MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

I hope everyone has a fabulous Christmas and a great new year! It has been a great year here in the Meadors house. We are very lucky to have a beautiful home, 2 working cars, food on our table every night and love in this house. I am very lucky to have a husband who works harder than he needs to, so I can focus  on our children.

We are so lucky to have smart amazing kids. Who for the most part behave ;) 

We are so lucky to have a great extended family. We are more than lucky to have a great circle of friends, most of whom I consider our family. Thank you to those ladies who have kept me busy and sane this week, the first year both of my kids were in school full time. Although I don't think Brett appreciates how much I go to lunch with you ladies! :)  

I hope everyone has a GREAT 2009 and are as lucky and loved as we are!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKIE

Happy Birthday Jackie!!!! We all hope that you have a fabulous day, you deserve it!!!!! For the record, I do have new pictures, but I was going through the hard drive as saw these. 

Just to show you what we've been trying to fix

With Jake,

Here is what we have been reading since he was 4. This is actually one of his better writings, but the only one I had on hand. You can clearly see here why his spelling tests had to be checked verbally. ( reminder, you can click on any picture or image I post and it will become larger)

And the following is after wearing his glasses for one day. It is by no means perfect, but you can see he is no longer looking past the lines, and can write on them. It is legible. And probably the best Christmas gift I could get, having him ASK to read a book now. And ASK for paper so he can write and draw. I see him soaring through school now that this hinderance has been taken away from him.   

Education in the State of KY

Is about to get cut by 4% state wide. This year alone, Boone County Schools will loose 3.1 millon. That translates into 60 staff in the county loosing there jobs!!!   If you have a child in the state of KY school systems, or just care about education. PLEASE write you congressmen!!! I am headed to a meeting in Grant County tonight to hear Steve Beshear speak about education. He is against the cuts and tonight's meeting it to show that the people of KY are behind him. So if you are hanging around grant county tonight at 7, please come!

What is Convergence Insufficiency

I have learned the answer to this because Jake was diagnosed with this today. We are in early stages of figuring it all out. But he is getting glasses for reading and writing called Prizm lenses. And we are going to start vision therapy in school. Here is the highlights of what he has:HIGHLIGHTS:

• Convergence insufficiency is a common near vision problem that -- due to recent scientific research -- is gaining public recognition.
• Convergence insufficiency disorder interferes with a person's ability to see, read, learn, and work at near (close distances).
• In the past, convergence insufficiency disorder has often gone undetected because testing is not included in (1) pediatrician's eye tests; (2) school screenings; or (3) basic eye exams¹.
• A person can pass the 20/20 eye chart test and still have convergence insufficiency.
• Treatments range from passive (prism lenses) to active (office-based vision therapy).^1-4, 8
• Scientific research by the National Eye Institute has proven that office-based vision therapy is the most successful treatment.⁸
• Home-based pencil pushups therapy appears to be the most commonly prescribed treatment⁵, but scientific studies have shown that this treatment is ineffective.^3, 6, 8
• Eye surgery is rarely, if ever, recommended.^1,2
• While clinical results show that Convergence Insufficiency can be treated at any age, current scientific research has been completed on the pediatric population only.^{1, 2, 4, 8}

I don't know about how common the problem is because there is only 1 Dr in Northern KY who knows to test for this. 2 in the state, that I know of anyway. And trying to get anyone to recognize it took over 1 year!!! I'll keep updating as we know more, but if you'd like to read more you can go to

http://www.convergenceinsufficiency.org/

And of course I'll post a picture when we get his glasses!

Because he asked me to!

Rather than get ready for bed last night like he was supposed to be doing, he made this airplane. And proceeded to ask me to take pictures of it. So I thought I'd let you all see too!!!  By the way, Jake took his first set of AR tests at school yesterday ( its reading comprehension test you can take on every book you read, and you get points, then get to go to different parties) He got a 100% on both. And now has 2.0 points. He has to have 5.0 by January to go to the first grade Ice Cream social! It gets harder as you get older, case in point, Sophie has 80 points. Leader in her class!!!