Our Christmas Break

Elijah and I are off for two weeks for Christmas break and Jacob will be home for a whole month. My hone still has to work, but has the next three days off! We have actually gotten to sleep in a few mornings and we are enjoying the nice weather.

I completed my Master's Degree in Special Education from Texas Tech University this month. I am not a certified Educational Diagnostician. I am still waiting for my diploma to arrive in the mail! I can't wait to get it. I was able to print my certification out on the TEA website, and that definitely made it feel more real. I can't believe I have my master's degree! Jacob has only one more semester left in school and he will graduate with his associate's degree in May of next year!

Elijah is doing well. We went to see his doctor for his Tourette Syndrome, OCD and ADHD. She got to see a lot of his impulsivity at this visit. He was persistent at trying to get his way when she tried to talk to him. We are changing his medication a bit, and will go back in about six weeks. She mentioned a genetic test that might help pinpoint which medications would work best for him. The interesting thing, is this was mentioned at the Tourette Support Group meeting we attended back on Dec. 12th. I called the genetic company, and our insurance is not on their list yet, but I was assured the out of cost for me would not exceed an amount that I am willing to pay. I am going to take him next week for a cheek swab and then see what we can find out. The family at the support group meeting said that when they had the testing done, they learned a lot about the medications that would help their son and it has been very helpful. The doctor wants to possibly change his ADHD medication, but it is hard to know what to change him too, but hopefully this testing will help. I am excited about it, but don't want to get too excited

We are very excited about Christmas. Elijah got a new bed, which my hone, Jacob and I put together yesterday. Elijah helped some, but it was a small room and we needed all the room we could get to put the bed together. He did run some things back and forth for us and keep an eye on our progress. He was so excited to get his bed. Jacob's big gift is the car he is now driving. I have a few surprises for both boys. All of my other shopping is pretty much done. I have a few more things to pack. My honey and I want to go shopping and look at some jewelry. We just aren't sure if we want to fight the crowds tomorrow.

We have also been busy baking. I have been making snow ball cookies and will be making pralines later this week. We have also been making truffles! Jacob and Elijah love to help make truffles.

TRUFFLES

 My honey and I roll out the truffles and then put them in the sprinkles. The boys are in charge of making sure the truffles are covered in sprinkles.  They then put them in the mini muffin cups. Every 10th truffles requires a taste test for quality control and we each take our turn testing the truffles. We let them know what time we will be making truffles and the boys make sure they are there, or they know they miss out. We have fun as we make the truffles and it is a nice time to talk! We have made several batches of truffles.



Jacob and Elijah making truffles.

Today my nephew and niece came over and we made Christmas cookies. This is something else I enjoy doing this time of year. We had a lot of fun and the kids got to cut out cookies, bake them, and then decorate them. We use sprinkles on the cookies as well! My honey also has some Christmas favorites she likes to bake. We have been baking for several months. Elijah takes treats to all of his teachers and I hand treats out to my staff.


I am looking forward to 2016. I can't believe how much has happened this past year!! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!


Holiday Update!

We have had a good start to our week. I took my niece and Elijah to see Night at the Museum 3. It was very cute and funny. The kids enjoyed it and then we came back to our house. The kids played the WiiU and we hung out for a while. I did some work for school so I can start off fresh next week! We don't have too much going on the next few days. Elijah and I will go to the library tomorrow so he can hang and play in the Teen Room. We will do a bit more baking on Wednesday! I am hoping to enjoy the rest of the week and get prepared to go back to work. Elijah goes back to school on Monday and I am hoping he can get back into the routine!

Christmas Break is Finally Here

Christmas break is finally here. Jacob arrived home on Dec. 12th and it has been good to have him home. He went out to help my mom at her house today! Elijah's last few weeks at school were uneventful, which is a good thing. It has been crazy at work. One of the other deaf ed. teachers broke her arm and a new student moved into our area. Staff had to be shifted, but we all work well together and we made it to TODAY! We were all so ready for today to get here and my students were also ready.

I have been busy making pralines and snowball cookies. I made cookies with my students at school and we decorated them too. It was a lot of fun and a good learning experience for them! I gave away a lot of goodie bags and had fun doing it. I have a few more Christmas gifts to get, but not too much. I have MORE baking to do! I have pralines and snowball cookies to make for family and sugar cookies to make with Elijah, my niece and my nephew!

I will be working on school stuff here and there to get ahead for when we go back. Grad school starts back on January 14th and life will get busy again! I want to enjoy the next two weeks. Jacob and I have some yard work to do and I am going to have him help me steam clean the carpets. I need his strength! My poor shoulder just can't take it!

I hope you all have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my mother's house this past Thursday. My sister came into town with my nephew. They stayed with my mom. My brother, his wife and two kids came out on Thursday and then all four of us went out. Jacob drove out on his own so he could leave when he wanted too, but he stayed out for quite a while. Of course, we ate too much, but we do that every  year.


The younger kids, ages 10-14, played on electronics and had fun. My nephew, who is 4, entertained us with some of his funny sayings! We looked through all of the Black Friday sales. My honey and I ended up ordering several things through Amazon. I am not sure if any one else in the family got anything on that day. We drove home around 6:45 and were in bed by 9:30! It was a long day.


Yesterday, several of us went to the movies and then some of us went back to my mom's house. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant and then came home. Elijah went with me on some of my mystery shops today and we have had a nice lazy afternoon. I'll have to start getting ready to go back to work on Monday! Three weeks and counting until Christmas Break.

Memories!

We have been iced in for three days, so I started my Christmas baking a little early. Today we made a FULL batch of Christmas Sugar Cookies and decorated them. We even got fancy and used some decorating gel to fancy them up a bit. Jacob even helped decorate them! Elijah really got into it and my honey even sat down and helped out a bit.

This is a recipe that my sister got from her mother-in-law and we instantly fell in love with it. The cookies are not too sweet and the icing adds just enough sugar to the cookie, but again, not too much. I usually make 5-6 batches of cookies each Christmas. I take some to school with me and my itinerant kids and I decorate them. It is a good language activity!

My dad remarried and I have a brother and sister that are now 25 and 22 years old. They were eight and five when Jacob was born. Every Christmas, I would keep them over the break and we would make cookies. I have so many memories of making cookies with them. When Elijah came along, he joined in. Now my niece and nephew come over to make cookies with us over the Christmas Break. I try to take pictures and make it memorable!

Next weekend, I will be busy making the Sugar Cookies, Snowball cookies and a new recipe of mints that I recently found. As I get closer to Christmas I will start making pralines. I send a lot of this to Jacob's and Elijah's teachers as well as some of Jacob's friends. I also make them for the teachers I work with.

It has been nice to have this extra time to bake and not have to rush. It also gave us something to do and something to EAT! These cookies are awesome with a BIG glass of milk!

Here is the recipe if you want to give them a try.

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

1 ½ cups of sugar

1 cup of butter softened (2 sticks)

2 eggs

3 TBS of buttermilk

1 tsp of baking soda

¼ tsp of salt

1 tsp vanilla

All purpose flour

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the sugar, butter, eggs, buttermilk, baking soda, salt, vanilla and flour together. IT WILL BE VERY RUNNY! Once it is mixed, start adding flour. There is no set amount to put in, you just keep adding it until it isn’t so sticky and runny. Then put flour down where you want to roll the dough and spoon about 1/3 of the dough out onto the flour. ADD flour again this dough and KNEED it until the dough is ready to roll out and NOT stick to the surface. Roll it and cut your cookies, then roll again and cut until you are out of dough. Then start again with the next part of the dough in the bowl.

Bake for 8 minutes or until the bottom is brown.

Let cool and then icing.

White Christmas

We had a White Christmas here in the Dallas area yesterday. It started around 1:30 in the afternoon and finished up around 6:00. We got at least three good inches of snow. Jacob went out in it for quite a while and even built a snowman. Elijah enjoyed some time out there too. Later, at my dad's house I challenged my little sister(age 21) and my little brother(age 24) to a snowball fight. We all went out and had a fun time, but boy were my hands cold. Both boys had a great Christmas. I ordered Elijah his mini iPad...he is using the money he got for Christmas plus the money he has earned from chores and being good at school. We set up Jacob's new desk today too!

I hope everyone else had a great Christmas too. Here are some pictures and a video!

Elijah and his cousin Tabitha!

                                         

Jacob and his snowman!

T

Elijah outside!

Baking!

I am not the best cook in the world. In fact, I don't really like to cook much. I will cook dinner and I enjoy green bean casserole, but I get just what I would call, average excitement about cooking. However, when it comes to baking, I love this time of year!

In the last few years, my mom has taught me how to bake snowball cookies. These are pretty simple to make and are VERY good. I have learned my lessons on a few things, like the margarine REALLY needs to be soft when you make these! I baked two batches today and am taking them out to her house tomorrow. I also make a lot of these right before Christmas and give them in cute containers for Christmas presents for family, the boys' teachers, bus drivers,  friends and staff. Many people tell me they look forward to my cookies each year, and that makes me feel good!

I also enjoy making homemade pralines. My mother has been making them since I was a baby and my brother told his wife, "someone better learn to make these before mom dies." Now this was a few years ago and we all got a good laugh, because my mom really isn't that old and was no where close to dying. My sister, sister-in-law and I all decided we should learn how to make them, after my mom said they were a real challenge! Well, she was right! First we had to find the right POT for use to use to make them in. She has a pot that is probably as old as I am that she uses. It has to be a very heavy duty thick pot that can withstand the heat of the stove and boiling sugar. My mom gave me a tutorial at the house about four years ago and the hardest part, is each time you make them, it is a little different. It is all about the feel of the pralines in the pot and getting them the right temperature. There is no real way to tell when you are ready to add pecans and then plop them on wax paper. I have to say, that I LOVE the challenge of making them and I have gotten decent at it. I usually have several good batches, and sometimes a batch that takes forever to harden.  Hopefully, I will get it down in the next 10-20 years! I also give these to family as part of their Christmas present. My dad just LOVES these as do everyone else


The other thing I enjoy baking are sugar cookies. My sister got the recipe from her mother-in-law. They are pretty easy to make and the recipe makes a LOT of cookies. I would say between five and six dozen! We usually use cookie cutters to cut out cool Christmas shapes and then icing them. We add sprinkles at the very end! Elijah just loves helping cut out the cookies and later icing them. He really loves the SPRINKLES! I usually make a huge batch of these and take them to school to use with my students. I bring all of the things we need to icing with and I use it as a language activity. The kids learn and they get to eat! They also keep very well if you keep them sealed up in a tin and so you can eat on them for a good week or so. The cookie itself is not very sweet, but the icing adds just enough "sweet" to the flavor of the cookie!



I use my cooking stone to make all of the cookies and I think that also makes for a better cookie! I get a lot of satisfaction from making the cookies and then from seeing people enjoy them! I feel like it something that I am good at and that makes me happy.

Finally, Summer Is Here!

We all made it through another year of school. I think I was as ready as the boys were for this year to be done. I really had a rough few weeks, but it is all behind me now. Jacob finished off the year pretty well. He will be a junior next year and he will be getting his class ring. He starts driver's education on June 18th for three weeks! He turns 16 in July, but has to wait six months after the driver's ed class before he can get his license. Elijah will be going into the sixth grade next year! He had a pretty good year, but there were definitely some bumps along the way. We both survived them though.

I do have some school work during the summer. I am attending a three day workshop that is about 30 min from the house starting on June 12th. I then go to Houston at the end of July for a three day state wide conference for deaf and hard of hearing teachers. I am also presenting at that. I will be seeing two babies during the summer too for ECI services. One of my other teachers is helping out with that as well. I am also back on Weight Watchers and hoping to lose some more weight this summer. I have lost a few pounds so far, but want to lose more! My mystery shopping will keep me busy too! I have set aside several days for the kids and I to do things.

Jacob and I will be taking German lessons from my partner two days a week for the summer. We also set aside days to go to the Rec center here in town. I set aside one day for cooking lessons for the boys from me. Elijah will also be working on school work during the summer and of course, he will be playing either the Wii, on my iPad or on his nintendo during the day some. My plan is to try to limit that to three hours a day. We shall see how that goes.

I plan on taking them both shopping tomorrow for a few summer things. Both boys need some shorts and Elijah needs a swim suit. We plan on swimming at my dad's house whenever we can. Hopefully, it won't be TOO hot to swim this summer. I hope to get to the movies a few times and see some new releases. OH and we plan on going to my mom's house in a few weeks for a three days! That will give us all a break!

There are a few doctor's appointments that we have over the summer too. Both boys go to the pulmanologist on Monday. Elijah has an appointment with the psychiatrist towards the end of the month and he goes to the endocrinologist in July! FUN STUFF, right??

So that is our summer! I'll let y'all know how it goes and hopefully I will learn more German by September!

Christmas Break!

Today was the first day of our Christmas Break. The boys have off until Jan. 3rd and I go back on Jan. 2nd! I think we are all ready for the break. I am taking Elijah to the audiologist on Dec. 22nd because his right ear processor is "bugging him" as he puts it. We tried his back up processor and even got a new one in the mail and they all bug him at some point. Hoping we can get it all figured out. Jacob has a pediatrician visit to discuss ADHD meds and Elijah sees the psychiatrist the week after Christmas for a check up.

Of course, we will celebrate Christmas! My mom is coming in on Christmas Eve and then will drive to see my sister on Christmas Day. We are going to cook here at the house with my brother, his wife and their two kids. We will visit with my dad and his wife too! We will hopefully get some REST!

After two weeks off, I may be ready to go back to work! We shall see! Elijah had a great last two weeks at school before the break and Jacob is doing well too. Hoping they both like what Santa brings them this year. I hope you all enjoy your holiday!

Skin It for Freedom and Nucleus 5 processors

I have been hearing people talk about the SKIN ITS for the Nucleus 5 processor for several weeks. I heard about them on Facebook and on some of the list serves I am on. I didn't really look to see what they were because Elijah has the Freedom processors. Well, now there are SKIN ITS for the Freedom processor, so I decided to take a look and see what all this was about. WOW, they are pretty cool. Elijah was very excited to see them. We looked at several choices and he finally decided on a SUPERMAN skin it and and a BATMAN skin it! I think that is appropriate for an eleven year old. I just ordered them and we both can't wait for them to come in!

If you or your child would like a SKIN IT use the code upromise20 to get 20% off until Dec. 23rd. I'll have to go back and look and see if they make them for hearing aids!

Oh and we are all ready for the Christmas break!!! I am ready for some sleep! I have a bit more shopping to do, but I am just about done!