Relay For Life

Thank you to all my family and friends who have supported me in the effort to raise money for Relay for Life (supporting breast cancer research through the American Cancer Society). I will be attending the walk tomorrow. A group of friends and I are meeting at 6:15...yes you read right and that's on a Saturday! We sign up at 7:00 and the walk begins at 8:00. They expect us to be finished with our five miles by about 10:00...11:00 at the latest. Then, I will be meeting my husband and children to do fashion show shopping. Needless to say, it looks to be a full morning. Thankfully, we'll gain an hours sleep the next night.

Halloween Preparations

Well, we're preparing for Halloween. It's only two days away and we still don't have costumes together.

A is going to be a fairy princess which suits her perfectly. She'll be lovely as always.

K, on the other hand, is goin to be the Little Engine that Could (if daddy CAN get her costume finished in time...we know he can, we know he can!). Her costume is still in the "imagination" stage.

We did get to carve a pumpkin, roast pumpkin seeds and finally enjoy some cool weather which has been a very nice change of pace.

We'll let you guys know how everything turns out.

Wild about You!

Recently, we spent a day at the zoo. Our purpose in going was to meet some other families of children with HIE injuries. Many of the families had to cancel last minute, but one family was able to came and for that we were so grateful. We had the opportunity to meet sweet Kn, her brother C and their mom and dad who were absolutely precious! The weather was beautiful and the animals were active. A fun time was had by all. K especially enjoyed meting a new friend. Kn enjoyed all the extra attention A gave to her. As for us, the parents just enjoyed chatting with other parents who can truly understand. We hope to meet with them again soon...and perhaps meet some other local HIE families too.

Super Stars

A had a great day at school today so I just had to share. She's very proud of herself because she was videotaped reading her book review. She did an excellent job and has another book review ready for this week. She got 15 problems correct this week on her Big 20 test (last week she got 14 right so she's still improving). Her butterfly stayed on the flower (read: her behavior was good!). It's amazing the turn around since the beginning of school.

Both of the girls are going to be in the annual FOCUS fashion show. This will be their third season and they're both thrilled! We love to dress them up and show them off. It's a great fund raiser for FOCUS also.

Marching Chiefs

Thanks to my mom (arranging the trip) and my cousin (getting the tickets for us) I was able to attend my 1st Florida State University football game since my graduation over nine years ago. I saw the Marching Chiefs play which was the highlight of the trip for me since I used to be in the band. I even got to sing the Hymn to the Garnet and the Gold. Of course, we won (although it was touch and go for a while). My husband is such a dear. He watched the children so I could go. I can't wait to go again. Hopefully we can make this trip a yearly thing.

School Happenings

Alison has been making big improvements also. Every week she takes the Big 20 test. This is a math computation test with 20 problems that the students are expected to complete in 20 minutes. Alison completed only 5 correctly the first time she took a Big 20 test. This week, she completed 17 problems and got 14 of them right! We are celebrating her succeses. She also no longer needs a chart to track her behavior at school because she is doing so well. She made a color wheel at school this week and she is very proud of it. Report cards come out next week so we'll see better then just what we still need to work on.

As for Aaron, he's loving his work and is very pleased there. He had to miss one day of school due to Kyleigh being sick and you would have thought the world came to an end because they missed him so!

Myself, I'm very busy. I have meetings at least 2-3 times a week either before or after school. Being in charge of the Jr. Beta club is a full time job also especially since we're doing fundraising at this time. Quite frankly, I'm exhausted, but I feel like I am accomplishing lots with my students.

Vanguard

Well, it's official. K got her first real communication device. It's absolutely amazing and I can't wait to see it in action. The general idea is this: K wears a sticker on her forehead (about the size of a pencil eraser) that has some sort of computer magic built into it that sends and receives information to the communication device. Basically all K has to do is look in the direction of the picture/word that she wants to choose and it will speak the word out loud. We have it set at eight words on a page right now. On the front page it says the important things like "I want" or "I need" or "My name is". Then, when she chooses "I want" it will direct her to another page of choices. I'm not sure this makes any sense at all, but it's just great. I can't wait for her to realize what a world this will open up for her. She also went to the bathroom for the first time at school last week so she's well on her way to mastering that skill. We're pleased with all of her progress.