December 15, 2011

Outside Temp: 32 F (still pretty out... no snow... )

What I cooked today:
Pot Roast: I got a pot roast at Albertsons (buy 1 get 1 free, woo hoo), so I made it tonight.  Actually, I made it around noon, and tossed it into the crock pot with some potatoes and carrots and onions.  The roast came out fine, but it wasn't very tender and moist.  I actually had to cut it, instead of it falling apart like last time.  I think the roast would have been better as a stew, so I'm going to cut up the second roast and make beef stew this weekend!  :)

Update:
So, Katie was struggling to find something to wear to school today.  It was only 35 degrees, so I wasn't all that concerned.  Just a tank top, with a t-shirt, with a long sleeve shirt and her jacket on top, then her tights and sweat pants on the bottom.  She complained that she didn't have any clean long sleeve shirts.  Now, a few months ago, that would have been true, since I don't think she owned a long sleeve shirt in CA.  But, when we moved here, I made sure to get her at least 4-5 long sleeve shirts and 4-5 sweat shirts.  She should have been fine.  We eventually found something clean (in the 'clean' laundry basket, waiting patiently for me to fold it) and I sent her off to school.

A few hours later, as I'm preparing yet another load of laundry, I figured out why she had no clothes.  Apparently, when I told her to 'layer' her clothes, she chose to layer 3 long sleeve shirts at once.  When she changed, she pulled off all 3 in one big lump and tossed it into her basket.  The next day was 3 different long sleeve shirts, all tossed together in her basket.  I giggled as I separated each of the shirts and tossed them into the washer.  So when she got home, I had to have a talk about how 'layering' works!  As long as you didn't spill anything on the outer layers, you only really need to change the bottom layer each day.  Which is why she had about 10 tank tops!

I was asked by a friend about the kids' school.  Geyser has 36 students, K-12.  Right now, Ryan is the only Kindergartner, which is actually pretty cool since he needs the special attention anyway.  They have a 1/2 combo class, with about 5 kids, a 3/4 combo class with 6 kids and a 5/6 combo class with 7 kids.  The junior high (7/8) uses the same classrooms as the high school and there are (I think) 5 kids.  Then the high school has about 13 kids (9th - 12th).  There are no Juniors (11th grade), so unless someone transfers, there will be no Seniors next year.

The original school was built around 1940, with two stories, about 8 classrooms and a gym.  They have since added on what is now the elementary school side (4 additional classrooms), another set of bathrooms, a cafeteria and a larger gym (so, yes, there are 2 gyms!)  Because we have so few students, we co-op with the school in Stanford for athletics teams (which is why we wore Stanford uniforms for Basketball).

Ryan has two hours with his special ed teacher 4 days a week.  Since he is not really ready to be integrated with a class, this is working out great.  He also has about an hour with a speech therapist who comes in on Mondays. 

There is a Hudderite Colony a few miles away, so their high school students attend our school (their elementary students are taught on site at the Colony).  The kids take the bus, which picks them up and drops them off outside the house.  There are between 4-6 additional kids on the bus, with between 2-4 stops.  Yes, there are between 7-10 kids on a full sized bus, every day (except the days I pick up or drop off my kids... I've seen as few as 2 kids on the bus!) 

The cafeteria ladies make both breakfast and lunch for the kids.  The bus gets them there about 10 minutes early, so they can get breakfast in the morning.  The food is (of course) all freshly prepared on site, which means it's usually really, really good.  They even get fresh meat from the 4H club (when they need to slaughter an animal), so the kids got spoiled with steaks a few weeks ago. 

The school is working out great for us.  The school is so small that everyone really knows everyone.  The older girls love playing with Ryan, and it seems that everyone is related to everyone else.  I'll try to get some pictures, just to show off.  But we are loving it!
Ryan has an appointment with a behavioral psychologist tomorrow in Billings, so it will be a very long day of driving. Billings is about 3 1/2 hours away, so it will be about 7 hours of driving, for a 1 hour appointment. Oh well, it will be pretty for the drive and I'll try to get some pictures!