Ramblings of a Working Wife and Mom: February 2009

Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Plunge

On Valentine's day I took part in the Polar Bear Plunge with a few co-workers. It was very cold! haha. Seeing all the teams and their costumes was fun, but the cold part wasn't. Plus we had a couple wardrobe malfunctions as well. lol Our team was "Zeus and the Icy Aphrodites" (I'm the purple one...togas certainly are not kind to the figure, I look like a fat purple grape!)

The sun was out, but it was around 30 degrees! Brrrrr.

The pic of us actually in the water didn't turn out, it was so blurry you couldn't even see what it was. But here we are getting ready to carry "Zeus" into the water.

After the plunge, Joe, the boys and I went to a local pizza/pub place and had a fun family meal together.

Then we stopped by Joe's work and he let the boys feed some of the fish in the tanks.

And that was how we spent Valentine's Day. Earlier that week Joe brought home crablegs, shrimp and champagne and chocolate for our early valentine's dinner :) Yummy.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

P-T Conference

Just thought I'd share about the parent-teacher conference we had with Brendan's teacher Tuesday night. I was worried, because this was the round of conferences where not everyone has to go, only the ones that the teacher feels it necessary. So, when we got the request for one I was nervous, and with the behavior problems he had in Kindergarten and 1st grade I thought it was more of the same once again this time in 2nd grade. But, when we got there, his teacher was very nice and positive, and had mostly good to say. She is a little concerned with his focus, says he loses his focus on in-class assignments and quizzes, causing him to not finish things in the time allowed, but that she doesn't feel it is a "behavior" issue. Then she went on to tell us how smart he is and how impressed she is with his reading and all the stories and things he writes. She said he is in the advanced reading group at the school, and that he not only reads the words well, but has very good comprehension of what he has read and can retell it. After saying a few more times how smart he is, she told us that she has recommended him for the gifted program. Wow! (Talk about a complete turn-around from past years' conferences where not only did we have to talk to his teacher about problems, but also the gym teacher, music teacher, and art teacher! lol) We won't really know for sure if he will be accepted into the gifted program until the end of the year when they do the testing and such, but it is neat to know that she recommended him for it! And then at the end of the conference, Adam, not to be shown up, felt the need to recite and spell his first, middle and last names for Brendan's teacher. lol She said "you're gonna be smart likeyour big brother, aren't you". So, I think he was happy to get a little attention too. lol

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Busy Weekend Recap

Whew, we had a busy weekend. Thursday night Brendan has his Cub Scout den meeting, then Friday night was the Blue and Gold Banquet for scouts. Saturday I worked for a couple hours and then we headed to Brendan's basketball game, followed by a surprise party for my grandma's 80th birthday! It was at my aunt's house, and was a nice get-together. We had dinner, drinks, played cards, and we did a little activity where each person had a slip of paper to read that was "When grandma was my age, the year was (insert year)" and then we read a few things that were going on in the world that year and what grandma was doing that year, and each ended with the cost of a gallon of gas for that year. It was neat.

Sunday I worked a few hours again, and then we had yet another Cub Scout activity. This time the boys made dinner for the parents, using the kitchen at a local church (which fulfilled some achievement requirements). Unfortunately, Adam had a little attitude that got him in trouble, followed by a major meltdown and we had to take him home for part of the time the boys were fixing the meal. But after calming Adam down and making him help Joe with the firewood, we brought him back and enjoyed the meal.