A trip to the dentist

I took this picture of Kalen on Wednesday after she had four teeth pulled. Baby teeth that is. Kalen mouth is a dentist and orthodontist dream and a parents nightmare. Kalen did not get all of her baby teeth and she is missing permanent teeth. She has a genetic disorder that causes this. From her last dental appointment I thought they were going to pull two teeth and fill one small cavity. I was wrong. She did very well thru all of it. She struggled with one of the shots, but otherwise it was good. Our dentist is a wonderful guy, we only hope he doesn't retire before we get thru the next several years of serious dental work. I got a little squeamish on the tooth pulling. I don't do blood. So I was a little unnerved by that but then one of the roots didn't come out and the dentist had to dig for it. I can't even talk about it. Anyway, I kept her on Motrin for the day and she was fine. She was pretty concerned that she would not be able to eat. Now we have to see an orthodontist and make a plan before we go any further.

Kalen goes to Social Skills Camp for the next two weeks. It is a program that the school district puts on for kids that have some form of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Kalen has done this camp since they started it several years ago. It runs from 10-2 on Monday thru Thursday. I don't know that she learns anything but she has a great time. It is a place where she can go and be with other kids that have quirks like she has and they are free to be themselves. The lady (Merrie) that runs the camp is great. She was a school psychologist when Kalen started Pre K. She was the first person to say that she thought called had some form of ASD. The rest of the team (teacher, OT, PT and Speech therapist) disagreed. The speech therapist went as far as to say that Kalen's problems were in her home life. It's a wonder I didn't knock her teeth out. About two years ago the school district created a position for Merrie as "District Autism Specialist." Last fall I was told that there was 110 kids diagnosed with ASD and she was continually testing for it. Merries job is to test students and work with resource teachers and schools to help ASD kids and she attends IEP (individual education plan) meetings. I've never known a suggestion of Merries to not be helpful. Our problem last year with the school was that Merrie gave great ideas, but Kalen's team didn't follow them.

Kalen's team at school last year stunk. It was her classroom teachers first year to teach (she is my age and just got her degree) and she was really overwhelmed, then Kalen got a new resource teacher. The resource teacher is suppose to be the caseworker and advocate at school. She was truly a sad disappointment. When the resource teacher isn't on board with your child's learning disability and disorder, your in trouble. The lady was new to the school and she had a list of degrees and experience. In my opinion she has no business being a resource teacher, she truly doesn't get it. A teachers education doesn't mean jack when they don't get it. By the end of the first quarter she and I butted heads pretty bad and our relationship didn't get any better as the year went on. This is an example: Kalen's testing at the end of 5th grade showed that she is at a 7th grade level in everything but math. Math is at a 2nd grade level. That is her learning disability. The resource teacher saw Kalen as being very smart and had it in her mind that Kalen didn't like math and was just lazy. What can I even say to that. I could go on and on.

Black Hills Trip

We headed out Wednesday morning for Rapid City for an AQHA show (American Quarter Horse Assn.). Its a big show that runs all week and draws in a lot of horses and people. Mark rode in the reining on Wednesday and Friday. Wednesday was not a good run. Annie was hot and really took off in the big fast circles in the pattern and he had to shut her down. If he let her get away with that she would try it every time. Friday was a much better run and he placed 4th in a class of 15. In the AQHA shows Mark rides in the 'open' division. So he is up against trainers that ride horses for a living.

We have a horse trailer with a very small living quarters in it. There is about enough room in it to change your mind. It sleeps two up in the gooseneck, it has a two burner oven top (we don't use it because we cook outside) shower and a/c. There is a door that opens into the horse compartment and the kids sleep on cots in there. Don't be alarmed. The horse compartment is kept cleaner than a lot of houses. During this time of the year we use a power washer and keep the horse compartment clean. We keep wood shavings on the floor and when we get to a show we push all the shaving out on a tarp and sweep the heck out of the floor. It doesn't smell like horse. We are able to camp at the fair grounds and the kids love it. We have a portable grill and cook most of our own food.

We had this great idea that we would buy a canopy to put up beside our trailer. We searched and searched and finally bought one with netting on the side. So Wednesday afternoon we put it up. It was a little windy, but it was o.k. We anchored it and tied it to the trailer. Night came and Mark and Kalen were going to sleep in it. Then the wind really picked up. All of a sudden a gust caught it and it went over the top of the horse trailer. Had it not been tied to the trailer I think it would have flown a long ways.

On Thursday we did the Black Hills tourist thing and rode the 1880's train from Hill City to Keystone. The kids like this train, especially Kalen. I think this was our third trip on the train. It is about a 2 1/2 hr. ride from Hill City to Keystone and back to Hill City. Kalen is really into the train thing. If we find trains to ride, we ride them.

Kalen wanted her picture taken with Abe.

Mark and the kids standing in line waiting for the train.

The kids on the train.

Purple.................

I like purple and I like lightning, so when I found this blog background I knew it was for me. We have had our share of lightning storms and rain showers this summer. Last week we had a pretty wicked storm that had the kids scared. When your scared all you need to do is round up our friends and you will feel better. These are Kaleb's friends Ducky and Cowboys. Kaleb got Ducky for his first birthday, he is half blanket and half stuffed animal. Ducky has been through many trials with Kaleb and has slept every night with him the last seven and a half years. Cowboys is what he calls his blanket. Grandma Norma made cowboys for Kaleb was a baby and is close to thread bare, but we keep patching and he is always there.

After the lightning it poured rain. These are two views of the rain.

Sunday Afternoon

Last Sunday was truly a beautiful day. It actually got to 86 degrees and there was no wind. On the way to church Mark made the comment that he needs to get back into the habit of making Sundays what they are suppose to be, a day of rest. That comment was brought on because he has been working way to many hours. Sunday afternoon, after he took a nap we took our chairs and sat in the trees on the east side of the yard and watched the horses graze on the hill between the house and the barn for about an hour.





This is Mike. We bought Mike as a yearling, Mark broke him to ride when he was 2 1/2 and sold him after he had ridden him for about two months to a friend. The friend rode him for about 6 mos., then he and his wife split up and he needed money so we bought him back. Mike will live with us forever. Mark showed him for two years in reining and reined cowhorse. They did all right together, but he struggled with his lead changes. Then Mike went lame, after a boat load of x-ray's it turns out he has problems with is hocks (probably been there since birth) and that's why he can't change leads very well. It ended his show career. Now Kaleb and I ride him. He's a great horse, he is honest and dependable. He is also very accident prone and he destroys thing. I could write a novel about the things he has done.


Anyway, Mike gets the pleasure of spending the summer with the mares and colts. The horse colt Beau, likes to hang with Mike. I'm not sure Mike likes him, but he isn't mean to him. Then again, I'm not sure anyone likes Beau.

This is Tari, our broodmare. She will also live her forever.

And this is Tara (higher up on the hill) and Beau. Tara is Tari's baby. Tara's a sweetheart. She is pretty laid back and easy to get along with. She likes to be petted. Beau should have been named The Tormentor. He torments all the other horses and is relentless about it, they have gotten to the place the ignore him and once in awhile will push him away. Poor Tara gets her share of it. I think the barn cats had a party when we moved Beau out of the foaling barn. Beau is cutting horse breed and he definitely has the instincted to move animals. The barn cats got their share of being chased by Beau.

Reining......in the rain

The first weekend in June the Cowboys States Reining Horse Assn. hold their first NRHA show (National Reining Horse Assn) here in Gillette. This picture is of Mark and Annie in their turn around. I tried to post a video I made of one of his runs but I wasn't smart enough to get it done. I'll have to work on that.

Mark and Annie rode in one class on Saturday and two on Sunday of that weekend. He did really well, but one of the runs on Sunday was really awesome. This was Mark's first NRHA show. He mostly shows in the AQHA (American Quarter Horse Assn.) shows. The AQHA shows are very family friendly and pretty laid back, the NRHA is a little different. It seemed like the people there were trainers or people that had come with their trainers and were pretty serious about winning. On Sunday Mark rode in a Non Pro Rookie Level 1 and a Non Pro Rookie Level 2 class. Both classes had 20-23 people in them and Mark place third in both classes. In the warm up pen before one of those classes a woman came up to him and ask him to cinch her saddle up. She explained that her 'trainer' had went to the barn to get her other horse ready and she wasn't sure how to cinch her saddle. So Mark cinched her saddle up for her. Sure enough the woman won the class. Mark got a good laugh out of it. She may have won and he got third but he trained his own horse and he knows how to saddle it.

So we hit the road for three days next week in Rapid City for an AQHA show.

The garden

For Christmas by sister Sue bought me this great bbq cookbook with wonderful marinates in it. Most of the marinates require fresh herbs. After one trip to the grocery store to buy herbs I decided I could grow my own. All I do is fight the deer with my flowers anyway, so I turned my flower bed into a herb and salsa garden.

This wasn't exactly the best year to start a garden considering the weather has been extremely cool. The high today is 71 and that is pretty warm for what we have been having. I had a little frost issue on June 4 and lost a few plants, but Kaleb and I replanted. Mark put up wire cow panels to keep the deer out. Of course I haven't seen a deer within two miles of the house since the April blizzard. It's a little 'rednecky'. Then Kaleb and I decided we better get the tomatoes and peppers staked because we have two tomatoes on one plant. We went to the shop to see what we could turn up and sure enough we found some wood stakes that were about 18" so they were perfect for the peppers. We dug around and turned up some electric fence poles that have spikes you can push in the ground with your foot, they looked perfect to me, so we put them in and staked the tomatoes. I'm pretty sure better homes and garden will not be visiting us.

These are the two tomatoes that we have growing. They are on the worst looking plant that has some frost damage, but they are getting bigger every day.

I can't remember what these flowers are called, but they are perennials that I couldn't bring myself to pull up. They must like the cool weather because they are in full bloom and growing.

Kids

This picture is from last spring's "Crazy Hair Day" at school. Kaleb won the 2nd grade class. These two children got themselves locked in Kalen's bedroom Saturday night. I had sent them up there to wrap Mark's fathers day present. The door knob jammed up and they couldn't get out. Mark had them open one of the windows and he throw the cordless screwdriver up to them with the thought that Kaleb could take the screws out of the door knob. Keep in mind that from the age of two, Kaleb has stripped many things in our house of the screws. We have tried to use this talent for good and not evil, but sometimes things are missing the screws. Anyway, Kaleb gave it a shot and he could not get the screws out of the door. Go figure. It was time for plan B. There was no other choice but for Mark to get a ladder and climb up thru the window. So up he went and in thru the window and he took the hinges off the door and got them out. Kalen told him that he was her hero.

Sometimes the wisdom from this child will stop and make you think about things. Today Kaleb was reading to me and the word 'dumb' was in his story. He pronounced the 'b', so I stopped him and explained to him that the 'b' was silent. He said "that doesn't make sense to put the 'b' on there if it doesn't make a sound." Then he put his finger over the 'b' and said "that's how it should be spelled." There was nothing that I could say other than to agree with him.