Circle of Friends and other things

Last year they started this very cool club at WRHS, called Circle of Friends. The club is develops special friendships between teens with special needs and the "normal" teens. It's been a huge success with over 100 kids showing up at the first club meeting.

They go to activities together, work concession stands to earn money, have parties along with numerous other activities.

Tonight was "game night" and the kids met in the gym and played a variety of different games from basketball, to board games. There was even a "hot" game of Texas Holdem going on.

Here are a few of the pictures, of the afternoon.

I substitued today in one of my favorite classes. It was a nice and easy day. I finally finished my power point presentation that I will be giving tomorrow at the State Middle School Conference. The title is "Special Children, Challenged Parents". Say a pray that I okay.. It's been a long time since I have been up speaking in front of my peers.

football letter

Last night we attended the WRHS football banquet. Joe, was the first foreign exchange student to ever complete a football season. He had never played football before and by the end of the season he was starting on the junior varasity team.

He was very proud of earning a letter for all of his efforts. Now he has a week off and will start wrestling practice next week. sigh.... To be honest, I really don't like wrestling. I have a hard time watching it. I want to run out there and pull the boys apart and tell them to "play nice"! grin....

Alex starts swim practice next week also. So that pretty much means good-bye to family meals for awhile. Joe will be at practice from after school to around 5;30. Alex has to be at swim from 5:30-8:00. Dan works three days a week, 12 hour days, which means he doesn't get home until 7:30. I HATE eating at 8:30! So my crock pot will get a work-out. That way everyone can eat when it fits best into their schedule. I really do miss it when we don't have evening meals together...I guess I have to make the weekend ones special and hold on to the fact that in a few months we will all be together again.

Wow... The weekend is over and I have not blogged once.... maybe this was not such a good idea! Okay here is a recap of the past few days.

I attended an autism/asperger's conference on both Thursday and Friday. If any of you ever get the chance to see Tony Atwood, please take the time to see him. He is wonderful. I think this is the fourth time now. I picked up some good tips on how to help Ryan with some social skills. I will keep you informed on how they work.

On Friday night, Alex and Joe made the decision to "camp" out at WalMart for the PRE-Black Friday Sale. They had the Playstation 3 for $100.00 off plus you received a $100.00 gift card. They returned home at around 9:00 a Conquering war hero's and immediately went downstairs to play it. However, they had to tell me all the stories from their 8 hour camp out! Evidently Alex was "threatened" by the manager that he was either going to charge him with shopliffting or with vandelism. When Alex asked why, it was because he took a rocking chair and was setting it! Alex has no luck with Walmart managers! I will have to share the story of the I-Pod sometime. The boys never did go to bed the entire day, however, after supper, they finally crashed! Oh to be young again. Here is a picture to remember the night. Joe (our exchange student from Germany) is on the left and Alex is on the right.

On Sunday we went out for breakfast at Hy-Vee and then went to Alex's school play at Hayden High School. Alex runs the sound equipment. They did the musical GodSpell and did an awesome job! As a fund raiser, they had a place where you could send a flower to someone in the case/crew. Sigh.. here is what Alex did with his!

My first blog

Okay... I have been working on my "first" blog for a day now.... I never seem to be at a lost for words when I am talking, not sure why I am now.

I am not sure why I am starting a blog ....perhaps to keep in contact with friends and family....perhaps to have a way of remembering the "moments" in life....or maybe just to do something everyone else is doing. Who knows.. it just sounded like a good idea.

I am so glad the elections are over. That is not saying that everyone I voted for won....I am just glad I don't have to listen to it or look at the signs. If you didn't know, we have a foreign exchange student from Germany this year. It's been interesting to hear him speak of the elections and what the newspapers there have to say.

Speaking of exchange student we heard from our first one, Martijin, who lives in Holland. We had lost contact with him so it was great hearing from him. He is now married and they are planning a trip to the USA this coming May. I can't wait to see him.

Okay... I know this was not an exciting blog...however... it's my first one. I am sure I will get the hang of this.