Happy Memorial Day!

We celebrated Memorial Day with a green Ogar and a crazy Donkey! Yes, we ventured out to see the latest Shrek movie. It was okay. I think they should have stopped after the second one, but hey who wants my opinion. This one was different but not as funny as the first two. I still laugh at Donkey and Puss in Boots every time.

Now we prepare for Civic Center week. This is my third Civic Center week of the year and will probably be my easiest. We have studio rehearsal tomorrow. Then we have two days of dress rehearsal at the Civic Center. Every thing about Poogie's dance studio is very organized and run very professionally. I have been happy with our experiences in the last two years. Now T's Cinderella rehearsals did run long and were exhausting but so worth it when you saw the dancers on stage. Poogie is just ready to strut her stuff, lol. I'm just ready for a break. After Saturday I will finally get one, I hope. So now off to bed to relax before everything gets crazy around here.

I've been a busy little bee.

It always seems like there is always something to do around here. Today was not exception. I started the day mowing our 2 and half+ acres. Not an easy thing to do when there's a million things to cut around. But I accomplished the task. And I even planned ahead for dinner. The kids wanted BBQ spare ribs in the crock pot. Easy to make an melts in your mouth. My mom took pity on me and made my favorite potato salad. So I baked an apple cobbler for desert and some cinnamon bread for breakfast while the oven was hot.

After a few minutes of rest I decided to begin working on finishing the decorations in Poogies room. All went well I was even able to use my Cricut to do some of the decor with vinyl. I can't show the actual picture of that creation on here because it also shows some personal info but I can show the cool collage we made to go on her long wall. We plan on putting a dance quote on the wall next to it with the vinyl. She choose all the pictures from the last year of dance that she loved. We can change them as things change.

Poogie has been busy herself. She has created the cutest thing. She began posting sign up lists on her door today. As of the week after recital she will be offering dance and zumba classes. She came to T and I to ask us if we wanted to sign up and if we wanted to take a class or private lessons. I mean how cute is that. T would benefit from it since she is more advanced than him in all forms of dance. He just says that she is a tough teacher and expects him to be perfect. Well she expects that of everyone including herself. I just thought is was so sweet. She always does lessons with her American Girl dolls so I guess she's branching out, lol.

R.I.P. Sony Cybershot

That's right my camera died. Right before recital too! I can't say that I loved the camera, it was okay. But it would have gotten me through recital. Alas, this did not happen so I must with much regret purchase a new one.

How did this happen. Well, I removed the memory card a while back and the end started to crack. I should have replaced it then, but hey it worked so why worry. Last week while removing it to download my son's scout pictures it fell apart. I got the photos off thankfully, but parts of the memory card were still in my camera. I shook it a little and a few pieces fell out, couldn't see anymore so I thought problem solved. NOT! I purchased a new memory card, which I should have done months ago and tried to put it in the camera. It wouldn't go in all the way. After looking with a flashlight I saw a large piece of the old memory card. Needless to say it did not come out without a struggle and the camera died in the end. It still takes photos but none of the buttons for settings works on the back.

So I spent all evening shopping for a new camera online. I knew what I really wanted was a new DSLR, but my budget just couldn't handle purchasing the one I want. The entry level ones are not what I want so I decided to get another good upper level digital. So I searched and read and searched and read until finally I narrowed it down to three choices. They were all a step above my Sony but beat out some of the entry DSLR's when it came to zoom and mega pixels.

So off I go to town thinking that one of the handful of stores would have one of these three cameras! Ha, after hours of searching I only found one. The one I really wanted and only the display model was left!!! So in the end I ordered it online. It will be here Tuesday! Just in time for me to take some photos at home of Poogie in all her dance costumes, and for me to get familiar with a new camera.

What did I end up getting? It is a Canon Powershot SX20IS. I think it will suit my needs for now. I will have to save for a while to get my DSLR and the lenses I want but it will be worth the wait. I'll let you know how it goes:)

A New Blog

I am really excited for one of my friends from high school who has started a blog about her wonderful recipes. I haven't had a chance to test any of her great food, but after reading her facebook posts everyday I am ready to try.

So check it out, it's called Dishin with Denise!

Summer plans

I said we would have a lazy summer. Maybe some art classes for Poogie, and some dance for T. Well that just went out the window, lol. We got the summer dance class schedule and they are both wanting to take some classes in July. It would be good for T to prepare for next year and Poogie wants to work on one specific thing.

I did make T choose between boy scout camp and dance, he choose dance. I just don't let them do everything, it's too much. They need down time to be kids. Poogie loves to play with her American Girl dolls, play basketball and ride her 4 wheeler and T likes to video game it. At least we have June to kind of chill out. And I don't plan on starting back to school until the second or third week of August. We will have a summer!!

To Do List

Since things are getting ready to slow down for the summer I made a to do list of things I would like to get accomplished in the upcoming months. Some I have to rely on my hubby to do when he is home, but others I can accomplish myself. So here is my list (it ranges from household stuff to school stuff)

What I have accomplished so far:

• Painted and redone our master bathroom.
• cleaned out and reorganized our walk in closet.

What I still want to do:

• replace shutters on all windows.
• extend and redo our front deck.
• build a small deck on back
• make a nice run for the dogs
• repaint the living room and kitchen
• refinish my bedside tables
• paint my scrapbook cabinet.
• purchase and organize the kids school work for the first semester
• complete the decorations in Poogie's room.
• Paint and rearrange my master bedroom

That is all I have so far, but I do believe it will keep me busy for a while. Since we decided against purchasing a new home right now, I want to make the one we have a little nicer. It's a work in progress, lol.

It's starting to finally feel like summer!

I feel like I have come out of my shell. The weather has begun to warm up, with a nice breeze in the air. I have awaken from my cave and now I am ready to stretch my legs, lol. After such a long winter and a rainy cool spring I am really enjoying myself. I started by buying me a few new pieces of clothing. That was fun and made me feel so much better when I didn't have to get a size larger like I thought I would after eating so much. I am tanning a little to get some color on my pasty skin. And I am taking better care of myself inside and out.

Of course, it is a work in progress. But it is fun work. I just ordered a set of zumba DVD's for the kids and me to workout to this summer. I can't and don't really want to make the long drive to town for a short daily class so we will have one at home. Poogie and T like to do it too, so it will be money well spent.

We also plan on doing some art lessons together. Poogie is very interested in art right now so I hope to get her in some classes this summer. Poogie and I plan on starting our nature journal soon.

T is will be working on moving up in his boy scout troop and improving his dancing skills with classes through the summer.

Of course, I have been busy wrapping up this school year, working toward recital with Poogie and buying new summer clothes for both of them. I took Poogie last weekend to get the basics of her summer wardrobe and will take T this weekend or the next to get his. It's not cheap but its worth it. They enjoy getting the new clothes and love shopping. I have to say it's worth the sacrifices we make to give our kids what they need and sometimes what they want.

Till later, enjoy the great weather.

Great find!

I have been spending a lot of my down time looking for next years curriculum. I thought I had found what I wanted but the kids changed my mind. They are so burned out on the textbook learning. Both of them want to enjoy science and history, their two favorite subjects. So I began to search for secular literature based curriculum. I like Sonlight and still plan on using it for Poogie for reading. But while searching through several new web sites and blogs I found a wonderful curriculum suggestion. It's called Otter science and Otter history. It is a free literature based science and history curriculum for Poogie and can even be adapted for T. There are tons of books with the history curriculum, some to purchase and some to get at the library. Many of the ones that needed to be purchased I have already found really super cheap on Vegsource and other sites. In other words I just wanted to let you all know about this little curriculum so you can check it out.

Summers almost here. Only a few more weeks of dance, yay! Then we can have some fun. Poogie has become obsessed with basketball and art. I purchased her a great little sketch pad, watercolor pad, drawing pencils, charcoal, and brushed to start her own nature journal. She was inspired by a book I picked up at the library, A Diary of an Edwardian Lady. I believe that is the title anyway, I can't find it at the moment. Poogie hasn't put it down since I brought it home. We also purchased her a new basketball goal since a storm a while back destroyed hers. That should keep us busy for a while, lol.

Well, I must go for now. Have a great day.

We survived!

We officially made it through the flood of 2010! Wow. I have been living here for 15 years and I have never seen so much water. It pretty much shut down the whole area. Roads were closed due to flooding, damage or the road was completely gone. We spent two sleepless nights of one tornado warning after another. Rain that just never stopped. And way too much time stuck inside a house with 2 bored, exhausted kids and a very restless American Bulldog.

But we made it and now I am ready for things to get back to normal. Don't know when everything will be back to normal since several of the main roads are still closed, but at least we don't have to hear the weather radio going off every 5 minutes.

On a good note I was able to spend the days searching and researching for our curriculum for next year. I have to say it is irritating trying to find anything other than Christian curriculum. Now, don't misunderstand, we have enjoyed some of the BJU curriculum. It is excellent. But I want my children to be able to read a science, history or reading lesson without the influence of Christian views. I believe and have always believed that religion does not belong in the classroom. I think the great thing about going to school and learning is to gather the information about the world, all the information, not just what someone wants you to learn, and to make your own choices based on that information. You need to know both sides of the issues, not just one. And that you are a better person for understanding the way other people live or believe, why they live or believe that way and not whether it is right or wrong but just different.

That being said I was so excited to find some great curriculum this year. For T and Poogie I finally found a secular science, Holt Science. I found it along with the all the supporting material including teachers manuals. From Holt publishers I also choose the history curriculum I will base their studies around. I plan on basing our literature read alouds and independent reading to go along with the time periods we will be learning about. I also want to purchase A History of the US from Sonlight since they will both be studying US history this year.

For T I only need a health book and maybe something extra for language arts. He already has most of the other subjects thankfully.

Poogie will be using Holt for science, definitely, and maybe history. I am debating between Holt and Sonlight. She will be using Sonlight for reading and read alouds. We will be using Saxon for math again, she loves it. And as of right now we will use Bob Jones for English, Spelling and Handwriting. We are comfortable using those and the content is very good.

Now all I have to do is finish out this school year, lol. We may be going way into the summer to complete everything, which I dread. Hopefully next year without having the YMCA cutting into two of our days a week we won't get so far behind in the fall. I hope:) Well I must go and surf the web for more curriculum. It's almost addictive!

Happy Birthday to....

ME! Yes, yes. Another year has come and gone. I get to add another number to my age. I consider it my numerical age. I don't feel anything like 38 years old, most days anyway. We had planned a fun weekend. My hubby was going to take me to Nashville Friday for my favorite food, Jack in the Box tacos and shopping. But we had to skip because Poogie had to be at dance class that day to get her costume and we wouldn't have made it back in time.

So we decided we go to Memphis on Saturday to eat and I would get to shop at Archiver's and Eclectica for scrapbooks stuff. Well, that went out the window when we were up till 5 am with one Severe Thunderstorm warning and Tornado warning after another. Then thanks to the torrential rain we are experiencing the worst flood in years. We couldn't even make it to a local town to eat out.

So trying to be sweet my hubby orders a pizza from a place close by so we can watch a movie and just chill. Well, we get home with the pizza and the power is out. Now come on, I just can't catch a break. Thankfully the power comes on and we do watch some of a movie. But, I am so tired from the lack of sleep I decide to turn in and try something different tomorrow.

It hasn't' been a bad birthday just an unusual one, one I definitely won't forget, lol.