First Day Of Preschool

Nathan started preschool yesterday.  He is in the same class this year as last year.  It's the 2yr old class.  The reason I didn't move him up to the 3yr old class this year with all of his classmates from last year, is because he doesn't turn three until the middle of September.  Follow me here... His birthday is in the middle of September, so when he starts Kindergarten they will require him to be five years old on or before September first.  By keeping him in the 2 year old class one more year, he will be on track to enter Kindergarten after PK4. ( Another good reason to hold him back is that he is not even remotely potty trained.  Not for lack of trying on my part, either!  This boy thinks it's great fun to pee in underpants.  We went through four pairs of underpants within an hour the last time we tried to potty train.  He thought it was a game, and the object was to pee in as many places in the house as possible.  So, we will try again in another month or so.)  Since he is in the same class as last year, he has the same teachers, and is in the same class room, so he's right at home.  He LOVES school!  He walked right in yesterday like he owned the place!  He acted like he hadn't just had an entire summer off, like it was just another day at school!  I'm so grateful for that!!  I LOVE him to be in school!!  He got to wear his two favorite characters to school, which made him very happy.  Lightening McQueen, and Mario!  Can't get much better than that!   

Education Snob

We are just finishing the second week of this school year, so it is probably premature to say that everyone is doing well in school.  The kids seem happy, so that's good.  I have some issues, though.   I don't think my children are getting a very good education. 
There are things that have been bothering me, from Annalise not being able to preform basic addition without counting on her fingers, and not knowing place value, but still getting straight A's all year last year;  To Gabriel not being able to write complete sentences,  or know how to spell his brother's name, but being recommended for advanced language arts.  Or how about Gabriel not knowing the difference between a state and a country, and not knowing the names of all 50 states in the country he lives in, but making it to advanced Geography this year?  Then, of course, there was the beginning of the year welcome letter from Gabriel's "advanced" language arts teacher that was riddled with grammatical errors.
 I've been concerned with Annalise's lack of understanding, and memorization, in math for the past two years.  I've spoken with her teachers for the past two years about getting her extra help, and they've both said that she is doing fine.  It irritates me to no end to know that the problems and frustrations she will have this year, in fourth grade, could have been addressed in the second and third grades if her teachers hadn't blown me off.  I know, I should have trusted my instinct and gotten her extra help anyway.  At the beginning of 3rd grade, her teacher announced that the students are no longer made to memorize multiplication facts.  At the beginning of 4th grade, the same teacher, (who moved up with the class from last year), announced that the students will be responsible for memorizing their multiplication facts, as it will help them to complete the type of problems they will be doing this year.  Oh, do you really think so???  Don't get me wrong, I really like this teacher.  I was happy to hear he was going to move up with the class.  Annalise loves him!  He is very charismatic and does a wonderful job with the kids.  However, he is a product of the system, and the system says, "teach the big bad test, so the kids do well on it, and we get funding."  I am so over FCAT, or CRCT, or MEAP, or TAAS, or whatever the 'big bad test' is in your state.  It's not helping anyone. 
I haven't been overly happy with the junior high that Gabriel goes to, as a whole.  The administration has never impressed me, and as I indicated previously, the language arts and geography teachers are idiots.  I do, however, like his band teacher.  I think she is a phenomenal gem in the dung heap that is that school.  His science teacher this year, and the two math teachers he's had have also been very good. 
The question that has been on my mind for the past two weeks is this:  What can I do to give my children a better education than the one they are currently getting?  There are a few options.  Private school, homeschool, virtual school. 
Private school is expensive, especially with two kids.  A good private school is also quite a drive from where we are.  I know that with tuition assistance, we could probably scrape by and send them both.  I would also drive across town if it meant my kids were getting a rock solid education.
Homeschool is a non-option for us.  I know homeschooling works very well for some, but we just don't work together the way children and parents need to work together in order for homeschooling to be successful. 
Virtual school is a whole new thing to me.  Florida has a program called Florida Virtual School.  http://melearning.flvs.net/?gclid=CPiHztSq_rECFQSEnQodtkYA4A
I looked at this as an option for Annalise's math class, but much to my chagrin, they only offer classes for middle school and high school students.  I did, however, find a few classes that I believe would greatly benefit Gabriel if he were to take one at a time as a supplement to his normal schooling. 
http://issuu.com/fdgcreative/docs/flvs-course-catalog?mode=embed&layout=http://skin.issuu.com/v/light/layout.xml&showFlipBtn=true
Using the link above, find the course entitled, "M/J Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Learning" on the right hand side.  If you click on that page, it will zoom in so it's easier to read.  Read the course description.  That is the first class I would love Gabriel to take.  All of the language arts and social studies type classes look like great classes for him to take as well, but I'm pretty sure I can't "a la carte" his normal school, and fill in the blanks with this virtual school.   If I could, I'd keep him at LAJH half the day for band, math, and science, and have him home doing virtual school for language arts, and social studies.  In a perfect world, that would work!  Since this isn't a perfect world, I think we will just supplement the crappy education he is getting with these on line courses.
None of this fixes Annalise's math woes, though.  For the time being, Steve and I are going to have a meeting with her teacher and tell him that we want her to have extra help.  If that doesn't work, plan B is to look into private schools. 
What would you do?  I would LOVE suggestions!!

First Day of School 2012-13

Gabriel and Annalise started back to school last Tuesday.  Gabriel is now in 8th grade.  Annalise is now in 4th grade.  So far, each of them like their new classes. I can only hope it stays that way all year!!

Sleepy Leesie, trying to get ready.

All ready to head off to 4th grade!

My big 8th grader.  He was really irritated that I wanted to take a picture of him on his way to the bus stop.

He was even more irritated when I wouldn't stop taking pictures!  I live to irritate my children.  :-D

Logbook for Houston Trip

Vanity, Oh Vanity

The kids and I went to Houston the last week of July to visit family and friends.  We left on a Tuesday, and came back on a Tuesday because for some reason, it's cheaper to fly on Tuesday than any other day of the week.   More about the nuttiness of air travel later.  The week and weekend before we left, I did what I do best.  I procrastinated.  The Monday morning before we left, I decided that I didn't want to go visit family and friends with my roots showing, so I went to Fantastic Sam's to get my roots colored, and to get a trim.  I should add here that at this point, on this Monday morning, less than 24 hours before we are scheduled to leave town, I still had three loads of laundry waiting to be done, and the suit cases hadn't even been pulled out of the closet yet.  Naturally, instead of staying home and doing laundry and packing, I headed out to Fantastic Sam's to get my hair did. 
I've been to Fantastic Sam's four times in the last 8 months, and I really like how they do my color and how they cut my hair.  It always looks nice when they are finished.  The draw back to this is that it takes a LONG time.  I'm usually there for a little over two hours.  Another thing they do at Fantastic Sam's is waxing.  The last couple of times I've gone, I've also had my eyebrows waxed, and they do a really great job!  It's barely even red where they had the wax, and they follow my instructions to just clean up my brows, not make them pencil thin.  On this Monday morning, less than 24 hours before we are scheduled to leave town, I decide that my eyebrows could look better, and since I'm getting my hair done, I'll go ahead and get my eyebrows done too.  I'm going to look FABULOUS for all the family and friends that we are going to see! 
I can't say what the problem was, if the wax was too hot, or if the technician just put it down too low, but something bad happened.  I think the technician put the wax too low, but my friend, Lynn, thinks the wax was too hot.  Whatever the reason, a couple of layers of skin was torn from my eyelids that morning.  I am here to tell you that that is one of the most painful things that has ever happened to me!  And I've had three babies, and two surgeries!  I think it's so painful because of where it is.  There is no way to keep your eyelids still while they are healing.
 It took a little over three hours, instead of a little over two, for my hair and eyebrows to be finished on this particular day.  My hair looked good, like it always does, when I walked out of there.  My eyebrows looked nice and clean.  My eyelids were bleeding.  Now that's attractive!!  I wanted to look good for the trip to Houston, and all the visiting.  What I looked like was a bloody eyed crazy person!  I couldn't wear any make up the whole week we were there, and my eyelids scabbed right over. 
At this point, on this Monday afternoon, less than 17 hours before we are supposed to be leaving town, I STILL had three loads of laundry to do, and the suit cases had STILL not been taken out of the closet.  I returned home in full blown panic mode, with throbbing eyelids.  Don't worry, I got the laundry finished, and I got us all packed up and ready to go.  We even made it to the airport ahead of schedule! 
The moral of the story is this:  If you insist on primping and preening before you go to see people you haven't seen in a while, do it the week before you leave, not the day before!  Vanity will bite you in the tookus if you procrastinate.

Irritations of Air Travel

I love to fly!  I took my first airline flight when I was 20 years old, and it was a trans Atlantic flight.  I loved it!  I have loved every flight I've ever taken.  Even the bumpy, scary flights are great!  I just love to fly!  I would prefer to fly rather than drive anywhere that's more than a 4 hour drive away.  When Steve worked for Delta Airlines, we would fly to places all the time.  Well, much more frequently than we do now, which is only about once or twice a year, depending on who's willing to kick in for the outrageous prices of the tickets.  I have only been on four flights in my entire life without any children in tow.  What I mean is, I'm very used to flying with children.  We've got the security thing down.  We've got the boarding thing down.  We've got the potty thing down.  The kids and I are well versed in flying together. 
I noticed a few things on the four flights, (two flights to get there, two flights to get back), required for our Houston trip.  These are things that I haven't noticed before.  These are things that have either just started in the past few years, or I've been oblivious to them in the past.  These things are extremely irritating.  The first thing I noticed is that passengers are awful people.  In the movie, Men In Black, Tommy Lee Jones has this line:  "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." 
This sentiment can be applied directly to airline passengers as well. One passenger is kind, and has a soul.  The entire plane of passengers has no sense of right or wrong, are selfish to the point of absurdity, and collectively think the rules don't apply to them.  People!  I know that it's ridiculous that the airlines charge you to check your bags.  I know this!  I ALWAYS have two checked bags, and a car seat to check.  I am well aware of the fees.  No, I don't agree with them either, but they are there, and there isn't anything we can do to change it while we are a passenger.  BRINGING SIX OVER SIZED CARRY ONS WILL NOT FIX THE PROBLEM!!!  All that does is piss everyone else off, which is funny because 90% of the people you're pissing off are doing EXACTLY the same thing!  So the first 20 people on board take up all of the carry on space, and everyone else's six over sized carry ons have to be gate checked, after looking up and down the plane several times in the over head compartments to make extra sure there isn't more space hiding in there somewhere.  WAY TO GO!  Let's hold the entire plane up because we are dingo turds and the rules don't apply to us!  So that's the carry on issue.  The kids and I always have carry ons that we can stow under the seat in front of us, so we can get at our stuff while in the air.  Thank goodness the carry on dingo turds haven't started taking up those spaces too. 
It may seem extreme to pick on the carry on dingo turds this much, but this problem runs into other areas too.  Getting on and off the plane is a huge pain in the neck with all of this luggage stowing going on.  Which brings me to the next thing I noticed.  I noticed that it doesn't matter where a person is sitting on the plane when it's time to get off.  They don't go in order.  People from the back are eager to be in the isle, cutting in front of anyone and everyone in front of them, instead of waiting their turn.  This is something I've always noticed, it just seems more irritating now.  I'm telling my kids, "Wait, it's not our turn yet." and the people behind us are jumping past us.  Are you that much more important than we are??  Then, and this puts the icing on the cake, they hold up the line getting their carry ons out of the over head bins at the front of the plane! 
The last thing I'm going to complain about is leaning your seat back.  Unless you are in first class, please don't do this!!  The person behind you has precious little space, and by leaning your seat back just that little bit, you've successfully eaten up a good portion of it.  Do those two inches really make you that much more comfortable?  I mean, come on!
Ok, I'm finish ranting about my fellow passengers.

Houston At Last

We made it to Houston around lunch time on Tuesday, July 24th.  Bleeding eyelids, and irritating air travelers aside, we were very, very happy, and excited to be there!  We had such a great week with everyone we visited with. 
There were two highlights of the week.  The first was going to Johnson Space Center with our dear friends, the Scalia's.  Of all the times we've been to Houston, we've never gone to the Space Center, this was a first!  The kids LOVED it!!  I LOVED it!!  How could you not love it??  I took a LOT of pictures at the Space Center.  Steve has been in love with the idea of space travel, and NASA since 1981 when the first space shuttle was launched.  He was born and raised in Houston, so NASA was always a BIG part of his life.  His grandparents lived a stones throw from the NASA facility in the 50's and 60's.  His dad and uncle were kids when the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo Projects were going on, and the astronauts would drive down their road to get to the training facility, which was at the end of the street.  When the neighborhood kids, Mike and Parks included, were playing ball in the street and the astronauts drove by, they would stop and talk to the kids a little, instead of just driving by when the kids cleared the road.  NASA is a big part of this family!  It was so sad that Steve wasn't with us for this first time the kids went.  That's why I took so many pictures.  I wanted him to be able to see everything we saw.  I have them all posted on flickr,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/animagusthree/,
if anyone is interested in seeing them.  (Click on the word "Collections" next to my big fat face at the top left of the photostream page.  Then click on the "Houston Trip" collection.)  The kids and I agreed that the next time we go to Houston, Steve has to be with us, and we have to go back to JSC! 
The second highlight of the week was visiting with Steve's dad, step mom, and brother with his family.  We had such a great time, and the food was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!  I was unaware that my brother in law was such an awesome cook!!  Again, everyone missed having Steve there.  He HAS to come with us next time! 
In between those two highlights, we had a really nice, relaxing time with Steve's aunt and uncle, and even some cousins that had come from Austin.  It was a great trip.  As I said earlier, I have not only the JSC pictures on flickr, but all the pictures we took while we were in Houston. 

Epilogue:  House of Horrors

As great as our trip to Houston was, it was nice to get home.  It was nice, that is, until we walked in the door.  Three things greeted us when we walked in the door. 
1.  The laminate flooring in the kitchen was buckled and warped, as if it had been water damaged.  But it was completely dry.
2.  There was a horrible smell in the pantry.
3.  There was a gash in the pool liner, above the water line, that was about four inches long. 
What in the world happened while we were gone?? 
I was able to figure out what was going on with the smell in the pantry.  A bag of potatoes was rotting, and stinking it all up in there.  I've never had a bag of potatoes rot before.  WOW!  What a horrible smell!! 
It took me another day and a half to figure out what was going on with the floor.  The A/C unit is in a closet near the entry of the kitchen.  It was leaking.  It had been leaking the whole time we were gone, and all the water was going under the flooring.  That's why the laminate tiles were warped and buckled, but completely dry on top.  Thank God we have American Home Shield!  I called them, and they sent a technician out and he fixed the problem.  We had a colossal algae clog that was caused by the pipes there at the unit going up, instead of down.  The technician took the old pipes off and put new ones in, going down, instead of up.  That also took care of the clog problem.  Our land lord is still working on replacing the damaged flooring. 
I still have no idea how the gash in the pool liner happened, but it's gotten exponentially bigger over the last couple of weeks.  The bottom line on that is that we need a new liner, this one is just too old and falling apart.  Our land lord is taking care of that as well.  Have I mentioned that we have the best land lord in the history of land lords??  He's actually a good friend of ours.  He and Steve have worked together for years, both here, and in Atlanta.  He and Steve were over seas together while all of this madness was going on, as a matter of fact.  I told them both that they can't be gone at the same time anymore!  One of them has to be here at all times!  They both agreed.