Book Character Parade

Halloween Day ended Carli's elementary school's Red Ribbon Week.

They had a book character parade.

I remember like it was yesterday, all of the years the boys did it there too!

It's always so fun to see.

 Carli was a kitten from the book," Happy Halloween Mittens".

She was quite the sassy cat!

She loved every bit of it!

 Carli and her teacher. She was,"Fancy Nancy bakes cupcakes"

Carli and two of her classmates.

I was unable to go because I had a doctor appointment at the exact same time as the parade, but Anthony was here and went. He took these pictures and even videos. Good daddy!



Ramblings

Austin was so excited to wear his new A&M hoodie to school!

Just a boy and his dog :) Tyler and Charlie

Carli had an eventful past few days. She had hat day, lost another tooth

 (that makes her 4th and she has two more loose!).

She also learned all about the election. She can tell you all of the qualifications of running for president. She's really gotten into it and even says she wants to be the first girl president! The whole school cast their vote for who they wanted for President. With a mock voting station.

Momma duck sitting on her babies.

We've gotten quite attatched to them.She's been sitting on them and hasn't left in about four days.

This is her nest. I cought this when she got off to eat.

Those are her feathers! One morning, Carli and I watched the daddy duck pluck them from her and then they made the nest. SO AMAZING! 

Here's some duck info: the momma will lay an egg or two a day until there are a total of 10-18 eggs. That is when she will start sitting on them, all day for 28 days. Although, she will leave nest for about 1/2 hour a day to eat, drink and bathe in water, and go back to the nest all wet. This helps the eggs, as they need moisture. SO COOL!

Emotional meeting

ARD meetings. You can read more about an ARD meeting here. They an be quite overwhelming...the whole process, proceedures/ laws,and overall information.

We've always had really good meetings. Sadly, with most special needs students everywhere, that's not always the case. We're lucky. Whomever is on Austin's team, each year, each school, truly is on his team. They are always right there beside Anthony and I when it comes to decisions for school and life outside of school.

We usually have about two-three a year, depending on testing, renewel of services, etc. We've already had two this year, since he was new to the school. The meetings are getting a little more emotional for me. Austin is older now and a lot of the things we discuss are concerning graduating and life outside of school. Being 18, mentally disabled, and having seizures, how do we as parents, plan his future? So much has to be thought about and done. Some things we didn't even know to think about. For instance, a few years ago, we found out that at the age of 18, we need to file papers to become his legal guardian. Makes sense. At 18, you're legally an adult, on your own. Well, in his case, he isn't capable of making his own decisions and being on his own. You're also going to need to figure out that if something happens to the parents, who will care for them? Just hard stuff!

This past meeting, we went over his schedule for the spring and the rest of his school years. Even those he's in Special Education and works on his own level, he still has to have the same amount of courses and credits to graduate. OH GRADUATE! Another decision. Special Needs students are by law, allowed to stay in school until they are 22 years old if the parents choose. We've always said that he would stay until then. Austin is scheduled to graduate in a year and a half. So, at 20. He also has a choice of walking the stage then or at 22.

I hadn't given that much thought. Maybe on purpose, I don't know? I sat and thought about it during our meeting. I said to everyone, he might should walk the stage at 22 when he's completely done and leaving. It would be less confusing to him. If he were to walk at 20 he wouldn't understand why he was going to go back to school. At that moment, one of Austin's teachers said, "Well, if he walked the stage at 22, then he would walk at the same time Tyler would walk." I about fell out of my chair!
I hadn't thought about that either! Anthony says that he's always known that. I didn't. I guess it's that part of me that wants them to stay little forever. So sitting there, I'm flooded with thoughts of Austin graduating and being done with school AND Tyler!Tyler is graduating in four years! I know, four years is for years, not like it's next week, BUT it will go by quickly! Look at how fast the years have gone by thus far! My baby boys, 14 and 18 are going to walk the same stage to get their dioplomas in four years TOGETHER! Awe, together! I then started to cry!
Yep, cry.
 In the meeting.
 IN.THE. MEETING!

Alarm dog...

NOT!

You would think he would help me get Austin up in the mornings.

Nope!

He just snuggles away with him instead!

That's our Charlie though.

If he sees someone sitting or laying, he's gonna lay down on you!

Carli girl

She's a crafy girl...

 She made a bow.

 She's a smart girl...

She wanted to write to 100 before bed.

She's an animal/bug lover...

 We found these snails inside her cup holder of her car seat. I had no idea she put them there!

She's also a friendly/playful girl...

She loves it that her classmate lives a short bike ride away and comes over to play

 and brings her big sister! She can play out there forever!

 



Musical Update

We found out Monday that Tyler was

 the ONLY FRESHMAN chosen to be in the high school musical!

 Out of 135+ that auditioned, only 60 were chosen. Pretty cool that he was the only freshman!

So excited for him!

He's about to start rehearsals every weekday after school. So he'll be really busy.

Spirit Week

The boys' high school had homecoming week, which meant different dress up days that week.

The only days they dressed up were Super Hero Day, Pink Out, and the HS colors.

Unfortunately, this is the ONLY pictures I got of them...boys, ugh!

"AFLACK!"

I see ducks and have the urge to yell, "AFLACK!"

Anyway, the ducks really like our yard.

This momma and daddy have decided to lay their eggs in my flower bed, right next to my front door!

This will be the third time. The two times before, we were living in Bryan  so we never got to see.

 They're nice. We don't bother them. They don't bother us.

 It's been really neat to watch.

 Momma made her nest, laid one egg and left.

 The parents would both come a few times each day and stay a while.

 A couple of days after her first egg, she laid another.

Then an egg a day.

 She would leave them uncovered, until she got to five eggs.

Now she covers them whenever they're gone.

One morning, as she was moving around, I counted TEN eggs!

Not sure how long we wait now until babies. I'm so ready to see them!

And this is another random duck. He just hangs out across the street with the house that has all of the cats outside! He never leaves them.

 

Musicals

I love them!
All of them!
I could sit and watch them all day!
I love any type of singing, dancing, and plays.
Don't mistake that for me loving doing any of those. I just like being a spectator.
I believe that's something I got from my mom. We would watch musicals (as well as black and white movies) together.
Anthony also likes them, but he's one that likes the participating.
He was in choir, musicals, and even plays. Oh, and we will never forget his dance group, "TOL"!

It's hard to pick one favorite musical, but I will say that South Pacific is high on that list. IN FACT, the very first time I ever saw Anthony, he was a sophmore, I was a freshman,  and he was performing in South Pacific at our high school. He was such a cute sailor!

I was excited to find out that Tyler's high school choir was putting on South Pacific this year (January '13)! Anthony and I immediately said we would have to go see it!
It didn't even click with me that my freshman Tyler would go to the auditions when the time came, but he did! He went in to audition for the ensemble.

Out of 140 students, 60 were chosen. TYLER WAS ONE OF THOSE CHOSEN! And NOT for the ensemble. He will play the part of Jerome. The French plantation owner's son. He sings a duet and has speaking parts. ALL DONE IN FRENCH!

Anthony never knew Tyler auditioned, much less got a part. We waited until Anthony came home on the weekend and surprised him! He was exstatic!

 

TYLER, we are SO VERY PROUD of you!

Can't wait till January!

Going-ons

A lot of going-ons, but not a lot of pictures to show for it.

Anthony is still working in Bryan and I'm still single-momma during the week.

It's hard, but we're managing pretty well.

All of the kiddos are making really good grades and really liking school. They all have homework every night.

 Tyler stays busy with choir. Choir fundraising, choir socials, and concerts every month. His last concert was a two-night event, called "Broadway Nights" (during intermission, they served cake balls and punch, YUM!). We were blown away at how talented these high schoolers were! AND the fact that they have a choreographer should tell you something. WOW!

 Fall means bowling season for Special Olympics, so Austin has bowling every Saturday.

 Carli-girl is busy too. She is over the moon that she is in Girl Scouts and is a Daisy!

And that's it on the Ramirez homefront.

Updates

 

Carli lost her THIRD tooth. I was begining to wonder when she would lose another one. She lost her first two over a year ago, within a two week span. She already has two adult teeth. This one had been loose and hangin' on for dear life, when Tuesday morning it was bothering her, so she pulled it out! Of course the tooth fairy came, you can see her fairy dust! Yesterday after school she took her money and picked out a jump rope, pink of course. She's been wanting one for quite a while.

Today was picture day at school and that meant, SCHOOL DRESS CODE RELEASE! She was pretty excited not to wear uniform and pick out her own outfit. She was so ready for picture day, that I couldn't get a chance to take her picture. She was walking too fast ahead of me!

Austin has had a good week so far with no seizures and he's been making it to school and staying there all day.

Tyler has been busy husslin' raising money for his choir fundraiser. It goes toward their choir trip to Disney in the spring. Can't believe he's old enough to be in high school and go on that kind of trips.

Random: Aside from cats bothering the mess out of Charlie (see previous post), we also have DUCKS! Everyday there are several ducks waddlin' through our yard.

Wednesday, the space shuttle Endeavor flew directly over my house! I was amazed! It was so low that I could see every bit of it! They said it was probably flying about 1300ft. and 250mph, since it was so close to landing at Ellington Field. It really was so exciting!

And now for my knee...I had my MRI Tuesday. I thought surely I had torn a ligament or two or whatever, but nope. I have severe arthritis in my left knee. It's also starting in my right knee. CAN NOT believe that! I'm 38, I have arthritis. I have an appointment with an orthopedic doctor to further discuss. I will also talk to him about my back. My aunt thinks that my muscle spasms have something to do with arthritis. So I'll update once I go to that doctor.

Annndd that's all for now.

My days

Like everyone, I've been busy. Extra, extra busy since Anthony is not here during the week and only comes home on weekends.

My days start at 5:15am.

The boys are out the door at 6:30am

Carli and I leave to walk to school at 7:40am.

 We've really enjoyed walking to school with friends!

I get back at 8am and start my "chores" and run errands.

Before you know it, Austin is coming home at 2:30pm and Tyler shortly after.

I leave walking to pick up Carli at 2:55pm.

Then it's back home with her and snacks for all.

They all have homework, so they start it at 3:30pm.

Dinner is at 5pm.

Then showers and bed.

Austin goes to bed at 7pm. He has to have a lot of sleep due to tiredness triggering a seizure.

Carli is in bed at 7:30pm

Tyler is in bed at 8:30pm

Once they go to bed, I start getting things ready for the next day and "put my house to bed".

I collapse about 10pm.



 Total random...the house across the street has a momma cat and about 4-5 kittens. Oh how it drives Charlie nuts! Especially when they lounge on my front porch, like the above picture.

 And you can see where Charlie stays perched and stares at them; my dining room!

 Austin has been having  more seizures lately and missing more school. When he's had a rough day of seizures, Charlie is right there in bed with him! These days are exhausting for him and I. I believe it has a lot to do with us letting him eat more food from the cafeteria.

 Being that it's the beginning of the school year, I've had three "meet the teacher" nights.

Tyler also had his very first high school choir concert!

They sounded fantastic! WOW!

That's not even all of the choirs. More were coming on stage.

The kids also got their progress reports last Friday and they all did so well!

Grade/school wise, we're off to a great start!

 

And lastly, I try not to talk about my aches and pains, but I thought I would now.

During packing/moving, I was carrying a box of dishes, when I tripped over a pile of clothes and shoes that I had ready for Goodwill. I landed on top of my left knee on the tile floor. My knee is still hurting after all of this time. I've had an x-ray, but it was negative. So I have an MRI scheduled. Well, that MRI is coming at a good time because last Friday, I fell again, on the same knee. This time I was walking home from taking Carli to school and tripped on a piece of cement sticking up. Lovely. 8am traffic. Close to the crosswalk.OMG! Thankfully I had two good friends and two men that helped me because I could not get up! My knee hurts so bad! I'll post an update on Austin and myself soon.

For Daddy

Here's more pictures dad.

I found these next three on my cell.

 I believe ther were from the last time the kids and I were in Bryan and went over to the high school.

 Look at Carli's face....she LOVES her Bubby!

 I still have a hard time seeing this in her room!

 I have even more of a hard time with the fact that YOU bought it for her!

 Our boys catch the bus so incredibly early!

 High schoolers being at school by the tardy bell, 7:15?!

And your two littlest loves.



For Daddy

Dad looks at our blog everyday, so I thought I would post pictures of his babies here instead of sending them to his cell phone.

We sure miss him during the week and CAN NOT wait for Friday nights (sometimes Saturday afternoons if he has to be at the bank on a Saturday morning)!

So dad, here ya go...

 Austin was very proud of himself for his Math he did!

You know he loves Math.

 Look at small and nice he wrote his name.

 Your little girl...oh there are no words...

 What's with the posing? Good Lord how old is she?!

You know this is the typical Tyler view we get.

What a teenager!

 

We love you dad and are ready for you to get home!