The First Week of August

Staying home in summer is both good and bad.  Good because we get more rest, bad because we do more work.  Some things had to get done though, and if I'm away too much I can't help my team in the fitness challenge by going to the gym.
We got our new menu Saturday and went shopping for all the delicous food. We went to Natural Grocers to get whey protein for smoothies and Ruben did his magic and made the door open just by waving his arms in front of it.

Ruben doing magic to make the door open

 We were really happy when we got home to see Ruben's friend Cameron. He had taken off trucking with his grandpa for a month and went all the way to New York.  We took him swimming when we got back from shopping.  Ru likes to play vid games with him. Here they are munching cheese biscuits and omelettes.  MMmm breakfast for dinner.

Ru and Cameron

  Ruben only gets an hour of video game time a day, so he gets up and plays first thing in the morning, usually before me.  So when I get up this is what I see.

Every morning

The chef

 I have been doing this great diet plan, its super healthy, and has plenty of calories that I don't lose weight, and can gain muscle.  Ruben however isn't always thrilled by the menu, and learned to cook mac and cheese all by himself.  He calls it crap and squeeze.

Wednesday was library day, and Ruben had read his 20 hours to get his ticket to the summer reading party.  We got there, checked out our books, then heard an announcement that there was a magic show starting in 10 minutes.  Of course we went.  The magician/comedian/entertainer was great.  He had the entire crowd laughing, even the toddlers and moms. He started off with a 4 legged trick.

I didn't catch his name, I think it was Heimlich.

Yea its a glove

8 plates (and only one broke)

 The finale was the plate spinning.  He was fantastic.  The whole crowd was on the edge of their seats to see if he would drop them.  There was a 4 year old sitting by Ruben who was so adorable, he kept covering his eyes, then his ears, then he would peek, it was so exciting.  Best free show we saw all week!

When we got home I helped Fred with job hunting.  He applied for 20 jobs with Salem Keizer School District for an Instructional Assistant in special ed classrooms.  He doesn't have a lot of experience working with kids, but as he told me he wants to be a teacher eventually it is a great starting point. 

Then I went to my Polynesian dance class. We are learning Christmas Hulas.  We will have costumes and performances and everything.  So everyone who reads this, expect to see me dance to Melikilikimaka in December.  I never imagined, in my wildest dreams, that I'd end up part of a dance troupe, doing hula, in Salem.

Today (Thursday) Ruben had an early appointment with his speech therapist.  She is working with him to stretch out his words and say them slowly so his brain has time to come up with the words he wants to say, and he stutters less. This really works for him, when he doesn't get frustrated and refuse to slow down.

I dropped off Ru and home and went to an appointment at Courthouse Athletic Club. Our fitness challenge "Zults War" is more than half over and our team needed to check in. I think we are all doing our best. Its been fun so far. I went to Club Dance class on Monday night and it was crazy fun.  Like zumba but with more hip hop. I took a hip hop class a few years ago so it was familiar, but I'd have to go a lot to really catch on. Anyway, after that appointment I stopped off at Judson to talk to my administrator and check in with  the registrar.  I have some kids who are going to be in some gened classes and wanted to make sure it was all going to happen smoothly. I also got Ruben's class schedule for this fall.  He's got all the best teachers... and I didn't even bribe the registrar :)
Per 1 and 2 Literature block, Per 3 Science, Per 4 Math (which means he'll likely have second lunch, same as me) Per 5 Choir, and Per 6 Avid.

I did get some very sad news that one of my favorite students drowned in the river last weekend.  I will hopefully make it to his funeral weekend after next.  He was doing so well in High School, he even joined junior ROTC. Its just so sad.

Moment of silence

 

Minesweeper, Ruben style

Later today we took the car to the dealership for an oil change, tire rotation, and wash. They have a computer to entertain kids, but sadly we didn't come on massage chair day.  If you look carefully you'll see that Ruben modified the Minesweeper game to have 100 squares and 62 bombs. It was amusing watching him play.

We got home and I taught Ru some martial arts.  He's finally showing an interest.  He gets frustrated, silly, then he nails the technique, then gets frustrated and or silly again.  Its a struggle for him, but he's sticking with it. I'm one proud mama.

While I practiced madrigals Ruben and Fred were also being musical.  Ru has been playing songs on his little keyboard through the amp with distortion. and Fred was downstairs recording the Fred version of I Can't Help Falling in Love With You.  Go ahead, say "Ahhhhhwww"

He was playing the intro to an Eminem song

Recording an Elvis song

At madrigal rehearsal tonight we discussed a challenge thrown down by the Pearwood Pipers and the Sherwood Singers, the two other area madrigal groups. During the Shrewsbury Renaissance Faire coming in September, there will be a little competition to see who can sing the most FaLaLa's during the madrigal mob.   We have eight songs the include the falala in them, some are more promintenly featured than others.  We may create a medley.  I think its so geeky fun.

After all the music died down we watched Ben Stiller try and keep up with Bear Gryllis on the new NBC show, and went to bed. I still get bedtime snuggles from Ru :)