Spots, spots and more spots

On Tuesday, Ceci woke up with spots...all over her body. So naturally, I was really freaking out, although, I appeared very calm and collected on the outside:) At least I hoped I appeared so. Not good to freak out Ceci more than she already was . We took her to the doctor and found out she had an allergic reaction to amoxicellin (Not sure of the spelling). She had been taking it for strep. She had just taken her last dose too. Marcus had strep a couple of weeks ago, so I wasn't surprised when she came down with strep. Marcus didn't get the spots though. She still has some spots on her legs, but her upper body is now clear. She was very itchy and uncomfortable, but handled everything like a trooper. The doctor said it was okay to take her back to school since she wasn't contagious and my Ceci was hating being at home. She loves school and her teacher. The day she went back (Wednesday) was on a field trip so there were parents everywhere. So I had to deal with the stares of "How dare you bring your contagious daughter to school" even though she wasn't and the "What were you thinking bringing your child to school with a rash?" Ceci's teacher said a parent went up to her after I left the field trip and said, "Does your mother KNOW you came to school looking like this?" Good thing I had already left, because by that time I would probably have decked her. Good Grief! Some people are such morons.

On to other news. This week was crazy. On Tuesday I received an email from the Stake Relief Society President, asking all wards to get as many hygiene kits together as they could and bring them to the stake center Saturday evening before the General Relief Society Broadcast. I had to reread it several times to make sure I had read it right. So my counselors and service coordinator called as many sisters as we could and sent emails out with assignments of what to bring. I decided to assign everyone a specific amount and item to bring in order to ensure I would get complete kits to bring. Many of the more expensive items I bought in bulk at Sam's using the RS budget such as the hand towels. I also bought soap in bulk. I went online to see if I could order some toothbrushes and combs in bulk and get them before Friday, but no one could expedite them. I decided to go ahead and order some for a great price that I found on overstock.com. I felt that we would use them next year since it seems we are always getting hurricanes on the coast of Texas. I never expected to be able to use them this week. Anyway, I placed the order on Tuesday and they showed up on my doorstep on Thursday. I just started crying when I saw them. We were able to double the amount of kits we planned on making in our ward. The stake had supplies for 400 sent in from Utah. With the other kits all the wards brought in plus the stake hygiene kits, the number came to 650. All in just a week's time. I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the miracles and hard work that took place this week. It made my life crazy getting all the supplies, getting the sisters organized, etc. but with the help of a great presidency and the Lord great things were accomplished.

Also this week, Jared received his Bobcat and now has Wolf leaders...finally. The ward hasn't had Wolf leaders for a couple of months now, so Jared has been so sad. I was already looking into putting him in a civic den at a local school so he could at least meet and have fun. I guess will put if off for now. We also received the results of Jared's test that I mentioned in the previous blog. He has been diagnosed with dyslexia. He also no longer needs speech therapy. He has been taking speech since he was three, so I was very emotional when I heard that. He has improved so much in speech and we were so blessed to have such an amazing speech therapist that worked with Jared for past couple of years. Although, he had stopped going to her this past year she played an integral part in his success. The speech therapist at his school actually was supervised by Jared's former speech therapist, so they consulted with each other often. Now that we know where his other learning disabilities are they can now be addressed and he can receive the help he needs in those areas. This year he has to take the state's mandatory assessment test in Math and Reading. I was very nervous about this, but because of his dyslexia he will take an accommodated TAKS with the dyslexia pack for reading. The test will be shorter (less questions, same material as the other kids) and he can take it over two days instead of one. He will take it in a small group setting and some of the questions will be read to him as needed. I received much comfort from this. Jared is very hard on himself and I was worried how he would react for the test. He gets overwhelmed easily especially with large amounts of reading. I will keep you posted on his progress.

Also this week, (yes, this week was insane) I went on an all day field trip with Jared's class to some caves near San Antonio. Here are some of the photos. Nothing compared to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico but not bad for Texas and typical of Texas instead of being cool inside they were very hot and humid. Figures. They were much more impressive than the caves near us in Georgetown. The downside to the trip was riding the school bus down there for two hour down and two hours back. I don't think my butt has recovered yet. I had forgotten how uncomfortable those things are. And the bus driver had the great idea of putting down the windows on the way back since the kids like it sooo much. The kids didn't seem so impressed with it. The exhaust and hot wind drove me nuts. The bus could only go 55 mph on the interstate so everyone and their dog passed us. The noise from the outside was so loud. Never again. I will bring my car next time when Ceci goes. I am too old to be riding a bus:)








The kids have their two week fall break now. We will start decorating tomorrow and doing some Halloween crafts.

Halloween Preparations

Yes, I know Halloween is several weeks away, but you have to understand just how much we enjoy this holiday. We have been impatiently waiting for the Spirit Halloween store to open and it finally did last week. It was a major family outing to check out the latest scary things. The kids were so excited! You'd think we were going to Sea World. We were excited to find out that another Halloween store opened also. More competition. Love it! Halloween Express was much larger and had better prices. I love a good deal. The kids will be out of school on the 29th for two weeks. We will begin setting up all our Halloween decorations that week. It will be nice to have the kids to help. I'm usually on my own putting everything up. Scott does help me put up our large spider web that stretches between our two trees.

The weather has been beautiful here lately. I actually had the windows open for two days straight without the air conditioning running. I wish the weather would stay this cool, but it already started warming up. Hurricane Ike didn't cause any damage here in Austin. They had predicted heavy rain, flooding but nothing. Many church members have been housing Houston and Galveston evacuees. Things are a mess over there.

Scott and Marcus are in the other room watching the UT game. Marcus is turning into quite the football fan, especially if it's UT playing. He says that's where he wants to go to school. We'll see. Marcus is now playing fantasy football with Scott and my family. He's having a lot of fun. I'm not into to all that stuff. My two sisters love playing it, so it's not just a guy thing. Just not my thing, I guess.

The kids are doing well in school. Marcus had quite an adjustment moving up to middle school. He's misses just having one teacher. He now has six to keep up with along with their assignments. He's doing pretty good keeping up. We just have to really stay on him to find out what project or test is due when. He also started up violin lessons again. His teacher was gone most of the summer. Marcus also wrote his first poem for a language arts assignment. It is really good and, of course, Scott is very excited that Marcus has a knack for writing poetry. Here it is:

I am an owl.
Swift, fearless
Wise, strong
I see my prey in the darkness.
I see its fear.
My wings are silent as the wind.
My screech makes animals run in fear.
It shows who is the hunter of the night.
Courage runs weak.
Fear is my friend.
I am fearless.
I am strong.
I am an owl.

Here is another one he did for a social studies assignment:

I am a Tsunami
Strong , Tough
Breathtaking, scary
My cousin is the earthquake.
Shifting plates make my waves.

When I touch shallow water I lose speed.
Which makes my waves taller.
And then I am able to cross land.
I sweep up sand, dirt, trees, people, anything in my reach.
I see buildings tremble beneath me.
They brake apart, glass explodes, steel bends, and I wash it all back.
I see people running with fear, with surprise, with shock.
But there is no escape.

It takes years to clean up the mess I make.
Beds, TVs, desks, chairs, computers, debris everywhere on the ground.
Fun for me but not for you.
People lose their homes, families, pets, jobs, cars, books, everything.
Some people starve, fight over food, get sick and die.
I grab gasoline, fertilizer, trash, chemicals and pollute oceans, rivers and lakes.

My voice is like a bomb.
It tells that I'm the king of destruction.
I am strong
I am tough
I am a Tsunami


Jared is doing well. His teacher wanted him tested to see if has any learning disabilities that need to be addressed other then speech delay. We have the ARD this Wednesday to find out the results. Scott and I are very cautious about these tests and what their recommendations will be. We know Jared struggles but we feel it's because of his speech delay. He has always struggled because of it, but works so hard. His former speech therapist always was amazed at how fast he progressed and caught on. He has to work a lot harder to catch up with the other kids.

Ceci is doing great and is becoming quite the reader. She has always been such a bookworm like myself. When I wasn't reading to her, she was making up stories from the pictures. I am always tripping over her books in her room. I guess I need to get her a bookcase. They cover her bed and floor. She can't live without them. Her favorite book to have read to her is fairy tales. I have a good one with great illustrations by Brothers Grimm. They are little more graphic than the Disney versions, but I grew up with the original fairy tales. If you have ever read the Brothers Grimm versions you know what I'm talking about.

Scott is busy with school and finishing up his grant. He hopes to be done with it by the end of October. He still has several more podcasts and webpages to complete. He is also applying for another grant which is much larger in scale. He wants to create online training modules for distance learning teachers and teachers of hybrid courses (a course that is taught half in the classroom and the other half online). Hope that make sense.

Tae Kwon Do Testing

I know you are probably tired of the tae kwon do videos but it's very much a part of our lives so expect to see footage often. This latest batch is from two weeks ago. I am very slow with the postings. Sorry. Relief Society and the kids keep me pretty busy. Anyway, Ceci had to attempt to break three boards for her Dan Bo Nim testing. A very big deal. She will join the boys and myself as dan bo nims. Her testing will now only be every quarter. She's pretty excited about her new belt and title. Scott tested for his brown belt and had to attempt to break two boards using the high and low spin kick. He almost broke a black belt's fingers in the process.

Marcus' Scout campout

Here are a couple of photos of Marcus with his hiking backpack. His eleven-year-old scout troop decided to have a camput this weekend. It was kind of last minute, so I was scrambling to get everything ready for him. The big thing to get was the hiking backpack. He didn't have one and I must say those suckers are expensive. I had no idea until I started looking. It took a while to find one that would fit him because he is so small. It's a good pack and will grow with him. He was so excited about the campout and leaving Friday. All was going well until we got a phone call at 11:30 p.m. saying that they were bringing him home because he was sick. He had a bad headache and was throwing up. Poor guy. I think he got overheated. It's still real hot here in Texas so it didn't surprise me. He gets real sick in the heat like I do. He was pretty upset about missing all the fun. Maybe next time.