Another reason why my children must be homeschooled

I can't send them to public school. Nope.
The "baby" who is 1st grade this year in here in the living room doing his math workbook on the coffee table.
As he does each problem, he says it out loud in a game show voice....."Seven plus two is...NINE. Then he sings his little theme song while he writes down the answer.
Dun-nu dun-nu nuuuuu dun-nu-nu-nu.
Which I guess is better than him randomly singing verses of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" like he was yesterday.

Oh yeah, the PS teachers would just love this kid. He'd be "on red" and I'd get phone calls every single day.

First Pack Meeting 2009

Our Pack has really grown this year. We have 75 registered Cubs and Webelos. Tuesday night, 38 of them came to the pack meeting. That's pretty good considering that the fall soccer program is huge here and we're in the middle of football season also.

All the boys were excited and happy to get involved. I had 5 Boy Scouts at the meeting whom helped my Most Awesome Assistant Cub master herd all the boys into the largest game of Duck, Duck, Goose that I've ever seen. (We had multiple Ducks. It was a fun chaos.)

While the MAAC entertained the boys, I met with parents about popcorn sales, the upcoming Scout event on post, and our plans for Boo! Camp.

We have so many people interested in camping that we are skipping our District Spook-o-Ree and are hosting our own fall camp out instead. We're going Tent-or-Treating. We're going to have games like Doughnut-on-a-string, Pumpkin bowling, Spider Toss, Mummy and Ghost Relays, Bobbing for apples, and pumpkin painting. Or course there will be a campfire with scary stories, songs, skits, and s'mores. We'll even throw in a pack fellowship dinner and a service project for the church that gives us the entire lakefront campsite with a playground, swim areas, full kitchen, rec room, and seriously hot water in the showers for $40....for the whole weekend. We have the place to ourselves, it's only 15 miles from our church, and it has cell phone service.

Now I just have to get planning the activities. Anyone have any other ideas for activities?

Army Induced Whiplash

ZD's branch manager is quickly becoming one of my least favorite people.
I don't care if I move or even where....I would just like a general idea of when.
One year...two years...one year...two years... 10 months!
I'm getting whiplash from the whole thing.

Guess what?

My computer has been raised from the dead. Hooray for ZD! My system is all wiped clean and I'm back on a keyboard that I can actually type on.

But I've lost all of my links. That was one of the files that ZD didn't save. So send me the blogs, homeschool sites, curriculum providers, boards, and knitting sites. (And if you happen upon some good right wing political blogs, I'll check them out too.)

I have my computer back. Dude, I do love my Dell.

Answers have been posted for the ones no one could guess.
The rules:
1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie (or get them out of your capacious memory).
3. Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly in the comments, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. Looking them up is cheating!

Good luck...I have a very odd taste in movies.

1. "I wish I could do something about this. But I can't. But I can promise you two things. One: I'll always look this good." (hint: Cartoon with Eddie Murphey in it.) "Shrek." I guess y'all haven't had to sit through this one as many times as I have.

2. "When danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled."
(hint: this one is sung. Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Robin!) "Monty Python's Holy Grail." I can't believe no one got this. You know the movies with the great lines about killer rabbits, flesh wounds, and the average speeds of sparrows.

3. "I wanna name her Dottie after my wife. She's a vicious life-sucking b!tch from which there is no escape." (hint..."No Harry. You da' man." Bruce Willis is in this one.) Seanna must not have been ny because she would know that this was "Armageddon," one of my favorite movies to rewatch.

4. "You're not much use to me alive are you, Turkish?" (Brad Pitt plays an not so attractive dude in this flick. Violence, profanity, and some of the best one-liners ever.) I'm not Surprised that no one knew "Snatch" directed by Guy Ritchie. ZD and I love this one and quote this line to each other all the time.

5. "Lee-loo Dall-as mul-ti-pass." Nisha knows that one is from The 5 Element and I know she knows at least one of these.

6. "Insanity runs in my family... It practically gallops." (The first of my favorite Cary Grant movies.)Mary got this one. It's Arsenic and old Lace.

7. "I think I at least deserve a chance to be with Derek!" (This one's not out on DVD yet. Jacob keeps quoting this line spoken by a gelatinous creature.) Monsters Vs. Aliens. Make sure you get this one on DVD. It's really great.

8. "Well, you see, actually I was on my way to Australia..." (One of two movies that have the same cast and basic story. And made back to back. Something about a sheriff.) Support Your Local Sheriff. And the go-along Support you Local Gunfighter.

9. "Oh, I love you, Adam, Alex, Peter, Brian, whatever your name is, I love you! I hope we have a lot of boys and we can name them all after you!"
(Another Cary Grant movie. This one co-stars Audrey Hepburn.)Mary got this one too. Charade. If you haven't seen this one, queue it up on Netflix.

10. "According to the War Department, I *am* my wife."(My last Cary Grant movie. I have a thing for Cary Grant. I recently bought the DVD of this one. Poor Cary has to deal with being an Army spouse.) Hopewell got this one. I Was a Male War Bride.

Day 9 without my laptop

My laptop bricked. It's just a glorified paperweight at this very moment. Thankfully, it died in a dramatic fashion and while it was in it's throes, ZD managed to save all of my pictures, files, music, and my beloved Outlook pst file.
However, I can't access any of those things. They exist on an external hard drive upstairs in some little dusty corner of ZD's study. I really hope it's not on that noisy humming one. That's one is going to give up the ghost any minute.

So I do have everything. That's good. I also have access to a computer and can check my email online. Which is also good.
But that's it.

Don't ask me for a file or to look up an email address or what time I'm supposed to be at the boys' doctor appointment. (I really hope I get a reminder call about that one.)

ZD has been too busy to actually see if my little Dell is worth reviving. Something about working on that last class he needs for his Master's degree and while working 14 hour days.
He probably could have looked at it Saturday if I hadn't made him haul the boys around to football games even though he's in a walking cast, but you know, we've got priorities here.

But since I'm online less, I've gotten a fair bit of knitting done and undone and almost redone.

I also got to dance a little victory jog and sneer at ZD when something work related happened that he expected not to but I knew would. The "something" may change the amount of time we have left here and is also a pretty good thing for ZD. It's not a good thing for me because it may mean 16 hour work days and even less time at home with us.

In other news, Anders and a neighbor boy have found a Luna moth caterpillar. I was hoping that once the thing spun a cocoon, that I would have less frequent updates on the caterpillar's activities.
Nope....we've slowed down to hourly but the conversation has taken a turn from boring to downright repetitive.
There's just only so many times that you can hear, "He's still in the cocoon. That's a cocoon made of silk and not a chrysalis."
Add to that the speculation of what the moth is doing in the cocoon. at. this. very. moment.

I'm kind of wishing that I had my own cocoon with wifi of course.

Perils of marrying an Army guy

I called ZD at work and apparently he was in full out Army mode.

"Major ZD speaking," said over the speaker phone.
"Hey!" Speaker phone clicks over to handset.
"Wife?"
"Yeah....."
"I'm working fires here. Is it hot?"
"No."
"Can I call you after 1500?"
"Sure."
click

And that was that. In all honesty, I didn't really process the conversation until after he hung up. Then I had to convert 1500 to regular time.

I love the Army

As soon as you start planning, they change the plan. And it's not like you can just sit back and wait for stuff to happen without making plans.
Well, you can do that...but you'll be miserable. The question is .... will you be more miserable than you would be with plans that constantly changed all the time?

My new home education station.

This year I added my fourth and final boy to our day of home education. This final edition, exhausted my limited "school shelf" storage.

Never fear....I have an Ikea near.

So off I went to the Ikea store. It didn't take me long at all to find the perfect new book case. (In fact it took me longer to make it downstairs to actually purchase the bookcase than it did for me to pick a bookcase. Ikea is a huge place.) After much scheming and sliding and pushing and very poor steering of the shopping cart/flat bed thing... I brought home the crazy big bookshelf. We're talking really big....so big that there was concern that it might not fit in my van, even with all the seats folded down.
The thing is seven and a half feet tall. I'm sure glad I ignore ZD's advice to buy two of these buggers. I t really didn't look this big in the store.

I'm not quite finished "cutesy-ing" it up. I have ribbon and gingham and some really cool fabric that I have big plans for. But it looks ok for now. Plus it's not my only storage area for school stuff. I have another small bookcase, a pantry type cabinet, a high boy with lots of drawers, and.....um....a little closet under the stairs that's overfilled at the moment. (and a couple of bookcases upstairs...and another cabinet in the kitchen. This is kind of embarrassing.)

So here's my lovely new bookcase all filled with home learning goodies.

The very top shelf holds two closet drawer organizers with office supplies, CD roms, music CD's, manipulative's, and even my 3-hole punch.

Shelf two holds a basket of higher math supplies: calculators, protractors, rulers, compasses, right angle rulers. It also holds two black totes of books to be read. One is mine and the other is Cobb's.

Below that are two more reading totes for Matty and Anders, my King Frog who's acting as a book end and a clay mug from Germany that houses paperclips.

The fifth shelf has picture books for Sammy and Anders, Art supplies in a little wicker basket, and a black tote with my teacher guides.

You can't see the sixth shelf which is very narrow and holds buckets of crayons and markers, a jar full of counters, and several jars with pencils, pens, and highlighers.

The bottom two shelves hold the totes for each boys' school work. Their textbooks and workbooks all fit neatly inside a tote. Each tote has a ribbon with the boy's name embroidered on it. When they start work, they can easily grab their tote and take it anywhere in the house to work. (Cobb's is actually on the table in the first picture.) I also have magazine holders to house my Progeny Press Guides and all our out Latin course work. And also a place to store the cat.

What? You mean you don't have cat storage in your homeschool space?

In a strange groove

We've settled into a strange groove here at the Zoo.

School is back in the swing of things. So I spend my days teaching the boys, going to speech therapy, and dealing with Cub Scout stuff.
That's sort of normal stuff. Well, as normal as it can be while dealing with my 13-year-old who thinks that there must be some relationship between height and intelligence. Since he's taller than me, he must also be smarter than me and every other short person in the house.
He's already lost computer access this week due to his back talking. We'll see what else he loses before he finally accepts that the proper answer to any request made by his mother is "Yes, ma'am."

My evenings consist of a little knitting and sorting through a chosen area while ZD pours over the "job" list.
It makes for an interesting conversation.

We've discoverd that we've held on to more junk than we should of and that we also know each other better than we thought.

The list is being whittled down. When you get down to rank and date available, there aren't a lot of choices especially when you add my need for sunlight, greenery, and some space to wander about in.

Overseas is out for now (this very moment, we might change our minds tonight) due to the fact that both of our mothers are in their mid 70's. Plus I don't think I could handle that much of change in my first move in 10 years.

Right now we're looking at DC/Virginia, Florida, or Nebraska. And I'm not that sure of the Nebraska part. I like to be near the ocean.

Hawaii made my list for sun, greenery, and ocean but ZD giggled about the idea of me being stuck on an island that I could circumnavigate in 3 hours.

Of course, I find the idea of him dealing with DC traffic to be equally hilarious.

Arizona missed the list due to lack of greenery and the fact that I was a dry husk of a woman after spending a week in Utah. I can't imagine Arizona being much better. But ZD did remind me that living there gave me the ability to vote or not vote for John McCain.

So we continue talking, looking up stuff, and digging through stuff to get rid off. Pretty soon we'll have to turn in our dream sheet and just wait and see what happens.

The purge begins

Things are stepping up around here regarding our next duty station. Before March, I was aware that someday I would have to move if we continued to be an Army family. In March, I found out that the job that ZD is currently working would be the only job he'd have at this base. That meant that instead of 3 years, we'd only be stationed here about 18 months.
Ok.
That changes things.
So we'd be moving in the fall of 2010.

Last night, ZD got an email from his branch manager. Yep, 18 months maximum. In fact a summer move would be preferable. At the very least, we'd move by August 2010.
Now, that really changes things.
Especially, since we've lived in this house for more than 10 years.
We've accumulated 10 years worth of clothes, toys, books, knick-knacks, and garage junk. I dread going through it all....but it must be done.
And while I'm doing that I have to finish all the house projects that still haven't been completed.
I have to get the house ready to go on the market.
Then I have to find people to take over all my "jobs:" Cub scouts and home school support group
And most importantly, I have to prepare my boys to leave the only home that they have ever known and all of their family and friends.

All while doing all the stuff I normally do.

12 months may not be enough.

Chloe la chat

I mentioned that we adopted a new cat.
Chloe was a stray on post who was trapped and socialized. She spent 4 months living in a kennel until we brought her home to live with us.
She's a beautiful tuxedo cat with a sweet disposition.

She seems to be adjusting just don't you think? But she's a little odd.

Her new favorite spot to sleep in on the back of the love seat, right behind my head. That part is not odd though....this part is.

She sleeps stretched out like that. Cobb calls her "Thriller cat" because she looks like she's doing a Michael Jackson move.

After pestering her for a while with the flash, she rolled over. But stayed all stretched out. I like the hands over her head pose.

Yep...she's an odd one.

More Scout stuff

This is for Dy.

This is the Bridging Ceremony that I gathered from several ceremonies and then tweaked. It went over very well with the Cubs and the parents. We were wet and covered in mud but each boy was very excited about starting their new rank.

Bridging Ceremony 2009

Notes: Cubs on one side of the bridge. Bonfire on the other. Pile of sticks on the ground for the boys to add to the fire. Neckerchiefs rolled and arranged on a table in order so the viewers can see them. Cub master on the Cub side of the bridge. New den leaders or assistant CM on the bonfire side to put the new neckerchief.

Good evening everyone.

Tonight we gather to honor our Cub Scouts that are bridging up to the next rank.

When a boy becomes a Cub Scout he starts on an upward trail. I say 'upward' because as he grows older he advances in Cub Scouting. He does not join a Cub Scout pack and then wait idly for 5 years until he becomes a Boy Scout.

As a boy moves along the Scouting trail, his badges of rank and his changes in uniform show his progress. One of the changes in uniform is the neckerchief.

These are the five neckerchiefs of Scouting. On the bottom is the orange neckerchief worn by Tigers who are brand new to scouting. The next is the yellow neckerchief that is worn by the Wolf Cubs. The next neckerchief is the blue one worn by those working for the Big Bear badge. The fourth neckerchief is for the Webelos Scouts who are preparing to be Boy Scouts. The fifth is the neckerchief worn by Boy Scouts.

Take a moment to look at our Bonfire. The logs in the center represent the fellowship of the boys and families in Cub Scouting.. The fire represents the spirit of Scouting.

As each of you crosses over tonight into your new rank, you will add a piece of wood to our Pack bonfire.

Without you, the pack would gradually grow dimmer and die. You are the fuel that keeps the pack going.

Your wood makes the pack’s fire burn stronger and brighter, just you make the pack stronger and better.
Now it's time for the Cubs to bridge to their new rank.

Will the Tigers come forward with their adult partners?

For the past few months you and your family have explored all sorts of new and exciting things and places.
You and your adult partner have searched in your home and community for new activities that have shown you how people work and have fun together.
You and your adult partner have discovered that by doing things together with friends and family that you are part of a great family, community, and country.

Now it is time to move along the Scouting trail and become Wolf Cubs. As Wolves you will learn about our environment, how to take care of yourself and others. Parents, please remove your Tiger’s Neckerchiefs so they may receive their new Wolf neckerchiefs.
Will the Tigers now cross over to become Wolf cubs and add their wood to the pack fire?

Will the Wolves come forward?
Can I get a wolf howl? Wolves were my den.)

The wolf was greatly admired by the Indians for his swiftness, his hunting ability, and his endurance. In fact, the Indian scout was called a wolf, and the sign was two fingers spread apart, symbolizing the erect ears of the wolf. The wolf was considered a great 'medicine animal" and in some tribes, the Indian scout wore the skin and head of the wolf when on a scouting expedition.

You have followed the trail of the Indian by attaining the rank of Wolf Cub Scout. But now you must go on to greater honors for yourself and your parents by earning the Bear badge to prove your greatness. Learn the ways of our animal friends. Learn about the earth and how to grow food. Look up to our skies and learn the stories the stars tell.
Please remove your Wolf Neckerchiefs and cross over the bridge. Let this neckerchief be a sign to others that you are now a Bear and add your wood to the pack fire!

Will the Bear Cubs please come forward?

Bears, you have in the past worked on the Wolf trail and your most recent adventures have been on the Bear trail. You have proven yourselves to be good Scouts. You have now earned the honor of joining our Webelos den. Our Webelos den has one purpose....that's to prepare our Webelos Scouts for Boy Scouting. You will work on exciting activity badges, learning things that may lead you to lifelong hobbies or vocations. At the same time, you will study the Boy Scout requirements so you will be ready to become Boy Scouts when you are eligible.

Will the current Webelos come to other side of the bridge to greet your new Webelos brothers?
Bears, Please remove your Bear Neckerchiefs and cross over the bridge to receive your new Webelos neckerchiefs and add your wood to our pack fire.

Will the Junior Webelos come forward?

Your path in Cub Scouting is close to the end. In this last year you will prepare to become a Boy Scout. You will learn the Scout Oath and Promise and begin camping with Boy Scouts as you work towards your Arrow of Light. You will have the responsibility of being the youth leaders of our Pack. It is your job show the younger cub scouts how to live up to the Cub Scout promise.
Next year you will cross this bridge for the last time and you'll take on the neckerchief of the Boys Scout.
Will you add your wood to the pack fire to help the fire grow during this last year in our pack?

As you get ready to leave our pack, new cubs join to take your place. They will carry on what you have started. Will the new Tigers and their adult helpers come forward?
You boys are embarking on a great new journey with your parents. You will learn so much over the years as you earn your Tiger, Wolf, Bear, and Webelos badges.

Parents, please put on your son’s new Tiger neckerchief and cross over to join the Cubs of Pack ZZZ.
Webelos will you help our newest pack members add their wood to the pack fire.

Parents are also an integral part of the light of our pack. Cub Scouting is a family program, and that means not only that your son is advancing in rank, but that the whole family has taken another step upward, too.
Thank you for dedication to scouting and for giving your sons the opportunity to be part of something that will shape the rest of their lives.
I ask that you come forward and add your wood to the pack fire because we would have no fire without all that you do.

We close tonight with prayer.

A Scout is reverent.
(Follow with prayer of thanks.)

It's almost Cub Scout time again

We took off for July due to Boy Scout camp, the general heat, and everybody's vacation.

But now it's time to get back in the swing of things.
Our schools start back in early August so we have to wait until parents get back into the school groove before we start stuffing Cub stuff in.

Since the boys had so much fun with it at day camp, our first pack activity will be a Water War at the local fountain park. Everyone will bring water guns and wear swimsuits and we'll duke it out in a very wet version of Capture the Flag. Afterwards, we'll roast hot dogs on one of the charcoal grills and talk about bringing a friend to the next pack meeting.

The pack meeting for the month is "Bring a friend to game night." The boys who bring a friend will get a marshmallow gun that I made for about $1. They will also bring their DS's, Gameboys, and PSP's as well as any favorite board games. I'm bringing a Wii with some group games that require the boys to get moving. While they are playing, I can talk with parents about the new year. (I need a Pine Wood Derby Chair and an assistant for the Popcorn Kernal.)

This will give the boys a chance to socialize in a way that boys do and ease back into our pack meetings. Plus the visitors won't feel as "on display" and can break the ice easier.

I can't wait to see them all.

I need your decorating help!

Remember how I painted my new door red? Well, the paint bubbled up and started peeling off. I know....I was heartbroken.

I had to strip off all that old red paint, which took two days to do. Then prime the door and finally pick a new paint color. I chose an olive green called Mark Twain Grey Brick. I know, it says grey but it's really green.

So I got one coat on the door and thought....you know....that looks a little pickley. Hmmmm......

Now I love green, including this named grey but is really a pickle green color but I'm not sure if I like this on my front door.
So what do you think?

Warning: excuse the mess in any these pictures. I had to undecorate the doors to paint the silly things. And I haven't scraped the glass yet.
Here's my front door.

My house is taupe with green undertones. I have black shutters and storm door trim. That's my pickle green door. As soon as I finish painting, those old brass lights will be replaced with black ones.

Here's the door without the glare from the storm door. Right after I took this picture, I realised that I had locked my self out of the house. (The door knobs have been off for days so I used to no locks.) Just so you know, my door hardware is all black also.

So I had to scale my backyard fence....barefoot with my camera. Walk through the dog yard....barefooted where thankfully I had this door.

Which was thankfully open and also painted the pickle green that is not grey.

So what should I do?

A. Put that second and third coat on it. It's wonderful even though it is pickley.

B. Find a darker color that is a more mossy green.

C. Find a lighter color that does not looks like it came out of a Mt Olive bottle.

D. Paint it black. Everybody has a black door these days. You should too.

Vacation

It's almost time for my Mommy vacation.

Yep, it's that time of year when I ship the boys down to the farm for a Week At Grammie's House. I'll spend the week cleaning, planning, doing little projects, and shopping in all those stores that I can't seem to shop in with four boys in tow.

I also have to look for a new dining room suite.

While I'm doing all that the boys will be doing this....

And some of this....

And probably a good bit of this....

and all that other stuff they do while hanging out at Grammie's house. After a week, they'll come home rested, pampered, and spoiled rotten.

Trying very hard to not be bitter and failing.....total fail

When I married ZD, he was in the Army. My Dad was worried that when I got married, ZD would take me far, far away and my poor Dad would never see me again.

ZD took me four hours away to the armpit of NC. Yes, I know. NC is a beautiful state. It has mountains and beaches. It has major cities and small towns with fabulous personalities and charm. But I didn't live anywhere near any of those. I lived in Fayetteville, which the locals called "Fayette-nam" and is the birthplace of Putt-Putt Golf and games.

Then after a couple of years in exile there, we came back home and I've been here ever since.

Yep, that's my Army life. I have been nowhere and seen nothing.

ZD, however, does get to travel. He's TDY all over the place. He's been to Arizona and got to visit Tombstone. He's climbed up Mt Rainier in Washington. He's taken trips to Germany where he's already served a tour and got to see the sights.
But I haven't been able to go any of those places.

To be transparent, he's also see the battlefields in Iraq and Kuwait. He's flown over decimated towns in Bosnia. And he's lived in "less than ideal" conditions in the sand, in the heat, and in the bitter cold.
So it hasn't all been scenery and good food.

But this current TDY has me thoroughly annoyed. He's going to Hawaii for a week. Poor thing.
He actually complained about it also.
"I'm going to be flying all around the islands to visit different sites. You know how I hate helicopters."

After I exploded on him, he stopped complaining.

I can't go with him. I never can go to the interesting places. I have 5 activities that week (so far) that just can't be re-scheduled.
(sigh)

He can't even appreciate the opportunity.

Poor thing. He'll be staying at a posh hotel in Hawaii, eating great food, and flying around the gorgeous islands in a helicopter..... someone alert the UN and let them know that my dear husband is being tortured.

Dissonance

edited to add: if you want to freak out your animals, go to this website and play some of the sounds at the bottom of the page. Our new cat, Cloe, sits there with her ears flat, eyes wide, trying to figure what in the heck could be making that horrid noise. It's not quite cruel but very entertaining. Consonance and Dissonance


What I should be doing:

• mailing party invites
• making lesson plans for next year
• mopping my kitchen floor
• folding laundry
• baking something
• cooking dinner
• trimming the hedges
• cutting the grass
• cleaning out one of many closets
• walking the dogs
• cooking dinner
• knitting Christmas presents
• taking the kids to the pool
• cleaning the carpet
• organizing school stuff
• organizing my yarn
• painting the front door
• painting the back door
• finding the window screens
• exercising
• washing the dishes
• planning co-op classes
• visiting my mom

What I am actually doing:

• playing Sims 3 on my computer

My lady just had a baby and her DH turned into an old man on the same day. I'm hoping he doesn't kick the bucket before the kid gets out of high school.

Made it this far.

Wow...he sure is getting big isn't he? I would like to know who swiped my baby and replaced him with the almost grown man.

Tomorrow night, I'll head up state to camp out. It's 4 hours to the camp and the parents are supposed to be there by 9 am Saturday morning. (Yeah, I did that same math and my eyes bugged out.)

The idea of leaving the house at 5am, picking up 5 smelly Scouts who have been out in the wilderness for a week, stuffing them and their gear into my nice clean van, then turning around to drive home for another 4 hours.....well that just doesn't scream "fun-filled day" to me.


It sure is a beautiful camp. You can't see the mountains in that shot....but they are there. It's just what camp is supposed to look like.
So the parents have been invited to camp out Friday night but we have to bring our own gear. Thankfully, there is no shortage of camping gear here at the Zoo. It's also cheaper than a hotel.

I'm rather proud of myself that I haven't already run up there and grabbed the boy and drug him back home. In fact, my entire family is impressed with my restraint. That's not the say that I haven't been miserable. I do OK during the day, but at night I fall apart. It's those cabins that do me in.

Would you call that a cabin? That's the quarters for 6 boys. At least he was wise enough to get a bottom bunk. I would rather have a tent personally. At least, you can keep the critters out of them.

I know he's had a great time. I can't wait to hear about his adventures.

I've been doing it wrong

I watched this video and my mouth dropped open at the end.
I fell your pain banana guy. I too have peeled a banana incorrectly all my life.
How very handy!

I showed this to the boys (the ones here anyway) and they all were dumbfounded.

Now, they are eating bananas