Emily's started soccer, although she's too darn competitive. At her last game/practice she just wouldn't go in any more when the coach called her for her turn and just sat on the sidelines pouting. Well, I got pretty upset cuz I was there to see her play, but that didn't change anything of course. After we got home we talked about it, and the problem is she wants to mark goals! Ugh. I told her it's just as important to turn the ball around in her team's direction (which she does pretty good at sometimes) as it is to mark a goal. Also, I told her she needs to practice when I ask her if she wants to go play a bit at home and that might help, too. We'll see how the next session goes. At school she got moved into the high reading group, which I thought was pretty cool. I had a meeting with her teacher last week and she told me this. I just wanted to find out if all the homework she was getting was normal! and whether Emily was on track with things. I guess she's doing well! Apparently there are parents who want MORE homework for their kids!! I, actually, am of the mindset that there shouldn't be ANY in first grade, but I guess I'm in my own club on that one. What's everyone else think? Here's an example of one week of homework assignments:

Monday: Read a ten-page long story (one sentence per page) they've been doing in school and talk about it. Math worksheet with six problems. Answer questions on a page that I couldn't find in the stuff she brought home. Study sight words.

Tuesday: Write a story using 5 of her spelling words. (Mind you, she's JUST learning how to write. I'm not sure how much of a story is supposed to be made of the words can, go, to, I etc.) Practice math addition facts through 9. Practice reading the story again.

Wednesday: Write five sentences with other spelling words. Another math worksheet with six problems. Answer more questions from that page I can't find. Continue to practice story.

Thursday: Write a story about the character from the story she'd been reading and include drawings. Study spelling words, sight words and math facts for tests tomorrow.

Um, we did the math worksheets and some sentences with spelling words, and that's about all I could do without totally killing her spirit for learning. After spending seven hours in school all day is that what she needs when she gets home?! I guess some parents think so. Anyhoo...

Juan's at the other end of the spectrum on school. He's failing one class and in danger of failing another and continues to try and hide this from us. Sigh. I don't even know what to say any more except maybe, get a job? His attitude in general has been better, but he just can't seem to figure out how to get through school. He has to take the state's standardized test this year for the first time, and if he doesn't pass it eventually, he won't graduate. He took it for practice last year and did miserably. I guess I need to start reading him bedtime stories again too. It seems to be working for Emily...

Thiago's spending some time with a Brazilian woman who watches kids so that on those days I do work my mom can get a break. Well, and it's giving me a break today, cuz I took him and I'm not working (for once!) He seems to like it okay, although she has a one-year-old and Thiago flatly stated that he does not like the baby. That's what happens when you're the youngest I guess! He's not used to someone else being the one grabbing stuff out of HIS hands! I think it's funny. And I hope his Portuguese will improve, because that's all she speaks. Yay!

So that's what we've been up to for the last month! As long as I'm only working one day this week I will probly be found goofing around on Minti again!

Cheers to everyone!

So, here I sit, listening to my music, typing a minti blog and alternately trying to get a grocery list ready. Life seems to be going well these days. Oh! And get this, Juan brought home his first progress reports for the year and they were all As (top grades) but one. Wow! That's a switch! Last year he almost failed drama! Drama!!! Don't you just have to show up for that? I hope he can keep it up. Emily's doing great, too, but I kind of expected that. She has all satisfactories, and her teacher's comment was "wonderful!" That's always nice. I hope she doesn't get burnt out though. She's in first grade and she has homework EVERY night! And it's a lot! I'm exhausted from it. I've already noticed she prefers math to the other stuff, too.

I cannot think of anything to share right now, but I just thought I'd say hello to the world while I had a moment! Hello world! I hope anyone reading this is doing well and has positive vibes going on as well!!

Peace out!

I worked today. It was a long day and I nearly threw up. Cool, huh? Yeah, it was my  introduction to what I'll be doing at the post office before long. There are lots of little details to keep track of, and I'm thankful that it's only going to be one day a week to start! Although it's a boring, mindless, menial job, what I will like about it is that there's always going to be something to do! And I can leave as soon as I"m done! Yay! I hate having to try and look busy at jobs, and that won't be necessary here! So that's my no-brainer job. Oh yeah, I almost threw up because I had to go out in the mail truck with the guy who usually does the route and check out what I'll be subbing for, and it was very hot and stuffy back there and there was way too much stop and go with serious brake slamming action for my weak stomach to take. (I just checked, and I'm sorry to see there's no emoticon for hurling. )

I am also going to start doing a small editing job for the local newspaper once a week, and that is something I really enjoy doing, so I'm glad it worked out. I can do it from home, and it's just editing and putting togetheer "school pages" that each school in this district sends in to the paper to be published once a week. Good deal there.

I'm also going to keep tutoring and I still have one student for private Japanese lessons once a week. I just hope I can keep track of it all! And luckily, the hours are actually not going to be huge, so I won't have to put Thiago in day care or anything like that right now. I've thought about looking into a part-time pre-school if I could find one, but I'm probly too late, and most seem to be full-time and combined with daycare. Sigh. I'll just keep taking care of him myself, I spose. He does play with the boy next store sometimes, so I figure that's good for his social development or some such thing. Except that the boy next door doesn't talk very well (he says otay for okay, and suck for truck, and he's 5!) Maybe he can learn a few things from Thiago...

It's time to put him and his sister to bed! How did it get so late so fast?!

じゃまたね！バイバイ〜！

The kids have been playing on the computer a lot with all this unexpected time off. Does anyone else know Club Penguin? It's great! I play too! Thiago doesn't quite have the coordination for some of the games on there yet so he goes back to NickJr to feel competent. I had meant to do "school" with both of them today, but went and got my hair cut and colored and stuff and ran out of time. I got Thiago a book of coloring and really simple maze practice that he actually was excited about doing, so that's a relief. I thought I would start doing something like that with him, but up to now if I ask him if he wants to do school when Emily does his answer is an emphatic NO. He's got plenty of time to become interested in these things though, I suppose.

Emily, on the other hand, is always willing to do school, and I'm pleased with how well she's doing on her Portuguese reading. Now I just need to get her vocabulary up there so she knows what all these words she's sounding out mean! Portuguese is so much easier to read than English! Once we finish her current workbook she should be able to sound out any word thrown at her and then I can have her start reading her Portuguese books to me!

As for me, I'm supposed to be proofreading a manuscript and I keep avoiding it! It's actually a pretty interesting read for once, but I just can't get focused! Maybe it's all this Club Penguin noise and the call of Minti or something... I'll give it another go here and try and get focused!

Ciao gente!

We're getting some rain this morning which is a bit unusual. Afternoon thunderstorms are an almost daily occurrence this time of year, but not so much in the morning. Tropical Storm Fay is supposed to be hitting the Keys sometime around now, though, so I wonder if this is her doing... I don't mind it. It's actually cooled things off a bit which is nice! Since I don't have to go anywhere today I can just sit here at home and enjoy the sound of it on the roof.

For our last day of summer we went to the pool yesterday afternoon. I didn't think we'd stay very long and didn't bother with sunscreen, and we all came home a bit red-faced. Especially us poor paleys, me and Thiago. I look awful. I hope it fades soon. Thiago just got red cheeks and they've faded to normal already.

I was really surprised at how well Emily was swimming yesterday! I didn't see the last of her swim lessons a couple of weeks ago, but my mom was there and said she did really well. I guess!! She was jumping in the deep end and swimming around and everything. I was impressed! Thiago took awhile to get comfortable, but he finally let us put a life vest on him so he could float around on his own. He still doesn't like getting his face wet, so he has to try really hard to keep his face out of the water and it's not always easy!

Here are today's traditional first day of school photos:

I have no idea why I'm not tired. Maybe I'm just excited I don't have to work tomorrow or something. If I'm not feeling drowsy in another half an hour or so I may have to run a few laps around the house (inside of course) to try and knock me out. If I could move Emily back to her own bed that might help things, too. Something freaked her out tonight and as a result she joined me and Daddy-o in our room. It's a bit crowded for my liking.

It's sure nice and quiet around here now!! I keep peeping out my front window because apparently there has been a rash of vehicle break-ins in the neighborhood recently. That would be kinda cool if I could catch the person, although I don't really see that kind of thing happening. They'd probly see me looking out before I saw them even if they were out there.

I just remembered that hubby and I had talked about going to the gym tomorrow (this!) morning so maybe I better go try a little harder to sleep! Well, okay, I'll check out a few other things here first! Then off to bed so that I'm nice a and spry (read: barely ambulatory) in the morning!

So, after everything was all bunked, getting them to the beds was no problem, however, convincing Thiago that he had to sleep on the bottom and that the ladder is specifically for getting to the top and nothing else made it a bit of a challenge to actually get them to sleeping positions! It's really nice how much more space they have in there now. Maybe they will actually play in there for once instead of all over the rest of the house. Wishful thinking, I know.

That was definitely our excitement for the day! They behaved themselves most of the day and didn't beat each other up, which is always a bonus! Juan was even on his best behavior for once. I told him he'd be ungrounded next week if he can show me the better side of his personality this weekend, so I think he's actually taking that seriously for once! He even cleaned the bathroom like I asked him to! It was amazing!

I had a new group of Italians today. The last one for the summer. They are GOOD! I am so glad this group appears to be a good one. They are polite, participate and seem to want to get some English out of this trip and not just some time at Seaworld and the beach. Phew! It makes it a lot easier to plan lessons too, because I should just be able to throw discussion topics out and we can just talk. They probly got enough grammar back in Italy to kill an elephant, so I don't plan to focus on that too much. Two days back and the house already looks like two tornadoes hit it instead of just the usual one, though.

I keep carrying around the notebook that contains my novel in progress in hopes that I will finally have a minute or two somewhere to work on it, but so far no go. If I can manage it, I think I'm going to try and get to the book store where I meet my Japanese student once a week about a half hour before my lesson with her and then maybe I could get a little bit done. It's been so long since I've written anything, though, that I need at least a day or two to get back to where I was going with it. I have totally slacked off with the writing this summer, but with all three kids home and a job for a change, I spose that's not that unusual.

Gosh my life is boring! I have nothing to tell! Even so, I feel like things are picking up. This summer has been really nice, because the other teachers I've met through this program have been great. It's so different than the one-horse town I was living in before moving here. People just weren't friendly there. Everyone had their friends they'd had since birth and weren't interested in making new ones. It was really hard to break into that. Here I've already found someone I can get together with to go out for Indian food on occasion. It's great!

I guess I will have to post Thiago tomorrow! YouTube tells me his video is still processing! Arrgh!

Well, Emily decided to give me a hard time about it, asking over and over again if she could jump in just one more time while I had us all sit out for a bit and dry off in the sun before hopping in the car to go home. Then, when we got to the car she refused to put her seatbelt on. Sheesh. Usually she's VERY agreeable. I don't know what the problem was yesterday, except that it seems to have continued to some extent into today, too. Yesterday she got sent to her room when we got home (she also banged Thiago's head with the car door when they were getting out) and then we all collectively had meltdowns. Today, we had to go out and do some bulk food shopping, and also try to buy something for my mom (aka Granny) for her birthday, which is Wednesday. WELL, when we were at Target, Emily had asked if she could have a treat when we were going in, so I told her okay if she was good while we were inside. She definitely was NOT good. I kept having to tell her to quit wandering off, and speak in a softer voice, and when we got to checkout and I told her no treat, she almost started having a crying fit. Luckily the evil eye from me was enough to hold that off, and she got over it before we got home, but man! I was kinda surprised! She's never been the kind to throw tantrums, so I dunno where this is coming from. She's kinda acting like she's overtired, except that she's been getting plenty of sleep. ??? I'm a little confused. At home she's still good and helpful, there's just something about taking her out that makes her go sour. Maybe the excessive amount of free time in the summer is driving her mad and she's ready to go back to school? I mean, I know she is ready to go back, but I dunno if that's what's making her difficult. Anyhoo...

Looks like I may go to work at the U.S. Postal Service. I've been going through the application process for several months now, and it looks like I may finally get a part-time position delivering mail on a rural route. It has the potential to eventually lead to full time, which would be good. It will be GREAT if it works out, as we need some income! Unpublished books in progress just don't pay those bills!!

If anyone actually reads this whole long-winded bit of babbling I will be amazed...

Not much going on around here. Since we all had the day off yesterday we went and played miniature golf and got ice cream (Emily's idea). It was nice to do something as a family for once. Genesio only gets one day off a week right now, so it always feels like this frantic race to decide what we want to do with that one day. Ultimately, we end up doing very little. Lately it's been more about me and Genesio doing stuff together, though, so it was nice to do that family thing yesterday. I swear Thiago doesn't even know his dad, he's working so much! It makes me sad. One of these day's things'll improve!

Juan went to work today. Genesio talked to a friend of his who does auto detailing about training Juan for the rest of the summer, and the friend said he'd give it a go. I hope Juan does well with it. He needs something productive to do this summer, as he's been doing nothing at home but making a nuisance of himself and get grounded and regrounded since the beginning of June. I'm exhausted! I'm pretty much at my wit's end about what to do with him. We're stuck in a bad rut with no way out, and I have not been doing my part as the more mature half of the equation to change things. Bad me!

I read what I thought was an interesting tidbit in the news yesterday. Let's see if I can find a link in English... (it was a news blurb from Genesio's Brazilian favorite site) Here we go: story. Anyway, I guess the big deal is that it was always assumed that counting with humans was an innate thing and this tribe proves that idea wrong. Amazon Indian tribes in general fascinate me! There are so many that have had essentially no real contact with "civilizaton" and there are a lot of different traditions still practiced within these groups that make you think.

This is from Emily's birthday party, that was actually a couple of weeks ago.

This is a picture of her from her real birthday day that I thought came out well.

And here is Emily and Thiago singing karaoke from a little while back. She's got quite a mane of hair in this one, doesn't she?!

It's been busy around here. I've started working with a second group of Italian kids in need of English instruction! So far they seem a bit more immature than the first group I had. I hope it'll work out in the end. I'm gonna have to keep a tighter rein on 'em, methinks.

Emily turned 6 last week! She's thrilled! She's about the last one in her class, because most kids have their birthdays during the school year. She keeps informing me that her front teeth are loose, but so far it's just been her imagination. I don't expect them to be loose for quite some time cuz her baby teeth came in pretty late, and from what I understand, it's related. We got her an easy bake oven and so far she's made some teeny tiny cookies and a teeny tiny cake that we actually divvied up into six pieces(!) with it. They weren't great, but they were edible.

That's right! There was the 4th of July too! We did some (very smokey) sparklers in the backyard, and a few small fireworks as well. It was enough for me! And of course it was hamburgers, chips and watermelon for dinner. I didn't eat any watermelon though, as I had a couple of beers, and apparently Brazilians believe that those two things don't mix. Anyone else ever heard this? When I grabbed a slice to chow down on, Genesio seriously stopped me and said, "You're not really going to eat that, are you?" Well, I didn't, just so he wouldn't have to see me die or writhe in pain or something. I'll never forget the time he watched in fascination as a woman he worked with ate a banana... while drinking a cup of coffee at the same time! He was amazed she didn't drop dead afterwards, I guess. Lots of food combination no-nos in Brazilian culture. I can't keep track of them all!

I guess that's the first week of July at our house! Whee!!

I got to start my summer job today. It was SO disorganized! Yikes! I will be teaching a bunch of students from Italy (mostly) English this summer, and the first group got here today. The first order of business was doing short oral tests with them to place them in classes based on their level, and that took WAAAYYY longer than it should have! Normally I will spend three hours a day with my group, and of those three hours today, I got fifteen minutes!! It was time enough to go over names and ask each other one question and that's about it. They seem like a nice group of kids, but 15 minutes doesn't give me a real comprehensive feel for what they're like!

So, now I have to get back into the swing of being employed! I've been wandering around in a daze ever since I got home, feeling confused about what exactly I should be doing now! Needless to say, I spent most of the day just hanging out and watching SpongeBob with the kids. Hopefully tomorrow will be better! I have to go to the store, so it better go better! We need food!

And now I have to plan lessons too! I think I'm set for tomorrow, and then I get Sunday and Monday off, so that'll give me time to plan the rest. It should be fun though. As long as they actually talk I think it will go well! The worst kinds of students to have when trying to teach a language is non-talkers!!

Ciao!