Boring, boring, boring! But after the kid update, I got a request for a Rob and Tamra update, so here goes.
Short update: We're stressed.
Longer update:
Rob
Rob still has his lab job at Children's Hospital, which he enjoys, and is enjoying more and more as time goes on. He applied for a teaching job at the University of Cincinnati (UC), but he hasn't been contacted, so it's almost definitely a No.
The reason that job sounded so inviting is that it would have allowed Rob to stop working 3 and jobs at a time. Rob is teaching an introductory-level Biology class, with lab, every Tuesday and Thursday night at Northern Kentucky University. He LOVES it, but it's hard to be away from family so much. Then, when he's home, he has to prep lectures (though not as much any more, since he's been teaching the same class for almost 2 years now), grade papers, etc. At the same time, he's also teaching an on-line class for UC. Sometimes he teaches 2 sections of it.
These extra jobs allow for several things.
1 - Paying off the grad school debt that we accumulated when we thought Rob would graduate and be working an industry job and raking in $90,000/year. He's making about half that right now. ... Not that making less is a problem, because it's not. But being in debt IS a problem. We're still on track to be debt free (except the house) in 2013, give or take a year. That will be the biggest raise we've ever had. Right now between $700 and $900/mo. is going towards debt re-payment. That's like a second mortgage.
2- It's giving Rob teaching experience. It turns out, though, that this is not helping him stand out from the rest of the job applicant pool. We were told that it would. Those people lied to us. We're not bitter about that, it's just interesting. What it means is that Rob is now more motivated to get some stellar research done. He's working on a publication right now that's due on Tuesday. That's a guaranteed publication, too, so slam dunk for Rob. He has 2 others that he hopes to get out in 2012.
3- It pays for my school tuition.
Rob working for Edith, who is an angel in human form, is one of our greatest blessings. I know I say that a lot, but I say it as much as I can. You guys have no idea how much she has changed our family's life for the better. Rob is just now figuring out that he's good at science, that he can be successful at it, and that he just might want to do this for the rest of his life. Edith is an excellent mentor and boss, and I'm encouraging Rob to stay with her until something Amazing comes his way. Who knows when that will be.
Tamra
School pretty much dominates my life right now. This last week was my week off (Cincinnati State is currently on a 9-week term schedule, but that'll change in Fall 2012), so I've been savoring it. Doing all those things that I haven't done in weeks. Like folding the laundry while humming. And doing a project with the kids. And saying things like, "It'll all be alright," when Rob looks uber-stressed (instead of saying, "Yeah, me, too."). It's been a much-needed break.
I volunteer at the kids' school 4 times a month, which doesn't seem like a lot, and it's probably not, but it's about all I can handle. Otherwise, afternoons are my homework time. Or my time to not do homework because I'm so stressed that I can't even think about it. Rob makes dinner now, which helps me a ton, and I take care of the house except for that, and it works out pretty well.
The large upside to school is that I'm succeeding. Cincinnati State is a community college, which means it's ... not to sound cocky ... below what I'm capable of doing. I ace tests and papers with little effort. I feel for the students who find it difficult. ... I say little effort, but I'm putting in quite a bit of effort. School is a process I enjoy, and I very much dislike doing poorly on any assignment. My lowest grade on anything so far was a 90% on a homework assignment, and I was mad at myself. It's amazing how being 30 and feeling like I don't have time to waste changes my entire perspective. It didn't bother me, dropping out of college when I was 21. That's not an option this time.
I also have lots and lots of opportunities to sign. About every other weekend I'm at some deaf event, signing away for hours. I love it. I've also been interpreting once or twice a month at church. I was able to interpret for a deaf investigator meeting with the missionaries. That was a new experience for me, and I helped more than I hurt, so that's good. ... I'm learning a lot and improving a lot.
Our Family
School for me and 3 jobs for Rob means that our kids are getting the short end of the stick. We re-connect as a family over the weekend, and it's sacred time for all of us. The kids aren't involved in sports or any extra activities except for Miciah's piano on Wednesday nights. That's all we can handle right now. I feel kinda bad about that, but I know that the situation isn't forever. And maybe it's good for them to know that sometimes we can't have everything we want, and that a family sacrifices together. I dunno.
We don't hang out with friends much any more, which sounds sadder than it is. Rob and I hardly find the time to hang out with each other, so hanging out with friends is almost a burden right now. That sounds so friendly of me, right? The situation isn't upsetting or depressing, it just is what it is. Certain things have had to drop for our family to be successful. That's not sad at all. It's necessary.
What's been fascinating to me is seeing how much peace I've had through the whole process. I hate stress. Hate it. I avoid it like ... like something that should be avoided at all costs. Sure, some days I break down. But mostly I'm steady. I have the time to do what most needs to be done, and I don't mind doing it. I need less down time than normal, and I feel like Heavenly Father is strengthening our family. I get the sleep I need. I get and give the hugs I need. And I know that this is worth everything we're putting into it.
It's a good life.
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Celebration
Celebration is such a non-celebratory word. It's so ... boring-sounding. It's not like party, which is fun to say and even funner to say loudly. Anyway.
Last night was Parent-Teacher Conferences. Rob and I went together to all 3 conferences, one right after the other, rapid-fire-like. And, pleasantly enough, they were all great. We heard good things about our kids, which is nice, cause we think they're pretty good kids. A short sum-up of how they're doing in school:
Miciah - 4th Grade
(As a side note: Miciah loved that the picture captured the one zit on her forehead. It's a sign of growing up, and she was kinda proud of that. Funny.)
As always, she's loving Language Arts. She's in an advanced Language Arts program, which means harder homework and higher expectations. She's loving it. She was so proud of herself for acing spelling tests 2 weeks in a row this month. She has a lot of homework this year, but she does it without complaining most nights, and I hardly ever have to remind her. That girl is a Get-it-Done Machine.
We met with her Math teacher who was shocked to learn that Miciah has never liked Math. When she told us how well she was doing, I stopped and said, "Yeah, I wanted to ask about that. What in the world are you doing in class? Miciah LOVES it!" And who knows what the secret really is, but she's tearin' it up.
About a month into school, Miciah brought home her first timed multiplication test. I stared at the page, with the 100% circled in the top right corner. "Was this timed, Miciah?" She said it was. "How long did you have to do it?" She'd finished the whole page, which she'd almost never done in 3rd grade, so I thought she was going to tell me that they'd had 10 minutes to do it. When she told me she'd finished it all (correctly!) in 5 minutes it was all I could do to not say, "Really?!!"
The teacher we met with, who is also her homeroom teacher, also gave her a very nice compliment. She said, "Miciah is just so comfortable being Miciah. She doesn't seem to care what other people think." And it's true. I don't know how long she'll hold onto that (hopefully forever, right?!), but it's wonderful.
Elijah - 2nd Grade
Our spastic child is also quite smart. Which often leads him to believe that he knows everything. Sometimes Rob has to hold back his I-want-to-smash-you-to-show-you-that-you're-not-all-that feelings cause, you know, Elijah is our son after all. We don't want him to have a complex.
But he's doing great in school. He's loving Math and often challenges himself at home with harder math problems. He'll say, "Look, Mom. I'm stretching my brain." Love it. The one "complaint" that his teacher had is that Elijah struggles with showing how he got his answers on Math tests. That whole show your work thing. She says when she brings it up with him, he'll just look at her as if it say, "Well, the answer is 8. That's obvious."
We worked really, really hard with Elijah on his handwriting last year. Well, that takes away from his achievement a little. Elijah worked really, really hard, and we pushed him to do so. He just didn't understand why his teacher should be able to read his papers. He'd always say, "Well, I can read it." So it's nice to see all that hard work paying off. Now they'll start working on writing, which should be a nice challenge for Elijah. Typically, he's the kid with less to say (see the above paragraph in relation to Math). I'm interested to see how he does.
Teancom - Kindergarten
I've said this before, I think, but Tank LOVES Kindergarten. His teacher is one of those genuinely nice people. The type you meet only a few times in a lifetime. He adores her (and truth be told, so do I).
It's funny. Tank never was into coloring or reading or any of that before Kindergarten started. I was worried that he would have no interest in what they were doing in school. But his love for learning took over and is helping him overcome his desire to do nothing. (The boy can lay on the floor for hours. Not joking.) His teacher told us that he really loves science, which isn't new information to us, it's just interesting that she noticed it, too. They've done a few science experiments, and she said that Tank's eyes light up every time. It must be genetic, cause that's totally his father.
Teancom is sounding out words like a champ, and is beginning to read. He knows all his letters, can write his name correctly, can count to 100, and loves to color. I list all that because these were all things that he couldn't or wouldn't do as of August. AUGUST! It's been fantastic to see his explosive academic growth.
Unique to Teancom's growing up experience (for my kids) is that he gets to go to a babysitter's house 2 mornings a week. We are super lucky that it's our good friend, Rachel, who loves Tank and treats him like a king. Teancom adores her and LOVES going to her house. It's such a relief to me to see that, cause I feel just a smidgen guilty about not being with him, even though I know that me going to school right now is good. He begs to go to her house and is disappointed when I have time off school. That's a perfect arrangement.
Tank loves to do his homework. He only gets just a little each week, but he begs to do it as soon as he walks in the door. He's very self-motivated, like Miciah is. (Kindergarten year was a struggle with Elijah. We had to force him to do his homework. That was true nearly the entire year. It was brutal.)
Party!
Rob and I drove home and talked about how great it was that our kids are doing well in school. It was nice to have the teachers all say, "You're doing a great job with your kid," and then honestly respond, "Well, we think you're doing a great job with our kid, too. Thank you." We arrived home, Rob turned off the engine, and then he just sat there. I thought he had something scary-important to tell me. He said, "We just had these great conferences with our kids. We only heard good things about them. Let's do something nice for our kids tonight. Something to celebrate." I thought that was a great idea!
So we ordered specialty pizza that we normally don't buy. We got soda. We bought 3 kinds of ice cream and let the kids eat it in a cone. And we ran a fun little science experiment / craft project (folding paper and putting it on water. Seriously fun). The kids got to stay up late, and everyone had a great time.
It was a nice reminder. Our kids really are fantastic little human beings, and they try so hard to be good. That's definitely something to celebrate.
Here's a cool video about the folded paper on water thing. Ours weren't this intricate, of course, but it's the same idea:
Flottille (detail) from Etienne Cliquet on Vimeo.
Last night was Parent-Teacher Conferences. Rob and I went together to all 3 conferences, one right after the other, rapid-fire-like. And, pleasantly enough, they were all great. We heard good things about our kids, which is nice, cause we think they're pretty good kids. A short sum-up of how they're doing in school:
Miciah - 4th Grade
As always, she's loving Language Arts. She's in an advanced Language Arts program, which means harder homework and higher expectations. She's loving it. She was so proud of herself for acing spelling tests 2 weeks in a row this month. She has a lot of homework this year, but she does it without complaining most nights, and I hardly ever have to remind her. That girl is a Get-it-Done Machine.
We met with her Math teacher who was shocked to learn that Miciah has never liked Math. When she told us how well she was doing, I stopped and said, "Yeah, I wanted to ask about that. What in the world are you doing in class? Miciah LOVES it!" And who knows what the secret really is, but she's tearin' it up.
About a month into school, Miciah brought home her first timed multiplication test. I stared at the page, with the 100% circled in the top right corner. "Was this timed, Miciah?" She said it was. "How long did you have to do it?" She'd finished the whole page, which she'd almost never done in 3rd grade, so I thought she was going to tell me that they'd had 10 minutes to do it. When she told me she'd finished it all (correctly!) in 5 minutes it was all I could do to not say, "Really?!!"
The teacher we met with, who is also her homeroom teacher, also gave her a very nice compliment. She said, "Miciah is just so comfortable being Miciah. She doesn't seem to care what other people think." And it's true. I don't know how long she'll hold onto that (hopefully forever, right?!), but it's wonderful.
Elijah - 2nd Grade
Our spastic child is also quite smart. Which often leads him to believe that he knows everything. Sometimes Rob has to hold back his I-want-to-smash-you-to-show-you-that-you're-not-all-that feelings cause, you know, Elijah is our son after all. We don't want him to have a complex.
But he's doing great in school. He's loving Math and often challenges himself at home with harder math problems. He'll say, "Look, Mom. I'm stretching my brain." Love it. The one "complaint" that his teacher had is that Elijah struggles with showing how he got his answers on Math tests. That whole show your work thing. She says when she brings it up with him, he'll just look at her as if it say, "Well, the answer is 8. That's obvious."
We worked really, really hard with Elijah on his handwriting last year. Well, that takes away from his achievement a little. Elijah worked really, really hard, and we pushed him to do so. He just didn't understand why his teacher should be able to read his papers. He'd always say, "Well, I can read it." So it's nice to see all that hard work paying off. Now they'll start working on writing, which should be a nice challenge for Elijah. Typically, he's the kid with less to say (see the above paragraph in relation to Math). I'm interested to see how he does.
Teancom - Kindergarten
I've said this before, I think, but Tank LOVES Kindergarten. His teacher is one of those genuinely nice people. The type you meet only a few times in a lifetime. He adores her (and truth be told, so do I).
It's funny. Tank never was into coloring or reading or any of that before Kindergarten started. I was worried that he would have no interest in what they were doing in school. But his love for learning took over and is helping him overcome his desire to do nothing. (The boy can lay on the floor for hours. Not joking.) His teacher told us that he really loves science, which isn't new information to us, it's just interesting that she noticed it, too. They've done a few science experiments, and she said that Tank's eyes light up every time. It must be genetic, cause that's totally his father.
Teancom is sounding out words like a champ, and is beginning to read. He knows all his letters, can write his name correctly, can count to 100, and loves to color. I list all that because these were all things that he couldn't or wouldn't do as of August. AUGUST! It's been fantastic to see his explosive academic growth.
Unique to Teancom's growing up experience (for my kids) is that he gets to go to a babysitter's house 2 mornings a week. We are super lucky that it's our good friend, Rachel, who loves Tank and treats him like a king. Teancom adores her and LOVES going to her house. It's such a relief to me to see that, cause I feel just a smidgen guilty about not being with him, even though I know that me going to school right now is good. He begs to go to her house and is disappointed when I have time off school. That's a perfect arrangement.
Tank loves to do his homework. He only gets just a little each week, but he begs to do it as soon as he walks in the door. He's very self-motivated, like Miciah is. (Kindergarten year was a struggle with Elijah. We had to force him to do his homework. That was true nearly the entire year. It was brutal.)
Party!
Rob and I drove home and talked about how great it was that our kids are doing well in school. It was nice to have the teachers all say, "You're doing a great job with your kid," and then honestly respond, "Well, we think you're doing a great job with our kid, too. Thank you." We arrived home, Rob turned off the engine, and then he just sat there. I thought he had something scary-important to tell me. He said, "We just had these great conferences with our kids. We only heard good things about them. Let's do something nice for our kids tonight. Something to celebrate." I thought that was a great idea!
So we ordered specialty pizza that we normally don't buy. We got soda. We bought 3 kinds of ice cream and let the kids eat it in a cone. And we ran a fun little science experiment / craft project (folding paper and putting it on water. Seriously fun). The kids got to stay up late, and everyone had a great time.
It was a nice reminder. Our kids really are fantastic little human beings, and they try so hard to be good. That's definitely something to celebrate.
Here's a cool video about the folded paper on water thing. Ours weren't this intricate, of course, but it's the same idea:
Flottille (detail) from Etienne Cliquet on Vimeo.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Things That are Awesome
During the school term, I usually post very little, and if I do post, what's on my mind is ASL and stress. But life isn't just about going from one stressful thing to another, even if some days that's what it feels like. Our life is good right now. Here are some things that are awesome about life as it is.
Take a Week Off
The full-time faculty at Cincinnati State are on strike this week. This means I get a week off! Not quite, since I still have to do homework, but I'm not at class right now. And it's amazing what an extra 4 hours of time means for one's sanity. Extra sanity in the middle of the school term is Awesome.
The Kids' School
I volunteer at the kids' school library once a month. Well, once a month per kid. Then I volunteer once a month in Tank's Kindergarten class, mostly making copies and filing papers and stuff so the teacher doesn't have to do it herself. (I'm happy to do that - seriously, our teachers are under-appreciated.) It all averages out to be once a week at the school. Last Thursday when I was there during Elijah's library time, feeling run ragged, shelving books and thinking about all the things that I had to do that day and the next, Elijah raised his hand and said to the librarian, "That's my mom." Yeah. That's why I do it. It's amazing how much they love me being at the school, even when all I do is shelve books and copy papers.
D Rex and Olivia
Tank did a medical study 2 years ago. Got some shots. Did some blood draws. He got a substantial amount of money for that, especially for a 3-year-old who doesn't have any real-life expenses. Some of that money was used for Key West (remember, all the kids contributed - which is something of a drawback now, since they're starting to say things like, "If we get another $200, can we go back?"), and some for tithing, obviously, but the rest just sat in a bank account. And that's boring. So we finally decided to let him spend it.
I took him to Toys R Us and let him pick out anything he wanted. What he really truly wanted wasn't there, since it was a toy he wanted 2 years ago and toys come and go. So what did he choose instead? This:
He didn't name the horse Silver or something equally manly. Not even Horse or Horsey. He named her Olivia. I asked why he chose the name Olivia and he said, "Because it's a pretty name."
I love that he picked out such a classic toy. Anyway, we went home and searched for the toy he really wanted, a walking dinosaur. You remember Chaga?
That's Chaga. Well, Chaga has a "dad." This is Chaga's dad:
He's huge. And turns out he's expensive! $300 expensive. Which is a touch more than Tank actually had to his name. I talked him into an older-child (and less expensive) version of the toy, D Rex:
D Rex is a COOL toy. Seriously, we all play with him.
He named D Rex something you'll never guess. ... Yep, D Rex. Ah, you guessed it.
Rob's Work
Things are going really well at Rob's work. He just won a poster contest that gave him a $1,000 travel award. He's applying for 2 separate grants that will give him 1-a small amount of money for research and a great bullet to put on his CV (CVs are science resumes), and 2-a bunch more money in salary for 1 year. Obviously he hasn't yet won either of those, but still, nothing like this has come across his desk before, so we're excited for the opportunity to apply. Plus, the grants he's writing are full-on grants, and that's giving Rob lots of experience in grant writing.
Also, Rob still loves the teaching that he's doing. He teaches every Tuesday and Thursday night, and he has an on-line class, too. He loves it. It's nice to remember that he loves it, since it takes so much of his time. And the extra teaching is allowing us to knock down a bunch of our debt, and that's awesome, too.
Working Out
Rob and I have been waking up every morning and exercising together. We've been doing that for about 2 months now, and we love it. Well, we're taking this week off (mostly), and it's weird to go back to how it used to be and feel that this is not normal any more. I feel so ... lazy. All I do in the morning is get up and take a shower. What? That's it? 7 a.m. is now a normal time to get up, and it's great to have accomplished things before 9 in the morning.
Part of the exercising has been running, and on Saturday we ran just over 8 miles. What I have to say about that is: 8 miles is substantially longer than 6 miles. Don't tell me "it's just 2 more miles." You run them and then you can tell me that.
We've been training for a crazy run that's almost 16 miles, mid-Winter, up mountains and such. Except it's getting cold outside. And I don't like to be cold. So the race is slipping back into "I don't want to do it" territory. We'll see. Either way, the working out will continue, cause we like seeing muscle on our bodies (even if it is just little ones), and breathing deeper, and feeling better, and eating better. It's awesome.
Bike Riding
Rob finally fixed up our bikes! So now everyone in the family has a bike, and while I was at school last night (mostly time off. I said MOSTLY I have time off) they went on a bike ride. The kids thought it was awesome.
Managing Time
I'm not going to tell you that I am suddenly amazing at managing my time. That's not true. But I'm better able to handle all the things on my plate than I was before we started on this Tamra Going Back to School Adventure. I feel like my life is more balanced than it's ever been, even though it's busier. And what I'm learning is that it's not EVEN THOUGH, it's BECAUSE. Because my life is busier, I have to balance it or I fall apart. I'm reading my scriptures and working out nearly every day. Those things haven't consistently happened for years. I direct the kids' homework when they get home from school, and they have it done in a timely manner. We are ON TASK. I have all my own assignments done on time. The chores all get done, though not as often or as thoroughly as they used to. Everyone, including me, is a little more patient when clothes aren't folded or dinner isn't made. We get it all done eventually.
Some things have lessened, but they still happen. We don't do social dinners as often as we used to. We just don't have the time for it. And we don't play with the kids as much, since we all have things to do. But the weekends are suddenly precious. That's our time to spend with the kids, to be a family, to do special things that we don't have the time for during the week.
So I'm grateful that we're this busy. It's empowering to know that we can do it. Rob will say, "I look forward to when we're not this busy," and I tell him that he's kidding himself. We'll always be this busy. Now that we CAN do it, we WILL do it. We'll just trade some things for different things. Rob won't work 3 or 4 jobs at a time, and I won't always be in school. But we'll let the kids play sports, maybe even participate in the coaching, and spend lots of time in the car. We'll take a couples' swing dance class once a week. We'll volunteer. We'll plan and take vacations. Whatever it is, we'll find things. So it's awesome that we're learning to manage our time better.
And a Random Assortment...
This sign language stuff is awesome. That's a given.
Our van now has over 381,000 miles on it. It's still running. Not as smoothly as when we first got it in January, but hey, we'll take it.
Edith, Rob's boss, is awesome. When I think about things in our life that are going right, she's always on the list. I love that woman.
Miciah is on book 4 of the Harry Potter series. She was borrowing the books from friends when Grandma called and asked if Miciah would like to own the series. She then sent out all 7 hardcover books. Awesome!
Now that I have glasses, I don't get headaches any more. It occurred to me that 1-I used to get headaches on a more frequent basis than I realized, 2-I'm not getting them any more, and 3-this was a change due to my glasses, when I recently looked into my purse and thought, "Why do I have headache medication with me all the time?" Thank you, glasses. You're awesome.
Take a Week Off
The full-time faculty at Cincinnati State are on strike this week. This means I get a week off! Not quite, since I still have to do homework, but I'm not at class right now. And it's amazing what an extra 4 hours of time means for one's sanity. Extra sanity in the middle of the school term is Awesome.
The Kids' School
I volunteer at the kids' school library once a month. Well, once a month per kid. Then I volunteer once a month in Tank's Kindergarten class, mostly making copies and filing papers and stuff so the teacher doesn't have to do it herself. (I'm happy to do that - seriously, our teachers are under-appreciated.) It all averages out to be once a week at the school. Last Thursday when I was there during Elijah's library time, feeling run ragged, shelving books and thinking about all the things that I had to do that day and the next, Elijah raised his hand and said to the librarian, "That's my mom." Yeah. That's why I do it. It's amazing how much they love me being at the school, even when all I do is shelve books and copy papers.
D Rex and Olivia
Tank did a medical study 2 years ago. Got some shots. Did some blood draws. He got a substantial amount of money for that, especially for a 3-year-old who doesn't have any real-life expenses. Some of that money was used for Key West (remember, all the kids contributed - which is something of a drawback now, since they're starting to say things like, "If we get another $200, can we go back?"), and some for tithing, obviously, but the rest just sat in a bank account. And that's boring. So we finally decided to let him spend it.
I took him to Toys R Us and let him pick out anything he wanted. What he really truly wanted wasn't there, since it was a toy he wanted 2 years ago and toys come and go. So what did he choose instead? This:
He didn't name the horse Silver or something equally manly. Not even Horse or Horsey. He named her Olivia. I asked why he chose the name Olivia and he said, "Because it's a pretty name."
I love that he picked out such a classic toy. Anyway, we went home and searched for the toy he really wanted, a walking dinosaur. You remember Chaga?
That's Chaga. Well, Chaga has a "dad." This is Chaga's dad:
He's huge. And turns out he's expensive! $300 expensive. Which is a touch more than Tank actually had to his name. I talked him into an older-child (and less expensive) version of the toy, D Rex:
He named D Rex something you'll never guess. ... Yep, D Rex. Ah, you guessed it.
Rob's Work
Things are going really well at Rob's work. He just won a poster contest that gave him a $1,000 travel award. He's applying for 2 separate grants that will give him 1-a small amount of money for research and a great bullet to put on his CV (CVs are science resumes), and 2-a bunch more money in salary for 1 year. Obviously he hasn't yet won either of those, but still, nothing like this has come across his desk before, so we're excited for the opportunity to apply. Plus, the grants he's writing are full-on grants, and that's giving Rob lots of experience in grant writing.
Also, Rob still loves the teaching that he's doing. He teaches every Tuesday and Thursday night, and he has an on-line class, too. He loves it. It's nice to remember that he loves it, since it takes so much of his time. And the extra teaching is allowing us to knock down a bunch of our debt, and that's awesome, too.
Working Out
Rob and I have been waking up every morning and exercising together. We've been doing that for about 2 months now, and we love it. Well, we're taking this week off (mostly), and it's weird to go back to how it used to be and feel that this is not normal any more. I feel so ... lazy. All I do in the morning is get up and take a shower. What? That's it? 7 a.m. is now a normal time to get up, and it's great to have accomplished things before 9 in the morning.
Part of the exercising has been running, and on Saturday we ran just over 8 miles. What I have to say about that is: 8 miles is substantially longer than 6 miles. Don't tell me "it's just 2 more miles." You run them and then you can tell me that.
We've been training for a crazy run that's almost 16 miles, mid-Winter, up mountains and such. Except it's getting cold outside. And I don't like to be cold. So the race is slipping back into "I don't want to do it" territory. We'll see. Either way, the working out will continue, cause we like seeing muscle on our bodies (even if it is just little ones), and breathing deeper, and feeling better, and eating better. It's awesome.
Bike Riding
Rob finally fixed up our bikes! So now everyone in the family has a bike, and while I was at school last night (mostly time off. I said MOSTLY I have time off) they went on a bike ride. The kids thought it was awesome.
Managing Time
I'm not going to tell you that I am suddenly amazing at managing my time. That's not true. But I'm better able to handle all the things on my plate than I was before we started on this Tamra Going Back to School Adventure. I feel like my life is more balanced than it's ever been, even though it's busier. And what I'm learning is that it's not EVEN THOUGH, it's BECAUSE. Because my life is busier, I have to balance it or I fall apart. I'm reading my scriptures and working out nearly every day. Those things haven't consistently happened for years. I direct the kids' homework when they get home from school, and they have it done in a timely manner. We are ON TASK. I have all my own assignments done on time. The chores all get done, though not as often or as thoroughly as they used to. Everyone, including me, is a little more patient when clothes aren't folded or dinner isn't made. We get it all done eventually.
Some things have lessened, but they still happen. We don't do social dinners as often as we used to. We just don't have the time for it. And we don't play with the kids as much, since we all have things to do. But the weekends are suddenly precious. That's our time to spend with the kids, to be a family, to do special things that we don't have the time for during the week.
So I'm grateful that we're this busy. It's empowering to know that we can do it. Rob will say, "I look forward to when we're not this busy," and I tell him that he's kidding himself. We'll always be this busy. Now that we CAN do it, we WILL do it. We'll just trade some things for different things. Rob won't work 3 or 4 jobs at a time, and I won't always be in school. But we'll let the kids play sports, maybe even participate in the coaching, and spend lots of time in the car. We'll take a couples' swing dance class once a week. We'll volunteer. We'll plan and take vacations. Whatever it is, we'll find things. So it's awesome that we're learning to manage our time better.
And a Random Assortment...
This sign language stuff is awesome. That's a given.
Our van now has over 381,000 miles on it. It's still running. Not as smoothly as when we first got it in January, but hey, we'll take it.
Edith, Rob's boss, is awesome. When I think about things in our life that are going right, she's always on the list. I love that woman.
Miciah is on book 4 of the Harry Potter series. She was borrowing the books from friends when Grandma called and asked if Miciah would like to own the series. She then sent out all 7 hardcover books. Awesome!
Now that I have glasses, I don't get headaches any more. It occurred to me that 1-I used to get headaches on a more frequent basis than I realized, 2-I'm not getting them any more, and 3-this was a change due to my glasses, when I recently looked into my purse and thought, "Why do I have headache medication with me all the time?" Thank you, glasses. You're awesome.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Get Back to Work!
I keep trying to remember what life felt like before. When the most important thing to do on a rainy day was to sit down and read a book all day. When I didn't have to do laundry RIGHT NOW because I had a full day a week to listen to music and fold laundry in a leisurely fashion. When I could choose to not clean up the house because I was being lazy. When I would post random, pointless blogs because, shoot, what else was I doing with my time?
That's a weird, lost time. Life moves at a different pace now. I can't afford to not clean my house - it has to be done, and there's no way around it. I think about wanting to sit on the couch all day, and then I sigh and start my homework.
Not that I'm regretting school. Nor do I really dislike the new pace. It's just different. I can't call a friend and say, "Hey, I don't want to do anything today, wanna hang out?" cause that'll put me too far behind with everything else I have to do. And I don't mind it. But it still feels strange.
It's worth it, though. This sign stuff rocks! I can tell I'm improving, and I'm enjoying my time. Plus, I still have time to volunteer at the kids' school once a week. I can still waste an hour or two, here and there. The house is clean most of the time, and that feels nice. I'm getting stuff done and accomplishing things, and that's a great feeling, too. I'll take the trade-off.
Now back to work!
That's a weird, lost time. Life moves at a different pace now. I can't afford to not clean my house - it has to be done, and there's no way around it. I think about wanting to sit on the couch all day, and then I sigh and start my homework.
Not that I'm regretting school. Nor do I really dislike the new pace. It's just different. I can't call a friend and say, "Hey, I don't want to do anything today, wanna hang out?" cause that'll put me too far behind with everything else I have to do. And I don't mind it. But it still feels strange.
It's worth it, though. This sign stuff rocks! I can tell I'm improving, and I'm enjoying my time. Plus, I still have time to volunteer at the kids' school once a week. I can still waste an hour or two, here and there. The house is clean most of the time, and that feels nice. I'm getting stuff done and accomplishing things, and that's a great feeling, too. I'll take the trade-off.
Now back to work!
Friday, September 9, 2011
One Week Down
Last week Dea left. Wow, was that really last week? Anyways. Her departure marked our official end of summer. I'm sad without her. Everyone should know a Dea. She makes the world a better place. (And you guys know me: I'm a non-emotional one, not prone to saying things like, "She makes the world a better place" unless it's 100% true. Science has proven in multiple peer-reviewed studies that Dea indeed makes the world a better place.)
However, it's nice to have a normal life back, with just 3 kids and a steady routine. Thank you, school! I go to school 1 evening and 2 mornings a week, and afternoons are to myself because this little guy goes to Kindergarten:
We had a wide range of expectations. We had the Worst Case in our minds, where he cries all day and we receive calls mid-day asking us what is wrong with our child. Then the Best Case, where he gets on the bus like a champ and comes home glowing. And then multiple in-between possibilities, like he's fine at school but doesn't like riding the bus by himself.
Happily, he's been amazingly brave (for Tank), and it's been Best Case. In fact, in the above picture, he'd just finish saying, "I love school!" He likes being where his siblings are, he likes his teacher, and he likes learning stuff.
No, I didn't cry when he got on the bus. That's not really my thing. I forget that this surprises people. I'm not a robot, I just don't think it's sad when my kids go to school. They'll come back.
Some good First Week of Kindergarten stories (sorry, but it's my blog. You can, however, choose not to read on through the sappiness):
Peng the Penguin
Tank's clinginess has been less as of late, which makes everyone happy, especially Tank. He makes friends and plays well and doesn't need my legs to hide behind. But on the day that class lists were posted, he was uber-clingy and fussy. I was thinking, "This is the old Tank, what's up?" And it slowly dawned on me that he was probably anxious about school. Of course!
That same day we went to buy school supplies (don't do it with all 4 kids - trust me), and the kids wanted these cute little mini-Webkinz to put on their bookbags. I said fine, whatever, they were $5, and Tank was happy to have one until he saw that there were mini-pillow pets as well. He picked one out but then saw that they didn't change from a pillow into a pet. What's the fun in that? He went for the big bin of full-size pillow pets and would no longer be happy with the mini options.
I tried to convince him that if he did well in school, we could come back and buy one. At $20, I didn't want to just get him one. He was unhappy with that. He threw a fit, I refused to budge, and we all left the store unhappy. At store number 2, though, I decided that this was an opportunity. I changed my tactic and tried again. "Okay, Tank. You can have a pillow pet, BUT if you're not good at school, or if you aren't brave riding the bus, I get to take him away. Alright?" He agreed and we brought home Peng the Penguin, Tank's new best friend.
It has worked wonderfully, which kinda surprises me. Since when do pre-bribes actually pan out? But Tank has been great, he's done everything bravely, and he gets to snuggle with Peng every night.
(And as a note: I thought pillow pets were ridiculous until I hugged one. Quite possibly the best hugging stuffed animal in existence. Just so you know.)
The Kissing Hand
Do you guys know this book? Our Kindergarten teachers use it as a way to help the kids transition to going to school away from their mommies. It's about a raccoon who doesn't want to go to school, and his mom gives him a Kissing Hand. She kisses the palm of his hand, and he closes his fist and the kiss stays with him and doesn't wash off. Then, whenever he's missing his mom, he can put that hand up to his cheek, and the hand will tell him, "Mommy loves you. Mommy loves you," and he'll be filled with warm, happy thoughts.
A few years back, when my mom was asking what books to get the kids, I asked for that one, thinking that it might help the boys transition to school even better if we owned the same book they were reading in class. And it's been great. Tank came home, told us he'd read the book, and we read it 3 more times together at home. I gave him a Kissing Hand on each palm, and then he asked for a Kissing Hand from Miciah and Elijah. Super cute. (He put his palm on his cheek and I said, "Is it working?" He nodded and replied, "It's saying Mommy loves me. Mommy loves me. I have warm, happy thoughts.")
The second day he reported that he was so good at school, and he liked it so much, that he didn't even have to use the Kissing Hand!
On day three I put him in my arms and said, "I miss you while you're gone, Tank. What should I do about that?" He grabbed my hand and spread my fingers into a fan (just like in the book), and kissed my hand. "Now, put it on your cheek," he said. I did. He continued, "Is it saying Teancom loves you?" I smiled really big and said that it was indeed.
Excessive Cuddling
On day two, I took a nap in the afternoon, cause it's the perfect napping weather. I was still in bed, but waking up when the kids arrived home. Tank asked if he could lay down with me, which was fine. I assumed he just wanted to suck on his fingers, and there are only 2 places where he can suck his fingers now: his bedroom and Mommy's bed. (And he hasn't broken that rule once. What an obedient kid!) A minute or two later, he was in my arms cuddling. Elijah asked me to come see something and I went to get up and Tank yelled, "NO!" and clung to me like a monkey. I giggled. "Do you need some cuddle time, buddy?" We cuddled for 10 minutes before he was satisfied.
He hasn't done that since.
First Day Off - Fail
I was excited that Tank would go to Kindergarten and I would have the afternoon to myself. I had tried to decide what to do with my first day to myself and decided it should probably be a lot of nothing. Sit on the couch. Read a book. Whatever.
And then Miciah got sick. She came home on Thursday with a fever, and the school has a 24-hour fever-free policy. So Miciah was home with me on Friday, even though she wasn't sick at all any more. This was fine until Tank left around 12:45, and then suddenly it was like, "Why are you here? You're not supposed to be here!" I made her go to her room, which surprised her, I think. But this was MY FIRST DAY OFF.
Here's the other Tank's First Day picture:
Oh well. Tuesday I had the afternoon to myself, and it was great. I made dinner and realized that it's not the making dinner that I hate, it's the making dinner with kids crawling all over me that's so detestable.
...
In other One Week Down news, I started school this week, too. I want to smack some of the kids in class with me, but I try to be patient and remember that they're only 19 years old. I also have to remember that it's a community college, and so I shouldn't expect it to be as demanding as BYU was. But honestly. My final project in one of my classes is a glorified book report. Which is fine. But I get 10 points JUST FOR TURNING IT IN ON TIME. Which kinda blows my mind. You don't bribe college kids to turn stuff in on time. You EXPECT them to do it and punish them if they don't. (Another 5 points for typing it. TYPING IT!)
Oh well. I've got 3 kids and a life to take care of, so I don't mind the easy points. Plus, I like ASL, no matter what.
Alright. Hope you're all having a good September!
However, it's nice to have a normal life back, with just 3 kids and a steady routine. Thank you, school! I go to school 1 evening and 2 mornings a week, and afternoons are to myself because this little guy goes to Kindergarten:
We had a wide range of expectations. We had the Worst Case in our minds, where he cries all day and we receive calls mid-day asking us what is wrong with our child. Then the Best Case, where he gets on the bus like a champ and comes home glowing. And then multiple in-between possibilities, like he's fine at school but doesn't like riding the bus by himself.
Happily, he's been amazingly brave (for Tank), and it's been Best Case. In fact, in the above picture, he'd just finish saying, "I love school!" He likes being where his siblings are, he likes his teacher, and he likes learning stuff.
No, I didn't cry when he got on the bus. That's not really my thing. I forget that this surprises people. I'm not a robot, I just don't think it's sad when my kids go to school. They'll come back.
Some good First Week of Kindergarten stories (sorry, but it's my blog. You can, however, choose not to read on through the sappiness):
Peng the Penguin
Tank's clinginess has been less as of late, which makes everyone happy, especially Tank. He makes friends and plays well and doesn't need my legs to hide behind. But on the day that class lists were posted, he was uber-clingy and fussy. I was thinking, "This is the old Tank, what's up?" And it slowly dawned on me that he was probably anxious about school. Of course!
That same day we went to buy school supplies (don't do it with all 4 kids - trust me), and the kids wanted these cute little mini-Webkinz to put on their bookbags. I said fine, whatever, they were $5, and Tank was happy to have one until he saw that there were mini-pillow pets as well. He picked one out but then saw that they didn't change from a pillow into a pet. What's the fun in that? He went for the big bin of full-size pillow pets and would no longer be happy with the mini options.
I tried to convince him that if he did well in school, we could come back and buy one. At $20, I didn't want to just get him one. He was unhappy with that. He threw a fit, I refused to budge, and we all left the store unhappy. At store number 2, though, I decided that this was an opportunity. I changed my tactic and tried again. "Okay, Tank. You can have a pillow pet, BUT if you're not good at school, or if you aren't brave riding the bus, I get to take him away. Alright?" He agreed and we brought home Peng the Penguin, Tank's new best friend.
It has worked wonderfully, which kinda surprises me. Since when do pre-bribes actually pan out? But Tank has been great, he's done everything bravely, and he gets to snuggle with Peng every night.
(And as a note: I thought pillow pets were ridiculous until I hugged one. Quite possibly the best hugging stuffed animal in existence. Just so you know.)
The Kissing Hand
Do you guys know this book? Our Kindergarten teachers use it as a way to help the kids transition to going to school away from their mommies. It's about a raccoon who doesn't want to go to school, and his mom gives him a Kissing Hand. She kisses the palm of his hand, and he closes his fist and the kiss stays with him and doesn't wash off. Then, whenever he's missing his mom, he can put that hand up to his cheek, and the hand will tell him, "Mommy loves you. Mommy loves you," and he'll be filled with warm, happy thoughts.
A few years back, when my mom was asking what books to get the kids, I asked for that one, thinking that it might help the boys transition to school even better if we owned the same book they were reading in class. And it's been great. Tank came home, told us he'd read the book, and we read it 3 more times together at home. I gave him a Kissing Hand on each palm, and then he asked for a Kissing Hand from Miciah and Elijah. Super cute. (He put his palm on his cheek and I said, "Is it working?" He nodded and replied, "It's saying Mommy loves me. Mommy loves me. I have warm, happy thoughts.")
The second day he reported that he was so good at school, and he liked it so much, that he didn't even have to use the Kissing Hand!
On day three I put him in my arms and said, "I miss you while you're gone, Tank. What should I do about that?" He grabbed my hand and spread my fingers into a fan (just like in the book), and kissed my hand. "Now, put it on your cheek," he said. I did. He continued, "Is it saying Teancom loves you?" I smiled really big and said that it was indeed.
Excessive Cuddling
On day two, I took a nap in the afternoon, cause it's the perfect napping weather. I was still in bed, but waking up when the kids arrived home. Tank asked if he could lay down with me, which was fine. I assumed he just wanted to suck on his fingers, and there are only 2 places where he can suck his fingers now: his bedroom and Mommy's bed. (And he hasn't broken that rule once. What an obedient kid!) A minute or two later, he was in my arms cuddling. Elijah asked me to come see something and I went to get up and Tank yelled, "NO!" and clung to me like a monkey. I giggled. "Do you need some cuddle time, buddy?" We cuddled for 10 minutes before he was satisfied.
He hasn't done that since.
First Day Off - Fail
I was excited that Tank would go to Kindergarten and I would have the afternoon to myself. I had tried to decide what to do with my first day to myself and decided it should probably be a lot of nothing. Sit on the couch. Read a book. Whatever.
And then Miciah got sick. She came home on Thursday with a fever, and the school has a 24-hour fever-free policy. So Miciah was home with me on Friday, even though she wasn't sick at all any more. This was fine until Tank left around 12:45, and then suddenly it was like, "Why are you here? You're not supposed to be here!" I made her go to her room, which surprised her, I think. But this was MY FIRST DAY OFF.
Here's the other Tank's First Day picture:
...
In other One Week Down news, I started school this week, too. I want to smack some of the kids in class with me, but I try to be patient and remember that they're only 19 years old. I also have to remember that it's a community college, and so I shouldn't expect it to be as demanding as BYU was. But honestly. My final project in one of my classes is a glorified book report. Which is fine. But I get 10 points JUST FOR TURNING IT IN ON TIME. Which kinda blows my mind. You don't bribe college kids to turn stuff in on time. You EXPECT them to do it and punish them if they don't. (Another 5 points for typing it. TYPING IT!)
Oh well. I've got 3 kids and a life to take care of, so I don't mind the easy points. Plus, I like ASL, no matter what.
Alright. Hope you're all having a good September!
Monday, August 22, 2011
Forgot to post about it
First off:
School shopping - don't like.
My niece, Dea - do like.
Moving on.
The Search for Tank
The best story of the Mammoth Cave trip happened at the campsite. It was morning, and our tour didn't start until 10:45 (which felt like 11:45 because of the time change), so we were being good, relaxed parents and were allowing the kids to wander around the whole of the camping area. It's not very big, and I figure, in reality, most people don't really want to steal my children, especially not 4 of them.
They were sticking together and making walking trips around the camping loop and through the wooded area in-between. No problem. Then they called me over a few camp sites to see a deer. I saw the deer and pretended to be enthusiastic about the obviously-fed-by-people animal (cause pretend enthusiasm is what all the cool moms are doing these days). On my way back to the campsite I started counting kids. Miciah, Dea, and Elijah. No Teancom. I asked them where he was. They didn't know. "He's at the bathroom." "No, Elijah was just in there, and Tank wasn't with him." "He's at the campsite." "No, I was just there." That's a problem.
We tried to stay calm. Chances were that he was fine. Chances were that he wasn't too far away. ... But, you know, he's only 5.
We sent all the kids different ways around the loop and Rob split through the wooded area in the middle. One of the other campers said, "Are you looking for a little boy?" Rob replied that he was. "He went that way." Good start on our search. The best part of the whole thing was what they said next.
"He looked really young to be walking by himself, but he was walking with a purpose. He was banging his stick on the ground and when he walked by he looked at us and said, 'I made this trail!'"
Sure enough, he was just a little further down the line, banging his stick as he walked, so no big deal. And our whole family has since been saying, "I made this trail!"
Elijah
For the first time in his short life, Elijah bore his testimony at church. I loved it. It wasn't the semi-memorized normal spiel about how he knew the church was true and that he knew President Hinckley was a prophet or whatever. (Not to knock that sort of little kid testimony-bearing.) He brought up his set of scriptures and, from what I could understand between the mumbles, said that he'd been reading Joseph Smith History and that he liked it. Then he said that his dad had given his uncle Rick a blessing and that Rick had lived and he liked that, too. And he closed the testimony and sat down.
It was so simple, and yet somehow so powerful. Here's a 7-year-old little boy, bringing up his scriptures, talking about how he was reading Joseph Smith History? That's good stuff. On top of that, I'm his mother, and I see what he does at home. We have a Must Read for Half an Hour to Play the Wii rule, and almost always Elijah brings out his Book of Mormon to read. I don't ask him what he's reading most of the time, and I don't know what he's getting out of it, but holy cow! I often can't find the time to read the Book of Mormon, but my 7-year-old, who is just starting to understand the complexities of the book, he's reading it everyday? Wow, I'm a slacker.
But to me the point isn't really that I'm a slacker. It's that Elijah is amazing. He wants to be good. He wants the Priesthood. He wants to serve in the Church just like his daddy. He wants to pray and receive answers.
It's humbling.
Uncle Rick
You'll remember that I posted about Rick when things were looking pretty grim. Well, he's turned it around and is now recovering nicely. He'll hopefully be home by the end of the week, though he'll still need full-time at-home care for a while yet. His accident was on June 10th and he's been in the hospital for all but 4 days since. That's a long time! He's working on things that we take for granted, like walking further than down the hallway and sitting up without passing out. We're happy he'll come home soon. The kids are SO excited to see him.
Strep?
2 weeks ago I was disastrously sick. Fever for 3 days, my throat killing me. I stayed in bed for what felt like (and almost was) 72 hours straight. I finally went to the doctor and he told me that he thought I had strep even though the Rapid Test was negative. Prescribed an antibiotic and told me to go home and get back in bed. I said, "I've BEEN in bed. I want to get OUT of bed!" The next morning I felt amazingly better, and I've continued to improve from there. I finished up the obnoxious 10-day, 3-a-day antibiotic even though the culture revealed that I did not actually have strep. Interesting.
ASL
Tomorrow is my Beginning ASL 2 final. Hurray! I've got a greater than 100% in the class, which I'm proud of but still, it makes it awkward to do things like, "Hey, I know that the class requirement of extra sign hours outside of class is now only extra credit, and I know that I have a better than perfect score in the class, but I did all the work for that requirement, so I'm turning in my 8 hours." I feel like it makes me a jerk, but heck, I'm working hard. The teacher is probably looking for places to dock me points, but for the life of me I can't show up for things under-prepared.
Aw, maybe I won't turn in those 8 hours.
I keep receiving compliments on my sign. I took Rob to a deaf event (even though he barely knows how to say his name - he's a good sport), and was flattered when other people complimented me to him. Someday this will cease to thrill me, but it just feels like confirmation all over again that I'm in the right place at the right time. I love sign and I'm good at it. It's a good feeling.
And last but not least, this song has been in my head:
The End
School shopping - don't like.
My niece, Dea - do like.
Moving on.
The Search for Tank
The best story of the Mammoth Cave trip happened at the campsite. It was morning, and our tour didn't start until 10:45 (which felt like 11:45 because of the time change), so we were being good, relaxed parents and were allowing the kids to wander around the whole of the camping area. It's not very big, and I figure, in reality, most people don't really want to steal my children, especially not 4 of them.
They were sticking together and making walking trips around the camping loop and through the wooded area in-between. No problem. Then they called me over a few camp sites to see a deer. I saw the deer and pretended to be enthusiastic about the obviously-fed-by-people animal (cause pretend enthusiasm is what all the cool moms are doing these days). On my way back to the campsite I started counting kids. Miciah, Dea, and Elijah. No Teancom. I asked them where he was. They didn't know. "He's at the bathroom." "No, Elijah was just in there, and Tank wasn't with him." "He's at the campsite." "No, I was just there." That's a problem.
We tried to stay calm. Chances were that he was fine. Chances were that he wasn't too far away. ... But, you know, he's only 5.
We sent all the kids different ways around the loop and Rob split through the wooded area in the middle. One of the other campers said, "Are you looking for a little boy?" Rob replied that he was. "He went that way." Good start on our search. The best part of the whole thing was what they said next.
"He looked really young to be walking by himself, but he was walking with a purpose. He was banging his stick on the ground and when he walked by he looked at us and said, 'I made this trail!'"
Sure enough, he was just a little further down the line, banging his stick as he walked, so no big deal. And our whole family has since been saying, "I made this trail!"
Elijah
For the first time in his short life, Elijah bore his testimony at church. I loved it. It wasn't the semi-memorized normal spiel about how he knew the church was true and that he knew President Hinckley was a prophet or whatever. (Not to knock that sort of little kid testimony-bearing.) He brought up his set of scriptures and, from what I could understand between the mumbles, said that he'd been reading Joseph Smith History and that he liked it. Then he said that his dad had given his uncle Rick a blessing and that Rick had lived and he liked that, too. And he closed the testimony and sat down.
It was so simple, and yet somehow so powerful. Here's a 7-year-old little boy, bringing up his scriptures, talking about how he was reading Joseph Smith History? That's good stuff. On top of that, I'm his mother, and I see what he does at home. We have a Must Read for Half an Hour to Play the Wii rule, and almost always Elijah brings out his Book of Mormon to read. I don't ask him what he's reading most of the time, and I don't know what he's getting out of it, but holy cow! I often can't find the time to read the Book of Mormon, but my 7-year-old, who is just starting to understand the complexities of the book, he's reading it everyday? Wow, I'm a slacker.
But to me the point isn't really that I'm a slacker. It's that Elijah is amazing. He wants to be good. He wants the Priesthood. He wants to serve in the Church just like his daddy. He wants to pray and receive answers.
It's humbling.
Uncle Rick
You'll remember that I posted about Rick when things were looking pretty grim. Well, he's turned it around and is now recovering nicely. He'll hopefully be home by the end of the week, though he'll still need full-time at-home care for a while yet. His accident was on June 10th and he's been in the hospital for all but 4 days since. That's a long time! He's working on things that we take for granted, like walking further than down the hallway and sitting up without passing out. We're happy he'll come home soon. The kids are SO excited to see him.
Strep?
2 weeks ago I was disastrously sick. Fever for 3 days, my throat killing me. I stayed in bed for what felt like (and almost was) 72 hours straight. I finally went to the doctor and he told me that he thought I had strep even though the Rapid Test was negative. Prescribed an antibiotic and told me to go home and get back in bed. I said, "I've BEEN in bed. I want to get OUT of bed!" The next morning I felt amazingly better, and I've continued to improve from there. I finished up the obnoxious 10-day, 3-a-day antibiotic even though the culture revealed that I did not actually have strep. Interesting.
ASL
Tomorrow is my Beginning ASL 2 final. Hurray! I've got a greater than 100% in the class, which I'm proud of but still, it makes it awkward to do things like, "Hey, I know that the class requirement of extra sign hours outside of class is now only extra credit, and I know that I have a better than perfect score in the class, but I did all the work for that requirement, so I'm turning in my 8 hours." I feel like it makes me a jerk, but heck, I'm working hard. The teacher is probably looking for places to dock me points, but for the life of me I can't show up for things under-prepared.
Aw, maybe I won't turn in those 8 hours.
I keep receiving compliments on my sign. I took Rob to a deaf event (even though he barely knows how to say his name - he's a good sport), and was flattered when other people complimented me to him. Someday this will cease to thrill me, but it just feels like confirmation all over again that I'm in the right place at the right time. I love sign and I'm good at it. It's a good feeling.
And last but not least, this song has been in my head:
The End
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Happenings (an update)
Life feels better than it did a few weeks ago. Calmer and happier.
Seattle
I went to Seattle at the beginning of July to pick up my niece, Dea, for the summer. First off, Dea is delightful and I would like her to live with us for the rest of her life. So when people say something like, "Don't you have family in town?" it's easy to forget that technically, yes, I do. Dea's just one of the kids, and it's been easy to transition from saying that I have 3 kids to claiming 4.
The Seattle trip was a much-needed break. And Seattle is GORGEOUS. I would move there in a heartbeat. I assumed that it would be brown like California, but no! With all the pine trees, it was a deeper green than the Midwest! LOVED it. The mountains, the ocean, the green-ness. Man, I don't know why we all don't pack up and move to Seattle right now!
Also, it was really fun to see my sister again. We don't get to see each other much since we live so far away. She's a wonderful person. I tend to think that she's prettier than me, so when we're together and people ask if we're twins, it makes me happy. Even if I'm the ugly twin, I'll take it!
Oh, oh! If you ever go to Seattle, think about going on the Underground Seattle tour. There's a whole section of town where a new street level was built, and the buildings were just buried to the second floor. So you can go walk around down there and learn about Seattle history. Awesome, right?!
And bring extra money (or your dad - that's what I did) and eat at the Metropolitan Grill. Buy a steak. Trust me.
School and Sign
School is going really, really well. I feel like my sign skills are getting better and better, and that's always a good feeling. I still feel kind of bad that people in my class struggle when I'm having the time of my life. But, honestly, I work my butt off doing this ASL thing. I practice all the freakin' time, to the point of annoying my family members. It's almost like an involuntary twitch at this point. I have to put my hands in my pockets to remind myself to keep my hands still. I've started pulling it out in Gospel Doctrine, without meaning to, and several people have caught me signing to myself while walking down the church hallway.
I was able to help with the effort to get the Deaf LDS Community in the Tri-State area (Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky) together. On Saturday I organized a potluck. Well, really, I picked a place and time and everyone else did the inviting. People came from Dayton, Columbus, and Danville, KY. They picked the next time to meet and planned it out, along with how they want things to run down the road. They started a Facebook page to try to involve as many Deaf LDS as they can. (The Deaf Community includes pretty much anyone who signs. So interpreters and students get included. Though honestly, I still feel like I'm on the fringe of it all, and I might feel like that for a long time, yet. I'm a facilitator and that's the way it is.)
I'm excited that I've been able to be a part of making this happen. I'm grossly undertrained, so I don't feel that I'm Useful in any real sense (I keep saying to myself), but if what just happened there wasn't Useful, than what is?
I also learned that there's a Bachelor's Degree at Wright State for Interpreter Training. I'm not sure what the full name of it is, but it's designed for people like me who will have finished a 2-year degree in an Interpreter Training Program. Not sure if that's the direction that I'll go with school, but apparently soon the certification requirement will change, and I'll need a bachelors. That's a ways off, but it's good to think about now.
(Also, this is going to sound like bragging, but I'm really happy about it, so I'm going to say it. My teacher today told me that I'm going to be a good interpreter. She said, "As teachers, we can always tell who the good ones will be, and you're going to be a good one." Go me! Though, honestly, my response was, "If I didn't want to be the best, then I wouldn't have started the program. I can be mediocre without a degree.")
Rob's Science Conference
Rob went to Maine for a week and had a great time at a super specialized scientific conference. He's was like, "I got to eat dinner with some of these big name guys!" and "That guy's at the top of the field and he was excited about MY research!" etc. It helped remind Rob that he really truly does like research, which is something he's been doubting ever since the 2 years of hell with his last boss.
It got Rob super motivated to get some science papers out. He and his boss came home with some great ideas for what to work on next. Plus, he spent a delightful week with his boss, talking science and getting to know her better. One of the great things about Edith is that she's not only a great boss, she's also a great person.
Rob brought home a Whoopie Pie cook book. I didn't know there was such a thing as Whoopie Pie. Apparently it's a New England thing. They're like big circle cakes with marshmallow filling. Here's a picture that I just grabbed off the internet:
We made these with the kids, and they loved it. Those things are HUGE though, so it was impossible to eat a whole Whoopie Pie by yourself. I think the most anyone ate was 1/2, but most of us only got through 1/4:
These doubled as Tank's birthday cake:
Rob didn't know about the other thing that whoopie means. We were at a friend's house and I had to preface our family's next activity by describing what a Whoopie Pie is, so that the sentence didn't come out, "Come on, kids. Let's go make whoopies." The pluralizing of the word doesn't make it much better. It's already led to some fun jokes. Like, "Rob and I made whoopies and you guys tried it, too," and, "Come on over! We're making whoopies for dessert." ... I bet jokes like this get old really fast in New England.
Miciah and Dea
They're a great pair. Miciah gets Dea out doing stuff, and Dea keeps Miciah calm for the most part. It's a good arrangement. Since Dea's been here, bedtime has been smooth and Miciah never complains that she's bored.
Elijah
Elijah is significantly less crazy since we put Indoor Behavior rules in place. If he's inside and being crazy, then I ask him once to go outside or downstairs to play. If I have to ask him a second time, it's an automatic reading in his room for 15 minutes. Not a punishment, mind you, just an appropriate indoor activity. It's worked like a charm. Elijah is now manageable and the house is calm. Hurray!
Tank
Is officially 5 years old! New rules for him: No sucking fingers except in his room, at bedtime, and in the car. The day after his birthday we started the new rules. He was so mad at me. He threw a fit at my feet until I threw him in his room and then he napped for a few hours. The second day on the new rules and came up to me and said, "Mom, I don't like this new deal. I didn't make this deal!" I told him it wasn't a deal, it was just the way it is now. He wasn't happy with that at all.
However, we're over a week into the new rules, and it's been great. He's so obedient that he absolutely doesn't suck his fingers unless he's in his room or in the car, and the instances of both are decreasing. Just yesterday he said, "I only really suck my fingers when I'm going to bed now." Yes! That was the idea.
His Kindergarten screening is next week. He hasn't been too into learning about anything except animals, so he doesn't know how to read or write. Which means that he'll actually learn something in Kindergarten. He's coming out of his shell more and more, so we're less and less concerned about his transition to school. I think it also helps that we tell him, "We're all going to school, even Mom and Dad." He likes that.
Random Other
And that's pretty much life here. I like my new glasses. I can see crisper details, which is fun. People will say, "I didn't know you needed glasses," and I'll respond with, "Well, I don't really NEED them..." Glasses make the dark gray words in books appear black and sharp. They make the detail on the TV more crisp. They make the clock across the room more distinct. So it's not like I can now see what I couldn't before, I just can now see better what I could already see. And I like it. It makes my eyes feel more relaxed. Now when I take off my glasses my eyes go, "What are you DOING? Put them back on!"
My Uncle Rick is doing better! He's starting the recovery process. It'll still take a long time, but it's awesome that things are getting better. Thank you for all your prayers and support.
And I have a brand new nephew, born today in Utah! Hurray!!!
The End
Seattle
I went to Seattle at the beginning of July to pick up my niece, Dea, for the summer. First off, Dea is delightful and I would like her to live with us for the rest of her life. So when people say something like, "Don't you have family in town?" it's easy to forget that technically, yes, I do. Dea's just one of the kids, and it's been easy to transition from saying that I have 3 kids to claiming 4.
The Seattle trip was a much-needed break. And Seattle is GORGEOUS. I would move there in a heartbeat. I assumed that it would be brown like California, but no! With all the pine trees, it was a deeper green than the Midwest! LOVED it. The mountains, the ocean, the green-ness. Man, I don't know why we all don't pack up and move to Seattle right now!
Also, it was really fun to see my sister again. We don't get to see each other much since we live so far away. She's a wonderful person. I tend to think that she's prettier than me, so when we're together and people ask if we're twins, it makes me happy. Even if I'm the ugly twin, I'll take it!
Oh, oh! If you ever go to Seattle, think about going on the Underground Seattle tour. There's a whole section of town where a new street level was built, and the buildings were just buried to the second floor. So you can go walk around down there and learn about Seattle history. Awesome, right?!
And bring extra money (or your dad - that's what I did) and eat at the Metropolitan Grill. Buy a steak. Trust me.
School and Sign
School is going really, really well. I feel like my sign skills are getting better and better, and that's always a good feeling. I still feel kind of bad that people in my class struggle when I'm having the time of my life. But, honestly, I work my butt off doing this ASL thing. I practice all the freakin' time, to the point of annoying my family members. It's almost like an involuntary twitch at this point. I have to put my hands in my pockets to remind myself to keep my hands still. I've started pulling it out in Gospel Doctrine, without meaning to, and several people have caught me signing to myself while walking down the church hallway.
I was able to help with the effort to get the Deaf LDS Community in the Tri-State area (Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky) together. On Saturday I organized a potluck. Well, really, I picked a place and time and everyone else did the inviting. People came from Dayton, Columbus, and Danville, KY. They picked the next time to meet and planned it out, along with how they want things to run down the road. They started a Facebook page to try to involve as many Deaf LDS as they can. (The Deaf Community includes pretty much anyone who signs. So interpreters and students get included. Though honestly, I still feel like I'm on the fringe of it all, and I might feel like that for a long time, yet. I'm a facilitator and that's the way it is.)
I'm excited that I've been able to be a part of making this happen. I'm grossly undertrained, so I don't feel that I'm Useful in any real sense (I keep saying to myself), but if what just happened there wasn't Useful, than what is?
I also learned that there's a Bachelor's Degree at Wright State for Interpreter Training. I'm not sure what the full name of it is, but it's designed for people like me who will have finished a 2-year degree in an Interpreter Training Program. Not sure if that's the direction that I'll go with school, but apparently soon the certification requirement will change, and I'll need a bachelors. That's a ways off, but it's good to think about now.
(Also, this is going to sound like bragging, but I'm really happy about it, so I'm going to say it. My teacher today told me that I'm going to be a good interpreter. She said, "As teachers, we can always tell who the good ones will be, and you're going to be a good one." Go me! Though, honestly, my response was, "If I didn't want to be the best, then I wouldn't have started the program. I can be mediocre without a degree.")
Rob's Science Conference
Rob went to Maine for a week and had a great time at a super specialized scientific conference. He's was like, "I got to eat dinner with some of these big name guys!" and "That guy's at the top of the field and he was excited about MY research!" etc. It helped remind Rob that he really truly does like research, which is something he's been doubting ever since the 2 years of hell with his last boss.
It got Rob super motivated to get some science papers out. He and his boss came home with some great ideas for what to work on next. Plus, he spent a delightful week with his boss, talking science and getting to know her better. One of the great things about Edith is that she's not only a great boss, she's also a great person.
Rob brought home a Whoopie Pie cook book. I didn't know there was such a thing as Whoopie Pie. Apparently it's a New England thing. They're like big circle cakes with marshmallow filling. Here's a picture that I just grabbed off the internet:
Rob didn't know about the other thing that whoopie means. We were at a friend's house and I had to preface our family's next activity by describing what a Whoopie Pie is, so that the sentence didn't come out, "Come on, kids. Let's go make whoopies." The pluralizing of the word doesn't make it much better. It's already led to some fun jokes. Like, "Rob and I made whoopies and you guys tried it, too," and, "Come on over! We're making whoopies for dessert." ... I bet jokes like this get old really fast in New England.
Miciah and Dea
They're a great pair. Miciah gets Dea out doing stuff, and Dea keeps Miciah calm for the most part. It's a good arrangement. Since Dea's been here, bedtime has been smooth and Miciah never complains that she's bored.
Elijah
Elijah is significantly less crazy since we put Indoor Behavior rules in place. If he's inside and being crazy, then I ask him once to go outside or downstairs to play. If I have to ask him a second time, it's an automatic reading in his room for 15 minutes. Not a punishment, mind you, just an appropriate indoor activity. It's worked like a charm. Elijah is now manageable and the house is calm. Hurray!
Tank
Is officially 5 years old! New rules for him: No sucking fingers except in his room, at bedtime, and in the car. The day after his birthday we started the new rules. He was so mad at me. He threw a fit at my feet until I threw him in his room and then he napped for a few hours. The second day on the new rules and came up to me and said, "Mom, I don't like this new deal. I didn't make this deal!" I told him it wasn't a deal, it was just the way it is now. He wasn't happy with that at all.
However, we're over a week into the new rules, and it's been great. He's so obedient that he absolutely doesn't suck his fingers unless he's in his room or in the car, and the instances of both are decreasing. Just yesterday he said, "I only really suck my fingers when I'm going to bed now." Yes! That was the idea.
His Kindergarten screening is next week. He hasn't been too into learning about anything except animals, so he doesn't know how to read or write. Which means that he'll actually learn something in Kindergarten. He's coming out of his shell more and more, so we're less and less concerned about his transition to school. I think it also helps that we tell him, "We're all going to school, even Mom and Dad." He likes that.
Random Other
And that's pretty much life here. I like my new glasses. I can see crisper details, which is fun. People will say, "I didn't know you needed glasses," and I'll respond with, "Well, I don't really NEED them..." Glasses make the dark gray words in books appear black and sharp. They make the detail on the TV more crisp. They make the clock across the room more distinct. So it's not like I can now see what I couldn't before, I just can now see better what I could already see. And I like it. It makes my eyes feel more relaxed. Now when I take off my glasses my eyes go, "What are you DOING? Put them back on!"
My Uncle Rick is doing better! He's starting the recovery process. It'll still take a long time, but it's awesome that things are getting better. Thank you for all your prayers and support.
And I have a brand new nephew, born today in Utah! Hurray!!!
The End
Friday, July 29, 2011
It's Time
Lately, a huge issue at our house has been housework. With school on my schedule, I simply have less time to do things at home. Less time to blog and read and chat on the internet. Less time to do the dishes and laundry and make dinner. So I cut back on the reading and the blogging and the chatting, and STILL couldn't find the time to do all that other stuff.
It seemed overwhelming, the amount of things I needed to get done and couldn't. What really made things bad was that Rob would get home and say something like, "Did you water the garden today?" When I'd tell him that I did not, I felt that his tone was always, "Well, why not?"
Why not? Why not? Well, let's see. Here's a list of what I need to get done during the summer months:
Dishes
Laundry
Dinner
Watering the Gardens (seriously, this can take over an hour)
Mowing the Lawn (yes, it's my job)
Cleaning Every Room in the House
Taking the Kids Fun Places
When I was just taking care of those things, it wasn't so hard to get it all done and find the time to breathe. But now I've added attending class and homework to the mix. Something had to give, and it couldn't be my sanity.
So when I would sense the "Well, why not?" tone, I would feel like exploding, "Look! I'm not just sitting around the house all day, okay? What do you want me to do?!" (I'll admit that sometimes I am lazy, so Rob being frustrated at what he thought could be laziness on my part has a legitimate basis. For my birthday, for instance, I played Civilization IV for 8 hours straight. This served 2 very useful purposes: 1 - my brain rotted out of my head for at least 48 hours, and 2 - Rob was very frustrated that I did absolutely nothing all day.)
And eventually, I sat down with Rob and we talked about it. "Look," I said, "I'm not being lazy. I just can't get it all done any more. I get to the end of the day frustrated that there's still more to do." "Welcome to my world," he responded. (Which blew me away, I might add. That Rob would feel like this ALL THE TIME and still keep it together? That man is amazing.) Then he offered to step up his game a little, and I realized that wasn't enough. I realized that I needed a category, maybe several categories that were no longer Mine. When he came home at night and asked why something wasn't done, I needed the ability to say, "Well, that's not my job. Ask _____."
So I outsourced my time. The kids now water the gardens (though Rob and I do it sometimes, cause we love to) and help with loading and unloading the dishwasher. Miciah and Dea clean the bathroom and do their own laundry. I very rarely do any chore by myself any more - the kids are able to help - and I no longer occasionally do their scheduled chores for them, just to be nice. I simply don't have the time to be nice. And Rob was assigned Dinner because he loves dinner and I hate making dinner.
This has been great, by the way, especially with enlisting the kids' help. I explained to them that I am now busier and that we as a family need their help. They matured over night. They do their chores without complaining. They sense that they're contributing, and I think that they really like it.
What hasn't been super great is the psychological transition for Rob and me. While Rob is super supportive of me as a mother, housewife, and student, there was still the frustrating transition period when we had to figure out what our new work loads would look like. It led to several frustrating moments ("I TOLD you I needed help. You said that was fine."), and one deeply shameful moment when I physically hit Rob because I was so frustrated. That was a low moment, for sure.
I feel like it's all sorted out now. (For the moment. Starting Fall, Rob works 2 nights a week and the kids aren't available all day as slave labor. We'll have to re-evaluate everything again.) Rob and I have both apologized for not responding as fast as we'd like to a new situation. I feel like I'm sane again. Even if I can't get everything done, I can get the most important things done, and Rob comes home asking what he can do to help instead of wondering why I didn't get to it all. I like the Team feeling.
I think this has been the most surprising part of attending school. We knew things would need to be adjusted, but we didn't anticipate the psychological toll. It's no wonder that marriages crumble when these things aren't addressed.
Love you, Rob. And love you, kids. You guys have been great.
It seemed overwhelming, the amount of things I needed to get done and couldn't. What really made things bad was that Rob would get home and say something like, "Did you water the garden today?" When I'd tell him that I did not, I felt that his tone was always, "Well, why not?"
Why not? Why not? Well, let's see. Here's a list of what I need to get done during the summer months:
Dishes
Laundry
Dinner
Watering the Gardens (seriously, this can take over an hour)
Mowing the Lawn (yes, it's my job)
Cleaning Every Room in the House
Taking the Kids Fun Places
When I was just taking care of those things, it wasn't so hard to get it all done and find the time to breathe. But now I've added attending class and homework to the mix. Something had to give, and it couldn't be my sanity.
So when I would sense the "Well, why not?" tone, I would feel like exploding, "Look! I'm not just sitting around the house all day, okay? What do you want me to do?!" (I'll admit that sometimes I am lazy, so Rob being frustrated at what he thought could be laziness on my part has a legitimate basis. For my birthday, for instance, I played Civilization IV for 8 hours straight. This served 2 very useful purposes: 1 - my brain rotted out of my head for at least 48 hours, and 2 - Rob was very frustrated that I did absolutely nothing all day.)
And eventually, I sat down with Rob and we talked about it. "Look," I said, "I'm not being lazy. I just can't get it all done any more. I get to the end of the day frustrated that there's still more to do." "Welcome to my world," he responded. (Which blew me away, I might add. That Rob would feel like this ALL THE TIME and still keep it together? That man is amazing.) Then he offered to step up his game a little, and I realized that wasn't enough. I realized that I needed a category, maybe several categories that were no longer Mine. When he came home at night and asked why something wasn't done, I needed the ability to say, "Well, that's not my job. Ask _____."
So I outsourced my time. The kids now water the gardens (though Rob and I do it sometimes, cause we love to) and help with loading and unloading the dishwasher. Miciah and Dea clean the bathroom and do their own laundry. I very rarely do any chore by myself any more - the kids are able to help - and I no longer occasionally do their scheduled chores for them, just to be nice. I simply don't have the time to be nice. And Rob was assigned Dinner because he loves dinner and I hate making dinner.
This has been great, by the way, especially with enlisting the kids' help. I explained to them that I am now busier and that we as a family need their help. They matured over night. They do their chores without complaining. They sense that they're contributing, and I think that they really like it.
What hasn't been super great is the psychological transition for Rob and me. While Rob is super supportive of me as a mother, housewife, and student, there was still the frustrating transition period when we had to figure out what our new work loads would look like. It led to several frustrating moments ("I TOLD you I needed help. You said that was fine."), and one deeply shameful moment when I physically hit Rob because I was so frustrated. That was a low moment, for sure.
I feel like it's all sorted out now. (For the moment. Starting Fall, Rob works 2 nights a week and the kids aren't available all day as slave labor. We'll have to re-evaluate everything again.) Rob and I have both apologized for not responding as fast as we'd like to a new situation. I feel like I'm sane again. Even if I can't get everything done, I can get the most important things done, and Rob comes home asking what he can do to help instead of wondering why I didn't get to it all. I like the Team feeling.
I think this has been the most surprising part of attending school. We knew things would need to be adjusted, but we didn't anticipate the psychological toll. It's no wonder that marriages crumble when these things aren't addressed.
Love you, Rob. And love you, kids. You guys have been great.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Well, there's that. (an update)
Tamra
I finished class tonight. My final project didn't go as well as I'd hoped, but I didn't bomb it, either. We had to sign 15 sentences, which isn't a lot. But we had to sign it one-on-one with the teacher. While being videotaped. Can you think of a more stressful classroom situation? Well, maybe there's a more stressful one, but still, that's a pretty stressful situation, I think you'd agree.
I was on the way home, in the car, thinking about how bumbly my ASL was, despite the fact that I know sign and I'd practiced the project multiple, multiple times. I had most of those sentences memorized. I signed to myself some of the sentences again, just to prove that I'm not an idiot. I suppose that's how it goes.
Anyway, it's over and I have a week break before round 2 starts! Hurray!
I haven't updated anything lately, mainly because I wasn't in the mood. I think not being in the mood was partly because I'm just busier with class. Not that class takes a lot of time, but my practicing outside of class took a bunch of time (I'm required to have 8 hours outside of class, and I easily doubled that, if not tripled it. I humbly only reported 11 hours). I've started making connections, particularly in the LDS deaf / ASL community. That's meant meeting new friends and having them over to our house, etc. I don't mind the decrease in down time, because I love signing, but it's been an adjustment.
Here's another thing (and I know you don't really care, but honestly, I'm not writing this for you): Figuring out how to mesh my two worlds together is an interesting process. Huge kudos to my husband for being ultra-supportive in letting me invite people over to our house, KNOWING that he can't effectively communicate with them. Love that Rob husband. ... I now feel like I have 2 separate sets of friends, and those 2 sets can't even talk to each other. Not because they don't want to, but because they can't. There aren't many people who can bridge the deaf / hearing gap. (But thank you to those who try!)
This is a struggle for me. Mostly, I leave it alone, in my mind, because I don't quite know what to do with it. I suspect it will resolve itself over time, or I'll figure it out in some way. But for now, it's ... somewhat stressful for me. I enjoy the process. I like having new friends. But feeling a gap between two parts of myself that I love? Don't like it. ... Bah.
And that's pretty much my life these days. ASL is now creeping into my everyday speech and thoughts and dreams and just random nothing moments, too. My kids often will say, "What are you saying? Oh. You're just talking to yourself." They are now getting interested in signing for themselves, which I LOVE. Hopefully they can acquire some skill at it, too.
Oh, and I turned 30.
Rob
Finished with classes (sort of)! Over the summer he is teaching 2 sections of an on-line class for Raymond Walters, but he won't have to go anywhere. So our Tuesday / Thursdays without him won't start again until late August. Hurray!
He's had a blast helping coach for Elijah's baseball team. It's been adorable. Elijah has one game left, and hopefully I'll remember to take pictures. Elijah and Rob are both so cute out there.
Miciah
Still wonderful. Now that it's summer and we're not as vigilant about her bedtime, I'm sure she's staying up reading until midnight or later. She'll get up in the morning at 10 or 10:30, which is shamefully late. Even I get up by 9:30 at the latest. ... Tonight Miciah suggested that her name sign (usually the first letter of your name used in some way that reflects your personality or interests - only someone who is deaf can give you a name sign) could be something relating to reading. I thought that was cute.
Elijah
Elijah has a name sign, by the way. It's an E circling by the side of his head. It's for Crazy. Elijah the crazy kid. For how much energy he has. I think it's AWESOME. (Again, I didn't come up with it.)
He asks lots of questions to my deaf friends. Things like, "Can you hear music?" and "Can deaf people hear other deaf people?" I like that last one.
Elijah is LOVING baseball. He was interested in the games. He paid attention. He hit the ball well. He wants to practice throwing and catching. Who knows, we might have found a sport for him.
Tank
Adorable still. Interested in helping me around the house. This has been an interesting summer development with all the kids, actually. I will call them and say, "I need you to do this," and, normally without complaining, they'll do it. Weird, right? And then, when they're done, they'll come and ask what else I need them to do. It's like some sort of alternate reality. ... It makes me wonder if the school process is just a lot for them to handle, at these young ages, along with the other stuff that I want them to do around the house. (I'm still making them do chores when school is back in, either way.)
He still only eats crackers and apples and cheese. Normally dinner gets completely passed over. Oh well. Someday he'll grow and then he'll have to eat!
Tank did have a birthday party, even though his 5th birthday isn't for another month yet. Some of his good friends are moving very soon, and some others were leaving town, so we did it early. Also, the #3 person on his invite list was a 14-year-old. I think that's hilarious.
I have other stories and things to report on, since I haven't in a while. Let me make a short list of what's to come in a/some future post(s):
- "Is it a whale or a dolphin?"
- Elijah and the Book of Mormon
- fights during sacrament meeting
- fireflies and soft, quiet things
- Teancom's fear of babies
Sounds like fun, no?
I finished class tonight. My final project didn't go as well as I'd hoped, but I didn't bomb it, either. We had to sign 15 sentences, which isn't a lot. But we had to sign it one-on-one with the teacher. While being videotaped. Can you think of a more stressful classroom situation? Well, maybe there's a more stressful one, but still, that's a pretty stressful situation, I think you'd agree.
I was on the way home, in the car, thinking about how bumbly my ASL was, despite the fact that I know sign and I'd practiced the project multiple, multiple times. I had most of those sentences memorized. I signed to myself some of the sentences again, just to prove that I'm not an idiot. I suppose that's how it goes.
Anyway, it's over and I have a week break before round 2 starts! Hurray!
I haven't updated anything lately, mainly because I wasn't in the mood. I think not being in the mood was partly because I'm just busier with class. Not that class takes a lot of time, but my practicing outside of class took a bunch of time (I'm required to have 8 hours outside of class, and I easily doubled that, if not tripled it. I humbly only reported 11 hours). I've started making connections, particularly in the LDS deaf / ASL community. That's meant meeting new friends and having them over to our house, etc. I don't mind the decrease in down time, because I love signing, but it's been an adjustment.
Here's another thing (and I know you don't really care, but honestly, I'm not writing this for you): Figuring out how to mesh my two worlds together is an interesting process. Huge kudos to my husband for being ultra-supportive in letting me invite people over to our house, KNOWING that he can't effectively communicate with them. Love that Rob husband. ... I now feel like I have 2 separate sets of friends, and those 2 sets can't even talk to each other. Not because they don't want to, but because they can't. There aren't many people who can bridge the deaf / hearing gap. (But thank you to those who try!)
This is a struggle for me. Mostly, I leave it alone, in my mind, because I don't quite know what to do with it. I suspect it will resolve itself over time, or I'll figure it out in some way. But for now, it's ... somewhat stressful for me. I enjoy the process. I like having new friends. But feeling a gap between two parts of myself that I love? Don't like it. ... Bah.
And that's pretty much my life these days. ASL is now creeping into my everyday speech and thoughts and dreams and just random nothing moments, too. My kids often will say, "What are you saying? Oh. You're just talking to yourself." They are now getting interested in signing for themselves, which I LOVE. Hopefully they can acquire some skill at it, too.
Oh, and I turned 30.
Rob
Finished with classes (sort of)! Over the summer he is teaching 2 sections of an on-line class for Raymond Walters, but he won't have to go anywhere. So our Tuesday / Thursdays without him won't start again until late August. Hurray!
He's had a blast helping coach for Elijah's baseball team. It's been adorable. Elijah has one game left, and hopefully I'll remember to take pictures. Elijah and Rob are both so cute out there.
Miciah
Still wonderful. Now that it's summer and we're not as vigilant about her bedtime, I'm sure she's staying up reading until midnight or later. She'll get up in the morning at 10 or 10:30, which is shamefully late. Even I get up by 9:30 at the latest. ... Tonight Miciah suggested that her name sign (usually the first letter of your name used in some way that reflects your personality or interests - only someone who is deaf can give you a name sign) could be something relating to reading. I thought that was cute.
Elijah
Elijah has a name sign, by the way. It's an E circling by the side of his head. It's for Crazy. Elijah the crazy kid. For how much energy he has. I think it's AWESOME. (Again, I didn't come up with it.)
He asks lots of questions to my deaf friends. Things like, "Can you hear music?" and "Can deaf people hear other deaf people?" I like that last one.
Elijah is LOVING baseball. He was interested in the games. He paid attention. He hit the ball well. He wants to practice throwing and catching. Who knows, we might have found a sport for him.
Tank
Adorable still. Interested in helping me around the house. This has been an interesting summer development with all the kids, actually. I will call them and say, "I need you to do this," and, normally without complaining, they'll do it. Weird, right? And then, when they're done, they'll come and ask what else I need them to do. It's like some sort of alternate reality. ... It makes me wonder if the school process is just a lot for them to handle, at these young ages, along with the other stuff that I want them to do around the house. (I'm still making them do chores when school is back in, either way.)
He still only eats crackers and apples and cheese. Normally dinner gets completely passed over. Oh well. Someday he'll grow and then he'll have to eat!
Tank did have a birthday party, even though his 5th birthday isn't for another month yet. Some of his good friends are moving very soon, and some others were leaving town, so we did it early. Also, the #3 person on his invite list was a 14-year-old. I think that's hilarious.
I have other stories and things to report on, since I haven't in a while. Let me make a short list of what's to come in a/some future post(s):
- "Is it a whale or a dolphin?"
- Elijah and the Book of Mormon
- fights during sacrament meeting
- fireflies and soft, quiet things
- Teancom's fear of babies
Sounds like fun, no?
Monday, May 23, 2011
Sign Language
Here's a brief update about my schooling.
I'm more than halfway through my first ASL class, and it's AMAZING. It's so great to practice my sign on a weekly basis. I didn't realize how much I've missed it. (Actually it's quickly replacing soccer as my favorite Release. Weird, right?)
I was hoping to lay low, so they wouldn't know that I already knew sign. But that didn't work. My teacher called me out on day 1. Turns out that there's a lot of sign that beginners don't know. Basics like "right" and "OK" and "good." :) I have now received comments from my classmates like, "How much sign do you know?" and "Teacher's pet," and "I don't know how advanced you are, but can you help me?"
The main reason I started over at the beginning was to correct some of my sign that's off or old or sloppy, and to improve my grammar. And on that scale, class has been very successful. I have corrected things as basic as letters and numbers and days of the week. Re-wiring my brain has been an interesting process.
So class hasn't been a cakewalk. I feel like I'm learning just as much as my classmates, but on a different level. Certainly I'm practicing as much as most of them, working as hard, and signing outside of class just as much (if not more).
It's great to go to outside events and just sign. I've met a deaf man who is also LDS, and that's been fun. He's really nice and he's introduced me to some deaf LDS resources. I've also met lots of other students (logging hours for class, just like me - I have to get 8 hours of sign time outside of class). It's interesting. They'll see me sign and ask where I go to school. When I tell them Cincinnati State, the response is often, "Why haven't I seen you around before?" Then I'll tell them I'm in Beginning Sign 1. One guy said, "No one will ever believe you're in Sign 1." That same guy also complimented my sign, which was very nice of him, and then said, "No, really. You're better than I am." He's at the Advanced level, which is 6 classes above me.
Bottom line: I'm having the time of my life.
I'm more than halfway through my first ASL class, and it's AMAZING. It's so great to practice my sign on a weekly basis. I didn't realize how much I've missed it. (Actually it's quickly replacing soccer as my favorite Release. Weird, right?)
I was hoping to lay low, so they wouldn't know that I already knew sign. But that didn't work. My teacher called me out on day 1. Turns out that there's a lot of sign that beginners don't know. Basics like "right" and "OK" and "good." :) I have now received comments from my classmates like, "How much sign do you know?" and "Teacher's pet," and "I don't know how advanced you are, but can you help me?"
The main reason I started over at the beginning was to correct some of my sign that's off or old or sloppy, and to improve my grammar. And on that scale, class has been very successful. I have corrected things as basic as letters and numbers and days of the week. Re-wiring my brain has been an interesting process.
So class hasn't been a cakewalk. I feel like I'm learning just as much as my classmates, but on a different level. Certainly I'm practicing as much as most of them, working as hard, and signing outside of class just as much (if not more).
It's great to go to outside events and just sign. I've met a deaf man who is also LDS, and that's been fun. He's really nice and he's introduced me to some deaf LDS resources. I've also met lots of other students (logging hours for class, just like me - I have to get 8 hours of sign time outside of class). It's interesting. They'll see me sign and ask where I go to school. When I tell them Cincinnati State, the response is often, "Why haven't I seen you around before?" Then I'll tell them I'm in Beginning Sign 1. One guy said, "No one will ever believe you're in Sign 1." That same guy also complimented my sign, which was very nice of him, and then said, "No, really. You're better than I am." He's at the Advanced level, which is 6 classes above me.
Bottom line: I'm having the time of my life.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
and now...
I am fully healthy again, which took forever. Last Friday I thought, "Maybe this is what it feels like to have mono." Thankfully I did actually get better.
Which means it's time to give my announcement. Here it is:
I'm going back to school.
(Which is way better than moving or having a baby.)
Short details:
I'll be going as close to full-time as possible starting in the Fall, but may be taking a few classes before then.
I'll be doing an ASL Interpreting Program at Cincinnati State. They call it ITP (Interpreter Training Program).
I'm not excited about the school part. I don't really want to deal with 19-year-olds all over again. Nor do I want to re-take Math (but I will if I have to. I still don't know how many of my BYU credits will transfer, since they're now over 10 years old. I do have almost 100 credits, though. It'd be a shame not to be able to put them to good use). But I'm excited about the ITP program, and I love Sign Language.
And that's it. You can now feel informed about my life.
Which means it's time to give my announcement. Here it is:
I'm going back to school.
(Which is way better than moving or having a baby.)
Short details:
I'll be going as close to full-time as possible starting in the Fall, but may be taking a few classes before then.
I'll be doing an ASL Interpreting Program at Cincinnati State. They call it ITP (Interpreter Training Program).
I'm not excited about the school part. I don't really want to deal with 19-year-olds all over again. Nor do I want to re-take Math (but I will if I have to. I still don't know how many of my BYU credits will transfer, since they're now over 10 years old. I do have almost 100 credits, though. It'd be a shame not to be able to put them to good use). But I'm excited about the ITP program, and I love Sign Language.
And that's it. You can now feel informed about my life.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Odds and Ends
My Calling
My calling is now official, so I can announce it: Gospel Doctrine teacher. I'll be team teaching, every other week, which sounds GREAT. I only have to try to be inspired every other Sunday!
Chain Link Fun!
We celebrated Labor Day by installing a new chain link fence. Here are some pictures of Rob working on the fence as it nears completion:
Also, you can see our 2 new garden boxes. So far they don't have dirt in them, but hopefully by the end of this year our compost will fill 1 box, and by the time Spring comes, we're hoping to have most of the 2nd box filled as well. Cause dirt isn't actually as cheap as you'd think.
Elijah and Life
Elijah is still transitioning back to school, and I have to say that it is NOT going smoothly. I have learned to pray and pray and pray for patience. For self-control. And I'm yelling less and handling him better, so that's good. But Elijah seems to be generally unhappy with the whole of existence, and that's not good. I keep looking at the calendar, trying to remind myself that this is still normal transitioning behavior. Just seems like we should be past this!
Miciah's Dress
A few weeks ago Miciah's cousins were here and they were playing downstairs when Miciah asked me if I had any material she could have. I thought she wanted it so she could do something with her amazing doll house (I should post about this doll house. It's a good story!), so I told her that although I didn't have any fabric, there were a few dish cloths on the laundry table that she could use.
She came upstairs a while later with a dress partially sewn together. The front is a big piece of felt, and the back is the 2 dish cloths.
I took Miciah to RB's house so RB could help her think through how to put sleeves on. RB chastised me for giving Miciah dish cloths to sew together, and I said, "I didn't know what she wanted it for!" Seriously, I could have bought the girl some material!
Miciah's cousins were back this weekend, and they finished the dress:
Pretty sweet, right? Miciah wore it to church yesterday, and got compliments on it. Miciah said, "Some people asked me, 'Did you make that or did your Mom?'" GREAT. I mean, the dress is awesome, but ...
Next sewing project will involve a pattern and real material. Believe it or not, I DO know how to sew. I just don't regularly choose to do so.
Coney Island
One of the perks of working for Children's is the annual Coney Island trip. You pay $4 for parking and get lunch, drinks, and rides for free. The kids love it, and we're The World's Best Parents for a day.
Some pictures:
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We hung out with our friends who are deaf, so I got to sign all day. It was fun to get to know them better, and to use my ASL. My left arm was SORE the next day, though. I wouldn't have thought that signing would stress my arm out, but I guess it makes sense.
Tank
It's been fun (and a little weird) to hang out with just Tank all day. I arrange lots of play dates because otherwise Tank will just lay on the floor all day. Not kidding.
One of the days we went to Parky's Farm, which is a fun place with a few farm animals, a small garden, pony rides, a playground, stuff like that. We were sitting down and eating lunch when Tank saw a little green spider sitting near us. "You have to make sure that spider doesn't come near us. Cause he could climb into your water bottle, and then he'd build a spider web in there, and you'd go get a drink, and the spider web would get in your mouth and you'd be like, 'Blech. Blech.' Like that." Exactly.
This became funnier about half an hour later when, despite my best efforts at shooing away the spider, I found that little green spider friend hanging out inside my water bottle.
Today
Today I was supposed to meet a friend at the museum, let the kids play for a while, and come home with the 3rd book of the Hunger Games trilogy: Mockingjay. So I was supposed to spend the rest of my day reading that book. Instead, though, Tank threw up, and I'm writing this blog post. Oh well. I guess I'll read the book of Job instead. Hurray!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Be Jealous
Today I was extremely grateful for the opportunity of writing a note to the school that went something like this:
"Mrs. Parker
room 121
"Elijah Thacker's absence on Dec. 9, 2009 was inexcusable, as we have told him repeatedly. He faked being sick so he could stay home, and because of his behavior he has had privileges taken away, had to stay in bed until 4:30 p.m., could only eat saltines and bread (because that's what a sick person eats), had to go to bed early, and was otherwise reprimanded.
"So, sorry he wasn't at school yesterday, but hopefully we've made enough of a Lesson out of the situation that he won't do it again.
"Tamra Thacker
"(Oh, and it just figures that he would pull this trick on the day that our car was in the shop, so that when I figured it out I couldn't take him to school. Ah, parenting.)"
"Mrs. Parker
room 121
"Elijah Thacker's absence on Dec. 9, 2009 was inexcusable, as we have told him repeatedly. He faked being sick so he could stay home, and because of his behavior he has had privileges taken away, had to stay in bed until 4:30 p.m., could only eat saltines and bread (because that's what a sick person eats), had to go to bed early, and was otherwise reprimanded.
"So, sorry he wasn't at school yesterday, but hopefully we've made enough of a Lesson out of the situation that he won't do it again.
"Tamra Thacker
"(Oh, and it just figures that he would pull this trick on the day that our car was in the shop, so that when I figured it out I couldn't take him to school. Ah, parenting.)"
Friday, November 20, 2009
More of Miciah's School Work
They had a section on animal rescue. I liked her answer on one of her papers.
The question:
"Write about how you would help rescue an animal. Use five spelling words from the list."
(spelling words: must, skin, still, drop, task)
Answer:
I would give it help by not droping it. It won't be an esey task. I will still do it. I must! If it's skin is eney color, I will take it to the vet.
I just loved her sense of duty: I must!
(She is a phonetic speller, as you can tell.)
In the same Animal Rescue unit:
If you can't read it, it says:
Sometimes, animals are in danger. So someone has to rescue them. If you see a whale off the shore, wet it entell it is back in the water. If a seal pup with out a mother, take care of it entell it's old enouf to live on it's own. Save animals for the fun of it. All so save animals to help them. Let's get saveing thous animals!
Then it shows her calling "Come hear!" to a bunch of baby seals and her wetting down a beached whale.
There was another school work assignment where she had to describe one of her friends. She chose a boy in her class named Jonathan. She said lots of nice things about him in short sentences, the way kids do. One of the points she brought out was that "Jonathan is a wonderful artest. He drows good fish and his writing is vary neat." Then, at the end, she says "This is a picter of his fish" and draws this pathetic-looking fish. I couldn't help but laugh. I couldn't tell if that's really how Jonathan draws it (and then kids think that somehow looks amazing), or if that's her un-artistic version of how he draws them. Either way, it was hilarious.
She wrote one more thing that I wanted to share, but it's for another post.
The question:
"Write about how you would help rescue an animal. Use five spelling words from the list."
(spelling words: must, skin, still, drop, task)
Answer:
I would give it help by not droping it. It won't be an esey task. I will still do it. I must! If it's skin is eney color, I will take it to the vet.
I just loved her sense of duty: I must!
(She is a phonetic speller, as you can tell.)
In the same Animal Rescue unit:
If you can't read it, it says:
Sometimes, animals are in danger. So someone has to rescue them. If you see a whale off the shore, wet it entell it is back in the water. If a seal pup with out a mother, take care of it entell it's old enouf to live on it's own. Save animals for the fun of it. All so save animals to help them. Let's get saveing thous animals!
Then it shows her calling "Come hear!" to a bunch of baby seals and her wetting down a beached whale.
There was another school work assignment where she had to describe one of her friends. She chose a boy in her class named Jonathan. She said lots of nice things about him in short sentences, the way kids do. One of the points she brought out was that "Jonathan is a wonderful artest. He drows good fish and his writing is vary neat." Then, at the end, she says "This is a picter of his fish" and draws this pathetic-looking fish. I couldn't help but laugh. I couldn't tell if that's really how Jonathan draws it (and then kids think that somehow looks amazing), or if that's her un-artistic version of how he draws them. Either way, it was hilarious.
She wrote one more thing that I wanted to share, but it's for another post.
Miciah's News
8 Years Old Means...
Miciah is now 8 and she's loving it and I'm loving it and it's good for everyone. She is generally calmer and in more control of her emotions (unless you count when she's losing a tooth, and then she's completely irrationally emotionally explosive). She is also taking on more responsibility around the house, and she loves it. We changed her chore list to include:
1 Making dinner once a week
2 Doing her own laundry
We're only on week 2 of these changes, so we'll see how she loves them over time. But already she's thinking of great things to make for dinner like Clam Chowder. I told her we'd have to work up to that one.
Letting her do her own laundry last week also meant that she didn't kick and scream about doing it. That's semi-miraculous. I hope it continues to be so successful even when laundry changes are coming our way (more in another update to come).
And check out these chore lists:
See the beach and tree and water? ... Before I left for Key West, Miciah asked if the next time I went she could come with me. I said, "Sure," thinking that the next time I went was probably, oh, never. But, of course, she was talking about it instantly like it was a sure thing. Realizing that I should have answered VERY differently, I did the only thing left to do: set about devising a way to get her to Key West. The kids have been earning money for about a year now, $5 a week. So we sat down and figured out prices and timelines and told them that if they saved all their money (minus $.50 for tithing), they would have enough money in a year's time. They are now very motivated to do their chores--a nice change. And each of them has a Key West piggy bank to make it all seem real. We're already looking forward to our family vacation to Key West.
School Halloween Party
During her school party I caught this great shot:
She's messing with her loose tooth. Which is good. We used scare tactics to get to her to mess with it, since she's been letting them stay in her mouth for ages, and the dentist told us she probably shouldn't do that. So we gave her a week's time, and the tooth was out. Another parent caught the moment:
Another tooth will be gone within a day or so. Hopefully the drama and trauma of last night's Loose Tooth Freak Out Session won't repeat itself. Sheesh. It's just a tooth! More grow in!
School
We had Miciah's Parent Teacher Conference this week, too. It went great. One of the "major" concerns: I should stop doodling on Miciah's homework. ... They make us sign everything and this seems tedious to me. Maybe other parents find it wonderful. Or maybe they're just decent enough to not give the teacher crap about it. Me, though, I doodle. The teacher caught on to the rebellious spirit of it all, I guess, and asked me to stop. So there goes my fun.
Here's Miciah's school picture:
Miciah is doing well in school and is helpful and kind. She isn't snooty when she knows stuff that other people don't. She isn't being bossy (no "Miciah, who's the teacher?" talks). She isn't being as bossy at home, either. Being 8 is really good for her.
Miciah's Party
More pictures of the girl craziness that went on:
It was fun. The next scheduled Birthday Party is when she turns 13, I think. I think that's the year Rob and I decided. And it's 13 because nothing cool happens when you turn 13. It's just a pointless year. Might as well give it a party and make it something to look forward to. Then a party at 16 and then we should be done with them. Hurray!
Piano, etc.
Miciah has been doing piano lessons for several weeks now and seems to be really liking it. It's still a novelty, so she spends half the lesson trying to make her teacher laugh. Cause she's a goober like that.
It's fun to watch Miciah grow up and decide what she wants to do with her time. She reads a LOT and is very interested in history and science stuff. In fact, that's exactly what she told me the last time we went to the museum. She said, "Mom, have you noticed that I'm more interested in the history than in playing?" I wanted to laugh. Good for her, though. I told her that when we have Elijah and Teancom on board, it wasn't really the time to read stuff, and promised that we would go to the museum later, just me, Rob, and her. It's fun that she's entering that new stage when we can enjoy more adult stuff with her.
She is also interested in fairies, just to remind us that she's still only 8.
And that's Miciah's news. I'll make another post of her artwork and things she's done at school.
Miciah is now 8 and she's loving it and I'm loving it and it's good for everyone. She is generally calmer and in more control of her emotions (unless you count when she's losing a tooth, and then she's completely irrationally emotionally explosive). She is also taking on more responsibility around the house, and she loves it. We changed her chore list to include:
1 Making dinner once a week
2 Doing her own laundry
We're only on week 2 of these changes, so we'll see how she loves them over time. But already she's thinking of great things to make for dinner like Clam Chowder. I told her we'd have to work up to that one.
Letting her do her own laundry last week also meant that she didn't kick and scream about doing it. That's semi-miraculous. I hope it continues to be so successful even when laundry changes are coming our way (more in another update to come).
And check out these chore lists:
See the beach and tree and water? ... Before I left for Key West, Miciah asked if the next time I went she could come with me. I said, "Sure," thinking that the next time I went was probably, oh, never. But, of course, she was talking about it instantly like it was a sure thing. Realizing that I should have answered VERY differently, I did the only thing left to do: set about devising a way to get her to Key West. The kids have been earning money for about a year now, $5 a week. So we sat down and figured out prices and timelines and told them that if they saved all their money (minus $.50 for tithing), they would have enough money in a year's time. They are now very motivated to do their chores--a nice change. And each of them has a Key West piggy bank to make it all seem real. We're already looking forward to our family vacation to Key West.
School Halloween Party
During her school party I caught this great shot:
She's messing with her loose tooth. Which is good. We used scare tactics to get to her to mess with it, since she's been letting them stay in her mouth for ages, and the dentist told us she probably shouldn't do that. So we gave her a week's time, and the tooth was out. Another parent caught the moment:
Another tooth will be gone within a day or so. Hopefully the drama and trauma of last night's Loose Tooth Freak Out Session won't repeat itself. Sheesh. It's just a tooth! More grow in!
School
We had Miciah's Parent Teacher Conference this week, too. It went great. One of the "major" concerns: I should stop doodling on Miciah's homework. ... They make us sign everything and this seems tedious to me. Maybe other parents find it wonderful. Or maybe they're just decent enough to not give the teacher crap about it. Me, though, I doodle. The teacher caught on to the rebellious spirit of it all, I guess, and asked me to stop. So there goes my fun.
Here's Miciah's school picture:
Miciah is doing well in school and is helpful and kind. She isn't snooty when she knows stuff that other people don't. She isn't being bossy (no "Miciah, who's the teacher?" talks). She isn't being as bossy at home, either. Being 8 is really good for her.
Miciah's Party
More pictures of the girl craziness that went on:
It was fun. The next scheduled Birthday Party is when she turns 13, I think. I think that's the year Rob and I decided. And it's 13 because nothing cool happens when you turn 13. It's just a pointless year. Might as well give it a party and make it something to look forward to. Then a party at 16 and then we should be done with them. Hurray!
Piano, etc.
Miciah has been doing piano lessons for several weeks now and seems to be really liking it. It's still a novelty, so she spends half the lesson trying to make her teacher laugh. Cause she's a goober like that.
It's fun to watch Miciah grow up and decide what she wants to do with her time. She reads a LOT and is very interested in history and science stuff. In fact, that's exactly what she told me the last time we went to the museum. She said, "Mom, have you noticed that I'm more interested in the history than in playing?" I wanted to laugh. Good for her, though. I told her that when we have Elijah and Teancom on board, it wasn't really the time to read stuff, and promised that we would go to the museum later, just me, Rob, and her. It's fun that she's entering that new stage when we can enjoy more adult stuff with her.
She is also interested in fairies, just to remind us that she's still only 8.
And that's Miciah's news. I'll make another post of her artwork and things she's done at school.
Elijah's News, part 2
School
We had Elijah's Kindergarten Parent-Teacher Conference on Monday. Mrs. Parker is the same teacher that Miciah had, so we're familiar with her style, and she's familiar with ours. It was interesting to talk about how our children are different academically (she, of course, strongly advised us not to compare them). Elijah does well in school and is hitting all the points he needs to hit--not ahead, but not behind. Right where he needs to be. He is serious about his work and very proud of himself when he does well. It's interesting to watch this spastic little boy get super focused when he talks about school and about behaving for his teacher. It's also interesting to note that Rob hadn't seen the intensity that Elijah has for school. I guess by the time Rob gets home and asks Elijah about school, all Elijah has left to say is, "We played on the playground."
This is Elijah's school picture:
He insisted on having his hair "spiky," even though I NEVER do his hair for school. Ever.
The one mark that Elijah didn't meet for school was "talking at appropriate times." Apparently he talks to his friends too much. But, said Mrs. Parker, "We moved him and now he doesn't sit next to Richie, and he's much better." And he still hasn't talked too much to get his card flipped (the school's behavior control system), and he's determined not to ever get his card flipped.
Homework is getting easier for him. He wants to do it RIGHT NOW when he gets home with it. He finds some things very easy and delights in saying so. Other things aren't as easy for him, but he still works hard on them, and it's getting easier for us, as parents, to be patient with him. All in all, we'll take it.
Bullying Behavior
Over the summer, while we were away, Elijah developed his bullying side. I still think that's odd, cause he's just not a bully. When we got home from the trip and I repositioned myself as a parental authority, I told him that the bullying and hitting needed to stop. NOW. He would be going to school soon and it was simply not okay for a Kindergartener to be hitting people. He thought about it. We initiated a series of punishments for hitting, and within a week, the behavior nearly vanished.
I've been paying attention these days because Teancom has figured out how advantageous it is to be the little guy. He hits his siblings. He jumps on them. He annoys Elijah to no end and chases him around the house while Elijah pleads for help. But I have been very impressed with Elijah. I have heard (and sometimes seen) Teancom get mad and hit him (Teancom even BITES sometimes, the little punk). Elijah will even say, "Ow!", sometimes cry, and sound pretty angry about the whole thing. But he has never hit him back.
Elijah is a gentle soul. Like his father. I, for sure, would have hit Teancom back. Or found an even better way to get even. Elijah just doesn't think like that.
On top of that, his crazy emotional outbursts are now non-existent. Hurray for growing up! School has been a great thing for Elijah.
Pre-Reading
Another reason school has been great for Elijah: He is interested in reading! I think the boy just needed someone other than his mom and dad to teach him. When we read books, if I skip a word that he knows (they're learning 1 sight word a week), he gets upset at me. This is a big step for him. They also send home simple sentences for him to read, and he sounds them out and does great with them. He doesn't seem to remember words as quickly as Miciah did (since we're not comparing the two), but Mrs. Parker assures us this is all normal development stuff. I'm proud of how Elijah is doing, and I love watching how proud he obviously is of himself. I LOVE that he loves doing well.
School Halloween Party
I've never shown up to a school holiday party, but Miciah specifically asked me to show up this year. So I went to the Halloween party this year, and it was fun to watch the kids having so much fun. The parade beforehand is always fun (and I've gone to that every year), because you get to see all the costumes. I missed Miciah during the parade, but this is Elijah:
It was a little windy and he refused to let go of his hat. During the party, Elijah used that red hat to "color" his friends. It was pretty cute.
And that's pretty much Elijah's news. He is making friends at school and in the neighborhood. He desperately wants to be helpful and big, but he's also patient in the getting there. He's happy and hopeful and a delightful child.
A Fall Tree:
We had Elijah's Kindergarten Parent-Teacher Conference on Monday. Mrs. Parker is the same teacher that Miciah had, so we're familiar with her style, and she's familiar with ours. It was interesting to talk about how our children are different academically (she, of course, strongly advised us not to compare them). Elijah does well in school and is hitting all the points he needs to hit--not ahead, but not behind. Right where he needs to be. He is serious about his work and very proud of himself when he does well. It's interesting to watch this spastic little boy get super focused when he talks about school and about behaving for his teacher. It's also interesting to note that Rob hadn't seen the intensity that Elijah has for school. I guess by the time Rob gets home and asks Elijah about school, all Elijah has left to say is, "We played on the playground."
This is Elijah's school picture:
He insisted on having his hair "spiky," even though I NEVER do his hair for school. Ever.
The one mark that Elijah didn't meet for school was "talking at appropriate times." Apparently he talks to his friends too much. But, said Mrs. Parker, "We moved him and now he doesn't sit next to Richie, and he's much better." And he still hasn't talked too much to get his card flipped (the school's behavior control system), and he's determined not to ever get his card flipped.
Homework is getting easier for him. He wants to do it RIGHT NOW when he gets home with it. He finds some things very easy and delights in saying so. Other things aren't as easy for him, but he still works hard on them, and it's getting easier for us, as parents, to be patient with him. All in all, we'll take it.
Bullying Behavior
Over the summer, while we were away, Elijah developed his bullying side. I still think that's odd, cause he's just not a bully. When we got home from the trip and I repositioned myself as a parental authority, I told him that the bullying and hitting needed to stop. NOW. He would be going to school soon and it was simply not okay for a Kindergartener to be hitting people. He thought about it. We initiated a series of punishments for hitting, and within a week, the behavior nearly vanished.
I've been paying attention these days because Teancom has figured out how advantageous it is to be the little guy. He hits his siblings. He jumps on them. He annoys Elijah to no end and chases him around the house while Elijah pleads for help. But I have been very impressed with Elijah. I have heard (and sometimes seen) Teancom get mad and hit him (Teancom even BITES sometimes, the little punk). Elijah will even say, "Ow!", sometimes cry, and sound pretty angry about the whole thing. But he has never hit him back.
Elijah is a gentle soul. Like his father. I, for sure, would have hit Teancom back. Or found an even better way to get even. Elijah just doesn't think like that.
On top of that, his crazy emotional outbursts are now non-existent. Hurray for growing up! School has been a great thing for Elijah.
Pre-Reading
Another reason school has been great for Elijah: He is interested in reading! I think the boy just needed someone other than his mom and dad to teach him. When we read books, if I skip a word that he knows (they're learning 1 sight word a week), he gets upset at me. This is a big step for him. They also send home simple sentences for him to read, and he sounds them out and does great with them. He doesn't seem to remember words as quickly as Miciah did (since we're not comparing the two), but Mrs. Parker assures us this is all normal development stuff. I'm proud of how Elijah is doing, and I love watching how proud he obviously is of himself. I LOVE that he loves doing well.
School Halloween Party
I've never shown up to a school holiday party, but Miciah specifically asked me to show up this year. So I went to the Halloween party this year, and it was fun to watch the kids having so much fun. The parade beforehand is always fun (and I've gone to that every year), because you get to see all the costumes. I missed Miciah during the parade, but this is Elijah:
And that's pretty much Elijah's news. He is making friends at school and in the neighborhood. He desperately wants to be helpful and big, but he's also patient in the getting there. He's happy and hopeful and a delightful child.
A Fall Tree:
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