Easter p.s.
I completely forgot about this until a minute ago.
While we were waiting on my brother to show up at my mom's she asked about Brett going to highschool. When I commented that Brett had decided to stay home and continue going to the co-op for at least another year she replied "but he needs to go to school for socialization". I quickly began to enlighten her with just how much "socialization" the boy gets and she mentioned prom to which my wonderful eldest daughter commented "there is homeschool prom". I think my mom could tell that I was getting a bit defensive so she dropped the subject!
I do have to say it was a marked improvement though......when we started homeschooling she constantly questioned us about academics...now all she can think to question about it the darn prom......small steps, small steps...what progress we have made!
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Habbo Hotel
Emily discovered a new online game while spending the night at her friend Alison's house. She has been having a ball playing. You create a hotel guest and then you get jobs and interact with the other guests. Check it out http://www.habbohotel.com/habbo/en/
Emily gets so engrossed playing the game. Her comment the other day was that it was really helping her spelling because you message with other guests. See, even a stupid computer game has educational value!
Emily discovered a new online game while spending the night at her friend Alison's house. She has been having a ball playing. You create a hotel guest and then you get jobs and interact with the other guests. Check it out http://www.habbohotel.com/habbo/en/
Emily gets so engrossed playing the game. Her comment the other day was that it was really helping her spelling because you message with other guests. See, even a stupid computer game has educational value!
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Easter
Easter was a truly glorious day!
Luckily we must have been one of the first stops on Mr. Easter Bunny's journey because at 3:15 AM I awake to Grant standing over me saying,
"mom, mom, can I open my baseball cards"
"what? what time is it Grant?"
"3:15"
"Yes, you can open them as long as you don't wake ANYONE else up then go back to BED!"
By 7 AM the rest of the kids were up and had opened their goodies and were making a breakfast of the candy in their baskets. Everyone bathed or showered and everyone but Jay, Cade and a very sick baby William headed of to the 9:30 services at church. Once we were finished with church we headed back home and then to my mom's for lunch.
She was in an unusually good mood. Could be that she knows if she pisses me off that I will leave, so things tend to stay civil! My brother and his wife even showed up with their dog, Scrappy. Of course that ticked Jay off...not that the dog was there, but that my mother gave more attention to the dog than her grandchildren! The kids were THRILLED with the baskets my mom made up for them, the boys were in heaven because she got them baseball cards and tennis balls! Sophie loved her coloring book and her VERY OWN package of markers!
We left my mom's house later than we were supposed to.....2:40 PM, so we were approaching Jay's mom's house a little later than the 3 PM start time for the egg hunt. I kept assuring the kids that they would wait for us to start the hunt, after all it was only 3:05 when we pulled onto her street, but NO, as we pull towards the house we see the kids HUNTING eggs...now if these were LITTLE KIDS I would have been fine, but my kids are amongst the youngest and there was only one kid UNDER 9 at the house when she started the hunt.....you have never seen my kids FLY out of the van so quickly and start scooping up eggs! The REASON???? My MIL puts $5 bills in about 5 eggs, $2 bills in many of the others, and change in others. Jacob came away the big winner in our family, snagging $11.61!
In years past, I used to let the fact that Jay's sisters really didn't talk much with me bother me, but as I have grown older and a bit wiser, I have decided to make the best of the day and put myself in charge of my own happiness. I spent some time talking to his sisters but then focus on conversation with my 19 year old neice who is in college and my 17 year old neice. After my older neice left, I sat and continued talking with my younger neice.
I was brokenhearted talking with her. She seems to be in so much pain and confessed that she thought of killing herself. I was floored...it wasn't like I was praticularly close to her, we only see each other a handful of times each year, and here this poor child was pooring her heart out to me. I kept asking her if there were adults in her life she felt she could talk to and trust and at first she said no, but then as we talked more (and I mean hours here) she finally came up with a list of people that she felt she could turn to in crisis.....of course I made her promise to call me if she needed help. Unfortunately things at her home are so broken down that approaching her mom with any other this would just make things worse. Of course anyone looking in from the outside would think the kid had a perfect life, she lives in an expensive house with an olympic size pool, got a brand new car at 16, goes to a great private school, gets good grades....but things are obviously not what they seem. Unfortunately so much of what she said echoed my own teen years, but because of that I feel I was able to give her some solid advise that she seemed receptive to hearing!
She headed home (did I mention she had come to my MIL alone because her mom and dad refuse to visit my MIL????) and I got to spend some time talking with my MIL and then we packed up and headed home. Jay was thrilled, she had made him some beef tongue (YUCK!) to bring home with him and she loaded the kids up with left overs!
We got home, got the car unpacked and settled in just in time for me to see the new episode of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES.....I just LOVE that show!
Easter was a truly glorious day!
Luckily we must have been one of the first stops on Mr. Easter Bunny's journey because at 3:15 AM I awake to Grant standing over me saying,
"mom, mom, can I open my baseball cards"
"what? what time is it Grant?"
"3:15"
"Yes, you can open them as long as you don't wake ANYONE else up then go back to BED!"
By 7 AM the rest of the kids were up and had opened their goodies and were making a breakfast of the candy in their baskets. Everyone bathed or showered and everyone but Jay, Cade and a very sick baby William headed of to the 9:30 services at church. Once we were finished with church we headed back home and then to my mom's for lunch.
She was in an unusually good mood. Could be that she knows if she pisses me off that I will leave, so things tend to stay civil! My brother and his wife even showed up with their dog, Scrappy. Of course that ticked Jay off...not that the dog was there, but that my mother gave more attention to the dog than her grandchildren! The kids were THRILLED with the baskets my mom made up for them, the boys were in heaven because she got them baseball cards and tennis balls! Sophie loved her coloring book and her VERY OWN package of markers!
We left my mom's house later than we were supposed to.....2:40 PM, so we were approaching Jay's mom's house a little later than the 3 PM start time for the egg hunt. I kept assuring the kids that they would wait for us to start the hunt, after all it was only 3:05 when we pulled onto her street, but NO, as we pull towards the house we see the kids HUNTING eggs...now if these were LITTLE KIDS I would have been fine, but my kids are amongst the youngest and there was only one kid UNDER 9 at the house when she started the hunt.....you have never seen my kids FLY out of the van so quickly and start scooping up eggs! The REASON???? My MIL puts $5 bills in about 5 eggs, $2 bills in many of the others, and change in others. Jacob came away the big winner in our family, snagging $11.61!
In years past, I used to let the fact that Jay's sisters really didn't talk much with me bother me, but as I have grown older and a bit wiser, I have decided to make the best of the day and put myself in charge of my own happiness. I spent some time talking to his sisters but then focus on conversation with my 19 year old neice who is in college and my 17 year old neice. After my older neice left, I sat and continued talking with my younger neice.
I was brokenhearted talking with her. She seems to be in so much pain and confessed that she thought of killing herself. I was floored...it wasn't like I was praticularly close to her, we only see each other a handful of times each year, and here this poor child was pooring her heart out to me. I kept asking her if there were adults in her life she felt she could talk to and trust and at first she said no, but then as we talked more (and I mean hours here) she finally came up with a list of people that she felt she could turn to in crisis.....of course I made her promise to call me if she needed help. Unfortunately things at her home are so broken down that approaching her mom with any other this would just make things worse. Of course anyone looking in from the outside would think the kid had a perfect life, she lives in an expensive house with an olympic size pool, got a brand new car at 16, goes to a great private school, gets good grades....but things are obviously not what they seem. Unfortunately so much of what she said echoed my own teen years, but because of that I feel I was able to give her some solid advise that she seemed receptive to hearing!
She headed home (did I mention she had come to my MIL alone because her mom and dad refuse to visit my MIL????) and I got to spend some time talking with my MIL and then we packed up and headed home. Jay was thrilled, she had made him some beef tongue (YUCK!) to bring home with him and she loaded the kids up with left overs!
We got home, got the car unpacked and settled in just in time for me to see the new episode of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES.....I just LOVE that show!
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Hannah
Here are pictures for Hannah's 13th birthday photo session. Hard to believe how quickly they grow up! We chose to have "fun" pictures taken, rather than something formal and stuffy!
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mrsmomof6/album?.dir=/ed2c
I think they reflect Hannah's personality pretty accurately!
Here are pictures for Hannah's 13th birthday photo session. Hard to believe how quickly they grow up! We chose to have "fun" pictures taken, rather than something formal and stuffy!
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mrsmomof6/album?.dir=/ed2c
I think they reflect Hannah's personality pretty accurately!
Saturday, March 12, 2005
ADA Dance Competition
Dayton Convention Center
I absolutely hate waking up to find out that the roads are bad. It doesn't help to hear such news on the morning you are supposed to be in Dayton (60 miles away) for a dance competition and you have a schedule you have to meet. The girls and I loaded the car quickly and headed out at 6:35 AM in hopes of making it to Dayton by 8 AM. It's not like I would have stopped and filled the tank last night, no, I had to wait and do it on the way out. We pulled out of the gas station at 6:45 AM and prayed that we would make it in time.
For the most part, the roads just seemed wet. We passed an accident near Rt. 28 in Milford and a car of the road near Loveland, but the traffic kept moving. I jumped off the highway at Rt. 42 and cut up to Tylersville to grab 75 north (I hate getting on 75 at the 275 interchange, it is such a mess even on a good day). As we approached Middletown, the skies opened and dropped an icy mix everywhere. Luckily it seemed the roads had been pretreated, yet we passed another car that was off the road. The icy mix halted as we approached 675 in Dayton, but we had the misfortune of getting BEHIND a salt truck...talk about wrecking havoc on your visibility!
We pulled up in front of the convention center at 7:58 AM and I quickly unloaded the girls, Will and assorted dance costumes and accesories and I began the great search for a parking spot. The van wouldn't make the clearance for any of the nearby garages so I ended up finding a spot on the street. Luckily the meters weren't in effect on the weekends, so I didn't have to worry about going out and feeding the meter. I was a bit perplexed though because many meters said 1 hr or 2 hr parking only (posted on a sign on the street) and I couldn't decide if the sign applied even when the meters weren't operating. I opted on the side of caution and went over a couple of blocks and found 10 hr parking.....so I knew we were going to be there 13 hours or so, but I figured no cop would be on patrol long enough to spot my van within the 10 hr. contraints!
Once I got into the convention center the madness began! Hannah quickly dressed for her jazz number and I helped Emily put the finishing touches on her makeup for her ballet number. The morning was pure madness.....6 of our 9 dances fell within 3 hours...it was rather hectic getting everyone ready. Emily just about melted down after her duet. I quickly fed her and tried to refocus her. It didn't help that her teacher made a comment about her lipstick bleeding, Em is so sensitive to comments like that. We got through the first set of awards and the pace slowed down.....unfortunately Hannah's solo was almost the 1st thing after the second award ceremony (she went on stage at 6:15 PM) and we had to hang around until 9:15 PM for awards to start!
Hannah was really excited because one of the former teachers from the studio was at the competition to watch. Angela left the studio to go dance on Broadway. The owner of the studio was upset when she left because she thought that she would be returning to teach after her stint on Broadway but she didn't come back. There was a lot of tension because some people were talling the kids should talk to her because of that. How childish can you get? Hannah of course ran up and hugged her and was thrilled that she was going to see her perform, after all she had done the original choreography for her tap solo! Hannah got a high silver on her solo!
After Hannah preformed, we got to hang out, it was nice because I got to touch base with a lot of the moms I don't get to see very often. There is a lot of tension at our studio right now and it was nice to hear how the other moms felt about it. Plus it is always nice to glean new information or to confirm information that is circling about!
The big excitement of the day was that production hiphop "Sign Up!" got ULTIMATE GOLD! The kids got a huge trophy and $250...not much when you divide it by the 40 kids on the team, but it really got the kids PSYCHED!
Our drive home was worse than the drive up.....falling snow made for slick roads, salt thrown up unto the windshield made for horrible visibility and traffic was bumper to bumper (at 10 PM on a Saturday) for over half the trip home. Add to that that I HATE driving at night. We made decent enough time given the road conditions though!
Dayton Convention Center
I absolutely hate waking up to find out that the roads are bad. It doesn't help to hear such news on the morning you are supposed to be in Dayton (60 miles away) for a dance competition and you have a schedule you have to meet. The girls and I loaded the car quickly and headed out at 6:35 AM in hopes of making it to Dayton by 8 AM. It's not like I would have stopped and filled the tank last night, no, I had to wait and do it on the way out. We pulled out of the gas station at 6:45 AM and prayed that we would make it in time.
For the most part, the roads just seemed wet. We passed an accident near Rt. 28 in Milford and a car of the road near Loveland, but the traffic kept moving. I jumped off the highway at Rt. 42 and cut up to Tylersville to grab 75 north (I hate getting on 75 at the 275 interchange, it is such a mess even on a good day). As we approached Middletown, the skies opened and dropped an icy mix everywhere. Luckily it seemed the roads had been pretreated, yet we passed another car that was off the road. The icy mix halted as we approached 675 in Dayton, but we had the misfortune of getting BEHIND a salt truck...talk about wrecking havoc on your visibility!
We pulled up in front of the convention center at 7:58 AM and I quickly unloaded the girls, Will and assorted dance costumes and accesories and I began the great search for a parking spot. The van wouldn't make the clearance for any of the nearby garages so I ended up finding a spot on the street. Luckily the meters weren't in effect on the weekends, so I didn't have to worry about going out and feeding the meter. I was a bit perplexed though because many meters said 1 hr or 2 hr parking only (posted on a sign on the street) and I couldn't decide if the sign applied even when the meters weren't operating. I opted on the side of caution and went over a couple of blocks and found 10 hr parking.....so I knew we were going to be there 13 hours or so, but I figured no cop would be on patrol long enough to spot my van within the 10 hr. contraints!
Once I got into the convention center the madness began! Hannah quickly dressed for her jazz number and I helped Emily put the finishing touches on her makeup for her ballet number. The morning was pure madness.....6 of our 9 dances fell within 3 hours...it was rather hectic getting everyone ready. Emily just about melted down after her duet. I quickly fed her and tried to refocus her. It didn't help that her teacher made a comment about her lipstick bleeding, Em is so sensitive to comments like that. We got through the first set of awards and the pace slowed down.....unfortunately Hannah's solo was almost the 1st thing after the second award ceremony (she went on stage at 6:15 PM) and we had to hang around until 9:15 PM for awards to start!
Hannah was really excited because one of the former teachers from the studio was at the competition to watch. Angela left the studio to go dance on Broadway. The owner of the studio was upset when she left because she thought that she would be returning to teach after her stint on Broadway but she didn't come back. There was a lot of tension because some people were talling the kids should talk to her because of that. How childish can you get? Hannah of course ran up and hugged her and was thrilled that she was going to see her perform, after all she had done the original choreography for her tap solo! Hannah got a high silver on her solo!
After Hannah preformed, we got to hang out, it was nice because I got to touch base with a lot of the moms I don't get to see very often. There is a lot of tension at our studio right now and it was nice to hear how the other moms felt about it. Plus it is always nice to glean new information or to confirm information that is circling about!
The big excitement of the day was that production hiphop "Sign Up!" got ULTIMATE GOLD! The kids got a huge trophy and $250...not much when you divide it by the 40 kids on the team, but it really got the kids PSYCHED!
Our drive home was worse than the drive up.....falling snow made for slick roads, salt thrown up unto the windshield made for horrible visibility and traffic was bumper to bumper (at 10 PM on a Saturday) for over half the trip home. Add to that that I HATE driving at night. We made decent enough time given the road conditions though!
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Demonstrator kit arrives!
I am so EXCITED! My kit arrived today! I have blisters on my right hand from cutting out all the wonderful stamp sets I got! I can't believe that I actually sat here and mounted each and every set and cut them out! Now if I can just convince this crazy crew to let me stamp. Yeah, like that is going to happen!
Hannah is such a sweetie. She sat down with the catalog and made up an order for me! She wanted to be my first customer and used her babysitting money to buy a stamp for her sister Emily, herself and me and some ink pad! Now if I can just figure out how to submit the order!
I am so EXCITED! My kit arrived today! I have blisters on my right hand from cutting out all the wonderful stamp sets I got! I can't believe that I actually sat here and mounted each and every set and cut them out! Now if I can just convince this crazy crew to let me stamp. Yeah, like that is going to happen!
Hannah is such a sweetie. She sat down with the catalog and made up an order for me! She wanted to be my first customer and used her babysitting money to buy a stamp for her sister Emily, herself and me and some ink pad! Now if I can just figure out how to submit the order!
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
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