Eighth Grade Graduation - June 4, 2013

     T-Rex finished up 8th grade with her magnet group and a big week of celebrations.  This is a super magnet program for gifted kids in our district.  The teachers do a tremendous job with the kids and as many are retiring, I know they will be missed.  

 

     Their graduation celebration was just for students within their magnet (as opposed to the whole 8th grade). They have all of the teachers (about 12) from 6th- 8th grade come.  They present memories by grade level to the kids.  What I love about this ceremony is that students also give speeches, play music (a WIDE variety) and read their poetry.  It is very student oriented and not the typical stuffy shirt type of ceremony.

 

     After the ceremony T-Rex and I headed over to the reception while the others went home.  She spent time chatting with teachers and friends. 

     Thursday they have a dance with their group of kids and on Friday they participate in the school-wide ceremony.  THEN THEY ARE FINISHED and off to high school.  I am VERY thankful that T-Rex's friends are mostly going to her high school so she starts off with a great group of friends to hang out with. 

Spring Sports Awards Night

I know.... forever since posting.  I intend to, I really do.... just really busy with everything (especially busy with all of those things I should be documenting).

Big Al switched her cheer shoes for soccer cleats this spring.  She was a "tweener" (someone who plays for both JV and Varsity teams) for the girls' team.  She really enjoyed getting back into the sport 

This past week was difficult with the death of a player on the boy's team.  All of the players on both teams wore t-shirts tonight showing their support for the family. 

Here they all are.  I have to say I kind of watched everything from a distance this season, pitching in where I could.  I am so impressed with how hard these kids and parents work to have a successful season.  

Al and her friend "H".

Here she is receiving her academic pin. 

We were completely surprised that she lettered in soccer.  We figured she just hadn't played enough, but apparently the coaches saw things differently. Here she is with "H.E." and one of her coaches. 

And..... here is my troublemaker breaking the easy rules. I'm very proud of her, and promise to document all of the other big events coming up this week.  

Knitting with One Hand

     So, this is the paragraph where I explain why I haven't blogged. I used to have time in the evenings to get things recorded as to what we are doing, but I just don't seem to find those moments like I used to. The moment I'm recording tonight is just too big a deal for me to let go.
     I teach 5th grade at Blondie's school, and most years I offer to teach someone to knit, or they see me knitting and want to learn. Last year's class really took me up on it, and this year continued just as rabidly.  Generally my rule is to wait for 5th grade. One reason being that you are a little more mature and I can trust you not to poke anyone with knitting needles, and the second reason being that their hand muscles are more developed.  I've seen huge benefits from knitting with my kids. Wiggly kiddos can calm down a bit and think while their hands move, and all of them gain a sense of accomplishment for completing a project.
     This year, Blondie is in 5th grade, but of course only has the complete use of one arm.  She started with the loom thingies that are sold everywhere, and did just fine with them, and since a few other kids chose that route too I thought it would be the end of it - she found her way to do what others were doing, and  I thought she would be satisfied with it.... but she wasn't.  About a week ago she announced that she was going to figure out how to knit with one hand.  I had no idea how she was going to accomplish it, but she did.



I cast on for her, like I do all of my new knitters, and she started off with errors, but like the other kids she is figuring out how to fix them. We've started over a few times, but I've had kids who have restarted everyday for a couple weeks before they figured it out.  All in all, she has once again impressed the heck out of me.  I don't know why..... she constantly has to work twice as hard as everyone else, but always seems to leap over most obstacles.

Because we feel it is part of our journey

Some of you already know this, but I think I've finally told enough family - who have in turn told other family, that Brian, the girls and I are hoping to expand our family. We are currently jumping through the last two hoops of foster adoption.

The biggest question I get when I've told folks is WHY? So, I'll try to explain it here......

We've always talked about adopting, except it was in terms of having 3 kids and then adopting the 4th. Brian's family had adopted from Korea, and I have always known that I would too one day. It was something I've known as a fact, just as I've known I was going to be a teacher and a mom of a bunch of kids. Then life intervened and we had the 4th daughter (totally God's plan), and officially crossed the line to having a bunch of kids. From that point we juggled heart surgery, brain surgery, lip surgeries, neurologist, therapies, working, unemployment, death of family members, and life continued on. Only I was still looking at adoption blogs, and trying to come to terms with the fact that Brian didn't seem as ready as I was. Then this last July, during our 20th wedding anniversary dinner, he told me it would be okay to start on adoption, but he wanted to do foster adoption here in the U.S. I almost fell off my chair...... and then I had to think about it because I always pictured a little Asian boy as part of our story, and I realized God had been at work putting foster care in my path and I wasn't paying attention.

I realized that a dear friend was adopted through foster care, Big Al was friends with someone who does respite for foster care and she fell in love with two little boys who have since gone to live with their forever family. I found out that a cousin fostered children, and a colleague adopted through foster care, not to mention over the years teaching foster kids. A lot of subtle reminders that kids need families.

So I started the paperwork, and it wasn't too bad beyond waiting on appointments and waiting for fingerprints, and just waiting. It wasn't something that could be done in a weekend, especially with 4 kids and all of their activities to get them to, and working.  In November we completed 14 hours of training , and by early December we were finished. BUT THEN THERE WERE ALL THE HOLIDAYS, when folks don't work..... argh. In January we passed our fire inspection, but were waiting on our DHEC inspection, which happened Tuesday, and tomorrow we have the second of two home study visits. So now this week, we'll finish it all and then just wait on the home study to be completed.

I think the biggest surprise has been other people's responses. Everything from "oh I'm so excited for you" to "Don't you know how many kids you have" to "Are you crazy they may burn down the house?" Rest assured we know how expensive a bunch of kids are, we know the risks of a child possibly being reunified with their birth parents, we know that our family may need counseling or the child may need special services (but we have a lot of experiences with school and medical issues). We know this will impact our other children, but let's face it - every single time we've had a family crisis (heart surgery, brain surgery, unemployment) it has impacted our children. So please, be happy for us.

We are looking forward to this experience, not because we feel like we're saving someone, or doing a good deed, but because we are looking forward to a new person (or two) to love in our family, to raise with stability and consistency, and to join us on our life's journey.

BUSY!

I took a bunch of pictures of all the different things my kids were doing around the house, but only Cheesie's pics look decent enough to post. Big Al and her friend were making faces while studying for her Spanish exam, T-Rex was working on her science fair board (but the light was awful), and Blondie was on the computer working on a project (with something smeared across her face..... so .... you know). 

So, while ALL of my kids are busy this week, Cheesie gets the focus.  She wrote a story for extra credit which had to include different types of clouds (cirrus, cumulus, blah, blah, blah).  She wrote it and then was stuck on the illustrations.  So, she grabbed the lego people from my collection (see below: the fairy, the German pretzel dude with wings from an extra fairy, and Gandalf) and was trying to illustrate her story with them. I reminded her she didn't need to make a castle (she was REALLY not wanting to do that) because we had a set somewhere, and she got right to it.

So, above they are flying through a storm, and I have no idea what is going on below. She shot all of the pictures herself and printed them off for her story.

Tonight she also asked me to watch her at tumbling practice, where she is REALLY coming along with her skills. Pretty soon I'll have two daughters who can do a back handspring! (I don't know why the sound isn't working).

Juggling lesson

   

  My sister started/runs/owns-I-guess, Columbia Alternacirque.  When she was over for Christmas dinner Blondie pulled out her little hacky-sack type balls and showed everyone how she could juggle two at the same time with one hand.  Natalie, my sister, got on the phone, and set up a juggling lesson with a man named Paolo.  Apparently he is one of the few (or only ) Americans to juggle as the jester of England.... something-or-other. I'm not exactly sure what his title is, but while he was in town he was willing to teach Blondie.

Concentrating so hard.  I was worried about the eye-hand coordination 'thing," but she seemed to do just fine for a beginner.

 Throwing and catching with two people juggling.

Brian took her and she was so excited when she called me afterward.

Here are some of the videos Brian too

She came home with three new balls to practice with,  although I'm not sure who will be able to partner with her because I certainly am not that coordinated. I also don't think this is a habit she will be giving up anytime soon.

The video below is the best set of the day!

This would have to be the most difficult combination of the day:

 BIG THANKS to Paolo for his patience with this lesson (because I didn't post all of the outtakes). She was so thrilled.

Manatee

It's that time again..... my yearly manatee trip with my students.  This year, Blondie got to go.  We take our students down to Florida for 3 days and get to visit a wildlife refuge, snorkel twice with the manatee and then snorkel down rainbow river.

 

Homosassa is the first place we visit. They take in injured animals from Florida and rehabilitate them hoping to release them.  If they can't they maintain them for the rest of their life.

Here's Blondie on the morning boat out to the first manatee swim. All of the students are excited, but the reality when they get in the water and manage the snorkel, and in water that is murky, and periodically a big mammal will swim past your field of vision.  Many panic at first, but I was so proud of all of them today.

Here she is looking for them.

There's one.

And doesn't that look like the baby manatee that followed me around last year - a little bigger?  Probably isn't, but I was thrilled to see this one.

This is what it looks like when they "swim out of the murk"

I can't post pictures of rainbow river because they are mostly students snorkeling, but trust me....... it was great too. Blondie was so tired by the end of the day,  but managed to find time to jump in the pool. In a little bit we'll head over to the ice cream parlor.