Just for that activation

I realized that when I do go check out a few blogs, it still signs me in tied to this blog, so I guess I should use this every once and awhile still.

The 2 younger kids have been doing good in school. The Boy made the Principal's Honor roll and middle child almost made the honor roll, so her teacher told her--or she tells us. I'll buy it. She had a harder time with academics while homeschooling, I can't imagine it being easier when thrown into a public school system. But both of them are doing well overall. No behavior problems, which is wonderful.

I was tempted to take them out and start homeschooling at Christmas, but I think they will finish the entire year in school. This will give me two more solid trimesters finished at my school. Then I will decide whether they go back to public school or not.

Wow!

This place is still around, even though I'm really not anymore. Must update to keep slightly active. So here is the update--the kids are not so stupid after all. (not that I ever thought that at all.)

Oldest tested post high school on her 6th grade test.
Middle tested 6th grade on her 4th grade test. (First real test she's taken.)
Youngest was in kindergarten. I'm not testing kindergarten.

Thank goodness the kids got some brains from somewhere. Maybe it's in the hormones of all the dairy and meat products I keep stuffing in their faces.

must post

I keep forgetting that if I don't post anything over here, this link kind of goes bad.

School is still insane.

Thinking of putting the two younger kids into public school this year, maybe next year again for the youngest. Hate these big decisions.

Musical Insomnia

Wide awake again, with the inability to sleep...as my music is shuffling around, I realized that a ton of Prince kept coming up--and mostly from Purple Rain. First thought was of all my Prince fanatic friends. Then I remembered I got the Purple Rain soundtrack from my parents with my Walkman for my 10th birthday back in 1984. Yes, Purple Rain, the album that had songs that a 10 year old really shouldn't be listening to, such as "Darling Nikki" (if you don't know--YouTube it). I think parental advisory stickers came out soon after that.

I loved that cassette and my walkman and probably still know every word to that album. (I didn't have the ability to copy the radio songs to cassette to increase my variety of music for at least a few more months.) This all brought me to think of my daughter, who just turned 10 yesterday, who also enjoys music that is inappropriate for a 10 year old. I do my best to censor what she listens to, but then remember that even with a song as explicit as "Darling Nikki", I still didn't really have much of a clue of what I was singing along to. It's a fine line I know, because I'm sure she is probably less oblivious than I was at at that age. And on that note, I found out tonight that the 10 year old is who told her older sister about the "F" word. I think it's pretty good they got to this age without really knowing it, and also kind of cracks me up that my middle child had to inform the older child. Doesn't it usually happen the other way?

I'll continue to do what I feel is best, hopefully I get close enough to doing a good enough job.

And the first cassette I bought with my own money was The Eurythmics---Be Yourself Tonight! Loved that one too!!! Which was just a beginning of a journey of music, many, many mixed tapes. I received a record player a few years later. Then I started to search the local record stores finding great albums. Well, maybe the music wasn't all great, but I loved it then!

Pre-Reqs

Pre-reqs are almost all finished. Over half way through this session of school, then in August I get to start health assessments. I can't wait to be finished with this part and move on the the real guts of nursing school. Actually ready to just move on to a real job--but I'll take this next step---I'm ready to be done.

Blowing Off Steam

Interesting when you get a bit of the stuff off your chest---sometimes things pop up that you thought you had hidden quite well, even from yourself.

Hoping I pay attention to my wake-up call!

Stating the Obvious

Apparently, if you don't update--your blog goes stale and stagnant. Your link kind of dies. There is most likely another blog that I posted earlier about this, seeing it's not the first time I've taken a LONG break with my blog.

I've been thinking a lot lately on how I started this blog to keep family and friends up to date on the family. But now the older kids can both call and text people whenever and have their own Facebook---so they are old enough to keep in contact now. And most people are also on Facebook---so my status updates keep you up-to-date.

What I am feeling I am needing from blogging is a place to go shout and scream and blow off some steam.

3 Years!

I did make it three years some place. In my entire life, I had never lived a place up to three years before. When I hit the three years here, I expected to have the moving itch everyone talks about, but I felt no itch. I even told Cullen NOT to apply for a job opening he had in Italy. Two more months pass and I started having the itch, I was even mad at myself for telling Cullen not to apply to the job in Italy. I was thinking about all the awesome opportunities I had living overseas and being able to offer something similar to my kids. I am okay staying here. I really want to make it through nursing school, so I am here for at least another 2-3 years regardless.

Extreme Home Makeover for Wilson Family

I am just trying to give another shout out to the Wilson Family. They recently lost their husband/Dad in a tragic car accident. They also have had many other trials in life with all 5 children popping up on the autistic spectrum. Lynette (mother/wife)has always been such an example to me on how to handle one's self in different trials in life. She is still a shining example. I know we have had distance because we continued on moving after Army service and they continued too, but as an active duty Army family, but I still love her and her family so much.

I just wanted to let you know they have a page going trying to help them get on Extreme Family Makeover. All you have to do is go to Facebook and search Extreme Wilson Makeover and like it. You can leave a comment too, if you want.

Thank you so much for doing this!

Learning

It Is My Responsibility to Learn

My parents are responsible for teaching me how to learn.
It is my responsibility to learn.
My parents can provide me with opportunities to learn.
It is my responsibility to learn.
My parent's instruction will guide me towards learning.
It is my responsibility to learn.
Knowledge is power and learning is freedom.
It is my responsibility to learn.
An excellent education is at my grasp.
It is my responsibility to learn.
I will embrace and take hold of my future for...
It is my responsibility to learn.

Movies

Gabriel has been "making movies" while he has been playing for the last year, if not longer. He used to get very frustrated, because he would be playing with his action figures and I'd call him downstairs and he said he couldn't, he was in the middle of his movie. Or if you walked in the room while he was making his movie you would be disturbing his movie. Then I told him he could pause his movies---that made a big difference on everything.

The last couple of days he has been telling me about one of his movies. He wants to make a movie with people and toys. He told me that he needs a camera man and some actors and they need some lines. He said their lines need to be in their brain. He has told me about the costumes. He needs a movie factory so that he can make his DVD for everyone to buy, in all the stores. There will be a game on the movie too. He recently told me I would need to paint the house for the movie too. He's actually told me about some of the characters and scenes he has planned. It's pretty amazing.

I just love his young imagination. Thought I'd share so you could enjoy too!

I guess all the TV watching and video gaming is paying off:)

2nd Place

Victoria won 2nd place in a local talent show a few weeks ago.  I had planned on learning how to make the video a little nicer (get rid of the dead silence at the beginning and add some things--title and all to it).  Since I really don't have time for all of that I'm going to share what I have. I'll learn the video software later.

My Firstborn

It's amazing to realize that 11 years have passed since I gave birth to my first child. We went through quite a few years thinking we might never have children, then were pleasantly blessed with a baby girl. She has been such a blessing in our lives in so many ways.

Here are some random pictures of her past years.

Finally Got Rid of the Junk

It took me awhile, but I finally got rid of all the crazy spam that started popping up on my post. In the process I lost all the family and friend comments too.

I did say a lot of I there, when the only action I did was get Cullen to do it. He cleaned it up and I'm ready to start this up again!

No promises for regularity, but here again.

Spam & Spamburger Sandwiches

Looks like I have got some more spam coming to my blog now. I guess that's what happens while I've been away. Things have been quite busy and I have not taken the time to come around here for awhile. Now I come here and realize that there has been a ton of activity--mostly spamming activity. Fun! Fun! Fun!

All this talk of spam makes me remember a sandwich from my childhood--The Spamburger. No, it's probably not what you are thinking--not just a friend up piece of Spam. My parents would grate the spam, yep grated spam. Then grated cheddar cheese. Cut up a couple of boiled eggs. Then mix it all up to make a spam salad kind of mixture with mayo (most likely Miracle Whip), mustard, and relish. Then slab some of that mixture on one side of a bun. More cheddar cheese on the other side of the bun--then broil and let it get nice and bubbly.

These actually were quite good. I've made them a couple of times as an adult. I don't think I have introduced my kids to them yet.

I know I've got to clean up my Spam.

This trimester is almost over! Woohoo!

Paper Obsession

Why do I feel I need more paper? I have no clue, but I love it. I love the feel of it. I love shiny, shimmery, great patterned paper. So what would be better than getting great paper---free great paper.

A give-away going on at the following blog.

http://www.obsessedwithscrapbooking.com/

Go check it out!

Great ideas too!

School

I was accepted into nursing school in Nov 2009. I'm in a nights and weekends program. So our household just got a little busier. I have been loving school. I have always loved school, I am really happy to be back again. It feels like something that was missing out of my life. I have to get back into the swing of studying and juggling home school along with nursing school, but it's coming along. Oh, everything about school, but writing papers. I still hate that!

This does mean that Cullen is almost finished with his Master's degree! He finishes this summer!

Did I mention our household was quite busy? I'm seriously thinking about hiring someone to clean my house.

Cullen has taken over taking the girls to all of their evening activities. The girls are in cheer leading. 2nd child just made team in gymnastics. Oldest is still doing horseback riding, but not as much in the winter and that's usually during the day. The girls also are taking an art class, in American Girl club and Bobo just signed up for a music class. I got tired just writing all of that.

Holidays

I'm excited for the upcoming holidays. We are going to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving at my house with family coming here. This would be the first time ever this has happened. I have spent a couple of Thanksgivings home before and I have also done the whole spread before, which I love cooking for Thanksgiving, but family has never come to my house for the holidays. One of my in-laws last visits, we had a mini-Thanksgiving meal, because I love cooking it so much--it was no where close to autumn.

I'm excited about Thanksgiving!

Funny Bobo

My children have recently all been kind of bad about not using soap when they bathe lately. It's like if they get wet--they have magically been clean. So as Bobo got into his bath tonight, I holler back at him, "Make sure to rub soap all over your body!" Then seconds later I hear him singing--I'm rubbing my peanut, I'm rubbing my peanut. (You probably can guess what he calls his peanut.) It was hard not to burst out laughing.

Beginning to Read

Bobo started reading this past week. He read his first book, containing 8 pages with few words. We are so proud of him. He read his second little 8 page book the next day. This was just enough to spark my love for home schooling all over again.

I started recently trying to decide what was best for my kids in the upcoming year. I'm guessing I'm in nursing school and I know I'll be extremely busy. I never wanted to be the parent that was so blind sided by one opinion, that I wouldn't be open to other options. I know many parents that would never even debate the idea of public school or home schooling for their kids.

I know soon after I started home schooling I got a big head about it and about how I was doing so much better than the public school system. I almost jumped on that "I'd Never Send My Kid to Public School" band wagon. I have also seen the opposite spectrum, which is, I hope I'm not ruining them. I realized I needed to figure out what was best for my kids and at one point it might be public school or private school, but right now we'll continue to home school.