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!
   

Conferences

We had conferences last week. Both boys ended up with A's and B's. I couldn't ask for better report cards.

It was the first time Isaak was in middle school, and the middle school is very different than Mica's. As much as we didn't try to contrast, and compare it was natural to do so. 

We have, and continue to find all the staff at Mica's school to be so positive!

He's the news man in the morning. He loves doing it! He's free to change up things within reason. So he changes his accent almost every time. He makes silly jokes. A sixth grader came up to him in the hallway and said, "Are you the guy on the screen in the mornings? Man you're a good actor!" It cracked us all up, when we heard that story.

His Language Arts teacher likes that he puts his personality into his work. Not every kid feels free to do that.

His Healthcare Academy teacher is all over the place, but it's only because she likes to fit in as much as she can, within reason. She gave Mica a book about Polio, that he has to do a book report on. My Mom had that, so it's interesting. In the middle of talking to her the phone rang. She's like, "Mica can you get that? It's blind people that need to be escorted down here." He got the phone, but his ditzy Mica self said, "Ok come on down to room blah blah blah." It was like the blind was leading the blind. Ha! His teacher said, "No Mica you have to get them. They can't see!"

At the end of conferences I complimented Mica's last teacher. I said, "You know what? I know you don't feel well (she had a cold), but you should be proud. I haven't met a single bad teacher, since Mica started school here three years ago. You're all good." Then I walked away.

I do wish all the students at his school knew the capacity of the teachers, and how wonderful they are! Many don't seem to be as into things as Mica is.

Mica got all A's and one B.

Just like he tries different accents on the morning announcements. He tries different faces when we go out to eat.

Isaak's school had less walking, for conferences. All the teachers had their own little table in the gym and cafeteria. One would think that would be great. It annoyed Travis. He felt it was less personable. Voices echoed badly. There were only 3 chairs at any given table, so if anyone had an extra kid they had to stand.

There's only two teachers of his that I find great! The rest are just ok. I thought I'd think otherwise, considering that Isaak goes to an art magnet school.

Travis and I wanted feedback on how Isaak works in the classroom. His life seems to be school and homework. We don't want his whole life to be like that. I was looking for teacher tips on being more productive. Like, "Rule out all the answers you know are wrong, to pick the right answer.", "Do the easy homework first, and follow up with the harder things., "Talk less." and so on. Not one really gave us any tips. I've learned more from watching YouTube videos on anxiety in kids than I could get out of his teachers. One actually told me that boys just work slower than girls. Right away I thought, bullshit! Mica hardly has homework. He's a guy. That's an old way of thinking.

One teacher asked me who he has for Math. When Isaak said, she said, "Oh..." insert awkward silence here.

Isaak's teachers weren't mean. They just weren't out of the box thinkers, like I thought they'd be. 

Top teachers for him were Piano and Language Arts. He stops Piano now, and takes Drama. They have a rotating wheel of different arts they take. Yay Drama, but pout no more Piano. They seemed to understand creative kids the most.

Isaak got a two or three A's the rest B's.

I am happy both boys are doing great in school, but worried about Isaak's work load. How can I make the boy go faster? I'm not trying to change him. I just don't want his school life to always be homework. With ACT's and SAT's time is a factor. Life doesn't stop for people that go slow. 

WW: Braces {Linky}

The littlest man in our house got braces last Thursday. He had no choice. There was not enough room in his mouth, for his adult teeth.

He had to get some baby teeth out, to make room for big teeth to come in. He had a space maintainer.

This Thursday he got braces. 

I had braces, for too long really. I just know because my roots are small. They say if your roots are small you've had them for too long. 

I remember the pain. Isaak hasn't complained too much. 

He did complain when a ball from Goalball hit his mouth. The poor boy started bleeding. For a moment I thought we'd need to go back to the Orthodontist, but he was ok. 

He sure looks like a pre teen with them in!

In case you're wondering he lives in this coat. He has a closest full of shirts, and covers them all up with this coat. Ha!

He is still eating soft food for the most part. I'm sick of oatmeal, applesauce, smoothies, soups, yogurt and so on. I'm not even eating all those things when he eats them. I hope he gets used to them soon enough. 

Here he is eating a Goodrich Malt. A few years ago he said, "Can we get those mulches?" I had trouble understanding what he was talking about. When he said, "Goodrich Mulches" I knew he meant "Malt". I still call them "Mulches". He goes right along with it! Ha! 

Did you have braces when you were a kid? 

Rescued Gecko

When we got Mr. Sunny, Isaak's Leopard Gecko I was told by my student that had him, "He eats 2 meal worms every other day. He's afraid of crickets."

We found a few small crickets from outside, and tried to feed him them. They hopped around awhile in his tank, but he snapped them up when they slowed down. Now that he knows what they taste like, and has gotten over the fact that they are new to him, he loves them. He wiggles his tale all excited like, and snaps them up! It could be that my student tried to feed him too big of crickets. I'm not sure.

We were feeding him 2 mealworms one day, and a cricket the next day. He ate them right up. It got to a point where Isaak put 2 crickets in his tank, and de snapped both of them up!

I said, "We should read how much Leopard Geckos are supposed to eat." I was just kind of going off what my student said. Even so he still seemed hungry. He'd watch whoever had his food like he was thinking, Feed me!

Based on Sunny's length, he should have 3 meal worms one day, and 2 crickets the next day. Poor little guy was being underfed! It's kind of good we've been building back up his appetite. No one can go from not eating much, to eating a whole bunch more.

We also read that the blue sand he had in his tank before was bad for him. Geckos lick a lot. The sand could be poison to his insides. The sand can be used, for bigger lizards. It just isn't supposed to be used for little guys like Sunny. Most of the time in the desert lizards are on hard dirt surfaces. We got him coconut mulch, which is too big for him to eat.

He's our rescued Gecko!

AncordWorks Portable Bluetooth #speaker #sp #review

AncordWorks has a great bluetooth outdoor speaker!

What we tried the sound out on:

Yesterday we as a family went to Mica's school to play Goalball. Have you ever heard of it? I hadn't. It's a game were we got taught how to play from visually impaired people. We had to wear blinders, the lines in the gym stuck up (the were wires taped down), and the balls had bells inside them. Mica tossed a lot of of balls out of bounds (not a penalty though), and Isaak got so turned around he tossed the ball towards his own net. It was for Mica's Healthcare Academy. I recorded a some of the play, and played the video on the AncordWorks speaker.

Here's the original video:

Now here's the video playing on AncordWorks Portable Bluetooth Speaker:

The speaker has protected buttons:

This is where cords get plugged in. It's covered by a hard plastic, and clips into place.

The power, play, and so on are hard silicone buttons:

Clip It:

If you are on the move, you can clip the speaker to your pants, coat, overalls, or anything else really. The clip is really durable.

Water, Water, Everywhere:

Sometimes the best time to relax is when you take a shower, a bath, are in a pool, in a lazy river, or on a beach. The speaker comes with a little tiny raft. You can blow it up, and strap the speaker into place. The straps are a bit loose, so if we use it like this, we'll be sure to tighten them up. The speaker won't get damaged if a little water splashes up on it.

AncordWorks Portable Bluetooth Speaker is great holiday gift! Do you have a portable speaker? You can get it on Amazon Prime for $34.99 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CHCNMXN

Disclaimer: I got this product free or for a discount in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own.

Random Tid Bits

1. A company made a comment on instagram that I'd be a great person to review some of their products. I responded. They sent me a code, and said that I would have to pay for shipping. Not unheard of. I went to pick out my 3 things, only to find out that some of their stuff was out of stock, they had horrible reviews, and their shipping was $15!
   
   I messaged them saying those things, and that I wasn't interested.


2. Even though Isaak struggled at the beginning of the school year with homework, he has the best personality when he's not stressed out. He's a goof, he's so willing to try new things (even if he's the odd one out), he's creative, he's personable, and more.
   
   
   
   
   
   
    
3. Has anyone else noticed this fashion trend? Lots of chains! I don’t want to feel locked up in my clothes!
   
   
   


4. I get to hang out with a friend tonight I've had since preschool. Isaak and her son Joey are the same age, and are so similar. They both played basketball, they both played violin, they both are emotional, they both have been made fun of about their hair. Joey has a light streak in the front - kind of like a birthmark. I wish they lived here!
   
   We're going to Panera, then to the trampoline park in the picture below. It was that, or Spielbound - Board Game Cafe. All other things I get rolled eyes from the boys. Travis wants us out of the house because he has a 10 page paper due at the end of the month.


5. I took Isaak and a "friend" to a trampoline park a few weeks ago. I'm really hoping they can be friends. He's in most of his classes. The Problem: The kid is friends with the punk that's been making fun of Isaak's hair. I told Isaak, "That punk kid may not have made fun of your friend. Maybe he hangs with him because his other friends hang with him." The kid he hung out with lives only 6 minutes from our house. I snooped to check out the Mom's FB page. She has 6 of the same friends I do. *Fingers Crossed it works!
   
   
   

WW: Huipils {Linky}

We had fun going to El Museo Latino, to look at their latest collection. It was a bunch of Huipils from San Martín Jilotepeque.

I love their patterns and colors!

 Afterwards we did a craft together. It was a weaving. I had fun!

Do you like fiber art? Have you ever made a weaving, or anything close to it?

House of Conundrum

Disclaimer: I did not get any compensation for this post.

Mica is part of a Health Care Academy at school. He kind of wishes he did Zoo Academy because most of his friends are in it. BUT he wasn't going to sign up for either. It took a little push from me to get him to apply.

I think it's been good. He wanted to be a Pediatrician, for a few years. Why not use these free resources to figure out if he likes this field, or not? 

During the summer he did a week long camp at a hospital, where they learned about different medical professions everyday. In school he has a lot of medical things he does. He just got done getting CPR trained, phobias, and trauma situations. Next semester he'll be working with patients that have MS and Dementia.

I'm hoping it builds his empathy! Mica's very technical. He rattles off facts.

I am happy that he's been talking to a girl on the phone that's had some problems with friends. Shrink Mica talked her through her problems.

On the other hand when we went to get flu shots Isaak was freaking out. He's always gone to the doctor, for a flu shot. When we showed up at Walmart he said, "They are going to butcher me!" Mica started talking to him about his phobia with needles, and the process of a flu shot. It was freaking Isaak out all the more! Finally I leaned into Mica and said, "Shut up please. You're making it worse." So he needs to work on his bedside manner!

Recently his Health Care Academy had a grant to go to House of Conundrum.

It has nothing to do with heath. Just a time, for all the kid's families to hang out.

Mica picked The Final Frontier. I so would have picked the Abe Lincoln room, but it was Mica's night.

With the help of another family we got through it. The guy said at the end we hit a wormhole, which gave us extra time. He knew we were close to solving it! I only helped with one thing. Ha!

It was Isaak's first time being home alone. It didn't go the best. He got scared with night time noises, and literally forgot to eat because he had soccer practice, then a shower, then homework. BUT he's alive and well. I texted him a few times. 

Have you ever done an escape room? Did you get through?

Random Tid Bits

1. I survived yet another busy midterm week: Grades are in, projects are accounted for, everyone earned their grades, they are all passing, except one that's dropping.
   
   I do have a non motivated student in my Design and Layout class. I kind of chewed him out when he presented. I told him that it's his job to get motivated. He can do that by working in what he likes to do. He sketches fun images a lot. I said, "Work those into your projects!" The other students backed me up. It was overall positive.
   
   I have a group of 3 students in first year that clown around too much. Sometimes I wish I could say, "Ok you sit here, and you over there." It's not elementary, so what shall I do? No one that's serious wants to hear them horsing around. They are spending way too much on their education to piss it away. I'm torn on how to handle this - always.
   
   I do have to hang a big project, and will hopefully do that on Monday. 


2. Our window sills are totally full of tomatoes. It got cold enough that it snowed in Omaha today. Nothing stuck. Travis pulled off all the tomatoes last night. Otherwise they'd be useless, with a freeze. It's like we skipped fall all together.
   
   
   
   
   
   I called in for pizza last night. It's been awhile, since I've had off from cooking something. I didn't escape the work. Tomatoes were waiting to be processed. I made a mess in the process, so I had to scrub the floor afterwards.


3. Things are about to get super hectic! This weekend my one and only niece Kailey is getting married, Isaak has two soccer games (one is a makeup game). Travis goes out of town to pick up some sculptures and his Mom is having surgery Monday and Tuesday. I have a Program Advisory Meeting on Tuesday after work. I leave work early on Wednesday to go to Mica's conferences across town. Thursday Isaak gets braces, we have Isaak's conferences, and I'm getting allergy shots. All the rest of this month is nuts like that. 


4. I had to confront the boss man with a not so nice email. I was going to confront him face to face, but the meeting we were supposed to have never happened. He wanted me to teach 4 classes next semester. The class he wanted me to take on is Web. Not something I feel like I'm qualified to teach. He wanted my co-worker to help me. I was supposed to be quiet, and not tell my co-worker. He doesn't take change well. He sits right by me. I brought up many points. The biggest one was that I dislike how employees are put against each other. I mentioned that we all have our assets. Without me things wouldn't be as creative as they are, without my co-worker things wouldn't work as well as they do, and so on. I still have the busy schedule of three classes, but that's much better than four! My college teachers always taught only one course. They'd teach it a few times, but it was a repeat. 


5. Isaak's gecko Sunny is always wiggly when he’s first held, but two nights ago he calmed down. I fed him when Isaak was doing his homework. He did seem to know food was coming his way. He got off his rock, and walked towards the front of his tank. His food just sat there. Isaak came in a few hours later, picked up his worms with a tweezer, and he ate it right up. Maybe he just knows I’m not his master. Isaak’s a good father to his gecko Sunny.

Fall Cookies

Travis was supposed to have an artist help him haul his designed chair home. It weighs a ton. The artist that was supposed to help him, had a funeral to go to.

His work let him borrow an employee, and their truck to haul it.

In return Travis made them pizza, and I made them fall cookies.

I only allowed myself two cookies, to go with coffee.

My weakness: Sweets! Especially chocolate! 

What's your weakness?