Our Island Family Life

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Logging

0 comments Posted by perphila at 9:48 AM

Where you can see all the foot tracks is our fire road, not an "official" road but wide enough, if not properly maintained, for our fire truck and ambulance. This all used to be covered in trees. In the summer they would be hanging over the road for beautiful shade. You could only see the sky as the wind shifted the trees. Now it's a barren waste land. I need to find pics from before to show the comparison.

The highest point on the island. You were not able to see the ocean from here before. Shocking.

Irony? Tragedy?

0 comments Posted by perphila at 9:14 AM

After I posted all those links yesterday about our school and all the improvements we have done for it, today I got a link in my email about the city thinking of closing our school. Our island school has been very proactive. Things like our computers, ipad, smart board, green house, even supplies like tissues and writing utensils have been provided by grants we have submitted for ourselves, donations and fundraising. Our school even won an award for using the lowest amount electricity in the state. Now before you say, "well, you are a tiny school so...", this was calculated out by previous usage and other math stuff to be fair for all schools. We have to supply our own drinking water after the well became contaminated and it is volunteers not the school budget that is paying to have it taken care of. Basically, our island pays the highest taxes for the city due to all the waterfront or water view homes and we get pretty much zip in return. We are lucky to get the salaries for employees here. One teacher, one Ed Tech, one custodian and one sanitation/road works person. It costs $120,000 to have our school. We pay over $350,000 in taxes. Most of the school costs are the teachers salaries and the custodian. We pay for our own building maintenance except the cleaning. We don't add to food costs since we have no school lunch program, the city pays for the building insurance. The PTC paid for our heating, siding, playground (with a grant) and replacement windows. We should be getting more not less. The whole island gets less than the rest of the city. We have talked of leaving the city before but with only about 60 of us here year round it would be tough. I would like to though to see the city lose a huge chunk of taxes then see how they like it. We still have dirt roads here (which we like) and yet have to every year get more and more regulated by the city. They want us to have street signs now and we recently had to start paying for registrations for our golf carts (more money to the city). No wonder the city runs out of money. Anyway, I am just ranting. If they try and close the school we may just go private. We have talked about it before as a backup plan to the city closing the school. We will be having four kids coming into the school over the next few years and there are five in there now. The school has gone down to one student before and that was really bad, around 15 years ago. One of the other island schools our school communicates to only has two students and they are brothers. A constant struggle for a disappearing way of life. So sad. I understand the need to cut costs but we pay our way for our school and then some.

Press Herald Article

The article was wrong about the number of students. We have five officially enrolled (Sofie is one of them) with three younger students who are there every day preparing for preschool next year so we have eight there everyday.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

How's the Weather?

0 comments Posted by perphila at 11:42 AM

On the left I have added some links. All of the pictures above can be found in various places in the links. I added the Cliff school's web page, the island's web page which has some other links in it (check out lobster tales), link to the schools YouTube page with lots of their videos and projects and two weather links. One is a camera set to a view of our wharf which refreshes every 5 minutes or so so you can see what the weather is doing and if the boat is here...:), the other is a blog link to a site that connects some of the outer island schools study of the weather sponsored by the Island Institute. These schools also communicate to each other via the smart board for group activities like book group discussions. These groups also got together for the middle school retreat Cade went to a few weekends ago. Lot's of stuff to look through and revisit.

A little explanation of the above pics.

Pic 1 at the top - Taken the first year we moved here. Cade was still 2 almost three. Sofie wasn't even a glimmer. This was the largest class the school has had since we have been here. Back row: Judy (teacher), Lynn (5th grade, now 19, college student, has a job and boyfriend), Will M. (5th grade, the "other" Will; 18 and also in college. He had to take the rest of the semester off due to illness but will be back in the fall; currently on island and Connor's "bro"), Faith (Will's mom and Ed Tech at the time). Next row: Noah (5th grade, 18 and college student, his family moved off island due to due father's cancer, he passed several years ago, in contact with Connor via facebook), Chris (4th grade, Lynn's younger brother, high school senior), Will (4th grade), Jessica (3rd grade, now a junior, currently living off island in town but moving back this summer, has "the witch" for English and despises her), Bottom row: Andrew (2nd grade, Lynn, and Chris's younger brother, elder siblings to Aiden who I babysit, all the older siblings moved off island to live with their dad but Andrew is moving back good friend with Connor), Sam (kindergarten, now is 8th grade and goes to the same school as Cade), Dylan (kindergarten, also in 8th grade at the same school, younger brother to Jessica), Connor (2nd grade).

Pic 2 - Dylan (1st grade) and Will (5th grade) on a geography assignment. Cade uses that coat now.

Pic 3 - Olivia coming to school this year.

Pic 4 - Summer time on the other side of the island from our house. A nice place to relax.

Pic 5 - Our Post Office (cross fingers)

Pic 6 - Will holding a crab (5th grade)

Monday, February 7, 2011

Confirmed

0 comments Posted by perphila at 7:41 PM

The girl from Cade's school passed away Friday evening. She did commit suicide by hanging. Her parents found her only seconds afterwords but the damage was too much and she only deteriorated until she finally passed. What a sad and terrible tragedy.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Good and the Bad...why is there always the bad?

0 comments Posted by perphila at 9:58 AM

Has anybody checked the school web page lately? There are a lot of interesting video clips. I will post a link on the sidebar so I won't keep doing it here...:) The xmas party play is on there. It was so cute. Anyway, the above picture was taken before that last two huge snowstorms. You can only see the snowman's head now the rest of him is buried in snow. This winter has been interesting. I am not complaining at all. It reminds me of winters when I was a kid. Lot's of snow and lots of days below zero for good ice to harden on the lakes. It had been warmer and not as much fun in recent years. I figure if it's going to be cold and bothersome then there better be something to show for it like good ice for skating and enough snow for playing in. In the above pic, left to right from the back: Olivia; Mr. Snowman; Pop Pop (the school teachers dad, all the kids have adopted him as another grandpa); Second row: Elwen; Julian; Aiden; Bottom: Eliza; Kai; Sofie.

The bad, last Wednesday a girl at Cade's school (8th grade) was rushed to the hospital and is now in critical care. She did herself significant harm. Afterwords, (another reason why I despise facebook) some kids at the school got on her page and started leaving nasty comments about what she had done. I don't know why she did what she did, rumors of some bullying have been circulating. Certainly what's going on now supports that. Cade was rather upset. Shocked would be the better word. He had tears in his eyes telling me about it. Another girl who lives here on the island was in the same class and was also stunned. The other mom and I talked about it Friday and what we could do as far as talking things out with our kids. Cade of course had thought back on what he went through seeing his dad try and hang himself. At this point no one knows what the girl at school did but her intent was serious. She is on life support. There was some frank talk about the whole subject. The whole thing is just so sad. To top it off, this morning Cade said he heard that her parents took her off life support this morning and that she passed away. I hope it's just a rumor.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Tired

1 comments Posted by perphila at 8:12 PM

I have realized that when I am tired and have a headache I can get nasty. Not outwardly but in my thoughts. If I have one or the other I am ok but combined it's a nasty mix.

I had to bring the kids to town for a visit with Sean. I didn't sleep much last night because Sofie was having growing pains and we were all out of pain reliever so all I could do was have heat on her knees. Cade used the last of the kids medicine last week. He fell on the ice and smacked his head pretty hard. He was fine at first but he developed a headache and I had to keep him home a day from school to rest for a slight concussion. Will also stayed home that day because he also slipped on the hill and rolled to the bottom twisting his already bad knee. Both are fine now. So, I left with Sofie on the noon boat figuring if I had to go in anyway I might as well get a few groceries. Still, I wouldn't have gone and waited until Monday (because Connor has a session) to shop but Cade had to stay after school to make up a quiz he missed that day he was out. He could of taken the late bus but I figured I could pick him up since I was going to be in town anyway. However, if Sean had called or emailed or something this morning I would have just stayed home and had let Cade take the bus to the bay lines and come home. I am sure by now you can guess Sean was not waiting to pick up the kids this afternoon. We waited until the last minute but nothing. I called home and asked Connor if his dad had called. No. I got home and checked my email. Nothing. Then around 7:30 he calls. I also had to deal with Sofie throwing a tantrum about not wanting to go "over there" which brought on the first feelings of my now increasing headache. He asked me if I had gotten his message. I said no. I took the noon boat into town. He said he had called (no messages btw) and that he had no way to get a hold of me. I reminded him I don't have a cell phone. Then he said he didn't have Cade's cell number either. So? Cade would have had it anyway not me. I didn't point that out but who needs logic anyway? He asked to speak with Cade and when he was done they hung up. No explanations for me at all. I was really pissed. Still, I didn't ask Cade anything. That would be bad and bringing him in the middle of us "not communicating". I was going to ask what happened but he hung up before I could. Since I am a fool and like throwing things like the benefit of doubt around like candy I figured something important must have come up. For a few seconds I even thought maybe someone had to go to the hospital or something, maybe the car died? Will wondered if his dad had had an accident. Connor said even he did he wouldn't care. Will said he wouldn't either but maybe that was the reason. I was too tired and my head was pounding too hard to comment at all at their cruel and bitter words. To not care if their dad was to die in a car wreak? Are things so very bad? Cade then said his dad told him he was sick and so was everyone over there. All of them were throwing up non stop all day, even the baby. So, Sean made a good call to not have the kids come over. I felt bad. Until Cade told me they have been sick since the day before yesterday. He knew they were all sick so he should have just have let me know yesterday. It's all stupid to even bother over or get mad about. I realize that. Still, as I said, headache and tired don't care about that. I wasn't able to do any school work today and I really needed to. I am mad at the waste of my time. I am mad Sofie had to get so upset. I just need to go to bed. Things will be better tomorrow.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Too Much....

1 comments Posted by perphila at 10:15 AM

Things have been whirling around at quite a pace recently. I have been remiss in a few things and so have gotten behind. I am really struggling to keep up with my school work. My mind is so full I am having trouble focusing on the material. I am getting it done but if I am retaining it is a different question.

Monday was a big day. Connor and I met with his school counselor and principal to come up with a plan. To make a long story short I am going to home school him for the short term, for the rest of this trimester for sure. The goal is to get all his grades to passing from the first trimester, leaving the second to summer school and hopefully getting him back in school for the third. This in between time is hoping he will be adjusting to meds and therapy with the goal of getting him through this rough patch. After that visit we went on to his therapy session. He was quickly referred to a pdoc in their group who could take him sooner rather than later. That was supposed to be Wednesday. We had a blizzard that day so it was rescheduled for the 16th. I was really angry that it has to be so far out. That date of the 2nd was perfect. Too bad life isn't perfect and I spent most of yesterday shoveling instead. Anyway, on Tuesday I did all the paper work for the state and school for homeschooling. Thankfully I have done it before so I wasn't clueless. Then I emailed all his teachers asking them to fully inform me of what he had been doing and what he needed "exactly" to get his credits for that first trimester so we could move forward. As of today no one has responded. I am going to call later today the school counselor and let her know of the lack of response and ask for her email as well. She really is my go to person at the school at this point. I used to have a great contact with his crew leader last year but now his crew leader is a person neither Connor or I trust. We talked about this with the principal on Monday and he agreed that if Connor comes back for the third trimester that he can get a new crew leader. Sadly, this crew leader is his English teacher so we have no choice but to work with him. Connor just can't at all so it's all me. Speaking of English, Connor told me that during that first trimester he had to write journal entries and be involved in class discussion for a book. That all sounded fine. He didn't have a problem with that. Kathryn felt which of course then Sean felt Connor should instead of writing the journal entries write a 26 page essay instead to "get a better grade" and wouldn't let Connor do anything else. Now this school has a pass fail system. No A,B,C,D,F thing. 1 and 2 is fail, 3 and 4 is pass. Connor would have gotten a 3 just doing as he was told by his teacher. All that extra work maybe could have gotten him a 4 except he didn't do what was actually assigned. He got a 3 for his effort which was nice but the whole thing burned Connor. Now he thinks no matter how much effort he puts in the best he can do is a 3. He thinks he should be in a school where he can get "C's" which is all he is capable of. I am well aware this is the depression talking because he has always been able to get B's or higher with little effort. Telling him this however is fruitless right now. He isn't in a place to "get it". I hope we can get really started by tomorrow.

I went to the post office yesterday to drop of some bills (ouch), while I was there Anna (our postmaster) told me there was an opening for fill in postmaster for her and did I want to apply? Duh. I had to do everything online at home. I have no idea if anyone else is going to apply (I hope not) but I did and if I get it then I will working every Saturday from 8am until 1pm and any days Anna has off for vacation or for conferences. No benefits sadly but it would put me in the running to be the postmaster when she retires. That would be nice. Too many what if's right now. I am not even crossing my fingers. The thing that is in my favor is that I live here.

There is of course lots of "other stuff" going on. So much I am tired just thinking about it. Right now, I am going to make myself a pot pie and snuggle with Sofie while she watches a movie and I do my school reading. Multitasking is my new middle name.