Spirit Week & Midterms

This was one crazy week.  Spirit week and Exam week all rolled into one was a lot.  We started the week with Merry Monday - wear red and green.  Simple.  Easy.  We also enjoyed watching the Big Head Parade at school.  The 11th grade art students make giant heads.  Our favorites were the ones they did of the teachers.  (The one with the puffed out lips is the PE coach blowing a whistle.)  

Tuesday was Christmas t-shirt Tuesday.  Wednesday was Christmas pajamas.  Thursday was Theme day - each class had to decide on a theme together.  Caroline's class did candy canes, so I did that with mine as well thinking it would be easy.  But I was late to the stores and there were zero red and white striped shirts anywhere.  I pinned red ribbon to my white shirt and called it a day.  Caroline wore candy cane garland as a necklace.  I watched what the other classes did and next year we'll be snowmen - white shirt and a scarf.  So much easier.  Henry's class were reindeer and his teacher was Santa.  Henry was Vixen and he refused to wear a name tag like the rest of his class.  If someone asked him his name, he would pull a card out of his pocket and show them "Vixen" and then quickly put it back.  Josiah's class dressed as Christmas ornaments and decorations.  Josiah came as a tree.  We got the last Christmas tree sweatshirt at Target.  It was an XL, so Josiah will have it for years to come.  He loves it. 

With it being exam week, Caroline spent a lot of her afternoons and evenings studying.  By Wednesday evening, however, her brain was tired and she did not want to study anymore.  She said she wasn't going to do well on her Call of the Wild exam, but then brought home a 122/122 the following day.  

I saw Henry study more than usual as well, but Josiah, who has an extra study hall at school, got his studying done there.  From the grades they've gotten back, they all did very well.  Since these were cumulative tests, the boys' math teacher gave them smaller mini tests throughout the week to review the earlier material.  They were still graded and counted.  The boys were keeping track of their scores all week.  Then the big exam happened Thursday.  Both boys checked their email often Thursday afternoon and evening.  Finally their scores came in - Josiah got a 93 and Henry a 92.  That one point difference just about killed Henry.  

Henry brought home his painting from art class.  Over the course of the quarter, they painted head shots of their pets.  Henry's painting of Benson turned out really well.  He said he finished his painting early, so he painted a few landscapes as well.  

Josiah did paintings this week as well, but he is wrapping them up for Christmas gifts, so no photos.   He did hear back about the play auditions.  The cast list was released and Josiah got the part of Moody Spurgeon.  Josiah looked back at the character descriptions and saw that Moody was: awkward, unattractive, and critical.  Someone has to do it, so do it well. He has about 16 lines, so he should have no issue memorizing them before the performance in May.  

I survived the week before Christmas with a class of three-year-olds.  The last two days of the week I surrendered to the fact that we were not going to accomplish learning anything meaningful and we talked a lot about their Christmas decorations, the color of lights on their trees, how old their siblings were, and who likes dinosaurs.  The last day of school we just played games -- Pin the Bow on the Present was a hit.  We went three rounds before I made us move on.  

The last day of school, the upper school played games as well.  In between our Chapel service in the morning and the Singalong before lunch, they played games for points that went towards their houses.  Our kids said their house did not fair well.  When they played a Family Feud style game, one question was Name an occupation that starts with the letter J.  Their teammate yelled out gym teacher.  There were groans. 

Todd has been laying low and recuperating from his kidney stone surgery on Thursday.  The doctor broke up two stones, one of which was in the process of blocking the entrance to the ureter.  When the doctor called me after the surgery was complete, he said Todd must have been in some pain with its size and location.  Yep.  He can attest to that.  

The big news of the week was not just the end of school but the end of Caroline's medical appeals.  Woohoo.  Our insurance had denied 27 days of her inpatient treatment.  I've been fighting with them and sending in appeals for the past 15 months.  It was mentally exhausting and I can see why people give up.  Because the insurance said the decision to stay inpatient was subjective, we were allowed to request an external appeal - the last of the appeals.  In October, I sent in 300 pages of hospital records, highlighted, tabbed, and labeled, along with a five page letter detailing her treatment and every aspect of her care. The frustrating part was that every doctor that saw her indicated the necessity that she stay inpatient because of the infection's proximity to her central nervous system.  Our insurance was not having it.  The external appeal came back and they overturned our insurance's denial legally obligating them to pay. What was even more validating was their wording - they eloquently said she was not in there for convenience's sake, but stated this is a rare, extensive presentation with a very high risk of mortality and morbidity.  Her presentation and likelihood of decompensation were significant.  Finally.  It felt like they got it.  So that has been a huge sigh of relief (we were on the hook for 121k).  Now for them to process the claims...

Since we are now on Christmas break, we finally got the house decorated a bit more.  Lights were strung.

The tree was decorated.  Unpacking the ornaments was quite a different experience at the ages of 15, 13, & 11.  I did not know we would be doing it speed round style.  I couldn't unwrap the ornaments fast enough.  

Henry did the star.  

Josiah and Caroline spent some time decorating cookies.

And our trio of deer visited our backyard for a snack this evening. 

The biggest debate this coming week is what time to wake up on Christmas morning.  Josiah is pushing for 6:00 a.m.  Henry is pushing for 6:30, and Caroline wanted 7.  She appreciates sleep more than the boys.