Election Night

So, tonight is election night.

I'm glad it's here, but also scared it's here.

This election cycle, 3 of the 7 board member seats are up for re-election. I actually haven't gotten too involved. I wasn't going to get involved at all (after all, that's the reason I'm homeschooling- so I don't have to pay attention to this nightmare), but one of the candidates happens to be a friend of mine, and I wanted to support her. I served with her on PTA and SAC and we fought together during the last election. So, I decided to get a little involved.

Well, you all know me. I can't do anything half-way. I canvassed, made tons of phone calls, painted my car, and re-researched the issues to make sure my facts were current. I also hosted an event last week where I was able to get all three of our candidates to come for an informal meet and greet for people to ask questions of the actual candidates, instead of just reading flyers.

I invited over 600 people to come.

Not one person showed up. I couldn't believe it. I came home in tears- reminded, yet again, at the apathy of the average voter in America. Our schools are crumbling- test scores have gone down every single year since these guys came into power, schools are seeing 30%-50% year over year teacher turnover, some schools have had five principals in five years- and yet people tell me they don't have time to vote. (and, the one thing that the other side claims- that graduation rates are up- is simply due to the fact that they LOWERED graduation requirements. Sure, we're graduating idiots, but at least they are graduating, right?)

I don't have high hopes for tonight. There's too much big money in the fight. The Koch brothers are brilliant- I will give them that. They sure know how to buy elections.

Whatever happens, though, I don't have to worry about my kids. My kids will be OK. During the last election I realized the mantra in our county is, "As long as my kids are OK, screw everybody else's kids." That's where I'm at. My kids are OK, and when the neighborhood schools shut down and everybody has to drive their kids to private schools (which is the end goal of this board), I can sit back and say "I tried to fight for you. I tried to save our schools and our community, but you wouldn't listen."

What do you call a community ruled by special interest groups? A monarchy? A theocracy? No- Douglas County.

Halloween

Last night was our church Trunk or Treat. The girls, of course, were incredibly excited. We weren't entirely sure if we wanted to go or not, but in the end we decided to as the girls were so ecstatic. They worked very hard to make decorations for our trunk:

 I forgot to take a picture of them in their costumes, but they are essentially the same as the ones they wore tonight.

 They each made a tombstone and bones. It was pretty cute.

Then, of course, tonight the girls went trick-or-treating. Ben took then, as is obligatory for the dads. They drove to a neighborhood just next to ours because there was a haunted house and such. They had a fantastic time. Ben even let them stay up way past their bed time, and they were gone for an hour and a half. It was really sweet. And now we have enough candy to last three lifetimes.

Trick or Treat Street

Tonight was Trick or Treat Street at the local high school. We got there early to avoid the lines.

It did not work! There was a super long line. It was a little frustrating, and I admit Ben and I had a little bit of a negative attitude- until we got inside. Then...WOW! It was much better organized than ever before. We go in one big, huge line through the halls. High school kids line the halls all dressed up in their various themes- Monsters, Inc, Star Wars, Marvel Comics, Fairy Land, etc, handing out candy. Then you go through the last room- Candy Land- and immediately outside. It was brilliant, and ran perfectly smoothly. Far better than in years past. There must have been over a thousand people there, but everybody went through with ease- after the initial line, there was no more waiting. It was incredible.

This is Camille doing her monster "Growl." It looks more
 like a smile, and it is as cute as it looks.

Pumpkin Carving

Our most dreaded activity of the year has now come and gone.

The girls were, of course, so excited.

See how happy Camille is?

And how positively not happy Ben is?

They turned out pretty cute, in my opinion!

Camille's IEP

Yesterday was Camille's IEP. It went pretty much as expected- she qualifies for free pre-school including 180 minutes of speech therapy a month.

I filled out all of her pre-school registration stuff. She got into our first choice, our neighborhood school that Audra went to. That's nice since we know the staff and a lot of kids that go there. Now we are just waiting for a phone call from the school, and then she will start- probably early next week sometime.

So far, I am very impressed with Child Find. They have been great to work with. I feel like, though, that we have gotten several lucky breaks. When I first called, I was told there were no evaluation appointments until November, but then there were cancellations for both audiology and the main evaluation and instead of waiting 6 weeks for our initial evals, we got in within two weeks of my first call for both. That's unheard of! Then, getting into our first choice of pre-school is also unheard of- the people at Child Find were thrilled and shocked that I was able to get our first choice.

It is nice when everything falls into place. It will be an adjustment to be on a different schedule, but we will figure it out and it will be great. Camille will love it, and it will be nice to have her at pre-school while I'm doing school with the other two.

Here's to yet another new adventure!

Geography Fair

Yesterday the girls participated in a Geography Fair with our co-op. They chose (with perhaps a bit of persuasion on my part) Germany. Each country gave a short presentation- and both my girls presented which was awesome-prepared a food from the country, and created stickers to hand out. We gave each kid a passport, and they went around from country and country learning about that country.

It was fantastic! Seriously, one of the best activities we have done. The girls got really into the fair. They loved learning about Germany and putting the poster together and everything. It really was awesome.

Hip, Hip Baby Team

For about a year now, the girls have had their own club. It's called "Hip, Hip, Baby Team!" They have their own cheer and motto. Anytime they need to work together on something or play a game, they round up the team, give the cheer, and they are ready to work together. Even Camille gets in on the action. It's pretty cute.

Here's where they wrote down their mission statement and put it on a bunch of Halloween pictures:

"We love, we hope, and we do. These are the things we do."