Uncle Dougie

Alex's brother Doug was called home to our Heavenly Father this morning. He was 34 years old and very unexpectedly and peacefully passed away. We are headed to CT to be with Alex's family and Doug's wife Christina and son Sebastian. We will miss Doug and "Uncle Dougie" very much!

But as Justin reminded his daddy, Uncle Dougie is now our angel looking after us and we will see him again in Heaven.

Spanish

Yup, I still hate Spanish.

Nic received a project Monday. It is due next Monday. Tomorrow, Wednesday a rough draft of the project is due. It needs to be a 5 minute presentation on Colombia - the country he pulled out of the bag. Did I mention it needs to be written AND Presented in SPANISH and has to be at least 5 minutes LONG!!!

He worked Monday night pulling data. He worked until 11:30 tonight on organizing, writing in English and then translating. He has 8 pages of a rough draft written.

He wants to do a Power Point Presentation to go with it, so he doesn't have to memorize the entire presentation he can have some of it on Power Point - kinda smart but this is crazy!

Rite of Passage

Is cutting your hair or someone elses a rite of passage for kids?

Today Justin wanted to spike his hair. After working on it for about an hour with a comb and water his bathroom was soaked and he was frustrated. I reassured him that it was okay that his hair was too long and he just needed a haircut.

Wrong words...

He wants to go get a haircut NOW. I say no not now later. I go on the computer and think he is playing quietly somewhere. I get off the computer and notice something strange on the floor. Strangly it appears to be hair. "Justin did you cut your hair", I ask. "No!" he yells from upstairs. I check my scissors they are all in the drawer - wierd I think.

At lunch a little later I look up from eating and notice the bald patch at the top of his head. AHHHH!!! I ask, "what did you do! You're BALD." He says that is ok daddy has a bald spot too. (Daddy got his head shaved almost bald on Friday.) So now we talk about how he could cut himself and stitches and Dr.'s etc. I don't really think he cared too much.

Now he really does need a hair cut!

Saturday...

So Saturday was my new birthday. What did you do you might ask...

Cleaned the garage!!!

But really it was ok. The garage has been a sense of anxiety for me. Everytime we go to clean it something comes up but not this Saturday, no sir!

We put together workbenches - we do still have to hang up peg board... We hung stuff up and organized bikes. It was wonderful!

It still looks cluttered, but as soon as we get our backyard done it will free up lots of room where the outdoor furniture is.

We had about 5 people stop and ask if we were having a tag sale and when told we were just cleaning the garage 2 said ok and walked away, 2 got annoyed and showed ATTITUDE and 1 offered to buy something anyway. Crazy!

We did manage to get cleaned up after about 7 hours of work and go out to dinner with the boys.

I'm blaming it on being blonde...

So this morning I went to the Tahoe to bring Nic to school and the alarm went off. I push the key fob and it continues to sound as if the entire Pinal County Sheriff's Office is driving down my street.

I decide to key into the car and turn it on, now what happens in the midst of this ear deafening noice ~ the Tahoe is dead, won't turn over completely dead.

Meanwhile I am thinking what am I going to do, Nic has 2 tests today and Justin and I have a date to register him for Kindergarten.

Panic is now setting in, I am on the verge of tears and I am now stamping my feet yelling at the Tahoe to shut-up.(Yes I did do this literally)

An idea came to me if the car is dead I at least can jump it with the jumper that plugs into the outlet... so I got that all set up and tried the car nope still dead and yes the alarm is still blaring!

I call my husband at work who tells me shut the alarm off, I am trying I scream. I also scream other things like I hate this stinking truck and it has to go. After my rant I have Nic go and get the other set of keys, my key fob battery must be dead I say. Yes, the alarm is still blaring...

That key fob worked, car started and whew... I could get Nic to school. Who the heck new that the alarm activated some mechanism to shut the whole car down so someone couldn't steal it!

So my husband came home from work and he told me I was hysterical on the phone and I need to remain calm when stuff happens. I was fine I tell him, and in pipes my wonderful Nic saying, "No mom you really weren't. You screamed at Justin and I to back-off and get out of your way you were going to start this car no matter what!" Thanks Nic.

Anyway, I told Alex I needed a new key fob as my battery had died. He said so how did you get the alarm off. I said with your dad's set of keys. He said there is only 1 key fob for the Tahoe, I said no your dad has 1 and I have 1. He said no you only have 1 and that is for the suburban. Of course I had to go check my keys and ah hemmmm yup he's right. I was trying to turn off the alarm with the suburban's key fob.

I can only blame it on being blonde because I don't know what else to say, except...WHO THE HECK ACTIVATED THE ALARM IN THE 1st PLACE... It must of been the person who used Grandpa's keys last - yup Nic it was totally Nic's fault and that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Kindergarten Registration

Well we did it!

Justin and I went today and registered him for Kindergarten. He was so excited! The principal was in the office when we went in and she spent some time talking to Justin about why he wanted to go to school there, his brother, and where we were going for a special treat after to celebrate.

I can't believe that my baby is going to Kindergarten and I am so happy/lucky/blessed that I have been able to spend the past almost 5 years with him everyday.

Spanish Part 2

So no response from Nic's Spanish teacher to the email I sent. (And it was not a mean letter, I read it to someone before I emailed it.)

She did address the situation today with the class however. From what I understand she told the class that she has had a lot of calls and letters from parents about turning in the work to the sub. She told them she was staying with her policy and she would bring it all the way up to the office if she had to.

Now I am really mad! So I have emailed the Principle, I'll take it to the office myself!

I am really having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that the sub told them not to turn it in and she is punishing the children for LISTENING to the SUB!

So hopefully I will get a call tomorrow or my next step will be calling the Superintendent and getting a meeting set up for all of us to meet face to face!

Most teachers want their students to succeed I am not getting that vibe from her at all!

Spanish

Nic's Spanish teacher and I do not see Eye to Eye.

First let me just say - it is so NOT RIGHT to allow fluent Spanish speaking children as in my first language is Spanish in a class with kids who don't speak a drop. There should be 2 seperate classes.

1st our disagreement was over her not giving the kids time to finish tests. She said she tells them to do the parts worth the most points. I say let them stay and finish and give them a pass to next class or make the tests shorter - and no Nic is not the only 1 having this problem. There's a problem when kids who have grown up speaking Spanish can finish the tests in a short time and the rest of the kids who are struggling to learn the language are not finishing at all.

Our disagreement now is that she is now giving Nic's ENTIRE class a 50% on their script - want to know why? Because it wasn't turned in on the due date. Want to know why? SHE was out sick the entire week last week and the SUB - the ADULT in charge of her classroom told the kids not to hand it in to hold on to it. She told them they shouldn't have listened to the sub and they are LUCKY they are getting any credit at all. Can you see the fire coming out my ears????

She also told them she would proof their scripts and edit their first draft of their taped commercial. Well she was out all last week. She comes in today and says project due tomorrow, no editing from her. I am all for respecting and backing teachers but when they pull stuff like this NO WAY! I have an email sent out to her and I know other moms are calling and emailing too. Families had to drop everything! We were welcomed at one of the boys in his groups home and his mom and I carpooled (whoever heard of having a project where you had to get 5 teenagers together outside of school with working families etc. that is insane!) the boys, I prepped all the food when Nic called me from school and we busted into their home and worked until after 7 and her husband very nicely offered to finish editing the project. They even had to cancel an FHE they had planned with another family.

My blood is still boiling. Did I mention today was my birthday and that makes my blood boil more???? And my stomach is still not functioning at 100% and that makes my blood boil even more????

Justin

I Love Justin! He's so darn cute I could just eat him up!

I LOVE to spend my days with him. I love how he loves to do flashcards of ABC and sounds. I love how he loves to count to 100. I love how he wants everything put away neatly. I love how he pulls a chair up to the island and wants to help me bake and cook. I love how when he writes his little tongue sticks out of his mouth. I love his tiny voice buried in his arm when he says prayer at dinner and thanks Heavenly Father for EVERYTHING including the salt and pepper on the table :). I love how he LOVES his big brother and runs to greet his dad when he gets home from work. I love how he still cuddles and tells me he loves me to the moon and back 1 thousand times.

But, I am not liking his waking up at 10pm and "visiting" with me until after midnight for the past 3 nights. What's up with that? At 10pm it is my time, everyone here is asleep, it is my unwind, reading time that I relish and keeps me sane... Did I say that is my sanity time????

Happy Easter

It is wonderful to have a teenager. While I put the baskets together Nic and ALex filled the eggs. I hid 1/2 the eggs downstairs and gave the other 1/2 to Nic to hide upstairs. He must of spend an hour placing them just right for Justin (Nic hunted too but was intent on making this special for his brother). He had paths of eggs leading places and left the biggest egg on Justin's night stand to find when he woke up.

Justin is such a fun age this year and was so excited to wake up and find eggs all over the house! He took off like a shot gathering then until he couldn't hold anymore and shouting for his brother.

The kids both got practical things from the bunny, an outfit, bathingsuit, socks, book and our family gift was BINGO.

We had a quiet time calling family and wishing them Happy Easter. Then we had guests, Alex's friend from one of his old part-time jobs and his wife and son came over to visit.

Dinner was untraditional for us but I wanted to keep it simple, Alex made a sausage quiche with a hashbrown crust, bacon, danish, muffins, lunchmeats, rolls, veggies & dip, eggrolls, pizza bites, mozz sticks, pepperoni and cheese, strawberries, pecan pie and homemade carrot cake. I called it a brunch and munch...