Back online

D finally came home for a visit and figured out why the computer died on June 18th! The HD video card was bad so we just didn't have any output to the monitor. So we did not lose all the files that we thought we lost and I'm back up again.

We have been so busy lately. Swim team ended yesterday with Championships! I'm sad and happy. K has definitely improved with her swimming. I'll have to post some pictures. She was the heat winner in the freestyle and backstroke so she got ribbons and prizes; that was very exciting for her. Friday at the last practice she asked to go off the high dive. It's a 3 meter board. She went off the low board a bunch of times and then asked to go off the high. She went up there with a 12 year old and jumped all by herself! She said she liked it but smacked her hand a little bit so she didn't want to do it again. I was shocked she wanted to do it at all.

Last night we went to a Reds game. Both kids loved it.

D goes back to NYC tomorrow so we'll be on our own again.

8 Things

I love the color red. It has always been my favorite color and I find I like to wear it and paint with it.

I've visited a lot of the wine regions of the world. This was not intentional. I like wine and I happened to be in lots of wine regions so I stopped and tasted. I've been to most of the wine regions of Spain and a lot of the ones in Italy. The well known ones in Germany. We did Bordeaux but I have never been to Burgundy. We tasted in Hungary and some in Greece. In Australia we drove through the Hunter Valley but missed the South Eastern and Western regions. I've also visited the main wine region in South Africa -Stellenbosch. Of course in the US, we lived in VA so visited there, lived in NY so visited there. Lived in CA so did Temecula and Napa and Sonoma. I haven't really visited in Santa Barbara. When our flight to Japan caught fire en route and we ended up back in the US with a week of vacation, we drove up the coast and visited Oregon and Washington wine regions.

I love to swim. I grew up swimming and I could spend every day at the pool. I love swimming with the kids. I'm always the parent in the water throwing the kids, teaching them how to do flips in the water. It can be embarrassing sometimes because all the other Moms look good at the pool (they don't go under) and I look like a fish but I think I have more fun.

I have my motorcycle license. I took the class and passed the test but I never drive. I just wanted to know how in case I needed to drive our bike one day. D is the driver, I like to sit on the back and watch the world go by.

I can wake board. It took more than a couple tries and some questions for the younger generation but I'm actually enjoying it now. Can't do any flips though.

I have been to every state except Alaska. I want to get there some day soon. I've only spent the night in 37 of them though.

I love crisp not quite ripe peaches. I could eat them all day. Unfortunately(?), I seem to have passed this trait on to my kids and now they eat all the peaches we buy.

I practice the Just in Time inventory method at home. I think I studied too much Lean Manufacturing in school. I don't like to carry inventory at home. I don't buy extras of things and try to buy just in time for when I need it. It can be a little rough with toilet paper and diapers though. It's funny to me because when I say I have nothing in my pantry, I mean I have NOTHING in my pantry. Most people say that and have enough to live on for 2 weeks.

Memorial Day Weekend

We drove to West Newton Thur afternoon. We stayed with Gigi and played out in the backyard. The kids love to visit Gigi's.

Friday morning we went to the cemetery. We visited both sides of the family. K did a family tree and copied down all the dates of birth and death. Gigi will be 96 this year and so her parents were born in 1888 and 1890! That was such a good history lesson for K - all her friends were born in 2000 so she was very impressed that Gigi's Mom was born in 1890.

From the cemetery we drove to the house where Gigi grew up. It was a big farm with a long driveway. Then off to the red schoolhouse. Gigi skipped 1st grade and graduated from high school at age 16. She went to college back in the 1920s, not the normal thing to do for a woman.

K & C were really enjoying the history. K is still very into WWII. The cemetery was being readied for Memorial Day so they had flags flying with nameplates of every soldier buried in the cemetery. Gigi's uncle fought in WWI and has special things by his grave. Her brothers in law fought in WWII. Grandpap was the oldest of 8, 6 boys and a bunch were in WWII. Gigi said when they returned they were never the same. She talked to K a lot about living during the war and blackouts and rations and what it was like.

She is so incredible. K and I hope she lives until she's 120! For 96 she acts like she's in her 70s or 80s but she recently had high blood pressure and has been feeling her age more she says.

She had some fresh rhubarb from her garden for dinner so that's still going well. It was a little tart so we added strawberries and sugar and it was wonderful. If I could be more like her, I would be a better person.

Then we had to get on the road for NY. Spent the weekend there and drove straight back on Tuesday. The kids did great.

Busy

Last week C told me,

"I'm happy in the world ... with you."

It made my day.

First soccer games were on Saturday. C had the ball and got pushed down and then he had the ball taken away twice and he fell apart. He was crying and crying and refused to go back in. D tried to sit with him and get him to go back in but he was done. It was a rough morning. D came home 2 hours late Friday so C didn't see him. Then Saturday we had a showing at 10:15 a.m. so we had to get up and get the house looking great so no hug time for the kids. Then off to his game.

K had a good soccer game. She's playing in a 4-5 league and since she's the oldest, it's giving her more confidence. It's probably not her thing but she's having fun right now and that's really important.

K lost her first tooth on Mother's Day. D pulled it out. I think he wanted to be here when it happened and Sunday night was his last night. She cried and cried because she didn't want to grow up and leave Mom and Dad; she missed her tooth; and she didn't want the Tooth Fairy to have her tooth. It happened at Grandma's house, it was a very emotional day. She put the tooth on her nightstand so the tooth fairy left her a $1 and a note that she could keep it for awhile. She took it to school on Monday.

Trying to show a house and be a single Mom to 2 kids is taking its toll. I have no time to do all the things I need to do. We have 2 art projects that we haven't finished and all kinds of things I want to do. Plus, everyone is trying to be helpful so we are SO busy. Dinner with this Mom and friends, visiting Grandma, play dates etc. It's great to have friends like this but I think I need some time at home too or we'll be very worn out.

Home

We returned home tonight after our whirlwind trip. The kids were troopers. We visited D's Grandma (GiGi) in Pittsburgh. She'll be 96 in September, she still lives on her own. She travels and visits all her kids and grandkids a lot. K and her get along so well. They were practicing writing cursive together. I really need to spend more time with K and cursive. It's amazing watching GiGi's reactions to K. Things I take for granted, GiGi comments on. Gigi taught Home Ec for 20 years and it is important to teach children life skills not just academic skills. I really have to make that an important part of K & C's education. C is much more interested in learning to cook or do things around the house. K tends to wander off and read a book and I don't notice that she is missing out on learning (this is what I did as a child) so I really need to keep a balance.

We also visited friends in CT, they have a girl and boy the same ages as K and C. K and S get along so well, they have fun together. At least we did one fun thing with the kids, we stayed in a hotel with a pool while we were en route and they loved swimming that night and the next morning.

So, we dropped D off in NYC and he started work. Our house is listed and hopefully we'll move by August. Everything is crazy.

Train Ride & Tea Party

Sunday K and I went on an American Girl Mystery Train Ride (focusing on Kit because she is from Cincinnati) and a tea party. It was fun.

They had a "hobo" board the train because he was looking for work. The train had to stop and he was taken off. Then they discovered a Kit doll was missing so when we got back, they searched him but he didn't have it. The engineer had it for safe keeping and then they drew a name and gave it away. The tea party was nice, they had Girl Scout troops be the servers. It was fun to try little finger sandwiches and scones. That was in the museum and then we walked around the museum and made a hat for your doll.

K does not have a big doll yet. She wants one for her birthday (August). She's been debating which doll.

She wrote a letter to American Girl asking them to make a look alike for her. They only have red straight hair or curly black hair. They responded that they were not adding any more combinations right now so she's focused on a historical doll.

She's been reading lots of the books, they are great for discussing history.

Math

At K's last test session at the public school, she asked me if she could do more math. I knew this section was reading so I said she was finished with the math section. She was very upset that it was too easy, no multiplication or even 3 digit subtraction. So, she asked me to write some problems for her to do with the psychologist once her test was finished. I did and when she came out, they were completed, I could tell the psychologist had helped her.

This incessant math work is tiring. I guess I should buy her some workbooks. I've been against just doing math worksheets so we haven't really done that. She asks me constantly for math problems. She carries around a notebook and works math problems in them. She just makes up her own or writes down what I say in the car.

I made up some word problems for her today. They were just subtraction problems but she has to work on understanding how to set up the word problems. We do things like Gigi was born in 1925, how old was she when she had Grandma, how old was she when Mommy was born and how old when K was born. She loves them.

We've also been working on double digit multiplication but I need to teach that more.

I'm not sure what other Math to do. D wants to do EPGY but I don't think now is the right time with the move and plus K is not that into spending a lot of time at the computer. She loves to write problems. I know there are some other Math web sites but she doesn't like to be upstairs on the computer if we are all downstairs. I guess I need to buy some workbooks so she can carry those around with her :-)

Moving

We are moving! Things are crazy around here. K is starting to have some break downs about the move. I think I will be doing the same soon. D leaves soon and then it will just be us until the house sells. I have so much to do, it is overwhelming. I have no time to write. Tomorrow is the final testing at the public school. We are finishing up the aptitude test (Iowa first grade) for the Iowa acceleration scale. I'm ready to finish that and have the final meeting. Even though we won't be able to utilize the school here, the information will be great for us to have. K enjoys the testing so that's good. Now we'll have to do testing in New York.

The Weather

Yesterday it was sunny and warm, around 80. I got some sun because I forgot to put on sunscreen. Today it is 34 and sleeting. Crazy!

We told the kids that we are moving and they are taking it surprisingly well so far. That may change as it gets closer to actually happening. K wrote a note to her teacher that she is moving but a long time from now. I still have very mixed feelings about the move. I'm sad to be leaving family and the friends that we have made here. I feel settled with the Montessori school and all the extracurriculars. It takes awhile to find all the good classes/teachers. Of course K would be moving to a different school environment this fall but I spent a lot of time researching everything around here. C will probably not attend preschool next year because everything will be full by the time we get there. I don't mind that too much because I enjoy doing things at home with him and he's pretty good at errands/shopping.

Still agonizing

We've been talking and talking, asking opinions, trying to decide on our final decision. It's really overwhelming. I have been reading an excellent book, Deconstructing Penguins. I've been thinking of running a book club this summer and this is an excellent place to start. It's really interesting and gives lots of ideas - although I want a better outline - I guess I need to do that myself. I need to write more about this but later. The book has the poem from Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken and it really hit me that that is where we are.

Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920.

1. The Road Not Taken


TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;
5

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,
10

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.
15

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.
20

We are standing there looking at the 2 roads and trying to look down each one so we can pick one and it is SO hard. Now it's not just us but the kids and how our choice will affect them. We do tend to take the one less traveled and like it. Maybe coming here was taking the known one and it's just not the right one for us.

Charlotte's Web

K was interested in seeing this movie when it came out in December. I think she saw all the advertising. At first I wasn't going to do it but decided to have her read the book. So, she's been reading the book and we've been doing lots of literature discovery with it. I've been trying to make a list of vocabularly words and we've been learning about compound words. It's been slow (she has her school books to read too) but good. So, her incentive was after she read it then she could see the movie. I was worried she would be emotional with the ending. She was fine with reading the ending. She ended up reading it with Grandma and telling me how cool it was that Charlotte had 514 eggs.

So we see the movie yesterday. It was pretty good. She's fine through the whole movie. However, I took C too. He had heard her reading the book to us so he knew it was about a pig and a spider. I figured he was too young but he would enjoy the experience. He was scared at times and then at the end he's sobbing. He was so upset. I was really surprised. I guess I should have been more worried about him! He can be very sensitive and emotional but I just didn't expect this. It was a good lesson for me.

what to do?

I have not been writing too much on here but think maybe I should now. D has an offer for a job in NYC and we have to make a decision tomorrow. I wanted him to finish all the interviewing before accepting something but the other company hasn't called back and the other one said the position they interviewed wasn't the right fit maybe there would be something else. The job here in OH is not working out. We moved here 3 years ago to be closer to family and it seemed like a good opportunity. But D is not happy. Of course K is very happy. C would be happy anywhere. I'm torn, I was happy in NYC and I've grown to be happy with what OH has to offer. K loves being near her grandparents and having lots of cousins nearby. I've been back and forth on what to do. We have family here and some friends and I've spent some time meeting people. We just joined a Cincinnati support group for EG/PG kids and that's been great. K takes a Saturday class now. We would have to figure out the schools wherever we moved. That's time consuming especially after spending 2 years touring and researching here. (The result is not that great so that's something to factor in to my thoughts). If we move east, we have to decide live in the city or suburbs. We lived in the city prior to moving to OH and we loved it. But now we would have the school issue. And, we missed the deadline for the big gifted school in the city - Hunter. We've missed the deadline for the other gifted options in the city for the 2007-2008 year. I've been trying to read up on suburb schools. It's really overwhelming. Of course D says just homeschool for a year and apply during that time. The problem is most of the gifted programs admit in Kindergarten and just have attrition spots to fill in later years so she may not get in anywhere. I'm just going round and round right now. I read an article where it said it is important for the parents to have a good marriage, good career and then the kids will fall into place. Kids are resilient.

Letter

We received our acceptance letter yesterday. It was very exciting and also a relief. We explained it to K but she thinks it's a school so she's nervous about it. I'm slowly sharing the news with some people.

Sleepover

Last night we had a sleepover with K & C's cousin. It was fun. We need to do more sleepovers with all the cousins in the area. It's a great way to get to know your niece/nephew. We have 11 nieces/nephews in the area and 4 out of the area and I really want to get to know them all. We watched "Herbie Fully Loaded". I've been looking for more movies that a wide range of kids can watch and enjoy. We had a 3 year old, a 5.5 year old and an almost 8 year old. This one is OK for that, I'll have to keep looking.

I have a new thing - yoga. Both for me and for K, C and if I can persuade him to join in D. We visited 2 schools that had yoga part of their curriculum so I thought it might be something good to do at home. I got some DVDs at the library. The kids DVDs are OK, one was a little silly. K really enjoys it and C does a pretty good job. He gets frustrated when he can't do a position. I'm enjoying mine too. It's a good thing to do with all the cold and snow we have had this winter. It's starting to warm up finally.

Grandparents Day

Wednesday was Grandparents Day at school. My Dad and D's Mom and Dad were there for the last hour and then I met up with them and we all went to lunch. They were very impressed with K's multiplication skills. She uses the multiplication board and was working on problems she had and some they gave her. She's able to come up with answers a couple different ways now. C was excited to show everyone his work, he loves puzzles.

Testing

We met with the public school last month and officially requested acceleration. We still are not sure public school is the right option but if she does go to public school, it would not be in first grade. We took her test scores and had a pretty good meeting. Now K has to do some aptitude testing. We are going to use the Iowa acceleration scale to determine if we should accelerate and to what grade level. Since we've done the cognitive and achievement testing, we have to do the aptitude testing and the parent and teacher sections. We just filled out a package of papers on her behaviors and strengths and her personality.

She loves to do testing so that's one good thing. She's actually asked if she could do some testing at some of the schools we visited.

The other major positive for me was a conversation I had with K a couple weeks ago. We've been visiting schools and talking about starting first grade in the fall. She said Mom why would I do first grade in the fall? Last year I kind of did kindergarten because I worked with all the kindergarteners every day so aren't I doing first grade this year? So, I think she will be pretty open to accelerating to second grade.

Negatives: She doesn't want to go to a school with desks. Montessori doesn't have desks and she keeps commenting on this when we tour schools.
In French class she has to ask permission to leave the room and go to the bathroom and I think someone walks her down the hall. She hates this. She says she should just be able to go when she needs to go.
These could both be major issues for public school. She may have a harder time with rules than I originally thought.

Visitors

We've had visitors since Wednesday. The kids are loving it but we've been very busy. We saw Night at the Museum yesterday. It was Ok, K definitely picked up on history and things. She was very excited that Dick Van Dyke would be in it since she loves him in Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. K & C are really enjoying The Story of the Orchestra book. We've been listening to it constantly in the car. K's teacher mentioned her answering all the questions in music class last week. She knew the sounds (and names) of the cello and double bass. Her teacher mentioned that she is coming back out of her shell. She was answering questions again. Her cousin came to visit at her school too. She liked that.

Day with Grandma & Pap

The kids spent yesterday with Grandma and Pap. D and I had a dinner last night so I took them out in the afternoon. K has been learning sewing and I think an intro to knitting with Grandma. Last night they were working on cross stitch. I'm so glad K has the opportunity to learn and appreciate all these things with Grandma. Grandma makes dresses and PJs and they are K's most prized clothes b/c they are homemade. K takes the time to wear clothes Grandma made whenever she is going to see Grandma. Last night she wore the flannel dress PJs that Grandma made her. They are so cute. For Christmas this year Grandma made matching dresses for all her granddaughters (there are 6 but she didn't do one for the newborn so just 5) The girl cousins at Christmas were 7, 6, 5, 4, 2 and 4 months. I have to find the picture of that and post it here.

Sushi

I made sushi for dinner tonight. C was asleep when we had to leave for K's French class. He transferred OK so I just dropped her off today and rode around. I got the car washed and then decided I could run in and out of the specialty fish shop. They had sushi grade tuna so I got some. I was going to cook it tomorrow b/c of Lent. I forgot we had plans tomorrow for dinner so I switched and made sushi tonight. I made it last year with Erika (Japanese exchange student) and I took a sushi class last year. The rice is the hardest part. The family loved it! It wasn't perfect. Since I didn't plan for it, I didn't have all the ingredients and I couldn't make spicy tuna rolls, . But my tuna rolls turned out OK. I had nori and wasabi.

Before we left for French, K told me they are going to do a recital. She doesn't want to go on stage so she wants to quit French. I reminded her of how much fun she had on stage at her ballet recital. Two answers, no friends there and she knew ballet much better than she knows French. Both are probably true. She started ballet late last year and didn't really know that many girls in the class. And, the French class is a stretch for her. I can't decide if she's learning or not. A lot of the girls in the class are older and have been taking French for awhile. So, I think she either is learning a lot or is just skating along, following their lead but not really learning French. I'll have to do some things here at home to figure it out.

Another day off

No school today because of the ice and fog! C said that's OK we can just homeschool. That was a nice thing for me to hear! We did music and math. K is still working on fractions. C is working on recognizing and writing 1-10. We did a preschool math workbook. He likes dot to dot and they really helps to learn numbers.

We went to visit Gigi (great grandma) today. They had fun, dancing and putting on a show for her. I think she enjoyed the visit but after an hour she was ready for us to leave. They are so loud and have so much energy.