Outdoor Ed

Son left this morning for Outdoor Ed, otherwise known as 6th grade overnight camp. He was a little nervous, since he's rarely slept away from us. I didn't let him know that I was going to miss him a lot more than he would have time for missing us! I know this is going to be a great experience for him, but I'll be one of the first parents at school tomorrow afternoon to pick my boy up.

The not eating out experiment is going well now. We have not eaten out since Oct. 1. Somehow just taking it off the table as an option is making it much easier to live with. We have been eating more sandwiches and leftovers. I hope I get more creative with fast, easy ideas for dinner. The hardest thing is that we are rarely able to eat at the same time during the week, as it seems like every night we are getting the kids to various activities, and they get home late enough that they need to eat before we go. 

The good, the bad, the poopy

I took Mickey along to Petsmart today, and he put in an unofficial and unanticipated therapy dog visit. We met with a nice young teenager named Steven with Down syndrome who was out with his teacher and another student. Steven spent about 10 minutes sitting on the ground petting and snuggling with Mickey. For Mickey, it was the only part of the trip he enjoyed!  I was proud of the little guy. He seemed to know just what to do. 

So, I have this grand plan for the month of October. After reading an article in Reader's Digest, I decided that it would be a great experiment for our family to go the entire month without eating out;  at all. As of Oct. 1, the score is:  dinner at home 0, Qdoba Mexican Grill 1.  And this after I explained to a friend about not being able to go out to lunch! 

I thought I was done cleaning up dirty bottoms when the kids were toilet trained. Having hairy dogs, I should know better.  Yesterday I finally confronted the source of my stinky Aussie dog.  I put Annie in tub and scrubbed the business end. Yuk! No wonder she didn't smell good. Then, since I'm not diligent about keeping the dogs off the bed, the linens went in the wash! I'm considering the idea that my next dog should not have a hairy butt.

Oh Happy Day!

I am happily sitting here typing this blog on my living room sofa. I'm happy because my Mac Book Pro is back home with me, and I'm wireless again! How quickly we get used to the good life. I have only had my Macbook since July, yet a week without it was torture. My computer had to go back to Apple for a new LCD screen. I'm not happy that there was a problem with a new computer, but I have to say that Apple took care of it very quickly. I took the Macbook to the Apple store on Saturday and was told I'd get it back in 7 to 10 days. They called on Tuesday to say the screen had been replaced but they thought there was still a problem and it was being sent to Houston for repairs. Because it was sent out, they could ship it directly to me when it was fixed. I was told that they were backed up due to Hurricane Ike, and I could expect my computer back in 10 to 14 days. What a surprise when DSL rang my doorbell at 9:00 this morning with my fixed computer in a box returned to me! I have a new LCD screen on it which no longer flickers and turns crazy colors and everything seems to working well. Hooray! 

Cool Tools

I went shopping last week looking for a digital voice recorder for my son and came home with several cool, electronic gadgets I'm hoping will help him with his school work. I did get the recorder, and a calculator, and my favorite, an electronic dictionary and thesaurus. Son is not very keen on using the voice recorder to pre-write his essays, but he really likes the dictionary. It works like a spell checker on a word processing program, so he can type a word in the way he thinks it sounds and the dictionary will offer the correct spelling. Very cool!

On a personal note, I am still waiting for my substitute teacher certification from the state of Nebraska, so I'm sitting home not doing enough.  Yesterday I signed up to start taking correspondence courses towards the real estate license I'm wanting to get. Yes, this seems like a crazy time to get into real estate, but the market in this area seems pretty steady and I figure I'll be well-positioned when things improve. It's exciting to think of doing something new just because I want to do it!

squirrel and school

The stoopid, city squirrellie arrived, and Annie is keeping it safe from papillons and other predators. Thanks, Patience!
Maverick is trying mental telepathy to convince me to help him steal the squirrel. 
Mickey says, "I'll just stay here and look beautiful. Maybe, Mom will give me a treat. I hope no on mistakes me for a squirrel." 
And Casey, well, he didn't bother waking up to check out the excitement. 

On the kid's side of things, I had a meeting yesterday with Daughter's teacher. I am so excited to be able to say that I was completely thrilled with the curriculum and projects planned for this school year. I no longer have any fears that my bright child will be bored in school this year. I think they will keep her busy and interested!  It was such a relief to learn that this school really has what we have been looking for in an educational program. It was a big decision to leave Louisiana and make the family move yet again, and the schools were a big part of our decision. I feel much more confident now that moving was the right choice for our family. Our son is  also doing a little better as he settles into a routine. I'm wishing he had had more than one year at this school. 

running in circles

Its been an interesting week. We are still trying to get Son settled into school.  He is getting more organized and bringing most of his homework home, usually, but he has had a lot of it. This week it has been having to redo his math almost daily. I have long thought it likely that he has dyslexia, but this is not something the schools will test for. It is quite a challenge trying to tease out what is really going on with kids like this that are seemingly bright, yet struggle in school. There is no communication between people like the teacher and resource specialists and the occupational therapists. And then parents are on their own to try to find someone qualified to evaluate for dyslexia and other similar conditions. We have been running in these circles for years. With junior high next year, I fear we are running out of time for my Son. Each year the difficulties are magnified. We live near a large city now, so I am more hopeful that I will find the right people to help us to help him.

fun weekend

We're having some fun this weekend. Son is very into World War 2. In particular, he is interested in the airplanes. We are in a good area to promote this interest. Saturday we drove about 20 minutes down the interstate to visit the Strategic Air and Space Museum. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon. It's all inside in the air conditioning!  This is the third SR-71 Blackbird we have seen in a museum.

Sunday afternoon, Annie and Maverick got to go to flyball class. Maverick is making good progress. He is overcoming his issues from coming to us as a rescue dog, and gets braver all the time. He is a fast, athletic little guy. I'm having fun at flyball, but I miss agility. I need to find a way to get back into it here.
Another four foot member of family figured out that if he did something cute maybe he could get into the blog. So here is Bugs, posing as a bibliocat on the half unpacked bookcase. We have a block party later today.  We are looking forward to hanging out with our new neighbors, even though it is pretty hot today. 

To our friends in Louisiana - you are in our thoughts and prayers. We are glued to the Weather Channel.