Satisfaction

We reached that point today. You know the one where grandma and grandpa have headed back home, and the boys have decided that they have been together for four days, and the house is beginning to fall apart at the seams? Yeah, that point. Plus, with all three home for the last four days, the toys had started to migrate to every part of the house (plus I think they're multiplying while we sleep), so I needed to do a major cleaning. Sounds easy, right? You don't live with Nathan. It's impossible to clean with him around. He refuses to let me throw away a single toy. Even the ones that are broken or just downright weird. But because I am a problem solver, we figured it out. Jeremy took Nathan to the park (Matthew said he was TOO tired), and I attacked their room. My children have more junk than any human should have. Most of it being McDonald's Happy Meal toys. I'm sure that says something about my parenting, but let's not linger on that too much, OK? I tossed all of the toys that were broken, and the ones that were still in good shape? I'm taking them to school for my treasure box. They can be some other parent's problem.

I'm sweet that way, aren't I?

Thanksgiving!

I did it! Or, I should say more accurately, we did it! The first Thanksgiving that I've ever hosted is over, and the food was all edible (except for the rolls, but we can't all be perfect, can we?) Thanks to my mom's guidance, the turkey came out wonderfully. I was pretty confident that I could handle everything else, but turkeys frighten me. I guess I've just heard too many horror stories about how the turkey ended up dry, or undercooked, or burnt to a crisp, and I didn't want any of that to happen. I had thought about brining it, but that just proved to be a much bigger deal than I wanted to take on, so we just put it in a cooking bag, stuffed it with onions, celery, and sage, and rubbed olive oil, paprika, and pepper all over the skin and shoved it in. Four and a half hours later, it was perfection. I stayed pretty basic with the sides. I figured rather than have 15 small sides and stress myself out, I'd make 3 or 4 things and make them really good. We had the old standbys of mashed potatoes and stuffing, and I added roasted vegetables (butternut squash, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, parsnips, and carrots), steamed green beans, and a cranberry salad. I was so worried about having enough food (for the 8! of us), that I made WAY too much. We have a ton of leftovers. I'm going to be eating turkey 15 different ways before I get through it all.

I think this Thanksgiving, while fun, was also hard for me. I remember the Thanksgivings when I was a kid where there would be 20 or so of us at the table at my grandmother's. I think having just my parents and my sister come down seem to really emphasize the fact that those days are gone. Plus, we just passed the anniversary of my grandma's death two years ago, and today would have been my grandpa's birthday. I think having all of those events come together this year has just really cemented it to me that those days are gone. While I'm happy for the memories, and I love making new memories for my own kids, there's a part of me that wishes for those days back. Life just seemed so much simpler then. But now I'm the one making the memories for my own kids. They won't be the same memories I had, but I'm excited to see what memories we'll make over the Thanksgivings to come.

Thanksgiving Week

We have quite the week ahead of us. Monday is Andrew's 2nd birthday. We don't have a whole lot planned for that day except a trip to McDonald's (more for Andrew's older brothers rather than Andrew). My parents are getting here on Tuesday, so I think we'll have a celebration for Andrew and his 60 year old grandfather on Wednesday evening. I don't think Andrew will mind sharing his cake with his grandpa.

Thursday, my sister is flying in, and I get to cook my first Thanksgiving meal! We're going pretty traditional, and I'm hoping I have enough room in my oven. I thought about buying a turkey roaster to free up room in the oven, but I'm also lacking counter space. So, I'm sticking with the oven and hoping the timing works out.

Friday, we may do some shopping at Target. I know I'm not heading to the mall. I'm not crazy enough to venture out to a mall in metro Atlanta on Black Friday. Some people may find that exciting; all it gives me is a headache. Who knows? Maybe we'll even get the tree up this weekend! It would be the first time I've had a tree up before December in. . . ever?

My First Success

Last night, I took my first assessment for grad school. (That's one of the great things about this school. For some of the classes, you can schedule your final assessment whenever you want.) This one was for my Foundations of Instructional Design class. Yes, that class is almost as exciting as it sounds. It's really a prerequisite course to the rest of the Instructional Design classes that I will have to take later that will culminate in me designing an original unit of instruction. I have to admit that I was very nervous about this exam. I had taken a pre-assessment a couple of times and scored pretty well, but there were still parts of the class that I was having a hard time grasping. Monday, the course mentor conducted a conference call for students who were getting ready to take the assessment, and the areas she said were an emphasis on the exam were the exact areas that I was having a lot of trouble on! I tried to cram in between my conferences on Wednesday and Thursday. (Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that I decided to schedule this exam during conference week? Cause I don't already have enough stress.) I still wasn't feeling very confident, and there were definitely some questions that I had to just guess on. I thought I was going to get my score as soon as the exam was over, so imagine my surprise when it told me "Score Not Disclosed". I got back home and logged on to the student portal, hoping it would show up there, but there was nothing. Finally, I found out that it could take up to two business days for my score to be posted! When I talked to my mentor last night, she told me that it usually only takes a day or so. This morning at school, I kept refreshing my WGU e-mail hoping to get an e-mail telling me how I did. It came at about 9:00. I passed with an 87%! Go me!

While I'd love to relax, I've still got a Praxis exam for my Intro to Special Ed class coming up at the beginning of January, and a Literature Review I need to finish by the middle of January. Right now, I'm doing alot of searching for articles that I can use for my lit review before I start my annotated bibliography (which will probably average about 15 pages or so). Once I pass that, I can write the actualy Lit review which will probably be about 10 pages. I'm so excited. (note the sarcasm) I haven't written anything of a postsecondary level for a loooong time.

Conferences went well, both for me as a teacher, and for the boys. Matthew continues to sail through. His teacher thinks he's quite the character. We're still working on his talking. He seems to think everyone is as interested in his thoughts as he is. Otherwise, he's great! Academically, Nathan is excelling. His teacher is amazed by how bright he is. She and I are still worried about his social development. While he seems to be doing OK relating to the other kids in the classroom, he doesn't really play with anyone at recess. He spends a lot of his time just walking back and forth across the playground (probably talking to himself if I know Nathan). We're discussing having him retested for Aspergers. While he probably wouldn't qualify for any services, it might help his teachers understand some of his issues as he gets older. So far, he's had very understanding teachers, but I worry about him as he moves into the upper grades. Having a specific diagnosis will ensure that his teachers will have the information they need to help his adjust.

Only seven more school days until Thanksgiving! I can't wait!

(PS Here's the two second Andrew update. He's starting to talk even more! Now, he says ball, baby, juice, bye-bye, shoe, and choo-choo! I gave him a haircut yesterday, and cut his hair just a little too short. You can definitely see his scar now!)

Halloween

Here are some pictures of our Halloween celebrations! The Wednesday before Halloween was our Fall Festival at church. Then, on Saturday afternoon, I took the older two to an assisted living center for trick or treating. They had sent an e-mail to our church saying the residents wanted to have some kids come over. I don't know if the boys enjoyed it, but the residents got a kick out of all of the kids. Saturday night, we went over to the mall to trick or treat. We've done that the last couple of years, and it's gone really well. This year, it was REALLY crowded since it was raining outside. We only lasted about 45 minutes before Matthew said he was done with trick or treating and asked for ice cream. It sounded like a good idea to me, so that's what we did! They didn't get a huge amount of candy, but everyday when they come to my room, they get a piece of candy, so they don't really need any for Halloween.

Digging out pumpkin guts. I was impressed that Nathan was willing to stick his hand in!

My little pumpkins!

Trick or treating at the assisted living center

Ready to head off to the mall!

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!

The Wet Week that Was

There aren't really words to describe what this last week has been like. If you've been watching the news, you know that we got epic amounts of rain for about seven days. The worst of it was Sunday night into Monday. Last Sunday, we had a tremendous thunderstorm come through in the middle of the night. It woke all of us up (even Andrew, who usually sleeps through anything), and it stormed and POURED for close to two hours. I just lay in bed worrying about the fact that it was a Sunday night which meant that the next day was Monday, and I was going to have to make it through the day on very little sleep. I never imagined what was going on outside.



Here's what was happening while we slept.

(Pictures courtesy of the ajc)

Those buses are parked about a half mile from my house at Parkview High School. There's a creek that runs right next to where the buses are parked, and the water rose to about 7 or 8 feet overnight. And we didn't even get the worst of the flooding. Over on the west side of Atlanta, entire neighborhoods were under water. In some places, you could only see the roofs of the two story houses. Six Flags had many of their roller coasters under water. The pictures on the news were just surreal. You see stories like that in other places, but to realize it's happening to people right where you live is very disconcerting. An elementary school in Cobb County, Clarkdale Elementary, was completely submerged. Those students had to evacuate on Monday as water starting pouring in. Our school was cancelled on both Monday and Tuesday because it wasn't safe to drive on the roads. People were getting swept off of the roads as they tried to drive through the water. It was like nothing I had ever experienced.

Thankfully, our house stayed dry. Our house is set up on a rise, and the water flowed down the lawn and into the neighbor's. During the worst of the rain on Monday afternoon, it was pooling quite a bit just past our neighbor's house, but it didn't get up very high. We don't have basements on our road, and I've never been happier about that. I spent Wednesday back at school just looking around my classroom and realizing how thankful I was that it was still there. I can't imagine as a teacher, or a student, losing absolutely everything in your classroom. Many of those students also lost everything in their homes as well. The thought of it is overwhelming.

Our only problems have been with our phone and internet service. The phone was out Monday, (I'm beginning to think something got hit by lightning) and the internet went out completely on Tuesday. I was finally able to get a hold of someone on Thursday, and everything should be up and running no later than Tuesday. A lot of the roads around us are closed as a creek that meanders around our area washed out or weakened many of the bridges that cross it. It's made getting around a little interesting. Matthew's soccer field (which sits across the street from where those buses were parked) suffered some severe damage, but they are hoping to get everything back up and running by next week. They lost a few of their soccer goals and most of the fence, and in some places the ground washed away, but I drove by there today, and there were people out getting it cleaned up. Unfortunately, it's pouring right now, as we are expecting another 1 to 2 inches of rain today. Hopefully, the ground has dried enough to handle it.