Rambling

I am just ramble about our life.

Sam: 
His behavior is off the charts. Bad, with a super capital B.  Holy moley!  He's stealing, hitting, throwing fits, breaking things, rude and grumpy.  Not my typical Sam.  I am hoping that he is growing or something and that this phase will be over quite quickly.  I don't like it and I am not real sure how to handle it. 

Tom: 
He is still hanging out in his sling.  We go to a specialist tomorrow, in order to find out if anything else needs to be done.  It is looking better now than what it did when he broke it two and a half weeks ago.  We did have an x-ray done, but the break looks worse than it did.  I have no idea what's going on, but we'll see what the specialist says. 
Tom's mid-year report was fairly good, with only minor problems in his social interaction.  I was quite pleased with it.  Then we had a sit down talk with his teacher, and she is much much more concerned about his social behavior.  I was quite surprised.  Tom can strike up a conversation and make friends with any kid on the playground.  He allows them to control the play and I have never seen a problem with other kids (not counting his brothers.)  His teacher paints a different story though.  Tom is too silly in class.  He bothers and disrupts the other kids to the point that they avoid him.  Many of Tom's behaviors are way over the top.  She has requested that the counselor come evaulate him.  Yea...

Joe:
Joe is doing quite a lot better at school lately.  We have set up a system with his teacher.  His teacher writes in a behavior book, 3 times a day, 5 days a week.  The days is split up into morning, mid-day and afternoon.  Joe's teacher writes about Joe's behavior for each session.  If Joe gets good notes every session for three days in a row, he earns a new chapter book.  This system works well and seems to be motivating him a lot.  Joe's mid-year report was pretty much what we expected.  Joe does great work, when he wants to do the work.   Joe listens to the teacher, if he feels like listening.  Joe is good at writing, if he's in the right mood.  His teacher is really happy with the progress that he has made, but his social skills are still at the bottom.  His teacher has worked quite a bit to stop a lot of the bullying, but it still happens.  Of course, part of the problem is that Joe reacts and gets really upset about minor things.  At soccer, all the boys were joking and joshing around and there was some name calling going on.  I don't know what names were being called, but Joe was getting and giving.  Then, a boy called him something that upset him (he won't say what) and pretty soon, he stalked off and was bawling.  This doesn't help at all.  Then the boys start calling him baby.  It's hard to watch your child go through that, and I try to give him strategies to cope.  It doesn't always work though. 

Weather
It rained hard for 6 days.  We were soaked, the ground was saturated, and we all missed the sun.  Now, a week later, it feels like late spring, though we have a whole month of winter left.  I think the hardest thing about moving back to the States will be the weather.  How can we go from a winter with days on the beach to a cold, gray, slushy mess? 
With nice sunny days comes bright clear nights.

Part of being out where we are is that we don't have a lot of light pollution.  It's awesome!  I love being able to see the Milky Way.

Me
Lacey and I have finished the first two stages of dog obedience training.  This Sunday starts stage three.  We will have to test out of stage three before moving on.  It will be more intense and will require more work.  Lacey is also starting to do basic "find" excerises.  We hide a toy and she seeks it out.  She does well at it.  Later this month, we will be skipping a day of dog training in order to go to a tracking trial.  We need to learn how to track and the easiest way to learn is to go watch a trial.  There is a trial on the 7th and the 21st.  Since the 7th is the first day of stage 3, we will have to wait until the 21st to go to the trial.  I wish that more of these things took place during the week, when the kids are at school and I have idle time on my hands. 
I am taking a photography class starting on the 15th.  It is supposed to be all about digital SLR cameras.  I am excited for the six weeks of this course, but a little bummed that it only takes place on Monday evenings.  It means that I will have something on Monday, Tuesday and Jay has something on Wednesday. 

Friends
I am still trying to find "my crowd", but I think that I am making progress.  One of the biggest problems is that I am done having children and many friends are just getting ready to have another.  It's two very different stages when your youngest is getting ready to start school full time and their youngest is a tiny baby.  I have managed to make a few friends who are at the same stage as myself, so we'll see how it goes.  I discovered on Saturday that a lady I know scrapbooks!  This is a big deal to me as I haven't found any locals that scrapbook.  I have met ladies in Sydney, but that's a ways away.  Anyway, this lady is the mom of one of Joe's soccer teammates and is also one of the teachers at Sam's preschool.  (Gotta love small towns!)  She is the mom of four boys (though her youngest is 7).  We are planning to scrapbook together soon.