Ramblings of a Random Nature

I have been lurking at a lot of other blogs lately. Not accomplishing anything on my own as you may have noticed. I've thought about commenting on a few, but you see, I don't want them to come over and see my lackluster, poor writing and story telling skills. I also have not posted in (to quote my little sis) "11, eleven, e-lev-en" days. Though my eleven does not have as much personal angst, but have been there. ("It's okay dear, everyone has at least one big jump", says nurse to me during my monthly check-up while preg with baby KL, "But this is my third big jump!") .

How come everytime I come to actually post something, everything that I was going to say escapes me? I remember everything after I shut down the computer and go up to bed, the thoughts start flowing. And now, here I sit again and can't remember squat.

There are two 1st grade classes at our school, both at max capacity of 25 students each. In this school district, they have open enrollment, which if done properly, I think can be a good idea. A month ago, she told me the other class had 26 students for a day and the teacher(Ms. O) said, no, "Too many, too crazy, can't do it". So a student was to be "bumped" out to accomodate the new child who moved into the actual school boundaries. It just so happens around the same time, a friends child in that class was moved up to second grade, (she does seem very smart and was reading before kindergarten). I can't help but think maybe they moved her up so the other child did not get bumped. Said friend told me the teacher came to her and said "This is what we need to do"...

Another friend called last night to tell me she spoke with K's teacher Ms. H (her twins are in the same overfilled class). There is another new student in the boundaries. In the other class there is only one left that has transfered in and K's class has 3 or 4. The mother of the child in Ms. O's class says she only rents and if needs to, she will move this weekend into the school boundaries so her child does not get bumped. So this leaves one of the children in K's class. Of these children, one has a brother in third grade and the other has hearing issues, (our school has special things, classes, integration, etc. so she may be spared for this?) The other frustrating thing is, there is a school not more than a mile from us that has two first grades also and they only have 19 and 20 students. I think with this open enrollment, they should have a percentage that if the class is say 94% full, they will not allow transfers. It totally disrupts the child being bumped and if their boundary school is full, then do they bump another child to accomodate for the new one???

Sometimes I think maybe a private school, but around here, the only real option is parochial. I do not feel I am structured or consistent enough for home schooling. Options!!?!?!?

Anywho, back to the topic... My neighbor who is building a house in another schools boundary, (the house will be done in approx 4 weeks) was trying to get her daughter enrolled to start the year in the new school. The school was full and would not allow her to be an indistrict transfer because they have a "first come-first served basis". So when their house is done, E will transfer to her "boundary school" and the "first served" will be bumped in the middle of the scool year. How much sense does that make?

I can't help but feel that K's learning may be a bit impaired because of the class size. Ms. H is mainly just herding children here or there. I really think a percentage full has got to be the best approach? Any ideas?

I have been looking and dreaming of different houses. I have found a beautiful place but its about $100,000 over our budget (okay 50,000 if I'm really good with budget) But still, yeah right, without selling my soul to the devil. It has four acres and three car garage, great setting. A huge plus - a new school district. Awesome elementary school, but not so in love with the junior and high school (stricly based on the people whose children have attended). but as DH says, it all depends on your friends and the crowds you associated with. The high schools here are MUCH bigger and those negative things are wverywhere. Augh! There are cheaper houses in that area but not so big yard, setting, etc.

I could possibly afford that house in a year if I quit blogging, stopped driving looking a houses I cannot afford (for the record, I did have the work phone forwarded) and started putting some more effort into work not just waiting for them to come to me...just saying

Okay, I'm sure I have forgotten some points I wanted to add, but I need to get ready so I can take three kids by myself to the Dr. for so they can get their flu booster. Yay for me.

So glad we go to church

Today during Sacrament Meeting, T was having a little snack, turned around squishing the empty package and said "Sh*t, they are all gone". I looked at Kimber and said "Did he just say what I think he said?" and she verified. We laughed a bit (probably too much) and she sent a text message to Smokes telling him this latest and he says "that's my boy". If he's not gagging himself and throwing up during Sacrament, then it might as well be "naughty words".

I wonder what he'll do next...

School Projects

K made a booklet of her senses, she had to write the word and draw a picture of said thing;
page 1 - I can see: mom; Sydney (a girl at school); dad
page 2 - I can hear: horse, toking; me
page 3 - I can smell: flawrs; food; stinke breth ha
page 4 - I can taste: spgety; pars; crakrs
page 5 - I can touch: cats; horses; me

this made me laugh out loud. I will have to keep this one for sure. She's the one who put the ha on the page. LOL

Okay, not totally robbed

I took a picture of her mouth full of baby teeth before the dentist. I was not sure what he would do today and I wanted to remember how cute and teeny her teeth were.


Also, I enhanced a picture of her "11th" tooth that I took before we left for the dentist. Can you see it? It is about double the size of her baby tooth. It is coming really fast. She got her teeth cleaned and the dentist told her to keep working it. The roots of the new tooth will push on the baby tooth and it should loosen up. He says it is not uncommon for this to happen, and the tooth will move into position when the baby tooth is gone.

With all the fingers in her mouth this afternoon it is Loose! She laughed with glee when I answered her "yes" after she asked me for the 10th time "is it really loose?" The other thing is that she has no space for the larger permanent tooth to fit in. He says orthodontia is likely in our future. He will do a full scan of her mouth when she's 7, 8 or 9 depending on how her jaw grows and expands.
I included a picture of T just to show how much spacing he has in his mouth already at 3. This pict is from a few weeks ago when he brought me the camera and asked me to take his picture. I also included a pict of KL just because.

K has been Robbed

She has been waiting, and waiting, and waiting - impatiently, I might add for a loose tooth. On Sunday, after church, she showed me this thing in her mouth. A TOOTH, her permanent tooth is growing under her baby tooth, inside her mouth (duh), toward her tongue. Nothing is loose, and nothing has moved in order to make room in her tiny mouth for this large tooth. It is amazing how fast it is growing. At church, you could only see the three bumps on the top of the tooth. Today you can see the whole top of the tooth. I take her to the dentist Tues. at 3:10 to see what to do. I hope it goes well, this is a new dentist and hygenist. We'll go from here... I hope orthodontists are not in our future. Not off to a great start.

Halloween

Inspite of the freezing cold outside, the kids had a great time. We had a suprise that day when Valarie and her family came to town. We Trick or Treated in my freinds neighborhood, she has a wonderful neighborhood and her house was a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures of our Halloweeners.

Our Little Beaver
















The "Buckin' Cowboy"















The Purple Dragon















Our Little Cowgirl and her friend "Cloaked Spiderman"















Little Cowgirl at her school party

Long, Long Weekend

We spent Saturday the 28th staying at a motel, swimming at their waterpark and celebrating KL's 1st Birthday. Working from home has made it hard for me to get anywhere and I was TIRED of my house and being in it. Kimber was extremely kind and used her air miles and rented us the room, this way we only had to pay for the wrist bands, which were kind of expensive. I had fun being a kid again and riding on the big waterslides they have. I was abit apprehensive on some of them (must be my age showing - I'm a chicken - bak-bak-bak). They also had a lazy river that was fun to float on tubes with the kids. (KL didn't have as much fun with the spraying water). Then on Sunday we went to The Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary. I bought the pass to go in May or June after K had bugged us about going there and it expired on Oct. 31st.(I had to use it, I got a discounted price but was still nearly $40) We had a ton of fun, but it completely wore us out.

All three kids really liked to see the horses. I thought it was pretty cool. Mostly the history of the land.

The current owner purchased it from the two original homesteaders who were brothers in law. One road was part of the old Pony Express trail with the "mail-box" still there (I included a pict). They also have a Sun Dance site for the Lakota people. In early spring they fast and dance for four days (I included a pict of the tree and circle). They use a cottonwood tree because it has a star in the center, not rings. Everything they use symbolizes something, heavens, earth, people, etc. The dances were outlawed for awhile after the Wounded Knee Massacre, and sometime in the 70's were allowed to start again. They were allowed to come back to the original dance site after the land was purchased for this sanctuary.

There have been many movies and commercials shot on the 11,000 acres. Other roads were once the cattle trail from Texas when they were bringing the cattle to sell in Chicago and one other place.

Some of the horses blood lines are 100's of years old. They keep these separated to keep the blood lines pure. They are really friendly. Some of them were trying to get in the bus with us. (didn't seem so wild, but did spook very easily.)

T's 3rd Birthday

A few pictures of T on his birthday. At first he decided he didn't want a "bursday", but once he realized you get presents and cake, he was all for it.

The crazy kid slept with some of his presents. (He usually has a Hot Wheel or two, but never a large car.)

Lately he has been taking the wheels off of everything (Grandma & Papa brought his present when they came up from CO, a really cool off-road car set that you charge up, then push a button and it races off and over things, He destroyed it within 48 hours) so I told a few people not to get anything with wheels.

Mom was going to give him the pj's I bought for him (thus, the wheel-less present idea was not passed on to her), but decided at the last minute to get something "fun". Well, he squealed like a little girl when her saw the big black car (evidently Mommy doesn't know best, i was just tired of him breaking all of his cars and trucks and finding choking hazards all over, babies love little things). He also got a fishing pole (thanks Grampa and Jeanie, he says you have to take him fishin'), and some baseball gear - he hits pretty well (ask Ber-Ber her chest might be a bit lopsided from one of them), a new leap pad; a GeoTrax train system and much more, he's having fun with it all. I'm trying to find places to put it. Square footage is definitely something we lack!

T - When I found out you were a boy, I was worried. Our family has girls, what do you do with a boy??? You have definitely taught me what to do, it has been so much fun. It has been trial by fire. All the things I thought would be hard have gone much, much easier than expected. I love the way you ask a question, your voice gets a little higher at the end of the question and you crinkle your eyebrows at the same time. You are such a rough and tumble boy but, so caring and giving (unless it is your favorite truck). You want to be a buckin' cowboy when you grow up. You love to give KL hugs and kisses, sometimes a lot rougher than I would prefer, but KL loves it and laughs.

You are addicted to gum (thanks Ber-Ber). So darn independent. You love to pretend you are Chayse, and K is Harlee and I am Aunti Tami, you won't do somethings until I call you Chayse. You also think you are six. It seems as though you have jumped right past toddlerhood and are trying to be as old as "ger-ger".

I laugh at your cute sense of humor. When you go in the potty chair and bend over to pull up your pants you tell me "don't dump it on my head". When you "do's this" and stand up at the big boy toilet, you hit your hip 3 times to shake it out? Very comical. Teasing is in your blood, you love to play "I was jus' kiddin' " games.