Sorry I have not posted for a few days, but I have been almost overwhelmed with the back up work regarding the laundry, cleanliness of the house, grocery shopping and the dogs and their business. I called the Bed, Bath & Biscuit man to come get the dogs on Thursday morning , and he did. He will keep them until Monday mornng and I am so glad. It is r3eally tough for me to cosntantly hae their welfare to think of as well as the fact that they have gotten more into messing up the floor with tt and with torn up trash sacks. Usually i discover the torn trash sacks in the middle of the night. I think Michael must get up in the night and not completely shut the pantry door and the dogs can get into the trash can. It is actually just Snowball. Zulu doesnt mess with stuff.

Michael had his surgery this ,morning at 5a.m and he learned that it wsa a bit more than just a short surgery. He did not get home until 10a.m. and had to have someone drive him home. Later the boys and I took him to the parking lot to get his car so he could go to work for his 2 to 11 shift. His arm is bandaged up and he said it hurts, but he has to go to work anyway. I think some of this is to model for the boys that one must work through the pain.

The boys have had two half-days this week, meaning that they got out of school at 11 a.m. Each day we would work on homework and try to get someother things done. Aidan read two books for book reports. Tonight we passed out all of the clean clothes after our showers. Earlier we went to the Butcher shop and the orchard shop and mailed Michael jr's thank you card and got copies of all of thier report cards so their mother may have a copy. All of the boys did well. Michael and Aidan got all As and Bs. Brendan got straight As for the first time in his life. His teacher put a code that means "outstanding" beside every subject. He made the Distinguished Honor roll and I have never seen a happier child. Yesterday Michael sr.went to school for confences with all of the teachers (This is the reason for the half day school days).
Then he sat down with all of the boys to let them know what a great job they had done and what their teachers had said about them. Brendan's teacher said that Brendan's the only striaght A in the class and that he wished he had a class full of "Brendans". Brendan was beaming.
Aidan's teacher said he is the most improved student in the class. You can look at his work and see that he is now paying attention to neatness, is making 100 on spelling tests and his reading is getting more and more fluent. I work with Aidan, so i am very proud of the most improved designation. Remember that I told you that Aidan didnt appear to think school was really important. Slowly i have helped him understand that school is important and doing his best is what he should do all of the time. He used to just put a lot of "slop" down anytime he colored or wrote his name. Now his name looks like it is in a manuscrpt book and his coloring is neat and a great choice of colors everytime. We were a proud family last night.

Tomorrow Michael jr. will host his friends at his birthday party at a lazer tag place and he is so excited. Then their mother is picking them up from the party and they will all go to the school's "Chicken Supper" which is a really big deal and is the major fundraiser for the school. So glad I do not have to go to the chicken supper.

Well I will close. Hope you all are doing well and that your days are bright and your evenings calm and your nights restful. love you. jk