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?

WW: Art of the Seating {Linky}

In the summer I went to Art of the Seating: 200 Years of American Design. It was pretty inspiring considering that my husband was making a chair, for a different show. 

It's odd going to a chair show, and not being able to sit in any of them.

My favorite:

What chair design was your favorite? Do you like modern, or classic better?

My husband's chair is out of its exhibition, and is now in our living room. It's both good and bad. It looks good, but every time one of the kids walks by it he's like, "Be careful!"

Soccer Games

Isaak played soccer in the spring, and now in the fall. He really is enjoying soccer. His coach really lets him work the field.

They had a double game last week. They won their first game, played hard on the second, but didn't win.

Crazy thing: 

Isaak has a whole drawer full of workout clothes. What does he wear? 

The same thing every time.

The best thing...kids are nice on his team!

The basketball team he was on was just not his fit. It has been that way, for awhile. He loves the sport, but not the team he was on. There was a kid that wouldn't give the other team high fives when they lost, he'd slam the floor when he the other team was making free throws, he'd push up against players, and more. Things like that just make Isaak pissed, and nothing was being done about it.

We found out when Isaak played at school, he was one of the top players. As opposed to his select team he wasn't even passed the ball. He doesn't need that negativity in his life.

He's not the BEST player at either soccer or basketball, but he's a good asset to both sports.

We signed him up, for basketball at the Y next to keep his skills in check.

At school he has intramural sports. Right now it's volleyball. Isaak and his carpool didn't really have the interest. When basketball starts they plan to play.

Travis makes Mica go to all Isaak's games. I don't even know why. Mica sits there and reads or listens to the music. He never knows the score. Travis says he has to go to be supportive. He's not supportive at all. Just like Isaak's not supportive to Mica's Quiz Bowl. He has no interest in that either.

Last week I was tickling Mica, and Mica was poking me in the arm. Being on Aspirin, all those pokes turn into bruises.

Travis said, "Let's trade spots. I'm getting sick of you two." We traded.

Then the two boys battled with empty Gatorade bottles. Mica's chair was knocked to the ground. Travis wonders why our "cheap" chairs break. Humm...I wonder.

When you were a kid, did you go to your bother or sister's sporting events, concerts and so on for support?