Finishing my update.

Where to start? Well, I picked Angie up from school after her UIL meet. I know that she made it to the finals in oral reading, so that means she was somewhere between first and sixth place. They make us wait until 6 week assembly time to find out about ribbons or medals etc. Remember the ole school meets and the 5$ for lunch. Well, my daughter "forgot" about it and used the couple of dollars extra I gave her. They told me they weren't sure yet if she would be on the early or the late bus, but they'd call me and let me know, so I sent some cash for an afternoon snack. Well my child informed me that she ate a pickle and a candy bar for lunch and bought a water. She came home with half the water still in the bottle. Upon further interrogation, I learned that she was actually too nervous to eat. So, we had a chat about the brain working better when you "feed" it and I learned that it might be nice to send a blanket with a girl who's in a dress because buses are cold. I also learned that it might be nice to slip some peanut butter crackers or a granola bar in her pocket now and again.

While I was waiting for Ang, Tony and I hung out in the car(it was less than thirty minutes and our roads are really muddy right now). Yesterday, we read the Lewis Carroll biography. I was asking him what other biographies the school had, and he came home today with the Martin Luther King, jr bio and the Mark Twain bio. As he's telling me this, he looks in his backpack and golly gee, he had left one in his desk. So, in we go. We stop at the tree for him to show me his ornament he proceeds to entertain several teachers. He's quite funny and naturally I hear, it must be a riot at your house. I don't say much because no one believes me when I tell them that he is my quietest kid. He mostly entertains others and at home he goes with the flow and is pretty content not to be in the spotlight.

Oh, I forgot to mention that he got an expander on his teeth yesterday, so he drools alot and talks with a lisp, which only makes him that much funnier. He says his official language is gibberish, and that I am his personal translator. It comes off in 14 weeks and I am counting the days. Next week he gets to go for his eye exam. Brian asked me when I was going to be done "nerding our son up."

Tonight we read the Gift of the Magi by the fire. Tomorrow I will read something more their level, just to keep them guessing. Did they get it? well, not really. The language is a bit difficult, but Brian and I explained it as best we could.

They had a seminar at the school on kids and the internet and cell phones etc. I thought it was pretty good info. We also had our Health advisory council meeting. I'm pretty excited about this even though I have no idea what to do with it. They gave us some info and suggested we search and see what the "big" schools are doing. Its a pretty neat concept. It is required that every school have one, and that it be parent run and a majority of members be parents. We are supposed to evaluate the health programs at the school--from employee health, to health ed, phys ed, nutrition etc and suggest programs to offer parents, suggest curriculum changes etc. Our council is made up of the counselor, the nurse and surprise surprise, the three moms that also signed up to be volunteers in the elementary school. We wrangled one of the jr high moms into it that was at the seminar. But the three of us arent dealing with certain issues yet. Of the three of us, I have the oldest kid and she's 8. So, any suggestions please email them to me.

Thursday update

Well, I stayed home from my volunteer gig today since several of the teachers/kids are gone for UIL today. I said my silent prayer for Angie that she stays calm. I am so proud of her. She had 600 spelling words to learn (she took that test Monday) and I know that she could spell all but 36 of them without any problem. I bought her a pocket dictionary so that she also knows the definitions of all 600 and the part of speech. Brian and Pam will both admit that they are terrible spellers so Angie and I had lots of mommy/daughter time working on this. We tried lots of learning styles, but the method that worked the best was letting her quiz me first and then I'd quiz her 10 words at a time. She would closely study the words trying to catch me getting one wrong. SO, now and then I'd misspell one on purpose, especially if it was a tricky one. But, I will admit that I did misspell emperor wrong the first time. Today is music memory and oral reading. She says she's struggling with the oral reading because she has to remember to read and not recite, AKA she has the thing memorized. I'm pretty proud of the music memory as well. She can now site 16 classical pieces my name and composer.

It got my wheels turning on what to memorize next. The month of December is going to be christmas story classics. We already listened to and audioversion of the Dickens classic, and I bought a book bundle which I plan to start after we read through the original Christmas story from the bible. In January the kids have asked that we study instruments so we are going to work through a study of the orchestra which will hopefully be followed by a trip to the symphony, and in GT the oldest two are to pick and artist to study. Tony has picked da Vinci and he told me he plans to paint the Angie Lisa. Angie is still thinking about it. She has to think and analyze. Everything is a major decision. So, we'll see. If the weather permits, maybe we can squeeze in an art museum trip. That's something I've never done either.

Pam is getting in to the swing of things with her girl scout troop. She will admit she has no organizational skills, but she is really creative. We talked yesterday about not focusing on what she or I might like or even what the girls might like, but rather what they need. So, we are planning for January, a first aid class (Mom, Pam and I are all basic life support instructors) and then we are going to do a safety day, which will include an intro to self defense. We decided that when we look at workshops etc that are offered, we shouldn't look at wow Austin sure does alot, but rather we should try to figure out how to give our girls here the same opportunities. Next year is going to rock. This year is the testing the waters year.

I signed up to be a member of the schools health advisory council. So, tonight as part of our first meeting, I will be attending a seminar offered at the school to parents. This one is on kids and technology and includes keeping kids safe in areas such as the internet. Should be interesting. I think this committee could do great things, so I am curious to see how this goes.

I'll post more about the kids later. I need to go get Zach from school and then we are off to buy some bookshelves. I'm getting all the books out of the closet and putting the toys in!

Christmas Pics

Kid Update Part two

I know, I know, I already did a kid update this week, but there are a couple things I need to write down before I forget.
This week I took Tony to the orthodontist. I really don't get alot of alone time with him. The other kids I seem to manage it more, but they come to me, him I have to seek out. At home he's often quiet, reading a book etc, but you get him by himself and he is hilarious...but first, the reason we went.
The oldest three kids recently had their dental checkups and Angie and Zach were in the no cavity club. Tony, well, he had 12 cavities. The dentist adviced us to take him to the orthodontist because maybe his bite was a factor. So, I made the appointment. I have alot of respect for Dr. Oliver, and he seemed to remember me, granted I've only had my braces off for 3 years. So, he wasn't too concerned about the cavities, they are in baby teeth and he said that they are extremely small, but he does have a cross bite, which means some of the back teeth are over the top and some are over. He also said that his jaw is small, but the only way to fix that is surgery but not until he's an adult. He may need braces later to close the gaps, but Dr Oliver says that's easy to fix. Tony is getting a thing called an expander though to straighten out that bite. I'll post more on that when it happens. Apparently it looks kind of like a retainer, and it has a key you have to turn twice a day.
So, Tony hears the word surgery, and he immediately starts crying uncontrollably. I start to pick him up and Dr Oliver stops me, and just holds him in the chair and talks to him. He's a father of four, but it still struck me as really sweet.
So, he's asking Tony what he wants to be when he grows up, and Tony tells him, a 'grossologist'. So of course, the orthodontist says "what's a grossologist?" and Tony says you know they study gross things, and if I find some moldy teeth I'll save them for you because I know you love teeth" At this point, I am about to fall out of my chair, because of all my kids, this is the one that definately WILL NOT be a "grossologist". He vomits at the site of his own blood or the smell of dead crickets and pretty much anything else 'gross'.

So, this school year has been really tough for me. Angie and Tony are both "labeled" as gifted and talented. I say labeled because they are in a small school so Tony is the only GT kid in his grade and there are two in Angie's grade. The other girl is Tony's age but she skipped second grade. So, their teachers grade them very tough. Tony had one "B" which was an 89, and Angie had all "A"s but two were barely "A"s. So, I alternate between being mad and being grateful. I've had a couple of teacher conferences. Sometimes, I debate whether to pull them out of school altogether and home school them. But, we've been studying at church learning how to stop and hear the word of God in our lives from the big things to the small, and I think I got my answer.

Last night was family night for the school book fair. I kept Angie out of dance last night, because my cousin is here visiting and she also had way too much homework to do, mostly UIL stuff. So, Brian and Tony went to cubscouts, and I took the rest of the kids to the book fair. I told them to be good and no running or screaming and they could each get a book (yes even the babies). So, they shopped for their books and while I waited in line, they sat at a table and had a cookie and punch. I might add that I bought 84$ worth of books, but that's what happens when you are a mom of five.

So, getting to my point: all week Angie has been talking about this cookbook she wanted. For those that don't know, she is quite a foodie, she loves food network, helping in the kitchen, trying new foods that other kids wont touch, and she drives me crazy with her constant critiquing of my meals. So, anyway, first there were 3, then 2, then only 1. So, last night we go to the bookfair, and she goes straight to that table and....no book. I can see on her face she is disappointed, but she quickly clears it and helps the other kids find a book. Then, her teacher comes over and hands it to me. She said she put the last one back and she was going to buy it for her if we hadn't.

And right there, I thanked God for showing me that even though I don't always like it, for whatever reason, my kids are right where they are supposed to be.

Kid update

So Brian and I are back from our two night stay in Wimberly. It was great. I was planning our next trip, probably for our fifteenth in a year and a half. It was much needed, we don't get too many date nights and its been three years since we went anywhere just the two of us, but most of the time thats ok. yesterday we came back to the chaos that is our life, and sadly, no laundry fairy came to fold the giant pile of clean clothes while I was gone. I'd post a picture of Zach sleeping in it, but its on Brian's phone. I've already designed my laundry room for when we finally build our house.

Angie is working hard on UIL. We've learned 300 words, but she has 300 to learn in about 10 days. THe list came out in September, and I wish they would have given it to us then instead of mid October. I'm sure other kids have been looking at it six weeks longer. I've been pushing her a bit, and last I pretty much washed my hands of it when she wasn't even trying. She's loving the music memory and oral reading. She has a field trip Friday to see the nutcracker and she wanted me to go, but parents aren't allowed. I think they could only get a certain number of tickets, but I was told that I could go to Gattiland with them. Uhhh, no thanks.

Tony didn't make the teams for UIL. His feelings were kind of hurt. He said he kept waiting for them to call his name, and they didn't. I felt bad for him. His poem was awesome. I kept telling him read it again, it was so entertaining, but I really don't think they were looking for someone who did voices and had the whole thing memorized so they could act out the parts. Maybe I should have made him do it "right", but I couldn't bring myself. I really need to work on helping him find his niche. He is so bright, but I don't think people see it, because unlike his sister, he's not a people pleaser, and he's always testing the boundaries. Next year will be better, they add a couple more events in 3rd grade.

Zach is well, Zach. No other words describe. We were working on reading, but I've taken a break. I'll probably start back up after the holidays. Its really stressful because he's a toot, but if I get the least bit frustrated with him, its uncontrollable waterworks. Angie and Tony didn't learn to read until kindergarten, because I didn't know any better, and maybe I'll have to do the same with him. Once the older kids learned, they just took off, so we'll see. He's such a good big brother. I love watching him play with the little ones outside. He's always so sweet and helpful. But he's a regular pest to Tony and Angie. Just this morning he was copying them and driving them crazy.

Aiden finally started pooping on the potty. We were starting to worry, but last week he just started doing it on his own. Yeah, only one kid in diapers. He's really a climber and a daredevil. He's finally beginning to get out of his fit throwing phase which is awesome. He may be ready for Tuesday school next year.

Sweet Emi. She's the baby, but she is growing up. Watch out daddy, this girl has a thing for shoes. I couldn't keep shoes on all my other kids at this age, but she wants to wear them 24/7. And to see her face light up and hear he ooohh and aaahh when she gets a new pair, priceless.

Well, I will update more later. That giant pile of laundry is calling my name, and we are shampooing carpets today.

Food Drive 2009

My boyscout
My boys

This year my mom helped out with the food drive. She set up a booth at the local grocery store to collect cans and then she went with Tony door to door to collect. It was a huge success. I just hope that the boys learned a positive lesson from it. Mom was kind enough to take a pic for me, but wasn't quite sure how to use the camera. You can tell its Tony though, so thats all that matters.

Den Leader

Ok so I get confused as to whether he is a den leader or a pack leader, but for the next big montly meeting his den is doing a skit. The boys wrote it, so it involves Native americans and a bear, so this week they made customes. Brian cut out the brown paper bag vests at home and let the boys decorate them at the meeting. Next week they are working on sound effects.

This year has been kind of hard on him because of the lack of parent involvement and he has 10 7 year olds, but I hope that at the end of the year he can look back and be proud of what he's done.

Pam finally got her girl scout troop up and going. pray for her. Right now my moms house is really full on Tuesdays. They had a rally and signed up 16 girls from first to fifth grade, but didn't get them any leaders. So, Pam said they could meet with her troop until they found someone. Last week they worked on Operation Christmas child boxes, and this week they are making placemats for Thanksgiving dinner at the soup kitchen. She's a bit overwhelmed.