Back to School 2012

We are off and running into the 2012/2013 school year.  This is a pivotal year for pretty much all my kids.  Jacob is in third grade learning cursive, not sure why they still teach that - just sayin'.  Ella began middle school.  She is in a K-8 school, so she didn't have to leave the building, but does have to move from classroom to classroom.  Callie also started middle school in a whole new building with a whole new staff.  Our little sound sensitive child now has to deal with the hated bell many times over what she's had to deal with before.  Christian is finishing up his middle school years this year and Shannon officially began high school.  I say officially because her program was in a high school the past two years, but this year she is actually high school age and is back in our school district, albeit not our neighborhood high school.

One bummer about having kids in "low-incidence" special ed. classrooms is we've never had their program in the school our neighborhood kids attend.  So for kids who have grown up with typical neighborhood friends, they ride a different bus to a different school rather than attending the same school with other neighbors.  In addition to that Callie and Christian didn't get to move into the middle school that their reg. ed. peers went to when they left their elementary school.  This is also true with Shannie.  Building relationships with typical peers isn't easy and is especially difficult at that middle school age when most kids are not the most comfortable in their own skin, so to speak.

Callie's teacher was excited to tell me how well she did on her first day.  She was definitely the one I was most concerned about as far as adjusting to a new building, teacher, schedule etc. etc.  She reiterated what we hear time and time again - "she's so smart".  I'm always glad when I hear that because I know that whoever said it will "get" her.  More often than not now people figure that out quickly, but that wasn't always the case.  There are a few preschool teachers I sure'd like to show her off too - in a totally non-judgemental in your face kinda way.

After a quick light clean up of the house I've enjoyed a wonderful leisurely lunch under our gazebo in our yard in absolutely perfect weather watching my ridiculous dog try to catch a chipmunk who is ruthlessly baiting her.  In about an hour the peace and quiet of right now will completely disappear with the first bus arriving as well as two grandie girls and that too will be thoroughly enjoyable.

Day 3 and final thoughts on the SO State Meet

Christian and Chad both had their 100M run and walk respectively.  Chad did well and came in 4th which was great for him.  Christian did great and came in first - a gold medal.  He was quite proud of himself.

There are always so many characters who stand out in my mind.  There's Joe who I observed in the staging area with a very crabby look on his face.  A sweet young volunteer was just trying to make small talk and Joe loudly and expressively said, "I should be at work.  I had to take two days off for this?  I'd rather be at work".  Poor volunteer had no idea what to say - I, on the other hand, tried hard to suppress my giggle.

Then there's Dennis - every time I saw him he was grinning and joking with everyone around him.  His joy was just ridiculously contagious.  Who wouldn't want to be around Dennis.  He seemed to have an entourage everywhere he went - no wonder with his infectiously positive attitude.

There was also the young lady who walked with a walker and tipped over the curb falling down hard.  The person with her couldn't get her up alone, but within seconds many hands had her up and were brushing her off.  That's why many of us were there - because we care about this group of people - as a group and individually.

Callie loves worship music at church. We've been listening to the team practice before the service and she loves it. She has her perennial request - Lord I lift your name on high. I wasn't paying attention, but after requesting the song, our worship leader Rachel and the choir and the instrumentalists all began to play and sing it for her. Now that is a church family to be proud of. They definitely put even the least of these first and foremost.

As the pastor was talking this morning Callie stood beside him, folded her hands and apparently began to pray which Pastor Scott immediately seized upon and had us join her. He repeated what he could glean from her words, which can be difficult to understand, but she thanked God for all the people being there and for Jesus and God. Our little girl who had no language at 3. I've said it before and I'll say it again - she is truly a miracle.

Great start to the week

Well, the way this week started out I figured it couldn't possibly go anywhere but up. First thing Monday morning Jacob came running over to tell us - there's dog poop all over the floor. Mark and I both ran over to the family room and sure enough there was dog doo traipsed all over the floor and area rug.

It looked like Christian was the most likely candidate so we made him sit immediately and proceeded to check the bottom of the slippers he had on, but no poop there. We kept checking shoes and feet - nothing. Finally Mark pulled the slippers off and sure enough - for some unknown reason Christian had walked the poo all over and then thought - I'll just put on Ella's new slippers to cover it up. So very very gross. We spot cleaned the rug and mopped the floor while trying not to fall behind in our morning routine - which is a pretty tight schedule.

There were other issues later in the week that made the poop mess seem like a walk through roses. You can walk through poop literally - or figuratively. Honestly - the real poop was a lot easier to clean up and just makes for hysterical storytelling. The figurative poop will take a lot longer to clean up - literally.