August 2008

A lazy Sunday, Well for the kids and I anyway. Posted Sunday, August 31, 2008, 1:20 PM, CDT by Dawn I hate long weekends when Hank has to work the entire time. The kids are all home. Days like these I wish that school was on the weekends. Due to the hurricane, Hank’s job is rather busy for a weekend. I haven’t been paying much attention to the news but I guess people may be evacuating to San Antonio. Anyway, poor Hanky is going to be busier than he anticipated. Jordan took him some lunch. I can see the clouds rolling in. It looks like we are going to get some storms. I love a good thunderstorm, it can be invigorating. I appreciate everyone’s encouraging posts. If I had known I had such a wonderful cheering section I would have started college years ago. You all have been more supportive than my biological parents. Hank is planning on going through the same college to get his Bachelors in Information Technology. He has to finish his associates through the Community College of the Air Force first. He only has a few classes left. He has been such a help to me already. He is also very encouraging. I can’t play dumb with him. Well I have to run to the commissary and pick up some stuff for dinner before it rains. The baby is down for a nap. Maybe I will take the girls with me and we can go to Starbucks. UE, Hank said he wishes you were here to go to Carlos Mencia with us. We love you all.

We made it to the weekend. Posted Saturday, August 30, 2008, 6:12 AM, CDT by Dawn I took my online entrance exam. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. I had Hank check every page before I submitted it. The math was challenging at points. I have brain dumped most of what I don’t use in every day life. When I got to a problem I didn’t know how to solve, I would ask Hank and he would explain it. I would then do it myself. Hank and I set up boundaries before the test started. He can give me help but I had to figure out the answers. I get the results in a few days. We think I did fine. Aunt Mary, Thanks for your post. I was wondering would it be better to go for a BA in special Education or one in Interdisciplinary Studies. I was wondering if you can become certified to teach Kinder or first grade if you have a Special Ed BAS. I want to have as many options as possible. Congrats on retiring. I am sure you will enjoy it. When you start to miss it just spend time with your Grand kids. Well we found our dog a new owner. We have had some potty training issues and Ashlyn isn’t very good with him. As a family we decided he was not the dog for us. We found him the perfect owner. A college student who is studying to be a vet. She is at home a lot and unmarried with no kids. I think he will get more attention with her. I don’t know if we will try with a different dog at some point. None of the kids were all that upset about finding him a new home. Jordan was tired of cleaning up his potty messes and the girls were not really attached to him. The kids first week of school went great. Jordan got assigned a laptop. I was wrong about some of his classes. He was not able to take all that he wanted because they were already full. He is taking Home Ec, and an extra study hall. The counselor thought since he had such a difficult year last year that more study time would be helpful. He’s not taking Spanish or Drama. Alyssa wants to join the choir. Ashlyn has been practicing writing her name. I bought tickets to go see Carlos Mencia for Hanks birthday. We are going on Oct 4th. We are both very excited. I did some shopping for Alyssa’s birthday yesterday. We are taking her to Sea World on her B-day. The military member gets one free visit to Sea World a year. We get 4 tickets so we will only have to buy one. Well that is all that is happening over here.

Happy Wednesday Posted Wednesday, August 27, 2008, 9:58 AM, CDT by Dawn Thank you UE and Aunt Jean for your posts. I love reading your comments. I am thinking about starting college. I have found a really good online school that is covered buy military tuition assistance. It is also accredited. I have to take an entrance exam to see where my skill level is. I think I want to work toward a BA in Special Education. I would like to work with blind children and that is the first step in getting there. I could use the degree for other teaching positions if I needed to. I am just now in the beginning stages of a long process. I hope to start in the next 6 months. I have to get financial aide and do well enough on the entrance exam. I think this would be a good career for me. By the time I actually finish Amiyah will be in school. I think teaching would be a good choose for my family since I would be working school hours and be able to be home when my kids and husband are home. I also would get holidays, summers and school vacations off. Anyway just letting you all know what’s brewing in my brain. Hank only has about 6 years until he retires. I have to start moving in some kind of direction. The kids are off to their third day of school. Ashlyn was so excited this morning. She said she couldn’t wait to get to Kindergarten and do stuff.

School went well Posted Tuesday, August 26, 2008, 7:13 AM, CDT by Dawn The first day of school went well. Alyssa said she loves her teacher. The kids get PE every day. Ashlyn loves Kindergarten. Jordan said they really didn’t do much in his classes. I told him to enjoy that while it lasts. He has a pretty full schedule this year. He only has 1 elective. He is taking Alg 1, Biology, World History, Language arts, Drama and Spanish. The school splits the classes over 2 days, A day and B day. Most high schools do this now. He has classes 1-4 on A day and 5-8 on B day. The classes are 90 minutes instead of 45 like they were when I was in school. Algebra 1 takes up 2 classes so he has it on both days. He is also taking a class called Athletics which is like PE but he can actually use that time to train for whatever sport he is playing. He plans to do track and maybe cross country later. Another cool thing about the high school is that every student can have the use of a laptop for the school year. Jordan is signing up to do this . He can take it home with him and use it in his classes. They have enough laptops for every student. Alyssa said there are stacks of laptops in her class. I guess the kids use them in class. She can’t bring it home but every child has one to use. We have been told that this school is like a private school. Last year it won the best small school district in Texas award. We are so very blessed to have our kids in Lackland ISD. Only kids who live on base can attend. The kids LOVE the school lunches. This is the first time they liked the school lunches in a few years. The ones in Okinawa and Guam were not very good. The kids get a choice of 2 main dishes and 2 sides here. I got a thumbs up from all 3 kids. Well I have to go do Ashlyn’s hair and get the baby up so I can walk them to school.

The first day of school. Posted Monday, August 25, 2008, 9:26 AM, CDT by Dawn The kids are at school. Alyssa was excited this morning. Her and Ashlyn were at the door waiting for the baby and I 10 minutes before we had to leave. We got there on time. I dropped Alyssa off first. I didn’t hang around long in her class. She is a big girl and I also had to take Ashlyn to her class. I stayed with Ashlyn a few minutes and then kissed her goodbye. She didn’t cry. I had a couple moments that I felt like I could but I kept my brave smile. Jordan didn’t walk with us. I let him off the hook. I don’t want him to loose cool points by walking with his mommy. Well I am off to enjoy my coffee and some cuddles with my Amiyah. It is so quiet. Honestly it is a little sad. I talk a big game but I really miss them already.

Hello Posted Sunday, August 24, 2008, 8:40 AM, CDT by Dawn We met teachers and got the kids lunch accounts set up. Ashlyn is excited. Alyssa and Jordan are sad to summer end. School starts tomorrow. The kids have had an extended summer due to our move. I think I will put the girls in Girl Scouts. I need to get Alyssa back in piano. Jordan is probably going to do track and cross country. We may start doing the Wed night Bible study. I guess our lazy summer is over. Here are some Amiyah shenanigans. I was cleaning up dinner a couple days ago and realized Amiyah was not around. I went looking for her and found her playing with her doll dishes in the toilet. I said “NO! Amiyah Kaitlyn, you don’t play in the potty.” Amiyah looks at me takes her little bowl and takes a drink of toilet water. She has pulled all the Ziploc bags out of their boxes. I don’t really mind this. I just shoved all the loose bags back in the cupboard. Yesterday afternoon as I was unloading groceries and starting dinner she made us all laugh a lot. Amiyah climbed onto the kitchen chair. She played in my cold coffee and made a decent mess. She then ripped open the box of butter I had not put away yet. She chewed through the wrapper and ate the corner off of a stick of butter. She seemed quite pleased with herself. We find her funny. She is definitely a toddler.

We are ready for back to school Posted Friday, August 22, 2008, 10:44 AM, CDT by Dawn I guess we haven’t posted in forever. UE wants me to get back in the habit again. We are settled In our house and the kids start school again in 3 days. I will hopefully post more now. Well the kids find out who their teachers are this afternoon. They get to meet them. Alyssa got new glasses. She got transitions lenses. The lenses get darker when she goes outside. She loves them. She also got her hair cut short. We are sending her hair to locks of love. She has been growing it to send to them forever. The stylist took about 12 inches off. Her hair is in a bob now. I thought she would be more upset. She said she loves it short because she can brush and style it herself. I was sad for a day or so. I saw how much she loved it and I felt better. I have to admit not having to brush out the tangles every morning is great. She also doesn’t look like a ragamuffin anymore. No matter how well I did her hair when it was long it would be a mess by mid day. Now it looks nice longer. We are all ready for back to school. I finished school clothes and supplies shopping weeks ago. Ashlyn is excited about kindergarten. She will be going almost full day. School starts at 7:45am and Ashlyn gets out at 2:30pm. Jordan and Alyssa get out at 3:15pm. I am a little sad. I will still have Amiyah though to keep me busy. I think Amiyah will miss her siblings during the day. We went to Dallas and saw Brad and Tonia a few weeks ago. We had a wonderful time. I celebrated my birthday with them. They made me a nice dinner and Tonia bought me designer cupcakes. It was nice spending time with them. They took us out on the boat. Hank and the kids went two days in a row. We are looking forward to seeing them again. As soon as the rest of you all move down here we will be set. We got a dog while we were in Dallas. He is a Chinese Crested hairy hairless. We named him Griffan. He has turned out to be a good dog. We were worried at first but he has really come around the last week or so. We are not doing a lot today. Tomorrow we are taking the girls to see Journey to the Center of the Earth. We will spend the weekend gearing up for the new school year. Hank is now in charge of the Command Post. He is the acting Superintendent while the primary guy is gone. This will become permanent in Oct when the primary guy leaves for a year. Hank will then take over the job. I am very proud pf him. He jumped right into the roll. So far it doesn’t seem to be a big increase in work load. I think it is more stress though. He has to keep his finger on everything that is going on. Well we love you all. I will post more later.