Teacher conferences were this past week.  All in all, just about what I expected.  Jbird's teacher made a very interesting observation.  He said that Jbird is amazing with math.  He gets concepts easily and quickly in his head.  (I am amazed when I do mental math with him and when I listen to him count money.)  However, his teacher was shocked when they took their first test.  Jbird missed about half of them.   Whenever he had a straight math problem (12-3=9), Jbird always got it right. However, when there was a word problem or picture attached to the problem, he usually got it wrong.  He explained it as when there is room for creativity in how you look at the problem, Jbird tries to go about it through the back door and gets it wrong. He said this works in some situations but can be very dangerous with math.  Something to watch for in the future.

Speaking of Jbird...after almost 1 1/2 years of school, he has finally decided that jeans are not that bad.  He has worn sweats his entire school year, until 2 weeks ago.  I think all his sweats were finally dirty and he had to wear jeans.  (I have thrown away 2 pairs of sweats so far this year because of holes in the knees.  I have found jeans are cheaper and easier to replace than sweats, so a welcomed thing at our house).

JR and I are starting to get things in place for him to fly solo and enter the world of self-employment the end of December.  God is going to bless this venture, I know it.  Just this past week, 2 different people approached him about opportunities that would be about 10-20 hours per week.  (He already has 20 hrs per week secured.)  One of them has presented an opportunity for us to bring on some work that would require employees on our part.  It seems daunting and overwhelming, but if we want a larger business (other than just JR) this would be a great opportunity to get our feet wet and would not require a long term commitment.  We have even been offered for someone to walk us through it all and help us lay it out, how to plan for employees, etc.  We meet with our accountant on Monday and then hopefully within the next 2 weeks, we can solidify (at least a short term) direction of the business.  Fortunately he has been in the resort community long enough that lots of people know him and are coming out of the woodwork when they know he is going out on his own.  It also helps that it is a resort community, so services are inflated and everyone is okay with paying that.  (As it is, some of the services he offers on the side he is already $10 below the going rate.)  Just exciting to see the potential.

No plans for the weekend - other than church.