Shrubs and Salsa Online

Well, the boys are back in school!  Woot!! So far both boys are doing great and having no troubles.

Camden needs to be at the bus stop to catch the bus to high school at 6:21 AM.  Luckily he’s an early riser and always wakes up around 5 AM.  It’ll make high school all that much easier for him.  On the other hand, he’s in band.  They will be practicing every  T, W and Th until 6 PM and when there are night games he’ll be out past 11 PM.  So that will wear him out.  I’m sure he’ll get used to it eventually.

Jake started middle school and is excited about several of his classes.  Among the tops, for him, is science.  Why?  Because they are sitting on yoga / exercise balls this year, instead of regular chairs.  Maybe he’ll strengthen his core muscles this year.    Other exciting stuff involves him starting band this year.  He’s playing a trumpet / cornet.  They finally get to start playing their instruments this week and he’s looking forward to it. But not to carrying his instrument to school and back every day. 

I’m getting used to working at PetSmart.  It’s not as horrible as I had imagined it would be.  Ok, so it’s not horrible at all.  Everyone is really nice, even the customers, and the kids like to hear about all the dogs I meet each day.   The best part about working is the paycheck, which allowed us to book a vacation to go see Dave, Jen and Max this fall!  Can’t wait!!!  The bad part is that I think I’m allergic to everything in that store…  Keeping my fingers crossed that my Claritin continues to work well!

Wes is great and is still working. Looks like things may be starting to pick back up in the housing market.  Woot!

That’s about all for now.

Later,
Sherri

So, Jake’s been in public school, and Camden’s been at a new school, for one whole week.  Five days.  And they are both sick!!!

Jake has not been to a doctor in 4 years.  When I’m in the doctors office with Camden, they ask me about Jake — “Do you still have Jake?  We haven’t seen him in years…”   Now, he’s got strep throat.  The boy is miserable!  Poor thing.

In addition, Camden feels very warm, although the thermometer says he’s not feverish.  He felt bad all day at school.  Wes feels like he’s coming down with a sinus infection and for the last couple hours, I’ve started feeling nauseous and achy.

Anyone want to come over and take care of us?

Sherri

Jake and Cam, with whipped cream on their noses while eating Fried Ice Cream at a Mexican restaurant.

Well, Camden has been “trying” to do it for the whole year now and he’s finally accomplished his task. He’s gotten such bad grades that he’s being kicked out of the science magnet middle school program. Today, Friday, January 16th, is his last day there. As of Monday, he will be attending the local middle school (which just so happens to be across the street.)

Jake has been talking about going back to public school for a few weeks now. We thought he’d do it at the beginning of next year. But since Camden will be attending the same school starting next Monday, Jake, Wes and I think this would be just as good a time for him to go back as well; maybe better, because he’ll have Camden there to sort of guide him.

I can’t decide if I’m happy, nervous, sad.  Wes has been bugging me for years to get a job, so now I guess I’ll have to get one…  It won’t be a “real” office type job, though.  I’m thinking Starbucks or McDonalds (I’ve done that before, and it was kind of fun), or one of the new craft stores opening up around me here.  Good news is we’ll have vacation money now.  Look out Max!  Here we come!!

Sherri

Our neighborhood publishes a nice little newsletter each quarter.  The publishers (some neighbors) were asking for articles from anyone, including kids.  So I encouraged Jake to rewrite his end of year project into an article (he had done a sort of science fair project) and submit it. And he agreed.

Ok, I admit, I did ask him, but he wasn’t interested.  And since I had already told her that I’d get him to write something, she was sort of pressuring me, and I felt like I had to give her something.  So I rewrote Jake’s report into a readable something and sent it to her.  It did appear in the last newsletter and I reprint it here for your reading enjoyment.

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Can You Teach An Old Dog New Tricks?

This is Katy

By Jake Bush

I have been home schooled since I was in second grade. Having school at home can be a lot of fun, but we still have to do hard work.

Last year, when I was in fifth grade, and I had to do a big project about animals (kind of like a science fair project). I decided to see if I could teach my 4 year old dog, Katy, how to roll over. Everyone thinks Katy is very dumb but I know she is smart and I wanted to prove it by teaching her how to roll over.

Part of my project included researching how to teach dogs tricks. I looked at lots of websites, and read lots of books. I even watched dog training videos on YouTube. Once I figured out the methods I wanted to use, I started working with Katy every day.

To train her, I had to get her to sit, then to lie down, and then I told her to roll over as I passed the treat I had hidden in my hand sort of behind her head and over her back. As soon as she did the trick, I gave her the treat (see below). If she didn’t do the trick, I started over. It was hard at first, but she started to get the hang of it after a few days, and by the end of three weeks, she could do the trick on command.

I accomplished my purpose, which was to teach my dog a trick that she hadn’t learned before. I also accomplished my goal because Katy will now roll over even if she does not receive a treat.

This experiment taught me that you can teach an old dog a new trick, and that you can have fun while you do it.

Well, April is almost over, but I’m getting an update done even if it kills me!!!

Yes, we’ve moved again. But I’m pretty sure this will be the last time. I’ve got this website paid for like 2 years, and am not using it for anything else, so it may as well be my family website. I’m going to be working on getting a photo gallery, a forum and other stuff set up here. Just bear with me. I’ll figure it out eventually.

So, you ask, what are we up to?

Well, not much. Why else would I not have written in so long???

Camden is doing great in school now. He is in the Symphonic Band and they just had regional contests (UIL) and they did great! My favorite part was the sight reading competition. Each band has to play a piece of music they have never played before. The instructor, Mr Hutchins, had been practicing with them at school. At the competition, they had several minutes for Mr H to go over it with the band. They went measure by measure with him pointing out each change and who did what. Then in the second section, he sort of sang it to them so they had an idea what it sounded like. Then, they had to play the piece. Let me tell you, I was amazed!!!!! I expected missed notes, people playing off tune, and general mayhem. But OMG! They nailed it. It sounded like they had played the piece 100 times. They got the highest scores from each judge. It was great.

Camden is also “in” to the Rubic’s Cube. Remember those things? Well, he not only has one, but he can solve it. He has it down to around 2 minutes right now. I’m intending to take a video of it and post it somewhere on the web. Maybe YouTube. Just so everyone can see him do it.

Jake’s doing great! He’s letting his hair grow out. I need to get a picture of him. We are planning our next year’s curriculum and I was surprised to find out that the math he is doing for 5th grade is going to lead to him doing a new math program next year at the 7th grade level! Woo-hoo! We are going to study the Far East next year and learn about China, India and more. Looks really interesting and we are already looking forward to doing it.

Wes had been interviewing for a job in PA. We were hoping to get closer to Dave, Jen and the baby. But that didn’t work out for us… Lots of stuff going on here at Silestone, though. He’s gone from from being plant manager of US Stone to being a sales marketing manager for Cosentino USA to being plant manager of Silestone all in a few months. All without leaving the company. Anyway, he’s up to the challenge and is happy about everything as he can be.

My business is doing great. I am making money now and am very excited about it. If you haven’t looked at my website lately, please check it out. I’m doing some secret shopper stuff on the side, too. That’s not as fun as it sounds. Lots of reports go into each “shop” and if I really think about what I”m being paid to drive all over town and then fill out the reports, it’s really not worth it…

I’m also really “in” to budgeting right now. Believe it or not… budgeting can be fun. At least now I know where we have money and I spend SO much less of it now. Instead of borrowing from savings each month to avoid bouncing checks, we have extra in our account and are going to be able to pay cash for Christmas this year. Woo-hoo! I’ve read tons of budgeting books and online resources and have learned a lot. I can’t believe I fought learnign to budget for so long.

Anyway, what else? Dave and Jen are doing great. The baby is due around May 21st and they have decided to name him Max! We are all flying back there in June to visit and I get to babysit while we are there. Can’t wait!

I guess that’s about all. I’ll post again when I get the photo gallery set up and figured out. We do have a forum, if you like that kind of stuff. I don’t expect it to get a lot of use, but you never know.

Til later,

Sherri