Pictures from Nativity Festival 2012

December joy!

I see I got a couple posts out of order, but no one reads this but me mostly.  A post from last summer was in the drafts file, so I actually didn't go a whole year without posting!  Who cares, anyway?  So this month so far has been busy and fun.  the Festival of the Nativities last weekend was a great way to start out the season with the true meaning of Christmas.  Cara opted to display her very own little Nativity set, and was very proud when we went there and she had to look over all the hundreds of displays to find hers.  It is just a cute little Fisher-Price one  from a couple of years ago.  She has it back home now, on the little table with the "village people".  I let her set up the table herself this year, and she hasn't moved the people around, like she kept doing last year when I set it up myself!  The tree looks great in the corner by the fireplace.  I may leave it up permanently, as the corner will be depressing without it!
Saturday between Choir rehearsal and concert, the Winters came over with their horse trailer and picked up Buckwheat.  She now lives about 2 1/2 miles away at their place with a cute barn with two stalls, and another horse named Sunny.  So she has shelter and a friend!  A big improvement as Tom has not built me the promised shelter for Buckwheat, and it has been raining alot and getting really muddy here in her pasture.  So the Winter's horse has company, and it is a win-win for all of us.  Cara loves to go over there and play in the barn and with their dogs, and we can brush the horses and feed them hay.  I am very relieved to have her  under cover in this wet weather!
Tom's mom coming tomorrow night for a couple of weeks, so am getting the bathroom really clean today, and working on the laundry room!  Tom has to clean his desk off, as she stays in the room where we usually sleep, which is like Tom's cave most of the year.  He had to clean the desk off last year for her, and it has piled up since then!  Tomorrow I will put the flannel sheets on the bed, and wash the covers.  She is not a fussy person about the house, takes after Tom(or vice-versa) but personally, I like to have made an attempt for company coming!  Between the three dogs, Tom and Cara, it is somewhat of a losing battle most of the time!    I will post some photo's of the Nativity Festival!

Full time Grandma Summer

It's been many months since my last post!  Cara finished out first grade, still struggling with schoolwork.  Last year it was the seizures and finding the right medicines.   Now it's a learning disability and her discouragement doing the schoolwork.  After many months of talking with Gale while at the morning pool workouts, and looking on websites, finally found someone to test her for dyslexia and tutor.  The school system has finally taken steps to get her into special ed for next year.  so basically after a whole school year of first grade, and not much improvement in her reading and math, we have a plan in place.  She has been going twice a week since school got out to get help from the tutor(Summer Holt).  They are using the Barton system( an Orton-gillingham approach) and Cara will learn  how to approach learning in a way that her brain can process.  The good news is that she got started early, compared to most of Summers students who don't get to her until around fourth grade.  She always seems happy after the sessions, and after over two months she seems to be starting to catch on to the code(of reading).  We still have a long way to go, but at least the process is started.  I will continue to take her up there during the school year, she will need two years at least before it all sinks in.  It is costing Heather $90 a week for the two sessions, and my time and gas money, but we all feel that it is necessary.  Cara's dad is still catching up on back child support from his year of unemployment, so basically, Heather is on her own paying for this.
This summer has gone better with me and Cara.  Still not perfect, but since she goes to the playroom at the gym while I workout in the pool, it has given a little structure to our mornings.  Then Monday and Tuesday we go to MtVernon to the tutor.  We go to McD's for lunch, and she usually has a nap in the car on the way there and on the way back!  June was a rainy month, but we survived it, and mid-July it was warm enough to go to the lake.  Heather, Cara and I went for a week to Myrtle Beach to see my mom.  So, now it's August and won't be long before school starts again.  Cara is in cheerleading now with Heather as the coach.  So three nights a week practice until school starts, and then two nights with games on Saturday through Sept. and Oct.  Also, we just started a once a week half-hour swimming lesson on Mondays.  So we won't be going to dance classes this fall.  Maybe in January, she really loves dancing.
We have had Caitlyn over once to play, and they do great together.  Then one day she went over to Elinor's and we had Elinor over here this week.  We take Maddy to the beach with us, and yesterday we went with Maddy to Lake Ki right across from her house, and that was really nice.  then had Maddy come home with us to play.  Today we will have Maddy this morning and then go meet at Olive Garden with some ladies for lunch later on.  It is definately easier for me when Cara has someone to play with!  She found her old baby stroller in the garage, so they have been playing mommas and babies outside for two days.
This morning Tom is going to help me get 40 bales of hay over across the road at Jerry's.  he sold all the hay before he even got it baled, so I am lucky to get some at all!  Tom is so busy and has been working until 8-9 pm every night. He's tired and run down, but keeps going.  Just finished a two month remodel, and needs to stay home and get the bill done!  Last time he did that it took him five hours making out the bill.  He was overdrawn the other day, so I hope he will take tomorrow and get it done so he can get paid! 
Heather's Explorer has been acting up, so this whole week I have taken her to her van pool and then picked her up.  Plus she takes my car to cheer practice.  Her car is supposed to be done tonight.  It has given us more time together, so that has been nice.  Monday Heather had a dentist appointment in the afternoon and so there was alot of driving and shuttling going on.  We have had over three weeks of warm even hot days and no rain!  I can say that my house is warm, even the bathroom!  Takes alot of heat to get this house warm.  Supposed to cool off tomorrow and maybe have a thunderstorm in the afternoon. Hate to say it, but it would be nice to have some rain!  My garden attemp has not been very successful.  Put two zuchinni plants in a big black pot.  A tomato plant in another pot and two bell peppers in another.  Slugs eating the pepper plant.  Zuchinis are small and I think a rabbit is nibbling on them,  there are a few small tomatoes growing, but the plant really never took off.  so, between slugs, moles and rabbit, and the fact that Buckwheat has the yard to graze during the day, need to figure out another plan. 
My back went out yesterday, and still hurts this morning.  I wasn't even doing anything strenuous, just was bending over and reaching.  Has happened before.  usually when I am loading the firewood in the stove.  Well, better go and get ready to take Heather to her van pool.  Will take a shower after the hay hauling!  Forest fire in Cle Elum on the news this week.  We are getting the smoke haze over here, reminds me of being in Baker!

A Year goes by!

Well, I see it has been over a year since my last post.  Better check what I've done, so I don't repeat! Bear with me for a minute.  Ok, well what a year!  What have I been doing.............spent alot of time early in the year discussing Cara's seeming learning disability int he first grade.  My friend Gale who exercises in the pool with me is retired from the school district as a Special Ed administrator, so we had lots of talks during our pool time and sauna time.  Cara was not getting the "code" of reading and having problems with math and focusing in general.  Would not do her homework, just would "shut down" when faced with the pages of words.  We would go over the spelling words every week, and when the test came she would get one or two words correct for the most part.  Anyway, teachers started to realize(she had a team of two teachers who job shared) that Cara couldn't read the directions, or follow along with the learning.  Anyway, gets me frustrated just writing about it.  They started paperwork to put her in special ed, and it took the whole rest of the school year for the procedures.  So that basically meant that for the whole first grade year, she was a sad kid that felt "stupid" (her words).  With Gale's help, I was looking at websites and googling dyslexia in general.  After many searches and reading about learning disabilities with dyslexia, I was able to find someone who could test and also tutor that was in the next county north of us(Skagit).  We had Sommer Holt come to Heather's house at the end of April and test Cara for two hours.  Then a few weeks later we met with her and got the test results.  Her dyslexia was mild to moderate, but her learning disability was evident in the way her brain functions.  Sommer also mentioned that a thorough neuro-psych testing might be helpful because of the seizure disorder. (We got a referral from the neurologist-it took four month to get the appointment-more on that later).  So, Cara continued to struggle in first grade, and the last week of school was the final meeting with the Special Ed people, they did an IEP and she would start in Second Grade with help for reading, writing and math.  When school was out we started going to Sommer in Mt. Vernon twice a week for tutoring, beginning in July.  Sommer uses the Barton method, which is an Orton-Gillingham based program for dyslexia learning disability.  Skip to now,  Cara is in Second Grade, loves her teacher Mrs. Norquist, and goes to Mrs. Rancich for Reading in the morning and Math in the afternoon.  At some point she also meets with an occupational therapist for writing.  I still take her to be tutored twice a week.  I pick her up at 11am and get her back by 12:45.  She misses lunch and recess and a little bit of school, but that is the best we can do.  She eats lunch in the car, so my car is always a mess, but we make it work.  She has been making progress, and goes to school eagerly now.  I think alot of the problems I had in the mornings with her last year were due to her really not wanting to go to school, now that I look back on it.  We also had the neurologist allow us to reduce the amount of depacote she takes, and we have notice a difference in how Cara behaves, and she seems to be able to focus more.  After the neuro-psych testing in Seattle, they diagnosed her with ADHD, and brain function disorders consistent with the seizure disorder.  We still wonder if the meds don't cause alot of that!  So, this year with Cara has been easier, helping her learn in a different way.    Sommer is a godsend!  Well, I have to do my chores and get off to choir rehearsal, big concert tonight at the Nativity Festival!

Happy birthday to me!

Well, I'm 63 today. What the heck? Not possible. Had a peaceful morning, playing Christmas music on the Bose and also on the piano and guitar. Tom had a six am meeting at church, so it was just me and the dogs! Talked to my friend Pam for an hour on the phone, her birthday is in five days, so she is just behind me! Got really sleepy at church and came home and fell asleep on the couch. Tom went to choir practice and is sleeping now in his chair. I just put a cake in the oven, so making my own birthday cake. Maybe Heather and Cara will stop over later.
Now officially 3 weeks until Christmas, as my mother likes to remind me on my birthday. Cara and I put the tree up early, she was really cute putting the ornaments on.. It would be nice to have a live tree, maybe next year, but at least this one won't dry out with the woodstove going. Since this is my first Christmas in the house with decorations(last year decorations were in Oregon) it is always a challenge to see what works in a new place. Upstairs in the landing are all the boxes and still some things up there that don't quite have a place here. Don't want to overwhelm the house as I sometimes have been known to do. Seems I either do nothing, or Christmas explodes in my living spaces! Trying for a nice atmosphere without too much! Need a few more lights outside on the front porch, it would have been a good day today to do it, but just too tired to try. I love the willow nativity set on top of the piano, and my old plaster one on the end table. Put the Chrismas village on the other little table, and Cara sure had fun with that, rearranging the people.
This week the Nativity Festival at the Church, and I am working there on Friday night and singing in the choir on Sunday night. Should be a great event. Tom's mom coming on Saturday and staying until after Christmas. Hosting Gary, Steven, Michael Marie, Abbey and Chris for dinner on the 18th. Maybe a new tradition will start, since we did not go over there for Thanksgiving this year. Should be fun, a busy couple of weeks!

Fall is here.....

Well, at least for now, we are back to the wet weather! Cooler also, I love the woodstove, it has been going all week. This morning it is out, but the house feels ok, so I may let it go for awhile. Cara had dance class at five last night, and then acro at seven. We have been doing that for three weeks now. She has Miss Libby for both classes, which is not as good as having Miss Augga at least for acro, but Cara is doing great, and having fun in both classes. In between we go get a snack somewhere, and once in awhile have some errands. Adelynn has been coming with us, as she takes both classes also. Last week I went in to the Zumba class there at seven, and it was fun, so I also went back Friday, and again last night. So that's Zumba three times a week! It is a little hard on my knees at the end, but I don't jump so much when I get tired. Moving counts! I have been in the pool every morning at 9am except for the Friday that I left for the airport. And I added the yoga on Thursday morning after the pool. That really leaves me tired on Thursday, but I feel the benefit, and hope to add another yoga class during the week later when Aria starts up another class. For now, Cara is taking swim lessons Tue and Thursday at five o'clock. I spent that time in the hot tub! Anyway, it makes me feel like I am busy, and the days go by fast. Before I know it, Cara is getting off the bus!