My van won't park and other small potatoes

That's right. It won't park. It'll do every other gear and sometimes I can get into park but I can't count on it. There's something wrong with the actual gear shifty thingy. That stick thing on the steering column. I don't think it's a transmission problem because it parks quite well when it does go into park.
By the way, I have discovered that "park" is a very important gear. I just didn't realize just how useful it was. So while I can still go places. I can't stay long.

So tomorrow, I will haul all the boys to my mom's while I hang out at the Chrysler place and work on cub scout plans while waiting for my van to regain its parking ability. I can't wait to explain that problem to the car-fix guys. No run of the mill basic auto problems for me. No sir-ree. I always have to go straight for the freaky deaky.
Those of you in the know should have a big clue as to why my van is no longer behaving itself. Yep...my hubby left for a series of trips today. He's on his way to Germany right now. Then next week is another trip and the week after that is yet another trip. Fate knows when these trips are planned and she pulls out her big problems just for the drama.

Oddly, I'm not even the least bit concerned about the traveling nor the van problems.
My issues are small potatoes compared to the people in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
And I know one mom who would give everything she had just to have every last one of my problems.

She lost her 10 year old son to brain cancer today. A cancer he fought for half his short and precious life. She wrote: "Today at 3:21 pm C's journey here on earth ended as Jesus met him and took his broken body and healed it forever and carried him to heaven. His passing was peaceful and quick and his suffering has ended. I feel like a part of my soul is missing, but my heart knows he is at peace and that he is better off, even if I am not."

I can understand that emotion of relief and then the guilt of feeling that relief. I felt it when my Daddy finally ended his own great battle. It was almost a joyous feeling of "Oh, thank you God. He's finally stopped suffering." Immediately followed by the selfish pain of loss that feels as though someone has reached in and pulled out your heart.

As hard as it was for me to lose my father, I can't even imagine what I would do if I lost one of my children.
I look at my own son who is almost 10 and the concept is unfathomable.
It sure makes van problems seem insignificant.

So hug your precious gifts and be thankful to God for loaning you these souls to love and cherish. And pray for all those in the path of this storm.

You can come too, too, too

We took the Zoo to the zoo yesterday. Guess which kid isn't mine?
(Mouse over for the answer.)

I have been going to the Riverbanks Zoo since they opened in 1974. In fact a pair of Gibbons on the monkey island have been at the zoo since it opened its doors.
I've been looking at the same monkeys for 30 years. This zoo specializes in breeding endangered and threatened species. It doesn't look like some fancy Zoo but it does far more.
The zoo was a second home for me while I was in college at USC. As a biology major, I had several assignments that required a trip to the zoo and there was always Free Fridays for a little zoo fun for poor college kids.

But Riverbanks is never boring. There is always something new to see. Yesterday's trip held the following treats.

New baby Penguin

His head is too the right and burrowed into the towl. This baby Emporer Penguin is only one week old. He was on display at the bird care center. The day we visited was only his second day on display. He'll be out for another week and then the public won't be able to see him until he is 9 months old and joins the rest of the flock. Emporer Penguins get about 3 feet tall. This little guy was about 5 inches long.

Three Baby Tigers

These Siberian Tiger Cubs are three months old. They just came on display. They are triplets who were born to a second time mom. She was unabel to nurse her first cubs so they were hand fed. She is nursing these on her own so the family gets to stay together.
Their father was an orphaned cub who was found in Russia then hand reared and brought to America. New baby tigers with wild blood.

And finally....
the smiling goat

I don't know anything clever about the goat. I've just never seen a smiling goat before.
He just kept grinning at us. It was kind of wierd.

He's Dr. Doolittle

A is 4. From what I remember about 4 year olds, they are a bit odd at times.

Setting: my dining room where I can hear things going on in 5 different rooms.
A screams in Mock pain, "Yaaaaaaaaaaah"
"Mom, mom...Max tried to bite my bum."
Your bum?
"No...my fffffffuuum. See?"
Shows the me the thumb
He'd tried to bite your thumb?
"No. But he said Meooooooow. And that means, 'I'm going to bite your thumb'."


Then he tracks down poor Max in the kitchen where I hear him saying (the kid, not the cat) "What did you say Max? Are you hungry? Would you like a mouse?"

This is normal four-year-old behavior right? Lie to me if it isn't.

That Target commercial.

The backpack one that is a parody of Sir Mix-alot. I love that commercial. My guys dance their rears off when they hear that song. I have to embarrassedly admit that they knew the tune before the commercial ever aired because I sing that one. No, I don't actually sing *those* lyrics but that is my diaper changing song.
That one and a creative version of a Queen song in which I sing "Stink Bottom Boy."

You gotta stinky butt and I can not lie
Your other brothers can't deny.
When the little guy walks in, stinkin' up the place
and puts that rank thing in your face.


Oh Brothers...Brothers
Does the baby got a stinky butt? (Oh yeah)
Let's change it, change it
Change that stinky butt.

Oh yes, all kind of high brow entertainment here at the Zoo.
To my credit, A's favorite song of all time...even over "Who Let the Dogs Out" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" is Wagner's "Ride of the Walkyres."

That's has got to give me some credit, right?

I'm sure the "Rod and Staff" publishers never meant for sentence like these.

Today was lesson 8 of Rod and Staff English 4.
J is loving it. Oh my goodness. I have raised a language nerd. He said he liked it better than the Easy Grammar that we used last year.
I thought he would balk at all the writing but instead he has welcomed it.

Today's lesson was on Noun Phrases. J was given a list of Noun Phrases that he had to use as the subject of sentences. I'm sure the sentences he came up with are not at all what the R&S people had in mind.

Miss Marilyn Foster was eaten by a wildebeest

Sister Elizabeth is very ugly and quite mean.

Brother John jumped in a lake.

See the entertainment I get each day. I couldn't make this stuff up.

Reason #43,675 to homeschool

Here's an actual blog post from a 14 year old girl.

ok i was lookin a my frends journals to see how there first week of school
went. but i realized that they hate 1 thing . ....HOMEWORK!!!! i dont blame
them! Ok my Math teacher gives us homework.. we had school ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL week
she gives us homework on a FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its like dude? its
friday?so yea. and it takes like 15 min to do so its like if it takes that short
or time then y assign it? she doesnt make sense at all. She talks on and on and
on. and u kno wat i hear? blah blah blah blah BLAH! lol seroiusly its wat i
hear.but i will sit in class and watch her eue brows. wenever she talks 1
eyebrow ALWAYS goes up. seroiusly it does ive watched cuz its sooooo boring in
there. iu think its cuz its 7th hour and im ready to leave. i dunno. but its
rediculous. i dont like ne of my classes from after lunch.

Woo, hoooo....boy am I glad I have boys.

I showed this to my 9 year old son. His comments: She doesn't spell very well. She doesn't capitalize anything. When asked how old he thought the writer was...he answered "five." He added that she must not be paying attention in school. (Obviously. She's to preoccupied with eyebrow watching.)

He was also shocked at the 7th hour comment. 7 HOURS of school. That's beyond his comprehension. If we start by 10 am, we're done by 2:30 and that includes lunch. I guess homegirl would be shocked too.

The rush to not be four

"I'm almost 5."

That's what A told me. The boys who is "almost 5" just turned 4 at the end of June.

"When will I get to sleep on the top of a bunk bed?'

When you are 6, little man. That's the rules. It's even printed on the new bed.

"Oh, but what happens if I get stuck at 4?"

Stuck at four?
I can wish can't I?
How do I explain to a little boy who can't wait to be bigger, that I wish time could just slow down a bit. That I would take a few more hours in the day or a few more weeks in the year.

What I wouldn't give just to stop time for a while so I could enjoy these boys just as they are for just a little longer. To keep them 9, 6, 4, and 2 for just a while. Because I know that all too soon they'll be 29, 26, 24, and 22.
And though I will love those no-so-little men just as much, I'll mourn the loss of my little children. The funny things they say. The way they entertain each other with a couple of rolled up posters. The little boy hugs which are unlike any other gift on the earth.

Stuck at this very moment. Is it terrible to wish for such a thing?

Or course the boys will grow up. They'll become husbands and fathers.
Maybe one day, A will hold his own little four-year-old son who is wistfully wishing to be older. Maybe at that moment he will remember when he was four with the same wish. Maybe he will remember how I looked at him with tears welling up and said,

No, you won't get stuck at 4. You'll grow up and be a big like Daddy one day.

But don't grow up too soon.

And at that moment he will finally understand just how much I love him.

And as a public service announcement

For the people coming to visit to find out how to pronounce tilapia:
It's pronounced
Tuh-lah-pee-uh. Accent on the "la."

For all the folks looking for birthday cakes:
I can post some and my friend Jacqui can critique them. She's seem 'em in real life. I just have to dig out the pictures. I got my ideas from others online so I am happy to share the love.

For the person searching for help on a dishwasher leaking around the door:
Don't buy a new dishwasher form Sears.

For the person whose backspace key stopped working:
I'm sorry I laughed, but I thought that was funny. You haven't had a two year old playing around with your keyboard, have you?

For the people looking for high ankle sprain information:
Mine is still bothering me. It's been almost 4 months and nothing is helping. May yours heal better.

For those other people..you know who you are:
Eeeewwwww gross. You are nasty. Go to church. Confess you sins and get a normal life.
Blech!

to the other Sheila

Your fabric is on it's way. It shouldn't take long to get from OR to Washington State. It would take a lot longer to get here.

There's this other Sheila. Sometimes she buys things online. She has friends who forward funny jokes to her. She has a BIL who mails cute photos of his kids to her. She is in some dancing club and she quilts.

She also doesn't get a lot of her messages because she doesn't know her own email address. Instead, she gives out mine.

So I get the tracking emails with her order information and her address.
I get the funny jokes from her friends.
I get the photos from her BIL.
I also get the reminders of meetings for her dance club and quilting clubs.

It's kind of odd.

I've tried emailing the various groups/people who send out these messages to let them know that the "wrong" Sheila got the news. It hasn't helped. They still email me.

Now, I'm just living vicariously.

So Sheila...I don't know what you ordered. But whatever it is, it'll be there in 3 to 7 days. Have fun with it.

For everybody else, make sure you are giving people your own email address.
Don't give them mine

An odd thing about me.

I've noticed an odd thing about myself. I'm assuming it is a character flaw. It's not a pretty thing, that's for sure.

In any group of people there is usually this one person that everyone** thinks is the greatest, nicest, more knowledgeable, or hardest working person in the whole group.
Everyone just loves this person.

Inevitably, that person annoys me to death.
It's not that I feel threatened. I sure don't. I'm not envious beaus my life is good from where I see. I have no delusions of grandeur and I never expect any recognition, praise, or reward for anything I do. (I do things to get them done. Not to make other people proud of me.) But yet, in every group...real world or online...there is this one beloved person that I just can not understand why this person is so highly revered.

I go through stages of annoyance too.

Stage 1: Who is this person?
Stage 2: ok, everyone else likes her. I should like her too.
Stage 3: I do not like this person, what's wrong with me?
Stage 4: I still don't like this person, what's wrong with everybody else?
Stage 5: Ignore your annoyance and feign a smile when she's a round.
Stage 6: Just ignore her.

Strange.

Then I have to wonder. Does anyone feel this way about me? I am busy in quite a few activities but I like to think that I'm more of a stealth volunteer and not a chick out to run the show. When I offer what measly advice I have, I hope I seem like a mom who has walked that path with some failure and some success and not a big ol' know-it-all who just can't keep her lips shut.

hmmmm......

Of course this has nothing to do with the current drama on the WTM board. I actually wrote this post back in July. It's just popped up again.

This is why I had guy friends in high school. I relate better to men.

**This is an assumed "everyone." Other people may be just as annoyed as I am and do a better job of hiding it.

An almost unbearable weight

The Anchoress writes about the Newsweek's glimpse of President bush with the War families.

And Trying to Grok points out something I haven't thought of.

I'm all for keeping out American noses out of everyone else business but I'm also for finishing a fight that someone else started.
We didn't start this fight but we need to be the ones who end it. If we don't, no one else will. And I say this as the wife of a Reserves officer who has a green light to be called up and deployed.

We need to bring our county back to the point of power where we can grin and say, "If you don't start no trouble, there won't be no trouble."

Why ZooDad does not homeschool

Since ZooDad was home doing pre-trip to Maryland stuff, he watched the rest of the inhabitants while I took M to the Evil Public School for the first day of Speech therapy of the new school year. (By the way the 2 PS girls that was supposed to be there, never showed up. Their teacher forgot to send them. How's that for dedication to children with special needs.)

As I left, J started his math. ZooDad helped him.
When I got home 45 minutes later. J was still doing math and looking very frustrated.

Wouldn't you know it, the day I hand over the reigns is the day a totally new concept was introduced.

The instructions read: Write a subtraction sentence to determine the number for n and find that number
The example problem showed that there were 5 girls and some number (n) of boys on the bus. There were 12 children on the bus. How many were boys?

The example showed that you set up the problem like this:
5 + n = 12.
You could then change this to a subtraction sentence (because we have studied fact families) by writing it as 12 - 5= n and then just do the problem.

So what did ZooDad do?
He taught him to solve for an unknown quantity.

Yep. He told him to subtract 5 from each side to isolate the unknown reduce the answer.
The poor, 9-year-old boy was writing out this for each and every answer. 50 in all.
5 + n = 12
5 + n-5= 12-5
0+n=12-5
n=7

But he didn't know why this worked. He was confused and frustrated. ZooDad could explain the process but not the reason why. Or at least not on a 4th grade level.

So when I got home, I spent about 15 minutes with our balance, and unifex cubes showing how equations had to be equal and that as long as you added or took away an equal amount from both sides, the equation would stay balanced. We practiced finding out the unknown quantity in the balance bucket by comparing it to a known number on the other side and then subtracting them until it balanced.

Then I showed him the shortcut of just converting it to a subtraction sentence. (Which is what the book asked him to do in the first place.)

ZooDad said he thought that it seemed a bit difficult for 4th grade math.

Day 2 comes to a close

Unlike those seriously dedicated homeschoolers, we take of the whole summer. Yep, we just sit around like bumps on a log. As A say "We are the pirates that do nuffin'." (Chuckle...he even sings it that way.)

Yesterday, marked our official First Day of School!
Everything went fine but we never got around to art or history.

Today...we did it all. Yes siree. We just jump right in and hit the ground running. We won't stop until Christmas with a small slow down for Thanksgiving. Then we'll be done by the end of April and can veg out for another solid 3 months.

Here's what everyone did today:

J (age 9 and in 4th grade )

• one lesson in MCP math D including mental math and a multiplication review.
• lesson 2 from Rod and Staff English. I was reluctant to use this program but the boy is loving it. He is such a "do this, do this, do this, then do this" kind of kid that this text just fits him to a tee. I humbly admit that I should have switched to it last year.
• Spelling Workout D, lesson 14. Yesterday we did a pretest and did the worksheets. Today he alphabetized the words and wrote them in cursive. He has decent handwriting. I am impressed.
• One science lesson in Singapore Science. Today's was on reproduction in animals. We had a big discussion about animals that laid one egg at a time versus those that laid many eggs at one time. (For those not in the know...birds: one at a time. Fish, amphibians, reptiles...lots at one time.)
• Story of the world. We are starting over with M. He wasn't that involved when we began this and now he is interested. So here we are at the beginning of the Ancients. We're doing history every darn day. I plan to skip a lot of activities and focus on the extra reading instead. J loves the books and M is thrilled to color a coloring sheet. That way I cover both boys learning styles. I have the CD's from "Hold That Thought" to add to our coloring options.
• Read the first chapter of Where the Red Fern Grows , discussed it and the vocabulary and wrote a summary of the chapter. I got these guides from Garlic Press. They are wonderful beyond my humble means of description.
• Handwriting Without Tears Cursive: letter e in the 4th grade book.
• Latin: Reviewing chapter 1 in Latina Christiana I before moving on. We both need to relearn stuff.
• Geography from the Evan-Moore book Daily Geography this covers all that silly Social studies stuff on the ITBS test but without the silliness.
• Read for about 45 minutes from his Fun Reading book. He's currently reading The Capture from the Guardians from Ga'Hoole series.

M (age 6, in grade 1 but doing mostly 2nd grade )

• one lesson from MCP math B and four exra word problems.
• a lesson from Houghlin Mifflin English 2. We'll switch to Rod and Staff next year. M does well with a lot of planned activities.
• He did the two activity pages from Spelling Workout B. This is his first year for spelling. He's not sure if he likes it.
• one lesson from Singapore science. Today was grouping objects by characteristics.
• SOTW with older brother J
• Reading: the first Tommy book from Learning Page. I don't know if I like this series or not. I appreciate the worksheets but some are much harder than the reading level.
• HWT letter w and some fine motor practice skills: mazes, tracing scribbles, and pushing a magnet on a dry erase board to build up his hand strength. M has fine motor issues and a weak upper body.
• 2 lessons in MCP Plaid Phonics B. M is loving this one for sure. I'm glad I got it instead of Explode the Code.
• A lesson from Evan Moore Weekly Geography.
• 30 wall push-ups with Baby S shadowing him.
• Speech practice. r-controlled vowels
• 30 minutes reading and A to Z mystery

A ( age 4, Pre-K with developmental delays and apraxia of speech)

• half a lesson from MCP math K. We take this very slowly.
• one activity from Easy Does It-Apraxia
• speeh practice from therapy
• 2 brushing therapies
• 2 cut and paste activities
• a couple of games of sound Go Fish (Do you have any mmmmmmmmm's?)
• Read Katy No Pocket for Before Five in a Row.

Baby S (age 2 and no where near school ready)

• listened to Katy no Pocket
• drew lots of pictures
• cut paper in little bits
• drove his train all over his brother's books
• gave lots of hugs
• enjoyed a quiet morning TV show with no brothers to complain about the "baby" show
• played with unifex cubes
• broke two crayons

2 days down. 178 more to go.

In which Sheila goes from refilling ink cartridges to "Why I homeschool"

Have you seen that movie Being John Malkovich? If you thought that was odd, you should try being in my head. The ceilings are just as low and my hair is about as crazy.

This morning I was in the shower,thinking.
I noticed my left index finger was stained. Well, that happens every time I refill the ink cartridges on the upstairs printer. I'm too lazy to put the little plastic plug over the bottom opening so I just use my index finger. The ink washes off eventually and I couldn't care less about how my finger looks most days.

My black and purple finger (I had to refill 3 different cartridges.) reminded my that my finger looked the same way during my Organic Chemistry classes while I was in college.

I had to take Organic Chem lab as part of my credits. I would have taken it anyway since I am a big time science nerd.
In lab we had to do a series of reactions to determine an unknown material. This amounted to putting said unknown substance in a test tube, adding reagent, and noting the results. If a particulate formed, you'd have to pour off the liquid and then figure out what the two substances were...the liquid and the particulate.

I loved that stuff. But I was a bit lazy. I was supposed to use a rubber stopper on the test tube. Instead, I would just cover the top with my index finger and give it a quick shake.
This was not a safe practice since more often than not, the additive was some sort of acid. Eventually, my index finger developed a thin, black scab and then my fingerprint sort of peeled off.

No biggie in the grand scheme of things. My finger is fine and I got an A in both organic labs.

But the lack of fingerprint did cause trouble when I started my education practicum.
I was assigned to the C-STOP program at the state youth detainment center. I was thrilled...really. I love a challenge and these kids were challenges.
C-STOP is the Chronic Status Offenders Program. It's a short term (maximum 60 days) kid jail for chronic truants, probation breakers, and runaways. To volunteer to work at the center, I had to be fingerprinted.
When my left index fingerprint didn't show up...the Officer jokingly asked, "What did you do? Burn your fingerprint off with acid. Ha, ha, ha."

Ummmmmmmmm...yes actually. I did.
He gave me that crazy woman walking...watch out look and then seemed to keep a close eye out on me for the rest of the semester.

As a college student, C-STOP didn't bother me that much. These were some bad kids. But as an adult and parent looking back on the experience, I am just horrified.

I can't imagine any child being treated this way for such minor infractions. The children slept on thin mattresses on cinder block tables to elevate them. They had no privacy at all. The toilets had no doors. The shower stalls had no doors. The rooms had a door that stayed locked at night but had a large window to the hall. The lights were on 24 hours a day. They could not wear their own clothes and were not given uniforms. Instead they wore "state clothes" that were given to the state from charitable organizations. These were the clothes that would not sell in the thrift shops. They were out or style, ill-fiting, and humilating for 11 to 15 year old children. The most shocking thing was that there were children who had been there for over a month and their parents had never visited them.

Looking back, I think...Of course these kids acted so terrible. They were taken away from home and put in what I saw to be a worse situation then treated with no dignity at all. Then they got proof of what they had always felt...that their parents really didn't care about them.

Most of the kids I met said that they were dropping out as soon as they could. There was no sense in staying in school when they were so far behind that they could never catch up.

I wonder how they all turned out.

The beautiful, tall, black girl who was all smile even though her Mamma's boyfriend beat her until she felt she had to run away, repeatedly. She would put on her "state clothes" every Friday night and put on a variety show. It was hysterical. She had a light in her that should have mattered to someone.

The pretty, blonde girl who just wanted her mom to tell her that she was special. But since that never happened, she was so desperate for approval and love of any kind that she ran off with various older men, across state lines and ended up pregnant twice by 14.

The angry boy who glared at me each time he saw me. When I gave him an extra fudge round that I brought, he asked me what I wanted in return. I told him, just a smile. He crammed it in his mouth and grinned a chocolate grin. From then on, he would grin at me like a maniac until we both started laughing.

I wanted to do so much for those kids. In the end, all I could do was hang out with them on Saturdays while they waited to see if their parents were going to visit. And then try to cheer them up when they didn't show up.

I wish I knew how society failed them. How could parents care so little about these precious little people? Who let them down and who could help them?

When I started teaching, I wanted to save them all. But there is precious little one person can do in a 180 hours. I did what I could to make them feel intelligent and worthy of respect. But I know I didn't do nearly enough.

A few weeks ago, one of my former students was arrested and charged with home invasion and endangering a child. He was a handsome, smiling, quiet boy in 7th grade when I last saw him.
Now he's facing serious jail time.

I can't save those other children but I can do my best for the 4 lives I know I can change. I will not fail them.


This is why I should refrain from filling ink cartridges. I promise the shower wasn't really that long.

Conversations from our House

Scene: Sheila at the dining room table with the portable printer, printing out lesson plans for the impending "first day of school." ZooDad in the living room watching a movie after all the zoobys have gone to bed.
Sheila Looks up just in time to see a woman in a bikini on the TV screen.

Sheila: "What are you watching? Some scantily clad woman?"

ZooDad: "It's a James Bond movie."

Sheila: "And it is surprising to find an scantily clad woman in a James Bond movie? What are you doing looking at other half naked women?"
This is said in jest.

ZooDad: "This movie was made in 1962. 1962! This woman is as old as my mom now. Ewwww! Feel better now?"


Why yes I do, dear.

Note to self

It's a "new" school year.

Make sure you cover the following items found on the ITBS test. These are apparently holes in the boys' education.

1. Show them how to use a card catalog.
I don't know a library that still has this fine piece of furniture but apparently it is still an important skill. Also, go over the Dewey decimal system so the boys know that they can find a specific book instead of browsing though the stacks. (But what's the fun in that?)

2. Practice alphabetizing.
This must be a more useful skill than I realized. I guess we can practice by alphabetizing spelling words. If we write neatly, we'll call it handwriting practice.

3. Explain what guide words are.
Yes, the boys know how t use a dictionary, but the "terms" surrounding the massive book have been overlooked. I didn't know what they were either.

4. Bite the bullet and use the Rod and Staff grammar.
Worst case, I get a kid who hates diagramming but knows his parts of speech. There are worse things that could happen.

5. Figure out what equality sentences are and find out why my son has so much trouble with them when he aces all the other sections of the silly test. Once you figure them out...make the kid practice a few right before the test.

6. Keep reading.
Apparently, I'm doing that part just right.

7. Do more Latin.
It will help with vocabulary and logic.

8. Stop worrying about "Social Studies." It's too silly to worry about.

Since Dy is about to call out a search party

And Jacqui is sending "How are you doing?" emails.

As requested....
beep. be beep, beep, be beep, beep, beep....
NEWS FROM THE ZOO

The couch is in place. It is lovely and it does not sink when you sit in it. This is a good thing.
The moving guys scratched up my new tile when they took out the old couch. I refuse to let that bother me. It is a small thing to be fixed when we sell this house in the distant future or when some thing really bad happens to another tile.

I have a new dishwasher. The old one from Sears is gone, gone, gone. But they have yet to refund my money. If I have to show up in person...I will extract my pound of flesh from someone. (insert evil glare)

The new dishwasher is a Kitchen Aid and it is from Lowe's. The Lowe's people were fast, friendly and thoroughly satisfying. (Which has some dirty undertones that I'm not going to explore.)
This bad boy washes like a fiend. I'm not even using the Power scrub and my steel pots are too hot to handle. I mean that, I have to let the things cool for a good half hour.
ZooDad opens the dishwasher door periodically and man-speaks..."Stainless steel, baby."
I'm glad to have it. I was getting tired of planning meals around clean up time needed. Plus washing 16 plates, cups, and utensils a day is way more housework than I signed up for. (My heart goes out to the dishwasher-less. I don't know how you do it.)

We had an anniversary. As of the 30th ZooDad and I have been blissfully wed for 11 years. We spent the day installing the dishwasher. That is love! And since the 11th anniversary is steel, it totally works out.

Oh yeah...and I got a laptop for my birthday. It is a posh beast. 1 gig RAM and 100 gig memory. (shock....100 gigs. I remember when ONE gig was huge news.)I have a DVD burner on it. snicker .
It is total overkill for my needs but for ZooDad it is the equivalent of bagging the mighty mammoth and taking it home to the little women. Caveman grunt..."See, I bring you laptop. It good!"
I'm trying to get used to the keyboard and getting all my files transferred over. Of course, I have nothing I need on it. But I can play the Sims while I wait for the boys at therapy.
ZooDad has been informed that it is verboten to back up his laptop on mine. That's how my old computer got full of junk. I had back ups of back ups. This baby is mine and I change the desktop picture daily just to annoy ZooDad. LOL

What else?

MIL is having an upper endoscopy today. She's losing blood somewhere and that may be where. I'm waiting for news since she wouldn't let me take her today. Uncle N took her instead. She had to be there it 8:30. She's an hour and a half from me and the hospital is another hour from her. It wasn't the greatest plan logistically for me to take her but I could have swung it.
ZooDad had his upper endoscopy on Monday and was all kind of fun to be around. He thoroughly enjoys the meds and says the most hysterical things. I threatened to record our conversation for posterity. We're still waiting for results but everything should be fine as frog hair.

We have to buy a new bed. Baby S, who has just turned two, no longer wants to sleep in his crib.
Last night he climbed into his brother's bed. When I lifted him out he started yelling out, "But I a big boy. I a big boy!"
Heartbreaking. I guess it is time for a big boy bed.
I think I will be lost at the thought of not having the crib in the house. I've had a crib around or almost 10 years. He's also showing sign of potty training...but I relish passing that little torch. I've been changing diaper since January, 1994 with no break.

The PS kids started back to school here yesterday. I got my normal, "Am I doing a disservice to my boys?" thoughts. Then I looked up the bus routes and I found that the oldest two would have to board the bus at 7:40 and would get off the bus at 4:20.
The two hours of wasted bus time is half our normal school day.
(scoff)
I think we can use that time a little bit better.


So there you are. All the news that's fit to type.
More later.

Beep,...be, beep, beep...be, beep, beep, beep

Shaking my finger at myself

Have you ever had a really evil thought about someone? Have you ever come up with the perfect zinger in your head and then just been appalled at yourself?

I'm mean the perfect comeback for that one person that secretly gets on your very last caffeine deprived nerve. The kind of comeback that makes you giggle until you start snorting.

Of course, you can't actually say it. You'd be seen as an awful person.
You can't even share it with a friend...Because it is just that bad...but still such an ideal zinger. You don't want anyone to know just how secretly horrible you actually are.

sigh

Such a waste.

I hate when that happens. I always feel so bad about myself for even thinking it.

I'll have to punish myself. I'm a bad homeschool mom.

Boys and Birthday cakes

I made the cakes below. I always joke that I am setting four women up for future failure by making these outlandish cake for the boys. Someday, one boy will say to his wife, "A round, vanilla cake! I've never had a round vanilla cake in my life. Where are the streamers? Where's all the food? This is supposed to be a birthday party."

Or course, one of my boys better not say that. When presented with a round, vanilla, crooked, and slight burned cake, they'd better say, "Oh Honey, it wonderful. I'll bet it's delicious.

Birthdays are a huge deal around here. I go overboard with the celebration.
We decide on a theme and I set out to bake the cake they ask for. My toughest one was M's alligator cake. (I'll have to find a picture of it. It was pretty cool.) I love seeing the boys' happy faces and hearing their exuberance over this edible art made just for them.
I make a ton of food and invite what seems like the free world over to my house. It's really just family and a couple of close friends. Then the kids, cousins, and friends all run around like crazy and the adults laugh at them, eat, and just enjoy the company.

Party days are always satisfying even though I stay busy.

But I got to thinking, why does celebrating these birthdays mean so much to me?
I grew up thinking my own birthday was a special day, but I never had the big parties that I throw for my sons. I sure didn't get "cake art" or mountains of presents. I don't expect anything for myself at all other than an acknowledgement from my family. And actually, anything lavish kind of embarrasses me.
So why do I lavish all these birthday wishes on the boys? Oh,and ZooDad too. He won't let me throw him a party. But we do buy presents, cook a cake, make him a special dinner and even decorate the house.

So I've spent the last couple of days wondering why these birthday celebrations are so important. The truth slowly creeped into my mind into like fog and then finally formed some concrete idea that I found to be true.

I don't celebrate the day for the person. I celebrate that day for me.

I met ZooDad shortly before his 30th birthday. We actually had one our first dates on his birthday. So that was not only the day he came into this world. His birthday is just a time for me to celebrate to arrival of this wonderful man in my life.

As for the boys, well, that part is obvious. I celebrate the four most wonderful days of my life every year. I can not imagine my life without these four little souls.
ZooDad and I often joke about the mountain of boys in the floor or all the little boy heads seating around our table and filling up my van.
I look at these future husbands and fathers and I feel a sense of pride because I grew these children. I often wonder if this is how God feels when he looks down on our world. "Look what I made! Grow! Learn! Be Happy!"
These over-the-top parties are my own selfish celebrations. "Look, what I made! Aren't they wonderful! See how blessed I am!"

So it seems only right that on my own birthday, I'm thinking about the births of the lives that means so much to me. I don't need cakes and streamers. I get to do that often enough. I don't need presents because I've received a lifetime full.

Happy birthday to me.

Ashley people called...

they have ordered the replacement couch and will deliver it when it arrives.

I guess they have a better service model than Sears.

Nothing else has broken today.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Broken, busted, all torn up.

You remember the story of my new furniture. Well, we also bought a new dishwasher. The old dishwasher, which did work, did not clean very well and was leaking around the door. It was also old and the detergent door would not open.
It was a pain in the rear.

On the 1st of July, I bought a new dishwasher from Sears. Of course I wanted it in a color other than white (it only came in black, white, and bisque.) so that meant that it had to be ordered.

It arrived on the 7th and my darling, but mechanically inept hubby installed it.
Ooooooohh..The language in that kitchen would have made Eddie Murphy blush.

So I loaded up my brand new dishwasher and pressed the button. It made some dishwasher noises and then the green "clean" button started flashing.

According to the manual and the Sears Service people... The flashing green light is a very bad thing. They said they would send a service person out on Thursday the 14th.

Uh....ok. It was a brand new dishwasher. I didn't even get to use it and it was broken.

Guy came on the 14th and couldn't fix it. It needed to have the whole electrical board replaced.

Guy came back on the 21st to replace the electrical board. (Same day as MIL trip to the ICU) the stupid dishwasher still wouldn't work. It seems that it needed to have the pump replaced also. $300 billed to my warranty for the first service....$380 billed for the new pump which could be installed on the 26th.

The dishwasher, didn't cost that much to begin with.

So I called Sears. They agreed to bring me a new dishwasher, install it and take back the old one...for an additional $53. Yes, either that or I could disconnect it, haul it back to Sears, wait the week until the new one arrived....Leaving a gaping hole with the water and power turned off on that wall of my kitchen, pick up the new machine and then install that one and pray it worked.

They'll deliver it next week.

Despite the fact that I have a mower, edger, blower, oven, refrigerator, freezer, hood, and dishwasher from Sears........I will never buy anything from them again.

Then they had the audacity to try to sell me the extended warranty plan.

Then...Just to add insult to my already dishpan hands.
My new couch broke.

The frame broke.

The guy came out to see if it could be fixed and said it was a manufacturers defect. We all took pictures and he is sending the info to Ashley so they can replace it.

We'll see if they follow the Sears business model of customer service.

At least I can still sit on the couch. (snicker....hee, hee, hee.)

Cakes

I'll rewrite my post after I make sure these silly pictures load.

MIL update

MIL is in a regular room and doing better. She might even be home today. I've instructed ZooDad to stay with her until at least tomorrow night. Most likely through Sunday. The boys and I are heading down there tomorrow afternoon to visit.

Prayers Needed for Mary Lee

My MIL was supposed to come up tomorrow to pick up the oldest 3 boys so they could spend 3 days down on the farm with her.

Instead, the hospital called to say that she was admitted to ICU with a fast and irregular heartbeat. ZooDad has taken off to be with her. He has about a 2 hour drive. They called at 9 pm. We last spoke to her at 6 pm.

Shortly after he Zoodad left, he called to make sure the boys were in bed and assured me that he would be home as soon as he could.

I took the time to explain what "being in ICU" meant and told him that he was going there to act as his Mom's advocate. I warned him about what to expect. I told him the questions to ask and to write down everything. I also told him that I would bring him anything he needed because he was going to be there for the whole night and maybe longer.

"You only have one mom, Honey. If I was widowed and in the hospital, I'd want my boys there to hold my hands."

He thanked me for reminding him of his priorities. He has work deadlines and there is a project due for his Masters class.
Work and school are way down the list when Moms, wives, and children need you.

So please pray for my MIL.

Got my mind on my math, my math on my mind

Apologies to Sean Paul for butchering his lyrics. (Which are far from brilliant but do tend to stick with you.)
I've been thinking about math lately.
obsessed actually.

Not that I'm thinking about doing math. I more consumed with math programs.

You see, we are the rare homeschoolers that use MCP math. It's inexpensive and schoolish. It's also self teaching and the TE has cool stuff in it. That's two bonuses in my book. MCP is the same company that makes Plaid Phonics and Spelling workout. So we aren't talking junk math here. It just doesn't have the SWB seal of Well Trained Mindness. ;)

So welcome to my thought process. I'll warn you. It's hurried, busy, sometime illogical and when it is logical...it makes big leaps. As ZooDad has said, "Your thought processes are scary."

I got to thinking. MCP math ends at 6th grade. So eventually, I am going to have to switch companies. Standard homeschool protocol dictates that Saxon is the program of choice, so the oldest ZooChild will have to start Algebra 1/2 in 7th grade.
(I fully understand that there is a chance that a zoochild will not be ready to start pre-algebra in 7th grade. If/when that happens, I won't make any kind of big deal at all and will just do what is best for that particular kid. So don't think I'm going to sacrifice any of the z-boys to the gods of mathematics. But taking higher math is a non-negotiable item in this household.)

Back in my head...I thought it would be a poor decision to change math programs at pre-algebra. I have repressed memories from my own experiences in pre-algebra. It was the beginnings of my long hatred of all things numerical. I'd like to avoid that issue with any of my brood.
So I came to this conclusion that I should switch for 6th grade to get one year of Saxon under his belt before doing algebra 1/2. Well, if one year is good preparation...then maybe two years would be better. (see how my mind works.)

J will be starting 4th grade soon. Two years of Saxon before pre-algebra would mean starting Saxon for 5th grade and...(the gears just spinning in my head.) our homeschool support group was having a used curriculum sale. If they had a used copy of Math 65, I could go ahead and get it for next school year.

Wow...I was so proud of myself. This was some serious planning. I was getting all the final details nailed down.

Then I had this idea to let J take that Saxon placement test. Afterall, we've all heard about how demanding Saxon is. And I know my goofball child will incorrectly answer 3x4 regularly. I really just wanted to make sure the boy could tread water in Saxon. But I also wanted to make sure that I was buying the right year at the used book sale.

Apparently, he could do more than tread water.
On the Math 54 through Algebra 1 test, he got all 10 of the first questions right. I was tickled pink. According to the Saon people, that meant that he could start math 65 now! (I need a big eyed smiley.)
He went on to get 5 out of the next 10 correct...which translated into starting math 76...now! A fourth grade child taking math 76!

Well, I knew that wasn't going to happen. So I started looking into the programs. Checking out websites. Would Singapore be better? What about Right Start? A friend recommended math-U-see. Another said that the boys needed Singapore.

Then my darling ZooDad...who is a pure genius of the obvious...said, "Why not just keep in in what he's been using? Obviously, it got him where he is."

Clunk. Skreeeeeeeeech
That was my running mind getting hit and slamming on brakes.
Obvious answer.
If his current math has him ready for Math 76 now. I'm sure he'll be ready for pre-algebra in 3 more years. So that eliminates any need to switch boats early.

See this is why I need my hubby around and not traveling. He needs to put the brakes on my brain more often and help me track down escaped hamsters.* So now, I'm right back where I was originally. With my 4th grade MCp book. I will try to be content. try.

*Don't worry Jacqui. The renegade rodent has been rounded-up and is not safely ensconced in his plastic home. You can safely come over. I still want you to bring the math-u-see...just in case. (hee, hee, hee)

Phone call with ZooDad

ZooDad has two favorite restaurants. Both are all-you-can-eat. These are not your normal style of AYCE places. Not these are upscale. One is a beef place. The other is a seafood place.

He ate at the seafood place last night. He said he had 3 lobsters. 3 whole lobsters.

Later on in the course of the conversation:

ZooDad: "You wouldn't like this place. It was seafood only. No freshwater fish at all. In fact the only fish on the menu was some fish I couldn't pronounce."

Me: "Tilapia?"

ZD: "yes...that's it. How did you know? That's what everyone at the table said when I told them the same thing."

Me: "Just a guess."

ZD: "So how does everyone know about this fish and how do they know that I can't pronounce it. What is it? The fish that morons can't say."


Silly man.
I can't believe he ate 3 lobsters. And no, he didn't eat any tilapia

Who came up with Meme?

Here's one from Quiet Life

5 snacks I enjoy ...
Nestles' Treasures
Boiled peanuts
Hot fries
cold cereal...from the box
Cheesy bread

5 songs I know all the words to...
hmmmm....I know a lot of songs. Here's 5 that me make me think about ZooDad, who is away from home again.
Come away with me
Here without you
Love of a Lifetime
Every day
The Reason

5 things I would do with $100,000,000...
Build a no-kill animal shelter dedicated to my Daddy.
Build a house big enough for my mom to move in and have her own "place."
Dump a bunch of money in the boys' college plans
Set up a scholarship at my high school.
Take my family to Europe and Disney World. (How's that for a dichotomy!)

5 locations I would love to run away to...
England
Hawaii
Yellowstone
Grand Canyon
my own house... for a week with no obligations, cleaning, or errands.

5 things I like doing...
Going places with ZooDad and the boys.
Scrapbooking
Playing games (both board and video)
teaching my children
working with children

5 things I would never wear...
a thong bikini (you should be thankful)
a 10 Ft long scarf ala Dr Who
leg warmers
Anything worn by Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, or any other half dressed starlet.
platform shoes

5 recently seen movies I like...
National Treasure
Troy
Enemy of the State
Second Hand Lions
The Village

5 famous people I'd like to meet...
the President
Dr. Phil
JK Rowling
Rafi
David Letterman

5 biggest joys of the moment...
Freshly painted walls
4 sleeping heads
a clean house
empty laundry hampers
hydrangea blooms

5 favorite toys...
Game Cube
Cranium Caraboo
ZooDad
Sims 2
Clue (the boys crack me up with their guessing)

My Left Foot

It looks like I won't be the next Christy Brown. I am glad I have two good hands because my left foot is not healed.
I went to the bone doc today. Apparently, I have reached the outer time line for normal recuperation. My ankle should be just fine.

Well I can walk on it. I can even hop a little. I can not jump, walk quickly down stairs, run, jog, or kick.
Soccer season is starting soon. I kind of need to be able to do those things if I am going to coach A's team.

Hmmm.... the x-rays show no bone damage but that doesn't rule out cartilage damage yet.

I go back in 4 weeks. I also start PT again to try to get things worked out. If I am not 100% by that time, the doctor wants to talk about orthoscopic surgery

I will approach my renewed physical therapy with the utmost determination.
oh, yes.

The world's shortest personality test

You are dependable, popular, and observant. Deep and thoughtful, you are prone to moodiness. In fact, your emotions tend to influence everything you do. You are unique, creative, and expressive. You don't mind waving your freak flag every once and a while. And lucky for you, most people find your weird ways charming!

The World's Shortest Personality Test

You know...I keep my "freak flag" in the closet most of the time. It has frogs on it. Sometimes I hang it on the house as a landmark. As in, "Turn left and then my house is the one with the frog flag."
"The what.....?"
"Frog flag. And a green mailbox. You can't miss it

By the way

I'm very surprised that none of these homeschoolers got my literary reference on the Tweetsie post. Apparently, you have not read that classical tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff to your children.

You must be neglecting their little minds. LOL

Even my "I read nothing in high school. I played football." Husband quickly figured out why the kids wanted him to stand under the bridge while the goat walked over.

Shame, shame, shame.

So what should homeschoolers read?

I often read on the various homeschool boards about the "fine literature" that these homeschoolers' children are reading. And that they would never let their children read "twaddle" or at the very least, they would severely restrict it. That TV and video games are out. That these inappropriate TV and games that are available to others...Shouldn't be. And that the kids do school year round with minimal breaks because every moment should be a teaching moment.

Hmmmmmm........
Wow.

We've been off for the summer. I'm probably one of the few homeschoolers I know who just lets her kids veg like mushrooms all summer long. Heck, I don't even wait until summer. We started this in May. LOL
The boys play video games (including the Sims...but only the Pet shop version), drag out toys (non-educational ones), play outside, and lay around. My only rules are: you have to do your chores, you have to bathe and get dressed, and no Gamecube before breakfast. You can read if you want, but I'm not going to make you.

By the end of July, the boys are begging to start their new books and to visit the bookstore and library. They get bored with veging and want to get back to work.

I caved and took then to B&N on Tuesday. M picked up a Magic Tree House book. (He's 6.) and J (age 9) picked out the first of a series about Owls. I read it. It's like Redwall but shorter and with owls instead of mice. Both children have finished their books.
It's Thursday morning.

This is why I hate buying books. They go through books like water. (Says the woman who read the last paperback she picked up, in three days.) It's like a waste of money. But I'm forced to since our library doesn't have many of these titles.

Books are actually my guilty pleasure. I wish I could say that I regularly pick up out the classics or works of fine literature.

I don't.

I love Anne Rice, both her vampire chronicles and the Witches of Mayfair.
I've read and re-read all of them. Right now I'm into Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mystery Series.
Alabama and Louisiana vampires. Too funny.

In this series, a vampire was the morgue attendant when Elvis died. You guess where this is going. The transformation was not that successful and "the King" is now known as "Bubba." Southern life, mystery writing, and vampires...it's a great mix.

I read what I like to read. I read twaddle. Yes, I have read many of the classics. Yes, I have read some of the great educational books. But that stuff can be pretty boring sometimes.
I'm looking forward to Mary Janice Davidson's book arriving this week so I can enjoy Undead and Unappreciated while ZooDad is gone next week.

Given my tastes in literature, why should I be surprised that my son is reading Charlie Bone and dragon books and books about Owls planning to overthrow a cruel tyrant. (That owl series is pretty good. I need to buy the next book so I can pre-read it. Oh yeah.)

So we aren't reading Homer and Don Quiote. We're reading. And we are choosing to read over all other types of entertainment. We're reading for the pure love of hearing the tale. And just because we're reading owl twaddle right now, doesn't mean we can't enjoy the great literature next month or next year.

What matters most to me right now is having boys that chose to read a book. And raising them to understand that reading and fun are not mutually exclusive.

Day Two...the Tweetsie Experience.

You know I should go back and fix my tying errors on the last post. I won't because I am quite lazy. I'm not the best speller in the world...but I am a much worse typist. I think I've blogged why I'm such a poor typist before. I'll have to look it up and see.

Anyway.

Back to the weekend.

Day two, ZooDad went to his morning meeting. the boys and I ate breakfast and went to the coolest. toy. store. evah! The Incredible toy store! They sell Playmobile, Papo, Thomas and Brio trains as well as all kind of very cool "educational" toys. I had to drag the kids out and back to the condo for lunch.
ZooDad and I made a quick change in plans and decided to take the kids to Tweesie Railroad. (We had planned this for day 3)
Tweetsie is a Wild West themed park. It is not PC...at all. There are cowboys and "in'juns." Granted that all races are equally represented in the employees. But 70% of the kids there are sporting a cowboy hat and/or a toy gun.

But since we don't have any problems with "in'juns," cowboys, or toy guns....we had a ball.

Here's the 2 middle boys on the horses. There are several of these on Main Street. The smallest zooby wouldn't get near these Fiberglas equines.


I thought the littlest one would love riding the real steam train. Well, he did like watching it...but once we boarded it and the thing started moving.....it was a slightly different story.




The train stops periodically on its circuit around the park and actors hop off and do little skits. The "dumb deputy" rode in our car. This is him at the "Fort Boone" stop. This is after he and another deputy had thwarted a bank heist. The "in'juns" were about to attack the fort. See one peeking out from behind the Calvary tent.



After the train torture was over, we rode as many rides as possible. We went and down the mountain on the chair-lift. The stroller even rode up. The boys got a huge kick out of that.
Here's the guys on the Ramblin' Wrecks. J and M rode together. M was not so impressed with J's driving. I helped A drive my car while Zoodad was supposed to drive baby S around. Note who is driving that second car please.


ZooDad and J rode the "Insanely-fast-spinning-on-the-side-of-the-mountain" ferris wheel. The thing is moving so fast that it makes a breeze. It's just perched on the side of the mountain giving the illusion that it could break free and just keep on rolling.


The boys in the "cheese mine." That's all I've got on that one. Imagine a very cheap, mouse and gold mine themed "It's a small world" ride knock off.....and add black lights.


We couldn't con ZooDad to stand under this bridge, so J obliged. You can barely see the goat on the bridge.


After petting the goats and all the other critters, watching the shows, and panning for gold...we were exhausted and all "Tweetsied" out.

We found a nice little restaurant where the manager set us up with a table that had cartoons (The Last Airbender...a family favorite) and fish. (The entire cast of Finding Nemo in one tank...another family favorite.) The food was good and the service was prompt. The fact that the boys were well entertained and on their best behavior made it the end of a great day.

Tomorrow...Lime green. It's a very popular color.

I'm still alive.

I know I still haven't filled ya'll in on the rest of our NC trip. I will..I promise. I have to tell you about how I freaked out on Gandfather mountian. (I don't like that place.)

But I'm just a bit busy with house stuff.
I have walls to paint, tile to lay, and a small nation of weeds to pull in the next two weeks.
It's almost birthday party time.

A's birthday is today. He is four! He has been grinning all day and telling everyone, ZooDad, Grammie, Nanny, beighbor man, landscape guy, that his "a birthday boy!"


Arg....dryer buzzer. That means it's time to fold and then start grouting. (the tile...not the laundry.)

Tom Cruise

Wow.

The man's cheese done slid off his cracker.

He's got six cans, but he lacks the little plastic thingie to keep them together.

He's got 52 cards in his deck but most are jokers.

His elevator doesn't quite go all the way to the top.

He's a few clowns short of a circus.

His brain is calling, but his receiver is off the off.

the gates are down, the lights are flashing....but the train ain't coming.


Or as we say here in the South.....Oh, bless his heart.


I think it's time for his publicist to restrain him before somebody hurts him.

Day one: the journey to get there

Thursday morning, we loaded up my freshly cleaned out van. It was loaded to the gills with clothes, food, a stroller, some distractions for the 5 hour drive, and ZooDad's work stuff. (It was a business retreat.)
Every year ZooDad's company has a long weekend retreat as a reward. Families are invited and they have about 6 hours of work during the 4 day retreat. We don't have any trouble keeping ourselves entertained while Daddy is "working" and the free room is greatly appreciated.

It took forever to load everything. An hour into the trip...it was time for lunch. An hour after that...it was time for the first potty break. Needless to say it was a long trip up there.

Here's the guys.


About 60 miles from our destination, our road became two lanes....and hilly. Shortly after that...it became quite curvey.

Quite. Curvey.

Last time we were up here, M got a bit car sick. So I kept checking on everyone's stomach status.

Eventually we encountered a sign that said.

Expect delays



Well, ZooDad and I thought that was pretty funny. Expect delays. That's it. Like some sort of Zen travel advice.
Expect delays.

Then we rounded the corner and ....bam. We were delayed.

The road was actually partially closed due to some serious construction. Serious as in "hanging off the mountain" construction. There is no way in H,E, double-hockey-sticks I would have climbed in the cabs of any of those machines.

ZooDad and I spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out how they got that stuff up on the incline in the first place.
This is isn't the best example. I didn't get a shot of the excavator on such an incline that the operator had the door open so he could bail if the thing started to roll.


They look like toy trucks in the picture, don't they? It was surreal.

Finally, after snickering over the various "deep fried p-nuts" signs and being "delayed"...we arrived at Chetola and headed out the company social dinner.

The boys terrorized ZooDad's co-workers for a while, ate a small mountain of chicken fingers and chocolate cake, and then burned off the sugar and carbs on the playground until 9:30 while ZooDad socialized and drank a few beers.

It was 11 by the time the boys were all bathed and settled in to sleep. They were quite excited about the digs and the prospects of taking a jacuzzi bath. (I had to agree with them on that one.)

End day one
Tomorrow...Tweetsie.

We're home.

I'm still recovering and tying to get everything put away and clean.

We went to Blowing Rock, NC for a few days. It was wonderful and quite cool. (temperature wise)According to my camera memory stick, I took 277 pictures during the 4 day trip.

So I guess y'all know what that means for you in the near future.
Hee, hee, hee.

Expect several posts full of pictures.

By the way, while in Blowing rock...we stayed here. I highly recommend it if you eve go to that area. We had a condo that was bigger than our first house. Wild.

I'm off for a few days

I'll be back online Monday and will fill everybody in.

The foot...The whole foot...And nothing but the foot.

I went to Physical therapy today. I've been going every week but it is so not fun that I've haven't been mentioning it. It's kind of like one of those abduction memories that you repress as quickly as possible.

Oh yes....block that pain.

Friday, I went to the orthopedic doc and I kind of wish I could repress that one too. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
He said that most people are fully healed after the six week period. I am not one of those people. But to my credit I do have " a very high ankle sprain that just might take a little longer than normal to heal." Oh....that's just dandy.

He also said that since I am making progress toward healing and still within the outside time limits...."We will continue with the current course of treatment and not start a more aggressive treatment."

Ummm....excuse me? More aggressive treatment? Are we talking yelling because I've already tried that and it didn't do a bit of good.
I was afraid to ask what aggressive meant. (flash back of my cheerleading days....Be aggressive. B...E... Aggressive. B..E...A..GG..RE...SS...IVE!)

ZooDad happily informed me that he was talking about surgery. Gee thanks honey.

Prayers for my foot please and I'll do my part by dutifully doing my home exercises.

It's your "ucky" day!

More conversations in the van:
We were listening to the All You Need is Love album. It's Beatles songs sung by kids. the boys love it. M's favorite is Dear Prudence. J's favorite is Octopus' garden. A loves Yellow Submarine.

Today in the van, A started singing what sounded like "Mean jelly-beans" over and over during the Yellow Submarine. It was not in the same tune and was not Yellow Submarine.

A: "Mean Jelly-beans....Mean Jelly beans. Ooo know dad dong Mom? Ee a dood dong."
Translated: "Something I couldn't make out. You know that song Mom? It's a good song."

M in the backseat: "Stop singing A!"

Me: "He can sing if he wants too. Don't tell him not to sing."

M: "Can he at least sing the song that is playing and not something else."

Hee, hee, hee...It's hard to argue with that.

Apparently Baby S found a nickle in his car seat.
A: Mom....Dammy bound a doin. Ee is ucky day. Ee a ucky boy.

My A ear's weren't in place at that moment so it took me a moment to process what he was saying. Translated : Mom....Sammy found a coin. It's his lucky day. He's a lucky boy. A then leaned back in his seat smiling at his brother's good fortune.

Yes, he is a "ucky" boy. I'm pretty "ucky" too.
Are all of you feeling "Ucky" today?

My pity party

I had a little sad moment yesterday with my SID/apraxia kid, A. Thursdays have been rough for a few weeks. Mainly because we get such discouraging news on Wednesday's therapy and I spend Thursday trying to implement some new thing that was suggested.

Yesterday, I decided that it was time to drag out my Easy Does it For Apraxia and start all over at the beginning...even making a new notebook.

That's where the sad moment comes in.

A was trying to color in the turtle to go on the cover of his notebook. He was trying to hold the marker the way Miss Beth showed him...and having great difficulty. He even made sure he used his "helper hand." But it was very hard for him to color in entirely and he went out of the lines...a lot.

I told him he was doing a good job.

We wailed..."No, I'm not. Look." and pointed out his mistakes.

I told him that we were going to cut it out so no one would see that part.

He's almost 4 and he can't color. And it bothers him.

sigh

He was finally proud of his work, once I cut out the turtle and glued it on is notebook. So, it turned out ok for him.

I went to the toy store and bought some coloring books with black backgrounds. Now if he goes out of the lines, it won't show up. He needs some successes.

So what does a SID child "look" like?

And is there a "normal" SID child?
These questions was posed by a mom who is wondering what her and her child's futures hold.
neither is easy to answer.

SID kids are as individual as every other child. They all have different issues. We parents tend to get together and the conversation goes like this: "Does your son do XYZ? Mine does too! What about ABC? No, But a friend of mine's daughter does and she does EFG also. What can you do to help her with that?"

We're all pretty clueless. Grasping out for any little shred of information. The doctors and the therapists are in that same fog with us. No one can say for sure how our children will grow up. We all just hope that they will be "normal" some day. But there are no guarantees.

So what does my SID son "look" like?
My son A is almost 4. He is hypo-sensitive and gets distracted by his need for input. It's hard for him to focus for more that a few minutes at the time. He acts a bit scatter brained. Often forgetting what was asked of him the second you stop speaking because he has problems with auditory processing.
He *seems* like a very hyperactive child. He is always moving. He wallows on everything. He touches everything with his hands, face, or feet. You can often find him face down, sprawled out on the floor, and moving like he is making a snow angel. He hates sleeping on a regular mattress. The softness doesn't give him enough sensory input. He does better on the floor or on a sturdy couch cushion. He can sleep in a bed with other people but he moves all night and creeps almost under you.
He has fine motor problems and some low muscle tone and well as global dyspraxia and apraxia of speech. That means that he can't make his muscles do the things he wants them to do. He knows what he wants to do, but can't figure out how to make it happen. He gets so frustrated at times.

He learns best by touching things.
We have wooden letters and textured numbers. We count jumps instead of pictures. I try to incorporate music into things he needs to memorize and say back. For some reason, he seems to sing better than he can speak.
He stuffs food in his mouth because he can't tell how full it is. He eats with his hands because he likes to touch the food and lacks the fine motor skills needed for utensils.
He bumps into things and people when we are out. He has trouble filtering out all the extra information in public places and gets distracted. You have to hold his hand and keep track of him or he will wander off. He speaks very loudly and has a lot of trouble modulating his volume.

He goes, and goes, and goes until he just falls asleep. And he eats all. day. long. That boy can put away some food.

But he's also loving and so affectionate. He's funny and smart. Even when we can't quite understand his speech, he never gets angry. He just looks at us like *we* are the silliest people in the world and starts gesturing to help our feeble minds put it all together. He is confident and happy and strong. Have I mentioned how smart he is? I am sometimes amazed at the ideas he puts out. Then I'm embarrassed at being amazed that he is so intelligent because I realize that I assumed he wasn't.

I wonder if I could be as strong and patient and determined as he is if I were him.

How will I teach him to read? How will I teach him math? Will he have problems spelling? Will he have problems writing? Will he be successful? Will he be "normal" one day?

I don't know. I don't know what "magic curriculum" will be the answer to his needs. But whatever he needs, we'll do our very best to provide.

Of course, I'm always thankful he is who and what he is. I don't know what pattern his string forms in God's tapestry. But I do know he adds something beautiful.

Getting all Hoity Toity

I've been on a spending spree. Yep. 2 years of tax returns will do that to you.
I'm fixing up the nest and making plans to take the boys to Disney World.

The new furniture is divine. I've already had the professional cleaning guy come out to take care of a spot. I t's going to be a looooooong five years for that man. (snicker)

The living room is looking spiffy but the fish tank was looking too small for Oscar, Elmo, and Comso. So I bought a new 20 gallon tank and all the accoutrements for fish living for the larger tank.
Now everyone is all comfy.

Then ZooDad decided that we have been neglecting the boys in social awareness and video game "savy-ness." Hmmm...These boys have computer games, an old Nintendo 64, and PSone, and THREE gameboys. I wouldn't call them neglected. But ZooDad was armed with the latest report that video games help children learn to multitask, a skill that ZooDad lacks and will readily admit. Since we have two children with fine-motor problems and issues with hand-eye coordination...I thought we could kill two birds with one stone.

We are now the proud owners of a new Game Cube and several games, including Zelda and Animal Crossing. Both games require a good bit of thinking and reasoning.
No wars have broken out and everyone is sharing quite nicely. When they've "gamed out" they go out side and play.
Cool
And ZooDad and I get to play too. I consider it marital counseling when you get to shoot down your spouse in aerial combat. Get that aggression out!

Then I went to this store called Tuesday Morning. They sell overstock house decorating stuff at discount prices. ZooDad came along and helped pick out a fancy schmancy new comforter set for our big rice bed and I fell in love with some butterscotch colored 600 count sheets for a steal. They just happened to match the comforter set.
Oh, these sheets are heavenly. ZooDad keeps trying to send me back to buy another set. The man is now spoiled rotten.

Now, I'm making plans to replace the cracked tile in our tiny foyer and then tile our bathroom. It currently has carpet. It also has three very large wall mirrors. Now before you judge, I am not responsible for the carpet and mirrored walls being originally placed in the room. I have lived with them for over 6 years though...so I do have to take blame for allowing them to stay in existence.
There is also the bad wallpaper and the 80's ball lights to replace.

Then I want to tile the kitchen and laundry, paint or restain cabinets, and paint every other wall in the whole darn house. Oh, I promised the boys I'd do something with their bathroom. The brown floral 80's wallpaper has got to go. But I'm starting to love that yellow linoleum in there. I'm thinking of a retro style bathroom...without flowers.

Oh yes...I'm fixing up the nest. School is on the backburner until the end of July.

Y'all send me your Wonder Woman vibes, o'kay? If you're in town...feel free to drop by and watch...or maybe help.

Aaaaah-choooo

The dust is killing me. I spent the day chasing dust bunnies and digging legos and hot wheels from the old furniture cushions.

The new furniture arrives tomorrow. We we bought it, they told us it would be at least two weeks and possibly three. It's been five days. ZooDad is so thrilled about finally getting a recliner. He is planning a power nap tomorrow, ASAP.
Here's what coming.

I had planned to paint the room before the new furniture arrived. That didn't happen.
We did get all the old furniture out except what's staying. I also dusted and scrubbed everything else and replaced the broken shelves in my curio cabinet.

I also found a great idea for the two littlest boys. They have had a ball playing with the old seat cushions. They have stacked them and jumped into them. They have built forts and hide-aways. They have jumped on them like stepping stones.

So I called a local upholstery shop and ordered some cushion foam and I will make covers for them. Then I can just keep them stacked in the corner like giant building blocks for creative little people. On the plus side...they can also be extra seating and sleepover palates.

I would just use the old cushions....but that poor couch has just not survived 4 boys very well. I was thrilled to get those stinky things out to the house. The couches..not the boys. LOL

Jumping on that "Friday Feast" Wagon

Friday Feast
Appetizer:
Name 3 things that you think are beautiful.
Azalea blossoms, sleeping boy faces, and genuine happy smiles

Soup:
What was the last concert you attended?
Rock concert: Bon Jovi. Ha, ha, ha, ha
Music in general: a harp and organ duet

Salad:
What is one thing that frightens you about getting older?
Losing all the people who know my history. When my father died, my uncle, commented that he had lost his parents and both his brothers and that he felt so lonely. I understood the loss he was feeling.

Main Course:
Tell us what cookbook you use most frequently.
I don't. I don't know if that makes me a bad cook or just a simple one. I cook like my mom, MIL, and grandmother. I just throw it together.

Dessert:
If you could extend one month to 50 days (instead of the normal 28, 29, 30, or 31), which month would you want to lengthen?
April. The weather in April is beautiful: not too hot but warn enough to go out and enjoy the day. I love to keep the flowers around longer.

picture pages, picture pages...time to do your picture pages

time to get your crayons and your pencils.
I never got any Picture Pages but I can post some new pics of the boys.
We have Cub Scout bridging and little brothers at baseball.

First the little brothers.

This is S. He'll be 2 in July. He is a giant among 22 month olds with a powerful arm and mighty lungs. He also needs a haircut. He missed the last one due to his powerful arms and mighty lungs.

Here's A. He'll be 4 in June. He is hiding under an umbrella because it was very sunny out. ZooDad can just look out the window and get sunburned so he takes an umbrella to the baseball games. Notice that ZooDad doesn't get to use the umbrella.

Now the Cub scouts.


Here's M. He's 6 and just bridged up to Wolves. (hooooooooowwwwwwl) He is tickled to death. I am going to split my time next year between his and his brother's den. This makes M even more excited. He is getting so big. When did my babies get so big?


Oh my goodness. I am the mother of a Webelos. When did that happen?
Here's J (age 9) with our Scout Master. Our SM is on the bomb squad which is why he can grin like that through all the chaos.

Speaking of chaos.
Here's my new Webelos.

Now don't these boys look like they could give you a run for your money. If you're ever bored on Tuesday afternoon and you're in town...feel free to come on by and lend a hand.
I'm actually missing 5 in this picture. One is hiding. One was out sick. One was out at a church even and three were just plain missing. The front row is standing on the bridge. The back row are just tall kids. Six of these boys have been in Cub Scouts together for 3 years.

24

that's how many hours 'til my big sweetie comes home. He's been in AZ for 12 days. And for 12 long days it's been just me and the boys and all the stuff we have to do at"end of the school year time."

Let me tell you how great ZooDad is.
He doesn't enjoy eating at Burger King. He just doesn't like the food and the fact when he was stationed in Germany, all they had on post was a BK. So he got just abit sick of the food.
BK currently has the Star Wars figures. Try as I might...I have not been able to find any BK Star Wars toy for the boys. Not a single one.

ZooDad in AZ has found them. He has been to BK 5 times in the past 12 days to purchase 2 toys each visit. He knows the boys will love them and he has to eat anyway. He called to report that he got a wookie and an x-wing plane on the last visit. That is dedication.

One of the men he is working with in AZ, has just recently moved to our area. It turns out that they also homeschool. How did this come up? My darling sweetie apparently tells everyone that he has four wonderful boys and his fabulous wife homeschools them. He just volunteers the information.

Let me tell you something else. The man was willing to walk to Mexico (The rental car can't leave the state.) because I mentioned I might like a Mexican leather handbag. I told him that it really wasn't necessary.

So there you have it. I married and all-male siring, homeschool proud man who will force feed himself BK food and walk to Mexico to make his family happy.

I am so lucky.

May the Force be with him!

For Christmas, ZooDad bought me a 4 disc Star Wars DVD collection. These are the original episodes with Luke, Leia, and Han Solo. (I didn't ask for these so I fear they may have been a present for ZooDad.)

I thought it would be a good idea for the boys to watch these movies to prepare for the final episode. I explained that I was M's age when episode IV came out and J's age when episode V came out. They watched #IV with few questions but last night we watched #V and boy did we have some conversations. I laughed all night at the stuff they were coming up with.

J: What wrong with Yoda?
Me: What do mean 'What's wrong" with him?
J: Well.....He sounds like Kermit.

Hee, hee, hee.

The movie: We must destroy the son of Skywalker.
J: Hey Mom! Luke's last name is Skywalker?
Me: yep...Luke Skywalker.
J: What was Anakin's last name?
Me: Skywalker
J: So you do you think Anakin was Luke's Dad?
Me: Yep, Anakin is Luke's dad.
J: Well when did that happen!"

M: Mom, when you were little, was there Star Wars stuff everywhere?
Me: Yep, everywhere you looked.
M: Well, you'd think they'd come up with something new.
(You would think.)

J: Mom, if Anakin is Luke's father and Anakin is Darth Vader...that means that Darth Vader is Luke's father.
me: yep...you figured it out. but Luke doesn't know yet.
J: Ooooooooohhhhhh, that's whay all the show dramatically say..."I am your father!" (he says this in the "Vader" voice.) That's cool.
(That fills in some gaps in knowledge. I guess he didn't get all those references on Toy Story, Fairly Oddparents, or Jimmy Neutron.)


J: So how did they do yoda?
Me: what do mean?
J: Is he a robot?
Me: Nooooo.
J: Is computer drawn?
Me: No they didn't have that back then. He's a puppet.
J and M: a puppet??????
J: Well, he sure doesn't look like a puppet but it does explain why he sounds like Kermit.

M: So why didn't they draw Yoda with a computer, Mom? Didn't they have electricity when you were young?
(I was too busy laughing to answer.)

Smokin'!!!!!!!!

My internet access has been spotty. I unplugged. I reset. I restarted. No luck what-so-evah! I called and complained to a very nice gentle man who advised me to trade in my cable modem and scheduled a service visit for Tuesday. (He was nice so I didn't fuss about waiting until Tuesday.)

I got the modem today. (and a new digital cable box remote since ours is backless thanks to baby Sam's curious fingers.) I plugged that bad boy in and BAAAAAAMMMM!
I have internet.

I have fast internet.

I am Smokin'!

I should have done this ages ago. that was our original high speed modem. It was at least 4 years old. That's 40 in technology years.

The new modem is sleek and black with all sorts of pretty lights that do not flash.

Beautiful....and it works too.

We have to wait to start school

Last night I started reading The Children's Homer to the boys. This was after they watched the Tv movie Hercules...which I recorded for them. There was no way I was letting them stay up 'til 11. (We are slightly behind in our SOTW stuff. We've been on book I forever. I do own book II, if that counts for anything.)

I discovered that I had an illustrated DK Odyssey book in my stash of oh-so-cool-stuff. (I also remembered that I have an audible version of The Children's Homer also.) Well, J took my Dk book to bed with him. He went back to reading it when he woke up this morning.
When I told him that it was time for math, he answered...."Can I finish this chapter first? Zeus is trying the destroy Odysseus and his crew."

Of course you can buddy. Like I would interrupt reading The Odyssey for some division problems.

Sorry...had to remove it.

I had to take off the lovely art pictures. They were making my page go catty-wonker*** by pushing the whole side bar waaaaaaaaaay down to the bottom. You'll just have to go to the Met site and see them for yourself. In fact, that's an even better idea. Do a virtual trip to the Met.

Or go to the http://www.kopalnia-wieliczka.pl/english/index.html. We watched a show yesterday about this very cool mine. They mentioned my favorite artist and his Ghent altarpiece. Apparently, Hitler hid this piece in a salt mine during WWII.




*** Not that something being catty-wonker upsets me greatly. It is just that many things in my life are catty-wonkered most of tea time. Many of these things I have no power to affect so I just kind of deal with it and others I kind of like catty-wonkered. But I like my blog relatively straight and can somewhat do something about that. My own little obsessive compulsive corner off the world.

My World History education

When I was in school, I really didn't pay attention to history. My first history/geography memory was learning states and capitals in 6th grade. In 7th grade we had geography, and I had to learn all the world countries. I can remember taking weekly quizzes where we had to label the countries on a world map. Once we got a 100, we could stop taking the quizzes. I don't remember anything else from that year.
8th grade was American History. I had a grumpy teacher that hated that the the gifted kids missed her class one a week. I was one of the gifted kids. I remember her annoyance but I don't remember anything she taught.

I finally learned something in 9th grade World History. Mr. Hadden, who looked exactly like that blue eagle from The Muppet Show, inspired me to pay attention. Not really inspired....I wanted to do well ont he test because that made him happy and I wanted to make him happy.

I really didn't care about the history.

But I did eventually learn about World history and it was in a very stange place.

It was an Art History Course.
We started with the caves of Lascaux and Chauvet and we went through renaissance (We even covered one of my favorite artists... Jan Van Eyke.)

The professor would show slides of artwork and then explain the history that led up to these pieces. He told us the stories behind the artwork, explained the social aspects that the cultures held when these pieces were created, the kings, the leaders, the wars, the conquests. He took us back to the people who created these pieces of art.

So I learned history through art.

I am going though SOTW and teaching my on children. I feel disconnected when just reading the words. I need pictures. Sargon the Great? Oh I recognize that line drawing... that's the bronze bust of Sargon. Let me find the picture. Do you see the hair? His wair was long and curly, but look at the top of his helmet. The artisits fashioned the waves of hair in the metal and that shows how proud they were of their hair.

The Vikings? Oh... the intricately carved metalwork. You should see it. thier swords were carved down the entire blade.

The Mayas....stone carvings, regal and symbolic.

Imagine my joy when I stumbled upon the Timeline of Art History from the Met. This is my kind of history. We use this site every day.
Make sure you visit this place daily. You can find everything right there. Lists of rulers. Artwork. History.

But let me warn you... once you get there...it'll be an hour before you leave again.

Key update

I forgot to tell you Thursday...I found my keys. Not my spare, spare keys. Not even my spare keys. (those have been gone for months and months) But my REAL keys. I looked it up and I lost these keys in February. A found them in the Imaginext castle box. I guess it's been a while since they played with that one.

I am so happy.
I can now unlock my car remotely. YAHHHHHH!!! I didn't realize how much I missed that. And all my grocery store discount tags.

Baseball, bike crashes, and "byes"

Saturday was another day at the baseball field. I was so proud of M and the rest of my T-ball guys. They actually threw to a base other than first. Yes! We got three outs: one at first, one at second, and one at third. Of course, outs don't count in t-ball...But the boys actually made plays.
WOW!!!!!

J's batting is improving. He gets a hit with every at bat. He doesn't keep team score. He's just happy when he scores a run. And this year...He's pretty happy.

Until today...He took a spill on his bike. He and M were riding down in the cul-de-sac with a few other kids. I've been wary to let them ride bike in the street but it is a quiet loop and there are lots of other kids...So for the past few weeks, I've let them ride down there as long as someone was in the yard.

J overcompensated and fell off his bike on the asphalt. (For the uninitiated, blacktop is a smooth black surface. It is great for skating. Asphalt has rock in the surface. Bad for skating..bad to fall on.)
The kid looked like he fell on a cheese grater. He got both hands, an elbow, and a massive scrape on his knee. He took off a quarter size section, about an eight inch deep.

It bled. Thankfully, I already had large and medium stretchy bandages, peroxide, and triple anti-biotic ointment on hand. M ran to get ZooDad, who had to carry J home. Then M brought back both bicycles while the two littlest boys freaked out about their biggest brother being hurt.
All seems to be well now. But I am going to keep a sharp eye for infection. The boy was tore up!

After all the cut and scrapes were doctored, I had to pack Zoodad for a two week trip. He's off the Arizona for a bit. He left at 2:40 and he's already called home 3 times. He's a bonafide home body who hates to leave his little zoo cage. If he could work from home...he would. And he'd never leave unless forced. Unfortunately, he has to travel.

So I am hobbling along with the 4 boys and no helper. My foot is doing remarkably well. I grocery shopped today. No small feat for my banged-up foot. This week will be busy. We have yet another physical therapy session for me plus A's Wednesday stuff, the last den meeting for scouts, the last t-ball practice, the last baseball practice, and then the very last games on Saturday.

I like all these "lasts."

You dropped the bomb on me...Baby

Well, a little bomb. Two little bombs. Maybe not even real bombs since the thoughts had bee lurking in my mind before anyone else said it.
Today was speech and occupational therapy day for A.
His Occupational therapist wants him to see an orthopedic specialist about his "toe walking." The kid has always walked on his toes but apparently he also turns his feet inwards. That might make it a Orthopedic issue and not just a sensory issue. Of course, we'll go.
Anything he needs...We will do. It's just one more thing to worry about though.

I really shouldn't complain because I know so many other parents have such bigger problems to worry about than mine. I'm just wondering when this kid is going to catch a break.

Then the speech therapist wanted to talk about A's lack of interest and the fact that he may have reached a temporary plateau. He's also resisting doing speech exercises at home and at therapy. She asked me to consider a two month break from all speech therapy. I've decided to compromise with trying just once a week for the summer with the option to go to every other week if he's still resisting.
The guy has been in speech twice a week since October 2003 with only the occasional miss. So maybe it's time for a little break. I'm just worried about him not making further progress.

I also went to the dentist today. Yes, I went and lived to tell the tale. My teeth were cleaned, yet I did not die. So that part is good, huh?

My PSA

I'm in a linky mood. Here's some cool stuff I feel obligated to pass on to those who may not have stumbled up them.

The new The Lion, The Witch, and The wardrobe is coming out in December. J will be so happy. So will I. I hope Hollywood did as good a job as The Lord of the Rings. Because if they've messed it up...I'll be soooooo mad!
Here's more info.


Free Art lesson-y kind of things. J and M LOVED this site...Destination: Modern Art from the Museum of Modern Art.



And then there are free book plates and other cool stuff at My Home Library


And the last little gem of the day....Mr. Donn's Lesson plans. Very cool history stuff.

All my cool stuff must be on the upstairs computer. I'll have to go up there next time I'm feeling linky.

Enjoy!