Back to blogging

Sorry. It has been crazy around here. I so wish I had a laptop. I'd have lots of time to blog at work but need a laptop to do it. Maybe by Christmas. I'll try to keep this somewhat short but hit the high points of what has been going on in our lives.
School is off to a very good start this year. Rachel is in 8Th grade but doing 9Th grade algebra this year. She has a wonderful homeroom teacher that said how much she had been waiting for Rachel to get to her grade & was excited to have Rachel in her homeroom. Rachel's weekly progress reports have been coming home with incredible percentages. Several classes she has had more than 100% score as an average for the class (including Spanish which is her least favorite class). Since this is Rachel's last year at Chandler Woods, they almost treat this as a senior year with lots of special activities. They started the year with a "sneak" field trip that went from 8 a.m. -10 p.m. It was really focused on team building but also memory building. They highlight of the year will be a trip to Washington DC in May. Hopefully, I will be going to as a chaperon.
The rather big news that Rachel has is that she has a part in the school's musical this year. They have already started practices but the performance isn't till February 10, 2009. It took some doing to get her to try out as she was afraid of not being chosen but at the last minute she did & she will be the "minstrel". She even has a duet to do with the "jester".
Stephen has the most adjusting to do this year as it is his first year in middle school. He has the same homeroom teacher as Rachel did & she is very encouraging to the kids. She does great for Stephen as she uses food (candy) as incentives a lot. He had a few adjustment issues as he has had 3 detentions so far. (Detentions are served during lunch time with sitting, eating, & no talking under the supervision of the assistant principal or social worker.) They were rather minor offenses & I think he won't be getting any more. He is trying to make the TCB Club that the school has to earn a trip to Cedar Point at the end of the school year. TCB Club is based strictly on behavior & responsibility & not on grades. If students obey teachers and turn in assignments, there is no reason not to make it. Each quarter there is a party for TCB & if they make it 3 of the 4 quarters, they get a day at Cedar Point while the others are still sitting in classes. Stephen's grades are doing well too. The biggest challenge is to keep things neat & organized.
Joshua is in second grade this year & has the teacher he was hoping for, Mr. Steinbacher. He has been struggling this year with making sure his homework gets turned in but we are working on that. The GREAT news is that I have not had to make a single trip out to school to clean him up since school started! He still has accidents sometimes but so far not during school. They are definitely getting fewer & farther between.
I think that covers the highlights of school. As for me, I am now working 40 hours every week. We had some switching around of aides & I ended up with an extra day when the schedules were adjusted. I am also now a "lead" at least once a week. That means I am the supervisor of the shift. I am also responsible for handing out all meds during that shift. It also comes with a raise which is nice too. It is taking some more adjusting on the home front. It is strange that just one more night a week affects the family so much more.
Mark just passed his one year mark at URS. Things are still going really well there. He even got a former coworker from Camp & Cruise a job in his department. So now he has another man to talk to since they are up to 3 in the dept and 11 ladies.
The other big news is that we have joined a YMCA. It has been great! We are there 4-6 days a week. Stephen took a basketball class this fall & now wants to do the Y basketball league. He hopes to be good enough to make the school team by next year. Joshua has been playing in the Y flag football league this fall. They practice on Tuesdays & have games on Saturday mornings. I don't know what their record is but they are doing rather decent. He is not the best player but also not the worst & he is having fun. There are 6 different Y's in the area & we can go to any of them. We mainly go to the one by the kids school because they have a great family area where there is weight machines that the kids can use as well us as adults. They have cardio there too & some other fun activities including a Wii. So we can all do whatever kind of workout we want and we are at least in the same room even though not necessarily right with each other.
The kids also completed a "marathon" this fall. It was called the GR Kids' Marathon & we just finished last week. What they had to do was walk 1 mile 3 days a week from mid-August. They had a chart to track their miles on. They had to have 25 miles done by Sat. 10/18. Then we went downtown & finished the last 1.2 miles on their course. The kids all received a packet of prizes, certificates, t-shirts, & medal. It was rather fun!
So much for keeping this short! Oh, well. I think that is about it for now. At least I hit the highlights. We'll save the "low lights" for another time.