School Days

School is definitely up and running.  Not too much homework for Madi yet.  They're still just learning about how to use the science lab and will have to take a test on it before being allowed to use it.  They're getting some journal writing prep ready.  She had to bring something flat that can lay in her journal that represents something.  So she drew a picture of Facetime and will be using it to write about living here and chatting with you guys across the ocean.  Or something like that.

She's reading like crazy and it's been no problem filling out her reading log in her planner.  We're collecting box tops for her to help her win the box top champion for the six weeks.  So Kathryn, Poppi, Grammy - save your box tops for us and I'll get them from you in a few weeks :)  There is a contest for them every six weeks.  So far we have almost 100!

Madi seems to really be liking school.  Especially gym and art.  Made a really cool kaleidoscope name thing in art.  Haven't gotten it back yet, but I'll post a pic once we have it.  In gym they played a gamed called Mission Impossible where the whole team has to get across the gym without touching the floor and using certain items that are set aside for their team.  Each team has the same items.  The first team to get all their kids across wins!

I'm prepping the students for choir auditions and all is going great there.  Madi and a lot of her friends are really excited to do it.  Should be fun!

She seems to really like Mrs. Campbell.  And Carol is working hard with her on everything.  She's the perfect teacher for her - loving, but firm.  Consistent and demanding, but compassionate too.  So thankful for her.

I had talked to Carol and Jeri, the leap teacher, about letting me know their thoughts as to whether Madi should test for LEAP or not.  I told them that I respected their opinions and if they noticed things (Carol mostly) that would signal that she should be tested, to let me know.  Carol said that Madi seems to be getting everything well and has great ideas and that from things I had shared, she wanted to go ahead and get her tested for LEAP (the Gifted and Talented Program).  I filled out the paperwork and now we just have to wait until we get her test date to see how that goes.  Thankfully she's already in the LEAP class for fourth grade.  Not everyone in her class is in it, but the kids who are in LEAP are also in her class so that pulling them out for their section is easier - rather than pulling them out of all of the classes.  Less confusion for the teachers and easier on planning.

I think she's gone out to recess maybe twice because it's just been too hot.  We had started making her lunches last week, but started adding up the cost and she was getting tired of sandwiches so now we're just purchasing her lunches through the school.  They are relatively healthy thanks to a great new menu and a new catering service.  $2 every day and she gets a main meal (can choose from 3 different ones) plus 3 sides.  Sides are veggies, fruit, and healthy options only.  No snacks or candy are available so kids don't have that option.  Ice cream is on Fridays, but we're not purchasing that.  She also brings a snack for in the morning as she doesn't have lunch until 12:30pm.

She's gone into the library for writing time.  She also got to have Ed, the counselor, come into class today.  She talked with them about distractions and focusing on what they are doing.  Being aware of what they are doing (behaviors they are showing, whistling, etc...) and how it affects others.  This is the video that she had them watch from YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSQJP40PcGI

Can't think of anything else at the moment....  been a couple of days, but they're kind of a blur.

Sunday

Pretty good day today.  Church.  Swimming.  A super yummy dinner of pork with rice and an amazing sauce.  All of us gobbled it up except Jules who chose to dump it all over herself and in her hair.  Note to self:  a 17 month old is not quite ready for sticky rice.  :)

Madi and Riley went to my parents' house this afternoon and were able to swim for a while.  They gave Madi tests to do to see if she could do them.  Things like "swim with only your right arm and your left leg."  Or "swim without any limbs and only bobbing your head."  They said that she was able to do all of them so they'll be coming up with new things for her to try!  On Friday night, Madi will get a sleepover at their house.

There was some time for Pocket Legends and Madi has really liked a book on the iPad that she and Jer are reading so she's up there with him tonight and I had a special Riley night.

Big Tease

Madi had a blast at the sleepover last night!  The girls swam for two hours, watched two movies and crashed around 1am.  She really enjoyed getting to know Hannah (who is in fifth grade) and Sarah (a daughter of friends of ours from our old church) at Jordan's party.

Jer picked her up and took her to the immunization place to get her test results back.  All is clear and we got the paperwork for me to bring on Monday for the school.  However, Jer told Madi something like "You want to have some fun with Aunt Jess?  Cough a lot while I am talking to her."  So he calls me.  My mom and the girls and I are downstairs.  His voice is low and he's somewhat mumbling and says something about how it's not good.  And how she started coughing horribly last night, she has a giant red bump on her arm and that the test came back positive.  Me - totally gullible - believed every word.  I told my mom it came back positive and she also gave a panic look and took Riley into the bathroom to go potty.

Jer has had a bad cough for a week or two and was saying that they told him that he needed to go also go get a chest x-ray at the hospital and that we needed to quarantine the girls and all of us.  So he was headed to the hospital now to get both he and Madi tested.  So I asked if I needed to bring the girls and have all of us tested for TB.  He said something about how we need to go to the hospital because he was pulling my leg.

I just laughed and told him while laughing very politely "you jerk!" and just kept laughing.  Both he and Madi were laughing a bunch.  It was actually quite funny.  So thankfully all is great!

Madi and Jer spent the afternoon playing Pocket Legends while Julia napped.  Madi, Riley and I colored some horse pictures.  Riley was super tired from waking up early and so I had her lay down in her bed with me.  Instead I fell asleep and she ended up downstairs watching a Barbie movie.  Madi also took an afternoon nap.  Then we had dinner and Poppi called to ask if he could come over for a little bit as he was up for a men's retreat the last few days and was about to be going back down to Killeen.  Was great to see you Poppi!!

Madi and Riley loved the time with him.  Each one wanted to show him their rooms.  And he took two videos on his iPad of them.  Was cute and very energetic.  Julia was tired and kept lying down on the ground, holding her diaper as if to say "change me and put me to bed."  So we finally did :)  Madi said she missed him before he had even completely pulled away in his car.  I just told her that we'll see him again soon.  Or at least next month some time.

We got ready for bed and that was about it.  Good day!

First Week Done - Check!

Madi had a great first week.  She was a non-stop chatterbox all morning long.  Sometimes she talks so much and so fast, we can't hardly understand a word she's saying.  This morning she talked for 30 minutes without stopping.  Amazed her face wasn't turning blue from lack of oxygen.  heehee

No homework tonight for her!  Was weird because Riley has two pages of homework to complete so instead I helped her with that.  Madi has done well on the work at school and is all smiles which is great.

I had a long meeting after school until 5:30 so she hung out with another teacher's daughter while the seven teachers met.  We picked up the girls and headed home.  I checked my facebook really quick and saw that Jordan's mom had messaged that she was wondering if Madi could come over for a spur of the moment sleepover at their house tonight.  It was Jordan's birthday recently and they had wanted to do a sleepover, but hadn't had time to plan one.  Jordan mentioned that she had something she needed to talk to me in private about today, but we never got around to it and she didn't stop by my room at the end of the day.  I called Jer and we both decided to let her go because she'd had a good week, her work was done and it would be really fun for her!  So there are four girls spending the night.  They're going swimming and then hanging out at the house tomorrow.

We take her back tomorrow to get the results of her TB test.  If all is fine, we just turn in the paperwork to the nurse at school.  If it comes back positive, we have to get her a chest x-ray.  Of course we're expecting that it is fine.  And just trusting that we won't have to go through the chest x-ray and all that is involved with that.

Other than that our weekend is fairly low key - church, grocery shopping and hopefully just lots of time with the girls.  Wasn't sure what time you were going to call tonight.  We didn't let Madi take her iPod as we just don't want it getting broken and she wasn't going to be at their house other than to sleep and eat in the morning.  Rest of the time they'll be out at a community pool with a bunch of other kids from school.

Happy Thursday

One more day and we'll have finished the first official week of school with the kids!  Madi's had a great start to the year.  The kids love her, the teachers are enjoying having her in class and she's loving it.  So all is good!

Today was a good day.  Not really too much to say.  Madi had more homework today - still not much, but more than the past few days.  She did a really great job doing it.  We're really getting the night time routine down and it's helping so much in the morning.  At night, it's been great having her do all the prep work for morning:

She helps pack her lunch, fills her water bottle, shows us her planner and her homework to make sure she's completed everything, sets out her bags/lunch box by the back door, picks out her clothes and shoes the night before and then takes a shower.

Mornings are super easy for her.  She just hops out of bed, gets dressed, makes her bed, grabs breakfast and is ready to go.  We don't have to double check anything because it's all set out and we just grab it.  She's done awesome!!!

After school, Madi completed her homework while I worked on lesson plans and both of chatted while we got our work done.  Picked up the girls, made dinner, did baths for the girls and Madi took a shower.  They had a little while in the playroom, but not much time.  By the time we got home, it was almost 5pm.  And Julia went down a little before 7pm.  Madi is pooped by the time it's 8pm and has fallen asleep so easy every night.  I'm sure she'll be excited to chat with you tomorrow night (and this time she won't have to give you short answers to hide that she was talking too much in class - :)  ).

All is going great here!  Hope you're doing well!  We take her back to the immunization place on Saturday and we'll get the results then.  There isn't anything on her arm - just the little prick where they put the solution.  Not even a bump.  So I think that's a good sign as the nurse told me what to look for to know if she'll need a chest x-ray or not (she said a red bump that is large is a bad sign).  So we're just trusting that the results will be great and that all we'll need to do is give the paperwork to the school.

Ouch!!

Madi had a good day today at school!  Not too much to tell.  She was having a hard time getting up and going, but we got to school on time and all was fine.  They are still just going over procedures and passing out books and getting things established in class.  Mostly reviewing and preparing the kids for next week.  There's a ton of information that Jeremy got at the parent meeting about how the homework will work.  She'll be busy for sure!!  Will be quite a bit to keep up with for all of us - though mostly for her.

She's done a great job of writing in her planner and coming home and doing her homework.  So far it has been very simple things.  She has to read for 30 minutes a night.  Tonight she had to fill out an "all about me" page with address and phone numbers and things like that.

In gym today, she tripped over her shoes and said she went flying through the air.  Landed on her right elbow and skinned it a little bit.  Went to the nurse and got a bandaid.  Johanna, the nurse, said that she was talking to her and Madi started talking about living in the Philippines.  She was like "Huh?!"  She knew that I had my niece living with us, but she didn't know the whole story and didn't realize that Madi was my niece.  So she checked her health record and realized that she had to have a TB test (they insert a solution under the skin - probably don't need to explain it to you :) ).  Johanna came to talk to me about it while I was in the middle of teaching Kinder this afternoon.  And told me that she had to have one - today.

Totally stressed me out because she told me that the other nurse checked the files while she was getting things ready for the year and no 'red flags' were raised as she had the correct vaccines.  TB test is something that needs to be done for students who have been out of the country for over a year.  She told me that Madi needed to have it done today or else she could not return to school tomorrow.  It is required for her and she wasn't supposed to even be in school without it being done.

I only had 5 minutes between my last two classes.  I used that time to call Dr. Stellman's office.  They told me that there were no openings today and they were booked solid and couldn't get me in.  I told them that I was a personal friend of his family and that it was a special case.  The secretary just told me "I'm sorry - she would be a new patient and we only see them in the morning.  We have 11am open."  I set the appointment and prayed quickly and then took my 2nd grade class - two minutes late.  Apologized to the teacher and let her know I was talking to the doc.  I am very rarely late and felt bad to take them a few minutes late.  Teacher was nice about it though.

After their class, I went down to the office to ask if Madi would be able to return to school tomorrow afternoon after the test.  The answer was yes, if it is a certain test where they do the results quickly.  I checked my phone as I then planned to call Shannon and see if I could pull a favor and somehow get into Dr. Stellman's office later today.  However, I had a mandatory teacher's meeting until 4pm today.  I checked my phone to find that Dr. Stellman's office had called.  The secretary sounded somewhat sheepish and said that she talked to him and he said he would make a way for her to get the test done today and then we could check up on the results on Friday.  I just had to make it to the office before 4pm.

So I went back down to the office and talked with Martha.  She told me that I had to be at the meeting.  It was required and there was no way I could get out of it.  I cried and told her that I was very frustrated because I was just told two hours before that Madi needed this test in order to be here, the dr. could now see her and my hands were tied because I had to attend the meeting.  So the secretary (Tammie) told me about a pharmacy she goes to with her boys and they do immunizations and tests.  It was in Plano about 30 minutes of more away.  She called up there for me while we got copies of Madi's records for them.  I just had to make it there before 6pm today.  Otherwise we'd have to wait until Monday to do it as they have to check it 24 hours later and they're not open on Sundays.  So tomorrow would be too late.

I called my parents and they picked up Riley and Jules from school.  So thankful they could do it!!  And were so gracious to help.  Neither Jer or I would be home in time to get them before 6pm and they charge if we are late.  I sat through my meeting, left a little after 4pm and drove Madi out there.

I explained why she had to have the shot and told her that it was required.  She did not want it, but I just told her to grin and bear it and do it.  Sooner we did it, the faster it would be done.  She does not like shots at all!!!  Really gets herself worked up over them.  I just told her to stay calm and look away.  Took her a few minutes to even let the nurse hold her arm because she just kept asking how much it was going to hurt.  I could tell the nurse was getting agitated because she kept telling her it wasn't that bad and that she just needed to do it and get it over with.  I finally told Madi that if she wanted to stay here with us, she had to get it.  Nothing we could do if she flat out refused.  She finally got it and was like "that wasn't bad at all!"  and skipped out of the office.  I told her that we're going to try to help her work through her fear of shots and give her some ways to cope as she just gets so terrified when just thinking about shots.  $30 later, a teeny tiny poke in the arm and she was totally fine.

Good news is she can return to school tomorrow.  Was a very frustrating day.  I was surprised that when you took her to get her immunizations while you were here, the TB test was never mentioned.  Johanna just said that it's just protocol.  And we checked her records and there is no record of her having had it.  So somehow it was missed.  But it's over and tomorrow is a new day!

She was really excited about this...

Her "mad" face

Her "don't make me laugh" face

Second Day!

Another great day!  Madi had to draw a self-portrait and read for 30 minutes today.  Jeremy went to the parent meeting tonight.  Was talking to another teacher who said that she has her husband go to the meetings with the teacher so that they are also informed and so that they don't feel like we're over involved in their teaching.  He said he was glad to go and gave me some info already.  Though we've only had a few minutes to talk so far tonight.

Madi had music today.  Was so wild to look and see her in the room!  hahaha.   I loved it!!!  She was really great.  Smiled almost the entire class.  Other than when she was giving me the "you're crazy, Aunt Jess" look.  Like when I was shaking my head and dancing to our name game song.  Yea, I am a little weird sometimes.  :)

She's really making some great friends!  Avery came into the music room after school today and hung out with Madi for about 15 minutes.  They played with my yarn ball and I told them I'd let them hang out on Thursday afternoon and they could both make one for themselves.  Figure that way I can get some lesson planning done and they can have some fun too.  Avery is the daughter of one of the other teachers.  So they can take turns playing together in our rooms.

Madi is loving all of her new friends and it's just so great to see her fitting in so well.  They haven't done too much in the classroom yet, but they will be getting their textbooks tomorrow and by the beginning of next week, all of the procedures and rules will have been gone over and rehearsed so they can finally get to teaching more.  At the moment, it's just reviewing last year's information.  Madi did some problem solving in math and said she got them all right!  Woo hoo!!

Mrs. Campbell has a rule with talking that she gives you three chances before moving you to a new desk and into a new group.  Madi was talking quite a bit today.  Carol had to remind her three times to stop talking.  She pulled her into the hallway and chatted with her about how she needed to stop talking.  But as soon as Madi returned to her desk, she jumped right into talking right away.  So she was moved from her three favorite friends and now sits on the opposite side of the room.  Madi said it wasn't fair because she was the only one moved.  I told her that if the teacher can't get through explaining things in a lesson or if it is loud talking or distracting, that the teacher has every right to move her.  She has to consider that others are there too.  And that the other people she was talking with may have been talking quieter and just not have been as easily caught talking.  She never denied talking.  Was just bummed to be moved.  Though it sounds as though she was given plenty of chances.  I talked with her about it and reminded her tonight that it is in her best interest to listen more and talk less.

If talking is the worst issue we face, bring it on.  Carol said that she's a friend with everyone and that she just doesn't stop talking.  :)   If needed, we'll incorporate things for her to do here at home to drive home the point that she must have more self control in that area.  We're thankful that she's making incredible friends and that she's loving school so much.  The self control will come.

First Day of School (which means lectures, lectures and more lectures)

Madi had the best first day of school.  When asked how it was, she said it was amazing, awesome and completely amazing.  Guess that sums it up!  She was quite nervous about it and didn't eat much this morning.  Once she met some friends, all was great!  She was smiling big time when she came to the music room at the end of the day.  Said she had a great day and loved it.

Outside the school before it began

During the day, she heard tons of lectures, lectures and more lectures.  They played a game in math called Poison.  She seemed to like that quite a bit.  They got their planners, books and were assigned 30 minutes of reading tonight as well as a bag activity where they had to gather three items from home and put them in the bag.  They'll use the items to tell about their summer.  She chose to show them:  tshirt from camp, her Filipino money, and a little book from American Girl that signifies relaxation because it's called 29 ways to relax.  And relax she has.  I'm surprised she didn't make a poster about all her time on IXL this summer - I know it was the highlight of her summer  ;)

I filled out her paperwork and have her parent/teacher info session tomorrow night from 6-7pm.  From the pic below, you'll be able to see her ginormous smile.  

Alex came smiling into my room with her and told me "Madi makes friends so easy and she's not shy at all!"  They gave each other big hugs before the girls went their separate ways.  Madi was extremely happy and had a fantastic day!!

Immediately after school with friends in the music room -
from left to right:  Alex, Madi, Hannah

Last Day of Summer

School starts tomorrow!  The girls are excited.  Though Riley and Jules have already had a week at school.  Madi is excited to get started at school.  She was asking what they do the first day and I explained that it's a lot of procedures, teaching the rules, handing out books and organizing their desks.  That kind of thing.  She was bummed that they won't be learning something the first day.  I told her that will come!

She helped pack her lunch in her really cool lunch bag - it has a black handle and a pink leopard print.  Oversized to fit sandwiches and bulky things.  She chose to have a tuna fish sandwich, cookies (the 100 calorie pack), yogurt and some doritos.  A mix of healthy and not so healthy.  Perfect lunch!  She'll eat at 12:30 each day.  I just have to figure out what to send with her for a snack!  They'll do morning snack sometime around 10am or so.

Madi picked out her outfit for the first day - capris with a pink/white shirt.  And set out her backpack by the back door.  We read in that book - Children: the Challenge - and another article I read somewhere that agreed with it, that we should help children figure out how to do things for themselves and give them the tools to do it.  One of the articles talked about how parents nag and nag their kids to get dressed, eat breakfast, and so on and that the parents end up very frustrated while the kids just do it on their time.  So they recommend a checklist that the child has to complete in time to leave when the parent needs to leave.  For us, we need to be leaving the house at 6:45am so the girls need to all be ready by 6:40am.  Madi did awesome with this last week - though we didn't do the checklist.  Just had her set out her clothes and grab her breakfast.

Jeremy printed out the checklist for her.  There is one upstairs and one downstairs.  She has to complete the first four items before coming downstairs and check them off as she does them.  Once downstairs, she has to check off the last four items before 6:40am.  If there is extra time, then she can sit and watch tv.  Or just hang out in the kitchen.

Jeremy gave it the long, awesome title!

Her alarm is set for 6:00am and she is taking showers at night so her morning steps aren't big tasks.  One of the reasons we're doing this is so that all we have to ask is "Have you checked off all your boxes?"  and if she asks what else she needs to do, we can say "Check your list."  Gives her the responsibility and helps us to not have to hound her to get her moving in the morning.  The consequence is that if things aren't done by 6:40am, she has to go to bed earlier than 8pm and wake up 10 minutes earlier.  Not something she'll want to do!  Or something we're hoping to have to do!  She's been doing awesome about waking up and getting ready.

Today Jeremy took Riley and Madi to church.  I stayed home with Jules as she's fighting a nasty sinus thing and wouldn't have been taken into the nursery with the stuff coming out her nose.  Ew... They had a great time.  This afternoon was very low key.  Madi even took a short nap today because she was so tired.  Jeremy hung the new horse picture above her bed.  Looks great!

Madi was talking and wanted to see how her face
would turn out if she kept talking while I
took the picture. hahahaha

Madi worked on her cowl on the loom and it's looking great!  Played Pocket Legends for a little while with Jeremy.  Was a really good day.  She took some more pics of her room:

A picture she drew

Her desk

American Girl Doll

Neigh!!

Dry erase boards

Each board says "me and mom, me and dad..."
We need to get some pics printed of you guys to put in them.

Tonight we read Matthew 11 and started a book she's read before from the Left Behind Series for kids.  Prayed for her day tomorrow in particular.  Then we turned out the lights.  She told me that it's getting so easy to fall asleep on her own and that it's kind of nice.

Let us know if Saturday would be a good day to call and if so, if morning or night works better.  We'll be leaving early in the morning and returning home late each day (I have meetings every night except tomorrow and Thursday).

Unrelenting

Sums up the week as far as how non-stop it has been here with work, house stuff, kids, etc... and sums up a few things that have happened in the last two days.  Life has been hectic and insane to say the least.  Last night was the sleepover.  At 11pm I received a call that we needed to pick up Madi because Shelby had a stomach bug and she didn't want the girls to get sick.  So I picked her up.  They were able to see the movie and walked around the mall.  And Madi had a great time.

Shelby's mom gave each of the girls $7 at the mall to spend on what they wanted.  Madi came home with a really cute journal from Justice that had the letter M on the front and had a pen.  The mom told me that she had a 40% off coupon and used it to purchase it.  Her total was $8.40.  Not totally sure of how that came about since it was over the limit that she was given and the other girls were all under the limit that was given.  We have our assumptions about it - based on history of being asked for things and how another thing went at a playdate yesterday that I'll tell you about in a minute.  Jeremy talked with Madi tonight about it while I was putting down Julia and Riley.

Today was pretty low key.  Madi said her stomach was hurting and that she had a little diarrhea, but it only happened one time.  Julia is fighting a cold and Jeremy is fighting some congestion thing and coughing like crazy.  So Madi and Jeremy are both taking mucinex, Julia is doing vaporub and warm baths and I'm suctioning out her snot all the time.  My parents picked up Riley and took her for several hours today - partly to keep her away from all the sick people and partly to let me have a nap when Jules went down as I haven't had more than 5-6 hours in a row in almost two weeks at night so I'm just pushing through and wiped out.

Madi started a cowl on a yarn loom.  I showed her how to hook it and use it to make one.  Looks good so far!  She and Jeremy played some pocket legends and she even got to talk to her friend Julia today!!  She was very excited about that!  She also made some duct tape flip flops - they look really neat!!  She says that they're very comfortable too.

While we were all home this morning, Jeremy received a phone call from Karen (Elizabeth's mom).  She said she wasn't calling because she was mad or because she wanted Madi to get in trouble, but she was calling because she knew we would want to know and that it would present a good teaching moment.  She went on to say that Elizabeth told her she would need more duct tape and so she asked Elizabeth why she needed more because she knew she had a lot.  Elizabeth told her that she gave all of her duct tape - her two favorite rolls in fact (they have patterns and things on them - not just normal duct tape).  She also gave Madi an entire bag of books and the loom and some other things.  Karen asked why she gave it away.  Elizabeth told her that Madi wouldn't stop asking for things.  She told her "no" when Madi asked her the first time if she could have her tape, but that Madi asked so many times that Elizabeth said it wasn't worth it and decided just to give it to her so she'd stop asking.

Jeremy got off the phone with Karen and told me that we had a teaching moment to do tonight and that we'd talk later about how we wanted to handle it.  This is not the first time that we've heard a parent tell us that she was unrelenting in asking for things.  Only this time it was also the kid saying it and giving in just to get her to stop asking.  We decided that since she had already used the tape to make a new pair of flip flops and it was Elizabeth's favorite tape, that Madi needed to replace the tape and purchase two new rolls for Elizabeth.  Since her allowance was due to her today, we decided that we'd wait to give her the money until we went to the store to find out how much the tape costs.  Online it runs $3.47 per roll at Walmart.  So that will basically take her entire allowance from the two weeks - though she'll still be able to have a dollar left for savings and a dollar left for tithe.  Those are non-negotiables.

Jeremy talked with her and he said she didn't argue.  He said she was very quiet as he explained what her allowance money would be used for and why it is not ok to ask to have things from other friends.  And that it is especially not ok to ask for something, hear the answer "no" and continue over and over to ask for it after being given the answer that it was not for her to have.

They read together - Matthew 10 and then a book called "Homeland."  Book 1 of Legend of Drizzt.  They read it on the iPad which is pretty neat.

Tomorrow is church and just hanging out at home as Monday will be busy with the first day of school!!!

Classroom Pics

Hallway

Hallway Bulletin Board

Madi's fish

Classroom

View from the back of the room - Madi's desk is in the front on the left side

Madi's group (her desk has the pink binder)

Lockers

Library

Art Room

My room!

Front of the music room

Unfinished boards at the back of the music room

Allergies

Cough - cough.  Ow!  So sore!

Was a rough morning for Madi - good news is she is doing much better!  She woke up around 4:30am this morning and was having trouble breathing.  It didn't sound asthmatic, but I could hear some raspy sounds and she said her throat was sore.  Since Jeremy has been coughing for days and the girls just started school, I thought it could be either sickness or allergies.  We haven't been consistent in making sure she gets her Claritin - will definitely be consistent now!  So we gave her mucinex in case she needed some mucus broken up and put Vicks Vaporub on her feet with socks on to help congestion.  Madi and I sat in the hot, steamy bathroom for about 25 minutes and she started talking and talking.  Whereas before she was trying to say as little as possible.  We also gave her Claritin.

I called you and felt much better after having you listen to her.  Wanted to make sure that it wasn't more severe than what we were thinking it was.  Madi had a great rest of the day.  Went and played with Elizabeth for the last time before school starts.  They ended up not seeing the movie.  Jeremy drove her straight from his work to the Jacobson's house for the party.  They decided not to swim and instead were going to walk around the mall and see Spy Kids 2 in 3D.  I'll pick her up tomorrow morning at 10am.

We told them to call us if there are any breathing troubles tonight and we'll come get her right away.  The pollens up here are bad and it is so very very dry.  Can't be helping things.  And she's been playing outside quite a bit.

Only two days until school starts (or three - depending on how you count it!)

School Supply Drop Off!

Didn't get a chance to write yesterday.  Madi spent the day with Kenzie and then we got back home and I ran out to Justice to get a gift card for the sleepover Friday night for her.  Always forget how incredibly busy the beginning of the school year is and this year is the most jam-packed year by far.  And so far, the most fun as well!

Madi spent today with Elizabeth and two of her friends.  Not sure what they did today, but I do know that they had a ton of fun.  She'll be going over there tomorrow as well and they'll go out to see the movie "Spy Kids 2."  Then tomorrow night, Jeremy will drop her off at the sleepover at Shelby's house.  And for Shelby's birthday party, they are swimming and going to see.... Spy Kids 2 - in 3D.  So Madi will be seeing the same movie two times tomorrow, but in two different ways.  Wasn't planned - just kind of happened.  haha

Tonight Madi and Jeremy met me and the girls up at Ethridge for "School Supply Drop Off" night.  All the families from the school (or at least, the majority of them) drop off everything the kids will need for the first day.  We had several bags with all of her things and we all walked down to Mrs. Campbell's room.  Carol (Mrs. Campbell) had a sign up sheet for us to fill out so she knew which families had not attended.  Madi was allowed to choose which desk she wanted.  They were in groups of four and the kids collaborate a lot with the teacher.  So Madi chose her seat and her group of four is:  Hannah, Aimee - both of whom she had playdates with last week - and Alex, who is Hannah's best friend and she got to talk to her for a while tonight.  I introduced Madi to several girls and a few boys in her class.  She has one of the best classes in her grade and the kids are really amazing.  She is also in the class with all of the LEAP kids which is great because they'll be able to accomplish even more this year because the kids have a higher level of thinking about things and can process things quickly and they are eager to learn.  So she won't be held back in any way on that end.

Madi had a fun time meeting teachers and talking with friends.  She said she wishes Monday were here already because she's so ready to start school.  She already picked out the outfit she wants to wear on the first day!

We read Matthew 9 tonight and then spent some time reading a few quizzes to each other from American Girl Doll Books that she got from Elizabeth.  One of the books was on friendship and we read a short story from it and talked about being a friend and being the right friend and treating others.  I wasn't preachy to her about it.  Just mostly listened to what she had to say and got good insight into the kinds of friends she likes to have and some friendships she has and she's quite honest and open about her friendships.  Was great to hear her thoughts.  She was quite tired tonight so she went to bed about 9pm - later than normal, but considering we were out until 7pm, bedtime stuff was moved back which is no big deal.

I'll be sure to take pics of her on the first day.  And get some pics of her teacher and the classroom so you can see what it looks like!  Carol is so excited to teach her and she'll do an amazing job!!

Day 2 at The Burns

Madi had a fun day again with Elizabeth.  They went swimming and spent the day climbing and being really active.  She was totally worn out!!

The Burns

Today Madi drove down with Jeremy to his work to spend time with the Burns family.  Karen Burns is his boss and she has a daughter Elizabeth.  So Madi played with her today, went swimming and spent time at two dr. appointments that Elizabeth had to go to.  The girls hit it off so well!!  Jeremy said that it was quite something when both of them came bounding and chatting into the office in the afternoon.  They were both so excited!  Hahahaha - can only imagine!  And what an awesome thing.

In fact, it went so great that they'll be hanging out again all day tomorrow.

Madi and I finished up our book and read Matthew 7 tonight.  Riley crashed.  Loved her new preschool and did awesome on her first day!  Julia also loved it and was a rock star.  Both of their teachers raved about them and we're definitely proud of how well they did today.

I was able to show Madi her entire class list and there is a new student on there named Ballesteros.  Will be interesting to find out if he is Filipino!  She has one of the most amazing groups of students in her class and it will be so much fun teaching them!  Work has been very stressful already with lots of changes to our schedule and very large classes (30 third graders and 27 fifth graders in each class.... wow is all I can say to that).  Large and challenging.  One of the fifth grade classes has 19 boys and 8 girls.  However, Madi's class is a great size at only 23 and has 10 boys and 13 girls.  She asked if there are any students in her room that she shouldn't become friends with and I was very happy to tell her that there isn't a single student in her class that I wouldn't encourage her to get to know.  They are all great.

Thursday we drop off school supplies and get to know a few of the classmates.  Or at least, she will.  Then Monday she'll start!

The Day Before It All Begins

Today is the last day of summer.  Not on the calendar, but for me.  Riley and Jules start at the Montessori school tomorrow which will be awesome.  I start back to work for inservice and long, long meetings.  Madi will be going downtown with Jeremy and playing with Elizabeth all day.

Madi had a really fun sleepover at Aimee's house last night.  They played Wii and we were able to get the names of a few new games that Madi has enjoyed on it.  Will have to look at how much they are - they sound fun!  Something like "Family Game Night" and "Just Dance."  The girls went swimming last night and went to bed late.  Sounds like it was great.

We picked her up on the way to church today.  Church was awesome for her - she walks into the children's church skipping and smiling.  Every time we pick her up, she is grinning from ear to ear and singing the songs they are playing.  She was able to sit with several friends from camp again today and learned about the prodigal son and grace.

Julia took a 3 hour nap today so the four of us got out the Wii Fit game and played for two hours.  Was sooo much fun laughing and watching each other try to get the best scores on the games.  Madi did a ski jump and landed 178 ft. down the hill - best anyone has ever done it.  I was able to hula hoop and spin it 813 times around in 4 minutes.  Jeremy rocked the downhill skiing.  Riley had a blast trying all the different games and mostly enjoyed whatever it was she was doing.  Was cute seeing her little hips spin in a circle :)

We went to my parents' house and went swimming for almost an hour and a half.  Got Sonic for dinner so there wouldn't be much clean up or dishes to do.  I packed all of the girls' things for school tomorrow.  Crazy how much stuff is needed!  I'll head into the other room soon to finish up my things for tomorrow.

Jeremy read with Madi tonight, but she fell asleep soon after he started reading.  Riley also crashed quickly tonight.  So I'm sure they'll have an awesome night of rest which will be much needed when they wake up bright and early at 6am tomorrow.  We'll be out the door around 6:45am.

Rain!

Woke up to rain this morning.  Was beautiful!

Had a good day.  We all went to Walmart this morning to get food for the first week of work for me, Montessori school for Jules and Riley and final stuff for Madi when she starts school on the 22nd.  Jeremy certified me as "completely insane" after an hour of shopping with the girls.  He said he has no idea how I manage to get through the store and stay even partly insane.  Guess it's because I'm not sane to begin with - haha

Jeremy and Madi were able to spend some time playing Pocket Legends.  Riley and I played with some leftover yarn and did puzzles together.  Then we had some lunch.

On Monday, Madi will go with Jeremy down to his office and then Karen's nanny (Karen is his boss) will pick her up and she'll spend the day with Elizabeth, Karen's daughter.  Tonight she is spending the night with Aimee Martin, a girl who will be in her class this year.  Aimee is quite shy, very quiet until you get to know her and an amazing girl.  Her parents came to pick up Madi so the girls could go swimming and hang out today and then tomorrow morning we'll pick her up before church so she can go to church since she didn't get to go last week.  She has missed her church friends and it's really great that she's made some great friends there.  Not to mention how comfortable she's getting with meeting kids in fourth grade and especially the girls who will be in her class.

It has been one of the best weeks we've all had in the past two months that Madi has been here.  Was just a lot of fun and things are going extremely well.  Madi is making her bed without being asked every morning, waking up to her alarm clock on her own, setting out her clothes the night before and putting things where they belong (dirty clothes in the hamper, hamper in the closet, clean clothes hung up or in drawers).  She's doing a really great job with her chores!

Madi has her iPod with her at Aimee's house and we'll be picking her up around 9am, possibly a little before then.  So if you want to give her a call tomorrow morning, sometime around 9pm your time will probably work well so that it's not too early, but it'll give her time to chat with you for a little while.

Our Last Free Friday

Three days until I'm back to work and life gets crazy.  Was a really fun, last free day.  Madi slept in until 9am and then had a great talk with you.

We went to Michael's and got several things to do today.  I had thought about taking them to a museum downtown, but decided to spend the money on things that they could do here so that they'd have things to do during the year and on playdates as well.  I gave the girls a set amount they could spend and brought several 40% off coupons so we could split the purchases and get more money off and be able to purchase more items for them to do.

So Madi chose:
1 - A Chemistry Set with eight different experiments in it and a plastic microscope.  Though the microscope doesn't look to be working very well.

2 - Watercolor Paint set - brushes, paints, and paper

Riley chose:
1 - Sketch book like Madi's with fashion designs to trace and then color
2 - Four little puzzles that came as a set
3 - A Tinkerbell picture that you use molding putty and a picture behind it to create a picture of Tink.  Was really cool and only $3.99!

Last night we finally ordered Madi's horse picture for above her bed so we got a frame to go with it today too.  Should be here sometime in the next week or so - I'll post a pic of it once it's in and on her wall.

As soon as we got home, I put Julia to bed and then we broke out the watercolor paints (Madi did that)

and the Tinkerbell pic (Riley and I started it and Madi helped finish it).  Then we did the puzzles.  And then did the first experiment from the science chemistry kit.  The experiment was to use five cups of clear water and make a hypothesis as to whether each element that was added to the water would dissolve or stay solid.  So we had to test:  baking soda, citric acid, salt, sugar and pepper.  The girls liked feeling each item and putting it in the water and stirring.  Though I think their favorite part was when I let them pick up the sugar with their fingers and eat it.  Was quite funny when Riley decided to do the same thing with the salt and pepper.  Lots of coughing followed - ha!

Julia got up so we played in the playroom.  The girls made a horse out of the foam wedges and Madi cut out a horse head.  We put a recorder inside of it and a crayola marker in the head and taped it so it would stay up.  Then they taped it to the foam blocks and took turns riding it.

I left Madi and Riley home for the first time ever.  Went for 30 minutes and took Julia to a store to return some shirts for Jeremy.  They had the walkie talkies so we could communicate and they were sitting in front of the tv watching a horse movie and eating their snacks.  I was a little nervous to leave them, but they were both really mellow and enjoying sitting and watching it so I figured I'd try it.  And knowing they could reach me, made me feel better.  Not sure that I'll do it again anytime soon, but was nice to come back and see that they were behaving and that all went great while I was gone.  They did great.  I was just the one that was totally nervous the whole time.  Though many of my friends do stuff like that a lot, it was definitely very weird for me.  But they did great.

Before dinner, Riley and Madi played Wii Sports.  Even with the wrist band around her wrist, Riley ended up throwing the remote and almost hit the tv.  Of course this happened while I was upstairs changing Julia's smelly diaper.  We had dinner together, both girls did some IXL and then we got ready for bed.  Read Matthew 5 and a chapter of the book.  Only one chapter left until it is finished.  So good night and good morning!