Junk mail

Too much, I say! It is just too much junk mail, so back in April, I decided I would get my name taken off these mailing lists. I spend about 30 minutes 1x a week calling, and now it is only about every other week. It doesn't take much time, and I cannot tell you how little junk mail I receive. I know many of you are thinking you don't have time for this, but I came across an additional solution too...dmachoice.org. You can select which catalogs, magazines, and other mail offerings you receive. You can be specific on the catalog or say "none" to all of them. That is one place to start.

This photo is just the ones I have called and noted the dates. Of course when you call they tell you it might take 4-8 weeks to be effective, but I don't care. I check additional junk mail received against those I have called and toss them. It is so freeing not getting all that in the box. I was to the point that I only checked my mail 1x a week because I hated to get so much junk. If everyone would do this, think of the trees we would save, and the amount of time we would regain.

People, take a stand against Junk Mail! Reclaim your lives and save the trees!!!

PS I know I've been a bad blogger. I want to post Zachary's solo from his play, but the time it could take to extract just that part is weighing heavy on my shoulders. Oh the stress! Just kidding.

Swim Team

I decided I wanted Zachary to be a better swimmer about a year ago, but his therapy schedule would not allow it. I thought it was important since he does not seem to understand drowning.

I mentioned swim team to him last summer, and he has talked about it off and on all year long. We started the last week in April, and have been swimming Monday through Friday for an hour per day ever since. Zachary really likes it and wants to be faster and better. I have been so impressed with him and how he has improved. They learn four strokes and let me tell you, there are a lot of pieces of information to coordinate. And with group instruction, well, that can be a challenge in itself.

Last week was our first Swim Meet. And it was chaos! People everywhere, at 6:30, and most of them smiling. Some are crazy, hard core swimmers. I figure as long as Zachary is enjoying it and improving, we are right on track. He raced in three events and was a trooper from 6A until about 12:30. I was glad we did not have to stay for any relays.

Thought you would want to see how he is beefing up now that he is a swimmer!

Lions and Tigers and Bear, oh my!

None of these animals showed up this week, however, we did have "trimming and washing and mowing, oh my!" Zachary has decided he wants to be responsible and with that decision he has decided to learn few new tasks. Mowing the lawn, doing laundry, trimming his nails, ironing his clothes, and cleaning house. It does help that three of these are Scout tasks for a pin he needs. Here are a few pics of from our exciting first week of Summer. We are loving the new, responsible Zachary...

He is going to make some wife extremely proud when he shows her he can clean and do laundry. I'm training him up in the right way, not only for a wife, but for me too...less chores sooner than later. I just hope he keeps the positive attitude.

Warms a mother's heart

A long overdue milestone was accomplished this past month. There was a program we worked on with Zachary when he first started therapy. It was called Joint Attention. What it requires is for a person to attend to another person's actions. So for example, if I pointed at something, anyone standing near me might look in that direction. The most common one I think of is when you are in the grocery and you smile at a crying baby (I tend to make a funny face), and they stop and respond.

In Zachary's case, he never responded to a person smiling or pointing. It was just a blank stare. But the other day, he did. He was doing homework, and I was just watching him work. I smiled at him when he looked up, and then he smiled right back. I can't tell you what that meant to me. Never take your child's smile for granted. It has always been such hard work to get Zachary to smile. And here in this instant, he was smiling back, welcoming me into his heart. And the cool thing, is it was not a one time deal. He did with his Pops also when we were visiting last weekend.
Therapy work continues to pay off...even eight years after we started!

4th grade complete

Through many challenges, we have finally completed 4th grade. This year, Zack received a few awards at the year-end ceremony. He received Bible, Spelling, and Book Report Award, as well as the Great Effort Award and the Principal's List. He also got the Superior Bible Achievement, which is where they have been tested to say full Bible passages throughout the year. He was on the straight-A Honor Roll all four nine-weeks. And then received, the Excellent Conduct Award, which is kind of funny to me since he added his own flair this year. And last, he received the Most Outstanding Computer Student. This is selected out of his whole class, so that is a pretty cool deal.

We had a very large class this year, but Mrs. Otto worked very hard to make it successful.

Back row, from left to right: Mrs. Hope Otto, Jay Chavez, Nathan Davis, Zack Sansing, Joshua O'choa, Joshua Stinson, Nick Wilson, Bryan Tran, Joseph Otto, Carter Ung, Donald Euzede, and Tirk White.

Front row: Ariana Sneed, Nadiya Blair, Gabby O'choa, Megan Ritthaler, Brianna Harrelson, Shyanne Seth, Eunice Mora, Madeline Burke, Alyssa Davis.

Artwork on the side

Zachary loves Star Wars, still. He has moved on from Legos, but still reads the books, and is now buying the action figures. He is doing a lot of good imaginary play with the characters though.

These are a few drawings of some of the Lego characters...

For Christmas, Zachary's Mimi got him this 3+ foot Lego of General Grievos. I took a picture for you to reference. Below, you will see his artistic attempt. I love it!

Favorite papers

I love to include Zack's work, some is funny and others are just plain cute. I like to include his handwriting too. So here are the worthy papers from this year.

It reads: I am having a stellar day today because of three reasons. The first reason I am having a good day because I am behaving well. The second reason why I having a stellar day is because I got 100 on spelling and science. The third reason why I have a stellar day is because I almost got a 100 on my Bible verse. Yesterday, I had a good day because I got all my seat work done. Even a child is known by his doings, whatever his work may be pure and whatever it may be right. Proverbs 20:11.

It reads: One time when I got frustrated about the math homework, I asked God to give me strength. God calmed me down. After God calmed me down, I was able to finish my math homework. Now I know I can ask for strength when I feel frustrated. God also promises to answer me when I call to him.



It reads: I am a green card, that has good behavior. I am a green card that as two credits. I am a green card that follows the rules we have at the school. I don't like red or orange or yellow. I am a consistent fellow. I am as tall as a small beyblade and I flip like one too. but I'm always gonna be green because I do what I am suppose to do.

It reads: I have three favorite subjects that are my favorite. These three subjects are Computer, Art, and PE. My first favorite subject is Computer. I like computer because we do "Type to Learn" and we learn about animals on the computer. We also play games. My second favorite subject is Art. I like Art because we do projects, paint pictures, and we glue materials together. My third favorite subject is PE. I like PE because we run, play games, and we are with friends. Of all the subjects we have in school, these three are my favorite.

It reads: My favorite day is Tuesday. It is my favorite day because we do PE. We do Spanish class. I get to learn music on Tuesday. I don't have therapy on Tuesdays.

So what can we draw from these papers? He tries very hard to behave and likes it when he gets 100's in his main courses. However, he likes his ancillary classes best, especially on Tuesday when he doesn't have therapy after school.