Time changes everything

Sunday morning as we sat watching the news, I glanced over at John. His chair is now sitting across from the love seat where I was sitting. A perfect position to see the laptop on his lap. I admit I was confused...he was typing an email. The man does not email people, at least not at home unless he is working.

That is when I found out he had placed a Craig's List ad for the girls pink Cadillac. We (as in us and the girls) had been discussing selling the Cadillac since early this summer. The girls were all for it, especially since they knew the funds were going toward a vacation. :)  But I had no idea he had placed an ad the night before. Within three hours, the Cadillac had been sold and picked-up.

A nice young couple bought it for their two girls. I'm glad it is going to a family with two girls to enjoy it for years to come. Their girls are a bit younger than ours were when we purchased it, so they will have a great time with it.

Of course this had my mind reeling with memories. I searched our computer this morning and found these:

John was trying very hard to figure out where all those stickers were suppose to go.

They looked so excited!

The first of MANY times John was run over by the car. Looks like that hurt.

Here they were yesterday, just after it was sold.

Pictures!

I've been promising pictures of this and that and I finally had a moment this morning to get pictures downloaded. At 7:40am, everyone (but me) is still sleeping. I love the quiet. Shh! Don't tell. ;)

We'll start with camping:

Jesse and I played my first game of Farkle. My friend, Courtney, once told me her kids loved this game and it was very easy. So, when I saw this mini version on clearance at the local toy store I had to get it. It was fun! Very similar to Yahtzee! but different.

Can you find Rosie?

While Jesse and I played Farkle, John and Chloe had a game of Checkers going.

John wanted to go with us Wednesday so he could see Jesse work.

Chloe, of course, had to do some schoolwork. And of course, John was distracting talking about the drawings in the book. Chloe was right there to tell him all about "Whte Fang". :)

Thanksgiving afternoon we took the girls bike riding:

The quiet ended just as I was downloading the first picture, but at least I was able to finish. :)

Um...who am I?

Usually, I'm not so calm in the kitchen. The girls now know if I am trying a new recipe, the kitchen is not the place for them to be. I get nervous, especially if John is looking over my shoulder. He does this often, which is why I try to have dinner cooked before he gets home. The problem comes in when he is on vacation. :)

We started the morning with homemade pumpkin muffins. They are so good! I do love them. However, I was good, I only ate one. :)  After the muffins came out of the oven, the turkey went into the oven. I actually had time to sit, enjoy my breakfast and get ready. For the feast, I made green bean casserole (John's all-time favorite), dressing, and sweet potato casserole. We also had Hawaiian rolls and Mrs. Smith's apple pie. We are also finishing off the pound cake I made a few days ago.

The thing is I never panicked. I was calm while making breakfast and the feast. The question is how could I be so calm cooking Thanksgiving dinner and not dinner every day?! It is an interesting question.

John told the girls a few days ago he would take them bike riding today. After lunch, we loaded the van then took off to an empty parking lot near by. The girls loved it! They have never had an opportunity to ride that like before. This lot is huge!! We decided we would go again soon, with a picnic. I also really enjoyed the opportunity to take some manual pictures.

How does John keep up?

Last week, I was sitting on the couch (I don't remember what I was doing exactly, but that is where I was) when John asked, "What is going on with the library thing? I checked the blog and there is nothing there."

Of course I had to laugh. John keeps up with our daily activities by reading the blog. Therefore, when I don't blog for a bit he wonders what we have been up to. But this particular question, worded that way, cracked me up.

I had been telling Jesse she needed to ask Mrs. Paula, the librarian over the junior volunteers, if she needed to reapply for the upcoming semester. Jesse finally did ask, but we neglected to inform John of the answer. The answer is she no longer has to apply. Once you are in the program, you can stay as long as you like. They only ask the "regular" volunteers, which is now Jesse, to take the summer off because they get another sixty applicants for the summer months and want them to have a time slot to work. Jesse can let Mrs. Paula know what date she wants to start back in the fall.

I still think John is funny. :)

Camping in November?!

Yep! We went camping last night. Don't worry, we were only in the backyard. ;)

Since we missed our opportunity to camp with the homeschool group. And since we had a brand new tent. John decided Sunday that Monday night would be a perfect night for camping in the yard. I admit I was not overly excited. I mean I was there for the last camping trip. lol 

We started our night with John grilling some BBQ chicken. We ate on our "camping" plates, in our folding chairs, out by the tent. Then John and Chloe played Checkers, while Jesse and me played Farkle. Then we all huddled around the laptop to watch Disney's "Robin Hood", the animated version.

I admit I did not expect Rosie to be as scared as she was. She was shivering all night, it was not that cold so I don't think she was cold. Then ALL the dogs in the neighborhood started barking, with the crickets and frogs in the background. And somewhere in all that I heard a cow moo too. Not sure what time it was but it took awhile for it to get quiet. But let me tell you! A few minutes later it suddenly became silent. Nothing. Not a single sound. I went back to sleep then. :)

The girls enjoyed it, but Jesse now knows you want to sleep in the middle so other people can get dripped on by the condensation at night. Yep, we had fun!

Note: I'll add pictures tomorrow.

A ruined Thanksgiving

Alright, I'm sure it will turn out okay. But far from what we thought it would be. You see I made a mistake. I adore my husband, you know that, but he has been bugging me all season to get the girls a flu shot. They did not want a shot but were willing to do the nasal mist. Last Wednesday, I took the girls in for their annual check-ups and they received the FluMist. The staff asked several times if we lived with someone who was compromised. Well, no. I assumed a week would be sufficient for us to visit my parents for Thanksgiving.

Saturday morning the girls woke up with low-grade fevers. I got on-line to see if I could find out if they were contagious or not. Low and behold I found out they were for 21 days! Realistically, it is the holiday season and I really felt the doctor's office should not have been so concerned about "living with" someone compromised, so much as "visiting anyone in 21 days" who is compromised. I am happy to report that particular doctor's office is changing the questions the ask their patients. However, that does not help us.

With Dad's white blood cell count so low (fluctuating between 1 and 2) we cannot visit them this week. I am very sad, especially since Dad was too sick to make the drive down last year. Which is the reason we were going up there this year. I'm sure the food will be good and we will still enjoy the parade, but it is not what we (I) thought it was going to be.

Climbing the Soapbox!

Can anyone tell me what has happened to the news media? Probably not. I remember when the news was news. When your favorite reporter told you all the things about this country and the world that you needed to know. When to find about your favorite actor/actress you had to turn on Entertainment Tonight. These days the the news media and the entertainment shows are all running the same reports. How can this be?

Last night John turned on The Cobert Report. Occasionally, I watch this show with him. I do find myself laughing at the absurd, which is almost always accurate. However, last night was a different story. No one in our bedroom was laughing. In fact, there were not any sounds. Cobert was telling a "funny" story about the super committee. How they are looking at finding, at least part of their 1.2 trillion, budget cut in TRICARE. TRICARE is the medical insurance for the military. Really?! That is what they want to cut?! Insulting does not begin to cover the mere thought of this crap. To cut the medical coverage of those families who sacrifice their family time, not to mention their health, to do a job most would never think to do (defend this country, with your life in necessary) is deplorable!

The part that I find most unsettling is the "regular" news media has not touched this. I have spent the last hour searching ABC NEWS's website in search of any snippet about TRICARE being cut and found nothing! What has happened to the news?! WHERE is the news?! How about ya'll get off your high horse and find some real news. Yes, Mrs. Gifford's recovery is amazing. Yet, I do not wish to hear about it every night. I'd rather hear that Congress is trying to cut our medical coverage, as I'm sure the other millions of military families would like to hear about it too.

Okay, now I'm offended

I'm the first to admit there are grammatical errors floating all over my blog. I am a homemaker, homeschool mom and taekwondo instructor; I do not always have time to read and reread my posts. I do try to hit spellcheck, but sometimes time is lacking.

Now that I've stated the obvious I will move on to my point. I never put much thought into not being "offered" an honors class in high school. I never wondered how much more work they were doing compared to my own classes. I suppose I was too caught up in my own world of homework to think much on the subject. Well, times are changing.

I realized this week both my children will finish their English program in 9th grade. I fretted over what to do. Should I slow their pace down? Why? They are both doing well in English. Should I add another program in 10th grade? If so, what program? The one they are using is supposedly the best. I went to my favorite forum and posed the question to all the wonderful homeschool mom, and dads, who reside there. Overwhelmingly, they said go onto literature, which honestly was one of my thoughts (and John's too).

Today, I spent much of my time (while the girls were working) surfing the web looking for lists of books for an honors English class. I was wondering if the girls could handle such a thing. Wow! I admit now I am very offended none of my teachers believed I could perform well in this class. Yes, you have to read an entire book! Oh, my! Really?! I found one school where they only read four books in an entire year. I've read most of the books on that list in one day, so I'm not really seeing the Honors aspect. Yes, there is writing involved. Did you know I exempted out of Writing 1 with my college aptitude tests? Probably not, but I did. Yep, I am offended none of my English teachers had enough faith in me to "invite" me into the folds of Honors or AP English. My children will not know that offense. They will have Honors English and I think (after talking to them today) they are excited about it.

I think we are floating

It is far better than sinking. ;) lol

School is still going great. John is off most of next week, so family time is coming. The wrinkles we've had seem to be working themselves out. At least, I hope they are. :)

Taekwondo is going well. Master Mike is taking on a new job, so he will be able to teach now on Tuesdays. I've been put out of a job. :(  I knew the first degrees would be happy but I didn't expect their cheering to be quite so loud. I thought I was doing okay; I suppose they had other thoughts. Oh, well. I did my best. Master Mike was talking last night about January classes. I'm not sure where we are going (who is teaching what), but I have a feeling changes are still in his head. Just not "out there" yet.

We are having a "special" graduation next Saturday for one of our students. He is off to college now and will not be able to make our scheduled graduation. When the black belts heard this last, they all sighed. (At least they were sad about something.) I am hoping a few of them can come on Saturday to watch as Brady gets his fourth degree. Seems like our students get their fourth just as they are leaving for college. Jesse will be different (and Chloe when she gets there). They will still be fairly young, so they will be able to train with Master Mike.

The girls are both mid-terming with their weapons, both are on double weapons so it will be fun to see them. I am getting my third degree black belt. Wow. I just cannot believe I am there still. I am still teased about quitting. I used to look at the people doing the form above me an say "I can't do it. I quit." Of course, I didn't quit I was right there after graduation learning more and learning the form I felt I couldn't do. Now here I am teaching those same forms!! What a twist of fate!! Because I've been teaching and I have a black belt recommended, I have not practiced my own form. And with my inner ear issues I am having problems staying upright with my spinning kicks. Not how I want to perform as an instructor, but I also don't have much choice. I am hopeful this second round of antibiotics will do the trick, but only time will tell.

Always so much, so fast

Seems like in our life, as most I'm sure, so many things happen in such a short amount of time. I wanted to come back to post about our Nature Class last week. Probably one of the best ones we've had in awhile. I will try to post soon, including some pictures too.

Last Wednesday night, we started rearranging living room furniture at eight o'clock. We sat there looking around the room until nine o'clock, then moved it again. Thursday night we rearranged again. I think I like it, at least it is growing on me. I told my friend Julia last week the funny part is we did all the rearranging for the new TV we don't have. Something tells me John is not going to wait until March to get that new TV either. :)

School work is going well. Though I admit I have quite a few history tests that need grading. Chloe is loving her chemistry, nothing but experiments and reports for her this year. I think she likes it that way. Jesse is enjoying the nature aspect of biology but not so much the human body part. They are both enjoying reading, especially if I allow them to pick their own book. Unfortunately, Jesse has not had that opportunity lately and really disliked her last two books. I'm a meany, what can I say. :)

Jesse is still loving working at the library. I gave her the chance to take a few weeks off at Christmas, but she doesn't want to. She knows she'll get the summer off; and she is trying her best to get in the fifty hours she needs to attend their summer party for the volunteers. I think, at two hours a week, she has no worries.

The girls are preparing to audition for another play at the Columbia Children's Theatre. I will admit I am worried about the auditions now. They are no longer having multiple children play the same character (which will be less confusing), but that also means far fewer spots. They have been talking about "Beauty and Beast" for months, so I'm hoping they get a spot.

John has been working hard around the house doing lots of little projects. I believe he is getting ready to do some painting (furniture, not walls) soon. He is excited to have some things to do and eager to start them.

I believe we are all looking forward to our December break though we are not really "breaking". We are taking some time off, but not three weeks like we usually do. We are going to have school when John is working. For two weeks, we'll have school three days. They are still getting five days at Christmas and, I believe, four for New Year's. They are good with it. They may even be over the 90 day mark when December is done! That will be a first!! They are currently poised to end school the last week of May, maybe even the week before. They are thrilled knowing it will be that much more time in the pool.

HAPPY DOUBLE BIRTHDAY

Happy birthday to my Mom!!! Hope you have a great dinner out with Dad.

AND happy birthday to our nephew Tyler...the big 21!!! I am going to pretend I do not know what you are going to do tonight. I prefer it that way. :)

Love you both!!

I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!

We just got back from Nature Class a little bit ago. I have to say I am totally thrilled after my conversation with Mr. Tim about next semester. Okay, so I don't know what the classes are yet. However, he did send them to the IT people so hopefully it will be on the website very soon.

For the past couple of weeks, my kids were kind of bummed. We had heard we were not going to have our Nature Classes anymore. I mean they were bummed. So was I. I've learned a lot from these classes right along with my children. So today I asked Tim about it. He said we were kind of "grandfathered in", so we will still have classes. We continued talking about the topics and the length of the classes. At one point I had him up to an hour long class (down from the current two hours, but up from his forty-five minutes). We were still debating the age thing.

He is wanting all the students to be within a few grades of each other and we (as homeschool Moms) have been kind of fighting that one. Well! Today, Tim and I came to a fantastic agreement!! This is where my excitement is coming from (along with actually keeping the class!) we are going to split the class into two groups. Both groups are going to learn the same topic but one will be geared toward the younger kids and the other to the older kids. LOVE IT!!!!! This way Mr. Tim gets what he wants: fewer grades in one class; and we Moms get what we want: all our children the opportunity to learn the same things. I am so excited!! The girls are too! They were full of questions all the way home this afternoon. The two moms who were still there with me were pretty excited too.

I cannot wait to email the group about this one. I hope they will be as excited as I am. This also means we can have double the families there because we are breaking off into two group for forty-five minute classes. Have I said how excited I am? So excited!!! This also means each group will have "play time" before or after their class. Something our kids have been asking for. Its a two-for!!!!! So exciting!

More amazed!

I was sitting here a few minutes ago waiting patiently for the beep of the dryer, so I could change the loads of laundry out. Then it dawned on me how quiet it was. My next thought was how well school work is going today. Jesse is almost finished (one more subject) and it is only 10am. Chloe has two more. She works a bit slower and did her hardest subjects first.

My kitchen is still, relatively, clean. The laundry, including all the sweaters, is almost caught up. The living room, well, the "dining" table never seems to be put away but it looks fairly good too. The girls have kept their rooms mostly clean for almost a week now. I did remind them John would be home on Friday, so there would be no time to clean on Friday, or tomorrow either really.

I almost feel at peace. I feel like things are slowly coming together here. Yes, there are days when it does not look as though I am on top of things. And honestly, there are days when I am not on top of anything because everything seems to be falling apart. But today I feel the calm of knowing things are getting done. Yes, we have Nature Class this afternoon and I have a few things I need to do around the house, some school work I need to deal with and emails for taekwondo. But things are happening. And they are happening in a cleaner house with happier people.

Daylight Savings Time

Just saying that phrase makes most people go into a panic. I am the first to admit I do not like the time changes. Mainly due to my eating habits. I am not on any medications, thankfully, for my hypoglycemia. I control it mostly by my food. I eat my meals at certain times of the day. If I'm late eating, prepare thyself for crankiness! So when the times changes I find myself hungry WAY before meal time. In a week or so my system will adjust, until then I have to be very aware of when I ate last and how I'm feeling.

Time changing has other effects. My girls are waking up earlier. This morning school began at 7:30; they had been up for almost an hour!! They even saw John before he left for work! Amazing!! The really great thing about starting school early is finishing early. They were both done about one o'clock, with a little over an hour break for lunch. Love it!! I hope the rest of the year goes as smoothly as today has gone. I know it won't but it sure would be nice.

The Year of Change

I believe I am going to refer to 2011 as the year of change. So many of them have happened this year.

I started 2011 as a brand new taekwondo instructor. By May, I had my own class (white/yellow belts). Then in September I had to take over all the classes on Tuesday, or close the school. I would consider all of them major changes.

Our homeschooling has changed. Not so much in what we are doing, but the feel has changed. Both girls work more independently. Jesse is now doing most of her work in her room, when we are not upstairs altogether. Chloe still stays in the room I'm in, mostly. But sometimes she'll take her reading to her bed too.

Our biggest change is coming though. Last Monday, my Dad had a bone marrow biopsy. Unfortunately, it did not go smoothly. They took two biopsies and my Dad's bones crumbled. He has osteoporosis, and from the two failed biopsies we can tell things are not well there. The third biopsy the doctor was finally able to get some bone, but he was not convinced it would be enough to test. So the wait began.

The doctor called my Dad Friday night to let my Dad know he was leaving town until maybe Tuesday (due to a family emergency). He did tell Dad the preliminary report confirmed my Dad has myeladysplastic syndrome (MDS). Basically, he has a very low white blood cell count and very high count of platelets. This used to be called pre-leukemia. Not everyone who has MDS will develop leukemia. My Dad is in the early stage of MDS. Well, all of that is just going by the preliminary report. We'll get more info this week.

Last week, before the report came it, the doctor's office was telling Dad his treatment was going to start this week. (It may still we don't know.) But the word chemo had been tossed around. Dad had been talking to John about the two of the BBQing before Thanksgiving. Well, John decided he would split train this weekend, so we could go to Charlotte Saturday. He and Dad cooked some fantastic BBQ! The girls, John and myself raked most of my Dad's front yard. So much fun playing in the leaves!


John waiting for his turn to chop the BBQ.



HEY!!!!!



Girls raking for Grandpa!

We also celebrated my Mom's birthday...a bit early. We surprised her with a cake from Tiffany's too.

We had a great weekend. Dad is tired, and not feeling great, from his shot last week. We are not sure if he'll have to continue getting that particular shot; but I'm hoping now that they know for sure what is going on that shot will go away. But we don't know yet.

The theatre from a different point of view

This morning the girls and I are going to the theatre. Yep, another YouTheatre show at Columbia Children's Theatre. The different aspect comes in the fact neither of my girls are in the the play. One of my taekwondo students is in this play, "Annie Jr.". We are going to cheer him on! I'm sure once we get there we will see lots of people we know. In all honesty, we have missed the theatre this semester. The girls actually broke out into a medley of "Music Man" songs yesterday in the car. They are excited to see the show this morning. And I cannot wait to see Zack as Mr. Bundles. Should be a great show!

In fact, I read the other day the girl playing Annie just received a callback from NYC to play Annie ON Broadway. Wow! This should be good.

Update: The show was fantastic. The girl who played Miss Hannigan stole show in my opinion!
And here is our Zack!! with Miss Hannigan. ;)

Complicated

I seem to be using the word complicated a lot lately. Homeschooling the girls is getting more complicated. Taekwondo, with me teaching all the classes one night, has gotten very complicated. Friendships, too, have gotten complicated lately. There are other complications, but we are not discussing them at this time. Soon. My attempts at keeping a clean house are not complicated, they are just failing miserably.

In the midst of all the other complications, we are starting a new (not complicated but) detailed list and new requirements for the girls allowances. It starts tonight. They are going to be required to keep their rooms clean. Yes, they were suppose to have their rooms cleaned before. We are just tweaking the process. They have to have the floors clean, beds made, closets organized AND under their bed clean and organized. They are going to start getting allowance every Friday. On top of cleaning their rooms, they have to help me with whatever I ask of them without whining or looking at me crazy. That one will be more difficult I'm sure.

They are also going to be more responsible for their laundry. I mean if they insist on wearing two outfits a day, not including pjs, they should be partly responsible for cleaning the clothes.

I have been reminding them for a week this was going to start. Ask me if they have started cleaning yet. Go ahead, ask. Of course not! I'm not sure about those two. Jesse did work on her room one day last week, but honestly it had nothing to do with this new idea. I originally thought it did and was so proud of her for not waiting until the last minute. Then I found out she and John talked. We were going to redo their closets, but John said if she could find a way to redo her room without spending all the money on a closet system, then maybe she could have the laptop she has been wanting. Now, that makes senses; she really wants a laptop!

This morning I have more complications. Do I let them spend the day working on their rooms, while I clean the rest of the house? It would be nice for everything to be clean, because of the upcoming complications mentioned, but not discussed earlier. Do I rework the entire school schedule I worked on for one-and-a-half hours at the library? Why does that always happen?? I have yet to decide and Chloe is already awake. Breakfast still needs to be made. Maybe I will think on it while I cook our waffles.

Wish us luck!! We'll need it today no matter what is decided.

Have you ever noticed...

you don't have a camera when you really want one?! Today was that day for me. The girls had Nature Class today and I did not realize I left the camera until we parked. Of course that is also when I realized I had no phone either.

Nature Class was fun; we learned about vermi-composting. Mr. Tim answered all my silly questions (I really need to find a good book on the subject; okay look for a book on the subject). The Children's Garden has a vermi-compost bin. I didn't know that?! Maybe I forgot. I don't know, maybe I just didn't know. Either way it was cool! The kids were playing with all the worms and we even found a tiny baby worm. Of course, Chloe had to hold that one!

After the worm lesson, we went through the corn mazes. I didn't know there were two. The kids had fun running through the corn. Along the way, Mr. Tim stopped to show us several things. He made a track pit so we went to see what had been in the area: deer, coyotes, and a doodle bug (which is not a bug). I am so amazed by what my children know. I really need to pay more attention sometimes.

Chloe brought in wings for trading. She thought she knew what they were from, but she was off a bit. Mr. Tim said he could see why she thought what she did. The wings were from a bird grasshopper. During our walk, Mr. Tim found a couple of them, but we were not able to catch one. Of course, after he left the kids found a huge one! It had to be close to three inches!! It was beautiful. And I had no camera. Of course!

Well, hello!!!

I suppose we'll be saying "hello" to the tooth fairy again tonight. That loose tooth finally came out!! It had gotten so loose she could push it to where the top was facing outside her mouth, but it should would NOT let go. Okay, not the best description, but I never got a picture of that though I thought about it last night. Chloe came out this morning and said her tooth was hurting. Well, it is not suppose to hurt when it comes out. Feel strange yes, but hurt, no. So I looked at her tooth. It was taller than all the others, well, that is strange. When I went for a tissue her eyes bugged out. "Just calm down. I'm just looking at it." I went to wiggle it, then looked at the tissue and there it was. She didn't even know it had come out! :) 

Halloween 2011

The girls had a great Halloween this year. I believe it is the first time, Chloe remembers, they have been through a neighborhood trick-or-treating in a very long time (since Edgefield, really). It was crazy over there! I have not seen that many people in a neighborhood in quite awhile.

April invited us and Wendy's family over to trick-or-treat in her neighborhood. I was worried about keeping warm, because I had left my coat at home. All that walking kept me warm though...no worries.

Yes, Jesse's costume is the same from last year, but made to keep her much warmer. Tempatures from this year and last year were very different! In all honesty, we were not sure if we would be trick-or-treating this year or not. John's work had given us this week as a possible date for him to be in D.C. After seeing the snow that fell there this weekend, I'm thankful that did not happen.

Many comments were made about Chloe's costume. She was a ladybug at the Halloween party and Scooby Doo for Halloween. Jesse was Scooby quite a few years ago and for the last couple of years Chloe wanted to be Scooby right up to the last minute. This year will be the last year she would be able to wear the costume, it is getting too tight. So this year she decided she was going to be Scooby Doo, because next year it probably will not be a choice. She was adorable! And Jesse just looks to grown up!

Conversation turned this weekend, as I tried to convince them to stay home and not go out for Halloween. I even offered them two bags each of their favorite candy! Chloe pointed out that soon they will not be able to go trick-or-treating. She was sad about it. I told her that is when we start having Halloween parties with their friends. Now, they are a little excited about the change when it happens.