Life is NOT a box of chocolates!!

But it is one heck of a roller coaster ride!!

I had so many hopes for this weekend. Well, last week at this time I did. I hoped the girls would be finished with all their school work Friday afternoon. I hoped I would spend most of the day Saturday grading the stack of papers on my desk, that require a grade. I hoped the house would be clean AND stay that way.

So, how has John's vacation worked out me? :)

Thursday John took the girls shopping. Now, really I cannot complain because they were shopping for my birthday present. But they did not get back until almost lunch then in afternoon we all went to town. I believe each girl finished two subjects that day.

Friday, I had the girls working on their school work in the classroom. The next thing I know we are leaving the house to go to the zoo. Needless-to-say, book work was not done that day either.

Friday night my computer started acting weird, while we were trying to get a subject or two done. Saturday morning everything was gone from my laptop, including their school work for the past four years. ARGH!

Luckily, I have some of the most wonderful people in the world to call friends!! A friend of ours was able to retrieve all of my stuff on my laptop this morning!!! After that roller coaster I didn't care if we got any school work done or not. I'm just glad I don't have to redo months of work (I need to backup my stuff more often).

Today, we spent the day returning things and buying new things. I bought a new calendar (THANKS WENDY!!) for my binder and have it all organized now. The girls played on their new slipnslide this afternoon. And dinner was at San Jose, because John and the girls were watching Food TV at 4pm, which was featuring Mexican food!

So what I have learned is life is not hectic. Oh, no! It is a roller coaster ride. But it is in the dark, so you cannot see the turns until you are in it. You also cannot see the flips until you are upside either! LOL

For my Dad (and anyone else who wants to read it)

I took a tour of the yard yesterday. I know I should do that everyday to water our plants but I do not. (The girls do a lot of the watering.) What I found out was I need to weed! John has been telling me this for weeks now, but honestly I have been thinking of so many other things I just wanted to put it off.

I did weed one of the smaller beds in the garden the other week. Yesterday, I pulled a lot out of the hosta bed, but there is still so much more in that bed. I will get to the weeding again tomorrow morning, but I thought I'd share some of the pictures I took.

Not the best picture (with the weeds) but you can see how much the hostas have grown.


My hydrangea seems to like its new home AND some magic happened. (keep reading)


I really didn't think the butterfly bush was going to make it a few weeks ago. But wow, it looks great now!


The apple tree is a blooming! There are several leaves beginning to pop out all over!


This is one, of my two, hibiscus that have been attacked by caterpillars. Poor baby!


How this hibicus survived the attack, I don't know but it sure is lovely.


Here is my hydrangea from last year. See the difference?

It is pink!!!! I just moved it from one locale to another (no, I didn't check the soil at either place). But the tag did say it was blue. lol I was talking to my friend Masayo on FB and she had the same problem. She wanted blue (which was on the tag), but got pink. I can't believe I didn't remember it was pink last year!

Well, that is the tour for now. I will be posting a before (again) and after picture of the backyard very soon. The difference between last year and this year is staggering.

"Music Man Jr." Auditions

Wow! I cannot believe it is time for another audtion at CCT! But there we were last night in a room with forty-eight other students wanting to tryout. There were a few people there we knew from "Peter Pan", which made the girls feel a bit better.

Chloe's group went first. She did okay with her line, but I think she had a hard time remembering the song. They handed out sheets with the words, then Ms. Quay told them not to use them. Hmm. Anyway, by the time it was her turn to sing, I think she had most of what they were suppose to sing. I admit what they chose was a good song, but difficult to learn under those conditions (even if it was just two lines).

Jesse's group went later in the evening. The second female group was rising 5th graders all the way through 12th grade. I really think they need to break these down more. They were asked to read lines for the main female role. An adult character who is a bit flirty and falls in love with the male lead. The line was suppose to be given in a happy, flirty manner. She did not do adult happy with some flirt. She did more like Chloe's group happy, but she was asked to sing twice.

If you have boys who want to audtion, take them! There are so few boys auditioning (last night and for "Peter Pan")! I believe the younger group only had seven! While the girls stretched all the way across the stage. More boys need to get into acting; I mean this is not William Shakespeare's time! LOL There are two more audtions, June 4th and 5th (check their website for the times).

All-in-all, they did well. The cast list will be out on June 9th, so we'll know then.

More and more

Seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same. We are still working on our school work in hopes of finishing by the end of June. Fingers crossed! The house is staying relatively clean, so long as you are not looking at the girls' rooms. Taekwondo is going well. I have taken over the white/yellow belt classes for most of the teaching; Mike is not even coming in until class is almost over now. John is working hard, but taking some time off later this week.

Some days I feel great about life. Even on days when the house is a mess and we are behind in school. Today is not one of those days. The house is clean but my mind is cluttered. I have quite a few things I need to remember to do, or deliver, in the next couple of days. John will be home and I worry school will not get done while he is here (it usually doesn't when he is home). It is easy to say, "just do it" but it is not always easy to do.

I have another pretzel order, with cupcakes this time! Too bad I cannot get her to respond to my emails regarding the colors. I think this is the part frustrating me these days.

Anyway. John has decided not to get a pool this year. I think we'll stick to the small one we have and the sprinklers, for cooling off. I have quite a few places I'd like to take the girls before it gets too hot. I would love to have school at the lake one day, but with our county getting out of school this week I'm not sure that would be a great idea. I'm sure the girls would not like doing school work while they hear other children screaming and splashing in the water. :)

This past weekend we took the girls to the NC Zoo. The NC Zoo was our second date years ago. Back then I was there, sometimes, once a week. Do you know the saying, "You can't go home again?" Well, it is true. My zoo is not the same. Once the African Pavilion was full of animals and now it is full of orchids. They now charge you $2/each to stand on a deck to "see" the giraffes, just to "see" them! The trip really made me appreciate Riverbanks more. However, Chloe is now happy she saw a polar bear! And I'm happy we won't have to go back for two, or more, years until they open the new polar bear exhibit.

I can finally tell!

I know some of you have been curious. And really I have been dying to talk about it, but it was a secret...until today!

Today, we gave our Shondraya (from John's work) a surprise baby shower!!! She is due in July and was not expecting a shower at work. She was REALLY surprised.

I just found out about the shower one-and-a-half weeks ago. I had started crocheting a blanket for her, thinking I had LOTS of time. I started working hard on it then. I did get it finished Tuesday.

Yesterday the girls and I made two batches of cupcakes and about a dozen candied pretzels with little feet and blocks that spell out BABY. They had so much fun doing it for Shondraya. They think she is so funny!

I will try to find a picture of her with the blanket so you can see her smiling face.




Now, to rest. :)

Wow! I am tired alreay!

Well, here it is Wednesday night and our event is coming up quickly. I spent today baking cupcakes and making candied pretzels. Tomorrow the icing will go on the cupcakes...if I can keep John out of them. :) Everything else is done!

John was at the school house again today and then tomorrow. Wow! It is so nice with him not driving so much to get to work. Still wishing he were there all the time, but I am trying to enjoy it while I can.

I have nothing else to say that would not bore you to tears so I'll stop here. Soon...I can tell you all about our event. Can't wait!

Normal = Crazy

I am trying to remember that our normal is really crazy. We have so many things going on in so many different aspects of our lives, and of course it all happens all at the same time.

This week we had our last Nature class. Well, we all thought it was going to be. :) While we were there, our fearless leader (April), thought we should schedule one class a month for the summer. Okay, a quick update. Our Nature class instructor, Ms. Chanda, will be leaving for a full-time, permanent job. Boo! Hiss! Boo! Okay, we are thrilled for her, but not so happy for us. So, April, thought we should get in a few more classes with Chanda before her departure. Of course, we all agreed!

So, there we all stood under the shade of the trees looking at Chanda's calendar trying to decide on days (and times for summer). They did agree, reluctantly, to earlier times during the summer for our Chloe who does not do well in the heat. I love this group of women!!!! We actually scheduled all of our classes through December!! Wow! When we get going, we just cannot stop. :)

Then I spoke with a friend this morning. Now, I'll say this is going to be very elusive, because I cannot disclose much information in case someone reads this who should not. Okay, we have an event next week. At first I thought I just needed to "get" something. Then today, after talking to my friend, I found out I am going to "make" something AND I need to be at this event early and late because my friend will not be able to be there. She needs me to set-up and make sure everything flows. I'll explain next week after the event, when it can be discussed. :) I just want to point out now I have two days next week that will be full that were not going to be originally. No, I'm not complaining about this one I just need to rework our schedule a bit.

John has been working at the school house this week. I have to say I've been loving it! He has not had to leave until after 7am for two mornings; and this morning not until 7:45! Not only was he in a good mood, but he even cooked breakfast while I started making cupcakes for the "Guard fam". It was so nice. I wish he worked there full-time! Oh, well.

The girls are doing well in school. They are finally back in the groove of "book work" and Chloe is even doing better with her math. We worked on it, just the two of us in a quiet room, a couple of nights ago and I think it really helped her confidence. We still have much to learn and to do before the end of school, but we are getting there.

TKD is going to be hard tonight. Master Mike is taking his wife to dinner for her birthday and I'm getting all of the classes. Brady has an awards dinner at school so he won't be there. Alex will be there, but after last week I know he has to be constantly monitored by me, or my girls. White and yellow belts need to learn a few new moves and the first bit of their form. Two new green belts are doing reverses for the first time. More reverse kicks for the blues and reds. Two new first degree black belts need to learn the "correct" kick (Alex taught the wrong one last week) and the nine-block. And green through first degree black belts all need to learn the first part of their forms. Should be an exhausting night!

Ever feel like you are so far behind that maybe you haven't started?

Well, that is me today.

A few years ago my friend, Monica, introduced me to The Well-Trained Mind. I loved the book! It made me believe I could not only homeschool my children, but they would flourish both personally and intellectually. Then I discovered the WTM website. I poured through all the posts, asked many questions and even answered a few. Then before I knew it the entire WTM website changed. I found it difficult to understand. I am not a computer person. Therefore, the changes led me away from the site. I go on every now and then to see what people are talking about, but, honestly, I still don't get how much of it works to this day.

Today, while the girls were reading, I jumped onto the site again. This time of year there is much talk about what people are using for diffent subjects. Why they like/dislike something. I like to see what others think sometimes. But today things hit me a bit differently. Today, I saw myself through some one else's eyes. As I read through the posts, I saw myself lacking in so many ways.

The women, and men, there all pour themselves into homeschooling. Not just during "school hours", but all day every day. They create forms to fill in and logs to keep track of things. They take their homeschooling books with them on long drives to read through AGAIN! They plan their entire year out in a matter of weeks!

I found myself growing more depressed with every post I read. I have not planned out this year!! And it is almost finished. I do not use a BOOK to guide me on how to teach life lessons (which I find to be a bit ridiculous...it is life, use it!). When I finally decided I felt bad enough I logged off. I sit here looking at my girls as they work wondering how bad am I doing. I don't get graded. I don't have (nor really want) someone looking over my shoulder saying, "You going to cover that?" I don't know what I want or why I even type this. I only know that at some point all the parts and pieces of my life must come together so I can teach my children math, science, cooking, laundry, banking and so much more. Life is full of things that must be done daily and I find myself not getting a lot of them done.

Note: I know I've said all of this before in different ways. Some days it just has to come out of my head in some manner.

Mother's Day

The girls made me some pretty tissue paper flowers. They helped John with breakfast, cinnamon rolls. John even got me another new book. Have I mentioned how much I adore Mary Higgins Clark? Well, her new book came out the same time as the other. Sadly for Ms. Clark, there was no choice; waiting years for a book is not the same as waiting months. :)

Today, was mostly nice. We did end up going into town for a bit, but it wasn't bad. For the most part I have been forced to sit on the couch and watch TV programs I want to see. :) Eventually, I will have to do something, but for now I'm enjoying my day.

I just wanted to add that my wonderful, loving husband and children cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast: cinnamon rolls. Lunch: Grilled New York strips, baked potatoes, and green beans. Dinner: chicken salad sandwhiches (John's homemade chicken salad). They are the best!

So much to tell ya!

First, I'll start with Cal. We took him back today to have his stitches removed. However, the doc didn't want to remove them because one spot did not look completely healed. We'll have to take him back in a couple of weeks, BUT he can go back outside. YES! I can sleep in my own bed and hopefully not be woke up in the middle of the night...several times. :)

Our home organizing is coming along. We purchased the second shelf for the classroom closet. It has made such a HUGE difference already. Everything that was in the closet has returned to the closet and I have even put some things that were in a bookcase in the closet. We purchased 16" shelves and it has made a remarkable difference. We have decided I need a third shelf, but only a three-foot one, rather than a six-foot one like the others. The three-foot shelf will house my sewing machine. I have agreed to let go of the desk I was keeping it on because it was in the middle of the room. I have to admit the room looks great without it. And with John's new rule of the classroom table has to be cleaned off each day I should have no problem with a place to put the sewing machine when I want it out.

I also reorganized the linen closet. I had recently worked on it, but a few weeks ago decided to donate a few things. Therefore, another reno was needed.

The girls are doing well with school work. Funny story: this morning at the vet's office the girls were doing some reading for school (we had a forty minute wait). An older gentleman came in and noticed the title of Jesse's book ("Franklin D. Roosevelt"). He told me he was impressed by the title for her age. I explained it was part of her history reading and he was happy with that. :) Most people in there just looked at us weird...probably wondering why they were not "in" school. LOL

The girls are counting down the days to my birthday. Before you say, "Aw, thats sweet." Hold that thought. They are couting down because that is one of the days for the next audition for CCT, for "Music Man Jr.". I still have not decided if I'm going to take them that day or the day before. I think we are leaning toward my birthday, so John can come to auditions. (Leaving work 1 1/2 hours early rather than 2 1/2 hours early sounds better.)

The great pool debate is continuing in our home. Last year we were going to get an above ground pool, then changed our minds. Now, John is convinced, again, it is a good idea. Not sure where we'll go from here. I'll keep ya posted.