Good Morning LalaSmitty and ILoveCupcakes

[pigless in VA]

I'm not trying to embarrass anyone, but I decided to notice who is online and welcome them further. This is our morning thread where we talk about mundane stuff. My significant other's (SO) mother had a little morning breakfast club in her retirement community. They would sit around with bagels and coffee and chat about what lay ahead in the day. Feel free to tell us what's up in your area.

I have double P.E. classes on Wednesday. HMBgal one of those is an adaptive P.E. class where I help out. Those kids all were able to attend the Special Olympics last week. I didn't get to go on the Field Trip as the boy that I normally work with is in an inclusion P.E. class. Personally, I think adaptive P.E. is the bomb. We get to help each kid individually at his or her own level. The group is small, so everyone gets attention. When Jack (the boy that I normally work with) is in the regular P.E. class, all he does is spin in circles. If there is music playing he dances. I like those days, because he is happy and relaxed. But the reality is that for children with autism, sticking them into a giant P.E. class with bunches of kids, is no guarantee that they will participate. Most of those kids just walk aimlessly about. The P.E. teachers are totally overwhelmed with multitudes of issues and simply can't do much to help Special Education kids. I'm so happy that you are helping kids to experience P.E. in a personalized and fun way.


It's another cool spring day in Virginia. My irises are popping out all over the yard. The rhododendron are also in full bloom, but I don't have any in my yard. I am enjoying everyone else's.

 

[pasajes4]

I am clothes shopping for my son. He came back to San Antonio with almost nothing. I will meet with his case manager later today. There is still a lot going on with the ins. claims. I woke up with stress related hives all over my face. It could be much worse.

The birds are singing and it promises to be a beautiful sunny day. I may take a break today and go to the Botanical Gardens and have lunch. They make the most amazing Hummingbird cake. I have had my eye on some floral canvases in the gift shop.

 

[slsh]

Morning all!

Pigless - adaptive PE. Brings back fond memories. For a while, oldest didn't have a 1:1 nurse so I went to school with him (one of our bitter power struggles with sped director from Hades, LOL), and by far the adaptive PE was the best time. He's essentially a quad, so no running or dancing or arm exercises, but he *loves* motion, and having that huge gym open for us to wheel him around to music made him howl with laughter. It was great because there would only be his tiny self-contained class in there so he could be as loud as he wanted.

Rainy day here. Tulips are blooming (I think - hard to tell with all the doggone dandelions, LOL). We barked in our entire front yard years ago to cut down on maintenance - it's looking disturbingly green right now. Need to spend a weekend pulling weeds, but.... it's still too cold for me.

My house is a wreck, and Diva graduates in less than 3 weeks. With family coming, I have got to get this place in shape, but I'm having a hard time finding motivation. And I'm about ready to shave our dog. She's an all black border collie/flat coat retriever, absolutely the sweetest most amazing dog in the world and I have fallen head over heels in love with her - we've had her about a year and a half, and I'm *not* a dog person usually, but this animal.... I finally understand the doggie/human connection. But she sheds, like I could make a new litter of puppies a day from her shedding. And the dirt.... and she slobbers all over the front window (and curtain) waiting for her various people to return home (or barking at the mailman). I wonder if I could just put her in a big baggie until after graduation, LOL. Sigh.

Saw the venue last night where Diva and a friend are having a graduation party. Oh. My. Gosh. It's huge (other mom rented it). I'm trying to figure out how to decorate a 45' x 45' room for the dancing portion. I should've started working on this 3 months ago, but Diva is not known for her communication skills so I didn't know. The party is in 3 weeks....

And can anyone give me hints on how to cook for a boat load of people? Seriously - I need hints/tips. They're inviting 200, so we're expecting about 100? But OMG - 100 people? I have a hard time cooking for 6!!!! We're doing finger foods, hors d'oerves (sp?) kind of things, but still.... the thought of 100 cupcakes is making me hyperventilate. And my kitchen is slightly larger than your average closet.

Ahhh well, it will all work out. I was a room mom for years so .... this will be my final hurrah in that department. But I have to get started like... right now!

Hope you all have a good day. Be safe.

 

[Tanya M]

I'm wishing the weather here would warm up a little bit more. Don't get me wrong, 50 degrees is much better than sub zero! They say Friday it will get up to 75!
I do love spring and hearing the birds singing their morning songs in perfect harmony.

I may take a break today and go to the Botanical Gardens and have lunch. They make the most amazing Hummingbird cake. I have had my eye on some floral canvases in the gift shop.

Yes Pasa, you should go and have some of that wonderful cake! While you are at it, have a piece for me too

And can anyone give me hints on how to cook for a boat load of people? Seriously - I need hints/tips. They're inviting 200, so we're expecting about 100? But OMG - 100 people? I have a hard time cooking for 6!!!! We're doing finger foods, hors d'oerves (sp?) kind of things, but still.... the thought of 100 cupcakes is making me hyperventilate. And my kitchen is slightly larger than your average closet.

I hosted an 80th birthday party for my mother-in-law and we had about 200 people. I did all the cooking. I own several crockpots and 2 large roasters. They were invaluable for this shin-dig. If you do not own these things find out where you can borrow some or buy some (they are not terribly expensive)
If you are not inclined to cook everything there are ways to achieve a nice buffet.
I make wonderful homemade meatballs and made them a few weeks in advance and froze them.
You can also buy pre-made meatballs and make your own sauce or buy ready made sauce. If you have access to a Costco or Sam's club I would go there. You could have one roaster for the meatballs and another roaster for pasta. Penne pasta is a good one. You might need 3 to 4 pounds for that many people. Cook the pasta to al-dente then mix well with sauce.
You can make it really easy on yourself and buy a bunch of fried chicken and then make some homemade potato salad. Many grocery stores have fried chicken but you would need to get your order in soon.
A lot depends on your budget.
Good luck!!

 

[HMBgal]

Oh wow! It was so wonderful to read about your experiences with adapted PE! I come home exhausted sometimes and I wonder if I did any good at all that day. I give my heart, soul, and a lot of my paycheck to try to help every student. Our district has special day classes for mild/moderate, and the more challenged students are in moderate/severe. Our district is huge on inclusion, but then it gets into the thing about least restrictive environment, etc. That's a sticky wicket and I'm glad I don't have to make the big decisions about where to place kids. I'm always being asked to go back and get my administrative credential and become a program specialist. No thanks. Just let my play with the kids and give them a great 45 minutes a week. And I totally believe in the power of music. I use music in every single class I teach. Always. That and bubbles at the end of every class. I have a bubble machine that would knock your socks off.

The normal model is for a child to placed on a caseload because they fall below a certain amount of the mean. But, these darn kids just don't seem to fit into statistical data all the time, right? So, rather than worrying about that, the district gave me permission to just take all the kids in every moderate/severe classroom and make adapted PE part of their weekly curriculum. So, instead of seeing a caseload of maybe 60 kids a week (because that's all that's humanly possible), I get to work with a couple hundred a week in a more appropriate and natural way than pulling them out by themselves and working on specific goals. It has really worked well, although it is a lot more work for me.

If there is child with more severe challenges and is placed in a class that is way above them (happens a lot where I work, because the parents demand it and then we get into that least restrictive environment again where this poor kid is floundering, needs an army of specialists in the classroom all day, etc.) I will do PE for their whole class too. That's fun because the mild/moderate kids can really help with the child that is having difficulty by being great learning models for them. And the mild/moderate kids aren't usually very successful in those huge PE classes, either.

So thanks for the props, guys. It means a lot to me.

 

[Scent of Cedar *]

My significant other's (SO) mother had a little morning breakfast club in her retirement community. They would sit around with bagels and coffee and chat about what lay ahead in the day. Feel free to tell us what's up in your area.

I love this imagery for us.

Thanks, pigless!

And can anyone give me hints on how to cook for a boat load of people?

I was looking online for slsh. With so many of us looking for Graduation Party ideas, I was thinking a thread for Graduation Party ideas on Watercooler would be a good idea.

So I started one. There are some cool ideas for music and activities in one of the links.

Three weeks, slsh!?!

Moms are amazing.

I think adaptive P.E. is the bomb.

I participated in a ballet class once for kids without limbs, or with other challenges. The experience changed me. I feel fortunate to have been able to do that.

I woke up with stress related hives all over my face.

Oh, no!

I'm sorry this happened, pasa. I hope you do go to the Botanical Gardens for lunch. You have been through so much in such a short time.

You handled it well.

I totally believe in the power of music. I use music in every single class I teach. Always. That and bubbles at the end of every class. I have a bubble machine that would knock your socks off.

:O)

That's fun because the mild/moderate kids can really help with the child that is having difficulty by being great learning models for them.

I love this.

***

Good morning, everyone. Sunny, windy, and cold here this morning. Woodticks are definitely out now. We found two deer ticks last night, one already embedded and one, just beginning. Our poor dog only weighs 10 pounds soaking wet. Plus, we found another embedded regular tick. So, we decided to treat him. I don't like the drops, but there doesn't seem to be another choice. We are deep in the woods, here. But even so, I have never seen this number of ticks. Here is a tip: We go through our dog's fur with a flashlight. (And I have to wear my glasses. Which is a whole other story, as they tend to slip off my nose when that little startle reflex happens when a tick is spotted.)

Ahem.

Once I have my glasses on again, we pull the tick out with tweezers, and put them on duct tape. I feel bad for the ticks, but I am scared of the way they look with all those spidery legs and etc.

***

Here is a story about wood ticks. So, just after our neighbors moved here, our dog had a tick that we'd missed right by his eye. It was huge by the time we saw it. The deeper the tick goes, the more it hurts the dog to pull it out. So instead of putting the poor dog through pulling the tick, we decided to watch for it to fall out, and to put it in duct tape when it did. D H came back from walking the dog one morning and the tick was gone. So, thinking to find it on the road, I grabbed the meat tenderizer tool ~ that silver hammer-like thing we use to tenderize meat? With one flat side and one side that has multiple pointed edges? And off I went in a high state of whatever because D H knew we were watching for that tick to fall off. Once they have a blood meal, they lay their eggs.

So, that is what we were trying to avoid.

Wood tick eggs in the house or the yard.

So, there I am, following the road where D H walks the dog, searching for this fully engorged tick with my silver meat tenderizer tool.

And the thing is that I was just so upset with D H about that tick.

So, anyway, there were the new neighbors, unpacking their belongings and so on, in their driveway. Of course I introduced myself, welcoming them to the neighborhood and explaining, in a kind of distracted way which made perfect sense if one knew the backstory, about the meat tenderizer tool and the woodtick.

We have come to know them, since? But they had no idea what to make of me, that morning.

For heaven's sake.

I never did find the tick.

Wishing everyone a good day. I really enjoy the Morning Thread, pigless.

Thank you!

Cedar

 

[Tanya M]

we pull the tick out with tweezers

Cedar, I also live in a very wooded area. I bought this little tool. It works great getting ticks off my cat. I grab onto the little critter and turn counter clock wise and it comes right out.

 

[Scent of Cedar *]

I will get one.

Thank you, Tanya!

Cedar

 

[KTMom91]

It's still morning here in California, though I definitely have my sloth on today. Didn't sleep well last night.

Today's list of things to do consists of going to buy more eggs and hopefully getting my nails done. I have acrylics and one popped yesterday while I was filling a box with Miss KT's yearbooks and assorted stuff that she doesn't have room to store right now, so it stays at Mom's indefinitely. I still have a few boxes at MY mom's.

It's supposed to rain this evening, and the rest of the week. We need the water, BUT I'm working on Friday - first grade - and rainy day schedules are not always fun. I've been looking online for some easy word searches and puzzles to fill in just in case.

Have a wonderful afternoon/evening!

 

[Lil]

Hello all. Busy, busy today. Son had his first day of orientation, works the next two. Big smile here!

I an behind and must run!

 

[InsaneCdn]

I'm wishing the weather here would warm up a little bit more

As long as that doesn't turn up the temp where WE are...

Seriously. This is the first week of MAY.

We NEVER turn the outside water on before the Victoria Day weekend (the weekend before Memorial Day )
We don't usually think in terms of planting before the Victoria Day weekend.
And we definitely don't put away winter coats and boots before then either, because you never know when the next dump of snow is coming.

And this year?
It's NINETY DEGREES F!!! The first week of May.
Had to turn the outside water on, because the grass and flower beds are growing and need water.
Had to cut the grass last weekend and got FOUR bags off.

This is insane.

As soon as it cools down a bit (after supper), I will go start stringing hoses, and do some more watering. And weeding.