Thurs Jan 15

Whew...much better! Last night, I took 1 Benadryl & Robitussin. I put Vicks VapoRub on my chest AND my feet (if you don't know the story behind that, ask me) AND I stacked myself up on 3 pillows. And ya know what? I don't think I coughed a single time all night long!!! And I slept good!

Funny thing is... I react SO strongly to antihistamines. If you don't know, antihistamines serve to dry up extra fluids/mucous (along with other things, but that's one of the things they do) ...and it worked so well that I had to get up twice during the night to go potty & was SOOOOOO thirsty all day today. Larry laughs at me because I'm such a lightweight where medicines are concerned. He takes 2 Benadryl every night to help him sleep. I took ONE & was still feeling the effects of it 18 hours later. LOL! I've drank a million gallons of water all day long. Even now as I type this, I am thirsty. Boy.....it worked...and it worked & worked & worked.

I did cough a little today but NOTHING like I had coughed a couple days/nights ago. Wow!

Tonight was the 3rd grade parents' TAKS meeting at the school where Samuel & Sarah go. For you non-Texans, TAKS is the devil. Wait, what I mean is TAKS is the standardized test that children in Texas must take. It starts at 3rd grade. At the 3rd grade level, if you don't pass the reading portion of the test, you fail the 3rd grade. It is SUCH a stressful test for the kids (& the parents!). Now mind you, Savannah is in 7th grade so we've been through the TAKS tests with her for a few years now. She always aces the whole thing with no effort. That's just who Savannah is. But Samuel is a whole different kid. He is not a fan of reading. It's not that he hates to do it or that he WON'T do it, it's just not his "thing". He doesn't get sucked into books like some people do. He could care less if he owned any books. (He does like comic books, though, so I'm going with it as often as I can find a comic book!) Anyway, tonight they showed us some of the 2006 reading test & wow......this is a hard test. The entire thing is 4 lengthy passages, each followed by a bunch of questions. It's not the questions that will stump him. It's the mile-long reading passages. I'm fairly certain that he will read about the first 2 paragraphs, get bored with it & just skip over to the questions where he will GUESS at the answers & then wonder later why didn't do well.

The math section is a whole other story. There are NO straight outright math questions like 26 + 17= ____. EVERY question is written in story problem form with a chart/graph/picture or whatever to illustrate it. Often there is extra info thrown in for the sole purpose of tricking the kids & confusing them...making them pull out the correct info to solve the problem. Now to ME, it sounds like a fun test. I *enjoy* Sudoku & Logic puzzles, so things like this test intrigue & challenge me. But then again, I'm not a 3rd grader (8-9 years old!) who is terrified of failing the test. Thankfully, this year is not one of the years where the Math portion will make or break things. That comes later on when the kids are a bit older. They do take the math portion of the test & they certainly try to pass it, but if they don't, it doesn't factor into whether or not they pass or fail the grade.

Anyway, we're a little worried about this "big" test. It's March 3rd. Will you join us in praying for Samuel's focus & understanding between now and then? He really *must* pull this off. Worse case scenario -- If he does happen to fail the test, he has a 2nd chance to take it April 29th. If he were to STILL fail it then, he has a 3rd chance in summer school in July. We are praying & believing that he won't even need the 2nd chance -- that he will ace the test on the first try!! Join us, please!