My world

Here’s a picture of my two handsome men. They’re standing in the dealer showroom next to the model of the car that Bob just sold.

Lots and lots going on around here. First off, thanks to everybody for their suggestions and concerns about the bedwetting issue. We decided to put Garrett in pull-ups at night to ease our frustrations. So far, three nights wet, three nights dry. Today, Bob takes him to the pediatrician armed with questions, so hopefully we’ll know whether it’s a medical issue or not and then scratch it off our list.

Next, it’s almost the end of the school year and that means decisions and graduations. We finally made the big (and painful) decision to move Garrett to first grade next fall. I went and observed two first grade classes and one all-day K. It’s amazing how advanced the children were in the first grade when compared to kindergartners. These kids were reading fluently with such expression fairly difficult words. They were identifying different parts of speech—nouns, pronouns adjectives and working out complicated math problems. One exercise was to read a story and tell their classmates what they had read. On so many levels, I was concerned that Garrett would be in over his head. But first grade is a learning year and we’ve been told it’s better for him to repeat that grade than K. And he does have a very solid IEP in place to help support him. So I hold my breath and pray we made the right decision.

Sadly, there won’t be a graduation celebration for Sade this June. She’s shy a measly 2.5 credits. But she’s determined to see it through and get her diploma in late fall. She qualified for full financial aid, so college is covered (yaaaay)—and hopes to enroll at NCC in the winter quarter. I’m just so bummed for her, but at the same time, proud of her attitude. She WILL do this.

Another thing I’m bummed about is not going to Kazapalooza this weekend, but it looks like we’ll be having our own Minnepalooza ourselves. Friday night, the Ollmann family from Wisconsin will be visiting. We met them in Almaty during their layover. They were on their way to Uralsk. If you recall, they had a rough go of it and returned home without a daughter or a sister for their 13-year-old daughter Hailee. But things have turned around—they just got back from a trip to Bulgaria where they met the cutest, sweetest 9-year-old. Gabriella will be joining their family in the coming months and can’t wait to hear their stories. It'll be interesting to hear the differences between Kaz and Bulgaria. Then on Saturday sometime we’ll be meeting another family that everyone knows from blogland who’ll be in Minneapolis for a big, big, big event. (Don’t want to spill the beans until we know which way it goes.) So, as it turns out, it will be a fun weekend after all, but know we'll be missing all you guys in Nashville