Sweeby, I know this is so hard for you AND for your son. As a special ed teacher, I can throw out a couple ideas that have worked for me with some of my kiddoes. I have had everything from ID (the old MR), LD, ED, PDD, autism... One thing I would ask him if he says that he is not intelligent is what he thinks that means. Introduce him to Howard Gardner's "Seven Intelligences" and he will be able to see which kind of intelligence he has. He needs to know that just because he is not strong on linguistic intelligence or whatever, he may be "people smart" or "art smart" or "music smart" as we explain it to our elementary school kids. There are so many careers that he should be able to find something he loves. His teacher/case manager should already be focusing on vocational goals for/with him Next, I am assuming that he has an IEP, so I would be sure it is addressing not only his academic needs, but also his social, emotional, and transition to work needs. If you don't feel it is doing that, request a meeting. An IEP is a document that can be rewritten at any time if changes are needed. Once a student hits 14, transition planning is a required element of the IEP process. Special education operates under Federal mandates and those are very clear. Some districts do a great job, some...well, not even acceptable. He should be allowed accommodations such as extended time on tests. Our state tests are untimed, but for timed tests, most of my students get extra time-at least time and a half and sometimes more. Check with your state DOE to make sure the school is just not wanting to take the easy way out here. I am not saying they would, but it takes a lot more scheduling time to administer tests to our sped kiddoes since you need extra teachers to administer the tests when not everyone is receiving the same accommodations. For instance, if some get extra time and read-aloud, they need to be in a separate group from those who get only extended time. It is a nightmare for the test coordinator, but it is necessary to ensure that my students receive what has been agreed to on the IEP. Also, the school psychologist and/or counselor may run something like friendship groups during lunch or at other times that can offer specific, direct instruction in a social setting for kids who need help navigating the world of human interactions. Don't be afraid to push back if your son isn't getting what you believe he needs. Every district should have a monitoring and compliance division for parents and students whose concerns are not addressed at the school level. Knowing that he may have to work longer and harder than some others is a good lesson, but it can also be extremely frustrating and discouraging if he realizes his entire life may be one of always having to work longer and harder and never achieving as much. He needs to find his passion and then everyone can work together to see that he can incorporate that into his future in some way.

You say the food processor doesn't get it right. What kind of food processor? I think I could make "bean dip" out of chicken in my cuisinart. I would buy a chicken, poach it slowly in some flavorful boulion made from cooking onion carrots celery and maybe parsley...simmer the chicken, cut up[ for ease in poaching, then pull from the bone and process in the Cuisinart ...add broth as needed....but keep the stuff in the processor as a thick paste....it will process finer that way. Then when it's done, mix with broth or cream ro whatever to thin to needed consistancy. This will work with all meats. Ground meats often have fat and bits of gristle....so best to do meat where you can cut out those things before pulverizing. Linda C

MEMA, I really feel for you. For a while we thought my oldest had Asperger's but he never received that "diagnosis" - it turns out he has sensory integration disorder. He's getting OT for it. Here is what I've found. He just finished 1st grade. When he was in kindergarten, his teacher kept telling me he had adhd - but I knew she was wrong. I think teachers tend to call all kids adhd who aren't 100% average! Anyway, once found out just what he has, I talked to the school district (we live in a very large city school district). They couldn't offer him any help because his grades were at least average and his behavior didn't distrupt class. We've been taking him to a hospital Occupational Therapist once a week for therapy and doing daily therapy at home and it's made THE WORLD of difference. In only 7 months, his reading level has jumped from kindergarden level to 3rd grade level & he's only 7. We took him to private speech therapy, too, but once he started OT we could only afford one, so we insisted the school provide speech therapy, which they agreed to do. He also qualified for one-to-one reading tutoring at school for the first 1/2 of first grade because he started with such a low reading level. It didn't help much until he started OT. Now, here are my conclusions. DON'T EXPECT MUCH FROM THE SCHOOL. The schools are set up to deal with the 90% of kids without any special needs. If you know what you child needs, be prepared to make sure they get it yourself. That might mean taking them to private therpists, paying for it yourself, or doing it yourself. Don't sit back and expect the school to provide what your child needs. And, what they do provide, remember "you get what you pay for" The difference between private speech therapy and what he gets at school is night and day. When we were paying $40 for 1/2 hr, he got one-on-one, intense therapy that did him a lot of good. At school, he gets 20 minutes of speech therapy with a group of 4 kids and one therapist once a week, and that's considered GREAT - most kids only get it once a week! It hasn't helped at all, but it is keeping him from loosing the gains he got from the year of private therapy, and at this time he's getting a lot more out of the OT, so that's where our limited $$ has to go. Luckily, he is in a "normal" classroom so I haven't had to deal with special education - I'm sure that would be a mess, too. You hear constantly that you must be your child's advocate. When your child has special needs, it's almost your full time job to be his or her advocate. Also, make sure the Aspergers diagnosis is the correct one. Sensory Integration Disorder has a lot of the same manifestations - have you read "The Out Of Sync Child" - it's like the "bible" for SID. Even with the "battles" I feel that school is the best place for my son. I know I could not provide what he needs at home, and I feel it's important that kids have "cultural litteracy" that school provides. It gives us all one common experience. Good luck to you - you've got a tough row to hoe! It sounds like you are up to the battle, and I'll keep you in my prayers.

MtRdRedux is right on with the into on Too Much Available Credit", which is a myth for actual FICO Scores, which are used by almost all lenders. There are a few, very few, lenders that have issues with too much available other credit. This mostly applies to marginal borrowers and lenders that specialize in risky loans where the lender knows their prospect is already marginal and making them cancel the other credit will help to ensure that they are the one getting the money before they finally descend into the abyss. Perfect Credit Score is also a myth. The algorithms break down on extremely high scores and are effectively useless in differentiating risk. Classic FICO Scores have a theoretical range up to 850 but all versions of those scores including the '04 versions used for Mortgage apps max out well below that, one of them at 818. NOBODY can get 850 as there is NO path through the algorithm that makes 850 possible. If you are really curious about this, you can follow her link to MyFico.com where you will find my name attached to much of the mythbusting on credit scoring. I haven't posted in years as it eventually became more about selling stuff than information. Still the best credit site around in spite of big flaws. One piece of info is that it always a bad idea to close any credit card from a scoring standpoint. It can make sense from saving money if it has a fee and worth the small hit it has for a person with good credit, particularly if your accounts are mostly older. It affects Average Age of Accounts.