Sunday, September 14, 2008

Last week

So the new schedule last week went nicely. I was a tad sore and tired (stupid Aunt Flo!) on Thursday so we took the day off and just lazed about.

I have been very impressed with the kids sticking to the schedule and doing their chores and school work. Jock fights it and mutters, but does a good job of keeping up with his on-line school. Cryptic spent a lot of time with the younger two and they were just tickled. When he has limited time that he is permitted to spend doing his writing and (we had been allowing him HOURS every day and that has been drastically altered) surfing the net, he actually enters in on their games and they love his input and ideas for the games they make up and play together. The three of them spent a good amount of time out on the trampoline this week.

Clown was nervous about his gymnastics class this past Monday at noon. His coach is Russian and quite hard to understand because of the accent and also because he speaks very quietly. Clown went out onto the mats and started the warm up with everyone else. Soon he was smiling and talking quietly with the other boys. He didn't want me to take any pictures but I told him I wouldn't do it often, I just wanted some from his first class.

When they got to the rings, he was the only one who was able to just jump up from below and grab them. THEN, he was also the only one who held his body the way the coach was showing them. I felt bad for some of the other boys, they gave up and were nears tears. Clown just seemed to be a natural.




His coach told him to pull a big thing over to use to stand on so that he can jump up and reach the rings. Of course he is waving me away and saying, "NO PICTURES!" LOL





Explaining that he needs to jump up there and grab on...but first...













You will want to use some chalk on your hands so you don't slip...














WOW! You got up there the first try! Now try and grab with the other hand...















Excellent!



He just loved it and says he wants to try a few more times. At one point they were by the bars trying to do a "Pull Up" I think they said it is called. You hold on with just your hands and then try and just pull your entire body under and up and over the bar by lifting with your legs and core. The kids were struggling and struggling and the mothers were all saying how hard it is. One mother, whose kids have taken classes there for a LONG TIME said "It usually takes about a year before they can do it. It is REALLY difficult". Right after she said that, we all saw Clown flip himself over! We sat there shocked for a split second and then all the mothers and I started hooting and hollering and clapping and yelling "YAY CLOWN!!!"


Of course he went today again (was convinced he was going to vomit on the way there *sigh* but got himself calmed down once he got on the mats) and Jock and Princess came to watch him. I would rather it just be time with him and me on the drive to and from. However, he asked them to come and watch him and they were excited to see him in class. There is a class for girls going on at the same time that Princess wants to be in. I told her she is in too many things right now, this is just for Clown. She wants to drop something so she can do gymnastics! I told her once some of her eight week sessions are done, she can start this. Jock actually may join Clown in class next month. We can pay month by month and the woman who set it up from our Home Schooling Assoc. got us a screaming deal!

So Princess and Jock were impressed with Clown's abilities also. They enjoyed watching him and he was so proud to have them there:) Was cute, one time as Clown was walking past with the rest of the boys, Jock waved and just said, "Hey Clown!" and Clown beamed and looked a bit shy and waved back but was too shy to say anything back to him:)

Princess is loving her ballet and hip hop. Our Sugar cube pyramid didn't turn out that great last Monday, but that is OK, now we are onto Sumeria and working on other things with clay. Trying to make a "Sumerian Seal". We shall see how that goes!

I open up a local clubhouse for our Friday morning Science Class now. Cryptic and Jock have taken it for years and now Clown and Princess get to try. Their class is first and I have keys and meet the teacher there.


Of course Clown was a nervous wreck before class on Friday. Once he got settled and Brian started talking and teasing Princess, Clown settled right in. He raised his hand and spoke up many times and didn't even flip out or get upset when one time Brian called on him and Clown ventured, "Mandibles??" and Brian said no, that's wasn't quite right. Normally Clown would have shut down then and there and never volunteered an answer again. Not this time! We are making progress! He took it in stride and within a few minutes was answering Brian's questions again and doing his sweet shy look whenever he got something right. Which was most of the time! They are learning about insects and Clown always reads up on them. So he knew a lot of the material but of course learned plenty of new information as well. He came running inside after class and flew straight to Stud's office downstairs and told him all about the class. Again, he says he will continue all year, no need to quit after the first eight week session:)

Clown will start piano lessons soon and Cryptic is resuming his violin lessons from years ago. Princess is starting violin as well. Jock isn't playing an instrument at present.

Jock is having a good time on his new hockey team. He is Bantam this year and has five girls on his team!!! The most he has had before in one season is two, so this is different. They played their first game this past Sunday. We had issues with try-outs for the AAA team, but I won't get into that here. Maybe I mentioned it?? I don't recall.

Cryptic is taking a writing class on Fridays at 2PM, so we hope that goes well. He is not sure about sharing any of the stuff he is currently working on, since he hopes to publish it one day. I said we could just get people to sign a non-disclosure agreement! LOL He said he will just get more ideas and use those, but he really enjoys the class. Just something to help him move along and really get going with his ideas. He has amazing ideas and shares them with me on our daily walks. I can't keep up with all of them! He is really a gifted writer.

He bought a new book the other night and sucked it right down. I am going to go cuddle in bed and finish it. I started it yesterday and it is freaky how similar it is to some of the ideas Cryptic has had for his stories!

Enough rambling for now. Hope everyone had a lovely week!

Monday, September 08, 2008

Fall Schedule

So today is the first day of our new fall schedule. I only have 12 minutes of computer time left, so we shall see how fast I can spit out all my news!

Cryptic showers now, as the other kids clean up from breakfast. Cryptic and I got up and went for an hour long walk and then came back and made breakfast. He poured juice, cut up strawberries and warmed up muffins while I toasted toast and scrambled eggs. The younger two should be starting their independent school work while Jock does his few chores for Mondays.

Clown has gymnastics this morning, so that should be interesting. He is very nervous and a friend and I have gone through all kinds of drama and stress and nonsense to get our boys in this class with our Home Schooling group. Both our sons need a very small group of kids.

Jock got his lap-top for his on-line school. I am not sure where it is based (can't recall at this moment) but they don't seem to have their act together. I actually have a pretty bad feeling about how this year will go.


This is a different place than the one we used last year for Cryptic. They sent him his lap-top and got him all set up. Then they called and were frantic this past Friday. They had given us the wrong form for the out of district thingy. So they called our home phone, Stud's cell and my cell and told us they needed us to fax them a different form from our school district. Fine. So I went and got that taken care of. The next day we got a big envelope of stuff from them in the mail. It was the SAME FORMS they sent WEEKS ago that we have already filled out and returned!?!?!? They were saying something about hurry and fill these in so we can get your student registered and connected and ready to do school!??! YIKES!?!?

So here is Jock with his lap-top...




Pretending to be mad:)









Much better.










OH NO!!! I am two minutes late! I am now off to Ancient Egypt with Princess and Clown. We have to try and make our pyramid again. We tried to make blocks from sand and glue so it would be more authentic...let's just say that did not work. So we are going to use sugar cubes. We agreed that will be more realistic anyway, since the pyramids all used to be white, but over the centuries, all that was worn off from the desert winds, etc.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

This will take some getting used to!

On Monday I went to my appointment at the sleep disorder clinic. NICE to know I have a "disorder".

It took about 5 minutes. I got home and showed everyone my lovely new mask. Ya wanna know the FIRST THING out of Stud's mouth??

"I am sleeping with Darth Vader". He said he was going to get a photo of me wearing it and post it on his blog. I asked how he could do that when I will wake up if he tries to take a photo, since I sleep so lightly. We both thought at the same time, well if this thing does it's job, I will sleep SOUNDLY. All I can say is that he had BETTER NOT!

So it worked a lot better than the first one except it makes my nose itchy and I need to keep on reaching under the mask to scratch it. When I do that, it is very loud as the suction around my face is broken. So I lasted until about 2 AM Tuesday morning and around the same time this morning. My goal is to last until 4 AM by Saturday.


They all say it takes some people a week or two to get really used to it all. My friend who started using one four years ago said it took her a week to notice a difference in sleeping better, so I am assuming part of that was training herself to actually keep the dang thing on all night! The people at the clinic told me to just do it as long as I can and work my way to eventually keeping it on all night.

Below you will find some photos of the mask itself and then where I keep it. Note the machine on my lovely night stand...it is small and compact but I would still rather it not take up that room. You can keep them on the floor, but you need a longer hose so I will see what I decide to do. I would think it would get pretty dusty and dirty sitting on the carpet by someone's bed...

And yes, I have stuffed animals on my bed...Poor Stud! He handles it quite well though:) I see now that my poor bunny is missing a slipper! OH NO! I need to go look for that.








Hopefully soon I will have something more exciting to post about!