I mamam

Some days seem to be more full than others. Or at least in 24 hours, a lot can happen.

Last night on our way home from piano, I asked for the third time if anyone had homework.

A very quiet voice from the back answered, but I could not hear what Grace said.

Finally Annabel just blurts out that their math project is due tomorrow. This would be the math project that had been assigned 4 weeks before, I'm guessing. LOTS of days had passed with NO homework and lots of free time.

This assignment had them watching five 30 minute TV shows and recording how many commercials they saw. From there they had to make a graph and determine what conclusions could be drawn from the results.

Believe it or not, they had also watched plenty of TV in the last 4 weeks too.

Thank goodness for DVR or TIVO or whatever, since we were getting home at 6:30 and faced 2 1/2 hours of just watching TV before doing the rest of the project.

We had plenty of shows that we had recorded so I took control of the remote and we breezed through the shows and stopped at the commercials. Quite the opposite of the usual way to watch TV.

But the commercials on Disney and Nick are pretty entertaining too so I switched and made them watch a Food Network show, Good Eats. Much more interesting to me, but found out they have a LOT more commercials than Disney or Nick. Very surprising!

When it came time to write their conclusions, I had to help Annabel with spelling. So she wanted me to help her write, "I am surprised...". So I spelled am, a m. So she spelled it back, mamam. HUH???

Every time I tried to explain a m then she said, ok, m, now what?

It took me a while to understand that each time I said a, she thought I meant like "the" M, so she kept on adding mamam. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but it was pretty funny.

Today I had my appointment with 2 of the 3 teachers and the assistant principal. It has taken a while and lots of visits to the school, phone calls, and emails, but I think they finally understood what I was explaining and what Annabel had also told them.

Yes, Annabel still has a LOT of adjusting to do, language to learn, rules for a western society, manners, how to participate in groups, etc. BUT regardless of any or even all of this, she does not deserve to have someone taunt her, calling her bad names, make fun of her ethnicity, and spitting on her.

No specific plans were made but it did help that I knew specific situations, where they had happened, who all was involved. It has taken Annabel a LONG time to get to the point where she has shared this much.

This afternoon I decided that we needed to go shopping for something new for Easter. The girls have received so many clothes from friends that we have not bought anything in a long time and money is still so tight, but when you shop at Target, you can at least get a pretty good value and all the "extras" that girls need.

We had such a good time and ended the evening with Taco Bueno and thanks to coupons that was less than $10!

So when I write it all down like that, it does seem like a LOT for 24 hours! Plus work, plus volunteering at the book sale.

Speaking of work, this has been one of the crazier of weeks. Not due to the work itself, but due to the problems so many brought to us this week.

Then late yesterday afternoon, my co-worker Gloria, whom you have read about before, has been told that a spot on her eye may be cancerous. Not the best bed side manner, but the doctor was very frank about the risks and told how a similar patient had died within 2 months of surgery. Gloria is handling it much better than I could especially with a 15 month old and husband of 2 years.

The surgery cannot be scheduled for 2 more weeks, so there is plenty of time for prayers.

I'm thankful my friend Erika's husband is coming back from helping with the fires that have plagued North Texas. The weather is forecasting LOTS of rain, so hopefully he won't have to return any time soon.

Tomorrow has a day with building a bird house at Lowes and then possibly a craft at the Ice House. This is Annabel's first Easter, so this will be interesting.