Oh, Biology

Me helping Baylee review some information for her chapter on birds in Biology...


Me:  What's a gizzard?

Baylee:  [looking at a list of possible answers]  Is it "displays the workmanship of God?"

Me:  Nope.

Baylee:  Oh, I know!  It's a type of bird!

Me:  That's a buzzard.  A gizzard "grinds food with the aid of small stones, glass, and sand."

Baylee:  Ahh, okay.

Me:  What's sperm?

Baylee:  That must be "displays the workmanship of God!"

Me:  ...

Baylee:  [giggles]

Me:  It's "fertilizes a hen's egg in the oviduct."



Sigh.  


 

More AC/DC

Brother-sister moment. 

Our beautiful girl.

Mira and Baylee singing together.

On the stage after the show.

PS:  All but one of these (the one with Baylee and Mira singing.  I took that one.) were taken by a girl from the SoR named Gwen, then shared with us.

AC/DC

Baylee did a great job today!  I was super proud of her.  Here are a few of the songs she was in...

She asked quite a few people to come, and lots of them did!

Stuff That's on My Mind

• Baylee's sick with a cold and a sore throat.  Normally that wouldn't be any big deal, but she's got a show on Sunday, and she's supposed to sing.  Hopefully she'll be better by then.  She's been taking Tylenol, and I picked up something called Throat Coat, which is a type of herbal tea that's supposed to help.  If that doesn't work, then the other things I got, Dr. Pepper and chocolate ice cream, probably will.  
• I had a 6-month check-up today at the dentist.  On the bright side, the hygienist praised me up and down for my "excellent home care."  Finally!  It's about time somebody noticed I've been flossing for two solid years and gave me the accolades I'm so obviously due.  On the not bright side, they started something new where they measure gum recession, and it involves a huge amount of poking.  It was horrible. I hated it.  (My gums are healthy, though, which is good news.)
• Do any of you have that one friend on Facebook who's REALLY into their pet?  Like, they've got personification down to a science?  Yeah, me, too.
• Drew, Baylee, and I started up French again.  We're on French II with the Learnables program.  It starts out with a huge portion on grammar, which is as exciting as it sounds.  To start:  Prepositions!
• Did I ever tell you how I taught the concept of prepositions to my kids?  I called them "doghouse words."  You can be on the doghouse, over the doghouse, under the doghouse, in the doghouse, etc.  Hey, whatever works.

B at the SoR

Yesterday Baylee posted this picture on her Instagram, giving credit for it to her friend Mira.  (She's the girl with the pink hair in the front who's obviously holding the camera.)

It was taken during the dress rehearsal for their upcoming show.  (That's not everybody.  Those were only the kids who weren't on stage at the moment.)  Man, I'm so happy with how she's doing at the SoR!  She's learned so much, made so many new friends, and just had a great time.  I thought last season went well for her, but this one is even better.  I have high hopes for next season, too.  She's doing Aerosmith with a whole posse of people she likes.

Kids These Days

One of our offspring was "that kid" when he was little.  That is, he was one of those weirdies who stuck stuff up his nose for no good reason.  Can you guess which kid it was?  It was Drew, of course.

Time #1:  When he was somewhere between 18 months and 2 years old he was eating a bowl of popcorn.  Pretty soon he started saying, "Popcorn.  Nose."  Sure enough, I looked in his nostril with a flashlight and there was a kernel shoved way back in there.  In fact, it was so far up that I couldn't get it out myself.  I had to take him to the pediatrician.

Time #2:  He was three years old and he put one of those tiny Playmobile coins up his schnoz.  Just as I was about to take him to Dr. Johns...again...he sneezed, and the snot-covered coin flew across the room.

Zach never did that, thank goodness.  His thing was eating non-food items.  In 2's-and-3's Sunday School one time the teacher said to me, "Could you please have a talk with him about eating the paste?"  (Uhh...yeah, sure.  Like that's really going to help.)  He also liked the taste of play-doh.  Oh, and for a little while we had to watch him, because he would eat ants.

Actually, Baylee would eat gross stuff, too.  I'm not kidding when I say that we could not keep that kid out of the dry cat food when she was a baby.  She would crawl over the cat's bowl, stuff her mouth full of kibble, and then crawl away as fast as she could before we could catch her and do a finger-sweep.

To be fair, this sort of thing runs in my family.  When my sister was a toddler my mom had her out in the yard with her while she was doing some weeding.  Mom took her eyes off Lindsey for only a few seconds, and when she looked back at her again Lindsey had a bloody worm hanging out of her mouth.  To be specific it was only a half a worm.  She'd already eaten the rest.

More Jam Bands

One of the SoR parents does a great job of taking pictures at the shows her kid is in, and she's really generous as far as who she snaps photos of.  She'll capture everybody!  Her name is Bridget, and these are a couple of the pictures she took with Drew in them...

He's not actually on stage in this one...he's watching down on the left.  I just like the picture.

Jam Bands Show

Today's show was really excellent!  All the kids did a great job and it was a ton of fun.  An unexpected (and really nice!) bonus:  The head pastor of our church showed up!  Seeing Pastor Jim at the Nectar Lounge, in jeans no less, was odd, but what a great surprise.

This was my favorite thing Drew did.  It was an instrumental played by just four boys, and Drew was featured in the last two or so minutes of it. Here's a bit of that.

Also, while I'm on the subject of music, Drew ended up getting into that "melodic metal" band that he tried out for the other day.  He said that they're really nice guys who treat each other well and take their music seriously.  (Case in point:  They gave Drew two days to learn a very technical song as his audition piece.)  We'll see what happens.  They still need to find a bassist, so it might be awhile before they get off the ground. 

Saturday

This has been a week of learning experiences...some of them accompanied by disappointments...for all three of our kids.  It hurts to be a parent when your child is going through something hard, even if you know that ultimately they're going to benefit from it.

For instance, one of the things that happened is that Baylee got paid $40 by one of her dog walking clients, and somehow she lost half of it on the way home.   She checked every pocket a million times and retraced her steps over 3 blocks, but in the end she just couldn't find the missing money.  She cried, and everything in me wanted to give her $20 just to make her feel better.  But how would that help her remember to be more careful?  So she felt the pain, and I did, too.

This whole week has been like that with different things...some bigger, some smaller.  It's been kinda cruddy to be honest.

Early Start

Today started at the crack of dawn, as I had to have Drew at the dentist at 7am for a filling.  (That has to be one of the worst reasons known to mankind to wake up early.)  The bright side is that it didn't take long, so we got a headstart on the school day.  The not bright side is that everyone is now tired and a little stupid.   Case in point, Baylee and I had this conversation...

Me:  Name the five Great Lakes.  Use the word "homes" to remember.

Bayee:  Umm...Harold...?

Sigh.

Wednesday

Today Baylee brought two of the dogs she walks over so I could see them.  Aren't they cute?  She said they're both older, easy-going dogs.

Drew's name was given, word-of-mouth, to a band that's starting up here in the area.  I'm talking about a real-ish band made up of people who are older than high school, so that's a step up.  Anyway, they contacted Drew, he talked back and forth with them for a bit, and now he's got an audition set up with them on Friday.  We'll see how it goes.  I guess their style is "melodic metal."  (I don't know either.)

I know I don't mention Zach here very often, but that's only because he's so busy that I don't see him very often.  He's gone before I get up, and then he's home around dinner time...sometimes later.  He's definitely got his own life now!  He's doing well, though.  He's still working at the airplane gear shop and learning more all the time.

Fall Dessert and Candy

We've got our friend Todd, who's in town for a pastor's conference, spending a couple days with us.  You know someone is a good, very old friend when they openly admit to you that the reason they're going home earlier than planned is because they don't want to eat what you're making for supper.  LOL  If it was anybody but Todd I might not be able to laugh at that, but knowing him for over 20 years takes the sting out of it.  (We're having tuna pasta salad.  What?!  It's a favorite over here!)

I didn't mention this to him, but he's actually missing out, because we're also having homemade apple crisp.  Someone from Mike's work gave him a big bag of honeycrisp apples right from their orchard, and Baylee and I cut them all up this afternoon and turned them into a delicious dessert.

Today in school Drew had to write an essay on John Keats.  Stuff like that's always easier with a handful Brach's Harvest Mix and a cup of coffee, don't you think?

Friday

I'm so glad it's Friday!  As first weeks of school go, this one wasn't too bad at all.  After the first day we kind of fell into a good rhythm and even finished earlier than expected most of the time.

Now this weekend is full of kids having friends over, which, I'll be honest, is really going to strain my (lack of) hospitality skills.  Boo Radley, people.  Boo.  Radley.

Oh, that reminds me!  Last weekend Zach's good friend, JT...you remember JT?  He's in the Navy and he stops by when he's in the area...came over.  Anyway, I have no idea why this happened, but right after JT arrived Gibbs sauntered up to him, looking as innocent as you please, and happily peed all over JT's feet.  It wasn't a dribble, either!  Where did we go wrong?  Gibbs used to be on the crazy side, I admit, but as he's gotten older he's gotten calmer and more normal.  Then he goes and does something like this.  Talk about a strain on my hospitality skills!  How do you smooth that over???   There are no etiquette rules for that.  All I could do was apologize profusely to JT and give him clean, dry socks.

Thursday

I have a thing on Facebook that shows me all the posts I made "on this day" over the years.  Today it showed me a picture I posted exactly three years ago.

They're still like that...mostly friends.  Of course, they do argue, and sometimes they play their roles of insufferable big brother and irritating little sister to the hilt.  I probably shouldn't tell you this, because it involves a bad word, but today I overheard a conversation between them.  Drew was standing in the bathroom, trying out something new with his hair, and Baylee walked by.

Drew:  What do you think?  I think this looks pretty badass.
Baylee:  Well, it looks bad.
Drew:  ...ass.
Baylee:  Yup, it's bad and you look like an ass.

(He decided not to change his hairstyle.)

Today's school day is going better than yesterday.  Man, first days back from long vacations should be outlawed.  They're always so blah.  The problem this time was that we were all so tired.  Drew ended up falling sound asleep in front of his civics assignment.

In the end we got through the day and we didn't kill each other, and that's what counts.  We were all in bed, lights out, by 10:30, though.  lol

First Day of School, 2015

Last night I worked until 10:30pm, cleaning the house and doing lesson plans for the first month of school.  That meant that when we got up this morning we were totally ready to roll with our new year!  It was a great feeling.

The only hitch in the plan was that I had to take Drew to have fasting blood drawn at the lab, which meant I had to be there early, before his 17-year-old, 6'4" self died of hunger.  lol  (He has to have lab work done once a month, because he's on really power medication right now for acne, and the doctor wants to make sure he's doing okay.  He also has to be seen by the doctor monthly.  I won't lie, it's a pain in the butt.)  That pushed our school start time back a bit.  Plus we got breakfast from Jack in the Box right afterward, and that made us even later.

Oh well.  We're doing school now, and so far everything is going pretty well.  Baylee and I sat down together and talked through her high school courses and what she can expect, and then she got right to work.  Drew was harder to motivate, and I ended up having to get my freak on.  Now he's working, too.

 9th grade

 
 12th grade

Yesterday on Facebook one of my friends posted pictures of her first day of homeschooling, and one of the photos was of her very organized bookcase.  Mine isn't nearly as cute and fun as hers, because she's got a kindergartner who's using lots of colorful manipulatives and stuff, and I've got two high schoolers, but I thought I'd snap a picture anyhow.  (This isn't everything.  The school sends us materials in installments throughout the year.)

There's also this area in another bookcase, which holds our DVD science classes.  Baylee is doing biology this year and Drew is in chemistry.

And that's it!  Here's to a good rest of the year!


PS:  It's a little hard to focus today, because right across the street, in front of the local high school, the Seattle public school teachers are striking.  They're out there on the sidewalk with their signs, and they're making a lot of noise.

PPS:  I just found out that Rachel's littlest sisters (all in elementary school) made picket signs that say, "We want school!" and they joined the crowd of teachers in their strike.  *giggle* 

Double Post Day

Okay, I'm in a much better frame of mind than I was this morning.  For one thing, our school stuff arrived in the mail, which is a big load off my mind.  Once I opened the box and looked it over I clicked into gear mentally and went right to Fred Meyer to buy the remaining supplies...pencils, pens, paper, folders, a new dry erase board and markers, and a pair of scissors.  Now we're all set.

For another, I'm tentatively hopeful that the acupuncture, which I got this afternoon, will end up solving this issue.  The doctor (?) seemed to know exactly what was wrong and what to do, and he didn't talk about chakras even once this time, so fingers crossed!  I will say this, though:  He's a very nice man and extremely considerate, but...how do I put this?...he might be too nice.  He's so concerned about modesty that he makes me feel uncomfortable, and I'm an extremely modest person!   Every time he wants to touch any part of me or move any of my clothing the slightest bit he asks permission with this quiet, supposedly soothing voice, and then when he does touch or move anything he's so mincing about it.  It's off-putting.

It's like one time when Drew got home from a routine physical at the doctor's office he said that everything was fine and that he liked the doctor well enough, but that the guy was careful to the point of awkwardness.  Drew's example was, "Instead of talking like a regular person, he kept calling it a scrotum!"  What can I say.  Apparently we like a little more grit around here.

I Surrender

Well, I finally broke down and made an appointment with the acupuncture guy.  I've lived with this back pain for two months now, hoping it would go away with time...and here and there it did seem like it was getting better, only to come back with a vengeance.  Ultimately I just can't seem to heal from it on my own.  It's so frustrating; I can't even tell you.  I feel like I've been kind of a different person this summer because of it.  I can't keep my house nearly as clean as I want to, which bugs the crap out of me, I haven't prepared to start homeschooling tomorrow as much as I should've, and, generally, being in pain all the time has taken a toll on me.  I'm so sick of it.  Anyway, I'm hoping very much that having acupuncture will  get me on the right track again.

Pajamas

I think every mom does it.  That is, the chauffeuring-kids-while-wearing-pajamas thing.  And we all understand that we're rolling the dice, because something could happen and there we would be, out in public in our pjs.  Well, last night my luck ran out.

I should start by saying that Baylee made a new friend whose family is quite wealthy.  They live in a gigantic house, and they have a cleaning person and a chef.  I was on my way there to pick Baylee up yesterday evening, while wearing...you guessed it...pajamas (and not wearing any make-up), when suddenly I realized that I forgot my phone.  That meant that, instead of texting or calling Baylee and letting her know I was in the driveway, I would have to actually go up to the door.  No can do, folks.  I wasn't about to let them see me like that.  Then I remembered that some people we know from church live next door, so I chose the lesser of two evils.  I parked in their driveway and walked up to their house...in my pajamas.  I could see through the window that they were all right there in their dining room, eating supper.  Cringe.  I knocked and went in, and they all just sort of smiled and stared at me like, "Uhh...hello..."  I said, "Hey, guys!  I'm here for a weird reason."  lol  Sigh.  Long story short, I got a hold of Baylee from over there and all was well.

Music

Baylee played the drums for one of the songs in church today.  I'm glad she got a chance to do that and maybe she'll do it again, but she was a little bit discouraged.  She got up there and started, only to realize that the monitor facing the drumset wasn't turned on.  She said she could barely hear anything.  When she sat back down next to us her face was pale and her eyes were glistening with tears.  Sigh.  It was just one of those things.  She did well, though, considering!  I took just a bit of video.  She's kind of hard to see, but she's behind the piano.

And I took these yesterday when Baylee and Drew were playing together.  The funny thing to me is that Drew is always the one who asks his little sister if she'd like to "jam."  I think he just really enjoys having someone else in the house to make music with.

PS:  I didn't go into the room, because then they say, "Mooooom!" and stop.  I videoed from on the other side of the door.

PPS:  It sounds better if you turn it up a bit.

Thursday

Yesterday I titled my post "Tuesday" even though it was Wednesday.  I'm special.

I still don't have all my school stuff, and I'm starting to feel a little bit panicky.  South Ridge sent the material...the bulk of what we need for the school year...but it hasn't gotten here yet.  I guess if it hasn't arrived by the 9th, our first day, then the kids will just have to do the couple things that we do have and call it a day.  They'd love that.

Last night Drew said that there's only one thing he doesn't like about his job, and that's when this happens:  He'll be putting, say, cubicles together for three hours, getting a good rhythm down and getting it done, when one of the old guys...not anyone who's in charge, but just another worker...will walk up to him.  "You're doing it wrong!" he'll say.  "Do it this way!"  And then he'll make Drew totally change his method and watch him like a hawk to make sure he complies.  Drew said it's really annoying, because he knows what he's doing.  I get that.  At the same time, though, his long-haired rocker look is just begging old people to think he's incompetent.  #lifelesson

Tuesday

Remember how I told you the other day that I woke up in the middle of the night knowing who the murderer is on that show I've been watching?  Well, the season finale was yesterday and I was right!

That reminds me:  A long time ago I got into Mary Higgins Clark books, which are chick-lit murder mysteries.  I read a handful of them when it occurred to me that they all followed a formula.  The killer was never the obvious person; it was ALWAYS the good-looking, good-natured best friend/associate/2nd-in-command to the main character.  After I figured that out I couldn't read them anymore.  All the fun had gone out of it.

Baylee made a new friend at the SoR, a girl her age named Mira.  They really hit it off to the point where they've gotten together outside of the school at Mira's house and over here.  Mira's a singer and keyboardist.  In fact, she's the girl with the pink hair singing here...

Anyway, she's a really nice kid and I'm glad she and Baylee are getting to be such good friends.

My phone's battery was slowly dying, until finally I couldn't use it at all without it being plugged into the charger.  That means that for the last few weeks every single time I did anything on my phone I was on a 3-foot tether.  It was like the 1980's, only worse because the cord wasn't as long.  I finally got a new battery yesterday and, wow, it feels so weird and great to be able to walk around while I play Candy Crush!  I have no idea why I waited so long to take care of it.

Free at Last!

She got her cast off today!

She has to wear that black "air cast," which is removable, for a week, then she's totally done.  When they cut the plaster one off the first thing Baylee noticed is that her arm is extra hairy.   She was fighting back tears over it, picturing herself with a Sasquatch arm for the rest of her life, until the Dr. told her it's normal and that the surplus hair will get rubbed off over time.

I never mentioned this before, but I learned something interesting through all of this:

There's a Good Chance It's Broken If...

Right after Baylee fell, while she was still standing out in the field at camp waiting for the nurse to arrive, she forced herself to play it cool, but really she wanted nothing more than to lie down in the grass.  She said she felt horrible, like she was going to throw up and maybe even faint.  Later, when I was telling Mike about this, he said that the same thing happened to him when he broke a bone as a child.  He was rollerskating, fell on his wrist, and, without telling anyone he was even hurt, he went straight into the bathroom at the roller rink and threw up in the toilet.  The point is, if your kid is in pain to the point of nausea and lightheadedness, he/she probably broke something.