This is what happens when I wait to long to post.

The GS community service event (Friday night) was very successful. We made 45 fleece scarves and put together 14 Beanie Boxes (boxes of personal hygiene items); these will go to one of the shelters. We collected and wrapped 800 serving of plastic ware. I could not believe that Beans Café, the homeless shelter here in Anchorage, serves 700 to 1000 meals at once. The girls were good wrapping place settings, the napkins looked a little “used” when we where all through with it, but they did well. We also collected 130 packages of powdered gravy mix for them. And of course I can’t forget the 360 paper plate turkey centerpieces we colored, these will be put in thanksgiving food boxes for table centerpieces. Yes, only 360 turkeys (that I precut) and it took all night to get those done.

The time is just flying by it’s time for Christmas cards and shopping. As for Thanksgiving, we will be going over to S & E’s. I sent J to the store for the turkey, at Freddy’s; it is buy $100.00 of groceries and get a free turkey. My family will be contributing a 27 pounds of turkey to Thanksgiving dinner. S and A are both planning to deep fry their turkeys. We are going to have so much turkey….we will sleep for a week.

As for Christmas plans, we will probably stay home.

IT SNOWED…its pretty!!!

We woke up Saturday to this beautiful snow, J and I cleaned the house and caught up chores. The kids had the neighbors over; I could tell J was trying to get his chores done so that when the kids asked to go sledding he could go with them. Soon the kids migrated outside to make snowmen, and J was done with his chores. When I saw him next, he was waiting, with all of his snow gear on, just waiting for the kids to come home and get him to go sledding. They never came, poor guy.

This was the first weekend, in a long time, that we did not have guests. NO little girl slumber parties, not one birthday party to attend (cause I didn’t tell K about it), and everyone was home. It was great just to stay home with them.

End of the school quarter was last week; I have not had time to brag.

T brought home straight A’s. I was told that she adds a lot of insight to class discussions. The gifted program that she is in grades differently, T scored “practitioner” in most areas. There was one area she was an “apprentice”, in productivity, I think. Novice is the lowest score, then Apprentice, Practitioner, and then Master is the highest. I am not sure why A and B’s will not work, but then again I ain’t got no learnin’. She got an S in band with an 0 in effort. The band teacher bought T a harness to help hold the sax up, and the OT has been evaluating the situation. T can play songs now, I think this instrument thing, just might work out.

D is doing better then ever, A’s, B’s, and one C (she took after me in spelling). This teacher has sparked the reading bug. D is always on top of her homework and is always helping K out. The “girl” thing is starting to surface at school; it is amazing how boys can turn your friends into monsters. She was accepted into the art club and as a technology helper, both things she had to apply for. She will be taking care of the computer in the computer lab and all of the school laptops. I only hear complements from her writing teacher, she loves to write but you cannot make her read.

K is also doing wonderful, 0’s and S+’s for her. The teacher would like to see her put more effort in, she tends to do the minimal amount to get the grade. I think she needs to be done first to prove she is the smartest. She is always helping the other kids in the class. K spends a lot of time with one little boy, he is severally disabled, but K treats him like everyone else. She is passing 4^th grade benchmarks, they do not want to go further in fear that she may get discouraged. We got the paper work to sign for IGNITE. This means in the next few months she will meet with the school head doctor and be giving an IQ test. If she gets adequate scores, she will be enrolled in the gifted program. This is creating household turmoil…between the girls, but we will work through it.

They all need to work on their handwriting and I am having trouble believing this….but my girls cannot read cursive. D is in 4^th grade and cursive is, just now, being introduced. I am now in the process of collecting worksheets.

So… this week is full of field trips for T …Today she goes to the dump and the water treatment plant. Yes the dump, she gets to sit on a smelly bus and take a driving tour of THE DUMP. Oh yes, they also get to eat their lunch during this time…YUM YUM. I almost had to go… but D is sick, so now I just have meet the her bus with the wheelchair for the water treatment part of the fieldtrip. I am now a wheelchair chaperone!!!

She has another fieldtrip Wed. to the pool. T asked me to go on this one because for once in her 9 years of school trips to the pool, she wants to swim. This means I get to wear a swimsuit in front of the entire 6^th grade …the students, staff, and chaperones, and I will be the only adult swimming. It’s a lot different at the beach or H2O where you don’t know anyone…and that summer tan ….all gone!!!

Other then field trips I have the week off, NO Girl Scouts, NO physical terrorists, and no appointments….Yippy! Next week is a bitch though. T doctor wants to see her, for a physical, before he will sign a document stating that she is disabled??? We just saw him concerning the Smurfs living in her arm, not a lot has changed. Last week he signed one, the school had him sign the wrong one, but he signed it. Now, he wants to see her, befor he signs the right one. In addition, I have to meet with someone concerning her grants, she will help me collect documentation to prove T, has special needs. This topic is coming up a lot lately, am I blind? Stupid people…I hate this game.

…that’s the bloggled thoughts for the day…