Time for another Post

I guess I haven't been in the mood to share things online lately, but here's a quick rundown of the past few weeks.
Ryan has a lot of fun each day. He goes to kindergarten every morning where they are flying through the alphabet and numbers. He comes home, sometimes with homework which I totally use as a reason for him to not play with friends. He has to do his homework before he can play with any of the friends who come over asking to play. He usually gets a good amount of playtime in too though. And at bedtime we read together. His teacher sends home little booklets that he is supposed to read and he's doing great! He also has some flashcards with words he is supposed to learn for the first term. It's been an interesting reminder of how tricky English is. That word for instance-is. When Ryan sounds it out with a short I sound and the s sound he can't recognize the word so I have to tell him to sound the s like a z and then he gets it. Or the word look. He pronounces it as luke because the double o makes him want to pronounce it like zoo. I'm impressed with him and his desire for reading time. WE finished the book called The Magic Faraway Tree and are now reading Charlotte's Web. I'm having fun and I love having him try to act out little moments or to laugh at something said. This weekend the boys had a boys night that Ryan apparently LOVED. From Oliver sharing with me, they went for a drive without Oliver telling them where they were going and they drove into the parking lot for a pizza place. Ryan enthusiastically responded with "Pizza!? Yay!". And Oliver continued pulling out surprises. One being a 2 liter of pop and the other being a Redbox movie(Lego Batman) that he's "always wanted to see!"
Evan has been going to school and having a good time of it as well. His teacher came out the other day when I came to pick him up to ask me a few questions. During that interaction she told me that he seems more focused at school, he's allowing the aides to grab his hands as they work on a few sign language signs, and he seems to follow directions better. Yay! Thursday was picture day and she shared the experience she witnessed with me. Evan was in getting his photo taken(apparently its going to be a great photo) while sitting in the wagon they use for him when Ryan's class came in. Ryan's teacher asked if Ryan could say hi to his brother which Evan's teacher thought "do you need permission?". Evan was so glad to see Ryan, he gave him a big hug and started to pull him into the wagon with him. Apparently, several of the kindergarteners had looks on their faces that were a bit astonished at what they were witnessing. But Ryan was happy and kind and I guess they even took a photo together in the wagon. This made me extra happy because before school that morning, Evan really wanted to hug Ryan and Ryan wasn't awake enough to allow it and had instead been cranky and upset whenever Evan reached for him. Evan has also been busy with his destruction mode. I'm typing this on a brand new computer because two weeks ago, he woke up and rocked a chair on top of our previous laptop breaking the screen and pulling off more keys which is one of his favorite pastimes. He also has discovered that he can open the cabinet underneath the TV where we'd been keeping all of our DVDs which means that he has pulled out DVDs from the cases, ripped apart several covers and broken cases. Last but not least he discovered that the vents in the floor are not actually screwed into place. Boo. The little things that drive me crazy-having to replace the vent covers on a regular basis or trying to recover an item dropped down the vent and having to close the cabinets and try to save our DVDs. But he's still the best hugger ever and his snuggles mean a lot. He definitely prefers his daddy to me. I wonder if part of that is that I'm with him the most, but I also think its because his daddy is so cool.
Speaking of his daddy, Oliver has been heading to work every day where he is trying to teach his students how to think and not just about biology. He's trying to work out his grading system which is unique to his thought process but which I think is pretty brilliant. Instead of getting grades simply based on the number of questions you answer, he wants them to actually have a full grasp of the topic. It has been overwhelming as he's making changes at the beginning of the school year instead of already having the changes made before school started. I have faith in him that it'll all work out. He has a handful of students that are signed up for Honors Biology so he's been working with them a little differently than the regular classes and has started the Escape Club as well. He's also been helping out with the band which he loves and during his prep period he is going around the school helping the other teachers with their technological issues. He's busy. He's also trying to make up for the lack of hiking he did this summer and is trying to plan some hikes before it gets cold, but the weather has been very rainy lately. Hopefully, he'll have some luck this weekend.
I have started to help out in Ryan's class on Mondays. I've only done it once so far, but its awesome to be there and see how his class goes but to also be of some help to his teacher. On Tuesdays & Thursdays I play volleyball with a handful of other women while the boys are in school. Wednesdays are shortened days so I don't really do a whole lot for myself during that hour and a half. Usually I get breakfast and then get distracted on the internet. I've been reading and crocheting and cooking. The newest addition to my routine is being a part of the Young Women organization in our ward. It's a lot of fun although I still feel a bit out of the loop. This last weekend while the boys were having boys night, I drove to Logan for Time Out For Women, a day and a half of seminars and music aimed toward LDS women. I went with Oliver's mom & sister and sister-in-law. We were able to sleep in Beth's living room which was a 10 minute walk from the concert hall where everything was happening. We laughed a lot, cried a little and were inspired and also just glad to spend time together.
So life is busy, but not too busy. We're enjoying our time together and our favorite place(at least my favorite place) is with my family. Sorry for the wordy and nonvisual post, but as mentioned before-new computer-also interpreted means no pictures.