Saturday, December 26, 2009

Cookies, kittens, and Christmas



We had another successful Christmas with once again our kids getting too much. Brad seems to over do it with the boys. I am not a whole lot better. That just means our boys get spoiled. Brad mentioned on Christmas eve as I was telling him that we had over done it again, that he remembers a Christmas where all he got was a model of the space shuttle. I asked him if he was sad and he said yes. I guess he doesn't ever want our boys to feel the same way he did that Christmas.

Tanner got a kitten for Christmas. Penny isn't real sure how to feel about her. She keeps hissing at Penny and she just turns her head. I told the boy that is what you do when a bully is picking on you. Our new little family member is a bully, but very cute. She is perfect for Tanner. He said, "She plays with me and she lays in my lap when I play video games." Who could ask for more.

I spent one whole day baking cookies. It was fun. The boys didn't help me this year and I had picked out a cute recipe for some snowman cookies. They enjoyed eating them though. We have one more Christmas today with my mom and sister. Then we will be going shopping so the boys can spend their Christmas money. I am not looking forward to the malls.


We got to talk to Kyle on Christmas day. He sounded really good. It is crazy that he isn't able to talk to his family but once a year. It was nice hearing from him and he seemed happy. He will be gone for another year and a half. That is a really long time to go with out seeing your family. I don't think I could do it.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Whiz Kids

This six weeks has been a very trying time for my boys. Their grades are not real good. Tanner went a week with no ADD medication, so I can kind of explain that. In fact last week was the week with no meds. We practiced his spelling words during the week and he knew them. I got his test back yesterday and he made a 45 on the test. He didn't even do that bad the first time I quizzed him. I asked him what happened and he said, "I don't know I guess the words just fell out of my head." No joke buddy!

Mason is failing math at the moment. I talked to his teacher and she said he doesn't understand adding and subtracting mixed fractions with and without regrouping. She asked me if I know how to do this. Well, let's see, the last time I did this was ummmmm........6th grade!!! I don't know. The good news is school has come a long way. All the textbooks are online. I got online and there is a man that walks you through how to do the problems step by step. I did the tutorial and then took the online quiz. I will have you know I made a 100. I then had Mason take the quiz and walked him through it step by step and he seemed to understand much better. He then took a quiz and made a 25. This was better than the 0 he made before the tutoring. Last night we spent the night redoing the two quizzes and I tried to make sure he really understood. He had a test today. When he got home I asked him how he did and he said he didn't finish. I asked how he thought it was and he said some were easy and some weren't. He is just so full of details! The results of this test will determine if he stays in preAP math or if he needs to change classes. In the meantime if you need any help adding or subtracting mixed fractions just give me a call!

Snow in Katy

Christmas is fast approaching. Last Friday it actually snowed in Houston. It was so much fun. As I was on my way to work I noticed snow flurries mixed with the rain. As the morning went on it really began to snow, big flakes too. I have lived in the Houston area my entire life. I can only remember it snowing once when I was a child. I was spending the night with a friend and when we woke up it was snowing. Her mom wouldn't let us go outside and play so I decided it was time to go home. I went home and played in the snow with my brother and sister. The first year I taught in 92 it snowed. The school had a fire drill so everyone would go out and see it. I actually had a little girl cry because she didn't understand what was coming out of the sky. Christmas eve when Tanner was 3 it snowed. It was so nice and a very nice Christmas gift. The boys were so excited. Last year it snowed but didn't really stick. Then it snowed this year. So here I am 40 years old and I have only seen snow a handful of times. This is why we get so excited around here when it does snow. I don't think I would like living where it snows all the time, but it is fun for a short time. When I say a short time I mean a short time. It snowed enough to cover the roofs and ground. We got out of school about 2 hours early. I was so excited to get home and take some pictures of the boys in the snow, but when I drove up it had already melted. Bummer!