Knock-knock. Who's There? Old Lady.

So, Jordyn's latest yellow face on her behavior calendar at school???

It's a good one.


"Yodeling in the bathroom."


Yes, I know. Only Jordy...


Old Lady who? Yo-del-a-hee-hoo.

Head West Young ... wait ... Old People.

I hacked into Hilary's blog to post Extended Boyer family news.

We just got off a conference call with my parents and all my family while my parents opened their mission call. They have been called to serve in the Oakland California Temple Visitors Center. They report to the MTC on March 16th we are very excited for them.

Congratulations Mom and Dad.

Love the Texas Boyers.

Ice, Ice Baby

I doubt I've ever seen school cancelled the night before an ice storm but there's always a first time for everything... I got the call last night from my team leader who told me to sleep in!

So, what time was I up?

7:15. The girls were up and outside checking out the "winter wonderland".

Nice, I know... I did however, refuse to get out of my pajamas until noon! Bryan didn't have to leave for work until 10 am. It was great! :)

Seriously.

It seems like every time a look at Cara lately she's got a different book in her hands.

"That's just my personality, Mom."

I can balance two books at the same time but she's got FIVE going on right now... As Jordyn likes to say, "Wha?"

First there was this one. She's reading the unabridged version (of course)...

Next, there was this one... I've been trying to get her to read the Percy Jackson series for a long time but she didn't pick it up until her friend at school suggested it... Go figure...

Then there's this one... gotta love Eragon. The movie didn't do this book justice. Do they ever?

And this one she read aloud at least three times after her first initial reading. Once to me on the drive home, once to Jordyn before bed, and once to Darby when Suzy's kids came over to play...

And, finally, some light reading... "My second grade teacher started to read this to us but never finished. I just needed to find out how the story ended."

She just flip-flops back and forth between books depending on her mood like it's nothing... hmm...

You win some. You lose some.

There's a girl in one of my classes...

She's a hard-worker. She asks questions. She's a smart girl. She really, really tries.

Yet, she's borderline failing. How can that be?

I'm not a diagnostician, but I'm 99% sure she suffers from dyslexia. All of the common markers we, as teachers, look for are there. Reversal of letters, atrocious spelling, last one to finish, not able to easily decode words, struggles matching up correct sounds with letters, etc...

So, I send a note home requesting permission to do a screener test - to see if I'm correct or if something else is the problem. Mind you, there is a problem.

Her parents are NOT interested in labeling their child. They don't want something as horrible as dyslexia in her file.

This is only the 5th grade. Her coping skills have taken her this far but, I've got news for them, it only gets harder from here.

The dyslexia training would give her a new set of skills. It could be the difference between being a C/D student who wouldn't dream of college (because it's too much work) and an A/B student who moves on to higher education.

I sometimes just don't think parents are able to see the big picture. We're too busy trying to protect our children that we don't see that we're hurting them.

I really believe these parents will look back on this later and say should've, would've, could've. You know?

There are much worse labels I can think of...

Like failure, wasted potential, or drop-out.

My current label: frustrated.

Could you tell?

Happy New Year.... VOMIT, VOMIT, VOMIT............

Round 1 - 5:00 am - New Years morning Hilary calls to me from the girls room, "I need you." As I was coming to consciousness I heard "fluid" being poured into a bucket. The "fluid" was the contents of Jordyn's stomach.

Round 2 - 5:30 am - Everything has been cleaned up. We (Me, Hilary, and Jordyn) are settling back into our bed now, with bowl in hand. Again, more comes up from the tiny stomach. Strip our bed of sheets, take them to the garage for cleaning, and set Jordyn up on the couch with a towel under her to catch anything we don't.

Round 3 - 6:00 am - Here we go again. This time we are more prepared. Can you see a pattern? The poor child wretched every 30 minutes from then on. Eventually, obviously there was nothing left in her belly but the heaving continued. She got pretty good at knowing when to sit up and find her bowl. This lasted until about 10:00 am.

I went to bed about 7:00 am and slept until 9:30 and then it was Hilary's turn to sleep. She slept until 12:30. Needless to say we were very tired on Thursday.

Below is a picture of how Jordyn spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

So NOT normal!!
This is a girl who hardly sits down, ever.













Hilary took Jordy to the Dr. on Saturday thinking she might be dehydrated and need an IV (she had eaten half a piece of toast and some water since Thursday). The Dr. said she had Strep, gave her a shot for that, and pretty much said nothing about the PUKE.

We did notice a change in her for the better Saturday night. Sunday she has pretty much returned to normal. Thank goodness.
















Hopefully the rest of 2009 is better than Days 1-3.

Happiness Is...

Can I get an amen?