Spring is here! All the roses are blooming in the yard. I took pictures of the flowers in the sun this morning - I will get pictures of the others later today, when they are in the sun. Even my poor little azalea that I thought was dead is blooming. (It was amazing what happened when I cut the shrubs away from it!) I also took a walk out to the garden this morning, and my beans are up, and are a couple of inches high! I'll get a picture of them when the sun is a little higher as well!

I had another week of something going on every night again this week - the only night I got home right after work was Tuesday, and even then I was in a rush. The Scouts had a Court of Honor on Tuesday, with a pot luck at 6:30. Since I work until 5:15 (or later) on Tuesday, I had everything all measured out and lots of instructions for AJ to make Tamale Pie to take in to the dinner. (I got "volunteered" to bring a main dish - a dessert would have been so much easier!) Evidently, AJ wasn't doing it to Ralph's expectations - Ralph finished up the dish to take in. Ralph also went in with AJ for the Court of Honor - since I go to every meeting, I try to get him to go to the other "stuff". AJ was awarded his "Life Badge", so he is officially one (major) step away from Eagle Scout. He has a few more merit badges to get before he can go for the Eagle Scout, but...he still has some time. He needs to finish before he is 18, and he is 15 now.

I had Alli's IEP (Individual Education Plan) meeting this week. From some of the comments made, it sounds like the reason she lost her last teacher was because Merry couldn't control the classroom. The new teacher, Becky, has gotten Alli much more active, and is making her do things, which it seems wasn't happening before. It was what I thought would happen - if you leave Alli alone, and let her do what she wants (rock in her rocking chair), she is quiet and happy. If you make her do things she doesn't want to do (like work!) she is loud and uncooperative - at first. If you make her do things, she will figure out that screaming won't help, so will cooperate. But, if you let her get away with it, she learns that screaming works. By the time Becky came in in March, Alli was evidently used to getting away with doing nothing, and Becky had major problems to get her to work. Becky is more stubborn than Alli, it seems - Becky is winning! Alli is now happy to go out to the track at recess and walk around it. She takes her lunch out of the frig, unzips the lunch bag, puts her lunch in the microwave, turns it on (with assistance all the way, especially the buttons to push on the microwave) and they even have her getting the vacuum out and cleaning the floor after lunch, and putting the vacuum away! Can they come visit my house?