Life and Times of The Johnston family: Sometimes Ya Just Don't Have a Good Post Title...

So this is our week in review. On Fridays my mom is taking some time to teach Elizabeth some Spanish as I'm really failing her in that subject! She's had two lessons so far and is really learning a lot and loving it! Last week Elizabeth's school lessons were "B" is for Baptism, and making friends/being a good friend. My favorite part of the baptism lessons was when she told me she wished she could be baptized in Jordan's River like Jesus was. Of course after I explained that rivers have cold dirty water and she'd have to stand on rocks and try to not get carried away in the current she decided that baptismal fonts were a really good idea! Hopefully our discussion on being a good friend stays with her as she's become a bit bossy, so the Berenstain book we read was a big help! A couple Saturdays ago we were afraid Tony's car was having major problems....luckily with the help his did they were able to sort out that it was just a very very dead battery(even though the Auto Zone Tony took his battery to said it was still good!) So Monday we had to buy and put in a new battery for the Focus. Last Tuesday was yet another crazy day! In the morning I took Devin to his GI appointment, where we pretty much just said soy milk is working for him yay...wish he'd eat more but his BMI is ok for now and done! Then that afternoon I took Elizabeth to her 4 year wellness check-up. Elizabeth is just over 40 inches tall (75%) and weighs a whopping 33 pounds (25%). He blood pressure was good...her hearing was good and they don't test her eyes, they leave that to her specialist. I started filling out the four year evaluation when Dr. Sandvig came in and told me not to bother with it as she knows she can do everything and more than what's on that sheet. She had Elizabeth read her a simple reader book which Elizabeth did really well....I love seeing the look on Sandvig's face when Elizabeth does things no four year old should be able to do, it's kinda funny. After Elizabeth finished the book she told her she hasn't read a book that easy since last year! Sandvig asked her if she knew how to sound out words and Elizabeth said "ya but it's hard sometimes", so she brought back a harder book and got to see her sound out some words. She checked out her awesome writing skills as well....I told her it's a work in progress. But all in all she was very impressed with miss Lizabeth. Oh and she got the biggest kick when she asked Elizabeth what her name was, and Elizabeth proudly and oh so matter of factly told her, "Linda Elizabeth Johnston, but you can just call me Elizabeth." :) then stood there smiling at her....totally cracked us up!! Love that girl!!! She had Elizabeth draw a picture of me and loved the details like the legs that were longer than the arms, the hair the ears, the eyebrows and that I was smiling! And last but not least Sandvig asked where Elizabeth went to school....I love that she just assumed Elizabeth was in a private school, maybe cause she was showing off her Spanish and sign language, but I told her we had decided to home school her, and she took it a lot better than I expected. It was so rewarding to hear her tell me I must be doing a good job. :D She did recommend getting Elizabeth evaluated for Aspergers, though if she does have it she's incredibly high functioning, mostly it's for genetic purposes, if just Devin has an ASD(Autistic Spectrum Disorder) than our percent chances of having more kids with it is only like 40%, but if Elizabeth has even very high functioning ASD than our chances jump up to around 70%(not these are not totally accurate percentages, it's just give you an idea percentages) And that concluded her appointment. Elizabeth did so awesome they gave her an otter pop on our way out! That afternoon I had a great chat with our friend and neighbor Debora who sat with Devin while he napped during Elizabeth's appointment...then we were having such a great time that we decided to have dinner with her and her husband, it was a delicious spaghetti dinner MMmmmmm! They are the best neighbors EVER! Then after dinner we all went to Cold Stone to get ice cream, and we used our buy one get one free birthday coupon(I love September!) It was YUMMY!! Wednesday evening we watched Elizabeth's friends Liza and Lilly while their parents went to a concert...Elizabeth was in heaven! They had a lot of fun! Friday my mom came down here for Elizabeth's Spanish lesson and we were both impressed with how much she remembered and learned from the week(you see my mom gives me simple things to practice with her throughout the week), she earned a lot of pennies for naming the letters in Spanish. Pennies? Why pennies you ask? Well Elizabeth's new reward system is that she gets pennies for doing/being good...but she can also loose pennies for not doing/being good, and then on Saturday "The Johnston Market" opens up and she can buy things with her pennies! This last Saturday I took Elizabeth with me and we hit up the dollar store and I let her pick some things she'd like to have at The Johnston Market(I also picked up some fun stuff for our Halloween party half week!) She is really excited about some of the stuff! Then we went to Jo Ann's as I had a 15% off my total purchase coupon, and I got a lot of great fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving art and craft projects! Then we came home had lunch and I put a cost on all the Market items and officially opened The Johnston Market for the first time. We counted up how many pennies Elizabeth had in her piggy bank, then she went and decided what she wanted to buy(the items range in price from 10 to 30), she counts out the correct number of pennies gives them to me and then we count how many pennies she has left(she was doing subtraction and didn't even know it!) That first time she bought a stuffed dog and a new baby juice bottle and opted to save her last 10 pennies for next time when she wants to get the Kazoo for 15 pennies! It's works so great!! I love it! Discipline AND math....oh yeah!! Saturday and Sunday we mostly cleaned and organized out cluttered little house. Sunday we had a "little thanksgiving dinner" with our neighbors Debora and Bryant....turkey YUM! That evening we went to the Nester's to celebrate our nephew Landen's birthday and Elizabeth got a couple presents! Some color wonder papers from Keira(and her family), Elizabeth's great grandma Johnston gave her a Berenstain Bears Storybook Collection and Alicia and Derek gave her a kindergarten workbook!
And that was our week! Phew!

These are just two random ones