then I see Angela, one of the secretaries who doesn't think I'm hiding horns under my hat. See asks if I have heard from Mrs. Brown yet, no I say. "But I gave her the message this morning" she says. She then proceed to call Mrs. Brown and gets her. She puts me on the line with her and after a fruitless conversation her I then have another fruitless conversation with the new SPED director. She seems more concerned with why I have made the effort to go look at the Manville School in Boston.

I have already seem 2 of the 4 schools and we already know that Manville isn't an appropriate placement for Max - not a judgement on the school, it's just not an appropriate placement.

I am more concerned with the fact that I had to find out accidentally that my child had no educational placement on the day before school started.

Again, she brings up Manville. Turns out she used to teach there...Ahhh - everything suddenly makes sense. I tell her my goal here is to get Max in school on September 4th at the SAL. She tells me that that isn't going to happen. Even if she wanted to we could not coordinate all of the meetings and paperwork that need to take place in order for this to happen, and that I need to consider and interview with Manville.

To make the rest of this very long story short, after looking for the Superindendant of schools unsuccessfully, many phone calls to our attorney, educational consultant and 1 hour in the Mayor's Office (I *LOVE* our Mayor and not just because this worked out in my favour either), and a signing of documents by me at 6 p.m. last night. Max is now *OFFICIALLY* registered at the School for Accelerated Learning.

Whew!

No transportation yet, but at this point I am just pleased that he has a school to go to...

And the saga continues...

Do I expect to much from people?

Ok, here it is, 10:30 am the day before school is to start and I call to find out about transportation for Max. Well, the secretary who takes care of that has no idea what I am talking about.

"What? He isn't going to the Columbus? Nobody told me that. I'm expected to make these arrangements? I have to put this out for bid. This isn't going to be ready for tomorrow. You have to call Mrs. Brown and tell her to call me. I can't do anything until I hear from Mrs. Brown"

So, I take a deep breath and apologize to her and call Mrs. Brown. Well she isn't in her office, so I leave a message. Then I call the Director of the School Max is supposed to be going to. She asks me if I have spoken to Mrs. Brown. "No, why?" I ask. "Well, because she hasn't signed anything, and last time we spoke (last week) she said you were still looking at other options..."

So I call the SPED office, but there is no one there to take my call and I am assured that someone will call be back soon.

It's is now 1:30 pm and I haven't heard from anyone. Zilch, nothing, zippo, nada.

Now should I be a little concerned that my child has no placement for school tomorrow? Max is presently running around gathering all of his back to school stuff (on his own - I didn't tell him to do this) organized. He has been so excited about this day for weeks now. If he can't go to school tomorrow he will be absolutely crushed. How much more emotional turmoil does this kid have to go through? Hasn't he been through enough already?

I am trying to take deep cleansing breaths, but I am so frustrated I am shaking and near tears. My friend Pam has offered to take the kids when she gets back home at 2 o'clock, so that I can go park myself in the SPED office until someone talks to me.

F.I.B.F.A.R.V.A. - Day One

We finally get up to Salem to pick up the RV and as we are doing the walk around (checking off what dents and scratches are already adorning this beast) we notice that it isn't exactly as *clean* as I would like it to be. Of course the kids are all over it and I am freaking out because I have no purell with me.

"Don't touch anything" I spend my time saying. "why not mom?"

We get this thing back to Emery Street. You would have thought that space shuttle was making a landing. Our neighbours, Pat and Tom (bless them) move their cars so that we would have prime loading area. Once we parked and opened the side door we realized that it opened up exactly in line with their front door - "Hello Neighbours!"

Then the cleaning started - it took about 2 hours. Pat vacuumed (how'd we get such great friends?) and I disinfected every surface I could. Randy washed out the AC filters and the rest was febreezed within an in of its life.

Now Tom is watching us with a bemused look on his face, but doesn't say a word, until, that is, he sees me loading up the expresso machine (and yes that is a photo of our actual machine). "You've got to be kidding me..." What can I say we work hard to keep our neighbours and friends amused.

After another 3 hours of packing, off we were, like a herd of turtles.

We picked up the RV at 2:30 pm and finally hit the road at 8:30.

Drove to a little KOA Campground just outside of White River Junction VT. I have to say that I don't know how Randy did it, but he managed to drive into this pitch black campground, drive around the loops looking for our spot "# 21 in teeny, tiny, numbers, tacked onto a tree at the back of the site. Every empty site we came upon we would slow down, I would hop out and try non-chalantly (remember it's about midnight here) to sneak over to read the number.

Eureka, we finally find it. Randy then begins to pull in. Then we notice that everyone is pointing *out*. Now, I am not sure about Campground etiquette, so here we are, at midnight, and I am our of the RV trying to direct Randy into BACKING into the site.

We actually did it, but we weren't close enough to hook up to the electric. Small crisis. Max wasn't pleased that he wasn't going to be able to plug in his boom box and play some Bobby Darin, but after a *chat* with the kids, everyone settled in for the night.

Woke up, bright and (not) early. Randy pulled out and repositioned us so that we could reach the electric hook up. Plugged in the toaster, had breakfast. Sarah went out and collected some rocks to add to her collection and were on are way.

Next installment -

Day 2 -

You haven't lived until you've peed in the *tiny* bathroom, in an RV,

while traveling up hgwy 89 at 65 mph.

F.I.B.F.A.R.V.A.

Yes, we actually did it.

First Inaugural Baker Family Annual Recreational Vehicle Adventure.

Now, if anyone would have told me that I would be travelling in a 30ft RV driven by my Dear Husband with the two kids I would have asked them if their meds had been adjusted recently.

We had a blast. Max has been begging for an RV trip since he could talk. When he finally got inside the RV I thought he would explode he was so happy. The two of them ran around opening every door, drawer and storage compartment.

We did feel like the Griswalds for a bid, but after a while we felt like old pros. Randy was pleasantly surprised a how easy it was to drive the dirt road to my grandmother's (what he refers to as the 3 mile laneway...). For those of you familiar with Nanny's, we parked up by the greenhouse and had water and electricity hook ups (this is my idea of ruffing it!).

We had no encounters of the wild kind, although my sister Cindy did describe this fox that she saw.

Cindy: "We saw a really cool fox on our way in"

Cindy: "It was really tall, and skinny"

Rhonda: "Was it red with black legs?"

Cindy: "No, it was kinda like a yellow, brown colour"

Rhonda: "Was it about the size of a small dog and sort of cat like"

Cindy: "No it was big and wolf like"

Rhonda: "That wasn't a Fox, that was a Coyote"

Cindy: "We saw a really cool wild animal on our way in..."

Stay tuned for more adventures...

The Summer went by so quickly

Well, last thing you all heard was that Randy had been hit by a car. He is doing OK although it was not a pleasant experience. Litigation is pending...Now for GREAT NEWS...

We got private placement for Max! After 2 yrs of tyring to get the Medford School District to do the right thing, they have. (Coincidence that we got private placement a month after the long standing SPED director retired, I THINK NOT!)He will be attending the School for Accelerated Learning in Waltham. It is a day school that specialize in kids with Asperger's. The director, Alex Micheals, has A.S. herself - so she gets it. Both Max and Sarah attended the camp that they run in the summer, Camp Goodtimes, a social pragmatics based camp. They both loved it. "Mom they shouldn't call this Camp Goodtimes, they should call it camp Greattimes!" I am indebted to both camp directors, Laurie Smith and Alex Micheals for the wonderful program they had this summer as well as the School they both run. Max is very exicited about going, he is doing incredibily well. His tics are under control (you would never notice - althought he was diagnosed with Tourette's this summer), he has made friends *real* friends. He is the happy, giddy, smiley, inquisitive, affectionate, little boy I knew was in there. We have our Max back, finally...

Sarah had a wonderful summer at camp as well. She was the belle of her group getting love notes from secret admirers and loving every minute of it. She made a very special friend, Cameron. They exchanged "Monkey" webkinz at the end of camp (does this mean they are going steady?". She is also very much looking forward to school starting. We had a great summer. We rented a 30ft RV and drove up to Canada for 8 days. More on that adventure in the next post. Stay tuned...