Its beautiful in California

This is perfect weather for me. High in the mid 60's, sunny but still chilly enough for a sweatshrit. I love sweatshirts. I can cover up all the winter fat!
Today I worked in Alex's kindergarten class. I try and go in every week and it's only worked out for every other week. Alex LOVES when I'm there. He comes up and gives me kisses and hugs the whole time. His class rotates between 4 tables, so he was only with me once. I had a couple of interesting conversations - I asked one young man to get a Kleenex because his nose was dripping, which sparked the topic of boogers, which I explained are really called mucas and that mucas has germs that our body is trying to get rid of, so that's why you need to blow your nose, and not suck it up. And one girl pointed out that's it's not a good idea to pick your nose because you will get germs in your nose. On another rotation, one girl had a VERY loose tooth, so we talked about what would happen if you swalloed your tooth? I said that the tooth fairy would still bring you money and that you would just poop the tooth out. The girls thought that was funny!
I sat in on Samantha's piano lesson this week. I haven't really listed to her since her first lesson and I was very impressed with the knowledge that she has already gained. She wants to take drum lessons after her 2 years of piano are up. I told her Daddy can teach her that. We will defeniatly need a bigger house just for the drum set!

Pictures of the kids

These are Alex and Samantha's school pictures as well as some pictures I took on Halloween morning.

Alex had a hard day....

Alex must of had some bad karma floating around him or luck just wasn't on his side yesterday. I got 2 calls from his school. The first one was asking me to bring him a new pair of shoes because his broke. He ripped off the back strap on his red clogs. I wasn't anywhere near home so I had to go to Rite Aid and buy him a new pair of shoes. The red ones ended up in the garbage, which was fine with me because they never fit right anyway.

The 2nd call was by the school nurse informing me that Alex had been "accidentally" hit in the face by one of his classmate, but she put ice on it and he was fine. By the time I picked him up, an hour later, his poor left check and eye were still red. I asked him if one of his friends had hit him and he told me the boy isn't is friend anymore and he had kicked him in the face...Ouch!

Later that evening....we are having dinner and I just happen to be sitting next to Alex (not always the case) and notice something little sticking out of his ear. A closer look revealed a rolled up piece of paper! I pulled it out and demanded answers, Why did you put it in your ear? (I don't know) When did you put it in your ear? (At lunch time. It was a sticker on the table) Did you put anymore in your ear besides this little piece? (Only one on this side and two on this side) That got Neil moving to find his flash light and a pair of tweezers. Neil extracted the remaining pieces. I felt we should take him to the doctor, Neil felt he got it all and they were blocked by big chunks of wax so they couldn't have gone very far. Alex was very remorseful especially after we lectured him that he could loose his hearing. In my best mom voice my final words to him were, "You don't ever put anything in your ears, up your nose, in your eyes or up your butt." (Did I name all of the orifices?)

Alex's Kindergarten Life

Alex has had a bit of a hard time adjusting to school. This was the end of week 3for him and it ended with triumph. Alex won over his wiggles and running feet and made it through the day without any time-outs. He earns a prize from his "prize bucket" when he accomplished this tremendous feet. 2 out of 4 days this week were good days for him. The other 2 gave him a bit of trouble. The beginning of this week started out wonderful because it was the first time he didn't cry and say he would miss me. He even ran out of his classroom a few times! One morning I had to drag him in by his backpack and the next day I had to carry him. But, the 3rd week brought no tears and no whines. I think he really enjoys it (especially all the girls - he seems to know all of their names).
Al started soccer 2 weeks ago. He practices on Wed. evening for 1 hour and we will start games in the next couple of weeks on Sat. mornings. He is the one always lagging behind, not listening, standing on his head during discussions, stopping to fart in the middle of a drill, and so forth. Although, this week seemed to grab his attention more. That's my boy. He has his Daddy's attention span and my gas!

Samantha's Days in 4th Grade

Samantha has been thriving and excelling in her new GATE class. She has been attending for almost 1 month now and loves it. She actually has less homework than she had last year because she finishes it in class. She does spend 10 mins a day studying her spelling words (a list of 25-30 per week) and 10 mins. on vocubulary words. She also has to read for 20 mins. every evening and complete a book report at the end of each month. She is very happy at her new school and hasn't complained about missing her "old" friends at all.
Lyndee has been at our house less and less - just on Thursdays for gymnastics. This seems to put alot less stress on the entire family, especially Samantha. They pretty much do nothing but argue.
Samantha started horse riding lessons last weekend - a treat from Horsey Grandma. She has 2 lessons in one weekend. She is learning English style riding and has received many compliments from her instructor saying that she is extremely talented.
I'm hoping to purchase a keyboard from Costco this weekend. They have one for a little under $100 - we have a rebate check for $62 - and I want to start lessons for Samantha and myself. I think Alex will enjoy playing as well. My children love to sing and are always singing up a storm in the car on the way to and from school.

Alex's 1st Day of Kindergarten

Alex started Kindergarten in Mrs. Diaz's class on Monday with great enthusiasm. He acted like he didn't even want to bother with Dad and Mom and went straight to work. Mrs. Diaz asked that the parents didn't "hang around" on the first day, so prior to the first day we attended a meet the teacher day where I took pictures of him. He is very happy that he has a friend from Preschool in his class as well as our old next door neighbor on campus. Crane school has 5 Kindergarten classes as well as Headstart Preschool on the other side of the campus. Alex attends the after school program everyday for an hour, that way I can pick up both my kids at the same time. Both of their school are clear across town so I'm trying to make only 2 trips a day. Thank goodness for the new car.
alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236337943455737394"


Alex's second day didn't go as smoothly as his first. He told me he wanted to walk himself to his class, so I walked him to the gate and watched as he made the trek. He kept turning around to wave (and make sure I was still there). After he hung up his backpack, he came running back to me to tell me his shoulder hurt and he would like medicine when he gets home. I kissed him better, sent him on his way, and headed back to the car. All of a sudden I hear my darling baby's cry, "Mommy! I don't want to go to school." He was running as fast as he could trying to catch me before I made it to the car. I walked him back to class, alligator tears streaming down, and whaling like he was in agony. Luckily, Mrs. Diaz is very kind and compassionate and promptly took control of the situation and shut the door so he couldn't escape. My heart broke (but I quickly got over it). Hopefully he had a fun filled day and will want to return tomorrow.

Samantha's 1st Day of 4th Grade

Samantha started her first day of 4th Grade on Aug. 5th. She is now a Mustang and Julien Elementary and enjoying the change of school. She shares her GATE class with 29 other students, 10 being girls. She will have the same group of kids in her class for the next 3 years, so I told her she better be nice to everyone. Mrs. Morgan is a wonderful teacher and will definitely challenge her mind. Her daily homework entails reading for 20 mins, studying her spelling list of 30 words and vocabulary list for 10 mins. each. She also has to bring home any in class work she didn't finish, but so far she hasn't brought anything home.

Weeks Happenings

More and more I find I have less and less time to post on here. So I'll combine the week.

- My youngest sister Geena moved to Turlock last week and is renting a room in a house with a bunch of Christian girls. She'll be attending CSU in the fall and she plans on being here for about 4 years. We've been hanging out, going on walks at night with the kids on their bikes. We also both share a love of bargain shopping so we hit the Goodwill one day. She found a dress that she loved but it didn't fit. We took it home along with another dressed and I altered the sides for her and made it her size. She took it with her on her trip to Spain were she will be for the next 3 weeks.

- Samantha left for camp and I miss her greatly. It's quite and lonely here, even when Lyndee is in the house. I've noticed there is no fights or yelling! I'll go to Hume Lake to pick her up on Saturday. Can't wait!

- I registered for 2 classes for the fall. Yes, I'm doing it again. I can't give up even though I wanted to after my last online course. I'll take these two on campus this time. Both are Child Develpment and I've decided to work towards a cert. in preschool education. A small goal to accomplish first, then I'll think about the big picture of earning a degree.

Science project

Samantha has been working on a science project for school for the last week. The title is "The Dog and the Shoebox". The questions was how long does it take Bailey, one of our dogs, to get the treat out of the box. I was really proud of her because this was her first science project and she did all of the work on her own - no parental help. Lyndee also turned one in. Here is a picture of Sam and her 3rd grade teacher, Mr. Costa.

Finished - For now....

I took the final for my psych class yesterday. Im really happy it's over. Some pro's and con's of going back to school at this time....

- I'm glad I jumped in and did it, without really even thinking, or I might have chickened out.

- Next time, I'm taking the class in person, so I can so the professor and be able to ask questions.

- Going back to school REALLY cuts into my crafting time.

- And it cut into my time and relationships with my friends.

- I don't like to finish or see things through - I have a REAL problem with this. I love the beginning of anything, but never the end.

I got a C as my final grade. I'm satisfied with that due to my lack of enthusiam and effort over the last 3 weeks of the 10 week class. I'll take another couple of class in the fall, in person, using much fosil fuel to get there, but it has to be done.

I've had my nose in a book...

And I've been away from school and studying for too long and have forgotten how much time it takes to study. I'm determined to earn an A in the psychology class and that takes a ton of work. But I'm really enjoying it. Taking this one class has motivated me to continue on so I will take a summer course then plunge in as a full time student in the fall. Alex will start kindergarten so I will have the first half of my day free for class and studies. I plan on doing most of it online to save on gas money and time spent away from home. (The doggies don't like it when I'm gone.) After I earn my associates, I'll move onto CSU Stanislaus, which is just down the street from us.

I started school!!

I started an online psychology class this last Monday from our local junior college. I've really been thinking about it for so time - going back to earn a degree - but I really became inspired this year when most of my siblings started back. So I jumped into school. I registered and looked for a class all on the same day. Neil didn't even know I was doing it until I called him up and told him he was married to a college student! He had made me a deal earlier in the week that if I went back to school full time he would take over the cleaning of the bathrooms! Now that's motivation for me! But I'm starting out slow....one class at a time. When Alex starts kindergarten this summer, then I will consider full time. I'm tossing around a couple of ideas for my degree - social work, psychology - just not sure yet. So some other things have been put on hold or have slowed down. Like my knitting and sewing. I won't be adding things to my Etsy shop as fast as I used too.

GATE Program will have a new student

I hadn't received a letter in the mail yet for Samantha's results of the GATE test she took, so I called the district office yesterday. Samantha qualified for the program, and finished in the 99 percentile. So we will have first pick of which school we would like to attend. Turlock has 2 campuses that house the GATE program, Julien and Cunningham. We will pick Julien because of the location and because our friend Rachelle knows all the teachers there. Sam will start 4th grade and continue through 5th and 6th.
I told Samantha when she got home from school today and she was so excited she started to cry! She's looking forward to the challenge of the program and meeting new friends. We'll find out more details when we attend the orientation meeting in a few weeks.

Partys and Performances

Today Samantha and Lyndee(our part time kid) had their class performance. They sang 2 songs, Deck the Halls and Must Be Santa. I had bought them matching red turtle necks and Santa hats so they could be nice a festive. Neil went and made a video of the second song (the camera wouldn't work for the 1st). I missed it by having to take Alex to school at 9. They had a class party later in the day and ate lots of pizza, cake, soda and bread sticks. Alex's preschool class had a visit from Santa. He asked Santa for a motorcycle (again), and a scooter. I took him shopping to pick out a present for his 2 teachers, Grandma Julie and Ms.Diana. He picked out socks. When I picked him up from school, the teachers had their socks on. Julie said Alex had asked them to open their gifts, then he said, "You know why I bought you these socks? Because I love you so much!" Oh melt my heart with tender love!!! Sometimes I just want to freeze his cuteness and keep him this way forever.

Samantha took the GATE test...

This last Monday. Neil and I were surprised because I hadn't been notified of when the test would be taken. We did however sign the paper work for her to be tested at her parent/teacher conference in October. We asked Mr. Costa if she should be tested and he said absolutely. Samantha told us that only 3 others took the test with her. She said it was really easy and that there were no words on it. The GATE program a gifted and talented education program that focuses on Math and Science. If she is excepted into this program, she will have to move schools. At first she thought that would be horrible to leave her friends, but when we were having this conversation on Tuesday about her test, she was very excited about it. We should find out soon.