This morning Ivy was recognized by her teacher as a Chief Example to Others (CEO) Her teacher, Ms. M writes:
"Ivy is a great CEO student. She has a true thirst for knowledge, and will not be satisfied until she knows ALL of the answers. She tackles all problems head on, and is creative when finding her solutions. Ivy is passionate about her learning, and will defend her answers to almost no end (we're still discussing/debating some answers). Her resourcefulness in the classroom has proven her point of view many times! She also is a model citizen in our classroom. She listens to others and has thoughtful insights to add to writing, problem solving, or discussions. Never let your passion for learning, and that drive to find the right answers, leave you. It's powerful stuff! Every teacher will love it!"
I'm very fond of this teacher. She's new to our school and very young but I love pretty much everything about her teaching style, organization of the classroom, interactions with the students,... I was impressed this fall when I first met her as Ivy's teacher and the more time I spend working at the school the more I find to like. She's quite remarkable! She's been great for Ivy who has literally blossomed this year. She's matured so much and has learned to love learning--she hasn't always--I believe she's inspired by this teacher. We're noticing a difference at home, too. Like tonight, for example. I had to drive to speech because the other car in the carpool was broken. Generally, I'm home Friday when it's Ivy's night to cook. I forgot to remind her this morning that it was her turn and I also left the cell phone at home so I couldn't call to remind her. I didn't see her after the CEO meeting before school and I also didn't leave a note or tell her where any of the ingredients I purchased for her meal were. So I was prepared to let everyone have sandwiches tonight and supervise Ivy's cooking tomorrow night. I was so pleased to come home (and it's been a looooong day--one of those days) to find a warm meal on the table, which was set and ready for the family. She baked chicken drumsticks, oven potatoes, cooked some green beans and added salad. She had to wash, cut and season those potatoes. We're very proud of Ivy! It's a blessing when the kids become more responsible than their mother--maybe I don't need the cell phone anymore!!
Friday, February 10, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
I'm sure most of our family heard but in case you didn't the big news at our house last week was:
Nathan was hit by a car. Truly. BUT the other big news is that he literally walked away. The car ran over his right foot and that was all. Two police cars and two ambulances came with lights and sirens, so it was a little dramatic but it turns out he's fine. I was teaching piano when I got a call from a good friend (it happened near her house) that I needed to come "right now because Nathan was hit by a car". She told me that he was OK but that he needed me and I ran straight down there. I had a moment when I thought maybe she misled me about the seriousness when I saw the emergency vehicles and that was another scary minute but she was right. We took Nathan for X-rays of his foot to be certain he was OK and he was. He stayed home from school the next day because his foot was bruised and a little swollen but the swelling decreased by noon and he was running and playing like normal the day after that. We know we are watched and looked over!!
The other positive side of this was the teenage driver that hit Nathan was wonderful. He felt terrible, of course, but he stopped his car, checked on Nathan, called 911 and was respectful and showed a very strong character. He was on his way to his Eagle Scout project and the sun was in his eyes and he didn't see Nathan crossing the street. I jokingly (OK--maybe half jokingly) said to Vince that we should tell the boy that since he ran over our son he should take Eva out on one of her first dates. He (not jokingly) said "Not THAT's a good idea!" Eva wasn't sure she agreed--the boy is cute and all but she doesn't want us setting her up. I guess the good part is that it restored our confidence that maybe there are nice boys around here that we might think are OK for her to spend time with. Refreshing after the previous weeks' experience. Can you believe she'll be 15 this year?!!
This week my only goal was for our home address to not be taken in any police record. Saturday is not over but so far, so good!
Nathan was hit by a car. Truly. BUT the other big news is that he literally walked away. The car ran over his right foot and that was all. Two police cars and two ambulances came with lights and sirens, so it was a little dramatic but it turns out he's fine. I was teaching piano when I got a call from a good friend (it happened near her house) that I needed to come "right now because Nathan was hit by a car". She told me that he was OK but that he needed me and I ran straight down there. I had a moment when I thought maybe she misled me about the seriousness when I saw the emergency vehicles and that was another scary minute but she was right. We took Nathan for X-rays of his foot to be certain he was OK and he was. He stayed home from school the next day because his foot was bruised and a little swollen but the swelling decreased by noon and he was running and playing like normal the day after that. We know we are watched and looked over!!
The other positive side of this was the teenage driver that hit Nathan was wonderful. He felt terrible, of course, but he stopped his car, checked on Nathan, called 911 and was respectful and showed a very strong character. He was on his way to his Eagle Scout project and the sun was in his eyes and he didn't see Nathan crossing the street. I jokingly (OK--maybe half jokingly) said to Vince that we should tell the boy that since he ran over our son he should take Eva out on one of her first dates. He (not jokingly) said "Not THAT's a good idea!" Eva wasn't sure she agreed--the boy is cute and all but she doesn't want us setting her up. I guess the good part is that it restored our confidence that maybe there are nice boys around here that we might think are OK for her to spend time with. Refreshing after the previous weeks' experience. Can you believe she'll be 15 this year?!!
This week my only goal was for our home address to not be taken in any police record. Saturday is not over but so far, so good!
Thursday, December 29, 2011
I have been loving this Christmas! Vince has time off he has to use and we are home together as a family. I don't remember the last time we could just relax and just enjoy our family at home. Delightful!
The only thing I really haven't been able to do is take the kids sledding. Where is the snow?!!
This past week I also made bedroom curtains, restained my nightstands, painted a wall in my bedroom and redecorated it. I use the term redecorate fairly loosely (I'm still developing decorating skills). I know--I need to have Eva take pictures and post them here. But I'm not finished yet!
I know that the 23rd of Christmas is an odd time of year to be making curtains but on the night of the 22nd a neighbor stopped by to warn us of a possible peeping Tom so we decided to take immediate precautions. We had window coverings but to be safe decided to improve them. Of course, once the curtains were finished there were other obvious things that needed improving.
Last night, warned by yet other neighbors who were helping to watch over us we caught our guy. He was caught laying down on the ground by my girls' windows. Vince stood outside with him and a neighbor while I called the police. Vince wrote a statement and the young man was taken away. It is a sad story. I feel grateful that we are cared for and protected and yet concerned at what this could become. I also feel sorrowful for his parents. When they were cuffing and patting him down I pictured a boy being cuffed. The boy I remember when we moved here. It's all so sad. I'm grateful for free agency and yet bewildered at some people's use of it. I know his parents have been working with him for years and have tried everything yet he continues to break their hearts.
The only thing I really haven't been able to do is take the kids sledding. Where is the snow?!!
This past week I also made bedroom curtains, restained my nightstands, painted a wall in my bedroom and redecorated it. I use the term redecorate fairly loosely (I'm still developing decorating skills). I know--I need to have Eva take pictures and post them here. But I'm not finished yet!
I know that the 23rd of Christmas is an odd time of year to be making curtains but on the night of the 22nd a neighbor stopped by to warn us of a possible peeping Tom so we decided to take immediate precautions. We had window coverings but to be safe decided to improve them. Of course, once the curtains were finished there were other obvious things that needed improving.
Last night, warned by yet other neighbors who were helping to watch over us we caught our guy. He was caught laying down on the ground by my girls' windows. Vince stood outside with him and a neighbor while I called the police. Vince wrote a statement and the young man was taken away. It is a sad story. I feel grateful that we are cared for and protected and yet concerned at what this could become. I also feel sorrowful for his parents. When they were cuffing and patting him down I pictured a boy being cuffed. The boy I remember when we moved here. It's all so sad. I'm grateful for free agency and yet bewildered at some people's use of it. I know his parents have been working with him for years and have tried everything yet he continues to break their hearts.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
I've decided it's time for a long update. I prefer short quick blogposts but I can never seem to find the time for any posts and I guess it's been so long since I've posted that this one will be long.
Vince was released from the high council to be the young men's president in our ward. I guess it took the stake several months to let him go at our Bishop's request and even after he was released was asked to finish up some projects. It was neat to see many in our stake express sincere gratitude for his work. He LOVES working with the young men. There was a 3-week lull where he had been released and hadn't officially received his new calling yet while they put his presidency together and he was at first very excited (talking a ton, if you can believe that) and then getting super antsy. It was cute. He has always wanted to work with the young men and/or be a teacher and this is almost the first time he's ever had the opportunity. He's like a little kid and he wears the cute "little boy" grin a lot. I love it! He once got to work with Webelos for about six months but other than that he has mostly been in a bishopric or on the high council for most all of the 16 years we've been married.
I got a job at the elementary school as a literacy aide. I love it! I work for 3.5 hours each morning and then I have the afternoons off. This means that most days I work at school then come home to teach at home or take Nathan to speech. I'm still trying to figure out when I clean the house and exercise but that's going to take me some time. Working at the school has been good for me in so many ways. I work with two women that I have looked up to and respected since we first moved to Tooele. I get to put into practice teaching techniques I've been learning from the speech clinic. AND I get to take home anything I need/want to help Nathan with. Which means that Nathan and I are very busy. I can already see a difference in his reading level, mostly because of my access to leveled reading materials. It's very exciting! I think seeing his improvement makes my job most worthwhile, and then extra income is helping us keep him in speech. The opportunity for this job came just after all the major car drama which was expensive and nearly caused us to take a "break" from speech. Of course just after I was hired Vince's work had a company wide pay cut again due to the still weak economy. His cut amounts to roughly half of my new income so we have definitely been blessed.
When I started working it became obvious that I could not keep up my schedule with everything and keep house myself as much as I have been and one of the first things we started was giving every member of the family a night to cook dinner. This helped me a ton. There are six of us so they all have a day and I have two days. We've been trying this out for a couple of months now and it is kind of working. What I noticed was a nearly complete lack of vegetables when the kids were cooking. Shocking, I know. The other week a solution came to me and I spent the first day of Christmas break setting it up. For the next several months each child is going to cook four meals. Nathan's meals are things like hamburgers and grilled ham and cheese with tomato soup and salad. They get more complicated based on their skills--Ethan's making things like Enchiladas and Eva's cooking Chicken Squares. They selected their 4 dinner items--and I did recommend that Eva choose some simpler things because a lot of her stuff is going to take quite some time. Ethan selected things he could freeze ahead and wants to spend time over the break preparing 4 of each of the 4 dinners to put in the freezer. I put all the recipes in page protectors in a small binder and made 4 grocery lists--one for each week that I can just print out and then cross off things I do not need to purchase each week. Ivy's menus go something like this--1. Before school take meat our of the freezer 2. At 4:30 after your lesson, get the tall black pot and.... Very specific. In four months time they will have prepared each meal four times and over spring break we will select new menu items and start a new rotation. I'm hoping this will mean a real meal gets prepared even (or especially) when I'm not home because of speech to supervise and help.
I also prepared chore stuff which wasn't exciting for anyone. In the past I've made some fun ones but now I think we're old enough to just get things done. The trick has been in coordinating everything and everyone and I think we have a handle on that now. We'll see. Getting hired in the middle of school didn't give us any time to get organized and make plans for this stuff. I was really caught off guard.
A quick update on kids. Eva is loving school especially MESA and yearbook. She especially loved playing church volleyball and even stayed after school to participate in some volleyball after school. They do sports oddly here. She still loves violin and piano although both of us are having a little trouble with 6:15 am violin lessons. It was OK until it got colder :) Her piano is especially advanced. She is now memorizing a piece that my "great" student learned in college. She is going to begin a longer piano lesson in January.
Ethan is still learning piano and guitar and still hating piano and liking guitar. He played his guitar in FHE the other week as we sang silent night. We all enjoyed that and we'll have to get him to play more for us. He really, really wants to do sports and is counting down for junior high when he can participate in them after school. He's in the early morning advanced math class but he doesn't like it as much as he thought he would. He was looking forward to learning more advanced math but the State of Utah has a new Common Core law that makes it virtually impossible for them to teach the kids past the core curriculum. I won't get started on our opinion about that. Vince especially was a bit steamed about it. I just shrug my shoulders. The only way to get around it is to homeschool... This law even affects Eva's education in the junior high. I'll stop now. Ethan's doing great! He loves scouts and loves spending time with his friends! I think he even likes that his dad goes to most of his stuff now.
Ivy is most excited that she gets to cook once a week! She has always been interested in cooking/baking. I'll never forget her as a 5 year old going to the adult section to check out cookbooks. She did that for years and still goes over there to see if they have anything new. Monday she made chili and cornbread--from scratch. She used canned tomato sauce and canned beans but used a recipe and not a mix. She was in the kitchen a very long time because she's quite slow (at everything--Ivy just works on her own time frame) and she loved every minute. She wants to learn violin but she doesn't want to practice. She really excels on the piano. She's almost caught up to Ethan and has started playing for pleasure--which is exciting. That's when kids really start playing well. She reads all the time. Her reading scores are VERY high for her grade. But one of the assessments is a measure of how many words the student can say about a passage after they have read it. This is a huge boost to Ivy's reading score! That girl is a talker!!
Nathan is doing great. He's starting to do more chores around the house, although it is difficult because he is so busy. Homework, speech, and reading tutoring with me has him very busy. He gets to play before homework many days when we don't have speech--I send him out while I'm teaching and we work after dinner. He's learning piano but his progress is slow because I don't like to make him practice. A big part of me hates that he's taking lessons but it's what he really wants so we try to get him just enough practice to get by. He started the year at a reading level of F which is a level for the middle of first grade and he's advanced to an H now. His assessments at school don't show any improvement but I don't worry about that because I know more about the test and they wouldn't show improvement--I'll have to explain that sometime. By the end of the school year a second grader should be reading level L or M, I can't remember which. I'm hoping to get there by the end of the summer. Maybe. Eventually I believe he will catch up. It's hard work for both of us but very rewarding. The difficulty is that at an H level he has to try to read things he can't even say correctly. Which make sounding them out extra difficult.
His speech has improved a ton but when you listen to him and realize you can understand everything he can say you may not realize that he only uses words that are comfortable for him. It's sort of like running around the ball in tennis so you don't have to hit a backhand. And then there are language and grammar challenges that small children learn when they learn to talk that he missed. It's overwhelming to think about. The reading and speech interventions are symbiotic--they support each other. But I don't think I will ever believe the progress is as fast as I would like. These things just take time. And like my sweet sister said on her blog it is most often two steps forward and one step back. It seems like it's always that way unless I look at 3-6 month intervals or more. I know life isn't fair but it I don't know if I'll ever be entirely comfortable with the fact that these kids have to work so much harder than everyone else. It really isn't fair! And then by most all measures and standards they have little to show for their efforts.
So there is the long update on what's been keeping us busy!!
Vince was released from the high council to be the young men's president in our ward. I guess it took the stake several months to let him go at our Bishop's request and even after he was released was asked to finish up some projects. It was neat to see many in our stake express sincere gratitude for his work. He LOVES working with the young men. There was a 3-week lull where he had been released and hadn't officially received his new calling yet while they put his presidency together and he was at first very excited (talking a ton, if you can believe that) and then getting super antsy. It was cute. He has always wanted to work with the young men and/or be a teacher and this is almost the first time he's ever had the opportunity. He's like a little kid and he wears the cute "little boy" grin a lot. I love it! He once got to work with Webelos for about six months but other than that he has mostly been in a bishopric or on the high council for most all of the 16 years we've been married.
I got a job at the elementary school as a literacy aide. I love it! I work for 3.5 hours each morning and then I have the afternoons off. This means that most days I work at school then come home to teach at home or take Nathan to speech. I'm still trying to figure out when I clean the house and exercise but that's going to take me some time. Working at the school has been good for me in so many ways. I work with two women that I have looked up to and respected since we first moved to Tooele. I get to put into practice teaching techniques I've been learning from the speech clinic. AND I get to take home anything I need/want to help Nathan with. Which means that Nathan and I are very busy. I can already see a difference in his reading level, mostly because of my access to leveled reading materials. It's very exciting! I think seeing his improvement makes my job most worthwhile, and then extra income is helping us keep him in speech. The opportunity for this job came just after all the major car drama which was expensive and nearly caused us to take a "break" from speech. Of course just after I was hired Vince's work had a company wide pay cut again due to the still weak economy. His cut amounts to roughly half of my new income so we have definitely been blessed.
When I started working it became obvious that I could not keep up my schedule with everything and keep house myself as much as I have been and one of the first things we started was giving every member of the family a night to cook dinner. This helped me a ton. There are six of us so they all have a day and I have two days. We've been trying this out for a couple of months now and it is kind of working. What I noticed was a nearly complete lack of vegetables when the kids were cooking. Shocking, I know. The other week a solution came to me and I spent the first day of Christmas break setting it up. For the next several months each child is going to cook four meals. Nathan's meals are things like hamburgers and grilled ham and cheese with tomato soup and salad. They get more complicated based on their skills--Ethan's making things like Enchiladas and Eva's cooking Chicken Squares. They selected their 4 dinner items--and I did recommend that Eva choose some simpler things because a lot of her stuff is going to take quite some time. Ethan selected things he could freeze ahead and wants to spend time over the break preparing 4 of each of the 4 dinners to put in the freezer. I put all the recipes in page protectors in a small binder and made 4 grocery lists--one for each week that I can just print out and then cross off things I do not need to purchase each week. Ivy's menus go something like this--1. Before school take meat our of the freezer 2. At 4:30 after your lesson, get the tall black pot and.... Very specific. In four months time they will have prepared each meal four times and over spring break we will select new menu items and start a new rotation. I'm hoping this will mean a real meal gets prepared even (or especially) when I'm not home because of speech to supervise and help.
I also prepared chore stuff which wasn't exciting for anyone. In the past I've made some fun ones but now I think we're old enough to just get things done. The trick has been in coordinating everything and everyone and I think we have a handle on that now. We'll see. Getting hired in the middle of school didn't give us any time to get organized and make plans for this stuff. I was really caught off guard.
A quick update on kids. Eva is loving school especially MESA and yearbook. She especially loved playing church volleyball and even stayed after school to participate in some volleyball after school. They do sports oddly here. She still loves violin and piano although both of us are having a little trouble with 6:15 am violin lessons. It was OK until it got colder :) Her piano is especially advanced. She is now memorizing a piece that my "great" student learned in college. She is going to begin a longer piano lesson in January.
Ethan is still learning piano and guitar and still hating piano and liking guitar. He played his guitar in FHE the other week as we sang silent night. We all enjoyed that and we'll have to get him to play more for us. He really, really wants to do sports and is counting down for junior high when he can participate in them after school. He's in the early morning advanced math class but he doesn't like it as much as he thought he would. He was looking forward to learning more advanced math but the State of Utah has a new Common Core law that makes it virtually impossible for them to teach the kids past the core curriculum. I won't get started on our opinion about that. Vince especially was a bit steamed about it. I just shrug my shoulders. The only way to get around it is to homeschool... This law even affects Eva's education in the junior high. I'll stop now. Ethan's doing great! He loves scouts and loves spending time with his friends! I think he even likes that his dad goes to most of his stuff now.
Ivy is most excited that she gets to cook once a week! She has always been interested in cooking/baking. I'll never forget her as a 5 year old going to the adult section to check out cookbooks. She did that for years and still goes over there to see if they have anything new. Monday she made chili and cornbread--from scratch. She used canned tomato sauce and canned beans but used a recipe and not a mix. She was in the kitchen a very long time because she's quite slow (at everything--Ivy just works on her own time frame) and she loved every minute. She wants to learn violin but she doesn't want to practice. She really excels on the piano. She's almost caught up to Ethan and has started playing for pleasure--which is exciting. That's when kids really start playing well. She reads all the time. Her reading scores are VERY high for her grade. But one of the assessments is a measure of how many words the student can say about a passage after they have read it. This is a huge boost to Ivy's reading score! That girl is a talker!!
Nathan is doing great. He's starting to do more chores around the house, although it is difficult because he is so busy. Homework, speech, and reading tutoring with me has him very busy. He gets to play before homework many days when we don't have speech--I send him out while I'm teaching and we work after dinner. He's learning piano but his progress is slow because I don't like to make him practice. A big part of me hates that he's taking lessons but it's what he really wants so we try to get him just enough practice to get by. He started the year at a reading level of F which is a level for the middle of first grade and he's advanced to an H now. His assessments at school don't show any improvement but I don't worry about that because I know more about the test and they wouldn't show improvement--I'll have to explain that sometime. By the end of the school year a second grader should be reading level L or M, I can't remember which. I'm hoping to get there by the end of the summer. Maybe. Eventually I believe he will catch up. It's hard work for both of us but very rewarding. The difficulty is that at an H level he has to try to read things he can't even say correctly. Which make sounding them out extra difficult.
His speech has improved a ton but when you listen to him and realize you can understand everything he can say you may not realize that he only uses words that are comfortable for him. It's sort of like running around the ball in tennis so you don't have to hit a backhand. And then there are language and grammar challenges that small children learn when they learn to talk that he missed. It's overwhelming to think about. The reading and speech interventions are symbiotic--they support each other. But I don't think I will ever believe the progress is as fast as I would like. These things just take time. And like my sweet sister said on her blog it is most often two steps forward and one step back. It seems like it's always that way unless I look at 3-6 month intervals or more. I know life isn't fair but it I don't know if I'll ever be entirely comfortable with the fact that these kids have to work so much harder than everyone else. It really isn't fair! And then by most all measures and standards they have little to show for their efforts.
So there is the long update on what's been keeping us busy!!
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Ethan
Ethan was selected by his teacher as CEO (Chief Example to Others) this month. Mr. B. writes:
Ethan is one weird kid! I don't mean that in a bad way.
Interesting or unique might be more politically correct terms to describe Ethan. He is a chief example to others because he things independently while respecting everyone around him. He loves to add to the conversation in the classroom and often provides ideas that I haven't even thought of.
He loves to read, and I think reading has unlocked a storehouse of funky ideas in his mind that he doesn't mind sharing with others.
He takes responsibility for his learning by completing all of his assignments without complaining. He makes our class a more interesting and fun place to be.
Way to go Ethan--we think you're great!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Another Nathan Update
A couple of weeks ago Nathan asked his teacher if he and another boy could do their work in the hall because the classroom was too noisy. I was excited for several reasons: he recognized he couldn't concentrate with the noise, he talked with his teacher about it, he successfully articulated his concern, and he recognized that someone else was also having trouble and tried to help them. It was a proud mom moment for me. Of course this summer an audiologist emphatically suggested that we get Nathan some headphones to block background noise for this very reason but the principal and teacher had some concerns so we decided to wait and see what would happen. Nathan was thrilled when I went to school the day after his teacher told me this story and scored him a set he keeps on his desk. I did have to do a bit of talking to make that happen but let me tell you a child saying they can't concentrate on their work makes my job tons easier! The first day with the headphones was good but he did say that he was annoyed with his partner during centers who kept talking to him and he was close enough that the headphones wouldn't block it out. The second day he was thrilled when he was able to block out this boy's talking. (I was excited about that too because maybe the headphones will help him be able to do that somewhat effectively without headphones someday.) I've talked with another parent volunteer and she said that when it's work time Nathan puts those headphones on and gets his stuff done. This is exciting, as he hasn't yet been able to successfully complete work at school. It looks like auditory processing testing is a given and I can't wait to see someday what else we can learn specifically about Nathan and how to make things a bit easier for him!!
His clinician at the U of U this term is amazing! Every student clinician up there has been excellent but up to this point we have been fortunate to work with 2 that really understood Nathan and developed a plan that suited his needs perfectly. This term we get to work with a third talented clinician. Her name is Amanda and I love her approach. She rarely has to redirect Nathan--he has a good time but he doesn't get too wound up or off topic. I pretty much think she's brilliant.
Sometimes progress seems slow and expensive in time and resources. During the car drama we were tempted to set an ending date for speech. That week I also had an opportunity to volunteer with Nathan's class and had a moment with the other little boy Nathan took in the hall with him that day. Let's call him Tom. When Nathan and Tom were in Kindergarten they both had trouble but Nathan was much more severe--all around. I don't know what happened between entering Kindergarten and now with Tom because I've been pretty busy working with Nathan. Nathan and Tom have similar histories. Tom has had hearing loss associated with fluid in the ears, has trouble communicating verbally and nonverbally with other people (probably confidence related), has a submucous cleft palate (fixing Tom's palate wasn't an option due to severe allergies and asthma), ... The other week when I was at school I worked with Tom a little bit and I was surprised that I couldn't understand him. Given my experience with Nathan and Ivy I can usually pick things out but I got nothing from Tom. I was shocked. I know Tom's parents have worked hard to get him help and to help him. I believe the difference is that Tom gets private therapy twice a month for 30 minutes in Salt Lake and Nathan gets therapy twice a week for 60 minutes. Last year I talked with Tom's mom about Nathan's therapy and suggested we could save money on gas by carpooling and they weren't really interested. This time I've talked to Tom's dad and offered to just take Tom and his mom with us--we're going anyway. He said to get him the paperwork and I'm praying it works out for them. It broke my heart to see and hear Tom because I know how hard it is for him. It also made me grateful that the Lord has directed us in Nathan's therapy and blessed us. It was a bit of a tender mercy to see precisely where Nathan would most likely be if we had decided the sacrifice was too great. And it was a poignant reminder of how hard Nathan has worked and how much progress we get to celebrate!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Birthday!
Last Thursday Eva turned 14! Now she can go to dances--except our Bishopric ran out of dance cards :(
It's hard to believe that in a year she'll start driving! Seriously I can't wait. I'm looking forward to another chauffer :)
We are so proud of Eva--she's a remarkable girl! I'm going to brag about her a bit :) She works so hard to develop her talents, be a good friend, help her siblings, etc. She is an accomplished musician--she gets to start playing Beethoven's Pathetique (a piece I learned in high school) and she's working on her Suzuki book 6 in violin. She loves working with the yearbook committee and participating in young women's. She's nearly finished with her first personal progress medallion. She has a beautiful testimony of our Savior and His place in her life and finds joy in reading about Him in her scriptures. We sure love having Eva in our family!!
For Eva's birthday she got an i-home, a new SD card for her camera and......her own room! We spent the weekend moving Vince's stuff into the room that will one day be a bathroom, Eva's stuff into Vince's old space, Ivy's stuff upstairs to the boys' old room and the boys downstairs to the girls' old room (yes, the one with the pink carpet--and Ethan is NOT thrilled about pink carpet :)) I'm hoping all this moving explains the late birthday blog :)
It's amazing how clean everyone's bedroom is. Everyone's! The boys really did need tons more space. Eva and Ivy each claimed that it was the other one making the mess in their room. I guess they were both right?! Maybe it's too early to tell.
In other news--a week before Eva's birthday Vince's truck broke on the way home from work. His front passenger tire was sideways. We felt super blessed that going 75 mph on a busy highway during the commute, when people drive to close, that no one bumped him and he was able to get off the road without rolling. He left a long indentation in the highway and apparently there were many sparks. After a tow, 2 new tires, 4 new ball joints, and some controller thing under the car that was damaged we have his truck back. BUT while we were waiting for that work to be done the Expedition broke down--right before the weekend. So we were a small one-car family for a weekend. The Expedition sounded Really Bad and we were thinking it might be time to say good bye or replace the transmission but our wonderful new neighbor looked at it and said it needs a new CV joint which is really not a big deal :) We were thinking Vince would fix it but after looking at his schedule and taking into account that he's not very comfortable with that plan we took the key to the mechanic and are now waiting for that vehicle to be towed. Thank goodness we had our super old 1993 Subaru to tie us over! The irony of that was not lost on me but when I pointed it out to Vince he muttered something about that one being sure to break down now. It was a bit of a stressful weekend around here....
It's hard to believe that in a year she'll start driving! Seriously I can't wait. I'm looking forward to another chauffer :)
We are so proud of Eva--she's a remarkable girl! I'm going to brag about her a bit :) She works so hard to develop her talents, be a good friend, help her siblings, etc. She is an accomplished musician--she gets to start playing Beethoven's Pathetique (a piece I learned in high school) and she's working on her Suzuki book 6 in violin. She loves working with the yearbook committee and participating in young women's. She's nearly finished with her first personal progress medallion. She has a beautiful testimony of our Savior and His place in her life and finds joy in reading about Him in her scriptures. We sure love having Eva in our family!!
For Eva's birthday she got an i-home, a new SD card for her camera and......her own room! We spent the weekend moving Vince's stuff into the room that will one day be a bathroom, Eva's stuff into Vince's old space, Ivy's stuff upstairs to the boys' old room and the boys downstairs to the girls' old room (yes, the one with the pink carpet--and Ethan is NOT thrilled about pink carpet :)) I'm hoping all this moving explains the late birthday blog :)
It's amazing how clean everyone's bedroom is. Everyone's! The boys really did need tons more space. Eva and Ivy each claimed that it was the other one making the mess in their room. I guess they were both right?! Maybe it's too early to tell.
In other news--a week before Eva's birthday Vince's truck broke on the way home from work. His front passenger tire was sideways. We felt super blessed that going 75 mph on a busy highway during the commute, when people drive to close, that no one bumped him and he was able to get off the road without rolling. He left a long indentation in the highway and apparently there were many sparks. After a tow, 2 new tires, 4 new ball joints, and some controller thing under the car that was damaged we have his truck back. BUT while we were waiting for that work to be done the Expedition broke down--right before the weekend. So we were a small one-car family for a weekend. The Expedition sounded Really Bad and we were thinking it might be time to say good bye or replace the transmission but our wonderful new neighbor looked at it and said it needs a new CV joint which is really not a big deal :) We were thinking Vince would fix it but after looking at his schedule and taking into account that he's not very comfortable with that plan we took the key to the mechanic and are now waiting for that vehicle to be towed. Thank goodness we had our super old 1993 Subaru to tie us over! The irony of that was not lost on me but when I pointed it out to Vince he muttered something about that one being sure to break down now. It was a bit of a stressful weekend around here....
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