Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Fenwick Island, Delaware June 2011

I'm baaack!

I think I had a really good blog post in my head the other day, and now I have no idea what it was even about. I don't generally talk about hormones on my blog (which is pretty challenging since our family has two teenagers and a 41 year old mom), but for some reason I am constantly feeling hot and no one else in my family is! Ugh, I'm not ready for this!!

I'm also very frustrated because I'm here on the real computer so I can upload and post vacation pictures, and the computer is not cooperating! This is only making me sweat more! It's not pretty!! I thought I could at least do the ones from my phone since the computer can't seem to read my memory card right now, but that's not working either. The phone ones are in my email, but I'm having a very difficult time trying to open them!

So no pictures, no good blog post, what's the point right? I bet you're disappointed you even clicked on this!

I guess the best I can do is a "random thoughts" kind of post, so here goes...

I have never had the people at Publix help me out with my groceries. I am more than capable of doing it, and I don't think anyone needs to serve me in that way. I do however tend to look down on people who let the Publix people do that... not the elderly people or the mom with 4 kids, but the regular able bodied adults. In my convoluted brain this goes along with my thoughts about not judging others. I do a pretty good job or not judging people based on how they look or dress etc, with one exception, I judge judgers very harshly. I think I've blogged about this before. I really go wild inside my own head thinking bad things about people who I presume judge others. How's that for irony?!

There are times when my blog feels like a Seinfeld episode. Well, except that it isn't nearly as funny or well written. It is sometimes about NOTHING though. In case you hadn't noticed, this is one of those times.

Jonathan and Madi's mission trip is coming up in just over a week. I'm getting really excited about it. For one thing I'm not the one who's going to be outside working in the heat or sleeping on a classroom floor. But truly it is going to be a great experience for them. There were so many times where it looked like it might not be happening and now it is and it's almost here. I've tended to sound apologetic when I tell people they are going on a mission trip to the city that is an hour away from here. Really though, where better to start than your own backyard? Speaking of backyard, the rainy season is finally upon us and some sod is going to be delivered on Friday. We came up with a good game plan in between doing it ourselves and paying actual lawn people to do it. It is called paying and feeding Jonathan and some of his friends to get it all done on Saturday morning! I'm pretty happy with this idea. I can make a lot of pancakes and hot dogs and hamburgers when it means not having to lay sod. I will be sweating anyway, I can pretty much guarantee that!

We have a free trial of xm satellite radio in the car right now. We also have an opportunity to extend it for a while for a small fee. I'm loving it! Especially the 80s station. Yesterday I heard this song, that I had almost forgotten about. Anyone else remember it?! (well I know one of you will:)!) How cool is it that we now have the technology to pull up any song we want any time we want to hear it?! Gone are those high school days when we just had to surf the radio dial trying to find a good song!

Well my persistence with the computer paid off and I was able to eek out these three pictures of our vacation. Now the computer and I both need to cool off and then maybe some time in the next month the rest of the pictures will be on here.



Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Aye yie yie!

It's been one of those days.

I purchased my first ever deal from Living Social ($60 tile and grout cleaning), only to find out that my zip code is not included in the promotion (and we really really need our grout cleaned!!). I was able to get my credit card credited relatively painlessly, but that totaled about 20 minutes of frustration, time that could've been better spent. (Jonathan says he'll do it for $30 and that sort of makes sense because I imagine he'll do about HALF as well as the professionals would have, I'm a littled concerned his job might be HALF-@$$ed).


The next thing was that we purchased American Idol tickets last month for the show that is next month. I've been watching the mail for the tickets that have not come. Dealing with this included contacting (and waiting on hold with) the credit card company and ticketmaster. In the end I got the tickets emailed to me and a $5 credit on my card, but I spend tons more time and frustration on this.

Then I corrected Jonathan's last Geometry test, which culminated in an A in the class. Technically he has four more extra assignments to do, but his tests and thus his grade are completed. This was perfect timing since their homeschool evaluation is scheduled for tomorrow. Oh except that while we were going over the test the evaluator called to reschedule, so now this won't be finalized until after our impending 10 days away. Will this school year ever end?

Then I removed a tick from Mickey. It's taken 12 years of us living here for ticks to have migrated from Connecticut. They've officially arrived!! Just in time for us to have a dog!

Now I'm itching all over thinking about the tick. I burned it to death and I'm not ashamed to say I enjoyed every minute of it!


All of this since lunch.

While I am happy that I've gotten my money back, and my tickets, and Geometry is essentially done, and Mickey is safe and the tick is dead, I really wish I could get my afternoon back.

Oh and it's 6:00 and we don't yet know if we are meeting out of state friends at their Disney hotel tonight. It's looking like the evening may go a lot like my afternoon did. Good thing we know how to enjoy at Disney hotel pool even if we never end up hearing from our friends.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Update...

The problem with blogging is that you then have to go back and update. For example, the date Mike and I were going to have became a trio after Jake got stung by a bee! This was his first bee sting ever. We went to Chili's and Jake actually fell asleep on the 5 minute ride home (Benedryl). The good news is, before yesterday, Jake was pretty sure if he ever got stung by a bee it would kill him. He definitely played it up pretty well last night, but he now knows it's not the end of the world to get stung.

He is currently outside with his baseball glove and hat waiting for his "building school" neighbor to come out and play on this first day of "building school summer vacation". I was going to facebook that, but then I thought it might look a little too stereotypical that the poor homeschooled kid has been waiting all year for his friend to be home. The truth of it is the sweet building school friend has only ever had his cousin and Jake over to play in the six years that we've lived here. Jake on the other hand, has a homeschooled bff coming over later today. Part of why he's so eager to play baseball is that the game was cut short last night by the bee sting (and the trip to Chili's). When we got home with sleeping Jake, said neighbor and cousin were hoping he'd be ready to play some more, but instead, he needed to be carried up to bed.

In other news, I downloaded two books to my e-reader. This could get to be an expensive habit because it is so easy! With one click (and a registered credit card) you can be reading in seconds!! DAN-GER-OUS!!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

More thoughts

I finally got back on here and corrected most of yesterday's post's mistakes.

I had my first acupuncture treatment today. This is mostly for general wellness. It's been working so good for Madi, I decided to give it a try.

I successfully defeated our first algae infestation in our new pool. I'm not sure how, with two able bodied teenagers in the house, I became the one to keep the pool functioning properly. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they have far more schoolwork to do than I do (and they've got a pretty hefty chore-load besides). I have also spent considerably more time in the pool than they have. Jake and I are the ones that go in just about every day.

I'm doing really well avoiding watching the news, specifically the Casey Anthony trial. Today, however, Madi and I got pedicures at the mall (we came home the long way from acupuncture) and there I was in the massage chair, with my feet alternating between the soaking bubbler and the warming lotion and hot towel, and there in front of me was Casey Anthony on the big screen TV. Way to ruin a relaxing moment huh?

We went camping last weekend with friends that we've been talking about camping with for the last year and a half. We went to a really cool spring and enjoyed the natural Florida. We will definitely be going back there!

For the better part of two days last week my ipod would not turn on. It was a sad scene around here. Exactly 24 hours later, it came back no worse for the wear.

We will be on vacation one week from today. We are all looking forward to it. Mike's office has moved from 10 minutes away to a full hour away (have I even blogged that?), this means he is basically gone during almost all of his waking hours each day (another reason why I'm in charge of the pool). It will be nice to spend some time together!! Actually he and I are going on a date as soon as he gets home, so it's not like we don't spend time together, it's just that the days of playing skipbo before he goes to work, having him home for lunch, and then back home by 6 are long gone:(.

I got an e-reader for my birthday in February, and have done very little with it. Really, I've been waiting for Jonathan to figure it out for me. It seems like buying books for it is fairly easy. The thing is, usually I don't BUY books, I check them out of the library. It will be great for trips though because instead of taking 100 books in the car with us, we can narrow that down to about 50. Madi is doing an American History co-op next year that will require a lot of reading and I'm hopeful that we can get some of the books on the e-reader. It is not a nook or a kindle, it is the Radio Shack version, called pandigital.

Speaking of books, I've been going to town on the Karen Kingsbury Baxter Family books. The first series has six books that all start with re (like remember and reunion), then I read the next series which is the firstborn series (and those all start with f like family and found). Then I took a short break and read two really good books in 3 days, Three Willows by Ann Brashares (which Madi read as soon as I finished) and ROOM (which I absolutely LOVED!!!). Now I'm back with the Baxters, and I'm on the second in this series (they all start with s like sunrise and sunset). They aren't the best books in the world, but I'm really going to miss these people when I finish!

Madi is reading like crazy as well.

Jake and I finished Homer Price last night. It got me in the mood to watch Andy Griffith because it has that Mayberry feel to it. Andy Griffith is an instant watch on Netflix, but we haven't gotten to it yet. Jake and I started reading Farmer Boy last night. We had an interesting discussion about how Homer Price is from "the old days", but Farmer Boy is the "even older days". Jake is reading the Ron Roy Calendar Mysteries, but he's not as into them as he was the A to Z Mysteries.

We had a scare last week when it looked like there was a chance that Jonathan and Madi's mission trip might be cancelled. It is back on, and we are praying it stays that way. Join us please? (in praying I mean, not on the trip... although if you want to be a chaperone that might be good:)!)

Well, my date should be here any minute, so I'll stop now.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Thinking thinking always thinking

Sometimes it really feels like my brain is going to explode! I've said before that with our first baby having seizures and a stroke at 3 days old, I've never been one to like the old adage "When they are little they have little problems, when they are big they have big problems." Sometimes they can be really really little and have some pretty big problems. That being said, that saying seems to hold a little more water when it comes to homeschooling. Homeschooling high school is a whole new ballgame. Actually the "schooling" part gets easier, less of the teaching falls on me. I have a new answer when asked if we are done with school this year or if we are schooling through the summer, "I'M done...Jonathan on the other hand has some more work to do". (Madi too if she wants to get ahead in math.) I am spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to document all of this high school stuff. Not only that, I'm trying to figure it out in a way that I can describe it to others because I am continually asked about this. Incidentally it's the same feeling I get when I am asked about my Catholic faith, I know what I believe, I just have a hard time getting it from my brain (and heart) to my mouth. At the convention, I learned that it is really a good idea to sign up for the PSATs in the spring. (this test is given once a year in October and you register for it at your local high school) {not to be confused with the SATs which are given multiple times a year and you register with collegeboard.com}. Contrary to popular belief the PSAT is not just a practice for the SAT, but when taken in your junior year it can qualify you for the National Merit Scholarship... it is actually called PSAT/NMSQT. Anyway, it is recommended that 10th (and even 9th) graders take it too, in which case it sort of is practice. Well I called the local school today and you'd think I asked the lady if anyone there had three heads. "THE PSAT ISN'T GIVEN UNTIL THE FALL!!" Yes I know, I explained, but I was told it was a good idea to sign up early. "Well maybe try back in August," was the best advice she could give me. This was the guidance counselor that I was talking to, the person paid to know this kind of thing. It seems like I know at least as much as she does. I guess I'm keeping up in that regard. Another session that I went to at the convention was about getting high school credit for internships. The first 35 minutes of the 50 minute session were about finding out what your 11th or 12th grader might be interested in. There wasn't a ton of information there for parents of a 9th grader who has spend 300 hours at the theatre since February. I think we've pretty much narrowed down his interest!

I'm going to go eat now because everyone is home and supper is ready. This blog post isn't finished yet, but since I can't seem to finish a conversation or a thought anymore anyway, it seems rather fitting.

I really came on here to link to this book list that I want to explore.