Christmas Present

So you think you know Carols?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/carolquiz,0,4932856.triviaquiz

Your TOTAL SCORE is: 92%. You know your seasonal songs! Treat yourself to an extra slice of fruitcake.

Christmas pictures from the past

Deer Stories

We spent this last weekend with my parents so we could have our Christmas together. My brother wanted to go hunting Saturday morning so Dad invited Cory to go with them. On the way out Dad told Cory the story about the last time Lindsay stayed with them. He'd just gotten his deer blind out to his lease and my parents were going to go check on it so they told Lindsay "We're going to the deer lease". Now, I have no idea how she figured any of this out, but she looked up at my parents, frowning, and said "Don't hurt the deer, they never hurt anybody!" How does she know this stuff?!?!

So while they were out my brother shot a buck, 8 point. They dressed it out in the field (dumped the guts and innards and stuff) and brought it back to the house where it was hung by his back legs in Dad's shop.

Being such a nice day, the kids begged to go outside and play. So eventually they ventured to the shop where the deer was seen. Cory took Lindsay out there where she didn't seem too bothered by the whole event. She checked it out pretty throughly and then looked up at Cory. "Where's the deer's poop?" That was her only question!

She's such a smart kid. Too smart for our own good!

noise free

Finally, finally, finally we have relief. A couple of the lights in our office have been buzzing SOOOOO loudly that some of us up here have nearly been driven to MURDER!!! I've contemplated throwing things at the lights to try to get it to stop. However, the two men have just left. They've made the quiet come back and now we'll be much happier people!

the difference between my life and scrubs...

Yeah, I was sitting here working and just pondering... well, ok, I was having a day dream. The only problem is that unlike the TV show Scrubs, my day dreams do not take up much time. Therefore, I have to have more of them to get through my day. Sad.

Love to hear the music of the season!

Lindsay came home singing the Twelve Days of Christmas yesterday. Not all of it, of course, but different parts!

She starts out with 'On the first day of Christmas my Mother gave to me' which I think is just too cute.

Then it's 'FIIIIIIIIVE GOOOLDEEEEEEEEN RIIIIIINGS!!!' not at all in rythym (which, I know isn't that big a deal, she's 4. But I've gotta use that music degree somewhere!!!)

Then, in no particular order, she sings about:
4 turtle dogs
3 fringe ends
2 humming birds
And a part in a bear tree!!!!!!

I just love it. It makes me so happy to hear her singing!! I wonder if she's learned more at school today!!!

Traditions

I didn't realize it until just now. I'm making Seth's birthday cake (11 tomorrow!!) and I jumped online to get the recipe for the frosting... it's made with marshmallow cream and i use peppermint oil instead of vanilla. Everyone loves it... but me.

Anyway, As I was Googling for the recipe I was reminded of my darling mother. We eat Thanksgiving at her house most years and for as long as I remember, even before she had internet, she always had to run to the computer to find the recipe for the jiblet gravy. Well, our's is jiblet-less gravy because none of us can stomach the thought of eating entrails nicknamed "jiblets", so we just use turkey bits. She used to have a recipe program on her computer, but now she just googles it.

Didn't realize it was a tradition until just now!

Well, better get that recipe!

Thoughts of a Four Year-Old

Ok, we're a little morbid. My daughter loves watching CSI, well, we all do. Yeah, we're probably messing up her mind, but she enjoys it. Tonight was an interesting one, but the part that caught her attention was a scene where two men lie on the ground, one has his arm detached and both are COVERED in blood. The camera pans the scene and shows the chainsaw lying on the ground and goes to commercial.

Lindsay sits up, looks at her Grandma and says, "It's for cutting WOOD!" Like they were the stupidest people in the world for cutting themselves up!! Which, interestingly enough, they were.

Snow Day?

Yeah, I'm at work. All the schools in the community are closed. We just called our patients scheduled for today to move them to next week. If the heat comes back on I think I might pull out the Christmas stuff decorate....

How can we help when they're so far away?

We emailed the boy's teachers today. We still haven't gotten a copy of their report card from the 2nd six weeks. The First grader's teacher said that she'd sent a copy of his report card home a long time ago and she sent his progress report home yesterday, but that she can send another copy if we need it. It amazes me. Now, I know teachers are very busy & at that age group it can be difficult to keep up with everybody. We just let her know that they aren't together and that BM doesn't share any information regarding the boys' education.

On the 5th grader, the teacher knows the situation, but was not aware that we'd sent envelopes to the school so they could send us their information. Personally, I think the principal is a jerk. He kept putting off Cory when he'd ask about information. I know, I've said it before. Teachers are busy people. He was just wanting to touch base with their teachers and let them know what was going on. But the principal would say "let's just wait.... I've talked to them personally and I think they're adjusting just fine" junk like that. DH had to practically threaten him with legal action becuase he just would not give us any information, which DH is legally justified in requesting and having! And come to find out, neither one of them is doing OK. The 5th grader failed 3 out of 5 subjects. The 1st grader (they have the 1-5 grading system) and had three 1's and two 2's. Not good.

And we have suspicions that they're still not doing well. Which was confirmed today by the 5th grader's teacher. She said he "is continuing to have the same problems we discussed before. He is not turning in his assignments, goofing off in class and arguing with adults about consequences." He's a talker. He won't stop, even if it gets him in trouble. He has to finish his thought, make his point even if he's wrong. We've talked to him about it until we're blue in the faces and he still argues. Not so much with us but everyone else it seems. (Personally, I just ignore him, turn my back on him. I can see that would be hard to do in a class w/ 27 kids!)

Here's Cory's response to that teacher:
He did mention last week about a report for social studies that he needed to do. We did some research on the internet together and he said he had all he needed to finish up. This last weekend I asked him how he did on it and he said "not so great, there was more to it than I thought". So we talked about it. I could tell that he's having some big problems paying attention. He said he only found out about the report 3 days before it was due and only because a classmate had given him a copy of the assignment. I asked why he woudn't have been given the assignment at the same time as everybody else and he said it was because he was doing make-up work.

And her's back:
We actually worked on that Social Studies report for 3 1/2 Weeks for 45 minutes each day. It was actually part of his Reading Intervention Group, which meets every day for 45 minutes. Mrs. W and myself oversee that class. We actually spent 1 week in the computer lab just doing internet research. Then the rest of the time was spent compiling the information and putting together the book. Seth chooses to do other things instead of his assigned work. Just yesterday I had to take away a magazine he was reading instead of doing his math work. He is an extremely intelligent boy, but his grades are not reflective of that because he does not do his work in class or at home. Please let me know if I can help you out in any other way. I want him to be successful in the 5th grade.

And this is the delimma.... What can we do? We live almost 200 miles away. If it were an option to go to the school to meet their teachers, we'd have done it at the first opportunity! This is one of the reasons (of many, I promise) that we're fighting for custody of them. We've seen it before, the teachers try and try to contact BM about the problems their kids are having and BM ignores it! For whatever reason, and believe me, we've got no clue why she woudln't do everything in her power to help them. We've seen (just recently) that one of the reasons she moved them from where she was living & working to her mother's is beacuse the teachers were trying to get the (now) 1st grader into tutoring. They wanted him to do councelling to help understand him and his problems. She made it very hard on THEM for him to do tutoring (which was mandentory, by the way) and she completely ignored them on the councelling. She kept responding to their emails with "he wasn't doing this before he moved here, he didn't have any of these problems, maybe you should contact his old school!". When the teacher and the principal asked and asked her for a parent/teacher conference she told them she was withdrawing them from school. And she told DH that she didn't like the way the admin was treating him. No, they were trying to HELP him and all she saw was they were accusing her of being a bad mom.

I know one of the reasons she w/drew them from school was so that the (now) 1st grader would pass. It was his first attempt at Kindergarten. And it had worked before... when the (now) 5th grader was in 1st grade he had so many absences and tardies that he was going to fail! So (of course there were other reasons, but) she w/drew him from that school and moved him back to her mother's. It makes me crazy. The 5th grader has been moved 8 times, he's been in 5 different school districts. His younger brother has been moved 4 times and has been in 3 different school districts. That can't be good for a child! Not to mention the 5th grader has a really hard time making friends. And the tardies and absences are still a problem now.

Help!! I need ideas, something to try. We've tried talking to him (the 5th grader) about his attitude, both towards the teachers and towards doing his work. I just don't know what else to try.

Dreams

Does anybody have one of those books that explain what our dreams mean? Last night is the 3rd time I've dreamt about playing the flute in the past couple of months. Now, I know this isn't totally bizare, becuase I did play the flute, for 15 years! BUT it's been a long time since I've played with it, other than to try to amuse Lindsay, who totally did not appreciate my attempts.

Anyway, the first time I dreamt that this guy that I went to HS with stole my flute from me when I let him borrow mine.... He pawned it. I don't remember the details from the 2nd dream, but I remember thinking how odd it was to have 2 dreams so close together about playing the flute. Then last night I was showing my (almost)11 year old how to play it. He had a crummy flute that had a bad sound to it (?) so I played mine for him to show him what it sounded like.

And I do not want any comments about "Band Camp"... I never went!

I've tried Google-ing dreams and dreams about flutes, but I can't find anything that makes sense!

Does anybody else...

Does anybody else thing of the song "Paradise By the Dashboard Lights" when you head for the Dashboard?

I've been tagged!!!

I'm kinda a survey junkie! Good luck...

1. Explain what ended your last relationship? Short story: My current relationship.

2. When was the last time you shaved? um, Sunday morning...

3. What were you doing this morning at 8 a.m.? Opening up the office...

4.What were you doing 15 minutes ago? reading JennyHaHa.. I'm addicted to her mind in that totally not weird sort of way... "it puts the lotion on it's legs"...

5. Are you any good at math? I love math... the hard stuff... give me algebra, trig..

6. Your prom night? spent it at Cristi's with all the other seniors...

7. Are you related to anyone famous? kinda... remember that "bull in the china shop"comercial like 100 years ago? my great aunt or something like that trained the bull... they were "weird".

8. Did you have to take a loan out for school? I went to ACU and my parents had done absolutely NO planning... yes, I'll still have that "pet" when I'm 60.

9. Do you know the words to the song on your myspace profile? yes, I do.

10. Last thing received in the mail? bills

11. How many different beverages have you had today? water, coke-coctail (3/4 diet, 1/4 regular)

12. Do you ever leave messages on peoples answering machine? only if the patient has their name in the message, I'm not allowed to, otherwise

13. Who did you lose your CONCERT virginity to? 1993 Firehouse... Six Flags senior trip

14. Do you draw your name in the sand when you go to the beach? yes, I am that geeky

15. What was the most painful dental procedure you have had? Braces. but specifically, the spacers before I even got braces. the rest was a breeze after that!

16. What is out your back door? A LOT of JUNK. and the dog

17. Any plans for Friday night? Driving halfway to Timbucktoo... luckally it's not the whole way, though!!!

18. Do you like what the ocean does to your hair? I absolutely adore it, not becuase of how it look, but that means I'm actually there, at the ocean!

19. Have you ever received one of those big tins of 3 different popcorn? I believe as a child my family received on.

20. Have you ever been to a planetarium? yes, sometime in elemetery.

21. Do you re-use towels after you shower? YES! And I don't care which part of the towel touches which part of my body. it's all clean at that point!

22. Some things you are excited about? warm breezes on a lovely Fall afternoon... hearing "mommy!!!" after a long, maybe not so hard day at work!

23. Favorite flavor of Jello? hmmm... not my favorite dessert after that one night of jello shots... I'll stick w/ Lemon, though... (did you ever hear that joke about Lemonjello & Orangello?)

24. Describe your keychain(s)? I have pix of the boys, a Colorado license plate with SHELLY on it, and my doot-doot (for those of you who don't know me, I have a hard time with technical terms. the doot-doot unlocks my doors)

25.

26. Where do you keep your change? in my pocket (if I have one) and at the end of the evening it's placed in a Mickey x-tra large coffee mug so my darling husband can raid it in the morning!

27. What kind of winter coat do you own? I have a big, fluffy one, even though it's usually not cold enough to wear it... I've gone 3 years before not wearing anything thicker than a fleece jacket!

28. What was the weather like on your graduation day? HS? don't remember, it was evening, so not too bad. College? it was May 6, 2000. 106 degrees. Hottest place in the COUNTRY!!!29. Do you sleep with the door to your room open or closed? depends on if there's someone else in the house for the cat to bug....

30. Did U read this far? Consider yourself tagged (you know, if you wanna do it)!! Well, since I got it from Jennifer, that only leaves Joana, busy or not!! (hey, it will give you something to take your mind off the "why do people keep telling me to get the epidural?" delimma in your mind. I know, I know. I'm not even going to attempt to tell you you should becase the more people tell you to do one thing, the more you want to do the other thing! *love ya!*) AND YOU TOO!