Carlie is my Dancing Queen

The past school year Carlie took dance classes twice a week at Studio Elan (the best studio EVER!) with her cousin Claire. She took a hip-hop class with Teacher Hillary and a tap/jazz class with Teacher Jayce. I have had Carlie in dance class since she was two years old. Many of you know that Carlie was VERY developmentally delayed, has an educational diagonsis of high-functioning autism, and has been diagnosed with low muscle tone. She did not walk until she was 18 months old. Plus she is a foot taller than EVERY kid her age (just like mama). Studio Elan (in particular Jayce) have been instrumental in helping Carlie become more coordinated and confident through all the wonderful dance classes she has taken for the past 5 years. I can't even begin to thank Jayce enough for being patient with my daughter who when she first started dance would have SEVERAL melt downs per class, couldn't even do a front tuck (everyone else in class could), and usually seemed like she was in her own world. You wouldn't even know that she is the same child now, she has grown soooooooooo much!! What is even more miraculous is Carlie pretty much doesn't have any of the symptoms of autism anymore. I would say now that she is not autistic, just unique!! This miracle I owe to the TEAM at Early Intervention in The Dalles. She attended preschool there for 4 years and they worked miracles. Also her team at Colonel Wright Elementary School in The Dalles were amazing. Carlie's new school in Kelso can NOT believe me when I tell them what Carlie used to be like. They say she has NO signs of autism or learning disablities....they in fact say she is incredibly bright (I already knew that) and is doing AMAZING in school. Anyways, I know this post started about dancing and I have gone off on a tangent, but I just feel so blessed to have had so much help raising my daughter that I didn't quite know what to do with. She was such a mystery to me. Carlie is such a ray of sunshine and joy in my life. I just wanted to thank all those that have helped her develop into the beautiful girl that she is.

NOW BACK TO DANCE.....

Just like her mother, she loves to dance...even if she is not the greatest dancer in the world

(I think she is the greatest!!!). But, we both like to SHAKE it!!!

Here recital was so amazing....The dance recital told the story of Peter Pan....every dance class was a different character in the show. It was so nice that all the dances flowed together and told a story. Carlie was an Indian and a Lost Girl.

SPIRIT...You just won a not so new van!!!!

This past school year some of my teacher buddies and I decided that the climate at our school was SUPER LAME. So we created a school improvement program called SPIRIT

S - Success

P - Pride

I - Integrity

R - Respect

I - Involvement

T - Teamwork

We came up with school rules (we focused on what to do and not on what not to do) that all had to do with SPIRIT, we held monthly assemblies to recognize students and staff for all the positive things they were doing, we had contests, student of the week, student/staff of the month, SPIRIT bucks that could be earned to buy cool stuff, etc. Basically, we were trying to recognize the kids that were already doing positive things at school and we tried to motivate others to join this positive behavior and attitude movement. I could write a book on all the things we tried to do last year...some successful, some not so much.

One of the fun things we did was the ROCK STAR AWARD. To be eligible for the drawing you had to meet the following criteria for the WHOLE school year!

- 4 or less excused absences

- no referrals

- no tardies

- no incompletes (our school did not have D's or F's only INCOMPLETES)

Needless to say, only 12 kids qualified for the drawing. We had the mechanics class buy a car and fix it up. We were hoping for maybe a "cooler" car, but we played it up and a great kid won this "groovy" van.

If you are really bored you can click on the links below to see our main SPIRIT documents.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B7YlmUOcfO9bNDQxYjc0NDktZGZmNy00ZWRlLTg2ODgtMGIwYzkzNjdlNzUx&hl=en_US

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B7YlmUOcfO9bNWEyMmNmYTItNmU3OS00MDU2LTk1ZGYtOGZjZDZjMzRlYzNk&hl=en_US

Potato Cheese Broccoli Soup

First of all, I LOVE soup!!! I desperately miss the Wildflower Bread Company in Arizona and all their amazing veggie soups. I now live in a town with no amazing places to get soup so I am forced to try to make it myself. But, I always have a hard time finding vegeterian soups that I want and that my family will also like (they are NOT soup people...I know they are dumb). I tried a new recipe tonight and I declare it a success. I found a recipe called Potato Cheese Soup on allrecipes.com and made some modifications. My husband does not care for soup at ALL and he said several times that he really liked this soup. I asked him if he was trying to be nice and not hurt my feelings, but he assured me that it was a very tasty soup and that I was allowed to make it again!! I have tried MANY potato soups and have always found them to be bland or too thin, but this one is thick and flavorful. I was even able to get my kiddos to eat it...miracles happen!! Please excuse the picture with the shadow of my phone and my long bony witch hands trying to take a picture of my soup. I was having problems.

We Love the Zoo

Back over Memorial Day weekend we went to the Oregon Zoo with the Magana Family (my husband's sister's family). We had so much fun I bought a membership.....which reminds me we need to go to the zoo more often!!!

I am Ridiculous

I am proclaiming for all 3 of my blog readers that I am ridiculous and I am going to be better about blogging. I think it is crazy that I blog A LOT less now that I am a stay at home mom then when I was working 60 hours a week. I have tons more free time and need to use it more wisely. So I am going to change my background and stuff and then blog about the last 7 months (yes I am that behind). My posts will probably be boring to everyone except my sister and my mom and my stalkers, but I need to blog....this is my family journal.