school troubles

usually I don't have time to write on the blog during the day but I have both kids home sick with colds. I was trying so hard to get them through this week without missing because next week they are off for thanksgiving break and Brandon has a field trip to the Nutcracker on Thursday. Instead I kept Jessie home today and then ended up picking Brandon up. Now I can't send them tomorrow either because they are running slight temps and the school policy is no fever for 24 hours. So I go for no miss and end up with two instead. I guess I should have listened to Scott and kept Brandon home also but Brandon wanted to go and since he is already having trouble in school I didn't want him to lose any more than he has to.
He has started title 1 for reading because he is behind. He is having difficulty in almost every subject. When I sit right down with him he does better but he can't have one on one attention all the time. He gets distracted easily and can't finish his work on time. His teacher has begun the process of trying to get him into a funded program for help but by the time he gets through the red tape he will probably be in third grade and even more behind. I have been trying to do my own research to figure out how to help him. The other problem is Jessie is so bright that she is going to quickly out do him if we are not careful. She is always asking to do homework. And when I am working with Brandon on Fridays she is always listening and learning. For example when we were working on adjectives and I was reading sentences and he was supposed to tell me which word was the adjective, Jessie was answering before him and getting them right. Luckily Brandon thought that was cool, but how long before he feels threatened by that? Oh well I guess I will just have to take it a day at a time.

Chris and Rachel’s New Addition

Chris and Rachel got a dog. They didn’t really plan on getting one right now, especially because they are both working extra hours right now so the timing wasn’t great, but a friend of theirs found a Chihuahua mix dog and after lots of searching, couldn’t find his owner. The friend has two pit bulls and the little stinker always got them riled up and he was afraid the little guy would get hurt so he asked Chris if they wanted him. They named him Tiko and are very attached to him. He is a real cutey. They think he is around 4 years old but are taking him to the vet just as soon as they have a chance to be sure. They bought him a coat and a sweater since that breed of dog gets so cold, but the coat is heavy enough that it almost knocks him over. The kids get a real kick out of him since they are used to just having big dogs to play with. He loves to give them kisses. They brought him over for dad’s birthday party so we could see how he gets along with our dogs and cat and it was a wild night. Fearless didn’t pay too much attention to him but Tiko and Shane kept sniffing each other and Shane got so excited at having a new playmate. He didn’t seem to notice the size difference and neither did Tiko. Then Shane decided to give Tiko a bath with his tongue and he was soaked. Tiko really liked Socks the cat though. They are about the same size and they would play tag with each other. By the end of the evening Tiko and Shane were lying side by side exhausted and Socks was just as tired. Chris picked Tiko up and put him in his lap and Tiko’s little head just fell against Chris and he went fast asleep. It was quite lively, but fun.

Halloween

We started the Halloween season with our annual trip to Pantleo Farms. It’s a farm nearby that offers free hayrides pulled by a tractor (Brandon is in heaven) and they always have ponies to ride and an inflated spook house and slide and a bounce house. The kids love going there every year. We grew pumpkins in our garden this year so we had a new pumpkin to carve every week in October, plus Jessie got one when they had a field trip to a pumpkin patch at school.

Jessie had her first school Halloween party and had a good time. They did the traditional costume parade and played games. Jessie was Cinderella again (of course). Then we went back to school in the afternoon for Brandon’s party so Jessie got a bonus of two parties. She walked in his parade too for a short time. Brandon was a wildland firefighter again. Big surprise but he is a cute one. Maybe next year they will decide to be something else. That was on the Thursday before Halloween since they don’t have school on Friday. Then on Halloween day, we went to the mall around 4:00 to trick or treat. The kids got a little bored this year doing that because there were big gaps where stores were out of candy so they were just walking and not trick or treating so we may have to try something different next year, but they still had fun and got a lot of candy. Next, we went to GG’s apartment to trick or treat with her. We visited there for a while and then went to pick up pizzas to take to Chris and Rachel’s house. GG had decided not to go to their house; she didn’t feel like tackling the stairs. So we moved on to their house and had dinner and met their dog for the first time (more on him in the next blog). Rachel’s Aunt and Uncle have a house nearby and always do a spook house for the neighborhood so we all went to that. It was quite spooktacular (get it?). The kids thought it was great, not too scary, and they saw kids trick or treating in the neighborhood and wanted to do that too. It was getting too late to do anymore trick or treating but next year if the weather is nice we might just go around Chris’ neighborhood and Rachel’s Aunt’s neighborhood instead of the mall. We had two very tired but happy kids but I sure wish Halloween could always be on a Friday or Saturday night so there wouldn’t be school the next day. Jessie was over tired and had a melt down and wouldn’t get on the bus the next day so I had to take her to school. Her teacher said that is pretty common for her age group after so much excitement. Brandon was upset because Jessie was upset and didn’t get on the bus and I was worried about how he was doing but he seemed to get by ok, fortunately. We pay the price for having a lot of fun sometimes but it’s worth it.

kids

In preschool the kids are starting to learn their letters. Every week the learn a new letter and have show and tell bringing a small item that starts with the letter. Jessie informed me yesterday that they were starting it but no note was sent home so I didn't really give it much thought. I was trying to decide if I should give in to paying a dollar for PJ day. (more about that in a minute). Anyway I forgot all about it. This morning Jessie wakes up and asks me if smile begins with the letter S (the letter of the week) I said yes it does and she said that is what she is bringing for show and tell, her smile. I can't think of a better one can you?
The school has pajama day as a spirit thing every year. This year they decided to charge a $1.00 for every student to wear them. If you don't bring a dollar and you wear pjs you get a trip to the principal's office and a call to your parents. I gave in because Jessie was so excited even though I don't think that is right but Brandon decided not to do it.
Speaking of Brandon, my son is so full of empathy it literally hurts him sometimes. He cries when they have the commercials for the abused animals and now they are doing a fundraiser for St. Judes hospital. Yesterday they brought in a video to show the classes and are doing a math a thon fundaiser. Brandon came home all excited but I thought it was because of the prizes. The problem is we don't have the money for another fundraiser, I told him that and he said he understood but then he couldn't focus on homework which is nothing unusual so I didn't give it much thought. But then I started seeing the signs. He almost cried when I lectured him about staying focused during homework which is a daily lecture, and when Scott came home Brandon showed him the fundraiser but said he didn't care about helping stupid cancer kids. That is when I realized what was bothering him. When he started crying he said he just really wanted to help them out. I told him we would try and find a way to donate somehow but the fundraiser looks like they want a minimum of $10 pledges. How do I help keep his ability to want to help and his passion for it when we can barely help ourselves right now? I try to show him everything is good with us but then I turn around and say we can't give $10 dollars. He is getting confused and I don't know how to help him. I am trying to think of other things he can do to help but its hard to find things for an eight year old to volunteer and everything costs money anymore. I feel like I am letting both kids down.

state fair

We went to the state fair on Labor Day weekend. The kids got free tickets for back to school day although Jessie is free anyway. Mom gets discounted tickets through work also. This year since the food is so expensive and Scott doesn't get off work until 4:30 we decided to pick up some chicken sandwiches from Wendy's and eat before we left which worked out well. When we got to the fair, we did the usual wandering around. There weren't a lot of shows the kids wanted to see by the time we got there. There was one with dogs that did competition water sports that we watched for a few but people kept standing in front of us. People have no respect for anyone any more, especially to stand in front of little kids. Anyway they watched a poor puppy whose owners were trying to train to get into water before the show started and the poor puppy was not happy. It was a German Shepard and shepards do not usually like water. Once the show finally started, the kids got bored of course. We went to the petting zoo and they rode the ponies, a tradition. We wandered around the booths and then we went to look at the tractors and sheds. They also had a manufactured house you could check out. I think the kids had more fun in that area than anything else. Brandon had to sit on every tractor, Jessie for some reason was scared to, and they went in every shed. There was one that was almost the size of the kid's room and looked like an adobe house. The manufactured home was pretty cool also. Scott took the kids in first while mom and I stayed with the wagon and then the kids took us on a tour. Brandon should be a salesman. It was really nice, a little smaller than ours but I really liked the master bath and closet, they took up almost one side of the house. The kids got some light up souveniours and then we went to head home. We were taking the shuttle to the parking lot where our car was parked and standing in line and the people from the back of the line jumped on first so we had to wait for the next one. When the next one came, the kids jumped on and we almost didn't get on with them. Mom had to yell at some people to leave us room. The couple behind us commented that they didn't think we were going to make it and schools must not be teaching people how to wait in line anymore. (Most of those line cutters were adults sad to say) Brandon started to talk to them and said we were on a space shuttle heading to Mars and the couple could push us when we got there. Then the lady said something about driving home and Brandon told they had better not have had too much to drink. She told him no they only drank Gatorade so they were okay. They were getting a kick out of him. Chris and Rachel were going the next day so I called him Sat night and told him to make sure they went to see the house. That night I got a call from Chris and he told me I stank. I asked him what I did and he said they fell in love with the house and were mad at me for making them see it. (Not really mad but they did fall in love with the house.)
any way that was our adventure for a while.

Here are some Jessie sayings that I thought were cute:
She fell asleep on the bus coming home from school but she said she wasn't sleeping just her eyes were. They got tired and needed to close for a while but she was wide awake.

Jessie:" Grandma if I got married will you come to my wedding?" "Yes of course I will" "Will you wear the dress you wore to Chris' wedding?" "Sure if you want me to" "Well you know you will need to wash it first!"

Chris and Rachel's Wedding

Chris and Rachel's wedding went pretty well considering the minor problems they had getting everything together. Thursday night we had dinner at Chris's house with just our side of the family, Rachel's side went to her mom's house for dinner. It was nice getting to visit with Pat and Jim and Rebecca and Mary before it got too hectic. Mary has sure grown up since the last time I saw her. The kids all got along great. On Friday we went to the mountains with both sides of the families. It was a lot of fun and then everyone had fun playing in the water and wandering around. Some of the family went to Bishop's castle after but we took Mary back to our house so the kids could have some quiet time before the rehearsal dinner. They played play doh and tried to see who could outdo themselves in the gross category by making pizza with nasty stuff on top. At night we went to Country Buffet for the rehearsal dinner and then to the church for the rehearsal. The rehearsal was certainly interesting due to Carmen (Rachel's mother) wanting to make sure everything was perfect. Brandon and Jessie felt better learning what was expected of them as ring bearer (barrel as Brandon calls it) and flower girl. Mom and I reminded Jessie she would have petals in her basket tomorrow at the wedding and she said, "Oh year, I'm supposed to throw them at the people in the benches." We had to do some fast explaining of what she was really supposed to do with the petals. I took the kids home and the rest went to decorate the hall.

The wedding went really well and it was a beautiful ceremony. The kids looked so cute and did great standing up there the whole time. They only started getting a little upset after taking tons of pictures after and Chris finally told Jessie she didn't have to do anymore when she looked up at him with her big blue eyes and pleaded with him to make them stop. Brandon said that Chris owed him one, which Chris will happily repay given that they did so well. I took the kids over to GG's after the wedding while they did a few more pictures at the park. They at least got a little rest before going to the reception.

The reception hall was decorated really nicely, Chris did a good job with the center pieces. The food was a little spicy so some of us couldn't eat very much and Chris and Rachel forgot to get plates and forks for the cake. Some things always have to go wrong at a wedding, it's tradition. When they were called up to cut the cake, the DJ was supposed to stop the music and announce the cutting but for some reason he didn't so they just did it anyway and not everyone got to see it. They will laugh about it one day. Jessie was upset for a little while because she didn't catch the bouquet but Brandon was upset because he did catch the garter and when Joey, the best man, told Brandon that he was next to get married, Brandon marched right back up to Chris and gave it back. Chris wore it on his arm the rest of the night. We took the kids home shortly after because they were just getting too tired to go on. Mom and dad stayed there to help clean up once everything was over. All in all it was good and Chris and Rachel had a great wedding and everyone is happy.

School start

Brandon started school two weeks ago and Jessie last week but I am a little behind with all the wedding stuff. This is the first week they will go the full week though. They are starting four day school weeks this year. The bus picks up my kids at 7:30 to be at school by 8. Jessie gets off at 11:30 but it takes her an hour to get home so she is here by 12:30. That is a long time for a four year old and yesterday she was sound asleep on the bus. If I pick her up from school then Brandon will want me to pick him up and that is just too much gas going back and forth ( we live about 10 minutes from the school). Brandon only has about 20- 30 on the way home so it is not as bad. Jessie seems to like school so far but she can't remember what it is she does there by the time she gets home. Hopefully once she gets into it more she will start remembering more, this was only her fourth day today. She looked so tiny getting on the bus and her backpack is as big as she is. Brandon took his responsibility to get her to school a little to hard and he thought he had to watch her there also and got upset when he couldn't keep an eye out on her during school. He was so cute though taking her to the bus for the first time. He enlisted the help of the other boys on the busstop to help her and she was surrounding by three big boys and then little her. It was funny and kept me from crying to see her go.

Brandon was all ready for school and liking it until they did testing last week and he didn't do so well. Now he thinks he is the only one in his class having trouble and that he is dumb. Getting him to go to school now is like pulling teeth. Of course he had a lot of excitement this weekend that could be making things more emotional for him on top of everything too. I am trying to convince him that he is not the only one and that it will get better. I know the four day weeks are hard on a lot of families that all work but I am grateful that I am not working right now even if it makes things more difficult financially but this way I can homeschool them both on Fridays and help get Brandon back to where he needs to be. His kindergarten teacher was not very good for him and he has been behind ever since. Luckily there is a new kindergarten teacher so Jessie hopefully won't have the same issues. I think Brandon is looking forward to homeschooling. Of course I had to promise a lot of field trips, play time, and science experiments in addition to regular work but whatever works. We will see how that goes over once we really get going on that.