Christmas 2008 at our house.......

Hope your was just as joyful and fun!

The school district we live in is considering going to a 4 day school week. I am 100% in favor of a 4 day school week. I currently have one child in Kindergarten and will have another child in Kindergarten next year. The possibility of a four day school week in very appealing to my husband and I for several reasons:


1. It will reduce the time my children have to miss school for dental and medical appointments. We all know that it basically takes all day long to take your child to an appointment in Helena. Having a four day school week would virtually eliminate the need to miss school for a scheduled appointment of any kind.


2. More time for family. I currently get to see my daughter for about an hour and a half before school and for about 5 hours after school. If she rode the bus, it would be even less. The idea of having my kids with me for three days rather than just two is very agreeable to me. We could do so much more in the way of family oriented activities that are limited right now with a five day week.


3. As I understand it, many times some of the funds saved from having a four day school week, if properly managed, can benefit at risk students. Often times, tutoring and reading programs are implemented on the ‘fifth day’ which benefit the at risk student population.


4. Sports activites can be scheduled on the ‘fifth day’ which in turn reduces the classtime lost by those who participate in sports. These students don’t miss instruction time for extra-cirricular activties, which are important, but secondary to academics in my opinon.


5. Kids who participate in clubs like Scouts have that ‘fifth day’ for activities and meetings geared toward those groups. They are still learning and are engaged with their peers – which is essential for good citizenship and community. Though my kids are not sports or club participants at this time, I anticipate the day when they both will be involved in either a club or sport – maybe both.


6. A four day school week would also afford my family the opportunity to participate in an activity not currently offered by the school, ie ballet or karate. At present, I feel doing so would be ‘overload’ on my kids but if we had the ‘fifth day’ free, we would have more flexibility to do something like that.


7. From a common sense point of view, it is easy to see that a four day school week reduces the amount of money the school district would spend on hourly salaries, energy, fuel, food and other expenses. That is hard to argue with.


8. Research shows that having a four day school week improves attitudes and outlook of the faculty, staff and students, reduces stress, and increases student attendance while decreasing discipline problems. It also reduces the need for substitute teachers while increasing the opportunity for older students to gain work experience because they have an entire day they can promise to their employer.


I am unconcerned about the fears that the younger kids won’t adapt well or that a long school day will be too much for them. I was concerned about those very issues when my daughter started all day Kindergarten and have been proven very wrong. She is thriving and comes home with plenty of energy to play and do what she needs to do in the evenings. She sleeps and eats much better after having started school. We have regimented eating and bedtimes at our house and the routine of school has only reinforced my ‘at home’ regimen. I cannot see how an extra hour or so four days a week would impact my daughter negatively in the least. I anticipate the same pattern for my son who will start Kindergarten in the Fall of 2009.


I can find very little wrong with the idea of getting to spend more quality time with my children while saving the school district money in basic operating costs. I am looking forward to the decision the school board makes and hope that we see a four day school week in the near future.

Today, I had my very first Parent-Teacher conference as the parent. Maya's teacher, a lovely woman who is not that much bigger than some of her students, and I sat down to have a little chat about Miss Maya and I have to say I was very pleased with what she had to say.

A few of you will recall how I whined and howled about all day Kindergarten. I am still not convinced that it is right for all students, but my child seems to be thriving. It seems that the teacher cannot seem to find enough for her to do and she is excelling in every subject.

Boy, am I relieved.

I am so proud of Maya and how hard she is working at school. She is really blossoming and is absorbing a tremendous amount every week. She is doing fine socially and academically - which is great news to me as well. Maya and Owen are 'at home' kids - they stay with Mom and Dad or another trusted family member....and that's it. To have Maya doing so well with her peers is relieving and a joy for me.

I was wrong about all day Kindergarten for Maya. It is just what she needs!

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. All the kids had a great time and managed to bag HUGE amounts of candy - at least enough to last until Santa fills our Christmas stockings!

All of the kids had wonderful costumes. My second niece, Kait, was not all that thrilled with the costume that her mother had picked out for her (a really cute pilgrim costume.) I know her Mom thought that she would look cute in it, but Kait did not agree. Luckily, Auntie Jen had time to stop at Kmart where she found a lovely costume that suited Kait perfectly - and it was only $12.50! Double score for Auntie - LOL.

I hope you all had as much fun as we did!

PS - If anyone has any chocolate coins made by Sherwood - throw them out. They could have melanine in them. I have not had time to check that out online, but heard it on the radio on the way to trick or treat with my family. None of our kids got any chocolate coins at all so no one had to cry over thrown away candy.


Indian Princess Maya - wardrobe by Mom ;) I stayed up very late Thursday night to finish this dress - which was a big hit with Maya. She loved it!


Owen as one of the cutest vampires EVER!


Auntie Jill and all 7 cousins ready to go out for a fun night of treat or treat!

On Friday, my kids will celebrate Halloween first with their friends at school and then with their cousins in the evening. We are making a whole family weekend of it and going out to do some pre-Christmas window shopping with the kids on Saturday - to work off all that sugar, ya know!

I never, ever went trick or treating when I was a kid. My parents did not allow it. I also never dressed up for Halloween. My Mom has always been opposed to Halloween and I can't say that I don't see her point. I too don't like all the emphasis on evil and gorey things. While I do allow my kids to participate in Halloween, I am very careful to monitor what they choose as a cosutme and try my very best to shelter them for anything that is really scary and creepy.

My daughter, Maya is particularly sensitive to scary things. She has not experienced enough of it to be numbed to it and becomes very upset at things that are scary. So, when I heard that the kids would be dressing up a school to celebrate Halloween, I knew that Maya was going to need me to be at school with her. So, I explained the situation to the teacher, who was thrilled to have a volunteer to help her get her 12 students into their costumes.

My son is going to participate with his preschool class as well. He doesn't seem to be as freaked out as my daughter and so I have had to make a choice as to which one needs me most. I feel bad about leaving Owen to go with his class, but I am afraid Maya needs me more. It is terrible that Mom's can't be in two places at once!

Tonight I will get Maya's costume together. She is going to be an Indian and Owen is going to be a vampire - or at least that is the plan at the moment. It is going to be a very busy day so I will wish you all a Happy Halloween now and share the pictures next week! Have a safe and fun filled holiday!

After a visit with the orthopaedist, Owen's foot was pronounced 'very unlikely broken' and he is free to walk around without a splint or cast as long as he takes it easy and it doesn't hurt. I am VERY relieved that his foot is not broken. I was scared to death that something was really messed up and that we were going to be weeks getting him up and mobile again - not to mention that the poor kid would have to miss trick or treat!

I am happy to report that Mr. Owen has been a very good boy keeping to the Doctor's orders of easy walking only - no running, jumping, climbing, twisting, stomping, etc. Of course, this is only the second day ;)

I am just glad he has been cleared to return to school!

So, I took Owen to the doctor - Urgent Care - and the doctor took some x-rays and really could not tell if Owen's foot is okay or not. Her feeling was that Owen has broken the first metatarsal bone in his foot and is sending us to see the orthopedic doctor tomorrow for a more expert opinion.

So, in the meantime, I am trying to keep Owen as happy and still as possible. It is really hard keep a four year old boy still! He has a temporary spilt/cast on his foot right now and so I have restorted to letting him crawl around on the floor and play with his trucks.



Here is our cute little foot all wrapped up. I feel REALLY guilty now for letting him play outside and run around the house while we were waiting to be able to go to the doctor. I honestly thought that if was that bad it would hurt and he wouldn't want to play. Boy was I wrong about that!!

So, this afternoon, we are going to watch The Great Pumpkin and make some popcorn.

We have been snowed in for the last couple of days. The snow started to fall on Friday and the National Weather service said that it was supposed to stop on Saturday. So, my hubby plowed the road all out and all was fine.

The minute he left to go game bird hunting with his friends, the snow started falling and did not stop until last night! I tried yesterday afternoon to see if we could get out so that I could get both kids to school this morning and to their flu vaccination this afternoon.

I promptly got myself stuck in the drive way and spent 45 minutes on my knees in the snow with a shovel getting my SUV out. I had no choice but to get it out - you can't plow the road if there is an SUV stuck in the middle of it. So, finally, I succeeded in getting myself unstuck and resolved that the kids were not going to be able to go to school today.

They, upon returning to the house, I was taking a break and my kids were upstairs playing in their rooms. I heard Owen jumping off something up there and had just yelled up the stairs for him to quit and was headed up there when I heard a thump that sounded a bit off.

Sure enough, Owen had jumped off the blanket chest at the end of the bed - backwards - and sprained or strained the top of his right foot. Thank goodness my good friend is an RN! So, I had an ACE bandage and a bad of frozen peas - which is all I needed - which I used to wrap up Owen's little foot. I have him some Tylenol and put him into bed with me last night because it was hurting him. This morning, he is hobbling around on it, but it is still swollen.

So, as soon as hubby gets here and clears the road, I am headed off to urgent care to see about Owen's foot.

A foot and a half of snow in October!!!! Grrr.....

While out shopping the other day with my two kidlets, we visited the Halloween apparel section at Walmart. I always buy a holiday themed t-shirt for each of the kids to wear to school and then we keep it as a play shirt afterwards.

So, there we are perusing the Frankenstein t-shirts and looking at socks that having lights that flash when you walk when I suddenly realized that Owen is not standing next to me.

Panic mode!

I called his name and I heard him call back for me, just around the corner from where Maya and I were standing. Relieved, I peeked around the corner to find him standing there - all in one piece. Then he pointed and said, "Look Mama, flags!"

He was standing in front of an entire display of very tiny and very colorful ladies thong underwear.

Now, I ask you, what sort of manager okays the display of 200 pairs of teeny, tiny thong underwear at the front part of a store? And right next to the grocery section too!

All I could do is chuckle and say, "Yes, aren't they colorful!" I mean, I really didn't know what else to say. Then, of course, he asked if he could have one - which had to be a big no.

So, we hit the deli, got some popcorn chicken and got the heck out of there. I am always cautious at Halloween time. There are some very scary and gruesome things in the Halloween aisle - but I didn't think we would run into trouble in the apparel section! LOL

Hello All!

Nice to be back blogging! I have had a bit of a rough go of it over the past month. My kids are both in school which means that I am driving them back and forth getting them to school and all of their activities. I understand this will be the norm until they are out of school - in a mere 14 years. No problem....I think.

Life on Metformin has not been pleasant. I have lost 9 pounds this month - which is 9 pounds I needed to lose - but the stomach upset has been horrendous and very annoying. I am hoping that the Metformin is doing it's job though and it will all be worth it in the end. Only time will tell on that front and when I look at the whole process as a whole, it is nothing compared ot what some others have to deal with.

So mostly during the day, Owen and I are hanging out at home (he is only in school for 3 mornings a week) and doing stuff together. Today, we made Monkey Munch - which was a lot of fun for Owen.



Here is the recipe:

9 cups Corn Chex®, Rice Chex®, Wheat Chex® or Chocolate Chex® cereal (or combination)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Substitution
Peanut butter and chocolate are a favorite flavor combo, but peanut butter lovers can substitute peanut butter chips for the chocolate chips to intensify that flavor.

1. Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside.

2. In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag.

3. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.



Here is Owen mixing up the Monkey Munch :)

Hope all of you are well. Big hugs to you all!

Another thing that I have been doing this month is going to the doctor. I have had some very irregular cycles and some very painful cramping over the past little while and so decided that it was time to go and get a complete checkup.

The good news is that all of my blood tests and the ultrasound that I had all came back very good. My cholesterol and blood sugar levels are both very good and everything else looks normal. However, the ultrasound did show some small uterine cysts and that I apparently have the very beginning stages of polycycstic ovarian syndrome.

So, the next course of action will be to start a medication called metformin which will help to regulate my system a bit and from all I have read this morning, it seems like a fairly low-risk medication. The doctor also said that we could use oral contraceptives - which made me burst out laughing at the very thought. I had a tubal ligation after DS was born and so the idea of taking birth control pills seems ludacris to me!

As soon as I hung up the phone, I was immediately grateful to my very core that I had already had my kids. If it hadn't happened when it happened, it likely never would have been. I guess I now know the answer as to why God saw fit to give us Owen when he did!

Jen Returns!

After major computer problems, numerous outings and one family disaster, I am back to blogging! It has been one He** of a month and I am quite frankly glad to have it behind me for the most part.

Right after the 4th of July, I started having trouble with my computer. It starting acting very strange it became harder and harder to get online. Thinking it was my AOL browser, I downloaded a couple of other browswers to try them out. Doing so only made the problem much, much worse. So, I took my Gateway computer - that I custom ordered and paid big bucks for - to my local computer repair place. They called me a couple of days later saying that the machine was working fine - and it did for a couple of days - but they they whole computer became totally unresponsive and will not work at all.

I felt at first that I ought to try and have my Gateway fixed. It was quite expensive afterall but my husband encouraged me to just go and buy another one. So, yesterday, he took me to Best Buy and I chose a Sony - and purchased the extended service plan. So far, so good. Even the Windows Vista is not what I thought it would be and all is well!

In the meantime, we had planned a trip to Yellowstone Park. It was so hot that we decided at the last minute to change our plans and head to Couer d Alene, Idaho to visit Silverwood Theme park instead. In the end, I was glad we went to Couer d Alene because as soon as we had made our plans, my 92 year old Grandmother passed away and my Dad was a wreck. After all sorts of drama that I don't care to recount, I finally ended up in Idaho with my family enjoying cool weather and having a great time riding some rides and eating everything that I should not!

We also had Owen's 4th birthday party. He had a wonderful time and is thrilled to be a big boy now. Of course, all of the boys that we invited we on vacations with their families so it was Owen, his sister, all of his cousins (who are all girls) and Owen's friend Lindsay. All the girls did a great job of being really excited over toys meant for boys and had a great time trying on Owen's Batman wings and playing with the remote control cars and Transformers. All in all, a great day!

So, now things are beginning to wind down and we are getting ready to settle in for the school year. I am getting the paperwork together for Maya's Kindergarten registration and going through all of her clothes and shoes to make way for the new wardrobe! She is very excited and I am scared to death. My baby girl is going to ride the bus with all those other big kids and eat lunch without me. I have resolved NOT to cry about it, but I am not sure I will make it

I give all of you my word of honor that I will visit blogs very soon. I hope all of you are well! Take care and enjoy what is left of summer!

Both of my kids are sick and so we are just laying around watching Sponge Bob cartoons and eating things like fruit and jello today. Both kids stayed home from school today and Owen will likely stay home tomorrow. Oh Joy.

Er....I mean - poor little guy. He is not ornery, demanding and hard to deal with at all. He is a perfect angel and totally reasonable. I also have *plenty* of time to do all the things I need to do in between all the requests he makes. Yeah - we'll go with that.

Hope you all are faring better than I today!

Still Crying......

Monday was my son Owen's third birthday. I have been a bit weepy ever since. I cannot believe that he is three already. I seem to barely remember him being a tiny baby! He cannot be three! Where did the time go?



We had a big party for Owen - at which he was the only boy! The other two boys who were invited were unable to come for various reasons. That did not seem to bother Owen at all. He carried on as usual and had a great time! The child received a bumper crop of gifts, including a wooden dragon that my sister spent hours putting together and lovingly painted orange and green which are Owen's favorite colors. Everything else either had wheels or flies. Bill spent the entire rest of the afternoon playing with Owen's toys including the helicopter the neighbor girls brought over. It is so funny to look around for your husband and find him out in the yard in the middle of all of the kids playing with toys! LOL

Owen was the child I never planned to have. He was a total surprise - and one that I am grateful for. Having two babies only 16 months apart was extremely stressful and difficult. I was out of bed and doing business as usual (almost!) two days after have a c-section with Owen because I had no choice. I had a 16 month old baby to take care of as well as my newborn.

I took a lot of crap about not breastfeeding Owen. The truth is, I physically could not do it. I had a hard enough time functioning as it was, let alone throw that in there. I did not breast feed Maya either. The pediatrician, of all people, told me not to worry about it (as he passed the Kleenex). It is difficult on moms who have had rough pregnancies and then a c-section. Throw in a 16 month old and breastfeeding should have been the least of my worries! I really appreicated that from our doctor. He was the last person I ever expected to hear say that.

I guess I am just feeling very sentimental today and for some reason breasts have been a big deal around here lately - cannot say why - and the bad feelings about breastfeeding showed up. Funny how things do that! Owen, in spite of my failure to breastfeed him, is a very healthy and growing three year old boy. I cannot believe it! He will be the last of his kind because I cannot and should not have any more babies, but I am so grateful he is here and that I get to be his Mom!

God gives us things for a reason. Owen has important things to do in this world and I cannot wait to see him grow up to be a man who loves God. Just not yet.......