On 11/13, Nathan drew stick figures of mommy and daddy. He is getting much better at drawing, mostly cars, letters, etc...
On 11/21, Nathan and I went to the Desert Museum.
On 11/24, we took Nathan to see Santa at Foothills Mall. They had santa in front of a firehouse in honor of the Hot Shots who died earlier in the year.
On 11/26, Nathan had his Thanksgiving party at school.
For Thanksgiving, 11/28, we went to the Alvirs. Nathan loved playing with Hobbester their cat.
On 12/4, I went to Reid Park Zoo while Nathan was in school.
On 12/7, my parents arrived to spend a week with us for Nathan's birthday.
We took my dad to the Pima Air & Space Museum on 12/8. It was neat because they displayed many planes that look like the planes in the movie Disney Planes.
Grandma, Grandpa, Nathan and I went to see the movie Frozen at the movies on 12/10. Nathan was not enjoying it too much in the beginning. He kept waiting for the snowman to appear. He also got scared in some parts. But, he said it ended well, he liked it and he wants me to buy it when it comes out on DVD.
I took my parents to Butterfly Wonderland on 12/12. I was excited to see their Winter Wonderland display featuring white butterflies, but there were not as many as I had expected. They said they had some unforeseen circumstances so they are gradually increasing the white population. We got to eat at Portillos for lunch! Paul went to the doctor and had his blood tested. His A1C was 9.1 compared to 7.8 the previous visit. His doctor suggested insulin or seeing a pancreatic specialist. He said he did not like either option so he first wants to work on his diet and exercise and see if that makes a difference. It is hard with the holidays, but he has started doing the bike now. We hope to get an elliptical machine next year because we will get a $200 allowance for exercise equipment from Aetna. I am worried about him, though, so I hope that he can get his blood sugar under control.
The Alvirs invited us over on 12/14 to celebrate Christmas and Nathan's birthday. We gave Nathan his monster truck birthday cake and some of his gifts.
Nathan turned 4 on 12/15! We went to church and then he requested to go to Hot Rods for his birthday. We measured Nathan for his 4th birthday and he is almost 42" tall. I also asked him a series of questions that I intend to put in a scrapbook:
Favorite Color: Red
Favorite Toy: Cars
Favorite Food: Goldfish
Favorite thing to eat for breakfast: Oatmeal
Favorite thing to eat for lunch: PB&J Sandwiches, Cucumbers and Carrots
Favorite Snack: Scooby Doo or Lightning McQueen Fruit Snacks
Favorite Cereal: Honey Nut Cheerios
Favorite Fruit: Peaches and Apples
Favorite Drink: Chocolate Milk
Food you do not like: Lettuce
Favorite Movie: Disney Planes
Favorite thing to wear: Disney Cars and Disney Planes Shirts
Favorite Animal: Mountain Lion
Favorite Song: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Favorite Book: Disney Planes Wings Around the Globe (sound book)
Best Friend: Jade
Favorite Place to go: Children's Museum and Hot Rods Restaurant
Favorite Holiday: Easter
What do you like to take to bed with you at night: All of the toys I can grab!
What do you want to be when you grow up: Race Car Driver
Favorite thing to do at school: Playing with Toys
What is something you are good at: Naming Cars
Grandma and Grandpa left to go back to Chicago on 12/16.
Nathan had a rough day at school last Friday and this past Monday. He also had troubles at Sunday School on his birthday and they said that was unusual. Hopefully, now that his birthday is over and Grandma and Grandpa are gone he will start behaving better. He has also been doing his speech evaluation the last week or so. We will find out the results of that in January.
We have a few large expenses coming up, including new A/C/Furnaces, a new car and new furniture for Nathan's room not to mention other things like a new kitchen table. I am a little worried about our finances next year so I hope Paul gets a good bonus again and that we get a good tax return.
Christmas is almost here and I am not prepared at all. I have to wrap Nathan's presents. Our tree still does not have ornaments and all of our totes are sitting in our living room and family room. I wanted to buy a few more gifts, but I think I have run out of time. Still working on a few Christmas cards, too. I am just so behind this year. In a way it will be a relief when the holidays are over and things slow down a bit so I can catch up. Things have been crazy since we did all of that traveling in October.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
The holidays are here!
So Nathan decided that he wanted to go trick or treating this year. Last year he was too scared. So we took him around to a few houses and then he helped us hand out candy at home.
On November 1, I took Nathan to see the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile that was in town.
On November 2, I went to a photo safari at Reid Park Zoo. I have been disappointed with the last few I have been to because they just aren't as good as they used to be. Plus, we are seeing some of the same animals over and over again so it is getting a little boring. Not sure if I will do any more in the future. I went to Tucson Botanical Gardens to see the butterflies after the zoo. I am also disappointed with it so far this year. There just does not seem to be as many butterflies as there used to be in prior years. However, they have added dart frogs which is a nice addition. While I went to the zoo and the gardens, Paul and Nathan went to a car show, Cops and Rodders.
November 8th we saw an owl on the roof of our neighbor's house. I love seeing these animals in the wild. Just like I like to hear the coyotes howling when we open our windows at night this time of year.
November 9th was Tulla's 7th birthday! Paul and Nathan took her to PetsMart to get the spa treatment: nails trimmed, ears cleaned and teeth brushed. They also took Bella to Banfield to get her nails trimmed, too.
November 10th we went to Phoenix for the NASCAR race. Nathan wanted the Danica Patrick car so we bought him one of those. He wanted her to win that day. Kevin Harvick #29 won again. He had won the race we went to last year in Phoenix. Earlier this year, we were there to see Carl Edwards #99 win. This time he was winning, but he ran out of gas near the end of the race!
Yesterday, 11/12, I took Nathan to the movies. This is the second time he has been to the movie theatre. We went to see Planes the first time and he loved it. This time we went to see Free Birds and he did not like it. He kept telling me that he wanted to go home and that he was tired. I made him stay until the end, but I admit it was not the greatest movie. Planes was much better and more up his alley. I tried!
I found out that I won honorable mention in the Jones Photo red competition for my picture of a red cactus flower with a small butterfly in the middle.
On November 1, I took Nathan to see the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile that was in town.
On November 2, I went to a photo safari at Reid Park Zoo. I have been disappointed with the last few I have been to because they just aren't as good as they used to be. Plus, we are seeing some of the same animals over and over again so it is getting a little boring. Not sure if I will do any more in the future. I went to Tucson Botanical Gardens to see the butterflies after the zoo. I am also disappointed with it so far this year. There just does not seem to be as many butterflies as there used to be in prior years. However, they have added dart frogs which is a nice addition. While I went to the zoo and the gardens, Paul and Nathan went to a car show, Cops and Rodders.
November 8th we saw an owl on the roof of our neighbor's house. I love seeing these animals in the wild. Just like I like to hear the coyotes howling when we open our windows at night this time of year.
November 9th was Tulla's 7th birthday! Paul and Nathan took her to PetsMart to get the spa treatment: nails trimmed, ears cleaned and teeth brushed. They also took Bella to Banfield to get her nails trimmed, too.
November 10th we went to Phoenix for the NASCAR race. Nathan wanted the Danica Patrick car so we bought him one of those. He wanted her to win that day. Kevin Harvick #29 won again. He had won the race we went to last year in Phoenix. Earlier this year, we were there to see Carl Edwards #99 win. This time he was winning, but he ran out of gas near the end of the race!
Yesterday, 11/12, I took Nathan to the movies. This is the second time he has been to the movie theatre. We went to see Planes the first time and he loved it. This time we went to see Free Birds and he did not like it. He kept telling me that he wanted to go home and that he was tired. I made him stay until the end, but I admit it was not the greatest movie. Planes was much better and more up his alley. I tried!
I found out that I won honorable mention in the Jones Photo red competition for my picture of a red cactus flower with a small butterfly in the middle.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Out of Town in October
Nathan was good at school on 9/30.
We spent the month of October traveling.
Paul flew to Chicago on October 1st after we found out that his mom was in ICU. I went to the Botanical Gardens on 10/2 to see the opening of the Butterfly Magic. Paul came back 10/3 so that we could go to Albuquerque for the weekend. We had already planned and paid for the trip to see the Balloon Fiesta. The last day we were there we found that there was nothing more they could do for Paul's mom. She passed away the next morning, 10/7. We decided to drive to Chicago so that we could take some things back in the car from Pat's house.
On 10/9, we headed for Chicago. We stopped in Roswell, NM on our way. That night we stayed in Amarillo, TX.
10/10 we drove through Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and finally arrived in Illinois at like 2 in the morning on 10/11.
On 10/11, Nathan and I went to Morton Arboretum with Grandpa Fred. Not a lot of Fall colors to see, but it was still nice.
On 10/12, Paul, Nathan and I went to Kankakee State Park before he went to help at his mom's house again.
On 10/13, Nathan and I went to Stir Crazy with Grandma and Grandpa and my friend Debbie Madl joined us. Afterward, we took Nathan to Ty Warner Park in Westmont. Nathan and I stopped over by 159th and Pulaski to take pictures with the Sheriff from Cars before heading back to GG's.
On 10/16, we went to Brookfield Zoo. We practically had the place to ourselves which was great. I got to see the new snow leopard cub. Then we met the Carsons at Ledo's Pizza for dinner.
On 10/17, we started driving back toward Tucson. We stopped at the world's largest truck stop in Iowa. We drove through Nebraska and finally made it to Dodge City, KS after being in the car for like 15 hours. We stayed there for the night.
On 10/18, we spent the snowy morning in Dodge City and then drove to Manitou Springs, CO. We stayed there for the night.
On 10/19, we took the Cog Railway at Pike's Peak and then went to the visitor center at Garden of the gods before heading out of town. The views at that visitor center are amazing. We drove to Santa Fe, NM and stayed there for the night.
On 10/20, we toured the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe and saw the miraculous staircase. We shopped in the Plaza (where Paul bought me a nice pair of earrings as a late Sweetest Day gift) and ate lunch before heading back to Tucson.
Nathan was very well behaved during our trip to Chicago. I hate that he missed so many school days, but he got green cards during our trip!
Nathan was able to go to school on 10/21 and 10/23. He was good both days and was even green all day on the 23rd!
On 10/22, Nathan spelled his first word...all on his own. He was playing with his bath letters and then showed me that he had speed Read. I was very impressed. He had the letters backwards (daer), but he said it correctly.
As we were getting ready to leave for Sedona on 10/24, I got in Paul's car (2002 Grand Am) to take the dogs to Creature Comforts. His clock was reading 12:00. We restarted it a couple of times that morning and the same thing happened, but it was starting just fine. We got the dogs dropped off and headed to Sedona in our other car (2007 Grand Prix). We arrived in Sedona and ate at the Open Range for lunch. We got to our lodge, Slide Rock Lodge, and explored a bit around there. We were disappointed with the lodge itself, especially considering how much we paid to stay there. We had a fireplace, but there was no bath tub and not even a clock. We walked a little bit by the creek before going to dinner that night.
The next morning we ate at the Coffee Pot Restaurant and I took a couple pictures of Coffee Pot Rock. Then we went hiking at Slide Rock Park. We had never been to Slide Rock Park before and it was just beautiful. After Slide Rock Park we started driving north through Oak Creek Canyon and stopped to hike at Call of the Canyon West Fork. We continued driving north through Oak Creek Canyon and decided to go up to Flagstaff for dinner. We ate at Olive Garden.
On 10/26, We went to hike at Cathedral Rock. We explored an area that we had not seen before and it had even better views of Cathedral Rock. Then Paul was nice enough to walk through the water to get more pictures for me. After hiking at Cathedral Rock we went hiking at Boynton Canyon Trail. That is another area we had never explored before. We climbed to the top of the vista and had great views from there. After that hike, Paul and Nathan napped in the car while I hiked by Bell Rock. A lot of hiking for me that day! The hike just to get close to Bell Rock took forever. I got pretty close and that is where you start hiking up Bell Rock. I decided not to do that and turn around since it took me like an hour just to get that far. That evening we went shopping at Tlaquepaque Marketplace. We went to a Christmas store and a toy store. Then we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant there.
We started heading home on 10/27 stopping in Winslow, AZ. We stood on the corner in Winslow, AZ! We drove through Salt River Canyon and ate dinner at Nonna Maria's in Oracle before going home. We tried starting up the Grand Am that evening and we had trouble getting it started.
On 10/28 we ended up buying a new alternator for the Grand Am. We think that solved our problem (we had to replace like 3 batteries in the last year and then the clock kept resetting itself over the weekend). Nathan started the day with a red card at school, but he was able to turn it back to green!
Nathan got a green card at school on 10/30!
Today is Halloween. Nathan is going to be the #18 M&M race car driver Kyle Busch!
We spent the month of October traveling.
Paul flew to Chicago on October 1st after we found out that his mom was in ICU. I went to the Botanical Gardens on 10/2 to see the opening of the Butterfly Magic. Paul came back 10/3 so that we could go to Albuquerque for the weekend. We had already planned and paid for the trip to see the Balloon Fiesta. The last day we were there we found that there was nothing more they could do for Paul's mom. She passed away the next morning, 10/7. We decided to drive to Chicago so that we could take some things back in the car from Pat's house.
On 10/9, we headed for Chicago. We stopped in Roswell, NM on our way. That night we stayed in Amarillo, TX.
10/10 we drove through Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and finally arrived in Illinois at like 2 in the morning on 10/11.
On 10/11, Nathan and I went to Morton Arboretum with Grandpa Fred. Not a lot of Fall colors to see, but it was still nice.
On 10/12, Paul, Nathan and I went to Kankakee State Park before he went to help at his mom's house again.
On 10/13, Nathan and I went to Stir Crazy with Grandma and Grandpa and my friend Debbie Madl joined us. Afterward, we took Nathan to Ty Warner Park in Westmont. Nathan and I stopped over by 159th and Pulaski to take pictures with the Sheriff from Cars before heading back to GG's.
On 10/16, we went to Brookfield Zoo. We practically had the place to ourselves which was great. I got to see the new snow leopard cub. Then we met the Carsons at Ledo's Pizza for dinner.
On 10/17, we started driving back toward Tucson. We stopped at the world's largest truck stop in Iowa. We drove through Nebraska and finally made it to Dodge City, KS after being in the car for like 15 hours. We stayed there for the night.
On 10/18, we spent the snowy morning in Dodge City and then drove to Manitou Springs, CO. We stayed there for the night.
On 10/19, we took the Cog Railway at Pike's Peak and then went to the visitor center at Garden of the gods before heading out of town. The views at that visitor center are amazing. We drove to Santa Fe, NM and stayed there for the night.
On 10/20, we toured the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe and saw the miraculous staircase. We shopped in the Plaza (where Paul bought me a nice pair of earrings as a late Sweetest Day gift) and ate lunch before heading back to Tucson.
Nathan was very well behaved during our trip to Chicago. I hate that he missed so many school days, but he got green cards during our trip!
Nathan was able to go to school on 10/21 and 10/23. He was good both days and was even green all day on the 23rd!
On 10/22, Nathan spelled his first word...all on his own. He was playing with his bath letters and then showed me that he had speed Read. I was very impressed. He had the letters backwards (daer), but he said it correctly.
As we were getting ready to leave for Sedona on 10/24, I got in Paul's car (2002 Grand Am) to take the dogs to Creature Comforts. His clock was reading 12:00. We restarted it a couple of times that morning and the same thing happened, but it was starting just fine. We got the dogs dropped off and headed to Sedona in our other car (2007 Grand Prix). We arrived in Sedona and ate at the Open Range for lunch. We got to our lodge, Slide Rock Lodge, and explored a bit around there. We were disappointed with the lodge itself, especially considering how much we paid to stay there. We had a fireplace, but there was no bath tub and not even a clock. We walked a little bit by the creek before going to dinner that night.
The next morning we ate at the Coffee Pot Restaurant and I took a couple pictures of Coffee Pot Rock. Then we went hiking at Slide Rock Park. We had never been to Slide Rock Park before and it was just beautiful. After Slide Rock Park we started driving north through Oak Creek Canyon and stopped to hike at Call of the Canyon West Fork. We continued driving north through Oak Creek Canyon and decided to go up to Flagstaff for dinner. We ate at Olive Garden.
On 10/26, We went to hike at Cathedral Rock. We explored an area that we had not seen before and it had even better views of Cathedral Rock. Then Paul was nice enough to walk through the water to get more pictures for me. After hiking at Cathedral Rock we went hiking at Boynton Canyon Trail. That is another area we had never explored before. We climbed to the top of the vista and had great views from there. After that hike, Paul and Nathan napped in the car while I hiked by Bell Rock. A lot of hiking for me that day! The hike just to get close to Bell Rock took forever. I got pretty close and that is where you start hiking up Bell Rock. I decided not to do that and turn around since it took me like an hour just to get that far. That evening we went shopping at Tlaquepaque Marketplace. We went to a Christmas store and a toy store. Then we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant there.
We started heading home on 10/27 stopping in Winslow, AZ. We stood on the corner in Winslow, AZ! We drove through Salt River Canyon and ate dinner at Nonna Maria's in Oracle before going home. We tried starting up the Grand Am that evening and we had trouble getting it started.
On 10/28 we ended up buying a new alternator for the Grand Am. We think that solved our problem (we had to replace like 3 batteries in the last year and then the clock kept resetting itself over the weekend). Nathan started the day with a red card at school, but he was able to turn it back to green!
Nathan got a green card at school on 10/30!
Today is Halloween. Nathan is going to be the #18 M&M race car driver Kyle Busch!
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Almost October already!
I can not believe it has been almost a month already since I have updated my blog. Time goes by too fast.
9/1: Nathan announced that he likes every color except blue. He likes light blue, though. His favorite color is red. He wants a red mustang.
9/2: Critter Talk shared a picture I took of an elephant at Reid Park Zoo on their Facebook page. Nathan also went to work with daddy. Nothing like putting him to work on Labor Day!
9/3: Reid Park Zoo chose my lemur picture as their fan of the week photo.
9/4: Nathan says he wants a mustang, a corvette, a beetle and a trans am when he gets older. Unfortunately, he got a red card at school today, too.
9/5: Nathan and I went to Walmart. The checkout lady called me ma'am and then said it must be strange to have someone twice my age call me ma'am. I asked her how old she thought I was. She said in my twenties. She was surprised when I told her I was 38.
9/6: Nathan got a green card!
9/7: We went to Patagonia Lake. Nathan had fun playing in the sand and the water. I was hoping to see the blue footed booby that has been spotted there, but no such luck.
9/9: Nathan has been thanking me a lot lately, even for things like buying paper towels. He is also telling me that I am a good girl. Unfortunately, he was a bad boy at school and got a red card.
9/11: I went to Reid Park Zoo. When I picked Nathan up from school he got another red card. He was so bad that she said she did not even write up a sheet for him today. I decided to talk to the office about it. I did not expect the conversation to go the way it did. They contradicted everything I said. They praised the teacher and made it seem like Nathan was to blame for everything....that we need to work on his attention span. I got no sympathy whatsoever and they did not seem appreciative of the fact that I was approaching them first about his behavior before they had to talk to me. I talked about the red card/green card system and they defended it. I said that there may be too many kids in the class (maxed out at 13 most days...the ratio in IL is 10:1, but in AZ it is 13:1) and they disagreed saying the teacher keeps the class very organized and makes sure all kids get attention. I talked about how most of the class is girls. I talked about how he is one of the oldest kids in the class and he already knows things like his shapes and colors so maybe he is getting bored. I left there that day not feeling very good about the school.
9/12: I took Nathan to the Childrens Museum. He was so well behaved. He was great with the other kids and shared toys nicely, even with younger kids who were not very good at sharing. It was hard to believe that this is the same kid who has trouble getting along with his classmates and keeps getting trouble at school.
9/13: Nathan got a green card!
9/14: I saw a hot air balloon behind our house so I took a picture of it and shared it on KVOA channel 4's Facebook page. They aired it on the news that night! That day Paul took Nathan to Sabino Canyon and to a U of A football game while I stayed home and cleaned.
9/15: We went up to Mt Lemmon. We were surprised at how crowded it was up there. There was also some kind of porsche club up there because there were porsches everywhere. We wanted to eat at the Cookie Cabin, but there were too many people so we ate at Sawmill Run.
9/17: I took Nathan to the Desert Museum. We got to see the new young fox and we saw some late torch cacti blooms. The best part was seeing a coati right up against the viewing window.
9/18: Nathan got another red card at school. He was making pretend guns and shooting them. He scared the other kids. I think he knows about guns because he has seen military planes with guns and things like that. All boys pretend to play with guns at some point. We told him not to do it at school, though.
9/19: Nathan and I went to Breakfast with the Bears to meet the new grizzly bears at Reid Park Zoo. They are two sibling cubs, a girl and a boy. Ronan, the boy, really liked Nathan. He kept giving Nathan high fives at the glass. One of the news channels was there reporting on the bears and took some film footage of it. They posted a news link on Facebook. We were also lucky to get a good picture of Nathan with the female lion who was up by the window. She was already there when we walked by so I had Nathan go up to the glass to get a picture of them. I posted the picture on the zoo's Facebook page. The zoo then shared it on their Facebook page and I got a lot of comments and likes.
9/20: Paul's birthday. He turned 43 today! I ended up talking to Nathan's teacher after I dropped Nathan off. We talked for about 45 minutes. I felt much better after talking to her. I brought up my concerns. She listened and we said that we would work together to improve Nathan's behavior at school. All of the kids were playing nicely while I was there, including Nathan. Still, he ended the day with a red card.
9/21: Paul took Nathan back to Patagonia Lake. I stayed home because I just was not feeling up to it.
9/22: Nathan started writing his letters and numbers all on his own! The week prior I had bought a couple of dry erase books and he and I worked on our letters and numbers. He was not doing well at writing them. He did a little better with me holding his hand and helping him. I quickly decided to just go over the letters and numbers and not worry about writing them just yet. Then he surprised me today and started writing them all on his own. They give examples of each letter and number so he was looking at the examples and copying them.
9/23: Nathan got a green card! In fact, he got no red cards at all that day!
9/25: After being so good on Monday, he ended with a red card today. One of the women in the office told him that if he was good on Friday she would give him a toy car.
9/24-9/25: Paul had to go to Downers Grove, IL for work. I was not too happy about him traveling for work again. That means I am left here to take care of Nathan all by myself, without the help of family.
9/26: I took Nathan back to the Desert Museum. Nathan got to see Cruz, the young mountain lion. He is usually hiding whenever I visit, but today we got to see him. He was hiding in the morning, but we decided to go see him one more time before we left for the day. I am glad we did because he was out! He was not walking around, but he was at least laying down without anything blocking our view.
9/27: I went to the zoo to try to get pictures of the new bears. I was surprised to see so many people at the zoo and I still had trouble getting decent pictures. My day got better, though, because Nathan got a green card! She said he was so good! He ran to the office to get his new car!
9/28: We got a call early in the morning that Donnie was taking Pat to the hospital. She was having trouble with her bowels. That night Paul and I had a date night at Olive Garden while Bob and Ann Alvir watched Nathan. He was good, but I think he exhausted Ann! She took him for a ride in their golf cart, made dinner for him and they went for a walk. He also loves their cat, Hobster, and she seems to like him, too.
9/29: Pat is still in the hospital. She listed her first contact as someone outside the family. She also has not been honest with the family about her health and she is not mentally with it. She will probably be at the hospital for at least a couple of more days while they do more tests, including a colonoscopy and testing for diabetes (when the doctor asked there if there was a history of diabetes in the family she said no, but Lisa had to correct her and tell the doctor that Paul has diabetes). She is also having major back problems and they were considering back surgery for her, but now we are not even sure if she can go through it. She may not be able to handle the surgery and the surgery could potentially leave her immobilized. It is probably time for her to move in with a family member. She has not wanted to burden anyone, but maybe now she will realize that she needs help.
9/1: Nathan announced that he likes every color except blue. He likes light blue, though. His favorite color is red. He wants a red mustang.
9/2: Critter Talk shared a picture I took of an elephant at Reid Park Zoo on their Facebook page. Nathan also went to work with daddy. Nothing like putting him to work on Labor Day!
9/3: Reid Park Zoo chose my lemur picture as their fan of the week photo.
9/4: Nathan says he wants a mustang, a corvette, a beetle and a trans am when he gets older. Unfortunately, he got a red card at school today, too.
9/5: Nathan and I went to Walmart. The checkout lady called me ma'am and then said it must be strange to have someone twice my age call me ma'am. I asked her how old she thought I was. She said in my twenties. She was surprised when I told her I was 38.
9/6: Nathan got a green card!
9/7: We went to Patagonia Lake. Nathan had fun playing in the sand and the water. I was hoping to see the blue footed booby that has been spotted there, but no such luck.
9/9: Nathan has been thanking me a lot lately, even for things like buying paper towels. He is also telling me that I am a good girl. Unfortunately, he was a bad boy at school and got a red card.
9/11: I went to Reid Park Zoo. When I picked Nathan up from school he got another red card. He was so bad that she said she did not even write up a sheet for him today. I decided to talk to the office about it. I did not expect the conversation to go the way it did. They contradicted everything I said. They praised the teacher and made it seem like Nathan was to blame for everything....that we need to work on his attention span. I got no sympathy whatsoever and they did not seem appreciative of the fact that I was approaching them first about his behavior before they had to talk to me. I talked about the red card/green card system and they defended it. I said that there may be too many kids in the class (maxed out at 13 most days...the ratio in IL is 10:1, but in AZ it is 13:1) and they disagreed saying the teacher keeps the class very organized and makes sure all kids get attention. I talked about how most of the class is girls. I talked about how he is one of the oldest kids in the class and he already knows things like his shapes and colors so maybe he is getting bored. I left there that day not feeling very good about the school.
9/12: I took Nathan to the Childrens Museum. He was so well behaved. He was great with the other kids and shared toys nicely, even with younger kids who were not very good at sharing. It was hard to believe that this is the same kid who has trouble getting along with his classmates and keeps getting trouble at school.
9/13: Nathan got a green card!
9/14: I saw a hot air balloon behind our house so I took a picture of it and shared it on KVOA channel 4's Facebook page. They aired it on the news that night! That day Paul took Nathan to Sabino Canyon and to a U of A football game while I stayed home and cleaned.
9/15: We went up to Mt Lemmon. We were surprised at how crowded it was up there. There was also some kind of porsche club up there because there were porsches everywhere. We wanted to eat at the Cookie Cabin, but there were too many people so we ate at Sawmill Run.
9/17: I took Nathan to the Desert Museum. We got to see the new young fox and we saw some late torch cacti blooms. The best part was seeing a coati right up against the viewing window.
9/18: Nathan got another red card at school. He was making pretend guns and shooting them. He scared the other kids. I think he knows about guns because he has seen military planes with guns and things like that. All boys pretend to play with guns at some point. We told him not to do it at school, though.
9/19: Nathan and I went to Breakfast with the Bears to meet the new grizzly bears at Reid Park Zoo. They are two sibling cubs, a girl and a boy. Ronan, the boy, really liked Nathan. He kept giving Nathan high fives at the glass. One of the news channels was there reporting on the bears and took some film footage of it. They posted a news link on Facebook. We were also lucky to get a good picture of Nathan with the female lion who was up by the window. She was already there when we walked by so I had Nathan go up to the glass to get a picture of them. I posted the picture on the zoo's Facebook page. The zoo then shared it on their Facebook page and I got a lot of comments and likes.
9/20: Paul's birthday. He turned 43 today! I ended up talking to Nathan's teacher after I dropped Nathan off. We talked for about 45 minutes. I felt much better after talking to her. I brought up my concerns. She listened and we said that we would work together to improve Nathan's behavior at school. All of the kids were playing nicely while I was there, including Nathan. Still, he ended the day with a red card.
9/21: Paul took Nathan back to Patagonia Lake. I stayed home because I just was not feeling up to it.
9/22: Nathan started writing his letters and numbers all on his own! The week prior I had bought a couple of dry erase books and he and I worked on our letters and numbers. He was not doing well at writing them. He did a little better with me holding his hand and helping him. I quickly decided to just go over the letters and numbers and not worry about writing them just yet. Then he surprised me today and started writing them all on his own. They give examples of each letter and number so he was looking at the examples and copying them.
9/23: Nathan got a green card! In fact, he got no red cards at all that day!
9/25: After being so good on Monday, he ended with a red card today. One of the women in the office told him that if he was good on Friday she would give him a toy car.
9/24-9/25: Paul had to go to Downers Grove, IL for work. I was not too happy about him traveling for work again. That means I am left here to take care of Nathan all by myself, without the help of family.
9/26: I took Nathan back to the Desert Museum. Nathan got to see Cruz, the young mountain lion. He is usually hiding whenever I visit, but today we got to see him. He was hiding in the morning, but we decided to go see him one more time before we left for the day. I am glad we did because he was out! He was not walking around, but he was at least laying down without anything blocking our view.
9/27: I went to the zoo to try to get pictures of the new bears. I was surprised to see so many people at the zoo and I still had trouble getting decent pictures. My day got better, though, because Nathan got a green card! She said he was so good! He ran to the office to get his new car!
9/28: We got a call early in the morning that Donnie was taking Pat to the hospital. She was having trouble with her bowels. That night Paul and I had a date night at Olive Garden while Bob and Ann Alvir watched Nathan. He was good, but I think he exhausted Ann! She took him for a ride in their golf cart, made dinner for him and they went for a walk. He also loves their cat, Hobster, and she seems to like him, too.
9/29: Pat is still in the hospital. She listed her first contact as someone outside the family. She also has not been honest with the family about her health and she is not mentally with it. She will probably be at the hospital for at least a couple of more days while they do more tests, including a colonoscopy and testing for diabetes (when the doctor asked there if there was a history of diabetes in the family she said no, but Lisa had to correct her and tell the doctor that Paul has diabetes). She is also having major back problems and they were considering back surgery for her, but now we are not even sure if she can go through it. She may not be able to handle the surgery and the surgery could potentially leave her immobilized. It is probably time for her to move in with a family member. She has not wanted to burden anyone, but maybe now she will realize that she needs help.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Happy September!
8/16/13: Nathan ended up getting another red card.
8/17: We went to peach mania at Apple Annie's in Willcox. We had never been to their peach mania before. We stared with peach pancakes. We picked peaches, apples and pear and then we bought some veggies that were pre-picked. Their homemade peach ice cream was very good, especially since it was hotter than hot that day. They were selling peach fudge which I tried, but resisted the urge to buy! I did buy the peach salsa and that was delicious....ready for some more.
8/19: Another red card
8/21: Yet another red card. I went to the Reid Park Zoo that day for their lemur debut. The zoo has a new female and a new male lemur that they hope to breed.
8/23: Another red card. We left for San Diego right after Nathan got out of school. About a 6 or so hour drive. We stayed at the Best Western in Oceanside.
8/24: We went to San Diego Zoo. Daddy and Nathan went their own way so I could focus on taking pictures and we met up for lunch. Got to see the new koala exhibit. The baby panda was way up in a tree where we could barely see him so that was disappointing.
8/25: We went to Balboa park. We went to the Air & Space Museum which was okay, but nothing compared to the one here in Tucson. We went to the auto museum and the model railroad museum. I also walked around and took pictures of the flowers. I really liked the water lilies. That night we ate at Ruby's on Oceanside Pier. We saw some dolphins swimming and we got to see the sun set.
8/26: We went to Childrens Pool to see the seals. Nathan played in the sand with his toys. Seeing the seals in a natural environment was awesome. Later that day we went on a San Diego Harbor Cruise. We saw more seals on the cruise. After that we went over to Coronado and let Nathan play in the sand. Then we ate dinner there.
8/27: We went by the lighthouse in Oceanside before leaving town. We saw more seals! Then we toured the USS Midway in San Diego to conclude our trip. Got home late that night.
8/28: Even though Nathan missed school on Monday, 8/26, he got a green card on Wednesday! I was so excited! I thought it was pretty impressive considering he did not get a full night's sleep either, but he knew he would get some of his new toys from our vacation if he was good at school.
8/30: Back to the red card. He pushed a kid in the closet, hit a kid in the face with a book and would not participate in another group activity. I really do not understand why he is being mean to the other kids. We did not have that problem last year. I think there are too many kids in this class and he is not getting enough individual attention or positive reinforcement. The green card/red card system just does not seem to working for him and I overheard another parent talking to the teacher that day with the same concerns since his son gets a lot of red cards, too. Most of my friends, including those who are teachers, think that they are too young at that age for such a system. I hope the year gets better.
8/31: We used our last Groupon and went to the water park. We were there for 3 hours! That night I went to the last Saturday Summer Evening at the Desert Museum. It was very crowded. I got there later than I had hoped so I did not get to take many pictures before going to their two photo workshops, one of photo tips to make your photos stand out and the other on night photography.
So it is Labor Day weekend and tomorrow Nathan has no school and Paul will be home. I don't think we have anything planned so it may just be a day at home.
8/17: We went to peach mania at Apple Annie's in Willcox. We had never been to their peach mania before. We stared with peach pancakes. We picked peaches, apples and pear and then we bought some veggies that were pre-picked. Their homemade peach ice cream was very good, especially since it was hotter than hot that day. They were selling peach fudge which I tried, but resisted the urge to buy! I did buy the peach salsa and that was delicious....ready for some more.
8/19: Another red card
8/21: Yet another red card. I went to the Reid Park Zoo that day for their lemur debut. The zoo has a new female and a new male lemur that they hope to breed.
8/23: Another red card. We left for San Diego right after Nathan got out of school. About a 6 or so hour drive. We stayed at the Best Western in Oceanside.
8/24: We went to San Diego Zoo. Daddy and Nathan went their own way so I could focus on taking pictures and we met up for lunch. Got to see the new koala exhibit. The baby panda was way up in a tree where we could barely see him so that was disappointing.
8/25: We went to Balboa park. We went to the Air & Space Museum which was okay, but nothing compared to the one here in Tucson. We went to the auto museum and the model railroad museum. I also walked around and took pictures of the flowers. I really liked the water lilies. That night we ate at Ruby's on Oceanside Pier. We saw some dolphins swimming and we got to see the sun set.
8/26: We went to Childrens Pool to see the seals. Nathan played in the sand with his toys. Seeing the seals in a natural environment was awesome. Later that day we went on a San Diego Harbor Cruise. We saw more seals on the cruise. After that we went over to Coronado and let Nathan play in the sand. Then we ate dinner there.
8/27: We went by the lighthouse in Oceanside before leaving town. We saw more seals! Then we toured the USS Midway in San Diego to conclude our trip. Got home late that night.
8/28: Even though Nathan missed school on Monday, 8/26, he got a green card on Wednesday! I was so excited! I thought it was pretty impressive considering he did not get a full night's sleep either, but he knew he would get some of his new toys from our vacation if he was good at school.
8/30: Back to the red card. He pushed a kid in the closet, hit a kid in the face with a book and would not participate in another group activity. I really do not understand why he is being mean to the other kids. We did not have that problem last year. I think there are too many kids in this class and he is not getting enough individual attention or positive reinforcement. The green card/red card system just does not seem to working for him and I overheard another parent talking to the teacher that day with the same concerns since his son gets a lot of red cards, too. Most of my friends, including those who are teachers, think that they are too young at that age for such a system. I hope the year gets better.
8/31: We used our last Groupon and went to the water park. We were there for 3 hours! That night I went to the last Saturday Summer Evening at the Desert Museum. It was very crowded. I got there later than I had hoped so I did not get to take many pictures before going to their two photo workshops, one of photo tips to make your photos stand out and the other on night photography.
So it is Labor Day weekend and tomorrow Nathan has no school and Paul will be home. I don't think we have anything planned so it may just be a day at home.
Friday, August 16, 2013
It's Friday!
Nathan ended up getting another red card on 8/7/13. However, he ended the week with a green card!
For being good at school on Friday, we told Nathan that we would take him to the water park on Saturday. Unfortunately, as I was getting ready to go, I fainted. I hit my nose and head. My glasses got scratched up on the frames, too. Paul let Nathan play in his little pool instead.
On Monday, 8/12, Nathan had another rough day at school. He ended the day with a red card. I found out that it is because he and another boy would not pick up their toys. We have the same problem at home. I got so tired of yelling at him about it and taking them away so now I have found that by helping him he will pick some of them up.
On Tuesday, 8/13, I took Nathan to the movies for the first time. We went to see Disney Planes. He loved the movie Cars so much so I was pretty sure he would like Planes, too. I was nervous because I was not sure he would sit still for that long. He did great! We did not have to pay for anything because I had gift cards and we even got popcorn. There were like a million previews so both of us were getting impatient with them. There are a couple of good movies coming out soon, though. The movie itself was kind of loud, but Nathan did well. He sat in his seat the whole time and seemed to enjoy the movie. I was so pleased with his behavior so I bought him Planes shoes and a Planes toy that day. We also went over to Pappoules and had lunch together. A nice mommy son day!
On Wednesday, 8/14, Nathan had a better day at school. I think he had a couple of issues in the morning so he may have got a red card, but he ended the day with a green card! I was surprised when I picked him up, though, because his teacher said we needed to work on his colors and shapes. I said he knows his colors and shapes pretty well. She said he would not point them out to her when she asked him to do so. So we did it really quick before we left and he was able to point them all out correctly to her. That boy needs to show off his smarts to his teacher more!
That evening Paul got home a little early and said that he needed to go to urgent care because he thought he had an ear infection. We went over to CVS minute clinic just before 6, but they were not taking any more patients for the day. Then we went over to Northwest Urgent Care. We were there until after 8! They flushed out his one ear that had a lot of buildup and then gave him a prescription for the infection. By the time we got the prescription and got home it was like 9:30...way past Nathan's bed time! They also tested Paul's blood at urgent care since they said he was a diabetic. It was like 165. I was surprised it was so high given we had not eaten dinner yet. I think it is because he had a lot of bread at lunch since he took Nathan's leftover french dip sandwich from dinner the night before. I was in the process of making strawberry spinach salad for dinner that night, but we did not get a chance to eat it so we ate at Sonic while we were waiting for Paul's prescription to be ready. He ended up taking the salad to lunch the next day.
Thursday, 8/15, Nathan and I stayed home. I thought he could use the rest since he got to bed so late the night before. He still got up at his regular time and his nap that day was a couple of hours which is about normal. Thus, I think he still needs more sleep!
So now it is finally Friday. I hope that Nathan has another good day at school. Mommy has a busy day of cleaning.
For being good at school on Friday, we told Nathan that we would take him to the water park on Saturday. Unfortunately, as I was getting ready to go, I fainted. I hit my nose and head. My glasses got scratched up on the frames, too. Paul let Nathan play in his little pool instead.
On Monday, 8/12, Nathan had another rough day at school. He ended the day with a red card. I found out that it is because he and another boy would not pick up their toys. We have the same problem at home. I got so tired of yelling at him about it and taking them away so now I have found that by helping him he will pick some of them up.
On Tuesday, 8/13, I took Nathan to the movies for the first time. We went to see Disney Planes. He loved the movie Cars so much so I was pretty sure he would like Planes, too. I was nervous because I was not sure he would sit still for that long. He did great! We did not have to pay for anything because I had gift cards and we even got popcorn. There were like a million previews so both of us were getting impatient with them. There are a couple of good movies coming out soon, though. The movie itself was kind of loud, but Nathan did well. He sat in his seat the whole time and seemed to enjoy the movie. I was so pleased with his behavior so I bought him Planes shoes and a Planes toy that day. We also went over to Pappoules and had lunch together. A nice mommy son day!
On Wednesday, 8/14, Nathan had a better day at school. I think he had a couple of issues in the morning so he may have got a red card, but he ended the day with a green card! I was surprised when I picked him up, though, because his teacher said we needed to work on his colors and shapes. I said he knows his colors and shapes pretty well. She said he would not point them out to her when she asked him to do so. So we did it really quick before we left and he was able to point them all out correctly to her. That boy needs to show off his smarts to his teacher more!
That evening Paul got home a little early and said that he needed to go to urgent care because he thought he had an ear infection. We went over to CVS minute clinic just before 6, but they were not taking any more patients for the day. Then we went over to Northwest Urgent Care. We were there until after 8! They flushed out his one ear that had a lot of buildup and then gave him a prescription for the infection. By the time we got the prescription and got home it was like 9:30...way past Nathan's bed time! They also tested Paul's blood at urgent care since they said he was a diabetic. It was like 165. I was surprised it was so high given we had not eaten dinner yet. I think it is because he had a lot of bread at lunch since he took Nathan's leftover french dip sandwich from dinner the night before. I was in the process of making strawberry spinach salad for dinner that night, but we did not get a chance to eat it so we ate at Sonic while we were waiting for Paul's prescription to be ready. He ended up taking the salad to lunch the next day.
Thursday, 8/15, Nathan and I stayed home. I thought he could use the rest since he got to bed so late the night before. He still got up at his regular time and his nap that day was a couple of hours which is about normal. Thus, I think he still needs more sleep!
So now it is finally Friday. I hope that Nathan has another good day at school. Mommy has a busy day of cleaning.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Nathan is in his new class now
On 7/3/13 we took Bella and Tulla to the vet for the 6 month appointment. There was some kind of mix up, though, because the wrong vet gave them their exams. We are supposed to see Dr Wilson, but for some reason Dr Tucker checked them out. I really like Dr Wilson, but I do not care for Dr Tucker that much. Bella lost about 6 lbs and is only about 3 lbs from her goal. The challenging part is that we can not really take her for walks because she may attack other dogs. The vet suggested swimming, but that is not something we can do all of the time, especially during the year when the water is not warm enough. Tulla also lost weight and is at her ideal weight now. The vet made a big deal about Tull'a leg and said that she has very limited movement with it. Obviously! She was hit by a car and broke it. We think she gets around pretty good actually. She runs up and down the stairs. Sometimes she limps a little, but usually only if she has been laying down for awhile. The vet gave me the OK to take her for walks (I was concerned because I did not want to overdo her leg) so I think the exercise will do her some good. Of course they suggested a different (expensive) food, doing physical therapy for her, talking to a surgeon and possibly amputation. I think all of this is premature and the expense related to all of this is just not warranted at this time. I want to try the walking and see how that goes, but it will be much easier when the weather cools down. The other issue is that Tulla keeps itching a lot. They said it could be a food allergy (one more reason to switch to their expensive food), a seasonal thing or something like that. They said to try Benadryl. I still need to buy some.
Nathan started school on 8/5. Unfortunately, he did not have a very good first day. They have a red card green card system. A red card means they misbehaved. He got a red card then got his green card back and then got another red card. He was the only kid in class to get a red card that day. He was also one of the only boys in the class that day. I think there may have been one other boy, but there were a lot of girls. I am not sure if that is affecting his behavior. Hopefully, it was just because it was his first day and everything was new. Today is his second day. There are supposed to be 13 kids there today! I like it when the class is smaller so I hope it goes well with that many kids. There are supposed to be a few more boys there today, but still a lot of girls.
Yesterday I took Nathan to the Childrens Museum. Our dentist gave us a card for free admission so we were able to use that. Nathan had fun. Then we went out to lunch with daddy.
Nathan started school on 8/5. Unfortunately, he did not have a very good first day. They have a red card green card system. A red card means they misbehaved. He got a red card then got his green card back and then got another red card. He was the only kid in class to get a red card that day. He was also one of the only boys in the class that day. I think there may have been one other boy, but there were a lot of girls. I am not sure if that is affecting his behavior. Hopefully, it was just because it was his first day and everything was new. Today is his second day. There are supposed to be 13 kids there today! I like it when the class is smaller so I hope it goes well with that many kids. There are supposed to be a few more boys there today, but still a lot of girls.
Yesterday I took Nathan to the Childrens Museum. Our dentist gave us a card for free admission so we were able to use that. Nathan had fun. Then we went out to lunch with daddy.
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