Teacher Writes Loser on Assignment

loserHave you seen this story yet? A teacher in North Carolina  wrote “-20% for being a loser” on a 6th grade girl’s paper. I was outraged!!! As if being a 6th grade girl is not hard enough. I have had to deal with my children having some horrible teachers over the years but none of them have been dumb enough to leave proof on paper.

The mother of the child had complained in the past about the teacher writing this on papers and it stopped for awhile until this new paper. The teacher even threw this student’s pencil case out into the hall. The teacher defends himself by stating this is just how he relates to students. I am so sick of people saying things like that. Wrong is wrong! I do not care if that is “just how you are”.

Parents at this school are actually defending this teacher saying that they feel the teacher’s tactics help. I am sure that these are the same parents that think it is okay to tell their children that they are stupid.

Negative feedback never works! All it does is crush the child.

The teacher also states that he writes loser on the papers to relate to the students better and use their language. I have also had to deal with many teachers that try too hard to talk and act like the students. It is funny how they all will say that the students do not have enough respect for them. Well I wonder why!?!

Okay long story short… I am shocked at how many horrible teachers there are out there!

Yes, there are many wonderful teachers too. Teachers can be one of the greatest influences in a child’s life. They can help shape our children. They help them create a dream for their future and can give them the confidence to go for it.

What does a teacher like this give them?

(closed) Giveaway - Fruit Snacks Win & Give

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It is giveaway time again but this time the giveaway is helping a great cause. Betty Crocker sent me two of their specially marked Win & Give fruit snack boxes and they are giving two boxes to one of our lucky readers also! In the spirit of the Win & Give program Betty Crocker also made a $25 donation to One Laptop Per Child for me doing the giveaway and will make another $25 donation when the winner is chosen.

Win & Give is also a giveaway Betty Crocker is doing to help One Laptop per Child, an organization that creates educational opportunities for the world´s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. For your chance to win, simply enter the unique online code printed on participating Betty Crocker Fruit Flavored Snack packages on www.WinOneGiveOne.com.

For our giveaway all you need to do is comment on this giveaway post and you will enter to win two specially marked Win & Give Fruit Snack boxes. This giveaway ends at midnight on March 17th.

Check out this video to learn more about the One Laptop Per Child program and the Win One Give One program.

Extra Entries

*Blog about the giveaway and include a link back to this post. Make a new comment here with the URL to your post. This is three extra entries!

*Follow on Twitter. If you are already a follower it still counts. Make a new comment here that includes your follower name.

*Subscribe to the RSS Feed (right side bar) and make a new comment.

*Add The Erickson Looney Bin to your blogroll. Make a new comment and be sure to use your URL when you post it. 2 Extra entries!

*Fav The Erickson Looney Bin on Technorati and make a new comment.

*Share this giveaway post on Kirtsy, Digg, Twitter, Stumble, or anything else you can think of. Each one counts for one entry so each should have a separate comment. It must include the link where it can be found to count.

I will be deleting comments that do not follow the rules so others get a fair chance. The winner will have 48 hours to email me with their mailing address. If they fail to contact me a new winner will be chosen.

My New Ride

expeditionI am falling in love with my new vehicle! I had some worries in the beginning when I realized just how huge it was but now that I am used to it I love it!

I had my Jeep Grand Cherokee for so many years that driving a new vehicle was very uncomfortable. I hate driving an unfamiliar vehicle. It makes me very tense when driving and I already do not like driving that much. It took me about a week before I started to feel more comfortable but now I absolutely love it!

I got a Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer Edition with the big V8 engine. I still get a kick out of hearing the engine start it has that tough sound of a Ford F-150. It also has the roominess of a huge van. I can not believe how big it is inside! We got one with 3rd row seating so the girls can spread out and relax when we go places.

I am still learning though. Everyday I find a new button or a new light. Just the other day a windshield washer light came on up by where the check engine light would be. James looked at me like I was a big dork when I said that I had never seen one of those before.

I will need to bring it into an auto shop at some point. The previous owner removed the cd changer and tv before they sold it and I want to replace them. Heck we bought the vehicle so we would have a large vehicle for long rides maybe we should make it a trip and find a San Diego auto repair place. I could use some sun light right about now!

I Don’t Wanna!

paintDo you ever have so much to do that you just want to avoiding doing it all? That is how I have been lately. I keep putting things off and then there is a mad rush to get it all done.

I am hoping that we can get a lot done in the next few days. The girls have an early release today and they have no school on Friday.

This last weekend we did a lot of prepping for the new furniture. Sunday we got half of the living room painted but we still have a second color to paint.

I filled our front hall with tons of boxes of things that we had in the living room. I also filled the hallway between the front hall and the living room with things. Today I realized that the new furniture will actually have to come into the house! Such a silly thing to not think of before hand.

This means that once I am finally finished with painting the living room I will have to then figure out what I will be doing with all of the things that are in the front hall and hallway. When the furniture finally arrives I will then have to move everything again to a final resting place.

Then I get to pull everything out of the kitchen so we can paint the kitchen.  There is one large wall that is shared by the kitchen and the living room so the kitchen has to be painted too.

At this point I am pretty much feeling sorry for myself and wondering why I had to beg James for new furniture. This is too much work!

Updates

001Life has been crazy here in our house lately. Yeah, I know go figure! I have not been able to make many posts lately with how busy we have been so I guess some updates are in order. Life should be turning more normal now so I will be able to write more often again.

In the last two weeks… We have bought a new vehicle. Then we had a 3 foot by 5 foot hole cut into our living room wall to get to the bathroom plumbing. We bought new furniture and now while we wait for the furniture we are getting the living room ready. This means lots of plastering and painting. Tomorrow is supposed to be painting day but we are way behind schedule.

We also had another vet visit for Max (Pugimus Maximus). I already mentioned that we had to raise his dosage of Phenobarbital for his seizures. It has finally been 2 weeks so it was time to check on the levels that he had in his blood to be sure that we were not doing liver damage. His dosage was considered high for his weight.

The blood test showed that the Phenobarbital in his blood was actually on the low side of what is acceptable so now we upped his dose some more and we go back in another two weeks for a blood test. The vet also did some physical tests on Max and said that Max seems to have bad neurological problems that could cause seizures.

So once again we are giving him more drugs and just hoping for the best. The visit ended with the normal… “Hope for the best but realize that the pills might not help for very long”.

Well, we are now at 6 weeks since he was first hospitalized which is longer than anyone expected. So we just take it one day at a time.

(closed) Giveaway - Chocolate Cheerios Gift Pack

chocolate_cheeriosHave you tried Chocolate Cheerios yet? We were sent a Chocolate Cheerios Gift Pack so we could review the new cereal. They were a big hit with my girls. They have a great chocolate flavor without having too much sugar. Some cereals add way too much sugar.

There is a Cheerios flavor for everyone. Even as babies my girls loved snacking on the plain Cheerios. Now there are so many choices! I loved when they added berries and yogurt bursts. Now we have tried the new banana nut and chocolate and we love them too.

The Giveaway

One lucky winner will receive a Chocolate Cheerios gift pack. The gift pack includes a box of Chocolate Cheerios, a ceramic cereal bowl, a bar of chocolate soap, chocolate body wash, and a shower puff.

How To Enter

You must have an address in the US to enter. The winner will be chosen on February 12th.

***Your main entry will be to comment on this post and tell us your favorite Cheerios flavor.

Extra Entries

*Blog about the giveaway and include a link back to this post. Make a new comment here with the URL to your post. This is three extra entries!

*Follow on Twitter. If you are already a follower it still counts. Make a new comment here that includes your follower name.

*Subscribe to the RSS Feed (right side bar) and make a new comment.

*Add The Erickson Looney Bin to your blogroll. Make a new comment and be sure to use your URL when you post it. 2 Extra entries!

*Fav The Erickson Looney Bin on Technorati and make a new comment.

*Share this giveaway post on Kirtsy, Digg, Twitter, Stumble, or anything else you can think of. Each one counts for one entry so each should have a separate comment. It must include the link where it can be found to count.

I will be deleting comments that do not follow the rules so others get a fair chance. The winner will have 48 hours to email me with their mailing address. If they fail to contact me a new winner will be chosen.

The prize pack for this giveaway and a free prize pack for me is provided by Cheerios through MyBlogSpark.

Max’s Christmas Outfit

max_xmasI know I am posting these pictures really late but Max was in the doggie hospital for awhile after Christmas and I was not ready to post the pictures. He is now back home and feeling better but we still do not know what is wrong with him. It is a very long story and I will post about it soon

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In the meantime, this was Max’s Christmas outfit. We bought it early and thought he would have grown more by then. He was not too happy with the hood. It kept flopping over his head.

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Eventually he just got sick of it so we had to take it off. Maybe it will fit better next year!

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Epilepsy or PDE

cuddly_maxI mentioned before that Max was at the doggie hospital for awhile. He had been jerking in his sleep and waking himself up for a quite a while. It was seen as normal “puppy dreams”. I was told that puppies run and play in their dreams and often jerk and wake themselves up. Slowly the jerking was stronger and more often.

I started to worry when he actually woke up running in circles two days in a row. Then one morning he just did not seem right. He was a bit out of it and wobbly. That day his back legs started to slide out from under him on the kitchen floor. That is when he had his first seizure. James brought him to the doggie hospital but it is 45 minutes away. He continued to seizure on the way and was unresponsive when they arrived.

They did tons of tests that all showed that he was perfectly healthy and they gave him anti-seizure medicine. The first night the doctor on duty called me and told me that it could be a few things. Max is only 4 months old so he should be too young to be affected by any of them.  We talked about the things I had been looking up online and that is when he asked me if I looked up seizures in Pugs. I never specified the kind of dog. I just looked up seizures in dogs. He then told me that I really needed to look up information about Pugs with seizures.

When I got off the phone with him I looked it up right away. That is when my heart broke. Pugs have many medical problems one of which is seizures. Pugs are more likely to have Epilepsy than other dogs and they also get Pug Dog Encephalitis (PDE). Very little is known about PDE other than that it is always fatal. Both of these should never show up in a dog that is only 4 months old.

During the time that he was in the hospital he was blind and barely able to walk. Every shift change the new doctor would call us with updates and their opinion. Over and over we were told that it did not look good. He should not have still been blind and wobbly but they did not want us to give up on him.

They still had no clue what was wrong with him and wanted us to get an MRI done. An MRI would cost close to $3,000 on top of the many hundreds we already spent. James and I felt that it would be a lot of money spent just to find out ahead of time if he would die. He was finally able to see a little and move a little better 3 days later so they told us to come pick him up. They put him on anti-seizure medicine and steroids. They avoided saying it up front but it sounded a lot like… If he is epileptic this should help. If not he will die.

I was scared to death when he came home. I thought he would have been in a better condition. A blind dog that can barely walk is heart breaking. By the third day he was back to his old self. He was running around and being the same energetic ankle biter. He did still have one or two seizures a day though. The doctors said that they were concerned that he was still having seizures but they would not say anything else. One doctor kind of clued me in when she said that she would hate to put a dog to sleep and have it not be PDE.

Max continued to get better up until day 10. That is when he started to have more seizures. Today is day 14 and he has had cluster seizures all day. His anti-seizure medicine has been increased today but it is not looking good. We hope that his medicine was just not a high enough dose and he will get better but it could very well mean that it is in fact PDE.

I kept meaning to write this post but it was too soon…

We just keep taking it day by day and hoping for the best.

(Closed)Giveaway - Yoplait Frozen Smoothie and Blender

yoplait-webIt is giveaway time again! I just received a free package of Yoplait Frozen Smoothie and a Hamilton Beach Single Serve Blender. Now Yoplait and MyBlogSpark would like to give the same thing away to 1 lucky reader.

Yoplait Smoothie is a two serving pouch that can be found in the freezer section. It contains frozen fruit and yogurt pieces all ready to be added to milk and blended. They come in Strawberry Banana, Strawberry Mango Pineapple, and Triple Berry. We tried the Triple Berry flavor and loved it!

The Hamilton Beach Single Serve Blender is a great little blender that is just the right size for one smoothie. The cup is actually a travel mug with a lid that you can drink out of.

triple-berry-yoplait-smoothie-jpegMornings can be crazy and often times people just grab donuts on the way to work because they do not have time for a good breakfast. If you combine the Yoplait Smoothie with the Hamilton Beach Single Serve Blender you can have a breakfast made and out the door with you in just minutes.

Donuts just give you fat and sugar. Yoplait Frozen Smoothies give you milk, a full serving of fruit, and the live & active cultures that are in regular yogurt. Plus they taste great!

Be sure to enter all of our Current Giveaways.

HOW TO ENTER

You must have an address in the US to enter. The winner will be chosen on January 28th.

***Your main entry will be to comment on this post about what flavor you would like to try.

EXTRA ENTRIES

*Blog about the giveaway and include a link back to this post. Make a new comment here with the URL to your post. This is three extra entries!

*Follow on Twitter. If you are already a follower it still counts. Make a new comment here that includes your follower name.

*Subscribe to the RSS Feed (right side bar) and make a new comment.

*Add The Erickson Looney Bin to your blogroll. Make a new comment and be sure to use your URL when you post it. 2 Extra entries!

*Fav The Erickson Looney Bin on Technorati and make a new comment.

*Share this giveaway post on Kirtsy, Digg, Twitter, Stumble, or anything else you can think of. Each one counts for one entry so each should have a separate comment. It must include the link where it can be found to count.

I will be deleting comments that do not follow the rules so others get a fair chance. The winner will have 48 hours to email me with their mailing address. If they fail to contact me a new winner will be chosen.

Baby and Pregnancy Articles

mother_and_babyI was just introduced to a pretty neat site called Baby Base. They have some great articles on everything Baby and child. They cover topics from trying to have a baby to childhood topics.

When I was pregnant with my first child I had tons of questions that I did not feel comfortable asking. I loved being able to look up articles online and find out more info. Everyone is different so I loved reading everything that was out there.

I love that they include early signs of pregnancy. That is the number one time that women want to ask questions but they do not want to say anything to people they know. Many women do not want to say anything until they are completely sure they are pregnant but if they have not had a baby before they do not know the early signs.

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