Teacher Gift . . .

Just thought I'd share the gift I made for Allison's teacher. I didn't do Ian's, because another mom did hers. I simplified things this year by not worrying how many pictures I had of each kid. Was so much easier to do it this way, so it wouldn't be as noticable.

A Little Less Than a Month Later

Sorry guys . . .for those few of you who are still trying to read! I am finally back . . .temporarily at least! Last week of school is next week, who knows how long I'll disappear for while I'm working on teacher's scrapbook (thankfully, only 1 this year), end of the year party, teacher gifts (gotta remember to get Alaina's teacher gift today!), and then we're headed for San Antonio for Memorial Day weekend, then jump into summer when we get back! EEK

This last month has been a good one . . .a busy one, but a good one. I've been on two field trips and went to 2 field days. We've had mother's day (I was treated well . . . gift cards to barnes and noble, ReCollections, and iTunes. . .plus the experience of taking classes with Donna Downey in Waco), several Brownie meetings, a visit from Andy's parents, and the end of soccer season.

Allison had a field trip to Dallas World Aquarium. It was CROWDED! There was a line around the building just to get in . . .all those schools taking end of the year field trips! Every time we go, I get a kick out of these wierd creatures.


We also took a field trip with her class to the Texas Butterfly gardens. Let me tell you that was a letdown after going to the butterfly garden in Costa Rica! Not like I was expecting it to be THAT good . . .but I was expecting to see more than 3 butterflies!

Field day . . . always an experience! The kids had them back to back, so I spent 2 days out in the sun. Allison got upset when she didn't get enough water balloons at the water balloon fight (the kids rushed the coolers and got them . . .and little timid Allie didn't fight her way through the crowd). And the poor girl scraped her knees and hands up pretty bad when falling on the concrete. . . she so takes after clumsy me! Ian . . .they do this hula hoop game where you all hold hands and you pass a hoop around in a circle. He figured out how to do a "double pass" by sneaking in the hoop after his teacher. tehehe I think it might've been a way to get closer to her! Andy and I both think he's got a little crush!

Mother's day was spent with my family . . . we went to a little neighborhood Italian restaurant. The one that Andy and I ate at every week or so when we lived in the duplex in Plano. Love that place! Then we went to Mom and Dad's for the afternoon. We actually got some pictures. As usual, no good picture of the 3 kids and I . . . .there's always one that just is irritated to have a picture taken and this year it was Allie!

We had a mother's tea in Ian's class . . . they presented us all with poems they'd written about their mothers. Here's a couple from Ian's collection.

Cinquain:

Heather

Joyful, Kind

Helping, Loving, Cleaning (mom's note: boy do I have him fooled on that last one!)

The greatest mother ever

Mom

Picture poem (written around a drawing of a Dr. Pepper can)

My mother loves Dr. Pepper

Dr. Pepper is the soda that could keep anyone happy any day.

Dr. Pepper rules!

WWWWW (this so wasn't a poem type when I was growing up!)

WHO: Heather

WHAT: left home

WHEN: today

WHERE: to ReCollections

WHY: She wanted to scrapbook (so funny, because I can't tell you the last time I scrapbooked there!)

Haiku:

Brake Time (gonna have to teach that kid brake vs. break!)

Heather is working

Walking up and down stairs

Her brake is coming.

and finally, the Acrostic.. . . I laughed when Ian informed me he looked most of these up in the dictionary! Searching the dictionary for random words to discribe me! ROFL

Harmless

Eggle-eyed

Awesome

Taught

Helpful

Energetic

Radiant

Spent the past weekend going to Waco for those Donna Downey classes. My friend Terri came down with her husband from Oklahoma and picked me up. We headed down towards Waco, but had to stay in Hillsboro for the night. Baylor graduation cleared out all the rooms in Waco and most of them in Hillsboro as well! We met Jess, Jamie and Jamie's mom and sister and had a great day! Classes were great, company was great.

Okay. . .not making any promises, but will try and post more regularly!

Easter and a trip to the ER

Thank goodness the trip to the ER wasn't on Easter!

Easter went well. We celebrate with my family each year, as we all live within about 25 minutes of each other (that time would be drastically shortened if we could convince our parents to move a bit further north!). The kids got their baskets, hunted eggs, we all had a nice lunch. Couple of photos:

Fast forward to yesterday .. . I go to the side of the school where Ian gets picked up and he's holding a bag of ice on his hand and crying. He was running and hit some kid's head on accident (don't even ask . . .it's one of those weird, why do you think that's a good idea thing that kids do that Ian ran too close to!) with his hand. He hurt enough they sent him to the nurse, but as recess is the last thing they do at school, I'm sure she figured I wasn't going to get there any sooner if she called me.

I get him home. . .feeling around the pinky is NOT something he wants me to do. He cringed when I touched certain parts. His pinky looked slightly swollen . . .but he's broken this same pinky before and I don't think it swelled at all the last time. So off to the ER the 4 of us went.

After about an hour, the dr. said there was a spot on the x-ray that looked like it could be a fracture. . .nothing like vagueness, huh? So they splinted him. Those little metal finger splints just wasn't the right size for him (it was like Goldilocks. .. one was too small, one was too big . . .unfortunately no just right!), so they put a fiberglass splint on him until we can see the specialist. ROFL .. .this makes it look like a horrible injury, doesn't it?

A little of this, a little of that . . .

Andy and Allison went camping with the YMCA Adventure Princesses last weekend. Back when I was little, we called it Indian Princesses. In fact, when Ian started it 5 years ago, it was Indian Guides, then morphed into Y Guides, then Adventure Guides. Trying to find something that's politically correct. Anyway, they had a great time . . .Allison got in her bi-yearly dosage of horseback riding. She loves it. . . we've thought about finding a place around here to get her some lessons . . .but who knows how much that would run!

Ian was invited to a friend's house . . .poor Alaina was feeling left out. So I made plans to take her to Libby Lu. ROFL . . .didn't realize until I went looking for the website just now that there was such a mass hysteria over it! See this article with accompanying link to the original article in the Washington Post. I will say . . .I did see little girls in silver lame costumes, that I at first thought "What was that woman thinking getting those things at Halloween clearance prices for a birthday party???" I finally figured out it was a Libby Lu thing. I don't know if Alaina just looked too young, or if they offer the costumes only to parties of girls, but there was no offer. Didn't bother me. Nor was Alaina called "Princess" (the only name we know here as one gal said it) the whole time. The girl took the time to know her name and use it. She picked out the tween idol style . .. she wanted that microphone! Frankly, that little 17 year old girl did things with hair that I could've never done! Alaina didn't shake, shimmy, or otherwise "work it". She did, however, love it and came out of there with a ton of lip gloss!

So a couple pics of Alaina . . . .


Ian's friend, btw, got grounded, so they didn't get to have their sleepover. He ended up going to my sister's house and having Pizza and watching Narnia with them.

In a couple weeks, Allison's brownie troop is going to be working on one of the girl scouts history try-it badges. Moms that were in scouts when they were growing up are supposed to bring what they can find from that time in their lives. I've got my sash, but have no clue what the patches and badges stand for. I did find a Badge book from 1980 that I should be able to find out what most of the badges were for. But the patches . . . EEK! I've emailed the GS council and had one lady respond she didn't know anything, another gave me some information, and the 3rd I haven't heard from yet. So . . . anyone possibly know anything about these three patches?

All I could find out about this one is ACE stands for "accomplished, capable, and efficient". The woman didn't know what the requirements were for it.


She had no idea about this one, although she said it sounded familiar:



And this one, she didn't even mention in her reply. I'm wondering if it's the precursor to the current World Thinking Day:



There was one patch that she could tell me what it was (actually I had 3 of them ,from different years). And she was kind to even reply!

Just goes to show you how important it is to journal such things . . . I earned all these darned patches and can't tell you a thing about them except that we took 6 weeks of ice skating lessons and I don't know how many horseback lessons to earn 2 of the badges. Going to take pictures of Allie's try-its now and journal what they did to earn them and start her own little brownie badge scrapbook.

Home Again, Home Again . . .Jiggity Jig

I feel like I've travelled more this past month than I ever have. And that's probably true, with the exception of the long road trip we took last year.

Terri and I had a terrific time at the scrapbooking retreat. Flight there. . .well, not the best flight I've ever had. Bumpy most of the time, and the worst landing I've ever had. Terri and Bud were there to pick me up and we went to eat Mexican. Then Terri and I headed off to the store. Nothing like getting to wonder around scrapbooking supplies when you know there's no one else trying to see what you're seeing (and there's no Alaina to keep up with!).

We ran a few errands the next day, then headed to Joplin. ROFL . .without a map to tell us how to get to the building where the event was. I didn't print one, my printer is almost totally out of ink, and I figured knowing 1/2 the directions wouldn't help much. Terri's printer . . .dead. . . .internet at the store . . .dead. Oh well. We did find the place -- right across the street from the Wok & Roll. ROFL Don't ask me to actually say it, or you'll learn what I had many years of speech therapy for when I was in elementary school!

We noticed there were 2 big groups there . . . .CM scrappers, and people who worked with page kits/idea books.

I finished a book for Ian about the Harry Potter Midnight party we went to last summer.




Concept is from Donna Downey's album book (a cardboard box album), but I had my SIL grab me some HP book boxes when the book came out and used those.

And I spent all day Saturday working on a week in the life book for me, but I'm still no where finished! Terri worked on one project after another. I think just about everyone in the place asked about the wooden blocks she was making. I can't wait to see them completed . . .as she didn't have all the embellies she wanted to put on them.

Oh, I actually won 2 door prizes . . .when does that ever happen to me? I got an online gift cert and a package of bazzill red monochromatics. Very nice.

One note . . .if you ever plan a scrapbooking retreat. . .avoid the "spring forward" weekend! EEK . ..that loss of an hour still has me reeling. Terri will tell you I kept her up until at least 1 am each night! She's such a good sport. . .but really girl, you could go to sleep and leave me to yakking my head off to myself! {grin}

I always love spending time with Terri . . .this was no exception! It was an awesome weekend! So glad we only have to wait about 6 weeks to do it again.

Have a great weekend!

First, before I forget. .. Erin H, I tried to respond to the comment you left, and I can't find your email address anywhere. I know I have the ACU friends list somewhere on the computer, but have no idea where!


Okay . . . .so I'm headed out in about 20 minutes to drop the kids and the van off at Andy's work .. . then I'm headed to the airport and out to see Terri! WHOOOOOHOOOOOO . . .we're headed to Joplin tomorrow for a scrapbook retreat. I can't wait! Heck, it's hard to pack for an airplane trip and something like this! I preplanned some things, but it's not all preplanned, and I know there are all sorts of embellishments I'll wish I had.

And I apologize in advance to Terri . . .who can't see Survivor at her regular viewing time because of my flight schedule! Sorry! I'll watch it with you.

Have a great weekend!

Pura Vida!

Pure Life. Definitely our trip to Costa Rica fits. We had a great time (well, we won't talk about Friday's migraine and subsequent throwing up . . .TWICE . . . in the car with Andy's boss, his wife, and the business rep we were with. Or the horrible, horrible, it still hurts a week later, sunburn I got last Monday).

After things finally got rolling, we went out on a sport catamaran and dolphin watched. There were tons of dolphins out. They'd swim right up next to our boat and stay with us. We learned there are birds that fly right around them . . .they work together to catch and eat fish. The birds, unless the accent was WAAAYYYYYYY off were "brown booby birds". tehehe Haven't verified that. We also snorkeled and watched the sunset while on the water. We were suprised at how quickly it sets. Not the slow setting of the Texas sun for sure! And while we were there, one of the other passengers (Edgar) proposed to his girlfriend. We were glad to be there to take pictures for them (see below). And we had an enjoyable tour guide who taught us things like Pura Vida and that Costa Ricas call each other Tic0 (male) or Tica (female).

We stayed at a Marriott resort. . .it was gorgeous! Think I linked it in an earlier post. The rooms were great, the people were great . . .we had a great time!

Sunday we went horseback riding. . .rode through the rainforest like areas, up on high hills, on the beach. Saw avocado trees (did you know there are green avocadoes and purpleish/red ones?), guava trees (Can't tell you how many times we pronounced things with the wrong sound at the beginning. They actually pronounce this Huava), and banana trees. Andy loved the riding on the beach because they let us run the horses. I'd forgotten how fast they go! Think I might've broken a finger in the process. . . tehehe, can you say accident prone? We also went on an aerial tram in the transitional rain forest on our way from Jaco to San Jose. Not so much going on at the transitional rain forest. . . I think we saw 3 butterflies, a toucan (I didn't see it waaayyyy up high in the tree, but another gal from our group did), 1 iguana, and snakes in cages. And a lot of trees. Panama Hat trees. . . .banana trees. . . I know a lot about the trees that are found in Costa Rica!



Monday . . .Andy had meetings, so I read some books. Sat outside with the boss's wife at the pool for about 1.5 hours. Note to self (and others). . . reapply sunscreen every 30 minutes when sitting out at the pool in San Jose! I have a horrible sunburn . . .so bad that a few days ago, I started turning purple (No fear, I checked with my sister the PA and she says as long as a leg doesn't fall off, I'm okay! {snort})

Tuesday we went to a waterfall and butterfly garden place. It was gorgeous. . as much as it hurt to walk, and how many stairs we had to climb! We also went to a coffee bean plantation. And a souvenir place where I'm pretty sure that our tour guide was getting kick backs from what we bought (not sure that isn't true of the coffee place too. Someone asked what his favorite coffee was . .. surprise, surprise it was a regional coffee that was produced at the plantation we went to! We didn't realize this until we tried to get 3 Generations coffee somewhere else!).

In between, we ate peruvian food, cuban food, a lot of fruit, and well . .. I ate a cheeseburger. I just needed a taste of home.

And Wednesday . .. we flew home .. .first class. Ahhhhhh . . .

It was amazing to me how Americanized it was. The mall . . . almost all of the stores were places you could find here in the states. The fast food places at the airport . . . burger king, subway, and about 10 other American fast food joints.

We had a running joke about the conversion rate. Their money is in Calones. It takes about 500 of them to equal $1. Can you imagine what our hotel bill looked like??? ROFL

We're Home!

We had a great time in Costa Rica. Will update more later. No photos as blogspot won't let me put any up! ARGH

Exhausted!

First . .. and update. The keys were found after approximately 3 hours of hunting and tearing the house apart. Where did I find them? The WASHER! I washed (well, Andy did) the darned things. Thank goodness all the door lock buttons still work!

Okay . .. it's spring break, and I'm exhausted! I can't even remember what we did yesterday! We went to see Shaggy Dog this weekend, ran errands for about 4 hours Sunday afternoon, and yesterday is a vague memory. I went to 24 Hr. Fitness, then we drove to a ton of places and shopped.

Today . . .we went here. Fantastic place. Kids love it .. . love seeing all the animals, love having them come up to our van. They spent a majority of the time laughing and making up backgrounds/stories for the animals. We saw a lot of little ones. There was a wreck (looked like a fender bender to me!) on the way up there on a 1-lane highway that stalled us for 35 minutes! EEK Then once we got there, we were one of what had to be a good 75ish or more cars in line to go through. Note to self: Never go during Spring Break again. To make matters worse, I think a National Geographic photographer was in front of me. Every animal . . .he'd stop, hands would come out of sliding rear windows in his van, and he would wait for the "perfect shot". Waiting as in MINUTES! And he'd stop in the middle of the road so you couldn't get by. ARGH I took my fair share of shots, but shot while the kids fed.

Tomorrow . . . .it's Planet Pizza day. It's $5 (as opposed to $10) admission day. Then we've got a soccer practice. I'm hoping for a workout and some time to rest!

Here are a couple animal pics:

Picture 1 . . .taken with a zoom . . .looks like he's posing, doesn't he? The second guy stuck his head in my window (see the door lock in the lower right hand corner?) and wouldn't move until I fed him. His accomplice did the same thing on the other side and scared Alaina terribly! The third picture . . .I love the Mama and Baby giraffe nuzzling. So cute! The 4th . . .this giraffe was standing ON the road and waited for each car to pass by so he could stick his head down and get some food. They tell you not to feed them from your hands . ..but those darned rams (or whatever they are) and this particular giraffe didn't know the rules!

The last picture . .. fuzzy . . .but shows a mama trying to steady her newborn and get him to walk. @@ National Geographic man sat there for a good 4 minutes. . .then apparently the Mama was getting "anxious" (how to the people sitting out there --workers-- know this?) and they forced us all to move on without stopping to watch this cute little pair. So this picture was taken while we were moving.

Has Anyone Seen My Keys???

For the 3rd time this week, my keys are not on my person! The first two times, it was a fairly easy fix. First time, I locked them in the van when I got out to go to Barnes and Noble. Called Andy and asked for a rescue. He said he'd get there "as soon as I can." I told him it was a good thing I'd done it at the mall! At least I had something to do! 8 books and 1 magazine, various CDs from Sam Goody (going out of business), and 1.5 hours later . . . .I was back in the van.

I was quite embarassed when I left them in the ignition again that afternoon with the van parked in the garage. Took me 10 minutes to think "could they be in the ignition again???" ROFL

This morning, got Alaina all ready for western day at school. Went to grab my keys. . .they weren't there. Not on the kitchen counter/bar where I usually put them, not on top of the dryer (another favorite spot), not in the pockets from yesterday's jeans, not in the couches, not in the purse, not in the ignition! SIGH . . .those things are LOST! I had them at the house last night. We did go out to dinner and I didn't drive, but not sure how I would've lost them there (I did call to see if they found any . . . NOPE). Possibly the trash can? Although I don't know how they would've ended up there and one of us not hear it happen! Unfortunately, the trashmen had already been around by the time I figured all this out!

So I called the neighbor, asked if she could take Alaina and I to Alaina's school. She asked for a couple minutes to get ready and then we could go. Well . . .she went out to her car to leave, and hers wouldn't start! ROFL .. . we're in bad shape now!

I did get my SIL to take us to the school, and thankfully, she's taking me back to pick up Alaina in a bit.

I, however, am still frantically searching the house for my little set of keys!

Last time I lost my keys, it was at the PO. I wasn't driving that day either. Stopped in to send out a package, got back in the car with my sister and moved on. I went back and looked there, and they said they hadn't gotten any keys turned in. A YEAR later, they called me. . . I had a club membership on my key ring. . .and lo and behold they found my keys!

Sure hoping it doesn't take a year this time!

How about that????

Two posts in as many days! Go figure.

Allie had her PTA program last night. We got there 45 minutes early . . . .we were still 1/2 way back and pretty much couldn't see! Apparently, you gotta show up about 2 hours in advance to get a spot where you can see! Irritated the heck out of me today when I found out one of said moms didn't send her dd to school yesterday because she was THROWING UP . . .yet brought her last night to the program. And the kid's still sick enough to not come back today??? Oh, I better step off that soapbox before I get all the way on! I sent Ian to go up front with the camcorder and get some video. Not sure how well a 9 yr. old can shoot video . . .haven't checked it out yet. Alaina and I went back today to actually be able to see the program and take some pics. Here are a couple of very cropped pictures of Allie. . .cropped all her friends out of them.



They did a sealife themed program. The first pic is her screaming in fright when the tiger shark "swims" out. The second is her "peace out" stance that they did at the end of one of their hip-hoppy sounding songs. These were the best photos I've gotten, lighting wise and no red-eye, in the 5 years I've been taking pics in that cafeteria!

A Little Trip

I seem to be averaging blogging about 1 time a week . . .means my readership has gone down from 7 to 2! And those people don't check often! {smirk} Things have been wild around here. We got news last week that I'd get to accompany Andy on a business trip. Never done that before. Never had the guts to even think of asking Mom and Dad to take care of all 3 of the kids for multiple days. But when I saw this place I couldn't resist! We're only staying there one or 2 days (right now, just 1 night. . . hoping for a cancellation), then we're moving on to the site of where his meetings are. I'm a happy gal! Of course, this has lead to much frenzy . . . over an hour at the PO getting a passport, massive cleaning of the house, as Mom and Dad will be staying here, not to mention just the normal things I do. Hoping to get caught up sometime before I leave!

PSA for the day

After calling the same unnamed (for fear of who it would bring to my blog! I made that mistake one time when using another word for "unclothed" when speaking of art . . .got the weirdo comments in droves!) catalog THREE times to have my name removed from their list (who knows where they bought it from! Domestications?), I've found this wonderful little form. It's the Form 1500 at the post office . . .and everyone needs this little gem! The Supreme Court did a good thing . . .making sure we could decide what fit the description for the usage of this form, and didn't leave it up to the USPS. You can say you don't want a golf catalog if you want to . . .and the USPS can't argue you on it!

I'm personally looking forward to being able to start criminal or civil sanctions against the above said company if I get another one of their catalogs! There are just some catalogs I feel should be REQUESTED and not just sent to because the company bought your info.

In other happenings . . .did you know that you can do modern dance with the song "Old Time Religion"? tehehe . . . I saw it in action last night with Alaina!

Ian took the TAKS yesterday . . .. from what I asked him, his content sounded like it was well thought out. I'm just hoping he used his best handwriting! And Allison's reading Little House books by herself! YIPPEE . . . .she was stunned last week to learn that there was a TV show as well! tehehe

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth!

I know . . .I've had several of you emailing asking where I'm at. I'm here! Finished up the photography class. . .and I gotta say, I guess I just am that good! ( think I mentioned that last time . . .or I thought I did, but I don't see that post. HMMMMM)

We had to do action shots for my last class. He wanted both showing movement and freezing movement. I took in about 12 . . .some new, some old. The second and third ones here are ones I took at soccer practice last week. First was from Princesses on Ice in November. He really liked the Belle one and the one of Alaina running . . .and said I'd gotten down the perfect timing with the soccer pictures.



In other news . .. finished a big project, that took up a great deal of my free time. Took Andy to Bob's Friday for his birthday (we've never been to Bob's twice in 14 days!) and to see Firewall.

We've had the cold/sinus infection stuff around here. Would be why I haven't posted.

Oh, and the latest Alaina-ism . . .she told me today she was "going out of my mind!" tehehe

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hoping all is well with you all and that you have an enjoyable day. I've been swamped. . . between a soccer game, a birthday party, a banquet for Andy and Allie, playing dominoes with my sister and BIL, taking pictures up at the school for Allie's V-day party, colorizing them, organizing the shindig, and taking pictures for my photography class I haven't had a moment to get the regular stuff done (you know .. . housecleaning, cooking).

So, Andy and Allie had a father/daughter banquet for the YMCA Adventure Princesses . .. or whatever they're calling it this year! Took me an hour to get Allie's hair done. Messed with different exposures and tried a little f-stop stuff (still need some help with that!). Here's one of the pictures:

Ian had a soccer game Saturday afternoon. We were hoping that since it was late afternoon, it might warm up some. NOOOOOO . . . I think it was the coldest day we've had this winter. And on top of that, the winds were strong! I heard that Sunday the winds were 40 mph. I know Saturday had to be that fast. I took NO pictures. . . never happens! But I had to bundle up the girls and myself so we could survive watching the game. They did win 5-1. Go Jags!

So, last Friday I took pictures of Allison's class for their Valentine's Day scrapbooks (they put their valentines in a handmade little book and their pictures were to be on the cover). Then I made a second photo for them to take home to Mom and Dad. Here's Allie's:

Finally, class assignment for this time was landscapes and architexture. SOOOOOO not interested in these topics. I finally came up with these. Thinking the first one is a VERY weak landscape!

A shortie . . .

Don't have a lot of time. Since my last post, I've taken more pictures, received Girl scout cookies (if you ordered, I'll be emailing you soon!), made a trip to Arkansas, and followed a UPS man through a shopping center! Yep, I was soooooo trying to avoid a mailboxes, etc I've had a box to be returned in my van for a week! Saw a brown truck from across the parking lot and winded and stalked until I got the UPS guy. Mission accomplished! Alaina's home with a virus today, I have tutu's to finish, gotta take some pics with said tutu's then it's time for Photography class! I just wanted to stop and take a minute to post. . ..

Insecurities

First off . . .to those that asked. Allie danced on Monday. Mom said she smiled and danced the entire time. Hardly missed a step. @@ . . .what do I know? ROFL Glad she did though. And she was so pleased with the rose Mom and Dad gave her afterwards. I'm sure I'll have to pull the dead flower out of there sometime next week . . .when it finally dies.

So, onto insecurities. I've had the first 2 of my photography classes this week. Our first assignment was self portraits (YUCK!). So I spent over 2 hours taking pics . . .I think I took somewhere in the realm of 150! I pulled the ones I thought were fairly good and took them in (we were supposed to take between 2-5). He showed all of them up on the big screen, and asked questions, shown were there could've been improvements, etc. He got to mine, said something about it being good to do closeups (I had a pic of my hands scrapbooking), said "Very nice pictures" and moved on. No asking about ISO, if I shot with or without a flash. So, of course, that leaves me to wondering how good they really were. Are they that horrible that he didn't even want to start discussing them? {sigh} I don't know. This Tuesday we're supposed to bring in portraits. Will see what I can do about getting some people together for that.

Here are a couple of them . . .



Excited . . .tonight the 6 of us grown-up kids (my sister and her husband, my brother and his wife, and the 2 of us) are going to Bob's Steak and Chop for dinner. YIPPEE . . . . I do find it funny that they have "glazed carrot" on their menu. Nope, not a typo. For $2.95 you can get one huge glazed carrot. tehehe

An End of an Era

Some of you know that Ian was dx'ed with a focusing issue when he turned 6. Not really exactly sure what the medical term is, but the first time they did a vision test, they thought he seriously needed glasses because he did that poorly on the eye test. They got the dr. in the room, he had Ian read the chart . . .and he was 20/20! We'd been sent to this OD because we'd had Ian in OT because he couldn't color! Yes, the kid figured out multiplication in K, had been spelling since he was 3 .. . .but the kid couldn't color to save his life! So, off to OT we went .. .seeing if it was poor fine-motor skills. She asked if his arms got tired at school, and he said "No, but my eyes do!" . . so off we went to Dr. S, the OD PA (whatever PA means . . .maybe pediatric something? He has a ton of kids in his practice). So he went through the most thorough eye exam I've ever seen. I thought that perhaps he was just doing this extensive an exam because we'd been referred by an OT. . . .nope, those are his regular exams! Both the girls have been too, and it was just a "regular" check.

And the dr. discovered this focusing issue. Apparently, it's not often discovered this young . . .and a lot of times the kids are dx'ed with Dyslexia, ADD, etc before they are properly dx'ed because it's harder to catch. They gave him a script for prism lenses. Literally overnight, the kid went from being very relunctant to read, to reading vary well. He had all those words in his head, he just couldn't see them properly! He's worn the lenses for 3.5 years. . .they basically retrain the eyes to work properly, and we did, I don't know . . . a TON of vision therapy sessions. Not cheap, but so well worth it! Who knows what kind of student he would've been without them.

Today, we went to visit Dr. S and he did an exam, checking to see how fast he would read things structured oddly, etc. And the kid ACED it! He doesn't have to wear the glasses at all anymore, unless he's having a particularly stressful day, hard time with the eyes, etc. So no more glasses. . . on a regular basis at least. I had to capture Ian today in his glasses. You can't see it so much in the pic, but man, these glasses have been well loved. After 2 frames broke, we went with those flexible ones. . .and oh, are they bent out of shape, lenses scratched. . . they've been worn on the playground, wrestled in . . .they're definitely used!



Allie did a drill team dance clinic today, since we had no school. 6 hours with a gym full of girls of all ages! The other 2 kids and I were there for the "showoff" time, and I'm not sure Allie learned anything. She wasn't enthusiastic, by any means (as you'll see below). They're supposed to dance at halftime at the ballgame tomorrow night. I was not thrilled to miss my first photography class for it, and even less thrilled with the aspect that I'd be missing class to watch her stand there! So, Mom and Dad are taking the 3 kids and going to the game, and I'm going to class.


The first picture was when she noticed I was sitting there. Vast improvement over last semester, when she rolled around on the floor with a couple other girls when they were supposed to be sitting quietly! Photo 2 . . .well, you can see how enthusiastic she looked!
Third photo . . .I can't get why their drill team counterparts (the teenagers) gave them party blowers before the day was over! Allie was more into it than the dance! ROFL And yep, all the girls in her group had these tiaras . . . and they blink! ROFL

Okay, I don't normally do this . . .you guys will notice I don't even have a "my favorite blogs" sidebar. . .but if you're in for a giggle and 40-something women and undergarments . . . go check out this post (sorry, Kelly . . . I just had to! Too Darned funny .. . besides probably a majority of the people who come here, end up here because of one of your links here! tehehe) Kelly's blog