August 7, 2008

Yesterday, we went sailing with a company that takes out kids with disabilities and their families to sail on the Columbia River. We had an amazing time! It was so relaxing and peaceful. The kids absolutely loved it. What a great experience.

Dave was quite comfortable on the boat.


Lil' Audra was a crazy driver. She thought she was all funny when she tried to make it swerve, but I didn't!


Ahhhh, peace at last!


Isaak was quite subdued the whole time. I think he was just taking it in. He said he loved it. I think the rock of the boat was very soothing to him.




We will definitely need to do it again.

Kids did great their first week of school. Isaak had perfect "reports" each day. He seems to be getting into the swing of things. I assume it's a honeymoon and he will have some issue pop up, but so far, knock on wood. He LOVES his Pre-Calc class. First day he said, "I think I charmed them with my charisma." Yeah, probably. So far, they're just reviewing; I'm sure it will challenge him a little. I looked through the book, and WOWSERS!, I can't remember any of it. Should be fun if he needs help! Lil' Audra is a little down. She's having friend "issues." She says she doesn't have any friends at school (her best friend goes to a different school), and her friends from last year (who she didn't really play with this summer) have sort of made other friends and aren't really including her. Well, normal girlie stuff. I told her to just give it some time. I told her that it took me quite a while to make friends in this ward, but now I have some of the greatest friends I've had. I just had to be patient and get to know people. I'm sure she'll be fine. She's just so dang social, and not having a ton of friends to be social WITH is hard for her.

Well, Isaak wants to blog today, do I should let him.

August 30, 2008

Got a major headache right now. Bad enough that I can't really work on anything for lack of concentration. Need to go veg in front of the TV. :)

Kids are ready to go to school. Or, I'm ready for them to go. It's been a very relaxing summer (for them) as we haven't placed a lot of demands on them, mainly due to our own crazy schedules. I'll be glad to get some structure back in their lives.

Isaak has made a group of buddies that come over almost daily to play. They're all a bit nerdy, themselves. It can get quite loud and obnoxious around here when they're here, but despite being complete dweebs, we're glad he's made some friends on his own. I suppose it's progress.

Lil' Audra is excited to go back to school ONLY because she wants to be with her school friends again. Isaak is nervous about middle school, but we've prepared him as best we can. He will meet his high school math teacher on Tuesday. I'm nervous about that class as, and I have NO idea who came up with this idea!, the high school has NO WALLS. That's right, classes are all in large wings with around 4 classes sharing a space, separated by portable dividers or file cabinets. They call it an "open learning environment." Huh? How is THAT suppose to contribue to the better learning of the students, ANY students, let alone students like Isaak. So, we'll see how that goes. There are no other options other than going back into individual lessons on a computer like he's done for the past year and a half. I'd really like to see him back in a classroom learning situation, so I hope this works out.

Anyway, that's about it. We have a new niece in the family who we are anxious to get up to Seattle to see soon. And my parents are due back on the continent (after a year and a half mission to the Caribbean; hard life, eh?) in the beginning of October. That will be fun!

Here's Isaak's baseball picture...

More good stuff!

On the Spectrum, a documentary just released, has me and Isaak participating in parts. It's an awesome little snippet about successes with high-functioning autism and Asperger's. Very neat. Here is a clip of Isaak's part.



You can get the movie from www.onthespectrummovie.com :) It's very well done.

Old voices

Blasts from the past...

Came across these old tape recordings of the kids. Awww. Of course, the quality's horrible, but it's something!

Here is Audra (Maggie then) at age 4. At the end, you can hear Isaak running away screaming saying, "I don't want to do it!"

This clip is a little longer. When Isaak was 4 (almost 5, I think), his speech therapist (and I) took him to a local radio station to work on asking social questions. He is in his "Millionaire" phase, so he's totally perseverating on it, but it's cute. The clip is about 4 minutes long.

Breaking Dawn or Breaking Down?

K, fellow Twilighters. Spoilers included here, so don't read if you don't want to be enlightened. If you have read and are ready to discuss, here are my thoughts and questions. Friends with whom I've already chatted with, please help me remember ones I forget here...

• To me, there are now two Bellas, and two sets of books, really. There's the set of the first 3 books. They all "feel" the same. Same Bella, same Edward, same mysticism. Breaking Dawn was like this whole other entity. The first half was just bizarre. It was like X-Files. Maybe she'd been writing The Host too much because it felt a lot like that. I didn't really like it. The second half of the book I enjoyed, especially the last few chapters. Still, it was like a different series, although the second half was more like the first three books, but the characters were different characters. Which brings me to...
• There were two sets of characters. First three books' characters and Breaking Dawn characters. Once Bella became a vampire, I did like the new Bella. I liked the old Bella and the new Bella, but they were not the same Bella. She was now strong and confident and determined and independent. Not the old Bella. Same with Edward although now he seemed less-confident and strong and pliable. I didn't like the new Edward as much as the old Edward. Even Charlie was different. Like he would have just accepted the weirdness of it all with a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude. That didn't fit with his 3-book character at all. He just accepted it? And where the heck was Renee? Which brings me to...
• Where were all the other characters from the 3-books? Hardly anything happened in Forks. I understand why and all, but just no explanation or interaction with or without Bella. Weird. They're all just... gone.
• Sorry, but the whole Nessie thing could have been done differently. She was like this monster alien child the way she was born, and then the stupid name (why didn't they use Carlie, her middle name; that's cute and not impossible to say?), the fast growing rate, the "elongated limbs" like a little adult. And imprinting on Jacob. Little creepy, have to say. I didn't find it as creepy as some of my friends, but still. Weird.
• I felt there were a bunch of things I expected to happen or be addressed that just never were. Like Bella's premonition dreams. Her ability to smell blood unlike other people could. There were other things. What were they?
• Alice's background was only briefly touched upon in the 3-books. I felt like that was really left hanging. I thought there would be more to clear that up. Nope.
• I LOVED the final climax scene and all the religious tones in it. I couldn't put the book down once I got there. However, I was sort of let down that the fight didn't happen. Felt like it needed it. Felt like, if you're not going to have them fight and just have them all walk away, then you need to keep writing the series 'cuz there's a whole lot that's still going to happen. Didn't feel like a series-ender even if the author said it is. Maybe she'll try to redeem herself by writing another with Jacob and Nessie older.
• Didn't like the wrap-up. No information about Renee and how that's going to work out, hardly any Charlie, hardly any about anyone. In fact, it must have been lame enough because I can't even remember what happened in the wrap-up. Big let-down.

I'll keep adding to this list as I remember them.

So, overall I hated the first half, liked the second half (even with flaws), loved the climax, but didn't like the wrap-up.

For me, the order of my favorites are:

1. Twilight
2. Eclipse
3. New Moon
4. Breaking Dawn

Yours?

July 30, 2008

We had planned on watching some friends' kids overnight last weekend since their mom was out of town. Twins Isaak's age and a boy Audra's age. Great friends of ours. Dad was bringing them over in the evening. Well, we get a call from him that night that they had to take their cat to the vet because it had gotten run over. They'd be late. Then, they called a couple hours later. Dad said they were on their way, but they had had to put the cat down. The kids still needed to come because Dad couldn't get out of work in the morning. It was so sad! I opened the door to three very sad kids who had just had to say good-bye to a beloved pet! The twins were the only ones to stay (Audra's friend stayed with dad), but I did my best to cheer them up and keep them busy.

It was a great opportunity, actually, for my kids to see grieving, talk about it, and be a part of that process. We had some good discussions before, during, and after. And, in the end, the kids perked up, and we had an awesome time together.

Taking lil' Audra to get allergy testing tomorrow. Sadly, I think she's got 'em! Didn't have much of a chance with the two parents of hers so pathetically blowing their nose half the year.

My favorite thing right now: Playing Halo with my family before bed. I'm the worst player in the family now. Yup, even the little one can beat me.

What I'm looking forward to the most right now: This Friday, the fourth book of the Twilight series comes out (http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/) and some friends and I are going to the late-night coming out party at Barnes and Noble. I can't wait! I'm totally addicted.

I love Edward.

July 24, 2008

This is how nerdy I am. I just got back from the theater re-presentation of "War Games"--the 25th anniversary. Man! That is a good movie. I'd forgotten most of it (being that I was probably a young teenager the last time I saw it). So nerdy.

I am now watching the season finale of last season's Gray's Anatomy. Mmmm. Love that show.

So, I have officially started my next book. I have started the outline and let MGW (the social skills guru people) know, and they seem very excited to see it and be a part of it. I think they'll publish it. If not, then I'll go with my old publishers. Anyway, I'm thinking maybe if I let people know I'm working on it, that people will keep me "honest" and will make me keep going!

I have to say, the kids have been doing really good this summer. I have "employed" them to work with certain kids with me and be helpers. Isaak, in particular, has really surprised me. He is a great model and help. It's pretty awesome. He does really good with the social group kids. I mean, he knows this stuff inside and out by now, and he has learned when to wait to give the right answer or be an example. He follows my cues and is patient with the kids that may be displaying "unexpected behavior." He's been awesome.

Wow. Gray's Anatomy has a LOT of commercials.

I gotta get my camera out and take some more pictures. My blog has GOT to be boring. I'm bored, myself. Going to bed now.