The Weekend

On Fridays, Jessica and I have photography and sign language at the local college. (I'm getting ready for school as I write this.)   They are community classes though, not college classes. Photography is from 9-11:45 and sign language is 1-3:45.

There are 13 of us in photography. The teacher will go over a camera setting and then go around person to person to make sure everyone understands. That means we have a lot of time sitting and waiting. So we amuse ourselves by taking pictures of each other.

We were late to class because the baby was craving McDonald's pancakes. Or that's the story at least.

It was that kind of day.

In class.

The teacher sent us outside on break.

Sign language class is very annoying because there is one lady who thinks it's her private class. Every few minutes she interrupts to ask a question that gets the teacher totally off track, example-what's the difference between how you sign in Canada and Mexico. Really? But the teacher gives her a complete answer each time. She also stops every few minutes to say, "But I learned to sign it like this" and shows a different sign which results in another 5-10 minute discussion of outdated or alternative signs. Then the teacher tries to catch up by going through 30 signs in 5 minutes of which I retain one if I'm lucky! In three weeks time, I have only learned the manual alphabet, numbers to 10 and maybe 10 signs! 

Last Saturday the American Heritage Girls had camp out at a state park an hour away. It was a family event but unfortunately only Jasmine and I were able to go. We only went for a couple of hours in the evening. I did a devotion about glowing in the dark from Matthew 5 and used glo sticks to illustrate. I started by holding one glo stick. I called girls up one at a time to get a glo stick and add to our light.

I don't have any pictures of that, but I have some of Jasmine cooking supper.

Adam brought his dog Leah over on Saturday, and that did not go well. She and Travis went after each other. Travis is a Pomeranian/Maltese/dachshund mix (12 pounds) and Leah is a Pitt Bull mix (45 pounds).

There was no school Monday, so four of us went kayaking. Unfortunately, we are having some behavioral issues here that are keeping a couple children from taking part in some activities. It's all about choices. I tell them that, and the counselor tells them that. It's escalating, so they are requiring a lot more supervision and structure to keep them safe and on track.

There used to be two bookcases along this wall. I often used them as a backdrop for photos. I gave away a lot of books and moved the rest, along with a bookcase, to our closet. I wanted to have another wall for pictures. I have two empty frames because I don't have recent photos of Jeff and Adam. Most of these photos are ones I took at the park. Kaleb and Jessica's aren't. The rest are. I plan to take more sometime soon. I took some of Kaleb in a tree last time, but he looked scared.

These are the church directory photos and the graduation photos for four of the children. The little picture in the middle was taken at Rick's sister's funeral. It's him, his parents, Ashley and her children. I wish the composition was better, but someone just snapped it. I'll have to add a row of graduation pictures along the top all too soon.

Jessica will be here to pick me up for class soon. She lives near the college, but brings her dogs to daycare near me. It's a long way out of her way to bring me back, but this way Ty has a car to pick the younger kids up from school.

Check out my latest post on my parenting blog HERE and our Proverbs for the day HERE.