Mica is outside in the cold for safety patrol. He likes the Beanie Knit Skull Cap style. We got a wool blend ski hat. It's designed by: CacheAlaska.
It's Made For Women and Men:
At first I wanted to give this to Travis. The one size hat didn't fit him very well. It seemed too tight. Travis' head isn't big, so I'd order a large for most men or women. One size and Large are the only 2 sizes that they have. The one size is more for tweens. It fits Mica perfectly.
Colors:
Charcoal Grey (Like we got)
Army Green
Black
Brown
Navy Blue
They are all pretty neutral colors that work with anything.
Material: It's 50/50 Wool/Acrylic. The material is designed in such a way that the hat makes a person stay warm even if it's wet. That's amazing to me. It's fleece line on the headband part of the hat. This keeps it comfortable and breathable. When to Wear This Hat:
On Safety Patrol
Sledding
Skiing
Hiking
Walking
Running
Ice Fishing
Ice Skating
Many more places and things to do when it's cold.
Cost:
$10.49 to $29.99 - Depends on the size and color. This hat was on the lower range.
Do you wear hats? I stick to ear muffs because hoods are too big for my small head, and hats mess up my hair. Disclaimer: I received Beanie Knit Skull Cap to review. I wrote this post, and was not influenced at all with an opinion. I only review things that I find interesting, or that would benefit my readers or family.
Isaak loves basketball! I'm so glad we signed him up for it. It seems like it's his sport.
Travis and a Grandpa to one of the kids on the team practice a lot at school. That way they can up the kid's skills. Isaak certainly has gotten better over two seasons!
Here's the net bag. The bag could be used for other things if you decide not to use it for this set. It has a draw string to close it up. The bag is 19"x22".
The cones have been used for dribble drills. They also could be used for obstacle courses. They are perfect for driveways, gyms, or outside courts. Each cone is 7" tall.
There where 2 whistles in the set. Isaak hijacked one of them already. Trust me when I say this - they are loud.
The stop watch works, but we've found it to be annoying. It doesn't have an off switch that we can find. We kept hearing a funny beep in our living room, and could not figure out what it was. We figured out it was coming from the stop watch. We finally had to take the battery out.
Last week Isaak won his first game! Last season the team barely had enough players to switch in and out. They got so tired mid game. This season seems to be going much better. We took Isaak out to get frozen yogurt to celebrate.
Cost:
$34.50 and on sale for $16.50 with Prime.
Have you ever gotten into a sport, or had a kid that was into sports?
Disclaimer: I received Coach Equipment to review. I wrote this post, and was not influenced at all with an opinion. I only review things that I find interesting, or that would benefit my readers or family.
Last year the kid's principle sent out a letter asking for parents to try and not send candy for treats.
I spotted rulers 1/2 off after the school sales in the fall. I bought a ton! Enough for two classrooms of kids + more.
On Pinterest there was ruler Valentines. I thought I'd try something similar with my own spin on it:
I brought them all home to cut them out. Sure enough I got eye rolls from every boy in the room. Travis, "Really you're going to do that for their Valentines?" Isaak, "Mom kids like candy not rulers!" Mica, "Ya that's pretty lame Mom!"
I refused to cut them out. I let 55 print outs sit on the floor for probably 3 days. Travis said, "Aren't you going to do anything about those?" I kind of looked around like I couldn't see what he was talking about for a moment. It reminded me of that episode of Everybody Loves Raymond when their suitcase sat on the stairway for a few weeks, and Debora acted like she didn't see it.
Just Watch the First Few Minutes
After a minute he repeated his question. Pointing at the Valentines. I said, "You can go buy some. I'm done trying to please you guys." Pitty Party
I do have a way of guilty people without meaning it. I mean seriously though. I bought them, designed them, printed them, and then they boo boo the whole idea.
Travis cut about 1/2 of them out. Then he said, "You should just slide a lolly pop in right here." Isaak said, "That's a great idea! They just don't want peanut anything, so no chocolate or peanut butter."
I got 2 packages of lolly pops, and we were good.
Isaak was more the helper! Mica hides in his room, so he can escape from helping. Mica will help if I ask. I took photos of Mica's Valentines because his had the lolly pop on all the same side + we did his last, so they were lined up all nice for a photo.
I know they won't fit in the kid's boxes, but they are fun and different.
Do you pass out Valentines?
I give my own family (including me) a small box of chocolates. I was going to get Mica a Hello Kitty box because it's a running joke that he likes her. He really doesn't. I like Hello Kitty though. Then I saw that the Hello Kitty chocolate boxes were a few dollars more, and didn't have the variety as a bigger plain box did. There you have it - we're all getting plain heart mixed chocolate boxes.
I print off an online Valentine for my students. They seem to light up when they walk into the lecture hall to see a Valentine and heart candy at their desk. Whatever makes them happy.
Lately every shirt Mica puts on is too short in the sleeves and the torso. I had him try on all of his shirts just when it started getting cool.
This is the last time he wore the shirt below. It fits Isaak perfectly. I may stop by Old Navy to pick up some shirts this weekend. Mica's closet is looking bare.
I've been feeling down in the dumps lately.
Maybe it's the lack of sunlight. I forget to take Vitamin D3.
Months ago I got a cold, it went into asthma. All day I feel pretty good, but at night it kicks in. I just can't seem to kick it! I imagine I'm not doing well on sleep.
Government everything has me nervous. CREATE JOBS and MAKE AMERICA GREATAGAIN. All I see is jobs going away: The National Endowment for the Arts funding and other art program funding is going bye bye. It may not effect you. It certainly effects my family and friends. I went to art openings, and it's like a cloud of sadness in the crowd. What happened to the government supporting the arts? In the Great Depression they hired artists to stimulate the economy. Artists and acting jobs are being cut. Journalism is degraded, not trusted and cut. Three main stations are slanted one way, and another station is slanted the other way. Science isn't trusted it seems. Parks funds are getting striped down, and freedom of speech taken away. Teachers are bashed, and not respected. Health insurance was a mess, now it's in major limbo. Many health care workers will loose their jobs. Don't try being a freelancer, or work in a small business like my husband and I do. If you are in the military, dig for oil, build walls, work in the food industry, or work on cars you're ok. Good for you!
I'm beginning to hate the terms, "Left Wing" and "Right Wing" because they are used so negatively. It's like a title when you want to slam someone, "That ghetto person", or "That left wing freak over there." We're people! The only time I use race is to describe a person in a good way. I said just last weekend, "I just love that really dark skin that person has. It's so neat looking." I've referred to Albinos being really interesting too.
My kids have a lot of Muslims that go to school with them. Guess what? Many of them are nicer than others. The ones that come from Africa have a real sense of family. They do things together. I respect them for that. Think what you want, but we've had more white so called Christians attack people than we have Muslims. It's really hard when my kids see the news and ask questions about what's going on. Quite frankly I was nice and quiet. Now I feel like shouting from the roof tops.
Around Christmas a really nice guy called a fire in that was at a local plant nursery in town. He got a $1,000 gift card from them. He proceeded to donate the money to nonprofits because he was that kind of a person.
Two weeks later he was working at his job at a gas station. A guy came in when he was closing. The guy wanted to buy chewing tobacco. The nice worker said, "Sorry man I already have the cash register closed for the night. You'll have to go somewhere else to buy it." The not so nice guy waited out back for the cashier to leave. He ran him over with his truck, and killed him. The nice man has a young daughter he left behind. :(
The punk left the scene. He went on to sell houses - a real estate agent. Well the prick was found! His truck had specific markings on it that were caught on film. Way to go Omaha Police Department. The police have gotten such a bad wrap; understandably so. I thought I'd give them credit where credit is due.
I told my kids this weekend, "I want you both to know that no matter what your views are when you are older, no matter what religion you are or aren't we'll love you regardless. You need to be able to back up what you feel. Sources certainly help. The US was and should be about freedom of speech and thought. Please feel free to share your thoughts with us."
It's Saturday nights from 6:30 to 10:30. It does kind of run late for all of us. It gives us time away from the kids. They seem to enjoy our boys because they for the most part are pretty positive little guys. The boys enjoy their program.
Isaak did have problem with a bully last session. That kid got kicked out of the program. One of our goals that we wrote down for Isaak (we have to write a goal each time) was that he learns how to deal with bullies. That way the leaders know it's an issue that needs to be resolved. I wouldn't say Isaak gets picked on a lot, but he shows his emotions on his sleeve. Kids see that.
They write up forms to tell you how your kids have been. Isaak's gotten comments on the form about how he talks out of turn at times. We had him write down things for himself to help with zipping his mouth when the leader is talking. That seemed to help. The whole camp isn't about the kids being quite. It's just key times.
What do they do at this camp?
They learn about keeping a budget, they have group trust activities, they have math exercises, they have gym/play time and more.
Each week they talk about one key thing: Respect, Responsibility, Trustworthiness, Citizenship, Caring, Fairness, Honesty, Perseverance, Integrity, Courage, Unity and Creativity.
They have new leaders this time around. Isaak's leader has been having him write down facts about different countries to take to camp the following week.
He's learned about Australia, Brazil, and Japan.
We have Isaak look up all the information about the country he is learning about on his own. He can use his Kindle. He only needs one fact, but he writes down about five.
Then we talk about it.
It's really great that he takes initiative with learning more than he needs to. For two weeks he hasn't gotten called out for talking. Yay!
I have to say that this camp has grown on me. For awhile I was annoyed about the bully incident. It's a leadership camp. No kid should have to put up with bullies in a camp with that direction. They do try and take in all kids - especially kids that are troubled to make leaders out of them. They did deal with the bully. Our kids seem happy to go. In fact there are times when they say, "When is Banister?" I enjoy the family nights. They have lots of activities for us. :)
We had my oldest nephew Ethan's birthday party this weekend. I try and come up with interesting ways to give money. This time I put $20 in a money maze. You have to get this tiny ball through the maze before you can open it up. I have to say that I kind of messed this all up. I put money in 1 of the 2 we have. I forgot which one I put the money in. I had to do 2 mazes, found out the money wasn't in either of them, and was glad I had extra cash laying around.
My Dad and I making faces:
My youngest nephew Edison made a face too:
My sister was dog sitting this Labradoodle named Moose.
My nephew Emerson didn't get out of the hospital until Friday. He had an infection where his feeding tube was put in after Christmas. Later we learned that part of it fell off inside him. The worst part of the whole situation was that the surgeon didn't want to see him when my sister called him initially. The doctor said, "He'll be fine." Shaking my head - what?
When my sister messaged me at work about this I messaged back telling her that it had to be an infection, and to call our Pediatrician Doctor Harrison (my kids go there as well). Doctor Harrison saw Emerson within an hour, he called the Surgeon's office, "Yes! You are seeing him! He has an infection!" By that time it had spread, was really red, the redness was hot, he had a temp, a high white blood cell count, and Emerson was not a happy camper. The Surgeon proceeded to tell the Pediatrician that he didn't need to be seen. Anyhow Doctor Harrison won that fight. The Surgeon got some not so nice comments from my sister at the hospital.
Emerson had antibiotics, slept a lot, his infected area drained a lot. Once he could have surgery to take his feeding port out to put in a new one they did. He is doing better, but still tires out easily.
The hospital's therapy dog came by right as Emerson was about to leave.
I guess it sounded like Emerson said, "All Done!" when they got in the car. He does say a few words, but not consistently.
By the time they started to ride up their hill he was clapping.
Emerson was smiling a lot because Edison and he kept hugging.
Have you ever had a hospital stay? What did you have to go in for? I think my boys have had more medical care than I ever have when they were babies.
If you remember last week I mentioned that we had a middle school open house for Mica last Tuesday night. We took 2 of our nephews with us because my sister was still at the hospital with my nephew Emerson.
That whole night went fine. To get into middle schools in the district we had to fill out paperwork with our top three choices.
Of course Mica wants to go to the school that's in the most dangerous part of town. It's the best school in our opinion. When we walked into that school last year they had a hydroponic system going to grow plants, it's the only middle school in the metro that has their own planetarium, and they had all these tools set out under a sink. What were they teaching? Plumbing of course.
The open house he went to recently is a school closer to our home. It's his 2nd choice. No bells and whistles, but it is close. They do have a pool and weight room that they never showed us.
His last choice is a magnet school that gets money from Warren Buffet's foundation. Their focus is on journalism and broadcasting. Those aren't really Mica's areas of interest, nor are they taken seriously now a days, but the school is nice because of the funds they get. It's always filled, so I doubt he'll go to that one.
More on middle schools later. It's a lottery system, so we'll see what he gets into soon enough.
Isaak and my nephew Edison are in the photo below. Edison was keeping us entertained that night! These two thought they were ready to go to middle school.
I never knew picking out a middle school was going to be such a pain.
They actually start at different grade levels in the district: Some in 5th, some in 6th, and some in 7th grade.
They each have their focus. I'm kind of neutral with that. They are in middle school. How specific do they really need to get?
The better schools seem to be in crappier parts of town. That sucks!
There are so many options! I grew up in a different district. We had 1 option.
You have to live in a certain area (zone) to qualify for bussing. The bussing isn't rated super high here, so Mica's getting a cell phone for his birthday.
On Wednesday Isaak woke up feeling sick to his stomach. He looked white! Whiter than his caucasian skin.
Travis stayed home with him because I taught that day. Then he was bouncing off the walls after a 15 minute rest. Travis took him to school at 11 or so. Travis said said to me, "I think Isaak was playing you."
Isaak has never played sick. In fact both boys enjoy school. They don't like to miss because that messes up their perfect record for attendance.
After basketball practice that night Isaak cried in the shower because his stomach hurt again. That's really very unlike him.
I sent him to bed.
That night sucked! Isaak wet the bed because he was sick. Mica doesn't even try to go to the bathroom when he has to throw up. It went all over himself, and his bedding! I said, "Mica you're almost 12! Just try to hit the toilet!"
I decided that they were both staying home on Thursday. It was so back and forth up until that point. All of Thursday they were fine! Too fine to stay home. I had no idea they were going to be like that.
A bucket they never used.
Most of that day I did laundry. A full made bed. I figured I should take a picture, since it's rarely made this nice. The boys got Yellow Submarine bedding for Christmas.
I also helped Mica study his Spelling Bee words. I'll be happy when his Spelling Bee is over. It's February 9th. Mica thinks more like Travis, and Isaak thinks more like me. Helping Mica study is like helping some other kid that's not mine. Many of the words I have to look up to see if I'm saying them right. Mica spells great, but I start to think...what's the point to learn these words that no one uses? There are lists from 2nd grade to 8th grade. He has to study them all. Anyhow he has most of them down. He at least has a chance to win.
I did make the boys stick with the BRAT diet: Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast. I always add JELLO and probiotics to the mix. Beyond that they were happy, energetic kids.
We had a silly moment with eyeliner to make bad eyebrows and a few mustaches.
Then the day was done.
Whenever I've gotten the stomach flu it's a 24 hour thing.
Travis and I never got whatever the boys had. Yay!
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