4.29.2011

Royal Wedding Watching (or a random entry about school and motherly angst)

I have no shame in admitting that I watched some Royal Wedding coverage today. It all actually worked out perfectly as today is a crazy school day. Zach has Insect Day at the park and his teacher asked that I come and get some photos and then we have our last POPs Rally (6 week award ceremony) this afternoon, which means I needed to get my work done early.

Let's just sidebar here for a moment to talk about the fact that there is only one month of school left! How can that be? JT will move to 3rd grade, which we all know is just 2 grades away from 5th and there is no way in hell he can be that old. And Zach is very confident that if he and his buddy Bobby can continue to be good in class, they will get to go to 1st grade. Both boys have talked about their top teacher picks and I have to admit I am bit antsy as due to budget cuts the school is making some changes, one of the biggest being the removal of the Autism Inclusion Program (yes, the very one that the school is well-known for) and the addition of a group they call PACE kids (which someone defined as emotionally disturbed children). I don't really know exactly what this means and I reserve the right to change my opinion but based on my one conversation, with one parent, I don't like the sounds of a child disrupting class with an emotional outbreak and the teacher having to stop and work with said kid. I am not 100% clear but I don't think these kids come with aides but they may leave at set times to work with a special teacher. I need to do more research before I get too worked up. I am sad about the Autism program leaving, not because I have a kid that gets to be part of the program but because of the incredible environment of inclusion the school has created. Okay, as I am typing, thinking this one over I realize there is a possibility of me being a tad bit hypocritical as I am heralding the awesomeness of autism inclusion but leery of emotional disturbed behavior inclusion. I guess it is the unknown that frigthens me, the self-ish fear of how it will affect my children, the lament of losing fabulous teachers and aides as well as the loss of a program that not only educated me about a disorder but also my children and the frustration that a group of children who thrive in an environment that offers them security, comfort, and repetition will be tossed in to various schools throughout the district.
Stepping off my soap-box now and back to part of my original train of thought about the boys' teacher wish lists, we also have lots of teachers that are being moved around not only within our school but the possibility of getting moved to other schools. There are only a few teachers that I am not sure I am sold on so I feel certain things will work out but that unknown factor always worries me. And yes, I do  have an entire summer to worry about so no need to stress too much right now.

School and kids is tough. I find myself always questioning whether we are doing the right thing and if they are getting what they need to succeed. I feel like my education was so special and of course only now that the boys are in public school do I feel this way. I imagine I hated most days and at some point envied the non-uniform wearing kids. Actually, I am not really sure I was aware there were other schools until 7th grade when we got bussed to a local junior high for science classes. It was such an odd feeling to get off our St. Mary's Catholic School bus right in front the courtyard while the North Pines kids were on their lunch break. We were mocked of course and we all quickly rushed in to the building to our assigned class. I wonder what the teachers thought about us? If they disliked that they had to teach us? I think that experience made me fear public school.

We have some great friends that homeschool (in a liberal arts, non-religious, cool way) and Rick and I have talked about it some but I know I could not handle it and honestly I think the boys may go insane. I think they like the structure and the social aspect of school. Not that we couldn't and wouldn't provide that at home but I think they like being away from us for some of their day too.  JT's only interest in homeschooling, is the belief that he would get to dedicate the majority of his day to baseball related activities. The other day he mentioned that a Tuesday night Rangers game in Arlington was a jersey give away night and that if it wasn't for school, we could just all take off and go.
So here I am now, taking a break from work, wedding watching, and scone eating (total dork alert but since we had all the right supplies I made a batch of strawberry scones last night - they aren't worthy of the royals but JT and I liked them).
We have a low key weekend with a small baseball tournament on Sunday.  From what I gather there are only 4 teams playing so we will just play three games and from that pick a winner, winner, chicken dinner.

Happy Weekend peeps! My big "project" for the weekend is to get all my baseball and school photos organized and loaded on some sort of public/private free site so parents and teachers can view/use them. So keep your fingers crossed and you too could be going through countless number of photos of kids you don't know.

4.26.2011

Spring Break Archives

I've gotten a request or two for some more spring break photos and while tehse requests came long ago, I am just now getting to it. So here are a few more of our adventures with LJ in Galveston.









4.07.2011

a letter from my desk

Work is out of control crazy right now. I spend most of my time looking at this:


The flowers are honeysuckle that are in bloom all over Austin right now and has a smell that reminds me of lilacs; one of the things I miss about the good ol' PNW. In fact, things here are really pretty right now because it is wild flower season. Of course, as I said, I am stuck at my desk most of the day so I have no photos and very little in the ways of updates. I can dig up a few though.

Zach 
Currently he is obsessed with Lady Gaga. At all times of the day he is singing various LG songs. (No mom, I dont think he knows what the lyrics mean but need I remind you that someone bought their daughter the Purple Rain record). He has also been coming home with lots of Lady Gage artwork/projects from school including his version of Rick's computer showing Lady Gaga on the music player. Zach has also been busy selling candy bars for his baseball team. He is a fabulous salesman although last night he discovered that he doesn't get to use the money to buy a new lego set and well you can imagine how long he cried.

JT
I find JT truly fascinating. His level and depth of curiousity always amazes and impresses me. Recently he was absorbed in a NOVA special that walked through the various projects and their progress as we try to get man (or woman) to Mars. Of course, he is knee deep in baseball and if he had his way, we would let him drop out of school so he could play and watch baseball all day. It is great fun to watch him play especially how serious he can get on the field.

Rick
He is building some sort of hut, lean-to, shack in the corner of the backyard. He swears it is a lawn shed although JT said something about it being a playhouse with some of dad's stuff in it and I have my suscipion that it is some sort of work shack for me since I think Rick is tired of me moping around the house and yelling at the stuffed bears in my office who don't seem to pull their weight.

In an odd family update, I feel that I have to admit to getting cable back. The boys were 98% sure that their lives would end if they couldn't watch baseball this year. We had planned on getting MLB network and streaming through the computer to the TV but they black out Rangers games in our area and that is most important team for the boys. Oddly, despite having cable back the boys still watch netflix shows. I confess that I caught an episode or two of the Real Housewives but for the most part we haven't changed our ways and we really are only watching baseball off cable (read that as ESPN and Fox Sports Southwest). And if for some strange reason, some executive or other person with pull at ATT Uverse reads this blog, it would be awesome if  you would let us pick a-la-carte channels rather than pay for all the channels we don't care about. Just a suggestion!

Well, that is the best I have for now.




4.03.2011

a week...of baseball

Here is the basic run down for our week and the reason why I rarely call or email anyone these days. Add to each day that I worked at least a 10 hour day (things at work are ridiculously crazy, we are short staffed, blah, blah, blah).

Monday - JT had a baseball game
Tuesday - Zach had a baseball practice
Wednesday - the Largent/Lucas clans watched the Rangers play the Round Rock Express. This was the highlight of the week. Since Nolan Ryan bought the Rangers last summer, our minor league team changed their affiliation from Astros to Rangers. The game was great fun even if crowded but that was easy to overlook since we had some fabulous seats. I loaded photos from the game below. While we go to a Rangers game each year, this is the first time we got to be this close to them. We are looking forward to a great season of fun with the Express.
Thursday - Zach had practice and JT had a game
Friday - No baseball! I snuck away to Round Top with Chandra for our annual pilgrimage. Sadly we came away this year basically empty-handed. Chandra did buy this cool head for her garden but neither of us found a thing on our long list of wanted items.
Saturday - JT and Zach both had games. In the evening we had some friends over for dinner and beer on the patio. It was great to get back to having people over and enjoying time on the deck. Hopefully we will get a few more in before it gets too hot.
Sunday - for the most part it has been a lazy day but JT did have practice and as I type we are watching a baseball game. I succumbed to Rick's whining and let him add cable back so he could watch baseball. Funny but after 5 months without cable none of us really miss it. With the exception of ESPN we mostly find ourselves watching the Netflix shows on the Wii. Ok and I admit to sneaking in an episode or two of Real Housewives.

And just to make you all extra jealous, both boys have games tomorrow!