Yeah, I like it too

About a year and a half ago, when Jake was in first grade, I got a letter from his teacher saying that she thought he should be tested for the (potentially) gifted class. Ben and I had to fill out this packet of questions. It was torture. We spent hours on the questions.

Here are a few I could remember:

-How does your child apply mathematics in everday life?
-How does your child judge what is fair? Give an example
-Has your child used any unusual words, and at what age.
-Does your child prefer to write fiction or non-fiction? Give exmples of things they have written.
-What percentage of the time does your child choose to read as opposed to play outside?

I think there were about four pages of these questions. Needless to say, I was very happy when we found out he made it into the program. The gifted teacher told us that at the end of third grade he would need to go through some testing to see if he was still gifted enough to stay in the gifted program. If he passes all the testing he won't need any further testing as long as we stay in this county. So he'd be in the gifted program through high school.

When this was going on with Jake, I was a little worried that Elise would feel left out. Luckily, it didn't seem to phase her too much. Around the middle of the school year, last year, we got a letter from Elise's teacher about wanting to test her for the gifted program. I was excited for her but not so happy about filling out those forms again. When I say those forms are torture, I am not over-exaggerating. Since Elise was in third grade she had to go through all the testing as well as the forms. On top of the gifted test, she had to take the county SOL test that all third graders have to take. At the end of the school year we got a letter saying that they needed to wait to get the SOL scores and then do further teacher interviews and assessments in fourth grade to see if she would be in the gifted program. I didn't think I would hear until January whether she was accepted into the program.

Today, I had a message on my phone from the gifted teacher. She said that she had gone into school this summer to check Elise's SOL scores. She said that because of Elise's SOL scores, they would need no further testing or teacher assessments. Elise was accepted into the gifted program, and will be starting at the beginning of the school year.

I am so relieved. Elise had been getting really excited about being in the gifted program. It would have been horrible for her to go through all that and not get in.

So, Jake is in third grade this year. We'll have to go through all the testing and forms again at the end of this school year. The teacher said we could use his previous froms. Thank Goodness! I really hope he gets accepted. I think it would be harder on him than it would have been on Elise. He's already spent a year in the program and really liked it.

One down, one to go. That is, until Claire starts school.

I have never been a big makeup wearer. Usually I 'll put on a little cover up, powder, blush, sometimes lipstick. About every six months I'll get in the mood to try mascara. (For those who don't know; I have blonde eye lashes and blonde eyebrows.) Today was one of those days.

Elise came across me first and said, "You really shouldn"t wear that much eye makeup." Jake said,"You look scary!",and "You look uglier than you did before." (Yikes! What did I look like before?) Claire said," You look just like Aunt Nicole!". To which Elise responded; "Aunt Nicole looks better with makeup on."

Now I remember why I don't wear eye makeup. Everyone gets weirded out by it. I guess I waited too long in life to start wearing makeup.. Everybody is use to me without visible eyelashes and brows. Oh, well. It saves me a few minutes of prep time in the morning.

I read this book many years ago. Ben had found out that a song by The Cure titled "Charlotte Sometimes" was based on a book. So, of course, we had to read it. It is a wonderful book. Written for ages 10-14, but anyone can enjoy it. I love books that suck you in, and you totally feel like you are another character in the story watching the plot unravel. I am not good at summarizing stories, so I thought I would post the lyrics to the song.

Charlotte Sometimes
by The Cure

All the faces
All the voices blur
Change to one face
Change to one voice
Prepare yourself for bed
The light seems bright
And glares on white walls
All the sounds of charlotte sometimes
Into the night
With charlotte sometimes

Night after night she lay alone in bed
Her eyes so open to the dark
The streets all looked so strange
They seemed so far away
But charlotte sometimes did not cry
The people seemed so close
Playing expressionless games
The people seemed so close
So close
So many
Other names

Sometimes i'm dreaming
Where all the other people dance
Sometimes i'm dreaming
Charlotte sometimes
Sometimes i'm dreaming
Expressionless the trance
Sometimes i'm dreaming
So many different names
Sometimes i'm dreaming
The sounds all stay the same
Sometimes i'm dreaming
She hopes to open shadowed eyes
On a different world
Come to me
Scared princess
Charlotte sometimes

On that bleak track
(See the sun is gone again)
The tears were pouring down her face
She was crying and crying for a girl
Who died so many years before...

Sometimes i dream
Where all the people dance
Sometimes i dream
Charlotte sometimes
Sometimes i dream
The sounds all stay the same
Sometimes i'm dreaming
There are so many different names
Sometimes i dream
Sometimes i dream...

Charlotte sometimes crying for herself
Charlotte sometimes dreams a wall around herself
But it's always with love
With so much love it looks like
Everything else
Of charlotte sometimes
So far away
Glass sealed and pretty
Charlotte sometimes

Our vacation was awesome. I'm not going to go into too much detail. Ben will probably do that on his blog. Lake Lure was beautiful. Ben took most of the pictures. I did pull my camera out when we visited Biltmore. Below are the pics I took. These are from the gardens. This place was amazing.