Maria's Christmas Walk Dance

Thanksgiving 2009

Grandparents with grandkids.


The annual turkey picture.


Making the Pilgrim hats dessert on Wednesday night.


We had another wonderful Thanksgiving this year. We hosted, and all family members were able to make it - Ben's parents, my parents, and my sister Wendy and her family. Dinner was great, the kids had time to play together, and many of the adults squeezed in a game of Mexican Train. And now we're ready for the Christmas season!

Trying to do the Right Thing

I'd like to think I'm a pretty reasonable person. I make important decisions after careful thought. I try not to be swayed when the media goes crazy and makes the public paranoid.

I didn't lose sleep over the H1N1 craziness. I didn't decide my children must have H1N1 when they were sick in October. We did call the Dr., however, and let them make the call on whether or not my kids needed to be seen (they did) and whether or not they had the flu (they didn't). I researched the H1N1 vaccine and asked our Dr. her opinion. We decided to be safe and have our kids get vaccinated against this virus that most likely won't be much worse than most, but has the potential to be. Shouldn't that have been the hard part?

But even though the vaccine is now available for children with no additional risks in our county, we still can't get it. Why? Because we are responsible working adults who can't get in line between 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Our county has a ticket system (kind of like Fast Pass at Disney World) where you wait to get a ticket, and the ticket gives you a time to come back for the shot. The vaccinations are given between 1 and 7 p.m., so that kids don't have to miss school. But if you can't break free from work for a two hour span in the middle of the day to get your ticket, you can't get the vaccine.

You would think they would have a plan for people like us. Or bring the vaccines directly to the schools, like originally planned (too high volume expected to be able to come to Fairbanks, they said). Or have the clinic tomorrow, when all the schools in the county are off, and more people would be able to go (the only clinic in the last two weeks is today). You cannot get the vaccine without a ticket, even if you're willing to wait in the endless line. And you can't send someone other than an immediate family member to get the ticket. And they sometimes cancel the clinics, so if I use one of my precious personal days to get the ticket, they may cancel and then I've wasted a day. And we can't use sick leave.

So I want to do what's right. And not only because I am concerned about the health of my children (although that is my main concern), but becuase being in a school I understand how a vaccinated population can help stop the spread of disease. And I don't want to feel as if we need to be housebound this winter so no one gets sick. So I guess we'll just keep washing our hands, using hand sanitizer, and hoping for the best. Because at this rate, I seriously doubt anyone in my house will be getting vaccinated.

Weekly Update

This week has been so crazy that I just realized I haven't update the blog in a while. So here's what's been happening:

Basement clean-up continues. We got rid of another van full of stuff, and have gone through the majority of toys/games/books. There is still stuff in the back room that will probably go but we need to wait until Christmas decorations have been gotten out and then put back, since everything back there will have to be crunched and stacked into corners for the actual finishing project. Other than that and some furniture that will need to go, we're in pretty good shape.

Sam had a fall on Wednesday that turned out a little worse than his usual falls. He jumped off the pool table in the basement, hit a piece of styrofoam on the way down, and I'm pretty sure he landed with his 2nd toe curled under his foot. They iced it when it happened (Ben was home with the kids), and didn't think too much more about it. He was limping, but every time we looked at the toe it didn't really look bad. Plus he can be quite the drama king about his injuries.

But the when he got up Thursday morning, he was still limping and in some pain. Now the toe looked purple and swollen somewhat. So we gave him Motrin, put his largest shoe on the foot loosely, and I walked him to school (per his request which never happens) to tell his teacher about it and get him a free pass to sit out gym if he needed to. Throughout the day at school, some colleagues had me convinced we should get an x-ray in case he broke a bone higher in his foot. But by after school, he was walking much better, and the swelling has gone down. This morning it looks more purple but less swollen, and his limp is still much better than yesterday. So we're assuming nothing is broken. We're just going to keep our eye on it for now. It would be nice if I could say I think he learned a lesson about his reckless behavior, but I'm pretty sure he did not.

The kids are spending the weekend at Rita and Darrell's so Ben and I can Christmas shop - I've been spending evenings developing our plan of attack, and hopefully get the kids stuff completely done on Saturday. Tonight we are going out with Andy and Lisa for a much needed break. Both Ben and I have had very stressful weeks at work and our looking forward to having a relaxing weekend!

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Wow - this is Post #500. In less than 2 years. That's a lot of writing.

Anyway, last night Ben and I had parent/teacher conferences for Maria and Sam. And it's official, we have two pretty awesome kids.

Maria's in 5th grade now, and almost to the age where we will stop going to conferences unless there is a problem. This is her last year at the elementary, and when she starts middle school next year they do conferences in a completely different way. Anyway, Maria's teacher Mr. Fillman had nothing but good things to say about Maria's academic ability, work ethic, and broad vocabulary. And she's friendly and gets along with everybody. We spent part of the time discussing what he can do to challenge her a little more. No surprises, but always great to hear.

Next we went downstairs to see Mrs. Dulle, Sam's first grade teacher. When we finally got in (she was running behind), she said, "this will be a good conference to end on." We took that as a good sign. Academically, Sam is doing great. Reading is his best subject - according to his recent testing, he's reading at the level they should be at the end of the year, and maybe better, but they're not allowed to test any higher than that yet. He's moved up into a higher reading group as well. Math he does well - I have been concerned because his tests are showing that he is missing some things that I know he can do in the homework. But they're careless mistakes, and getting him to take his time and check things over is probably a battle I will be fighting for a long time. His Chapter 3 test is today, we'll see what happens. And although he hates to write, he can do it pretty well when he has no other choice in the matter. From doing his homework with him each evening, I agree that in the last few weeks everything has started to really click.

His behavior is what I was most concerned about. She said he is doing well, but had some issues at the beginning of the year, but was not specific about what those issues were. I think it just took a couple of weeks for him to get into the routine, and learn to control his behavior a little more. Twice he has had to "move his clip," the most recent being Wednesday when another boy put soap on his face in the bathroom and Sam grabbed him from behind because he was mad. Sam has always had trouble controlling his temper when someone does something to him, and so we talked with him about it. But when I remember some of the issues he had in his Pre-K classroom three years ago, I become very thankful at how far he's come.

Mrs. Dulle also mentioned that he sometimes seems almost unhappy at school, that he seems to keep his emotions inside. She said he is not very often outwardly happy. I'm not sure what to make of that, although he does tell me he doesn't really like school, he never argues about having to go in the morning. I think he's just a very active little boy, and sitting in school for 6 hours of his day is not what he wants to be doing. From my experience as a teacher and especially as a parent to a son, I have a pretty good understanding of how schools seems to be the opposite of what a boy would rather be doing. So as long as he behaves himself and continues to excel academically, I'm not going to worry about it - he's pretty happy and very active at home.

Basement Clean-Up Has Begun

And it's going to be a huge job. Huge. But it will be so sweet when it's finished.

After talking to two contractors in the last month and done hours of research on ways to finish basements, Ben and I decided to go with traditional dry-wall, but to include a self-starting propane generator in the package. The only time we've ever had water in the basement is when the power has gone out during a storm and we have not been here, resulting in the basement flooding when the sump pump stops. It seemed much more economical to do traditional dry wall with the propane generator then to go with the super-duper water resistant panels, which cost over twice the price of drywall. We are also adding a half bath, which is important if we want to use the basement as a guest room as well. The trade off to getting the bathroom is not finishing the entire space, but about half of the space, with the other half divided into a storage area and a game area (for pool table, Foosball table, etc).

The contractors can't get started until right after the first of the year, so that gives us plenty of time to get things in order down there. But we want to donate all the toys (and there are SO MANY toys) so that Goodwill will have them for Christmas shoppers. We are trying to emphasize with the kids the importance of giving toys they no longer need to kids who may not be as fortunate. Maria and Sam are each allowed to keep their one toy box, and everything they want to keep (excluding board games) has to fit in that toy box. Sam had one big and two smaller toy boxes filled with stuff, and we went through almost all of it tonight. He's doing much better than I thought he would getting rid of toys. And Maria has been great, too, doing her own toys and helping with other stuff as well. Without her leadership, Sam wouldn't be helping much at all.

We've spent the last two evenings down there, and have made a lot of progress. But we still have a long way to go. And there are piles everywhere - to be donated to Goodwill, to Kinder Paws at school (especially craft stuff), to be thrown away, and the growing pile of stuff we're not sure what to do with. It's difficult because everything will need to be stored in the unfinished part while the work is going on, and we just don't have enough boxes to put everything in. And the kids both have a friend spending the night on Friday, so we have to get everything somewhat organized so that they have room to play down there. It's the vision of the newly finished basement that keeps me motivated to go down there and keep going. And I'll feel so relieved when the cleaning up is done.

Band on Front Page of Paper

The Fairbanks marching band is going to state marching band competition today for the first time in the school's history. And that was a story worthy of the front page of the Thursday's Marysville Journal Tribune. I was going to scan the picture and story, but Ben took it to school to hang on the bulletin board before I had the chance. A shortened version of the story is at the following link - soon I hope to post the entire story here.

http://www.marysvillejt.com/web/index.php?sid=50&id=6570

Report Cards!

Click on each image to enlarge.

Still a Winner to Us

Today was election day. And yes, the state issues, school board members, and assorted taxes were on the ballot. But the important election in this house was the Fairbanks Elementary Student Council election.

Each 4th and 5th grade classroom chose two representatives to be on Student Council. A couple of weeks ago Maria was excited to report that she and her good friend Lily were chosen as the representatives for their class. As representatives, they have the option to run for a student council office, but if they lose, they still keep their representative status. Maria had the paper for a week, and finally decided to run for secretary the night before the paper was due (Lily was running for Treasurer). That weekend and following week, she worked hard on campaign posters and her speech. I helped her color posters and both Ben and I helped her with the speech. She spent time practicing her speech (shown on live video to entire student body), and I'm certain hers was better written then the other two candidates' speeches. Maria really felt that the office of secretary played to her strengths and she was obviously the best person for the job. Opponents included her nemesis Cami and a 4th grade girl (who is a good kid but always has next year)!

When the results came in, Cami won the election (although it was close). Maria was pretty upset. It's a tough lesson - she knows she would be better in the office than Cami, and worse, she told me that almost no one in the 5th grade likes Cami, so she doesn't know how she lost to her. I truly think the loss was harder to take when she lost to someone with the opposite personality than she has herself. (To give you the Cami-Maria history would be another blog post, but let me just say that Maria doesn't really like Cami but she winds up doing everything Maria does). But probably a good life lesson - Maria doesn't lose much. That is another likely reason this loss hurt so badly. She still is a part of student council - just not as an officer. And Lily lost as well, so at least they have each other. We told her how proud of her we were for trying, shared stories of elections we've both lost, and encouraged her to continue to be herself.

But boy, the first time you learn first hand about how unfair popularity is can be rough. And I would be lying if I didn't admit that this loss has been hard on me too - I just want her to have everything she wants.

Trick or Treat 2009

Last night was Trick or Treat, and for the first time since we've had kids, I think, it was on a Saturday night. Everything was easier with it being a Saturday - from not rushing around getting homework and everything done before we went, to not having to rush kids to bed when we got home. And we also had a little get-together with the Smiths afterward, allowing us to catch up (you would think living next door we would see each other all the time but we haven't seen them in over a month!) and the kids had a blast playing in the basement. They stayed until 11:00 (with the time change, it was really only 10:00, right?), and not once did any kid have any kind of meltdown, which may be some kind of record.

As usual, we started trick-or-treating with the surrounding neighbors. We always start by taking pictures on our porch, then going to the Smiths where we take pictures of all four kids, then on to their next door neighbors, our next door neighbors, and the Nicols across the street. And everyone gives the kids gift bags, not just candy, which is so thoughtful. Then we head home, drop off the loot, load all 8 of us in the van (no small feat given the size of Maria's dress, Lindsey's wings, and Sam's proton pack), and head to Milford Center for a more traditional trick or treat experience. The weather was pretty good - a little cold but no wind or rain, and we spent about an hour walking up and down streets until the kids were cold and tired and were ready to head back.

Another fun Halloween for all. I only wish it didn't mean November is here and with it, the inevitable arrival of winter weather and darkness.