Christmas Update

Now that I finally have a moment I wanted to give you all an update on our Christmas. This year was a little different from years past. We have always done things a certain way, like that I cook dinner for my family and my mom on Christmas Eve. Well, we didn't get home from Nashville until Christmas Eve afternoon, so cooking a big dinner was not going to happen. So you know what we ate for dinner, Subway! I still can't believe it. The funny thing is we enjoyed it just as much.

Christmas Day was one of our best. The kids did wake up early as usual, but everything just seemed more laid back. We opened our gifts, I fixed pancakes and bacon for breakfast, and then we just enjoyed spending time together. Later that evening we did have to go to my sister in law's for hubby's family Christmas, but it even went really well. That was something new.

As for presents I think we each got what we asked Santa for and then some. So here goes the list (it goes along with my slide show)...

Me: My hubby and my mom got me a Keurig coffee maker. It was such a surprise, I was not expecting it. I love it, and use it several times a day. My hubby also got me a Cricut Expression for scrapbooking. It hasn't arrived yet, but I can't wait to get it. I also got some Lucky jewelry, a new housecoat, some accessories for my Cricut, Sing Star Country and Pop 2, and coffee for my Keurig.

My Hubby: We got him a Dremel and accessories for it. He has been wanting one forever. We also got him some house shoes, a traveling manicure kit, and candy. My mom got him the AC/DC Rockband game for the PS2. He is a kid at heart.

TT: TT cleaned up on the video games he got Shawn White and 300: March to Glory for the PSP, Gutiar Hero World tour and Aerosmith, plus NHL '08 for the PS2. Plus he got a new guitar for all the ripping he will be doing on the PS2. He also got a new pair of American Eagle jeans that looked totally worn out (I love em), a down vest and a coat also from American Eagle. Finally, he got a song bird book, baseball cards and candy.

Poogie: Poogie wished for American Girl stuff and boy did she get it. She got several outfits I lost count of how many, a wardrobe to put all the outfits in, and a bed for Julie her AG doll. Poogie also got a WowWee lion cub that is so realistic, and two new Pet Shop pets. Along with all this she got a MP3 player, 2 new DS games (Pet Shop Jungle and Chihuahua & Friends) and candy.

Buffy: Buffy got a new bed which she desperately needed and loves, a new weenie dog stuffed toy and a bag of her favorite cookies from Pet Co.

Claudy Mae: Claudy got a new lazer mouse light. She is crazy about it.

Whew, what a list. The best part about all of it was that we spent most of Christmas Day and the days following just having fun, playing games and spending time together.

I hope that each of you had a very, Merry Christmas!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

I know I haven't posted in a while, the holiday has kept me busy. I hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas, I know we did. I hope to post more this weekend. I didn't take a lot of photos this year. I just enjoyed the moments without constantly taking pictures, a first for me.
Till then.

The Nutcracker!

Yesterday Poogie and I went to see The Nutcracker with a friend of hers from ballet class. It was the first time for both of us to see The Nutcracker live. WOW. It was so wonderful. The girls danced like they were floating. Poogie sat through the whole thing barely moving. She loves ballet.

It seems weird to me for my child to be so focused on something. This is her 4th year dancing and her first really focusing on ballet with no end to the obsession in sight. In all my years I haven't ever been so focused on something other than getting my college degree. I am proud of her and in awe of her. Both my hubby and I want to support her in this passion so hopefully it will grow. If she looses interest, fine, but if not I want her to know that we will support her interest no matter what. That is something my nor my hubby's parents ever gave to us, support to reach our dreams.

Oh, a little dream of mine came true this weekend. My hubby and I got to go out on a date. Yes, we went out to dinner and a movie. I took him to see Twilight, of course. It was so nice, but ended too quickly.

I Can't Believe It!

As some of you may know who read my blog now and then, I lost 20 pounds last spring on WW. Since, May I hadn't really followed the program, just watched what I ate. My weight stayed around the 130 mark and I still wanted to loose those last 4 or 5 pounds.

This morning I was trying on outfits to wear to The Nutcracker with Poogie tomorrow and I noticed that my pants were loose and my shirts were too big. I didn't think I had lost any more weight. So I stepped on the scale and was amazed to find I had broken the 130 mark by one pound. Now, I know that doesn't sound like a lot but I haven't been below 130 in about 5 years. It felt great.

It was just what I needed during this holiday season. These last few months have been really hard. We have been adjusting to my hubby's new job. The idea of moving away from our friends this summer and starting over again in a new town. It is a double edged sword, I am excited about moving. I have always wanted to live in the new town, but it is hard to take my kids away from their friends. But, hey I won't let it get me down today!

A cute activity for kids

I know most of you that homeschool know about Starfall. But for those that don't or haven't seen this game you should check it out. It's called 10 little snowmen. The player gets to build a snowman by reading the requirements and then the snowmen sing the song. It is really cute. Poogie made several yesterday.

There is also a great calendar activity on the site. That is a skill we have been working on this month since her MUS doesn't address this skill I have been using sources such as Starfall to introduce it. Check it out. Oh, and of course it is free.

I also wanted to intro a great site created by one of my favorite bloggers. She has created a site dedicated to homeschooling your child for free or as close to free as you can. I get great resources from her, it is called Nearly Free Homeschooling.

So this is what it is like....

to get all our school work completed. Hmm, it's quite interesting to know that all it takes is a few hours of uninterrupted time and voila, school work is Finito!!

I was worried that the kids would mutiny on me because I have actually added more work to their lesson plans to try and make up for all the stuff we didn't do because of the YMCA. But they didn't. They actually did their work. Now, just let me say today may have been a fluke, but it sure was nice.

I am experimenting with a few new things. After great debate and frustration, I decided to keep up with SOTW but we are going to work on the rest of Vol. 1 from last year for now. It has more interesting activities in it. I am hope to purchase Vol. 2 after Christmas along with the CD's so that we can listen to them in the car if we need to. That is the year we need to be in for the 4 year rotation cycle. But when am I ever where I am suppose to be;)

I also added a little extra math for both of my little darlings. Poogie has been so bored with MUS Alpha. She loves math, but wants to do more. So I purchased Math Mammoth Time, Money and will be purchasing 1st grade for her. She loved the Time lesson we did today.

For TT I purchased Decimals 1 from Math Mammoth. I just feel he needs to see how fractions are also decimals and vice versa. He did the first lesson today and he did extremely well. He even said he liked the lesson. WOW! I haven't heard that in a while.

The Math Mammoth ebooks were inexpensive and from all the lessons I have read ahead seem to be quite through. I mean they don't have a huge teacher's manual, but I still like them. I hope to purchase Teaching Textbooks 6 this spring and have TT work through it this spring and summer. Or I might start in the fall with 7, but I will really have to work with him outside of MUS to get his knowledge built up. He took the placement test for Teaching Textbooks a few weeks ago and it placed him in 6. He couldn't do several of the decimal problems, and a few others that won't be addressed in MUS for him to move up to 7. The worst thing to get behind in is math. We are going to do everything we can to keep that from happening.

Anywho, I am also planning some fun lessons for Christmas. Most of them are based on my Jan Brett Christmas collection. We will be doing a cute and fun lesson on The Mitten, in which we will make our own paper mittens and little critters to put inside. For Who's Knocking on Christmas Eve we will be studying polar bears with the help of Enchanted learning. Finally, for The Wild Christmas Reindeer we will study, reindeer. The kids love these stories and the beautiful illustrations of her books. I will add the link for my Mitten activity later, can't seem to find it now.

If you like Twilight..

For those of you like me that loved the Twilight series, you may want to check out Stephenie Meyer's site. She has the beginnings of the unfinished manuscript, Midnight Sun. Just click it and the link will take you there. It is the story of Twilight written from Edwards point of view. I have read most of it and I loved it.

I love when authors write books from other characters points of view. I have read a few of these types of books, such as Pamela Aidan's, An Assembly Such as This which tells the story of Pride and Prejudice from Darcy's point of view. It is a series of three books, and I truly love the series.

I decided to post this info about Midnight Sun because I know several of my friends are reading the books for the first time right now. They are just falling in love with Edward and Bella. In fact, on of my girlfriends e-mailed me tonight that she was reading them and I told her about MS and thought I should share it with others.

Many people are not like me. I am constantly on Stephenie Meyers site checking up on new books and all during the filming of Twilight. So I thought I would give ya'll a heads up.

Enjoy the series. I know I did. Oh and check out the Twilight soundtrack, it is awesome. I mean it has Linkin Park need I say more.

Recovery from the weekend.

That pretty much sums up my day. I hope all of you had a safe and happy Thanksgiving weekend. I hope that you didn't get hurt trying to cash in on one of those Black Friday sales. I know I didn't.

I spent Friday driving to my hubby's apartment and then setting it up for him. It looked like a really bad college student room. You know an air mattress in the middle of the floor with a box as a night stand. It all looked a little sad. Well, now he is set up in style.
The rest of the weekend was spent shopping and just hanging out. We drove home yesterday and to say that the traffic was terrible was an understatement. It was crazy. I can't remember the last time I went out of town for Thanksgiving so I am not accustom to the jammed interstate highways.

Another thing I haven't ever been big on is going shopping at 5 am on Black Friday. I worked enough of those days during my years in the retail world and it is not worth it to me. We went shopping on Saturday and the crowds weren't really that bad. I even tried on clothes at the mall and that wouldn't have happened if it was crowded, I don't like to wait for a dressing room.

Anywho, today was spent in recovery. You know the drill. Wash the mound of clothes everyone brought back from the trip, while thinking that there is no way you took this many clothes with you in the first place. Clean the house yet again. Go to the grocery since you didn't buy much before you went away.

School was also a new idea to our systems. Last week I finally just gave up and decided to start fresh today. We did start fresh and were able to actually complete a full school day. It felt kind of weird to actually complete everything. And now that the YMCA is out for December we can do a full school day everyday. I hope to get caught up in some areas I feel we are behind in.

All in all it was a productive but exhausting day. To bed for me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Don't worry little fella, no turkey at our house this year. My family loves the turkey breasts but they were just too expensive. So we are going to have chicken and dumplings, dressing, and all the other traditional stuff, just no turkey. Everyone okay with that, they love chicken and dumplings.

I thought I would go ahead and wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving! The next 5 days will be busy around our house and I may not get to post for a while.

Our plans for the next few days are to spend tomorrow getting the house and ourselves ready to go to visit my hubby's apartment Friday. That way Thanksgiving day can be spent having fun and decorating for Christmas. Friday we plan to take some furniture to my hubby's apartment and spend a few days there. I hope to do a little Christmas shopping and maybe some ice skating.

We have always spent the Friday after Thanksgiving decorating the house for Christmas, watching Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase and eating left overs. But this year we will be doing all that on Thanksgiving Day, and then we are off to hubby's place.

So far I have almost all of Poogie's Christmas presents. Just a few small things to get. She was easy because everything she wanted was for her American Girl doll, so I just ordered it online.

TT has made it hard this year. He doesn't even have a list yet. It is about to drive me crazy. I finally got him to pick out a few PSP games last weekend, but that is it. He really wanted a Wii or PS3 but those just aren't in our budget this year. Sigh. I hate budgets. I wanted a Wii too so I could play the boxing game.

This will be a year of no real presents for my hubby and I. That usually wouldn't bother me but we didn't get presents for our anniversary either. Those are two times during the year that I can get something nice and not feel guilty about it. I hope next year is better.

I feel bad even whining about no presents when the economy is so bad. I fear it will get even worse, but I'm like a kid at Christmas. I like presents too.

On a happy note I wish all of you a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving.

The wait is finally over!!!

YES! I finally got to see Twilight this afternoon and it was so worth the wait. As usual it did not even come close to be as good at the book, but it was still a good movie.

I was giggling like a girl when Edward walked into the lunchroom for the first time. I loved all the actors who were in the film. I think they did a great job of capturing the important essence of each character.

I wanted to see it with my hubby but since he was away working I took TT and two of his best buddies. I think they enjoyed the movie even thought they were three of maybe five guys in the theater. I don't think that bothered them much;)

A Better Day.

Today was a much better day. I spoke with my hubby last night after I posted and we both decided that if there is anyway possible that we should keep homeschooling the kids, no public school! That took a load off of my shoulders. We have a plan and hopefully it will work for us financially so that I don't have to return to work.

Thanks to all my friends both online and those that I see in person that have listened to my drama. It's nice to have peeps to chat with. It helps. So thanks ladies you know who you are.

I just need to share

I just need to share a little of what has been going on in my life lately. I don't usually like to do this on a blog but I am really down tonight and need to "talk" it out.

As you may have read in some of my earlier posts my hubby took a new job in a new city. It is over 2 hours away so we have to relocate. Now this doesn't seem so bad at the surface. But when you look at it deeper it becomes quite stressful. You see for 12 years we have lived here in West Tennessee and to say we were unhappy would be putting it lightly. We never really have had any friends. The kids were miserable in school and any type of extracurricular activity we tried in the area. We have all moaned and groaned about wanting to move away.

Now fast forward to this year. It felt like everything was coming together. We were financially comfortable. The kids and I were finding our groove when it came to homeschooling. And thanks to our YMCA group all of us were forming great friendships and enjoying ourselves. It was to good to be true. Well, it was.

My hubby decided to leave his job for a new one. The other job was changing for the worse so he got out. Fine, I can deal with that. But here comes the financial stress of changing jobs, being able to afford a place for him to live there while we complete our year here. Poogie wants to finish her year in ballet, we have already paid for everything. TT wants to complete his year of YMCA with his buddies. Even if we did move with him we still have the financial stress of a place here and one there.

I am afraid when we move that I will have to return to teaching and put the kids in school. I have just about made myself sick over it. I have figured out our budget every which way and I just don't see any other option. The only way I can stay home is if Brad's job really kicks in. And it has the potential, we will have to wait and see.

It has always been an issue when money gets tight that I need to return to work, but I was hoping we were past that. I guess not.

I also feel guilty because a little part of me, just sometimes, misses working. I miss teaching. I miss making my own money. But the thought of trying to juggle two kids in school, a job, my mother and my hubby gone 99% of the time is just too overwhelming.

I really wanted to just spill without someone telling me " I told you so", or "It will work out". I know it will, but the options of what may happen have been pretty hard to deal with.

Thanks for "listening".

I am Inspired!

A lot has happened since I posted the previous post this morning. After I posted I went through and looked at the rest of SOTW 4 and decided to chunk it for now. It just doesn't work for us.

I sat looking at what we are doing, and asked what could I change. Yes, I paid good money for some of this stuff but if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. TT decided to read The Call of the Wild by Jack London this month and that got me to thinking. I could fill several holes in my curriculum with this one book. We could do lessons in geography (Alaska and Canada), history (the gold rush), science (precious metals and dog breeds), and of course literature.

I found a great free literature unit study to follow to go along with the book. In fact, all I would have to supplement would be grammar, math and spelling. Now all I have to do is follow through with it. TT is excited so I guess I need to get excited too.

To futher inspire me, I went to the library to get books on Alaska, the gold rush and dog sledding. I picked up a favorite movie of mine, Freedom Writers. TT loves it to, so that is what we watched this evening.

I cried, I laughed and somewhere along the way I felt good about teaching again. I mean with my hubby's job being so up and down the thought has crossed his lips that I may need to return to the class room to help out. I cannot say I was excited about the idea. It seems to be the answer in our home when things get rocky or tough, send me back to work. This idea would be fine, but when you homeschool your children it is not so easy.

I admit I miss the classroom every once in a while. Then, I think of sending my own children back to public school and I feel ill. I believe Poogie would be fine, but TT would not. The system would drown him. I have worked so hard to build up his self confidence, and all it would take is one horrible teacher to tear it back down. I'm not saying he is weak or cannot handle life. he is just not ready to be treated like an adult yet, and that is how many, many middle school teachers tend to treat kids. They are not ready for it.

So to say I am struggling with a lot right now would be understating it, however I found a small light today and I am going to let it shine.

The let down.

You know how it is when you buy a curriculum for your kids and you are excited about it, they are excited about it, can't wait to start it. Then the let down comes when it isn't all you expected or it just doesn't work with your child or your children.

I have had a few of these this year. The main one has been Story of the World Vol. 4. My ds and I used SOTW Vol. 1 last year, it was okay. We didn't love it but it worked. Volume 4 has been horrible. My ds doesn't like the reading. He isn't interested in most of the subjects and the one's he is interested in are so generalized and shallow. I know it offers novels and other works to supplement but most of those cannot be read within a short time frame before we would move on to something else.

The activities in Vol. 4 are not our cup of tea. Many of them are long memorization lessons, or recipes. The recipes would be fun once in a while but our time and resources are limited.

I am planning a unit study of the Civil War to begin in January. Then we can finish up the year with some SOTW and other resources. I am looking towards next year and I may look at BJP or Abeka. We have been happy with BJP for the most part, although the Reading 6 is not that exciting.

As for my dd we just started SOTW Vol. 1. She doesn't find it that interesting. I wish we could do Vol. 2 since she loves the whole knights, kings and queen format, but alas I cannot buy anything else right now.

I am hoping to purchase Teaching Textbooks 6 for TT to supplement Math U See. I feel that he needs exposure to other subjects other than just fractions at this level. Plus, some of the teaching strategies in Epsilon have not clicked with TT. I have ended up teaching several of the lessons in a totally different way. That is fine but adds to the already long time it takes to complete our math lesson daily.

I dont' think I will be using Math U See with Poogie next year unless something majorly changes. It is just to slow for her.

Science is another area that I will have to make major changes in next year. TT's Harcort book is great but I wish it had more to go with it. Poogie will need a more structured curriculum. This year we have mainly used unit studies.

So many decisions and only one me.

Weekly Update.

I know I haven't posted in a bit. It seems like things have been busy, but when I reflect on the past week, maybe I have just been a bit lazy.

Monday was spent doing school. It seems like Mondays are hard to get through. Everyone is moving at a glacial pace. We made it through it thanks to the fact that I scaled down TT's curriculum. I took out German and Guitar for now. He really needs to focus on writing and math.

Tuesday was of course co-op day. We actually completed all our lessons before going. That was a first. TT went to one of his buddies house while I took Poogie to ballet after co-op. Of course this made for a long day, but it was well worth it.

Wednesday was a day of challenges. TT had his moments of being a typical pre-teen, but we made it through it without anyone being injured;) Poogie is flying through her curriculum. I don't believe that she will be a Math U See person. It moves way to slowly for her. Something to think about for next year, if we homeschool next year. That is a whole other story.

Thursday consisted of lessons, co-op, and a trip to the grocery store. Now that we are on a tight budget due to my hubby's recent job change a trip to the grocery can be down right depressing.

Friday, we did lessons, got TT a haircut, and spent time around the house. Hubby was home so it was a fun but lazy day.

So far this weekend all we have done is just spend time together around the house. The kids rode 4 wheelers yesterday while I attempted to scrapbook. I will attempt again today. We went out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant last night and then watched Sweeney Todd on HBO. I know it is bloody, but my kids love it. Go figure.

So there it is. An update of my boring daily life. Some weeks are more interesting than others.

Math Lab

I found a great activity for remembering equal measurements on another blog, I wish I could remember which one. If any of my readers happen to be the one I found this on I am sorry.

The activity can be found on MathWire. I thought it was a fun activity that will help with my ds TT ability to remember facts such as how many pints=a gallon. For Poogie this was a fun introduction to the concept. Of course, Poogie posed for pics. I know it is hard to see on my fall table cloth, but I hope you get the idea.

A Heartwarming Movie...

For those of you who have a little girl and have not seen the American Girl movie Kit Kitteridge, you need to see it. I bought it for Poogie today. She got her feelings hurt quite badly and I was trying to cheer her up. That is a story for another day.

Anywho, we watch the movie tonight and it was surprisingly wonderful. We had seen other American Girl movies and loved them, but this one was so heartwarming. Even TT watched and really liked it. It was the first movie my kids had watched that focused on the Great Depression, which was really interesting to them. TT found a lot of similarities between the plight of people during that time and what is happening on the news today. Smart kid.

Poogie doesn't have Kit, she has Julie for her American Girl doll, but I fell in love with Kit tonight and I think Poogie did too.

It's Cold!!

Oh my goodness, it is cold outside! I love the winter months, but I would have liked to have a little bit more fall. It got down in the upper 30's here last night, and we have a freeze warning for tonight. I had to cover all my mums.

It was quite cool last weekend too. TT woke up in the early morning hours Friday with a terrible ear ache. Of course it was just a few short days after my hubby left his good paying job with okay insurance, thus no insurance. So we treated it with home remedies. I think he had water built up in it from swimming at the Y, because when I added some swimmers ear drops it started to clear up. It still hurts a little, but it is much better. I think we may skip the Y tomorrow, no swimming.

I'm all for skipping tomorrow. I have way to much to do here. We have been working through all our lessons quite well. We are focusing more on history right now and less on science, but we will get back to it next month. I hope to post some pics of cute activities I have planned for this week leading up to Halloween.

And they say homeschool kids aren't socialized...

Since we began homeschooling we have only be faced with the dreaded socialization question a few times. And those times were when we first began homeschooling and did not have many social functions.

Now fast forward a year and a half later. We are part of a good size co-op and have found a great group of homeschool friends. Add to that the friends my dd makes at dance class and friends from her year at ps and you have a lot of invites to answer.

For the last month we have had so many social engagements that we have had to be selective and choose just a few so that we can find time to stay home and do things like school and house work.

This past summer was even busy with parties, play dates and invites. My kids have never spent so much time with other kids as they do now. The time they spend now is spent in actual interaction, not just a few minutes a day in line, on a playground or at lunch.

I love that I know the kids and the parents of the kids they are spending time with. The kids come from varied backgrounds so I don't worry about them being just around kids " just like them". They have come to appreciate peoples differences and accept others for who they are.

So I guess what I am trying to say is that for those who think homeschoolers are socialized think again.

Looping schedule update

I wish I could say that everything went so much better using the loop schedule, but I cannot. The week began with a good start. Tuesday was a little rocky trying to get through a few subjects on top of math and reading and get to co-op.

By Wednesday we lost our steam. I don't know if it was just a bump in the road because we took last week off. The first week back is usually awful after any break. Wednesday I had to deal with cranky children, a impatient mother and the fact that my hubby was turning in his notice to quit his job. Yes, he has a new one already but it was still stressful.

To say I was a little stressed might have been putting it lightly. What bothered me about the schedule was that we only got through English, Spelling, and Writing twice, history twice and science once. I still was not able to give history or science my total attention. I am beginning to think I may have to approach them like some fellow teachers did in public school. Some did history for so many weeks, even a whole quarter and then switched to science. This may be the only way to give each subject pure attention.

I decided that we definitely have to do math, reading and spelling each day. I may have to toss the whole thing and try something else. I will work on it tomorrow.

Breaks Over, Back to Work People!

Isn't funny how time flies when you have a week off. It seems like we just finished our last lesson and its time to start again. We had a nice weekend. Saturday we spent at the home of another homeschool family. My kids took their 4 wheeler to ride on their motorcycle track. We all had a great time. Today we spent being lazy. I completed all my school stuff except for entering our spelling words on the Spelling City website. It was down:( I hope to get them entered tonight or tomorrow.


Our fall break was great. The weather was beautiful all but one day. I got a lot done as far as school planning goes. I have our lessons planned up for at least 5 weeks in all subjects. Our new loop schedule is ready to go.


Poogie is finally starting MUS Alpha. Plus, we are going to be reading a new read a loud, Mr. Popper's Penguins. I found a cute literature unit on the Homeschool Helper site. I plan on including lessons about penguins for science with the unit. I think it will be fun.


TT will be starting Write Shop for writing. I have read through much of the teacher's manual and it appears to be a great program. He will also be adding geography lessons on the 50 states. I purchased a workbook series from Highlights, one workbook and a map for each state. My plan is for him to work through one workbook every two weeks.


We are also starting our unit on elections. I purchased a great lapbook on Curric click. It starts with the government and goes through elections. I am going to cut it down for Poogie, but I have reading selections for both of them. I found a great lesson to accompany the book The Ballot Box Battle by Emily A. McCully.

I hope that this new schedule takes some of the stress out of the day, I guess we will see.
Have a great week.

Not much to report.

I would like to say I have something new and interesting to report, but alas I do not. It seems like all at once there are a dozen activities that have come about to be part of. But isn't that how it seems to be, nothing to do for a while and then BAM! everyone wants to do something.

I have just decided to do what would be fun and interesting and let the other stuff go. With everything else going on in the world and our lives I have to hold to my priorities or I will loose it.

Shout Out to....

My new friend, I will call her A (but she will know who I am talking about when she reads this), and her sweet daughter. They decided to begin their homeschooling journey again. I know it will be as rewarding as my experience has been with Poogie and TT.

It is a brave and hard step to take when you decide to take your child or children out of the school system be it public or private. It is heart wrenching to watch them "deal" with school, but not really enjoy it. I went through this for 5 months before pulling TT out. After the fact it has been the best thing I ever did for my children.

Good luck and God Bless A you will be an awesome homeschool mom!

Fall Break, Yeah!

We decided to take fall break this week. After 10 weeks of school a break is due. Our weekend was fun and relaxing.



My hubby finally painted the floor of our front porch. It turned out lovely. I ended up purchasing a few mums and pumpkins to decorate the area because it looked so darn good.



Saturday night my hubby took me out on a date. He took me to Outback to eat. Believe it or not I had never really eaten there. I went for drinks and appetizers years ago, but did not eat a meal. We enjoyed steak and fried crawfish appetizers. It was a wonderful meal. Then, he took me to see the movie Eagle Eye. I had been wanting to see it so badly. It was an awesome thrill ride.



Sunday I scrapbooked and worked around the house. We went to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant and then to Wally World for necessities for the upcoming week.



My goal for this week is to work out the kinks with our homeschooling schedule and curriculum. The first thing I addressed today was to make a schedule that allows me to spend equal time with both kids and address all subjects. It seems like Poogie is always pushed to the side for TT because he has so much to do. Plus, several subjects like history, science and foreign language get overlooked due to the lack of time.



I found what I hope will allow me to address all these issues on the Well Trained Mind forums board, the loop. I can't explain it very well as it took me sometime to understand the concept myself. However, I believe it offers us a day that will be more productive and less stressful.

I used today to work on new science lesson plans for TT. I decided to use the Horrible Science books I purchased at the beginning of the school year. I read several of the stories today in them, they are great. I will supplement the reading with activities from The Complete Book of Science 5-6, The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia, and worksheets from Enchanted Learning.

I am going to continue with SOTW Volume 4 for TT, but we will complete a 4 week unit on elections first. I purchased a lapbook unit and will be adding reading selections and some great web sites to supplement. I will post that unit sometime this week.

I think that is quite enough for one day. Now off to bed to curl up with a good book and my hubby.

Is it Friday yet?

Whew, what a week. We are one day from completing our 10th week of homeschooling this year and I need a break. Things have begun to get to me. I have been evaluating things about our homeschool curriculum that are working and things that are not. What I have found is that for TT most of the curriculum is working, but not all. Writing, history and science are not working well.

The writing program is not structured enough for us. TT really needs good guidelines and instruction and Wordsmith just doesn't offer that. I have been doing some detective work and found a program I really like. One of the moms from our co-op brought her books to me today to look at and I was impressed. I just wish it wasn't so expensive. The program is called Write Shop and it is used at the local tutorial. Many of the moms have found it to be quite effective with reluctant writers like my son. I found it on ebay pretty cheap, I just have to bid on it.

Our history is also not working. We are doing SOTW volume 4. TT likes it okay, but it just doesn't offer enough info on the material. I think I will start doing unit studies again and using SOTW as a supplement. The activities in volume 4 are not that great either.

Finally, our science is dry. We need some spicing up. So I will be working on that also. We will be taking fall break next week and I hope to work out some of the kinks. We will see.

My little boy is 12!

At 10:05 p.m. today my little boy turned 12. I just can't believe it. As I sit here writing this I can remember this moment like it was yesterday. Time flies by so fast.

He had a great day. It started with lunch at his favorite sushi place. Then two of his best buddies came by for an afternoon of fun. I don't think he ever stopped smiling.

This evening we took him to his favorite Mexican restaurant to give him his gifts. He received a PSP game system, three of his favorite games and some stuff to go along with it from us and his Nana.

As an added surpise he got cool whipped by our favorite waiter at the restaurant.

He was covered with the stuff. And to top it off the waiter got me too!! We came home and TT spent time in his room with his new game.

Happy Birthday TT we love you!

I feel so special!

I can't believe it! My sweet friend Chasity over at Homeschool Rocks! gave me a blog award!!

I never win anything. I mean if I was the only name in the hat I wouldn't win! She always comments on my crazy ramblings and lets me know some one is listening.

Now as I was told I must pass this on to 3 other of my favorite blogs here it goes and in no particular order:

My good friend Kelli, over at New Mercies Everyday who I get to see every Tuesday and Thursday at our local co-op, but also keeps me thinking when I click on her blog everyday.

If you haven't checked out Joann's blog Our Homeschool Expedition you are missing out on a treasure of free information, recipes, and ideas. She is my guru! I know she is busy and doesn't get to blog as much as she used to, but you could read her blog all day and still never read all the great stuff.

Finally, last and definitely not least comes TC at Fish in My Hair. I wish I could read her blog without laughing until I cry, but that would be impossible. If I am ever having a bad day I just click on her blog and I feel so much better. Such a great witty, funny gal!

Congrats girls and thanks Chasity for thinking of me!

I'm in the mood for Fall.

As you may be able to tell by the new look of my blog I love fall. It has always been my favorite time of the year. I loved it when I lived in my home town where the leaves changed much earlier than they do here and with such beautiful colors. I used to walk through the woods and enjoy the cool air in my lungs, the smell of someone burning leaves and marvel at the wonderful colors of fall.

Now fast forward to fall in my current home. I wish I could say I could enjoy it. But alas I cannot. You see I live in the middle of cotton land. It is everywhere. First, the farmers spray awful chemicals to defoliate the cotton to be picked. This lovely chemical is applied using crop dusters that tend to miss the fields and spray our home, and yard. (They swear they would never do that but tell that to my lawn furniture that is covered with the stuff). When they spray we cannot venture outside because it burns our throats, makes our noses run and we feel terrible. Then they begin to pick the cotton and gin it. (We live a quarter mile from a gin) The air is full of a haze of small cotton filaments that drive our sinus and allergies up a wall.

In reality this is the only season you can really enjoy in this part of the country. The summers are hot and muggy. No one wants to venture out. The winters are cold and wet, no real snow. The last few years we have skipped spring all together and went straight to summer.

The weather has been gorgeous for the last week or so. Oh, how I wish I could enjoy it. I guess I will have to be happy with watching it from inside or outside and heavily medicated with allergy meds. ;)

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Blast Off....

into a new week. I feel like I am taped to the front of a ACME rocket and someone has lit the fuse. And its only Monday.

This will be a busy, busy week. It started today with my neck giving me pain again. I over did it this weekend getting stuff out to take to the consignment shop. Now I am paying for it. I had to suck it up and call my PT to make an appointment for Wed. I didn't want to let it go and feel terrible this coming weekend.

You see this coming weekend is TT's 12th birthday. I have been so caught up in planning his birthday party that it didn't hit me until today that it is my little boy who is turning 12. It doesn't seem real. But, I will dwell on that more later in the week.

For now I have to get through tomorrow, co-op and ballet. Then Wed. I go to PT and try to cram in two days of school because we are taking off Friday for TT's birthday. Sigh. TT and I will be going on a lunch date for his b-day on Friday to eat sushi. That is what he asked for. Then that night we will open presents and such. Finally, his big pool party will be Saturday night with all his friends.

I still have to get the few decorations and find the best deal on pizza in the local area. I am going to be feeding several teenage boys so I need as much as possible.

But its only Monday. Can you believe it.

I can't even say it.....

I am on a bbbb...budget. There I said it! It seems I have lived on a shoestring budget ever since my hubby and I married 13 years ago. We've had a few good years and the last few have been part of that. A good year means I don't have to count every penny, watch how much everything is at the grocery and I can spurge without feeling the guilt.

Now with the price of gas, utilities and food I must put our family back on a budget. Ours may not be as strict as others but it is still sent shock waves through our home. The main budget item that has hurt is limiting eating out. This I didn't mind so much. I get sick of eating out, but it is easier. Now we eat something cheap on Tuesday nights because we have to go to ballet after co-op and don't get home till way after 7 p.m. That is too long from 11:30 lunch time for my youngins. And we eat out once on the weekend. This weekend we choose Cracker Barrel. We can eat there cheap. Most places we eat on the weekends are reasonable at least. That makes it easier to stay on budget.

I have also begun to plan my meals again, breakfast, lunch and dinner. I planned them for 2 weeks at a time and went to the grocery. I didn't go to Wally-world, but to the local good grocery store. I ended up spending about $100 less than the previous weeks. We have had great meals every night. For example, tonight we had pan seared steaks with baked potatoes and peas. Plus, we had coconut shrimp for an appetizer, my hubby's favorite. The total meal cost me about 12 bucks for the four of us. I got the steaks and frozen shrimp on sale. That was one of our "special meals".

I have several meals planned that leave leftovers for lunch and dinner the next day, something I used to rarely do. The kids actually like leftovers!

As part of my budgeting I am getting Poogie's and TT's clothes together to take to a local consignment shop. I used to do this every season and I made a lot of money at it. I hope to get enough money back by Dec or Jan to hit the good sales to buy the kids more clothes.

This of course has lead to planning a yard sale for Oct. I have always had great success with yard sales. I haven't had one for several years just because I have lacked time and space to prepare for one. Now it has become evident that with all the excess clutter we need to get rid of some.

Now I must rest for a day full of lesson plans, laundry and of course taking my mother to the store. That is the one area that is hard to budget. I have had to fight it tooth and nail to make less trips to town, but she just doesn't see the problem. Of course she is not the one paying $80+dollars to fill up my van. I am working on it.

Poogie's First Science Lesson

We did or first lesson Monday using my new science lessons. We read her book and then took a nature walk. She had to draw three living things and three non living things in her little notebook. Her drawings weren't as good as usual because she was in a hurry but they got the job done. Today we sorted them on our magnet board into living and non living.

Then we did our first activity in the Evan-More Science Centers. The concept was the same. Poogie had to divide photo cards into living and non living, then write down her results on the proper side of the worksheet. She did excellent with no help from mom.

We are definitely enjoying science together!

What does 15 years on the job get you?

In my Dad's day it got you respect, job security and seniority. What has it gotten my hubby? Not that. My hubby's company recently became a billion dollar company. It gained attention from the mother company in Europe. You would think this would be positive attention. Not!

How does the mother company repay my hubby and all the other laborers for their years of service and hard work. Hmm. The company wants to now make even more money! A billion is not enough. So they "restructure" the company. They put more managers into place that have never worked with their product, have no experience in the job field and many without a BS or any type of degree. Degrees are not needed in his line of work as it is so specialized it is learned on the job, but many companies tend to fill management positions with people with college degrees. I agree with that to a point. I begin to disagree when they put people in that do not have any idea what they are doing and their lack of experience and knowledge effects your hubby's job and income.

The company also decides to take away things like health insurance, that will save them a bundle. Let the workers pay for it out of their already reducing salaries. Oh, and the workers all need to wear uniforms which they can also pay for. The list goes on and on. His company has not taken away health insurance or made them buy uniforms but it is on their list for next year.

It breaks my heart to think of what America has become. Now with the election coming up, banks going bankrupt, Wall Street falling, our money going to fight a never ending war I wonder if this "Change" that the candidates are talking about will be enough to dig us out of this mess. Will we ever live where a hard days work is rewarded and the working class are treated with respect again? Or will they keep feeding this money hungry machine that is America? More, More, More!

Ok, I'm off the soapbox!

Poogie's Science Units

I have really been struggling this year to come up with some thing fun and easy for science. I didn't want to purchase a full curriculum because I really don't think it is necessary at that age. So I ended up using her reading series Let's Read and Find Out Science that I had purchased from our monthly book club a while ago.

Here is our first lesson:

Subject: Science
Title: Living or Non Living
Grades: 1 & 2

Goals: Students will gain an understanding of the characteristics of living and non living things.

Objectives:
TLW identify and memorize the 4 basic characteristics of living things.
TLW sort and identify living and non living items based on known characteristics.
TLW determine what items is living vs non living by completing a coloring sheet.

Supplies:
Take it to Your Seat Science Centers Grades 1 & 2 by Evan-Moor
What’s Alive? Part of the Let’s Read and Find Out Science Series by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld.
Crayons for Job 2
Sketch pad, pencils, colored pencils etc. for Day 1 activity

Lessons:

Day 1
-I will read aloud What’s Alive?, and discuss the 4 basic characteristics of living things.
-We will then take a nature walk and draw several pictures of living things and non living things for our science journal.

Day 2
-We will review the 4 characteristics of living things using examples found in our home.
-The student will complete Job 1 in Science Centers activities.
-If student is still struggling with concepts I will create an activity using toys to represent living and non-living things to sort.
-I also have a file folder game much like the Science Center activities that can be used as a follow up.

Day 3
-Student will complete job 2 in the Science Centers activities. This sheet will be used as a grading tool to make sure objectives are met.

I will let ya'll know how it well this goes after this week. I plan on doing it MWF.

No More...

Physical therapy!!! Yes!!!! I went Friday and the PT gave me some exercises to do at home and let me go. I was so happy. I can also start working out again, which made me even happier.

Not only will I have more time at home to do things like laundry, school and house work, but I will be saving a bundle in gas. The extra trips to physical therapy each week has caused me to drive to town 5+ days a week, and with gas prices so high you can imagine how much it has cut into our budget.

I am so excited to start back to a normal week of school. I will spend tomorrow doing lesson plans, running copies and getting ready for the week. Just a normal week.

Before and After

I finally got the nerve up to post my before and after photos of my weight loss. Noted that this after photo is actually about 4 to 5 pounds heavier than I am now it is still a major change for me.

The following before picture was taken last fall at a local fall fest. I admit the "colorful" top did nothing to hide my increase in size. My hubby took this wonderful photo that was the reason I really began my weight loss journey. I looked at it an couldn't believe this was me.

Now for my after. My hubby took these photos one evening a few months ago. Like I said I have lost a few more pounds but I still think I look a lot better.

I want to post some recent photos but I am waiting until after I get my hair done and looking decent.

I'm a model and I do what I do....

Actually, Poogie is the model. What began as a photo shoot for our hair stylist turned into a photo session for a local children's store. We showed up this morning for her photo session for our stylist and the owner of a new specialty children's store wanted her to model some of her clothes too.

Poogie was over the moon. She looked adorable in the fun funky outfits and really enjoyed all the posing and primping. What was shocking to me was the price of some of the outfits. The two she modeled were $70 each. I have to say I almost choked when I saw the price.

Poogie has lots of little girl friends that wear these special little outfits. They are cute and precious, but not worth the fortune that it cost to buy them. I don't see the need in paying up to $100 for one outfit for a child that will out grow it in a few months. It just seem crazy to me.

Poogie did receive a gift certificate for a few bucks off of a purchase of one of those expensive outfits for her modeling. I don't know if we will ever use it but she felt like she earned a paycheck for her "work". I will post some of the photos as soon as I get them. TTFN

What makes a father proud.

Donuts!

No not the kind you eat. The kind that your sweet innocent daughter can make in the dirt with her 4 wheeler. My hubby took the kids out riding this weekend in the wonderful new dirt in our back yard. The dirt was the result of the ugly pond being filled up in our back yard finally.

Dear hubby ran in the house to fetch me. "You've got to come and see your daughter!", he exclaimed. So I ran out not knowing what to expect. Low and behold there she is cutting a perfect donut with her 4 wheeler, one after the other while singing Night Fever at the top of her lungs.

My hubby's face was lit up with such a smile and look of pride. You know that, That's my girl, look. I wish I had taken pictures but my camera was on charge. Maybe this weekend I will get some pics as she has already planned for a doughnut rally in the back yard.

Back to Co-op

Our first day back to the Y and boy was it great. The kids were so happy to see all their old friends and meet some new ones. I was amazed at how many new kids were added to our groups this year. The program has really grown and is greatly improved.



As with many things there was conflict and turnover within the program last year. The former coordinator said the new program would be a huge failure, not worth our money. I hate to say it but thank goodness she was so wrong. The new program is great and very well organized. The kids are doing more structured activities in the classes and the atmosphere is much more relaxed.



After a day of the Y and then ballet with Poogie I am spent. I am off to bed for some much needed sleep.

An evening well spent

I just spent the evening with The Phantom of the Opera. I really need to break down and buy this movie. I am sure the ladies at the library are beginning to worry about me. I have checked it out several times and rented it from Netflix once. I can't help it I love musicals, I love Gerard Butler and I love the story of the Phantom.

What was fun this time was that along with Poogie who always watches it with me, TT found it interesting and ended up watching the whole thing. I downloaded some of the music last night on itunes but I just need to get the whole soundtrack.

If only this three day weekend coming up would last for about a week so I could get some rest and take care of my aching neck. I guess I will settle for three days with the Phantom.

Second week of ballet..

And everything is going good. Poogie really loves both classes. The acrobatic class is really interesting to her because the Olympic gymnastics got her fired up for it. There are two homeschoolers in her class and maybe more. I met two of the moms so far and they are really nice.

It makes a difference this year that she has a main teacher as an instructor. In years past at her other school students taught her class. They were sweet girls who were great dancers, but they did not have the control and discipline over the students. Poogie loves her teacher she is strict but fun.

We worked on catching up with school lessons today. Poogie got caught up in about an hour, TT took a little more time but not much. I have been switching around some of his lessons. For example, last year for German he worked through the lesson on line and then we would read through the conversation together. I have now added that he has to translate a written form of the conversation from German to English. He did well with it today. I may add more work later.

Tomorrow I have more physical therapy. Hopefully, after these three weeks maybe it will be over. I am already tired of making the drive to town everyday.

Back to Normal?

I'm not sure what normal is anymore but we are going to try to get things as normal as possible around here. Tomorrow we will get back to regular school work with full lessons and time for each of the kids. With all this PT and doctor visits we have been doing what we can when we can.

No, MRI tomorrow!! My doctor decided that since I have had such a good weekend that we can wait to see how I improve with PT. That was fine with me.

I have been working on plans for a fun human body unit coming up. I wanted to do this unit because it will include both TT and Poogie. I purchased a fun book to go along with the unit and have found some fun movies and books to accompany it too.

After I complete planning it I want to work on my Civil War unit for TT. I'm not sure which month we will study it but it is one thing that he asked to study in depth this year. I can plan several field trips to go along with it since we live among a lot of Civil War historical sites.

Today I purchased the supplies for TT's new art class at the Y. Thanks to the supply list I received from my friend Kelli at New Mercies Every Day. Thank you again!! TT is so excited. From what I have heard it will be a real art class, no arts and crafts stuff. He can't wait till next Tuesday.

Well, ya'll I'm tired. Think I will turn in early tonight.

Update of the week

Here is a pic of me and my wonderful dentist Dr. P and the greatest dental tech. in the world. I finally completed my long dental journey and had to take a pic to commemorate the moment. I don't look as great as I would have liked. At the time of the pic I had been in and out of the dentist chair for 6 hours, I was tired. Plus, I had the added fun of my shoulder killing me. I hope to post a better pic. My new hair style is a lot cuter than it looks here. I really like it.




As I said yesterday my hubby took me on a scrapbook shopping spree in Memphis. I purchased several types of papers that I have been wanting. The cute travel paper was the reason I went to this store in the first place. One of my scrapbooking buddies had purchased it previously and I fell in love with it.



I also bought some great embellishments and stamps that I have been wanting. My favorite was the 7 Gypsies round self-inking stamp. I have been wanting one for a while. I found some great Heidi Swapp photo corners on clearance and some cute clear stamps. All in all I was happy with my purchases and couldn't wait to start scappin today.




Now on to next week. My neck is feeling much better I may not even need to get the MRI, we will see. I hope to get back on track with school and housework too.

Finally some relief

As of Friday I thought that the situation with my neck wasn't ever going to get better. I had a long rough night Thursday, and so I had to go to my doctor's appointment Friday even more exhausted than I wanted to be. The joke was kind of on me.

The doctor looked over my PT chart and asked me a few questions that I answered very honestly and directly. He found the fact that I was hurting so much at night but not during the day a problem. He decided to order a MRI. I tried to explain that I hadn't slept more than 2 hours a night except for one night I got 4 hours in the last 10 days. He didn't see how that would effect the amount of pain I was having. He also thought that I should be able to sleep without help of pain medication, some Advil would work. Hmm, where have I heard that before.

Finally, my hubby spoke up and bluntly told the man that I needed sleep before I fell out. A person can only go so long without sleep. He finally gave me the same thing that the doctor had prescribed at the clinic last week and a sleeping pill. Not just any sleeping pill but one that has been found to be highly addictive. I passed on mixing a sleeping pill with a pain pill. I knew that without the pain I could sleep. And sleep I did last night I slept a little over 6 hours last night!!

I felt much better today. In fact my hubby took me to Memphis to scrapbook shop and eat at Hooter's ( I know, I know but I love, love, love their boneless chicken wings). I felt pretty good just a little tired. It felt so good to get out and be normal again.

Tomorrow I plan on doing my school lesson plans in the morning and spending the rest of the day scrapbooking. Maybe with a little nap thrown in there somewhere.

I have to decide now if I need to go through with the MRI. I know it would be better to be safe and see what the cause of my pain is, but I dread how much they cost. We have to meet our high deductible before our insurance pays so if I do get it we may not get to take our trip to the mountains this year. I was really looking forward to it. Then again it may all work out.

And it's only Tuesday...

That is what I was thinking this morning on my way to have one of many physical therapy sessions. It seems that my life has went from busy to out of control. Lets rewind and see how I accomplished this.

As I posted last week I hurt my neck. Friday my hubby came home from his trip and took me to a specialists who recommended some meds and that I start PT. If that doesn't work then its MRI's and more tests. I made it through the weekend feeling better. The meds were working on the swelling in my neck and shoulder. However I woke up Monday a little sore. Then, I spent 6 hours at my dentist getting my permanent bridge put into place. It had to be adjusted and such so it took a long time. We spent most of that time sitting and waiting. Needless to say it made my ache in my neck worse and this morning it hurt as bad as it did last week.

I thought all was lost, like Nastia Liukin's gold medal on the uneven bars. Thank goodness for physical therapists. They put me through some work and I ended up feeling better than I had since this all began. I go everyday for the rest of the week and then my doctor will decide Friday if I get to keep going or have the tests. I hope it is PT.

Tonight was Poogie's first ballet/acrobatics class at her new school. I have to say I was nervous. I was worried she wouldn't like it. But as usual I was worried for nothing. She loved it. She has a good class with at least one other homeschooler and her teacher is a homeschooler. It is great to have other homeschool moms at these kind of activities too. I took a photo of her as I always do on her first night. I will post it soon along with a photo of my new smile.

The only real negative this week has been that we are not accomplishing as much as I would like in school. TT is doing all the work he can do independently, which is quite a bit. I hope to make up what we have missed tomorrow and Thursday. We are going to start a fun science unit on genetics. I found a cute Punnett Square activity with Sponge Bob of all things. I will post the link for it later this week, it is cute.

Well, I guess I need to rest my neck and beg my sweetie to rub my poor tired muscles. Bless his heart he could win a gold medal in the back massage competition after this last week. He's the best.

We're still here

The last nine days have been busy. Last week we spent most days on the road at the dentist office, at play dates or running errands for my mother.

We hoped that this week would be a peaceful easy going one, NOT! It all started Monday. We spent the day in town getting Poogies ballet apparel, finished the day with school at home. Monday night my FIL fell outside his back door and broke his femur in 3 places. Now he is in the hospital and had surgery the next day. My hubby had to leave Tuesday, during all this, on a trip for work.

On top of that I wake up Tuesday with my neck, right shoulder and right arm killing me. The pain was so intense I couldn't see straight. So I go to see my Chiropractor and he does the normal stuff that usually makes my neck and shoulder feel better. This time it made it worse. I can't sleep, sit or move without intense bone chilling pain.

I gave in Thurs. and went to a local acute care facility for hopefully some relief. The doctor pretty much mocked me and told me to take some Advil and I would be fine. Needless to say I got alittle ill with his attitude. Here he is telling me to just sleep in such and such position, take a hot shower and take a few advil and I would be fine. Like I haven't already tried all that! I hadn't slept in two days at this point. He didn't really care. When I asked for something for the pain just so I could sleep a few hours he pretty much told me he didn't think I needed it. He finally gave me some low, low dosage Tylenol with codeine. I can't really tell I've taken anything.

I was so upset I could have beat the man senseless. I have been going to these same doctors for years and I am so tired of having to just about have a come apart before they take my situation seriously. It took me 2 years to get my doctor to send me to a specialist about my allergies. It was all in my head, just like my neck pain.

I just don't get it. They are suppose to be there to help you but they end up making you feel like a whiner and insane because you can't handle constant, overwhelming pain.

The specialist I seen today was much more sympathetic and started me on meds. to help with the swelling in my neck, shoulder and arm, plus some physical therapy to address the issue.

I hope this works. If not he said I will have to have some tests like MRI's and others to determine the source of the pain. Now I don't look forward to the tests but I am happy he takes my pain seriously and wants to determine the source to treat it.

I'm sorry I just had to share with someone. It has been a very frustrating, long week.

On the plus side I found out that our YMCA program is alive and well. Some of the unhappy parents decided to start their own program elsewhere, but the old one at the Y is still there. Most of TT and Poogie's friends will be returning to the Y which made them both very happy.

TT and Poogie may also begin taking martial arts classes this fall. I looked into them for TT and Poogie is interested also. I am excited for TT he has been wanting to take lessons for years.

Till later, have a great weekend.

My dental adventure continues...

I spent 3 hours in a dental chair today and I still don't have my permanent bridge. I had to have one tooth prepped for a crown. Then I had to have several impressions made using various types of foul tasting goo. Finally, they had to make a new temporary bridge for me to have until my new permanent one comes in.

I am so ready for this to be over. I wasn't home 5 hours and my temporary bridge came loose. I fixed it to make due until I can run by tomorrow afternoon so they can put it back in better. The temporary glue just doesn't want to work for me. Plus, I can't eat anything when my teeth are like this! It makes me grouchy.

After all this the day got even better, can you believe it? Yes, I found out today that the co-op that we have been attending at the local YMCA is no longer going to be meeting. This was not something we were expecting. To put a cherry on top of the cake we prepaid to hold our spot for the fall. Now I have to go and deal with them to try and get our money back. It is a long story, but to sum it up technically the program still exists and they have a no refund policy so it may be hard to get our money back. The program may still exist but it does not include the teachers who are part of our homeschool group. Ug, what a mess.

It was so hard to come home today and tell my kids that the YMCA program was no more. They were looking so forward to it. Our area doesn't really offer that much for homeschoolers, especially physical activities like swimming and P.E. The group of kids that attended the program were great and my kids were really beginning to form great friendships. Now I have to find another outlet for both of my kids, especially TT. Poogie has ballet and friendships from other functions. TT doesn't really have any interests that gets him out and about like the Y did. He really wants to take art classes, so that is something I will look into.

Tomorrow will be better.

Where have I been??

Last week was busy getting used to having school again. Then Saturday I picked up my copy of Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer and that was it. I read every single extra minute I could. I mean I did take my hubby shopping Saturday to pick out a gift for his birthday this week, but after several hours and many stores he couldn't find anything. We are thinking of going to Memphis this weekend to hopefully find something.

I finished Breaking Dawn last night after 11 p.m. It was exciting and sad because Meyer says it is the last in her Twilight series of books. I am happy to know how it ends but I have the same feeling I had after reading the last Harry Potter book, I will miss my friends. That is how I feel about my favorite characters in books, they are my friends.

I have also been reading alot about Ann Boleyn. I watch the movie, The Other Boleyn Girl, a few weeks ago and found it rather interesting. So I picked up the book at the library along with a biography about Ann. The book was much better than the movie. Today I picked up a book by Julia Fox, Jane Boleyn: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford. She was the wife of Ann's brother, George.

I have a habit of doing this. I find something interesting in a movie or online and I have to read everything I can find about it. My family finds it odd I think, but I love to learn about new things. I especially like to learn about history. I hope someday my children have a love for knowledge like mine.

Anywho, Poogie had to have two of her baby teeth pulled that were crowding her permanent teeth on Monday. She went through it great. The dentist thought she might be sore and have some swelling because the baby teeth had rather deep roots, but she didn't have a lick of trouble. I am glad she is a lot like me in the area healing well when it comes to dental issues. She also manages pain much better than her brother. I was so proud of how well she did during the ordeal.

Well, tomorrow is my day at the dentist. Hopefully by this time next week my dental issues will be over for a while. We'll see.

It is Official...

I have lost 20 pounds! I can't believe it. I only have 4 more to go to reach my goal weight. Now all I need to do is work on toning up what I have left.

I got my Sushi fix!!

My sweet hubby had mercy on me and took me to eat sushi tonight. TT and I had a feast. We got our favorite roll, plus new crawfish crunchy one to try. It was yummy. It had this little bitty dot of chili sauce on top that looked harmless, but wow was it hot. I warn you do not dip a already hot piece of sushi into soy sauce loaded with wasabi. It can cause a major meltdown. After a moment I recovered and popped another one in. This time the burn was good!

It has been a long week and I wanted to take a breather. The first week back to school was okay. We haven't found our groove yet. TT is still dragging his feet with math. Sometimes I don't think it will get any better. He just doesn't want to think. The word problems are not that hard, but it requires him to really sit and think. He doesn't like to have to do that. He would rather have the answer given to him or it pop out of thin air. NOT going to happen. So I will count to 10 and keep on keeping on.

Poogie has a rough first day, but is now cruzin' along with her studies. She is much easier to handle because she gets things really easy so far. I know we will reach stuff this year that really challenges her, but so far so good.

Tomorrow night I have a hot date, with my hubby that is. We tried to have a date a few weeks ago and I came down with strep throat. So we are going to try again tomorrow. We plan on going out to eat and to see the movie Wanted. I want to see something fun and exciting and since we aren't really Batman fans Wanted seems to fit the bill. Plus it has James McAvoy in it. He was great in the Last King of Scotland. We watched it last weekend. Let you know how it goes, the movie that is.

My dental appointment.

Well, I do not completely have my new teeth. What I have is my new teeth minus one crown because it didn't fit right.

What happened was this. After having my temporaries glued in twice last week, they had to use permanent cement instead of temporary. Today went they went to remove the temps it broke one of my root canals and the crown would not fit it correctly. So now what I have are my new teeth as temporaries. They will remake my crowns to fit better and rebuild my root canal. This will all occur in two weeks.

I was so ready to just be done with all this but that was not meant to be. It does feel nice to have my new teeth. They are so smooth and pretty. So now I will wait yet another two weeks to do it all over again.

Plus, TT didn't want to go with me today so I didn't get to go out for sushi afterwards. I didn't want to eat alone so I just got some fast food and came on home. I hope to get some this weekend though. Once I get a craving for it I have to have some sushi.

Day 3 Much Better!

After my first day meltdown I rearranged a few things and it is going much better. Yesterday we even took a trip to our local library to pick up books to go along with our science topic, cells.

I worked with Poogie first yesterday and then TT. Today I did the opposite. I think I will have to start with TT and then work with Poogie while he is doing independent work. He just has so much more to do and yesterday he didn't finish until around 2:30. That is late for us.

Today went well. The only downside was that the phone rung every ten minutes. Mostly my mom called and it is really distracting to the kids. If I don't answer she just comes over since she lives next door. Today she needed my help because she was getting cable hooked up, but it is always something. I was planning on using a system of colored pages hanging on my door. If the red sheet is up we are working, do not disturb. If green is up come on over.

Our situation is really hard because I live next door to both my widowed mother and father in law. They are both elderly and demand a lot of time. I have been trying to get my mom involved in activities at the local senior citizens center. They would come and get her and everything (she doesn't drive). But no she would rather I entertain her. Which is fine but I feel very overwhelmed right now and fear I will have a major meltdown if this year continues like last year did.

Anywho, tomorrow I get my permanent choppers. I want to take pics and post the before and after on my blog. Hmm, I might even make a sushi run after my appointment. That sounds so yummy right now.

My sinuses have been going crazy and they have taken over my taste buds. I can't really taste anything that isn't spicy. So of course I want to eat unhealthy things. I haven't gained any more weight but I haven't lost any either. Only 5 more pounds and I will have reached my goal. Darn sinuses.