Results tagged “Home”

So, Saturday morning, the kids and I were up and early. We enjoyed the breakfast buffet at the Golden Corral, then we went to register with a local homeschool co-op. I wish now I had registered a couple of months ago. It turns out the perk of registering is that you get to be in the first group to sign up for the next semester's classes. I arrived at 10 (when registration began) and there were already a dozen people in front of me and that didn't even matter because 2 of the three classes that Katrina was interested in were already full! Dang it! But, we registered and we chose the classes because they told us that there are usually some who sign up and then things change over the summer. So the class we know Katrina will get into is Karate. We are hoping Guitar and Junior Acting will open up.

While I stood in line, the kids perused the book/curriculum sale. We were looking for Saxon Geometry in particular for Jack and Katrina was just looking. She found a book to read and Jack found a book called the Atlas of World History. The kid is a history buff. Daniel treated us to lunch from Papa John's and I spent the afternoon cleaning dishes and baking brownies and making jigglers for the cook-out on Sunday.

Sunday morning, we were at church at 8:45. Enjoyed another good message. I really am loving Blue Ridge Community Church. I feel uplifted and enlightened every week. Then, we came home and I prepared baked beans, did a bunch of dishes and got things set up for the cook-out.

From about 1:30 until after midnight we entertained my Bruce, Ryan, Charles, Ashley, Therese, Joy, David, Jonathan, Dakota, Paul, and Faye. We had a good time eating good food, visiting, and playing games. Several of us played PIT and Settlers of Catan. The only downside for me was missing Tess. She normally is here this time of year and I missed having her help and just missed her presence.

We slept in on Monday and spent the day doing odds and ends (I had dishes and cleaning up to do from the cook-out). I took Jack and Katrina to a friend's house for a cook-out and pool time. I took Daniel to pick up his rental car for the week and then he and I watched Crazy Heart. Very good movie. Jeff Bridges has a lot of talent and range!

Today, Daniel was back on the road to Raleigh. I was doing chores. I have done laundry, mowed, groomed the dogs, and put more tick powder and bedding in their dog houses. I have taken care of some odds and ends and took the kids to piano lessons. I have checked school work and prepared for tomorrow's assignments. About 7 pm, I was ready to go to bed. Jack looked at me and said...but it's only 7! I said, but I am tired!

When, oh when is someone going to learn to bottle the energy of a child and give it to adults??? Well, the hot tub is calling...

Summer has always been a time of mystery to me. I remember the old Country Time commercials where they showed people sitting on front porches enjoying a cold glass of lemonade or children playing in the local swimming hole or father and son fishing from a bridge. My summers were never like that.

When I was five my mother went to work and I spent summers with babysitters. The sitters were only watching me and didn't have other children. I enjoyed reading and playing in the fields, but overall, summers were lonely times for me. I longed for school to be back in session so I could see my friends. When I was about 12, I started staying home alone. The upside of that was that I was in my own house and had more access to things that kept me occupied. Plus a couple of years, my parents got us a membership at a pool. They would come home at lunch and take me there for the afternoon. I loved those days spent swimming and among other kids.

We didn't take vacations when I was a child. I can remember a couple of short trips, but overall summers were just months to be endured until school began again.

We had fun last week. On Wednesday, we met with some homeschool friends at a nearby park. The kids never get tired of running about or riding their scooters around. Afterwards, one of the homeschool families had invited us to their home for snacks and a tie dye shirt/sock session. I have always wanted to do tie dye, so I was tickled to get to go! All we had to bring were shirts.

We arrived at their home and immediately got to work. First, Ginger told us how to tie up our shirts with rubber bands to get different designs. I chose a polka dot design. Jack, Katrina and Katrina's friend, Kaley, all chose the swirl design. So after we put on the rubber bands, then we put the shirts in a soda ash solution. Ginger didn't say, but I think that was to help the material take the dye better. While the shirts soaked for about 30 minutes, we enjoyed a hotdog, chips and cookies.

Then it was back to shirt making. after the solution had been squeezed out, we began putting dye on. After we had dyed them to our satisfaction, we put them in ziploc bags to bring home. Then Thursday morning, we rinsed them off with the hose, and put them in the wash. They turned our beautifully. I'll have to get my hubby to take a photo of me and the kids this coming weekend so I can show you what it looks like.

Yep, it's been a couple of months since the last good clean and as I looked around at the buildup of stuff in the kids rooms and the dirt in the corners, the mood struck last night. It was all I could do to keep myself from starting cleaing right then and there, but I have learned that the rest of the family doesn't appreciate it when I am vacuuming and cleaning under furtniture at 2 in the morning.

So I...what? What did you say? You are still trying to cope with the fact that I only clean once every couple of months? Well, let me tell you, it has taken me my life time and a total of 3 generations for me to get to this point.

My grandmother was a neat freak. The woman literally cleaned (or had my mom clean) up their house every day. Mopping the floors, vacuuming, etc. This was in a house with three people where two worked and one went to school every day. Gee...how dirty could it get? And grandma never stopped. My grandfather passed away on my mother's 20th birthday. I was born a month later and my grandma was alone in her home. Yet, she still cleaned daily.

Last Christmas, my husband surprised us with Guitar Hero. I tried it a couple of times, but just didn't get it. The kids and Daniel enjoyed it though and played it from time to time.

Well, last night, Daniel surprised us with Rock Band 2. We like to sing Karoake as a family, but it can get a little old, so Daniel thought this would be a great way to spiff up our fun family time. Of course, my first concern was...where the heck is this stuff going to sit when not in use...we literally have no room for it. My second thought was...oh geez...I couldn't play the guitar in guitar hero, how will I ever manage this....

I have to tell you that after about 4 hours of singing and playing last night, I love this game! We had so much fun!!!!!! My favorites were playing the bass guitar and singing. I am awful at the drums. Jack and Daniel and Katrina are great with everything...I think it is because of their piano training.

I am already thinking how much fun it is going to be to play this at Thanksgiving when all of our family is here! Still don't know where I am putting the band stuff when not in use...perhaps it is time to try hanging stuff from the ceiling!

Well, I have been hinting that change was in the air. My friend over at Homeschooling in Illinois figured out what was up...she's pretty observant!

Well, we have been preparing for a change. We adopted a purebred Irish Setter and this past weekend, Katrina, Ashley (neighbor) and I drove to Beaver Falls, PA to pick up this cute little bundle of fur! She is so sweet, does very well with riding in the car and she has readily accepted us as her new pack. The only 'issue' we are running into is that she hates being in her cage inside without us (we got her a crate and have attached an exercise pen to it). Even if she can see us a few feet away, she howls, whines and whimpers unless she is sleeping.

Wow...another 10 days have sped by, and I have barely had time to post. So for those who have inquiring minds as to what we are up to, here goes.... (For those of you who could care less, feel free to move on in your Internet surfing).

September 19th-20th - Katrina had a friend come over and spend the night. My neighbors came over and we watched Stephen King's The Shining (the one made for television that is actually way better than the Jack Nicholson one). On Saturday afternoon, Katrina went to FunQuest to skate with her friends. I worked on my paralegal homework.

September 21st - We went to my mom and stepfather's church as he was going to be preaching. Afterwards, they had a birthday lunch. It was very neat, instead of sitting with your family or maybe the friends you always hang out with, you sat with other people who had a birthday the same month you do. Each table was decorated based on the month (red, white and blue for July for instance). I had a lovely talk with a young man named Spencer who regaled me with fishing stories. Then the kids had Awanas in the evening and I did more class work for my class.

September 22nd - school in the morning, group piano lessons in the afternoon.

Katrina has been asking for another hamster for awhile. We have a spare cage, so I told her that if she started cleaning the cage for Hans Solo, that I would let her use her money to purchase another hamster. Well, she is doing a great job with Hamster care, so today we went to get a long-haired hamster.

On the cage, it says they grow to be 6-7 inches as an adult. The ones they had looked to be about that long already. They were so cute and fluffy. When we asked the sales clerk, she said they had been there about 7 or 8 months. Poor little guys. Katrina picked out the caramel colored one, but the white one looked so sad.... so being the soft-hearted wuss that I am, we brought home both hamsters. Well, they have been together all this time, we didn't want to leave the one in there by himself.

So without further ado...meet Fluffy (tan) and Puffy (white).

Ain't they cute....

Sorry, I have been away, but life is busy with homeschool, home activities, social activities, class, church, fundraisers, field trips and visitors. I think that about covers it!

Let's see...Homeschooling is going pretty well. We have gotten through about 6 chapters of Story of the World. Jack is learning about the Human Genome and Katrina is studying about classifying living and non-living things. We are learning grammar, spelling, and of course, lovely math. Piano is going well and they are getting back in the groove of things after not having practiced as much as they should over the summer.

We are busy doing some odds and ends around the house. As you saw in photos last week. This week, the appliance repair man came. Parts are on order to fix the freezer. The cost of the dryer repairs was almost as much as a new dryer, so we got a new dryer. Our old one had a computer 'board' on it and I wanted to get away from that. It was 14 years old and for the extra 26 dollars we paid for the brand new dryer, I am happy. I also purchased a small outside storage shed (but I can't tell you why just yet). We are also expecting a lot of packages coming in the mail in the near future. But again, can't share about that just yet. All of those calls and ordering and researching take up time.

Daniel is many things...He is smart. He is well-informed. He is a great Dad. He is a loving son and husband. He can make a computer do just about anything. But he has only a little bit of expertise in the mechanical and home repair departments. So things break around here and they tend to get left undone, unless it's something I can fix. Well, last week, I rented two handymen and now little things that had piled up are working very well!

A couple of days ago, Jack found the Lego website. He has actually been there before and ever since we bought our first Legos about 11 years ago, he has been getting Lego magazine in the mail. But for whatever reason, he got to really exploring the website this week.

And there is a lot to explore. There are games. There are movies. You can sign up for the newsletter. There is a gallery where you can see other fantastic creations and submit your own for others to see.

The thing that I think is the coolest is the Lego Factory. Go to main page, click on 'play' button, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on 'factory' button. In the Lego Factory, you can download a program onto your computer. Then you can go in and make your own Lego creations on the screen. And you can save them. And the really, really cool part is after your child designs something, it is possible to buy the Lego bricks to make their creation at home. I just think that is sooooo cool.

And being able to make creations on the computer has other added advantages. No more trying to pull the bricks apart with your teeth (not advised if you wear braces). No more stepping on stray legos on the floor. And if you are in the middle of a project, no more having your mom tell you that it has to be put away because there is simply no room for it in the house!

I just went and played one of the games...let me tell you, it was fun! So if you and your children haven't been there to check out the website, I suggest you go check it out. I think you will have fun (you might want to check it out first and you know....test it some...before telling the kids about it... after all you want to make sure that it's a good site for them, you shouldn't just take my word for it!) Happy Legoing!

The last several mornings, we have gone out and found this lovely 4 point buck grazing in our yard. See the velvet on his antlers? He looked up once at me before I got my camera out, but then I couldn't get him to look up again. Perhaps I will get a better picture later this week.

He lets us get really close. I was standing less than 50 feet away when I took this photo.

It has been a busy week here this week. School has gone very well as has our schedule for getting up early and taking care of business before school starts. Well, at least Jack and I are on board. Katrina is resisting the whole thing and we may have to reevaluate her schedule. It doesn’t seem to matter when she goes to bed, getting up early just doesn’t agree with her.

Well, I took Kayley and Katrina to Kayley's house about 7 pm last night. Katrina wasn't thrilled about going. She was having a missing mom moment, but I told her she really needed to go because I had a long day ahead on Thursday and that she wouldn't want to be tagging along with me. She called about nine o'clock and said her ankle hurt and that Kayley wanted Katrina to give away one of her Care Bears to her sisters baby and Katrina didn't want to do that. After I talked to her a few moments, she said goodnight and went about her business. Between 7 and 9:30, I did dishes, made a list of things I needed to do, got the trash and recycling together, answered emails and watched a little television. I went to bed about (9:30 and read a book until about 11.

Today I was up at 6. I took Katrina's goggles to her at Kayley's house before driving to Bedford for my knee MRI. I was quickly checked in and after filling out questions about metal in my body and past surgeries, I was ushered back to the MRI trailer. I thought I would have to put on a hospital robe, but I guess because it was my knee, I got to lay down in my street clothes. My knee was placed on a padded thing. I was given headphones that were tuned to the radio station of my choice and was told it would take 25 minutes for the MRI to be complete. During that time I was not to move. I was also given a little bulb thing that I could squeeze if I needed to be brought out of the 'tunnel'. I didn't have to go all the way in, which I was grateful for. I can see how it would be very hard for a claustrophobic person. I listened to the songs and tried to ingore the itch under my nose and the fact that I felt like I was going to sneeze and the fact that my right arm was falling asleep on me.

I just realized I haven't blogged in two days! What the heck is up with that???? Where has the time gone? Well, mostly I have been enjoying being at home.

Sunday, we went to church and it was lovely seeing all of our friends that we hadn't seen for a month. It was a special service as we ordained two deacons. There was a meal afterward and we were torn between staying for it and heading home to do some things before going to Roanoke to see Bruce. We ended up coming home.

We drove to Roanoke to see Bruce and Ryan's new place. It is a very nice townhouse with more space than their last apartment. There is a nice little patio, the neighborhood is quiet, and being the computer guys that they are, they both have their computer desks set up so they can work and watch TV at the same time.

Bruce and Ryan had just adopted two kittens, they are real cuties. Rhonda and Abe were adopted from St. Francis of Assisi. They are full of fun. Here are some pictures:

Well, you may have noticed I didn't blog yesterday...I planned on it, but we got a wild hair and we drove until we got home. We were up in Bloomington at 5 a.m. (6 a.m. Virginia time), we left by 6 a.m. We drove for about 2 1/2 hours, then stopped for breakfast in Indiana. Then we drove for another 3 hours and stopped for lunch in Kentucky. Kentucky is a lovely state and I would love to go back and do some sight seeing there.

We drove for three more hours and stopped for a snack and gasoline...I think we were in West Virginia then. We reached the last mountain we had to cross, only to have to turn back because of a tractor trailer accident on the mountain road. That added about another hour to our trip because of the detour we had to make. So we arrived home at 9 p.m. We were soooo happy...and soooo tired. The cats were a little aloof at first. We let them stay inside last night. They kept waking me up last night wanting me to pet them....

Today we got some groceries and looked at some furniture (we need to replace our two sofas). Now Jack and Katrina have their best buds over. Katrina and Kayley are going to sleep in a tent outside tonight. And my neighbors are visiting and we are watching Rose Red.

The weather is cool and lovely...it's good to be home:)

Yesterday was a quiet day for us. We watched some videos the kids had borrowed from the library. The kids practiced piano and touch typing. We all read some. Katrina worked on her multiplication tables while Jack did a few math problems. Then we played a game of Monopoly.

Jack's strategy is to buy the side of the board with the most expensive properties. My main strategy is to buy the side of the board with the cheapest properties. But I also buy anything else I step on for trading purposes. I am not sure what strategy Katrina has. Jack was out of the game first. He could have one, but he made one mistake. Instead of putting houses on his blue properties the minute he had both of them, he held off, trying to wait until he had enough money to put on hotels. He could have wiped Katrina and I out early on... he says he didn't want the game to end too quickly.

So, after Jack was knocked out, it was between me and Katrina. I probably would have won, though she did have some good properties that she had hotels on. She didn't have as many as me, until she landed on free parking which had grown to over 2500! That and her shrewd purchases led her to the winner's circle.

Last night the children participated in their end of the year piano recital. It is a big deal and we were there for about two hours. I am disappointed because while there, my digital camera slid off of my lap and the batteries popped out. I put them in and took several photos. What I didn't realize is the memory card popped out, so they were taken on the internal memory of the camera. So I have a few pictures (all of Katrina), and the ones of Jack are trapped on my camera. I tried to download and install the driver today, but was unsuccessful. I will try again so you can see the rest of the pictures.

Before we left, my neighbor was visiting and she did a wonderful job with Katrina's hair.

Here she is from the front. And if you look closely, you will see Jack at the piano practicing and talking with their music teacher, Mrs. Booth.

They say pictures are worth a thousand words. Here are a few thousand words about what I am seeing around my home!

I am very bad about getting people to do what they promised to do. I don't like confrontation.

A couple of weeks ago, we hired a fellow to powerwash our deck and restain it. He came that day and got started. The next day he did the staining and then he was done. I wasn't totally pleased with how it looked. There were these splotches. And the best we can figure is that it is from the paint stripper that he used to take up the old paint - there are these splatter marks, like it was thicker in some places and took away more of the paint than in others. He also wanted to get it done right away and didn't pay any attention to the weather. Even though the stain was dry that afternoon, that night it started raining and rained for the better part of the week. I think it washed some of the stain away.

So we were just going to redo it ourselves, but when I was at Lowe's looking at stain and such, the guy there told me that I should just call the guy and tell him. So I screwed up my courage and did it. I mean afterall, we didn't get what we paid for. So I called him and told him I was unhappy with the way the deck looked and would he please come by so we could figure out what to do. I didn't make any threats or anything. He said he would be by in two days (he was busy with other work right then).

Yesterday he came by as promised and he couldn't believe the way the deck looked. He said he had never seen anything like it and if it had been him, he would have called and said something too. He said he wanted me to be happy with the work he did and he will make it right. We are going to pay for more stain, but he will apply it for no additional charge.

Asking to receive the service you paid for is okay. That is my motto for today.