My Teacher Appreciation Week Project

I thought this poem was perfect

Teacher Appreciation Week Project, 2015

So, a few years ago my friend Joyce Kreger was very complimentary of my gift bags for the teachers on Ian's 5th Grade Team.  She even published it on her Cool Party Favors site!

Well, this year is not quite the same level, but I decided to share it again.

It started when I saw these gift bags at Target.    I mean, how cute is this?  The best part is that I found them on clearance for 38 cents each!  Even better, there were exactly 10 and that's exactly the number I needed.

So, what to put in them?
Well, Ian and I were at BJs and I sampled this Boom Chicka Pop popcorn and bought a box on sale.

Somewhat healthy options

There was enough to give everyone one of each flavor.  I also found some biscotti in individual packages that I thought the team might enjoy.  Buying these things at BJs really kept the price down.

Not so healthy option!

Of course, all teachers like chocolate, so I had a good coupon that I used for a big bag of Hershey's Nuggets.  I divided them up into sandwich bags.  Not exactly festive, but sometimes you just need to be practical!

I always like to trim the edges

My next step was to make cards to go on the bags.  I found a poem on Pinterest and printed it out on colored paper.  Then I found some cardstock in my scrapbooking supplies, trimmed the edges with scalloped scissors, and glued the poem to it.  I also had a surplus of my son's school picture (not his best but good enough) and I put one on each card too.  I punched a hole in the card, put some curling ribbon through it, and tied it to the bag.

And, voila!

So, using discounted bags, warehouse store snacks, and items I had on hand, these bags come in at around $3.00 a bag.  With a team of 10, it is easy for the costs to really run up so I'm pretty pleased with both the bags and the bottom line.

  

I hope they know how much we appreciate their hard work and that they enjoy their treats!

Kindness, in bulk

So, if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you probably know that I shop at BJs.  A LOT.  And you might just kind of wonder why.  I mean, we are not a large family and it's not terribly convenient to our house.

Well, the main reason is Ian.

Ian is comfortable at BJs.  We have a routine.  We chat on the ride over and on the ride home.  It helps him practice his social skills when we say hi to other customers and the employees.  He likes to look at all the different products, carry around his list, and throw items into the cart.  And I do mean throw!  (We don't buy eggs at BJs!)  Sometimes he'll push the cart and help me unload it at checkout.  (Did I mention the eggs?) And today he even helped me reload the cart. (Think I'm taking bread off the BJs list.)

Checking out some books

BJs is his comfort zone in the world of shopping.

Today we had three very nice moments.

1.  At the very front of the store, I asked Ian to pick up a coupon sheet.  There was a woman who was doing the same thing.  Well, instead of going over to the stand himself, he started for the woman since she was holding one.  She very sweetly gave it to him without missing a beat and gave me a great smile that told me she understood.  I wanted to hug her but I just thanked her instead.

2.  I stopped for a sample of popcorn and decided to buy it.  At this point Ian had his iPad AND a new Thomas the Train book in his grasp and was super excited about it all, and that was leading to some very "busy" behavior.   The kind lady who was giving out the samples smiled and said, "It's so great how he loves books."  It was so sweet and genuine, I wanted to hug her.

Ian picked out a big book of Thomas stories for his treat today

3.  As we left the store, the employee checking the cart and receipt was super nice.   Sometimes she seems kind of grumpy, but I think she finally understands that when I ask Ian to give her the receipt it's to work on his people skills.  Today she gave him a big smile and thank you.  And yes, I wanted to hug her too!

Had a hard time getting a good pic but this is when we were leaving BJs

So, we will continue shopping at BJs and I'll keep taking pictures when we do.  This is a part of Ian's life too and I don't want to forget our happy moments doing ordinary things.

Back to school and an IEP Meeting

Spring is here!

So, this week went pretty well.

My co-worker Regan timed her maternity leave perfectly because baby Henry James arrived on Monday evening.  What happy news!  Can't wait to meet him.

The substitute for two weeks is a very nice guy named Mr. Martin.  Regan left great sub plans and Mr. Martin has fit in just fine.

On Wednesday at the faculty meeting we celebrated Nidia becoming a U.S. citizen.  What a wonderful addition to our country!  She is our Family Involvement Coordinator and she is invaluable for her work with parents as well as her translation skills.

We love you Ms. Nidia!

Ian transitioned well back into school this week.  Not to say that getting back to the routine wasn't a bit tiring for us all.  Here he is chilling in the tub early on in the week.

Calgon, take me away!

On Thursday afternoon I met with Ian's team for an IEP meeting.  The news was overwhelmingly good!  He has become very social, the behaviors have greatly decreased, and he is doing great with reading.  Math continues to be a big struggle for him, but that is very typical with Fragile X kids.  His team is fantastic and we got so much done.  I know a lot of people are not as lucky as we are, so I really appreciate everything that they do for Ian.  The hardest part of the meeting was keeping on topic!

Artwork outside of Ian's classroom

Our weather has turned warmer and pollen is covering everything with a coat of green.  It's staying light until around 8 and the sun is up when I leave for school.  Summer is coming soon!  Ian will have 8 weeks of summer school and I've signed him up for the wonderful camp at the JCC for the first week in August.  SOLs have been moved up several weeks, so work is going to be very busy.  But I have to say, this is the best time of year for my job because we are done with our ESL testing and we can enjoy just teaching.  It is also the point in the year when many of the students we work with start to blossom like little spring flowers.

Artwork at Holladay

Spring Break and 9 Weeks to Go

So, how was your Spring Break?

Well, we did not go to Disney.  Or the beach.   But, we chilled and slept and basically recharged the batteries.  Because there are only 9 weeks left until the end of the school year.  9 weeks!

Ian stayed here with Rob for Easter with the Carvers while I went down to help out in Chapel Hill for a few days.  As I wrote in my last blog, my sister Mary broke her ankle.  She had surgery on March 31 and basically cannot put any weight on that foot for awhile.  Absolutely no fun for her.

When I arrived on Saturday, Jim and I were given a shopping list for Harris Teeter, then we went to Merritt's to pick up lunch.  Best BLTs on the planet.  The sign in their window says it all.

Lots of kind people had given Mary and Jim casseroles, but my sister wanted shrimp and grits for dinner that night, so I made them.  Gotta say, I did pretty well for a first-timer.

Obligatory food shot

On Easter I made brunch with mimosas (of course), hot cross buns, sausage from the Lakeside Farmer's Market, and scrambled eggs.  

Not the jolliest Easter ever, but we made do.

Poor Mary really was not feeling that great, but she was a good sport.  Jim grilled a port tenderloin for Easter dinner, and that gave them some good leftovers after I returned home.

Easter Dinner 2015

To keep Mary occupied, I brought approximately 12 boxes of my Dad's slides to go through.  Well, I sorted through and she logged them into her system.  Each box contained 750 slides, and I worked on them a lot over three days.  At first I was very careful.  "Oh we must save this picture of Aunt So and So."  But by the end I was tossing way more than I was keeping.  Sad, but true, very few people will see them after we get them scanned. But my Dad put so much work into preserving them it wouldn't be right to toss all of them.  Besides, I enjoyed looking through them all one more time.

So, what did you do on Easter Sunday?

And, of course, there was basketball.  Two great games on Saturday night.  And a fantastic game on Monday night.  Although they are in Tar Heel country in Chapel Hill, there was plenty about Duke on the local news to keep this fan happy!  Even a trip to Target (in Durham) was pretty cool on Monday morning.

I bought one of the blue ones.  Really tempted to wear it back to school tomorrow!

I returned home to RVA on Tuesday, and the clouds and rain settled in.  Ian and I ran errands, got his hair cut, and basically relaxed.  I continued with the slide project and managed to finish yesterday.  Not the most exciting thing ever, but it feels great to have that finally done and dealt with.  This weekend was beautiful so we got some outdoors time.  

So tomorrow begins the last 9 weeks of the 2014-15 school year.  Ian's annual IEP meeting is Thursday, and with the nicer weather we'll be busier again.  

P.S.  I miss basketball.

Way to go Duke!

April, and hopefully Spring, at last!

Wow, this sure has been quite the winter.  It always seems either wet or cold or wet AND cold.  Maybe I just notice it more since my job is directly affected by the weather since I have outside car duty every other morning and have to move (sometimes with groups of students) from our trailer to the building on a regular basis.  Oh well, on to warmer weather.

This is how far it is from out trailer to the building, on yet another wet day.

Things have been pretty routine.  Work, home, sleep, repeat.  Ian has been having great days at school, and continues to do well on the class field trips which was a problem last year.  We will have his annual IEP meeting after Spring Break, and also set up summer school.

A note that came home from school

My annual obsession with all things college basketball continued this year.  Although VCU and UVA both went out fairly quickly, Duke has made it to the Final Four.  I was watching so many games that Ian sounded like a very typical teenager one day when he came in the room and said, "Oh no Mom, not again!"  Live with it, kid.

Game day selfie

So, while I watched all that basketball I also worked on a baby blanket for my co-worker who is expecting in a few weeks.  Last week, we threw her a little "Sprinkle" (which is what we call showers for second babies) and surprised her with it.  It was a lot of fun and she got some very nice gifts.

"You really made this?"

Also last week I changed my hairstyle.  It is much shorter and I love it so far.  The funny part was the comments from the kids at school the next day.  They were just so fascinated and so blunt, God love them.

New 'do

Next week is Spring Break, and it looks like I will spend the first weekend (if not longer) helping my sister Mary recover from surgery.  She fell and broke her ankle a few weekends ago.  Life can change in a heartbeat.  I'm just glad that I will have the opportunity to help her after all the help she has given me over the years.

Also, we'll get to watch Duke play together on Saturday night.  Go Blue Devils!

It's been almost a year.....the walk of (blogging) shame

Oh my goodness.  How is it possible that it has been that long?

Okay, no real excuses except maybe Facebook, Words with Friends and life in general have been eating up my time.  Also, I've been posting a lot on Instagram, so maybe I just feel like I'm sharing enough already.

However, those are not really valid excuses.  I love to write and I've been lazy about it.  I also love reading back over the posts I've done to remember what happened, all the little details of our little lives here in Lakeside.

My last post was about the wonderful Mrs. S. who changed life for Ian at Moody Middle School.  I am happy to report she is still there.  I had a conference with Ian's teacher earlier this month, and he is ROCKING 7th Grade!  A lot of that has to do with the amazing Mrs. S.  I often refer to her as the Ian Whisperer.   He has made straight A's, been to an after-school dance, and done great on all their class field trips.  Well, except for the pumpkin patch.  But that was so last October.

Picking the 7th Grader up from his first dance

Also like the last post, we have had some snow days around here.  And some very cold days as well.  I feel like we've done a lot of hibernating this winter, but Spring will be here soon.  

Since I wrote last, Mary Thorpe, our rector at Epiphany, left for a job at the Diocese.  I am in my last year on the Vestry and we have brought in an interim rector and put together a search committee.  I managed to cobble together our Parish Retreat to Shrine Mont last October.  It turned out very well, thanks to perfect weather and a great group of people who were willing to roll with the changes.  But, I have stepped down from that position and plan to take a break from leadership roles at church for at least a few years.

I'm in my second year working as an ESL instructional assistant.  I still love it!   The schedule is perfect, my team is awesome, and the kids are a never-ending source of hilarity and sweet moments.  Just today I picked up a group to take a test and I introduced myself to one I had never met before.  Very sweetly he reached out and shook my hand and said, "Nice to meet you."  It's never boring!

Way to go, little man!!!

Wow, what a difference one person can make.

Just over a month ago, I took Ian to see Dr. Mead who handles his medications.  I expressed concerns about Ian's behavior at school and we discussed the possibility of making some changes in our routine and his dosage, etc.  Since previous attempts to do this were not successful (disastrous is a better term!), I wanted that to be the last course of action.  We left the appointment knowing we could make a change if we needed to, and that was somewhat comforting.

And then, something funny started happening at school.

Ian came home with GOOD REPORTS.  He was happy walking off the bus.  He still chewed his shirt, but not every day, and not as drastically as before.

There was new handwriting on the sheets too, with sweet little remarks.  "Ian had a good day in the school!"  "I have a great day today."  "Mom I had a wonderful day today."  And today, "YAYYYY!!

12/12 is pretty awesome!

To top it off, today is the first school day after the weekend when we lose an hour for daylight savings time.  Amazing!

So, who is the person who is making our lives so much better?  Well, for the sake of her privacy, I will call her Ms. S.  She started in January after another aide left.  She must be pretty awesome because it usually takes Ian a long time to warm up to someone new.

The only somewhat off day he has had since she started was a day when she was absent.

And he had a great day last week, even though the teacher was absent.

Also, have I mentioned that we've barely had a full week of school since 2014 began with all the snow days?

He even went on a field trip and HAD FUN.  The teacher sent me a text with a picture of Ian, happy as a clam, sitting next to Ms. S. at a restaurant eating pizza. (That made me start to cry!)

I gather from her last name and the way she writes that English is not her first language, and I love that.  I like that Ian is meeting someone from another culture.  Whatever it is that is making this work, I'm so happy that Ms. S. has come into our lives and I hope she stays with us for a long time to come!