Kathy and Calvin's Home Page

Apparently, Sara Gelser is voting for Hillary Clinton. I agree with almost everything Sara says and does, except for this point - and I won't hold it against her. Once Obama wins, she'll see the light. Or maybe not. I noticed Darlene Hooley, a sell out, used her super delegate powers to cast her vote for Clinton *before* Oregon voted. Nice. Did someone get a post in the Clinton White House promised to them?

Which makes me wonder. Did Sara get something promised to her for coming out in favor of Clinton? I'm a woman - and damn it, it's about friggin time a woman gets voted into the White House. But Clinton, an ardent supporter of Israel (not always at the best interest of the US citizens), and part of the good old boys club (read: corporations and lobbyists), is simply not the right woman.

Come on ladies - we can better. And that better is Obama.

About time. I don't like people losing their jobs but when the job involves taking money from people in the form of taxes and donations for a method of teaching that DOES NOT WORK, then I don't feel so bad.

Reading to children will not teach them to read. Yes, it might interest them in reading. Yes, it might be better than having the child watch TV. Yes, reading to children is considered quality time.

But no, it takes more than that to actually have the child read. For about $15, you can get the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Engelmann. You'll see what it takes to teach 3 to 5 year olds to read. With daily short lessons, any child can read. My son, who did not know all of his letter names, learned to read anyways because, well, you need to know the sounds of the letters, not the names, in order to read.

In having a 12 year old boy, sometimes you have to endure what you really don't want to. In this case, I was dragged to Seattle to attend a three day convention of nerds, costumes, rock concerts, and fandom in the form of Sakura-con, an anime convention with over 14,000 people.

Calvin likes Link (from Zelda), and so naturally he dressed as the character. Remember, this is not an ordinary Link costume - it is TOON Link!

He made his own shield which was unfortunately lost:

At the convention, almost everyone dressed up as a character:

Even the stuffed animals:

For the past few days we are, again, not receiving phone calls that connect. I answer the phone and the person on the other end just gets disconnected. Plus over the past 2 days I have not been able to make calls without getting many busy signals - yet they are not really busy as it was several different numbers - all that had answering services.

I am looking for another phone system that is somewhat reliable. Vonics is quite bad. I'd rather pay more and get reliable service. Any suggestions?

In picking through the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) website, I came across an article titled Helping Non-Readers Grades 4-12 - Introduction: Options for Reading Programs. From the face of it, you can't tell it is written for Oregon. It is.

The white paper outlines programs used in Oregon public schools to help 4th through 12th graders that are not reading at grade level. That can be anything from completely illiterate to simply a very slow reader. As you can imagine, a slow reader above 4th grade is a huge disadvantage as by that time kids are expected to read to learn. The learning to read should be done by 3rd grade. Just a side note - many poor urban school are able to get their kids to read by kindergarten.

Anyhow, article gives some interesting statistics:

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_091907_education_mexican_curri...

Some Oregon high schools are adopting Mexico's public school curriculum to help educate Spanish-speaking students with textbooks, an online Web site, DVDs and CDs provided free by Mexico to teach math, science and even U.S. history.

If you wonder why - don't. It is because Mexico has common standards and less of a strangle hold on curriculum by big text book companies. Oregon is small so the textbook companies design specific texts to the big states: Florida, California, and Texas. Oregon gets a compilation of 47 other states - thus under one company Oregon's math book is 25% bigger than the big states.

What surprises me is that Mexico feels knowledge is so important it gives it away. We charge for it. The Education Complex - big and small businesses make money off of our kids. Does it really have to be that way? Well, no. Just look south to Mexico.

I've worked for the Oregon University System for almost 12 years. I finally quit in January. We were able to sell the boyfriend's house and pay off my mortgage so we have no house payments. I live in a (used to be) rat infested house so it is not fancy - about 900 sq ft. But not having the payment freed me up to quit my job and finish my elementary teacher certification program at Western Governor's University. This is a distance ed school based in Salt Lake City.

The first month felt like I was skipping work. I actually felt like I was cheating my workplace by not going in. Looking down the streets, I would look for my old boss afraid I would get in trouble. These little moments of panic soon subsided. Trying to lose weight, I started walking my dog each morning for an hour - pure bliss. It's nice to enjoy your surroundings and have time to think.

I have a couple weeks left now of WGU. With one test left and 10 papers, I will complete the academic portion. In August/September I will start demonstration teaching (student teaching) somewhere in Corvallis. The school has not been set yet.

I studied up a little on the Soviet Afgan war that took place from 1979 to 1988. Almost 10 years and they lost 14,000 soldiers with 10,000 seriously injured and 415,000 which got sick from bad conditions. These numbers seem close to ours. We have almost 4,000 dead but probably more so if you consider those that died from natural conditions, accident, and suicide. Also, they had far less seriously wounded, we have more. Remember, I am comparing 1/2 of the Soviet war to the US-Iraq war over the past 5 years. The conditions are better for our soldiers but they are estimating that tens of thousands will suffer from PTSD in the future.

It seems our troop rotation might be on a longer period as the Soviets had over 600,000 troops over the 9 year period. I don't remember the exact number but I think the US has sent about 400,000 troops over to the area over the past 5 years.

Lastly, the Soviets never had more than 105,000 troops occupying one country. We currently have 180,000 spread all over the place.

I have avoided the Corvallis Clinic until my doctor moved. Now I'm with them. The doctor, Dr. Barrett, is great. The behemoth corporation he works for is not. I've seen a doctor 3 times in like 12 years. One of them was after I gave birth. I've seen a nurse practitioner for the "annual" pap smear - which I guess is now every 3 years.

The newest thing? The idiots send out a bill directly to you - BEFORE billing insurance. I called their number, gave my name and account number. I am not in the greatest of moods. I ask the lady, it is my job to bill the insurance? It was pretty obvious the insurance was not billed as their balance was $0 and mine was the entire amount.

No, was the answer. We billed very quickly after the lab. Really? No duh. Just ignore the bill.

Well I'm glad I have time to call them and follow up. If only I were older and had a health problem that kept me from calling to follow up. Wow, they may have actually received a check in the mail from both the patient and the insurance company - once they got around to billing the insurance company, that is.

With the finishing and installation of the upper cabinets and bar area, the kitchen is finally done.

Here is the before:

Here is the after:

When I bought the house, the tiny 50 x 100 lot contained 3 very large redwoods. The first to go was the one planted right next to the garage.

That was four years ago. Sure made my house look tiny (which it is).

$159,000

120 Pitt St. SE, Albany, OR 97322

* 3 bedroom, 1 bath
* 1,200 sqft home on .46 acre (20,160 sqft) lot
* Built in 1945, fully updated 2005 through 2007 with completed permit
* Detached 20x24 garage/shop

Fully updated inside and outside and from top to bottom. Bright bungalow with great layout and lots of storage. Stays cool in the summer and efficient to heat in the winter. Low property taxes at $1070 - even after final inspection on permits. Quiet and away from neighbors.

Bamboo flooring throughout main floor, porcelain tile in bathroom and utility. High quality pleated shades/blinds throughout.

Hardiplank 50 year siding with new 30 year warranty architectural composite roofing.

All new windows, 12 gage electric wiring, copper water lines, waste lines, efficient gas furnace, solid bamboo flooring, tile, appliances, granite counters, solid wood cabinetry (no particle board), and efficient gas instant-on Paloma water heater.

There's a contest to win a wii if you write a personal finance story over at http://www.getrichslowly.org and email the link to JD. Hmmm. Personal finance is so, well, personal. But here it goes as I'd love to sell the wii and donate to our nonprofit, Parents of Autistic Children of Oregon (http://poac-or.org). Now that we are an "official" 501(c)(3).

I guess I run my personal finances much like I've run nonprofits: Try to pay with cash; if you are going to lose money, make sure the payout is for the greater good; and always have a goal in mind.

The boyfriend and I are looking to sell his house. The sale of the house could pay for all or most of my house's mortgage. When I pointed this out, I could see the wheels in his head turning. Wow, could you imagine not being slave to a mortgage company? You are free to quit your job (assuming you have other income and no other loans) and you are just, free! I've heard of mortgage burning parties...

I got this message (see below) earlier regarding creating separate boards for the Oregon School for the Blind and the Oregon School for the Deaf. It is nice that approximately 2000 children in the state of Oregon are served directly or indirectly from these services. If you don't know, they have separate schools for them.

Let's flash over to over 3500 children with autism in the state of Oregon. Now I'm not one to say that we should take away services and buildings that serve other disabilities. I'm not saying that we should take away funding. I'm just asking, other than Regional Services (which does NOT necessarily give direct services to students with disabilities), what do our students with autism get as far as specialized services are concerned?

ANSWER: About 1/2 hour of Speech and Langauge therapy a week - often in group sessions.

Autism specialists, special ed teachers, educational speech therapists, occupational therapists, and regular education teachers really do not have the expertise in the field of autism to be effective. It's sad, really. They may know things about autism but they know nothing about research in effective practices. No kidding.

Apparently, cabinets are not that hard to make if you have a good design and decent equipment. We just purchased some Bessey Cabinet Clamps to help with the doors. They just came the other day and look extremely easy to use, flexible, and handy. We look forward to adding drawers and doors - after staining and polyurethaning the cabinets.

Right now, the upper cabinet have been temporarily installed to ensure fit:

They will then come down and get finished.