Mid Week Update

So it looks like my previous post about my sister selling her house was premature, as it seems to have become clear that the potential buyers were BATSH*T CRAZY so... back to the drawing board there it seems. Keeping fingers crossed for her though that she gets an offer from a sane person soon! LOL.

I spent about two hours filling out camp forms last night and seriously regretting the decision to enroll the kids in two separate camps this summer (the forms, oh my god, the forms.... and the physicals that still need to be scheduled... and the forms, did I mention the forms?) I even needed to fill out camp forms for Caroline for this summer, as she'll be starting at camp Katan. Caroline's camp forms include a separate appendix detailing her dietary restrictions. SIGH.

Joel is in Saint Louis at a conference for the remainder of the week, work is BUSY, Becca starts a weekly Mad Science elective after school tomorrow, and the weather here is in the middle of a several day stretch of 80+ degrees!

House Guests

It looks like we'll have some extended-stay house guests soon! The folks over at Lessons From Charlie & Amelia (my sister and her family) put their house on the market on Thursday night and got an all-cash offer for 3k over asking price after all of a whopping two days on the market. The catch is, the buyer wants to close on April 25th. The original plan was for my sister to move down here and take up tenancy of our rental house up the street. But the tenants who are in there now have a lease that goes to the end of July. So with things happening WAY FASTER than any of us expected, it looks like my sister and her family will be down here within the month and finishing out the school year here! When I told Ben his cousins may be living with us for a few months he looked at me blankly and said, "Wait... What?!" Which is pretty much the same reaction I got from Joel ;) Come on down guys!! LOL.

Pretty Sunrise

The only up-side to having to drag myself out of bed at 6:20 on a Monday morning was this beautiful sunrise! We had an eventful weekend, including a dinner date with friends Saturday night, Ben had a friend over to play in place of flag football on Saturday which was cancelled due to rain, Becca had a friend's birthday party to attend, and Joel's second cousin's daughter and her mother came over for dinner last night. (At least we THINK that's how they are related... some distant relation...) anyway the daughter is starting a pediatrics residency at the hospital Joel works at and they were in town looking for an apartment for her. In another odd coincidence Joel's second cousin is a pediatric oncologist also. Joel had heard a vague rumor at some point that he had a distant relative who was also a pediatric oncologist, and they met at a conference a couple years back and confirmed their relation.

Taxes & Parent-Teacher Conferences

I started working on our taxes this week after much procrastinating, which yielded an unpleasant surprise. Our federal tax bill looks to be about double what it was the past couple of years. Not really sure why, we did have more income but not so much more that I thought it would be a particularly big deal. Not sure if some tax rules may have changed, or what. I think we are going to take it to a professional this time for a second opinion (although we better do that soon as we do not have much time left!) In the meantime I am filling out a new W-4 with extra withholding, for next year. A LOT of extra withholding, which is not going to be pleasant to get used to :( But... probably not as unpleasant as owing 10k in taxes.... right....

We also met with Ben's homeroom teacher and his math teacher. To backtrack a little, on Tuesday we met with the therapist who has been helping us deal with Becca's behavior issues (wetting her pants, general hyperactivity/overstimulation/anxiety that she seems to have). Becca has been doing MUCH better and has completely stopped wetting since we started the behavioral therapy. Some testing puts her in the sort of "wait and see" category for ADHD, the therapist not wanting to diagnose someone so young. But her schoolwork is fine right now and her teacher seems to be able to redirect her attention okay at school for now. But while we were wrapping up with the therapist and telling her we would not be back for another visit unless something came up, we got on the subject of Ben's school issues.She handed us a sheet of paper with a list of ADD symptoms, and every single one of them sounded like Ben. So Joel and I decided we would not mention this to his teachers and just let them tell us what they thought.

So we arrived at the conferences yesterday, which were back-to-back, and both Ben's teachers brought up ADD on their own and both said they thought Ben behaved exactly like a kid with ADD. His homeroom teacher even said he reminds her exactly of her own son, who was just diagnosed with ADD recently as well. We were shocked to find out from his math teacher that he is not staying in his seat during class, he is getting up and moving around, and seems totally incapable of concentrating/paying attention although she was quick to say that it doesn't seem malicious at all, or like he doesn't care, just that he can't.

So we came home and scheduled an intake appointment for an ADD evaluation for him, which is a long process that involves two parent sessions and probably four sessions of testing with Ben, so it will be a while before we have any results.

Caroline's Baby Doll

Love the smiles on these girls!

The Trouble with Fractions

After school today Ben is starting math tutoring. He has been having some trouble with school in general lately and math in particular. Most of his troubles are organizational-- forgetting to bring home materials he needs for homework, forgetting to turn in assignments (or not being able to find them), etc. We had a big blowout over homework yesterday when he forgot AGAIN to bring home everything he needed. His video games systems have all found a new home in my closet for at least two weeks/ until a pattern of responsible behavior starts to emerge.

The math tutor is because in addition to forgetting assignments, etc, he is also not paying attention in math class and having trouble with fractions, which is pretty much the only thing he's been studying in math this entire quarter. The quarter ends Friday, and his math average is an 80 (a C). He got a 78% on a quiz on Friday and has a unit test on fractions this coming Friday. His teacher is letting everyone make corrections to Friday's quiz for half-credit, so I am hoping he can get the quiz grade up to a B and with a little extra help get a good grade on Friday's unit test and hopefully make it out of the quarter with a B (though that might be too much to hope for at this point). The math tutor is one of the other teachers at his school, she is coming over to the house every Monday at 3:30, and I am hoping that this week maybe she can find an extra hour towards the end of the week to help him study for Friday's test.

The math issues would not be so aggravating if he weren't so absent minded / disorganized. His homeroom teacher says his desk and cubby are a mess and he can never find anything. His backpack and his homework folder are a mess too, despite my daily pleading with him to clean them out / only bring home what he needs, etc. We may be meeting with his homeroom teacher this week as well to work out a plan to get Ben more organized/take care of his materials. This year his teachers have been nice about giving out extra copies / letting him turn in assignments late, but in 5th grade I understand that the teachers will not do that anymore. In which case we will have a big problem if he doesn't get his act together :(

Moody, but still cute

We were at flag football from 11 until 2 so Caroline didn't go down for her nap until 2:30. I got her up at 5 to get ready to go out to dinner. She was very discombobulated! But cute, always cute :)