We are preparing for our trip to see the Camaratas for Nate and then to Florida for a couple of days. We can't wait, although I am deep in the making-multiple-list modes. We are very excited to meet with the Camaratas again and get information from them on how to help Nate communicate more and more and how to help him learn. They are amazing people who have such a heart for kids, especially late talkers (guess it helps that they have seven kids and Dr. C was a late talker too, as was one of their sons). Anyhow, we'll have the van loaded to the gills and will be putting lots of miles on in a few days. We can't wait to bake a little in the Florida sun, and Nate and Ellie have been talking about Mickey Mouse for weeks.
I've learned one thing about blogging. I would love to put together long posts with lots of neat pictures. In reality, I end up starting a post, having it auto-save, and finishing it off in a couple of weeks (or months). I've decided I need to just post when I can, sometimes only a quick picture or note.
So, this will be a quick post as I really should be focusing on my big stack of need-to-do-before-we-go lists.
I finished up an online class on using copywork and dictation for language arts. It was a month long class, and I learned so much. The class really helped me feel comfortable using copywork and dictation as the main source of all our language arts needs. I would much rather use passages from the wonderful books we read to work on grammar, vocabulary, spelling, etc. than a dull, boring workbook. The class had many great ideas which I tried out on the kids. I really enjoyed the class.
We had a very special visitor to our home. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do much in the way of preparation as we didn't know the visitor would be coming.
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Thankfully, he was able to help himself to something to drink----
Yes, folks, that is a skunk drinking out of the water bowl our cats use. Yikes! Bill spotted Stinky and called all the kids over to watch (and snapped the picture). Nate and Ellie were running around the house yelling "Stinky". The next night, we had a raccoon peeking through a window watching us.
Stinky decided to check out what we were offering the cats another night. Bill and the older three kids were at karate, and when they got home, Jack ran up to the door. It was dark outside and for some reason, our yard light wasn't on. Jack got closer to the door and realized that the black creature he saw wasn't our cat Estherme, but STINKY! Jack ran back to the car, and Stinky left a little bit of himself behind. Oh yes, he sprayed the deck! The unique odor quickly penetrated our house (these 100+ year old farmhouses aren't sealed incredibly tight). Bill got the job of cleaning up the "skunk oil". It was only a spot about the size of two quarters, but boy, did it give off an aroma. Even the bedrooms upstairs had a nice skunk smell when we all tucked ourselves in that night.
We closed the restaurant as soon as the sun started to set, and we haven't seen (or smelled) Stinky since!
