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!