Stretch your words

That's what I learned from my daughter today. And it's a lesson I was glad to learn. I have always understood the importance of phonics but I just wasn't sure how to "teach" that to my kids. Well, Makenneh's teacher taught them to stretch their words. She even has a motion for it. They put their fingers to their lips (think of the Italians "kissing" their fingers thing) and then they stretch the word as they say it by pulling their hand away from the lips. Doing this allows you say the word realllllllly slow so you can sound out the letters and spell the word. Bingo! Now I have a great way to help them with their phonics. We just sat here spelling different words.

Life has been a roller coaster ride with the girl. I had posted a while back about her going to school easily. Hah! If that didn't blow up in my face. Shortly after posting that, she began fighting me more mornings than not. Most of it wasn't that she didn't really want to go to school, but rather that she didn't want to get up or didn't want to wear "that" shirt or didn't want to wear that coat, etc. Almost every morning was a fight over something or another. And she would pull the whole, "If you don't let me ____,I won't go to school/get on bus/whatever". Grrrr. Several mornings, I cried after getting her on the bus. Sheer frustration. We discovered that she may have been getting too much sleep. I kept saying to my mom, "it's as if she is tired, but how could she be, she goes to bed by 8pm every night and gets up at 7:15". Well one Wed evening, she went to church with papa and they stopped at Uncle Matt's on the way home. She didn't get home til around 9pm so she was up later than usual. The next morning was the best morning we have had in a while. So, we started keeping her up a little later at night and it seems to be helping. Some mornings she even wakes herself up earlier than she needs to be up. I hope it helps because seriously, she has gotten next to incorrigable. Her mouth is the worst of it. She wants to argue everything til the bitter end. I suppose she will make a great debater someday...hopefully she finds a career where that attribute suits her well because it doesn't do well in the household!

Myself, I have been busy with school and campaigning. We are nearing elections and honestly, I can't wait for it to be over with. Hopefully it ends with a victory for us! Most of the primary elections ended up with incumbents being unseated. Hopefully in the general, the incumbents continue to be unseated. I think that most Michiganders are sick of the same old stuff....nothing ever changes, only gets worse. Some of our politicians have been here since the beginning of time and haven't done much good for our state....our state has literally gone down the toilets. Voters are beginning to finally see this and are more apt to vote for the new people on the block. But, the unions are strong in this state and they have a wicked sort of control over people. It's really rather frightening to talk to people and see just how many people vote simply because their union tells them to vote for that person. People don't bother with looking into the candidates themselves, they just do as puppets and vote according to the union. That's how all these career politicians have managed to run the state for so long without being effective. they don't have to do right by the people, as long as their party matches the union. Case in point: Flint had a crappy mayor several years back. He was recalled after running flint in the ground. That same guy is now on the ticket for a different position. The union backs him simply because of his party affiliation, with no regard to the fact that he contributed to the crap Flint has become and he was recalled, meaning the voters in Flint didn't want him there anymore. But enough on politics, it will soon be over.

Makenneh is anxiously counting down the days til Halloween. The first thing out of her mouth every morning is "___ days til halloween, Im so excited!". She chose to be a ballerina for halloween and my mother in law is making her costume. I have to buy the leotard, tights and shoes, but she is making the skirt. I picked out hot pink and black (because Makenneh wanted black and i thought a ballerina needed some pink, too). Seb is being Patrick Star from Spongebob and she is making that costume as well. He is gonna be cute! I love that my kids chose more unique costumes, rather than wanting the cheap store bought costumes that are good for maybe one go-round.

I finally got a paper in the mail today about my student loan. I just chatted live with a rep at my school and the check should be here within a week. Woohoo! That is a huge relief. We have decided to just get a different car. There is a car for sale up the road from us that is in our price range. We will go look at it as well as a couple other ones. I will plan to have a decision about the car so that when the money arrives, we can do it up! Then, I am just going to put a for sale sign on my car and try to get some money out of it; at least to recoup the cost of the transmission we bought a month or so ago. Someone who knows more about transmissions could probably fix it and have it on the road. Jeremy has hassled with it on and off for weeks and we decided that rather than spend hundreds of dollars taking it to a mechanic, we will just a different car. This is the 3rd or 4th trans we have had to put in this car and that's not a cheap fix, nor is it an easy job. Im over it. I have had that car since like 1999 and it's time for something different. Hopefully with less headaches. One thing is for sure. My dad is test driving the next car before I buy anything. Hopefully i can avoid some of hte issues I have had with this car.

Well, I am going to get off here and start getting ready. We are going to the campaign headquarters tonight to use the phone bank and I need to get ready. I don't really wanna go because I would love to have a weekend to relax and to myself. I suppose it will be the first weekend in NOvember, after the election is over.