Friday, January 18, 2019

Random Tid Bits

  1. Yesterday I was distracted in the office because boss man and a building next door were have loud words exchanged. I was sneaky, and wanted to listen in on what was going on. I could hear loud voices, but everything was muffled because of walls and distance. When I went to move closer to hear, and pretend to look at books. Get this...his wife was doing the same thing. Ha! She wanted to know what was going on too. I went back to my office.

    This isn't the first time they've exchanged loud words. The fight is aways the same. They are arguing about the parking lot.

    Restore is a nonprofit that helps destroy things people don't want, and sells those things for cheap. The problem is, is that they drive their big ass trucks through our parking lot very fast. Our concrete surface has gotten destroyed on more than one occasion. It gets fixed, and gets destroyed again within a few weeks.

    Our school has fixed it, then they asked to share the price to fix it a 2nd time, then boss man blocked off the area to make them go the other way. Restore didn't like that! Boss man said he blocked it off to protect our students because they drive fast around the school. True, but it's not really the reason he blocked them off. Well after a few fights about it being blocked off, boss man I believe sent them the bill to fit the concrete. In boss man's defense we're not driving big trucks around the building EVER. Then Restore brought up that our students and staff park in their lot space. We're having them move.

    What's one to do in this type of situation? I hear about neighbors fighting over trees, or retaining walls. This is kind of a similar situation. Yes I could fight over trees and a retaining wall with a neighbor as well. We haven't, but we could.

  2. We have a ton of junk food left over from New Years in the deep freezer. I said, "Pull out some pizza rolls. We can have them as a snack. Travis said, "Careful the pizza rolls are hot. They just came out of the oven." I said, "No worries." I grab one to eat it. He said, "You're going to burn yourself!" I said, "No you just need to learn to eat them right. You nibble the long edge off. Then you open it up like an old 80s money clip/holder, and blow on it before eating it all." It took him a minute to know what I was talking about. Hey I never burn myself with this method of eating a pizza roll.


  3. We had a follow-up meeting with Mr. Principal last night. I went in saying, "Well it's good news, we now have an index card of things going wrong, verses a full letter page." It did go better!

    We found out that the biggest reason why Isaak got a C in Social Studies. It was because he went to go meet with his teacher and councilor on his own accord; then when he got back the Librarian didn't tell him what they worked on. She wanted him to ask his partner, which she did nothing the whole time, and had no clue. Isaak didn't understand what to do. Most of his packet was blank. He actually answered more questions than his partner that was there the whole time.

    Now he has to follow up from the packet he half did with a PowerPoint. Mr. Principal is going to have him work on the packet instead of some reading assignments he finds aren't making him grow. That's helpful! 

  4. It's getting ready to snow good in Nebraska. All the elementary, middle and high schools got off school. It didn't happen much until the 1/2 half of the day. The kids all have Martin Luther King's Day off as well. Yay for a 4 day weekend. Have you had any snow where you live?

  5. I'm a little nervous to drive home. It's a sheet of ice out there! 

Thursday, January 17, 2019

SOFT Style Guide

My sister facetimed her boys, while they stayed with us. That means I got to facetime with her as well.

I asked how her convention in St Louis was going. She said she needed a Style Guide, for a logo I created for the SOFT organization.

I have my students make a style guide. It takes all semester. In my mind I was like - Really, while I'm watching 3 of your boy, you're going to ask me to do this? I know she didn't know all she was asking. I think she thought I just needed a page saying the font and colors. BUT that's not all a style guide is. It's also used to show how not to use a logo. It also gets into the spacing around a logo. That can't be done with measurements. A logo can be used for something small - like a business card, and something big - like a billboard. You have to show the spacing with a letter or graphic in the logo.

I started working on it this week. Two weeks after she asked me.

I went in thinking I could do it on a page, but that expended to a mini book. Usually a Style Guide is a mini book.

If I've seemed absent from blogging it's because of helping Isaak with school, taking Isaak to basketball practices, and working on things like this SOFT Style Guide.


Soft Style Guide by on Scribd



Do you have any big projects you've been working on?

5 Boys!

A few weeks ago I watched 3 of my nephews along with my own kids.

A House Full of Boys!

I had Edison (age 4 1/2), Isaak (age 10 1/2), Elijah (age 10 1/2), Mica (age 13), and Evan (age 13 1/2). A house full of boys! My sister and brother in law went to St Louis  to a conference for Emerson (age 6) who has Trisomy 18.

I wasn't very on top of my picture taking game. It's hard when most of the boys don't want their photos taken. I'm also just bad about taking pictures when it winter time, for the most part. It's dark out, and difficult to get good lighting.

Nap Time

I took that Friday off. We ran errands and washed the car before my nephews got there.

The nephews came, they played outside, then came in. Travis got home from work. He asked me to have them keep it down, so he could take a nap. I said, "Ya right! You really think you're going to get a nap in the living room with 5 boys in the house?"


Nap time never really happened for him.

Game Time

The boys like this game called Pandemic. It's a survival game. Different wide spread illnesses occur, and you have to try and keep them under control. The game is team based. Everyone has to work together to win or loose.



They lost. It still was fun!

Sleep Time:

The youngest one - Edison goes to bed at 7! It kind of dampened the fun we could have had. Our house isn't big enough to put him in one wing of the house, while the rest of us hung out. We have 3 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen with a kitchenet, and a bathroom. Downstairs is an art studio, a laundry area, and a storage room. 

Edison was excited to sleep over! 

Isaak read to him. I always did say that Isaak would be a better big brother than Mica. He's empathetic, and will stand up for people.  He also is a people person. Mica is more independent, bookworm, and goes with the flow - to not piss people off.



Edison said, "Aunt Wissy (Lissy) I have my Whitening (Lightening) McQueen sweeping (sleeping) bag. I’m spending the night for 2 nights here with my brothers." I said, "Yes you are! I think we’ll put the bigger boys outside under the stars though." He looked at me so odd.


We watched Incredibles 2 before bed. Thankfully I won that movie, and it went in Isaak's stocking.

Everything went great as long as Elijah and Isaak were together (10 year olds), and Mica and Evan were together (13 year olds). When they all get mixed up Isaak sometimes gets picked on because he's the younger one in the big kid group. Then he gets sensitive. It helped that the boys had their new and old Kindles. They could share them.


Breakfast:

I made snowman pancakes for breakfast. I knew Edison would appreciate my creativeness. I wanted to do more, but Travis was breathing down my back about spending too long on something we were going to eat anyway.



Basketball Games:

Elijah was supposed to have 2 games, and Isaak 1 on Saturday! I felt a bit like we were going to live at basketball games that day. How do people do it will lots of kids?! My parents were going to help. Then the schedule got switched to just Isaak having a game on Saturday, and Elijah having his games on Sunday. 

We did find out Isaak's team was in too high of a league, for just coming from the Y. We're now lower, and winning games! It's so good to not have that negativity in our lives. The balance of winning some, and losing others is important. 

13 Year Olds:

I am so glad that we could leave the 13 year olds home alone. They got to hang out. We couldn't fit them all in our Subaru. 

What do you like to do if/when you have a house full of kids?

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