So today I returned Elijah and Xander to school and we were on time! To many I know that is not that big of an accomplishment, but I am so not a morning person and the most important part of us being on time is me rolling myself out of bed early enough to pack lunches and guide the boys in getting ready. (More like drill sergeant) Although today things went smoothly, no yelling, and all kids made it out the door clean, fully dressed, teeth brushed, and hair combed. One important addition we made to their room is an alarm clock. With Jared receiving an I-Home clock radio/docking station for Christmas, we were able to pass along our rickety old clock radio to the boys. Do to turning it on issues the alarm did not go off this morning. Both Jared and I tried our hand last night at turning on the alarm and somehow we both failed miserably. It will work tomorrow morning though since I believe I have resolved all turning on the alarm issues. Xander woke up 20 minutes before we needed to leave with some prodding from me. Jared left this morning worrying we would not be on time since no boys or myself were out of bed yet. Elijah, per normal, got up in time to get ready and he even managed to stay on task for the most part.

Yesterday we had the boys I.L.P.s. The boys had awesome grades. Elijah even got a 7 for character in P.E. The only grade issue was with writing for Elijah because he dislikes putting forth too much effort (or any effort at all) with writing. So Elijah's goal for the quarter is to put forth more effort with his writing. Before we went to I.L.P.s I told the boys to start thinking of what personal goal they wanted to set for the quarter. Xander was his usual modest self and said he didn't have anything to work on or anywhere to improve. I informed him that all people have plenty to improve on since no one including him is perfect. To be honest though, I could not think of a goal he could set for himself for school. Much to my joy his teacher, Mrs. Davis, had thought of the perfect goal for him. I was so delighted and grateful. I think Xander was a bit blindsided and didn't know quite what to think. She said that things come really quickly to him. Basically he hears it once and he understands completely. And then she elaborated that things don't always come so quickly to other students. The goal she asked him to set was to wait before sharing his answers or ideas in class. She said that would be a huge change for the whole class, but he needs to give time for other students to have turns answering questions and coming up with ideas for different projects and team work. Of course she worded this all carefully and in language he could understand. I told him that he could save his ideas for summative and write his own summative at home. He promised to try to wait to answer and to share ideas and I will try to help him to remember.

Jared didn't want to do nothing for his two weeks off work so we set out on Arizona adventures. One day we drove the Apache Trail, another we did the Temple Visitor's Center (per Xander's birthday request) and Papago Park, and on the last day we went to Montezuma's Castle, Tuzigoot, and Sedona. If you can't wait until I slowly post pix and add details you can look that stuff up Online and see what we did.