The life of a school SLP and other tales

If you happen to be a school-based Speech Language Pathologist (Sarah A?) then you are very well aware that April and May are the absolute worst two months of the year when it comes to job related stress.  

All the teachers suddenly decide to refer all the kids in their class for communication evaluations even though  they haven't ever mentioned them to you the whole school year. So, paperwork.

50% of the IEPS you write in a year are due these two months and you have to not only write them but attend the meetings for them. So, paperwork.

Your caseload is at full capacity (actually more than full capacity) and nobody transfers out because it's the end of the year, but somehow you get like three kids with IEPs to transfer IN and you have to add them to your already bursting therapy schedule.  So, more paperwork.

And don't even get me started on the three year re-evaluations and initial evaluations and the crushing paperwork that go along with them this time of year.

Don't believe me?

All of this was to make the point that I get pretty stressed at work this time of year.  It's nothing that I can't handle, I have been doing this for 13 years after all, but I definitely feel more pressure in April and May.  Sometimes when I feel that pressure I just shut down and look at funny memes to avoid writing ANOTHER evaluation report or ANOTHER IEP.

These were my favorites last Tuesday, April 4th.  I was guffawing like a lunatic in my office. 

When I got home from work that day my dad came up from Tucson to pick my mom up from the airport.  She had been in Ireland and Wales for two weeks with her cousins. 

I made a taco buffet for dinner. 

On Wednesday the 5th I made a HUGE shopping trip to Target.  I bought Rogue One. 

Elliott read to Michael at bedtime. 

And then Ginger started an intense staring contest with me that lasted for like two hours.

On Thursday the 6th I found some more ways to avoid writing reports and IEPs.  I hung my paint by numbers canvas in my office. 

The donut banner was from the Target trip the day before. 

We read this book to Elliott that night.  My grandma bought this for Spencer when he was a baby. 

Michael asked Elliott what they were eating and he said, "buttered croissants".

And I have a terrible, terrible, terrible confession to make.  Michael took the kids to an event at Spencer's orthodontist's office on Thursday night and they didn't get back until about 8:30 pm. And we completely forgot to take his monthly picture.  It's the first time I've missed a day in about five years.

Full disclosure. This was taken at 7:00 am on the 7th.  

FAIL