PD

I am the weird one at my school - I love professional development.  Well, wait, let's back up - I love good professional development.

The week of the snow I was able to go to a two-day seminar with Kathy Ganske, a professor from Vanderbilt University who is an expert on how to develop word knowledge, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and spelling in children.  It was the fastest two days in PD I have ever spent.

Even though I have been doing intervention in math for the last three years, I still keep up on literacy and my principal let me take off two days to go.  I have studied the books from one of her collegues, Dr. Bear (and company) and have always preferred it, but actually they are talking about the exact same thing.

She was inspiring on many different levels.  She is very passionate and knowledgeable and worth every cent of what I am sure they paid her. 

Apparently, the director didn't check to make sure we looked good before we moved on.  Oh well....she was still a great teacher and a great lady in general.

Squirrel

Ah....snow ice wintry precipitation in Arkansas.  You gotta love it.  Day after day, enjoying Ethan playing a Christmas pirate.   My living room is still recovering.

Axle, on the other hand, who can never ever catch a squirrel though he gives it a mighty try, surprised himself by actually catching and killing one.  He was as shocked as any of us.

But he paid the price (the squirrel didn't go down without a fight!), haha, and I haven't seen him run after a squirrel since!

We'll see how cheery the posts are when we are still going to school in June! :-)

Our new "normal"

I think we are finally getting into a new groove.  Instead of working 16 hour days we are getting used to working normal hours - like 10. Ha!  What is nice is that I usually leave early in the morning for school so that when the teacher bell goes off at 3:30 in the afternoon I can meet Ethan outside from getting off the bus and we can have our afternoon.  That doesn't always work because by 3:05 I have a desk of work that I haven't touched yet, but we try.

After all, we need time for play.  (This is a re-mix of Lord Farquad - thank goodness we are going to see Lion King in Memphis is two weeks - maybe we can shift our pretend play to something different).

I am tired of paying $6 for a small loaf of gluten free bread so I have begun experimenting.  You know the saying, if at first you don't succeed...........

Harding has a program run by the students who are majoring in Special Education.  Once a month this semester they have a "parent's night out" - they have games and activities for children with special needs - THREE WHOLE HOURS!!!!!  We decided we needed to take Ethan.  He was in heaven surrounded by twelve very pretty college girls.  He said "You can go now, mom."  Ha!

Phil and I felt like we had synchronized our watches with the girls and we had exactly three hours - what to do!  We didn't have time for a movie, and we didn't want to waste time waiting in line for a table at a restaurant.  Since we haven't been able to eat Mexican since Ethan's diagnosis we called in some take-out and headed to Redbox.

It was glorious!!!!  A flour tortilla has never tasted so good!  We enjoyed "real" food and watched "Maze Runner" and finished with just enough time to get Ethan.  Guess what?!?  They will do it again the end of February - we are already planning what we can accomplish!

Another new tradition on Sunday evenings, since I don't bake cookies for my two remaining boys  (they don't like them) - cheesey fries.  Because we are just health nuts that way.  Cheesey fries and Uno - a winning combination.

I am not sure what the odds are, but our extra day of vacation has coincided with an ice and snow storm.  Lucky us.  Ethan has decided to turn the living room into his own private play room.  I am unsure what everything represents, but I do know it makes sense to him, and a lot of it has come out of his bedroom.  What is a snow day without some mess?

I love having my evenings back - I have actually had time to READ A BOOK!  Phil has taken over the scouts again in addition to his other church work, and that is good because there are a couple of boys there with special needs and they need a good leader.

And.....Ethan has come up with another saying:  "I'm on it."

"Ethan, it's time for a shower, come downstairs."

"I'm on it, mom."

"Ethan, will you feed the cat?"

"I'm on it."

Never a dull moment............