Lake Wobegon

I've been thinking lately - about how the internet lets us all live in Lake Wobegon. We can share the highlights, the funny things, and everything is pre-filtered or reworded to make it "just so." If we're all above average - if everything is going *super* - doesn't that then make the average also go up. Are we then trying to be more super and even better than before. Where does it stop?

We all cannot be the funniest, smartest, most photogenic, clever people ever. The internet is a great filter for allowing us to create people who are better than the real people who we are. I think one reason why I haven't written much on the blog this year, is that I feel like I don't have anything interesting to share. And that's not the real reason I started keeping this blog. It was started to give far away friends and family a glimpse into our lives and things we might share that we don't get to because we're far away. I also wanted to have a record of all those goofy things that happen that we so easily forget in our ever-more-hectic schedules. Anyone remember Allison and the flying poo??

I have also found that when we share those imperfect things about ourselves - we find that other people feel the same way, have had similar experiences, or can sympathize. For example, I was sitting at the lunch table a few weeks ago and learned that 2 of the 3 people there had kids with IEPs. By talking with one of my students with an autistic son, we learned that we actually shared a number of parenting strategies and were both relieved to hear that what we were doing wasn't that crazy. And by sharing somethings about my challenging students - I've collected a lot of good tips from other teachers.

So here it is - I'll say it - this blog is no longer in Lake Wobegon. Perhaps it'll become a bit more boring - hopefully posts will become a bit more frequent.

Wanna know what we did yesterday? After school we walked to the park with a trash bag because the kids have been "super save-the-Earth" kids following Earth Day and we picked up trash. (I have a strong suspicion that I'm going to be taking a trash bag on all our walks because the kids had a blast trash spotting). Then we played for a little while until Allison had to pee and came home.

Next week is the last week of class and I'm really looking forward to it. Perhaps not as much as my students, but maybe.

Cars and buttons

Finally, it's spring! Though I did get hit with several "is it winter again?" questions when it snowed earlier this week.

Allison has been enjoying riding her bike to school when possible. I've decided there is no energy advantage to pulling Jacob on the tag-a-long versus the actual bike trailer. I think he sits on the tag-a-long and peddles backward.....



The kids have also enjoyed being outside. Jacob loves to play Cars on the porch. He's getting quite a collection of them. Jacob would also like the world to know that he hates buttons. I suppose Allison went through her "only dresses" phase and Jacob is now boycotting all pants with buttons. He has about 7 pairs of pants without buttons, so we really have to stay on top of the laundry if we don't want an all out battle getting dressed in the morning.

Our other fun lately was going to Chicago and eating out at Charlie Trotters for our 10th anniversary. It was a really neat experience, and we had a good time. Thanks to grandma and grandpa for babysitting.

ER

Jacob had his first (and hopefully only ever) trip to the ER on Monday night. Sunday he was running a fever but it was gone Monday morning. Monday night he was coughing (croup cough) and went to bed - only to wake up around 10:30 to go to the bathroom with a really high fever and wheezing enough to make Brian and I nervous. We tried the steam room plan, but when we went out of the bathroom, it only seemed to get worse. Since breathing difficulties really weird me out - Jacob and I were off to the ER. A dose of steroids and a few hours later - we were on our way back home. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get back into the house because the garage door was broken. Ah - fun night.

1st day of spring?

I have this drilled into my head (thanks Mom) that the weather is always nice by my birthday at the end of March. To back up the theory, there are photo-documented outdoor birthday parties beginning at age 5. I still can't seem to shake the disappointment of living where spring doesn't really show up until late April at best. This and I LOVE winter. But now I'm ready for a new season.

Today started off exciting with a potential gas leak in the garage (turned out to be nothing, but something sure was stinky) that Brian stayed home in the morning to deal with. Then there was the 2nd half of Allison's IEP meeting - which went from 12:30pm to 3:15pm. That's probably a whole post in and of itself.

It's officially spring break and I'm looking forward to getting caught up (if not necessarily getting a whole week off). Tomorrow morning we are going out to the CSA farm because we bought a hog from them, which is going to be processed on Monday, and we wanted to see the operation before that. I think Brian might want to pick out a hog - but I don't know if it works that way. Anyway, it'll be fun and I think the kids will like to see the animals. We probably won't tell them that the pig will be dinners for the next year. Also, given the omnivorous diets of hogs - I don't know exactly what the advantages of "organicly grown and fed" pigs are. Hopefully it means they eat more than corn. It seems a more apparent distinction in cattle that are grass-fed.

In like a lion...

Hard to believe it's March. A few notes from up north (and no, the snow hasn't melted yet):

My accelerated hybrid class started last Tuesday. So that adds 20 more students and we cover 3 weeks of material in one 3 hour class period. One bonus - we're already 2/5 of the way done! But seriously, the students do seem to actually read the book, look at the notes, and do the assignments. I'm just getting way behind on grading my other classes stuff.

Allison was admitted to Appleton's public Montessori school (lottery process - "admission" is probably not the right word). We need to make a decision by next Friday, and we're probably collecting people's thoughts and opinions. We have a massive IEP meeting next Monday and I'm not sure how it will go. We're not sure they'll give her the same support in the Montessori classroom, but then perhaps she won't need as much support either. Today I went and observed her class - but I thought she was doing great (paying attention, on task for a full 1/2 hour). Slower than most of the other students, but she didn't quit even when she couldn't get the fastener through her papers correctly. But, I suppose, the problems are not her "on" days but her "off" days.

Jacob has another play date tomorrow that he's super excited about. He has these two friends at school - Kaden and Dominic - and he knows what days each one will be there. Wednesdays are apparently the best because both are there. And they all LOVE 'Cars.' There is even a picture of them (Jacob and Dominic) on the Children's Center website now (but it's hard to see them). The other funny thing I've realized is that while Jacob has a good sense of future timing (as in, Saturday, we get to do ____, or the honest first thing out of his half-awake self this morning was "it's Friday.") But past events are all "Last night." So anything began with last night doesn't actually mean last night, but means sometime prior to today. And occasionally it'll get qualified by "last night and 2 days" = two days ago.

Brian is not too likely to advertise - so I'll share for him (cause he should be happy about it). He was promoted to a managerial role a few weeks ago. He still works on Heinz projects but also other stuff on frozen and condiments and he now has people reporting directly to him. So that's pretty cool.

And that's news from up here. I'm off to go swimming and work on my defunct triathlon training (meaning I've done very little training so far).

Snow, snow and more snow

Whenever I talk with Dad in Florida, he asks if the snow has melted. Well, it was on it's way until we got more this weekend. Back to building up the driveway berms. But the mailbox has found it's way out of the snowpack at least. For now.

Our weekend winter activities - in reverse. Sunday we took the kids to Navarino Slopes, the world's smallest ski hill (perhaps not). But it is relatively cheap and only 45 minutes away. The kids had fun. Allison remembered skiing last year and she did pretty well. Jacob loved it, but primarily loves skiing down the hill between Mom's or Dad's skis so that he could go fast. Also, it was nice that the kids preferred the ski lift to the rope tow, because the rope tow gets old pretty quickly.






And other pictures from playing outside on Saturday (you can tell the kids are ready for summer - I should have gotten pictures last week of them riding their bikes around the block in the snow).

School News

I have just a few minutes before going to pick Allison up at school today and figured I'd write a little bit about school. I could write about the fact that in order to get a parking spot that allows you to actually SEE the school, you need to arrive at least 10-15 minutes before school gets out and sit in your car with a novel. Arrive just 5 minutes early and you're probably going to be around the block.

We put Allison's name in for the lottery for Appleton's public Montessori school. We know they get more applicants than spots, so we'll have to see. We don't even know if it would be a good environment for her, but we really don't see a traditional 1st grade classroom working well without a lot of extra support. On that note, we'll find out more about support services next month when we meet with her new "team" which really could field an actual team of some sort. It seems that because she doesn't really fall into a specific category, they went with the "well, let's bring everyone together and see what shakes out" approach. This even includes PE. Really? Allison seems to enjoy and do well with PE. Art on the other hand...... But no art teacher at the IEP meeting.

Oh, the snow has fallen again and the shovels are out. Jacob is having a play date tomorrow with a friend from school. Allison wants to invite her friend Jenna over but Jenna is in 1st grade and I don't have a contact sheet for 1st grade. Parental detectiving - part 1.

Time to go grab a novel and sit in the car. Woo hoo! Friday!