Just Another Day in Paradise

Sunday, March 17th, 2013

My Dearest Brother,

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Do they do anything special for St. Patrick's day in Finland? Did you wear a green tie? Did you eat anything green? Did you even realize today is St. Patrick's day?

I am glad that those stretches and exercises are working out well for you. If you need any others just let me know.

Things have been pretty normal around here. In fact.... I really am not sure what to update you about. There isn't a whole lot going on right now. I finally got through midterms and I am now on Spring Break for the next week. I love school but I am happy to have a break for a little while. When I go back to school on the 25th we will have just over a month until the end of the semester. The 25th is also the day that I can register for summer semester.

I don't know if I have told you anything about summer semester. Did I even tell you that I am going to school this summer? I kept feeling like I needed to even though my Pell grant won't cover the cost. I have submitted an application for a type of scholarship for continuing students that would waive my tuition for the summer. I am hoping that I will get it because I got a 4.0 GPA last semester and that is the main GPA that the financial aid office will look at when they consider. In fact, I don't know if any of my transfer credits are listed as their individual grades. The lowest grade I have ever gotten in a class is a B+ so I am really optimistic; however, we won't know until mid to late April or even early May.

Anyway... summer semester. If I can get the classes that I want to I will be taking 12 credit hours. The classes that I will be taking will be Kinesiology, Calculus 2 (BLAH!), Principles of Weight Training, Principles of Cardiorespiratory Training, and Lifetime Health/Wellness. I am pretty sure that that is all of the classes.... All things considered I am pretty lucky that I am looking forward to all but one of my classes. It will only be through the great goodness of the Lord that I will not be completely buried in Calculus 2. It has been so long since I took Calculus.... oi vay.

Abrielle has been doing a bit better later this week although things started out really roughly. We have developed a system of consequences that seems to be working pretty well. When she gets in trouble she gets a mild, medium, or serious consequence. I wrote up the different consequences on colorful construction cards. When she gets in trouble she chooses a card based on what she did and then has to follow through with the consequence. It has made her a lot more compliant with the consequence when she feels like she gets to choose. We also included a few mercy cards so that if she draws one we can teach her about the principle of mercy and how sometimes we are granted mercy through the grace of God even when we don't deserve it. She actually drew a mercy card today and she was so impressed with it that she voluntarily went and apologized to Nathan and gave him a hug without being told to. That is progress.

Nathan continues to talk more and more and more and is really communicating well. He gave me a big hug in church today and grabbed my head and gave me a huge smootch on the lips! LOL! It was adorable.

Well, I think that that is all that I have for this week. Sorry that it isn't much but I hope that you know that I love you and that I am thinking about you.

Lots of love,

Shayla

Snuggling with my baby boy

A cute picture one of my piano students drew this week of him and me

I had a day this week that was particularly bad and this about sums up what the day was like... spilled milk, broken cup...

QUESTIONS FOR MY DEAR READERS: Did you do anything special to celebrate St. Patrick's day? Did you eat something green? Did you wear something green?

Loves...Shayla