The GACE/Laundry connection

I made the big push and took the GACE Special Ed. Academic Content Test yesterday. Four hours -- 120 multiple choice questions and four essays. One of the four essays I had absolutely no clue about and will suffer for it. I took a stab at it, but looked up the information afterward and wasn't even close. I wouldn't be as upset about it if I hadn't studied everything ELSE on that particular topic -- GRRRRRR! Other than the essay, everything else was pretty much typical GACE test. I've become somewhat of an expert by now, having taken the two other tests. As for how I did? Who knows! I didn't expect to pass the other two and I feel the same way about this round, especially Part 1 where I had essay diarrhea of the pen.

A gigantic casualty of GACE has been my laundry room. I'm pretty sure it's dead. Smothered to death by dirty laundry. I turn on the lights in that room, and all I hear are crickets. So today, in an effort to raise a laundry room from the dead, I've begun excavating dirty clothes from the floor and adjacent hallway. A pathway has at last been cleared and I've done about five loads of laundry so far. Kids now have pants and shirts to wear to school tomorrow. Still no underwear, but the day is not done. I had to stay home from church to accomplish this. I couldn't bring myself to do several loads of emergency laundry last night, so I played Ms. Pathetic, and let Keith take the kids who could find clean clothes off to church today. I slept in a little, made breakfast, started the first load, cleaned up in the kitchen and have been filling the ravenous washing machine and dryer ever since.

The Kings made a stop-over on Friday night on one of their grand driving expeditions. It's their spring break. They will travel thousands of miles in the next week visiting friends and family. We were their first stop on the way north from Florida. They've come often enough that their kids all know the drill. They bring their sleeping bags and pillows and set up their stuff, then all of the boys go and play video games for as long as we'll let them, and the girls go into their room and play music real loud and do a lot of laughing and giggling. This time, Keith and Kerry went off to see a movie and Ginny and I hung out and talked while I made dinner. We had Make Your Own Tacos -- a Johnson tradition. Yum!

On Thursday (I realize I'm going backwards on my reports!), Keith went on a whirlwind trip to California. He left our house at about 5:00 in the morning, got on the plane, met his Dad at LAX. Together they headed off to Norwalk to fix the three birth certificates that are not actually official birth certificates. They are abstract birth certificates, even though it says "Official Government Document" on them. Keith then had Yoshinoya with his Dad and then hopped a plane once again to come on home, making it through the door here at about 11:00 the same evening. Pretty efficient! Hopefully, now that we've got the birth certificates fixed, we'll be able to get the passports back in time for the upcoming Mexico/Japan trips.

Butterscotch Brownies cooked just a little too long

Teacher, teacher

I was surprised to see how long it had been since I'd posted. I guess I've been busy. Where do I start?

It appears that I won't be able to do the One Year Practicum program to get my teacher certification. The school budget won't allow it. My other option at this point, should I wish to become a teacher, is to take one more GACE test and enroll in a teacher certification program. I will then be qualified to begin teaching as long as I can get my teacher certification done in five years.

So I am now seriously considering the possibility of getting a Masters in Education. It means only a few more classes after getting certification. I am looking into the many programs that are available to me and trying to talk to as many people as possible. Those of you who pray, would you please pray that I talk to the right people and ask the right questions. It's a very interesting, exciting and overwhelming time in my life.

On the home front, Kathleen got on the track team at her school. She is the first of the kids to participate in any school sport. I'm enjoying it immensely. She has two hours of practice pretty much every school day, unless she competes in a track meet. The weekly track meet runs all the way until 7:00 pm after school, and I can get in free with my substitute teacher badge. She is certainly not the fastest kid out there, but she runs hard and tries hard. I'm very proud of her.

Keri Lynn and I have been filling out the endless forms and jumping through the endless hoops for college. She wants to go to either Shorter College, which is one of three Southern Baptist colleges in Georgia, or Georgia State and College University, a liberal arts college with a strong Christian contingency. It's an interesting, exciting and overwhelming time in her life, too!

I continue to sub at the same middle school, where I've been since December. For those of you who might not remember from previous posts, I work in a self-contained special ed. class as a teacher's assistant. ("Self-contained" means that the kids stay in their own classroom rather than assimilate into general ed.) Half of the kids are in wheelchairs and all of them are at the lower end of the IQ range. Keva is at another middle school and would fit right in with these kids. I have had the privilege of teaching each one, to a certain extent, and watching them react to the learning process. I especially enjoy giving the readers their reading lessons. The brain is an amazing creation!

In fact, I've been enjoying it so much that I am seriously considering going into special education as a teacher at the severe/profound level. I was asked several times last year by several people if I would like to teach a self-contained class. My answer was, "No, thank you." Inside I was saying, "Are you CRAZY?!? Don't you know I already take care of a daughter at that level? And you want me to do it 24 hours a day!?!" And the person asking would nod and agree in complete understanding. However, now I have a different perspective, and the opportunities are still there even in our current tough economy.

Keith is going to be going to California sometime in the next few days to try to get the long versions of Keri Lynn and Kristofer's birth certificates. Apparently, when we got their birth certificates, three of our seven kids got the abstract version of the birth certificate. It says right on their "official government document", but it does not have the city in which they were born. It has worked fine for us all these years and would be fine if we were applying for passports in California, but doesn't work in Georgia. Argh! So we have about 30 more days to get this issue taken care of. Thank God for Keith's flight privileges. It would take way too long to get it fixed by mail. I shudder to think!

Chick-fil-A

A sick one -- pathetic, isn't he?

Lovely daffodils

Last Monday, our county closed all of the schools because of snow. Snowmen stayed up for several days. Snow stayed on the ground clear into Wednesday and Thursday in the shady areas.

Today, we turned on our AC when we got home. Temps were up into the late 70's. Hello, Spring! Glad your coming! Trees have started to bloom. White ones. A few pink ones. And, of course, the daffodils have been around for several weeks. I love daffodils.

Keith had his day off today, but he spent most of it taking his friend, Carol, his friend who he used to work with who has cancer, around to her doctor appointments. He had to run back quickly, though, to pick up Keva who had started throwing up at school.

Bummer.

And, sadly, I'm not upset that Keva is sick, per se. She actually seems to be doing pretty good. She ate a good dinner tonight. She's sleeping comfortably.

I'm just thinking of the possibilities that follow when one child starts vomiting. Soon it becomes a plethora of vomiting. Vomiting fountains of throw-up. Which means laundry. Possible time away from work. Doctors. Steam cleaners. And fun stuff like that.

We've already doing the coughing/fever/chills thing. In fact, I figured that we were doing pretty good with our sick selves. Missing church a few weeks. A couple of kids home from school at a time. And no vomiting!

So we'll just have to wait and see if Keva is a special case. Maybe it was something she ate, like the wood chips next to the fireplace, or the dog food.

Fun times.

Doggie posture

Here's Kody eating out of his new doggie bowl, designed to aid with posture AND digestion!  Note the snow outside!  Whoo-hoo!  What fun!

One Word

It's harder than you think!! Here is what you are supposed to do...and please don't spoil the fun...copy and paste into your own note, type in your answers and tag a bunch of people - including me.

Your hair....................................................brown
Where is your cell phone .........................gone
Your father.................................................heaven
Your favorite thing....................................laundry
Your dream last night...............................memory
Your favorite drink....................................Coke
Your dream/goal.......................................teacher
The room you are in..................................bedroom
Your fear......................................................pain
Where do you want to be in 6 years........teacher
Muffins.........................................................chocolate
One of your wish list items........................camera
Where you grew up....................................California
The last thing you did.................................snow
What are you wearing.................................jeans
Your TV........................................................basketball
Your pets......................................................Labrador
Your computer.............................................laptop
Your life........................................................blessed
Your mood....................................................content
Missing someone..........................................Keith
Your car.........................................................Van
Favorite store................................................Michaels
Your summer.................................................fun
Your favorite color........................................blue
When is the last time you laughed..............today
Last time you cried.......................................yesterday
Three people who email me.........................Mom, Grandma, Aunt Marcia
Three of my favorite foods...........................Hamburger, Mexican, Fried
Three places I would rather be right now..Kauia, New Zealand, England
Three people I think will respond...............Mom, Danny, Connie
Three things you despise..............................cruelty, lies, littering

What an arm!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It's snowing! So pretty! I wish I could capture the snow flakes coming down with my camera, but I've already taken plenty of pictures out the front door and the deck. It's still coming down steadily as I type.

Yesterday, I finally had a normal healthy day, pretty much. Which was a good thing, because my friend Ginny came through and spent the night last night. She was supposed to be coming back from visiting with her family, having gone there to bury her father and spend time with her mother. Her husband and kids had already driven back to Florida, so she used a buddy pass to get back from Oklahoma. Except last night, expectantly of course, 500 flights were canceled coming in through Atlanta due to snow. She was not going to be able to get on a connecting flight for another day at the very least, probably not until Tuesday. so Keith drove her and met up with her husband at the halfway point, and they are now driving on home.

Keith is maybe making a tiny stop at the Alabama/Georgia border to get one or two or a hundred fireworks for Fourth of July. My very own firebug. They got snow driving down, but the further south they got, the snow started to go away. But Keith will be getting plenty of snow coming back up again.

I decided to stay home from church today to make sure my recuperation is complete for tomorrow, but now I'm wondering if we'll have school tomorrow at all. It's supposed to be sunny, so I imagine the snow will be gone tomorrow, but forecasters were saying that the snow was probably going to melt when it fell, which it's not. It looks like Winter Wonderland right now. I dropped off Keri Lynn and Kathleen at church because their choirs were being bussed to another church to sing. Kristofer is home feeling very pathetic with probably the same bug I had. Poor thing. The rest of the kids kept dashing outside to play in the snow, until I told them to stay in because we also have thunder and lighting to go with it. Odd combination!

Picture of the Day

Here's Kylie with her baby doll,  Emma.  Poor Emma is suffering from a broken arm.  Apparently she fell.  I hope Kathleen didn't push her down the stairs in a box.

Sick

It's the 27th today, or at least I think it's the 27th. I didn't have calendar time at school to confirm it!

I've had a cough for a good week or so, even before our little jaunt to California. I didn't think it was much, and it wasn't much, until Wednesday afternoon, when I started coughing harder and harder and harder. By the time I got to GAs that night, I had put the lesson plan on flashcards to save my voice. The girls thought it was kind of novel. : )

That night, Kylie slept on the living room recliner and I slept on the family room recliner and we both coughed our lungs out in tandem. The next morning, with great regret, I called in to the school to say that I would be out for the rest of the week, got the kids out the door and went back to bed for two hours to await physician doctor's hours. Kylie and I then spent all morning and a good part of the afternoon going to our respective doctors. (I haven't seen the pediatrician this many times in a span of a month in a long time!)

By the time we got all of our antibiotics and wonderful, glorious, fabulous and-in-all-other-ways miraculous cough syrup, I was absolutely spent and regretting our little lunch trip to Panda Express. I made it to bed with quick instructions to the kids coming home from school that they were now in charge, no friends could come play, they could see no friends -- I was checked out for the day. Four hours later, I came stumbling back into the family room to see life continuing as normal. I ate a little oatmeal and toast and a cola and lots of water (Mom!), watched a little mind-numbing TV, and then stumbled back to bed.

I'm still out of it today, but the wonderful, glorious, fabulous and-in-all-other-ways miraculous cough syrup has saved me from checking myself into the funny farm. I watched TV, ran two loads of dishes and four loads of laundry and have pretty much wrapped up any more productivity for the day.

We've got rain, so it's a good excuse to keep all kids inside and rested and no visitors to contaminate. Kristofer has been invited to a bowling night and Kathleen is spending the night with a friends. So dinner will be canned stew. Yay for easy dinners! And the weekend cometh!

CA trip overview

We're back from California and recuperating after a whirlwind trip. It was a lot of fun, but as usual didn't get to see as many people as I would have liked. I guess I'm just going to have to get realistic about time.

It was especially good to see my Mom this time around. She was laid off a few months ago, so it was the first time we've come for a visit where we've actually really been able to spend time with her. She cooked up a storm, as usual, making many yummy specialties. My kids said, "So that's where you learned how to make scrambled eggs!" This time, though, we were able to sit and talk and catch up on things.

We arrived on Wednesday and marveled right away at the wonderful weather. They'd just had a ton of rain, so the skies were really clear, enough to see the mountains all around the L.A. basin and beyond. Gorgeous! We went to go see Grandpa Stan, Keith's Dad, right off because he was going to be at work the other days we were there. He was looking really good, even as he's looking to celebrate "four score" years. We played with his dog Scooter, got some pictures in the backyard, and marveled at all the green grass (since all of our grass here is dormant). Then, we went to see my new niece Danica Joy, Danny and Jessica's baby. She is just six weeks and as cute as a button. She, however, was not happy about the invasion and even Danny's CD of a hairdryer blowing or a vacuum sweeper going was not going to make her happy!

On Thursday, Mom and Rich took us to El Pollo Inca, because that is probably the restaurant that I miss the most. The food was just as delicious as I'd remembered. Then, we went to the beach. My Mom planned a trip to the beach, saying that the weather was really warm. They'd gone to the beach just the week before all the rain and had had a wonderful time. I was more than slightly skeptical, but we went anyway. June and Sarah Bostick, and Cathy and Dennis Quackenbush stopped by to say "hi." And most of the cousins were there -- Lola and Gabriel with Aunt Connie, and Danielle, Christine and Darlene. They all played in the water. Several of them, most of them my kids, got completely soaked in the waves. They made sand castles and collected shells and had a grand time at the beach in the middle of February! I took scads of pictures that I'll be posting as soon as I can!

On Friday, we stopped by to see Grandma Alice. We car-pooled over from her place, Mom with a group, Rich with a group and Alice with a group in her fancy red PT Cruiser -- all to Jack in the Box, where I could fulfill my craving for a Sourdough Jack. Sad, I know, but BOY was it good! After that little outing, we went over to Stanton to visit with my Grandmother, who is now 92. She treated the whole lot of us to Sizzler. We enjoyed that very much. I passed out crochet gifts that I had planned and of course had never gotten around to sending for Christmas.

And before we knew it, it was time to head back home. Good-bye family. Good-bye California friends. Good-bye wonderful weather! As soon as we got off the plane in Atlanta, we were hit with a blast of cold air from the outside. Brrrrr! Good thing our heater works at home, because we're going to need it as we acclimate to REAL February weather!

Traveling would be so much more fun if you didn't have to pack!

I hit the ground running today with this vague notion that I'd clean every single dirty piece of laundry in the house. Fourteen hours and 12 loads later, I'm here to report that although I didn't clean every piece of dirty laundry, I did manage to wash enough clothes so that kids will not go naked on an airplane tomorrow. That, my friends, is an accomplishment these days!

I also got pizza for dinner so that there would be very few dishes to deal with at the last minute. Keith seems to think that Kody will be okay left at home while he's at work, so I didn't need to get a dog sitter. Whew! If I didn't have to pack, I think I would like traveling a whole lot more!

I'm getting up tomorrow at 4:30, kids up by 5:00, in the hopes of not running out the door in sheer panic because we're running late. I bought those yummy pancake sausage on-a-stick thingies and some orange juice for a quick breakfast. Everything is pretty much packed. The plan is to have a simple nice travel day tomorrow. Granted, I'm probably going to be a tad grumpy for lack of sleep, but at least I'll be able to catch a few Z's while in the air, but only if one of my kids is sitting nearby to elbow me if I start to snore.

It's very embarrassing to snore on an airplane.

I gave Keva a bath tonight, a nice long warm one, to encourage any diaper activity tonight as opposed to on the plane tomorrow, because way more embarrassing than snoring on a plane is changing a stinky 14-year-old on a plane. Haven't had to change her on a plane in a long time. THANK GOD!

Anyway, I left Keva in the bath to soak while I took a few minutes to check Facebook. (I am addicted.)

A few minutes changed into about 20, and I came running back into the bathroom to find out that Keva had not only taken care of business in the bathtub, but had thrown it all around the bathroom. I'm sure she was giggling all the while. (Sorry, to all my queasy-stomached readers.) So that was way fun to clean up when I should have been doing a few other packing chores, but at least I won't have to worry about an accident on the plane tomorrow!

For those of you in California, I just wanted to write out a quick itinerary, as I know it.

Wednesday

12:15 -- Pick-up at airport and go back to Mom's house as home base. (Johnson invasion)

midafternoon -- visit with Stan
5:00ish -- Meet with Danny and Jessica

Thursday
4:00 -- Dockweiler Beach (at the end of Imperial) for hot dogs and Smores. Anyone is welcome to come join us! The weather is supposed to be cleared up by then, but if it's too cold, then we're going back to Mom's.

Friday
12:00 -- Visit SBFA
4:00 -- Dinner at Grandma's
7:00 -- Keri Lynn's sleepover at Missy's

And that's about all I know for sure. It's a short but sweet visit.  Impromptu, so not a lot of planning.
 

On our way to California

This week we have winter break! Whoo-hoo! That means that not only are all the kids off from school, but I'm off from work. It won't be so nice when payday comes around, but it's nice now!

So I got to thinking that maybe we should try to get a visit in to California. Keith won't be able to go with us this time because he needs to work, but the rest of us are going. We plan to fly out on Wednesday morning and come back Saturday.

Keith told me that this will be the first time we'll all qualify for first class seats since Konner is now eight! Not that they'll be available for all of us, but the thought makes me happy! It's been A LONG TIME since I've seen first class!

We plan to visit the family and any friends that may be interested in getting together. My grandma celebrated her 91st birthday just last month. My brother and his wife just had their first baby. And of course the kids are going to want to visit with all of the other cousins, too.

Kylie wanted to know if we could go to the beach. She really wants to go swim, but I told her that it would definitely be too cold. "Then, could we just go and play in the sand? I want to collect shells!"

We finally got passports for Keri Lynn and Kristofer for their trips to Mexico and Japan. Hopefully we'll get them back in time, especially for the Japan trip, as our music pastor is trying to get good prices on airplane tickets.

The passport hunt was an adventure all by itself.

We decided to meet Keith at the post office at the airport. He needed to sign Kristofer's passport application since Kristofer is under 16. The post office was supposedly on the north side of the airport, so we got directions to a little office there, waited about 30 minutes and then finally talked to someone who told us that they were actually an expediting office. For a mere $230 a person, they could expedite the passports and we'd have them in 14 business days. We then found out that there was a post office on the south side of the airport if we wanted to check there, but that they'd charge a fee for any expediting, too.

So, off we went to the airport post office. It was completely empty except for the employee behind the counter who told us that their office only did passports by appointment only and since Monday was a holiday, they could schedule an appointment for Tuesday. I looked around the vacant room and back to him again. "Um, the on-line information said that no appointments were necessary." He was unmoved, but he did finally deign to give us directions to a post office near the airport that took passport walk-ins.

We met Keith at his work and followed him in his truck to the next post office where we found a huge line waiting for us. At the Newnan post office, there's a separate line for passports, so we went to the door marked "Passport Office" and knocked. The lady told us that we needed to get ourselves back into the Full Service Line to get to the Passport Office. Keith then told us that he was going back to work and to give us a call when we got to the end of the line. Good grief!

We did eventually get to the end of the line and we did eventually get the passport pictures done, and passport fees made for half of the expedited fee price. "I'm supposed to tell you that it will take 4-6 weeks for the passports to come back, but most everyone tells us that they're getting their's back in about two weeks," said the postal worker. That sounded a lot better to me than the supposed expedited 14 business days and at more than half the price, too!

It was worth the wait to finally get it done, but as we walked out of the post office, the kids were talking about how hard it must be to work at a post office. I asked them if they'd ever heard the phrase "going postal", and they hadn't, so I got to explain that phrase. They understood!

February Walk #1

I'm very thrilled to announce that I passed the Special Ed. GACE test. (I'm doing a happy dance!) Now I will begin making contact with various people and see what teaching positions become available. Because I would be hired in a provisional situation, other teachers with actual teaching credentials would be hired before me. Here in our county, there has been a hiring freeze all year and will continue into next year, so I may have to go out of the county to find a job. However, it is and always has been in God's very capable hands. So it remains to be seen what happens next.

Last night, I set the alarm clock for 6:20, a sort of compromise to wake-up time. Not 6:15 but not 6:30 either, in case I had any emergencies like I did on Friday. However, the morning went very smoothly. Like clockwork.

In fact, the entire day has been pretty much an antithesis of Friday's complete chaos, I'm happy to say. Even at school several students were absent, making the workday a breeze.

I spent what seemed like all of Sunday sorting dirty laundry. I washed four loads while I sorted. Does that give you an idea of how pathetically behind I am in laundry? This whole week's focus is to finally get caught up on laundry. It can happened. I've had short spurts of laundry maintenance, so I know it's possible! I figure if I can wash four loads a day, by the end of the week, I should be caught up . . . mostly.

Just the feeling of laundry accomplishment has given me a mental boost to continue with life's challenges. Today, when I got home from work, I walked. Keith joined me. So that makes Walk #1 for February. The weather is super wonderful right now, unlike last week's freezing temperatures. We've been enjoying weather in the late 60's with lots of sunshine. I love it! I don't expect it to last, though. There's still a lot of potential cold spells before we start looking at spring temperatures.

"Funny"

I've been getting up at 6:00 this school year, a whole 45 minutes earlier than last year. Keith gets up at the same time. It's the first time in our entire married lives that we've gotten up at the same time, and it just doesn't work for us. We both need the bathroom, the ironing board, the space at the same time. So I decided that since I'm kind of waiting around for Keith to get out the door in his allotted 15 minutes, I can get up a little later. So on Monday, I set the alarm for 6:15 and felt entirely sinfully happy snuggled in bed while Keith got ready for work. Then I had time to myself to do all the woman things that seem to take so much longer than man things to get out the door.

Well, this morning, I was laying in bed after the alarm went off at 6:15. Keith had already kissed me good-bye. I thought, well, wouldn't it be nice to sleep in to 6:30. That would give me just enough time to get myself ready (20 minutes), Keva ready (10 minutes) and last minute kid things done (15 minutes) before running out the door myself. Perfect! Why hadn't I thought of that LAST night? So, I reset my alarm again and snuggled back into my warm cozy bed.

Alarm went off at 6:30 as set.

I got up, got dressed. Makeup done. Was doing really well with my schedule. Feeling confident. Successful. Rested.

I walked out of my bedroom door.

Sniffed the air.

Went into Keva's room. Keva was stinky all right. And so were her fingers where she had played in her diaper. And so was anything else she'd touched while waking up.

Ahhhhhhck!

I went running into the laundry room to get a towel when Kathleen caught me in the kitchen, "Mom! Kody pooped in the bathroom. It's diarrhea and it's all over the bathroom!" (We keep him in the guest bathroom during the night for just such possible issues.)

"Did he get anything on the carpet?"

"Well, he did scootch his butt across the carpet in the family room."

Ahhhhhhck!

I looked down at my watch and decided I really had no choice but to give Keva a bath and try to blow dry her hair before her bus came. It was entirely too cold to let her go out with wet hair. So, towel under my arm, I pleaded with Kathleen over my shoulder to PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE clean up the dog poop while I cleaned up Keva. She could use some of Keva's baby wipes and some spray deodorizer to help counteract the terrible smell. Bless her heart, she did it, while I worked with Keva.

I even had enough time to write a short note about Keva's incident, since her hair wasn't completely dry, in her agenda before throwing her onto the bus.

I stood in the driveway, watching her bus drive away. I was dressed and ready for work, but maybe just a tiny bit bedraggled. And hungry. There was no time for breakfast. I was able to throw a lunch together. Yell good-bye to the remaining teenagers waiting for their ride to school.

The full moon is upon us, because the school day was pretty much a repeat of the morning. One student had a terrible seizure. Another one had a bad melt-down. Yet another was being physically self-abusive, much more so than usual . . . 

Yet, God is gracious. He is able to give us grace to handle days like these. I'm actually thankful for such days because it makes me appreciate the "boring" days. Oh, yes. I love boring days!

In the midst of the chaos, I was giving a reading lesson to an autistic student. One of the words she was learning was "funny." (When I take her to the toilet, we always sing "Down by the Bay." It is a funny bond between us. I sing a line and let her finish the last word in the line. She laughs and guffaws through the song and we finish up the bathroom business.) So when we came across the word "funny" in her reading lesson, I'd sing a line or two from "Down by the Bay." I'd say, "Did you ever see a moose kissing a goose?" And she's start grinning. Then I'd tell her it was "funny." "Look, there's the word 'funny'. As the lesson progressed, she'd come to that word and giggle about it. I was so pleased. The lesson was successful! I wouldn't have traded all of the day's events for anything if it meant missing that lesson.

Later on that evening, Keith was home and we were chatting with Keri Lynn in the foyer. I related all of the days events to the two of them, ending with that special "funny" moment, and then I said, "You know, having the experience of homeschooling for so many years has really helped with teaching in the special ed class."

Keri Lynn looked at me a moment, and deadpanned, "Thanks."

But it's true. Teaching at a regular ed level requires much the same methodology as special ed. There still needs to be repetition. A teacher still needs to be aware of the child's strength and abilities. And there is still the excitement of seeing the student get it! I love that!

25 random things

I'd love to hear your 25.  So if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged!

1) My faith in God defines me.

2) I've been married to the same man for 20 years, and couldn't imagine being married to anyone else.

3) I have seven children, but I don't usually volunteer that information to people I have just met because of the comments that follow: "Wow, you must be very patient." "I don't know how you do it. I can't do it with my two." Or "Have you seen Jon and Kate Plus 8 or the Duggers?"

4) I was born in Guatemala to a missionary family, grew up in Central America and then when I was eight my family moved back to the States.

5) I lived in Southern California up until four years ago. The move to Georgia was a HUGE change for our family, but we really love the house and the neighborhood and our church.

6) I hate to call people on the telephone. People rarely hear from me by phone and if they do, they usually immediately think something is wrong.

7) I've never gotten a ticket. Keith, on the other hand . . . 

8) After 16 years as a SAHM, I had to go back to work to help with our family income. It was either that or lose the house. If I had a choice, I'd be home again in a flash.

9) Nonetheless, the idea of becoming a special ed. teacher is exciting to me, and that's what I'm hoping to do by next fall.

10) I'm just a "little" self-absorbed. I could spend hours on my blog http:/familydaze.blogspot.com and facebook writing about myself and my family happenings. (Oh, right, I already do.)

11) I have been working on a novel for the last three years. I'm got it maybe 5% done, but it keeps my mind occupied while I'm taking a shower, blow-drying my hair, sitting at a red light, etc.

12) I love a good book and a good movie. I usually hate movies based on good books. (Like the Bourne movies -- urgh!)

13) I'm kind of a frustrated artist. I have a bunch of art books on my shelf and every once in a while I'll pull one out and try to sketch portraits.

14) I am so proud of my kids. They are amazing people that just get better and better as they grow. For all of you people with young children out there, don't believe the teenager myth. They don't have to be like that!

15) I hate housework. I'm basically lazy. Laundry is my arch enemy.

16) If I could choose the perfect vacation, I'd choose to go away with just Keith to a fancy hotel with good cable, eat out every meal, go see a movie every day, and have lots of great books on hand to read. I wouldn't matter where the hotel was.

17) It hurts to be 43.

18) I absolutely adore studying the Bible.

19) I also adore debating the Bible.

20) I am both a procrastinator and a perfectionist. Go figure.

21) I am blessed by some wonderful loyal friends, but I wish I had closer friends here in Georgia, too.

22) I love to crochet while I watch TV. I taught myself to crochet in the first years of marriage.

23) I have trouble paying bills and turning in library books on time.

24) I hate to be wrong, but my husband loves me anyway.

25) I have a can of cola in the morning instead of coffee. One can a day, that's all I ask!

Walk #4!

I now have raised my overdue library fines to $42, just after I'd finally gotten it back down into the single digits. It's very frustrating. I think I'm going to really have to crack down on myself and only limit us all to a half dozen books at a time instead of the 30 or so I usually check out. I used to be able to charm my way out of fines, but the Mean Librarian has beaten all of the charm and fight out of me. Sigh.

Keith and I just got done with a walk. I can usually coerce him into going with me on Mondays. We walk around the neighborhood and critique everyone's yards, then come home and ignore our own!

Work went well today. The kids are such fun to work with. One of the autistic kids has finally started calling me by name. I've been promoted.

It's hard to believe that it's been a week since the Kings came for their visit. This weekend, I didn't plan on too much, but ended up staying busy anyway. On Friday night, Keri Lynn and I snuck out by ourselves to see the winter high school play, starring several of Keri Lynn's friends from church. Man, those kids can act! Church members took up the whole front section, and we were very enthusiastic!

On Saturday, I went to a GA activity at church and helped my 4th grade girls get caught up on their workbooks. Six girls came, about half of the group, which wasn't a bad showing for a Saturday event.

Then, I played hooky from church on Sunday. It essentially came down to the fact that I had no clean clothes to wear and neither did Keva. So instead of staying up late to make sure we had something to wear, I decided that Keva and I would sleep in, relax and get caught up on a little laundry. I made a dent. And to be honest, it's nice to play hooky every once in a while. I made up for playing hooky, though, by attending a parent meeting later in the afternoon for Keri Lynn and Kristofer's trip to Japan. (I need to get their passports soon --ack!) And then after the meeting, we stopped by to congratulate Jerry Walker, our associate pastor to seniors, for 25 faithful years of service.

Now I shall go make dinner. I think I'll make some homemade macaroni and cheese before the cheese gets all eaten up.

Walk #3

It is with great sadness that we bid farewell to Keith's Aunt Velda. Velda died this week after a tough battle with cancer. She was Keith's mom's twin sister and lived up in the Seattle area. She leaves a husband and their two children, both married and living in the same area.

The week is flying by. I've been working in my special ed classroom. We had the TV on during the inauguration. I would have been happy to sit and watch the whole day long. Politics fascinate me. But even watching what little I did, I was getting steamed about the whole "history in the making" thing. I voted for a man's position on actual issues, not on the color of his skin. But it appears that a great many people voted on color of skin. Sigh.

It's been very cold this week. Even the kids have been staying home instead of going to friends' houses after school.

We said good-bye to the Kings after a whirlwind weekend visit. It was a lot of fun to see them. Ginny brought a ton of DVDs and videos for us as a Christmas present, along with chocolate and popcorn. So we watched a lot of movies while they were here and will enjoy them for many happy hours to come.

Today was the first day of a slight warming trend, so I finally got to go on a walk again. It was a balmy 48 degrees when I went out. Brrrrr. That makes three whole walking times this month. Not exactly an overwhelming number, but it's better than two, one or nothing at all. And it was nice to get out. It took a full five minutes of walking before I even took my hands out of my pockets, and another 10 minutes before I could convince myself that I could keep walking the full 30 minutes. By time I came back, I was already feeling the benefits of the walk. I went on to make dinner and make sure that Konner was doing his homework. (He's been majorly slipping under the radar with his schooling.)