Lily's Field Trip in her own words

Skyler

Oh he is so clever!  Please do not come in!  Really, if I want to come in, I will!

St. Patrick's Day

We had so much excitement over here for this holiday.  It all started Tuesday morning when I made oatmeal.  After it was cooking, I went to check it and it had turned green!  Those crazy leprechaun's turned our oatmeal green!  It meant war!  That afternoon we made leprechaun traps and were feeling pretty good about them.  Overnight, however, they only caused more problems.  Our pancake mix and milk were turned green and so was the water in our toilet!!!!  Our traps had been messed with and there was a bit of leprechaun fabric and a note from those sneaky guys as well!  We ended the day with reubens and rainbow cupcakes and a vow to catch those stinkers next year with better traps!

On My Mind

So, there aren't often times I write much about my thoughts out here, mostly what we've been up to.  But, this is what is on my mind, so I thought that I would share.  We had Skyler's conference at school the other night and I was a little upset by it.  I am not surprised by it, just a bit upset by it, because it was the first time  we've been informed about his little problem.  First of all, Skyler is an excellent student,well I think I should say excellent LEARNER, for that I am thankful.  He loves to learn and is always excited about it and has the best memory of anyone that I have ever met, which in turn makes learning easier for him.  However, he has ADD tendencies and so far they this school year they haven't been a problem.  He has made excellent marks all year and has been improving every quarter, except this time.  He went down in two areas and it really concerns me because none of the papers coming home gave any indication.  But, what really blew me away was that he got S- for behavior and I had no idea he was being naughty at school.  No phone calls, no notes.  I of course didn't get upset in the conference, but the more I think about it, the more upset I get.  I know there are probably a few reasons for Skyler's problem and one is that he is bored.  Not an excuse.  Up until this time, the teacher has done a great job keeping him focused.  But, now I am worried this trend will continue and get worse as he gets older.  Having an education background does not help in this case, because I've seen the worst case scenarios and don't want it to happen to us!  I will be praying for my little munchkin, that he can behave and be neat while he is at school and hopefully it will happen!

Lily's Field Trip

Lily got to go on a field trip to Fontenelle Forest.  She really thought it was the greatest thing ever!  She got to learn about and touch four animals:  a turtle, a salamander, a snake, and a rabbit.  They got to pretend to be rabbits and pretend to be snakes too.

Vacation

We stopped in Wall Drug, South Dakota on the way to Montana. We were so relieved to be out of the fog that we wanted to celebrate by walking around, and plus, Chuck had never been there. I think that is crazy! The first picture is the ice that formed on the car from driving through the fog. We thought that part was horrible. Little did we know that driving home would be much worse! Probably the worst drive we have ever been on thanks to the fog, black ice, snow, slush and rain! YUCK!

Montana Pictures Part 3

Ok, the first picture is such an adorable, GREEN house. I took the picture because I sooooo want to live in that house, or one like it. The next is a picture of College M" is you look kind of right in the middle of the picture you can see the M on the mountain; that is where we hiked the first day we were there. And, then our coffee cups from a great coffee shop, yummy!

Montana Part 2

Well, the formatting is crazy here, but here we are visiting the Rocky Mountain Museum. The place was awesome, with tons of stuff about dinos, Native Americans, old time living, and Jamestown. We really had a lot of fun!

Montana Pictures Part 1

Here we are on vacation in Bozeman, MT. I enjoyed a delicious beer of some sort at Montana Ale Works, and on a different day we both enjoyed a bison burger at Ted's Montana Grill. We went on a hike to "College M" and Chuck had some fun with that as you can tell!

The Runner

I cannot believe it! I just ran 10 miles! I just ran 10 miles! I really don't know what else to say about this subject! But, alas, I will find some words to express what is happening! Today was my ten mile run day. And last night I spent a considerable amount of time at www.mapmyrun.com to develop my route. I was so excited about it. Then I woke up this morning, not quite as excited about it. Reality had set in. I was committing myself to a 10 mile run, where in if I got stuck or stranded, no one could help me. The furthest I have run before this is 8 miles and that was on a treadmill. I don't care what anyone says, running on a treadmill is so very different than running outside. It is mindless, you don't have to think, you can watch TV or movies while you are doing it. Outside, well you have traffic, ice, snow, hills, music, cars. It is so much different. But, with Chuck's help, I was able to do it. I ran most of the time and took a couple walk breaks. But I did it and it feels great. Now, I am going to shower, pop some ibuprofen, and get a massage!

The Reading Monster

I have always enjoyed reading fiction books. I can't remember a time when I didn't enjoy reading, or a time in my life when I didn't read. I can even think back about a certain book and remember exactly what age/grade I was in when I read it. One of my favorite classes that I took when I was in college was Children's Literature. It was a required education course and it was like heaven for me. Not only was I introduced to a whole bunch of books that had come out since I had gotten out of grade school, we were also assigned to read about 30 chapter books and write book reports! I LOVED IT!

Well, anyway, this post is not about me, actually, it is about Skyler. We started reading chapter books with him about a year ago. He got hooked on The Magic Tree House series, which by the way is very good. We also read a couple of Captain Underpants books, these are not that good by the way (but they are funny). We have also read Charlotte's Web, Dinosaur Cove, and Zoobreak. I had told a friend about a really great series of books that I had, that I thought her daughter would enjoy (I loved them and so did my students) and she talked to her daughter about them and she said she would like to try them. When I was digging them out of my sacred box of books, I saw some of the awesome chapter books that I had picked up when taking Kiddie Lit. I went through and made a pile of some that I thought Sklyer would enjoy, showed them to him, talked about each one and let him decide if he wanted to read any of them.

He was so excited, I couldn't believe it! He made a fantastic choice of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. We started reading it and the boy could not get enough. He wanted me to wake him up early so we could read a lot before school. He would come home from school and want to read it. It was non-stop. I loved it. It is one of my favorite books of all time, and perfect for him. We finished that book in a week!! We sat for more than once for over an hour and a half reading that book!!!! When we were done, he asked, what's next? There are a few books about Mr. Brian Robeson and we will be starting them soon. But first, a Magic Tree House or too, because they aren't quite as intense and man, my voice needs a break!

Montana

I love vacations. They are such a great opportunity for Chuck and I to recharge and have some fun without worrying about the kids. Yesterday was our first day in Bozeman, MT and we had a great time. We hike for a couple of hours up to the Montana State University "M" on the side of the mountain. Then we drove around and scoped out the area, ate a bison burger, drove around some more and came back and just chilled.

Today Chuck is snowboarding. I ran this morning and am going to spend my day chilling. I plan on taking a very long, hot bath and then doing some homework. Not sure what else, but who cares! Whatever happens, happens; I'm on vacation! Pictures to come later.