Alot Going On

I haven't been posting much lately--not because there hasn't been anything to post about, but because it's been crazy!

I told you the story about how we got the track cleats for Kayla, but I didn't tell you about the euphonium. Ty saw an online post for a euphonium for $50. It said it was in okay shape but had an air leak. That could mean almost anything. I was picturing either bad valves or a leak in the joints. But I decided to take a chance on it but asked if she'd take $40. She did, and I became the owner of a euphonium.

I took it to a music store to be evaluated. Turns out the only thing wrong with it is that it has the wrong mouthpiece. But it's playable anyway. So the twins are taking turns playing the instrument. One plays trombone and the other plays the euphonium. 

Kayla is on the soccer team. She and I made a contract. It basically says that if she wants to remain on the team she cannot steal, lie or skip her jobs. She must maintain a good attitude. On days she violates it, she doesn't go. The coach agrees with this. So some weeks she hardly goes. At her school there are very low expectations for students, and they get to play in the games even if they don't go to practice! I hope to move her to Kaleb's school next year. It's kind of in the middle between the charter school she was at with over zealous requirements and the title 1 school she's in now. They have not won any games yet. In fact, the game have been called on the mercy rule so far.

On the last post I asked you to vote on your favorite picture of Jasmine. The one below was the winner.

I have been making a lot of wreaths that I hope to sell. We will see what happens with that. Here are a few.

I hope to get some good pictures tomorrow to share next time.

Thanksgiving Week

We've had a good week here. It was very rainy the first part of the week, then it cleared and we had sun again. We've been able to walk at the park and spend time outside.

We had our family dinner last Saturday, and Jasmine had a hymns concert at another church on Sunday. I'll try to upload a couple of videos in the next post.

The huskies came to visit. We need to set things up differently next time.They are not safe with the little dogs,and we almost lost Sasha in an incident similar to the Travis/Kiara tragedy.

We watched Polar Express. Decided on Cream Soda rather than hot chocolate.

Game time

Jasmine hit the same chute three times!!

"Why me?"

We went to the beach to grill on Thanksgiving Day since we had our family dinner last Saturday. 

It was sunny and a bit windy. We started out in jackets but ended up in short sleeves.

We spent a lot of time throwing the ball around. And fished it out of the water a few times.

This beach is on the Gulf of Mexico in the FL panhandle.

Kayla decided to go in the water. I told them it was up to each of them whether they did or not.

The kids worked together to make the gingerbread house. It feels strange only have three at home now. We would definitely like at least once more but the state of  FL refuses to work with us to get a waiting child. We are now too old for Haiti and the wait is four years anyway.  But we'd like a boy 11-13 or 4-6. But it's not happening. But we have three empty beds and a lot of experiences to share with another child.

I got a griddle at the Walmart sale Thanksgiving evening.

And I got three pairs of the $8 shoes!! Walmart brand--Andi. Jasmine almost always has Nike high tops so I was surprised when she wanted a pair.

Into a Routine

For some reason, it's been a lot harder to get back into the school routine this year. I wasn't ready for summer to be over. I wasn't ready to start getting up at 5:05 and having everyone out the door by 6:10 a.m. I am still functioning on auto pilot that early. I normally don't get to bed until about 11:30 so 5:05 feels like the middle of the night.

Yet, that's the way it is. Back to homework, teacher conferences, IEP meetings and science fair plans. Right now Jasmine is working to get 60 3x5 note cards filled out with information about friction from six different sources. Then she has to write a three page typed report, conduct her experiment--three trials minimum and design her board. We already have the scientific plan sheet turned in. It looks like this:

Experimental Plan/Proposal

(Must be approved by instructor)

All responses need to be typed

Student’s Name: _Jasmine Cassel  Teacher: Mrs. Dolittle

A.     Question/Problem

How does road surface effect car speed?

B.      What is your research topic?

Friction

C.     Hypothesis:

If the road is rougher then the car will go slower because there is more friction

D.    Materials

·        Board to build race track

·        Dividers for lanes

·        Nails

·        Sand paper Fine P 100

·        Sand paper  Medium P 60

·        Sand paper Coarse P 40

·        Sand paper Extra Coarse P20

·        Glue

·        Four different style of matchbox cars

·        Stop watch

·        Notebook

·        Pen

·        Assistant

E.     Procedures

·        Build a ramp three feet long and two feet wide, divided into four lanes.

·        Cover each lane with a different coarseness of sand paper.

·        Time car #1 on each lane using a stop watch.

·        Record the times for each lane.

·        Repeat steps 3 and 4 with car #2.

·        Repeat steps 3 and 4 with car #3.

·        Repeat steps 3 and 4 with car #4.

·        Repeat the experiment three times for consistent results.

F.      Experimental Design

·        Independent Variable: Type of car, the roughness of the sand paper

·        Dependent Variable: Car speed

·        How will your dependent variable be measured? With a stop watch

·        Control: The sand paper extra coarse p 20.

·        Constants: Length of ramp, incline of ramp, weight of the cars, surface condition of the ramp

How many trials will you conduct? Three times

I was planning to put Kaleb in the other branch of the charter school next year from the one where Kayla is, but realizing that in two years they will start science fair projects and history fair projects, I am now planning to have them at the same school so they can work together on them!!

It's been a tough pet week here. Tuesday the 9th we gave the dogs their monthly trifexus (@ $18 each!). Scrappy was having problems breathing and was walking with a limp. By Friday his back  legs were not working at all, and he was laboring to breathe at all. Rick took him to the vet, but there was nothing to be done. They said he would never be able to use his back legs again. His heart was giving out and not doing his job, and he could barely breathe. He was at least 15 years old, maybe older. So we lost our buddy that day. We got him when Jasmine was about 3-4 months old. So she and the twins have grown up with him, and Adam doesn't remember life before him.

Travis, 19 months old

 We have to crush up the trifexus and mix it with canned food. They have to be fed one at a time so they don't take each other's food/medicine.

Sasha, seven months old

Scrappy, 15 years old

Caspian, 3 years old

Our daily schedule is pretty workable. On Monday evenings Jasmine has county Christian Youth Choir. On Tuesday Kaleb has tumbling, but we are dropping it at the end of the month. On Wednesday Jasmine has hip hop. (Jazz was moved to Thursday so we decided against doing it). On Thursday Jasmine has marching band from 2:45-4 and the twins have gymnastics. Nothing on Friday or Saturdays because we don't have anyone in soccer or baseball. They are all out the door by 6:10 a.m. and everyone is back to the house by 4:00 (which is a little long, but they are trying to work out the bus situation.)

Adam is playing city soccer on a church team on Thursday evenings.

Jessica is working at Applebees and counting down to the wedding--just over five weeks now. She is trying to go to open tumbling for adults on Thursday evenings (same time as Adam's soccer games of course!)

So, everyone has at least one extracurricular activity. And it seems to be going well so far. And that's pretty much our routine for now.