PS Did I mention that I consciously thought about channeling Vortex and Erin yesterday? Totally did.

Oh course, I am now officially going to the the bitchy stepmom who turned her son into a freak.

You're going to be that anyway. You could be an actual craxy-ass raging bitch (in other words, what she's projecting of her own behavior) or you could be the most sane, reasonable human on the planet, looking for a solution that's best for everyone, most especially, M, (which is what you actually are, which is massively threatening to her), and she's going to paint you as the bitchy stepmom.

So embrace it. I mean, you don't have to do anything more than what you've been doing, which is be sane, supportive, and acting in the best interests of the most important parties involved.

And, you've got us. :)

Rice Krispies:

Nate did his first portfolio review at school on Thursday and he did great. He might have done better if he'd actually prepared a bit more, but he was in massive, nervous denial about the whole thing and had rebuffed his supervising teacher's help in preparing (oh, child...).

But he showed off ability in all of his subjects and showed us examples of his work: My goodness, y'all-- the kid who at the beginning of the year absolutely balked at writing more than one sentence at a time presented us with several different examples of essays he'd written-- of particular note were the ones on the history of Magic: the Gathering and a compare and contrast of three WWII-era tanks, whereupon he presented an argument and a conclusion with supporting evidence.

Most importantly, he was able to articulate why he loved this school and why, for the first time, he enjoyed going to school.

Can I say again how flippin' happy I am we moved? I have my kid back.

Barb, that's great! I'm so glad Nate's in a place that works for him now.

Barb is so very wise.

{{{Erin}}}

also yay Nate

Barb, first, congrats on the way cool award! Secondly, you always sounded so miserable in Florida; I love reading the happy in all of your posts. It's always there even when you don't mention it.

Nate the Great! That's wonderful.

I know that Suzi's move has also been really good for CJ.

Sometimes you gotta pull out the geographical solution.

Erin, you're doing the lord's work. A freaky, nerdy lord who loves all his Lego lovin' fantasy fans.

How much do I love the idea of Fairy Gothmothers and Summer Camp for Weirdos? (I'll be the off season caretaker! Can we have goats?)

Secondly, you always sounded so miserable in Florida; I love reading the happy in all of your posts. It's always there even when you don't mention it.

You know, Lewis and I, we own our choices. We loved Ohio and made the choice to move to Florida primarily for the kids-- while the last couple of years there wound up really miserable, it was still a valuable time for the kids to be closer to their grandparents. In hindsight, I might not make the same choice, but we did and I do try to see what positives came out of it and one of those things was the fact that the kids are close to their grandparents.

However, that said, the move to Florida was valuable on another level-- we were comfortable in Ohio. We loved it there. And I'm not certain that if we'd remained there, we would have ultimately made the move to Seattle, even though it was something we'd dreamt about doing for so many years. Well, I might have, but I'm a bit more adventurous than Lewis-- you generally have to give him a good reason to entertain such drastic change. It was the utter misery in Florida that prompted the change, so from that standpoint, I can't be sorry about it. It was what we needed to do at that time and it ultimately led us here. It's all good.

Barb, that's so exciting for Nate! Excellent news!

I'm glad you moved too; things seem to be going much, much better for you there.

I cannot, cannot articulate enough how much letting me vent is allowing me to not fall (much) to her level, and is letting me blow off steam so I can be rational and keep M in the forefront, and not let my dislike of her and her methods affect that focus.

A freaky, nerdy lord who loves all his Lego lovin' fantasy fans.

I try to live ma life in the Lawd's light...

Pix, that absolutely cracks my shit up. We need t-shirts: "Charter Member of the Ass-kicking Smart Bitches Brigade."