Titus Rocks!

Titus is a hilarious boy with funny takes on life.  His latest and pretty hilarious song tells us exactly how he feels about himself.

I will type it with his "kid accent" and then will translate.

Scene;  Titus, who is 5 with a guitar in hand (not playing it mind you).

"I wock!  I wock so much! I wock so much cuz I have a cuitaw! Oh yeah, I have a cuitaw cuz I wock so much!"

Translation: I rock! I rock so much!  I rock so much because I have a guitar! Oh yeah, I have a guitar because I rock so much!  You get the idea, now lets continue....

"Mom doesn't wock cuz she doesn't have hew cuitaw! Dad doesn't wock cuz he dosen't have a cuitaw!  The boowuddews don't wock, cuz they can't pway the cuitaw like me!  Oh yeah, I wock so much!"

Translation:  Mom doesn't rock because she doesn't have her guitar! Dad doesn't rock because he doesn't have a guitar! The brothers don't rock, because they can't play the guitar like me! Oh yeah, I rock so much!"

This song is sang with no specific tune, just what comes flowing from his mouth at the moment.  Genius at it's best.....

Mornings at home....

  Most of you who have children will totally understand this post and others may not.  If you do not have children, this is what you have to look forward to!

Saturday morning at 6:59am;

Titus at my door- "Mom, when are you getting up?"

Me- "I dunno, let me sleep."

7:12am

Titus- "Mom, I let you sleep in.  Can you get up now?"

Me- "Titus, please go play for a bit.  I will get up soon."

Titus- "Uuuugh!  Ok, then can I wake up the brothers?"

Me- "No, go play quietly and do not wake anybody up. It is too early"

7:30am

Titus- "Mom.  I'm hungry!  Get up!  I'm HUNGRY!!"

Me- "Fine..... I'm getting up....."

(I lay there not moving, Titus doesn't leave either.)

30 seconds later.....

Titus- "Mom, you are STILL not getting up! Fine, I will go get the brothers...."

Me- "FINE! I'm up, I'm up!

Finally, I was up.  Titus got his breakfast and not 5 minutes after I got up, so did the brothers.  I should have just let Titus wake them up!

So this is how the mornings go around here.  Somewhat different dialogue, but always the same result.  I am up wayyy too early.....

Our..er..My Aquarium Project!

  So I have been working on our aquarium for just under a year now and I have learned a lot!  As most of you may know, I work selling aquarium products for American Aquarium Products, so this aquarium has been a training tool as well as a fun project! 

   We have a 55 gallon freshwater tank with fish and plants. I found the tank on Craigslist for only 35 dollars!  We have 5 large fish; A Pleco, (Sucker Fish) leporinus, Black fin Shark, (catfish) and 2 Chiclids.  One Chiclid is a Jack Dempsey, and one is a Convict. All of these fish are aggressive, but they all get along just fine thankfully!  This has been a very slow project as funds and tools are not always available when we want or need them.  We started with some Walmart fish against all my nay saying, as my children are too impatient to wait for the aquarium to cycle.  Needless to say, the fish all died, as ALL Walmart fish do.  This was very hard for my kids to handle, but a valuable lesson either way.  Mom is always right.  (Don't tell my kids this is only mostly true!)  So we had to cure the tank of Ich while it was continuing to cycle so our next fish didn't die as well.  We added a hang on back filter as they are easy to maintain and run, and also a sponge filter for aerobic filtration and redundancy.  These are great simple filters, except the Pleco likes to eat the sponges.  I cannot keep him off of them!  (They make a bit of a mess when your fish is spitting chunks of sponge in your tank)

   For lighting I went with the newer technology of T2 Lights.  They are compact and are 6400K Daylight bulbs which make the tank really bright and my plants LOVE them!  Eventually I will build a hood for these.  (Currently these are just sitting on the tank sides.)

   We put a large rock in the bottom and also a cool chunk of specialized driftwood.  (It won't kill your fish or bring in any disease)  It looks great!  The only problem with driftwood is that it adds tannins to your water.  In other words, it makes your water a yellow brown color.  So back to learn more tricks and filter media to counter this ugly look.  Carbon!  I brought some extra carbon home and added it to the HOB filter.  Lightened the tank a bit, but not much.  Ok, maybe Purigen.  I added purigen to the HOB filter and within 24 hours the tank was clear as day!  It was very nice to see my work look good! 

  My next task was to add a CO2 system for my plants.  I wasn't sure how to do this so I went to our webiste of all knowledge.  Sure enough, Carl had how to make a DIY, CO2 cartridge.  I grabbed all the needed supplies and headed home with my mind excited to try a new thing on my tank.  I set it all up within minutes and my plants are green and growing like crazy!  My tank is really coming along, and I cannot wait to find more fun things to do!  (Maybe Santa will bring me a new tank some day for saltwater....)

Conferences make me nervous.

   Conferences are not my favorite thing to do.  I always love to hear how well my kids are doing but I do not like to hear any bad news.

   I wasn't nervous for Titus' conference as I knew he would be doing well.  He is in the kindergarten grade but in a first grade class.   He was put in the first grade class after his evaluation proved he was above average in his schooling.  (I knew the pre school would pay off!)  As I expected, Titus was doing very well and was in fact doing first grade work!  We did learn that Titus needs to work on his dexterity.  He uses both hands to write and color and cut, so he hasn't mastered either.  He will actually switch hands in the middle of writing a word.  It is pretty funny to see.  Currently we are working on learning short words, which Titus is very good at!  It is really fun to see the look of excitement as he learns a new word and spelling!

   Arthur's conferences have always been dreadful.  Not because he is a bad kid or not smart, just because this is when we find out about everything he is missing and how he is not finishing his class work.  This is the first year Nick and I have sole custody of Arthur so we have made sure all homework is finished and turned in.  Arthur has been arguing with his teacher in class and has been getting in a bit of trouble lately, so I was not looking forward to this conference either.  Arthur's teacher was very sweet and told us how Arthur's school work was not being finished although she knew he could do it.  She showed us his test scores and they showed Arthur at a 6th grade level in most subjects!  He is above average!  He is just having a hard time concentrating on his class work enough to finish it.  She had great reviews for Arthur and said he is a really smart kid, he just needs to focus.  This was the best conference we have EVER had for Arthur!!  We are working on the concentration at home as well and I am sure the next conference will be even better!  The 5th grade year will be the best yet!

   We have not had a conference for Taylor yet as it is pretty early in the year, and the city schools are waiting a bit.  I will keep you posted on the outcome!  I am not worried about his conference, he always gets a rave review!

School is so Tiring!

  This is Titus' first year of real school, and it is especially bad considering he was smart enough to go to the first grade class and not the Kindergarten class.  (This basically means not as much play) By the end of the day he is exhausted!  The other day as I picked him up from school, he said, "Mom, I am the most tired kid in the whole school.  I can only stay awake for another 2 seconds."

  Looking at where the van was parked I realized 2 seconds was not enough time to make it to the van.  I told him my sad news. 

"Titus, 2 seconds is not enough time to make it to the van."

"Well then, I can maybe make it 3 seconds, but I really am going to fall asleep!"

We got to the van and I opened his door. "OK, we're here!  Hop on in, and buckle up!"

I get into my seat and look back.  Titus has laid down half in and half out of the van. "Titus!  Hop in quick!  I don't want you to fall out when I drive off!"  I joke.

He gets into his seat and buckles up, I look back and he is out!  Not to wake up again until the next morning. 

  Titus has been handling the change well, and he ends up with a really long sleep once a week.  It is really fun to see him work and learn so much, but I do miss him on his sleep days!

Serve Grants Pass

    I am going to start this by saying God is good! Better than good, he is AWESOME! Nick and I pitched a local military family to our home group for our Serve Grants Pass project.
   Let me tell you about the family, dad is gone on his 7th deployment leaving his wife and their 4 kids at home. I simply cannot imagine how hard this is. So in all the years I have known them, I have never seen their backyard. When I asked about it, the wife/mom filled me in.
   They had a rotting deck and  a rotten picnic bench. They had a trampoline that had a bent up frame, and no net, the legs would fall off as the kids jumped on it! They had a mixed media walkway that consisted of concrete, rock, brick, and more concrete poured over concrete and painted.
    Nick went over and took a look at it and this is what he saw;  A mixed media walk way that was angled the wrong way so every time it rained all the water ran right into their garage. There was a rotting deck and picnic table. There was a death trap trampoline in the back yard that she insisted on keeping due to it being the only thing her kids had to do in the yard.
   When the home group agreed that this would be a good project that would help tremendously we registered it with the church.
   I was really excited to help them as they are the sweetest family and they deserve to enjoy their back yard! So the deck, picnic bench and walk way were torn out during the 2 week prep prior to the Serve Grants Pass project day. I also convinced them to get rid of the trampoline. I could not promise a new one but i told them we had some fun ideas for the back yard. We laid some weed barrier and Nick built a nice frame to keep some rock in for the walk way and for under the deck. We were there every day after work for about 2 weeks doing prep work. Nick even used some vacation days to get more done. We shoveled and wheel barreled tons of rock that was given to us at a fraction of the price. We had a new trampoline donated as well as a new barbeque! Things were looking good! We did not tell the family about what it was going to look like or what we were doing. They just knew we were there, and their yard would look great! For 2 weeks we labored for our friends and ate TONS of pizza and taco bell. When project day rolled around, all we had left was the deck to build, a small fence to build and to put together a trampoline and barbeque! We had a great turnout and several people came to help with the proiect.  The kids were literally screaming and jumping, as they saw us carry the trampoline by! It was beyond worth all the hard work and effort that was put in and I am so proud of our kids and everyone else who pitched in!  GO TEAM!!

Nicks journey to Memory Care.....

   Nick recently visited grandma in memory care. This was a hard experience for him as grandma isn't making a lot of sense latley. The funny thing is, when he went to visit, it wasn't grandma who who told the crazy storys.

   The thing is, people in memory care usually remember snips of truth and somehow mix it with a movie, or a story they once heard, or maybe even a story they made up somewhere along the line.
   This time a cute little old lady backed Nick against a wall with her walker. She looked at him seriously and would not back down. Finally she said, "My daddy is a Sheriff in Klamath Falls, and he is on his way to pick you up. Don't go anywhere!" Nick stood there confused. Then she continued, "I know who you are. I know you murdered all those people. You just wait right here! He is on his way and I'm keeping an eye on you!"  Nick still stood confused and said, "I think you have me mixed up! I'm a good guy!" She stood her ground, walker in hand and replied, "they always are, they always are." It took about 10 minutes to get an aide to come rescue my poor traumatized honey. Thankfully we all can laugh it off and lucky for me I have been warned! His secret is out!
   This reminds me of the days when I worked at Oak Lane Retirement Center. We had all kinds of sweeties and some not so sweeties, we were in contact with every day.
   George for instance had to have all his silverware from the same place. If his fork was from China and his spoon was from Indonesia he could not eat. They all had to be from China, or all from Indonesia etc. He was a very sweet man.
   Fred was not so nice. He had his nice moments if you listened to him. His quirk was that he wanted us to know what he liked and what he didn't like and if anything he didn't like happened, well, all hell would break loose in the dining room. For instance, Fred did not drink coffee, so if there was a coffee mug in his place setting, he would throw it at you. "You should know by now 'tiger tails' that I don't drink coffee!" he would yell as the cup came hurling toward you. The same went for his soup spoon. If we were serving soup with dinner you had better be sure Fred had a soup spoon or it too would be thrown at you.
   These are just a few examples of the fine folk I remember of my days at Oak Lane. The stories I heard from the residents and their quirks will always be with me, and I will be sure to have my kids, at least visit, a retirement home so they too can enjoy the gifts these folk rarely get to share.