It is Quiet in the House...

sweet people.

and a thirty six year old face with no makeup (mascara doesn't count).
the kids are gone!


Eli left for camp last Friday - he will be back late tonight.
Emma and Tripp left yesterday morning... they will be back Friday afternoon.


I am sitting here with my grad school application filled out. I need three letters of recommendation. That is all. I just need to drive it down to TTU.

My options are:

1. take a shower and wash my hair and fix it.

2. clean the house.

3. go turn my stuff in at TTU and get this (snow) ball rolling.

4. go to work with my husband.

Last night, we ended up doing nothing. Actually, we enjoyed four hours of Ice Road Truckers and it might have been mixed with Pawn Stars. I don't know. I dozed from boredom and a tad bit of unhappiness. :) Gotta love Alaskan Ice Road Truckers. Of course, the people driving are nuts and they may wreck. They are driving on ice, in the dark, for goodness sakes! Crazy. I hate that show. It annoys me. I think that they people that they are delivering things to should just move to civilization, where the temps are normal, and roads aren't made of ice, and it is daylight when it is supposed to be and dark when it is supposed to be.

Oh, my other subject is my van. My Van only has 60,000 miles. I spent $420 yesterday for brakes and a hose that was leaking fluid that smelled funny. (antifreeze). And guess what? None of it is covered int he bumper-to-bumper warrenty that I paid for. I spent the money I had been saving for my beach vacation in three weeks. So now I have less that $100 in vacation money. :( Short of prostitution, I don't know how to fix this. I already have a job - but no payday till July.

Six.

On Sunday, Tripp turned six. Here he is, posing with Emma.

She held up his fingers for him.

Here is his wonderful birthday cake made my Cousin-Aunt Mary B.

Since he loves S.B. he was so excited!

Here is Dave, in control of the party, lighting the candles.

I went swimming. And then, I was taking the pictures.

Here is the mad mob of kids. We had a great time and was thankful for a pool party after an afternoon rain storm an hour and a half before the get-together.


Here is Tripp and his birthday gift from his daddy. :)

I love you, Tripp!

A Little Extra Help.

I started my job last week. I am teaching an extended school year class for preschool special ed.
I even have the badge to prove it. And, I am loving it.

When I started out, I would have never thought that I would be interested in special ed. I took the classes that I had to, no more. And while I have had my application for graduate school since two days after graduation, I haven't turned it in. I thought I would do Library Science.

I was wrong. wrong. wrong.

There are sixteen students in my class, with me, another teacher and an aid. I would lightly call myself a teacher. I am really learning. The other teacher is a thirty-plus year special ed teacher. And I love her. She is wise and this job, this life, is not only what she does - it is how she lives.

So I am excited about grad school. I look at the children in the class as students who just need extra help.

Eli, Tripp and Emma have met a few of my students. For Eli, it was easy for him to understand the differences. But for Emma and Tripp? It is not so easy. Today, at the pool, one of my boys from school came up to see me. How do I explain all of this to Emma and Tripp?

So Emma says, "Mom, is that one of your kids from Special Ed?"
I didn't quite like the way it sounded. So, I told her, "He is one of my students. He just needs a little extra help." So Tripp asks, "What is wrong with him?" And I told him, "Sometimes, he has trouble understanding what we are teaching. Has Ms. Jennifer ever taught you something and you didn't "get" it, so she told you a few more times?" And Tripp says, "Yes - so he does the same thing?" And that was that. They got it.

I hope that what I am doing will teach Emma and Tripp and Eli to be compassionate to others. I hope that they see others who need "extra help" a little differently. I hope that they take the time to give extra help. Because in some way, we all need it.