Mathmatics. Grawr.

Well, this post is a week late but I thought I'd add a little about my admissions process to UT. I am taking 3 classes this fall. 11 credit hours. So if you ask me I'll say yes I'm full time, but technically I am not. I'm taking Medical terminology, Anatomy (lab & lecture) and math.
Well because I started college a decade ago, some of the classes that I took & passed have no bearings on my transcript. These classes would be all the math and science classes. How wonderful. My councelor said I could either start at the bottom and take a few extra math classes or I could take a Math Placement test. I opted for the test. In true back to college fasion I crammed for a day. Lia came over & helped me out with some & I called a math teacher who works with my mom a couple times.
I went to UT last Friday to take my test and I passed. Not only did I get to skip over the class I took 10 years ago, but the one above that too. If I want in a higher math class I'll have to take a higher placement test. Lets not tempt fate. I'm pleased with where I tested & now I only have to take a math class this fall & one in the spring. I won't have to take one or two nex summer which is the best news of all!!!

THE PICNIC MUST GO ON!

Today I was able to utilize one of my favorite features of my house for one of my favorite uses of it. We had a thunder/wind/hail storm around 4 today & the kids and I watched it all from the safety of our screened in porch.

So amongst the sound of the hail hitting the roof, the thunder & the lightning, we got to hear our neighbor across the creeks clay fire chimney fall and shatter. Oh, and our next door neighbors has a tree she's been asking the owners to trim, basically fall apart. After the rain stopped we checked out the carnage.

I guess the good news in all this is her tree will finally be trimed. Now if I could only get my tree trimmed...

So one hour later we had to whisk away to the park to go to Alex's tee ball picnic. It was a nice time. The kids ran around tiring themselves out and they got little bobble head trophys. Oh and they found a frog. Hopefully when the kids released him he survived...

For those of you who know her, yes Zoe broke her arm. It's a "billy club" fracture, so she only has to wear a cast for 3 weeks. Unlike Alex, who wore his for 3 months....

Elena's Haircut

I've been threatening to cut Elena's hair for, probably a year now. Well, with summer & water season here, I thought it was time. Every day it is a fight to get her hair done. She runs. She cries. She hides. I don't have fun. Then while I'm brushing she's crying the whole time. Not to mention she's in this phase that she wants nothing in her hair. So she's walking around with an unkempt mop on her head. It wasn't as traumatic as I thought it would be. Every day I like it more and more. Thank goodness she still has the curls.

Here are a couple of pics of the kids and Elena's new do.

Dentist

Yesterday was our bi-annual dental appointment. Monny & I were very amused all week long when they would start cheering "dentist on Wednesday!" or "Yeah! We get to go to the dentist tomorrow!!!". We wonder how more years this will last. Well both kids got a clean bill of teeth. No cavities. No issues at all. Wonderful!

Afterwards we went to my good friend Christina's so our kids could play. Her son is a year older than Alex and her daughter is the same age as Elena. We had a great time! Except the ice cream truck trolled by us about a dozen times. He probably thought we would eventually give in and buy the kids ice cream. I could teach that ice cream truck driver something about sales. About a minute before he came down the street Christina had made all the kids (including some neighbor kids) ice cream cones. He should probably stop driving down the street with 6 kids in the front yard staring at him while eating ice cream, and choose a different route.

After lunch & the kids playing she introduced me to a place called "Hobby Lobby". (I know. I'm probably the last woman in Toledo who hadn't been there. I am also aware how behind the curve I am so no comments on my apparent ignorance on the store. I had heard of it, but with my complete lack of craft skills it just wasn't high on my priority list. ok?!?)

Toodle-e-Zoo

Today we went to the zoo with Traci & Jeromy. We had a great time except Elena apparently does not do well with heat. Later we had a tee ball game. He has 3 left after today, which is probably a good thing because he runs slower and slower at every game. That is what happens with 6 year olds and 90 degree heat.

Dog Sitting

Most of you who read my sister Laura's blog knows that she just got a puppy. He's really cute. Well, I've volunteered to puppy sit for her on the days she & Andy have long work days. Now my dog is a Boston Terrier. If you know & love the breed like I do, you know he is a bundle of energy he is. So when Diesel is over, Lucky is like a puppy with a hyperactivity button set on overdrive. I have to separate them so they will rest. It is nuts here today!!! In a good way, of course...

Milestones

Right up there with learning to walk and a first tooth is of course, losing the training wheels. At the beginning of April I took Alexs training wheels off and you would have thought I took his foot off with them. Needless to say, he was not happy. Not the kind to pick a fight with a 5 year old, I put them back on. On Sunday we came home after lunch with Michelle and Mom & the neighbor girl, she's in Alex's class, was riding her bike up and down the street with no training wheels.

ANYWAY! Alex got off the bus today after school & I set the kids up in the front yard with toys so I could do some weeding (by the way, if you'd like to do that for me I'll wave the $5 entrance fee to the pool). Elena comes running over to me "MOM! Alex got dads tools!" So I go over & he has one wheel off & is working on the other. I asked him what he was doing. He looked at me and said "taking the wheels off mom" in that 'do I have to explain everything to you mom' way that kids do so well. He got the wheels off & asked me to hold the bike while he climbed on. I said I would walk with him & he told me to let go. So I did. Off he rode. I didn't even have to run after him.

First with the Last

We'll I've decided to jump on the blogwagon. I suppose there is no better time to start than with Alex's last day of school. My baby is ofiicially a "grader". He didn't have a kindergarten graduation, instead they have a certificate ceremony. Parents are welcome to watch, so I did. They give out awards for things like perfect attendance (I guess when we took a vacation in the middle of the school year we got Alex knocked out of the running for that one...) and then each kid gets an individual award. Things like math, art, reading, helper, cleanliness. Alex's award was for outstanding social studies . She said the class always learns things from Alex. Apparently there were almost fisticuffs when they were studying money and Alex told someone they were wrong to think only presidents were on the money. Thats my boy!!!! Here are some pics from today!