Random Tid Bits

1. Isaak switched over to his new Math teacher. It seems like a great fit. His old teacher did end up getting fired. I have no clue what will happen with the rest of that class. He hasn't looked clueless, for a good week. His old teacher taught the kids like they were in 7th grade. She was a 7th grade teacher, for the most part. Isaak has always been pretty good at math. He wasn't ready for an honors course that he didn't sign up for.
   
   
   
   
2. I was worried about Isaak loosing friends, and having a hard time making friends in this new Math class. I guess it's not a big deal. He knows some of the kids. Some kids wanted to sit next to him because they love his drawing skills. His new teacher told Isaak she loves his drawings as well. Confident boosting has helped!


3. I have a few student in my senior class that have jobs. I'm feeling a bit like they have senioritis bad. They are a great class, but done.


4. In all the classes I have there's drama that I'd love to disappear.
   
   One girl complains about her teachers to other teachers. She even complains about her Mom to her teachers. She had my sympathy, but lately I don't know if I can trust anything she says. Her Mom might be a great Mom. The teachers she's complaining about are great teachers.
   
   On Friday she was telling me that some teachers are so subjective in what they like. She was referring to an assignment she has with a different instructor. I said, "With each assignment we have objectives. They are clearly laid out. In the assignment you are showing me, I'm assuming the objective was to use as little points in the paths that you are making as possible. Then it can be a smooth line, and not a big file in size. I'm not the instructor for that class. If you want the exact objectives, refer to the video the instructor left for you on the server. Your teacher has taught here, for years. I know he wants certain things to come out of the assignment. If you don't like what he has to say, duplicate the assignment, create one how you'd like it to be, and the other how he'd like it to be." She walked away. Then started complaining that her computer didn't work.
   
   One other girl has gone to administration about me twice. It's over silly things. The first time it was about 3 questions on a 121 question test. This time it was because we were talking about current events in class. The discussion was healthy. We weren't picking sides in our conversation. No one was mad, but apparently her. She wasn't even part of the discussion. Instead of standing up and saying, "Can you guys keep it down.", or "I don't like this conversation." she went to administration to tell them. I've been feeling a bit like I can't say anything. My tongue is tied. If I said I was going to rest room, that might be too much information, for her. I don't know what I'll do in a few weeks when I'm supposed to talk about Health Insurance. How does one talk about that, and not bring up the government? It's in regards to freelancers; getting their own insurance. It comes down to...this is college, not elementary, middle or high school. It's important to have dialogue.
   
   One other girl hates life. She hates her computer. She hates work that's done on the computer. God hates her. I've heard all those things. She's a great illustrator. When it comes to creating things on the computer, she puts her head down, and doesn't even want to try. We put all our videos on a server, for them to watch. It's hard because she hasn't been showing up. She's so negative. I wish I could reach her. I kept her behind last class to show her a demo in baby steps. If she looked at the videos, it would be the same thing. Watch it fast, or watch it slow.
   
   One other girl is always left out. She stays late just so she doesn't have to go home. I want to wrap her up, take her home, and tell her it's all going to be ok.
   
   
   
   
5.  Mica's great. Minus his bus not showing up a lot lately. He just picked out high schools. He was torn between two. 

Random Tid Bits

1. I got invited to one of those online parties. In my younger, just an adult years I didn't mind them. I went to a Tupperware, a Pampered Chef, a Discovery Toys, Usborne Books, some craft, and some costume jewelry party.
   
   I even hosted a few of these parties with my sister Terra.
   
   Now I can't stand them. I'm tired of feeling like I have to buy something at them. It's like, the pressure is on! My sister Terra has had 2 Norwex, a Young Living, and a LuLaRoe party. I managed to skip the Norwex and Young Living ones.
   
   I did buy a magic glass cleaning cloth from Norwex. I never really fully believed in the oils. Sure they smell good, hold some different properties, go well in some homemade cleaning recipes, but they aren't going to magically make all your problems go away.
   
   I just got invited a few weeks ago from a high school friend to join an online Usborne party. I said, "Really? I've hosted one, and been to another, my kids are ages 11 and 14, what could I possibly get out of this?" He convinced me it would be fun. The party happened to land when Mica's conferences were. Their books aren't cheap, and I have a plethora of gifts saved up for my youngest nephew Edison from blogging. I did very little participation. I just entered my name for the drawing. Go figure I won.
   
   Part of me wanted to just pass, but I'm like maybe it's something I can hand off to one of my nephews. It's a hard book cleaning rag. It's going to Emerson because he can't be around any germs.
   
   The host messaged me, "Can you tell me why you didn't participate in the party?" I think I gave her more of a response than she needed to read. Hello I'm a blogger. 


2. Isaak's rotated out of Piano, and is now in Drama. This also fits him really well. To Travis I've always called him my Drama King.
   
   Tomorrow he has to act out a family member. He's torn between acting out Mica or his Gecko Sunny. I think it would be much more fun acting out Mica. They are for the most part opposite with so many things. One likes sports one doesn't, one likes trivia while the other could care less, one is slow and the other is fast. The list goes on and on like that.


3. I think Isaak's finally sort of used to his braces. I haven't given him meat on the bone or anything, but he can have more solid things. Yay!


4. I was just messing around. Not sure I like this in the least bit. It's just not as funny as I thought it would be. I tried putting Putin's face in with Trump's. It didn't really work like I thought it would. Trump's face is fat and short, Putin's is long and skinny.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Isaak hasn't cried with homework for a long while. I so wonder if a kid can get PTSD from a teacher? My cousin brought that up to me. The thought crossed my mind, but I didn't really want to go there. His teacher covered so much when he wasn't in the classroom (strings, bathroom duty, safety patrol) and then would expect him to do homework. He felt so unsure how to do it, because he'd miss full lessons. I think when school started back up he felt that pressure again.
   
   He is super slow, not dumb. Just moving. That's on him. We're trying to figure out how to get him to move faster, without changing him. It wears on all of us when he's doing homework all night. Mica has to do more around the house than Isaak does. I put Isaak's clothes away, when Mica has to put his own away. I'd like it if it wasn't like that. Mica is older, but Isaak should have responsibilities too. The fact is, is that Isaak has a night of homework, and Mica hardly has any. Parenting is hard at times!
   

Drama

I don't know what I'm going to do when Isaak gets to be the same age as Mica. He's only 10, almost 11. His middle name should have been "Drama". All the people that told me that girls are more dramatic than boys, talked more, and cuddled less were wrong when it comes to Isaak.

For Valentines Day they had a dance at school. With Mica's teacher she sent home a letter saying that kids couldn't ask for dates. Isaak's teacher is new, and didn't get that memo. So he asked a girl on the first day.

That girl said, "Yes", then "No" the next day, then "Yes" after Isaak got his friend to help him write her a letter, and lastly "No" the day before the dance.

He went to school looking nice even though his date was no longer his date.

His date said, "Yes" to a new kid that kept calling Isaak names. He wasn't happy. He was all worked up.

When the dance happened he walked around in circles in the gym by himself. A few people told him he should apologize to the girl. Well he didn't do anything wrong. Why should he have apologized?

We heard about it everyday until the first part of March. That's when the girl wrote him an "I'm Sorry Letter".

She said:

It's been a long time since we talked. Well first of all I'm sorry! I didn't choose to go with _____. It was _____ who told me to. This is because I didn't know what to do there was so much going on in my mind that I just said "yes" to everything she said. They were all dares. Can we be friends again? I want it to be just like the old days. I'm sorry!

Thankfully Isaak's mostly drama free now. Although he is annoyed with the girl that tampered with things. He wants to fire her from his friendship club. I guess the drama isn't really free just yet.

Random Tid Bits

1. For a few weeks now I've been battling it out with computer problems. I think I have it fixed, nope, think again. It keeps fanning up like crazy when I'm on the internet! Under Activity Monitor it kept saying that my Mac was using over 100% CPU for Google Chrome Helper. I removed some things off that looks suspicious, it still fanned up once again! I read up on computer issues with Macs. I've had this one for quite some time. It's been virus free up until this point. I read up, and watched videos on how to fix my Mac. Finally a coworker convinced me to download Malwarebytes. I was incredibly nervous to download anything when something from the internet was clearly my issue. Like what if I downloaded a fake version of Malwarebytes, and then it would be worse off than it already was? That was my thinking. Malwarebytes detected 15 problems, and removed them! After that it continued to fan up. I did a system update, backed up my stuff again. 




Now my boss can't see my back up on other macs. The battery life says, "Condition Replace Soon". That isn't good. So I need a new battery.


2. Isaak starts a camp next week! It's an upcycled | Invention camp. I think he'll love it!


3. Our family is into watching a show called Under the Dome.  It's based off a Stephen King novel, and directed by Spielberg. It's not scary, just odd. Have you seen it? It's on Amazon Prime.








4. Do you have sisters, brothers, or are/were you a single child? I have sisters, and there seems to be drama at many turns. I wouldn't say I'm a dramatic person, but I am like Isaak where I want things to be right. I don't like to leave people out, make people feel bad and so on. 


5. Do you have any big plans for the weekend? I think Isaak and I need to work on a craft. The boy will go to decorate cupcakes at a library, and Mica started volunteering for a few hours on Sunday at the library. 

Inside Out

This isn't a movie review. A few weekends ago the boys spent the night at my oldest sister's house. She got them pizza and a few movies to watch. One of the movies was Inside Out. Have you seen it? I haven't, but I've wanted to.

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I feel like it's a movie that should have gotten more hype than it has. 

Forbes said this about the film:

"This latest Pixar film shares many qualities with the third Toy Story chapter, including a beautiful, rich, unexpectedly complex emotional arc that reveals itself slowly and will leave adults with jaws dropped and eyes damp. The film has possibly broader appeal than almost any previous Pixar film, with plenty for the youngest kids to enjoy but a story aimed at a slightly older near-teen and early-teen demographic, as well as more than the usual amount of smart storytelling and humor to appeal to the adults in the room. Indeed, this isn’t a story simply for the children to enjoy in their own way and adults to enjoy separately — it is a film meant to be shared by parents with their children, to bridge a gap between adolescents and adults, more than any animated film I’ve ever seen."

Mica didn't want to see it. He said, "It's for babies." He has in his mind that cartoons are for younger kids. He's pretty selective in what he wants to watch. He's cool with Kung Fu Panda and any anime flick. If I put on most cartoons he doesn't want to watch them.

We convinced Mica that it would be great for him to watch Inside Out. Isaak has been wanting to see it.

They watched it, and guess who loved the movie? Mica did.

Isaak woke up really depressed this morning. He had a dream that the characters from Inside Out were in his brain. They were super nice. They played with him. When he woke up he wished that they were real. It really bothered him.

Isaak has always been our more dramatic child. I never know if he's acting, or serious. He'll cry for 10 minutes. I'll leave him be if it's something crazy that he's crying about. After awhile I'll check on him, and he doesn't even have any tears running down his face. I'm not saying that he wasn't bothered, but he milked a reaction out of us.

It's hard as a parent of a dramatic child to know if the child truly needs more attention, or if they are playing you.

Part of me thinks: 

Kids certainly need to learn to suck it up. Life is too short to let things bother you all the time. I do spend time with my kids, so I shouldn't feel guilty that they get moody at times. Kind of the tough love approach.

Another part of me thinks:

Kids feeling shouldn't be ignored. Isaak has been upset because Mica's in The Student Council, Chess Club, and more. Isaak's too young for a lot of those special things. Mica's an independent player, and always has been. Yes Mica plays with Isaak, but it's minimal. Isaak's face lights up when I play bouncy ball in the hallway. His face is crushed when Travis helps Mica plant seeds that were given to him. Spending time with a kid who is moody will only be positive, and bring us closer together.

Do you have a child that is moody?

Before Our Vacation...

The boys had a little drama performance. We went on our trip right away afterwards, so I didn't get a chance to post about their drama camp show.

Isaak's drama camp was just an introductory class. There wasn't a lot that they did. When they acted it was the whole group that acted out a story. None of the kids had much of a part. I'm not down playing it. It looked fun! He looked like he enjoyed himself. I just started video taping him, then it got kind of drawn out. I really didn't end up with a whole lot of Isaak in the end of taping. I should of just taken pictures.

Mica's class was a little more advanced. He acted out a song from Lion King, another one from Wizard of Oz and another song called Coffee in a Cardboard Cup. I'm not sure where Coffee in a Cardboard Cup came from, but Mica had the biggest part in this one.

He was so fun to watch. Mica really got into all his parts. He had his grey viking shirt on. When he acted out the tin man, he turned his shirt around to be just grey. When the song was over, he switched his shirt back around. He kept handing his teacher props, and ran around to help.

Here Mica is in Coffee in a Cardboard Cup. He's the one with the black rimmed glasses. The end is the best part.

Drama Camp

Last week Mica and Isaak both went to drama camp.

We knew Mica would be just fine. Isaak on the other hand, we were certain that he would be nervous being dropped off some place new.

One of my friends' twins were happened to be in Isaak's class. That was fun to hear. Except he didn't remember them at all. We must get together more!

I wasn't sure what they would do in drama camp.

Mica was all excited after the first day. He was given a tour of the facility where they have actual musicals and plays. He kept talking about all the costumes. For a boy Mica still really likes to dress up. He has a dress-up bin; that Isaak and him share. It's not full of girly things. They have a super hero capes, a magician robe, doctor's scrubs, a safari outfit and gear, viking hats, and Halloween costumes they still wear.

Mica's Drama Camp

They re-enacted parts of the Lion King. Mica was an elephant. He could do whatever he wanted to do to pretend to be an elephant.

The learned the song Morning Report. He also learned a few other songs. One is a song from The Wizard of Oz. Mica was super excited that he's going to be a tin man and a tornado in that song.

Isaak's Drama Camp

He made a candle and they acted out Jack Be Nimble and other nursery rhymes.

I kept messing with him and said,

"Oh ya this is how it goes,
Jack be nimble 
Jack be quick 
Jack jumped over the candle stick
and broke his head."

Isaak was like, "He didn't break his head!"

I said, "He didn't? I must have gotten that wrong."

I should have sent Isaak in his Little Jack Horner outfit he wore at preschool. That would have worked.

Anyhow drama camp was a success. They really liked it. I'm glad we signed them up for it.

I'll follow up with pictures and/or video. They did a few productions for us last Friday.

Curly Hair

I didn't know that with boys I'd have so much drama this morning. 

Isaak didn't want to color Daddy a picture on white paper, he wanted colored paper from Mica. Mica only gave Isaak a scrap of red construction paper. Isaak knew it was a scrap and wouldn't stop pouting. I gave Isaak a special piece of scrap book paper that had robots on it. Isaak wouldn't cave his pout because the paper didn't come from Mica.

Isaak got dressed and Mica got annoyed that Isaak was dressed classier then he was. Mica decided to change clothes. He puts on a green plaid shirt with blue plaid bottoms and wanted to wear his black plaid bow tie. My eyes hurt looking at him. I helped him set out something more matching, yet dressier then I originally set out. Then Isaak wanted to put on crocs with his dressy clothes. It took a little bit of convincing that crocs wouldn't work with the outfit he had on.

That was the end of the drama.

I got dressed up today. It is Father's Day after all. I decided to do something new and curl my hair. It was loose curls. I asked Isaak, "What do you think of my hair?" Isaak said, "I love it! It reminds me of a tornado!" Somehow that brought a smile to my face. :) It's better then being annoyed like I was with all the previous stuff going on.

My hair looking like a tornado got pulled up into a pony tail. It wasn't bad. Daddy said he likes it when I use the straightener more so then when I curl it.

The whole conversation with Isaak reminded me of when Mica (at age 3) said to Great Grandma Kent, "Grandma I love your hair! How did you get all the bubbles in it?" It was very curly and silver/white.

We went out to brunch this morning, over to deliver a June Berry Pie to Grandpa Spiehs. Great Grandpa Kent and Great Aunt Becky were there visiting, so they got to enjoy the pie as well. Grandma Spiehs made homemade ice cream that went perfect with it!

Mica kept hugging all over Great Aunt Becky. He was very chatty! Isaak kept taking stuffed animals and put them in Great Grandpa Kent's lap, piling in his lap and covering them both up with a baby blanket. We left and Mica said to Great Aunt Becky, "Bye Great Grandma Becky." I said, "Don't you mean 'Great Aunt Becky'? He said, "Well she's like a Grandma." I guess being like a Grandma is a good thing; except for the age difference.

Then we went to see Madagascar 3. It was funny. Usually I'm ify about sequels. Madagascar is kind of like Toy Story, it keeps getting better with each one.

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The rest of the day was chores for me.

We came home and I made spinach salads and fruit smoothies for dinner. I cut up tons of oregano to wash a dry. I have pans of it underneath every living room window. It was flowering and bees were loving it! Then it was laundry. After that was dishes.

A busy day, full of fun!

Drama in the Classroom

You wouldn't believe the drama I've dealt with last week! It's really silly that college students just can't be respectful of each other! I'd say the majority of the time I love my students! I really have little problems with them. Then there's one time a year that I just want to pull my hair out. That's this time. HA!

A group of girls got along with each other. Then there was conflict. One girl doesn't drink or party, and she got thrown out of the group. Good for her! I think. Well things got worse. Much more drama took place. Once I brought it up to a higher up, they were called in to be talked to. Then they were friends once again.

We had a drug issue with another situation. Nothing could be done because it was an issue outside the school.

There was also a harassment issue. The one(s) that harass rarely think they are in the wrong. Then the one that was harassed feels guilty, like they did something to bring it on.

There were a few more situations. Craziness!