Stuff & bother

I go pick up girl scout cookies today. I have extras if anyone wants them. My daughter and I hope to sell some of the extras to ship to Afghanistan for part of my son's service project. We'll see how that goes.

While I'm out, I'm going to swing by a friend's house and talk to her about home schooling. She's been doing it for a few years now with her son. I'm going to look at her books and see how she came up with her curriculum. I'm considering going to the home school conference in May to talk to folks there too. I have another friend (both through Cub Scouts) that I need to visit at some point as well. I hope to make a decision about next year by the end of May.

Hand strength

At conferences for my kids, my daughter's teacher pointed out that my daughter tends to only use 3 fingers when cutting with scissors. She'd asked if that was normal and I had to respond that I don't see her do it at school. After some discussion, we decided it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and have an OT at the school take a look and evaluate her. She was able to do the exercises the OT gave her, but she won't use her pinky or ring finger when doing her work.

The result is that we're not sure if it's a habit that only occurs at school or if there's another issue. So, now to find stress balls to squeeze or to cut a tennis ball and turn it into a hand therapy device. She can do that at home and her teacher will keep an eye on her at school. We'll just have to go from there.

Science Fair Projects

I'm getting to the point of really disliking Science Fair Projects. This is my son's second one. The first one, he had a blast doing. He picked the topic and was quite willing to do the work. This year, it was picked for him (randomly) by his teacher. I'm having to drag him kicking and screaming through the procedures so that it gets done. I shouldn't have to do that. I really wish they'd approved one of the two projects he proposed himself. We'd be done with this by now.

We've been considering taking him out of the Focus program as it is. He's not enjoying it and he's really dragging his feet on it. He's said straight out that if it weren't for the science side of it, he would rather not do it at all. I'm looking into putting him into CEISMCs program at Georgia Tech to boost the science side. I have a feeling that'll work much better.

Oh well, back to the grind.

Choi

It seems our dojang is falling apart. I won't swear to it, just the signs are there. With two instructors no longer teaching, friday night and saturday morning classes are no longer offered. There will be one last "blow out" friday night fight night this friday as a send off for the instructor that's taking a furlough.

To my dad!

Blue & Gold Banquet

I have to congratulate my boys for their work on the center pieces they did for our tables. They won the center piece contest for the second year in a row. I'm one of those that fully believe in having the boys do all the work in putting them together. It assures them that the results belong to them, not me. The center pieces this year were paper presidents made with toilet paper and paper towel tubes. I mounted the smaller ones on paper bowls and labeled them with the president's name. A very simple center piece and definitely home made.

Last year it was a space theme and the boys put together a flying saucer using pie tins and battery-powered Christmas lights. They had a "cub" scout in space by using a beanie-bear which they made a space helmet and uniform for (tin foil is helpful). They also made aliens using puff balls, pipe cleaners and google eyes.

It just goes to show me that the "judges" appreciate something that looks completely home grown, not something an adult has necessarily directed them in. So, next year I'll let the boys do all the planning on the center pieces and we'll go for a three-peat.

more animals

Little to No help day

This wasn't necessarily the post I had in mind for today, not that I had anything in particular to post about. But it seems the most appropriate. With only a limited amount of help this morning, some of the leaders got the gym at the church ready for our Blue & Gold Banquet this evening. My in-laws are coming down (at the request of my son) to attend with him. This isn't the "big" one for us. Next year, my son will cross-over into Boy Scouts.. that one will be the big one.

Back at home, I'd already tended the animals (including my children) and started our contribution to the food for tonight by 9a. When I got home from helping there, I made sure my kids got lunch and then I attempted to get my son started back up on his science fair project. He's resisting all the way. It's not a topic of his own choice, it's one that was picked for him. The topics he'd come up with were shot down by the science teachers. So, he's not that into doing it. I can't say I blame him, it's not one I'd have chose either. I refuse to do it completely FOR him, so we're at a stand still right now.

I am at least still getting research into doing home school next year. I was going to visit with a friend today and talk to her, but with how long it took at the church and my (apparently misplaced) hope of getting some of my son's project done, I decided we'd wait until next weekend.

So anyway, it's a pretty typical day. Just a mom trying to get things done with little to no help.

Music classes

After talking with my kids and doing a lot of thinking, we're pulling the kids from their music class. There are quite a few factors, not the least being lack of time to finish school work and including finances. We'll finish out March, which will leave us one 'extra' day a week to do whatever we need doing. In June, once my daughter and I get our black belts, we'll be dropping Choi for the summer as well. We'll reevaluate the extra activities in September.

Random Picture Day

Behind the scenes Peek at the Penguins

Martha Stewart

For those of you that are interested, Marth Stewart visited the Aquarium yesterday to do a book signing. After she was done, she filmed a portion of one of her shows at the Aquarium in the Ocean Voyager gallery. The show is scheduled to air on March 5th.

Coughing Child

My daughter has bronchitis. Doc wasn't sure if it is asthmatic bronchitis or a bacterial caused variety. Since she's allergic to both amoxicyllin and biaxin, we're reluctant to put her on any antibiotics off the bat. Instead, she's on a steroid syrup and back on her nebulizer. Here's hoping it helps so that we can both sleep at night again.

Big Apple Circus

I took my kids to the Big Apple Circus Saturday for Valentine's day. Something different for the kids. They had a blast. Unfortunately, my pictures didn't come out very well. My husband took these two.

House Cleaning

Somebody save me! I attempted Friday to clean my daughter's bed room. As those who have visited have seen, my daughter can't clean her way out of a barrel. At any rate, I finally took my turn. In exchange I came out with 5 grocery bags full of trash, one garbage bag full of clothes that she's CONSTANTLY shoving under her bed and a rubbermaid tub full of miscellaneous toys that I've decided she no longer needs.

Now, part of the reason I did this was for survival. Hers to be sure, but mine as well. But also because she has managed to lose her nice digital camera her grandparents gave her. It HAS to be here at the house, so I had to take the time to empty all the bags (backpack, purses, etc) to find out what was in them. In doing so, I found one sock in just about every one. Is she trying to grow them?

By the end, I hadn't found her camera and I doubt she was very happy with me, but her room looked significantly better.

Happy Valentine's Day

Wii Rock Band

Can someone explain to me how Amazon thinks they can get away with this price? Looking at their prices for Wii Rock Band Special Edition, it's $255.99. Looking at GameStop, it's $189.99. That's a $65 difference. The GameStop price seems to be more along the line of "regular" pricing. Ugh. Just shows it pays to shop around.

$1 bacon?

There are times when I'm out that I get a $1 biscuit with egg or something on it. All biscuits up to now have been $1. Monday, however, I picked up what I thought was a $1 biscuit only to find out that because they added a strip of bacon that it was a $2 biscuit. I'd like to know when a single strip of bacon cost $1? I'll be more careful next time, but that's NUTS.

Random Picture Day

Spotted Wobegong Sharks, one on top of the other, head to tail.

Thanks USA scavenger hunt

This is cool. I've made it about half-way through the scavenger hunt, though my solutions aren't correct in all of the submissions. Oh well. It's fun anyway. The site raises funds for scholarships for spouses and children of our servicemen/women. It was started by two young girls and this is it's 4th year. I highly recommend taking a look around, you may get hooked too.

ThanksUSA American History Treasure Hunt

How to Annoy other Kroger customers

I found it funny, though I don't know that the lady monitoring the self-pay registers or the other customers did. It was close to hubby's pay day, I didn't really have any cash. I'd fished out enough quarters to pay for parking at the Neurologists office with some left over. We were out of milk and cereal, so on the way home I stopped by Kroger just for that. I fed the poor machine $9 worth of quarters, one dime and 16 pennies. No one said anything to me about it, I just found it funny.

Little Girls and Sleepovers

My daughter had a friend spend the night with us Friday night. It was only marginally chaos with minimal whining from my daughter. The girls were more than happy to team up on my son in pillow fights and other activities. Hubby and I "hid" upstairs whilst the chaos was downstairs. It made it easier to handle.

On Saturday, our visitor was determined that we would have pancakes for breakfast and that she was going to help fix them. Apparently it's what she does with her mom. It's a good thing I had pancake fixings here at the house to supply her with. She didn't actually help me fix them, though. The kids were all too busy playing Wii.

Budget Cutting

I'm watching the news and listening to the rumors. I have to admit that I've been concerned these past few years about my kids' education, but this year I've really started to worry. With the economy in the gutter, education is taking a hit again. Now they're even talking about taking school nurses away from the system as well. I've watched what goes on in the clinic and I know that there are several students (in several schools in this area) that have special needs that require extra care. I would hope that they'd take these kids into consideration when it comes to where to cut corners.

As to my kids, I've been watching and reading about home schooling. This has pushed me into doing more and actually talking to friends who home school about what they do. I'm actually contemplating pulling my kids at the beginning of the next school year and taking over. In a way, I think it would do my kids a world of good. On the other hand, I know it poses challenges for it to succeed. Not the least of which is my kids cooperating with me to actually get the work done.

I'm not in a rush, my husband and I had discussed my doing this some time ago. The decision had been to see where we were when we got ready for my son to head to middle school. At the rate the system is going, though, I may move that up. I'll have to see how things work out by May, see what I need to get together to home school and have a sit-down family discussion about the whole thing.

Politeness

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I expect my kids to be polite at all times. True, they have their moments of insanity. Honestly, I expect that, as long as it gets back under control and they remain polite. What has my back up right now, though, is the fact that one of the instructors at Choi has decided that the kids need to make a point of it. She expects them to do two acts of politeness per day for a month and to write about it in a journal. At the end of the month, they're to turn in their journal for her to read.

I'll admit, some kids need the reminder and having to think about it may not be a bad thing. However, every report card my kids bring home a 'Good Citizen' certificate from school. I'm always hearing from teachers how great my kids are. This is cool, I'm very proud of them for it. What I'm afraid of, though, is if they have to consciously THINK about what they're doing they'll become self-conscious. My daughter really doesn't like the spotlight on her, even if she's a drama queen. She has a tendency to stop whatever it is that's causing her attention. This is great if I want to punish her for something. I really don't want her thinking it's better to be indifferent just to avoid the spotlight.

My son, on the other hand, tends to be embarrassed if you point out things to him. Good or bad. He doesn't mind the spotlight at times, but usually limited amounts. The fact that I *expect* them to be polite makes them uncomfortable when someone else says they have to make a point of being polite. It tends to make them feel they aren't doing what they should be doing. The fact that all I hear are kudos (rarely in front of my kids) means they're doing what they should. They shouldn't have to journal what they do as a regular thing. Just knowing they're doing it is enough for me and it should be enough for the instructor as well.

Choi Kwang Do

My kids have been on the demo team at our dojang for a year now and have loved it. They found out Monday that the instructor in charge of the team is retiring (or at least taking a furlough) from Choi. So, the demo team will perform one last time on Feb. 13th and then it'll be over. My kids aren't too happy about it, but there's not much you can do. The other instructors aren't willing (or don't have the time) to take on the extra responsibility. The kids on the team, though, are hoping it's just a furlough and they'll see their instructor again soon.

Super Bowl XLIII

I don't normally watch the games themselves. I prefer watch just the commercials, but last night I actually watched the game. The commercials weren't overly good, the game, though, rocked! I had no favorite, so there is no team to cheer on today, though I will say Congratulations to the Steelers.

On the other hand, my pick from the commercials that I did watch was Bridgestone for best with Mr. & Mrs. PotatoHead. My pick for worst was CareerBuilder.com That one ran down very quickly. I did like the Budweiser commercial (I usually do), though I wasn't highly impressed. I also liked Hulu, though it was slightly "off".

So there you have it. My breakdown of the game in a nutshell. Woo Hoo! Aren't you thrilled?

Mama Mia!

I went out last night with "the girls", two of my friends since high school. I hadn't seen the new house, so that was where we met. We had fun aggravating a non-present husband by rearranging the basement furniture (something he had mentioned doing). Next time if things go as we expect, the visit will be here (and yes, there will be furniture rearranging).

Anyway, we watched Mama Mia as we all like Pierce Brosnan. Unfortunately, he sang. Now, we knew he'd talked about singing in the movie and we knew it was a musical, so it wasn't unexpected. But as cute as Brosnan is, he can't sing. I will say, though, that despite that we enjoyed the movie. It's not one I'll purchase for myself, though.