This is parent/teacher conference week at school. I put my “teacher” hat on and started my work day with a 7am parent conference. Then I taught all morning. One writing lesson three times, because that’s the way our rotating schedule works. For the last lesson my UVEI faculty coach (the lady who will determine if I’m competent to be a teacher) came to observe. This was the last class before a four and a half day weekend and I’ll tell you… those kids were wired! Ugh. After they left I switched to my “student” hat and we had a TRIAD conference with my faculty coach, my mentor teacher, and myself. They both had a few suggestions, but no surprises. Then I put my “parent” hat on and went to Lex and Eve’s parent/teacher conferences. No surprises there either. Lex is doing well and growing more (socially) every year. I like his teacher a lot. She has a good sense of humor about her students. At Eve’s conference we learned that her teacher discovered she’s a secret math genius. Alan and I already knew that, of course, but her teacher was pretty impressed with her number skills. We are raising a couple of smarty pants!

By this point I was exhausted. We hung out at the book fair for awhile (who can resist books?!) then headed home. As we parted, Alan going back to work, he said, “I’ll be home by six so you can go to your Good Beginnings conference.” Ugh! I forgot about that one. I debated for awhile but decided to go and loved it. I knew I would love it, which is why I decided to go. :) Each year Good Beginnings puts on an annual lecture and this year the speaker was Kim John Payne, author of Simplicity Parenting and other books. I loved Simplicity Parenting. It’s such a clear concept, with supported reasons for slowing life down a bit. Ironic maybe that I would wrap up my hectic conference day with a conference on slowing life down a bit. :) It also gave me several ideas for education and UVEI writing pieces.

Now I have a glass of wine, Jon Stewart, and hubby by my side. All is well in the world.

Greg and Kathy came to visit, all the way from sunny CA, and not only brought the sunshine, but also cooked an awesome Thanksgiving dinner. A wee bit early, but no one complained. :) We called it Thanksgiving: Round One. It’s always great when the family gets together, even if it’s only parts of the family. I wished everyone lived a bit closer.

The kids weren’t feeling their best, so the weekend was a bit iffy for me, but all went well. Lex was mostly recovered from his respiratory infection, only coughing occasionally. Eve had some unknown things going on with her. Mostly cold symptoms, but she was also complaining of headaches directly behind her ear, then she started complaining of ear pain. By Sunday I was certain she had an ear infection (or two) and was planning to call the doctor first thing Monday morning. Then my brilliant mother reminded me that the school nurse can handle an ear infection. D’uh! Eve slept for a few hours Sunday afternoon and when her fever broke she was dripping sweat.

Monday morning, however, Eve woke up feeling fine. She woke up early, no fever, no ear pain. I sent her to school, half expecting to get a call from her teacher, but nope, she was fine. At the end of the day she was still doing fine. Regular night, no pain, no fever. Whatever she had seems to have cleared itself up. Hopefully.

I was a slacker with the camera this weekend. I only took a few pictures, but they’re sweet ones. :)

Eve was pretty proud of the love note she wrote to Greg. It takes a bit of deciphering though. :)

This was after lunch and Eve was fading fast. She loves being cuddled though. Greg didn’t seem to mind much. :)

Lex was happy to tell PopCube and Kathy all about his Mindstorm set and the EV3 he’s saving up for. I love that he participates in conversations now. So much nicer then when he was littler.

She almost fell asleep right on his lap. Doesn’t she look so sad and sweet, holding her ear and dozing off.

You’ll just have to use your imagination for the rest of the weekend.

Greg and Kathy, thank you so much for visiting! We always love seeing you and miss you when you’re far away. Thanks for a delicious meal and for cuddling and reading to my children. :)

The official results for my Praxis II exam FINALLY got posted! Guess what? I ROCKED it! Those high scores that appeared on the screen weeks ago really were accurate. (not really a surprise) Those high scores that shocked me, 194 and 196, were out of a possible 100-200 range. Sooo much better than I was expecting going into the exam! I feel so relived to get the final scores posted and know there were no mistakes. Turns out my studying worked. :) Or maybe I’m just smart!

Speaking of smart, Lex used the word “idiom” in conversation today. Apparently they are learning about them in school. I don’t think I’ve ever dropped the word “idiom” into casual conversation. Also, he finally got a spelling list for this year and spelled every one of the 20 words correctly the first time I asked him. I started quizzing him on the 5th grade list, but he lost interest and went back to his reading, which totally fuels the spelling and vocab abilities!

(This post sounds pretty smart, doesn’t it, with all the caps and exclamation points!)

Today I am thankful that it is Friday. I really need a weekend. It has been a long week. Happy November!

Two weekends ago Eve came down with a cough. It wasn’t horrible, but it was bad enough that I went out and and bought cough medicine. She kindly shared the cough with me and Rosy. Then she shared with Lex. Lex decided to one up her and turned that cough into a lower respiratory tract infection with a side of impetigo. He missed school on Monday because he was coughing so badly it just didn’t seem right to send him to school. Instead Alan took him to the doctor for the diagnosis and meds. Then he missed Tuesday because apparently both of those things are very contagious. After being on meds for 24hrs we were clear to send him back to school today. He wasn’t thrilled to go, but once he got there he was very happy. That’s his usual opinion on things. He had a great day today, in part because he was heavily medicated. :) First thing in the morning I gave him the antibiotics, plus cough medicine, plus Tylenol. Apparently he was still coughing heavily so Alan gave him ibuprofen before dropping him off at school. The teacher reported minimal coughing. I encouraged Lex to take it easy during recess and PE, but he chose to be a boy and play hard instead.

This evening Lex is still coughing and Eve’s cough has begun again :( She has very runny nose and a cough. I’m hoping it doesn’t get any worse. I don’t want respiratory tract infections all around!

So, um, for those of you coming to visit this weekend… consider yourself warned! I’m trying to get everyone healthy asap, but I make no guarantees.