Our Happy Little Family

In my Education class this semester our teacher was telling us a few tricks she had up her sleeve of easy yet very interesting ways to learn information about your students within the first week. Instead of waiting until you have trouble with the child, requesting a parent/teacher conference, pulling information out of the parent as to why the student is so disruptful/unwilling/etc, and then adapting your teaching for that child based on the issues. You can gather information from the exercise she told us to use to skip the middle part and go straight to the adapting.

One thing she suggested was asking them to draw a family portrait. This may not sound like much but it can be very telling about the child's home life. For example, if they draw the parents far apart from each other this could mean that the parents are divorced or they don't spend time together or aren't loving towards each other in front of the kids. If they draw the Dad sitting in a chair and the Mom standing it could mean that the mom is always on the go and their Dad watches TV. If they draw a picture of themselves with their grandparents it could mean their parents are absent and that can create a whole bag of issues. All of these can be very traumatic to a child which in turn affects their performance at school.

On a happier note if they draw the parents standing together with the kids and hearts and flowers and rainbows and kittens this probably means they have a wonderful home life. Dr. Hale (my prof) said that one year she had a little girl that drew a picture full of those things and when she had her first parent/teacher conference with her parents she said she was pretty sure she saw hearts and flowers and rainbows floating around their heads because she could "feel" their love for each other and their daughter during the conference. So sweet!

This is exercise seems like it is a little more geared for elementary kids (which I do NOT want to teach) but I think I might try it out and see what I can get out of the junior high kids. If it doesn't work it's OK, it would be good to try though.

Our homework assignment was to draw our family portrait and bring it to class the next week. Here is my family portrait* (you can click on it to make it bigger):

I originally thought I would draw my whole family (mom, dad, brother, sisters) since we're not married yet but 1. My family tree is too complex and 2. Chris and I ARE our own family now even though we haven't been hitched. We have a house and a puppy baby together, I mean how much more of a family can you get? Haha.

Do you think my teacher will see hearts floating around my head from this picture? It was funny because after she assigned us the homework she said "Now I know everyone is going to go home and draw hearts, flowers, rainbows, and kittens on their family portrait so that I don't try to analyze your pictures for any disfunction." Everyone laughed and agreed. 

*This was Chris pre-haircut. His 5 o'clock shadow is pretty funny. Chris made fun of me because we don't any noses. I've never been able to draw stick figure noses. Do like Max' occupation? Cutest puppy Ever! He kind of looks like a fox in this portrait. 

Max Loves Reading and Sleeping

This past week Max decided he wanted to do a little online reading with me. 

Then we decided to watch TV, only he got bored and fell asleep.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Just in case you were wondering, he weighs SEVENTY pounds now and he isn't done growing!

We walked to Conquer Chiari!

Saturday morning we all got up early and went to the Conquer Chiari Walk that I posted about earlier this week. It was eye opening to see how many people are actually affected by this condition in our community, especially since we had never heard of it before until my mom was diagnosed. 

Leroy was ready for his photo-op, Max not so much.

We decided to have had shirts made that said "My Mom's a Zipperhead" on the front 

and the print shop printed "We HEART her" on the back for us at no charge. What a sweet surprise!
  It was fun to have Team shirts.

After the walk we had to rehydrate or should I say re-carbohydrate. Nothing like Chips and Salsa and  Cheese Enchiladas after a 5K walk!

Mark your calendars, next years the Walk will be on September 17, 2011

Conquer Chiari Walk Across America 2010

WHAT?  A series of coordinated Chiari walks held at the same time across the country.

WHERE? It is our goal to have at least one walk in each of the 50 states.  This year we have 30 walk locations.

WHEN? Saturday September 18th, 2010.  September has been named Chiari Awareness Month in several states.  In conjunction with the Walk Across America we hope to get more states to recognize September as Chiari Awareness Month.

WHY?  To raise awareness of Chiari; to raise money for vital research; and to get people involved.

In 2010 it is our goal to raise at least $300,000 for research. In 2009, more than $250,000 was raised with 90% of the money going directly to fund exciting, new research projects.

source

As many of you know my mom had brain surgery a year ago for Chiari Malformation. I am happy to report that her Doctor said she had a "textbook" surgery and "textbook" recovery. She is doing GREAT. Needless to say me and my family will be there to support the cause.  

If you can this weekend (9/18/10) go out and support the Conquer Chiari Walk Across America! 

Participation is FREE at the Cibolo, TX walk. T-shirts are available with a minimum donation of  $25.

For more information regarding the Cibolo, TX walk, to register as a walker, or to sponsor a walker, email Trinette Drake at tldrake14@att.net  , call 210-204-9340 or visit: www.conquerchiari.org  

Chiari Malformation: structural defects in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance. When the indented bony space at the lower rear of the skull is smaller than normal, the cerebellum and brainstem can be pushed downward. The resulting pressure on the cerebellum can block the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (the liquid that surrounds and protects the brain and spinal cord) and can cause a range of symptoms including dizziness, muscle weakness, numbness, vision problems, headache, and problems with balance and coordination. There are three primary types of CM. The most common is Type I, which may not cause symptoms and is often found by accident during an examination for another condition. 

(source)

Maxy Max

Our little Max is growing so fast! He is 5 months old and weighs 62.5 lbs! Chris took him to the vet on Friday while I was out of town and they told him that Max is overweight. Join the crowd Max. Poor Max is on a doggy diet now.

I found Max taking a little cat nap (err doggy nap) on the sofa Sunday. It was SOOO cute. 

I felt like I should tuck him in or something.

Max got his posts off today. Due to Hurricane/Tropical Storm Hermine it took us an hour to get to the vet since no one knows how to drive in the rain. It took me another hour just to get back to work. Anyway, Max was not a happy camper. I opened the car door and he almost ran down the street.

I couldn't snap a picture quick enough. He kept trying to get my phone in his mouth.

He lays in the kitchen while I'm cooking. I was singing him a song to get his attention. 

Can you tell how much he loves my singing?

He has almost lost all of his baby teeth. His adult teeth are way more ferocious than the baby ones but they are thankfully a lot less sharp. We have quite a collection of teeth that we have found around the house that Chris insists on keeping. I told Max we would put them in his baby book*. 

My mom thinks Max is getting jipped because the tooth fairy hasn't brought him anything for any of teeth. Haha.

**We don't really have a baby book for him in case you are wondering. 

SayWA!

What a lame state slogan. 

Anyway, I just returned from my whirlwind work trip and I am still trying to recover. I got the call at midnight on Wednesday that I needed to go and then had to catch the 5:45a flight Thursday morning. I got up at 2:30a to pack my bag and realized I pretty much had NO clean clothes. I was a pretty hot mess the entire time I was there, not going to lie.

Luckily we got to go into Seattle Friday night.  We were barely able to walk from running around the store for the past 2 days but it was totally worth it.

First- we started at Pike's Place Market. I have been to the Market each time that I have been to WA and it is still exciting, interesting, fun each time. There are always different vendors so I always buy a ridiculous amount of souvenirs that say "Seattle" and have the Space Needle on them. This is a bridge on the back side of the market that takes you down to the water to catch the ferry.

It is such a beautiful view. You can see in this picture the lovely steep hills that you get carry yourself up and down. (Side story- we were trying to find our hotel and drove up such a sharp hill/mountainside that our ears started popping only to find out that we turned the wrong way)

There are a lot of live performers around the market and this guy was the most interesting one of the day. He was painted silver head-to-toe and was moving and making noises like a robot. It was cool and extremely creepy at the same time. 

I talked my coworker into taking the uphill hike from the market on 1st to what they call the Retail Core on 6th. It really doesn't sound that far but since it's uphill you gotta really want to spend your money to make the trek. 

The Retail Core has tons of great shopping: Aldo, American Apparel, Anthropologie, Betsey Johnson, H&M, Louis Vuitton- you get the picture. My fave: H&M.

Since we worked up an appetite I told my coworker we should go back to 1st to eat at The Pink Door. She seemed a little perturbed but I convinced her it was completely worth it. 

We both ordered the Pappardelle al Ragu Bolognese (slow simmered meat sauce and fresh pasta). I had to show you my delicious meal (sorry for the blurry picture, I was trying to be incognito) 

And after:

Needless to say the trip is always too short when it comes to fun personal time. I can't wait for Chris and I to go back together and really get to explore. Maybe he will fall in love with city like I did and he will finally agree to move there for a few years. I always try to convince him and I got extremely close one night when were out with some of our friends that are planning on moving to Denver. 

Glad to be home in my own bed, driving my own car, relaxing my feet/legs.