Where did this last week go?

So the first full week of school has passed pretty uneventfully, which is good in my book. Lulu is loving her gifted/talented classes, and today I even got to go in and watch the classes go to the butterfly garden. It was really cool, and it was even more awesome to hear my kid say, "Look, it's a common buckeye. Look, there are a ton of aphids!" and know she knew what she was talking about :) my oldest has also been enjoying her classes, and is loving the science she's doing. She even drew a picture of a solar eclipse and colored it for extra credit, which she didn't have to do! (we never did a lot of science during our homeschooling year - just a few lessons here and there.) But she is leaps and bounds ahead of the other kids in spelling & vocab, since we focused on that a lot during our homeschool. Now my baby needs to get back into speech therapy, and we're going to do some preschool work for her homeschooling this year.

I've got chicken in the oven baking for dinner tonight, and a roast in the crock pot for tomorrow night... so everything is gravy right now. Here's to hoping that everyone is doing as well as I feel right now!

on love, in sadness

So my stepdaughter turned 15 today... but she also left us to go back to her mom until next summer. We are all feeling topsy turvy... all very sad. So much sadness. She bawled all the way back to her other families' house (she'll be with them for a day before she flies back overseas). Needless to say, we are not dealing well with her departure. Our family gets to be a complete unit for only 6 weeks out of the year. There's a lot I could say - a lot I want to say - to/about her "other" family... but I won't. In spite of the way things are, I do still pray for them every night to finally wake up and see things as they really are. Praying is all I can do - God has a plan, and I have to trust that He knows what he's doing, even though none of us can understand it.

On top of that, my oldest went to the ER today. Turns out she has bronchitis, strep throat, and a sinus infection... and tomorrow is the first day of school for her and her sister. Fun.

So y'all, I need prayers. lots of prayers. So does my poor husband... because if it's this hard for me, a stepmother, I can't even begin to imagine what it's like for him to have to watch his child leave. I just wish that other people would be more understanding.

SHE GOT IN!

Lulu got in to the gifted & talented program at a local school! The lady who administered it said "she did exceptionally well, scoring higher than 99% of children who took the test."

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

it's over...

Lulu took her test this morning, so it's over. Phew. We won't find out the results until Monday or later next week, though they did say Monday would be the earliest we'd hear anything. The lady told us it would take an hour, but my girl finished it in 20 minutes! She said it was easy peasy, so we'll see.

Since we got up at the buttcrack of dawn, I was dragging. We came home and I crawled back into bed and fell asleep totally without meaning to... but my wonderful husband let me sleep and he took care of the kids, even made them an early lunch! Thanks, honey!

In 20 days, my stepdaughter will be home. I finally ordered the invitations for her birthday party, and hopefully once they arrive here I will turn around and get them straight back in the mail! It's going to be a busy several weeks around here!

Got the ball rolling

I finally have the ball rolling on this whole school thing, though I'm not sure I like it. My husband heard from his sister (who works in our county's school system) that the school she works at has a gifted and talented program for advanced kids. Well, when my middle baby was in first grade during the 08-09 school year, her testing showed she was off the charts for a first grader - she read at a fifth grade level (actually the teacher said she probably read even higher than that, she just didn't have time to keep testing her). The class shared a "reading box" - a box of books that they were supposed to read when they had completed work and had free time. My child had her own box, since the other box of books was too easy for her. The teacher said she was worried about my daughter getting bored, since she completed all her work (correctly) way before the other kids got done. She's been homeschooled this last year, and her appetite for learning has just been voracious. I had the girls reading The Secret Garden, which is 5th grade level reading. We did tests and everything for that, and she was still passing her older sister in the work we did. she has done leaps and bounds more in math, as well, and I am still teaching them both French & Spanish. My husband thinks the G & T program would be good for her... I am undecided and want to keep them home, but at the same time I don't want to deny her such a wonderful opportunity... so I have been calling the admin building for a week. Finally got in touch with the woman in charge of the program today, and so a week from today at 9 a.m., she will take the Naglieri test to see if she gets into the program. She wants to go, but at the same time she says she doesn't want to leave me. For every reason she finds to go, she finds one to stay home. I told her not to worry about it until we find out whether or not she makes it in. She wailed, "I'm gonna fail!" I assured her you can't "pass" or "fail" this kind of test.

My oldest daughter keeps asking me to take her shopping for a training bra. She is 9, will be 10 in a few months. I don't know why she's in such a hurry to develop and grow up - I suspect that since her almost-15-year-old sister will be here in 27 days, she wants to be like her and wear a bra. She went to the bookshelf this morning and got the "Care & Keeping of You" American Girl book that I bought when she started needing deodorant. She's reading the section on developing chests... I don't want to discourage her from learning about it, but I know it's making her Daddy VERY uncomfortable! She keeps wanting to ask me stuff, but he's in the room so she says she'll ask me later.

So. On to subjects that I know how I feel about, lol. Gardening, yay! ;) I now have three green something-or-others in the lettuce pot, 6 lavender shoots, and the two thyme shoots are still the only ones in the pot. One of Lulu's Sweet William flowers began to sprout this morning, so of course she's out of her mind with excitement. She also has 13 greenish things in her pot of Chinese Lantern flowers. :) I need to go out today and get some things in the ground, too.

I've been doing laundry like crazy the last few days. I discovered that I actually find it soothing to sit and fold baskets of laundry... except for fitted sheets, which make me want to pull my hair out. I (literally) have done 15 loads of laundry in the past four days. Every time someone dirties something, I grab more stuff to be washed and take it downstairs to the machine. I am starting to think I may be addicted to doing laundry, as I can no longer stand seeing dirty clothes ANYWHERE. Or maybe I'm addicted to the smell of the clean laundry - I guess that makes more sense, lol. I just know I feel calmed when I sit and fold the clean clothes. Speaking of which, I need to go get some out of the dryer, and take down this basket of dirty stuff that just popped out of nowhere this morning... heehee....

holy crap

Holy crap, it was friggin' hot today!! We always go to my in-laws' home on Sundays and spend the whole day there, and I forgot to water my plants before we went. when we got home, my tomato plants were all but wilted! I watered them and five minutes later they perked up a little and looked better, but I need to get a garden built for the veggies and get them in the ground!

Apparently there's a school in this area that has a gifted and talented program for elementary aged students. My husband is really pushing for me to let our 7 year old take the admission test to get in the program. I talked to her about it, and she vacillates between excitement and reticence. She wants to go because it sounds amazing, but she doesn't want to stop being homeschooled. She wants new friends, but doesn't want to leave me or her sisters. She wants to be involved in a music program if they have it, but she wants to be able to stay home and read what she's interested in. For every reason she finds to want to go, she also comes up with a reason to want to stay home. The test isn't until June, so I told her to wait and see how the test goes before she decides (my husband has declared that she WILL take the test).

Sigh.

My stepdaughter will be here in just over a month, and we can't wait!

I dyed my hair again. I went a little darker this time. I think it looks good on me. Unusual, since I've had lighter hair all my life, but decent enough.

I just hope tomorrow turns out cooler than today, since I want to mow the grass!

boo!

It's been about a week since I last updated - sorry about that. Real life gets in the way of blogging sometimes, lol. Lexi graduated Kindergarten (*sniffle*), so that means that next year, I have a 1st grader and a 2nd grader.

We finally got off of our butts today and cleaned the family room, which sorely needed it. I made Pad Thai with shrimp for dinner, but wound up giving the girls only the noodles with parmesan cheese, while I had the Pad Thai. Spicy! I made a peach citrus cake for dessert, too. SO YUMMY. Tomorrow we might go to the dollar theatre and see the Spiderwick Chronicles - Grace has wanted to go since it came out, and we just never had time before.

Also, I just have to throw this out there - if you live in this area and like sushi, head over to Kobe and have some spicy tuna rolls. They're positively addicting! Like crack, only healthier! ;)

Drama with Gracie's teacher... AGAIN

Last night at dinner, Gracie told me that a boy in her class named Mark tried to punch her in the face. I said, "WHAT?"

G: I held my hands up in front of my face, so he just hit my hands, but he tried to punch my face.
Me: Did you tell your teacher?
G: Yes. But before I told on him, he punched Jalen in the mouth and broke his front tooth, and Mom, it was a permanent tooth!
Me: Did he get in trouble?
G: Yes. He lost his recess for the rest of the week.
Me: Why isn't there a note in your bag telling Mommy what happened?
G: I don't know, but it happened, I promise!
Me: Did you do something to provoke him?
G: What does provoke mean?
Me: It means you did something to make him hit you, like teasing him, or hitting him first.
G: No, I didn't do any of that stuff, Mom. I was just sitting there and eating my lunch and talking to Xzavier (YES that's how his name is spelled), and Mark tried to hit me! When it didn't work right, he hit Jalen, cause Jalen was on his other side. Jalen's mom had to come and get him and take him to the dentist cause he was hurting pretty bad!
Me: I'll bet. I hope his mom sues Mark's parents for the money for the bill.

So I called the school today, and y'all already know I have issues with her teacher:

Me: Miss X, Gracie came home last night and told me that Mark tried to punch her, and there was nothing in her bag about it, so I'm calling you to confirm this.
X: Yes, she's telling the truth. It happened.
Me: Did she do something to provoke him?
X: As best I can tell from what the kids at the lunch table said, Gracie was sitting there, minding her own business and eating lunch, and he just hauled off and tried to hit her, so no, she didn't say anything to him.
Me: But he broke another kid's tooth?
X: I really can't talk about this because of the other kids involved, and I know I should have let you know yesterday, but I was so overwrought because of the whole thing that I didn't tell anyone about it. Today we went to talk to the Principal because she wasn't here yesterday, but he's been put on half-day suspension, so it's taken care of.
Me: So she didn't do anything but he tried to hit her anyway?
X: When I talked to him, he said he really, really wanted to hit Gracie, but when he couldn't, he just hit Jalen.

This is not a good excuse for not telling a parent that her child was almost in a fight! I am BEYOND angry. Seriously. Jason said he's going to march into that school and tell them that if another child puts their hands on Gracie, he's going to press charges against the parents of that child AND the school. I told him not to overreact, and he said 'It's not like when we were in school! They have a strict no-violence policy now, and I want to know why we weren't informed, and why this kid only got a half-day suspension!' I said "THEY'RE IN FIRST GRADE!" He said it didn't matter. What do you guys think?? Am I overreacting?? You know that this is not the first time I've taken issue with this teacher, or this school. GRRRR!

Terrible start today...

Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug, right?

Today I was definitely the bug. :(

Got up this morning and hauled sweetpea (Josie) to the pediatrician, because she's still having low-grade fevers, even with her antibiotics and the motrin she's been taking. We checked in at 9:45. Keep in mind that we ran out of the house right after she woke up, so neither one of us had eaten anything. I had enough wits to grab a sippy cup full of milk, so she at least had that, but she had no interest in it. They poked her finger, swabbed her throat twice (for a flu test, one for their office and one for the state of Indiana), and attached a bag to her bottom to catch a urine sample. She kept screaming "EAT!" and cried "HUNNY!" (hungry) So finally at 11:30, when no one had been into her room for over an hour, I called the doctor in and said, "She HAS to eat. I have to take her and get her something to eat." He finally concedes after some argument, and just as we're walking out at 11:45, my cell rings. The caller ID says it's the girls' school.

Me: "hello?"
School Person (SP): "Mrs. Baker?"
Me: "Yes?"
SP: "You do realize that we're operating on a half day schedule today, right?"
Me: *stunned silence - realizing that that means that the girls got out at freaking 11:15.* "Uh, NO."
SP: "Yes, we had a half day today, and your daughters are in the front office, waiting for you to pick them up."
Me: "I'm on my way, out the door. I'll be there in less than 10 minutes - I'm SO SORRY."
SP: "That's all right. I'll let them know."

So my sorry butt speeds all the way from the hospital to their school, and when I get there, Lexi is BAWLING because she was afraid I wasn't going to come and get her! Apparently the school sent home a notice on Monday that said today was going to be a half-day, and neither one of my kids brought their note home!!! (*&^#@&^#%! Talk about feeling like the world's worst mother! :( :( :( To make things up to them, I took them all to Wendy's (which is where they picked), and we had lunch. Then we had to go back to the pediatrician's and wait for Josie to pee into the urine sample bag. She finally does, and we wait for a freakin' hour for the doctor to come and tell me that she is perfectly fine, and nothing is wrong except that she's anemic (DUH). He said that her random fever spikes are probably just leftover symptoms from whatever infection she's being treated for, and that they should go away. BUT if they persist through the weekend, I'm to bring her back on Monday morning. Sheah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt, right? >:P He gave her a script for an iron supplement (which she will NOT take), and we were outta there. We went to the Dollar Tree, and I gave the girls each $1 to spend, and they were pacified. We came home and I laid down, since my tooth was killing me. Gracie laid with me and watched Vol. 1 of Animaniacs while I slept. Then we had dinner, and then I took the girls to their Girl Scout meeting, which they loved. Then I went to Kmart and bought some socks for me and a bottle of Aleve, got home and realized the stupid cashier didn't even put the Aleve in my bag! So now I have to go tomorrow and pick it up.

Dear Thursday:

Next week, skip my house.

No love,
Me