Getting Started....

So we just completed our first week of Homeschooling!! (well, it's actually the beginning of my 3rd year) We had a great week, and we got everything done that I wanted to. I decided to start off slow, keeping my expectations low so that I wouldn't get frustrated and overwhelmed by all of it.

I mentioned before that we would be having a few extra kids here to school with us, so our number has gone from 4 to 7 on weekdays from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

I also just finished completing 6 SLP's (Student Learning Plans) for them!!! Each of which is 7 full pages on my word program, complete with EALR's and all!! So gotta go for now....

A Little Less Overwhelmed...

I am feeling better today after all the events of the week. Kristy wants to be more involved with school over here so that has helped ease my worries a lot! Just knowing that someone else will be here to help me out with stuff no matter what it is has comforted me a lot. Thank you Krist-te-te :) I know that both of us are heading in the right direction and we just need to stay centered on what's important, why we are doing it and for who.......

News News News!!

OMGoodness!

Phew, Okay, I had to get that off my chest. Yesterday after much dwelling and trying to deal with my sad heart, I decided to do a huge thing. A friend of mine, who has been home schooling her children since they were school age, is going through the beginning of a separation with her husband and has had to return to work just to make ends meet. She has been torturing herself because putting her children in public school has been unavoidable yet untollerable, as I can understand. After having Cayleb home for just one year I can't imagine sending him back to a place that I know hurts him and demeans him. So, after much prayerful thought and consideration on my part I have offered to home school her children with mine until a things get straightened out in her life so that she can once again take over.

So, what does this mean for my family? Well, to start we all need to start going to bed earlier because her schedule requires her to drop off her 3 kiddos here at a bright and early 6:15. And since mine are used to getting up closer to 7 I need them to go to bed a little earlier so that I don't have crankies on my hands!! But that's not a huge deal. I am hoping that Sarah Rose can still manage to sleep in a little each morning so that I have a little time to get ready for the days. Next is the idea of having 3 extra kiddos here every day for school 5 days a week. I had already gotten myself mentally psyched for my 3, so 3 more of very similar ages doesn't seem to be a HUGE deal, though I do have a fair share of butterflies in my stomach. I think that for the most part it's just not going to be as relaxed as I was hoping it would be, at least not in the beginning because I need to develop a good routine and schedule that gets everyone where I need them when I need them there. We will need to try extra hard to stick to our schedule unless we want to go off on a tangent for a while :) It will be more like an assembly line instead of a well, I don't really have a good work for it right now.... But I am still hoping to cling to the relaxed reading time and sharing time and morning gathering time.

We will have one place to go each week, besides field trips, and that will be my kids two classes in Blaine each Tuesday. My truck will just hold the 8 of us! Hehe, Wow, I knew we needed lots of room, but lately we have been managing to fill her up quite a bit! (and I don't just mean the fuel tank!)

So, for now we are working through the preliminary set-up for what we will be doing and how to figure out what feeding the extra ones will cost us etc. So, I will leave it at that, because my brain needs to go work on something else for a while.

Jason's real Birthday!

So, Monday was the birthday date but Wednesday was his actual Birthday....

The kids picked out Pizza for Daddy's Birthday Dinner, so we made fresh pizza with Salami and Black Olives just for Daddy!! I also had been working on his cake since Monday....

Here's my secret cake design!!

Brownie crust, homemade double chocolate ice cream, homemade caramel sauce and a home made fudge topping!! A Diabetic Coma in one slice!! But, boy was it yummy!! :) He loved it!!

Just for Kristy :)

Here you go, just cause I owed you one!

The Dark Knight!

So I planned out this whole charade for Jason's Birthday this year... it got more and more complicated as the day wore on but ended up like this.....

A Short Recap-

I left him 4 notes around the house with information about where he could find me (The kids and I were not home!) and what to do etc..... Eventually he made it over to my friend Kristy's house where I had dropped off the kids so that we could actually have a real DATE!! And then we headed off..... I took him to Bob's Burgers and Brews (Superb Hamburgers and JoJo's) for a nice relaxing but informal dinner. Then we headed off to get our tickets for the movie that we had both been waiting forever to go see!! Batman has always been his favorite.... that was my first Christmas Present to him a LONG LONG LONG time ago..... 4 VHS tapes of the 4 Batman movies that were out at the time (Michael Keaton will always hold a special place as Batman in my heart, Val Kilmer Sucked and Clooney didn't do much better, this new guy is good though!!) So we went and got our tickets, but because we were taking our time, we missed the 7:30 showing and had to wait til 9:50!!! OMGoodness I was trying to hard to stay awake!! But I made it and the movie was great and we got to walk around the mall together for a few hours just talking and dreaming. We got popcorn and a soda to share and had stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few theater boxes of sweets to *sneak in* Come on, I'm not going to pay $4.00 for a box of candy that is $1 in the store!! Hehe!! The evening turned out perfect and he had a great time and so did I!!

A Second look at the Seattle Science Center.... and other good news :)

We had Sarah Rose's Post Op. appointment today in Seattle, so for the 3rd time this summer we drove down for a day in Seattle. We began bright and early leaving here a little after 8 and got down there a little after 10 (the science center doesn't open till 10, so we were right on time) We spent our time walking around the areas that we didn't get to spend much time on last time and ended with the 3D Ocean Wonders IMAX Film which was great!! We then headed out to Children's Hospital eating our packed lunch on the way and got there just in time :) The appt. went great and she doesn't have any more follow-ups thankfully cause the gas down there and back each time has been killing us!! But we made it, and she is all healed up and won't even remember what happened a few years from now probably :) Here are a few pictures from the Science Center....

Charity Ann, Noah and Cayleb

Me!!! You actually get one of Me, thanks to Jason :)

Sarah Rose :)

And last but not least, the Birthday Boy (this was the day before his Birthday!)

To my two 8-8-08 babies!!

Congratulations to Cheryl Ann Clark who delivered Jacob Daniel Clark this morning at 7:20 a.m. or so!!! And To Maria McDowell who had a C-Section this morning and delivered Taryn Avery McDowell at 8:08 a.m. Congratulations again and good job girls!!

Garden Snakes and the Wiggles

Yesterday I caught a little garden snake (garter snake if you want to get technical) and took it in to the kids. They loved it and immediately began begging to hold it so we went out side and they took turns. I was really amazed that they weren't even a little bit squemish. I guess they get that from me :) Though Daddy's caught them some cool stuff too! (like a newt, which are native up here) Kristy's girls were over here so they got to participate in show and tell as well...... Here are some pictures.

Cayleb held him first..... and yes, those are his fingernails.... sorry :)

Noah holding it next.....

Brittney.....

Kourtney......

Charity Ann even held the little guy :)

They were all very gentle and kept taking turns for a few more minutes, then Mom told them to catch and release! A little while later they caught their own! Good Job guys. We love God's creatures great and small :)

Marvelous Monday!

Between the yard sale, and two baseball games, we all had a great weekend. Saturday was the Yard Sale, not impressive in the way of sales goes, but lots of fun since I got to spend the WHOLE morning with my friend Kristy almost interruption free!! After the yard sale we had clean-up and then we were off to Jason's Annual Company BBQ which the held at the "Bells" stadium in B'ham. The food was decent, though this time they didn't have a vegetarian option.... So it was chips and potato salad for me. THe kids had a blast playing the games that they set up and just being around all the other kids! Sunday was relaxing for the most part for the kids and I. I worked on planning for school. And the kdis played outside most of the day. Jason, however, had lots of exciting fun going to Seattle with his Uncle, cousin and his cousins BIL to watch a Mariners game. They sat in the front row right behind 3rd base, which I hear is a great spot to sit, but I wouldn't know! They had a blast!! Last night I TOLD Kristy to bring the girls over here for a sleep over so that she and her hubby Jim could finish packing/cleaning and getting ready for moving today. So far the girls have been GREAT!! And the kids are having a blast with them here. I told Jim when I went and picked up bikes this afternoon that they were more than welcome to stay another night so that they could have another morning to organize before the munchkins came home for the first time :) I don't know if she will let them, however, because I know that she is prolly FREAKING out about the girls being a burden or something silly like that!!! So, if you happen to read this Kristy, they are FINE!!! Hehe :) Well, toodles for now. Gotta go watch kiddos!!