Teacher?

Today was a classic homeschooling issue for me....who's the teacher?

Duchess was working on phonics, specifically blended sounds in big words. Words such as conscience, exhibition, shark, direction, shampoo and smash. Four pages of such words. The goal was to cut out all the pictures and match them to the words after tracing and writting the words. She cut them all out and put them in tidy, very OCD rows.

Then she sounded each out (some with a little help) and promptly matched up the words.

Until she got to smash.....to fully appreciate this conversation please note that my seven year old has quite the vocab. Seriously, between her mimi and don-don and myself, we constantly challenge her with big words so when she uses them sometimes out of the blue in that baby voice, it surprises me.

"Mom, smash is not a word."

"Yes it is honey"

"Let me borrow the computer, I'm gonna look it up. It's not a word mommy."

Me currently on Facebook says "no, it's a word honey."

"Show me smash then"

Me demostrates "smash-ing" a bug with my hand.

"That is not smash."

Me exhausted with this already, gently pushes the correct picture towards her to tape to the page.....

"That is not a picture of your word, smash"

Me trying not to lose my temper, "yes honey it is"

"No mommy, that is a man destroying a computer with a tireiron"

(speechless) me turning picture around to study tiny little picture...... "that is not a tireiron"

"Yes it is mommy, you use it to fix your car.....unless you call the fixit man like when you locked your keys in the car"

(sigh) "he's smash-ing the computer honey, it counts"

"No mommy he is destroying the computer. Smash is not a word"

"Love for the love of Christ, fine - "

(interrupts Duchess) "yes cause Easter is this Sunday"

She wins.

I got schooled by the 7 year old.

Read More

A Day in the Life of the "Griswalds" aka Us

So today was a typical "do or die" day in the life of our family, which I think I shall refer to us as the Griswalds. It seems proper since I shy away from revealing our last name. (Makes it harder for the devil to find me, lol)

So Dave is in crane prep for his national crane license. He's working sun up to sun down literally working on his practicals so he can blow it out of the water, typical husband of mine. I love ambition in a man, it's freaking hot. And he's freaking hot if I may wonder from the subject at hand, opps sorry.

Moving on, so he was up at sunrise and heading out to the school for more work outs and we started our school day early. We got school done even though the sun was shining and the kids were restless. We went through our errands quickly even though a visit to the grocery led to three well meaning ladies wanting to know where we were from, why my kids weren't in school and wow what a great life we must lead...why yes we do thank you...it's not without sacrifice but it's ours and we like it just like it is.

Instead of having lunch with Dave like planned we dropped some off for him and ran back to the rv for more math, cause I'm all about us some math these days. Then I gave up and decided to move math lessons out to the picnic table. Which actually increased productivity alot! Till Dave called and said surprise he was on his way home and we were going down the road to the South Texas State Fair.

It was ladies day so every ride, 1 coupon rather than 6 for us ladies. Since Dave doesn't do rides, that left me to ride with me oldest, Princess and Princess to ride with the baby, Duchess. God help me.........I don't do rides well. It's a good thing I hadn't eatten all day, it'd been messy. Cause not only did I get drug on the roller coasters but the 115 ft in the air swings...oh my lord. Seriously, Im not the brave parent at all but I kinda lost it and told my 11 year old that she sucks and "in four languages" which she told her dad, "thankfully she didn't actually tell me in other languages". Not cool mom!

Fun houses seemed real popular with my babies too, so they visited lots of those. The ferris wheel was awesome. The two kids went together and Dave and I stood in the shade below chatting and watching them when I noticed their cart at the tip top of the wheel with Duchess' head poked out, ohhhh I was hot. So then we had ride safety lessons for 10 minutes. I was hot.

We found me the cutest Texas purse to replace my big ole work purse that is falling apart. Now here is my confession on purses. I own a lot of purses. I have bought only the cheap ones for myself. The "good" ones are in storage in Utah. The really expensive ones were all bought for me: one by my former group of bosses when I left a job with a board of directors: they all pitched in for a to-die-for Brighton purse, another is from a bestie who told her husband to buy us purses overseas and he came home with real Coach purses rather than fakes, and then theres the beautiful beautiful purse from one of my boss' wives last year from overseas (although its so delicate I'm scared to use the damn thing) or the purse my hubs bought me for a birthday that got 2 years of use and is still immaculate. So see I rarely buy myself a purse. But I picked out the cutest little purse, brown leather and camo material with big ole redneck bling all over it and a huge honking cross on the wrong....will eventually post pics. The dang thing is adorable. Whoa way off track here..........

Anywho, so after being distracted by a purse and then taking it out to the truck while the kids stocked up on junk food and slurpies, we got back to the business at hand. Rides. We rode everything. And finally got Duchess to go on an adult ride with us: Mouse Crazy which was FUN! Def one of the best rides I've ridden. Except even though she sat in the middle, Duchess went from nervous to scaried to terrified to --------. Yeah she went comotose at one point. At the very end, even though I was holding her close and talking to her and explaining it was just a little roller coaster, she checked out. So much so that when we pulled in to dismount our car, the guy helping us out was like whoa, is she okay? Ummm no. Dave snatched her up and did the whole daddy will beat them up thing and 5 minutes later she was running off to go to a funhouse so it wasn't a lasting thing but man oh man. Lesson 1 learned: Duchess isn't an adventurer like the rest of us: kiddo rides only. Poor baby, she went straight from the big rides back to the little tyke rides like the oh so gentle caterpiller roller coaster which Princess rode in the very back cart, texting the whole time and Duchess sat up from with her hands raised whooping like crazy as it oh so slowly went around corners. Oh well.

So it was finally time to go and with the last tickets, Princess and I did one last screaming ride on the big roller coaster while Duchess went through another fun house with Dave standing guard outside. Except, I got off the ride to see her crying and standing next to Dave. That fun house had a mirror room and seems my baby couldn't get out, paniced and ran into a glass wall resulting in a huge pop knot on her head. Ice? check, crying kid leaving fair? check, kid bought off with candy? check............she just wanted her momma to carry her but at 7 my kid is now too big for me to carry as I can barely lift her. My kids are quickly outgrowing their mom. It's sad how short I am compared to them.

So we came home and cooked a quick dinner and sat around looking at one another......another day done to death in the Griswald rv home.

Read More

Watch This......

Since I'm into my senior level classes, it means proctored final exams! So Dave and I hit up the local library where I'd arranged for the head librarian to proctor us (that just sounds nasty doesn't it) and let the kiddos hang our in the kids section. We have a total of 4 hours to take the 50 question exams. It took me 2 hours exactly to make 98%. Go me.........kick some HR Management ass!

And now I need a big ole HR management ass nap! Back later with updates and deets.

Read More

Damn FB Games

When you have time on your hands, it easy to get distracted by facebook games. I've done mafia wars, got bored. I did farmville, got bored. I tried cafeworld, got bored. Social life, still giving it a go. However, Kingdom of Camelot and me are likey likey. I am a medevil queen! And I'm running this thing, been bumped up to running an alliance that I joined the other day. It's all about world domination............I so got this.........and I so got to get a life......help me please

Read More

We R Griswald

My life is never boring, never ever ordinary, never predictable, and frankly I am so thankful. It blows me away when I look around sometimes and see people going about their lives in a rut. Cause I've been there and it was for a reason, the Lord knew what I needed and when so once my surgery was done, my three years in Utah was revealed to me and I totally understood what it was I was suppose to do there. And why I was there for so long. But can I just say hello! My life is back on track: unpredictable, out of the ordinary, and full.

Love it!

So it shouldn't surprise me when things go awry, but it always does.

We headed up to Oklahoma for a quick last minute weekend trip. We needed to de-funk our rv storage and we have a closet at the lake house with room for our stuff that we don't need right now. So there we went......

We get past the "incident" and make it to the lake just in time for the cock to crow. Then us adults crashed for a while to sleep while the kids entertained pepaw. The afternoon brought us some fishing. Duchess was desperate to fish. She wanted to catch that first fish. And since they were out of fishing licenses at the boat dock, we were supervising the trip rather than joining it.

We got out there and after finally finding the exact cove that Dave wanted, we got the kids' lines in the water right off the boat slips. It was a beautiful, 70 degree day and Grand Lake never looked prettier! The water was a little cold though, as I slipped a flippy off and stuck my toe in, so we didn't dangle our legs in this time.

Although I did damn near fall into the drink trying to take pictures of my peeps. Along the edge of the entire slip I was standing close to the edge leaning over to take a pic of the three of them huddled together whispering talking fish stradegy. When the plank I was standing on, tilted...the damn thing and tipped me over towards the water, where I reached out with camera in hand to cling to a rusty pole. Except the rust on the pole was coming off in my hand causing mme to spiral around futher close to the water, when I screamed Dave's name and he jumped into hero mode to snatch me out of harms' way. Thank that man! Good heavens I would have been so very very freaking cold. But then he announced that I needed a full time keeper and made me sit quietly on the dock on my bum so they could fish in peace. Sigh.......my life is such drama......

And the drama continued......sundown brought no fish, not one nibble so we headed back to the house and planned to go first thing in the morning for Duchess' first fish. Cause the afternoon was already planned......4x4-ing under the dam. Something Dave and I have spent many of weekends out there doing and loving!

But alas, we returned to the house to find pepaw frowning at the weather report. With good reason. The next morning it was 20 something, and the rain quickly turned to sludge. So we spent some family time together and headed into town to get us some Chinese food and toothbrushes (cause yuck, what a thing to forget) when it went from sludge to flat out snow.

It snowed until morning. We were suppose to go to church then get on the road for our 9 hour drive back to Beaumont but alas.......it was crazy crazy snow everywhere so we packed up and left. It took 12 plus hours to get home as we had to go out of our way to get out of the March storm. Fun times.........

But we had a great time and as usual.........we r griswald

Read More

A Tale for All Parents

So we left Texas in the late evening, intent on driving straight through to Oklahoma to visit my inlaws and our favorite lake. So we did just that. Murphy napped, the kids watched tv and I read by flashlight (don't hate on me, I have to read when I can) and Dave drove. It was quite uneventful until we hit Muskogee, Ok.

Then I had to call up my bank and make sure I had enough cash on hand to bail out my husband.

Cause I was just sure that he was gonna:

A. Kill someone with his bare hands

or

B. Shoot them point blank between the eyes with his gun that is always in his waistband

And frankly I was all for either.

See we hit up a truckstop in the wee wee hours of the morning, before the sun was up...when bakers are just yawning over that first batch of donuts.

Princess needed to pee and Dave jumped out to take her in. The place was sparse. So in they go into their respective bathrooms. Upon exiting, Princess was waiting on Dave. This never happens, he always beats up "seaters" out. So on the way to the truck, out the front door they come and he asks her why. She says she'll tell him in the truck.

Stop. They stop in the parking lot. And I watch from the truck as he goes from sweet concerned dad to super pissed off short tempered cowboy I married in zero to nothing flat.

Oh boy, here we go. I release my seatbelt and go to open the door. Intent on heading off whatever storm is coming, cause that is my job as wife.

But Princess comes running over as he goes storming back in the store and tells me:

A guy came in the womens bathroom while she was in there and went into the stall next to her.

She hurried up and left without washing her hands, sorry mom.

I climbed back into the truck with my kids and sat.

Waiting on the flashing lights, I would put up bail in a heartbeat.

However, the wait was killing me and so I locked the kids in and popped my head into the store cautiously to see what the holdup on killing someone was. Seriously, we had to get to the lake. Kill him and move on.

But as I stuck my head in, Dave looks back and nods to the truck. So I went back. To wait and watch through the windows.

Finally Dave comes out and finishes talking with one of the store clerks. Nods then gets into the truck. No lights, no police, no gunshots, no anything.

Huh?

He gets onto the highway before he speaks. He went in, stood guard outside the bathroom but noone came out. So he grabbed one of the pimply clerks and tells him that a man went into the womens bathroom. Kid actually laughed and said it wouldn't surprise him. Till he gets a good look at Dave's face and when Dave told him that his eleven year old daughter was in there, then things changed. The clerks went and checked the security cameras.

Turns out, my kid was right.

Kinda

I very very manish looking trucker with a deep heavy voice did go into the womens bathroom.

SHE did look like a man, talk like a man but well............she wasn't a man.

Just a burly old trucker lady.

So now bloodshed.

But was so proud of how my kid handled it!

And pleased to get back on the road. Glad that Dave's first arrest wasn't in front of our kids. lol

Read More

Break Out

What do you do when you get restless and live in an RV....and your man gets a 3 day weekend?

You hit the road for a little vacay.

Will report deets and pics on Monday, we're enjoying Grand Lake this weekend y'all.

Be safe and don't talk to strangers!

Love,
H4G

Read More

For My Viewing Pleasure...

Showtime has decided to graciously heed my hate mail warnings and bring back "united states of tara" (hello multiple personalities!) and Nurse Jackie (hysterical and gory, like someone i.e. me falling down the stairs and laughing while it hurts).

Thank you Showtime!

More to watch after my school is done when the kids are in bed.

Read More

What 2 Do at 3 am?

One thing about being sick is that I never get the sleep I need when I need it. Sun and Mon night I was up till 2 am. Last night, I went to bed early but was up at 330 am. I get the sinus headache and no pills on earth help so I read with my ereader on the largest print zoom and chill.

However, this morning I watched this season's episodes of The Good Wife. I'm hooked on this show. Maybe since once upon a time I was a pre-law major, maybe cause I love a good argument, but I love this show as it has the law stuff as well as the family dynamics. That said, I think Peter (aka Mr. Big) is a sleeze and honestly want to shake Alicia for staying after the whole cheating scandel. What a crock of crap that girl has taken...... hello........when there is Will......geez....anywho, if you haven't caught an episode of that show, go to cbs.com and check it out. Good stuff!

So I'm off to dope up on all my meds and then use my sinus cleaner thingy tortune device. I'm hoping to not have to leave home today at all.....cross your fingers for me.

Read More

Dudes,

I have the black plague, seriously dragging. I have facial seepage.........how disguisting is that crap......my tear ducts are seeping, my nose is seeping and my ears are totally plugged. I'm dying and I'm cranky as shit. Warning........

However, I did manage to get my teach on today. We had a full day of school and the kiddos did great. So proud of my babies!!!!

Back when the seepage stops and I don't feel like running over strangers with my car.

Read More

Dear Idiot:

Thank you for taking your sick sorry arse out into public with that horrible cold. Thank you for then breathing on something in the vicinity of me. You thoughtless jerk.

Love Sincerely,
Hope4Grace
brought to you today by Mucinex D, orange juice, naps and snot rags.......

Read More

Process and Focus

Today was a fun school day for me, I got to break out my trusty red pen. It was process and grading day. We started out the day in history for Princess, which gives us good reading practice and enabled us to spend some one on one discussing the beginning of man kind (i.e. bible based and evolution). I love the brain on my kid. She gets the comprehension stuff better than I would have thought and her questions are always mature and make me think for the answer. Good challenge! Then she moved on to spelling and penmenship. Next up is math and science before we're done for the day. Today we're going over order or operations so she is looking forward to that one! Science is all about energy.

Duchess is having a "I can't focus day" which means she is sitting right next to me and I've called her name a million times to get her out of "daydream" land and back to earth. Honestly, I'd love to know where she visits when she spaces out. Narnia? Disney Princess Hell? Who knows with this kid! She started with spelling and as usual, aced her test. She loves the spelling exercises we do (rainbow colors, story writing, backwards/forewards words) so she does really well in spelling. Cursive writing is up next, finally broke through and got the concept and did really well. It's been like teaching Greek up until this point. Go baby go. Math was fun, she got to take a test on double digit subtraction which she killed, so we are on to subtraction regrouping tomorrow. Last up is phonics for her, she is getting her book down now, and gripping all along the way........love my baby.

So other than the indepth school lessons, it's a beautimus Friday here in Texas. Nothing special planned for this weekend, just enjoying ourselves. The kids are dying to see the beach so hopefully we can work in a trip. Also, they are eyeballing the damn pool here so we may have to soon invest in swimsuits. Frankly I'd rather somebody strung me naked out in a field and covered me in peanut butter than appear in public in a swimsuit. Oh sweet baby Jesus....help me.

Read More

Humid and Foggy

The weather we have had lately here is so strange for us. After three years in Utah, I get as giddy as a little kid when we have rain all day. Light drizzles - ok. Thunderstorms - ok. We open the blinds and just school happily. I had forgotten how humid it can be but it's still better than snow. So bring it!

We're still in Beaumont, which shouldn't surprise me as these jobs tend to never follow a deadline like normal jobs. We still aren't sure where we are going next but God is good and frankly we're not stressed. We're just enjoying our time together. Very exciting!

School has become more regemented as of lately as my oldest is dragging her feet so we got our groove on it. Her attention span would much rather be dragging along than actually doing something productive so mommy had to drag out the velvet covered hammer. I am teacher, hear me roar. So here we go......... Mon, Wed, Fri are 8 am start days with lessons planned out. Tue and Thurs are noon start days as we have our service projects in the mornings and we added some times for errands. Sat is for extra work needed and projects as well as field trips. Going into our second grading period of homeschool and I'm a happy mom. Both kiddos' made honor roll and I can say they worked their butts off for it. Yeah!!!!

Dave is scheduling his next certification, he's getting his big ole crane license which just adds to his collection of certs. He's an overachiever lately and I so do heart that! Go baby go. So we're excited about having a week soon in another area to explore.

Otherwise not too much going on around here.........just living, loving and rv-ing.

Read More

Days In Our RV - the coolest soap on web

Today is everything I remember Texas as being.........HOT, muggy and overcast. It's a very "I need a shower day" with a filmy layer and I don't care.

Yesterday was rain rain rain. SO much so that before lunch in the dead of schooltime Dave calls and says to fire up the F250 and come get daddy from work....those precious words: RAINOUT. And when I showed up to pick him up driving that F250 dressed in jean capris with knee high rain boots, a black shirt, a black hat and no makeup, he said I looked cute. I can't remember being this "not" concerned with how I look. It's very refreshing after years and years and years of my "work" self.

Today my tummy is "off". Not sure if it's a bug or what but I really feel like I could barf but a quick nap helped. Now we have spelling and language under our belt we're off to get propane, start some towels to wash and come back for another round of math. Bring on the school! - insert gang sign - yo

I'm knee deep in my school, their school and keeping out small RV clean and organized so we can all walk around in here. Although yesterday I had the perfect reason to clean it from top to bottom. Dave gave up trying to find an independent groomer and he gave Murphy a haircut himself............in our RV............oh dear god. In January we took our little man to Petsmart and they hurt him, so he's been gunshy and frankly so were we, but he was the perfect little guy last night, patiently letting Dave groom him and do his nails. Two hours later we had a gorgeous doggie! And doggie hair EVERYWHERE. So yeah I had my work cut out for me. Next time we're doing it in the shower house dang it! But we're dog hair free and now if only I could get their history lesson finished I'd feel better about my day.......sigh........gotta get moving here.

Read More

Sunday In An RV

So we got up to do church this morning and we had a great traveling preacher visiting. With a sermon on growing a new heart and learning to start over, it was a priceless lesson. Very good stuff there.

Then since Dave had a rare day off we took the kids on a field trip. More on that later.

The most interesting part of my overcast, chilly day? Well Dave and I are battling laptops at the dinette doing school work while the kids are watching movies. At some point, Princess turned around and stuck her head next to Dave's and they were pretending that Dave had two evil heads, when disaster struck. Princess got the hysterical laughing snorting gasps. And proceeded to spit up her entire mouthful of crackers down the front of Dave's shirt over his shoulder. She was choking and gasping for breaths, trying to get herself under control and the look on my husband's face was thunderous. So I jumped up, grabbed the handy dandy little vaccum cleaner and literally vac-ed him off. Princess went from hysterical laughing to hysterical breakdown mood. I'm puzzled. I honestly thought 11 was too young for hormone issues........

Read More

Ruh-Roh!

In the words of scooby, ruh-roh. Noticed something interesting on my blog today. My real name is right out there for anybody with a slow enough internet connection to figure out......and I'm too lazy to change it.....shhhh....don't tell!

Did you find it?

Read More

Off the Wall

What do you call a pill bottle full of bullets?

A bottle of terrorist microchips...implant in the forehead.

Do you see why my life is never boring? This is what happens when Princesses asks silly questions and Dave's in a good mood.

The things my kids learn.....sigh

Read More

Sunny Saturday in Texas

It was such a beautiful day. We made hay, getting in over 8 hours of school sitting here with the windows and blinds open with a slighty chilly breeze blowing through. Oh it was heaven. The girls were just on target today.

Princess finally nailed the double digit divison! Yes! This was huge peeps as she learned this last year but it wasn't until mommy was the teacher that I noticed that she has only about so-so with it. But we got it today! Yes! Big accomplishment for us. Now we're on to reviewing fractions in math.

Murphy spent his day barking happily at other dogs passing by. He is such a shit. Really. But I love him, even if he sleeps horizontal in our vertical length full sized bed. I miss my big arse bed.

Duchess wrote me the prettiest note today and only misspelt one thing. Not bad baby girl.

I got fried potatoes going in the electric skillet, steaks on the camp grill and bbq beans in the tiny oven. Yum. The only thing that would it more perfect? Is when Dave walks in the door soon after his long long Saturday at work.

We're blessed down here. Hope you are counting your blessings too!

Read More

I found satan

Princess and I are working hard. And I have to tell you, I have discovered one of Satan's hiding places........

76/87554

Double Digit Division

It's the devil.

And after two days of nonstop drama and wrong answers and frustrated kid/teacher combos...we had a breakthrough.....

And celebrated by going to SONIC!

Read More

Good Feelings

Today is a great day. It's sunny, beautiful and peaceful. Since Dave works Saturdays, we do school on Saturdays so I give my kids Friday off school. What a peaceful wonderful day it is. We get our errands done, we hang out and relax. We talk, laugh and do all our upkeep stuff, like nails.

Except it's the first Friday of the month....which is the day I pay ALL the bills. The regularly scheduled ones, not the straggling medical bills from my surgery that come floating in one by one. Before, I'd be up at midnight working on bills and trying to juggle my checkbook while dreaming of sleep. Instead, I'm chilling at my rv dinette, going through my checkbook and paying bills online while the kids sing to Veggie Tales.

You see I'm gonna be honest here for a minute peeps. When we both had good paying jobs, we had big ole bills. Somewhere along the way, as we increased our income we increased our bills. Just like most people in the "good ole American dream". While we had a continious income we had continious bills. Oh let me count the sheer amount of bills, not counting normal stuff like house, utilities, cars, insurance, and credit cards....we had karate, daycare, work clothes, school stuff like choir, fundraisers, the nanny, and the list goes on and on.....

So one of the major reasons while I'm content to live in an RV and travel with Dave's job? Well let's look at Dave's job first. It's a well paying job, but while we were supporting him in Texas and us in Utah, it didn't seem that well paying. Groceries x 2, housing costs x 2, gas x 2 and etc. So let's look at the past six months of my life: I had a major surgery which required 8 weeks off work and still it was so hard to go back to work. My heart wasn't in it, neither was my body, I was exhausted and not even trying to put my happy face back on. I wasn't healed up yet. So when 5 days later, they laid me off, it was the biggest blessing the Lord has ever given me. I can't describe the weight it removed off my chest. Dave's immediate response to this news was to begin playing to move the kids and me with him. He knew from that first instance what we needed to do. And you know what...........it's brilliant. Far from perfect by brilliant.

We leased out our house, we gave alot of stuff away, we put some stuff into storage and then moved with a couple of totes of crap into his rv in Texas. When you consider the sheer amount of bills and drama we have cut out of our budget and/or life, it staggers the mind. We own our RV outright, the lot fee includes the utilities and is dirt cheap compared to rent/mortgage payments. My tiny fridge means I shop often but there is NO waste of food building up in the pantry and fridge. Yes, this is a temp thing. It won't be forever, but for the next year or two this is our future. (unless the Lord changes that, we are in his hands). We get to travel at the drop of a hat, we can go visit family and friends if the thought hits us right. We do school together, we do everything together. I have never been closer to my kids.

And before we did this, I've never sat down and paid all my bills at the beginning of the month in one lump sum before. What a blessing. We aim to be completely debt free by the end of the year (cars included) except for the house in Utah. Now some of you are my heroes. You are debt free or else you learned that lesson years ago and now strive to be debt free.

And while there are no guarantees in his line of work, we are padding our savings and paying off our bills while spending all of our time together. Very unorthodox methods for achieving a dream but we didn't plan this, the Lord did. How very blessed we are that the Lord set us in motion for this blessing! You often hear how "walking on faith" is the only way, well peeps let me tell you, I had to learn the meaning on walking on faith the hard way. Quit stressing, quit forcing things to happen in your life (can't tell you how many blessings I've screwed up by forcing things I wanted), and listen to the Lord.

And so I'm off to snuggle with my youngest for nap time! Blessed be you and yours.

Read More

Dear Stalker (Not My Husband)

I do so heart visitors to my page, and even if you have a criminal record (as long as it's not a felony record cause then we'll have to pass, sorry) I don't care that you visit. But be a peach, speak up. Try a comment out there ever once in a awhile so I know who be stalking my arse.

Frankly it's more fun when everyone participates, so say hi. Drop us a line, just don't show up at my door. There isn't enough room in this traveling circus for overnight guests. :)

Read More

oh my lord...

I really needed a good laugh this morning and oh man, the place to get it is "Modern Family". I laughed myself till I thought I'd have to change my pants. Geez. I do so heart that someone else (even fictional) is living the Griswald dream.

Oh let me count the ways.....but I'll save you there and not get into it. No examples of the gasping, crying laughing parts. Except: the definition of Phil's for yager.......omgawd

Anywho, we did our service project this morning. It absolutely makes my heart soar when the kids do something wonderful for someone other than themselves. They made beautiful pictures for Ms. Orange's wall and then we painted nails. The kids were so excited to see their names as volunteers of the month in the monthly newsletter. Such an amazing thing!

So back to work at school we go.......

Read More

Challenges Galore

Duchess and I are doing one on one math right now. Since we began homeschooling in the middle of the Christmas break, I ordered them their corresponding years worth of books through Abeka. So we make sure to do reading and math everyday while doing work on the other subjects throughout the week.

What really has me boggled is Duchess' math abilities. Her teacher when we parted ways gave me her progress report and her year end goals. She was working on subtraction. First grade subtraction. So even though we began our homeschooling journey in the middle of the year, I had Duchess start at the beginning of her 1st grade math book so that we could see exactly where her abilities were and if she needed any additional help before we moved on to harder things.

She nailed the addition and subtraction: in the weeks since we began HS or mommy is in charge of your education: as I like to call it, Duchess has shown signs of being a sponge.

In January, we began money counting, today she made 100% on her final money counting review. This past weekend, she counted up the cash in Dave's wallet for fun. Today she informed me sadly that all I had in my purse was $1.24 so I should hit the ATM. :) The kid is all about it. We also covered before and after numbers, skip counting by 2, 5, and 10's. She got that too.

In Feb., we began time counting the old fashioned way. She quickly grasped the hour hand, although we had to stop using my wristwatch as an example cause the second hand was too distracting for her, she'd continue to change her answer as it went clicking by. She then got the half-hour, 15 minute intervals and this past week she nailed the minutes totally. Today she took her big time test after we did review with flashcards. She kicked it's ever loving butt with 100%. Starting to get a little scary.

Today, I decided while looking through the book to move her ahead a couple chapters past the time/money/addition/subtraction reviews to greater/than less than. I wanted to challenge her and decided to use new stuff and intermingle it with reviews weekly on the previous stuff to keep it fresh. So I sat down and drew out a greater/than less than chart. Except my chart had little teeth and tails showing how the "mouth" side was always hungry for the bigger number and the "tail" side was pointing to the littler number. She thought this was hysterical and we cut out a greater/less than sign out of our foam paper and set down to play some games. She got it. Then she blew through her practice test. Ouch, sponge.

So I pulled out the big guns. I set up the double digit addition with the occassional carry to see if I could wipe that "I got this" grin off her face. Ummm, I got her. Except after the first one, she didn't need my help and proceeded to nail the entire list. Big time sponge.

So I sent her off to color and play while Princess and I sit down to go over her math. Lord help me, but honestly I see why teachers have problems keeping kids' attention in school. My baby is literally a sponge and it's more of a challenge to me to keep her interested and learning than it is for her to figure it out and move on. She keeps this up and I'm gonna have to spend some of my evening times brushing up on MY math to keep up.

Read More

Hump Day!

Sometimes I have too much time on my hands...like rainy days in which those of us with a cold do not want to venture out at all. And since I'm a certified facebook addict, it should come as no surprise that I found something as quirky as I am. Status Shuffle: for those too lazy to think up their own witty and intriguing status lines. Really you should give it a shot: these are my favorites that I have on hold for future use......yes I look through them and save some for quick posting.....

I'm not short, I just agree not to be taller.

Talking on the phone to people with kids is like talking to someone with Turrets.

Today it isn't worth the time it would take to chew through my restraints.

Just a few of my favs......so much better than 1. bitching about your life nonstop or 2. raving about your bad kids which is what I notice that most people do.........hell I'm no different. So this is my way of breaking free. Let's talk about my post-surgery attitude issues! Yes! Way better than saying that I hate bad drivers. Anywho......

Is anyone else out there hooked on the latest season of Big Love? If so, we gots to talk. Man, what a timebomb! I thought being on the road would suck with no tv but I found some great "borrow" sites where I can watch any show any time. Awesome!

So homeschool today is like pulling teeth! Duchess had a timely lesson on manners. That was fun. We read a story, read a poem, started memorizing our poem, went over examples, and then colored pictures to reenforce.......sigh. I sliped a comment or two about farting in public in there as well. Princess is working on learning the New England states. She is dragging her feet. Would it be wrong of me to eat Sonic for lunch while she watches as punishment? Yeah I know. Never mind.........sigh........

But we send happy "soon to be spring" thoughts to you from Texas! Where the weather is great and the people are friendly! Where even the people who work the drive thru window are helpful and cheerful, I don't miss so many things about Utah.

Read More

Close up Time!

Today was a day I dreaded. My poor traveling children were overdue for a teeth cleaning and Princess had a filling pop out so it was off to the dentist. Previously dental expeditions were all about crying jags, big ole bills and the "orthodontist" talk. So it's not something I have looked forward to in the past. Also since dentist keep banker hours, I usually had to use my organizing skills to arrange time off work, juggle the kids' schedule and then trying to get us all there and back in one piece. In other words, one big ass ole headache.

Today was a gift from God. Thank you sweet Jesus. Duchess no longer needs the "hold my hand" treatment, and let's pretend its because she has so much mommy/daddy time now and feels more comfortable and secure. In reality its probably cause she is gettting older and more mature. But she waved me back and went on back for an xray and cleaning WOM, which stands for WITHOUT HER MOMMY. Big improvement.

Princess did the same, see you later routine. However, she did request my presence when they started to look over the broken filling. Then after we decided what to do, I was dismissed to play on my phone in the reception. Which is why most of you got calls from me this afternoon. I actually had some free time that wasn't wrapped up in school or family drama. :) I try peeps.

However, both girls came out with NO cavities or sugar bugs in mys teeth, as Duchess would tell you. The dentist came out to visit with me. Both girls have a beautiful teeth formation, no crowding, no huge overbites. Both are looking fantastic. Teeth are in healthy shape and they are doing well flossing. All good news. No need for othro yet. It was a huge victory for the mom! Woohooo!

Now, that said. I have mentioned that I'm trying very hard to raise proper little ladies. Well proper little ladies do not pass gas so loud and viscious in the reception area and then giggle out an "excuse me". Peeps, one old man got up and moved to the other side of the room. I was mortified. Are my kids the only ones who think gas is hysterical? I blame their father! And come to think of it, momma you get some of that blame too. If it's not tooting to high heaven, it's Princess' habit of ripping off loud and very very manly burps. Not seriously just burps either, I mean roughneck, redneck loud startling burps. Dear god, I catch myself crossing myself when she scares me and I'm not even Catholic. How do you curb such nonladylike behavior.

That said, I have to go clean the inside of my RV.....

Read More