Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! Ours went very well. Went to my dad's house first. Then went to my mom's house. The boys did surpringly well for not having any naps.

While at my mom's house, Ronin started crying as if he was in pain. Finally figured out it was his wrist. I think Kalynn and Ronin were rough housing. We were about to take him to the ER but as time went on, his was using it more.

Didn't do anything Friday. Had a cookout at our neighbor's house on Saturday. Today (Sunday) I had to go help decorate the float for the parade. Kalynn and her troop will be in the parade.

While I was helping with the float, Bill and the kids went to our friend's little girl's birthday party. It's at this bounce place here in town. While I was gone, Bill said that Ronin climbed up this tall slide and slide down it by himself! Then he went into some obstacle course dealie by himself! Ryker loved the slide too! He laid on his back and slid and he giggled all the way down. They were really enjoying themselves! Ronin had a fit when it was time to leave.

I can't believe the week is already over. Tomorrow back to the grind. It's kind of nice getting back into our routine. But at the same time, it was nice getting a break when Bill was here. Now, just 3 more weeks til Christmas!

Lots to update! Sorry I've been MIA, will explain that in a sec.

Last week, Bill's brother andnephew came to stay with us for a couple of days. They left Thursday..

Thursday, our computer was messed up. We'd boot it up and it'd be a black screen, and it'd say "enter password". He called that day, got the return box Friday. We tried shipping it yesterday,but Bill missed the guy by a couple of minutes. So hopefully, they'll pick it up today soon.

That day was also Girl Scouts. We have our Christmas parade this year, in case anyone is interested.. It's Dec 1, here in town..

Yesterday, Ryker had his swallow study. We had one done because he was choking on juice and on food that wasn't cut up small. They strapped him in a chair, and fed him food covered in barium. He had no problems with the barium. Anyway, they found that his chewing is uncoordinated..His tongue doesn't go around, he'll chomp on it until it dissolves and then swallows it. He also swallows before he's ready if that makes sense. So, now the OT knows what to work on and she'll give me some things to do with him too.

I'm excited about Thanksgiving! I really enjoy spending time with family..

Anyway, that's pretty much it for right now

Girl Scout Camp out

Obviously, since I am writing this blog at 8am, I didn't stay LOL

Overall the camp out was really fun! I ended up getting lost. I thought I turned on the right street but I ended up getting more into the boondocks. Fortunately, one of the moms was already there so her and her husband helped me find my way back.

The camp itself was really neat! Here's the camp we stayed at, and we were at Fort Texas (scroll all the way to the bottom)
http://www.hoblitzelle.com/Accommodations.htm

We stayed inside that wooden fort.

When we got there, I went ahead and acted like we were going to stay. I still was waffling. Set up the tent, got all of our gear in the tent.

We did the flag ceremony, and we had our investiture ceremony for all the new Girl Scouts and leaders.

After that we did our scheduled activities. There was an obstacle station, a first aid station and an "orienteering" station. I had NO idea what that was until yesterday! The girls learned how to read a compass. They took some simple directions (go west, 10 steps) to find a treasure, which was a bag of candy. The girls LOVED that.

We had about an hour and a half until dinner, so we went to a nearby park and played for a bit.

Headed back and had dinner. We had 2 of those Coleman stoves which was nice. We had hotdogs, frito pie and quesadillas. Dinner was actually pretty good.

Hung out until our egg drop game. We had to come up with a way to keep our egg (that we named Charlie) from breaking. We used a bowl with yarn and cotton balls. Kalynn was chosen to go up the stairs and drop it. She was so nervous. I think she felt that if the egg broke, that it would be her fault, which of course, wouldn't be. She dropped it and it was ok!

After that some of the troops did skits. It was too funny! One of the troops did a "fashion show". They did a "P" coat, which was one of their coats with the letter "P" on it. They did a doll dress which this girl wore a dress with dolls attached to it. YOu get the picture LOL

After that we did a bon fire, and smores. We had an award ceremony where our troop won "Cleanest Camp Site" and 2nd place in the Egg Drop.

By that time, the temps have dropped. We were FREEZING!!! I don't think we were well prepared, so I decided to go ahead and go. I felt SOOOOO bad because Kalynn really wanted to stay. But we ARE going to go camping again..

We got home around 9ish..Probably half of the girls left.

Molly, OH I agree. Which is why I didn't really think much of it when she did that. I thought she was just being difficult, and doing the whole selective seeing thing. Just being a kid LOL But, looking back, she's done it with toys, etc. It all makes sense, since she has so many problems with reading, and writing. Ryker's OT was a lot more helpful than the diagnostician at Kalynn's school. In fact, I thought she was a bit rude. But next time Bill will be going with me since he's a special ed teacher too.


I'm still not sure if we're going to stay the night at the camp out tomorrow night. For one, Kalynn may not go since her behavior hasn't been the best at school. If she doesn't go, I will still go but will leave at 10. I was watching the news and it's supposed to be COLDER!!

I need to get a few things:
-borrow sleeping bag from Mandy
-get red sweat shirts for me and Kalynn
-maybe thermal underwear?
-clean out ice chest (I just lost the word for it..is it ice chest??)
-get batteries for the flash light

I think that's it..

I love Ryker's OT! I asked her about Kalynn and she explained to me what everything meant so everything makes sense!

As I said in my previous post, she has trouble with visual closure and visual discrimination. She explained with visual closure, it's hard for her to look at a word, for example, with missing letters, and know what that word is. For example, she woulld have trouble with c_t in the hat, is cat in the hat. "Normal" brains can fill in the missing letters..

Visual discrimination is where she can't tell between different words. Her teacher said she reads "not" as "in' and "in" as "not". She also gave the example of asking a child to get a spoon on a table with other stuff on it. A child with problems with visual discrimination can't see it.

I noticed that she does have trouble with things like that. For example, I asked her to put her shoes up. Her shoes were on the floor, and of course, our floor has toys, etc on it. She couldn't see it. She'd pass right by it and not see it. I really thought she was just pulling my leg or just being difficult. But after the OT explained that, I don't think she saw her shoes.

She also said that this is VERY common in kids with ADHD. Next time I see her, she's going to give me ideas on how to help her.

This week was overall, pretty good.

Thursday was a bit busy. We had an ARD, and honestly, I'm not sure what to make of it. I think most of you know that Kalynn is in special ed under OHI ( NF1) and speech impairment. She is receiving Speech and Occupational therapy for her handwriting. Any time you want to add a service, you have to have an ARD (Admission, Review, Dismissal), which is a meeting with the diagnostician, gen ed teacher, special ed teacher and an administrator (VP or principal) .

Anyway, I was concerned with her reading. She told me that the words swirl and then disappear. They asked me to get her eyes checked but I can't see the opthamologist until Feb. So, from what I understand, there isn't much we can do until we know what's going on. If it's her vision, we can have someone with Region X (they work with the vision impaired) work with her.

The OT did a visual perception test, and I'm still not quite understanding what it all means and how it impacts her reading. Here's an excerpt from it:

OK, can anyone explain what this test is? This is what the report says:

"...designed to assess ability to recognize and visualize an object or shape without having to reproduce it, evaluates spatial relationships, visual discrimination, figure ground, visual closure and visual memory. At chronological age 6 yr 2 mo, Kalynn's perceptual age was 4 yr 10 mo

Kalynn had the most difficulty with visual closure and visual discrimination.
That is trying to see the whole picture from parts and discrimination what is different. This is usually seen in school with reading and math skills."



After that ARD meeting, we had our Girl Scout meeting. Our camp out is next weekend. It's been ages since I went camping. We're going to be sleeping in tents. On the hard ground. In the cold. Since I'm co leader, I have to be there, so I can't chicken out LOL I think it'll be fun though.. Kalynn's excited.

Anyway, I guess that's it!

Good afternoon!

We had a good weekend!

Friday was Halloween. We went TOT'ing downtown. It was crowded. It seemed more crowded than last year! The kids got a ton of candy. We got lots of comments on the boys, because, of course, they were very cute! Kalynn went to her first haunted house. She has been bugging me to go to one. I let Bill take her. Bill said she did really well! Kalynn liked it!

Me? I haven't been to a haunted house since I was 6 (I think I was 6). Mom took us to this haunted house and I remember there was this grave where this hand was sticking out. Anyway, I scared shitless and haven't been back since LOL

Our friends, Naomi and Chad, and their crew joined us. Kaia (her daughter that's the boys' age) was Pooh and her little boy (who's about 2 weeks) was Tigger. They were too cute! After that, we went to dinner to a restaurant there in downtown.

After we got back, we hurried and went TOT'ing with my friend Kim and her crew (they live 3 doors from us) I took the boys in a wagon and we just went down one street since it was close to their bedtime. The boys seem to understand what to do. Ronin stood at the door, holding his bucket out. He didn't quite understand that you're supposed to go to the next house so he just stood there LOL And of course, Kalynn had a blast TOT'ing with her friends in the neighborhood. We have a TON of candy.

Saturday, we went to Kaia's birthday party. The kids had a blast and Kaia got a lot of great stuff!

Sunday, didn't do much of anything. Just laundry.

Anyway, today I need to clean. My house is a wreck.