Every native Utahn knows that local tomatoes don't "come on" until July. No one bothered to tell that to one of my tomato plants. It set its first fruit in mid-may, right after I planted the thing.
Marching Band season has begun. I thought I'd get a year off of marching band, but that is not the case. Although Nolan will still attend Oak Canyon Junior High for another year, since he's a FRESHMAN, he can participate in high school sponsored activities like marching band. Next school year, Nolan will take 7 classes at Oak Canyon, and marching band at THS. Nolan decided that he didn't want to march trumpet... meet one of the bass drummers...
Sometimes MegaDiamond offers company activities that are unappealing to me, but it's mandatory for an appearance to be made. Such an event occurred recently. As recognition for a whole lot of days without a safety incident report, MegaDiamond rented out Fat Cat's Bowling Alley for the employees and a guest. 2 hours of unlimited bowling, prize drawings, and Costa Vida was available for the employee and a guest. I got to be "the guest". So did Miles. I went along for the food, Miles was brought as the bowler. While the dinner was typical, average Costa Vida, Miles thought that bowling was the best. He bowled 110 frames that night. He even scored over 100 in one game (thanks to the bumpers and the ball launching thing). Since that night, Miles has been obsessed with bowling. He's been back to the alley once. He constantly bowls in the house using a pyramid of plastic cups and whatever ball he can find. Today he bowled over 3 pyramids- one out of Cheerios boxes, one out of Fiber One bars boxes, and one out of fruit snack boxes. Yesterday, Miles and I made a trip to DI. He found a treasure. He is now the proud owner of one inflatable lime green bowling pin that comes up to his chin. Lucky boy!
Sitting in a chair with a book sounds like heaven today. I've been running around like a mad woman for too many consecutive days. Yesterday was the worst; today is much calmer. In addition to all the regular things I do daily, today I only had/have marching band uniform fittings, swim lessons, concert band drop-off/pick-up, finding Nolan at some warehouse near the freeway, and a trumpet lesson to sit through. Doable! Yesterday left me wiped out though. Yesterday's additional activities went nearly non-stop from 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m... marching band uniform fittings, swim lessons, transportation for concert band, cooked dinner for a sick neighbor, made a double recipe of white rolls and a half recipes of wheat rolls, delivered the dinner, set up for RS night, went to RS night, then cleaned up the RS night. Actually, I did get an early evening break- I had everything "done" at 5:05 p.m. and had the next 25 minutes unscheduled. Add to the busyness the fact that I'm not sleeping well, today I am toast.
So much has happened over the past 3 weeks... details coming...
I always heard that the month of May with a high school senior was busy, but I never really believed it... until now. The last few days have been so busy that blogging has not been a priority. Catch up posts are coming... Sunday? Monday? Soon... Here's a preview list:
Yea! It's over. One of my least favorite days of the year. Why? Well, I think it's sad that we dedicate one day of the year to treat a person the way she ought to be treated every day. One day out of a year to be kind, helpful, appreciative, etc? Rather than "Mother's Day" perhaps we should have "Treat Mom Like Carp" Day so all the other days can be "Mother's Day". Okay, off my soapbox...
Just because I don't adore Mother's Day doesn't mean that I get ignored on Mother's Day. This year I got just what I asked for...
A couple of weeks ago, I got the dreaded phone call- it was time to redo Miles' IEP for the 2013-2014 school year. I hate this meeting. So far my experiences with these meetings have been less than positive. It's me, his teacher, the speech therapist, the occupational therapist, the adaptive PE teacher, and the principal sitting around a table. I get to listen while they tell me all of Miles' deficiencies (and hopefully some progress?). Thus far, the negatives have far outnumbered the positives. The child that is presented to me by the teacher and therapists is not the child that lives with me. Yes, he's withdrawn, quiet, anxiety riddled, but I've never believed that his deficiencies were as severe as the professionals believed. For example, last year, I learned that my child who learned to jump at 15 months was incapable of jumping. My child's language was essentially unintelligible (yes, there's a delay there, but the bigger problem was that he didn't feel connected to his teachers/therapists, so he refused to "perform for them". I dread the "updates". Today, I was hopeful, but not expecting much. I left the meeting floored. Miles has reached benchmark across the board. Each therapist commented how much progress he has made in the past few months. They commented how much they enjoy working with him. He actually doesn't qualify for services any more, but once admitted to early intervention, one stays in the program until kindergarten. Once more year! His goals for the next school year include writing his first and last name with correct letter formation, spacing, and sizing, improving his socialization skills, adding more adjectives and pronouns to his language usage, a better understanding of prepositions, and stepping forward with the left foot while throwing a ball overhand.
