Tradition Continue

For Halloween this year Ms. R decided to be a life guard and B-Man picked out a zebra costume. They both looked pretty darn cute. I will endeavor to get into Walmart to upload the pictures later this week.
Our yearly Halloween tradition is going to the local mall where they have trick or treating, games and activities. It's a nice place to go most years because it's usually a little cooler this time of year and it's always nice to have a place to go where the costumes can be on display. Usually we'll go to a few houses around the neighborhood just so the kids get the of what trick or treating should be about.
This year was unusually warm, staying up near twenty till almost 8:30pm. So after we got back from the mall, I fed Ms. R supper (again) she and I headed out for the neighborhood crawl. B-Man was DONE by that time so he stayed home with Jerry. This year there was a pathetic number of kids out trick or treating. When we were out and about at 7:30, she was the first child most of the houses in the neighborhood had seen. Which, of course, meant that most of candy people had left in their bags ended up in her basket. She gathered more candy in our neighborhood than both she and B-Man did at the mall.
I think I may have some how passed on a few traits to Ms. R without intention ... such as: When we were out Trick or Treating the couple other kids that were out sometimes cut infront of us by running across peoples lawns instead of using the walk ways. I didn't comment on it because really, there was no point. But after Ms. R had seen this happen twice she remarked, "It sure is rude to run on other people's lawn without asking them first!" Proud moment for me. I guess my annoyance over people on others lawns is that when we lived in Coaldale on a corner lot. People/kids were always running across our lawn, like taking the extra few steps would have killed them! It still hits a sore spot for me.

Mission Accomplished

B-Man has been placed in the district Autism program! This afternoon we had our follow meeting with the district Phd's, diognitians (yeah, I have no idea how to spell that profession), blah blah blah's and their final word is: he's in.
He will be attending the program 5 days a week, three hours a day, year round. Including up to 6 weeks in the summer.
Their prognosis for him is great too. They say because of his high level of intelligence and willingness to mimic they can easily see him being "main streamed" by the time he enters kindergarten in two years.
The only thing I have to get is an affidavit stating I have personal reasons for him not having his shots up to date. Then he'll start school. Which I hope is within the next week.
So now I have 2 1/2 hours a day free on my hands. What to do, what to do? I've decided it's either finish painting the house or come back home and have a nap ;)

Exceeding Expectations

This was the report yesterday at the Parent/Teacher conference with Ms. R's teacher. Ms. Feltman said overall Ms. R is a little gem, a delight to have in the classroom and a quick learner. While we were meeting Ms. R and B-Man played with various centers through out the room, with Ms. R come back to me time and time again to tell me things. Her teacher was obviously baffled and finally asked, "Is she always this talkative with you?" I started laughing and confirmed that she was a little natter box, that when she's in the car with me, I usually don't even turn on the radio because she just starts talking about things she requires a response to. I guess she's very quiet and very obedient in class. Which tells me she's still not entirely comfortable there yet.

Frustration!

A few weeks ago they changed out B-Man's primary teacher and since then, church has been horrific. No seriously, I am not being over dramatic or overstating the issue. Horrific. This week they switched our time slot to the morning, which generally, is great. However, now I have B-Man screaming/tears streaming down his face/drool slobbering down his chin as I put him in his church clothes ... up till we sit down in Sacrament meeting and he realizes he's sitting with me. Then the screaming/tears/drool start up again as I take him to his class, which two of the more dour/stern/angry ladies in the ward have been placed in charge of. I sat with him today until they started doing the coloring part of the lesson, then I headed over to my class. However, just as Relief Society is to start one of his teachers comes into tell me B-Man is once again in hysterics as they've gone into sharing time. So I go into the Primary room where the Primary president is holding him quietly. But as soon as he sees me, he starts bawling again. I spend the next 40 minutes telling him and four other kids to sit down/be quiet as the teachers are too busy taking the kids to the toilet every other minute.
As a side note ... Some people have really got to start teaching their kids some manners. I was squashed in the row behind B-Man's class with my knees at about the kids head height. As long as they did lean their heads all the frickin' way back, no contact was made. However, the little angel in front of me decided she wanted to keep slamming her head back, into me knee. I tried to adjust my position, but there wasn't a whole lot of room between the rows. At one point she turned around and, no word of a lie, said to me (as she glared) "Move your knees! They're hurting me!" I just about smacked the back of her head with the reply, "No, that was hurting you" But my mom keeps reminding me that I am the adult. I think that's supposed to mean I take the high road. So instead, I replied,"Colette, I am far enough back that if you didn't lean your head back, we'd both have enough room. Stop doing that and we'll both be fine." Which earned me another glare.
It took B-Man almost a month to adjust to his former teachers and there wasn't nearly the hysterics before church there is now. I know there are a lot of callings in a ward that need to be filled, that various people "fit" different callings, that some are needed in different roles, ect. I just wish B-Man's former teachers could have been held out till at least the end of the year. It seriously almost makes me not want to go at all. It's so tiring, so frustrating to have to deal with his hysterics, his teachers attitudes towards the kids ...
Oy! I keep telling myself a lie of "it can only get better", when in all reality, it probably won't.

Already

Planning. For those of you who know me, this will come as no surprise. I am always anticipating the next "something". Trip, activity, thought, whatever. As I have wrote before, ALL of Jerry's family (including girlfriends) are coming down to Texas on Christmas day, then all of us save Brian and (hopefully by that time) his fiancee are headed over to Florida. I have planned that out to the full extent of my ability without being too pushy on others. Trying to accommodate everyones desires and expressed interest in places to see/do/go. I have done everything but book the house we're staying at and my father in law took care of that, as it was "his fault" we did not get booked into the free accommodations he had planned on but put off for so long they were no longer available.
So onto my next trip. Which, at this point I really am starting to think is going to be next summer. Sad as it may be, I have no one to travel with, besides my kids. And everyone knows, as much as you love your kids, it's a lot of work! Being as it is, I started thinking "I really don't want this summer to be a rush trip like the others! I want to see things stop and do things!" So I set out my trusty map and starting plotting out points. Thus far the plan is to drive straight across Nevada from Utah, hitting Lake Tahoe. We ran into some people on their way back from Tahoe last summer with a passel of kids. They all seem to have had a great time. One of Jerry's best friends lives somewhere north of Sacramento, so I figure we make a bee line into that state and make our way up the coast. Sure, more expensive - but how much fun! I'm hoping to stop in on MY best friend in Beaverton, OR, (hopefully she'll be home and not up in Canada visiting her family!) next then head on up to Seattle. I've always wanted to see the Space Needle. I have no idea why, I don't even know what the purpose of the building is, I just have. Then take our first ferry ride over to Victoria, BC. Both Michael and Jerry have exclaimed over how beautiful it is, might as well check it out, right? After a few days whale watching and what not, we'll head on over to the Jones Cousin reunion in Revelstoke, BC. After the reunion we'll head on up to Whitecourt, AB with Michael, Jenie and their kids for a couple weeks. Last stop in Canada will be Raymond, AB to visit the rest of the family. This year on the trip home I plan on taking the LONG way across the top of Montana then down through the Dakota's, Nebraska and Kansas. I have a map I'm trying to cross all the states off of, ya know.
I'm thinking Jerry may be willing to accompany me all the way to California, probably even Victoria. Depends on what his work load is like at the time. Lately he's been meeting with "big" companies like Nextel, Sprint and NASCAR. They are all really impressed with the equipment one of his companies can create. Sprint and NASCAR paid for him and a few others from that particular office to go up to the races in Kansas a few weeks ago with all access passes. Jerry, who rarely express excitement over anything actually took pictures he was so interested in it all. They have been invited out again next weekend (nope, no amount of weaseling could convince him I also should go...bah!) to discuss what they can "do for each others business". Sounds very mafia to me ;) So I may be going it alone, as usual - but who knows, miracles have been known to happen.
Ha! After looking over this post, I noticed most of the places I intend to hit involve water. I think I may have a slight interest ... ya think?

Yeah

I know it's been a couple weeks, but seriously there has been so little to write about ... it's a little sad. However, while talking to my sister in law Jenie last night and her not so subtle hints, "Yeah, I'm the ONLY ONE keeping up with my blog..." I figured I'd put in a few words. Just to make her content.
My mom and her husband came down for a few weeks. We went out to east Texas, looked at houses while they were considering moving down here. Turns out it's "too damn hot" in Texas, even in October for Rod. So that idea was quickly squashed. Well, "quickly" being a relative term. Spending two days driving around the country side of east Texas seemed really long as a back seat rider to a not so safe driving real estate agent. I think some how I also insulted my in laws by asking them to take care of the kids while I went on the mad search with my mom and Rod. So that relationship has been strange and awkward since that weekend.
Rod wasn't interested in doing much around the city, swearing every time we went out in traffic, so we mostly just stuck around the house. Only venturing out to the zoo and a flea market in Grande Prairie. Which was also alright, as my mom and I can visit anywhere, right?
Yesterday B-Man had his district placement assessment, it lasted all afternoon. Then I was sent home with MORE paperwork to fill out. I am glad they were through, though some of the looks I noticed various people in the room exchanging as they interacted with B-Man made me worry. However, I can't really think about it much, as we won't know anything till next Tuesday. No use worrying when you don't even know what to worry about.

Henrietta's Orchard

Today was Ms. R's first school field trip, she was so super excited ... to go on the bus :) We went to an apple/peach orchard just north of where we live. The cost per student was $13 (including bus fare) plus $5 for each adult chaperon (we all drove in our own vehicles to the site). I've got to tell ya, for what we paid - I was underwhelmed. The presenters talked too long, it was too hot (it was in the high 30's with 86% humidity, I had sweat rolling down my back) and the "exhibits" were boooring: "this is where we wash the apples, because we pick too many to do it by hand" "and this is our resident spider..."After we were done there, however, we headed over to a park here in Hurst for lunch and a bit of play. The kids seemed to have more fun there than at the "destination". Oh well, Ms. R DID enjoy the bus ride.
If your wondering why I don't post pictures of my family anymore: my laptop CRASHED hard core and I haven't got the software saved anywhere else to down load the pictures I take. So I have to wait to go to Walmart everytime I want to get pics off my camera. Bah! The pictures featured in this article are of the actual things ... just taken by other people.