Don’t you love it in life when you get little teaching moments? Our family has been going to church off and on now for 6 years. The girls have been going to Iwana for the past year and they have been too MANY Vacation Bible Schools it’s truly ridiculous how many they have gone too. Well at times there are different topics that come up that the girls will ask about and we will take a moment for a teaching moment. Well for Iwana this week the girls are to bring Easter eggs that have something in them that remind them about Easter. Something that they find is the most important thing about Easter. Well I was telling them that I needed them to get their eggs ready tonight instead of waiting until the last minute so they will be ready to go for Wednesday night. Lehna goes “well mom mine will be really easy b/c I’m just going to put a picture of a bunny in my egg.” So I asked the girls what the most important thing about Easter is and Maya shouted out “The candy!” and Lehna said, “The Easter Bunny is also important Maya” I go but girls why do we celebrate Easter? CRICKETS! Literally nothing... Really we have been going to church for 6 years, you go to bible study, and VBS and you don’t know? Hum... So I said the reason why we celebrate Easter is because we are remembering Christ and the sacrifice he made for us. He died on the cross so we could be forgiven of our sins and etc, etc... Still blank stares. Then Lehna promptly goes “well I’m going to get a picture of a cross instead of a bunny.” Maya just goes “but I like the candy” LOL MY kids they crack me up. They truly say the funniest things.
I was over hearing yesterday as they were playing and the line that made me laugh the hardest was Maya saying to Lehna and her doll “Yes this is the hospital and I was just stopping by to see if your legs were working?” Lehna of course responded but it was too funny. The things they say are just so funny sometimes and they way that they play. I’m glad that the girls are able to play with one another. You can tell that Lehna is starting to drift away from her play stage however. She is must more interested in being a girl girl rather than playing with dolls and house. But you can still catch them on occasion playing mom and school. Those are probably their FAVORITE games; I hear school more than house however.
So this is an update on top of an update since I didn’t get this posted yesterday this is from Monday and Tuesday. So where Tait and I work there are several different departments and we have in our building but we are all pretty much Kenosha County employees. There are lots of bake sales and raffles going on and yesterday there was a bake sale with a raffle and we won a raffle basket. It was perfect actually for us. It is a basket that will be great for Maya! She will really enjoy it its all princess “dress up” themed so we were excited that we got this basket for $5 bucks (we had 6 tickets and only one won). But it was great! So now we have to make the other baskets look similar but it is a really cute basket and with all the stuff that’s in it, it’s quite a steal for $5 bucks. I am doing something different for the kids for Easter this year. Since we will be coming home on Easter we are going to have the kids wait until we get home before they get their baskets. But I have received a note from the Easter Bunny telling the kids that their Easter Baskets are at home with a surprise. When the kids get home the baskets are going to be hidden and they will have a scavenger hunt in order to find their baskets. I’m really excited about it, this is the first year we are doing this and I’m hoping it’s successful. So I’m hoping that they have a good time with it. So I will take pictures so we will have memories captured. It should be a good time. Since Maya has a premade Easter basket are ready I had the brain child of getting a BIG Easter basket and filling it with candy (since I already got that) and putting that out for all of us to enjoy, so than I won’t have to open the already perfect Easter Basket.
So tonight is going to be pretty busy, luckily the girls have Awana so they will attending that and while they are there we are going to be getting the Easter basket goodies, their birthday gifts, and packing. I have a feeling the evening is going to FLY by! But we leave tomorrow for Indiana. We have a neighbor checking in our kitties while we are gone just to make sure that they are well taken care of. I have my long list of everything that I want to get for the trip and the list is VERY long! I will probably have to scale it back a bit.
So I’m going to sign off now. To the weekend of traveling and having a good time with family!
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Monday, March 25, 2013
A weekend in review
Another update so soon? How could it be? Yes I know sometimes I surprise even myself. It has been an interesting last couple of weeks. It seems like work has been slow. I know its b/c I have trained someone to do the court services position and that is where the work I was doing is now going. It’s crazy sometimes they are way over staffed and other times we are way UNDER staffed. It’s just a roller coaster I guess. So as I updated on my last post they have finally posted the position that I have been doing for the last 8 months. I have already submitted my application for the position and it will be closing on March 28th. After that point they will set up interviews for the position, unless they decided to move forward with just me, than they will of course interview me for the position, b/c you have to have an interview in order to qualify. So I guess by the end of April we will know one way or the other what is going to be happening with my job. I mean I will either be here or I won’t. There really isn’t any other way to explain it. So than what will happen is I will go back on the Temporary list and depending on where I land will determine where I end up again. So that’s worse case scenario of course.
So this weekend we are going to go south to Indiana. We are excited we haven’t been there in awhile. Maya of course is really excited about going to Indiana. She has missed her cousin and is really excited about being with her. The girls’ birthdays are this weekend. They are going to be 8 and 6; it’s hard to believe that I have an 8 year old already. Lehna will soon be baptized. We are planning on talking with my family to see if they have any interest in coming up for Lehna’s baptism and if they do getting that scheduled. Last Friday we talked with the missionaries about baptism and they gave Lehna the questions that the bishop will go over with her and she knew everything except a couple of things. So we are going to be working with her on that and getting her scheduled. She only needs a brush up on two different things the Word of Wisdom and what it means to have a living Prophet on this earth. She actually knows what word of wisdom she just didn’t know that’s what it was called. So just a few things and we should be set, I’m going to get her interview scheduled so we can start getting that taken care of and then move from that point.
This weekend we got Lehna’s ears pierced. She really did really well for her ear piercing. She was above and beyond great. She was VERY nervous getting her to sit in the chair was a challenge. The lady we went with was sooooo good with her. She distracted her by having her look at the different earrings and let her pick them out and then sat her down and we talked a little bit about her birthday and then Lehna wanted to see the phone and while Lehna was distracted by the phone, she got the piercing gun ready. Then she talked to Lehna about the phone and was doing that... Then Lehna relaxed a little bit than she took her ear and Lehna tensed up a lot and so Lehna asked if she could have the other ear done first. So she did and so she told Lehna, let’s just do one and see what you think, and if you don’t want the other one that’s fine. So she did finally let her do it... and of course Lehna goes “no don’t do the other one” than we both said... well you have one done you have to do the other one... you can’t just have one. LOL so they did the other ear. It was good. She did great. She really loves her new earrings and she’s so excited about them.
Maya my little blue bird is as challenging as ever. She truly is just a crazy little girl. She seriously is such a different child compared to my other kiddos. It’s funny a coworker and I were talking about daycares and structure and etc. And I was telling her that my Maya has her own rules. We were talking about how daycares are great for working parents. That they really create an atmosphere of where things are structured and they have snack and homework time and etc. And how that is great for parent’s b/c they know that their children are having their regular activities and getting things done that they can’t get accomplished b/c of their work schedules. Well she was telling me about her son how at the same time that daycares are GREAT for parents... they can be the worst thing for kids. B/c you may have a child that isn’t a Snack time/play time kid. Instead they maybe let’s lay in front of the TV for a couple of hours TV and they don’t want to have snack time at snack time. This is my Maya to a T. She is forced in to routine and schedule b/c we have to have this b/c of working but man she is definitely my child. She doesn’t like routine and schedules she is very free will. We have the girls enrolled in Awana which is kind of like a bible study meets – girl scouts and well let’s just say that by the time the day is over from CLC – School – CLC- Awana she is tired... and is done listening and done with structure. It’s simply too much for her. We have gotten to the point of when it’s time to go to Awana if she doesn’t want to go we don’t make her, it’s just too much structure and it’s simply not her thing.
Nikolai what a card. He is just such a cutie pie and just rolls with the flow. The last two weeks have been kind of strange with our daycare situation b/c the lady that has been watching Nikolai has been unable to take care of him due to family illness. She is supposed to return taking care of him on Wednesday. Well we have had him at a church member’s home to play; we have had him at a daycare here in our building that has “drop in” available, but not all the time. So it has been just interesting getting him watched and etc. So today when he went to the daycare he literally just took off he didn’t care that we were dropping him off somewhere else he just was ready to play. So it’s been good that he is just so easy going. He just loves playing with his sisters and his sisters love playing with him. Maya plays with him the most and seems to get aggravated with him the easiest it’s usually “Nikolai don’t touch my toys” b/c he has taken interest in something she is playing with. However it is apparent that if she would teach him how to play with her than it would be better but we are a working progress.
Well that’s life as we know it right now. Nothing too exciting but we are still making it.
So this weekend we are going to go south to Indiana. We are excited we haven’t been there in awhile. Maya of course is really excited about going to Indiana. She has missed her cousin and is really excited about being with her. The girls’ birthdays are this weekend. They are going to be 8 and 6; it’s hard to believe that I have an 8 year old already. Lehna will soon be baptized. We are planning on talking with my family to see if they have any interest in coming up for Lehna’s baptism and if they do getting that scheduled. Last Friday we talked with the missionaries about baptism and they gave Lehna the questions that the bishop will go over with her and she knew everything except a couple of things. So we are going to be working with her on that and getting her scheduled. She only needs a brush up on two different things the Word of Wisdom and what it means to have a living Prophet on this earth. She actually knows what word of wisdom she just didn’t know that’s what it was called. So just a few things and we should be set, I’m going to get her interview scheduled so we can start getting that taken care of and then move from that point.
This weekend we got Lehna’s ears pierced. She really did really well for her ear piercing. She was above and beyond great. She was VERY nervous getting her to sit in the chair was a challenge. The lady we went with was sooooo good with her. She distracted her by having her look at the different earrings and let her pick them out and then sat her down and we talked a little bit about her birthday and then Lehna wanted to see the phone and while Lehna was distracted by the phone, she got the piercing gun ready. Then she talked to Lehna about the phone and was doing that... Then Lehna relaxed a little bit than she took her ear and Lehna tensed up a lot and so Lehna asked if she could have the other ear done first. So she did and so she told Lehna, let’s just do one and see what you think, and if you don’t want the other one that’s fine. So she did finally let her do it... and of course Lehna goes “no don’t do the other one” than we both said... well you have one done you have to do the other one... you can’t just have one. LOL so they did the other ear. It was good. She did great. She really loves her new earrings and she’s so excited about them.
Maya my little blue bird is as challenging as ever. She truly is just a crazy little girl. She seriously is such a different child compared to my other kiddos. It’s funny a coworker and I were talking about daycares and structure and etc. And I was telling her that my Maya has her own rules. We were talking about how daycares are great for working parents. That they really create an atmosphere of where things are structured and they have snack and homework time and etc. And how that is great for parent’s b/c they know that their children are having their regular activities and getting things done that they can’t get accomplished b/c of their work schedules. Well she was telling me about her son how at the same time that daycares are GREAT for parents... they can be the worst thing for kids. B/c you may have a child that isn’t a Snack time/play time kid. Instead they maybe let’s lay in front of the TV for a couple of hours TV and they don’t want to have snack time at snack time. This is my Maya to a T. She is forced in to routine and schedule b/c we have to have this b/c of working but man she is definitely my child. She doesn’t like routine and schedules she is very free will. We have the girls enrolled in Awana which is kind of like a bible study meets – girl scouts and well let’s just say that by the time the day is over from CLC – School – CLC- Awana she is tired... and is done listening and done with structure. It’s simply too much for her. We have gotten to the point of when it’s time to go to Awana if she doesn’t want to go we don’t make her, it’s just too much structure and it’s simply not her thing.
Nikolai what a card. He is just such a cutie pie and just rolls with the flow. The last two weeks have been kind of strange with our daycare situation b/c the lady that has been watching Nikolai has been unable to take care of him due to family illness. She is supposed to return taking care of him on Wednesday. Well we have had him at a church member’s home to play; we have had him at a daycare here in our building that has “drop in” available, but not all the time. So it has been just interesting getting him watched and etc. So today when he went to the daycare he literally just took off he didn’t care that we were dropping him off somewhere else he just was ready to play. So it’s been good that he is just so easy going. He just loves playing with his sisters and his sisters love playing with him. Maya plays with him the most and seems to get aggravated with him the easiest it’s usually “Nikolai don’t touch my toys” b/c he has taken interest in something she is playing with. However it is apparent that if she would teach him how to play with her than it would be better but we are a working progress.
Well that’s life as we know it right now. Nothing too exciting but we are still making it.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Sometimes it’s the unplanned part of life that just sucks.
So as I have posted before on this blog that I was let go from my job almost a year ago. This past year has been like a road to recovery. This was probably one of the hardest things that I have ever had to endure. Not only was it a killer to my self esteem but has also been like a black mark that I have been trying to scrub off ever since. I kind of feel a little like Lady Macbeth screaming at my blood stained hands “out out damned spot.” I have applied to many different positions and have done interviews. I have applied for three positions within the county interviewed for three of them and received one ding and I’m waiting for two more. I have been working as a Limited Term Employee for the past 8 months in a position that is FINALLY going to be posted. So I’ll be able to apply for that position and hopefully get the permanent position. It’s truly been a struggle for my family and me. I feel like I have let my family down. I went from being the head of household as far as income, and now barley bringing in anything. It’s just been a really long road. I am grateful that the position will open but I have to say that I feel like it’s a little unfair. I’m angry at the situation and feel helpless and hopeless. I feel like I have a lot to offer and was beaten down by my past employer.
I read this line one time that God is the planner for you. God is the one who opens doors for you, and even when a door is slammed on you and you are stuck in the hallway you should trust even from the hallway that God will open another door, when he’s ready for you to have that door opened. I have to say that I feel like I have been stuck in the hallway for awhile. I feel like I have paid my dues so why am I still standing in the hallway? I can’t go Chung fu on the door, even though I really want to, b/c that isn’t my plan. For almost a year we became inactive in the church. It was shortly after being let go that I was angry at God for letting this happen not only to myself but also to my family. It’s a process that I have had to work through and we are returning to church. I recently was called as a primary worker and so I have to go on a weekly basis b/c I have people depending on me. I’m trying to keep in mind that God truly hasn’t forgotten about me in the hallway. Maybe he’s just making my landing spot that much better. At least I hope so. All I have is time and so I just need to relax which of course is not my skill set. I’m much more motivated to try to control my life than just to “let it happen”. But my hands are tied... I can only continue to search, if I want to look outside the county, or just hold tight until the fate of this position is in its final stages. I’m hoping that I can get hired on by the county but it may not be in my cards either. Again it’s something I won’t have control of.
I know I have a very negative tone in the post and I don’t mean to. It’s truly not the end of the world. I’m trying not to let it have that kind of feeling but it’s hard. It’s a stressful situation for my family and me. I want to feel like I’m helping my family. It’s a struggle. But again this isn’t my time table. I don’t get to decide which door is opened for me. I just have to standing the hallway and continue to keep the faith. I’ll keep you posted on the future for my position. Hopefully the position will open and I will be able to move into it.
I read this line one time that God is the planner for you. God is the one who opens doors for you, and even when a door is slammed on you and you are stuck in the hallway you should trust even from the hallway that God will open another door, when he’s ready for you to have that door opened. I have to say that I feel like I have been stuck in the hallway for awhile. I feel like I have paid my dues so why am I still standing in the hallway? I can’t go Chung fu on the door, even though I really want to, b/c that isn’t my plan. For almost a year we became inactive in the church. It was shortly after being let go that I was angry at God for letting this happen not only to myself but also to my family. It’s a process that I have had to work through and we are returning to church. I recently was called as a primary worker and so I have to go on a weekly basis b/c I have people depending on me. I’m trying to keep in mind that God truly hasn’t forgotten about me in the hallway. Maybe he’s just making my landing spot that much better. At least I hope so. All I have is time and so I just need to relax which of course is not my skill set. I’m much more motivated to try to control my life than just to “let it happen”. But my hands are tied... I can only continue to search, if I want to look outside the county, or just hold tight until the fate of this position is in its final stages. I’m hoping that I can get hired on by the county but it may not be in my cards either. Again it’s something I won’t have control of.
I know I have a very negative tone in the post and I don’t mean to. It’s truly not the end of the world. I’m trying not to let it have that kind of feeling but it’s hard. It’s a stressful situation for my family and me. I want to feel like I’m helping my family. It’s a struggle. But again this isn’t my time table. I don’t get to decide which door is opened for me. I just have to standing the hallway and continue to keep the faith. I’ll keep you posted on the future for my position. Hopefully the position will open and I will be able to move into it.
Article Review
So I have some time so I thought that I would write yet another update. I don’t have a lot of new things to add as I just updated yesterday... so I thought that I write about an article I read. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/scientists-want-to-bring-some-animals-back-from-extinction-211102151.html
So first let me say that Yahoo is not the most “news worthy” of sources. They have crap on the website all the time about celebrities or tips that no one would ever use, etc., that quite frankly I think just fills up the space on Yahoo. I read different things on there sometimes and just shake my head, but I read this article and again with a shaking head kind of was thinking... this is a bad idea.
So the jest of the article is that Scientist would like to bring back some animals that are extinction. They are creating a list of animals that they would like to try to bring back with the helping of cloning and DNA breeding and whatever. Not a scientist so I don’t understand the how they are planning on doing it to make it happen. It raises a couple of concerns however, during the movie Jurassic Park one of the lines that was made was, you know these animals have millions of years between us and humans, don’t you think there was a reason for that? I mean one of the lines in the article was discussing about which animals to bring back was because of human desire to have them back; I mean really this is a reason why we should bring them back. I mean I desire to have chocolate milkshakes all the time, but that isn’t exactly the thing that I should do. I don’t think this is going to be possible to do, and I am truly hopeful that it won’t happen. But it just has me a little concerned that this is what we spend our time researching... I mean I can understand preservation and saving the things that we have... but a Saber tooth tiger? Really? This is what we need to bring back? And why... b/c we desire to do so? Hum I don’t think that’s a good enough reason. And what did we learn from Jurassic Park? Did any of those scientists watch that movie, b/c they might want to? I mean that is a perfect example of humans intervening and recreating something that has already passed it’s time on this earth. Do I think that it supposed to go and be extinct? Hum yep I do. I think that we all of have our “time limits” on this earth and it’s extrinsic for a reason, if that was b/c of human interference or the ice age or whatever the reason... why are we messing with this? I don’t know it just doesn’t sound too smart to me. I think we could be spending more time researching that could be deemed as useful rather than wasting time on this. So again... just my opinion... but a little concerning.
So first let me say that Yahoo is not the most “news worthy” of sources. They have crap on the website all the time about celebrities or tips that no one would ever use, etc., that quite frankly I think just fills up the space on Yahoo. I read different things on there sometimes and just shake my head, but I read this article and again with a shaking head kind of was thinking... this is a bad idea.
So the jest of the article is that Scientist would like to bring back some animals that are extinction. They are creating a list of animals that they would like to try to bring back with the helping of cloning and DNA breeding and whatever. Not a scientist so I don’t understand the how they are planning on doing it to make it happen. It raises a couple of concerns however, during the movie Jurassic Park one of the lines that was made was, you know these animals have millions of years between us and humans, don’t you think there was a reason for that? I mean one of the lines in the article was discussing about which animals to bring back was because of human desire to have them back; I mean really this is a reason why we should bring them back. I mean I desire to have chocolate milkshakes all the time, but that isn’t exactly the thing that I should do. I don’t think this is going to be possible to do, and I am truly hopeful that it won’t happen. But it just has me a little concerned that this is what we spend our time researching... I mean I can understand preservation and saving the things that we have... but a Saber tooth tiger? Really? This is what we need to bring back? And why... b/c we desire to do so? Hum I don’t think that’s a good enough reason. And what did we learn from Jurassic Park? Did any of those scientists watch that movie, b/c they might want to? I mean that is a perfect example of humans intervening and recreating something that has already passed it’s time on this earth. Do I think that it supposed to go and be extinct? Hum yep I do. I think that we all of have our “time limits” on this earth and it’s extrinsic for a reason, if that was b/c of human interference or the ice age or whatever the reason... why are we messing with this? I don’t know it just doesn’t sound too smart to me. I think we could be spending more time researching that could be deemed as useful rather than wasting time on this. So again... just my opinion... but a little concerning.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Time for an update.
So I am actually getting up another update for this month... How about that?
Okay yeah I know don’t get too excited. I don’t think anyone reads this anyway, but that’s okay b/c it’s my history of my life. Or something likes that anyway. Besides I’m way to narcissistic not to have an online blog. Who doesn’t want to read about me? Right?
Okay so updates and life.
Well we went to the school parent teacher conferences a couple of weeks ago and we got some great reports.
Lehna’s teacher loves her. She said she’s just such a neat kid. She has a vocabulary of not a normal 2nd grade child, which I find hilarious. She told the teacher the other day that she was hoping that they were going to cancel school, b/c the snow was coming down so fast, she was worried that the Kindergartens were going to be lost in the snow banks. This of course makes me laugh. Compared to their testing of her to other kids in her class, she is above average. She is very high in her skill set in Math. She is actually above average as far as the district. Her reading wasn’t “as high” but still good. The teacher feels that she isn’t challenging herself very much on reading and knows she has the ability to do more. So they had a goal of going swimming if they had a total of 10 points from an AR test that they have to take. The scoring I feel is VERY complicated as far as how they total the points for the testing, but the concept is easy to understand. The AR portion of the test is actually a computer test, kind of like a comprehension test, it consists of 5 points. If the student doesn’t miss any questions they get ½ a point. If they do miss some than they get percentages of points. So they would have to read more books in order to get a full 10 points, basically. So Lehna the start of March only had 2.5 points... and had to get 10 by the end of March. So we have worked with her to where she was reading 2 books a night and now she only has to read two more books in order to get all of her points. The teacher sends us a note telling us that she needs to “slow down now” LOL I tell you can’t win for losing :) So she should be able to meet her goal and be able to swim with her class. She was telling me yesterday that right now there are only 5 kids that are currently meeting the goal of swimming. So we’ll see.
Maya also had her conference and they said she is the “comforter” in the class. She wants everyone to be happy and she’ll be the first to go over to the crying child and make them feel better. She also has improved so much over the last couple of months with having to sit in her chair and staying on task. In preschool we knew that she had trouble staying on task b/c the teacher would say that she would rather be playing than working n what they needed her to work on. Her teacher also said that academically she is very bright. She is very strong in Math and did above average in class. She is doing really well. They did say that she does struggle with reading. Know her sound of letters is not improving much so we need to work with her on that. Its funny b/c I was reading some of her homework that she brought home of their writing journal and it looked like she only had the first sentence written and nothing else. I asked her about it and she said that the teacher didn’t have time to help her. So I didn’t think too much about it. Well what she is doing is writing the first line of the “topic” and then she doesn’t write anymore. She doesn’t write anymore b/c she doesn’t know the sounds of the letters and doesn’t try to guess, so she gives up. So we are slowly working on this with her because she is one of those that really don’t want to do school work at all. So getting her to do anything outside of the school building it tough. So they did say that she likes to be the “little sister” they like when the older class members (b/c she has Kindergarten and 1st grade in her class) come and help her. So of course that hasn’t been helping her reading/writing b/c they have been doing the work for her. I have a feeling that is happening in CLC as well. I think the teachers in there are “helping her” but they are giving her the answers. So we are trying to get her to bring her homework home and not do it there at CLC. Which of course again we run into the other problem where she doesn’t want to do the work and she knows that someone at CLC will do the work for her so why should she bring it home?
Nikolai has also had some schooling, well more like we have had schooling. Tait and I have been working with a speech therapist for Nikolai. Nikolai doesn’t speak very much and so we have been working in an in-home therapist as well as classes in which they teach us all kinds of things to try with Nikolai to get him to speak more and give him more words in his vocabulary. He is doing well, we are still working with him and it’s been a learning process to say the least, but we are working on it. He has learned a bit more words and he is slowly starting to talk more but it will take some time. The class is slotted to last until May so it will take awhile. We just have to keep working with him.
So the girls’ birthday is coming up. Part of Lehna’s birthday present it to get her ears pierced. She is scheduled to get them done this weekend. I don’t think it’s going to happen, I think she will be so scared that she will back out. I have tried to explain to her that yes it will hurt, it will pinch, but it will be okay. So we’ll see what’s going to happen with that. I really want her to go through with it only b/c I know she really wants to have them done. I have told her that you don’t see the needle or anything it’s just a little thing that goes on your ear, so we’ll see, that will be a lot of drama I’m sure. Maya is so very excited to go to Indiana for Easter as she is over the moon about seeing Deklyn. She talks to her on the phone on occasion and she really enjoys that. She said that she will “spank our butts if we don’t take her”. We have told her that we will take her in a couple of weeks. In her mind that means days and then gets upset when a “couple of days” have gone by and we still aren’t there. I keep referring to her as being 6, as she will be couple of weeks and she tells me, “mom I am only 5 I am not 6 yet.”
This past weekend Lehna and I went to see Oz the Great and Powerful, or whatever the title is. It was a good movie. Lehna LOVED it. It was a very colorful movie full. The writing was a little hooky just kind of over the top with some of the lines and such, but as far as the whole entire movie it was good. Lehna said she can’t wait to see it again.
Our baby kittens are now not so little anymore. I can’t believe how much they have grown in such a short period of time. Tait is kind of “fed up” with them being kittens; which since he didn’t grow up around animals his tolerance of them is pretty short. I just love having them and being able to pet them and hold them. The kids are great with them. I am having them change cat boxes, feed them, and water them. They are learning responsibility for them. When they start complaining I simply tell them “well this is the responsibility of owning cats, you don’t want the responsibility, than you won’t own cats” That seems to get them back in line. They still aren’t very cuddly yet, they haven’t really gotten into that stage yet. They do sleep on our bed, which drives Tait crazy. But I just really enjoy having them around and snuggling.
Well that's my exciting update for now.
Okay yeah I know don’t get too excited. I don’t think anyone reads this anyway, but that’s okay b/c it’s my history of my life. Or something likes that anyway. Besides I’m way to narcissistic not to have an online blog. Who doesn’t want to read about me? Right?
Okay so updates and life.
Well we went to the school parent teacher conferences a couple of weeks ago and we got some great reports.
Lehna’s teacher loves her. She said she’s just such a neat kid. She has a vocabulary of not a normal 2nd grade child, which I find hilarious. She told the teacher the other day that she was hoping that they were going to cancel school, b/c the snow was coming down so fast, she was worried that the Kindergartens were going to be lost in the snow banks. This of course makes me laugh. Compared to their testing of her to other kids in her class, she is above average. She is very high in her skill set in Math. She is actually above average as far as the district. Her reading wasn’t “as high” but still good. The teacher feels that she isn’t challenging herself very much on reading and knows she has the ability to do more. So they had a goal of going swimming if they had a total of 10 points from an AR test that they have to take. The scoring I feel is VERY complicated as far as how they total the points for the testing, but the concept is easy to understand. The AR portion of the test is actually a computer test, kind of like a comprehension test, it consists of 5 points. If the student doesn’t miss any questions they get ½ a point. If they do miss some than they get percentages of points. So they would have to read more books in order to get a full 10 points, basically. So Lehna the start of March only had 2.5 points... and had to get 10 by the end of March. So we have worked with her to where she was reading 2 books a night and now she only has to read two more books in order to get all of her points. The teacher sends us a note telling us that she needs to “slow down now” LOL I tell you can’t win for losing :) So she should be able to meet her goal and be able to swim with her class. She was telling me yesterday that right now there are only 5 kids that are currently meeting the goal of swimming. So we’ll see.
Maya also had her conference and they said she is the “comforter” in the class. She wants everyone to be happy and she’ll be the first to go over to the crying child and make them feel better. She also has improved so much over the last couple of months with having to sit in her chair and staying on task. In preschool we knew that she had trouble staying on task b/c the teacher would say that she would rather be playing than working n what they needed her to work on. Her teacher also said that academically she is very bright. She is very strong in Math and did above average in class. She is doing really well. They did say that she does struggle with reading. Know her sound of letters is not improving much so we need to work with her on that. Its funny b/c I was reading some of her homework that she brought home of their writing journal and it looked like she only had the first sentence written and nothing else. I asked her about it and she said that the teacher didn’t have time to help her. So I didn’t think too much about it. Well what she is doing is writing the first line of the “topic” and then she doesn’t write anymore. She doesn’t write anymore b/c she doesn’t know the sounds of the letters and doesn’t try to guess, so she gives up. So we are slowly working on this with her because she is one of those that really don’t want to do school work at all. So getting her to do anything outside of the school building it tough. So they did say that she likes to be the “little sister” they like when the older class members (b/c she has Kindergarten and 1st grade in her class) come and help her. So of course that hasn’t been helping her reading/writing b/c they have been doing the work for her. I have a feeling that is happening in CLC as well. I think the teachers in there are “helping her” but they are giving her the answers. So we are trying to get her to bring her homework home and not do it there at CLC. Which of course again we run into the other problem where she doesn’t want to do the work and she knows that someone at CLC will do the work for her so why should she bring it home?
Nikolai has also had some schooling, well more like we have had schooling. Tait and I have been working with a speech therapist for Nikolai. Nikolai doesn’t speak very much and so we have been working in an in-home therapist as well as classes in which they teach us all kinds of things to try with Nikolai to get him to speak more and give him more words in his vocabulary. He is doing well, we are still working with him and it’s been a learning process to say the least, but we are working on it. He has learned a bit more words and he is slowly starting to talk more but it will take some time. The class is slotted to last until May so it will take awhile. We just have to keep working with him.
So the girls’ birthday is coming up. Part of Lehna’s birthday present it to get her ears pierced. She is scheduled to get them done this weekend. I don’t think it’s going to happen, I think she will be so scared that she will back out. I have tried to explain to her that yes it will hurt, it will pinch, but it will be okay. So we’ll see what’s going to happen with that. I really want her to go through with it only b/c I know she really wants to have them done. I have told her that you don’t see the needle or anything it’s just a little thing that goes on your ear, so we’ll see, that will be a lot of drama I’m sure. Maya is so very excited to go to Indiana for Easter as she is over the moon about seeing Deklyn. She talks to her on the phone on occasion and she really enjoys that. She said that she will “spank our butts if we don’t take her”. We have told her that we will take her in a couple of weeks. In her mind that means days and then gets upset when a “couple of days” have gone by and we still aren’t there. I keep referring to her as being 6, as she will be couple of weeks and she tells me, “mom I am only 5 I am not 6 yet.”
This past weekend Lehna and I went to see Oz the Great and Powerful, or whatever the title is. It was a good movie. Lehna LOVED it. It was a very colorful movie full. The writing was a little hooky just kind of over the top with some of the lines and such, but as far as the whole entire movie it was good. Lehna said she can’t wait to see it again.
Our baby kittens are now not so little anymore. I can’t believe how much they have grown in such a short period of time. Tait is kind of “fed up” with them being kittens; which since he didn’t grow up around animals his tolerance of them is pretty short. I just love having them and being able to pet them and hold them. The kids are great with them. I am having them change cat boxes, feed them, and water them. They are learning responsibility for them. When they start complaining I simply tell them “well this is the responsibility of owning cats, you don’t want the responsibility, than you won’t own cats” That seems to get them back in line. They still aren’t very cuddly yet, they haven’t really gotten into that stage yet. They do sleep on our bed, which drives Tait crazy. But I just really enjoy having them around and snuggling.
Well that's my exciting update for now.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Easter is seriously so close!
Okay so I realize that it has been awhile since I have updated but there really hasn’t been too much that has happened.
Nikolai did have his 2nd birthday. We had a small gathering for his birthday. He got trucks and trains and he was OVER the MOON! Those are a few of his favorite things! My mom got him a semi truck that has little trucks inside of it and not only does he love the fact he can carry his trucks wherever he wants. He also enjoys the fact that he can RIDE his semi from room to room. That is one of his favorite things to do is sit on the big semi and run it up and down the hallway. So he’s very inventive if you has me! He’s such a funny little boy.
The girls birthday is literally right around the corner and I can’t believe it! It’s amazing just how fast it goes. It’s hard to believe that it’s already ½ through MARCH. I mean truly, didn’t this month just START! Lehna is scheduled to get her ears pierced next weekend. I found a lady that has her own beauty shop and she does them out of her home. She is very excited about it. I’m nervous b/c I know that she gets SUPER anxious over that kind of thing. But I know she’ll be fine. I am very upfront about how it will hurt. I have told her that it’s like a shot it will hurt. So we’ll see if she will go through it. If not it’s okay, she can wait for a little longer. She knows she had to be eight before we would even consider getting her ears getting pierced. But this is a weekend before her birthday. But since we are going to be out of town for her birthday I told her we would do it 7 days early. So she was excited about that.
Maya is excited to be 6. We keep calling her six and she says “I’m not six yet daddy/mommy.” It’s funny b/c to her she really just wants to go visit Deklyn in Indiana. That is what she is most concerned about. We have told her that she shares the day with Easter this year and it really hasn’t set in what that really means. We normally take them out to dinner for their birthday so with us being in Indiana we will have to go somewhere on the way home or something like that. We will be going back to Indiana before my family dinner in Peru, which is sad I miss seeing my family but we are planning on seeing them that weekend so it just won’t be for Easter dinner.
So that’s life right now… not too much going on. A lot of the same things over and over unfortunately.
I’ll keep you posted on what happens with the birthdays!
Nikolai did have his 2nd birthday. We had a small gathering for his birthday. He got trucks and trains and he was OVER the MOON! Those are a few of his favorite things! My mom got him a semi truck that has little trucks inside of it and not only does he love the fact he can carry his trucks wherever he wants. He also enjoys the fact that he can RIDE his semi from room to room. That is one of his favorite things to do is sit on the big semi and run it up and down the hallway. So he’s very inventive if you has me! He’s such a funny little boy.
The girls birthday is literally right around the corner and I can’t believe it! It’s amazing just how fast it goes. It’s hard to believe that it’s already ½ through MARCH. I mean truly, didn’t this month just START! Lehna is scheduled to get her ears pierced next weekend. I found a lady that has her own beauty shop and she does them out of her home. She is very excited about it. I’m nervous b/c I know that she gets SUPER anxious over that kind of thing. But I know she’ll be fine. I am very upfront about how it will hurt. I have told her that it’s like a shot it will hurt. So we’ll see if she will go through it. If not it’s okay, she can wait for a little longer. She knows she had to be eight before we would even consider getting her ears getting pierced. But this is a weekend before her birthday. But since we are going to be out of town for her birthday I told her we would do it 7 days early. So she was excited about that.
Maya is excited to be 6. We keep calling her six and she says “I’m not six yet daddy/mommy.” It’s funny b/c to her she really just wants to go visit Deklyn in Indiana. That is what she is most concerned about. We have told her that she shares the day with Easter this year and it really hasn’t set in what that really means. We normally take them out to dinner for their birthday so with us being in Indiana we will have to go somewhere on the way home or something like that. We will be going back to Indiana before my family dinner in Peru, which is sad I miss seeing my family but we are planning on seeing them that weekend so it just won’t be for Easter dinner.
So that’s life right now… not too much going on. A lot of the same things over and over unfortunately.
I’ll keep you posted on what happens with the birthdays!