February 10, 2013

Dear Mama,

Hi ya! How are ya? Hope all is well with you in your life right 
now. I am grateful that Terry's diagnoses wasn't worse than what it 
was. I was expecting cancer or something akin to it, and I am not 
certain a hernia is all that great either, but I would pick that over 
cancer. I am just sad that she is almost going to have to wait almost a 
year to have the surgery to fix her situation. Man, I am glad I don't 
live in Canada, but I am certain that we (America) are headed in the 
same direction.

Let me get you started on the highlights of our week. 

Tuesday was 
Parent Teacher Conferences in San Jon. I got there at 4:00, just as 
school was letting out. Josh was having basketball practice, but the 
twins and I went to all of Josh's classes first. All of his teachers had 
great things to say about Josh; that he is funny, creative, intelligent, 
grasps concepts quickly, enjoyable, outstanding young man, etc... But 
they also all agreed that he is very unorganized. This boy has always 
been unorganized. I have tried several ways to help him get organized, 
but to no avail. His grades are lower than they could be just because 
even though he has done the homework, he can't seem to find it and turn 
it in on time. I am so frustrated with him, partly because his 
disorganization doesn't seem to bother him and so he doesn't try harder 
to be better organized, and partly because I know he could do better if 
he just exerted a little effort. Anyway, the twins have a few classes 
with a few of the same teachers, so I got to kill three birds with one 
stone so to speak. After visiting all of their teachers, I have come to 
the conclusion that their only problem is that they want to race through 
assignments so fast that they rarely read all of the instructions, just 
the first half, and by doing so, usually omit something important that 
they were supposed to have done. Regardless, most of the grades were 
A's, a few B's, and one C for all of the kids combined. The math 
teacher is trying to get something going next year with the twins, and 
that is to do Pre-Algebra and Algebra at the same time. She thinks they 
are very bright and are very capable as long as they can learn to follow 
those instructions. She still has to clear it with the school 
superintendent. We shall see.

Thursday was Matt's Parent Teacher Conference. Mr. Miracle was 
there and shared some really funny stories about Matt and his sense of 
humor. He seems to like his art class at the college as long as he can 
do art his way. He doesn't like assignments, and tries to spray his 
drawings with hair spray when no one is looking in order to stop working 
on it, 'cause once it's sprayed, you can't add to it. He loves the 
dinosaur museum and Dr. Axel is contemplating whether Matt is capable of 
cleaning the actual dinosaur bones, and if so, should he be allowed to 
do so. We shall see. Anyway, Mr. Mericle suggested we put in Matt's 
next IEP that Mr. Mericle allow Matt to use his camera, and he will 
teach him photography. All of his pictures will be donated to the 
yearbook staff and if any of the pictures are really good, they will use 
them in the yearbook. This also insures that Mr. Mericle will be with 
Matt next year, which of course, I am always in favor of. It will be 
Matt's last year of school.

Friday, I took Brenna to Clovis for an eye exam, and yes, she needs 
glasses, and at the same time, I picked up my glasses. They are far 
better than the last pair, but they are still blurry where they 
shouldn't be. They suggested I wear them for a bit and if I am still 
unhappy, to bring them back. I have had a headache ever since while my 
eyes continue to try to adjust to the blurriness. So, yes, I will be 
bringing them back, but I will wait for Brenna's glasses to come in, 
making one trip instead of two. When we got home from Clovis, we ate 
some lunch and then I took Josh to the MVD to get his learner's permit 
to drive. Then we went and bought him some shoes, and then we went to 
the empty church parking lot to have him do a little practice driving. 
It was a good thing that the lot was empty because he hit several 
imaginary cars. He has a long way to go before I will allow him to 
drive to the bus stop 13 miles away with a small jaunt on the 
Interstate. He is eager though, and not fearful, so that may be a good 
thing, and then again... well, we shall see. Friday, the twins went to 
Beck's for a sleepover as part of their birthday celebrations. She also 
took them to the movies to see "The Life of Pi". They came back on 
Saturday full of smiles.

With the twins gone, our Saturday morning was very quiet. We had 
breakfast, cleaned up the house, cooked lunch so that Josh could eat and 
go off to another basketball game. And then I started working on 
birthday cakes for Sam and Cale. They also wanted to take cupcakes to 
share with their classmates on Monday for their birthday, but I wasn't 
going to make them on Sunday, so I did those, too. They were trying to 
get out of going to school on their birthday, but I told them that they 
had to. Their teacher has a birthday the same day and she is going to 
be there, so they had to be there, too. Anyway, we ended up staying up 
quite late waiting for Josh to get back from his game so we could drive 
to San Jon to pick him up. They didn't win although Josh says the score 
was really close. He couldn't remember what the score was though.

Today, Sunday, I didn't get my nap in, and I am ready to crawl in 
bed and let Jay close up the house and turn off all of the lights, but I 
know he is as tired as I am. Maybe we could get the kids to do it, 
yeah, that's the ticket! Our Family Home Evening activity was to play 
the LifeStory game. It was fun and informative. Mama, I love you, but 
I am making tons of spelling mistakes, and having to go back to correct 
myself because my eyes just want to close. So, I am going to close this 
letter first. Take care, your 4th, Lisa