Is It Jacob or Is It Neil

Jacob is giving his report tomorrow on Neil Armstrong, he has to give an oral presentation to the class as if he were Neil.  So we got my leather jacket out and I'm letting him take the helmet in too.  Got the shirt and pants from Goodwill and viola, instant Neil Armstrong.  Jacob has been working on the presentation for a while, the speech needs to be between 4-5 minutes long.  The first run through was 1 1/2 minutes and he's been constantly adding content to get closer to 4 minutes.  It's been a struggle at times to get him to work on it, but once he put on the outfit his motivation soared like a rocket going to the moon (pretty nice tie in huh).  The helmet is a nice disguised blessing, because he can't hear himself when talks he speaks much louder than normal, kinda like you're supposed to when giving a presentation.

Of course Joshua couldn't resist acting like big brother, plus the helmet and jacket are cool, how can anyone resist wearing them.

Josh was not only mimicking Jacob he was also trying to emulate a Star Wars character, the lightsaber should help you know who he was trying to be, if that's not enough the solid green hand should give it away.  You have to admit the likeness is uncanny, is Yoda on the left or the right?  Just so hard to tell.

Pinewood Derby

2nd Place - Whoo Hoo !!!!!  He missed 1st place by 1 - 10,000th of a second - very close race.

He was very proud - and he should be!  This is the last year for Jacob to participate in the Pinewood Derby.  He is a Webelo 2 and next year actually becomes a Boy Scout.

Here is his car - 2nd form the left - car name Ferrari 458:

Here is the screen shot of just how tight the race was between Alex Boyer (the son of Jacob's Den Lead Leader):

Here are Zackary and Jacob - winners in their own categories:

It was a long afternoon, though.  It started at 4:00 p.m.  They had a bit of technical difficulty with the Race Track which delayed the official start.  And we did not finish until after 7:00 p.m.  So - we went out to eat.

Still waiting for the dreary rain to go away in Atlanta.  Hopefully some time this week.

Not Much To Report

Well not much happened today.  The big news is my Mom has her lung cancer surgery scheduled for February 2nd.  She sounded really positive on the phone, and really liked the doctor.  We did our Wednesday church thing, but had quick dinner at home instead of eating at church.

Long Weekend Is Over

Jennifer and the kids got back tonight after spending the weekend in Knoxville for Marisa's birthday party.  Sounds like they had a good time.  I stayed home and actually got the Christmas trees down and put away, all the ornaments boxed and all remaining holiday stuff has been successfully put away.  I think that's a record for us.  It usually looks like Christmas in our house until March.  It's always kinda sad to see it gone, but it's also nice to have the house back to normal, well, normal for us.  No pictures, but not much worth capturing unless you want to see the space on the floor where the tree was.  There were some pretend needles from the fake tree leftover, but not quite photo worthy.  Maybe some good pics from the adventures in Knoxville will show up in a future post.

Off To Knoxville

Going to Knoxville for Marisa's birthday party.  It's a couple weeks before her actual birthday, but this is the only weekend we have open for a while.

Also have our first basketball game tonight, hope we play well.

Another Busy Day

So many changes at work - can't even keep up these days.

Had another great dinner with Grandma and Papa Jack.

Now I have to go do my personal evaluation for work before midnight.

Wednesday Night Church

We are back into routine for our Wednesday nights at church.  We skipped the dinner, but still got there for Joshua's choir practice and Jacob and Layne going to Crews Clues.  Jacob brought his Kindle Fire because he has the bible downloaded.  Not sure if he used it, but he was ready.

The kids were very good tonight, we got to bed at 8 and lights out by 8:30, this never happens, but I'll take it, maybe I can get to bed and sleep tonight by 11.

Dreariness

It is foggy, misty, rainy, overcast, dreary - and HUMID!  This is when I dislike Atlanta weather.  It might as well just snow!

We had another meal adventure tonight.  Mom cooked the Swiss Chard we got in our basket this past Saturday.  It was beautiful looking.  She sauteed it with some olive oil then put hardboiled egg and crisp bacon with it to finish.  You would think with the egg and bacon it would have been a hit.  But not for me and the kids.  Sorry - just too slimy for me.  I could do okay with it with some more pepper on it (I know - I sound like Jacob!) - but still not something I loved.  Now - Dad and Matthew thought it was great.  We will do again sometime.

We also had grilled pork chops, spinach salad and rolls.  The kids also had apple sauce.  It was a good dinner and I am pleased we are sticking to the plan to keep trying new vegetables and new foods.

I spoke with the school counselor today at Ocee Elementary about Joshua's Neuropsychology Report.  Her suggestion is to do a "Student Support Team" meeting.  Since he doesn't have a medical diagnosis, then at this point he doesn't qualify for a 504 plan or IEP.  Now - I disagree - as he could/should fall under OHI (which is Other Health Impaired) but for now I will go along with the suggestions.  She is going to put together a meeting with Matthew, me, Principal, Mrs. Ciavardini (Joshua's teacher), Mrs. Tepper (Joshua's EIP teacher - EIP is Early Intervention Program), herself and the Occupational Therapist for the school.  She was going to initially see if she could speak with the school's OT to have an evaluation done of Joshua prior to our meeting.  The OT evaluation is my priority right now.  To try and give him more functional skills.  He seems to have the cognitive skills, but really needs assistance with the fine motor and gross motor skills.  Hopefully an appointment will come soon.

I am also a little bummed about basketball for Jacob.  Not sure if it would have helped if could have been on Zackary's team or not.  But I think he doesn't give himself enough credit.  He keeps thinking that he is like me - since in his view I was in TAG, also and that Layne is like Matthew.  But - he needs to understand that I loved Volleyball, Basketball, and Softball during school and played on the teams.  We told him he has to find something to do physically.  I think he would be a great Long Distance Runner - stick the headphones on and go!

Tomorrow evening is our first night back to Wednesday night activities at church.  Seems like we just need to keep up with it all again!

Jacob Ties A Tie

Jacob learned to tie a tie tonight, he also practiced on Josh.  For Christmas Jacob jot a "Tigger" tie, not a clip on, but a real tie.  He's been asking to learn how to tie it, and we just messed with it enough tonight that he was able to redo the steps I showed him.  He was not thrilled with me taking pictures of him practicing, but it was ok to take pictures of him practicing on Joshua for some reason.

Had our second night of basketball and we will make it official and Jacob won't be playing this year, he got out there and tried, but you could just see, the more he tried the unhappier he got.  All the coaches talked to him and tried to get him to keep going, but he was done.  I give him lots of credit, it was a big deal for him to get out there and participate.  The thing that kills me is that he was dribbling and shooting after Layne's practice, and doing quite well.  It's ok, it isn't his thing and that's ok.

Dreary Winter Weather

We had rain most of the day.  Except for Atlanta it is the humid, not quite cold, icky rain.  We have some really dense fog tonight.

We went to dinner at Grandma and Papa Jack's.  Had a beef stew with an organic stew base that we purchased yesterday while Joshua, Grandma and I were out and about.   It was pretty good.  The only problem was the potatoes never really cooked - no matter what we did.  The meat we picked out at Harry's Farmer's Market was great, though.

Yesterday while Matthew and Layne and Jacob were doing their basketball "thing" - Grandma, Joshua and I went exploring a little bit.

Our first stop was to the vegetable co-op that I joined.  This was our first time picking up our portion of the organic foods.  The farm - Moss Hill Farm - was really beautiful.  We picked up some red leaf lettuce, broccoli, swiss chard, bok choy, and spinach.  And we also got some stuff we couldn't identify!  Grandma is going to email the farmer, Fred Keisler, to see if we can identify some of the greens and get some suggestions for eating.  It will definitely be a big week of eating greens for the Ganotes and Laynes in Atlanta.

After leaving the farm, we went through downtown Alpharetta just to check things out.  Then we went to Harry's Farmer's Market.  I can't remember the last time I was there.  It was great going on a Saturday - so many things to taste and try.  Joshua had a really good time.  I think we need to go back and get some seafood from there again.  Their seafood always looks so wonderful.

Then we went to downtown Roswell and had lunch together at Diesel.  A restaurant in an old gas station building.   I think their specialty is pizza, but we had pizza the night before, so we split a panini.  It was just so-so.  Joshua had fried macaroni and cheese - which he said he liked - which he didn't eat - and when I tasted it was HORRIBLE!  The waitress even had my mom get up and go pick up our drinks from the bar at one point "cause she had other drinks to get ready".  Good grief!  Not sure we will be going back there any time soon.

Joshua enjoyed the restaurant, though.  There were 2 guys at the bar that left right about when we got settled.  They were leaving on their motorcycles.  Joshua went outside to watch them leave.  They even waved at him.  And then leaving, Joshua got to meet a little dog name Biscuit, who was very cute.  Joshua was certain the dog really liked him.

We then drove on down into Roswell just to "check out" the Krispy Kreme.   We were so lucky - the doughnuts were "Hot Now".  We got 2 dozen to bring home and share.  Joshua even got a free doughnut with sprinkles.  After I had paid for our 2 dozen he then told me he wanted sprinkles on his doughnut.  I told the guy at the window I would just pay cash - but he said not to worry about it - and gave Joshua his doughnut free.  How nice!

We are still not back to normal schedule.  We slept in today.  All of us slept until about 10:15 a.m.  Got up and did a few things in the kitchen.  Planned meals for the week and wrote out our grocery list.  We haven't eaten at home since Christmas Day for a real meal.  Layne went with me to do the grocery shopping.  It took us about 1 1/2 hours and $300.00.  Ouch!

Our new neighbors across the street were so nice today.  The kids had brought them cookies on Christmas Eve. Today they brought the kids a thank you card and a gift certificate to McDonald's.  How very nice.

I am praying we are all getting up okay and on schedule in the morning.  Lunches are packed, breakfast laid out, clothes laid out, we know where shoes and backpacks are - what could go wrong, right?  We shall see.....

Here is what our Christmas looked like on Christmas Day - very blessed indeed!

Basketball Season Begins

Well, at least the practice part of basketball.  Jacob and Layne had first practices today, both started off with huge amounts of kids to contend with, the boys team was actually two teams practicing together and will be divided up shortly and the girls are three teams and will be divided up too, just not as quickly.  All the added kids made for an intimidating atmosphere, especially for Jacob who has never played organized bball before.  He sat this practice out, and the hope is that he will have an easier time participating with fewer kids on Monday's practice.

Layne's practice had twenty girls, but the practice went very smooth and was really well run.  She had a hard time at first but got comfortable pretty quick and was dribbling the ball like a Globetrotter in no time.  For not having played in a while her shot was falling and she had a nice follow through.

My hope is to get with Jacob tomorrow and shoot around on our hoop at home, get him comfortable and confident in himself.  I know he can play, he just needs to believe that he can play and things should settle in for him.

Happy 7th Birthday Mitchell!

Well - I think it worked out okay for Joshua, Jacob, and Layne to get out of school early.  They went to go see the new Chipmunk movie - Chipwrecked.  Not sure it was a big hit - but Aunt Melanie said no one fell asleep.

Mitchell wanted to have McDonald's for dinner and he wanted white cupcakes with white frosting.  Melanie did awesome with the plans.  We got to go to McDonald's with an indoor play place.  And Aunt Melanie made the best cupcakes.  Even Marisa had to confirm that her mom really made them.


Here are the Batman cupcakes: 

Here are some very interested people in the gift portion of the party: 

Here is a happy party participant:

Here is Mitchell with Melanie and Marisa - what a great party!

Still cold

Thankfully the kids all behaved well today.  They got to go to Fernbank Science Museum with Aunt Melanie and Grandma.  Sounds like everyone had fun.

Aunt Melanie and Grandma made Sloppy Joe's for dinner and I stopped by Piece of Cake and brought home a yummy cake with chocolate frosting.

Tomorrow Mitchell turns 7 years old.  I am a great aunt - and a horrible mom - I said the kids could leave early and get picked up at 12:00 p.m. to go have fun with the birthday boy.

Still not keeping up with pictures very well.  It is taking some time to get back in to routine.

Matthew and I seem to be the only ones excited for school to start again.

First Day Back at Work

I did not want to go at all.  We didn't wake up until I got a text from Melanie at 7:30 a.m. asking me if she needed to come over.  The plan was for her to come over so Matthew and I could leave for work and she would let the kids sleep in a little bit.   Well - I slept in a little bit - boy was it nice while listening to the wind and knowing that it was only 22 degrees outside.

The kids were still asleep at 10:00 when I called Melanie and told her to come on over. They were zonked.

Thursday is going to be a rough morning for 3 kids in the Ganote house.

Interesting day back at work.  Still feels weird to know that Dr. Flamini is going to another office and after February I will no longer work with Dr. Cheng.  I think it will take a bit to sink in for real.

The kids hung out at Grandma and Papa Jack's today with Aunt Melanie.  Too bad it was so cold they couldn't play outside very much.

I left work a little late - I know - Surprise! - and had a bit of a drive on 400 tonight to meet everyone for dinner at Sweet Tomatoes.  But it gave me a chance to call Susan and wish her a Happy New Year.  I haven't talked to them since they left from our Christmas celebration this year.  Sounds like these are going well in Louisville.

Tomorrow we get to celebrate Mitchell's birthday.

I need to get some pictures from Melanie from the past few days / weeks so I can add them to the blog.

Matthew is getting ready to play Xbox with Lem Yeung, Jack Yeung, Joshua and Layne.  May need to get a picture of the cross country play, huh?

Okay - Jacob didn't help clean up the living room - so only Joshua and Layne got to play - here is the picture I promised you:

Day 2

Well I now realize why a couple friend's on Facebook were upset that there wasn't a college football game on New Year's Day - the Rose Bowl is on Monday this year.  I didn't realize they wouldn't have the game if it fell on a Sunday.  So we were surprised when we turned on the TV today and we were able to watch the Rose Bowl Parade.   Haven't been able to get the kids interested yet - but it has been fun for me so far.

Interesting day so far - or not.  So far pretty much more of the same.  Trying to motivate children and mediating altercations between Joshua and Mitchell. 

Trying to get things "found" and picked up.  I am thankful Matthew is here to help.  Dreading going to work tomorrow. 

But time to get back into some type of routine I guess.

The kids don't go to school until Thursday.  Matthew and I have our meeting with the Neuropsychologist to review the results of Joshua's testing.  Hopefully there will be support to help him feel more successful.

2012 - from Knoxville

We spent New Year's in Knoxville, TN.  This is when the Layne's do our Christmas together. 

Today mom and dad left earlier for home.  They have been here for over a week and wanted to get settled in a bit before we all return.

We were up so late last night that Melanie and I slept until almost 11:00 a.m.  Layne and Matthew were the last ones up about 11:30. 

Melanie, Matthew and I took the kids to see Puss in Boots at the cheap theater.  We still spent over $60.00 for 5 kids and 3 adults.  The movie was really cute.  I liked it quite a bit - Antonio Banderas is hilarious in that role.   Joshua thought it was a great movie.  I think if kind of made up for the We Bought a Zoo movie he watched last night for New Year's Eve.  Poor kid kept asking me "where's the zoo mommy?".  It was a little more about a family dealing with grief and a lot less about a zoo than I anticipated.  He fell asleep with about 30 minutes left of the movie and totally slept through the New Year.

We went out to Chili's for dinner.  Joshua and Jacob were the only ones who wanted to have dessert - oh yeah, and me.  So Matthew was great to take the kids home while we stayed and finished. 

I found a sheet of "Goals" for kids that we had them fill out at dinner.  A little bit of retrospection and some plans they documented.  Will post those later.






A little bit of our week in Knoxville:

Layne, Jacob, Joshua and I came down on Wednesday.  We were here by dinner and the chaos began right away.  They all love being together - but Boy can they be loud! 

We went to Gatlinburg, TN on Thursday and Layne, Jacob and Marisa spent an hour at MagiQuest with Melanie and me.  The girls complained about having to go the whole time and then they were very excited once we got going again figuring out the clues.  Jacob was beyond excited - he has been begging to go back since we left the last time.



 The plan was for Grandma and Papa Jack to go with Mitchell and Joshua to the Nascar Racetrack for the hour.  I didn't know that Melanie had instructed the grandparents to across to WalMart prior to Nascar in order to get the boys jackets since it was outside - but it was right across the street.  We finished at MagiQuest and tried to reach mom and dad on the phone to check in with them. Couldn't reach them - but oh my goodness Gatlinburg was busy this day.  The cell phones were consistently "server busy".  We got to the race track and Layne was begging to go in and ride.  We still hadn't heard from mom and dad and we didn't see them anywhere.  Finally hear from mom - and they hadn't even gotten to the race track yet.  The boys and mom and dad had been driving around for almost 2 hours.  Their GPS took them on a wild goose chase. 

So change of plans again - all 5 kids were now going to spend an hour at the racetrack for $14.99 a piece - good grief!  They wanted every adult to pay the same price - even if we weren't riding.  The saving point was our Senior Citizens that we brought with us - lol.  Grandma and Papa Jack were able to accompay the kids for only $6.00 a piece.  So - Melanie and I went shopping at the outlet mall and missed all the fun.

We met at Red Lobster for dinner.  Papa Jack was freezing.  It didn't help when our waitress poured a full glass of ice water down his back either.  Everyone seemed to find something to eat.

Following dinner we went to drive through the minor league baseball parking lot in Gatlinburg.  They had the lights coordinate with music that you could listen to on your radio in your car.  The kids seemed to really like the lights quite a bit.

Was having quite a bit of trouble with Layne this trip and this week - really up until yesterday. She has been giving me quite a bit of attitude.  She is upset that we don't have a "better car", that we "never have any money" and that "she never gets to do anything she wants".  She was so ugly.  She whined the whole time about going to MagiQuest - than of course had a good time.  She got to go to the Nascar Racetrack - which she wasn't even an option at the start of the day for her.  But it didn't go the way she wanted and boy was I going to pay for it - and her attitude at dinner.  Then she didn't want to eat at Red Lobster and they didn't have anything she wanted.  I finagled special nachos for her and those weren't right either.  It never seemed to end.  Yes, mom, paybacks are Hell at times. 

She seems to have settled a little bit since Thursday - but Layne still has some of her special moments.

Hopefully 2012 brings less surprises and some new beginnings for all of us.  I hope we are able to continue to make wonderful  memories with our family.