Thursday, April 14, 2011

It is all starting to click!

This week has been filled with many of the same, very typical issues as any other week.  However in the midst of the mundane, there has been a glimmer of hope!  A ray that has burst through at the most unexpected time, in the most unexpected way... Happy is starting to "get it"  Get what you may be wondering... and rightly so.  Each dwarf, with their multitude of issues does leave one scratching their head wondering! 

I have been contacted twice this week by Happy's teacher who is amazed and encouraged by the transformation in young Happy.  It is important to remember that he is 13 as you read this, because you may think that this is the youngest of the dwarfs.... but the milestone is a big one and one that we are celebrating along with his teacher!! 

This is the second email in two consecutive days, and for those of you that personally know Happy, this is huge, because he still struggles to remember his phone number and address!

Good evening! I had to write again and tell you about Happy's reading class! His enthusiasm for reading has been tremendous! Typically he takes his time coming back to the table for small group, finding all items out of place, and placing them in there appropriate place; finding where the "action" is, rather than promptly finding his way to my table. Today he was the first one back, had his materials ready and open to the correct page, had my book ready and open, and was encouraging his group members to quickly join him... He was eager and ready to learn! He volunteered for every opportunity to read and respond! He knew every answer and read beautifully; again multisyllabic words with prefixes and suffixes! He was beaming!!! His enthusiasm encouraged his group mates to volunteer and read to perfection. Happy was actually assisting the others in sounding out words and was offering "strategies" to the decoding of words! I was SPEECHLESS!!! He knew all the strategies I have been reinforcing all year! Your beloved son brought streams of joyful reward down my face! Today was one of those "I am so proud to teach children with special needs" moments! Moments I wish I could capture and bottle up and share with their families. Such an honor it is to educate your son. He is a BLESSING in MY life. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of his.
With love and honor,

Just wanted to share in this milestone!  Because you just can't make this stuff up!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

The Eggs, Oh how tempting!

Okay - here is the situation - every year we make 100's of Peanut Butter, Butter Cream and Coconut Easter Eggs, it is just what we do....

And it is a long process that usually involves me finishing the storage and pack of the eggs the next day - hence leaving a host of eggs at the "ready" in the garage...

Last year we had issues with the one of the dwarfs  touching them all.  We had small finger prints in the fresh chocolate and no one would lay claim to them, so in my typical style I went dwarf by dwarf and held fingers up to the prints until I had a match --- Winner, Bashful.

Well this year the tale is the same - much work, many eggs  and residual eggs hanging out in the garage.  This morning at about 6:45 am I hear the screen door to the garage banging.  It is important to say that there are no small people allowed up at our house on the weekends until 7am....

So grumbling I haul myself out of bed to figure out who and why they are up before the agreed upon time. 

I come downstairs to see Happy, in the kitchen.  "Good Morning Son... Do you know what time it is, he reads the time to me from the digital clock on the stove, 6:55" he says.  Okay I ask him to repeat the rule to me about what time to get up.  " It is almost 7 he says."  To which I am thrilled to hear that he is capturing the essence of time telling.  "yes, I agree it is almost 7, but the deal is you stay in bed until 7." 

Now while I am making my coffee and chatting with Happy, I see that there is something on his lip.  So I ask him what he was doing in the garage.  "I was checking to see if we have more milk"   "Did we?" I ask.  "Yes" he says.  What did you have for breakfast?  You have food on your face. "Umm stammers Happy, Cereal?  I had some cereal."  Well the coffee pot is by the sink, so I glance in the sink --- I know this is going to shock you, but there is NO cereal bowl in the sink, No cereal containers out on the counter and no milk drippings on the table... so Happy DID NOT have cereal.

During this time he wipes away the evidence and now I don't know what was on his lips, but I have a hunch - so I ask him to come over to me and open his mouth.  He wont open very wide, so I force his jaws open only to see that his back molars are filled with a dark substance. 

So I say to the boy - were you eat ting Peanut butter eggs in the garage this morning???  NO he says. 

I make him sit in a chair and re think his story, while I go fill in the Prince on the details... Shockingly enough Happy stands firm in his lie for over 30 minutes...  and when he finally confesses that he ate the eggs in the garage, he is angry that he cant have what he wants to eat when he wants to ---

You know that funny thing about this is, if he had told the truth, I would not have been mad. Moreover, if he had asked for an egg, I would have let him eat one, because that is what I was thinking about when I came down for my morning cup of coffee... a delicious peanut butter egg and a hot cup of coffee for breakfast would be so delicious... 

Needless to say Happy has no egg privileges today - maybe even tomorrow for lying and lying and lying some more about his sneaking eggs in the garage for breakfast this morning ----

Really you can't make this stuff up!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

I May Have Set A Record

Typically I expect that perhaps I will get one or two dings on my vehicles in a year's time, but this year, three of the four Lingle vehicles have experiences some type of minor or major incident.  Of course none of them the 20+ year old Subaru that my prince loves and enjoys so much...

Early in the fall I was on the WEST shore, YIKES, lost as I usually am there, so in my haste to reposition myself into a turning lane, I accidentally bumped into a man that was already in the turning lane... He was "just going for a sandwich"  there was minor (and that is too big of a description of the situation) damage done and even when the police officer arrived he laughed at the man to taking the time to call for such a situation.  This was in Faith's car.

Fast forward to December when we bought a great little white Nissan for me to drive around town...  one owner previously, garage kept, great stereo, heated leather seats, sun roof - ah the life! Well 9days before we could remove the 3 month registration sticker from the rear window, a woman leaving an ally and crossing over a lane of oncoming traffic ran right into the front of my sweet little white car.  (Insert sad face here)  The police officer said that I can drive it home that it did not need towed and sited her and on we went. 

After two weeks of dealing with insurance, and estimates etc it was determined that they were just going to total the car - but we just got the car... so upon further investigation we were able to find that we could take the total check - purchase a salvage license and take the car to the body shop or our choice -  and have the repairs done - which is what we did - we had a rental for about two weeks and our car was done in about 3 weeks and so not even two weeks ago we picked up our car from the body shop !

Last week on the way to cooking class - in my 15 passenger Van - a lady traveling behind me, claiming to have not seen me, rear- ended me.  Causing damage to the rear of my van and destroying her vehicle totally.  I am sure she was not going 15 mph like she told the police!! Because the total in repairs to this vehicle is $3,800 ...  Now the part about these accidents is that they really can disrupt one's day and or week!

Not only was I late to work that night - the next day, I felt like I had been hit by a MAC truck - significant muscle relaxers have helped make me feel a bit better during the day, ex rays indicated nothing was broken, and the lesson that I learned here, is that for all the years that I used to make fun of people in fender benders wearing neck braces and going to physical therapy, I now have been hit with enough force to make my body revolt.  

In all praising God for his provisions of kids that were kept safe, and equipment that was in the back of the van unharmed, and that a good friend driving by could bless me and another could come help me get set up for class that night! 

Really though?  Two accidents in 9 weeks??? You just can't make this stuff up!