Another week has flown by

And the phrase minutes drag while months fly pops back in my head.

Things remain at a lightly less than frantic pace. I'm proud to say that I did not volunteer for any further responsibilities. They needed a Daisy troop leader and I just.could.not. bring myself to do that no matter how much Kayla thinks I love Sonia more because I'm her Brownie troop leader. So Kayla's become an honorary brownie. She'll even get a vest as soon as I buy one. Joey's passing on that option, although he had a good time making Smores with the girls this week.

We have 3 weeks left to soccer. Not that I'm counting or anything. Or celebrated canceling practice for rain this week.

We had parent-teacher conferences yesterday. This being our first year in public school we weren't sure what to expect, but it was fine. (At this point friends can stop reading, this is mostly for the grandparents...) Kayla's teacher said she was doing well, smart and getting along well with other kids, no matter what Kayla's come home telling me that kids weren't her friends.

Sonia's teacher likes her. And surprisingly Sonia's been mostly paying attention in class. Her seat was moved to move her away from trouble prone boys to near girls, so I think that has helped a bit as well. Not bragging, but she's reading at grade 5 level. The books they take computer tests on are through grade 3 or 4 (AR testing) so she has little challenge there. Math, on the other hand... we're still working on getting her to focus. And writing. God bless the teacher that gets Sonia to write legibly. And her standardized test results should bring up the entire 2nd grade average a few points.

Joey's teacher had nice things to about him, he's sweet and well mannered. Joey's come home with 'excellent' behavior days pretty much every day. Joey really liking rules, order and structure, he's the one to remind the kids he sits with to be quiet and listen.  So far his classmates seem to tolerate him doing this. I volunteer in his class for 1 hour a week every other week to see how he's doing. Not to say I love him more than the other kids. Nope. But his teacher sent out 'can you volunteer; forms I filled it out AND Joey remembered to turn it in. I filled them out for Kayla's and Sonia's classes as well, but I haven't heard back from their teachers or room moms, either. He tests poorly, still. Even worse than the standardized test at the end of last year. It's the same exact testing system, so it's not comparing 2 different tests. (MAP testing) *sigh* We'll have to find a way to work that out. Alot of it comes from his anxiety and rushing through things.  Amazing how differently the kids react to the same situation.

Anyway.. That's about all the school related news.

In weather news.. we had rain. REAL rain for 2 days. incredible.
Of course it started with a thunder storm at 3 am. And I know for certain it was 3 am because it had everyone of us up at 3:12 am. There was a loud flash and crack of lightening that shook the house and had me thinking "are there any trees nearby that just fell on the house after getting hit by lightening?" Larry was thinking "oh, crap, I should have unplugged all things electrical, especially the TV because the house might have gotten hit by lightining" and the kids woke up. Not sure from the bang or the resulting howling dog who was as scared if not more so than the kids. Anyway. It was excitement. We almost never get real rain, much less downpour and thunder and lightening. Next time, if there is a next time, sometime in waking hours would be nice..

And as I was standing in the cool rain waiting to pick up the kids, one of the other moms said "you know why we have this rain?" and I said, no. and she answers "it's because my family is visiting from Canada. They called last week and asked what they should bring and if it rains. And I said it never rains and it's pretty hot in October" And I laughed. Apparently my parents aren't the only ones who can bring bad weather with them. And here I was thinking they were unique in that.  At least her family only brought rain. My parents have managed to cripple transportation in Chicago and Philadelphia for snow and ice. Overachievers.