Into the fire

The bad part of coming back from vacation is the reality of coming back from vacation!  You know, the laundry, the projects at work that did not magically disappear, the poor cat who felt neglected, and the school work that was left behind.  We jumped back in full speed on Monday.  It was spirit week at Cameron's school.  I guess it was technically Red Ribbon week, which is a promotion against drugs.  My Cam has a bit of a competitive nature, and so he dressed up for 'sock it to drug' day like this:

 Why yes, those are socks on his ears.  He did not win.  And so when it was "orange you glad you are not on drugs day" he went all out.  

Yep, my son spray painted his pants.  And yes, he did win.  He also had his eye brows done in orange after this photo was taken, and although you can't tell it here, he asked Mallory to paint his fingernails.  I am not sure that all of this was worth the snickers bar and pencil he got, but he can proudly proclaim he was the winner for this one day!  

We also somehow had a million appointments scheduled and I had some inspections at work.  I never mind inspection day....it is sort of fun to see the projects completed and see progress being made.  I might even say it is enjoyable.  Sort of.

Harper had an eye doctor appointment this week as well.  I have been worried that her glasses were not helping as much as they should or could be.  She seems to not be able to see objects in the distance very well, and we have the ever present issue of her tripping over steps, or unlevel places on the ground.  This appointment was the first time she really cooperated well with the doctor "reading" their stuff.  I think it gave a huge impression to me of how poor her vision is when trying to read things far off.  She will be getting new glasses and we sure hope they will be much better help to her.  I do think her vision with her glasses for close up is pretty adequate.  I guess we will see.  She was not too happy about getting new glasses, she hasn't had this pair for very long!  I think this will be a constant theme for her as she is growing.  Hopefully someday it will level off and she will go longer periods of time without having to get new glasses.  

It was also parent teacher conference week.  I will probably go down as the world's worst parent, but I just don't see the point of some of the stuff they do with these kids today.  I do not understand taking tests over things we haven't covered yet to set benchmarks etc.  Really?  You gave my kid a test of things you haven't covered yet and then tell me the score wasn't so high?  No kidding?  I pointed out that I thought this was a bit over the top in time wasting.  I was told welcome to education.  The kids teachers did tell me that they are all doing great and I was proud of the grades they have.  I am sure I am the parent that they all see coming and wish they could drink on the job!