Saturday, October 17, 2009

Catching Up

It's been a crazy few weeks here at our house! We seem to have dried out, sort of. It rains every few days, so it feels like almost forever since we've actually seen the sun for more than a couple of hours. On top of that, it's gotten really cold! They're talking about freeze warnings for tomorrow morning, and we actually had to turn the heat on today. We kept trying to hold out until it warmed back up, but it was getting really cold in Andrew's room, and we wanted him to stay somewhat warm during his nap. Right now, it's 48 degrees, cloudy and windy, and I'm beginning to think I moved back to Indiana without realizing it. Thankfully, it supposed to be back to 70 by Wednesday! Plus, the five day forcast shows sun everyday with no chance of rain. Let's celebrate! There is one good thing from all of this rain. Lake Lanier, which got down to historic lows during the drought in 2007, is back to full pool. Experts thought that it would take three years or more to get back to full pool. Guess they didn't factor in over two feet of rain in just over a month.

My parents and sister were here last weekend. I had a four day weekend thanks to the governor. October 9th was the last of my furlough days. Unfortunately, I'll be feeling the hurt until December since they spread out the pay loss over five months. We had a really great time, though! It was actually kind of sunny on Saturday, so they got to watch Matthew play soccer. (Good thing, too, since today's game was cancelled because of rain, AGAIN.) We also got a chance to go to the Farmer's Market. I hadn't been there in ages. On Monday, my aunt took Mom and I to a thrift store where I got 8 shirts for Matthew and two pairs of jeans and a shirt for Andrew all for less than $15. Plus, they don't look like thrift store. I'm really picky about what I buy. Now, Matthew's pretty much set for the winter. I pulled out my tub of 24 month clothes for Andrew, and he's all set now. I just need to go through the clothes I put away last year for Nathan and get them in his drawer, and we'll be all set for the winter.

Here's some pictures of our weekend!

Mom and Matthew playing Sorry

Julie and Andrew at the soccer field

Hanging out after baths

I've been busy with school. I picked up one more class this term, an intro to Instructional Design. That one doesn't look like it'll be too difficult. I have to pass an objective exam at the end. I can schedule the exam as soon as I think I'm ready, so I hope to be able to take it by the beginning of December. I'm not taking my Intro to Special Ed exam until January, and things are going pretty well there. The only class that may take me some time is my Lit Review class. I had a conference call about it on Wednesday, and it is going to be ALOT of work. I worked today on the first part of it which is simply my problem statement and instructional setting. The next part will take a while. I have to find 10 sources and go through their credibility, reliability, and authority. Then, I have to make an annotated bibliography of all 10 sources. The course mentor (think professor) said it usually runs about 14 pages or so. That's all before I write the actual lit review which will probably be about 10 pages or so. Right now, I'm in the middle of looking for journal articles to review. It's tons of fun, let me tell you!

The boys are staying busy. Matthew is occasionally playing soccer, :-) and they are both busy with KidzLife on Wednesday. Plus, we've actually got Andrew saying some words that we can almost recognize! When I ask him if he's going to play with his trains, he say "Choo choo!" I guess we can call that his first word! The other day, I gave him some juice, and he said something that was very close to thank you. Sounded good enough to me! Hopefully, more words will come soon!