This evening, JT, Alexander and I had a family outing to see William and Keisha perform in their second school program. Their first performance was their preschool graduation in June and tonight was the first Christmas program.
Along with their kindergarten class, William and Keisha narrated and acted out the birth of Jesus. JT even [...]

The graduation ceremony last Saturday was everything that I thought it would be plus more. The turnout was very nice for a classroom of about 21 children. There were many loved ones and friends supporting the graduating preschool class of 2009. William and Keisha, along with their classmates performed songs and dances in the [...]

On Saturday, June 13, 2009 my wonderful children, William and Keisha, will graduate from headstart.  My husband and I are very proud of them.  They have learned so much over the past school year… things like: writing their first and last names, counting to 100, improving on handwriting skills, letter recognition in words, spelling two, [...]

William and Keisha will be five years old this fall. This is so hard to believe and what has me even more in shock is that they will be going to kindergarten this fall. My twins are now officially registered for kindergarten, thanks the applications that I filled out and the hard work of [...]

I wanted to post this last night after reading Baxter’s post but I fell asleep earlier than expected. Yesterday, Baxter promoted Bloggers Unite Day by asking for vistors to his site to raise money for breast cancer prevention through LookPink. This is an excellent post and I would like to thank Baxter for this thoughtful act.

December 17, 2007 was Bloggers Unite Day and the theme is Acts of Kindness.

I decided to write about how we contribute to my children’s school fundraisers by making purchases at Schnucks grocery stores using an eScript card.

Sometime last year, JT and I first heard of this fundraising program that required a card at Schnucks. Whenever we go to Schnucks, we present our card in the checkout aisle. A portion of our grocery expenses in a given month is donated to William and Keisha’s school. There is no cost to you involved, other than what you are already spending on groceries. We activated the card by calling the toll-free number on the back. I spoke to a representative and completed the call without any effort

The screen capture above describes what portion of your grocery spendings is donated to the school.

I do not always have extra money in the budget to make purchases on traditional school fundraisers such as the pizzas, candles, candy and other items. This is one reason why I support the eScript program so much. We already are making grocery purchases (we seem to be spending more and more these days as the twins get older), so we may as well get our eScript card swiped at the counter, with no additional cost to us, and in turn, donate to our children’s school.

William went back to school this week, after recovering from his splenectomy three weeks ago. His energy level remained high and he had a great week at school. The teachers and William’s classmates welcomed him back with opened arms on Monday. Everyone was thrilled to see him. Keisha watched over her brother throughout the week… that warmed my heart to no end.

William and Keisha do have fights as any normal siblings would, but they are also very close to one another. I absolutely love that about them. They definitely do have a twin bond… they even have their own language. I often hear them on the baby monitor in their room, talking to each other. I do not know what the hell they are saying to each other, but they do because they converse back and forth for several minutes to hours.

I hope that they always stay close to each other. I love my little brother, but we are not as close as I would like. I am not sure why that is. Yes, he is six years younger than me but I do not think that the age gap alone is what makes us not be close.

On another note, I did take the Advair yesterday evening and within ten minutes, I could feel the relief in my chest. Amazing. I did not think I needed it this morning so I did not take it. Stupid me. I should have taken it regardless, in addition to my inhaler like my doctor advised. Throughout the day at work, my cough gradually came back. I will take a dose before I go to bed.

Over the last few days my asthma has been acting up. Thankfully, I have only had minor to mild attacks, but still they were attacks so no fun at all. I have noticed a variety of triggers. Thanks to Eaglehawk, I did some research and learned that the MSG (monosodium glutamate) in my Chinese food is probably the trigger for the mild attack I had nine days ago. Since nine days ago, I have had a handful of minor attacks. The minor attacks start off by short dry coughs followed by shortness of breath. The shortness of breath is not painful but bothers me enough to have to take two puffs of my inhaler. The albuterol sulfate continues to give me a weird shaky feeling inside but definitely not like the craziness I felt when I started taking the inhaler four weeks ago.

I had a follow up visit with my doctor last week. I go every three months and it seems like every time I go, I have another ailment to add to the list. Ugh. So we talked about the asthma, and all of my other crap. I also brought him up to date on what happened to William. My doctor seemed genuinely concerned and I felt that this was very thoughtful of him to express that. During the appointment I also received the flu shot (I only get it because William is high risk) and a BMP (basic metabolic panel).

While driving home, I really should have taken two puffs, but I decided to roll down the window and hoped that the cool fall breeze would end the stuffiness in the van. Despite the rain drops, the fresh air did help.

1. Do you have children in school?

Yes, my children currently attend pre school.

2. Are YOU currently in school (any level)?

No, but I wish I were in school. I kind of miss it. I hope to enroll in a Masters Program within the next 3 years.

3. Did you (or your children) attend a public or private school?

No, but when my children go to kindergarten in two years, they will be enrolled in a private school.

4. As far as formal education, what level have you completed?

I have a diploma from high school and a Bachelors of Arts in Arabic from college.

5. Do you, or did you have loans out for your (or your children’s) education?

Yes, I took out loans for my education (junior and senior year of college). *deep sigh* I hope that the situation is different for my children.

6. What are your thoughts on the cost of tuition for colleges and universities?

Tuition is extremely overpriced for colleges and universities. The rate of the increase is exponetial compared to the rate of increase of our family income. I better be a millioinare by the time the twins go to college.

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Yesterday my course package came for my desktop publishing class through Thomson Education Direct. Yes, I am taking one of the at home courses. I am pretty excited because I have been away from anything related to school for three years and three months now. I am yearning for that official learning experience in my life. So although I will not be in the classroom setting, I have course material, a syllabus, teachers that I can contact if I need help, projects to turn in and exams. The only thing that is missing is the classroom and me being late to it everyday.

Now you may ask, Rashaan, do you not major in Arabic… what would you want to do with desktop publishing? I have a great deal of hobbies and until I can go to graduate school and pursue studies in political science and international studies as I intend to, I want to further my expertise in photography, graphic design and desktop publishing. Out of the three, I choose desktop publishing because I can turn that around into a profit. Greeting cards, invitations, brochures, calendars, etc… I always thought it would be exciting to work with an advertising company. While visiting Nichole at the Shack last week, one of her coworkers showed me his portfolio from his advertising day. The work itself was not mind stimulating for me; however, as he reminisced about the process and photo shoots I could feel the little girl inside of me getting overly excited. I was now even more gung ho about signing up for my course.

Before I went to bed, I skimmed over my course material and read the student handbook. Tigger looked at me like I was crazy, since it had been over three years since I have had a bunch of books in bed like that. In college I studied in bed because I hate studying at my desk since my desk is covered with papers 99.99% of the time.