Saturday, October 22, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Just Because
Richard graduated high school Thursday, ten years after me. Crazy. Time passes. He grew up. When did that happen? He has changed from the little boy who used to be my chin rest to the young man who uses me as his chin rest. Play fighting then resulted in a win for me. Play fighting now, I usually lose. Discussions then were usually about video games, now they span the gamut from philosophy to history to Shrodinger and his damn cat. He is way more fun to spend time with now.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Christmas, Second Birthday, Protest March, and Surgery.
Okay...so it has been awhile.
Let's start. Christmas was wonderful. We all gathered at my parents house and my sister-in-law Melinda made it out of snow-bound London in time to join us. Caden received more toys than any child has any right to expect and was thrilled to open all of them. This time he really seemed to get into it. He did have to be reminded to continue to open presents rather than play with each present immediately.
In January, Chris started a new position within HEB that gives him a Monday-Friday job with normal hours. It has been wonderful having weekends and evenings together as a family. The first two weekends he had off we did absolutely nothing. Now, we have every weekend planned between now and the middle of May. Very, very different for us. I started my crazy space unit with my students and we have been studying space in every area of academia. We created a Martian community in order to insure our understanding of communities and then they built them. We did that last Friday. It was the most exciting day. My capacity was reached by about 2:30pm but it resulted in excellent projects only third-graders could produce. Sorry..jumping a little ahead of myself. The end of January saw Chris and I changing the guest room into Caden's big boy room. This is still a work in progress as some decorations have not yet been set up. We painted the room in two different shades of blue and but wood chair rail up the entire way around. We installed wood crown moulding and baseboards, all stained by me and installed by Chris. He has his new bed with its space themed bedding and his space night light, moon, turtle that shines stars on the ceiling, and glow in the dark stars on the ceiling. We have a poster of the planets that we need to hang up, a lamp of the moon and stars to hang over his, and the solar system on his ceiling. His room is the most expensive room in the house. It is beautiful. We got rid of the giant guest bed and put a very nice futon in Caden's old room and moved the book shelves in there. The result is that Caden can go into his room and play without any worry of hurting anything that is not his. He loves sleeping in his bed and we have not had any problems with it. He runs in there and asks to go bed. He has had some occasional bouts of sleep walking we think and does get up occasionally in the middle of the night to ask for more milk. It is so nice that bed time is not a struggle.
February 11th was Caden's 2nd birthday. I took the day off to take him for his two-year check up. He was in the 25% in height and 50% in weight. His doctor said that he is due a growth spell because he always flip flops in percentages. She was very impressed with his language abilities and said that he is very advanced in them for his age especially considering his earlier delay. He is still a very good eater. He eats everything but he doesn't eat with regularity. He will eat some days and very little other days. She said it was very normal for a child his age. She also agreed with his ENT though that we should probably have his tonsils removed. We took Caden to Chuck E. Cheese for his birthday. He had a blast. He just rode the rides more than anything else but he really seemed to enjoy it. We had intended to have a family party but it continually fell through for every weekend. We have seen family periodically so that Caden can have little celebrations throughout. So the next visit to the ENT we discussed that and sinus surgery. So it was decided that Caden would have both and a CT scan of his sinuses was scheduled to check what it looked like inside. The results of that were that his sinus are very small and very packed full of yucky stuff. Major surgery is out because his sinuses are so small that no one can get in there and even minor surgery might prove difficult. He is still going to try and insert a small balloon in each sinus and see if he can stretch them out. The end of February saw me at a training about how to teach research methods and a horrible stomach virus.
March has been an interesting month so far. Caden has continued to speak more clearly and in complete sentences. He has a very good sense of humor but it reminds me of his Uncle Richard. He makes odd little jokes. I love it when he tells me Silly Mommy. He also is into telling on people. It is always, "Daddy did it, Mommy did it, Starbuck did it, and today the "Chair did it." Can't say that I don't blame him for blaming the chair. Inanimate objects have always jumped out and hurt me. He has also blamed his dad for losing the moon. That was a funny night. Last week was a crazy week. Third graders the week before spring break are a crazy bunch. I was thankful that I had planned the building of their Martian communities for that Friday. They are huge. I had three groups of 6 students each. It was interesting watch them each work together. Two of the groups worked together very well, you could see it by the fluidity of their design and just hearing and watching their conversations. One group continually disagreed and I had to several of those disagreements. One group laid everything out ahead of time before they painted and glued any of it and discussed each part of it. They were able to tell me the function and reason why they had each thing. They had one thing that really impressed me. They had a rocket that carried the people and separate rocket that carried the freight. It was interesting that they understood the difference. They also had a house for dogs to protect them from any hazards and a house for the snakes to protect them from rats. I don't know where they got that idea but it made me laugh. The other group showed an intuitive grasp of physics. They had used a box to make a hotel and could not make it stand up, so they glued two smaller boxes to the back of it to counter balance it. I was extremely impressed by that. They also had a beach but realized that they would need a separate "clean water" supply and built that as well. I was very very impressed. Although I had to vacate my room almost immediately after school because the smell of tempra paint was overwhelming. We are going to display them for a couple of weeks in the library. They are going to work up a presentation about their knowledge of Mars and their communities when we get back from spring break.
Yesterday was the Rally to Save Texas Schools in front of the capitol. It was wonderful. Chris and Caden went and our friend Marco from College Station did as well. If you are unaware of what is going the state is expecting a huge budget shortfall for education and is planning to cut many services to our schools as well as numerous teacher positions. It is a grave disservice to our students. They deserve more from us than larger classroom sizes with even less materials and resources than we do currently. The march was an inspiration for me and it renewed my belief in what I am called to do is right. We are asking that government use the Rainy Day Fund to support education and to accept the millions of dollars of federal government funding that Rick Perry continues to refuse to sign. I will step off my bandwagon for now but until I receive my contract at the end of the month I am unsure as to whether or not I have a job next year. So it is a little stressful.
This Monday, Caden, Chris and I are going back to Dell Children's Hospital. Caden will have his tonsils out and sinus surgery (however much can be done there.). We will be staying the night but we are glad that it is just one night. There had initially been discussion of several nights and a pic line put in to continue to give iv antibiotics for several weeks. So our plan for spring break is Monday at the hospital and the rest of the week at home trying to keep a very active 2 year old calm and quiet. It should be interesting.
Let's start. Christmas was wonderful. We all gathered at my parents house and my sister-in-law Melinda made it out of snow-bound London in time to join us. Caden received more toys than any child has any right to expect and was thrilled to open all of them. This time he really seemed to get into it. He did have to be reminded to continue to open presents rather than play with each present immediately.
In January, Chris started a new position within HEB that gives him a Monday-Friday job with normal hours. It has been wonderful having weekends and evenings together as a family. The first two weekends he had off we did absolutely nothing. Now, we have every weekend planned between now and the middle of May. Very, very different for us. I started my crazy space unit with my students and we have been studying space in every area of academia. We created a Martian community in order to insure our understanding of communities and then they built them. We did that last Friday. It was the most exciting day. My capacity was reached by about 2:30pm but it resulted in excellent projects only third-graders could produce. Sorry..jumping a little ahead of myself. The end of January saw Chris and I changing the guest room into Caden's big boy room. This is still a work in progress as some decorations have not yet been set up. We painted the room in two different shades of blue and but wood chair rail up the entire way around. We installed wood crown moulding and baseboards, all stained by me and installed by Chris. He has his new bed with its space themed bedding and his space night light, moon, turtle that shines stars on the ceiling, and glow in the dark stars on the ceiling. We have a poster of the planets that we need to hang up, a lamp of the moon and stars to hang over his, and the solar system on his ceiling. His room is the most expensive room in the house. It is beautiful. We got rid of the giant guest bed and put a very nice futon in Caden's old room and moved the book shelves in there. The result is that Caden can go into his room and play without any worry of hurting anything that is not his. He loves sleeping in his bed and we have not had any problems with it. He runs in there and asks to go bed. He has had some occasional bouts of sleep walking we think and does get up occasionally in the middle of the night to ask for more milk. It is so nice that bed time is not a struggle.
February 11th was Caden's 2nd birthday. I took the day off to take him for his two-year check up. He was in the 25% in height and 50% in weight. His doctor said that he is due a growth spell because he always flip flops in percentages. She was very impressed with his language abilities and said that he is very advanced in them for his age especially considering his earlier delay. He is still a very good eater. He eats everything but he doesn't eat with regularity. He will eat some days and very little other days. She said it was very normal for a child his age. She also agreed with his ENT though that we should probably have his tonsils removed. We took Caden to Chuck E. Cheese for his birthday. He had a blast. He just rode the rides more than anything else but he really seemed to enjoy it. We had intended to have a family party but it continually fell through for every weekend. We have seen family periodically so that Caden can have little celebrations throughout. So the next visit to the ENT we discussed that and sinus surgery. So it was decided that Caden would have both and a CT scan of his sinuses was scheduled to check what it looked like inside. The results of that were that his sinus are very small and very packed full of yucky stuff. Major surgery is out because his sinuses are so small that no one can get in there and even minor surgery might prove difficult. He is still going to try and insert a small balloon in each sinus and see if he can stretch them out. The end of February saw me at a training about how to teach research methods and a horrible stomach virus.
March has been an interesting month so far. Caden has continued to speak more clearly and in complete sentences. He has a very good sense of humor but it reminds me of his Uncle Richard. He makes odd little jokes. I love it when he tells me Silly Mommy. He also is into telling on people. It is always, "Daddy did it, Mommy did it, Starbuck did it, and today the "Chair did it." Can't say that I don't blame him for blaming the chair. Inanimate objects have always jumped out and hurt me. He has also blamed his dad for losing the moon. That was a funny night. Last week was a crazy week. Third graders the week before spring break are a crazy bunch. I was thankful that I had planned the building of their Martian communities for that Friday. They are huge. I had three groups of 6 students each. It was interesting watch them each work together. Two of the groups worked together very well, you could see it by the fluidity of their design and just hearing and watching their conversations. One group continually disagreed and I had to several of those disagreements. One group laid everything out ahead of time before they painted and glued any of it and discussed each part of it. They were able to tell me the function and reason why they had each thing. They had one thing that really impressed me. They had a rocket that carried the people and separate rocket that carried the freight. It was interesting that they understood the difference. They also had a house for dogs to protect them from any hazards and a house for the snakes to protect them from rats. I don't know where they got that idea but it made me laugh. The other group showed an intuitive grasp of physics. They had used a box to make a hotel and could not make it stand up, so they glued two smaller boxes to the back of it to counter balance it. I was extremely impressed by that. They also had a beach but realized that they would need a separate "clean water" supply and built that as well. I was very very impressed. Although I had to vacate my room almost immediately after school because the smell of tempra paint was overwhelming. We are going to display them for a couple of weeks in the library. They are going to work up a presentation about their knowledge of Mars and their communities when we get back from spring break.
Yesterday was the Rally to Save Texas Schools in front of the capitol. It was wonderful. Chris and Caden went and our friend Marco from College Station did as well. If you are unaware of what is going the state is expecting a huge budget shortfall for education and is planning to cut many services to our schools as well as numerous teacher positions. It is a grave disservice to our students. They deserve more from us than larger classroom sizes with even less materials and resources than we do currently. The march was an inspiration for me and it renewed my belief in what I am called to do is right. We are asking that government use the Rainy Day Fund to support education and to accept the millions of dollars of federal government funding that Rick Perry continues to refuse to sign. I will step off my bandwagon for now but until I receive my contract at the end of the month I am unsure as to whether or not I have a job next year. So it is a little stressful.
This Monday, Caden, Chris and I are going back to Dell Children's Hospital. Caden will have his tonsils out and sinus surgery (however much can be done there.). We will be staying the night but we are glad that it is just one night. There had initially been discussion of several nights and a pic line put in to continue to give iv antibiotics for several weeks. So our plan for spring break is Monday at the hospital and the rest of the week at home trying to keep a very active 2 year old calm and quiet. It should be interesting.
Monday, December 20, 2010
I can't believe it is almost Christmas!
December is a crazy month. It is hectic and crazy for a teacher and this year it was even crazier. We ended up with a week that had only one normal day for my class and then last week we had to tear down my classroom and move it to another room. I cannot even begin to express the chaos and stress that causes me. I worked so hard to have my room organized before the beginning of the year. My cabinets were labeled with what you would find on each shelf. Now all of that is sitting in a massive pile on the floor in my room. I finally left on Friday because I just couldn't bear to look at it anymore. I was totally overwhelmed. I managed to get most of the furniture into an acceptable place but nothing else is put away. I am planning on going up next week to put it all back together. I honestly was so frustrated by people coming in and saying it looked like a classroom. It doesn't...it looks like a tornado went through it. I honestly don't mine moving rooms though. I just mind putting it back together. The school gets another computer lab out of my moving and that is more than worth it for me.
Chris' stress for the holidays starts this week. The week of Christmas is just nutty. Filled with crazy long hours and more people than you can imagine running in and out of the store. He had an interview for a new position with HEB today. It would give him a more regular Monday through Friday schedule. It would be truly wonderful for us. It would make him so much happier. If it isn't too much to ask Santa can you please give Chris this job?
Caden has had a busy month too. We have been back and forth to Dallas. We went one weekend to return Anastasia to my brother. The next weekend we went to see my brother in his play. He was spectacular! Chris said he was one of the best high school actors he has ever seen. He usually tells me I have an over-inflated opinion of my brother so it was nice to hear this time that he thought Richard was as spectacular as I did. I always knew he was dramatic. I am prouder of him than you could possibly imagine. I am having a really hard time this year. He is growing up and maturing so quickly. He is everything I imagined he could be. I cannot believe though how much he has changed. After Richard's play we went to North Park Mall the next day. Caden wrote his letter to Santa at Macy's and mailed it. He mailed mine as well. By the way for every letter that is mailed to Santa at Macy's, Macy's donates a dollar to the Make a Wish Foundation. He also got a Christmas Smurf from Grandma and Grandpa. We also went to see the trains at North Park which he adored. He was so very excited. He loved it. Last week I followed my Mommy instinct and took him to the doctor again. He had an ear infection in each ear and the beginnings of a sinus infection. Today he had another round of tubes put in and a nasal endoscopy. He did spectacularly. He was very well behaved and handled all of it very well. I guess that brings us up to date.
Chris' stress for the holidays starts this week. The week of Christmas is just nutty. Filled with crazy long hours and more people than you can imagine running in and out of the store. He had an interview for a new position with HEB today. It would give him a more regular Monday through Friday schedule. It would be truly wonderful for us. It would make him so much happier. If it isn't too much to ask Santa can you please give Chris this job?
Caden has had a busy month too. We have been back and forth to Dallas. We went one weekend to return Anastasia to my brother. The next weekend we went to see my brother in his play. He was spectacular! Chris said he was one of the best high school actors he has ever seen. He usually tells me I have an over-inflated opinion of my brother so it was nice to hear this time that he thought Richard was as spectacular as I did. I always knew he was dramatic. I am prouder of him than you could possibly imagine. I am having a really hard time this year. He is growing up and maturing so quickly. He is everything I imagined he could be. I cannot believe though how much he has changed. After Richard's play we went to North Park Mall the next day. Caden wrote his letter to Santa at Macy's and mailed it. He mailed mine as well. By the way for every letter that is mailed to Santa at Macy's, Macy's donates a dollar to the Make a Wish Foundation. He also got a Christmas Smurf from Grandma and Grandpa. We also went to see the trains at North Park which he adored. He was so very excited. He loved it. Last week I followed my Mommy instinct and took him to the doctor again. He had an ear infection in each ear and the beginnings of a sinus infection. Today he had another round of tubes put in and a nasal endoscopy. He did spectacularly. He was very well behaved and handled all of it very well. I guess that brings us up to date.
Friday, November 26, 2010
An untraditional Thanksgiving
Yesterday we had a mostly untraditional Thanksgiving. Since, my SIL is in London on a crazy wonderful journey and my parents and brother are in GA with my grandmother, we had a very small gathering. We cooked steaks, (thanks, Mike) and baked potatoes. We had cornbread dressing (thanks, Glenda) because Chris really wanted it. We had deviled eggs because I really wanted them. Caden and I baked a pumpkin pie because it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie. It was a wonderful day. Caden had a wonderful time with his grandma and grandpa. So did I. Chris worked until 2, which is the usual way of things on Thanksgiving. We watched some Cowboy football (blah) and watched Aggie football (Whoop!). The Aggies made my Thanksgiving because they BTH out of t.u..
All in all it was a good day.
But next year...I expect everyone here. I need to make large Thanksgiving meals. It is my one time to shine in the culinary department. I make a great turkey! And more importantly I missed all of you yesterday. It just wasn't the same without a house full of family. And Richard, just because you are going to college next year, don't think that means you get to skip coming to Thanksgiving. You know I will come hunt you down and kick your butt. (Well, I can at least try...somewhere along the way you got much taller and much stronger than me...)
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
All in all it was a good day.
But next year...I expect everyone here. I need to make large Thanksgiving meals. It is my one time to shine in the culinary department. I make a great turkey! And more importantly I missed all of you yesterday. It just wasn't the same without a house full of family. And Richard, just because you are going to college next year, don't think that means you get to skip coming to Thanksgiving. You know I will come hunt you down and kick your butt. (Well, I can at least try...somewhere along the way you got much taller and much stronger than me...)
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Thanksgiving is almost upon us
I think I would like to be poetic today while writing, however, I lack the skill and will just fill you in on the doings of the Helms.
Chris is busy working. (Surprised?) It is the Holiday season and therefore the worst time of the year for him. He is working more than is decent for anyone to work. As is evidenced by the fact that is his son says with complete confidence every morning, "Daddy, work." "Yes, Caden, Daddy is at work." He is frustrated and under-appreciated. (By his job, not us) He hates Christmas music already. He believes that Christmas songs can be sung between January 1st and November 1st, but not at all during November and December. Does this mean that Caden will grow up a little differently than his peers? I suppose it does, but oh well. Chris has signed up to take the GRE. He doesn't have any more definite plans than that so far. It is a step in the right direction, though. He will do superbly on it.
I am busy trying to determine whether or not I am making a difference in the lives of my 17, oh, wait, 18 (got a new one this week) restless students. Somehow they must be ready in April to take a test that they are already terrified of. And here I am terrified right along with them. Somedays it feels like we are drowning but most days we are treading water barely keeping our collective heads above water. They all laughed at me this week because I introduced them to my favorite punctuation, the comma. In fact, I was so excited I was dancing. They did very well on the comma test. I guess they like them as much as I do. I expect to see a great deal of commas in their writing soon. It seems like the comma becomes overused as soon as one knows it exists. Chris insists that I speak with commas all over the place and it annoys him greatly. We just learned how to use them in a series. I don't want them just throwing commas around carelessly but it seems that for some it already comes naturally. We have also begun multiplication, which is exciting. They have been waiting for years to learn how to multiply. Now, division is another story. Somehow it is not nearly as exciting as multiplication. I have one student who continues to confound me and himself. He informed the other day that he can add so that is why he can multiply. He came the next day and told me he can divide but that he cannot subtract. I said, "honey, division is repeated subtraction." His response, "No, it can't be because I can't subtract but I can divide." Do you see why I say that we are barely treading water here? The interesting thing is while teaching them I am learning so many things that I never knew before either. Everyday someone asks me if I miss my kindergartners and everyday I say there are things I miss and things I don't. The thing I miss the most is the obvious progress you see in the young ones. The changes they make are so profound that it screams at you! "Look, I CAN READ NOW!" In third grade it is a small whisper that I cannot hear at all right now. But I will be patient.
Caden is Caden. Full of energy and change. Where the changes in kindergarten happen over the course of a year but with great big strides during the year, Caden's changes happen daily. He says a word with greater clarity than he did the day before. He speaks a sentence where before it was just two words. He listens. He understands what you ask him to do and follows through on it. Mostly. He is fascinating to watch, listen to, talk to, and play with. He has a bizarre sense of humor that I haven't quite figured out yet. He has undefined fears. He looks at you and asks, "okay?" in a very worried voice to determine if he should be scared or worried about that thing. It is interesting to note that as long as Mommy and Daddy reassure him that it is okay, he will take it in stride. He still loves music and wants to play his guitar. He now plays it while singing. I believe Santa will be bringing Caden some more musical instruments. He is a natural problem solver and I will strangle the teacher that tries to crush it out of him. Problem solving is one major skill that all students lack and I think it is because we (teachers, parents, society) try to everything for them and we lack the patience to let them figure it out. Just watch a little kid that has been told no though. They will try every possible way to get that no turned into a yes. Problem Solving is what little minds do best. Caden is just a constant delight. I love him more every day. I am a relationship person and as he becomes more of a person every day with his own quirks, I love him more and more.
And so, you are caught up. I am unsure who the you is but it is done for you. I think I write these more for me than for anyone else. It is the 21st centuries answer to therapy. Blog about it.
Have a wonderful evening. Enjoy the Aggies playing tonight against Nebraska. WHOOP!
Chris is busy working. (Surprised?) It is the Holiday season and therefore the worst time of the year for him. He is working more than is decent for anyone to work. As is evidenced by the fact that is his son says with complete confidence every morning, "Daddy, work." "Yes, Caden, Daddy is at work." He is frustrated and under-appreciated. (By his job, not us) He hates Christmas music already. He believes that Christmas songs can be sung between January 1st and November 1st, but not at all during November and December. Does this mean that Caden will grow up a little differently than his peers? I suppose it does, but oh well. Chris has signed up to take the GRE. He doesn't have any more definite plans than that so far. It is a step in the right direction, though. He will do superbly on it.
I am busy trying to determine whether or not I am making a difference in the lives of my 17, oh, wait, 18 (got a new one this week) restless students. Somehow they must be ready in April to take a test that they are already terrified of. And here I am terrified right along with them. Somedays it feels like we are drowning but most days we are treading water barely keeping our collective heads above water. They all laughed at me this week because I introduced them to my favorite punctuation, the comma. In fact, I was so excited I was dancing. They did very well on the comma test. I guess they like them as much as I do. I expect to see a great deal of commas in their writing soon. It seems like the comma becomes overused as soon as one knows it exists. Chris insists that I speak with commas all over the place and it annoys him greatly. We just learned how to use them in a series. I don't want them just throwing commas around carelessly but it seems that for some it already comes naturally. We have also begun multiplication, which is exciting. They have been waiting for years to learn how to multiply. Now, division is another story. Somehow it is not nearly as exciting as multiplication. I have one student who continues to confound me and himself. He informed the other day that he can add so that is why he can multiply. He came the next day and told me he can divide but that he cannot subtract. I said, "honey, division is repeated subtraction." His response, "No, it can't be because I can't subtract but I can divide." Do you see why I say that we are barely treading water here? The interesting thing is while teaching them I am learning so many things that I never knew before either. Everyday someone asks me if I miss my kindergartners and everyday I say there are things I miss and things I don't. The thing I miss the most is the obvious progress you see in the young ones. The changes they make are so profound that it screams at you! "Look, I CAN READ NOW!" In third grade it is a small whisper that I cannot hear at all right now. But I will be patient.
Caden is Caden. Full of energy and change. Where the changes in kindergarten happen over the course of a year but with great big strides during the year, Caden's changes happen daily. He says a word with greater clarity than he did the day before. He speaks a sentence where before it was just two words. He listens. He understands what you ask him to do and follows through on it. Mostly. He is fascinating to watch, listen to, talk to, and play with. He has a bizarre sense of humor that I haven't quite figured out yet. He has undefined fears. He looks at you and asks, "okay?" in a very worried voice to determine if he should be scared or worried about that thing. It is interesting to note that as long as Mommy and Daddy reassure him that it is okay, he will take it in stride. He still loves music and wants to play his guitar. He now plays it while singing. I believe Santa will be bringing Caden some more musical instruments. He is a natural problem solver and I will strangle the teacher that tries to crush it out of him. Problem solving is one major skill that all students lack and I think it is because we (teachers, parents, society) try to everything for them and we lack the patience to let them figure it out. Just watch a little kid that has been told no though. They will try every possible way to get that no turned into a yes. Problem Solving is what little minds do best. Caden is just a constant delight. I love him more every day. I am a relationship person and as he becomes more of a person every day with his own quirks, I love him more and more.
And so, you are caught up. I am unsure who the you is but it is done for you. I think I write these more for me than for anyone else. It is the 21st centuries answer to therapy. Blog about it.
Have a wonderful evening. Enjoy the Aggies playing tonight against Nebraska. WHOOP!
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